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WATERGATE//UPGRADEmag//
jan 18, 2002
In the same week that Prince Harry, youngest son of the future king of america's shoulder-to-shoulder ally, Britain, gets exposed as a pot smoking, ecstasy-taking raver and the UK press hardly bats an eye, the California State Senate bill calling for a 90 day mandatory minimum sentence for being under the influence of MDMA and rescheduling MDMA as a Schedule I drug was defeated in committee. H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H The UPGRADEmag (the Upgrade Emag, or just the "UP") is a global edutainment news round-up, ‘broadcast’ weekly to =[10,357]= Trance// New Age// Alternative// Activist// Zippy folks who have been recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity//Megatripolis Dance Dept as "showing signs of life". Since many recipients choose to forward it to their own lists, we estimate 27,000+ recipients. Further, because of its less 'specialist' content, it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide, making a total weekly ‘readership’ of 275,000+ H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H IF U WROTE TO US BETWEEN JAN 4-10 WE DIDN’T RECEIVE IT DON’T EVEN ASK WHY BUT PLEASE SEND IT IN AGAIN OK? is america, the last holdout against shamanic culture, starting to crack too? it can’t be long now, what with so many terrorists to soak up the personnel and the budgets. to all our american readers, especially any in jail, try to remember you are simply TRAPPED IN A TIME WARP WHICH WILL PASS SOONER THAN YOU DREAM :). #
* * * * * * * * * * astro energy snapshot for JAN. 16-22* * * * * * * * * * *
# "Only those who step out of the frame can see the whole picture." MERCURY TURNS RETROGRADE Question of the week: How, and with whom, do we share? Perhaps with the ancestors. Mercury turns retrograde Friday, and we can re-think our social obligations for the next three weeks. It’s time to correct long-standing social problems. Read more about it on Maya’s Daily Success Guide at www.daykeeperjournal.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * MARTIANS DEMAND END TO 105 DAY BOMMING OF EARTH’S POOREST PLANET BY ITS RICHEST “IT’S UPSETTING OUR CHILDREN ON TV EVERY NIGHT” Salman Rushdie
and meanwhile, back in Liberated Afghanistan...
STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER?KILLING WITH SMALLER STONES Late last year Justice Minister Karimi declared that Afghanistan's new government would still impose Sharia Islamic law on its people, but with “less harshness”. Now the details have been fleshed out by Judge Ahamat Ullha Zarif, who told the French news agency Agence France Presse this week that public executions and amputations will continue, but with changes: "For example, the Taliban used to hang the victim's body in public for four days. We will only hang the body for a short time, say 15 minutes." STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? Kabul's sports stadium, financed by the International Monetary Fund, was where the Taliban used to carry out public executions and amputations on Fridays. No longer. As Judge Ahamat Ullha Zarif pointed out: "The stadium is for sports. We will find a new place for public executions," STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? He also makes it clear that the ultimate penalty will remain in force for adulterers, both male and female. They will still be stoned to death, Zarif told the French news agency, "but we will use only small stones." A JUST WAR! A SPLENDID WAR! PROGRESS DUMPED This adjustment in the size of the executive munitions will, the judge explained, allow the condemned person a chance to escape. "If they are able to run away, they are free." However, it turns out that this avenue of escape is only available to adulterers who confess their sexual misdeeds. "Those who refuse to confess and are condemned by a judge will have their hands and feet bound so that they cannot run away. They will certainly be stoned to death." Alexander Cockburn - Creators Syndicate #
and meanwhile, back on earth...
