ISSUE:
#. 74. Feb. 24, 2003
WAR DRIVE LOSING MOMENTUM IN WAKE OF GLOBAL PROTESTS?
NYC: PROTEST LEADERS CHALLENGE POLICE VIOLENCE
U.S. TROOPS TO FIGHT IN PHILIPPINES , COLOMBIA?
BOLIVIAN CABINET RESIGNS AS PROTESTS PARALYZE COUNTRY
BORDER WAR, TERROR, REPRESSION: BANGLADESH ON THE BRINK
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: YELLOW
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom and Subuhi Jiwani, Special Correspondents
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. 43 Palestinians Killed in Eight Days; Israel Takes on Hamas
2. Senseless Death in Tul Karm Refugee Camp
3. Likud Signs Coalition Agreement
4. Leading Israelis Wanted for War Crimes in Europe?
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Is War Drive Losing Steam?
2. Saddam's Defense Minister Under House Arrest?
3. Does Saddam Fear Popular Uprising?
4. Saudis Fomenting Coup in Iraq?
5. Opposition Groups Meet in Kurdish Zone
6. Kurds Wary of U.S. Betrayal
7. Kurds: U.S. Plans New Dictatorship
8. CIA Revisionism on Kurdish Genocide
9. Wesley Clark: U.S. Becoming "Colonial" Power
10. Rumsfeld Disses "Human Shields"
11. Amos Oz: "Protesters are Right"
12. Cyber-Protesters Plan "Virtual March" on White House
13. L.A. High School Students Protest War Drive
14. Zapatistas Say "No!" to Bush's War
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. "Operation Viper" Underway; Casualty Count Disputed
2. U.S. Forces Face Armed Resistance
3. Bomb Attacks Target U.N. Agencies
4. Hekmatyar Makes the Bigtime: "Global Terrorist"
5. NATO to Command International Forces in Afghanistan?
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. India Wooed for Trans-Afghan Pipeline
2. Siberian Shamans Protest Pipeline Plan
THE SUBCONTINENT
1. India's Iraq Posture: Two-Faced "Neutrality"
2. India: Pakistan Greater Threat Than Iraq
3. Forced Deportations on Bangladesh Border
4. Terror and Repression Strike Bangladesh
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. More U.S. Troops to Mindanao--This Time With Combat Role?
2. Manila Expels Iraqi Diplomat for Alleged Abu Sayyaf Links
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. U.S. Considering Direct Military Intervention in Colombia
2. Bolivian Cabinet Resigns as Protests Rock Country
3. Reprisals Against Venezuela Strike Leaders?
ELSEWHERE IN LATIN AMERICA
1. Navy Concludes Last Planned Vieques Exercises
THE WAR AT HOME
1. NYC: Activists, Police at Odds in Wake of Feb. 15 Protest
2. Farouk Abdel-Muhti Transferred to York, PA
3. Palestinian Professor Seized in Florida
4. New Yorkers Protest Third "Registration" Deadline
5. Advocacy Groups Seek Injunction to Halt Detainments
6. White House Prepares "Patriot II" Legislation
7. CIA, FBI to Launch Joint Terrorism Center
8. Burgers With a Side of Xenophobia
9. Bretton Barber: American Hero!
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. 43 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN EIGHT DAYS; ISRAEL TAKES ON HAMAS
Following continued Kassem rocket attacks over the Gaza-Israeli border and
the fourth successful attack on an Israeli tank in Gaza, the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) greatly stepped up pressure on Hamas, vowing to take
out its military wing, the Izzedine al-Kassem Brigades. Following the tank
attack, at least 43 Palestinians were killed in the space of eight days;
this compared to a total of 45 Palestinians killed in January alone. Among
those killed was Hamas military leader Riyad Abu Zeid, ambushed by an IDF
hit squad on a Gaza coastal road Feb. 17. Israeli forces have occupied the
area of the Gaza Strip around Beit Hanoun, where Kassem rockets are
frequently launched at Israel. The rockets rarely do any damage, but on
Feb. 19 managed to lightly wound an Israeli in the town of Sderot near Gaza.
Hamas has not killed anyone in Israel in two and a half months, but this
unspoken ceasefire was brought to a halt by Israel's intensified
operations. Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated Feb. 19: "We ceased
attacks to prove to the people that Israel didn't need any excuse to attack
us, and that was shown by these attacks on us. Now all weapons and all
attacks are worthy." Hours later four rockets hit Sderot.
Palestinian security forces have tried to stop the rocket attacks with
little success. Israel has again cut the Gaza Strip into three and says it
will hold the area it has seized around Beit Hanoun indefinitely.
In an incursion into Gaza City on Nov. 19, ostensibly to destroy
metal-working shops the Israelis say are used to construct Kassem rockets,
11 Palestinians, including four civilians, were killed. More than 40
Israeli tanks and armored vehicles took part in the assault.
Eight Palestinians and one Israeli were killed on Feb. 23, all but one in
the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian man returning from work in Israel was killed
by Israeli forces crossing a settler road near the Jabara roadblock.
Israeli authorities claimed he was crossing into Israel to carry out an
attack, and failed to stop when warned. This is a common IDF claim, now
greeted with skepticism by rights observers. "I can't be certain," said
Lior Yavne, a spokesperson for the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem,
"but I have noticed over the last few months that the army has claimed a
lot more people have been killed while trying to escape."
(Newsday, Feb. 18; Ha'aretz, Feb. 19; UK Independent, Feb. 22; UK
Telegraph, Feb. 20, 24; Reuters, Feb. 24) (David Bloom)
[top]
2. SENSELESS DEATH IN TUL KARM REFUGEE CAMP
On Feb. 20, 23-year-old Mohamed Araf Oufi, a Palestinian man living in Tul
Karm refugee camp, was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces. Wrote
the Israeli daily Ha'aretz:
"In Tul Karm, IDF troops Thursday morning shot dead an armed Palestinian,
Army Radio reported. The soldiers were carrying out operations in the West
Bank city, when a group of armed Palestinians opened fire on them. The
troops opened fire in response, killing the Palestinians. No soldiers were
wounded in the incident." (Ha'aretz, Feb. 20)
That version is contradicted by activists from the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM), one of whom was in Tul Karm camp at the time of the
shooting. The ISM activists claim Oufi was leaving his house to pray at the
mosque, alone, at 5 AM. A neighbor who saw him warned that the army was
operating in the area, to which Oufi, a very religious young man, replied,
"I'm just going to pray." Around the corner, eight Israeli special forces
troops were occupying a house. They had arrived at 2 AM, confining the
family of six--including two grandparents, three children and their
mother--to the bottom floor. They were compelled to stay silent, forbidden
to use the toilet and even to get a blanket for the youngest child. Two
soldiers held the frightened family at gunpoint, while the remaining six
were positioned on the roof, one with a rifle capable of shooting a 25 mm
shell. When Muhammed rounded the corner, he must have noticed the Israeli
military vehicles at the end of the street, because he turned to leave;
this is deduced from the fact that bullets pierced his right posterior
neck. After the shots killed Oufi, a Palestinian man on Israel's wanted
list emerged and returned fire; he in turn was shot and critically wounded
in the chest.
