Monday, March 31, 2003

Newseum
http://www.atrueword.com/

The Euro And The War On Iraq

By Amir Butler ATrueWord.com info@atrueword.com 3-29-3 As Mark Twain once noted, prophecy is always difficult, particularly with regards to the future. However, it is a safe bet that as soon as Saddam is toppled one of the first tasks of the America-backed regime will be to restore the US dollar as the nation's oil currency. In November 2000, Iraq began selling its oil for euros, moving away from the post-World War II standard of the US dollar as the currency of international trade. Whilst seen by many at the time as a bizarre act of political defiance, it has proved beneficial for Iraq, with the euro gaining almost 25% against the dollar during 2001. It now costs around USD$1.05 to buy one Euro. Iraq's move towards the euro is indicative of a growing trend. Iran has already converted the majority of its central bank reserve funds to the euro, and has hinted at adopting the euro for all oil sales. On December 7th, 2002, the third member of the axis of evil, North Korea, officially dropped the dollar and began using euros for trade. Venezuela, not a member of the axis of evil yet, but a large oil producer nonetheless, is also considering a switch to the euro. More importantly, at its April 14th, 2002 meeting in Spain, OPEC expressed an interest in leaving the dollar in favour of the euro. If OPEC were to switch to the euro as the standard for oil transactions, it would have serious ramifications for the US economy. Oil-consuming economies would have to flush the dollars out of their central bank holdings and convert them to euros. Some economists estimate that with the market flooded, the US dollar could drop up to 40% in value. As the currency falls, there would be a monetary evacuation by foreign investors abandoning the US stock markets and dollar-denominated assets. Imported products would cost Americans a lot more, and the trade deficit would be magnified. [...] Rense
US military "Briefing" about depleted Uranium, Friday, March 14, 2003 -- 1 p.m.EST: http://www.defenselink.mil They are using these illegal weapons right now.

US forces' Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is 'Illegal'

By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor Sunday Herald Sunday 30 March 2003 British and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction. DU contaminates land, causes ill-health and cancers among the soldiers using the weapons, the armies they target and civilians, leading to birth defects in children. Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project -- a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville University and onetime US army colonel who was tasked by the US department of defence with the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium desert clean-up -- said use of DU was a 'war crime'. Rokke said: 'There is a moral point to be made here. This war was about Iraq possessing illegal weapons of mass destruction -- yet we are using weapons of mass destruction ourselves.' He added: 'Such double-standards are repellent.' The latest use of DU in the current conflict came on Friday when an American A10 tankbuster plane fired a DU shell, killing one British soldier and injuring three others in a 'friendly fire' incident. [..] Truthout
FAIR Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 112 W. 27th Street New York, NY 10001 MEDIA ADVISORY: U.S. Media Applaud Bombing of Iraqi TV March 27, 2003 When Iraqi TV offices in Baghdad were hit by a U.S missile strike on March 25, the targeting of media was strongly criticized by press and human rights groups. The general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, Aidan White, suggested that "there should be a clear international investigation into whether or not this bombing violates the Geneva Conventions." White told Reuters (3/26/03), "Once again, we see military and political commanders from the democratic world targeting a television network simply because they don't like the message it gives out." The Geneva Conventions forbid the targeting of civilian installations-- whether state-owned or not-- unless they are being used for military purposes. Amnesty International warned (3/26/03) that the attack may have been a "war crime" and emphasized that bombing a television station "simply because it is being used for the purposes of propaganda" is illegal under international humanitarian law. "The onus," said Amnesty, is on "coalition forces" to prove "the military use of the TV station and, if that is indeed the case, to show that the attack took into account the risk to civilian lives." Likewise, Human Rights Watch affirmed (3/26/03) that it would be illegal to target Iraqi TV based on its propaganda value. "Although stopping enemy propaganda may serve to demoralize the Iraqi population and to undermine the government's political support," said HRW, "neither purpose offers the 'concrete and direct' military advantage necessary under international law to make civilian broadcast facilities a legitimate military target." Some U.S. journalists, however, have not shown much concern about the targeting of Iraqi journalists. Prior to the bombing, some even seemed anxious to know why the broadcast facilities hadn't been attacked yet. Fox News Channel's John Gibson wondered (3/24/03): "Should we take Iraqi TV off the air? Should we put one down the stove pipe there?" Fox's Bill O'Reilly (3/24/03) agreed: "I think they should have taken out the television, the Iraqi television.... Why haven't they taken out the Iraqi television towers?" MSNBC correspondent David Shuster offered: "A lot of questions about why state-run television is allowed to continue broadcasting. After all, the coalition forces know where those broadcast towers are located." On CNBC, Forrest Sawyer offered tactical alternatives to bombing (3/24/03): "There are operatives in there. You could go in with sabotage, take out the building, you could take out the tower." [...] http://www.fair.org/activism/iraqi-tv.html ClEggS� eq "da'man"

In other major developments:

# A suicide car bomb attack north of Najaf has resulted in a change of battle orders for U.S. troops. The new orders: Shoot to kill any drivers failing to stop at checkpoints. Since Saturday's attack, five drivers have been shot and at least two killed. Iraqis said some 4,000 Arabs have come to Iraq to help attack the Americans. # The effort to encourage top Iraqi military leaders to surrender has been a failure, USA Today newspaper reports. Intelligence officials say their campaign of personal calls and e-mails underestimated most generals' loyalty to Saddam, fear of retribution or hate for the United States. # The U.S.-led invasion force could use landmines, Central Command says. Brooks said any mines used would be for temporary protective rings around forward areas, and would be removed when troops moved on. # At least 43 U.S. soldiers have been killed in the war and 17 are missing. There are seven U.S. prisoners of war. Twenty-four Britons have also been reported killed. Roughly 425 Iraqi civilians have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded, by Iraq�s tally. U.S. officials say they are holding 4,000 Iraqi prisoners of war. # Journalist Peter Arnett, covering the war from Baghdad, told state-run Iraqi TV in an interview that the American-led coalition's first war plan had failed because of Iraq's resistance and said strategists are "trying to write another war plan." NBC severed ties with Arnett because of the interview. # The Washington Post reports some of the Iraqis detained by American troops may be on their way to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some combatants from the Afghan war are being held. "Right now at this point, we are treating all those that we have taken into our custody as enemy prisoners of war," Brooks said. http://www.volunteertv.com

Pentagon pressure behind CNN firing of Peter Arnett

By Barry Grey 22 April 1999 CNN's firing of Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Price winning journalist who achieved international acclaim for his on-the-spot reporting from Baghdad during the Gulf War, sheds further light on the subordination of the US media to the military and intelligence establishment. CNN announced on Tuesday it had agreed to a settlement with Arnett, who has worked for the network for 18 years, to terminate his employment two and a half years in advance of the expiration of his current contract. The network's statement came one day after Arnett told the press that CNN had rejected his request to report on the current war from Belgrade, and had effectively muzzled him since last July.[...] wsws, 1999

NBC Fires Peter Arnett Over Iraqi TV Interview

Reuters Monday, March 31, 2003; 8:37 AM By Mark Wilkinson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American television network NBC said on Monday it had severed its relations with veteran reporter Peter Arnett after he told Iraqi television that the U.S. war plan against Saddam Hussein had failed. "Peter Arnett will no longer be reporting for NBC News and MSNBC," NBC said in a joint statement with National Geographic, for whom the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter was also working. "I said in that interview essentially what we all know about the war, that there have been delays in implementing policy, there have been surprises," Arnett told NBC's "Today" show. "But clearly by giving that interview I created a firestorm in the United States and for that I am truly sorry," added Arnett, widely known for his dramatic live reports during the bombing of Baghdad on the opening days of the 1991 Gulf War. "My stupid misjudgment was to spend fifteen minutes in an impromptu interview with Iraqi television," he said. "It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview with state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war and it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions," NBC said in a statement. "His remarks were analytical in nature and were not intended to be anything more," the network said.[...] Washington Post
Time traveller story busted by snopes!
Its simple: Make a list of all clearchannel stations, put up a website to organize awareness of them and a boycott. Listen only to WFMU. Problem solved? 50% of Americans think that Iraq was behind 911. You will NEVER get them to stop acting like ediots. Yes, EDIOTS.
Channels of Influence [...]Until now, complaints about Clear Channel have focused on its business practices. Critics say it uses its power to squeeze recording companies and artists and contributes to the growing blandness of broadcast music. But now the company appears to be using its clout to help one side in a political dispute that deeply divides the nation.[...] Clear Channel Communciations, owner of 1,200 radio stations in the US, organizing pro-war rallies and public destruction of Dixie Chicks CDs: what the fuck is going on here?!?!?

