ISSUE:
#71. Feb. 3, 2003
THIS WEEK:
IRAQI KURDISTAN: STAGING GROUND FOR WAR
U.S., SADDAM, TURKEY, IRAN AND AL-QAEDA GROOM PROXY FORCES
YOUR SCORECARD:
KDP, PUK, PKK, KADEK, PIK, ANSAR AL-ISLAM, MUJAHEDEEN KHALQ
ALSO:
*AFGHANISTAN HEATS UP AGAIN
*U.S. PLANS BIOLOGICAL WARFARE IN COLOMBIA
*NUCLEAR MATERIALS IN SPACE SHUTTLE DEBRIS?
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: ORANGE
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom, Special Correspondent
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Sharon Celebrates Victory with More Demolitions
2. Israeli Forces Attack Rafah Water Supply
3. Settlers Assault Peace Activists at Yanoun
4. Will the U.S. Force Israel to Concede Settlements?
5. IDF Officer Withholds Info to Prevent Raid on Civilians
6. Ironies of Space Shuttle Disaster: IAF Osirik Bomber Disintegrates Over Palestine, TX
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Iraqi Kurdistan: Staging Ground for War
2. Will Saddam go Into Exile?
3. Arms Inspectors Hand in Report: Message Mixed
4. Europe Divided
5. Bush, Powell: We Will Act Alone
6. IAEA Contradicts Bush on Saddam Nuke Threat
7. Blix Contradicts Bush on Saddam Bio-War Threat
8. Butler Accuses U.S. of "Shocking Double Standards"
9. "Overwhelming Irony": Iraq to Lead U.N. Disarmament Group
10. Japanese A-Bomb Survivors to Bush: Don't Use Nukes!
11. Kuwait Jihadis Pledge Resistance
12. Turkey's Elder Statesman: Don't "Destroy" the U.N.!
13. Global Anti-War Protests Mount
14. Navy Drafts Sea Lions for Sinister Porpoises
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. U.S. Troops in Fierce Battle for Cave Complex
2. Taliban/Al-Qaeda Behind Kandahar Blast?
3. Jihadis Target Germans?
4. Four Killed in Ambush on U.N. Vehicle
5. Military Mishaps Claim Lives
6. DEA Chief: Afghanistan Fails to Enforce Opium Ban
7. U.N. Documents Environmental Devastation
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. Internet Censorship in Uzbekistan
2. China Executes Tibetan Lama
3. Japan Seeks Siberia Pipeline Route
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. Colombian Armed Forces Chief: Rights Groups are Lying
2. Colombia Prepares Peasant Militias
3. U.S. Plans Biological Warfare in Colombia
4. Venezuelan Opposition Eases Strike
THE MEXICAN FRONT
1. Federal Troops Raid Anti-Drug Force
2. Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda Resigns
3. Five More Dead in Chiapas Religious Violence
4. State Department Issues Chiapas Travel Advisory
5. Cartel Eyes Mexican Oil Industry
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. Nuclear Material in Space Shuttle Debris?
2. Pakistan-North Korea Axis Revealed
PLANET WATCH
1. Study: Climate Destabilization Impacts Real
THE WAR AT HOME
1. Boulder Anti-War Protest Turns Violent
2. Comcast Censors Anti-War TV Spots
3. NY Daily News: Iraqi Spies Behind Anti-War Movement!
4. FBI Targets Iraqi-Americans
5. Brookings Scholar Detained by INS
6. Homeland Security Gets Secretary
7. FBI, CIA to Merge Anti-Terror Units?
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. Seattle Passes "Don't Ask" Law on Immigration Status
2. Senate Votes to Defund "Registration"
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. SHARON CELEBRATES VICTORY WITH MORE DEMOLITIONS
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), citing a lack of building permits,
demolished nine houses belonging to Palestinians in the West Bank city of
Hebron Feb. 2, leaving dozens homeless. Palestinian families hurriedly
dragged refrigerators and sofas out of the houses before Israeli bulldozers
began knocking down the walls. The families said they had received notices
months ago that the houses would be destroyed, but had not known when the
demolitions would begin. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the
demolitions were part of Sharon's "policy of expanding settlements and
putting obstacles in the way of future peace." Palestinian authorites say
Israel's stringent permit policy makes it virtually impossible to build new
houses.
Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinian inmates rioted at an IDF prison camp in
the southern Negev Desert, and soldiers used tear gas and stun grenades to
subdue them, the IDF said. Inmates at the Ketziot prison were demanding
that up to 80 sick detainees receive better medical treatment, including
hospitalization, according to Issa Karaka, who heads the Prisoner's Club, a
Palestinian group that monitors prisoners. The inmates burned tents and
threw shoes and other items at guards, he said. Most of the 1,100 prisoners
were being held under "administrative detention," which allows Israel to
hold them indefinitely without charges. The desert prison held a large
number of inmates during the first Palestinian uprising from 1987-93 and
was known for its harsh conditions, with many prisoners living in tents. It
was reopened last year to hold Palestinians suspected of involvement in
renewed violence against Israel.
The new violence came as Sharon prepared to meet defeated Labor Party
leader Amram Mitzna Feb. 3--the first time since Sharon's Likud Party
handily won last week's election. Sharon says he wants to bring Labor into
his government, but Mitzna rejected an alliance unless Sharon resumes peace
talks and prepares for unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Mitzna
told Israeli TV that Sharon's statements show "there is nothing in common
between the" two parties. Election results gave Sharon the option of a
majority coalition government with hawkish and Orthodox Jewish parties.
(AP, Feb. 2)
[top]
2. ISRAELI FORCES ATTACK RAFAH WATER SUPPLY
IDF forces attacked Rafah's water supply at Tel el-Sultan, bulldozing the
two largest of the town's six wells. This has reduced the Gaza town's water
supply by 50%. At the request of Rafah's Water Municipality Director,
activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) will stand guard
at the remaining wells, acting as human shields. This follows a successful
Jan. 29 action in which the presence of ISM activists allowed the repair of
a burst water main in Rafah which had been flooding a street for six weeks
in the town's Brazil district. Previous attempts at repair proved
impossible because municipal workers came under fire from an IDF tank
whenever they tried to repair the pipes. ISM activists stood among the
workers, and between a tank and the workers. The activists are considering
an action protecting workers as they install a pump in a waterworks
building, which has previously proved impossible due to machine-gun fire
from a tank at the nearby Gush Katif settlement overlooking the building.
