Memories - how important, and how vulnerable they are.

Lets start in March, 2001.....

(based on news briefs and links from Citizens For Legitimate Government™

Cheney Energy Task Force Documents Feature Map of Iraqi Oilfields Commerce & State Department Reports to Task Force Detail Oilfield & Gas Projects, Contracts & Exploration --Saudi Arabian & UAE Oil Facilities Profiled As Well (Media Advisory from judicialwatch.org) "Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and 'Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.' The documents... are dated March 2001..."Cheney Energy Task Force, March 2001; 'Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts'; Iraqi gas; oilfield maps; Judicial Watch Media Advisory

Motive established, we move to the act - and potential consequences.

Democrat Eyes Potential Grounds for Bush Impeachment U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said on Thursday there were grounds to impeach Dictator Bush if he was found to have led America to war under false pretenses.

Cheney must go In a letter to Dictator Bush, a group of CIA veterans charge the vice pResident drove the U.S. to war with a "campaign of deceit" -- and call for his head... The full text of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity's open letter to Dictator Bush, originally published on July 14.

A Firm Basis for Impeachment --by Robert Scheer "Does the president [sic] not read? [No, no he doesn't. (Seinfeld intonation)] Does his national security staff, led by Condoleezza Rice, keep him in the dark about the most pressing issues of the day? Or is this administration blatantly lying to the American people to secure its ideological ends? [Yes, yes it is. (Seinfeld intonation)]

Impeachable Offense --by Geov Parrish "Finally, and far too late, national media are discovering that the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq was a combination of willfully gross exaggerations and flat-out lies... The unprovoked invasion, conquest, and occupation of Iraq should never have happened. Instead, the White House claimed that Bush spent several months agonizing over whether to launch an invasion, one he had already approved. Before and after his secret decision, his administration's claims were largely false. Bush used those claims to sacrifice the lives of American soldiers—along with other coalition soldiers and countless Iraqis, soldier and civilian alike. And he continues his lies... For this egregious abuse of his oath of office, he should be impeached."

Bush feels burn of waning popularity The troubles of the United States dictator, George Bush, are mounting, as his regime finds it increasingly difficult to shrug off claims it misled the American public over Iraq’s weapons programmes... Joseph Cirincione, an arms proliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Niger was "a key link in a longer chain of questionable claims... The president [sic] looks dazed and confused on this issue. His statements are bizarre, almost Reagan-esque. Yesterday, he said we went to war because Saddam would not let inspectors back in. This is stunning."

Nothing Left to Lie About With BushCo reaming the nation on just about every possible front, is implosion imminent? --by Mark Morford "And the lies, the flagrant GOP bitch slappings of the American public, the maniacal jabs straight in eye of truth with the icepick of utter BS, have just reached some sort of critical mass, some sort of saturation point of absurdity and pain and ridiculousness and you just have to stand up and applaud. Really." [a must read]

Sorting Fact From Fiction --by Ellis Henican "So what can we still believe about the war in Iraq? That's a tough one. So many of the claims and assertions of the Bush administration are turning out to be wrong. The duration, the cost, the reaction of the Iraqi people, the ease of the post-war recovery, the reason we attacked in the first place, even the story of our plucky poster girl: Every day we learn that more and more of it was built on lies, exaggeration, miscalculation or deceit."

The "Yellow Cake" scandal is a small, though telling, part of the game.

The spies who pushed for war Julian Borger reports on the shadow rightwing intelligence network set up in Washington to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force --"As the CIA director, George Tenet, arrived at the Senate yesterday to give secret testimony on the Niger uranium affair, it was becoming increasingly clear in Washington that the scandal was only a small, well-documented symptom of a complete breakdown in US intelligence that helped steer America into war. It represents the Bush administration's second catastrophic intelligence failure."

Wolfowitz committee instructed White House to use Iraq/uranium reference in State of the Union speech --by Jason Leopold "A Pentagon committee led by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, advised George W. Bush to include a reference in his January State of the Union address about Iraq trying to purchase 500 tons of uranium from Niger to bolster the case for war in Iraq, despite the fact that the CIA warned Wolfowitz's committee that the information was unreliable, according to a CIA intelligence official and four members of the Senate's intelligence committee who have been investigating the issue."

Tenet Says Official Wanted Iraq Claim CIA Director George Tenet told members of Congress a White House official insisted that Dictator Bush's State of the Union address include an assertion about Saddam Hussein's nuclear intentions that had not been verified, a Senate Intelligence Committee member said Thursday.

White House Aide Behind Uranium Claim, Senator Says A Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said today that a White House official insisted that claims about Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium be included in Dictator Bush's State of the Union address, despite doubts from the Central Intelligence Agency about its credibility.

Durbin Says W.House Pushed for Disputed Iraq Charge A Democratic senator charged on Thursday that CIA Director George Tenet had told members of Congress that a White House official had insisted on including a disputed allegation about Saddam Hussein's push for a nuclear weapon in a presidential [sic] speech.

White House disputes account of Tenet testimony on Iraq uranium The White House is disputing an account of CIA chief George Tenet's testimony about the Iraq uranium furor. A senator who heard the secret testimony -- Democrat Dick Durbin -- says Tenet named a White House official who insisted Dictator Bush's State of the Union speech include a dubious claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa.

Under these circumstances it is important to "dispose" of evidence.

Body of UK arms advisor found A body found in central England matches the description of a missing Ministry of Defence adviser who had become embroiled in a controversy over the government's intelligence dossiers on Iraqi arms, police said on Friday.

MPs shocked by expert's disappearance MPs have reacted with shock and disbelief at the discovery of a body in the search for missing Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly. They said their thoughts were with Dr Kelly's family after the discovery in Oxfordshire.

Kelly: Blair promises public inquiry Poodle Tony Blair has promised an independent judicial inquiry if David Kelly has died, journalists travelling with the prime minister on his flight from Washington to Tokyo have said.

Body found in U.K. fuels Iraq row Matches missing weapons adviser --Adding mystery to the controversy over pre-war intelligence gathering, British police said a body found Friday matches the description of a missing British Ministry of Defense adviser. The adviser had been suspected of being a source for a news report that Britain doctored information on Iraq’s weapons programs in order to bolster the case for war.

Body matches weapons expert Police say the body of a man found earlier today matches the description of Dr David Kelly, a former U.N. weapons inspector who became dragged into a political row over the government's case for war against Iraq.

Body 'matches' Iraq expert Police searching for the weapons expert suggested as the possible source for a BBC story on Iraq say the body they have found matches Dr David Kelly's appearance.

Body matches Kelly's description Police searching for Dr David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence official quizzed this week over the government's Iraq dossier, have found a man's body. Officers have confirmed that the body matches Dr Kelly's description.

Body Found In Hunt For Missing MoD Expert Police hunting for a missing government weapons expert named as the possible 'mole' for a BBC report on Iraq today found a body matching his appearance.

Or to discredit sources of information

BBC row with government deepens A new and furious row has flared up between the BBC and the government today after Andrew Gilligan, the journalist who claimed Alastair Campbell "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq, was tonight accused of changing his story by MPs. But in an interview, Gilligan said it was he who had asked for the transcript to be published.

And to deny that evidence exists or ever existed

U.S. Had Uranium Papers Earlier Officials Say Forgeries on Iraqi Efforts Reached State Dept. Before Speech --The State Department received copies of what would turn out to be forged documents suggesting that Iraq tried to purchase uranium oxide from Niger three months before the dictator's State of the Union address, regime officials said. The dictatorship, facing increased criticism over the claims it made about Iraq's attempts to buy uranium, had said until now that it did not have the documents before the State of the Union speech.

