Monday, April 28, 2003

ProgressiveDailyNews.com - Tuesday, April 29, 2003   News Archives Click Here   ProgressiveDailyNews.com Updated Headlines http://www.ProgressiveDailyNews.com Tuesday, April 29, 2003 Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved (Stories are updated as often as possible - our primary goal Currently  is to make the Progressive News ticker available)   Click here to chat with Editor if on-line     Today's Top Stories     What Bush has Done Instant Run-off Voting Liberal Talk Radio   U-Wire News U.S. Senate defeats Bush’s energy plan Salon Bush Shows 'Pattern of Hostility'  Toward Civil Rights Supreme Court Permits Right to PrivacyViolation Supreme Court Disallows Mix of Church & State Yahoo News U.S. Foreign Service Association Says "Spurious" Gingrich Accusations of Treason by State Dep't Employees  Reuters World Ethnic Attacks in Congo Kill at Least 120 Consumer Spending, Personal Incomes Up Reuters Technology China Jails Two for Running Internet Cafe Common Dreams Illegal Aliens Can Be Held Indefinitely Ashcroft Says   Updated & Fresh News Headlines? download our ticker Place a Free Ad  Here PeaceWatch Requires Your Support Now! Women’s guide for safe living Regime Change Begins at Home       Win Without War   MotherJones Sanctions, Sanctimony Neocons are calling for an immediate end to sanctions on Iraq. Wasn't that a progressive cause? Corporate Scandals, British Style  (The Independent) Mugabe Unleashes a New Terror  (The Guardian)     10 Ways to Fight Hate             101 Tools for Tolerance   CounterPunch The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and the End of Civil Liberties The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance   Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong               Common Dreams Unlike Republican Appeals to Racist Voters, Republican Appeals to Homophobic Voters are Overt   Free Speech TV               Ralph Nader: Corporate Crimes: 'Tough Cop' Needed, Not a 'Too Big to Fail' Advocate   Make your city or town a Civil Liberties Safe Zone. Visit the Tools page to find out how!               Al Bawaba Rumsfeld in euphoria as Shiites protest  ''lack of representation'' The U.S.-led war in Iraq was a historic success that will influence military spending and doctrine for decades, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told cheering troops Monday. The military, he said, used "an unprecedented combination of power, precision, speed, flexibility, and, I would add, compassion."                 Washington Times Iraqis target Gen. Franks for war crimes trial   "It would be easier if I were dictator", George W. Bush               Lycos News Bush Leads Edwards in Home State of N.C. WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is maintaining his double-digit lead over Sen. John Edwards in a presidential matchup in Edwards' home state of North Carolina , while Democratic rival John Kerry is gaining on Edwards.                 NY Times Bush Said to "Stand by Iraq" Until it Votes His Way   How Polluted Is Your Zip Code? Environmental Scorecard               Mercury News Iraq Telecom System to Cost $1 Billion   Register to Vote Official Definition of War Crime               Salon Kurds Now Practicing Ethnic Cleansing on Iraqis   The Onion for a Good Political Laugh               Nando World Top Israeli says Palestinians must forget ’right of return’   Democracy Now!               BusinessWeek News Was the Iraq War Moral?   When Democracy Failed, by Thom Hartmann               Chicago Sun-Times Gay judges open eyes in judiciary                   The Sacramento Bee EPA Enforcer Using Pollution Cops to Run Errands, Chauffer her Cars and as Personal Bodyguards                   Sydney Morning Herald U.S. Transferring Air Base from Saudi Arabia to Qatar     Click Here Personalize Your Progressive News Sources and Stories by Keywords 9:46:52 PM    comment []

Progressive News Headlines Wednesday, April 23, 2003 Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved Today's Top Stories Common Dreams Rumsfeld Calls for Regime Change in N. Korea How American Power Girds the Globe with a Ring of Steel UNDERNEWS US Plan to Bomb North Korea BUSH WANTS TO MAKE LOW YIELD NUKES - JANG, PAKISTAN - The administration of U.S. President George Bush has asked Congress to repeal its 1993 ban on developing low-yield nuclear arms, according to congressional sources. The Bush administration is seeking to include in the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill the abandonment of the ban and substantial funds for research on such "mini nukes," the sources said. SUGAR INDUSTRY TRIES TO BLACKMAIL WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SARAH BOSELEY, GUARDIAN - The sugar industry in the US is threatening to bring the World Health Organization to its knees by demanding that Congress end its funding unless the WHO scraps guidelines on healthy eating, due to be published on Wednesday. The threat is being described by WHO insiders as tantamount to blackmail and worse than any pressure exerted by the tobacco lobby. PlanetOut California lawmakers ban sex stereotyping Federal funds finance gay seniors center   Newswire When former CIA Director James Woolsey began talking about World War IV, a war essentially against all so-called Islamists forces that preach hate against America, did he let some the details of the Bush regime's long term plans and present actions in Iraq out of the bag? Another firm owned by Senator Feinstein's husband wins a $600 million army contract URS Corp., a San Francisco planning and engineering firm partially owned by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, landed an Army contract Monday worth up to $600 million. (full story) Earth Day In The Shadow Of War Militarism And Environmental Destruction Go Hand In Hand.   Utne Was Ritter Right? Last fall, former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter was publicly vilified for claiming that Saddam Hussein could not have rebuilt his chemical and biological weapons programs after the last Gulf War. Today, reports Andrew Gumbel in the London-based The Independent , Ritter’s stance seems a lot more plausible than that of the Bush administration.    Common Dreams CHIEF UN ARMS INSPECTOR: US TRIED TO UNDERMINE OUR WORK... ACTIVISTS: UNDER COVER OF WAR BUSH TAKES AIM ON ENVIRONMENT Bush Pursues Offshore Oil Drilling in Alaska Iraq War Propels Hate-US Songs to Top of Pakistani Charts...... Did Bush Deceive Us in His Rush to War? War Profiteers, in Africa, as Well as Iraq... Administration Has Declared War on the Environment... POGO: Inappropriate Influence? Senators Pressure NRC to Delay Security Improvement...... Center for Constitutional Rights: American Couple Sue US Treasury Department for Unreasonable Penalties in Cuba Travel Case...... Ari, MSNBC reported this week that Israel's nuclear weapons arsenal rivals that of France and Britain. Given that arsenal, does the President support Syria's call to make the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction?   CounterPunch The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq War are Now Clear Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel? What Else Hasn't Israel Told America? Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult Civil Liberties Watch   MotherJones Bechtel's Big Payday The massive -- and massively-connected -- Bechtel, Inc. captures the brass ring in Iraq. Is anybody surprised?   Guerrilla News Network Hawking Syria Documents show neocons have long had Damascus in their sights.   The Nation Pride and Prejudice How do we know the economy is in bad shape? Unemployed white male hotshots are back in the news. Where Have All the WMD-Hunters Gone?  Not only has the Bush Administration not found chem-bio weapons, it barely had plans to look.  The Boss Defends Dissenters Springsteen lauds Dixie Chicks and all who utilize the "American right to free speech."  Camp Xray Holds Children! Yes, children are among the 660 terrorist suspects being interrogated at Guantanamo Bay. Democracy Bush-Style? For a clear-eyed view of democracy-building according to Bush, see...Boondocks   The Atlantic Online The Fall of the House of Saud Can the U.S. disentangle itself from Saudi Arabia?  Wealth of Nations: America Must Keep Its Word in Iraq. America cannot guarantee success in Iraq, but it can and must give success every chance.  Conservatives of the 'World War IV' school see a long global conflict with Islam.   UNDERNEWS BUSH'S BUDDIES [George Bush is getting help in his proto-fascist efforts from some interesting sources including liberal journals grown weary of democracy and freedom now that their writers are firmly ensconced among the country's increasingly authoritarian elite. The following, in Salon, was previewed: "The dangers of democracy. This season's intellectual pinup, Fareed Zakaria, author of 'The Future of Freedom,' explains why the romantic myth of freedom could harm Iraq -- and why power elites aren't so bad."] MICHELLE GOLDBERG, SALON - Argues Fareed Zakaria in his incisive new book "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad," democracy isn't necessarily the opposite of tyranny. From Venezuela to Kazakhstan, the last decade has seen a rise in elected autocrats, challenging American bromides that posit universal suffrage as the answer for all the world's ills. . . For all the buzz he's generating, Zakaria's ideas about democracy's failures aren't that new -- in much of the foreign-policy establishment, they've become a kind of conventional wisdom, popularized by writers like Robert Kaplan and Amy Chua. It's clear to anyone who's been paying attention, after all, that the heartening triumph of democracy around the world in the last decade has coincided with brutal outbreaks of ethnic nationalism, civil war and genocide. MUSLIMS EYE EURO AS NEW OIL CURRENCY COX NEWS - Since 1901, when drillers unleashed a Texas gusher and created the modern oil industry, barrels of oil have been sold for greenbacks. Whether they buy oil in Alaska, Norway or Bahrain, today's customers pay in US dollars. But when the United States launched its military attack against Iraq last month, many Muslim clerics began demanding that Arab countries sell oil for euros, not US dollars. That move could send shock waves through the world oil market and the US economy. Newspaper columnists and antiwar activists in countries from Morocco to Indonesia have rallied behind the sentiments shouted in a Nigerian street protest witnessed by a Wall Street Journal reporter this week: "Euro yes! Dollar no!" CLUSTER BOMBS STILL KILLING AND MAIMING LAURA KING, LOS ANGELES TIMES - Nearly two weeks after the fall of Baghdad, Iraqis are still being killed and maimed daily by previously unexploded ordnance in their cities and towns -- much of it in the form of cluster munitions, a class of weapons whose use has been denounced by human rights groups as a cruelly random scourge on civilians, particularly children. At a Pentagon briefing on Monday, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had "not heard of injuries" from cluster bombs but could not say whether such bombs had been used in residential areas. Another Pentagon official confirmed that cluster bombs were used in Iraq but could not say whether they were used in Baghdad. TREES CAN SAVE CITIES MILLIONS, BUT ARE DISAPPEARING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Over the past 15 years, the number of trees in many US cities has declined by about 30 percent, while the space covered by concrete and other solid surfaces has risen by 20 percent. . . [Gary Moll of American Forests] estimates that to redress the imbalance, metropolitan areas need 634 million more trees.   This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow When life hands you lemons make lemonade WASHINGTON, April 21 — President Bush's advisers have drafted a re-election strategy built around staging the latest nominating convention in the party's history, allowing Mr. Bush to begin his formal campaign near the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and to enhance his fund-raising advantage, Republicans close to the White House say.   The Left Leaner Help me, Daddy! President Bush doesn't want to repeat the mistakes of his father, but he's not above letting Poppy fight his battles for him. Former president George H.W. Bush has entered the battle over his son's judicial nominees, hosting a fundraiser at his Houston home that netted about $250,000 to buy television ads attacking several Democratic senators seeking reelection next year.   Salon.com What about workplace discrimination against atheists? Readers respond to Christopher S. Stewart's "Office Politics and God" Bush seeks to save most tax cuts Gay groups want Santorum out of leadership Interior Department sanitized reports to judge Powder scares hit Tacoma, Fort Myers What happened to Iraq's army? Nobody knows how many thousands of Iraqi soldiers were killed -- and the U.S. doesn't seem eager to let reporters find out. By Ferry Biedermann Open Warfare Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an ally of the Pentagon, calls the State Department run by Colin Powell "a clear disaster" Andrew Sullivan A star Republican senator's remarks compare consensual gay sex to polygamy and incest -- and it's even worse than it sounds. How will his party respond? Now Rumsfeld has Newt Gingrich railing a gainst the State Department.  www.ProgressiveNewsTicker.com 6:14:14 PM    comment []

