March 29, 2003
Media Compilation #125: The Butchers of Washington Facing a Potential Global Pr Waterloo
Dear journalist
If you can take time to read this important compilation, you'll see it amply substantiates its subject title.
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com
This compilation is archived at http://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com/Archives2003/MediaCompilation125.htm
RECOMMENDED: VERY comprehensive war coverage
http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/globalnetnews-summary
(See the latest entries at the bottom)
CONTENTS
1. Arab TV Crew Says Found 40 Dead US Soldiers
2. A COALITION OF WEAKNESS
3. Five PoWs are mistreated in Iraq and the US cries foul
4. Channels Of Influence
5. Dark Days
6. U.S. Military Seeking Permanent Exemptions From 5 Critical Environmental Laws
See also:
"THE OVERTHROW OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC" (astounding allegations!)
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=30225
America the destroyer (March 25)
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/084/oped/America_the_destroyerP.shtml
LOOK AT WHAT America has become. We are moving on steel treads across a harsh landscape as a creature of destruction, kicking up clouds of unreality through which we see illusions of our efficiency and virtue. (...) Young Americans in uniform are now dying for this cloud of illusion -- dying of it -- and so are Iraqis of all ages and stations -- uniformed and naked. (...) If Washington were the target of a ''shock and awe'' campaign, the US Capitol would now be rubble, along with that entire parade of becolumned federal buildings astride seven blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House a smoldering ruin (like Camp David -- and the Bush ranch house in Crawford, Texas). The Pentagon a fetid sinkhole, in-rushing waters of the adjacent Potomac River having snuffed the burning abyss. The vice president's residence at the head of Embassy Row in ruins. Bolling Air Force Base and Andrews Air Force Base on the Maryland side of the Potomac aflame. Fort Myers and the Navy Annex on the ridge of Arlington, Fort McNair in Southwest Washington and the Marine Barracks in Southeast, the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, and Walter Reed Hospital in far Northwest -- all on fire. CIA headquarters in McLean, Va., a smoking scar on the landscape. Such is a ''limited'' campaign, targets chosen ''humanely'' according to a strategy of ''decapitation.'' We can leave until later the question of who and how many are dead and wounded. And what, exactly, would justify such destruction? What would make it an act of virtue? And is it possible to imagine that such violence could be wreaked in a spirit of cold detachment, by controllers sitting at screens dozens, hundreds, even thousands of miles distant? And in what way would such ''decapitation'' spark in the American people anything but a horror to make memories of 9/11 seem a pleasant dream? If our nation, in other words, were on its receiving end, illusions would lift and we would see ''shock and awe'' for exactly what it is -- terrorism pure and simple. CLIP
The fall of CNN, and what it means for the war (March 24)
http://www.reason.com/hod/tc032403.shtml
Since the beginning of the new Iraq war on Wednesday, the Qatari news network Al Jazeera has been showing images of corpses. The first few days, pickings were slim: A few bombing casualties from Wednesday night's selective strike, then a few more on the following evenings. The station really hit paydirt late Friday and throughout Saturday. Al Jazeera provided some of the most shocking war images ever broadcast on television: A field of bodies after the American strike on the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group in northern Iraq, a blood-soaked emergency room at the same location, and most horrendously of all, a luxuriously-paced tour of civilian casualties in Basra. Among those, one will linger in this viewer's mind forever. It was the corpse of a boy with the top of his head blown off. The kid's face, while stiff and covered with dust, retains its human features, but beginning at the forehead the skull simply deflates like an old balloon, ending in an unsupported scalp that (with apologies for the mixed similes) resembles the loose hide of skinned animal. CLIP
World and America watching different wars
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0325/p01s04-woiq.html
CNN vs. Al Jazeera: Seeing is often believing
The Perfect Storm - Part 2
http://www.rense.com/general36/pstr.htm
Israel Is Taking Part In The Iraq war - Der Spiegel
http://www.rense.com/general36/iise.htm
Ground Laid for Historic Presidential Powers Push (MUST READ!)