And if the lies, deceit, "terminations" and revisions of fact succeed:

'History will forgive us' Poodle Tony Blair last night used the rare opportunity of a historic address to the US Congress to declare that history would "forgive" him even if no weapons of mass destruction are uncovered in Iraq. In a significant softening of Downing Street's stance on Iraq's banned weapons, the prime minister stood before hundreds of members of Congress to admit that he may eventually be proved wrong.

British Guantanamo trials suspended Washington has agreed to suspend controversial military court proceedings against two British terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay pending talks with legal officials from London, the government says.

But Bush seems not to rely on History for forgiveness, he has a higher power at his beck and call.

. . . Unshakable Faith --by Richard Cohen "Late last month the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that George W. Bush had told the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, that he had gone to war in Afghanistan and Iraq on instructions from God. The White House promptly and vociferously denied the account, but I'd like to believe it anyway. I have to. The purported instructions from God remain about the only explanation for some of what Bush has done -- not only overseas but at home as well."

We are in the hands of madmen, megalomaniacs, men without conscience, liars and deceivers!

Weblog, 2003-05-19, Moon Day

Ruth Group and Friends - This resource grows increasingly important to me.  Here is the content of their latest email newsletter, which includes a remarkably well selected group of references.

Please be sure to see the new  Discussion Board -- right side of blog, just below Contact Info www.ruthgroup.org -- and join in!  You'll have to register on the board.
You'll be sent a password which you use the first time to log in.  Then you can change it to something of your own liking.  We've just got it going and welcome
suggestions for new Categories (top level) or Boards (2nd level).  Inside any board you can initiate a new topic or reply to topics already listed.  Let's see how it workks
for a couple of weeks.  Regular Wednesday night attendees will see a special board to help move those meetings forward.

Chaos reigns in place of tyranny
Philip Stephens of the Financial Times writes,"The world's sole superpower bears a passing resemblance to a bull in a
Baghdad bazaar....and there's an absence of anything resembling a strategy in Washington to steer Iraq toward a better
long-term future. If the US is serious about building a new Iraq it needs some sense of the architecture. But, as far as I can
tell, there is not a design drawing in sight...."   (Subscription required)
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=030516000646&query=Philip+Stephens&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

Kurds go it alone with international oil deals
Local authorities ignore US administration and seek to lure major companies with generous contracts
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=407177

Arundhati Roy:  Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy
Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy, speaking in NYC last week: "Apart from paying the actual economic costs of
war, American people are paying for these wars of 'liberation' with their own freedoms. For the ordinary American, the
price of 'New Democracy' in other countries is the death of real democracy at home..."
http://truthout.org/docs_03/051803H.shtml

Democrats lash out at Bush
Democratic candidates castigate Bush as weak on terrorism and reignite questions about whether the war on Iraq might
have inflamed suicidal terrorists...and more.
Two articles, the NYT and WaPo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/politics/campaigns/18DEMS.html?ex=1054267165&ei=1&en=713cd370daec88ab
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4264-2003May17.html?referrer=emailarticle

The Exit That Isn't on Bush's 'Road Map'
James Bennet of the NY Times writes: Benyamin Elon, a minister in the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon, in reviving a
vision long cherished by Israel's religious and secular hawks, says the "window of opportunity" is here for Israel to annex at
last the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  Mr. Elon's vision has new punch because of the strengthening
alliance between those Jews who favor a Greater Israel and conservative Christians in the United States who are moved by
the same ancient dream, based on what evangelicals call the "Abrahamic covenant."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/weekinreview/18BENN.html?ex=1054268158&ei=1&en=fdbc8fb775529845

Euro Beginning to Flex Its Economic Muscles
The euro is growing as a rival to the dollar and has gained stature as a safe haven
for investors and governments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/international/europe/18EURO.html?ex=1054267126&ei=1&en=255b74483f987591

Gigi Sims
The Ruth Group
Marin County, CA
RuthGroup@cpe-sf.com
http://www.ruthgroup.org
415-924-8372 (Fax)

And more:

Ruth Group and Friends - Friday, May 16, 2003

Iraq and its consequences
A good compendium of Iraq news from TomDispatch, a Nation project.
http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=670

Rumsfeld gets whupped on --by some of his own guys.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-war-mili15may15,1,3907140.story?coll=la%2Dhome%2Dheadlines

Even Henry J.Hyde is concerned!
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/16/international/worldspecial/16POST.html

Administration sources have been leaking false accusations, according to France, in a formal compalint.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/16/international/worldspecial/16DIPL.html

Saints and Sinners
Nicholas Kristof,  celebrates a few good people, while ripping at your heart.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/16/opinion/16KRIS.html

US Politics

Bush: stage managed by professionals.  At last, a little look beyond the kleig lights.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/16/politics/16IMAG.html

Krugman speaks plainly to the same, and other issues.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/16/opinion/16KRUG.html

Dean reveals a health plan.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Dean-Health-Care.html

Audio Visuals from Move On
http://www.moveon.org/technicaldifficulties/
[Thx Edna Rossenas]

Will Kirkland
The Ruth Group
Marin County, CA
RuthGroup@cpe-sf.com
http://www.ruthgroup.org
415-924-8372 (Fax)

Weblog, 2003-05-15, Thor's Day

From email:  "I'm writing to tell you about an incredible website- please take a look at www.wellifyouaskme.com and especially PLEASE check out ... www.20daysinspring.net which has a beautifully done 39 page book with images and quotes about the Iraqi war- from a dissenting viewpoint. It was all in black and white, quotes from everywhere, old and new, exposing the insidious underbelly of the Bush Regime, and some of those pictures of Iraqi civilians made me cry."

The writer may understate the case.  Very good sites, the second is pretty intense.
 

Homeland Security Department Used to Track Texas Democrats - Glenn W. Smith of Austin, TX has written a damning piece about the use of the Department of Homeland Security for political purposes, to track down Democratic legislators from Texas who protested Republican Gerrymangering of the Texas Congressional delegation by "holing up" in Ardmore Oklahoma.

Happy Lunar Eclipse!

Weblog, 2003-05-14, Wodin's Day

DRAFT, IN PROCESS, WILL LIKELY BE REVISED AND REPOSTED LATER
Oraibi Hopi, two factions of Hotevela Hopi, Black Mesa Navaho, Peabody Coal, Eco-politics, New Age religion - Difficult, complex, and volatile politics would be a great understatement.   And the UN gets into the mix too, peripherally.  I just wish the SDN resisters at Big Mountain would take their behinds off Hopi land.   I don't understand this stuff, let's be clear about that.   But YOU CAN!  All you have to do is read and understand the material at the following links, after parsing each to determine the accuracy and objectivity of the points made by the various writers.

 http://www.hopi.nsn.us/Pages/Culture/Hopi_1.htm Hopi Culture"  is a necessary introduction to the topic.
  http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/1942/i_intr_1.html "The Hopi - Roots"  For a full history of the Hopi and the ancestral Hisat-Sinom follow the "proceed to" links from this opening page.
http://www.hopi.nsn.us/Pages/Government/Hopi_3.htm"A Broader View"  Lest we think that the Hotevela "Traditionals" would be a major factor absent their usefulness in the land dispute, this page gives a good overview of the Hopi villages and their history as well as hints about governance and politics.  There is more information on governance at the link to Hopi History  at the same site.
"HOPI TRIBAL GOVERNMENT" notes that the constitution prepared for the Hopi Tribe by the federal government under the   Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 resulted in the creation of a tribal council system which violated traditional village autonomy and has led to significant conflicts in recent years. The Hopi Constitution also introduced majority rule, which conflicts with traditional Hopi consensus decision making.  A revision to the Constitution was in its 24th draft in January, 2003; it would provide additional powers to the villages, and establishes a "balance of powers" system of governance, with improved transparency and strengthened civil liberties.
 http://www.hopi.nsn.us/Pages/Culture/misrep.html "Cultural Theft and Misrepresentation" Only a quote from the Hopi website will suffice:

"Over the years many individuals, both Hopi and non-Hopi, have purposely distorted and exploited Hopi spirituality and the Hopi way of life to suit their own ends.
...
Beware, then, of any one person professing to be a traditional spokesperson for the Hopi or even a "traditional’ Hopi. No one person can possibly speak for all Hopi people. Some who profess to do so do not practice the beliefs of Hopi religion or participate in its priesthoods.