ProgressiveDaily News.com Updated Headlines Tuesday, April 22, 2003 Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved Today's Top Stories Washington Monthly Magazine Practice to Deceive Chaos in the Middle East isn't the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario - it's their plan Institute for Public Accuracy War Crimes West Virginia Gazette Iraq War Planned for Years Salt Lake City Tribune Hatch Leading Charge to '1984,' Critics Warn IRISH INDEPENDENT RUMSFELD HELPED SELL NUCLEAR REACTORS TO NORTH KOREA EOGHAN WILLIAMS, IRISH INDEPENDENT - Irish Attorney-General Peter Sutherland and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helped sell nuclear reactors worth $200m to North Korea, the Sunday Independent can reveal. This weekend, the Stalinist regime of North Korea claimed it was taking steps to manufacture up to eight nuclear missiles from spent nuclear fuel. The multimillion-dollar reactor deal was struck just a year before President George W Bush branded the reclusive communist state part of an "axis of evil." American nuclear experts warned last week that radioactive components from the reactors could be used to develop powerful nuclear weapons. Now Pyongyang says this is exactly what it intends to do. Mr Sutherland and Mr Rumsfeld, who work together on several high-level projects, were both board members of a Zurich-based energy company, ABB, which sold two light-water nuclear reactors to the communists in 2000. The pair simultaneously stepped down from the ABB board a year later when Mr Rumsfeld was drafted into the Bush administration. But Sutherland's connection with the US hawk did not end there Both are members of the elite Bilderberg Group, which former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown was told comprises the "50 people who run the world and 20 hangers-on." Ashdown, who attended an annual meeting of the group in 1989, made it clear that Ireland's only member is not one of the hangers-on. "The show was stolen by Peter Sutherland," he wrote in his diary at the time. (See Also: Trading with the Enemy) Salon.com Supreme Court considers Miranda's scope Supreme Court to hear age bias case   The Nation Blacks Are Drug-Users? To a man, the Republican House stands by a racial slur. And it ain't even news. Our Evangelist President Bush's radio sermons help explain why many see the war as part of a crusade against Islam.   Mother Jones "The American Moment" Washington's imperial vision is being made all too clear in its plan for bases in Iraq. London's Secret War The British government's complicity in the Ulster violence is being laid bare. Nigerian Democracy Fails to Deliver (The Telegraph)   Counter Punch Give Us Back Our Democracy Americans Have Been Cheated and Lied To by EDWARD SAID An Administration in Contempt Elaine Cassel   Common Dreams NEW MCCARTHYISM: HOLLYWOOD SILENCING & SACKING WAR CRITICS Bill to Bar Suits Against Gun Industry  Stuns Crime Victims   Guerrilla News Network Speaking your mind,  and other dangerous acts   UNDERNEWS BAGHDAD GETS A NEW DICTATOR RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN, WASHINGTON POST - A dozen sheiks from the southern suburb of Daura, resplendent in gold-fringed robes and aristocratic in posture, gathered around a U-shaped table in the Sheraton Hotel this afternoon to meet the man who claims to be the new boss of Baghdad. STATES FACING WORST FISCAL CRISES SINCE WORLD WAR II TIMOTHY EGAN, NY TIMES - At a time when the governor of Missouri has ordered every third light bulb unscrewed to save money, when teachers are doubling as janitors in Oklahoma and working two weeks without pay in Oregon, when Connecticut is laying off prosecutors and Kentucky is releasing prison inmates early, the veterinarian crisis in Nebraska may seem like small potatoes.  PENTAGON EXPECTS TO CONTROL FOUR IRAQ BASES INDEFINITELY THOM SHANKER AND ERIC SCHMITT, NEW YORK TIMES - American military officials, in interviews this week, spoke of maintaining perhaps four bases in Iraq that could be used in the future: one at the international airport just outside Baghdad; another at Tallil, near Nasiriya in the south; the third at an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert, along the old oil pipeline that runs to Jordan; and the last at the Bashur air field in the Kurdish north. Pentagon officials expect to gain access to the bases in the event of some future crisis.  www.ProgressiveNewsTicker.com  5:41:59 PM    comment []

ProgressiveDailyNews.com Updated Headlines Monday, April 21, 2003 Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved Today's Top Stories uExpress featuring Column of the Americas OUR AMERICA Our America is an indigenous America. It is a continent, not a nation, from Alaska to Chile. It is Turtle Island, Itzachitlan, Abya Yalla and Pacha Mama. It is a place that gave birth to the sacred maize, the three sisters and the seven warriors (the plants that form the basis of indigenous nutrition). It is a place without borders, where men and women of all races, cultures and religions are equal.   Alternative Press Review Reasons Not to Invade Iraq, by George Bush Sr. Time Magazine Removes 1998 essay from Bush Sr. “Why We Didn’t Remove Saddam”   When Police Attack Journalists by Will Potter, CounterPunch I attended the march as a freelance journalist, and was beaten by police with batons while I was wearing my Congressional press pass. These attacks were not just "allegations."   BuzzFlash The Republican Spy for China: GOP Contributor and Bush Supporter Allegdly Betrays America    The Bush Legacy Bush Cartel Bumbling Allowed South African WMD to Go On the Open Market   The Bush Legacy Dangerous strains of cholera, black fever, HIV, polio and hepatitis may have been lost during the postwar looting of Iraq's key disease-control facility The MemoryHole Doctored Photo of Welcoming Iraqi Crowds On 9 April 2003, the London Evening Standard's front page contained a blurry image supposedly showing a throng of Iraqis in Baghdad celebrating the toppling of Saddam Hussein. What we are really looking at is an incredibly ham-fisted attempt at photo manipulation. Salon.com The secret society Tim Grieve, Salon Under Attorney General John Ashcroft, America is becoming an Orwellian state where people are locked up and no one can find out why -- least of all a compliant Congress. Lost in the shuffle Is North Korea's nuclear threat being ignored? India offers to hold talks with Pakistan New Palestinian premier, Arafat at odds Waco survivors mark 10-year anniversary Soldiers kill 6 at Nigerian poll station Iraq war action figures become hot items Syria tightens restrictions on Iraqis Television cameraman is killed in Nablus Visitors mark Oklahoma City bombing anniversary... In Tikrit, the fallen dictator's home, Americans are seen as occupiers, not liberators -- and some residents say they'll drive them out Liberate Iraq's history now! The U.S. should seal its commitment to a free Iraq by releasing captured documents and its own archives, so Iraqis can examine their own past.   The Nation Rather Takes on Rumsfeld Dan Rather, not given to picking fights with the White House, couldn't lay off this one.   CounterPunch Saul Landau The Last Days of Born-Again History Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's War, Wait for Armageddon The War on Civilization by GARY LEUPP "This is what the Americans wanted. They wanted Iraq to lose its history." Donny George, Director for Research, Iraqi Ministry of Antiquities (quoted by Associated Press, April 16) It's Not Just Protesters Anymore When Police Attack Journalists by WILL POTTER Liberation Four Years After Iraqis Should Look to Serbia to Find Out What "Freedom" Will Be Like;  Unfolding Nightmare: Inside the Humanitarian Disaster in Post-War Iraq; Good News, Bad News:  Countering the Flood of Propaganda; You Want Victory?: Return to Vieques; Iraq's War Message to Latin America: You Could be Next. ...   