(ISM report, Jan. 30) (David Bloom)
[top]
3. SETTLERS ASSAULT PEACE ACTIVISTS AT YANOUN
Two International Solidarity Movement activists, one from the UK and one
from Japan, were assaulted by settlers near the West Bank colony of Itamar
Jan. 30. The incident began when the ISM volunteers were informed by
Palestinians that settlers from Itamar had moved tractors onto Palestinian
farmland. The activists went to observe the situation, and were approached
by two armed settlers who demanded to see their passports. When the
activists refused, an altercation took place, and the settlers called in
reinforcements from Itamar. Twenty minutes later, 3 armed settlers arrived,
and the activists decided to retreat. They were overtaken by the settlers,
who attacked them and confiscated their phone and camera. The activists'
jackets, shoes, socks, wallets and passports were taken, and they were
forced to lie face down on the ground while settlers kicked them, walked on
them, and trod on their fingers. About 30 minutes into the abuse, the
activists were marched towards the Itamar settlement. At the fence
separating the farmland from the settlement, the settlers got a phone call
and halted, making their prisoners lie face down on the ground again, and
again kicking and treading on them. This continued for another 20 minutes
until the Israeli army arrived. The troops set the activists free, and
returned their property--except their phone and camera. The activists
returned to Yanoun, but were arrested ten minutes later by the army. They
were then taken to Ariel settlement and charged with trespassing on settler
property. (ISM, Jan. 30)
Settler spokesman Ezra Rosenfeld told the Jerusalem Post that the ISM
"might sound like a very nice group of sweet people, [but] are often a
group of provocateurs." Rosenfeld said the Palestinians often send
foreigners into the no-man's land near the settlements to provoke the
settlers, who are targeted by "terrorists," and become suspicious when they
see people in the prohibited area. Still, he conceded, "if they [settlers]
attacked them, obviously they shouldn't have." (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 30)
The Israeli human rights group Ta'ayush was alerted, and on Feb. 2, a joint
Ta'ayush-ISM team (one Briton, one Israeli, and one Japanese) obtained
permission from the army to visit the farm where the attack took place. The
Palestinian owners of the farm have been too frightened to visit it since
the incident. Shorlty after the activists arrived at the farm, a group of
soldiers arrived. Three settlers arrived a few minutes later. Victor Avery,
leader of the Itamar settlement, shouted at the Ta'ayush activist in
Hebrew, "You're here to put us in jail. We're going to kill you!" He then
hit the activist in the face with his assault rifle, breaking his nose. The
army did not restrain Avery and has not sought his arrest. Ta'ayush
acitivists say Avery's immunity is due to his political connections,
including friends in the Israeli cabinet. (ISM, Jan. 29) (David Bloom)
See also: "Transfer's real nightmare," Ha'aretz, Nov. 16
[top]
4. WILL THE U.S. FORCE ISRAEL TO CONCEDE SETTLEMENTS?
A Jan. 16 article in Jane's Foreign Report claims that Ariel Sharon met
recently with Mahmoud Abbas, AKA Abu Mazen, the PLO's number-two man, at
Sharon's farm in the Negev desert. Jane's quotes "Israeli sources in
London" as saying "Sharon is not stupid. He knows very well that after the
war with Iraq the USA will have to 'compensate' the Arabs and Israel will
have to pay at least some of the price." Because Sharon is convinced the US
administration will apply pressure to Israel once the war is over, he is
preparing for that eventuality. This is why he is trying to exclude the
ultra-right from his next cabinet, as "painful decisions for Israel are
expected." (Jane's Foreign Report, Jan. 16)
What might those concessions be? A Jan. 18 article in Ha'aretz says US
deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz has indicated the post-war period
will see a renewed US focus on a peace settlement. "Our stake in pushing
for a Palestinian state will grow" after the war, he said, adding that he
favored "concrete steps, like dealing with the settlements" over the
advancing of diplomatic issues as part of a peace "process." Wolfowitz is a
member of Washington's pro-Israel Jewish right, which also includes Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith, and Elliot Abrams, the National
Security Council adviser on the Middle East. Abrams is the administration
figure overseeing preparations for "the day after" the Iraq war. Recently,
he was quoted as saying, "What do they [the Israelis] want with these
settlements?" However, Ha'aretz says the opinion in Israel is that the US
won't rush Israel into making diplomatic concessions, as President Bush
will not want to alienate the Jewish vote before the next election. A
senior diplomatic source quoted by Ha'aretz believes Wolfowitz's comments
are designed to garner Arab and European support for the war against Iraq.
"There is no other way to explain it," the diplomat said. (Ha'aretz, Jan.
18)
(David Bloom)
[top]
5. IDF OFFICER WITHHOLDS INFO TO PREVENT RAID ON CIVILIANS
An Israeli army lieutanant from an elite intelligence unit delayed passing
on information needed for an air strike against a Palestinian city, thus
foiling the attack. The officer, who was not identified, told a military
tribunal he acted according to his conscience, saying innocent people would
have been killed, and called his orders illegal under international law.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported the tribunal rejected his argument,
and transferred him to a less elite intelligence unit as punishment. The
army would only confirm an intelligence officer was removed from his post
for disobeying a direct order and impairing a military operation. (Reuters,
Jan. 27) The Jerusalem Post noted that "senior officers criticized the
'lenient' punishment and said the officer should have been demoted or even
ousted from the army, but noted that he is in possession of extremely
sensitive information that could damage the security of the country."
(Jerusalem Post, Jan. 28) (David Bloom)
[top]
6. IRONIES OF SPACE SHUTTLE DISASTER:
IAF OSIRIK BOMBER DISINTEGRATES OVER PALESTINE, TEXAS
On Feb. 1, Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon died along with six other
astronauts as the US space shuttle Columbia crumbled in the sky and
scattered debris over Palestine, a town in Anderson County, TX. "You didn't
know if the world was coming to an end or what was happening," said
71-year-old retired Texas rancher Rhoda Longmire. "It was horrendous. It
was so loud. It was just really unbelievable," Longmire said. "We've been
through hurricanes and tornadoes and have heard the booms when they used to
break the sound barriers. Those didn't compare to what this was." Despite
warnings not to touch the debris, residents of Palestine have been
collecting bits of fallen material. Four Palestinians checked in to a local
hospital after touching debris. "We were told that it's possibly
radioactive and to stay away from it until the powers that be can get
here," said James McDuffie, Police Chief of Rice, Texas. "This stuff is
going to be showing up for years to come," declared Sheriff James Cambell
of nearby Cherokee county. "There's going to be pieces on people's
mantles." (Knight-Ridder, Feb. 1)
Col. Ramon started his flying career as an Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter
pilot and weapons specialist. He fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the
1982 war in Lebanon. In 1981, he was a member of the IAF mission that
destroyed Iraq's French-built nuclear reactor at Osirik, before it became
operational. The son of a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, Ramon
carried on the shuttle as a tribute a small pencil drawing titled "Moon
Landscape" by Peter Ginz, a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed at
Auschwitz . (Ha'aretz, Feb. 1)
(David Bloom)
(See also, Nuclear Material in Space Shuttle Debris?
, this issue)
[top]
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. IRAQI KURDISTAN: STAGING GROUND FOR WAR
US military and intelligence personnel are gathering in Kurdish-controlled
northern Iraq to prepare the region as a staging ground for an invasion
that will sweep south if President Bush orders war. Gen Richard Myers
confirmed their presence, but hedged that "there are not significant
military forces in northern Iraq right now." Kurdish authorities reported
that three US military cargo planes landed on a runway near the town of
Irbil last week. Turkey has also begun massing troops along its border with
Iraq, Turkish military sources confirmed. Turkish authorities are also
preparing for a massive influx of war refugees, with the UN predicting
900,000 attempting to flee Iraq to Turkey and other neighboring countries.
Twenty-seven governors from south and south-east Anatolia recently met in
Ankara to be briefed on treatment of the refugees.
The Bush administration has reportedly agreed to a Turkish military
presence in Iraqi Kurdistan, but has ruled out allowing them control of
oilfields in Kirkuk and Mosul, on which Turkey has historical claims. In
exchange, Turkey has reportedly agreed to allow a limited number of US
troops access to Iraq via Turkish territory. A final decision is expected
when the National Security Council, Turkey's top military decision-making
body, meets this week. Meanwhile, the Bush administration is seeking
Turkish permission to upgrade up to 10 Turkish air bases and two ports for
possible use in a war, amid reports that thousands of US troops are heading
for Turkey.
Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish faction controlling Iraq's borders
with Turkey [the KDP], voices strong opposition to the deployment of
Turkish troops. Many Iraqi Kurds say the real reason Turkey wants to send
its forces into northern Iraq is to prevent formation of the
semi-independent state they want in exchange for their support for US-led
action against Baghdad. (UK Telegraph, Jan. 31)
On Jan. 16, US National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice met at the White
House with representatives of both the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and
rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which controls the Iranian
border. (KDP press release, Jan. 19) But on a Jan. 11 visit to
Tehran, PUK leader Jalal Talibani told the Iranian press that he opposes
both a new war against Saddam and demands for an independent Kurdish state.