Retired general waits in the wings for Saddam's fall

By Ian Cobain and Elaine Monaghan AMID almost obsessive secrecy, and in the incongruous setting of a row of luxury beachfront chalets on the Gulf, the next government of Iraq is slowly taking shape. Its staff is said to run into �the low hundreds�, all living and working in the �366-a-night chalets 22 miles south of Kuwait City, alongside al-Ahmadi oilfield. But while its location is known, details of its plans and personnel are kept secret. A number of Britons, however, are known to be involved with the embryonic authority. Until two weeks ago, few would admit to its existence because no official wanted to concede that war was inevitable. Since General Garner arrived in Kuwait the week before last, information has become even more scarce. General Garner, from Florida, who retired from the army in 1997, was criticised recently for visiting Israel with the sponsorship of a right-wing group that believes that the United States needs Israel to project US force in the Middle East. In October 2000 he put his name to a statement blaming Palestinians for the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence and saying that a strong Israel was an important security asset to the United States.The statement was sponsored by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, which pays for senior retired US military officers to visit Israel for security briefings. It is also becoming clear that General Garner is planning an administration based loosely upon the Ottoman model: the Turks who controlled the country for almost 400 years, until they were driven out by the British in 1917, established three governorates � in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. [...] The Times
"First they cleaned up Times Square, then they said you couldn't dance in bars or drink a beer in the park. Now you can't even smoke when you go out on the town," said Willie Martinez, 37, who sat, chain-smoking, in an East Village bar. "This is like no-fun city." So, you can have a smoke in Baghdad, but not in New York? Riiiiight.... wnbc
http://www.entspann0rn.de.vu/
This is a REAL photo from Yahoo News. Deal with it. " An U.S. marine from CSSC 117, a part of the Marine Corp, covered with a net to protect him from the sand reads a magazine in a trench on March 28, 2003 on the side of the road, some 150-km north of the town of Nassiriya on March 28, 2003. U.S. military convoys have been hampered on the road in the area by small groups of Iraqi soldiers. REUTERS/Oleg Popov" Yahoo News

Sunday, March 30, 2003

April 1, 2003, 11 AM New York time, 8 AM California Time (determine your own time zone based on this) Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, will join together for fifteen minutes as one mind and pray for President Bush (and all those who influence his decision making) to make all his decisions based on the highest good of all beings on earth. The Children suggested that we begin by imagining him as a little boy, and use our energy to empower his heart. They say that the boy is still within him, though he is very afraid. He doesn't need to be attacked for what he is doing, but loved, not for his actions, but for the Truth within him. We call this: "Seeing as God Sees and Loving as God Loves." If possible, gather with other people during this vigil, and please pass this E-mail on to as many people as you can to help spread the word. Prayer Vigil

Resignation Letter from U.S. Diplomat

Saturday 29 March 2003 Editor's Note: The following is a copy of Mary Wright's letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Wright was most recently the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She helped open the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in January 2002. Yet another diplomat has quit over Iraq. U.S. Embassy Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia March 19, 2003 Secretary of State Colin Powell US Department of State Washington, DC 20521 Dear Secretary Powell: When I last saw you in Kabul in January, 2002 you arrived to officially open the US Embassy that I had helped reestablish in December, 2001 as the first political officer. At that time I could not have imagined that I would be writing a year later to resign from the Foreign Service because of US policies. All my adult life I have been in service to the United States. I have been a diplomat for fifteen years and the Deputy Chief of Mission in our Embassies in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan (briefly) and Mongolia. I have also had assignments in Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada and Nicaragua. I received the State Department's Award for Heroism as Charge d'Affaires during the evacuation of Sierra Leone in 1997. I was 26 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and participated in civil reconstruction projects after military operations in Grenada, Panama and Somalia. I attained the rank of Colonel during my military service. This is the only time in my many years serving America that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an Administration of the United States. I disagree with the Administration's policies on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, North Korea and curtailment of civil liberties in the U.S. itself. I believe the Administration's policies are making the world a more dangerous, not a safer, place. I feel obligated morally and professionally to set out my very deep and firm concerns on these policies and to resign from government service as I cannot defend or implement them. [...] Truthout

Saturday, March 29, 2003

Al Jazeera was born out of the ashes of a BBC collaboration.
take a look at this before the cache is flushed: Google cache of dotster suspension of AJN
As I write, the Al-Jazeera website has been down for three days and few here doubt that the provenance of the attack is the Pentagon. Meanwhile, our hosting company, the US-based DataPipe, has terminated our contract after lobbying by other clients whose websites have been brought down by the hacking.[...] Arab News

House Approves National Day of Prayer

By Associated Press March 27, 2003, 2:23 PM EST WASHINGTON -- The House passed a resolution Thursday calling for a national day of humility, prayer and fasting in a time of war and terrorism. The resolution, passed 346-49, says Americans should use the day of prayer "to seek guidance from God to achieve a greater understanding of our own failings and to learn how we can do better in our everyday activities, and to gain resolve in meeting the challenges that confront our nation." Under the resolution, President Bush would issue a proclamation designating a specific day as a day of "humility, prayer and fasting."[...] Newsday Separation of church and state???

The REAL Picture

Iraq strategy rooted in Soviet doctrine

BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Coalition commander Gen. Tommy Franks won't begin his ground attack against the Republican Guard divisions on the outskirts of Baghdad until U.S. air power has whittled Saddam Hussein's frontline units down to less than half-strength. The trouble is that it may be hard to know when or whether that goal has been reached. So far, Saddam has managed to preserve many of his best forces by moving, dispersing and sheltering them - and, some U.S. officials say, by using decoys to deplete American stocks of precision munitions. U.S. assessments of bomb damage and of the exact locations of enemy units can best be described as "conflicted." A senior U.S. military officer said Friday that Air Force and Army aircraft have attacked half of all Republican Guard targets, but the assessments of the damage the bombs have done are "imprecise and often unclear." That means the coalition doesn't have a clear picture of how much the bombing has "degraded" the Republican Guard and other units, despite the upbeat public assessments and sensational video footage from Pentagon and Central Command representatives. The same senior officer confirmed what some U.S. analysts have suspected. Iraq's strategy and tactics have been drawn directly from an old Soviet doctrine called "maskirovka" - a mix of measures designed to mislead the enemy about everything from the disposition of forces and their combat readiness to the commander's plans. That's not surprising: The Soviet Union was Iraq's military mentor for many years. According to the 1978 Soviet Military Encyclopedia: "Strategic maskirovka is carried out at national and theater levels to mislead the enemy as to political and military capabilities, intentions and timing of actions." Foreign intelligence sources that U.S. officials called largely reliable said the Iraqis have been deploying a "huge number of various kinds of target mockups and other decoys on the ground." In one U.S. air strike against targets at an Iraqi airfield, American pilots reported destroying all 20 Iraqi planes on the field. The intelligence sources, however, said the bomb damage assessment after the strike showed that the destroyed planes were all mockups. The Iraqis also have been moving their radars and other air defense assets around Baghdad, and so far they haven't revealed their locations by turning on the radars or launching even one large surface-to-air missile, a trick U.S. intelligence officials said they appear to have learned from Yugoslavia, which learned it the hard way a few years ago. They also have been moving their air defense radars, the intelligence sources said. U.S. intelligence sources said it appears that the Iraqis, lifting another page from the old Soviet playbook, also appear to have been transmitting phony radio and telephone messages to mislead coalition forces about the whereabouts and condition of Iraqi leaders and military units. Couriers, they suspect, may be carrying some of the real orders so spy satellites and planes can't intercept them. They said the Iraqis also might have deliberately tricked the Americans and British into believing that key Republican Guard commanders were prepared to surrender. Trained in counterintelligence by the Soviet KGB and the former East German Stasi, the Iraqis have fooled the West before. In one case, Saddam's agents penetrated a U.S.- and British-backed coup attempt against Saddam, then allowed it to proceed until all the plotters exposed themselves. The plotters were promptly executed, and the Iraqis announced the end of the $6 million enterprise in July 1996 by calling the CIA station in Amman, Jordan on the secret communications gear the CIA had provided to its agents, said a former U.S. intelligence officer who participated in the covert operation. The second part of the Iraqi strategy appears to have been leading coalition forces to believe that they wouldn't encounter significant opposition until they got to Baghdad, meanwhile sending a few reliable officers and Baath Party enforcers to shore up the resistance in the southern part of the country. As a result, the Iraqis have tied down a significant number of American troops and slowed the march to Baghdad by fighting in Basra and An Nasiriyah and harassing Army and Marine supply lines and rear area bases. Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington says: "The best Iraqi tactic is to use elements of the Republican Guard and larger elements of the more expendable regular Army to slow down the advance and inflict casualties, while keeping most Republican Guard forces intact for defensive battles." So it still isn't clear whether the United States will get the Desert Storm-type decisive battle outside Baghdad that it wants, or whether American troops will have to win the war in the streets of a capital city with a population of 5 million people.

Friday, March 28, 2003

Unedited Videotape Is Raw, Painful � and Devastating

Robert Fisk , The Independent BAGHDAD, 28 March 2003 � Two British soldiers lie dead on a Basra roadway, a small Iraqi girl � victim of a US/UK airstrike � is brought to hospital with her intestines spilling our of her stomach, a terribly wounded woman screams in agony as doctors try to take off her black dress. An Iraqi general, surrounded by hundreds of his armed troops, stands in central Basra and announces that Iraq�s second city remains firmly in Iraqi hands. The unedited Al-Djazaira videotape � filmed over the past 36 hours and newly arrived in Baghdad � is raw, painful, devastating. It is also proof that Basra � reportedly �captured�� and �secured�� by British troops last week � is indeed under the control of Saddam Hussein�s forces. Despite claims by British officers that some form of uprising has broken out in Basra, cars and buses continue to move through the streets while Iraqis queue patiently for gas bottles as they are unloaded from a government truck. A remarkable part of the tape shows fireballs blooming over western Basra and the explosion of incoming � and presumably British � shells. The short sequence of the dead British soldiers for the public showing of which Tony Blair expressed such horror yesterday � is little different from dozens of similar clips of dead Iraqi soldiers shown on British television over the past 12 years, pictures which never drew any expressions of condemnation from the British prime minister. The two Britons, still in uniform, are lying on a roadway, arms and legs apart, one of them apparently hit in the head, the other shot in the chest and abdomen. Another sequence from the same tape shows crowds of Basra civilians and armed men in civilian clothes, kicking the soldiers� British Army Jeep � registration number HP5AA � and dancing on top of the vehicle. Other men can be seen kicking the overturned Ministry of Defense trailer, registration number 91KC98, which the Jeep was towing when it was presumably ambushed. Also to be observed on the unedited tape � which was driven up to Baghdad on the open road from Basra � is a British pilotless drone photo-reconnaissance aircraft, its red and blue roundels visible on one wing, shot down and lying overturned on a roadway. Marked �ARMY�� in capital letters, it carries the code sign ZJ300 on its tail and is attached to a large cylindrical pod which probably contains the plane�s camera. Far more terrible than the pictures of the dead British soldiers, however, is the tape from Basra�s largest hospital as victims of the US/UK bombardment are brought to the operating rooms shrieking in pain. A middle-aged man is carried into the hospital in pyjamas, soaked head to foot in blood. A little girl of perhaps four is brought into the operating room on a trolley, staring at a heap of her own intestines protruding from the left side of her stomach. A blue-uniformed doctor pours water over the little girl�s guts and then gently applies a bandage before beginning surgery. A woman in black with what appears to be a stomach wound cries out as doctors try to strip her for surgery. In another sequence, a trail of blood leads from the impact of an incoming � presumably British � shell. Next to the crater is a pair of plastic slippers. The Al-Djazaira tapes, most of which have never been seen � are the first vivid proof that Basra remains totally outside British control. Not only is one of the city�s main roads to Baghdad still open � this is how the three main tapes reached the Iraqi capital � but Iraqi general Khaled Hatem is interviewed in a Basra street, surrounded by hundreds of his uniformed and armed troops, and telling Al-Djazaira�s reporter that his men will �never�� surrender to Iraq�s enemies. Armed Baath Party militiamen can also be seen in the streets, where traffic cops are directing lorries and buses near the city�s Sheraton Hotel. Mohamed Al-Abdullah, Al-Djazaira�s correspondent in Basra, must be the bravest journalist in Iraq right now. In the sequence of three tapes, he can be seen conducting interviews with families under fire and calmly reporting the incoming British artillery bombardment. One tape shows that the Sheraton Hotel on the banks of Shatt Al-Arab River, has sustained shell damage. On the edge of the river � beside one of the huge statues of Iraq�s 1980-88 war martyrs each pointing an accusing finger across the waterway toward Iran � Basra residents can be seen filling jerry cans from the sewage polluted river. Arab News
ctrl-a!
We -really- need a high capacity Al Jazeera stream; all 4 that I know of are totally overwhelmed. If you have one /msg me!

