September 20, 2001

Crisis in America #8: Operation Infinite Justice = Operation Infinite Violence


Hello everyone

The BigBrotheresque code name - Infinite Justice - for the military operation the United States is undertaking is definitely the grossest misrepresentation they have ever concocted to mask their real intents. Hopefully cooler voices will prevail amongst the hawks within this administration to direct their mighty fire power not against more innocent people but only against the real culprits of this infamy.

All the evidence and more below.

Truth and Love will prevail!

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000


"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it ...always."

- Mahatma Gandhi

Sent by jacovington@earthlink.net (Jane Ann Covington) through Ed Elkin <EdElkin@aol.com>


Bush Advisers Split on Scope of Retaliation

Some senior officials are pressing for an earlier and broader military campaign, while the secretary of state is asking for time to prepare the diplomatic groundwork.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/20/international/20POLI.html"

CONTENTS

1. A Feedback
2. Women-in-Black Petition
3. Jean Houston's prescription in these times of crisis
4. US State Dept Sponsors Training Of Would-Be Terrorists
5. FEMA facts
6. AFGHANISTAN HUMANITARIAN UPDATE




1.

Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001
From: Neal Kruse <nkruse@pacbell.net>
Subject: RE: Crisis in America #7: The End of Innocence

Jean

My sincerest thanks for all you are doing.

This morning I found myself wishing there was a way for the people of the world who want none of this rising war scenario, to band together on the Internet and create a collective presence to counter the narrow, forced perspective our media is shoving in front of the world.

Oh, please, God, let us find a way as a free and loving people to come together in a voice of love and compassion and put a stop to a war that so few of us know anything about - a cry for freedom from the oppression of the elite who runs this world.

Jean, thanks again for leading the charge. I do so honor you.

Neal




2.

From: David Allen Stringer <universalalliance.org@tinyworld.co.uk>
Subject: Women-in-Black Petition
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001

Received from Angela McCann <angela@wri-irg.org>
War Resisters International
Email: info@wri-irg.org Website: http://www.wri-irg.org

Taken from http://www.gn.apc.org/wib.html

We need strategies for an inclusive and equal global society - not strategies of war.

This statement will be sent to 10 Downing Street once more than 300 signatures have been added (at the URL above).

Women in Black in London are holding vigils in mourning for the dead of New York and Washington. Our deepest sympathies go to their families and friends and the people of those cities. We utterly condemn the terrible violence and shocking disregard for the value of human life shown by those who ordered and carried out these acts.

But we believe that violence must not be answered with violence. The understandable urge to vengeance must be resisted. NATO military actions are more likely to cost the lives of innocent people than to achieve justice. Terror is no antidote to terror.

We call for the Prime Minister and the British Government to take a lead in finding a way to bring these mass murderers to justice under international law, and to turn the US Government and NATO from the acts of war they are reported to be planning, which will be catastrophic for the world and its peoples.

We urge political and military leaders to reflect on the causes that terrorists use to legitimate their actions. So long as poverty and hunger, injustice and exploitation are the experience of many people in many countries, genuine despair will lead to hatred of the super powers whose policies are seen to contribute to them, and will be used to legitimate terrorism.

Women in Black
c/o The Maypole Fund
P.O.Box 14072
London N16 5WB, UK




POWERFUL!

3.

From: Jean Houston <JeanH@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001
Subject: Re: Crisis in America

Dear Friends,

We are all New Yorkers. That is the gist of the message that I have been receiving from the thousands of e-mails, countless phone calls and faxes, and communications from people writing or calling me from over 30 countries. The outpouring of love, of service, and even of life itself is the miracle of humanity surpassing itself. All over this country and throughout the world people are affirming their unity with us, and more, the unity of all people. This tragedy brings us together in shadow and in light, for richer and for poor, in sickness and in health for as long as we all shall live. The desecration that occurred is also the announcement of a potential global union.

I have often spoken of how technology and the internet gave us the world mind taking a walk with itself. But in the light of the events of September 11th, we now must speak of the world heart, the world stomach, the world spirit. America is not longer insulated from the pathos of other nations.