Common Dreams ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT TRIES TO FIND A MEANINGFUL MESSAGE... ANTHRAX, CHEMICALS & NERVE GAS: WHO IS LYING?...... Free Speech for Companies on Justices' Agenda...... New Anti-Environment Tack By Bush?...... Castro Dissidents Jailed in Reprisals...... Ex-US Official Says CIA Aided Baathists...... Bestseller Success for Anti-US War Books...... Hands Off Iraqi Oil, Mideast States Tell US...... AP Cameraman Shot and Killed by Israeli Troops...... Children Main Victims of Cluster Bombs...... Fergal Keane: A Dangerous Groundswell of Resentment is Building Up on the Streets of Baghdad... The World According to Bush... Christopher Brauchli: Ashcroft After Guilty Pleas, Not Justice... Ken Wiwa: In the Beginning, Bush Said, Let There Be Might ...   Alternative Information Center Israeli army escalates aggression against Palestinians, shoot 7 dead ... Deportation of migrant workers from Israel reaches new heights in March ... Nurit Wurgeft/Haaretz ...   Freespeech The Unthinkable is Becoming Normalized ... Mark Vallen - Art For A Change... Iraq is the "test case", says the Bush regime, which every day sails closer to Mussolini's definition of fascism: the merger of a militarist state with corporate power. Iraq is a test case for western liberals, too. As the suffering mounts in that stricken country, with Red Cross doctors describing "incredible'' levels of civilian casualties, the choice of the next conquest, Syria or Iran, is "debated'' on the BBC, as if it were a World Cup venue.   The Independent, London, UK So where are they, Mr. Blair? Not one illegal warhead. Not one drum of chemicals. Not one incriminating document. Not one shred of evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction in more than a month of war and occupation. So where are they? In case we forget, distracted by the thought of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians, looted museums and gathering political chaos, the proclaimed purpose of this war, vainly pursued by Britain and the US through the United Nations, was to disarm Saddam Hussein and to destroy weapons of mass destruction deemed a menace to the entire world.   BuzzFlash Hans Blix Steps Up Pressure to Allow Inspectors Back In (Before Bush Cartel Plants WMD)... Bush Cartel Puts Feared Saddam Iraq Police Back on the Streets Is Dale Petroskey Reading BuzzFlash. He Admits that HE Politicized the "Bull Durham" Event, But It Hasn't Been Rescheduled, Has It? Keep the Heat On. We Plan To. Baseball Belongs to All Americans, Not Just the Republican Party. Roman Empire Redux: Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq  THE HYPOCRISY BEHIND 'NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND' ACT  Update on the Paul Wellstone Plane Crash   International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Latest reports from ICRC staff in Iraq. Urgent need for order and stability. Water and electricity situation improving but still critical. Hospitals providing essential services under difficult conditions. Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies round the world helping the ICRC restore family links.   Unpleasant Realities by Uncommon Thought.com Human Rights Watch, US use of cluster bombs in Baghada comdemned Morgan, Reuters, Former US official says CIA aided Iraqi Ba'athists   WHAT REALLY HAPPENED Journalists Blamed for Stealing Paintings from Baghdad Museum Texas Reactor Vessel Is Leaking Water The C.I.A. And Heroin ... WHO OWNS THE CONGRESS?   Environmental News Service By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. Earth Day 2003 – A Time for Mourning, Not Craft Fairs - The list of events planned around the U.S. for Earth Day 2003 is chilling. While deadly pollution harms U.S. soldiers, the people, and environment of Iraq, and while people worldwide die from soil, air, and water poisoned with pesticides and scores of toxic chemicals, Earth Day craft fairs and lectures will be held. Lost is the passion and sense of urgency that heralded the first Earth Day 33 years ago. www.ProgressiveNewsTicker.com 5:07:22 PM    comment []

ProgressiveDailyNews.com Updated Headlines Saturday, April 19, 2003 Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved   Truthout Venezuela Has Proof Washington  Was Behind Failed Coup   Ex-Spies Slam US Over Failure to Find WMDs Sydney Morning Herald, Australia Cheney's Lawyers Given Cold Shoulder   Salon IMF Approves $701M in Loans to Turkey Iraq Oil Production May Resume in 7 Weeks U.S. has $253B deficit in fiscal 1st half DARPA cancels open-source software project after anti-war comments Bush approval rating rises after war Iraqis demand swift U.S. withdrawal Baghdad residents protest U.S. troops What does the first lady -- a former librarian -- think of her husband's failure to protect Iraq's cultural sites? 10 great moments in jingoism You can't say TV news didn't do its part for the war effort. A highlight reel, starring Matt, Joe, Sean and Paula   The Nation Long Live Emperor CEO After a year of "reform", executive pay packages remain outlandish.   CounterPunch Operation "Syrian Freedom": This One's Not About Oil Jorge Mariscal Syria and the Road to World War IV, Reza Ladjevardian Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles, Matania Ben-Artzi You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President of Israel's Supreme Court My Lai Revisited, Carl Estabrook Meet the Victims of War...   Common Dreams US VICTORY'S STEEP PRICE: INTERNATIONAL LAW & OCCUPATION US SHOULD BE 'EMBARRASSED'  OVER FAILURE TO FIND WMDS: EX-SPIES Judge Scolds Cheney's Lawyer Over Legal Tactics to Keep Secret Energy Task Force Some Skeptics Say Arms Hunt Is Fruitless Citigroup Yields to Pressure by Environmentalists Nobel Laureates Tell United States: Now Win the Peace Anthony Robinson: War in Iraq a Reason for Shame Martha Kessler: Avoid the Road to Damascus Robert Reich: Reelection? Father Didn't Know Best   Guerrilla News Network : Newswire The Real War - On American Democracy (fash'iz'em) n. A dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership. Thom Hartmann   PlanetOut gay lesbian queer community Use of 'gay' may block AIDS research Egypt sends 14 suspected gay men to jail   Newswire : LA Indymedia ''Colombia: another front in broader U.S. war'' By Matthew Riemer ( YellowTimes.org)  Brilliant expose of the Bush Admin's fundamentalist subtext James Heflin  The only thing the author misses is the tie-in to similar antics on the part of every ascendant fascist of the past 100 years, including Hitler   TOMPAINE Tax Cuts Before Country Corporations Are People, Too How Human Institutions Subordinated Humans by Thom Hartmann ... An historical review of how corporations attained personhood in the eyes of the law, and how they've used it to seize control of legislative and regulatory agendas. Breslin Speaks On Patriotism, Propaganda And News... by Sharon Basco ... The Most Dangerous President Ever  by Harold Meyerson No American president has ever played so fast and loose with the well-being of the American people as George W. Bush.   