WATERGATE ON ACID!?BUSH CRONIES GUILTY OF HIGH TREASON AND MURDER? STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? The Enron Story thus far is nothing less than astounding: a company valued in the billions on Wall Street, suddenly filed for the largest bankruptcy claim in the history of the known universe. 4,000 employees were abruptly shown the door after having been barred from dumping the company stock, meant to fund their retirement, while it was worth something. Meanwhile, Enron executives in the know were able to dump the stock, back when it was the gold standard on the Street, for a cool $1 billion. SO WHAT’S NEW, YOU ASK. Well, apparently, although Enron was ailing for around the last 4 years (to be defined exactly in the courts), the aforementioned executives were able to maintain the mirage of financial viability by stuffing the debt into what are called 'off-balance-sheet partnerships.' In essence, each of the executives built personal banking bunkers and hid what has been revealed to be staggering Enron debts within them, keeping the fact that the company was hemorrhaging money off the publicly displayed balance sheets. This maintained the company's credit rating, and allowed it to continue doing business. - most of the Enron executives were aware of and/or actively participating in this highly criminal and irresponsible activity - the stockholders, including 4,000 loyal Enron employees, were lied to - the executives probably knew the stock value was doomed when they bailed out and cashed in several months ago - they let their employees lose the retirement funds they believed were growing within their Enron stock portfolios - a lot of people got screwed by a pack of sharp operators who didn't give a damn about anyone but themselves. SO WHAT’S NEW, YOU ASK AGAIN!!!! Well, what’s new starts to emerge when the umbilical political and financial connections between Bush and Enron are illuminated. Enron's capo, Kenneth Lay, was perhaps the best financial friend George W. Bush has ever known. He and a number of Enron employees essentially bankrolled Bush's 2000 Presidential campaign, even lending Bush an Enron corporate jet for trips between whistle stops. And long before Bush got White House stars in his eyes, he worked very closely with Enron on energy policy in Texas. This close connection led to the Bush administration's hiring of a number of influential individuals within Enron's orbit for important government positions: THOMAS E. WHITE, Bush's Secretary of the Army, had been Vice-Chairman of Enron Energy Service, and held millions in Enron stock KARL ROVE, Presidential Advisor, owned as much as $250,000 of Enron stock LARRY LINDSAY, Economic adviser, leapt straight from Enron to his current White House job ROBERT B. ZOELLICK, Federal Trade Representative, ditto above. HARVEY PITTS, SEC Chairman, was handpicked by Kenneth Lay for the position, due to his notorious aversion to governmental regulation of any kind. DONALD RUMSFELD, Defense Secretary, together with 31 Bush administration officials had a line item for Enron in their stock portfolio. The woebegone corporation held, and continues to hold, enormous influence over the day-to-day machinations of Federal government policy. Was Bush's recent gutting of the Clean Air Act, a decision designed to improve the fortunes of companies like Enron, the brainchild of people with deep connections to the energy industry? DICK CHENEY, Vice President, admitted recently to six separate meetings with Enron executives while formulating the Bush administration's energy policy. Cheney, a former executive of the Halliburton Petroleum interest, was in charge of creating this policy. For reasons soon to be exposed by subpoena, Cheney refused to detail the specifics of the creation of this policy, which included the multiple Enron meetings. The General Accounting Office was preparing to sue Cheney to reveal this information when the September 11th attacks took place. Those subpoenas may be dusted off and mailed within a month. In the meantime, the Justice Department is preparing a serious criminal investigation into the collapse of Enron. The democratically-controlled Senate is planning hearings on the matter as well. Columnist Robert Scheer has referred to the Bush administration's involvement in the Enron debacle as "Whitewater in spades." One wonders if "Watergate" would be a more appropriate comparison. BUSH MAKES BUNDLE, EVERYONE ELSE GETS SHAFTED Bush's own dealings within the energy industry carry a disturbingly familiar echo to the Enron situation: once upon a time, he was a high-ranking officer of a petroleum interest called Harken Oil. On June 22, 1990, a week before Harken announced a $23.2 million loss in quarterly earnings making its stock lose 60 percent of its value over the next six months, Bush made $848,560 by selling his Harken stock, earning him a 200% profit. Bush made a bundle while the other investors lost millions. Harken was Enron in miniature. and some say that daddy tipped little george off about saddam’s impending invasion of kuwait which was the reason for the sudden fall in value. now i wonder which oil companies specifically have profited from replacing mullah omar by a cia guy? somebody care to dig out the records? ALL RIGHT, BUT WHERE’S THE TREASON AND MURDER?! There’s a