Christopher Fry writes, "Thank God, our time is now, when wrong comes up to meet us everywhere, never to leave us till we take the longest stride of soul men ever took." All oppression rises in our time, all shadows, all terrors, and factors unique in human history also arise around us to compound our folly and confuse our desire. We yearn for meaning and deal with trivia. We are swept in currents over which we have no control. Government has become too big for the small problems of life and too small in spirit for the large problems. The tyranny that threatens to destroy us is not just terrorism; it is the tyranny of the unjust demands we have made of Nature and the tyranny of some nations being kept in economic slavery by other nations.

We are the ones who have the most profound task in human history--the task of deciding whether we grow or die. This will involve helping cultures and organizations to move from dominance by one economic culture or group to circular investedness, sharing and partnership. It will involve putting economics back as a satellite to the soul of culture rather than having the soul of culture as satellite to economics. It will involve deep listening past the arias and the habits of cruelty of crushed and humiliated people. It will involve a stride of soul that will challenge the very canons of our human condition. It will require that we become evolutionary partners with each other.

This is a huge test we find ourselves in. We have newly emerged from a century of war and holocaust. Our hopes for the new century, the new millennium were for a new way of being between nations and people, between the earth and ourselves, between spirit and matter. Those hopes still live, if anything, they have become more powerful, more necessary. For America it will mean a deep shift of our attitudes to other cultures around the world to one of service and support rather than exploitation and dominance. Yes, the perpetrators have to be found and dealt with through therapeutic law and international justice. They are not a nation, they are a cancer, and a cancer is rarely removed through a cycle of violence. Rather, as in holistic medicine, they have to be subdued by the strengthening of the healthy immune system, the envisioning of the pattern of health, and yes, the removal of the cancer wherever it can be excised.

The metaphor is apt. Our health, our security, is built on friendship. Instead of spending so many billions for weapons of destruction (which we manufacture ourselves and sell globally), what if we were to use some of those billions to the feeding of the hungry (one in every three persons), the housing of the homeless, the making of those efforts that can result in the healing of the wounds of nations. Real security demands real friendship, global marriage. As one of my correspondents brilliantly addressed these issues, "The problem is not just terrorism. The problem is generations of beings who experience not having an identity. The question is what made human beings incapable of feeling love, compassion or empathy towards themselves or anyone else, and thereby, becoming destroyers of their own species? What happened that human beings could become so psychologically, emotionally and spiritually distorted that they could believe that Islam, one of the most spiritual paths in the world, could encourage murder and suicide to gain heavenly reward?"

Friends, these are not Muslims. These are marginalized fanatics who have made a travesty of their faith. The issue is how we can join together to create a world in which such pathology will no longer be nurtured.

Many of us are feeling impotent before the enormity of the prospect. Some of you, I know, have experienced "meltdown", some have seen visions, had dreams. Many have had the portals of their minds blown open to deeper realities, potent reflections. Tragedy has drawn us closer, sent us deeper, and given us the option of preparing for life rather than death.

I have been considering some of the things that you may wish to do in the days and weeks to come that will give expression to your feelings and need to act. What I offer below is drawn primarily from my own reflections as well as others, particularly some prescriptions offered by Yes! magazine.

1. In these spirit quaking times, align with your own spiritual resources. Take time to meditate, pray, reflect in solitude and in nature. Allow yourself daily time and space to be re-sourced. Consider living daily life as spiritual exercise. Watch your finer intuitions and ideas, and share them with others. Commune with your spiritual allies, archetypal friends, quantum partners. In the place of spiritual connection feel strength and compassion and intelligence flow. Become creative in your actions. Plot scenarios of optimal healing and begin wherever you can to put them in place for events as well as people. Practice miracle management.

2. Give yourself vacations from television. So much of it anyway is infomercials for war. (However the local New York City stations are filled with human stories of compassion and courage.) But do listen occasionally to talk shows and call in with your own opinions and ideas for making a better world. For inspiration and wisdom to deal with challenges of our time listen to New Dimensions Radio on your public radio station or on the internet (http://www.newdimensions.org).

Write that letter to the editor. Write or call your congressman and local government officials. Handwritten faxes seem to be the things that are most likely to get through, followed by phone call. E-mails, alas are the least likely. You can find your U.S. representatives at http://www.house.gov or for Senators, http://www.senate.gov. Above all, Let Your Voice Be Heard!