(IRNA, Jan. 11)
Turkish authorities are clearly concerned that a conflagration in Iraqi
Kurdistan could spread to neighboring Turkish Kurdistan. Last week saw a
guerilla attack in Lice, eastern Anatolia, which killed one Turkish soldier
and injured five others, leading to speculation in Turkish press about a
resurgence of the ostensibly disbanded Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), a
separatist group with Maoist leanings which was backed by Syria. In
December, Osman Ocalan, spokesman for the Kurdistan Freedom & Democracy
Congress (KADEK), believed to the be the PKK's successor organization,
warned that the group is preparing a new war on the Turkish state. Said
Ocalan: "We give them until Feb. 15. We aren't starting war yet, but if
conditions don't get better before that date, we'll start planning for
war." The Turkish newspaper Milliyet last week published claims of secret
contacts between the PKK/KADEK and US officials on cooperation against
Saddam's forces. The claims were based on a PKK document reportedly found
by a Milliyet reporter in northern Iraq. (Turkishpress.com, Jan. 27)
See also WW3 REPORT #66
Meanwhile, the sudden expulsion of families from a 20-mile border strip
between the autonomous Kurdish zone and government-controlled Iraq has led
to speculation that Saddam Hussein is clearing the zone to defend against a
US invasion from the north. Over the past two weeks, Baghdad has moved
forces of the Mujahedeen Khalq--an armed Iranian opposition group backed by
Saddam--near the boundary with the Kurdish zone, according to KDP
officials. "It seems like they're clearing a buffer zone," says Fawzi
Hariri, a KDP spokesman. The Mujahedeen Khalq denied that its fighters were
stationed in northern Iraq or assisting Saddam's forces. A spokesman for
the group, Farid Soleimani, said the Mujahedeen Khalq had not deployed its
fighters in northern Iraq since 1990 when they withdrew southward on the
eve of Desert Storm. "It is absolutely false that we have anyone there,"
Soleimani said in a telephone call to the AP in Cairo. "We are absolutely
not under Saddam's control... We are independent here." (AP, Feb. 1)
One unpredictable element in the volatile region is Ansar al-Islam, a
fundamentalist Kurdish armed group supposedly linked to al-Qaeda, which the
US and Saddam both accuse each other of supporting. The US most recently
claimed that Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is considered one of the
top al-Qaeda lieutenants still at large, passed through Baghdad last summer
for medical treatment. He is currently believed to be working with Ansar
al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan. (UK Guardian, Feb. 1)
Also known as the PIK for Partisans of Islam-Kurdistan, Ansar al-Islam is
ready to trarget US forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, PUK spokesmen warned
reporters at a press conference last week in the Kurdish city of
Sulaymaniyah. Bafel Talibani, the son of PUK leader Jalal Talibani, again
asserted that PIK is being secretly aided by Saddam--which is denied by
Ansar leaders and Baghdad alike. "We view the information as a credible
threat," one anonymous US official said . (San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 29)
See also WW3 REPORT #63
In a grim reminder of the horrors already visited upon Iraqi Kurdistan, on
Jan. 28 thousands of survivors of Saddam's 1988 chemical weapons attack on
the city of Halabja marched on the UN headquarters in Sulaymaniyah,
demanding protection from Baghdad retaliation if the US goes to war in
Iraq. (Kurdistani Nuwe, Sulaymaniyah, Jan. 31, via BBC Monitoring)
[top]
2. WILL SADDAM GO INTO EXILE?
The London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Feb. 1 that a UN
source said the UN is working on a plan to avoid war and undercut US
unilateralism. The plan reportedly calls for "changing Iraqi President
Saddam Husayn and not the regime"--with Saddam going into exile but leaving
most of his apparatus intact. (BBC Monitoring, Feb. 1) On Jan. 30, the New
York Times reported on a frenzied diplomatic effort by Prince Saud
al-Faisal, foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, to set a framework for
Saddam's peaceful departure. The Prince has already met with Prime Minister
Tony Blair of Britain and President Jaques Chirac of France on the
question, and is seeking a meeting with President Bush.
[top]
3. ARMS INSPECTORS HAND IN REPORT: MESSAGE MIXED
The Iraq arms inspectors handed in their reports to to the United Nations
on schedule Jan. 27, claiming evidence that Iraq was not in compliance with
the UN's disarmament conditions. Wrote Hans Blix, leading the team
investigating chemical and biological weapons: "It is not enough to open
doors. Inspection is not a game of catch as catch can. Iraq appears not to
have come to genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that
was demanded of it." (Newsday, Jan. 28) He also claimed his team had found
"indications" that Iraq had built weapons using the deadly nerve agent VX.
Mohamed El-Baradei, leading the team investigating nuclear weapons, was
more assertive in demanding more time for the inspections. "These few
months would be a valuable investment in peace because they could help us
avoid a war," he said. Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri immediately
denied all allegations of non-compliance, while the US seized on the
reports to justify quick military action. Said Secretary of State Colin
Powell in his official response to the reports: "The issue is not how much
more time the inspectors need to search in the dark. It is how much more
time Iraq should be given to run on the lights and to come clean. And the
answer is not much more time. Iraq'' time for choosing peaceful disarmament
is fast coming to an end." (NYT, Jan. 28)
[top]
4. EUROPE DIVIDED
British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to Washington Jan. 30 to deliver a
letter signed by himself and eight other European leaders pledging their
support for timely military action against Iraq. The eight others are
Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, and the leaders of
Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Not
signing, and presumably representing the rest of Europe, are France and
Germany--both now members of the UN Security Council, and likely votes
against any new authorization for war. (NYT, Jan. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #68
[top]
5. BUSH, POWELL: WE WILL ACT ALONE
The day before the report was issued, US Secretary of State Colin Powell
gave a bellicose speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
asserting, "We reserve our sovereign right to take military action...
Multilateralism cannot become an excuse for inaction." (NYT, Jan. 27) The
day after the report, Bush echoed the theme in his state-of-the-union
address: "We will consult, but let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam
Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the
peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him." (NYT, Jan. 29)
[top]
6. IAEA CONTRADICTS BUSH ON SADDAM NUKE THREAT
Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told BBC
Radio that Iraq showed "modest or reasonable cooperation" in the nuclear
field, contrary to what the US and UK have argued. Washington and London
accuse Iraq of spying on UN weapons inspectors and obstructing their work,
arguing that such behavior amounts to a "material breach" of UN Security
Council resolution 1441--and therefore a legal green light for war. Said
El-Baradei: "We are not going to say that this is a material breach unless
we see a gross violation of the resolution. But even then it is for the
Security Council to pronounce itself on this issue." (Reuters, Jan. 30)
[top]
7. BLIX CONTRADICTS BUSH ON SADDAM BIO-WAR THREAT
UN arms inspectors, who handed in their long-awaited report as scheduled on
Jan. 27, have concluded that the rocket warheads found in an Iraqi bunker
earlier this month did not contain any chemical agents. The inspectors sent
one of the warheads that appeared to be filled to a laboratory for tests
that turned out negative, chief inspector Hans Blix told UN Security
Council members, diplomats said. In his critical report to the Security
Council, Blix said the discovery of a few rocket warheads did not solve the
problem of what happened to thousands of other warheads not accounted for
in Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration submitted to the UN on December 7.
"The finding of the rockets shows that Iraq needs to make more effort to
ensure that its declaration is currently accurate," he said in the report.