Freespeech Over 20,000 in DC protest Iraq Occupation ... Protesters hit by DC Metropolitan Police motorcycles while marching on the sidewalk in DC The Confrontation of people power vs imperialist power continues Washington DC April 12 anti war rally only one of hundreds across the world. The BBC reports that banner-waving protesters streamed through the streets of Rome while in Seoul they clashed with riot police trying to keep them away from the US Embassy.   Captimes.com Editorial: Committing to manufacturing The dirty little secret of the Thompson-McCallum years was that the state Department of Commerce was so politicized and so biased against basic industries that it actually harmed job creation in the state.   AlterNet False Patriotism in Time of War By Bruce Jones... Weapons of Mass Persuasion By Linda Mamoun... Drug Education Should Dare to Be Different By Marsha Rosenbaum... Jim Lobe, Foreign Policy in Focus... Iraqi aid Frustrated Americans are taking humanitarian aid into their own hands by sending funds to Iraq. A plea emailed to 2 million MoveOn.org subscribers netted $600,00 for Oxfam's aid fund. As the humanitarian crisis becomes more evident, people are reacting with generosity Museum-Gate? Oddly enough, in light of the multiple-day extravaganza of looting of Iraqi antiquities that went on right under the nose of occupying American troops , before the war even began there were charges being slung by rabble-rousing archeologists and scientists that the United States was in cahoots with a group of wealthy art dealers to, um, liberate Iraq's historical heritage. GONSALVES: Adios, 'Rule of Law' BuzzFlash One Thing is Crystal Clear: Clear Channel is a Subsidiary of Bush, Inc - A BuzzFlash News Analysis... "Tens of Thousands of Protesters" Demand U.S. Get Out of Iraq... Did the White House "Enforcement Squad" Write Dale Petroskey's Letter to Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon? Molly Ivins: Arizona's Homophobia 4/19 Why One American Will No Longer Support a Propagandized Media - A BuzzFlash Reader Commentary Aaron Brown, Why Do Networks Parrot the Right Wing Spin? - A BuzzFlash Reader Commentary Will The Real James A. Baker III Please Stand Up! - A BuzzFlash Reader Commentary Regime Change - Batting for the Winning Team: The "lyrical flights of fancy" by Pro-War Commentators following the Fall of Baghdad  Child casualties 'fill Iraq hospitals'. Bush's New Slogan: Leave No Live Iraqi Child Behind  Rep. Henry Waxman asked a congressional committee to investigate Philip Morris USA for destroying e-mail relevant to a Justice Department lawsuit.  Cato Institute: A Democratic Iraq May Not Be Friendly to U.S.  Liberal Russian Political Figure Slain on Moscow Street  "The president’s claim that the dividend tax cut would benefit most taxpayers goes largely unchallenged. Seventy percent of taxpayers would receive no benefit at all according to the IRS."  Charity's anger as US halts aid plane  A Skewed History of Asia: Wolfowitz "is turning history on its head" 4/19 Salt Lake City paper on Hatch and the Patriot Act: "dissolve is exactly what the law should do." Exiled Shiite Chief: Iraqis Should Rebel: Exiled Shiite Opposition Leader Calls on Iraqis to Oppose U.S.-Led Interim Administration  Sen. Kennedy: "The budget that passed the Senate two weeks ago was not a good one. The budget which returned from Conference today is much, much worse." 4/19 Gulf states warn US over Syria  U.S. Army dismisses more gay linguists  The secret society: Under Attorney General John Ashcroft, America is becoming an Orwellian state where people are locked up and no one can find out why -- least of all a compliant Congress. Iraq war: Unanswered questions (i.e., Plenty of Bush Lies) Capitalizing On Fear Itself: CBS (barely) examines how politicians are capitalizing on the nation's post-Sept. 11 mood. Bush-Ashcroft vs. Homeland Security: Clean Air Act Polluted by the Justice Department This Week on Now with Bill Moyers: Is a new bill in Congress putting corporate profits over workers' rights? British Aid Plane Prevented from Entering Iraq   Infoshop News More Than 16,000 Deported from U.S. Despite Fears of Torture... PHILADELPHIA - Mor Sene said separatist rebels tore off his toenails and stabbed him in the chest when he lived in Senegal, while government soldiers accused him of conspiring with the enemy.  Police Raids on the Native Youth Movement...No One Is Illegal - Vancouver “They feel threatened that Native Youth Movement (NYM) will bring back all that they have tried to suppress in Indian People - that fighting Warrior Spirit"  DARPA cancels open-source software project after anti-war comments... Liberating Technology The U.S. military's research agency cut off grant money for helping to develop a secure, free operating system after a top programmer made anti-war statements to a major newspaper. www.ProgressiveNewsTicker.com 4:52:15 PM    comment []

ProgressiveDailyNews.com Updated Headlines Thursday, April 17, 2003 Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved CommonDreams Hundreds of US Soldiers Emerge as Conscientious Objectors Ellis Henican: Time to Inspect The Home Front Tim Robbins: "A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation": Speech to the National Press Club.   UNDERNEWS GREG SARGENT, NY OBSERVER - Sharon Bush, the estranged wife of President George W. Bush's younger brother Neil, is planning to write a tell-all book about her two decades with the Bush family, The Observer has learned. . . Mrs. Bush is in the middle of a divorce battle with Neil Bush, and the fight has turned nasty on both sides. The Observer has obtained a deposition given by Mr. Bush on March 4, in which he described his marriage as "broken" and "loveless." Meanwhile, Mrs. Bush's talk of a book may merely be an effort to ratchet up the pressure on Mr. Bush to give her a more generous settlement than he has offered in the past. . . In her book, Ms. Bush wants to detail her disillusionment with the family. According to her associates, she has grown despondent about her treatment at the hands of the Bushes. She said family members have turned their backs on her ever since last year, when she learned that her husband wanted to end their marriage after carrying on an extramarital affair with one of Barbara Bush's former assistants. . . . Ms. Bush's spokesman, Lou Colasuonno, a partner at the public-relations firm of Westhill Partners, confirmed that she wanted to write the book. "This will be the story of Sharon Bush's life inside one of the most powerful families in America," Mr. Colasuonno said. "She witnessed the evolution of a dynasty. She believes, and is prepared to reveal in her book, that the Bushes are far more pragmatic and calculating than has ever been seen before. She will show that the family orchestrates its public image from top to bottom. She will reveal that the family is in essence a political operation."   CommonDreams Maine Protesters Blockade General Dynamics in Tax Day Protest...... US Inspectors Find No Forbidden Weapons at Iraqi Arms Plant...... Inquiry Demanded Over US Failure to Stop Library Looting...... US War on Drugs Called a Failure...... Clinton Blasts US Approach to International Affairs...... Ellis Henican: Time to Inspect The Home Front... Arianna Huffington: Why The Anti-War Movement Was Right... Robert Kuttner: Redefining 'Democracy' as Disorder... Scott Ritter: Missing Arms Cast Doubt on War...   