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0313/lee.php
Bracing for Bush's War at Home
Allies Risk 3000 Casualties in Baghdad - Ex-General
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=4&cid=578&u=/nm/20030325/ts_nm/iraq_mccaffrey_dc
U.S. Army prepares for 9,000 casualties (March 11)
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31461
500 US-UK Dead Kept In Afghan Morgue - Pak Paper
http://www.rense.com/general36/500USUKdeadkept.htm
(...) American and British authorities because of fear of strong reaction from their masses had kept the dead bodies of as many as 500 soldiers in a morgue established at Jacobabad Airbase instead of shifting them to their own countries CLIP
More Americans Die In Afghan Fighting (March 27)
http://www.rense.com/general36/morea.htm
The Progressive Response: War, Neocons, Coalition, UN, Speech, Lessons (March 25)
http://www.fpif.org/progresp/volume7/v7n09.html
AN ANNOTATED CRITIQUE OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH'S MARCH 17 ADDRESS PREPARING THE NATION FOR WAR
http://www.presentdanger.org/papers/iraqspresp.html
U.N. Official: Fake Iraq Nuke Papers Were Crude (March 25)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030325/ts_nm/iraq_nuclear_un_dc_1
VIENNA (Reuters) - A few hours and a simple internet search was all it took for U.N. inspectors to realize documents backing U.S. and British claims that Iraq had revived its nuclear program were crude fakes, a U.N. official said. Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, a senior official from the U.N. nuclear agency who saw the documents offered as evidence that Iraq tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, described one as so badly forged his "jaw dropped." CLIP
USA Can Fabricate "Finding" of Mass Destruction Weapons in Iraq (March 25)
http://english.pravda.ru/usa/2003/03/24/44943.html
The United States can fabricate "finding" of mass destruction weapons in Iraq or "evidence" of Baghdad possessing prohibited weapon programmes, a Russian military expert, who decided to remain anonymous, told RIA Novosti. "The information war" conducted by Washington against Iraq "is no less intensive than the military operations themselves", he stated. Mass media of many countries point to the fact that filming of mass surrender of Iraqis hardly resembling regular Iraqi soldiers is, most probably, "an open falsification", RIA Novosti's interlocutor stressed. The Russian military expert believes that American propaganda in the war against Iraq is failing. Anti-war demonstrations are becoming increasingly frequent all over the world, he recalled. New York hosted the biggest anti-war demonstration in the last 15 years.
The Moral Calculus of Killing, "Precision Bombing" and the American Definition of Innocence
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=3314
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (Must See! - Lots of graphic pictures - not for the faint of heart)
http://www.marchforjustice.com/id180.htm
Reckless Wartime Budget Will Hurt Kids For Decades to Come
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030327~tm.as
Robert Fisk In Baghdad - Saddam starts to sound more like his hero, Uncle Joe http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=390536
Marines embroiled in urban warfare after all (March 25)
http://www.iht.com/articles/90856.html
NASIRIYA, Iraq As American marines battled their way into the heart of this city Monday, they appeared to be stepping into just the sort of urban imbroglio they have been hoping to avoid. Following heavy fighting Sunday, when at least 10 Americans were killed near here, the battle that unfolded Monday had all the hallmarks of a confused and chaotic urban shootout. Helicopter gunships rocketed the city from above, and Nasiriya's residents claimed the raids had killed and injured scores of civilians. This claim was impossible to verify in the chaos of the fighting today.
"Democracy in Iraq will take up to 30 years" (March 25)
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=1711276
“Democracy in Iraq will take up to 30 years” - The United States has neither the will nor the ability to bring democracy to Iraq, according to Middle East specialist Arnold Hottinger. Hottinger is a Swiss journalist, acknowledged as one of the country’s foremost experts on Middle East affairs. He has travelled extensively around the region, making his name as a correspondent for the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” and Swiss radio.
Shell evacuates four more oil facilities as Niger Delta crisis deepens http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/news/0303/25nigeria.html
Oil giant Shell evacuated four oil facilities Monday, joining ChevronTexaco in a massive pullout from the Niger Delta, where ethnic violence has killed dozens of people and destroyed villages.
Rachel Corrie's Mother Speaks Out (March 23)
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=36&ItemID=3311
ON MARCH 16, 23-year old Rachel Corrie, a Palestinian rights activist working with the International Solidarity Movement, stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer in the city of Rafah in Gaza. For three hours, there had been a standoff, as Rachel and others blocked the bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home. Activists at the scene say that the driver of the bulldozer knew that Rachel was in front of him--and deliberately drove toward her. Initially, he covered her in sand and other heavy debris on her. Then the bulldozer pushed Rachel to the ground and drove over her--then went into reverse to drive over her again. Rachel's arms, legs and skull were fractured. She died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. As if to underline Israel's contempt for Palestinians and anyone who supports them, a few days later, soldiers threw stun grenades and tear gas canisters at a group of Palestinian and international activists gathered for a memorial service at the spot where Rachel was crushed.