Oufi's body lay in the street for 45 minutes after the soldiers confirmed
he was dead, with his family was unable to retrieve the remains because
they were under curfew. (ISM, Feb. 22) (David Bloom)
[top]
3. LIKUD SIGNS COALITION AGREEMENT
A right-wing coalition that will freeze out both the ultra-orthodox
religious parties and the Labor party from the Israeli government is taking
shape. The modern orthodox (as opposed to ultra-orthodox) National
Religious Party (NRP), a settler-oriented, right-wing party led by the
hawkish ex-Gen. Effi Eitam has been given two ministries, Housing &
Construction, and Labor & Welfare. Eitam will get the Housing portofolio,
giving him wide control over settlement construction. Eitam told Army Radio
Feb. 23 that as part of the NRP's agreement with Likud, settlements in the
occupied territories "will be enlarged to accommodate the natural growth of
their population." The NRP is also opposed to the creation of a Palestinian
state. Labor MK Avraham Shochat commented that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon "clearly selected a right-wing, extremist government that won't
pursue a peace process." Labor Party leader Amiram Mitzna said he could not
join a government with Eitam in it, so he will lead the opposition instead.
The deal keeps the ultra-orthodox parties out of government, but will not
result in an uncompromisingly secularist government--a key election promise
of the centrist Shinui, which holds 15 Knesset seats and is also being
wooed by Sharon's coalition. Shinui and the NRP both oppose religious
exemptions from the draft--a key demand of the ultra-orthodox parties. (Arutz
Sheva, Feb. 23; BBC, Feb. 23; Ha'aretz, Feb. 23)
One Shinui demand is that Ariel Sharon adhere to Washington's "road map"
leading to a peace settlement. But Sharon is demanding over 100 changes to
the road map, including a "clarification that all the initial demands are
on the Palestinian side, beginning with a cease-fire, a change in
leadership, and far-reaching reforms, only then to be followed by measures
Israel must take." (Ha'aretz, Feb. 24) Palestinian Local Government
Minister Dr Sa'ib Urayqat had this reaction: "This indicates Israel's total
rejection of the road map. This is because Sharon's road map is one of
settlement, destruction, confiscation of land and entrenchment of the
occupation." (BBC Monitoring: Al-Jazeera TV, Feb. 21)
In remarks at a dinner held by the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Feb. 12, Sharon said there
would be "no compromise" on the issue of Jerusalem, or the right of return
of Palestinians. "Israel will never accept that danger to occur, never,"
said Sharon, to applause. "We understand even the tragedy, but to open the
gates of Israel to the families of refugees of '48--and Israel didn't have
any responsibility then, Israel was attacked then--that means the
destruction of Israel as independent Jewish democratic state." (BBC
Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Feb. 21)
The new coalition gives Sharon a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
If negotiations are successful, he will to bolster that majority with the
seven Knesset members of the pro-"transfer" National Union party, led by
Avigdor Lieberman. (Ha'aretz, Feb. 24) (David Bloom)
[top]
4. LEADING ISRAELIS WANTED FOR WAR CRIMES IN EUROPE?
In the wake of a Belgian court's ruling that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon can be compelled to testify about his responsibility for the 1982
Sabra and Shatila massacres of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Israeli
legal advisors have issued a memo to ministers, warning that some Israeli
officials shouldn't visit Europe--or risk arrest for war crimes. Gen. Amos
Yaron, who commanded a division of paratroopers in Lebanon in 1982, has
also been advised to avoid Europe. Recommendations have reportedly gone out
to all Israeli officers and politicians connected to the current conflict.
The Israeli peace group Gush Shalom recently published the name of the F-16
pilot responsible for dropping a half-ton bomb on Gaza, killing more than
twelve civilians, including woman and children, last July. He was then
instructed not to leave Israel for Europe until further notice. Jane's
claims Shaul Mofaz, current defense minister, "could be taken for
questioning in Belgium, France or possibly other countries." Jane's says
Moshe Ya'alon, current Israeli Chief of staff, who is alleged to have
played a role in the 1988 Tunis raid that killed the number-two man in the
PLO, "Abu Jihad" (Khalil el-Wazir), may also have been advised to avoid
Europe. (Jane's Foreign Report, Feb. 20) (David Bloom)
[top]
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. IS WAR DRIVE LOSING STEAM?
A week after the historic Feb. 15 global anti-war protests, there are
signals that US President George Bush's war drive is losing momentum. The
White House is preparing a new Security Council resolution declaring Iraq
an outlaw state for its failure to disarm, and endorsing (at least
implicitly) military action--but it faces a likely veto by France, Russia
and China. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, calling on the UN to
approve war, said: "There's always a risk of veto of anything at the United
Nations. The president believes the United Nations in the end would like to
be an instrument for peace and the world..." (Newsday, Feb. 20)
In a major obstacle to war plans, the Turkish government announced it would
not consider opening its territory to US troops without a major aid
package. The White House has proposed a $26 billion package, but the
Turkish government has still not made a commitment. (NYT, Feb. 20)
European Union leaders issued a joint statement that Iraq must disarm
"immediately and fully"--but also that this should be achieved peacefully,
with war as a last resort. "War is not inevitable," the statement read.
(NYT, Feb. 18) French President Jacques Chirac took the opportunity of the
Brussels meeting to publicly scold Eastern European governments that have
closed ranks with the US war drive. He said pro-war governments such as
Bulgaria and Romania had "missed a great opportunity to shut up" and had
jeopardized their chances of joining the EU. (Reuters, Feb. 19)
Bush dismissed the global protests, telling reporters at the White House
that formulating policy based on the "size of protests is like deciding,
'Well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group.' The role of a
leader is to decide policy based upon the security...of the people." While
he acknowledged the right to protest, he said, "evidently some in the world
don't view Saddam Hussein as a risk to peace... Saddam Hussein is a threat
to America, and we will deal with him." (Newsday, Feb. 19)
British Foreign Secretary Jack Staw sounded slightly more conciliatory.
Asked in a radio interview if the UK would go to war even if a majority of
the citizenry opposed it, he replied, "It is very difficult indeed
under those circumstances." He also acknowledged that the Feb. 15 protest
in London was "probably the largest we have seen in our recent democratic
history... and we have to take account of public opinion." (Reuters, Feb.
18)
[top]
2. SADDAM'S DEFENSE MINISTER UNDER HOUSE ARREST?
Press reports in the Arab world claim the head of the Iraqi military,
Lt-Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Jabburi Tai, has been placed under house
arrest, with Saddam fearing an imminent coup d'etat. The defense minister
is not only a member of Saddam's inner circle, but also a close relative by
marriage. His daughter is wedded to Qusay Hussein, the dictator's
36-year-old younger son--considered by many his heir apparent. It was Gen.
Sultan who signed a cease-fire with US-led coalition forces after the 1991
Gulf War, and more recently negotiated a resumption of military ties with
Moscow. He has survived numerous purges in the Iraqi military, and rose to
the top following the conclusion of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. But this is
not the first time Saddam has moved against a trusted colleague and family
relation. In 1996 he had his two sons-in-law executed after he persuaded
them to return to Baghdad following their defection to Jordan. His
estranged first wife Sajida is no longer on speaking terms with him after
the mysterious death of her brother. (UK Guardian, Feb. 18)
[top]
3. DOES SADDAM FEAR POPULAR UPRISING?
The fear that Iraq's 700,000-strong regular army might refuse to fight
invading US troops has prompted Saddam to take unusual measures, according
to press reports in the Arab world. Fearing a popular uprising, the
dictator has reportedly deployed troops of the Mujahedeen Kalq, an
Iraq-backed Iranian guerilla group, to police several key Iraqi cities.