Alternative Information Center UNCHR adopts resolutions on situation in occupied Arab territories ... Israeli army seals off occupied Palestinian territories   Atlantic Online Social Studies: How to Secure the Homeland Without Leaving the House Instead of bringing guards to watch America's critical infrastructure, bring the infrastructure to the guards. By Jonathan Rauch. Legal Affairs: Myths and Realities About Affirmative Action. Most of the students who lose out because of racial preferences are not white; they're Asian-American. By Stuart Taylor Jr.   CounterPunch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Jason Leopold Halliburton's Bloody History: They'll Work for Anyone Kurt Nimmo The Destruction of Iraq: Hey, It's Good for Business Stephen Green Dancing to Sharon's Beat: the Road to Unilateral Pre-emption Diane Christian The Devil in Bush's Details Carol Norris Mourning Iraq Anthony Gancarski They Call Themselves Economists? Michael Sells Nero in Baghdad Alexander Cockburn Contract with Iraq Brenda Norrell Lakota Leader: World Must Resist American Empire   MotherJones How 'Shock & Awe' Played in Pyongyang (Asia Times) Organic Advocates Up in Arms (San Francisco Chronicle) Israel's Middle East Wish List (Ha'aretz)... Get Involved...Aid for Iraq's People - Behind the TV images of toppled statues, millions of Iraqi people are in desperate need. The Working Assets Iraqi Emergency Relief Fund is helping fund nonprofit agencies providing humanitarian aid there. Support this effort today.   The Nation Take Action...History? What History? Robert Scheer | Allowing the looting of Iraq's museums is another indication of our contempt for the Middle East--and our unfitness to rule it  No Profits for Profiteers Why should war in Iraq be good for those who have been good to the Republican party?    Salon.com Many Iraqis turn anger toward U.S. Gephardt wants to scrap income tax cuts U.S., North Korea to start talks Powell regrets U.S. role in 1973 Chile coup The sacking of Iraq's museums is like a "lobotomy" of an entire culture, say art experts. And they warned the Pentagon repeatedly of this potential catastrophe for months before the war By Louise Witt... "What if someone stole the Constitution and the Liberty Bell?" We invaded Iraq to seize weapons of mass destruction, but a U.S. Army inspector suggests that the U.S should lower its expectations Arianna Huffington The speedy fall of Baghdad proves a preemptive strike was unnecessary WMD, MIA? Hasty, incomplete news reports have suggested that coalition troops found chemical weapons, or even nukes, in Iraq. They haven't -- at least not yet. And the rest of world is watching skeptically By Jake Tapper Your glow stick could land you in jail The latest incarnation of the RAVE Act punishes drug users and bystanders alike -- and tramples civil liberties By Janelle Brown   UNDERNEWS REUTERS - "Is this your liberation?" one frustrated shopkeeper screamed at the crew of a U.S. tank as a gang of youths helped themselves to everything in his small hardware store and carted booty off in the wheelbarrows that had also been on sale. "Hell, it ain't my job to stop them," drawled one young marine, lighting a cigarette as he looked on. "Goddamn Iraqis will steal anything if you let them. Look at them." GEORGE W. BUSH - It's an amazing thing, when you see a person wounded, sitting there in a wheel chair or bound up in bandages...a young man, look you in the eye and say, 'I can't wait to get back to my unit. I hope I heal fast enough to get back to Iraq.' [Although, as Tom Tomorrow points out, President Bush apparently could wait to get back to his National Guard unit in 1972.] PAUL WATSON, LOS ANGELES TIMES - U.S. special-forces troops, caught in the middle of a political power grab, battled a violent mob with assault rifles and heavy machine guns from the governor's building here Tuesday. A crowd of more than 2,000 repeatedly surged at the building for around an hour, hurling rocks and chunks of concrete, as U.S. soldiers drove them back with one barrage after another, including rounds from .50-caliber machine guns. There were unconfirmed reports that at least 10 people were killed and 16 injured.  BBC - US ADMITS MOSUL KILLINGS - A US commander has admitted that American troops did shoot and kill a number of Iraqis during a protest in the northern city of Mosul. Brigadier-General Vince Brooks said US marines and special forces soldiers fired at demonstrators on Tuesday after they came under attack from people shooting guns and throwing rocks. "Fire was indeed delivered from coalition forces, it was lethal fire and some Iraqis were killed as a result, we think the number is in the order of seven and we think there were some wounded as well," he said.  AMNESTY SAYS IRAQ OIL BETTER PROTECTED THAN PEOPLE BRADEN REDDALL, REUTERS  ASHCROFT'S NEW BUDDY:  CHARLES SCHUMER CHISUN LEE, VILLAGE VOICE - He calls it "logical." If federal agents hesitate to investigate terrorist suspects because they are daunted by a legal hurdle, then remove that hurdle. At least if the suspects are foreigners. He knows federal agencies have resisted accounting for their use of vast new investigative powers under the Patriot Act, even though some 18,000 terrorism-related subpoenas and search warrants have been issued since September 11, 2001. He knows these investigations are sometimes shielded by court-approved secrecy, keeping the public and Congress from ever knowing if the probing was proper. But he believes agents should get more secret spying freedom anyway, and he casts his belief in terms that would be politically unpopular to contradict: Just imagine what fresh tragedy could follow a thwarted probe. He is not President George Bush or Attorney General John Ashcroft, but U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat from New York. To the consternation of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Human Rights Watch, among others, the senator is spearheading a bill that would enable federal agents to more easily monitor individuals in the U.S. using powerful foreign intelligence surveillance warrants. His co-sponsorship of the measure, with Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona, has helped assure bipartisan popularity to the extent that, as Schumer told the Voice last week, "there is virtually no opposition to this in Congress." CHURCH SCHOOL SUBSIDIES STIR UP AUSTIN  CHURCH SCHOOL SUBSIDIES FOUND TO MAKE NO EDUCATIONAL DIFFERENCE JOURNALIST OF THE CENTURY AL KAMEN, WASH POST - Uday Hussein's home was hit by looters, who took wine, booze, paintings and white Arabian horses. They even hit his yacht moored at the Tigris River estate, Hula reported. Meanwhile, another important election looks likely once stability returns to the country. Seems Uday also chaired the Iraqi Journalists' Union, which elected him "Journalist of the Century" in April 2000.  