3. Gather in groups and, if possible in ongoing teaching-learning communities of wisdom and empowerment. But let everyone speak, and do not deny them the authenticity of their feelings even if they diverge widely from your own.

4. Talk to the kids, your own or other people's children. Let them express their feelings, tell you what is on their minds. Give them a grasp of the larger issues at hand. Tell them about mercy and compassionate action. If possible engage them in service oriented activities. Let them see the larger story.

5. Show up at town meetings, or other places where people meet to pray and talk and engage each other. Sign petitions if you are willing and join in other activities that are "sending a big message". Create vision circles to put forth images of what the world can be. Envision the possible society together. (For ideas, you might want to look at my book, authored with Margaret Rubin, Manual of the Peacemaker, which deals with the Iroquois creation of a better society.)

6. Get thee to a mosque! Give support and compassion to Arab friends, colleagues, or people you happen to meet of middle eastern origin. Stamp out hatred and fear surrounding these people wherever you can. Let them tell their stories, their hopes and dreams. In fact, try and learn as much as you can about the Middle East, the political situations there, as well as the teachings of Islam. For key information on the crisis and well considered information and opinions about the Middle East you may want to go to http://Alternet.org and http://commondreams.org.

7. Give up your own holding patterns on your old self. This is the time to become or at least to enact the possible human. Let your senses take pleasure in the glory of this world. Let your heart celebrate the incredible gift of life. And share this with others.

I live in a double domed house that was the last design of my old friend Buckminster Fuller, completed just before he died. I asked my house what words it would give you and it responded with Bucky's own. They came out of a time of tremendous personal crisis in his life.

"So I vowed to keep myself alive, but only if I would never use me again for just me - each one of us is born of two, and we really belong to each other. I vowed to do my own thinking, instead of trying to accommodate everyone else's opinion, credos and theories. I vowed to apply my own inventory of experiences to the solving of problems that affect everyone aboard planet Earth."

Much Love and High Regard,

Jean Houston




4.

From: "World-Action" <michaeli@globalnet.co.uk>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001
Subject: US State Dept Sponsors Training Of Would-Be Terrorists

From: http://www.almartinraw.com/column33.html

US STATE DEPT SPONSORS TRAINING OF WOULD-BE TERRORISTS
by Al Martin

Huntsville, Alabama - The US State Department sponsors the training of would-be terrorists at the Redstone Arsenal's Hazardous Devices School, which offers "explosive ordinance disposal training."

This is the most exclusive explosives school in the United States. It's where firemen, policemen, and municipal bomb squads are trained. It also provides training for the US armed forces, FBI, CIA, as well as foreign army and intelligence personnel. This is the most elite of the munitions schools in the United States and it's part of the Redstone Arsenal complex.

This facility is not run by the US Army or by the military. It is technically run by US State Department employee Ray Funderberg, who's been covertly in charge of it for about twenty years. An added note -- although Funderberg works for the State Department, he dresses in a US Army Colonel's uniform. Official records indicate that he supposedly works for the FBI.

According to a reliable source, one of the Iranians involved in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, took training courses at the Redstone Arsenal's school of explosives. He enrolled in this course under the guise of a Pakistani military officer with Pakistani uniform and credentials. This is important to note because Al Martin Raw has previously reported that many hostile nations have a visible presence at the US Redstone Arsenal. Evidently "terrorists," as well as regular armed forces and intelligence officers, are also being "trained" at the Redstone Arsenal.

In other news, five new shipments of "marshmallows" (anti-personnel land mines) have left the Redstone Arsenal. And this week the Friendly Colonel is once again doing business under the "Gulf Coast Trucking and Receiving" moniker.

An inside source wants the Friendly Colonel to provide the State Department employment forms necessary to bring more people in. One of the arms merchants has a deal with the Russians to bring Palestinians into this explosives training program.

For instance, Palestinians would be brought in -- technically as members of the Chinese (Taiwan) Army, even though they are Palestinians. They would hardly pass as "Chinese," but since nobody cares, it's a done deal. Al Martin Raw readers should understand that no one asks any questions about any thing at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

In fact, there are two Palestinians being trained there now in "explosives." As mentioned before, none of them are who they appear to be. It's all just convenience for paperwork. In case the Redstone Arsenal gets investigated, they will claim, "No, these people are legitimate; here's the paperwork."