Mujahedeen Kalq has alo reportedly been deployed to Iraq's borders with
Kuwait, Syria and the northern Kurdish zone . (UK Guardian, Feb. 18)
See also WW3 REPORT #71
[top]
4. SAUDIS FOMENTING COUP IN IRAQ?
The Saudi regime is apparently taking the lead in attempting to foment
unrest within Iraq. Under a proposal put forward by the Saudi foreign
minister, Saud al-Faisal, all but Saddam's innermost circle would be
granted immunity from war crimes prosecution--in the hope that such a
guarantee will encourage senior members of the Iraqi government to stage a
coup . (UK Guardian, Feb. 18)
See also WW3 REPORT #71
[top]
5. OPPOSITION GROUPS MEET IN KURDISH ZONE
Representatives from several Iraqi opposition groups met in the Kurdish
city of Irbil last week to discuss their posture on US intervention and a
post-Saddam Iraq. Four of the six major opposition groups were in
attendance: the Kurdish parties KDP and PUK, the Shiite-based Supreme
Council for Islamic Revolution, and the Iraqi National Congress, ostensibly
representing all factions. Boycotting the talks were the Iraqi National
Accord and the Constitutional Monarchy Movement, who according to the
Kurdish newspaper Hawlati dissent from the other groups' consensus on
rejecting US military administrators of post-Saddam Iraq. The talks follow
up on a US-brokered dialogue which began last year in London.
(Knight-Ridder, Jan. 28; Hawlati Feb. 19 via BBC Monitoring)
See also WW3 REPORT #41
[top]
6. KURDS WARY OF U.S. BETRAYAL
When Zalmay Khalizad, US special envoy to the Iraqi opposition, met with
Kurdish leaders in Anakara earlier this month, he told them they would have
to accept both US and Turkish troops on their territory--and give up their
aspirations to local autonomy in a federal post-Saddam Iraq. He added that
thousands of Kurds driven from their homes by Saddam's forces could not be
guaranteed a right of return. Yet he insisted on Kurdish support for the
military campaign against Saddam. Writes Peter W. Galbraith, former US
ambassador to Croatia, in a Feb. 19 New York Times op-ed:
"For the Kurds, this brought bitter memories. They blame Henry Kissinger
for encouraging them to rebel in the early 1970s and then acquiescing
quietly as the shah of Iran made a deal with Iraq and stopped funneling
American aid to them. (Mr. Kissinger's standing among Kurds was not helped
by his explanation: 'Covert action should not be confused with missionary
work.')"
This history nearly repeated itself in the aftermath of Operation Desert
Storm: "After the Persian Gulf war, the first President Bush called on the
Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam Hussein. When the Kurds tried to do just
that, the American military let the Iraqis send out helicopter gunships to
annihilate them. Mr. Bush partyly salvaged his standing with the Kurds a
month later when he cleared Iraqi forces from the region, thus enabling the
creation of the first Kurdish-governed territory in modern history."
Now, to appease Turkey (which fears the precedent set for its own Kurdish
regions), Iraq's Kurds are being told they will have to give up their
autonomous zone in the post-Saddam order. But the Kurds are a force to be
reckoned with: "Their militias number 70,000 to 130,000, and there is a
real risk of clashes with any Turkish 'humanitarian' force. The
democratically elected Kurdistan assembly has already completed work on a
constitution for the region that would delegate minimal powers to a central
government in Baghdad, and could submit it for a popular vote. Short of
arresting Kurdish leaders and the assembly, an American occupation force
may have no practical way of preventing the Kurds from going ahead with
their federalist project."
See also WW3 REPORT #72
[top]
7. KURDS: U.S. PLANS NEW DICTATORSHIP
After meeting with US officials, Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq told
reporters Washington is abandoning plans for a democratic Iraq with
autonomy for the Kurds, and hopes to merely replace one dictatorial Baghdad
regime for another. "Conquerors always call themselves liberators," said
Sami Abdul-Rahman, deputy prime minister of the Kurdish administration,
referring to Bush's speech last week boasting that US troops were going to
"liberate" Iraq. "It is very disappointing," Abdul-Rahman said. "In every
Iraqi ministry they are just going to remove one or two officials and
replace them with American military officers." (Patrick Cockburn for the UK
Independent, Feb. 18)
[top]
8. CIA REVISIONISM ON KURDISH GENOCIDE
The latest pro-war op-ed piece in the New York Times, "Last Chance to Stop
Iraq" (Feb. 21), is by Kenneth M. Pollack, a former CIA analyst and author
of "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq." Pollack's piece is
curiously selective in its litany of Saddam Hussein's depredations. Pollack
attributes the 1974 offensive against the Kurds to Saddam, when the coup
that brought him to power wasn't until 1979. Yet absent from the litany is
Saddam's even more brutal 1988 offensive against the Kurds, which employed
chemical weapons. Perhaps Pollack wishes to forget that this offensive came
at a time when the US was actively collaborating with Saddam's war machine.
See also WW3 REPORT #66
[top]
9. WESLEY CLARK: U.S. BECOMING "COLONIAL" POWER
General Wesley Clark, a former NATO commander and a potential Democratic
candidate for US president, told NBC's "Meet the Press" Feb. 16 that Saddam
Hussein was "finished" and having gone so far, the US could not change its
plans to remove him. Drawing on his experience overseeing the 1999 NATO air
campaign against Yugoslavia, Clark had a few words on the importance of
multi-lateralism, saying "if you really want allies, you've got to listen
to their opinions, you've got to take them seriously, you've got to work
with their issues." But he added that a US occupation of Iraq is inevitable
and has vast implications for the US as a global power: "We're at a turning
point in American history here. We are about to embark on an operation
that's going to put us in a colonial position in the Middle East following
Britain, following the Ottomans," Clark said. "It's a huge change for the
American people and for what this country stands for." (AP, Feb. 17)
[top]
10. RUMSFELD DISSES "HUMAN SHIELDS"
Godfrey Meynell, 68, of the UK, one of 13 self-proclaimed "human shields"
from several Western countries now living in a dormitory at the Baghdad
South Power Plant, told the New York Times the site was chosen after a tour
of the Iraqi capital's power stations, hospitals and water treatment
plants. "They have shown us a number of sites and one of them was this
power station. I have been pushing for this site because it seems to me
that if the electricity is cut, then water treatment suffers, hospitals
suffer. Of course America appears to have become so immoral now that there
are few chances of making the slightest bit of difference." But the "human
shield" concept still carries a bad rap from the prelude to the 1991 Gulf
War, when Saddam's regime rounded up hundreds of oil workers, bankers and
other resident foreigners and forced them to live for months at Iraqi
industrial plants and military bases. (They were all released before the
bombing actually began.)
The US warns that that even if these "human shields" are volunteers, their
use would still be considered a war crime. Said Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld: "Deploying human shields is not a military strategy, its murder.
a violation of the laws of armed conflict and a crime against humanity, and
it will be treated as such." Countered Ken Nichols O'Keefe, 33, an
Operation Desert Storm veteran: "That is ridiculous. They are not using me.
I am here voluntarily. What is Saddam Hussein supposed to say? 'No they
can't do it'?"
For his own part, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz made clear the
foreign volunteers were welcome: "They should come and set themselves up
around places that we need to survive, to aid civil defense." (NYT, Feb. 21)
[top]
11. AMOS OZ: "PROTESTERS ARE RIGHT"
Israeli author Amoz Oz declared in a New York Times op-ed Feb. 19 that the
anti-war protesters who took to the streets all over the planet last
Saturday are "Right for the Wrong Reasons." While distancing himself from
some of the more strident anti-US and anti-Israeli rhetoric of the
protesters, Oz warned: "An American war against Iraq, even if it ended in
victory, is liable to heighten the sense of affront, humiliation, hatred
and desire for vengeance that much of the world feels toward the United
States. It threatens to arouse a wave of fanaticism with the power to
undermine the very existence of moderate governments in the Middle East and
beyond. This pending war is already splitting the alliance of democratic
states and cracking the ramshackle edifice of the United Nations and its
institutions. Ultimately, this will benefit only the violent and fanatical
forces menacing the peace of the world."