The following list includes non-Hopi individuals who are known to profit from Hopi spirituality and culture. Contrary to their claims, none of these individuals are Hopi (either through birth or adoption), represent the Hopi, or speak for any Hopi "elders." We urge you not to donate any money to their causes, purchase their literature, or attend their gatherings.

Katherine Cheshire. Claims Hopi adoption into the Roadrunner/Greasewood clans. Uses the "Hopi" names of Dep See Mana or Dee See Mana. Founder of Touch the Earth Foundation, ...
Warren Goodman. Claims to be the Pahana of Hopi legend and claims possession of the sacred stone tablets that are key elements of Hopi oral tradition. Goodman solicits money by selling "Armageddon Insurance," ...
Thomas Mails. Author of "Hotevilla: Hopi Shrine of the Covenant, Microcosm of the World" and "The Hopi Survival Kit." It is reported that Mails has a history of befriending aging Indians, declaring them the last true "traditional" of their tribe and announcing that he has been "chosen" to speak for the Tribe and spread their "truth." The so-called "traditional" that Mails allegedly collaborated with in his Hopi books was the late Dan Evehema ("Little Dan," "Chief Dan," "The Eldest Elder"). No Hopi will attest to Evehema having any authority or special knowledge to speak on behalf of any faction of Hopi.  Excerpted from: "Disrespect for Native American Religion and Culture and Its Disruptive Effects on the Harmony and Wellness of Indian Communities" by William M. Havens. Paper presented at the "Dialogue with the Hopis: Cultural Copyright and Research Ethics" Conference, August 22, 1995. Paper revised April 15, 1997.
Roy Steevenz. Also calls himself Roy Little Sun. Hosts world-wide workshops and seminars on Hopi spirituality. Steevenz was permanently excluded from the Hopi Reservation in 1995.
Christopher Walker. Claims to have permission from the Hopi to perform numerous Native ceremonies, not all of which are Hopi. Charges people to attend genuine Sundances, or charges for performances of his own Sweats and ceremonies.

---

For additional information regarding Hopi’s rejection of these individuals’ pantomimes of Hopi spirituality, visit Hotevilla’s website at www.infomagic.net/~hoatvela/ to read press releases issued by the Hotevilla Wiwimkyam Assembly. From the main page select "issues" to reach the press releases, an excerpt of which states: "…..and non-Hopis Katherine Cheshire (founder of Touch the Earth Foundation), Thomas E. Mails (author of Hotevilla, The Hopi Survival Kit, Native American Pathways, Mystic Warriors of the Plains) and Roy Steevenz continue to seek contributions for Hotevilla, supposedly with the Elders' blessings. Do not send contributions to Hotevilla on their behalf, or those of Caretaker's of Hotvela in Hopi and Hopi Sinom. Also be wary of contributions to Hotevilla through Don't Waste Arizona, Inc."

http://hartwilliams.com/no1t5.htm"The Hopi Project" is the home page for an account by Hart Williams of the displacement of the Hopi peoples from their traditional lands, over 500 years, as a result of first Spanish, then Navajo incursions,  followed by US government policies and errors in administration.
  http://hartwilliams.com/no1t8.htm"The argument made VERY simply" If Peabody Coal vanished, the Hopi would still want their land back.  The argument counters assertions that the Hopi want control of "Big Mountain" because of coal there.  The strength of the opposition to Hopi control of the land seems to arise in the confluence of interest between noncompliant Navaho who will neither accept relocation nor the lease arrangement offered, mystified white New Agers, white ecopolitics players oppposing Peabody, and a small group of disaffected Hopi who, while not practicing the Hopi religion call themselves traditional.  This group is apparently HQ'd at 'Camp Anna Mae Sundance'.  Hart Williams charges that it changes names regularily to confuse those to whom it appeals for funds and the IRS.
http://hartwilliams.com/no1t.htm"Ancestral Lands" is an account of the roots and status of the Hopi - Navaho land dispute.
 http://www.sff.net/people/hwilliams/no1t1.htm"White Man's Justice"  Hart Williams' first hand, on the ground description of how the 36 noncompliant Navaho families have suborned Hopi sovereignty over half of their lands, and the consequences to the Hopi people.  (Navajo families who sign the "Accommodation Agreement," were offered 75-year leases, providing that the Navajo agreed to abide by Hopi law on Hopi lands.   Those who did not sign were to be relocated to NPL.  Those who refuse either option are noncompliant 'resisters'.)
 http://hartwilliams.com/no1t6.htm"When is a Hopi NOT a Hopi?"  Disassembles a slanted 1998 "Pacific News Service" article by Jacqueline Keeler about the removal of noncompliant Navaho from HPL, and describes the entrapment (by Marsha Monastersky, et. al.?) of United Nations "Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance," Abdelfattah Amor, in a Native American land dispute.  (That is a perversly amusing picture - a Muslim UN representative caught in a US land and sovereignty dispute having religious overtones.)
 http://hartwilliams.com/no1t9.htm"How to lie with pictures"  Some putative examples.
 http://hartwilliams.com/no1u1.htm"Who is Marsha Monastersky (and why is she saying all those terrible things about the Hopi)?"  Asserts that Ms. Monastersky is an SDN agent of influence, with totally unwarranted contacts and credibility in the world of the whites, and that she slanders the Hopi people in furtherance of SDN goals.
 http://hartwilliams.com/no1u2.htm"Using SCUDDER Bombs" Asserts methodological deficiencies and bias in Professor Thayer Scudder's analysis of the relocation of Navaho from Hopi land after the HPL/NPL partition.
 http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/native/article_detail.asp?Article_ID=6767"Inside The Hopi Navajo Land Dispute From The Hopi Perspective: An Investigative Report - Part One"  - Those faked (Navaj0) "Kachinas", and more.  "Two more unlikely cultures have rarely been mistaken for one another -- but "injuns is injuns" seemed to fuel the thinking in Washington D.C., and the Navajo, released in 1868 from Bosque Redondo, and suddenly herding dubiously acquired Spanish Merino sheep, increasingly encroached upon traditional Hopi lands.  All Navajo land holdings were acquired during the last 150 years."
 http://www.imdiversity.com/article_detail.asp?Article_ID=6766"Inside The Hopi Navajo Land Dispute From The Hopi Perspective: An Investigative Report - Part Two" - Describes an "SDN" () disinformation campaign attacking Hopi control of Hopi lands (HPL).   The SDN strategy and motive is described as using attachment by white student activists to  early '70's New Age mysticism and eco-politics to further what could be considered Navaho imperial designs on Hopi land and culture.  "In 1997, the religious leaders of Hotevila took the unprecedented step of releasing a press release on the internet telling people NOT to give any money to Hopis Thomas Banyacya, Dan Evehama, Martin Gasweseoma, Emory Holmes, and non-Hopis Katherine Cheshire and Thomas Mails, among others. They were as much as accused of Hopi "heresy" and denounced.
 http://hartwilliams.com/no1t7.htmLinks to other sources of information about the Hopi.

 http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9603/0165.html"traditional Hopi Sinom face extinction" is a rumination by the master of an internet newsgroup, Gary S. Trujillo, on the difficulties of separating news from advocacy and opinion, and the need to correct impressions from a posting he had earlier approved for the newsgroup.  That posting turns out to have originated in the offices of an attorney for one side of the dispute under discussion, the so-called Hotevela "traditionals".