(Reuters, Jan. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #69
[top]
8. BUTLER ACCUSES U.S. OF "SHOCKING DOUBLE STANDARDS"
Former UN arms inspector Richard Butler told Reuters Jan. 28 that
Washington was promoting "shocking double standards" in considering
unilateral military action to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
Butler, who led UN inspection teams in Iraq until they left in 1998, said
Saddam Hussein undoubtedly possessed weapons of mass destruction, and was
trying to "cheat" his way again out of the latest UN demand to disarm. But
he added: "The spectacle of the United States, armed with its weapons of
mass destruction, acting without Security Council authority to invade a
country in the heartland of Arabia and, if necessary, use its weapons of
mass destruction to win that battle, is something that will so deeply
violate any notion of fairness in this world that I strongly suspect it
could set loose forces that we would deeply live to regret." (Reuters, Jan.
28)
[top]
9. "OVERWHELMING IRONY": IRAQ TO LEAD U.N. DISARMAMENT GROUP
Iraq is in line to take over as chairman of the UN Conference on
Disarmament in May, prompting Richard Grenell, spokesman for US Ambassador
John Negroponte, to comment, "The irony is overwhelming." India now holds
the post, and will be followed by Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland and Israel
as countries take the job in alphabetical order. The 66-nation Conference
on Disarmament, based in Geneva, meets annually for 24 weeks in three
sessions beginning in January. The UN established the conference in 1979,
and it has since negotiated such major arms-limitation and disarmament
agreements as the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Test Ban Treaty and the
Biological Weapons Convention. (AP, Jan. 30)
[top]
10. JAPANESE A-BOMB SURVIVORS TO BUSH: DON'T USE NUKES!
Atom bomb survivors in Japan and issued a statement Jan. 31 urging that
nuclear weapons not be used anywhere in the world in the face of a possible
US attack on Iraq. The statement, composed by the Japan Confederation of A
and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, was also endorsed by groups
representing residents near nuclear test sites in the US, the Pacific and
Russia. The confederation said it will mail the statement to President Bush
and other world leaders. The joint statement says the use of weapons with a
destructive power hundreds of times that of the US atomic bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 would result in death and radiation
poisoning beyond imagination. Confederation spokesperson Hidenori Yamamoto
warned that use of nuclear weapons in Iraq would also set a dangerous
precedent. "The use of just one nuclear weapon would lead to the use of
hundreds of them," Yamamoto said. (Kyodo News Service, Jan. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #65
[top]
11. KUWAIT JIHADIS PLEDGE RESISTANCE
Abu-Usamah al-Kuwaiti, "emir" of the Da'wah and Jihad resistance group in
Kuwait, threatened new attacks on US targets in the mini-state in an
interview with the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on Jan.
29. Asked if the recent ambush on US military contract technicians in
Kuwait meant that the group would start targetting civilians, the Emir
replied: "We do not target civilians. We have warned them to get out of our
territories and the Arabian Peninsula if they wanted to avoid the
mujahidin's fire. We could not differentiate between soldiers, conscripts
and civilians. Thus, they should go from our territories and let the
confrontation take pace between the US soldiers and us."
He also claimed to be a follower of Osama bin Laden, while denying any
direct contact with him because of "well-known circumstances." Said the
Emir: "The Da'wah and Jihad group fights to expel the unbelievers from the
Arabian Peninsula, liberate Kuwait from colonization, release the prisoners
held in Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, and support our fraternal brothers in Iraq
and Palestine. We view Shaykh Usamah Bin-Ladin as the leader and we follow
all the instructions the shaykh issues to the Islamic nation's young men."
(BBC Monitoring, Jan. 29)
See also WW3 REPORT #70
[top]
12. TURKEY'S ELDER STATESMAN: DON'T "DESTROY" THE U.N.!
Suleyman Demirel--prime minister seven times, president twice, deposed by
the military twice, banned from politics for a decade--is both political
patriarch of Turkey's current Islamist-based rulers and the survivor of an
assassination attempt by Islamic extremists. He is recognized by Turks
across the spectrum as a wise leader and hero, who managed the conflicting
tugs of Islam and the West, and the tensions between Islamists and
secularists that constantly roil Turkish politics. In recent comments aimed
at the US, he warned against unilateral action: ''You don't want Saddam, we
don't want Saddam, but for years you didn't do anything,'' Demirel said.
''If you move him now'' without establishing an accepted international
legal framework ''it will upset the international system... If you say 'I
am a superpower, I don't care,' it will destroy the United Nations. The
United Nations should not be destroyed.'' (Boston Globe, Jan. 27)
[top]
13. GLOBAL ANTI-WAR PROTESTS MOUNT
On Jan. 27, the New York Times ran photos of protesters holding anti-war
banners in Istanbul, and draping banners over the fence outside the air
foce base at Fairford, England, which is used by US bombers.
That same day, the Times also ran a two-page ad by the anti-war group Not
in Our Name, reading: "President Bush has declared: 'You're either with us
or against us.' Here is our answer: NOT IN OUR NAME." It was signed by
numerous writers and celebrities including Dr. Patch Adams, Laurie
Anderson, Ed Asner, John Perry Barlow, Medea Benjamin, Phyllis Bennis,
William Blum, Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, Barbara Ehrenreich, Laura
Flanders, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Barbara Kingsolver, Robin Morgan, Sylvia Plachy,
Katha Pollitt, Bonnie Raitt, Margaret Randall, Edward Said, Luc Sante,
Susan Sarandon, Saskia Sassen, Pete & Toshi Seeger, Rev. Al Sharpton,
Gloria Steinem, Oliver Stone, Michael Taussig, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker,
Wavy Gravy, Cora Weiss, Cornel West, Brian Willson and Howard Zinn. (One
wonders how many of these signatories are aware that Not in Our Name is a
front group for the Revolutionary Communist Party, or RCP, an
ultra-orthodox Maoist cult that vigorously supports the bloodthirsty
Shining Path guerillas in Peru.)
[top]
14. NAVY DRAFTS SEA LIONS FOR SINISTER PORPOISES
The US Navy is experimenting with trained sea lions to help provide
security for the huge US port complex in Bahrain. Sources say the Navy
decided to acknowledge the experiment partially because the sea lions were
making too much noise in their pens at Bahrain harbor, home of the Navy's
largest facility in the Persian Gulf. The sea lions--along with dolphins
and a few beluga whales--are trained as part of the Navy's Marine Mammal
Program in San Diego to hunt for mines, to locate objects lost in deep
water and to provide harbor security. They are currently being deployed for
anti-terrorism surveillance at Bahrain's port. (ABC News, Jan. 30)
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. U.S. TROOPS IN FIERCE BATTLE FOR CAVE COMPLEX
US forces are searching a vast cave network on a steep mountain slope
following the fiercest battle in Afghanistan in nearly a year. Hundreds of
US and coalition ground forces fought in the battle for the caves, and B-1
bombers were called in to blast the mountainside with earth-shattering
bombs. There were no reports of coalition casualties. Two men detained in
the fighting are being questioned. "At least 160 caves have been counted so
far, quite possibly more than that," said Col. Roger King, spokesman for
the US military at Bagram Air Base. "The search will be conducted in a
deliberate manner to try to ensure that we don't miss anything." US forces
were led to the cave complex by an informer in the nearby town of
Spinboldak. King said the military believes the men were followers of
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade warlord who has allegedly joined his forces
with remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. "The man who was detained talked
about a link to Hezb-i-Islami, which is Hekmatyar's military group. We had
other intelligence that I cannot go into that also indicated the
involvement of this group," King said. A former high-ranking Taliban
official, known as Obeidullah, told the AP by phone that the fighting was
being led by two ex-Taliban--Hafiz Abdul Rahim, the regime's former border
security chief, and Sirajuddin, former district chief of Shindand in
western Afghanistan. (AP, Jan. 29)
[top]
2. TALIBAN/AL-QAEDA BEHIND KANDAHAR BLAST?
A powerful bomb destroyed a bridge outside the southern Afghan city of
Kandahar Jan. 31, killing 18 people travelling on a bus, local authorities
said, blaming Taliban and al-Qaeda remnant forces. Nobody claimed
responsibility for the blast, but Kandahar deputy police chief Ustad Nazir
Jan said: "One hundred percent we are sure it was Taliban and al-Qaeda...