[top]
12. CYBER-PROTESTERS PLAN "VIRTUAL MARCH" ON WHITE HOUSE
In the wake of the Feb. 15 international anti-war mobilization, the group
Win Without War is planning to deluge the White House and Congress with
pro-peace faxes and e-mails in a "virtual march" Feb. 26. "Last weekend we
marched in the streets," said the group's director Tom Andrews. "Next week
we're taking it to the streets of official Washington. One of the group's
celebrity supporters in actor Martin Sheen, who plays the president on "The
West Wing." He told reporters in a televised message at a press conference:
"Our message to Washington will be clear. Don't invade Iraq. We can contain
Saddam Hussein without killing innocent people, diverting us from the war
on terrorism and putting us all at risk." (AP, Feb. 20)
[top]
13. L.A. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS PROTEST WAR DRIVE
About 250 students walked out of class at downtown Los Angeles' Magnets
High School Feb. 21 to protest the pending war with Iraq. The students
marched three miles to City Hall, where the City Council had just approved
a resolution also opposing war drive. Police reported no arrests. School
authorities distanced themselves from the protest, with an assistant
principal saying, "We don't feel that leaving class and disrupting school
is the appropriate way to address their concerns." (San Jose Mercury News,
Feb. 22)
[top]
14. ZAPATISTAS SAY "NO!" TO BUSH'S WAR
Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) sent a letter to
supporters in Italy denouncing Bush's war drive. The letter, penned by the
EZLN's Subcommander Marcos, was read from the stage at the massive Feb. 15
rally in Rome by Heidi Giuliani, the mother of activist Carlo Giuliani, who
was killed by police during protests against the G8 summit in Genoa in July
2001. The letter read:
Brothers and Sisters of Rebel Italy:
Greetings from the men, women, children and elders of the Zapatista Army of
National Liberation... We know that today demonstrations are being held
throughout the world in order to say "No" to Bush's war against the people
of Iraq. And it must be said like that, because it is not a war by the
North American people, nor is it a war against Saddam Hussein. It is a war
by money, which is represented by Se–or Bush (perhaps in order to emphasize
that he is completely lacking in intelligence). And it is against humanity,
whose fate is now at stake on the soil of Iraq. This is the war of fear.
Its objective is not to defeat Hussein in Iraq. Its goal is not to do away
with al-Qaeda. Nor does it seek to liberate the people of Iraq. It is not
justice, nor democracy, nor liberty which drives this terror. It is fear.
Fear that the entire world will refuse to accept a policeman which tells it
what it should do, how it should do it and when it should do it... Fear
that the world will refuse to be treated like plunder. Fear of that human
essence which is called rebellion. Fear that the millions of human beings
who are mobilizing today throughout the world will be victorious in raising
the cause of peace...
The person leading this stupidity (which is supported by Berlusconi in
Italy, Blair in England and Aznar in Spain), Senor Bush...is the head of
the self-proclaimed world police, thanks to a fraud which was so immense
that it could only be covered up by the shadows of the twin towers in New
York, and by the blood of the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001. Neither Hussein nor the Iraqi people matter to the North American
government. What matters to it is demonstrating that it can commit its
crimes in any part of the world, at any moment, and that it can do so with
absolute impunity. The bombs which are to fall in Iraq seek also to fall on
all the nations of earth...
This war is against all humanity, against all honest men and women. For us
there is but one dignified word and one conscientious action in the face of
this war. The word "NO," and the rebel action. That is why we must say
"NO" to war. A "NO" without conditions or excuses. A "NO" without half
measures. A "NO" untarnished by gray areas. A "NO" with all the colors
which paint the world. A "NO" which is clear, categorical, resounding,
definitive, worldwide. Today there is a "NO" which shall weaken the
powerful and strengthen the weak: the "NO" to war...
And, if the powerful wish to universalize fear through death and
destruction, we must universalize the "NO." Because the "NO" to this war is
also a "NO" to fear, a "NO" to resignation, a "NO" to surrender, a "NO" to
forgetting, a "NO" to renouncing our humanity...
We would hope that this "NO" would transcend borders, that it would sneak
past customs, that it would overcome differences of language and culture,
and that it would unite the honest and noble part of humanity, which is
also, and it must not be forgotten, the majority. Allow our "NO" to unite
with yours and with all the "NO's" which are flourishing today throughout
the earth. Viva the rebellion which says "NO!" Death to death!
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
For the General Command of the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous
Committee of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Insurgent Subcommander Marcos
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. "OPERATION VIPER" UNDERWAY; CASUALTY COUNT DISPUTED
The US military announced Feb. 21 it has expanded operations in southern
Afghanistan in an area where fugitive leaders of the ousted Taliban regime
are believed to be hiding. US military spokesman Col. Roger King said
troops primarily from the 82nd Airborne division launched "Operation Viper"
in Helmand province. King told a news briefing at Bagram Air Base, the US
headquarters north of Kabul, that 25 have been detained in the operation,
but said he could not give numbers killed. Local officials and villagers in
Helmand said last week that 17 civilians had been killed in bombing raids
in the mountainous region. The US military says the only non-combatant
casualty was an eight-year-old boy who was wounded. The US currently has
some 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, backed up by several thousands allied and
Afghan troops, searching out Taliban remnant forces. ( Reuters, Feb 22)
[top]
2. U.S. FORCES FACE ARMED RESISTANCE
A US soldier was injured in eastern Afghanistan Feb. 19 when the military
vehicle he was traveling in struck a land-mine near the city of Gardez. The
soldier's right foot was blown off by the explosion, the military said in a
statement from Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul. "He is in currently
undergoing surgery at the forward operating base in Khost and is in stable
condition," the statement said.
Meanwhile, a gunman opened fire on US Special Forces troops in Urgun in
eastern Afghanistan, military spokeswoman Capt. Alayne Cramer said at
Bagram. No one was injured, but Urgun remains a tense area for US forces
operating there, who have faced regular attacks. Usually the gunmen,
operating in small groups, flee the area, perhpas into neighboring
Pakistan. There are reports that fresh Taliban/al-Qaeda training camps have
been set up in the mountainous Urgun region of Paktika province. The US
military is also investigating two explosions that struck the outside a US
military compound in northern Kunduz province Feb. 18. (AP, Feb. 19)
[top]
3. BOMB ATTACKS TARGET U.N. AGENCIES
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN-recognized agency
that assists in refugee resettlement, reported that its offices in the
northern Afghan city of Kunduz had come under bomb attack Feb. 18. "On
Tuesday night there were two explosions, one inside and the other just
outside the IOM compound," Jarrett Blanc, an IOM program manager in the
Afghan capital, Kabul, said. "Nobody was hurt. Only seventeen windows of
the compound building were blown out." The attack comes approximately one
month after a similar attack on the UN Mine Action Center for Afghanistan
(MACA) in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, whicb also left staff shaken
by no casualties . (IRIN, Feb. 20)
[top]
4. HEKMATYAR MAKES THE BIGTIME: "GLOBAL TERRORIST"
The US has designated Pashtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, head of the
Hezb-i-Islami party, a "global terrorist," charging links with the Taliban
and al-Qaeda. Hekmatyar, a protege of the CIA during the war against the
Soviet intervention in the '80s, has a history of shifting allegiances, and
reports now connect him to recent attacks on US troops in Afghanistan. "The
US has information indicating that Hekmatyar has participated in and
supported terrorist acts committed by the al-Qaeda and the Taliban," said
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "Because of his terrorist
activity, the United States is designating Hekmatyar as a 'Specially
Designated Global Terrorist' under executive order 13224." The designation
enables the US to seize Hekmatyar's properties and assets in the United
States. The US will also request the UN Committee on Terrorism include him
on its global list of entities and individuals associated with al-Qaeda,
which would impose worldwide sanctions on Hekmatyar's financial activities.