 "Hopi perspective on Navajo/Hopi dispute" - 1997
 http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9704/0046.html   the Hopi perspective on the taking of Hopi lands and the ultimate reduction from the millions of acres that are Hopi traditional use areas to only a few hundred thousand acres completely surrounded by the vast Navajo reservation.
 http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9704/0047.html   a narrative from the Hopi perspective on the history of the Navajo-Hopi land problems.
 http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9704/0048.html  a somewhat lengthy but detailed chronology of events significant to the Navajo-Hopi land dispute.
 http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9704/0045.html   a statement of the "Final Settlement" with notes on activity from 1991 - 1996.    January 21, 1997
http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9704/0043.html   a statement on the status  of Navajo families who do not sign the lease agreement by the deadline which is set for March 31, 1997.
http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9704/0044.html   a letter printed in the Hopi newspaper, the Tutuveni, April 4, 1997.  Written by a Hopi Junior High School student from Hopi Junior/Senior High School it represents a typical Hopi point of view.

http://www.angelfire.com/art/hoganview/hoptrad2000.html "Statement by Traditional Hopi"  from a noncompliant Navaho "resister" site casts light on the position of the Hotevila "Traditionals" in 2000.  From it  one might infer that the Hotevila group were on the traditional side of a dispute which culminated in a devastating split in the village of Oraibi in 1906, leading to the establishment of Hotevila.  Yet by the end of the century Oraibi was the most traditional of the villages, and Hotevila was riven with conflict, as at its very creation.  Note that in some respects Oraibi, not Hotevela, is the seat of the most traditional Hopi observance.  (Hart Williams asserts that the "Traditionals" at Hotevela are criticised for their lack of involvement in community Hopi religious observances.)

http://www.recycles.org/hopi/messages/prophecy/gash-sf1.htm"The Public Statement of the Keeper of the Hopi Fire Clan Tablets", is a 1990 statement of the Hotevila traditionalist position with respect to the Partitioning of Navajo and Hopi lands, the true title to the land of the Americas, and lots of stuff between those poles.   It is in essence the distillation of the confluence of the threads of Hotevila traditionalism, New Age spiritualism, eco-politics, and Navajo 'resisters' to compliance with the terms of partitioning of the Hopi-Navajo reservation.   I wish I knew what Hopi people, and especially people who Hopis acknowledge as their spiritual leaders, thought of this.
 

Weblog, 2003-05-13, Tiw's Day

The Place of Smallpox Vaccination in Biowarfare Strategy  - Here are two paragraphs from this page, posted today, see the link for the whole thing:

The Arab Mid-East, especially, sees that the US,  Britain, and Israel are preparing for smallpox involved biowarfare, ostensibly due in the first instance to a (always likely non-existent, increasingly evidently so)  threat of the use of smallpox by terrorists, or by Iraq against Israel.   Every person in these Arab nations knows, without being told explicitly, that they remain vulnerable to the threat of smallpox in biowarfare, while the peoples of the US, Britain, and Israel are protected.

The 'hardening' of military targets against smallpox has been seen as evidence of hostile intent and a smallpox involved biowarfare capability, when North Korea and Iraq have engaged in this conduct.   Yet the most, in fact the ONLY successfully 'hardened' military establishments and civilian populations in the world are those of Israel, the US, Britain, and Canada, with most of the rest of the English speaking world making plans for similar 'hardening'.
 http://www.jimpivonka.com/pages/smallpoxvacc.htm

Behinder and behinder. I am so far behind it is not fun anymore.  Too much illness and chaos, and perhaps a bit of second rate PTSS.  March and April were not very productive months for me, as a review of the web log makes very clear.  My inbox is a disaster - with luck I will be through with April 23 sometime today, if I get to it at all.   Have to approach my inbox as history, not current events.  I am perhaps too stubborn about using FIFO instead of LIFO on my inbox inventory.   Sometimes the perspective of a couple of weeks helps.   Still, I do miss out on the chance to make emergency calls to Congress and respond to emergency appeals for funds, or petition signatures.   Update:  Stayed up till 2:00 AM, finished the 23rd.

Reprise of August - September 2002 Iraq War Critiques - It is so bad, this retro attitude of mine, that I am going back through the emails I sent out last year, and posting them as virtual, or para, weblog entries for the time before I began the weblog.  At least I have started that process.  It was precipitated by going back to take a look at what I was writing about PNAC, the neo-con neo fascists in the Bush regime, and Iraq last August and September.  (0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ) Note to self:  change the email log file names to weblogyymmdde.html format, so they sort correctly by date, and then fix the links you break with the change.  No wonder I get nothing done.  Spend all my time repairing what I break.

Trade Deficit and Dollar Valuation - The page done in October needs a note added about current changes in exchange rates, and what that implies for the October assertions and analysis.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1051389956198&p=1012571727088

Patrick Seale: - The United States has embarked on an imperial adventure in the Middle East.  This is the true meaning of the war against Iraq. The war is not about the disarmament of Iraq. That was always a hollow and cynical pretext.  ... Nor is the war only, or even primarily, about toppling Saddam Hussain. Indeed the White House announced that U.S. forces would enter Iraq whether or not the Iraqi leader resigned and left the country. The war has bigger aims: it is about the implementation of a vast - and probably demented - strategic plan.   (Local copy)   Also to be revisited....
 
 

Weblog, 2003-05-12, Moon Day

The 'Road Map' for Palestine is not flawed - It is faked - The so-called 'Quartet' of powers managing the supposed road map to Palestinian statehood have no clear plans for dealing with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories of Palestine...  Dealing with these settlements is a basic requirement for a successful peace.  They are not being dealt with.  There will be no peace.  This is neither a surprise to, nor an oversight by the neo-con Shrubbyists in Washington.   So I posted today  at  http://www.jimpivonka.com/pages/RoadMap-Settlements-030508.html .

The posting is based on an article published at FT.com,   Cold truths of freezing Jewish settlements by Sharmila Devi, April 30 2003 21:14.
 http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1051389644030&p=1012571727162

The posting also quotes paragraphs  from two articles on  The Israel Lobby by Michael Lind (1, 2,3, ) at this link, and this.

Weblog, 2003-05-10, Satyr's Day

The full text of the exerpt from this book originally posted here and summarized below is at
 http://www.jimpivonka.com/unpublished/3rdReich-Mayer.html

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after1933,between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know it doesn't make people close to their government to be told that this is a people's government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote.  All this has little, really nothing to do with knowing one is governing.

What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security.

... Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about - we were decent people - and kept us so busy with continuous changes and "crises" and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the "national enemies", without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful.  Who wants to think?

...  I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice  - "Resist the beginnings" and "consider the end."  But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings.