Second Vaccinated Health Worker Dies of Heart Attack

By Ceci Connolly Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 28, 2003; Page A09 A second health care worker recently immunized against smallpox has died of a heart attack, federal officials confirmed yesterday, although they do not know whether the deaths were related to the vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has called an emergency meeting today of its vaccine advisory committee, cardiac specialists and military epidemiologists to discuss possible changes in the vaccination program in light of new concerns about heart risks.[...] Washington Post
Rate My Gasmask As performed by one of the Blogdialers!!! But which one is it??!?!?

Cheney's Daughter To Be Human Shield In Baghdad?

by Ian Gurney The United Arab Emirates leading semi-official daily newspaper, Alittihad, reported on Thursday that a US government delegation had arrived in Amman, Jordan, on its way to Baghdad for negotiations with the Iraqi government about an immediate ceasefire. A diplomatic source told Alittihad that the US government delegation included four leading members of Congress as well as Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of the US Vice President Dick Cheney, representing the US Department of State, where she works as an Assistant to the Deputy of the Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs.* This has fuelled recent rumours claiming that Mary Cheney, the vice president's eldest daughter, is currently in Jordan planning to go to Baghdad to act as a human shield, something that would be a great embarrassment to the Bush administration. This was first reported by the London based Arabic daily Al Quds Al Arabi on Tuesday, March 25, which claimed that the American vice president himself would soon be heading to the Jordanian capital, Amman. The newspaper claimed that the visit would be an attempt by Cheney to convince his daughter, Mary, to back down from her decision to go to Baghdad with a group of volunteers who want to form human shields against the US led attacks on Iraq. It now seems that instead of the vice president, his younger daughter Elizabeth will try to convince her sister, who is currently staying at a hotel in Amman, not to go to Baghdad. The White House yesterday denied vice president Cheney would be visiting Amman, but the arrival of Elizabeth Cheney has increased speculation that the Cheney family is trying desperately to dissuade their errant daughter to return home. Already some sons of western officials have volunteered as human shields in Iraq against the American invasion, including the son of the Canadian Foreign Minister, Bill Graham Mary Cheney, 34, is the lesbian daughter of the Vice President Dick Cheney. She has never kept her homosexuality a secret, either to her friends or to her employer, Coors Brewing Company, where she was the gay and lesbian corporate relations manager. Scoop
"A senior British military source inside Iraq said: "The information we have received from PoWs today is that an al-Qaeda cell may be operating in Az Zubayr. There are possibly around a dozen of them and that is obviously a matter of concern to us." If terrorists are found, it would be the first proof of a direct link between Saddam's regime and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. " This is a lie. OBL & co think that SH and Baath are "infidels". If AQ are fighthing in Iraq, it is simply to be fighting against uncle sam. There is no linkage; this is clear to anyone with even the slightest understanding of how much the USA is seen as the enemy. People will put down their differences to fight a common enemy, and this is precisely what we are seeing right now. SMH

Thursday, March 27, 2003

The system is intended to destroy modern and future tanks fitted with explosive reactive armour, small size targets, fortifications and troops including the entrenched ones. Modular design and small size of its guidance system allow to use this weapon on different vehicles. The system stands out owing to its high immunity to jamming of laser beam guidance channel of the missile under combat conditions. The system comprises two types of missiles: * with shaped-charge warhead; * with high-explosive warhead. A thermal sight is provided to fire at night. The system can be used under various climatic conditions and in different geographic regions, in high mountainous areas and over the water surface. The powerful shaped-charge warhead is capable to engage existing and future tanks at any angle of approach. The missile with high-explosive warhead with thermobaric effect can effectively destroy various fortifications, missile launchers and light-armoured targets as well. The system does not require tests during its storage and employment. http://www.zid.ru/en/products/military/kornet-e.html
Kornet E is the name given to the export version of the Russian Kornet missile system. The system, first shown in 1994, has been developed by the KBP Instrument Design Making Bureau, Tula, Russia and is in production and service with the Russian Army and has been sold to the Syrian Army. Kornet is a third generation system, developed to replace the Fagot and Konkurs missile systems in the Russian Army. It is designed to destroy tanks, including those fitted with explosive reactive armour (ERA), fortifications, entrenched troops as well as small-scale targets. The system can be fitted to a variety of tracked and wheeled vehicles, including the BMP-3 infantry combat vehicle, as well as serving as a standalone, portable system. The self-propelled Kornet missile system is manufactured by the Volsk Mechanical Plant, Volsk, Russian Federation. http://www.stratmag.com/issueMar-15/page02.htm
http://www.zmag.org/wspj/
OMG, gangs use "crypto":

U.N. Expert: Israeli Barrier Is Illegal

Thursday March 27, 2003 5:00 PM GENEVA (AP) - A barrier separating Israelis and Palestinians that Israel claims is needed for protection represents ``de facto annexation'' and is illegal under international law, a United Nations human rights expert said Thursday. But Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva refuted that conclusion, saying the report by John Dugard was ``politically influenced'' and failed to consider the security situation created by nearly 30 months of fighting. Dugard, a South African lawyer who is the U.N. expert on rights in the Palestinian territories, was to present his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. ``The wall is being used as a way of expanding Israel's territory,'' Dugard said. ``Israel responds that this is a temporary security measure but I think the reality is that this is a form of creeping annexation of Palestinian territory.'' The current plans for the barrier would enclose about 7 percent of Palestinian land, and proposals made earlier this week to extend it to protect a Jewish settlement in the heart of the West Bank would take much more land, he said. ``I have seen portions of that wall, and it makes the old Berlin Wall look very small,'' Dugard said. ``It has gone largely unnoticed in the West, but this is de facto annexation.'' [...] The Guardian
Phoenix Captured, Claims Iraq 27/03/2003 16:28 A British Army Phoenix battlefield surveillance and target acquisition unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been captured during recent fighting near Basra, claims Iraq. In front-line service with the Royal Artillery for almost five years, the Phoenixsystem is believed to be making its debut as an artillery targeting platform duringthe US-led Operation 'Iraqi Freedom'. The system had logged around 700 flights by July 2002, including 486 during operations totalling some 2,000 hours over Kosovo. (Source: JDW) End of item
This is where all those spoof posters are coming from.
-----Original Message----- From: Michael Magenis [mailto:m********@freeuk.com] Sent: 27 March 2003 11:14 To: Undisclosed-Recipient:; Subject: Quote of the day "Umm Qasr is a city similar to Southampton," UK defence minister Geoff Hoon said in the Commons yesterday. "He's either never been to Southampton, or he's never been to Umm Qasr" says a British squaddie patrolling Umm Qasr. Another soldier added: "There's no beer, no prostitutes and people are shooting at us. It's more like Portsmouth".
Commercial use must be paid for, unless you give written permission. That is the licence under which we work. Dont be soft soaped into letting them use your music for free. Your work is valuable, and they should understand this. What is the url to your stuff?
>>> For well over a year, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey refused to release the audiotape of firefighters' communications from the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks. In early November 2002, the tape was released to the New York Times, then to other unspecified "news outlets" (according to the Associated Press). To my knowledge, the NYT is the only outlet to post excerpts from the tape. The Memory Hole has obtained this recording. We now present it to the public in its entirety for the first time. MP3
The Memory Hole