(Rediff.com, Feb. 20)
[top]
5. NATO TO COMMAND INTERNATIONAL FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN?
NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson is advocating a military role for the
alliance in Afghanistan. Under one proposal, NATO would establish a
permanent command for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF),
the foreign "peacekeeping" mission based in Kabul. ISAF currently has a
rotating command, with the UK turning it over to Turkey last year, and
Germany now in a joint command with the Netherlands. Canada is scheduled to
take over from the German-Dutch command. (NYT, Feb. 21)
[top]
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. INDIA WOOED FOR TRANS-AFGHAN PIPELINE
On Feb. 22, the oil ministers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan
reached an agreement to invite India to join the multi-billion pipeline
project to carry Turkmenistan's natural gas to the Indian Ocean. The
ministerial committee for the Trans-Afghan Pipeline (TAP) formally invited
New Delhi to sign on and approve extension of the pipeline to India. The
pipeline is slated to cross Afghanistan, connecting Turkmenistan's
Davletabad gas fields to the city of Multan in central Pakistan, and then
to points south. Construction costs are pegged to exceed $3.2 billion, with
some 750 kilometers of the line to be built across Afghanistan. The
ministers announced the decision at a press conference in Islamabad.
Representatives from Asian Development Bank (ADB) also attended the meeting
and briefed the participants of the feasibility study of the project. (PNS,
Feb. 22)
[top]
2. SIBERIAN SHAMANS PROTEST PIPELINE PLAN
The Russian firm Yukos plans to build a new pipeline to feed the booming
Chinese energy market, linking oil fields near Lake Baikal to China's
northeastern city of Daqing. But the pipeline would cut close to the small
settlement of Zun-Murino, just north of the Mongolian border, where many
villagers still practice Buryat shamanism and consider the surrounding
mountains and forest sacred. Said village schoolteacher Nellya Prushenova:
"Bad things happen when trees are cut down. A child can get sick, or all of
our cattle might die. Maybe there will be a flood. Our nature is very
easily offended." Residents also fear oil spills and industrial accidents,
and note that compensation fees for degraded lands were set in Soviet times
and have been practically obliterated by inflation. Ecologists also protest
that the proposed pipeline route cuts through Tunkinsky National Park, and
Yukos has proposed changing the park's boundaries to allow this. Commented
Yukos regional production chief Mikhail Zamyatin: "You can't stop progress.
They did it in Alaska. Why can't we do it here?" (NYT, Feb. 19)
See also WW3 REPORT #47
[top]
THE SUBCONTINENT
1. INDIA'S IRAQ POSTURE: TWO-FACED "NEUTRALITY"
Asking the Security Council to consider the humanitarian impact of a US war
on Iraq, VK Nambiar, Indian Ambassador to the UN, said Feb 18 that force
should only be used as a "last, unavoidable option." Invoking the
dismantling of Iraq in an imperialist carve-up, he added: "Apart from the
immediate consequences of military action in a region which is already
volatile, the Council would need to take into account the impact of
possible break-up the concerned state on neighboring states and its larger
implications for peace, stability and security of the region as well as the
dangers of radicalization of the public opinion around the world." (The
Hindu, Feb 19)
Indian Premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Foreign Minister Yashwant
Sinha--who attended a Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Kuala Lampur,
Malaysia, last weekend--made similar statements. India contends that Iraq
should disarm in compliance with UN Resolution 1441, and any weapons found
by inspectors should be voluntarily destroyed by Iraq. Yashwant Sinha
proudly boasted about India's friendship with the US and its avid support
for the US-led "War Against Terrorism," as well as India's own program of
defense co-operation with Israel. (See WW3 Report #57) (Reuters, Feb 23)
But India's seemingly neutral posture on war against Iraq is driven by
concrete economic concerns. Following new deals established under the UN's
oil-for-food program, Iraq is now India's largest supplier of oil. In 2000,
Iraq leased out two new oil fields to a private Indian company, the Oil &
Natural Gas Corporation. A war in the region would adversely affect 3
million-plus Indian nationals living the Gulf, and cause chaos in the
region. This would drastically affect the remittances that India collects
from its overseas nationals. India assumed its current fence-sitting
position during Operation Desert Storm--although New Delhi finally
succumbed to US pressure and allowed US fighter jets access to its air
bases for refueling. In an article posted on Antiwar.com, Praful Bidwai
says, "India is likely to stay neutral in the event of a US-led war on
Iraq, but will qualify its position if there is strong multilateral support
for military action, with a specific new UN resolution authorizing the use
of force." (Praful Bidwai, Feb 3, Antiwar.com)
Last summer, after Iraq signed new deals with India's Oil & Natural Gas
Corporation, New Delhi's oil minister Ram Naik met with his Iraqi
counterpart Amir Mohammed Rasheed in Baghdad. Naik spoke out in opposition
to the sanctions against Iraq, and Rasheed hailed India as a "strategic
partner ." (BBC, July 8, 2002)
Iraq also supports India's stance on the Kashmir dispute, and rival
Pakistan is inching closer to supporting the US war drive. Pakistan's
ruling Gen. Pervez Mushraff recently stated that a "heavy responsibility"
rested on Iraq to disarm. The possibility of Pakistani diplomatic support
for war on Iraq is silently elbowing India--since it could result in
Washington favoring Islamabad over New Delhi in the Kashmir dispute.
(Subuhi Jiwani)
See also WW3 REPORT #63
[top]
2. INDIA: PAKISTAN GREATER THREAT THAN IRAQ
India's Ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh told a gathering in Washington
Feb. 21 that the White House has its priorities wrong and Pakistan's Pervez
Musharraf represents a more immediate threat to global security than Iraq's
Saddam Hussein. "General Musharraf has gone back on every single commitment
to end crossborder terrorism, Pakistan continues to pass on nuclear
technology to North Korea and Iraq and it was they who nurtured Taliban,"
said Mansingh. (Press Trust of India, Feb. 22)
[top]
3. MORE FORCED DEPORATIONS ON BANGLADESH BORDER
Six individuals--a man, his family of four, and another man--who claim
Bangladeshi citizenship remain stranded in a no-man's land on the
India-Bangladesh border after trying to enter India. On Feb. 20 they were
intercepted by India's Border Security Forces (BSF)--who then attempted to
forcefully deport them back to Bangladesh. The BSF alleged they were
Bangladeshis visiting a holy Muslim site in Rajasthan, in the extreme west
of India. However, Bangladesh authorities refused to acknowledge the
documentary proof of residence provided by the migrants, such as
electricity bills from Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) border
patrol forces denied the migrants entry. Caught between the BSF and BDR,
the stranded migrants spent the night in the open at a border check point.
They were provided food by neighboring villagers. (Kerala Next, Feb. 21)
India's BSF unlawfully deported 213 "illegal" Bangladeshi immigrants across
the border earlier this month, leading to border violence between civilians
on both sides and exchanges of fire between the BSF and BDR. India's Deputy
Prime Minister, L.K. Advani insisted that all "illegal" immigrants should
return to Bangladesh. "It's [the government's] determination to reverse
the trend," said Advani, referring to spill-over of Bangladeshis into
India. (Rediff.com, Feb 8)
Currently, 15 million Bangladeshis and 11,500 Pakistanis are thought to be
living illegally in India. In January, New Delhi in coordination with state
governments began introducing identity cards for Indian nationals--part of
an effort to detect and deport Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. L.K. Advani
said, "There is no reason why our states be soft on them. Immediate steps
should be taken to identify them, locate them and throw them out." Advani
echoed the rationale of the US INS and Justice Department in the post-9-11
immigrant sweeps, stating that deporting illegal immigrants helps protect
India from terrorism. "No country, however big and powerful it may be, can
feel safe from terrorist activities. The September 11 attacks on the US
have proved this. All countries should join hands to fight the menace."