... "You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn't see exactly where or how to move.  Believe me, this is true.  Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse.  You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow.  You don't want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don't want to "go out of your way to make trouble."

...  In the university community, in your own community, you speak privately to you colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say?  They say, "It's not so bad" or "You're seeing things" or "You're an alarmist."

"And you are an alarmist.  You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can't prove it.

...  It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then you are obviously a troublemaker.  So you wait, and you wait.

"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes.

... "And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you.  The burden of self deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying "Jew swine," collapses it all at once, .... The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed.  Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; ...

"Suddenly it all comes down, all at once.   You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done ( for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). ...

"What then?  You must then shoot yourself.  A few did.  Or "adjust" your principles.  Many tried, and some, I suppose, succeeded; not I, however.  Or learn to live the rest of your life with your shame.  This last is the nearest there is, under the circumstances, to heroism: shame.  Many Germans became this poor kind of hero, many more, I think, than the world knows or cares to know."

... "Once the war began," my colleague continued, "resistance, protest, criticism, complaint, all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest punishment.  ...

"Once the war began, the government could do anything "necessary" to win it; so it was with the "final solution" of the Jewish problem, which the Nazis always talked about but never dared undertake, not even the Nazis, until war and its "necessities" gave them the knowledge that they could get away with it.  The people abroad who thought that war against Hitler would help the Jews were wrong.  And the people in Germany who, once the war had begun, still thought of complaining, protesting, resisting, were betting on Germany's losing the war.  It was a long bet.  Not many made it."    -- Milton Mayer

Our war began September 11, 2001.

The Black Vulture of Wyoming and his crew have from the beginning promised that it would be a long one.  How many of us will last it out with our consciences, even our lives, intact?
 

Additional information:
Mossback: Springtime for Hitler?
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/printme.php3?eid=40046   Includes the lines:

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, author of Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, observes that a culture steeped in Christian fundamentalism would find the central fascist story line very familiar. Of course, so would a culture steeped in New Age mythology, but last I looked, the Woo-Woo Coalition had less influence in Washington than the Christian Coalition and John Ashcroft was attorney general, not Shirley McLaine. Certainly, at the millennium, on the brink of an expanded war and the potential for chemical, nuclear, and bio-terror Armageddons, at a time when our international woes are centered in the Middle East, the ground zero for the coming Rapture (you can watch it live on a Web cam at www.olivetree.org), the air is thick with the hothouse atmosphere where fascism takes root, and the sound of goose steps carries.

“America: Our Land, Our Flag, Our Freedom!”  Notes on filming of a 4th of July, 2002 parade, with reference to this book and to "The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion – Our Social Skin", Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, U. of Chicago Press, 1984
http://www.snowshoefilms.com/fn15continued.html
All of the Snowshoe Films productions are worth looking at: http://www.snowshoefilms.com/index.html

Paul Andrews posted this on December 6, 2001!

Andre Gregory to Wally Shawn in  My Dinner With Andre: "And you know, Wally, for two or three years now Chiquita and I have  actually had this very unpleasant feeling that we really should get out. We really feel like Jews in Germany in the late thirties. Of course, the problem is where to go. Because it seems quite obvious that the whole world is going in the same direction. In fact, it seems to me quite possible that the 1960s represented the last burst of the human being before he was extinguished."

Weblog, 2003-05-08, Thor's Day

(add MAPP and the Evol. Biol. material)

Hamed, a Pakistani writer, last year said of Afghanistan "...a new force, greeted as angels of salvation set to rescue the nation from the bloody clutches of warlordism, emerged with the name of Taleban; who later on proved to be strong enough not only to crush their mighty enemies but to ruin themselves too. "  Words to remember.

Old news, but instructive. It is a good thing Iraq could not base their military strategy on irony, there is evidence they are well armed with it:

Confusion over who controls Iraq's oil ministry -- By Charles Clover in Baghdad (The Financial Times, April 20, 2003)

...

"But when asked who was giving the orders at the ministry, most employees pointed to a portly man standing in the lobby, who declined to give his name: "I was a DG (director general) in the old administration, and no one has told me I'm not a DG anymore," he said.

...

The director general said he was confused by the lack of any formal notices, and had a only a vague idea of the committee, backed by the Iraqi National Congress, the formerly exiled opposition group. "I don't honestly know who they are, who chose them, how they are being motivated. I know I am in contact with no one and no one is in contact with me." (Note: Mohamed Mohsen al- Zubaidi, theman in charge of "the committee" referred to here was later arrested by the US military on charges of "assuming authority" not granted by the occupying power.)

However, (the director general) lamented the whole US approach to dealing with post-war Iraq. "We have a lot of experience with coups d'etat and this one is the worst," he said. "Any colonel in the Iraqi army will tell you that when he does a coup he goes to the broadcasting station with five announcements.

"The first one is long live this, down with that. The second one is your new government is this and that. The third is the list of the people to go on retirement. The fourth one, every other official is to report back to work tomorrow morning. The fifth is the curfew."

This is usually done within one hour, he added. "Now we are waiting more than a week and still we hear nothing from them."

Weblog, 2003-05-06, Tiw's Day

Searching For Meaning In Life May Boost Immune System - A small study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine and  supported by the Norman Cousins Program in Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation finds statistical support for the proposition that pursuing goals related to living a meaningful life may boost the activity of certain cells in the immune system, or more precisely that there is a positive correlation between increases in the felt importance of such goals and immune system activity.  It's good to have the preliminary results, but larger studies, and a lot more work is needed to confirm the result and define any causal relationship that may exist.

Senator Bob Graham will announce his candidacy for the Presidency today.  Senator Graham is my most likely second choice after Governor Howard Dean, although I also very much like Senator John Edwards.  I am not at all happy about the fact that Senator Kerry, Senator Lieberman, and Rep. Gephart are so visible in the early press coverage or that they are pulling so much money to support their campaigns.   But I am accustomed to being a minority within the Democratic Party, as Bill Clinton was the first Democratic nominee since Adlai Stevenson who was also my first choice.  The one that really disappointed me, and continues to do so, was the selection of Carter over Udall.  Morris Udall would have been one of the best President's in our nation's history.
 

Weblog, 2003-05-05, Moon Day

"(C) Foley, Michael 2003/The Streets of Kabul"
Three Afghan Schoolgirls.  Two seem apparently of Hazara heritage, all are probably in a school in West Kabul.  To me this is an amazing photograph.  Talk about the universality of humanity  - except for the shawls this could be a photograph from virtually any schoolroom in the United States today, including Central Kansas, or from Central Europe for that matter.  For more photographs from this wonderful exhibition see:

  http://www.worldbank.org/gdln/TheStreetsofKabul/index.htm

This is the index to a collection of photographs of Kabul and its people, with some emphasis on West Kabul, which was devastated when Gulbuddin Hekmatyar shelled it during the Afghan Civil War.

The Hazara people living there are of Mongol descent, and are Shia (in contrast to the Sunni Pashtun), making them a persecuted minority in Afghanistan.  The Hazarajat, or Central Highland homeland of the Hazara centered in the province of  Bamiyan was singled out for savage treatment by the Taliban, losing much of its population, and nearly all of its economic base, as well as suffering the loss of the famed Buddha's carved in the cliffs there.

The Hazara in Bamiyan province and Kabul made up over 20% of the population of Afghanistan before the war between the CIA and the Russian occupying force.  It will take a census to determine whether Hazara population losses have been proportionately larger than those to other groups, and what the current percentage is.