Suddenly an Afghani guy named Mohammed Habib winds up being a Colonel Sven Larssen in the Swedish Army. This is an actual case. And it shows just how ridiculous it is.

This deception at the Hazardous Devices School is really another School of Americas story. The Friendly Colonel is being offered a $12,000 fee per person to fill out the appropriate State department documents to allow people into the United States on green cards for short stays - 30, 60, 90 day stays - and to enlist foreign nationals into this program. What they're doing is using this program as a cover to bring people in to be trained at the explosives school. The US State Department is actually conspiring with foreign arms merchants and the governments they represent to allow hostile foreign nationals to come to the United States using false documents to be trained at this facility.

They're asking the Friendly Colonel if he would "hire" these people as "trucking agents." (See previous story, Marshmallow Business Is Booming). To make this offer even more appealing, the Colonel is guaranteed that "there will be no heat" - because the US State Department is complicit. This is a standing offer to him from the State Department - to provide false documents for these foreign nationals for $12,000 each.

Aiding in this enormous illegal covert operation of the United States Government, the Colonel expects to make a million dollars by this time next year.

It is our opinion that these illicit operations at the Redstone Arsenal and adjoining facilities - US Missile Command etc - now exceed the volumes of money and egregious conduct of Iran-Contra itself. Now there are thousands of people involved making millions of dollars.

At lunch, the brigadier general and others involved were all licking their chops at the new F-22 Raptor program. They can't wait for that to get scaled up. There will be many Chinese arms merchants who will supply fraudulent spare parts that don't work as usual. They're looking at this program as "a fresh source to defraud more billions with the Department of Defense with the complicity of senior officers through a complex offshore network of arms dealers, not only foreign arms dealers, but cutouts for American corporations that are producing components and systems for this aircraft.

The bottom line is that we are training individuals and foreign military personnel who are hostile to the United States.

Al Martin Raw readers should also understand how the fraud is systemic, how the fraud is all inter-connected, and how conspiratorial the fraud is, namely that it's all being controlled by an elite group that runs through foreign governments, the Department of Defense, and defense contractors.

Their agenda is clear - terrorism is good for business.

Terrorism pumps up everybody's budgets, especially defense, law enforcement, interdiction, etc.

As long as we can keep "foreign terrorism" alive, everyone benefits -- the Department of Defense, the CIA, Department of State, the National Security Agency and many others. They can all ask for more money in their budgets by pointing to the "terrorists." We are in effect augmenting that threat, making sure it stays alive and healthy, so that federal agencies can be funded with ever-increasing amounts of money, especially those agencies that do not have to account for the expenditures of those monies.

They don't have to account for the missing monies because even if they're nominally supposed to account for their budgets they don't. Witness the missing $1.1 trillion from the Department of Defense (See Rumsfeld Inherits Financial Mess)

The brigadier general who's in charge was actually concerned because he and his associates (higher-ranking generals in the Department of Defense, who are committing these frauds) have been notified by the foreign banks where they have deposits that their deposits have grown to such enormous amounts of money that they are unmanageable. They are being asked to transfer their money into other offshore illicit accounts. Some of the banks they're doing business with are very small and obscure offshore banks that simply can not handle such enormous flows of money.

But you can understand the enormity of the fraud, when you're talking about trillions of dollars. This fraud is deep and systemic and involves a conspiracy of thousands of high ranking military officers, high ranking State Department officials, Department of Justice officials, CIA, National Security Agency officials, etc. and their "foreign counterparts."

This is the "Very Real Vast Right Wing Conspiracy," which has never been called to accounting.

Now the Russians are coming on board with the ABM missile treaty. It can be predicted that the Russians will drop their objections to our development of an ABM system in exchange for advanced US military technology, with which, by the way, we are already supplying the Russians and covertly rearming them. That was just an offer on the table, yet we are already supplying the Russians with US highly advanced technology. Like the notorious School of Americas which trained foreign nationals in American torture, interrogation and warfare techniques, the US State Department trains "terrorists.".

In the final analysis, though, nothing is new. The United States Government has covertly sponsored these activities in the past, especially during "Iran-Contra" and "Iraq-Gate." We virtually built the Iraqi military and there are many past correlations. For instance, the US did not stop supplying Iraq with illegal weapons systems until three days before the beginning of the Gulf War.