We will get the proof." (UK Guardian, Jan. 31)
[top]
3. JIHADIS TARGET GERMANS?
Just days before a Dutch-German corps takes over command of the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, three
explosions went off near the German ISAF camp Jan. 31. German military
authorities said nobody was injured,, but speculated the explosions, within
2,000 meters of the camp on the outskirts of Kabul, were caused by
missiles. (DDP, Feb. 1, via BBC Monitoring)
[top]
4. FOUR KILLED IN AMBUSH ON U.N. VEHICLE
Two UN vehicles were ambushed on a remote road in eastern Afghanistan Jan.
26, leading to a shoot-out with an accompanying police partol that left
four dead--two Afghan UN employees, one police officer and one assailant.
Authorities said the assailants were bandits who wanted to seize the
vehicles. (Newsday, Jan. 27)
[top]
5. MILITARY MISHAPS CLAIM LIVES
All four US military personnel aboard an Army Special Operations helicopter
were killed when it crashed during a training mission in Afghanistan Jan.
30, reported Pentagon Central Command. The helicopter crashed about 10
kilometers east of Bagram Air Base. (AP, Jan. 30) Meanwhile, a South Korean
army major on peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan "accidentally" shot dead a
junior officer, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Jan. 29. Major Lee Kyu-sang,
37, fired at Capt. Kim Hyo-sung, 33, in their barracks near Bagram Air Base
when the captain refused an order to speak quietly on the telephone while
Lee was discussing the leasing of construction equipment with some local
Afghans. "It looks as if the major didn't know his gun was loaded and shot
the captain by mistake," he said. (Reuters, Jan. 29)
[top]
6. DEA CHIEF: AFGHANISTAN FAILS TO ENFORCE OPIUM BAN
Afghanistan's new government lacks the manpower to stop farmers from
planting opium, the Drug Enforcement Administration chief says.
"Enforcement is where the gap is," said Asa Hutchinson, nominated by
President Bush to become undersecretary of border and transportation
security at the new Homeland Security Department. Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has banned growing poppies, but Hutchinson said only about
one-quarter of last year's opium harvest was destroyed. Prior to the
Taliban regime's ban on opium cultivation Afghanistan was the world's
biggest producer. According to the US State Department's 2000 Narcotics
Control Report, the country accounts for 72% of the world's illicit opium
supply. (Drug Policy Alliance newsletter, Jan. 16)
See also WW3 REPORT #58
[top]
7. U.N. DOCUMENTS ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION
A new UN report on the state of the environment in Afghanistan brings stark
findings. Forest cover that appeared on photos of northern Afghanistan in
1977 has entirely disappeared in 2002 images. So have wetlands that were
rich in bird and other wildlife just four years ago. Siberian cranes which
once migrated annually to India via Afghanistan have not been seen since
1986. Flamingos have also disappeared as marshes and the Sistan river basin
have dried up. "These environmental concerns are so serious that immediate
support is necessary," said Pekka Haavisto, who led the study. "In a couple
of years things will be worse," he added. Forests are also fast
disappearing elsewhere in the country. "As for the pistachio forests of
Badghis, Herat and Takhar, some areas have lost 50 percent of forest
cover," said Haavisto at a Kabul press conference. "In Kunar and Nuristan
there is 30 percent loss of forests from illegal logging and the timber
trade." He ascribed most of the blame to pirate timber operations run by
the mafias of local warlords. "The speed of deforestation is at the moment
very rapid, and that has to be stopped," he said. "Reforestation, water
management and stopping deseretification is very essential for the
livelihoods of Afghans." Beside Haavisto at the press conference was Ahmad
Yusuf Nuristani, Afghan minister for water, irrigation and the environment,
who warned that war and environmental decline are fueling each other in a
vicious cycle, as refugees displaced by war and desertification are
conscripted by warlords to plunder and fight over disappearing resources.
(NYT, Jan. 30)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 37, 24
, 19 & 18
[top]
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN UZBEKISTAN
A series of stories posted on the Internet before authorities in Uzbekistan
cut off access alleged high-level corruption and the imminent resignation
of President Islam Karimov. The first stories alleging high-level
drug-dealing and a government-staged terrorist attack appeared in early
January on sites based in neighboring Russia and Kazakhstan. The stories
continue to be circulated in Uzbekistan via e-mail and print-outs. They
include claims that Karimov was a middleman who set up drug rings between
Uzbek dealers and northern Afghan warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, and
that a February 1999 explosion in Tashkent that killed at least 16 people
was staged by officials to justify a crackdown on opposition. (AP, Jan. 21)
2. CHINA EXECUTES TIBETAN LAMA
A Tibetan lama convicted of plotting bomb blasts was put to death in China
despite protests from international human rights groups. Lobsang Dhondup,
28, was sentenced to death in December along with Tensin Deleg Rinpoche, a
52-year-old monk, for alleged involvement in a series of bombings China
blamed on Tibetan separatists. Rinpoche, whose appeal was rejected by the
Sichuan Higher People's Court, was given a death sentence with a two-year
reprieve, which may be commuted to life imprisonment. Lobsang Dhondup did
not appeal and was executed after his sentence was upheld. The two lamas
were blamed for a bomb attack last April in Sichuan's capital Chengdu,
which killed one person and injured another, as well as two explosions in
the Ganzi area of the Kham, a Tibetan region under Sichuan provincial
administration. Rights groups claimed the two were framed in a scheme to
eliminate Rinpoche, a popular leader in Tibet. Over 30,000 Tibetans signed
a petition protesting his arrest. (AFP, Jan. 27)
See also WW3 REPORT #63
[top]
3. JAPAN SEEKS SIBERIA PIPELINE ROUTE
Nearly a century after Japan beat Russia in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905,
Junichiro Koizumi in early January made the first visit by a Japanese prime
minister to Russia's far east, a vast, resource-rich and little-developed
region. Koizumi, leader of the world's second-largest oil consumer, is
seeking a deal to build a 2,500-mile oil pipeline that would by-pass China,
linking Siberia's Kovykta and Verkne-Chonskoye oil fields to the Sea of
Japan. "Russia, especially its Far Eastern region, has great energy
potential, which must be fully used," Koizumi said in the frigid
Trans-Siberian Railroad city of Khabarovsk, days after meeting with Russian
President Vladimir Putin on the Moscow leg of his trip. (NYT, Jan. 13)
[top]
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. COLOMBIAN ARMED FORCES CHIEF: RIGHTS GROUPS ARE LYING
Most allegations of human rights abuses by the Colombian military are false
and politically motivated, Gen. Carlos Ospina, the head of Colombia's army,
told his US counterparts on a visit to the Pentagon. "That is not happening
in Colombia. People are asking for our presence in all the villages, in all
the cities," Ospina told reporters. "It's to the point where I don't have
any more people to guard all of the villages." Gen. Ospina implied that
human rights groups were dupes of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces
(FARC). "The FARC has political friends outside Colombia and they try to
show us as abusers," Ospina said. "Honest people around the world know that
we are serving our people well." He added: "If there is any abuse, it's
very easy to correct. We just put the guy on trial and fire him."