Al-Jazeera wins anti-censorship award

Ciar Byrne Thursday March 27, 2003 Al-Jazeera, the Arab TV satellite channel whose war coverage has angered the US, has been awarded a prestigious prize for upholding freedom of expression. The Qatar-based channel won the award for the best circumvention of censorship at Index on Censorship's third annual Freedom of Expression Awards last night. The judges, including the former Channel 4 news presenter Sheena McDonald and the Daily Mail's veteran foreign reporter Ann Leslie, said: "Al-Jazeera's apparent independence in a region where much of the media is state run has transformed it into the most popular station in the Middle East." "Its willingness to give opposition groups a high-profile platform has left it with a reputation for credible news among Arab viewers. But that same quality has enraged Arab governments and the US - which have sought to have the station more closely controlled." The executive director of al-Jazeera's London bureau, Muftah Al Suwaidan, said the station was "proud" to receive the award from "such a prestigious organisation, which has as its core concern the well being and the development of our profession, and the maintenance of professional integrity". "Since its inception, al-Jazeera has been at the forefront of the struggle to maintain free, independent and balanced reporting," said Mr Al Suwaidan. "Different people have different views but the common denominator should always remain to be the right of people to know and the freedom of all to express themselves." Al-Jazeera caused a furore when it broadcast shocking images of Iraqi and American victims of the conflict, including pictures of captured US soldiers and of the head of a child, aged about 12, that had been split apart, reportedly in the US-led assault on Basra in southern Iraq. However, subscriptions to the Arabic language channel in Europe have doubled since the war began, indicating there is considerable demand for an alternative to western news channels. The Guardian
O: Anita Lavine, Sr. VP Production FROM: Taylor Donahue, VP Production SUBJECT: Location shooting for Codename Courage Anita, Assuming the current situation with Iraq leads to combat activity by US troops, I suggest we get a small film crew credentialed as press to shoot over there. This will solve some of the budget vs. production value problems we?ve discussed. In the best case scenario we can also get one or two of our leads over there in costume to do a scene with the mayhem of real war as a backdrop. [Take a look at pages 65, 72-74, and 96 for examples that lend themselves.] Failing this, we can have the war as a back plate to use with blue screen of our actors or to add CGI on. We?ll be the only movie with a multi billion dollar effects budget. Tay lp/td Internal Memos
In internet exploder, press ctrl-a to see this image.

Who armed Iraq?

Iraq's Weapons Declaration underscores a tragic irony: The United States, the world's leading arms supplier, is taking the world to war to stop arms proliferation in the very country to which it shipped chemicals, biological seed stock and weapons for more than 10 years. According to the December declaration, treated with much derision from the Bush administration, U.S. and Western companies played a key role in building Hussein's war machine. The 1,200-page document contains a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades. Embarrassed, no doubt, by revelations of their own complicity in Mideast arms proliferation, the U.S.-led Security Council censored the entire dossier, deleting more than 100 names of companies and groups that profited from Iraq's crimes and aggression. The censorship came too late, however. The long list -- including names of large U.S. corporations -- Dupont, Hewlett-Packard, and Honeywell -- was leaked to a German daily, Die Tageszeitung. Despite the Security Council coverup, the truth came out. [...] SF Gate
On March 26, 2003, Al Jazeera news producer Imad Musa was interviewed on the national listener-sponsored radio and TV show Democracy Now! by host Amy Goodman and correspondent Jeremy Scahill. http://www.democracynow.org/aljazeera.htm

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Iraqi Ambassador in Moscow: Americans Believe "Uprising in Basra" is Held to Support Iraqi Army The Iraqi ambassador to Russia believes that the Americans took the uprising in Basra as a demonstration of support to the Iraqi Army. Abbas Khalaf said at a press conference in Moscow that the Iraqis were taking up arms to fight the invaders. The Ambassador said that an Iraqi girl used an anti-tank gun to set on fire three armoured personnel carriers of the US marines near Kerbela. "We agree with Washington and London that there are Saddam Hussein's doubles in Iraq. They are every Iraqi man," Abbas Khalaf said. Iraq has stood up against American and British invaders, the diplomat said adding that this indicated that the USA and Britain were fighting against the Iraqi people rather than Saddam Hussein. Pravda!
Nando Times By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer (March 25, 2003 4:09 p.m. EST) - Hackers attacked the Web site of Arab satellite television network Al-Jazeera [1] on Tuesday, rendering it intermittently unavailable, the site's host said. The newly launched English-language page, which went live Monday and posted images of the corpses of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, was hardest hit in a bombardment of data packets known as a denial-of-service attack. Ayman Arrashid, Internet system administrator at the Horizons Media and Information Services, the site's Web host, said the attack began Tuesday morning local time. Nabil Hegazi, assistant to the managing editor of the English Web site, denied that an attack was the reason the site was unavailable. He said it was difficult to access because traffic was almost four times more than expected. The Web host is based in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The servers that host the Al-Jazeera site are in France and the United States. Arrashid said he could not determine the attack's origin, but only the U.S. servers were affected, leading him to suspect that the attackers were in the United States. He said technicians were working to thwart the attack, but could not estimate when the site would be fully available again. In denial-of-service attacks, hackers normally send a deluge of false requests to Web servers, overloading them and making them unavailable to surfers. Al-Jazeera, also based in Qatar, is an unusually independent and powerful voice in the Arab world whose broadcasts of U.S. prisoners and war dead has angered many Americans. Earlier, Al-Jazeera said two reporters had their credentials revoked by the New York Stock Exchange because of the network's coverage of the war. The exchange said the decision was prompted by space constraints. Al-Jazeera's English site was unavailable Tuesday from four out of five locations in the United States, said Roopak Patel, a senior analyst at Keynote Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., company that tracks Web performance. He said the Arabic site had starting Sunday experienced periods of very poor availability - which may have been caused by hackers, Patel said. [1] http://english.aljazeera.net/
Michael Moore Responds!

Gulf States May Be Next: British MP

Roger Harrison, Arab News Staff JEDDAH, 26 March 2003 � In an exclusive interview with Arab News yesterday, British Member of Parliament George Galloway said he had evidence that one motive for the war on Iraq is the eventual partition of the Mideast. �Here in the Houses of Parliament there are people who have never set foot in an Arab country openly discussing the partition of Gulf states,� he said in a telephone interview from London. �They talk about whether it should be one country, two countries, three countries, even four countries. They openly discuss changing the boundaries of old countries, creating new countries � removing this and that leader,� he added. Speaking about George W. Bush, Galloway said that he was unimpressive. However, �the US has stirred up a vast amount of hatred against itself by this swaggering arrogance of the intellectually limited President, roaring like a bull in a bomber jacket in aircraft hangars to young men and women of the American armed forces who, although they know very little of the world, are ready to get out there and kill.� He pointed to what he saw as the geo-political aspirations of the US government as the real motives for the current conflict. �These people have decided that Arab countries must metamorphose into countries acceptable to the US. That means they must change their way of life, their culture, even their religion. It�s openly stated in the American media that the Qur�an itself has to be changed, because in it there are concepts of justice and resistance which are completely unacceptable to the new American century.� Galloway argued that the British people and British soldiers were told that the Iraqis would be garlanding the GI�s who came to �liberate� them. �Of course, none of that has happened. The Iraqis, even in the south of the country, even the so-called disaffected Shiite population, have resisted.� Asked why people who are supposed to be hoping for peace and �liberation� resisted the soldiers who are supposed to be liberating them, Galloway was adamant. �I asked it of Jack Straw in the House of Commons this morning, and answer came there none � for there is no answer,� he said. �It lays bare the propaganda myth � the frankly racist propaganda myth � on which this is based. These people are only Arabs, they�re only Muslims - how could they possibly stand up to our shock and awe?� He pointed out that there are millions of Iraqis who hate Saddam Hussein, but equally, there are millions of Iraqis who do not. �They are always invisible in the media - but even among the millions who hate him, they will hate a British and American invasion and looting of their country even more,� he said. [...] Arab News
"Many of my friends have gone back already in the last few days," he said. "Even if I just dig a trench by our house and sit in it with a gun, I might kill one of the invaders. They're coming down in parachutes so you might hit one." Round the corner Mohammed Ali Musa, 23, serves tea in a small room dominated by a television set on a high shelf. The customers, mainly middle-aged men, sit in gloomy silence as al-Jazeera beams the latest news of the war. The normal morning chatter has been replaced by pensive sipping and the rattle of worry beads. "I'm planning to go back in three days' time," says Mohammed, another Iraqi Shia who left his wife and parents in Nassiriya two months ago in the hope of earning a better wage in Syria. "I want to cut the Americans' throats and throw them to the dogs," he adds. "If I'd known it would have been like this, I would never have left Iraq. I just pray to God I can go back and make a contribution." The Guardian
Subscriptions to the Arabic-language television network al-Jazeera have doubled since the war on Iraq began last week, signalling a significant demand for an alternative to western media coverage. The broadcaster said it has signed up 4 million subscribers in Europe since last Wednesday. It has also launched an English-language website, and plans an English version of its TV channel. Al-Jazeera had around 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers before the start of the war in Iraq but most were in the Arabic world, where it is shown free. Outside the Middle East 10 million people had access to the network.[...] The Guardian People are hungry for the truth about the war; this "embedded journalist" bullshit simply isnt working / convincing anyone. This is why ALL the networks are taking feeds from AJN and the other free stations. They are the only independent sources of news in this fiasco. 4 million subscribers in as many days; that HAS to be some kind of record! If they ever go english, AJN could superceed CNN as the pre eminent source for 24 hour news that you can implicitly trust. What a world!®
The state channel does not broadcast overnight and had been off the air at the time of the bombing. A Reuters correspondent today reported that the station began broadcasting verses from the Koran at around 0600 GMT as normal this morning, quashing US hopes that Saddam Hussein's lines of communication with his people had been cut.[...] The Guardian Which I buy every day, since you can get it all online. I think of the paper edition as my "ticket" to read the online articles, which they generously give away for free, and without the need for registration, like the pathetic, useless biased and morally bankrup Daily Telegraph.