During "Iran-Contra," the US allowed the Sandinista regime to deal in narcotics so they could generate revenues to purchase more East Bloc weapons in order to become a greater threat to the US, so we could counter that threat by building the Contra Army in which all sorts of fraud against the American taxpayers, corporations, security firms, and banks could be hidden.

It is interesting to note that the Sandinista regime used two of the same companies to purchase weapons for the Contras as well as the Sandinistas. These companies were TransWorld Armaments Corp, based in Quebec City and owned by the infamous Immanuel von Weigensburg and Defcon Industries of Lisbon, Portugal, a CIA-controlled arms merchant cutout also controlled by Major General Richard V. Secord, as noted in the famous Lake Resources lawsuit (United States v. Richard Secord, cv 1202-A 1991 Eastern District Court of Virginia) . [See "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider"]

Iraq Gate and Iran Contra are perfect examples of how similar these two operations are compared to what's going on now. We are creating an enemy and we are also supporting existing enemies for the purpose of enriching a small clique of defense contractors, senior military and intelligence officers, and politicians on the right. We are financing terrorism against us as well as attempting to rebuild Russia and then build China into a new power under the concept that covert wars are very profitable.

The "Fight Against Terrorism" has done an awful lot for the Republican Party. And it has enriched a lot of people and corporations.

The drumbeat against "terrorism" continues full speed ahead.

UPDATE - WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING - SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

A special State Department Internal Security team from the political liability control office was inserted quickly after the incident into the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama.

The Demolition School has been shut down, and they are shredding documents as we speak. As a matter of fact they have made an emergency request to the Department of Defense for more shredders.

According to the general on the scene, the way the Feds are handling the situation is that the Redstone Arsenal is now "locked up tighter than a bull's ass in fly season." And there is a mass shredding party going on.

This guy Funderberg has been moved to an undisclosed location, so the media can't find him. And everybody at the Redstone Arsenal that wore a towel on their heads isn't there anymore. According to an on the scene report, the towelheads are reported to be lying low.

http://www.almartinraw.com/column33.html

---

AL MARTIN is America's foremost whistle-blower on government fraud and corruption. A retired US Navy Lt. Commander and former officer in the Office of Naval Intelligence, he has testified before Congress (the Kerry Committee and the Alexander Committee) regarding Iran-Contra. Al Martin is the author of "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider" (2001, National Liberty Press, $19.95; order line: 1-866-317-1390.) He lives at an undisclosed location, since the criminals named in his book have been returned to national power and prominence. His column "Behind the Scenes in the Beltway" is published regularly on Al Martin Raw: Criminal Govt Conspiracy http://www.almartinraw.com




5.

Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001
Subject: FEMA facts
From: "Peggy Zetler" <pzet@montana.com>

FEMA Information additions from Montana

Hi Jean, You have chosen a difficult task in this lifetime in trying to gather and disseminate varied information when no truth of fact is apparent. One truth is valid... that unity and love will prevail.

---

Four days prior to Tuesday, Tuesday September 11 and the days following FEMA (federal emergency management agency) was meeting at the Big Sky Resort in Gallatin County between Bozeman and Yellowstone Park for their annual meeting. Local news reports are extensive stating that all FEMA leaders from the US were in attendance. No one knows for sure who left early or who was grounded as of Tuesday. What is known is that an immediate temporary command post was established at Big Sky complete with all security and military management practices enacted. FEMA has been here in Southwestern Montana over the last year or so practicing their management tactics, the Rainbow Gathering, Hells Angels gathering, the extensive fires...

A discussion of who FEMA is and the powers they hold in times of emergency would be of interest to many. There are many possibilities as to why they were all isolated here at this particular time. Some of them are 1) it was their usual annual meeting and a coincidence, 2) they were there by design to finalize their actions once the known attack occurred or 3) they were there by directive, unknown to them, because of others with advanced knowledge. I have a video tape of the news reals for Tuesday but the same can be procured from any local Montana TV station such as KXLF.

To my knowledge, this information did not make it to national news which seems odd as FEMA is supposed to be our force for domestic emergencies. Though we diliberately do not read, watch or listen to mainstream media reports on a regular basis, I have questioned those who do and they have not heard anything as to FEMA in Big Sky at present. Seems after Tuesday no reports came out. Most of us in rural America are very calm, going through profound personal and spiritual awakenings and somewhere we all know that the truth will set us all, as a world, free. Free to co-create heaven on earth. Blessings to everyone.