IMPORTANT NEW BOOK: Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age by Bill McKibben
http://www.genetics-and-society.org/r.asp?s=b6&t=resources/items/200304_enough_mckibben.html
An eloquent plea to rein in the technologies that could undermine our common humanity. The author
argues that we now stand at a critical threshold, poised between the human past and a post-human future - and that in the face of this challenge, we must learn how to say, "Enough.
SOME REVIEWS:
"McKibben paints a grim canvas of what will happen if nothing is done to arrest the 'technotopian' dreams of the gene engineers who will germline-insert all the smart genes that will turn rich kids into a superspecies and leave the poor behind on the evolutionary tree."
- Kirkus Reviews
"We may well look back at the publication of Enough as a threshold event - It is not an exaggeration to compare human germline engineering to nuclear technology."
- Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce
Super-bug or super scare? (March 28)
http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=AE25BD7A-B38B-4508-9B39-446FD0C3C59A
(...) At this writing, SARS appears to have killed 54 people out of almost 1,400 afflicted according to the World Health Organization, a death rate of less than 4%. But since this only takes into account those ill enough to seek medical help, the actual ratio of deaths to infections is certainly far less. In contrast, the 1918-1919 flu pandemic killed approximately a third of the 60 million afflicted. Further, virtually all of the deaths have been in countries with horrendous medical care, primarily mainland China. In this country, three people have died out of 28 afflicted according to Health Canada, but that may say more about Canada's vaunted national health-care system than about SARS. In the United States, 40 people have been hospitalized with SARS with zero deaths. Conversely, other forms of pneumonia kill more than 40,000 North Americans yearly. (...) Meanwhile, a disease that emerged eons ago called malaria kills up to 2.7-million people yearly. Another, tuberculosis, kills perhaps three million more. Both afflict North Americans, albeit at very low rates. The big money and headlines may be in the so-called "emerging diseases," but the cataclysmic illnesses come from the same old (read: boring) killers. In fact, there may be no fatal illness that will cause fewer deaths in North America this year than SARS. How do our priorities get so twisted? There's your mystery.
1.
From: http://www.rense.com/general36/40.htm
Arab TV Crew Says Found 40 Dead US Soldiers
3-26-3
"Sanwa ata Mosahra reporting. A film crew from al-Minar TV, a television network of Lebanon, stumbled across the bodies of about 40 US soldiers scattered in the desert outside Maseriah. Ali Fawsua a camera man for al-Minar said "It was obvious the soldiers had been in a major battle as there was empty ammunition casing everywhere".
"We searched around but could not find any dead Iraqi soldiers and must be thinking they took their dead and injured away from the battle" he added.
"We called on our satellite phone to our base camp and told them what we had found and they told the Americans where we were located".
"Soon some American helicopters came to us and the Americans took all our camera and recording equipment and smashed it. They told us to leave the area and say nothing of this finding".
"When we arrived back at our base to the south there were American military police everywhere and they destroyed all of our equipment and told us to leave Iraq immediately".
al-Minar has lodged a complaint with the IJCO and US with a claim for compensation for the many thousands dollars of destroyed equipment.
2.
From: http://www.fpif.org/papers/hr.html
A COALITION OF WEAKNESS
As U.S. officials look for political cover after losing the drive for a second UN Security Council resolution, the recently renamed "Coalition to Disarm Iraq" is the Bush administration's only opportunity to salvage a semblance of international legitimacy for war. A closer look at the countries involved reveals that claims to multilateral action in the name of democracy are grossly exaggerated. In reality, the U.S. is isolated internationally, and a few of the countries signing on to "liberate" Iraq have human rights records that rival Saddam Hussein's.
On Tuesday, March 18th, the State Department released a list of 30 countries willing to be named as part of the coalition, while President Bush raised the count to 35 in his speech on March 19th and this list was raised to 45 by March 21st. While the list keeps growing in number it has not increased the fighting strength of the coalition--only two countries have committed forces in any number: Great Britain (40,000) and Australia (2,000). The Czech Republic andd Bulgaria have sent chemical and biological defense units of about 150 personnel each. Poland and Romania also have sent a handful of troops.