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

glad to hear we have this incredible soldier on our side. like, who's going to mess with us now?! huh?!
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 that impedes its attempts to run the world, but when five of its captured soldiers were paraded in front of Iraqi television cameras, Donald Rumsfeld immediately complained that "it is against the Geneva Convention to show photographs of prisoners of war in a manner that is humiliating for them".[...] The Age
"I've been all the way through this desert from Basra to here and I ain't seen one shopping mall or fast food restaurant," he said. "These people got nothing. Even in a little town like ours of twenty five hundred people you got a McDonald's at one end and a Hardee's at the other." The Guardian
At LAST AJN in ENGLISH! http://english.aljazeera.net/
The Conservative Party introduced the Poll Tax to Scotland a year earlier than elsewhere in the UK (despite this being illegal under the Act of Union) and have never regained their support. Now it seems that the Labour Party wish to introduce "Identity" Cards to Scotland earlier than elsewhere. http://www.news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=349032003, with many snips. >>Scots ID card plan gets green light >> >>First Minister Jack McConnell is to place the plan at the heart of >>Labour痴 Scottish Parliament election campaign, risking the wrath >>of civil liberties campaigners and his Liberal Democrat coalition >>partners who believe it breaches human rights. I trust the latter will do their best to oppose it, though given their two faced stand on other issues this hope may be a vain one. >>The Scottish Police Federation says civil liberties must come second >>to national security in the light of the terrorist atrocities >>perpetrated on September 11, 2001, and since. In a new policy paper >>it states: "The world has become a more dangerous place and we all >>have a responsibility to do what we can to contribute towards >>greater public safety. If this means a diminution of personal >>privacy then that is something we must weigh against the benefits to >>society as a whole." So there we have it. "Identity" Cards will contribute towards greater public safety and if this diminishes privacy that is a price well worth paying.
Declan, In case you have not heard yet, the Canadian web site, YellowTimes.org, was shut dow for two hours until they removed content that their hosting company deemed offensive. The 'offensive' content was a photo of an American POW and a photo of a dead Iraqi child. You can find YellowTimes side of the story here: Yellow Times

Monday, March 24, 2003

R.I.P.

E-cyclopedia's words of war

� axis of weasels - France, Russia, Germany and China, according to US tabloids. The New York Post depicted French and German delegates to the UN as weasels, somewhat like the Sun depicted President Chirac as a worm. "Axis of weasel" was coined by weblog ScrappleFace.com. In UK English, "weasel" means treacherous, but in US English it has the slightly less damning meaning of using ambiguity to conceal truth. � big lie - allegations that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, according to Saddam Hussein, alternatively translated as "great lie". Perhaps an attempt to match his "mother of all battles" soundbite from '91. � cheese-eating surrender monkeys - a stock epithet for the French in certain US circles. Derives from a Simpsons episode in which Groundskeeper Willie was substitute French teacher for the day. The Times reported that France had responded with "an arch shrug, adopting a tone of superiority precisely calculated to send the Americans into even blacker fury". � coalition of the willing - the White House phrase for the countries militarily involved. US Secretary of State Colin Powell says there are 45 countries taking part in some way, although 15 of them are not prepared to be named. The phrase supplies an echo of the 1991 coalition. � fair-minded people - those who agree with Saddam Hussein, according to the Iraqi president. "Every fair-minded person knows that when Iraqi officials say something, they are trustworthy," he told Tony Benn, adding: "Every fair-minded person knows that as far as resolution 1441 is concerned, the Iraqis have been fulfilling their obligations under the resolution." Meanwhile, talking about Iraqi disarmament, Saddam's top science adviser, General Amir Saadi, said: "To all fair-minded people who are neutral and free, it's more than enough." � going kinetic - military term for invading or bombing, shorthand for kinetic targeting. Psyops, such as leafleting propaganda, is known as soft targeting. Time magazine: "'It will be highly kinetic,' an Air Force planner says with grim understatement." � heroic efforts - what Tony Blair had made to get a second resolution, according to former UK cabinet minister Robin Cook, who wasn't so impressed that he didn't have to resign. � legs of responsibility - what the UN needs to regain, according to George Bush: "...in the post-Saddam Iraq the UN will definitely need to have a role. And that way it can get - begin to get its legs - legs of responsibility back." � liberators not conquerors - President Bush's assertion that the US would free Iraq from Saddam's tyranny. Told US troops: "[Y]ou will be fighting not to conquer anybody but to liberate people." It may be a phrase designed to counter claims that the US is on a crusade, being colonial, or empire building, or simply to claim moral high ground. � moment of truth - as in "Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world" - an ultra quotable line from President Bush, warning of the failure of diplomacy. Mr Blair's line "We have reached the point of decision," could not compete for headline-grabbing potential. � old Europe - taken to mean France and Germany, identified by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as being countries which did not agree with US policy. He later said he was surprised President Chirac had been upset by the term, and said he had a great many friends in France and Germany, adding: "I was thinking of Nato when I said old Europe. I was thinking old Nato... old Nato is at 15, the new Nato is at 26 countries, and the centre of gravity has shifted. It was not disparaging of any of those countries." � Pentagonspeak - the collection of buzzwords, catchphrases and mots du jour employed by US strategists. Coined by Time magazine, no doubt inspired by Orwell's Newspeak. � reckless - Clare Short, the non-resigning UK minister for overseas development, asked whether she thought her prime minister had been acting recklessly: "I'm afraid that I think the whole atmosphere of the current situation is deeply reckless; reckless for the world, reckless for the undermining of the UN in this disorderly world, which is wider than Iraq - [which] the whole world needs for the future - reckless with our government, reckless with his own future, position and place in history. It's extraordinarily reckless, I'm very surprised by it." � roadmap - a plan drawn up by the US, UN, EU and Russia for a peaceful settlement in the Middle East, although not yet published. Not an original term - (Clinton had a roadmap for the Middle East, Pakistan had a roadmap to democracy). It does have a connotation of being practical and achievable, but it is not clear how it differs from "a plan". � serious consequences - the term used in UN resolution 1441 describing what Saddam would face if he didn't disarm. Bush and Blair say it is a clear indication that war would follow a failure to disarm. Chirac and Putin say it means some consequences less serious than that. � shock and awe - Pentagon buzzword for their tactics for attacking Iraq, the intention being to overpower Saddam with air and ground attacks designed to gain an early victory. How much "shock" an attack will be is doubtful, since everyone knows about it. But in era of "psyops", widespread advance publicity of impending shock and awe could have the desired effect of putting Iraqi forces into disarray. � simultaneity - another Pentagon buzzword, related to shock and awe, referring to concerted bombing and invasion happening at once. Time magazine reports: "The second Gulf War, if it comes, would be more like the Big Bang- hundreds of towering explosions all across Iraq all at the same time." � that country - France, according to the UK ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock. He said "one country in particular" had declared its intention to veto any proposal that came before the Security Council. "That country rejected our proposed compromise before even the Iraqi government itself." The Financial Times said: "While refraining from identifying France by name, Sir Jeremy abandoned normal diplomatic courtesies to point the finger at Paris." � under any circumstances - France's intention to veto further resolutions, according to London and Washington, which led to the end of diplomatic efforts. President Chirac's actual words (translated) were: "My position is that, regardless of the circumstances, France will vote 'no' because she considers this evening that there are no grounds for waging war in order to achieve the goal we have set ourselves, that is to say, to disarm Iraq." Some commentators say M Chirac's use of the words "this evening" indicates it was just his position while inspections were continuing. � vertically envelop - invade (see going kinetic). Pentagon buzzword for the tactic of sending troops in by helicopter to seize key targets in Iraq � attitude lobotomy - what, according to New York Times writer Thomas L Friedman, the US administration needs. "It needs to get off its high horse and start engaging people on the World Street, listening to what's bothering them, and also telling them what's bothering us." � called an audible at the line of scrimmage - reported phrase by Gen Tommy Franks, allegedly said when ordering a surgical strike to decapitate Saddam Hussein. Irked some commentators for overtly being a sports phrase. One said: "The militarising of sports terms makes me vaguely uncomfortable. The practice tends to trivialize war and place too much importance on sports." � catastrophic success - a bad case scenario, identified by the Financial Times. "US troops saunter into Baghdad, opposed only pathetically by poorly equipped Iraqi forces. Then, in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, the supposed existence of which has provided the main public justification for war, they find nothing but a few rusty canisters of chemicals. The name for this outcome: Catastrophic Success." � decapitation - the attempt to assassinate Saddam Hussein, the belief that killing the leader and his cohort cuts the head off the enemy beast. A policy going back decades, but frustratingly for the US with little recent success. Castro, Gaddafi, General Aidid, and Osama Bin Laden himself have escaped decapitation attempts. General Noriega is, however, in a US jail. � decisive precision shocks - alternative phrase for bomb, according to General Tommy Franks. Reference to doctrine of shock and awe. � effects-based targeting - a term, initially used by British commanders, characterised by pinpoint rather than blanket bombing - the effect being to strike only military targets. "Put simply," suggests reader AF, UK, "it means 'why use a sledgehammer when a nutcracker will do the job?'" � embedding - the 500 journalists who are based within US and UK military units, living and travelling with them before and during the war. � FIBUA, DIBUA, OBUA - "fighting in built-up areas", "defence in built-up areas" and "operations in built-up areas". Reader Anthony Kay, UK, suggests these military acronyms will become common currency as battles are taken into cities and urban warfare becomes the new shock and awe � friendly fire - one of the most widely loathed terms to come of the first Gulf war, because although the fire comes from friends, it is anything but friendly. Sadly in use again, but alternatives may become popular, eg "blue on blue" casualties, or the more serious-sounding term "fratricide". � full force and might - President Bush's description of the sanction being used against Saddam. "[T]he only way to reduce the harm and duration of war is to apply the full force and might of our military, and we are prepared to do so," he said in his ultimatum speech. � hammer time - alternative to going kinetic (cf) - time to make an attack. As used by US Vice Admiral Timothy Keating on board USS Constellation on eve of war, to strains of Queen's We Will Rock You: "Make no mistake, when the president says go - look out, it's hammer time." Stands in contrast to rhetoric used by UK Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins. Reader David, UK says: "Inspires strange images of parachute-pant-wearing rapper MC Hammer." � lightly - the correct approach for much military activity, according to Colonel Tim Collins. "Tread lightly" on Iraq, he said, adding that killing was not to be done "lightly". At the same time, he encouraged them to be "ferocious" in battle. � mercenaries - US and UK troops, according to Mohamed Said al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information. Other words used include "superpower of villains", "superpower of Al Capone", "devils", "tyrants of the century". � moab - acronym either for "Massive Ordnance Air Blast" or unofficially "Mother of All Bombs". An experimental US precision-guided bomb weighing about 21,000lbs, the largest non-nuclear bomb there is, intended to update the infamous BLU-82B Commando Vault or "Daisy Cutter". Name is a reference to Saddam's phrase "Mother of all Battles", but residents of Moab, Utah, unhappy at new connotation of their name. Reader Chris Bowden-Green, Canada, says: "It's designed for maximum psychological effect at dissuading entrenched troops." � mosaic - according to General Tommy Franks, the pattern made up by simultaneous approaches of air forces, ground forces and special forces. "That plan... gives me latitude to build the mosaic that I just described in a way that provides flexibility so that we can attack the enemy on our terms, and we are doing so," he told reporters. � pre-H hour - another phrase for the time of invasion. "...Delta Force and CIA operatives, many of whom are foreign nationals, have been in Iraq for weeks conducting what military planners call 'pre-H-hour' (hour of invasion) activities..." wrote Jack Kelley in USA Today. Reader Johnny Brown says: "Just the right amount of jargon-coolness." � s, g, a - the format of battle, again according to General Tommy Franks. In his words: "The initiation of combat operations, we refer to that as D-Day. The introduction of special operations forces, we refer to that as S-Day. The introduction of ground forces, G-Day. And the introduction of shock air forces, A-Day. So the sequence you have seen, up to this point, has been S, G, A." � Stalingrad in Mesopotamia - the historical point of reference of the week, amid fears of prolonged siege and urban warfare around Baghdad � target of opportunity - related to window of opportunity, a one-off chance which hadn't been planned, perhaps inspired by intelligence. Used after the attempt to "decapitate" Saddam Hussein when his location was believed to have been identified to US forces. � the mark of Cain - the phrase for being known as an unlawful killer, according to Colonel Tim Collins, when addressing the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish regiment on the eve of war. "It is a big step to take another human life," he said. "It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them." Draws on religious imagery, which he later emphasised by saying Iraq was the site of the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. � tick-tock - the second-to-second attention to detailed events. Donald Rumsfeld said he was "not into the tick-tock of every hour and every minute". � urban warfare - fighting in streets, houses and buildings, as is feared might happen in Baghdad, when many preparations had been centred on fighting a war in a desert.