school of thought, espoused primarily by Republicans, that any investigation into potentially dishonorable or illegal actions by the Bush administration is tantamount to treason. We are at war, undeclared though it may be, and Bush must be free to prosecute this war vigorously. However, if reports recently aired on CNN have any credence, Bush and his cronies may well have to answer for actions that make the Enron catastrophe look like a jaywalking offense, actions that led directly to the incredible carnage in New York and Washington, D.C! Turkmenistan by running a pipeline line from there to Pakistan, where the natural gas could have been processed for Asian and Western energy markets. The idea was scuttled after Clinton ordered the cruise missile bombing of Afghanistan in response to a terrorist attack upon U.S. embassies in Africa which were planned and executed by Osama bin Laden. The pipeline would have had to pass through Afghanistan, and Unocal was given the message in technicolor by Clinton's people that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was not to be given any sort of financial boon. Taliban regime, because a stable regime would compel investors to revive the Turkmenistan natural gas pipeline deal. The Taliban, demon of the moment, was the Bush administration's idea of a 'stable' government. Stable enough, anyway, to see the pipeline through. investigative efforts of former FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill. He was the FBI's chief bin Laden hunter, in charge of the investigations into the bin Laden-connected bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, the destruction of an American troop barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the African embassy bombings in 1998, and the attack upon the U.S.S. Cole in 2000. corporate interests, and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it." After leaving the FBI, O'Neill took a position as head of security for the World Trade Center. He died on September 11th, 2001, trying to save people trapped by the attack. The irony in this, simply, is horrifying. If these allegations carry even the faintest whiff of credibility, George W. Bush and members of his administration stand in taint of high treason and murder. William Pitt # STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? JAN 8 PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to check in with ambassador-in-residence, Richard Butler, this morning. An explosive new book published in France alleges that the United States was in negotiations to do a deal with the Taliban for an oil pipeline in Afghanistan. Joining us right now is Richard Butler to shed some light on this new book. He is the former chief U.N. weapons inspector. He is now on the Council on Foreign Relations and our own ambassador-in-residence -- good morning. RICHARD BUTLER, FMR. U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning, Paula. ZAHN: Boy, if any of these charges are true... BUTLER: If... ZAHN: ...this... BUTLER: Yes. ZAHN: ...is really big news. BUTLER: I agree. ZAHN: Start off with what your understanding is of what is in this book -- the most explosive charge. BUTLER: The most explosive charge, Paula, is that the Bush administration -- the present one, just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal with the Taliban on oil -- an oil pipeline across Afghanistan. ZAHN: And this book points out that the FBI's deputy director, John O'Neill, actually resigned because he felt the U.S. administration was obstructing... BUTLER: A proper... ZAHN: ...the prosecution of terrorism. BUTLER: Yes, yes, a proper intelligence investigation of terrorism. Now, you said if, and I affirmed that in responding to you. We have to be careful here. These are allegations. They're worth airing and talking about, because of their gravity. We don't know if they are correct. But I believe they should be investigated, because Central Asian oil, as we were discussing yesterday, is potentially so important. And all prior attempts to have a pipeline had to be done through Russia. It had to be negotiated with Russia. Now, if there is to be a pipeline through Afghanistan, obviating the need to deal with Russia, it would also cost less than half of what a pipeline through Russia would cost. So financially and politically, there's a big prize to be had. A pipeline through Afghanistan down to the Pakistan coast would bring out that Central Asian oil easier and more cheaply. ZAHN: But let's come back to this whole issue of what John O'Neill, this FBI agent... BUTLER: Right. ZAHN: ...apparently told the authors of this book. He is alleging that -- what -- the U.S. government was trying to protect U.S. oil interests? And at the same time, shut off the investigation of terrorism to allow for that to happen? BUTLER: That's the allegation that instead of prosecuting properly an investigation of terrorism, which has its home in Afghanistan as we now know, or one of its main homes, that was shut down or slowed down in order to pursue oil interests with the Taliban. The people who we have now bombed out of existence, and this not many months ago. The book says that the negotiators said to the Taliban, you have a choice. You have a carpet of gold, meaning an oil deal, or a carpet of bombs. #
and meanwhile, on the cyber frontier...