The US has just cut off aid to a Colombian air force unit suspected in the
killing of 17 civilians over four years ago. While military officials say a
rebel car bomb was responsible for the deaths near Santo Domingo, an FBI
forensic analysis found the shrapnel was consistent with a bomb designed to
be dropped from the air. Survivors also said they were attacked from the
air. The US has given nearly $2 billion to Colombia in the past few years,
mostly in military aid. (AP, Jan. 28)
[top]
2. COLOMBIA PREPARES PEASANT MILITIAS
Colombia will start deploying troops in February under a controversial
program to train peasants to defend their villages against guerrilla
attacks. The program is part of an ambitious plan by President Alvaro Uribe
to post 15,000 armed peasant-soldiers in remote villages--a move that human
rights groups fear could lead to excesses. ''On Feb. 5 they [the peasants]
will finish their training and then be deployed,'' said army commander
Carlos Ospina, in Washington on a Pentagon-sponsored program for foreign
military chiefs. He said 5,000 peasant-soldiers had been trained and armed,
and will now be returned to their villages in 36-man platoons. The units
will be deployed in 144 villages, with an additional 400 villages getting
fresh recruits over the next months. ''Our purpose is to occupy villages
that have no security, with campesinos, with our soldiers and with police
officers so we will regain control over some areas,'' Ospina told
reporters. But on Jan. 14, Human Rights Watch issued a highly critical
report on Colombia, saying it was ''especially preoccupied'' with the
peasant militia program which could lead to ''a legalization of the
paramilitary partners of the army.'' (AP, Jan. 28)
[top]
3. U.S. PLANS BIOLOGICAL WARFARE IN COLOMBIA
In December, a plan resurfaced in the House of Representatives to employ an
untested pathogenic fungus, Fusarium oxysporum in Colombia's US-funded coca
crop eradication program Critics say the plan amounts to an illegal act of
biological warfare, poses major ecological risks to some of the world's
most bio-diverse forests, and will escalate the human costs of a the
eradication policy, which currently employs the herbicide glyphosate. The
new fungal agents, dubbed "Agent Green" by the Sunshine Project, a group
opposed to the use of biological weapons, were developed by the US
Department of Agriculture, and by two other facilities using US government
funding--a private company in Montana, and a former Soviet biological
weapons facility in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The lead agents are types of
Fusarium oxysporum (to kill coca and cannabis) and Pleospora papaveracea
(to kill opium poppy). Their ecological and human health safety is very
poorly tested, and they are known to impact non-target species.
In June 1999, the U.S. Senate approved a $1.3 billion aid package in
support of Colombia's "War on Drugs," that required testing of the fungal
pathogen, along with conventional pesticides. The plan was widely opposed
by environmental groups in Colombia and worldwide, and President Clinton
eventually waived this requirement, citing concerns for the proliferation
of biological weapons. Colombia also rejected proposals to test this
pathogen due to environmental risks.
But at a Dec. 13, 2002 House Committee on Government Reform hearing on
"Plan Colombia," Rep. John Mica (R-FL), a senior drug policy legislator,
repeatedly pushed for the US to move ahead with the fungal program. "We
have to restore our...mycoherbicide," said Mica, adding that "things that
have been studied for too long need to be put into action." In response, US
Ambassador to Colombia Anne Patterson stated that she thought that the US
had already tested anti-crop biological agents in Colombia. She later
retracted the statement, saying that it was made under duress. The
Department of State supports using the fungal bioweapons on Colombia. Rand
Beers, the Assistant Secretary of State for narcotics, pushed the program
during the Clinton administration, and still serves under George Bush. In
2001, the US defended the plan at the Biological Weapons Convention, where
US Ambassador Don Mahley, chief US negotiator for bio-weapons, said it is
needed in order "to fight the Medellin Cartel", an anachronistic reference
to a criminal organization dismembered by Colombian police a decade ago.
Writes the Sunshine Project: "Mica may be preparing to repeat an old
trick--inserting language in legislation to require use of bioweapons in
order for Colombia to receive US money."
(Sunshine Project press release, Dec. 17)
For more information
See also WW3 REPORT #6
[top]
4. VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION EASES STRIKE
Opponents of President Hugo Chavez said they will ease the general strike
which has crippled the nation since Dec. 2, and focus instead on a petition
drive to cut his term in power. The opposition hopes a petition for a
constitutional amendment to reduce Chavez's term from six to four years
will succeed, paving the way for general elections later this year. Under
the constitution, organizers need signatures from 15 percent, or about 1.8
million, of the country's 12 million registered voters. "Our idea is to get
5 million signatures," Carlos Ocariz, a member of the opposition party
Justice First, said Feb. 1 on Globovision TV. Most small businesses never
joined the strike, and many companies have opened their doors in recent
days, as strike leaders announced that factories, schools and restaurants
would be urged to re-open. Effects of the strike remain greatest in the
vital oil industry, which makes up a third of the economyand provides half
of government income. Despite government efforts to restart the industry,
production remains just over 1 million barrels a day, about a third of
pre-strike levels . (AP, Feb. 1)
See also WW3 REPORT #70
[top]
THE MEXICAN FRONT
1. FEDERAL TROOPS RAID ANTI-DRUG FORCE
Army troops and federal police raided anti-narcotics offices in 11 Mexican
states where agents are suspected of colluding with drug traffickers. The
raids followed the arrest of seven drug agents in the border city of
Tijuana, charged with trafficking, extortion and kidnapping. Ordered by
Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, the operation to disband top
drug-fighting agency--the Federal Prosecutors Office for Drug Crimes (or
FEADS)--was the largest anti-corruption strike in recent Mexican history.
There were no arrests, but hundreds of federal police officers and
employees were placed under military control while they are investigated
for possible offenses including bribery and abuse of authority. "FEADS is
going to disappear," Macedo de la Concha said. "We're going to get rid of
these people. They're going to the street or to jail." (Drug Policy
Alliance newsletter, Jan. 23)
See also WW3 REPORT #60
[top]
2. FOREIGN MINISTER JORGE CASTANEDA RESIGNS
Mexican President Vicente Fox accepted the resignation of his foreign
minister, Jorge Castaneda, and named Economy Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez
to replace him. Castaneda cited the failure to achieve an immigration
accord with the US as a main reason for stepping down. During the just over
two years that he served, Castaneda became a controversial member of the
Fox cabinet. A former leftist academic and outspoken critic of the Drug
War, Castaneda ruffled the feathers of nationalists and leftists by seeking
closer relations with the US and cooling relations with Cuba. But in a
Sept. 1999 Newsweek column Castaneda asked, "What is the purpose of
investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the fight against drugs,
plunging countries into civil war, strengthening guerilla groups and
unleashing enormous violence and corruption upon entire societies, if
American leaders can simply brush off questions about drug use in their
youth?" Castaneda subsequently tempered his criticism of the US Drug War
during his tenure as foreign minister. (Drug Policy Alliance newsletter,
Jan. 16)
In one of his last acts as foreign minister, Castaneda filed a petition
with the World Court seeking to stop the executions of 54 Mexicans on death
row in the US. The petition says the condemned men were denied the rights
to be represented by Mexican consular officials after they were arrested.
That right is guaranteed by the Vienna Convention, an 1963 treaty that says
foreigners under arrest must be told they have the right to legal help from
their consulates. (NYT, Jan. 11)
[top]
3. FIVE MORE DEAD IN CHIAPAS RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE
Gunmen ambushed police trying to arrest murder suspects at the conflicted
Chiapas village of San Juan Chamula Jan. 28, sparking a gun battle that
left five dead. The Chiapas state attorney general's office said gunmen
attacked two state police and two municipal officers. Police returned fire,
killing a suspect. Four other people were reported wounded. The clash broke
out at Tres Cruces in Chamula, which for decades has seen violence between
followers of Catholic traditionalists and evangelical Protestant converts.