Peggy Zetler




6.

SORRY FOR THE DELAY TO INCLUDE THIS ONE - THERE IS *SUCH* A BACKLOG OF MATERIAL TO CIRCULATE, YOU HAVE NO IDEA! AND IT JUST KEEPS POURING IN... THE THREAT OF MASSIVE MILITARY RETALIATION IS ALREADY CAUSING EXTENSIVE HAVOC, HUMAN SUFFERINGS AND, NO DOUBT, MANY DEATHS AS EXEMPLIFIED BELOW

Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001
From: Nanda Na Champassak <CHAMPASS@UNHCR.CH>
Subject: 17 Sep. Afghanistan Update - No.1

* Reports indicate large numbers of people on the move from Kandahar, Kabul and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Many people leaving the cities are said to be going to villages in Afghanistan, but many others are reportedly headed to the Pakistan border, and some to the Iranian border.

* All borders with Afghanistan's neighbors are closed, although some Afghans reportedly have managed to cross into Pakistan.

* The humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan for millions of civilians, including nearly one million displaced people, is critical and may soon deteriorate in light of the evacuation of international aid agency staff.

* UNHCR has dispatched emergency staff to the region and is preparing contingency plans and stockpiles in the event of a major refugee crisis.

POPULATION MOVEMENTS

UNHCR has had reports from all five of Afghanistan's main cities. So far, Herat in the west and Mazar-i-Sharif in the north appear to be relatively calm, with no major population movements reported. However, Kandahar -- the principal city in the south and the headquarters of the Taliban -- is reported to be half empty. Large numbers of people are also reported to have left the capital Kabul, as well as Jalalabad, the main city in the east. Many of those leaving the cities are said to be heading for villages where they have family connections. But many others are headed for the Pakistan border, and possibly some for the Iranian border.

BORDERS

All borders with Afghanistan's neighbors are reported to be more or less closed, although it seems that Afghans with valid passports and visas have been able to enter Pakistan. UNHCR is currently in discussion with all neighboring asylum countries on the border issue. Although Iran has stated categorically that its border will remain closed, it has at the same time said it will assist any cross-border aid operations that may become necessary. UNHCR is currently trying to strengthen its monitoring of population movements both inside Afghanistan and on the borders.

EXISTING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN

Even more worrying than the recent movements of people from the cities is the situation facing millions of Afghans all across the country who are barely managing to survive. The situation inside Afghanistan after three years of drought and more than 20 years of continually evolving conflict, as well as large-scale human rights abuses, is extremely fragile. Afghans have over the years demonstrated immense reserves of strength and resourcefulness, but the population is now so weakened both physically and mentally, that this is no longer the case. During the course of this year they have finally hit rock bottom. Before any of last week's events took place, there were already close to one million displaced people inside Afghanistan, and aid agencies were struggling to keep their heads above water. After the evacuation of all international aid agency staff, UNHCR is extremely worried that the situation for all these people - and millions of others - could deteriorate very rapidly, leading to major population movements, and even widespread deaths. Already many people are reported to be too weak even to become displaced. They simply don't have the strength or the resources to move from their villages.

Aid agencies are trying to keep up essential life-saving operations - such as the provision of food, water and shelter - through local Afghan staff who are still inside the country. However, UN agencies are concerned about how long we will be able to manage operations for such vast numbers of people by remote control. The local staff are already operating in a very difficult security environment, and have been told to exercise their own judgement about when and whether it is safe for them to work.

UNHCR ACTIONS / CONTINGENCY PLANS

UNHCR has sent extra emergency staff to the region, and more are on the way. UNHCR already has offices in all five countries surrounding Afghanistan, and a large operation in Pakistan. UNHCR is in the process of drawing up contingency plans for numerous different scenarios. UNHCR is also evaluating existing stockpiles of relief items around the world, putting more staff on standby and taking all the other preparations necessary should this turn into a major refugee emergency. A Crisis Group has been formed involving the main UN agencies that will be working together should there be a major emergency. At headquarters in Geneva, UNHCR has also set up an emergency management structure.







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