• Reporters don't care about SARS' impact on pan-Asian economies -- they want to quote experts who ironically insist a computer virus "may be sufficient to take down whole economies."

 
• Reporters don't care about SARS' impact on air travel -- they want to quote experts who ironically fear the airline industry might collapse if the Internet goes down for 20 minutes.

 
• Reporters don't care about SARS' impact on tourism -- they want to quote experts who ironically claim the Las Vegas strip might blow away like a tumbleweed if an Al Qaeda cyber-terrorist takes down the national electric power grid.

HMMM. PERHAPS THE big three antivirus firms can't send workers home as a precaution against a human virus. The very fate of cybermanity rests in their hands, you know.

 Then again, we'll reach a low point in irony if an antivirus expert contracts SARS and dies...

Related Links

• Special news coverage: America vs. cyber-terrorism

Special news coverage: The China Syndrome

Weblog, 2003-05-02, Freya's Day

A lesson for anti-fascist (anti-Shrubbyist) activists:  (reposted for cause):  Remember who you are dealing with; know your enemy and their methods.  Digby's post lays out some very important information about how Cheney and the rest of the Shrubbyist master planners deal with the opposition.  Not just in war, but in politics, all across the board:

Information Warfare is the thrilling notion that:

"Information dominance is superior situational awareness applied to seize and  maintain the initiative, influence the enemy's actions, and induce operational paralysis while denying your adversary the ability to do the same."

In other words, war as mind fuck - always a favorite game among rightists. “Shock and Awe,” falls into the Information Warfare doctrine with its psy-ops goal made possible by information driven precision weapons. IW relies upon the assurance that, in the face of proper information (i.e. the massive superiority of the offensive force) that logically the enemy will not fight. Well...

 The target of information warfare, then, is  the human mind, especially those minds that make the key decisions of war or peace and, from the military perspective, those minds that make the key decisions on if, when, and how to employ the assets  and capabilities embedded in their strategic structures.

Today, the same strategy of influencing their opposition's actions and inducing "operational paralysis" is still being employed.  While anti-war activists congratulate themselves on the success of their efforts, and especially on getting some small coverage of demonstrations on TV, the Shrubbyists are introducing and successfully passing a rightist legislative agenda of historic and tragic import.  And they have totally diverted attention from the ethnic cleansing Israel is conducting  in Palestine, as well as the murder by the Israeli Defense Forces of an American girl working as a peace activist in Gaza.

A good example of this is what I have until recently considered a "premier" opposition group, MoveOn.org.   MoveOn has been so successfully diverted by its focus on opposition to the Iraq war that it has abandoned domestic policy field, almost completely.  It has also seemingly abandoned the periodic research and analysis pieces that made it so valuable to me, when I first began using and recommending it.

To what end have they, and all of us who oppose the Shrubbyist agenda been so diverted?  To oppose the that drive toward war in Iraq, a drive in which the Shrubbyists had complete control over timing, methods, and strategy.  Their opponents, all of us together including nearly all the UN and the peoples  of the world have had no control at all.  After all, our Congress had already authorized war.   The UN had authorized 'consequences' in a vague resolution.  And the US has, since Korea, not once required conformity with Constitutional provisions for a Declaration of War in actions taken by the Commander in Chief of its armed forces.

So long as we permit ourselves to be diverted by the manifest evil of a war policy we cannot successfuly influence, because it is under the total control of the neo-con extremists in the Bush regency, we have permitted them to effectively neutralized our  opposition.  We do have available two kinds of action which can be effective.

• We can oppose the shrubbyist legislative agenda (and to some extent its draconian and only semi-legal  'innovations' in regulatory policy').   Two areas needing special, intense attention and organization for opposition are the packing of our Judiciary with right wing extremists, and the permanent impoverishment of the nation's public sector by economically ill advised tax reductions benefitting corporations and the wealthy.  And the legislative appropriations process can influence the resources devoted to war, and how they are applied, as well.
• We can work for regime change, and the elimination of the Shrubbyist regency's powers over out lives and society.  Besides signing up to the impeachment effort, this means identifying and supporting a candidate from the Democratic party who can win the 2004 election.  I have chosen to support Howard Dean in the Democratic primary process, because of his extensive record as Governor of Vermont and his clearly articulated opposition to the Bush program, including its policy of perpetual war.

Weblog, 2003-05-02, Freya's Day

Bill Bennet, Rightist Morality Czar - Not a Gambling Addict, he says. Despite $8 million in losses, he is not into the "Milk Money!"   Intrigued as I am by the personal pecadillos of the man who authored "The Death of Outrage" and who with Jack Kemp is co-chair of the rightist organizaton "Empower America", I was more interested in the lead paragraphs of the Washington Spectator article, which summarize his generalship in the culture wars and the nature of his funding.

No person can be more rightly credited with making morality and personal responsibility an integral part of the political debate than William J. Bennett. For more than 20 years, as a writer, speaker, government official, and political operative, Bennett has been a commanding general in the culture wars. As Ronald Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he was the scourge of academic permissiveness. Later, as Reagan's secretary of education, he excoriated schools and students for failing to set and meet high standards. As drug czar under George H.W. Bush, he applied a get-tough approach to drug use, arguing that individuals have a moral responsibility to own up to their addiction. Upon leaving public office, Bennett wrote The Book of Virtues, a compendium of parables snatched up by millions of parents and teachers across the political spectrum. Bennett's crusading ideals have been adopted by politicians of both parties, and implemented in such programs as character education classes in public schools--a testament to his impact.

But Bennett, a devout Catholic, has always been more Old Testament than New. Even many who sympathize with his concerns find his combative style haughty and unforgiving. Democrats in particular object to his partisan sermonizing, which portrays liberals as inherently less moral than conservatives, more given to excusing personal weaknesses, and unwilling to confront the vices that destroy families. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Bennett was among the president's most unrelenting detractors. His book, The Death of Outrage, decried, among other things, the public's failure to take Clinton's sins more seriously.

His relentless effort to push Americans to do good has enabled Bennett to do extremely well. His best-selling The Book of Virtues spawned an entire cottage industry, from children's books to merchandizing tie-ins to a PBS cartoon series. Bennett commands $50,000 per appearance on the lecture circuit and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from such conservative benefactors as the Scaife and John M. Olin foundations.

Few vices have escaped Bennett's withering scorn. He has opined on everything from drinking to "homosexual unions" to "The Ricki Lake Show" to wife-swapping. There is one, however, that has largely escaped Bennett's wrath: gambling. This is a notable omission, since on this issue morality and public policy are deeply intertwined. ...
 

David Batstone of Sojourners dissects the U.S. government's decision to grant Bechtel a major contract to rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq.  The contract " has raised more than a few eyebrows" .. and "could generate up to $680 million for the construction giant. (Former Secretary of Treasury and State) George Schultz, a consummate Republican insider and strong proponent of a pre-emptive strike on Iraq, sits on Bechtel's board of directors. A number of other key executives and board members have their tentacles deep inside the Bush administration as well.  Why is that relevant? The bidding process was by invite only, and was put out to ahandful of select companies."   Bechtel has other baggage, as well, as Batstone notes.
(Local copy HERE)

Howard Dean's official weblog!  I added it to my masthead today, check it out.  The Washington Post has given some attention to weblogging, including  candidate weblogs and warblogs.