Furthermore, the coalition has not added any diplomatic strength to the mission. These 45 countries make up less than 20% of the world's population and do not make up the moral equivalent of the United Nations. Despite joining the coalition, the level of support for the U.S. in many of these countries is extremely weak--in only two countries in the world, the U.S and Israel, is popular support greater than 50%. Support is no greater in the global multilateral institutions. Only three members of the United Nations Security Council and slightly more than one-half of all NATO members support the United States' mission.
The lack of democratic credentials in the coalition is also startling. Human rights, democracy, and corruption ratings by Freedom House, Transparency International, and the U.S. State Department illustrate the disconnect between pro-democracy rhetoric and the undemocratic reality of some of the coalition partners. Seventeen of the countries were measured to have "not free" or "partially free" democracies; twenty-four were found to have significant levels of corruption, and the U.S. State Department concluded that in nine nations, "The overall human rights situation remained extremely poor."
Before the American public starts applauding the administration's newfound commitment to assembling an international coalition to attack Iraq, it should put the partners' participation in perspective. The coalition that Bush claims has more relevance than the UN is not a large group of democratic allies providing substantial military support and backed by public opinion at home. To the contrary, the assembled coalition is evidence of the international community's opposition to war and the administration's lack of commitment to democracy and human rights.
3.
VITAL REMINDER OF THE U.S. MILITARY ABSOLUTELY INHUMANE ABOVE-ANY-LAW TREATMENT OF HUMAN BEINGS IN GUANTANAMO BAY AND DEADLY CRUELTY LAST YEAR IN AFGHANISTAN
From: http://www.Monbiot.com and http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,921192,00.html
One Rule For Them
Five PoWs are mistreated in Iraq and the US cries foul.
What about Guantanamo Bay?
by George Monbiot, The Guardian, March 25, 2003
Suddenly, the government of the United States has discovered the virtues of international law. It may be waging an illegal war against a sovereign state; it may be seeking to destroy every treaty which impedes its attempts to run the world, but when five of its captured soldiers were paraded in front of the Iraqi television cameras on Sunday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, immediately complained that "it is against the Geneva convention to show photographs of prisoners of war in a manner that is humiliating for them". He is, of course, quite right. Article 13 of the third convention, concerning the treatment of prisoners, insists that they "must at all times be protected... against insults and public curiosity". This may number among the less heinous of the possible infringements of the laws of war, but the conventions, ratified by Iraq in 1956, are non-negotiable. If you break them, you should expect to be prosecuted for war crimes.
This being so, Rumsfeld had better watch his back. For this enthusiastic convert to the cause of legal warfare is, as head of the defence department, responsible for a series of crimes sufficient, were he ever to be tried, to put him away for the rest of his natural life.
His prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, where 641 men (nine of whom are British citizens) are held, breaches no fewer than 15 articles of the third convention. The US government broke the first of these (article 13) as soon as the prisoners arrived, by displaying them, just as the Iraqis have done, on television. In this case, however, they were not encouraged to address the cameras. They were kneeling on the ground, hands tied behind their backs, wearing blacked-out goggles and earphones. In breach of article 18, they had been stripped of their own clothes and deprived of their possessions. They were then interned in a penitentiary (against article 22), where they were denied proper mess facilities (26), canteens (28), religious premises (34), opportunities for physical exercise (38), access to the text of the convention (41), freedom to write to their families (70 and 71) and parcels of food and books (72).
They were not "released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities" (118), because, the US authorities say, their interrogation might, one day, reveal interesting information about al-Qaida. Article 17 rules that captives are obliged to give only their name, rank, number and date of birth. No "coercion may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever". In the hope of breaking them, however, the authorities have confined them to solitary cells and subjected them to what is now known as "torture lite": sleep deprivation and constant exposure to bright light. Unsurprisingly, several of the prisoners have sought to kill themselves, by smashing their heads against the walls or trying to slash their wrists with plastic cutlery.