(Rediff.com, Jan 8)
(Subuhi Jiwani)
See also WW3 REPORT #73
[top]
3. TERROR AND REPRESSION STRIKE BANGLADESH
On Dec. 7, the night of the Eid-ul-Fitr feast marking the end of Ramadan,
bombs exploded simultaneously at four movie theaters in the Bangladesh city
of Mymensingh, leaving 20 dead and 200 injured. The downtown area was
quickly sealed off by army troops patrolling the city under "Operation
Clean Heart," a joint army-police campaign against crime and terror sparked
by a wave of similar attacks in recent months. Another theater bombing in
Satkhira in September left scores dead. The terror wave comes at a time of
deteriorating relations between India and Bangladesh, with New Delhi
accusing Dhaka of harboring al-Qaeda networks. Denying such accusations has
become a regular feature of Bangladesh Foreign Office press briefings.
Dhaka has also reacted to the claims with a clampdown on press freedom. Two
journalists from the UK's Channel 4 TV were recently arrested and charged
with portraying Bangladesh as a "Taliban state." Two Bangladeshi
journalists were arrested as well on charges of collaborating with the
Britons. Meanwhile, Amnesty International expressed "concern" for some 15
opposition politicians who have been "arrested without a warrant, and are
at risk of torture." (Haroon Habib for Frontline biweekly, Chennai, India,
Jan. 3, from World Press Review, March 2003)
[top]
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. MORE U.S. TROOPS TO MINDANAO--THIS TIME WITH COMBAT ROLE?
The Philippines government is trying to calm a brewing political storm amid
reports that US forces will actively participate in the war against the Abu
Sayyaf Islamic rebels in the southern region of Mindanao. US defense
officials recently announced plans to send 1,700 combat troops, including
350 Special Forces, to the Philippines to help suppress the Abu Sayyaf
guerillas on Mindanao's Jolo Island. The Philippine constitution prohibits
foreign troops from engaging in combat within the country's territory.
However, Pentagon officials say the ban is limited to unilateral
operations, and excludes joint maneuvers. Philippine Defense Secretary
Angelo Reyes told reporters Feb. 22 no action that violates the country's
constitution will be permitted. He met with local officials on Jolo Island
to assure them that the US military role in the island is limited to
assisting and advising local troops--contradicting the public US position
that the troops will have a direct combat role. Reyes then left for
Washington for talks with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Last year,
about 1,300 US troops participated in what US officials called a six-month
training mission aimed at improving Philippine military readiness to combat
terrorism on Mindanao's Basilan Island, another rebel stronghold. That
mission officially ended last July 31. (VOA, Feb. 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #67
For more background, see WW3 REPORT #26
[top]
2. MANILA EXPELS IRAQI DIPLOMAT FOR ALLEGED ABU SAYYAF LINKS
On Feb. 12, the Philippine government expelled an Iraqi diplomat, claiming
he was linked to an October bomb attack in Zamboanga City that killed a US
soldier and wounded another. Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople gave Iraq
embassy second secretary Husham Hussain 48 hours to leave the country after
declaring the diplomat persona non grata for his alleged links to the Abu
Sayyaf rebel group. The move came one day after George Bush phoned
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to express concern over Saddam's alleged
terrorist ties in the archipelago, but government spokespersons denied Bush
had suggested expelling the diplomat. (The Philippine Star, Feb. 13, via
BBC Monitoring)
[top]
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. U.S. CONSIDERING DIRECT MILITARY INTERVENTION IN COLOMBIA
Following the murder of a US citizen and the kidnapping of three
others--all suspected CIA agents--there are signals the White House is
considering direct military intervention in Colombia. The US embassy in
Bogota has recommended Washington make a 'major response' to the Colombian
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the guerilla group believed
responsible. US officials have confirmed that military action is being
considered to recover the two surviving men, now being held in the southern
province of Caqueta. The men were captured after their plane crashed into
the jungle suffering engine trouble. Despite the swift arrival of the
Colombian army, the rebels spirited three survivors away after killing one
US citizen and the Colombian pilot. Washington has refused to release any
information about the men. The Caqueta town of San Vicente del Caguan,
formerly the site of peace talks between the FARC and the
government, is just a few miles from the site of the crash, and is uneasily
awaiting possible military action . (UK Observer, Feb. 23)
[top]
2. BOLIVIAN CABINET RESIGNS AS PROTESTS ROCK COUNTRY
On Feb. 18, the Bolivian cabinet resigned amid a wave of nationwide
protests which has left more than 30 dead over the past month. The
resignation of 18 cabinet ministers came as President Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada backtracked on promises made to the International Monetary Fund to
raise taxes and impose austerity. He said a new budget is in the works and
it is "not going to be an IMF budget." (NYT, Feb. 19) One day earlier,
thousands marched through streets of the capital, La Paz, demanding
Sanchez de Lozado's own resignation. (NYT, Feb. 18) On Feb. 12, at least
ten were killed when striking police officers and civilian protesters
alike clashed with army troops in La Paz. Troops opened
fire with tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters attempted to storm the
presidential palace. Several buildings went up in flames, including the
president's party headquarters. (NYT, Feb. 13)
A rural mobilization has also paralyzed much of the Bolivian countryside,
with peasant protesters throwing up roadblocks. On Jan. 22 near Sucre in
Chuquisaca deptartment, security forces attacked a campesino roadblock,
sparking an armed confrontation that left one dead on each side. On Jan.
26 in Matamojos, Cochabamba department, a coca grower was shot to death by
troops of the elite Joint Task Force on a coca eradication mission--one of
several such incidents since the protests began. The government has opened
a dialogue with the loose coalition of national protest movements. The
talks are brokered by human rights groups and involve seven working groups
tackling different issues: land reform, coca eradication, privatization,
Bolivia's inclusion in the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a review of the
national legal code, the national budget and a planned pipeline to
transport Bolivian natural gas through Chile for export to US . (Weekly News
Update on the Americas, Feb. 2)
See also WW3 REPORT #69
For more on the Bolivia-Chile pipeline project, see WW3 REPORT #43
[top]
3. REPRISALS AGAINST VENEZUELA STRIKE LEADERS?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied a political motive in the
controversial killing of three Venezuelan soldiers and an opposition
protest leader--all of whom had called for "civil disobedeince" against the
government. Police called the killings the result of factionalism within
the opposition, saying they were kidnapped by unidentified armed men after
leaving a protest at which an internecine scuffle had broken out. The
bodies were found 18 miles outside Caracas with the hands tied and faces
wrapped in tape. Relatives of the victims slammed the investigation as
corrupt and said the men had clearly been targeted for opposing Chavez.
(AP, F 18, 20)
See also WW3 REPORT #72
[top]
ELSEWHERE IN LATIN AMERICA
1. NAVY CONCLUDES LAST PLANNED VIEQUES EXERCISES
On Feb. 9, the US Navy concluded its last scheduled round of exercises on
the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, with guided-missile cruiser USS
Ticonderoga firing inert shells at the bombing range. Dozens of protesters
drive across civilian areas of Vieques in a caravan to mark the end of
training. The Navy says it will withdraw from Vieques by May 1, turning
over the island's eastern third to the US Interior Department and moving
training to locations in Florida and elsewhere on the US mainland. But many
protesters have expressed skepticism that the Navy will leave as planned.
Activists say the bombing exercises, which began in 1947, have harmed the
environment and the health of the island's 9,100 residents. Since
off-target bombs killed a civilian guard on the firing range in 1999, over
1,000 protesters have been arrested for trespassing on Navy lands. Nineteen
demonstrators were detained for trespassing during the latest 27 days of
training, while one man was detained for cutting a Navy fence, Dixon said.