MILITARY SUPPRESSES MEDIA COVERAGE OF PROTEST AGE, AUSTRALIA - US forces yesterday tried to stop the media from covering a third day of anti-American protests by Iraqis outside a hotel housing a US operations base, according to a reporter at the scene. Up to 300 Iraqis gathered outside the Palestine Hotel to express rage at what they said was the US failure to restore order after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. For the first time, visibly angered US military officials sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and cameras about 30 meters from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel. "We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here," said a marine colonel who would not give his first name or title. . . NO PLANS TO COUNT IRAQI DEAD REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - Pentagon officials announced they do not plan to determine how many Iraqi civilians were killed in fighting during the war, even as Congress indicated that the military should help in the effort to identify and assist the families of those Iraqi civilians who were killed or injured, according to a Washington Post account.   TOMPAINE Twisted Allegiance Tax Cuts BeforeCountry Tom DeLay has demonstrated the twisted allegiance that now dominates Washington -- tax cuts for the wealthy before all other needs....   GreenBiz NEWS: New Wind Turbine Offers Cleaner, Quieter Ventilation   Alternative Press Review They Shoot Activists, Don’t They? Brooke Shelby Biggs, AlterNet In the past month, three international peace activists have been wounded or killed by the Israeli Army. They were all affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, a loose network of international activists who are trained in and dedicated to non-violent tactics to defend Palestinian civilians from Israeli aggression. Baghdad Did Not Fall - It Was Handed Over Jalal Ghazi, Pacific News Service Arabic media are using the word "safqa" to explain the sudden collapse of Baghdad and the Iraqi regime. Translated into English, "safqa" means "a deal made fast and in secrecy." AlterNet The CIA-Saddam love affair The close ties between the U.S. and Saddam go farther back than the Iran-Iraq war. Recent (sic) suggest that Saddam and the CIA began their cozy relationship back in the 60s, when he was recruited to kill the then Iraqi prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim. He bungled the job, but the CIA still took care of him in the following years, greasing his rise through the Baathist heirarchy.   BuzzFlash The Bush/GOP Cash Connection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Board of Directors. Sixth in a BuzzFlash Series on the Partisan Republican Scandal in Cooperstown. When a People are Deprived of Their History, It is Much Easier to Write a New One for Them. Isn't It? A BuzzFlash.com Editorial Venezuela has proof Washington was behind failed coup, general Republicans WON'T Fix Broken Voting Machines in New York Who Controls Our Voting Machines? More Proof that Polling of Bush is Rigged: Poll Shows Bush Ahead in California '04 Vote. Yeah, Right. Our Guess is They Talked to 695 Residents of Orange County.    WorkingForChange Report card Afghanistan Heroin production soars, women remain imperiled, violence abounds.   Michael Moore.com Muslims in Defense Department object to Pentagon's inviting Reverend who called Islam an " evil religion " to preach on Good Friday. 4:42:27 PM    comment []

ProgressiveDaily News.com Updated Headlines Wednesday, April 16, 2003 Copyright © 2003 All rights reserved   GOP, Teamsters join forces on environment By Leigh Strope, Salon.com Salon.com Bush presses for $550 billion in tax cuts Conservative fundamentalists with close ties to President Bush are planning a new missionary push in Iraq -- and they might already be converting U.S. troops to their cause As U.S.-Syria relations deteriorate, a British newscaster protests that the Syrian president "only recently had tea with the Queen" Readers respond to "Liberation Day,"  by Gary Kamiya   TheNation The Gloating on the (Neocon) Cakewalk Privatization in Disguise Iraqi freedom may come pre-shackled with economic decisions made in boardrooms while the bombs were still falling. Naomi Klein reports.   TOMPAINE Ballots Can Keep Bullets From Flying A Call To Register For Peace by Elizabeth Ready and John Moyers. The peace movement, re-energized by Mr. Bush's war, could lead environmental, health care and other activists in an effort to register and turn out millions of voters in 2004. The Only Peace Demonstration The President Can't Ignore. Would President Bush listen any better if every protestor pledged to vote next year? It's Something Exceptionalist, by John Balzar Bush's Clear Skies plan lets polluters ignore current law -- and get away with it.   CounterPunch Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War What America Says Does Not Go  (The History of US Wars - Ed.) by UZMA ASLAM KHAN A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons by ALI ABUNIMAH and HUSSEIN IBISH   CommonDreams NO COKE, NO PEPSI: PAKISTANIS BOYCOTT WESTERN PRODUCTS Norman Solomon: Mark Twain Speaks to Us: "I Am an Anti-Imperialist" Matthew Engel: War for Many Americans Has Become Something Fascinating, Glorious, Satisfying, Charmingly Distant and Thus Quasi-Fictional Calif. GOP Asked to Repudiate Anti-Islam Remarks: Former State Party Chairman Says 'Disease of Islam Must be Rectified' Sierra Club: Bush Administration to Argue for Secrecy on Energy Powerful Industry Association Calls for Ban on Apparel Imports from Burma; American Association of Apparel and Footwear Manufacturers Takes Strong Stand on Human Rights   Guerrilla News Network - Newswire A Syria Primer: Meet the latest target. Stephen Zunes Fearing FEMA: The dark history of a little-known federal agency. Sander Hicks   Israeli high court rejects refusenik's petition  Moshe Reinfeld/Haaretz   Working for Change Grin and pay it - Paying taxes isn’t fun. But your rights depend on them -- especially if you’re rich. by E.J. Dionne, Jr. Arianna Huffington and The Bermuda Project take aim at corporate tax evaders   NY Times Behind Our Backs By PAUL KRUGMAN The political lesson of the last year is that war works — that is, it's an excellent cover for the Republican Party's domestic political agenda.   Sierra Club Buying Salmon? Buy Wild It may seem counterintuitive, but the ecological choice in salmon is wild fish, not farmed.   Newswire - LA Indymedia These Pathetic Times, by Stephen DeVoy  Last night I checked my email to find a long string of hate mail from those men and women “defending our freedom.” I usually do not receive much email from “the troops,” so I suspected that something was up before I read the first email. Upon reading it, I discovered that someone has sent email in my name to “the troops.”   VillageVoice Reports Claim Saddam Was Once in the Hands of the CIA by James Ridgeway LOST IN THE RUBBLE Anthrax, Biological Weapons, and Other Smoking Guns We Never Found in Iraq FOUNDERING FATHERS Heritage Foundation's Plan for Iraq VANISHING LIBERTIES Where's the Press?   The Atlantic Online Imposing Democracy "To force elections may give us some instant gratification. But after a few months or years a bunch of soldiers with grenades will get bored and greedy, and will easily topple their fledgling democracy." In 1997 Robert D. Kaplan argued that for some struggling countries, democracy is not the answer.   