The US government claims that these men are not subject to the Geneva conventions, as they are not "prisoners of war", but "unlawful combatants". The same claim could be made, with rather more justice, by the Iraqis holding the US soldiers who illegally invaded their country. But this redefinition is itself a breach of article 4 of the third convention, under which people detained as suspected members of a militia (the Taliban) or a volunteer corps (al-Qaida) must be regarded as prisoners of war.
Even if there is doubt about how such people should be classified, article 5 insists that they "shall enjoy the protection of the present convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal". But when, earlier this month, lawyers representing 16 of them demanded a court hearing, the US court of appeals ruled that as Guantanamo Bay is not sovereign US territory, the men have no constitutional rights. Many of these prisoners appear to have been working in Afghanistan as teachers, engineers or aid workers. If the US government either tried or released them, its embarrassing lack of evidence would be brought to light.
You would hesitate to describe these prisoners as lucky, unless you knew what had happened to some of the other men captured by the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan. On November 21 2001, around 8,000 Taliban soldiers and Pashtun civilians surrendered at Konduz to the Northern Alliance commander, General Abdul Rashid Dostum. Many of them have never been seen again.
As Jamie Doran's film Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death records, some hundreds, possibly thousands, of them were loaded into container lorries at Qala-i-Zeini, near the town of Mazar-i-Sharif, on November 26 and 27. The doors were sealed and the lorries were left to stand in the sun for several days. At length, they departed for Sheberghan prison, 80 miles away. The prisoners, many of whom were dying of thirst and asphyxiation, started banging on the sides of the trucks. Dostum's men stopped the convoy and machine-gunned the containers. When they arrived at Sheberghan, most of the captives were dead.
The US special forces running the prison watched the bodies being unloaded. They instructed Dostum's men to "get rid of them before satellite pictures can be taken". Doran interviewed a Northern Alliance soldier guarding the prison. "I was a witness when an American soldier broke one prisoner's neck. The Americans did whatever they wanted. We had no power to stop them." Another soldier alleged: "They took the prisoners outside and beat them up, and then returned them to the prison. But sometimes they were never returned, and they disappeared."
Many of the survivors were loaded back in the containers with the corpses, then driven to a place in the desert called Dasht-i-Leili. In the presence of up to 40 US special forces, the living and the dead were dumped into ditches. Anyone who moved was shot. The German newspaper Die Zeit investigated the claims and concluded that: "No one doubted that the Americans had taken part. Even at higher levels there are no doubts on this issue." The US group Physicians for Human Rights visited the places identified by Doran's witnesses and found they "all... contained human remains consistent with their designation as possible grave sites".
It should not be necessary to point out that hospitality of this kind also contravenes the third Geneva convention, which prohibits "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture", as well as extra-judicial execution. Donald Rumsfeld's department, assisted by a pliant media, has done all it can to suppress Jamie Doran's film, while General Dostum has begun to assassinate his witnesses.
It is not hard, therefore, to see why the US government fought first to prevent the establishment of the international criminal court, and then to ensure that its own citizens are not subject to its jurisdiction. The five soldiers dragged in front of the cameras yesterday should thank their lucky stars that they are prisoners not of the American forces fighting for civilisation, but of the "barbaric and inhuman" Iraqis.
---
See also:
MP says U.S. treatment of Afghan prisoners coming back to haunt it http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/24/godfrey030324
POW rights denied 'on both sides'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,921427,00.html
4.
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/opinion/25KRUG.html
Channels Of Influence
by Paul Krugman, The New York Times, March 25, 2003, krugman@nytimes.com
By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people as antiwar rallies, but they have certainly been vehement. One of the most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of. . . . But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here.
Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry - with close links to the Bush administration.
The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, a radio chain that has banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists. Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves.
The company claims that the demonstrations, which go under the name Rally for America, reflect the initiative of individual stations. But this is unlikely: according to Eric Boehlert, who has written revelatory articles about Clear Channel in Salon, the company is notorious - and widely hated - for its iron-fisted centralized control.
See: http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2002/03/27/beltway/index.html
http://dir.salon.com/ent/clear_channel/2001/08/08/riverbend/index.html
http://dir.salon.com/ent/clear_channel/2001/08/08/antitrust/index.html
http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/06/28/telecom_dereg/index.html
http://dir.salon.com/ent/feature/2001/05/30/clear_channel_employees/index.html
CLIP
Or perhaps the quid pro quo is more narrowly focused. Experienced Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!" when Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company's top management has a history with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks, whose name may be familiar to readers of this column. When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel's chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university's endowment under the management of companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.