(AP, Feb. 9)
Parts of the island will remain indefinitely closed due to toxic
contamination left over by the Navy. Studies by the Puerto Rico
commonwealth government have indicated elevated levels of contaminants in
the water, food chain and human population, and higher-than-normal rates of
cancer. Islanders say they also suffer abnormally from asthma, skin
conditions, neonatal mortality and birth defects. The Navy denies any link
between these findings and their activities can be proven. (Hartford
Courant, Feb. 9)
Current plans call for most of Camp Garcia, the 12,000-acre military
reservation that sprawls across the eastern third of the island, to be
transferred to the Department of the Interior to manage as a wildlife
refuge--which carries a lower standard of clean-up than if developed for
public use. Plans call for the 900-acre "live impact area" where Navy bombs
rained down to be fenced off and access permanently denied. 8,100 acres on
the western side, also under Navy control, are to be turned over to the
municipality of Vieques. (Reuters, Feb. 19; EPA)
For more information, see Vieques Libre
See also the EPA's report on the Vieques clean-up
[top]
THE WAR AT HOME
1. NYC: ACTIVISTS, POLICE AT ODDS IN WAKE OF FEB. 15 PROTEST
The aftermath of the massive Feb. 15 anti-war march in New York City saw
both the worst blizzard in seven years and a storm of controversy over
police violence against protestors. New York's Independent Media Center
released footage of police using pepper spray on penned-in protesters, and
backing kicking horses into crowds. "That makes you feel good, doesn't it?"
one officer is recorded saying as he blasts a protester in the face with
pepper spray. The protester responds: "I can't breathe! My eyes!" Set to
the soundtrack of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," the video was shown
to reporters at the midtown office of United for Peace & Justice (UPJ), the
main organizers of the march. NYPD spokesman Michael O'Looney dismissed the
video as "edited and filled with special effects." He asserted: "Force was
used by police as a last resort." Mayor Michael Bloomberg weighed in for
the NYPD: "Given that this is dangerous world, I think the Police Dept did
an excellent job."
Activists and the NYPD remain at odds over several other issues. UPJ claims
500,000 showed up for the event; the police claim 100,000. Organizers say
348 were arrested at the rally; police say 274. Activists said several
protesters were hospitalized; police say all injuries were minor. Those
arrested say they were held up to 12 hours in unheated buses, denied food,
drink, bathroom breaks, medical attention and meetings with legal counsel.
Police say all defendants' needs were met and buses were heated.
Protest leaders also complained that many marchers were unable to ever
reach the "official" protest site on First Ave. because of police shutting
off surrounding streets to pedestrian traffic. O'Looney countered: "Some of
the frustrations over access to the protest area may have been avoided had
the organizers done a better job of communicating that they moved the stage
from 47th Street north to 51st Street." (Newsday, Feb. 19)
UPJ spokesman Jason Kafouri told WW3 REPORT the stage was moved because
49th and First, the location suggested by city authorities in the legal
battle leading up to the protests, is at the bottom of a hill. Kafouri
denied that the move had any impact on the NYPD's ability to police the
crowd.
Arrested activists also told WW3 REPORT that they were repeatedly
interrogated in custody about what political organizations they belonged to.
UPJ leader Leslie Cagan hinted at federal pressure behind the police
over-reach, telling the New York Times Feb. 19 she suspected that orders
came from "higher up."
On Tuesday Feb. 25 at City Hall, the New York City Council governmental
operations committee will hold public hearings on police conduct during the
march. The UPJ is calling for witnesses to show up and testify before the
Council.
Many of the same city labor leaders who endorsed the protest also spoke out
Feb. 19 for a City Council resolution putting New York on record against
the war drive and asserting that the Bush administration has not justified
an attack on Iraq. Endorsing the resolution were SEIU 1199 leader Dennis
Rivera, TWU Local 100 president Roger Toussaint, and AFSCME Local 1930
chief Ray Markey. "We have the majority," said Rivera. "And we believe this
war can be stopped."(Newsday, Feb. 20)
[top]
2. FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI TRANSFERRED TO YORK, PA
On Feb. 19, detained Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti was
transferred by the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) from
Paterson, NJ, to York, PA, in a move his supporters call a blatant effort
to disrupt his legal case and cut him off from his community in the New
York metropolitan area. The INS has held Abdel-Muhti since last April
without criminal charges on the basis of a 1995 deportation order.
Abdel-Muhti's legal team filed a habeas corpus petition in Newark in
November charging that as a stateless Palestinian he cannot be deported and
that his lengthy detention is unlawful under the Supreme Court's 2001
ruling in Zadvydas v. Davis. The case is pending.
"This transfer interferes with Farouk's constitutional right to legal
representation," said Macdonald Scott of the National Lawyers Guild, an
assistant on the case with Abdel-Muhti's attorney Joel Kupferman.
Abdel-Muhti has lived in the New York area for over 25 years. The INS
arrested him just one month after he began working regularly with WBAI
Radio's morning program, "Wake-Up Call," to arrange live interviews with
Palestinians in the occupied territories. New York-area activists call
Abdel-Muhti a political prisoner and have organized protests in Paterson,
Newark and New York demanding his release. Farouk also led a seven-day
hunger strike at Patterson's Passaic County Jail in January to protest
conditions there.
Farouk's supporters urge readers to call, fax or e-mail INS assistant
commissioner David J. Venturella (tel: 202-305-2734; fax: 202-353-9435;
e-mail: David.j.venturella@usdoj.gov) to protest the transfer. Tell
Venturella that Farouk Abdel-Muhti has long-standing ties to the NYC area,
and is neither a flight risk nor a threat to society. Demand that Farouk
Abdel-Muhti be immediately released from INS detention.
Farouk also requests correspondence and reading materials. Write him at:
Farouk Abdel-Muhti #75122
York County Jail
3400 Concord St
York, PA 17402
For more information:
Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti
PO Box 20587, Tompkins Square Station, New York, NY 10009
Phone: 212-674-9499; e-mail: freefarouk@yahoo.com
www.freefarouk.org
See also WW3 REPORT #72
[top]
3. PALESTINIAN PROFESSOR SEIZED IN FLORIDA
On Feb. 20, federal agents arrested University of South Florida (USF)
professor Sami Al-Arian at his home in a Tampa suburb. In a 50-count
indictment unsealed later that day, a Tampa federal grand jury charged
al-Arian and seven others with running a criminal racketeering enterprise
that supported activities of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad. Three of
the others charged were arrested in FBI sweeps in Florida and Illinois. The
remaining four live outside the US.
Al-Arian, a Palestinian born in Kuwait, has lived in the US since 1975 and
is a legal permanent resident. He has been under investigation since 1995,
when the FBI raided the World and Islam Studies Enterprises (WISE), founded
by Al-Arian and his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar. Al-Arian has denied
any support for violent activities. "It's all about politics," he told
reporters as he was led into the FBI building in Tampa.
Abdullah Ramadan Shallah, who taught at USF from 1991 to 1995 and headed
WISE before it was raided, was among those indicted. He has since moved to
Damascus, where he heads Islamic Jihad. He told AP Feb. 21 that Al-Arian
has no connection to Islamic Jihad, which he called "a movement resisting
Israeli occupation."
The St. Petersburg Times reported Feb. 21 that the indictment against
Al-Arian repeatedly refers to his brother-in-law al-Najjar--without naming
him--as "Unindicted Co-conspirator Twelve." Al-Najjar, a stateless
Palestinian, was detained by the INS in May 1997 on the basis of secret
evidence. He was released in December 2000, after an immigration judge
ruled there was no evidence that WISE was a front for Islamic Jihad. On
Nov. 24, 2001, the INS re-arrested Al-Najjar; he was held in solitary
confinement until Aug. 22, 2002, when the INS deported him to Beirut.