UNDERNEWS AND NOW THE LIBRARIES BURN ROBERT FISK, INDEPENDENT - So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives ­ a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq ­ were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze. WITNESSES SAY U.S. TROOPS FIRED INTO PROTEST CROWD - 12 DEAD, 60 WOUNDED AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - Many Iraqis fear US plans for the future of Iraq and popular anger has been mounting over the widespread anarchy and chaos since Saddam was toppled last Wednesday. That anger was visible in Nasiriyah as the crowd marched through the street chanting "Yes to freedom... Yes to Islam... No to America, No to Saddam." Such anger was also visible in the northern city of Mosul, when a firefight broke out as the newly-appointed governor was making a speech which listeners deemed was too pro-US, witnesses said. HUSSEIN AN AMERICAN ASSET FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS RICHARD SALE, UPI - U.S. forces in Baghdad might now be searching high and low for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but in the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years, according to former U.S. intelligence diplomats and intelligence officials. United Press International has interviewed almost a dozen former U.S. diplomats, British scholars and former U.S. intelligence officials to piece together the following account. HERALD TRIBUNE U.S. DIVERTS RELIEF EFFORTS FOR REST OF WORLD TO REPAIR IRAQ CHAOS ROGER THUROW AND DAVID BANK, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The U.S. has diverted more than a half billion dollars from relief efforts for famines, epidemics and civil wars around the world to prepare for the aftermath of the war in Iraq, delaying aid to displaced Sudanese and homeless Afghans, among others. The White House is planning to repay most of the money diverted from other accounts within the State Department's foreign-aid budget from the nearly $80 billion supplemental budget nearing approval before a House-Senate conference in Congress. But the Bush administration is said to be already planning to dip into other foreign-aid accounts to free more than $100 million in additional funds for Iraq-relief efforts. It isn't clear yet whether that money also will be replenished. Other donor nations are diverting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to Iraq, too. ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST CHALABI REPORTED ABDUL RAHEEM ALI, ISLAM ON LINE - A number of armed people belonging to the nascent National Front for the Liberation of Iraq tried Friday, April 11, to assassinate Ahmad Chalabi, one of the prominent exile leaders and head of the Iraqi National Council, in the southern city of An-Nasiriyah. "They attacked a camp of Chalabi's devotees, leaving a number of them killed," Abdul Amir El-Rakabi, an Iraqi exile, told Islam On Line. "They narrowly missed Chalabi," he added. AMERICA USED WMDs AGAINST IRAQ HASSAN TAHSIN, ARAB NEWS - If Washington and London are honest in the justifications they have presented for launching war, then it is neither possible nor acceptable that Baghdad and a number of other Iraqi cities should be shelled with chemical bombs. Yes, that is the truth; Baghdad has been battered with chemical bombs and bombs carrying highly combustible depleted uranium. . . Aside from these munitions, advanced cluster bombs carrying ethylene gas have also been used. They are called MOABs, or massive ordnance airburst bombs, and they are essentially chemical bombs. These ethylene bombs work by taking advantage of the effect of exploding fuel in the air. When a mix of fuel and air ignites, it creates a fireball and a wave of explosions that spread quickly over a much greater area than traditional explosives. The after-effects of the explosion are very similar to those of small nuclear bombs but without the radiation. EAGLEBURGER SAYS BUSH SHOULD BE IMPEACHED IF HE INVADES SYRIA JAMES HARDY, MIRROR UK - Lawrence Eagleburger, Secretary of State under George Bush Senior, said American public opinion would not tolerate action against Syria or Iran. He was speaking as Colin Powell, the current Secretary of State, ramped up the pressure on Syria not to shield Saddam Hussein or his cronies. Washington hawks are spoiling for a fight with Syria and Iran following the collapse of the Iraqi regime. WAR COULD COST ARAB WORLD ONE TRILLION DOLLARS AL JAZEERA - The US-led war on Iraq could cost as much as $1,000 billion in lost production in Arab countries, a UN economic seminar in Beirut warned on Monday. "A dark cloud is covering the whole world and the Arab region in particular," said Mervat Tallawi, Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia. She estimated the cost of the war at a trillion dollars in lost gross domestic product, on top of the $600 billion lost due to the 1991 Gulf War, at the start of a four-day session. US BLOCKS HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATE ON IRAQ ROLF HOGAN, AL JAZEERA - Despite mounting allegations of human rights abuses from both sides in the war in Iraq, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights last week rejected a proposal to hold a special discussion on human rights issues associated with the conflict. Human rights groups worry that heavy lobbying by Washington has prevented serious discussion of the conflict and will hinder future investigation of alleged human rights and humanitarian law abuses by Coalition forces. CEO PAYCHECKS FLOURISH DESPITE ECONOMIC DECLINE BETH HEALY, BOSTON GLOBE - After a year of scandal and fraud allegations at Merrill Lynch & Co., not to mention a battered stock, investors might reasonably have expected the Wall Street giant's top brass to feel some pain in their paychecks. Instead, the chairman and chief executive of the nation's largest brokerage each took home a $7 million cash bonus -- seven times the sum each had received in the prior year. At EMC Corp., the state's largest technology company, chief executive Joseph Tucci failed to meet the profit goals his board of directors had set for him. But that didn't stop the board from awarding him $7.1 million last year, even as shareholders saw the stock price plunge 76 percent. Tucci's cash bonus suffered a mere scratch, falling $25,000, to $675,000. Harper's Magazine Faced with the unlikelihood of finding any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons in Iraq, the Bush Administration was beginning to suggest that Saddam Hussein had moved all his weapons of mass destruction to Syria. Asked whether Syria was "next," Donald Rumsfeld said: "It depends on people's behavior. Certainly I have nothing to announce."   Newswire - LA Indymedia GOOD NEWS FOR SENATOR FEINSTEIN War Profiteer  The firm her husband owns (has) a substantial interest in just won a lucrative U.S. Army contract last week to help President George W. Bush wage his imperialist wars in the Middle East! www.ProgressiveNewsTicker.com 4:32:33 PM    comment []

ProgressiveDailyNews.com Updated Headlines Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Copyright