The police had come to the farm to arrest suspects in the slaying two days
earlier of two traditionalists, shot along a road in Chamula, apparently in
a dispute over ownership of a well. Chamula traditionalists sent a letter
to President Vicente Fox warning they would take justice into their own
hands if the government did not capture the killers.
Over 15,000 Protestants and some Catholic dissidents have been forced to
flee Chamula in recent decades, sometimes after being beaten or raped or
having their homes destroyed. Many have settled on the steep mountain
slopes that separate Chamula from the city of San Cristobal de las Casas,
about 10 miles to the south, and there have been frequent clashes between
followers of Chamula's political bosses and the refugee settlements. (AP,
Jan. 28)
See also WW3 REPORT #62
[top]
4. STATE DEPARTMENT ISSUES CHIAPAS TRAVEL ADVISORY
The US. State Department has officially warned US citizens to exercise
caution while
traveling in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, citing threats against
foreigners and businesses that serve them. The warning states that in many
parts of Chiapas "there also is no effective law enforcement of police
protection." The travel advisory says US citizens should avoid traveling in
areas where disputes are known to be ongoing, including rural areas east of
Ocosingo, and the entire southeastern jungle portion of the state to the
east of Comitan. (VOA, Feb. 1)
[top]
5. CARTEL EYES MEXICAN OIL INDUSTRY
A Jan. 21 front-page story in the New York Times, "Corruption and Waste Are
Bleeding Mexico's Oil Lifeline," detailed the inefficient mess that is now
the state oil monopoly Pemex--the world's fifth-largest oil company. At
1,501 barrels a day in 2002, Mexico remains the third biggest provider of
US oil imports after Canada (1,895 barrels a day) and Saudi Arabia (1,505),
and ahead of Venezuela (1,385) and Nigeria (600). But Pemex loses at least
$1 billion a year to corruption, by its own executives' estimates. Its
safety record is abysmal, with two major explosions--one in 1984 in Mexico
City and another in 1992 in Guadalajara--killing at least 800 neighborhood
residents, and hundreds more killed in lesser industrial accidents in
recent years. The institutionalized corruption was a pillar of power under
the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Pemex's last
director, Rogelio Montemayor (a former PRI governor), and the oil union
boss, Carlos Romero (a PRI senator), both now stand accused of stealing
tens of millions of dollars from the company to finance the PRI's 2000
presidential campaign. Despite such efforts, the PRI lost, and the
free-market-oriented reformer Vicente Fox became president, pledging to
break up the old machine and purge Pemex of corruption. But Edward Morse,
executive advisor at Hess Energy Trading and former publisher of Petroleum
Intelligence Weekly, told the Times "the effort to reform the beast" has
failed, and that Fox does not "understand how thoroughly ingrained in the
national political culture the monopoly of Pemex is." Of course, the Times
takes it for granted that the solution is to "permit foreign investment" in
the oil sector--but this would mean changing the constitution, a move
barred by the PRI's plurality in congress. Nonetheless, the Times warns
that unless Fox meets this challenge, "the company's production will start
to plunge... By 2030, perhaps sooner, Mexico will have to import oil. It
will not be able to sell a single barrel to the United States."
Pemex managers apparently took the hint. In a Feb. 1 follow-up story, the
Times reported that new Pemex director Raul Munoz Leos, former chief
executive of DuPont Mexico, "faces a major challenge in February, when he
plans to begin offering a group of contracts, potentially worth billions of
dollars, for work that would help Pemex tap natural gas in the giant Burgos
basin in northeastern Mexico, near the Texas border... He says that by
bringing in private capital and technology that Mexico lacks, the
contracts, called multiple service contracts, will help Pemex develop the
Burgos field and deliver one billion cubic feet of gas a day by 2005...
Mexico opened the storage, distribution and transportation of natural gas
to private investment in 1995, and private companies are allowed to export
and import natural gas. But the contracts that Mr. Munoz Leos says are
crucial to Mexico's future are seen by the PRI as a form of political
treason."
[top]
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. NUCLEAR MATERIAL IN SPACE SHUTTLE DEBRIS?
"Once again we see that space technology can fail," said Bruce Gagnon,
international coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and
Nuclear Power in Space, commenting on the Feb. 1 space shuttle disaster.
"I'm troubled because the Bush administration has recently announced a
program called the 'Nuclear Systems Initiative,' a $1 billion research and
development program to expand the launching of nuclear power into space.
The problem is that as you increase the numbers of launches carrying
nuclear payloads into space, you are also going to dramatically increase
the chances of a catastrophic Chernobyl in the sky."
Asked why NASA was advising extra caution at the crash sites, Gagnon said:
"We haven't heard that there was a nuclear payload on this shuttle, but one
of the great hallmarks of the Bush administration is increased secrecy. I
must admit that when NASA said no one should go near a site because of the
toxic potential of the fuels and 'other reasons,' I couldn't help but
wonder what those reasons are." (ArabNews.com, Feb. 1)
(David Bloom)
(See also Ironies of Space Shuttle Disaster,
this issue)
[top]
2. PAKISTAN-NORTH KOREA AXIS REVEALED
Last June, four months before the current crisis over North Korea's nuclear
capabilities became public, the CIA delivered a comprehensive analysis of
the situation to President Bush. The document, known as a National
Intelligence Estimate, was classified Top Secret SCI (for "senstive
compartmented information"), but a copy was obtained by journalist Seymour
Hersh, who revealed its contents in the Jan. 27 edition of the New Yorker
magazine. Most alarmingly, the report details the close nuclear cooperation
between "Axis of Evil" member North Korea and the USA's close terror war
ally Pakistan. North Korea was ahead in missile technology but lacked
nuclear warheads, while Pakistan was in the reverse position, so a
cooperative arrangement was worked out. In 1997, according to the report,
Pakistan began paying for missile systems from North Korea in part by
sharing its nuclear-weapons secrets.
Hersh also implies the US government hushed up the affair--both to protect
Pakistan and to keep attention focused on Iraq instead of North Korea. In
early October last year, James A. Kelly, assistant secretary of state of
East Asian and Pacific affairs, flew to Pyongyang to confront North Korean
leaders over the nuclear program. It was then that North Korean leaders
admitted that they had acheived nuclear capability. Writes Hersh: "But, as
with the June CIA report, the Administration kept quiet about the Pyongyang
admission. It did not inform the public until October 16th, five days after
Congress voted to authorize military force against Iraq. Even then,
according to Administration sources quoted in the Washington Post, the
Administration went public only after learning that the North Korean
admission--with obvious implications for the debate on Iraq--was being
leaked to the press." On Oct. 20, National Security Advisor Condileezza
Rice went on CBS' "Face the Nation" to deny that the news of the Kelly
meeting had been deliberately withheld until after the vote.
Even if the focus is currently on Iraq, one anonymous US intelligence
official quoted by Hersh insisted that North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il
is next on the White House military hit-list: "Bush and Cheney want this
guy's head on a platter. Don't be distracted by all this talk about
negotiations. There will be negotiations, but they have a plan, and they
are going to get this guy after Iraq. He's their version of Hitler."