ECHELON 4 DUMMIESEchelon is the ultra secret, world-wide data surveillance network run by the American NSA. "Echelon for Dummies" is a hacker’s homebrew version of the real thing that lets anyone get into the surveillance business, digging through traffic on local networks, searching for keywords. he results are pooled on a central server for analysis. www.tlsecurity.net/unix/ids/sniffer # BUT IT’S ALL OVA NOW? Berta-Erika, the famous round-egg laying chicken from Liebrose, Germany, died this week. In her career she had laid 148 perfectly round eggs, each the size and shape of a ping-pong ball. She was buried in her farmyard in a private ceremony. We’re not making this up, honestly! # IT’S ALL OVA!
and meanwhile, back in Liberated Afghanistan...
OIL COMPANY ADVISER 2 B US REP TO AFGHANISTANNine days after the US-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai took office in Kabul, President Bush has appointed a former aide to the American oil company Unocal as special envoy to Afghanistan. my local afghani caff owner Kabul John assures me karzai himself is “CIA” and certainly he has lived in america for the last 7 years. The nomination underscores the real economic and financial interests at stake in the US military intervention in Central Asia for Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad is intimately involved in the long-running US efforts to obtain direct access to the oil and gas resources of the region which are believed to be the second largest in the world. pipeline from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean. He participated in talks between the oil company and Taliban officials in 1997, which were aimed at implementing a 1995 agreement to build the pipeline across western Afghanistan. Unocal was the lead company in the formation of the Centgas consortium, whose purpose was to bring to market natural gas from the Dauletabad Field in southeastern Turkmenistan, one of the world's largest. The $2 billion project involved a 48-inch diameter pipeline from the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border, passing near the cities of Herat and Kandahar, crossing into Pakistan near Quetta, and linking with existing pipelines at Multan. An additional $600 million extension to India was also under consideration.... After Bush was installed as president by a 5-4 vote of the US Supreme Court, Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney transition team for the Defense Department. Significantly, however, he was not named to a sub cabinet position, which would have required Senate confirmation and might have provoked uncomfortable questions about his role as an oil company adviser in Central Asia and intermediary with the Taliban. Instead, he was named to the National Security Council, where no confirmation vote was needed. industry on Central Asia. sanctuaries and targets in the Middle East and Central Asia is also, to an extraordinary degree, a map of the world's principal energy sources in the 21st century.... It is inevitable that the war against terrorism will be seen by many as a war on behalf of America's and other multinational giants which have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the region." under Bush's father, and chief spokesman for the 2000 Bush campaign during its successful effort to shut down the Florida vote recount. Patrick Martin . World Socialist Web Site [www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/oil-j03.shtml] # MAMMA’S MAMMOGRAM PREPARATION EXERCISES Many women NEEDLESSLY fear their first mammogram, but now the //YOU has taken all the worry out of it with its Mamma’s Preparation Exercises outlined below. They take only a few minutes each day for the week before the exam. EXERCISE ONE: Open refrigerator and insert one breast in door. Shut door firmly (lean on it for good measure). Hold position for 5 seconds. Repeat, in case the first time wasn'teffective enough. EXERCISE TWO: At 3AM the temperature of the cement floor in your garage is perfect. Remove clothes and lie comfortably on the floor with one breast wedged under car’s rear tire. Aska friend to slowly back car until your breast is sufficientlyflattened and chilled. Turn over and repeat with other breast. EXERCISE THREE: Overnight freeze two metal bookends. Strip to waist, and invite atotal stranger into room. Press bookends one against each breast, then smash them together as firmly as you can. Make anappointmentwith the stranger to meet next year to repeat the exercise. YOU ARE NOW TOTALLY PREPARED! NOW CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING: MENtal illness..... MENstrual cramps.... MENopause....... Notice how all women's problems start with MEN?.... and when the real trouble begins, it’s a HYSterectomy!!! [from xaviera hollander amsterdam] # london FRI JAN 18 Douglas Rushkoff, the NYC social theorist and author of Bull, Media Virus, The Ecstasy Club, Children of Chaos and Cyberia (which includes an interview with fraser and a visit to his UFO club at the time) and others will be dropping into London - go say hello! 7- 8.30 pm: Short talk by Rushkoff followed by a discussion. 