Active Code and Web Services -  A Speculation

A note posted here briefly, regarding the potential for Web Services (.net, etc.) to replace functions and services currently included in tightly linked MS operating system and networking softare and thus increasing the security and stability of both networks and "client" computers, has been moved to http://www.jimpvonka.com/jimstech/activweb.html
I fear that there is currently a trend in software and network design to further break down the wall between code on the client machine and that on networks, including the internet.  And that this trend is turning the computer and other 'web enabled' devices in our space into unwanted and unwelcome intruders, and spies.  Let us be clear that such intrusion is NOT necesary to gain the benefits of use of and interaction with the rest of the world through the internet.  It is an artifact of the current model of local, client machine interaction with networks.  And other models, I believe, exist and are vastly preferable.

Shrubbyist Triumph and Glory in Iraq?  From CLG

Did our leaders lie to us? Do we even care? --by Robert L. Steinback "Did Bush mislead us? Was the American public duped into supporting a war that killed 128 Americans, 31 Britons and thousands of Iraqis, damaged U.S. prestige around the world and may have worsened, rather than improved, U.S. security? Oh, who cares -- we won the war! At least Bush wasn't lying about sex in the Oval Office! We'd have impeached him for that."

Iraqis Sue Franks For war Crimes, U.S. Irked Suffering from indelible psychological scars for losing their loved ones to the U.S.-led war on their country, Iraqi civilians are preparing to lodge a complaint with a Belgian court against Chief of the U.S. Central Command Gen. Tommy Franks and other U.S. military officials for committing unspeakable war crimes in Iraq, a leading U.S. newspaper reported Monday, April 28.

US anger at war crimes threat The Bush dictatorship has reacted angrily to suggestions that General Tommy Franks, the commander of the US-led war in Iraq, might be charged with war crimes.

Rumsfeld heralds 'first strike' era US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that his country has entered a new era in which it must pre-emptively seek out and prevent attacks by terrorists and terrorist states.

'Shaming effect' on Arab world Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a key architect of President Bush's Iraq policy, said yesterday that the ouster of Saddam Hussein has had a "shaming effect" on the Arab and Muslim world where other tyrannical rulers exist.

Four anti-war states to create EU army Four European states that opposed the war on Iraq agreed Tuesday to pool their armed forces and set up a military headquarters independent of NATO in a move dismissed as unnecessary by Britain.

Iraqis killed in anti-US protest At least 13 Iraqis are reported to have been killed in the town of Falluja when US forces opened fire on demonstrators on Monday night.

US troops 'kill 13 Iraqi protesters' US troops opened fire on a group of Iraqi demonstrators near Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 13 people and wounding 75 others, according to reports from the area.

Jazeera Says US Troops Fire on Iraq Crowd, 10 Dead Al-Jazeera television said on Tuesday 10 people were killed and about 70 wounded when U.S. troops fired on a crowd in the town of Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, overnight.

'Even under Saddam pay was better than this' The revolt of Basra began when a printed notice was pinned to the front gate of the former presidential palace, now the headquarters of the Desert Rats. The British Army was slashing its rates of pay for locally hired staff "due to circumstances beyond our control", it announced...

UNICEF: Water Supplies in Southern Iraq Undrinkable Within Weeks, Raising Specter of Epidemics --Water supplies in southern Iraq could be undrinkable within weeks, leaving millions of people - especially children - vulnerable to disease, UNICEF said Tuesday.

Human Shield To Bear Witness To U.S. Crimes In Iraq (April 18) After a month sitting at a Baghdad power plant, Sergio Sahara has packed his bags. The Argentine human shield did not prevent the United States from invading Iraq, but he has no regrets, and is even angrier than the day he arrived, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said. "I'm heading back to Cordoba to bear witness to the crimes of the United States in Iraq," said the 36-year-old office administrator.

The MemoryBlog --April 25, 2003 (thememoryhole.org) During the same week, the front covers of Newsweek and US News and World Report showed the same Iraqi kissing different soldiers. And the guy also had a prominent spot smashing the statue of Saddam at the stage-managed pull-down in Baghdad.

NBC's Banfield Chided Over Criticisms NBC News president Neal Shapiro has taken correspondent Ashleigh Banfield to the woodshed for a speech in which she criticized the networks for portraying the Iraqi war as "glorious and wonderful."
 

Weblog, 2003-04-28, Moon Day

"Equal Rights is the Responsibility of Every American"  From Truthout.org: An editorial by Governor Howard Dean.  (Link; local link)

Bush plans new nuclear weapons  From Sojourners

The Bush administration has been studying possible uses of nuclear weapons in pre-emptive strikes and intends to  develop nuclear "bunker busters," which have already received some congressional funding. Though dubbed "usable" by  defense hawks, bunker busters could actually increase civilian casualties by shooting irradiated soil into the atmosphere.   Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) will introduce an amendment soon that would gut the $15 million proposal in the Bush '04 budget  for the nuclear bunker buster.
 Find out more at: http://www.2020vision.org

 See also "For-Profits Are Focus for a New Iraq," Los Angeles Times:
 http://www.latimes.com/business/la-war-nonprofit10apr10,1,7366567.story
 [registration required]  Also, unfriendly javascript at the LA Times site will force many to turn off Java or use this local copy to read the article; an alternative is HERE.
 

Banfield Lashes Out at Own Network NBC News correspondent Ashleigh Banfield has ripped television news networks, including her own, for their "glorious" coverage of the Iraqi war and a lack of focus on international news overall... She ripped NBC for putting Michael Savage on the air saying, "He was so taken aback by my daring to speak to martyrs ... for being prepared to sacrifice themselves, he chose to label me a slut on the air, and that's not all, as a porn star and an accessory to the murder of Jewish children. These are the ramifications for simply bringing the message in the Arab world." [The disgusting whackjob pervert on the air is sickko Michael Savage, who MoreSh*tNoBrainsCable chose to install in its nightly lineup of media whores, replacing an actual journalist, Phil Donahue. --Lori Price] [LINK]

Arrogant Ari Show for April 23: MR. FLEISCHER: I'll leave it as I put it. Q Why won't you answer the question about -- MR. FLEISCHER: Greg. Q Hold on. We're entitled to follow up, Ari -- this isn't homeroom. MR. FLEISCHER: Greg. Q Why won't you answer the question about whether or not -- he said there are going to be consequences -- MR. FLEISCHER: David, there are other qualified reporters in here, too, who can follow-up. Q I didn't say they were not qualified, Ari. I'm saying you're running it like it's homeroom, like we can't follow-up when you're refusing to answer a question that's been posed twice to you, directly. The Secretary of State said that there would be consequences. Why won't you say what they might be? MR. FLEISCHER: Greg. Q Do you want to elaborate on what those consequences would be? MR. FLEISCHER: I addressed it earlier. You heard what I said about consequences. Q You didn't address it, which is the point. But you can't tolerate that kind of dissent.

Did the United State murder journalists? --by Robert Fisk "A Ukrainian, a Spaniard, an Arab. They all died within hours of each other. I suspect they were killed because the US – someone in the Pentagon though not, I’m sure, Ms [US Assistant Secretary of State of Defence for Public Affairs, Victoria] Clarke – decided to try to 'close down' the press. Of course, American journalists are not investigating this. They should – because they will be next.  [LINK]

Weblog, 2003-04-27, Sun Day

Confession  - Bukowski

Weblog, 2003-04-18, Freya's Day

Removing and reinstalling MS dial-up networking services (DUNS)

Among many troubles these days is the need to execute the procedures at:  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[ln];181599  and http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;129605  May you never have to entertain yourself in such manner.
UPDATE:  It worked.  The Dial-Up connection works again!  What an experience....   I did cheat a bit, by using the "Extract.exe" that comes with "MSPlus!"; that let me do the extraction with a batch file, instead of file by file.  A copy of the batch file can be found HERE.