There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear, but a good guess is that we're now seeing the next stage in the evolution of a new American oligarchy. As Jonathan Chait has written in The New Republic, in the Bush administration "government and business have melded into one big 'us.' " On almost every aspect of domestic policy, business interests rule: "Scores of midlevel appointees . . . now oversee industries for which they once worked." We should have realized that this is a two-way street: if politicians are busy doing favors for businesses that support them, why shouldn't we expect businesses to reciprocate by doing favors for those politicians - by, for example, organizing "grass roots" rallies on their behalf?
What makes it all possible, of course, is the absence of effective watchdogs. In the Clinton years the merest hint of impropriety quickly blew up into a huge scandal; these days, the scandalmongers are more likely to go after journalists who raise questions. Anyway, don't you know there's a war on?
5.
From: <info@vitw.org>
Subject: Dark days and Shiny Shoes
Date: 25 Mar 2003
CLIP
Out of Baghdad this morning, we have a brief reflection from Shane Claiborne called "Dark days and Shiny Shoes"
"I have grown especially close to one of the 'shoeshine boys', a homeless boy (about 10 years old), named Mussef. The first day I met him, he was begging me for money to eat. When I stubbornly said 'no' to his relentless attempts on my wallet, he turned away and muttered, 'Son-of-bitch-mother-fucker.' I whipped my head around in shock, as he took off running. Not the best first impression. Day after day, we have grown on each other. We go for walks, turn somersaults, and yell at the airplanes 'SALAAM!' (PEACE!!!). Now everyday when I walk outside he runs at full speed, jumps into my arms, and kisses me on the cheek. And I have the shiniest shoes in Baghdad.
"One day Mussef joined our group on a walk into the center of town, carrying pictures of Iraqi children and families suffering from the war and sanctions. Press and journalists took pictures and talked to us as we stood in one of Baghdad's busiest intersections, and Mussef begin to internalize what was happening. His shining face became bleak. Nothing I could do made him smile. As the group went home, and the cameras left, we continued to sit. He motioned with his hand the falling of bombs, and made the sound explosions, as tears welled up in his eyes.
"Suddenly, he turned, and latched onto my neck. He began to weep; his body shook as he gasped for each breath of air. I began to cry. Somehow I was glad all the cameras were gone. We wept as friends, as brothers, not as a peacemaker and victim. Afterwards I took him to eat, banquet style (tipping everyone extravagantly so my guest would be welcome). Every five minutes he would ask me, 'Are you okay?' I would nod, and ask, 'Are you okay?' And he would nod. To be honest I think we were both scared out of our minds but we each wanted to assure that the other did not start weeping again."
CLIP
6.
U.S. Military Seeking Permanent Exemptions From 5 Critical Environmental Laws
The Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking permanent exemptions from five critical environmental laws: the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the federal Superfund law which governs the cleanup of toxic waste sites. While there is no denying that military readiness is crucial, each of these laws already allows case-by-case exemptions for national security reasons. Moreover, the military to date has been able to prepare for war while protecting wildlife and public health.
There is no evidence that the military has ever been refused an exemption from these laws when it has been sought, and there is abundant evidence that cooperative local efforts have produced effective solutions. The military has, time and time again, found reasonable solutions to pursue necessary training in compliance with environmental laws.
Independent and administration sources agree that protecting the environment has not compromised readiness. The General Accounting Office (GAO) said the DoD has failed to produce quantitative evidence that environmental laws or other "encroachments" have significantly affected military readiness. Last year, with the exception of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Congress rejected these exemptions. But this year, Congress is quickly moving forward with a Defense Authorization bill that contains these exemptions.
MORE DETAILS AT http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=32&id4=ES
---
IMPORTANT COMPLEMENT:
WAR ON THE EARTH
http://www.DollarsAndSense.org/0303maps.pdf
The U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s largest polluter!
SUBSCRIPTION TO THE EARTH RAINBOW NETWORK MEDIA LIST
If you would like to subscribe to the Earth Rainbow Network automated Media listserver and regularly receive similar compilations covering a broad range of subjects, simply send a blank email at media-subscribe@lists.riseup.net from the email account to which you want to receive the material compiled and networked by the Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator. Subscription is FREE!