8.30 - 11pm: party with healthy New Year doses of Dub beats from DJ Zip Dog and plenty of schmoozing. Global Cafe, 15 Golden Square, London W1 FREE! # INVESTMENT ALERT: Pfizer Corp. (NYSE PFE) is making the announcement today that VIAGRA will soon be available in liquid form and will be marketed by Pepsi Cola (Pepsi Bottling Group NYSE PBG) as a power beverage suitable for use as-is, or as a mixer, under the name "Mount And Do". Pepsi's proposed ad campaign suggests: "POUR YOURSELF A STIFF ONE!" A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G PUBLISHING EVENT Herbs of the Northern Shaman by Steve Andrews Plants and fungi that affect mental states have been a part of all civilizations since early man first noticed that plants could alter awareness in an extraordinary way. The ancient holy men and healers used these psychoactives to explore non-physical realms and so expand their abilities to minister to the clan. Healers found their abilities to treat physical ailments greatly increased, some plants having sedative or calming effects while others are narcotic painkillers. Shamans, per-forming the functions of doctor and priest, also found them to be useful tools in their spiritual and practical ministering. Today, we use these plants in much the same way, and also recreationally, to escape the pressures of our modern world. In Herbs of the Northern Shaman, Steve Andrews describes in clear, understandable terms the plants, their active constituents, dosages, and effects on the human mind and body. Many photos and illustrations. Besides the expected plants like Cannabis, Datura, and Peyote, the unexpected effects of Buttercup, Sassafras arid Water Lily are also illuminated. Author Steve Andrews, Member of The Council of British Druid Orders and Affiliate Member of the Highway Poets Motorcycle Club, has plumbed his lifelong interest in and experience with plant culture to produce - Herbs of the Northern Shaman: A Guide to Mind-Altering Plants of the Northern Hemisphere. Loompanics ISBN 1-55950-211-8 Availability: Steve Andrews, 22 Parker Place, Ely, Cardiff, CF5 4NS, Wales, UK. bardofely@ntlworld.com Loompanics Unlimited, P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA. www.loompanics.com $14.95. Please check the Loompanics site for shipping costs. All mail-orders receive a free catalogue (normally priced @ $5.00) of 800 very unusual books. Visa, MasterCard and Discover accepted. publicity@loompanics.com Also available at Amazon UK and Amazon USA. A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G
and meanwhile, back in the Victorious Home of Freedom...
Tattletales for an Open Society (TAOS)PARA YOU LETTER OF THE MILLENNIUM SO FAR AN OPEN LETTER TO Senator Joseph Lieberman & Dr. Lynn Cheney FROM: Martin J. Sherwin, Professor of English and American History, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts Dear Dr. Cheney and Senator Lieberman: The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), an organization you co-founded in 1995, issued a report on November 11 that listed the names of academics along with 117 statements they made, in public forums or in classes, that questioned aspects of the Administration's war on terrorism. Concluding that "College and university faculty have been the weak link in America's response to the attack," the report asked alumni to bring their (presumed) displeasure about these views to the attention of university administrations. While ACTA's report does not have the cachet of President Nixon's "Enemies List," nor the intimidating force (yet?) of Senator Joseph McCarthy's too-numerous-to-list lists, as an American historian I am naturally interested in this project, and I have decided to offer your organization my full cooperation. Therefore, as an example to my colleagues, I am stepping forward to name a name, my own-- Martin J. Sherwin, the Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts -- and to tattle on myself. On December 3, 2001, I remarked to a class at Tufts University studying World War II that there was an ominous resemblance between the sense of panic in 1942 that produced Executive Order 9066, permitting the internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry, and the post-9/11 atmosphere that supported the Justice Department's arrest of hundreds of Muslims. Later, on December 6, after hearing Attorney General John Ashcroft assert before the Senate Judiciary Committee that civil-liberties critics "aid terrorists...erode our national unity and diminish our resolve," I told my class that Mr. Ashcroft had bolstered my resolve to diminish his effort to remake our public discourse in the image of Pinochet's Chile -- even if senators who were equally shocked, were too cowed at that moment to challenge such an un-American attitude. Surrendering the liberties that define the unique character of our nation will not help us to win the war on terrorism, I noted; on the contrary, it will only erode the constitutional foundation upon which the political strength of our nation rests. The AG's defense of military commissions (secret trials) in the United States in 2002 -- even to try suspected terrorists -- is an affront to those who fought and died to protect