UBS to hand over frozen Iraqi money

March 24, 2003 1:55 PM Switzerland�s largest bank, UBS, has said it will transfer frozen Iraqi-held deposits in the United States to US authorities. UBS said the funds, blocked in 1990 under United Nations sanctions, had been confiscated by the US Treasury and would be transferred to the US government soon. The confiscation is part of an order last week from the Treasury Department to 17 banks in the US. The total money involved, said to be about $1.74 billion (SFr2.41 billion) without interest, comes from transactions between US oil firms and the Iraqi state oil company, the UBS spokesman added. He declined to reveal how much cash was involved in UBS�s case but confirmed it was likely to be in the millions of dollars. [...] Swiss News
271454Z AUG 97SUBJ: RUSSIAN AVIACONVERSIA PORTABLE GPS AND GLONASS JAMMER SYSTEM (U) SUMMARY: (U) CONFEX - THE RUSSIAN FIRM AVIACONVERSIA MARKETED AND DISPLAYED ITS PORTABLE GPS AND GLONASS JAMMER AT THE MOSCOW AIR SHOW '97, 19-24 AUG 97, IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA. THE 4-WATT JAMMER JAMS CIVILIAN AND MILITARY FREQUENCIES OF GPS AND GLONASS UP TO A RANGE OF 200 KM. PROTOTYPE AT THE SHOW - LOOKING FOR BUYERS. TEXT: 1. (U) THE REPORTING OFFICER (RO) SPOKE WITH DR. OLEG ((ANTONOV)), DIRECTOR OF AVIACONVERSIA (ADDRESS - 103009 MOSCOW, TVERSCAYA, D.27-2, OFFICE-88, TELEPHONE/FAX +095 2995454) ABOUT THE GPS/GLONASS JAMMER AT THE MOSCOW AIR SHOW '97, IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA. THE JAMMER SHOWN IN ENCL 1 AND 2 IS FULLY FUNCTIONAL - THIS IS NOT A CONCEPT. DR. ANTONOV SAID THAT HIS COMPANY WAS WITHIN A WEEK OF FINALIZING THE NEXT GENERATION GPS/GLONASS JAMMER THAT REDUCES THE SIZE AND MASS OF THE JAMMER BY SLIGHTLY OVER 50 PERCENT. DR. ANTONOV SAID THAT HE HAS ALREADY RECENTLY MARKETED THE JAMMER IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND SAID HE HAS SEVERAL POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS THERE. HE DECLINED TO ELABORATE FURTHER AS TO WHO MAY HAVE ALREADY CONTRACTED FOR HIS JAMMER. DR. ANTONOV SAID THE SOPHISTICATION OF THE SIGNAL JAMMERS WAS BEYOND THE TECHNICAL ABILITY OF HIS MIDDLE EASTERN CUSTOMERS. HE SAID THAT BESIDES RUSSIA, ONLY FRANCE, THE UNITED STATES, GERMANY, ITALY, SWEDEN/NORWAY, AND POSSIBLY ISRAEL ARE ABLE TO BUILD THESE SOPHISTICATED SIGNAL GENERATORS. TO INSURE THE BOX WAS ACTUALLY FUNCTIONAL, THE RO ASKED FOR DR. ANTONOV TO DEMONSTRATE THE SYSTEM. DR. ANTONOV AGREED TO AND BEGAN TO CONNECT THE POWER SUPPLY. WHEN TH RO ASKED IF HIS JAMMING MAY INTERFERE WITH AIRCRAFT IN THE VICINITY, DR. ANTONOV SAID THAT WHILE SOME PILOTS USE GPS AS PART OF THEIR NAVIGATION PACKAGE, GPS IS NOT LISTED INTERNATIONALLY ANYWHERE AS AN AIRCRAFT COMPONENT AND INDICATED ITS NAVIGATION USE CONSEQUENTLY DID NOT NEED TO BE RESPECTED. AT THIS POINT, THE RO DID NOT WANT TO BECOME POTENTIALLY PARTIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY AVIATION MISHAP THAT MIGHT RESULT. INSTEAD OF TURNING ON THE JAMMER, THE RO ASKED DR. ANTONOV TO UNSCREW THE BACK ASSEMBLY AND HEAT SINK SO THAT THE RO COULD INSPECT THE COMPONENTS. DR. ANTONOV TOLD THE RO THAT THE JAMMER HAD TWO MODULES. THE FIRST MODULE CONTAINED FOUR SIGNAL GENERATORS THAT INDIVIDUALLY JAMMED THE FREQUENCIES OF CIVILIAN GPS, MILITARY GPS, CIVILIAN GLONASS, AND MILITARY GLONASS. AS DR. ANTONOV WAS STARTING TO UNSCREW THE PLATES, THE RO KNEW THAT HE WAS LOOKING AT A FUNCTIONAL DEVICE. 2. (U) THE GPS/GLONASS JAMMER HAS AN OUTPUT POWER OF 4 WATTS AND CAN EFFECTIVELY DENY USE OF GPS IN AN AREA RANGING AS FAR AS 150-200 KM. DR. ANTONOV SAID THAT HE HAS ALREADY WORKED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE RUSSIAN MILITARY WITH DIRECTIONAL ANTENNAS FOR HIS JAMMER SO THAT IT CAN BE USED TO DIRECTIONALLY JAM WHILE MAINTAINING SAFE AREAS FOR FRIENDLY FORCES TO ACCESS GPS OR GLONASS. THE COEFFICIENT OF ANTENNA AMPLIFICATION RANGES FROM 2-5, DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF ANTENNA USED. THE ELECTRICAL INPUT SUPPLY IS EITHER BATTERY OR DC LINE VOLTAGE. DR. ANTONOV PRODUCED BOTH 15 V AND 6 V SUPPLIES THAT RAN OFF OF 230 VOLTS LINE INPUT. THE JAMMER DISSIPATES 25 WATTS WHEN IN USE AND WEIGHS BETWEEN 8-12 KG WITHOUT BATTERIES, DEPENDING ON THE CONFIGURATION. IN THE FRONTAL VIEW OF THE JAMMER SHOWN IN BOTH ENCL 1 AND 2, TWO KNOBS CAN BE SEEN AT THE BASE. THE LEFT KNOB IS FOR FREQUENCY MODULATION, AND RANGES FROM 0-6 MHZ. THE RIGHT KNOB IS FOR "VELOCITY CHANGE OF MODULATION" AND RANGES FROM 44-270 HZ. A PORTION OF THE ABOVE DATA IS CONTAINED IN ENCL 3, WHICH IS IN RUSSIAN. THE RO HAD ENCL 3 LOOSELY TRANSLATED, VERBALLY. 3. (U) DR. ANTONOV SAID HIS NEXT TESTING WOULD BE ON AN AIRBORNE PLATFORM, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE RUSSIAN MILITARY. HE SAID THAT, IN A PREVIOUS TEST, FOUR TYPES OF GPS AND GLONASS DEVICES, TO INCLUDE ONE PRODUCED BY MAGELLAN, WERE SUBJECTED TO JAMMING AT REMOTE DISTANCES AND ALL THE NAVIGATION DEVICES FAILED IN THE FACE OF THE JAMMING. HE SAID THAT HE HAD STRONG INDICATIONS THAT HIS TEAM, WORKING WITH THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, SUCCESSFULLY JAMMED A DEVICE WITH P-CODE CAPABILITY. WHEN THE RO ASKED FOR MORE DETAIL ON THIS, DR. ANTONOV WOULD NOT ELABORATE. ac11.org