Weblog, 2003-04-13, Sun Day

A War to Remake the World: The Bush regency's goals go far beyond the establishment of their Imperium in the Middle East, to the reconstruction of the entire world civilization, transforming it from the model of liberal and pluralistic democracy that evolved in Europe under the umbrella of the Rennaisance and the Enlightenment, to a neo Feudalist vision of society.  And their plans for that vision start with US domestic policy.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,935812,00.html

Crime Against Humanity by John Pilger; April 10, 2003

Churchill's Legacy in Iraq - The Peace to End all Peace

"Until the first World War Iraq and Kuwait had both been part of the Ottoman Empire. In fact, Kuwait, with its tiny land surface of just over 10,000 square miles, had been part of the Iraqi vilayat (administrative district) of Basra. In 1913, while the rumblings of war were growing louder in Europe, the British and the Turks had signed an agreement making Kuwait an autonomous district. In the middle of the war, with the Turks fighting on the side of the Germans, London recognized the Emirate and its borders as totally independent of the Ottoman Empire.

This partition, which gave the British an important strategic ally, was never accepted by the Iraqis, who felt frustrated at being denied access to the Gulf and at losing an area of land that, as far as they were concerned, had never had an independent existence.

Iraq, which became a British mandate in 1918, had another cause for resentment. In 1925 the government in Baghdad was forced to sign an agreement with a giant oil consortium, the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC).  The agreement stipulated, in particular, that the company should remain in British hands, that its managing director should be a British subject, and that the concession should remain in force until the year 2000. The IPC had carte blanche to exploit the most fantastic petroleum deposits in the history of the oil industry as it saw fit and to make colossal profits.

In point of fact, in a region where the borders were very imprecise Iraq was just as much of an artificial creation as Kuwait. Following the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, which [secretly] divided the spoils of the Ottoman Empire between Britain and France, Iraq had been formed out of three former Turkish provinces: Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. This state of affairs has been summed up brilliantly in one sentence: "Iraq was created by Churchill, who had the mad idea of joining two widely separated oil wells, Kirkuk and Mosul, by uniting three widely separated peoples: The Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shi'ites."

Perhaps because of this difficult and uncertain birth, modern Iraq has had a consistently violent history. In 1958 the pro-Western monarchy was overthrown, King Faisal was murdered, and his Prime Minister, Noury Said, was stoned to death by a mob. Two years later the new leader, General Kassem, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Among the would-be-assassins was a twenty-two-year-old named Saddam Hussein who, although wounded, managed to escape to Syria.

In 1963 Kassem's head was paraded through the streets on a pike by an angry mob. In 1968 the Ba'ath Party came to power..." (pp 12-14) SECRET DOSSIER - The Hidden Agenda Behind the Gulf War by Pierre Salinger and Eric Laurent (Penguin Books 1991)
Amazon Listing
See also the more detailed history "A PEACE TO END ALL PEACE - The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin (Owl Books - October 2001) Amazon Listing
 

The Rape of Baghdad: from email today -- "This morning BBC radio had reports from Baghdad where the dead are lying in the streets, widespread looting is taking place, as it did in Basra, hospitals are looted, the staff are not going to work and are afraid, electricity and water supplies are cut off.  You probably have heard these reports. BBC live reports are heard around the world."

For an biographical introduction to one of the invading Generals, which may help to explain the mess there, see General Buford "Buff" Blount III

An Agent of Armageddon --Is George Bush Crazy?

Sorry Charlie, III
Saw Charlie Rose, Thursday, April 10.  He, along with  one of his guests, LEON WIESELTIER, an unctuous, slippery fellow from the New Republic, was sniveling in his beer about the injustice of the US being criticised for its efforts to bring "freedom" (which the NR guy made certain to distinguish from democracy, a position worth examining at some length) to Iraq.  Why, they wonder; how, they whine,  can the rest of the world show so little appreciation for what the US has done for the oppressed Iraqi peoples?

Rose and Wieseltier are representative of a group of foolish and blind opinion sellers in the US who refuse or pretend not to see what Bush and the people around him have done to their country.  Wieseltier made a couple of stabs at "Mullahs", asserting the virtue of the liberation of Iraq, and presumably the rest of Islam from those Mullahs.  Yet he and his ilk ignore or pretend not to see the fundamentalist American Ayatollahs, Falwell, Robertson, and company, who motivate Bush and Rove, as well as the equally viperous religious fundamentalists, including Perle, Feith, and  Wolfowitz who support the fascist Sharon in Israel.   These people are pathetic in their lies and dissembling.

Fortunately, Charlie's other two guests, RICHARD MURPHY, Former US Ambassador to Syria and Saudi Arabia, and SHASHI THAROOR Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations, were excellent, cogent, and articulate.  Tharoor was especially welcom for his ability to deal with Wieseltier's foolishness.

But the critical issue, that of what is happening to the United States, and why it is so eminently reasonable for other nations and peoples to hold it's intentions and actions as highly suspect, was only indirectly addressed, even by Shashi Tharoor.

Margaret Atwood, in the following letter to America lays it out for us well, I think.  She has the answer to Charlie's plaintive question - but he does not have the stomach to hear it.

A letter to America by Margaret Atwood
local copy HERE

...  I won't go into the reasons why I think your recent Iraqi adventures have been - taking the long view - an ill-advised  tactical error. By the time you read this, Baghdad may or may not look like the craters of the Moon, and many more sheep  entrails will have been examined. Let's talk, then, not about what you're doing to other people, but about what you're  doing to yourselves.

 You're gutting the Constitution. Already your home can be entered without your knowledge or permission, you can be  snatched away and incarcerated without cause, your mail can be spied on, your private records searched. Why isn't this a  recipe for widespread business theft, political intimidation, and fraud? I know you've been told all this is for your own  safety and protection, but think about it for a minute. Anyway, when did you get so scared? You didn't used to be easily  frightened.

 You're running up a record level of debt. Keep spending at this rate and pretty soon you won't be able to afford any big  military adventures. Either that or you'll go the way of the USSR: lots of tanks, but no air conditioning. That will make  folks very cross. They'll be even crosser when they can't take a shower because your short-sighted bulldozing of  environmental protections has dirtied most of the water and dried up the rest. Then things will get hot and dirty indeed.

 You're torching the American economy. How soon before the answer to that will be, not to produce anything yourselves,  but to grab stuff other people produce, at gunboat-diplomacy prices? Is the world going to consist of a few megarich King  Midases, with the rest being serfs, both inside and outside your country? Will the biggest business sector in the United  States be the prison system? Let's hope not.

 If you proceed much further down the slippery slope, people around the world will stop admiring the good things about  you. They'll decide that your city upon the hill is a slum and your democracy is a sham, and therefore you have no  business trying to impose your sullied vision on them. They'll think you've abandoned the rule of law. They'll think you've  fouled your own nest.

 The British used to have a myth about King Arthur. He wasn't dead, but sleeping in a cave, it was said; in the country's  hour of greatest peril, he would return. You, too, have great spirits of the past you may call upon: men and women of  courage, of conscience, of prescience. Summon them now, to stand with you, to inspire you, to defend the best in you.   You need them.

 *Margaret Atwood studied American literature - among other things - at Radcliffe and Harvard in the 1960s. She is the  author of 10 novels. Her 11th, "Oryx and Crake," will be published in May. This essay appeared originally in The Globe and  Mail (Toronto), March 28, 2003."

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