See also WW3 REPORT #56
[top]
PLANET WATCH
1. STUDY: CLIMATE DESTABILIZATION IMPACTS REAL
The journal Nature has published two new studies by a team of international
experts from the University of Texas, Wesleyan, Stanford and elsewhere,
determining that the impacts of global warming are already evident. Average
global temperatures have risen 0.6 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years,
and are liley to rise by nine degrees C over the next 100. Tropical species
are expanidng north and south away from the equatorial zone at a rate of
3.7 miles per decade, and lowland species are similarly spreading to higher
elevations. Measured by plant blooms and animal migrations, spring is
arriving an average 2.3 days earlier each decade. Mt. Kilmanjaro has lost
80% of its ice cap in the past century. One of the investigators, Dr. Gary
Yohe of Wesleyan, said the changes have a 95% chance of being the result of
global warming. "You're seeing the impact of climate on natural systems
now," he told the New York Times. "It's really important to take that
seriously." (NYT, Newsday, Jan. 2)
[top]
THE WAR AT HOME
1. BOULDER ANTI-WAR PROTEST TURNS VIOLENT
Police in Boulder used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of anti-war
protestors on the University of Colorado campus Jan. 29. The university
said one police officer was hospitalized after a protester sprayed him with
Mace during the confrontation. The incident began when some 400 students
gathered at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain near the student union to rally
against a possible war in Iraq. The peaceful protest turned violent after
university authorities turned off the sound system under school policy to
prevent disruption of classes after 1 PM. University police moved in to
disperse the crowd and the students pushed back. (TheDenverChannel.com,
Jan. 29)
[top]
2. COMCAST CENSORS ANTI-WAR TV SPOTS
The Comcast cable TV company rejected ads that an anti-war group, Peace
Action Education Fund, wanted to air during President Bush's State of the
Union speech, saying they included unsubstantiated claims. "Comcast runs
advertisements from many sources representing a wide range of viewpoints,
pro and con," Comcast spokesman Mitchell Schmale said in a statement.
"However, we must decline to run any spot that fails to substantiate
certain claims or charges. In our view, this spot raises such questions."
The statement did not specify what Comcast, the nation's largest cable
company, objected to. The ads show citizens expressing opposition to war
with Iraq. "This is an outrageous infringement on our First Amendment
rights," said the Rev. Robert Moore, executive director of the 2,000-member
peace group, which is based in Princeton, NJ. (AP, Jan. 28)
[top]
3. NY DAILY NEWS: IRAQI SPIES BEHIND ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT!
New York City's Daily News tabloid reported Jan. 30 that Iraq sent spies
from Canada to New York and Washington in January "to snoop and stir up
anti-war demonstrations," citing a government report obtained by the
newspaper.
The
classified document also allegedly reveals a plot by al-Qaeda-linked
militants in Zimbabwe to attack American targets in Africa if the US
declares war on Iraq. It suggests the group, Tablik Ja'maat, could be a
"conduit for communication" between Osama bin Laden's terror network and
Iraqi leaders. The secret report was allegedly prepared by an intelligence
unit in the new Homeland Security Department. A source identified as a
member of the Iraqi opposition reportedly told US agents that Iraqis in
Canada were ordered to recruit Arabs and Muslims for espionage missions in
the US. The Iraqi embassy in Ottawa sent operatives to New York and DC with
instructions to "intensify spying activities and to carry out anti-US
demonstrations to stop a war against Iraq," the report allegedly said,
claiming the Iraqis were to spend "large sums" to back the effort.
[top]
4. FBI TARGETS IRAQI-AMERICANS
The FBI announced it is seeking to question up to 50,000 Iraqis living in
the US to root out potential spies and terror cells--specifically
targetting those who emigrated since 1991's Operation Desert Storm. "As we
get closer to hostilities, we'll pump it up and be more aggressive in
finding these people," said one FBI official. The search begins with an
official order to the FBI's 56 filed offices to create demographic
profiles--including a count of local mosques--to set numerical goals for
investigations and wiretaps. Dalia Hashad, the ACLU's Arab, Muslim and
South Asian advocate, protested the move as "blatant religious and ethnic
profiling." (Newsday, Jan. 28)
[top]
5. BROOKINGS SCHOLAR DETAINED BY INS
Ejaz Haider, an editor with Pakistan's most respected English-language
newsweekly and a visiting research scholar at the Brookings Institution,
was detained in the government's "registration" program for temporary
foreign visitors when two armed INS agents accosted him on the street and
took him into custody. "We were stunned. I never thought I'd see this in
my own country: people grabbed on the street and taken away," said Stephen
P. Cohen, head of the Brookings South Asia program where Haider worked. The
Justice Department claims Haider missed a deadline to check in with the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. Haider said officials at the State
Department and INS had both told him he could ignore the requirement to
check back within 40 days of registering upon arrival at Dulles
International Airport. (Washington Post, Jan. 30)
[top]
6. HOMELAND SECURITY GETS SECRETARY
On Jan. 24, a day after his nomination was confirmed by the Senate, former
Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge was sworn in as the first secretary of the
Homeland Security Department, created by legislation signed by President
Bush on Nov. 25. On Jan. 30, Ridge detailed the restructuring plan that
will combine 22 federal agencies into the new department. A first step will
merge units of the INS, Customs Service, Border Patrol and the agricultural
inspection service into a new entity, the Bureau of Customs and Border
Protection, to be headed by former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
chief Asa Hutchinson. Ridge swore in Hutchinson on Jan. 29 as his
undersecretary for border security and transportation. (Orange County
Register, Jan. 30; Miami Herald, Jan. 31)
( Immigration News Briefs, Jan. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #61
[top]
7. FBI, CIA TO MERGE ANTI-TERROR UNITS?
President Bush's state-of-the-union address mentioned that he was
instructing the nation's intelligence agencies "to merge and analyze all
threat information in a single location." Anonymous "national security
officials" cited by the New York Times Jan. 30 said this refers to a plan
under consideration to consoldate the CIA and FBI counter-terrorism units
at a single center to be housed at a new complex in northern Virginia.
[top]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. SEATTLE PASSES "DON'T ASK" LAW ON IMMIGRATION STATUS
On Jan. 27, the Seattle City Council voted 9-0 to adopt a policy barring
police and other city workers from asking residents about their immigration
status. The measure states that unless otherwise required by law, no city
employee or officer shall "engage in activities designed to ascertain the
immigration status of any person." The policy allows police to investigate
an individual's immigration status only if they have a "reasonable
suspicion" that the person has previously been deported or committed a
felony. Police may also assist Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
agents as required by law.
Immigrant rights groups had lobbied for the measure. "In this climate of
secret detentions and special registration, it's clearly important to have
a city council that takes a strong proactive stance," said Anita Sinha,
attorney with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. City Council member
Jim Compton said the ordinance was largely symbolic because Seattle city
workers and police do not currently try to enforce immigration laws. But
the Seattle Times cited recent examples where police stopped people for
minor offenses such as jaywalking or drinking in public, then checked their
immigration status and handed them to INS. (Seattle Times, Jan. 28)
( Immigration News Briefs, Jan. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #61
[top]
2. SENATE VOTES TO DEFUND "REGISTRATION"
An appropriations bill approved by the Senate Jan. 23 includes an amendment
that would cut off funding for the Justice Department's "special
registration" program, which requires male visitors from 25 countries to
report to the INS to get photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed. The
amendment restored funding for a separate congressionally-mandated program
that is designed to track all visitors when they enter and leave the US by
2005. But it barred the use of any of that money for the controversial
"registration" program. The amendment--which is not included in the House
version of the bill--would also require Attorney General John Ashcroft to
provide Congress with an assessment on the effectiveness of the
registration program, along with information on its operation. Republicans
say they will fight to remove the amendment in the conference committee,
where a compromise version of the bill will be worked out. The group South
Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) urges people to contact their
senators and representatives to push for the amendment to be kept in the
final bill. More information is at http://www.saalt.org. (SAALT Action
Alert, Jan. 29; Washington Post, Jan. 25; Washington Times, Jan. 29)
( Immigration News Briefs, Jan. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #69
[top]
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