Editorial: Lies, Lies and More Lies

24 March 2003 Yesterday the US-led army invading Iraq � without UN approval, without international backing � woke up to the reality of ground combat. They learned first-hand that the Iraqi people do not want to be �liberated� by them, and that the Iraqi Army is likely to fight to the very last. Resistance continues in Umm Qasr, a small port city just inside Iraq which the US claimed to have taken days ago; and independent reports say that in Nassiriyah up to 20 American armored personnel carriers and tanks were taken out by the Iraqis. What is not in doubt is that dozens of American soldiers may have been killed yesterday. More than a dozen were taken prisoner. The bodies of the dead were shown on Iraqi television. So were the frightened faces of Iraq�s first prisoners of war. Those who have been getting their news exclusively from US networks probably have not seen these images. Priority was given to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose denials slowly turned as the day progressed into grudging admissions. Rumsfeld finally commanded the airwaves alone, after having bullied several major American networks � CNN, Fox and MSNBC � into not showing the images of the US prisoners of war and the dead. He did this by referring to the Geneva Convention. Footage of the captured soldiers constituted �propaganda�, Rumsfeld asserted. At the same time, he managed to cast doubt on the fact that the captured were indeed American. Rumsfeld�s newfound affection for the Geneva Convention is remarkable, given that there were images broadcast continuously the day before on US news networks of long lines of Iraqi prisoners surrendering, in US President George W. Bush�s words, �gleefully, enthusiastically�. The US does not believe that the prisoners now being held at Guantanamo Bay are prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. Pictures of the men there, shackled and living in cages, were distributed by the Bush administration to the world�s media. The US Army yesterday said that it considers the images of the US prisoners of war shown on Iraqi TV �disgusting.� For those who have seen them, they invoke a complex mixture of emotions, including pity and surprise; but disgust is not among them. Real war is an ugly business, and the US is now engaged in a real, complex war. All the signs are that the Iraqis do not want the Americans on their land, and are not going to give them as a present their vast oil reserves. The war, it would appear, is going to be protracted, and things are going to get messier. The messier things get, the greater will be the need for clear, objective coverage from those who are covering it. The US troops are fighting in the name of the US government. The US media, however, are not a paid-up, fully trained extra battalion of the US Army whose job it is to help the troops to victory. Rather, their job is to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. So far, they have told little but lies. Arab News

Sunday, March 23, 2003

The prisoners, who identified themselves as being from the 507th maintenance company, were wearing military uniforms. They looked dazed and frightened. They were asked to give their views on the war. Asked why he had come to Iraq, one said he "was told to come here". He said he had come to fix "broken stuff". Asked why he was fighting Iraqis, he said: "They don't bother me, I don't bother them." He said he did not "want to kill anybody". When asked how many officers were in his unit, he replied: "I don't know sir." Asked why he had come to Iraq, another said: "I follow orders." http://www.a42.de:2342/filez/aljazeera.mpg
Consider the GPS jammer that 22-year-old Romain Lievin built while a student at France's ESISAR-INPG Grenoble engineering school. Lievin's GPS jammer may eventually be available commercially. Here's a photo of one of his prototype circuit boards.One "hobby" GPS-denial system that I found on the Web uses a Motorola MC145151 PLL-based frequency synthesizer, a Micronetics M3500-1324S VCO module, and a Fujitsu MB506 divide-by-256 pre-scaler. The VCO feeds the pre-scaler, generating a 1.575 GHz signal that's divided down and routed to one port on the PLL's comparator. The reference is an oscillator running an El Cheapo 10 MHz crystal. Ultimately a signal is derived that's in the audio range, where it's easy to deal with. No strip-lines in that domain, eh? Augmenting the PLL is a hash generator based on Zener diode noise. A 12-cent 2N2222 transistor amplifies the noise. This develops broadband crud out to 100 MHz. In this home-workshop GPS jammer, the hash is filtered and then boosted by a ubiquitous National Semi LM386 audio amplifier IC, and then mixed with the VCO's error-tune signal. The result? RF looking like random noise centered on 1.57542 GHz. [...] Russian Capitalism At Work Is this improbable? Maybe so, but my ears perked up when I caught a blip on the evening TV news about portable GPS jammers that are being sold to the Iraqis by the Russians. Presumably these units come from the Moscow-based Aviaconversiya Ltd. electronics company. The company has been flaunting its handheld GPS jammers at military hardware and air shows since 1999. Claimed to be able to jam American GPS and Russian GLONASS satellite transmissions, the Aviaconversiya emitters strike me as true spy-vs.-spy products. By the way, a Web search reveals that Aviaconversiya is on a list of hundreds of U.S. Department of Defense contractors whose contracts exceed $25,000. (Curious, don't you think?) So just what does Aviaconversiya's little battery-powered $40,000 box do? Well, for starters, it delivers a hefty 8 W of microwave RF into its high-gain Yagi antenna. That gives a user possible GPS denial out to hundreds of miles. If fitted with an omnidirectional antenna instead of the Yagi beam, the Aviaconversiya system is touted as capable of preventing a cruise missile from finding its mark. http://www.chipcentre.com

Aviaconversiya

Activity: Company established 10 years ago has developed and produces: jammers for suppression receivers of different kinds radio systems: navigation Ч GPS/GLONASS, most important radar of different wavelengths (for example HAWKEYE, AWACS, onboard and ground-based radar), mobile telephones, communication links. Jammers in most cases are based on the unified design philosophy Ц by receiving of radio systems signals destined for suppression, storing these signals and using them by multiple read-out for forming any kinds of jammings for creation the specified scenario at the output of suppressed systems medical special coded electromagnetic signal generators for curing wounds and trophic ulcers, insults after-effects, drugs dependence, nerve system functioning disturbance (neurodermite, allergy, neuritis), inflammation of nerve fibres (myiasit, radiculities), relaxation after stress. Aviacor-Aviatzionny zavod, PJSC Pskovskaya Str., Samara, 443052, Russia Phone: +7-8462-926655. Fax: +7-8462-550707. E-mail: aviaprom

US accuses Russians of aiding Iraqi defence

The United States believes Russian technicians are helping Iraq jam crucial satellite signals needed to guide bombs and military aircraft as US, British and Australian troops advance on Baghdad, a senior US official said. The official says Washington has evidence personnel from a Russian firm are in Iraq attempting to help set up and operate a sophisticated system that interferes with the US global positioning technology. "The system is complex and there is evidence that they (Russian technicians) have been trying to bring this system online and help the Iraqis operate it," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "We are extremely upset and have raised this at very senior levels with the Russians." The official stressed there is no indication the Russian Government was involved in the efforts but said Moscow had been "extremely unhelpful" in addressing the US concerns. The official confirmed a report in The Washington Post newspaper that said complaints about the sales of the jamming devices by the Moscow-based firm, Aviaconversiya, began in June 2002. At the time, the official said, the Russians denied the company even existed despite the fact it maintained an Internet site and was the subject of extensive media coverage in Russia. "It was ridiculous but now it's gone beyond that," the official said. "It is grotesque." Google Sez
There was ignorance to contend with everywhere. It came in the form of journalists who were simply out of their depth, as when one BBC presenter confused Friday with �Ramadan�. He then went on to confuse rain in northern Iraq with a sandstorm in the south. Of course, the cultivation of comprehensive ignorance is part of the United States� campaign to limit access to information to the absolute minimum. In the name of security, �embeds� may know what is going on, but they are forbidden from reporting it. And those reporters working independently of the US military are kept far away from events � their passes revoked, their movements limited, at the whim of a commander. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists yesterday announced that the Al-Rashid Hotel is Baghdad � a makeshift base for Western journalists � was being evacuated after news filtered through that the US was likely to bomb it. [...] Areabnews.com
The design of TV news in this situation is next to useless. There are multiple feeds coming from different sources, and the directors choose to fill the screen with huge text bullet points, and pig ignorant talking heads instead of showing us what we need to see. You can get more information, more efficiently and fluidly from your desktop, and its this idea that needs to be translated directly to news during a crisis with multiple news sources. The presenters are largely irrelevant as visual elements, as are the pundits. They should be relegated to voice only, as is the case on Euro News. Each of the multiple feeds that are being collected should be shown live in a series of boxes; when one becomes "hot" it should then fill the screen. A persistent box for bullet points and a very thin scrolling headline should be at the bottom of the screen. In this way, the viewer misses nothing, can choose its own focus of attention, and get the hot feed in high res when needed. All of this dull explanation of munitions can be done on the web; it is absolutely pointless to keep repeating the specs of the bombs on television. This was actually done while the live search for a downed pilot was continuing in *real time*. AJN has the pace right; they cut to places all over the world, and all throughout Iraq. They are at RAF Fairford when the B52s take off, they are in Pakistan to cover the demonstrations there - in fact, they seem to be everywhere at once, while the totality of western media is locked in the studio, forced to take feeds from AJN! AJN is doing the job that western media *should* be doing. They are doing it with 100% efficiency, and lightning speed. Welcome to the future, where the west is relegated to the sidelines as an impotent witness while the "Third World" leaps forward to become the dominant culture and disseminator of truth in the world. Incredibly, the western media always cautions viewers when they are retransmitting "Arab TV", the subtext being "Arabs are liars by nature". This is being said of LIVE FEEDS and not EDITED FOOTAGE. How can a LIVE FEED be a lie? Do they really think that no one is paying attention when they say these things?!
Al Jazeera news, which you can see live on the internet shows regular news conferences by General Al Sahaf and other senior Iraqi staff. While these conferences are going on, each of the news channels, NBC, Sky News, CNN, Fox, Euronews, all show identical, meaningless feeds of dust from the "embedded" journalists and cameras. Iraqi TV is still on the air, and being uplinked / streamed live. It is never cut to by the western news, never re-transmitted, even when it is showing an Iraqi press conference that is being violently shaken by the Shock and Awe bombing. You can watch all of these, non-embedded (free) live feeds online, in real-time. It is clearly pointless to watch western news, since they are locked in to the embedded system. If you are not on broadband, you can even PAY for Al Jazeera news and add it to your Sky package. AJN, on the Astra bird, is giving a totally different picture from the embedded news on the western channels. AJN is showing the many casualties, the destroyed buildings, and is cutting to every Iraqi news conference. It is also conducting interviews with British and American Generals, and re transmitting the news conferences from US Command and Control. To the further shame of the western news agencies, AJN is now clearly the nearest thing to an unbiased news source if you want to find info on this conflict. CNN was kicked out for a reason; you can see this reason yourself when you compare and contrast the coverage of AJN and CNN. There is no excuse for this restriction of what is really happening. AJN, if they were giving away any operational information, would be shut down instantly. They are not doing this. There is no reason why people in the middle east should get the full picture, the blood, guts and devastation, correspondents on the ground all over Iraq and in Baghdad, and everyone in the west get only sanitized "slices" and blurry green 1980s CRT images of what is going on. This divergence of information (and therefore perception); the far east getting the full horror and facts, and the west being effectively blindfolded will only add to the cultural problems in the future; no one in the USA for example, will understand the rage of the Arab world over this, because they will never have seen the carnage unleashed by this action, which every Arab speaking person will have seen again and again. The Arab world appear to bee even more hysterical and irrational, because they will have been properly traumatized by the images of war, which all westerners will be escaping. Once again, western journalists and news organizations have completely failed to do their jobs, and are not only facilitating this total insanity, but are making sure that the misunderstanding between eastern and western cultures is more pronounced than ever before. Well done you FOOLS.