Lebanese officials, angry that the US "illegally dumped" Al-Najjar there,
expelled him a few weeks later.. Al-Arian said on Feb. 5 that his
brother-in-law had finally been admitted to an undisclosed "US-friendly
Arab country" where he was reunited with his wife and three daughters.
(From combined sources)
( Immigration News Briefs, Feb. 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #53
[top]
4. NEW YORKERS PROTEST THIRD "REGISTRATION" DEADLINE
Feb. 21 was the Immigration & Naturalization Service's "Special
Registration" deadline for Pakistani and Saudi Arabian men over the age of
16 living in the US. Outside the Federal Building in downtown Manhattan,
hundreds of men stood for hours in the cold, forming long lines with family
members, which extended for a block and a half. About 50 protestors also
gathered, chanting "One nation! No registration!" and "INS! *You* go home!"
The Coalition Against Special Registration--made up of 40 immigrants'
groups and civil liberties organizations--called the protest. Dalia Hashad,
the American Civil Liberties Union's South Asian, Arab and Muslim advocate,
called INS detention of immigrants part of "the other war, the secret war
extending to all Americans." Addressing the INS and Justice Department, she
said, "You cannot spy, you cannot racially profile, you cannot deport in
the middle of the night."
Emira Habiby Browne, executive director of the Arab-American Family Support
Center, spoke about the experience some of the 500 men who came to register
Jan. 10--the last deadline, for immigrants from 13 countries including
Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Somalia and North Korea. "The INS was
unprepared for the volume of people that showed up to register. They were
completely disorganized." She criticized overcrowding and long waits in INS
waiting rooms, calling them "detention camps." According to Habiby Browne,
men were made to wait over 30 hours without food.
Saurav Sarkar of the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, also
invoked the specter of detainment camps, warning: "America is dangerously
close to what it did in World War II," a reference to the internment of
Japanese-Americans. Remembering last summer's sweeps at DC area airports,
she added: "What will not end is the agenda of Operation Tarmac, the agenda
of secret arrests and the policies of profiling immigrants--until we stand
up and do something."
The Coney Island Avenue Project, another coalition member, has launched a
Registration Witness Program to observe registration procedures and give
registrants legal advice. Only registrants and their attorneys are allowed
to enter the Federal Building, where they wait in a room on the third floor
for an INS interview. Some are sent to the tenth floor for further FBI
interrogation. Coney Island Avenue Project organizer Bobby Khan told WW3
REPORT: "People are made to wait on the third floor for five to six hours.
If they're taken to the tenth floor, they wait for another ten to twelve
hours before being interviewed. People are being detained on the tenth
floor, after which they disappear." Attorneys can accompany registrants on
the third floor, but are denied access to the tenth floor.
Mac Scott of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants described the
INS process to WW3 REPORT: "The interviewee is questioned regarding his
political affiliations, job history, and other major personal details;
photographed, fingerprinted, a full criminal check run, and is sometimes
detained briefly." Registrants who are not immediately detained are often
given notices to appear before an immigration judge, at which point they
may face detainment again. "It is an attempt to detain people in a
situation where there is less light and public exposure on the process."
(Subuhi Jiwani on the scene)
[top]
5. ADVOCACY GROUPS SEEK INJUNCTION TO HALT DETAINMENTS
In response to INS detentions of hundreds of Iranian-Americans during the
first round of registrations Dec. 16-18, a coalition of four Muslim
advocacy groups--the Alliance of Iranian Americans, the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Council on American Islamic Relations,
and the National Council of Pakistani Americans--have filed a class action
lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft. The groups are seeking an
injunction to prevent the INS detention without bond of registrants who are
in the process of legalizing their status. (Washington Times, Feb. 13,
2003) (Subuhi Jiwani)
See also WW3 REPORT #65
[top]
6. WHITE HOUSE PREPARES "PATRIOT II" LEGISLATION
The 2001 PATRIOT Act, passed in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, vastly
expanded federal surveillance powers, unleashed the CIA to spy on US
citizens and gave the FBI warrantless access to medical and financial data.
The White House is now preparing to follow up with the Domestic Security
Enhancement Act of 2003--the closely-guarded contents of which were just
revealed when the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a DC advocacy group,
published a leaked copy. The new law--nick-named PATRIOT II--would remove
all standing court orders restricting police surveillance enacted before
9-11, set up a "Terrorist Identification Database" which would collect DNA
samples from suspect citizens and immigrants, allow the government to strip
Americans of their citizenship if they are deemed to be collaborating with
a "terrorist organization" (as loosely defined under the PATRIOT Act), and
gut the Freedom of Information Act, allowing the government to keep secret
any records which could be of use to "terrorists." The bill has not been
introduced yet, but civil rights groups fear the administration will push
it through Congress in the confusion and war fever as bombs start falling
on Iraq. Perhaps most ominously, at a time when immigrants are being
rounded up and indefinitely detained for simple visa violations, the
Domestic Security Enhancement Act would give the government the power to
hold detainees in secret, withholding all information on who has been
arrested and their whereabouts. (Seattle Weekly, Feb. 12)
For the basics on the PATRIOT Act, see WW3 REPORT #6
[top]
7. CIA, FBI TO LAUNCH JOINT TERRORISM CENTER
With the CIA freed to engage in domestic intelligence-gathering by the
PATRIOT Act, the agency is to move its counter-terrorism staff into a new
northern Virginia headquarters to be shared with the FBI's
counter-terrorism staff. The joint staff will total over 2,000. The
Defense and Homeland Security departments will also be represented at the
headquarters, dubbed the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. The center is
to begin operation May 1, and will initially be housed at the CIA's Langely
headquarters. (NYT, Feb. 15)
See also WW3 REPORT #71
[top]
8. BURGERS WITH A SIDE OF XENOPHOBIA
Neal Rowland, the owner of the Cubbie's restaurant in Beaufort, NC, now
only sells "freedom fries" instead of French fries--citing France's refusal
to back Washington's war drive. "It's our way of showing our patriotic
pride," he said, noting that his business has a lot of local military
troops as customers. Says a sign in the restaurant's window: "Because of
Cubbie's support for our troops, we no longer serve
French fries. We now serve freedom fries."
Rowland said the switch came to mind after a conversation about World War I
when anti-German sentiment prompted the name-change from frankfurters and
sauerkraut to hot dogs and "liberty cabbage ." (CBS, Feb. 19)
[top]
9. BRETTON BARBER: AMERICAN HERO!
School officials in Dearborn, MI, ordered 16-year-old Bretton Barber to
either remove his T-shirt--emblazoned with the words "International
Terrorist" and a picture of President Bush--or go home. Officials said they
feared the shirt would inflame passions at the school where a majority of
students are Arab-American. Barber chose to go home. He said he wore the
shirt to express his anti-war position and for a class assignment in which
he wrote a compare-contrast essay on Bush and Saddam Hussein. (CBS, Feb. 19)
Check out other WW3 REPORT American heroes:
Yusra Awawdeh
Katie Sierra
###
[top]
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Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Do you think the new bill should be
entitled the Help Interdict Terrorism Law Enforcement Revitalization Act of
2003?
2. Is this the best-case scenario, and how likely is it: The French,
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Council resolution until spring--when the weather in the Middle East starts
getting too hot for US forces to comfortably wage war. The White House
multi-lateralists prevail and the war gets put off until next winter--by
which time Saddam will be overthrown by his own people (with some help from
the Saudis, CIA, whoever). Saddam goes into opulent exile in Saudi Arabia,
and the whole thing blows over.
3. If a popular uprising breaks out in Iraq, will all these Western
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will they rally around the dictatorship on the grounds that the uprising is
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