Thank you, President Bush

Paulo Coelho Thank you, great leader George W. Bush. Thank you for showing everyone what a danger Saddam Hussein represents. Many of us might otherwise have forgotten that he had used chemical weapons against his own people, against the Kurds and against the Iranians. Hussein is a bloodthirsty dictator and one of the clearest expressions of evil in today's world. But this is not my only reason for thanking you. During the first two months of 2003, you have shown the world a great many other important things and, therefore, deserve my gratitude. So, remembering a poem I learned as a child, I want to say thank you. Thank you for showing everyone that the Turkish people and their Parliament are not for sale, not even for 26 billion dollars. Thank you for revealing to the world the gulf that exists between the decisions made by those in power and the wishes of the people. Thank you for making it clear that neither Jos� Mar�a Aznar nor Tony Blair give the slightest weight to or show the slightest respect for the votes they received. Aznar is perfectly capable of ignoring the fact that 90% of Spaniards are against the war, and Blair is unmoved by the largest public demonstration to take place in England in the last thirty years. Thank you for making it necessary for Tony Blair to go to the British Parliament with a fabricated dossier written by a student ten years ago, and present this as 'damning evidence collected by the British Secret Service'. Thank you for allowing Colin Powell to make a complete fool of himself by showing the UN Security Council photos which, one week later, were publicly challenged by Hans Blix, the Inspector responsible for disarming Iraq. Thank you for adopting your current position and thus ensuring that, at the plenary session, the French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin's anti-war speech was greeted with applause - something, as far as I know, that has only happened once before in the history of the UN, following a speech by Nelson Mandela. Thank you too, because, after all your efforts to promote war, the normally divided Arab nations, at their meeting in Cairo during the last week in February, were, for the first time, unanimous in their condemnation of any invasion. Thank you for your rhetoric stating that 'the UN now has a chance to demonstrate its relevance', a statement which made even the most reluctant countries take up a position opposing any attack on Iraq. Thank you for your foreign policy which provoked the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, into declaring that in the 21st century, 'a war can have a moral justification', thus causing him to lose all credibility. Thank you for trying to divide a Europe that is currently struggling for unification; this was a warning that will not go unheeded. Thank you for having achieved something that very few have so far managed to do in this century: the bringing together of millions of people on all continents to fight for the same idea, even though that idea is opposed to yours. Thank you for making us feel once more that though our words may not be heard, they are at least spoken - this will make us stronger in the future. Thank you for ignoring us, for marginalising all those who oppose your decision, because the future of the Earth belongs to the excluded. Thank you, because, without you, we would not have realised our own ability to mobilise. It may serve no purpose this time, but it will doubtless be useful later on. Now that there seems no way of silencing the drums of war, I would like to say, as an ancient European king said to an invader: 'May your morning be a beautiful one, may the sun shine on your soldiers' armour, for in the afternoon, I will defeat you.' Thank you for allowing us - an army of anonymous people filling the streets in an attempt to stop a process that is already underway - to know what it feels like to be powerless and to learn to grapple with that feeling and transform it. So, enjoy your morning and whatever glory it may yet bring you. Thank you for not listening to us and not taking us seriously, but know that we are listening to you and that we will not forget your words. Thank you, great leader George W. Bush. Thank you very much. March 8, 2003

Saturday, March 22, 2003

Open in windoze mediochre playa http://winmedia.ish.de/al-jazeera
-- Early on, CBS continued its suspect decision making and opted for NCAA basketball instead of war coverage, giving television surfers the incongruous look of embedded reporter stories on one channel and face-painted cheerleaders on CBS. It must be driving Dan Rather nuts. -- In addition to sometimes revealing videophone reporting, this is turning out to be the war of improved graphics, as moving maps, virtual flights over Iraq's landscape and numerous sophisticated analysis of planes, tanks, helicopter and ships used in battle are on display at the networks. -- A good argument could be made that the networks and cable channels have gone to all-war, all-the-time in their coverage -- at the expense of other news around the country -- but each found time for at least two diversions: finance and anti-war protests. In one of the strangest combinations you might see, several channels kept the stock market numbers running in the bottom right hand corner. During the "shock and awe" segment, those number spun upward. [...] My emphasis. SF Gate
More than 1,600 people have been arrested in San Francisco while taking part in protests against the war[...] The Guardian

'Do you know enough to justify going to war with Iraq?'

This list of really astonishing facts keeps popping into my mailbox, questions like 'How much is spent on military budgets per year worldwide?' take a look for yourself. I would greatly appreciate your help in verifying the information. Please email to me at: staff@anitaroddick.com Do you know enough to justify going to war with Iraq? Q: How many people have died in wars since World War II? A: 86 million Military Budgets: Q: How much is spent on military budgets per year worldwide? A: Over $900 billion Q: How much of this is spent by the U.S.? A: 50% Q: What percent of U.S. military spending would ensure the essentials of life to everyone in the world, according the the UN? A: 10% (that's about $40 billion, the amount initially requested to fund our retaliatory attack on Afghanistan) Q: How many years has the U.S. engaged in air strikes on Iraq? A: 11 years Q: Were the U.S and the UK at war with Iraq between December 1998 and September 1999? A: No Q: How many pounds of explosives were dropped on Iraq between December 1998 and September 1999? A: 20 million Chemical & Biological Weapons: Q: How long has Iraq had chemical and biological weapons? A: Since the early 1980s Q: Did Iraq develop these chemical & biological weapons on their own? A: No, the materials and technology were supplied by the U.S. government, along with Britain and private corporations Q: Did the U.S. government condemn the Iraqi use of gas warfare against Iran? A: No Q: How many gallons of Agent Orange did America use in Vietnam? A: 17 million Q: How many tons of depleted uranium were left in Iraq and Kuwait after the Gulf War? A: 40 tons Q: What, according to the UN, was the increase in cancer rates in Iraq between 1991 and 1994? A: 700% Q: Are there any proven links between Iraq and the September 11th terrorist attacks? A: No Q: What is the estimated number of civilian casualties in the Gulf War? A: 35,000 Q: How many retreating Iraqi soldiers were buried alive by U.S. tanks with plows mounted on the front? A: 6,000 Q: How much of Iraq's military capacity did America claim it had destroyed in 1991? A: 80% Nuclear Weapons: Q: How many countries are known to have nuclear weapons? A: 8 Q:How many nuclear warheads does Iraq have? A: 0 Q: How many nuclear warheads does the U.S. have? A: Over 10,000 Q: Which is the only country to use nuclear weapons? A: The U.S. Civilian Deaths and UN Sanctions: Q: How many years ago was UN Resolution 661 introduced, imposing strict sanctions on Iraq's imports and exports? A: 12 years Q: What was the child death rate in Iraq in 1989 (per 1,000 births)? A: 38 Q: What was the estimated child death rate in Iraq in 1999 (per 1,000 births)? A: 131 (that's an increase of 345%) Q: How many Iraqis are estimated to have died by October 1999 as a result of UN sanctions? A: 1.5 million Q: How many Iraqi children are estimated to have died due to sanctions since 1997? A: 750,000 Inspections: Q: Who said that by December 1998, "Iraq had, in fact, been disarmed to a level unprecedented in modern history"? A: Scott Ritter, UNSCOM chief Q: How many inspections were there in November and December 1998? A: 300 Q: How many of these inspections had problems? A: 5 Q: Were the weapons inspectors allowed entry to the Ba'ath Party HQ? A: Yes Q: In 1998, how much of Iraq's post-1991 capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction did the UN weapons inspectors claim to have discovered and dismantled? A: 90% Q: Is Iraq willing to allow the weapons inspectors back in? A: Yes Human Rights Violations: Q: How many people did Saddam Hussein kill using gas in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988? A: 5,000 Q: How many western countries condemned this action at the time? A: 0