our freedoms in World War II. I recommended that students read Robert Sherrill's book, Military Justice Is to Justice As Military Music Is to Music. Finally, Dr. Cheney and Senator Lieberman, I implore you as the Founding Mother and Father of ACTA, to exert your influence to assure that in the next report Martin J. Sherwin is correctly spelled. Having been too young to be of interest to Senator Joseph McCarthy, and having been embarrassed by my absence from President Nixon's "Enemies List," ACTA's list may be my last opportunity to publicly document my deep love for my country. When my grandchild asks, "What did you do during the 'War on Terrorism,' grandpa?" I will say, "Harry, I spoke out in order to preserve for you and your friends the best things about America. You can read what I said in the ACTA report of..." (date as yet unspecified). In closing, I call on my colleagues to put political bias aside and assist the organization that Dr. Cheney and Senator Lieberman created; after all, they are one of us: She is a PhD and he claims to be a liberal. You can now tattle on yourself in great company. The Nation will post appropriate critical remarks on a new section of its website: "Tattletales for an Open Society" (TAOS). If you are genuinely uncertain whether a specific remark actually crossed the threshold of acceptable criticism, err on the side of caution: Submit the remark to The Nation's tattletale page and give ACTA a chance to determine whether you should be published. Send your submissions to tattletales@thenation.com. MARTIN J. SHERWIN (an advertisement in the January 21, 2002 issue of The Nation.) # STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER?
and meanwhile, back in Liberated Afghanistan...
A TALE OF TWO PRISONERS Let me tell you the tale of two Brits who were arrested in Afghanistan last year. It was a time when the country was in the grip of what George Bush and Tony Blair were telling us was one of the most uncivilised & brutally barbaric in the world. remember that phrase. The first Briton was arrested for entering the country illegally, without a passport and visa. The second Briton was arrested and, until this present day, we still don't know what the charges are and so we must presume him innocent until proven guilty. The first Briton was interrogated for six days by Taliban intelligence, held under house arrest in Jalalabad in an air-conditioned room with access to a flush toilet and shower facilities. By the fourth day the Taliban had mysteriously received a Western intelligence file revealing that the Briton held was in fact a spy. After further investigations the file was proven to be bogus and the mischievous work of Western intelligence. The original charge of entering the country remained, however, and the prisoner, so far unharmed, was driven from Jalalabad to Kabul prison and remained there for four more days. After a complaint about cramped conditions, the Taliban removed this prisoner to comfortable sleeping quarters used by their own soldiers. Again a private room was made available. On the final night the prisoner was suddenly left frightened and terrified when more than 50 cruise missiles dropped on Kabul courtesy of Britain and America. The next day, October 8, the British prisoner feared the Taliban would take revenge, but instead this reviled regime released the accused on humanitarian grounds waving a release form signed by Mullah Omar. The second Briton was not so lucky. His captors tortured and beat him, bound and gagged him, and put him in cramped, unsanitary conditions. When he was moved to his next prison he was shaved, gagged, blind-folded, masked and drugged before being tied in to the seat of an airplane and flown halfway round the world to Cuba. This Briton is now in the hands of the Americans . . . we might never even know his name. The first prisoner, Yvonne Ridley, was much more lucky, and thankfully due to the courtesy and respect accorded me I am free to write this story. I was fortunate. I was captured by the Taliban. Judging by the treatment meted out to the unknown Brit and other detainees, one can only assume it is they who are now in the hands of one of the most uncivilised & brutally barbaric in the world. remember that phrase? STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? Yvonne Ridley [her book, Prisoner of the Taliban, is published by Robson Books at £6.99] www.mariamappeal.com # The number of Afghan civilian dead, as a proportion to the total population, is equivalent to 38,000 US civilians or 11 World Trade Centers. SPARE OUR BLUSHES AND PUT A SACK ON IT 'Taping a bag over the heads of Afghan prisoners stops us feeling anything for them, so we can breakfast in peace' by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) I was thrilled to see a photo in the New York Times last week showing US troops guarding prisoners suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda. The story that accompanied the picture described how the 101st Airborne Division had been ordered to relieve the Marine Corps in southern Afghanistan, paving the way for a long-term military presence in the country. The photo also appeared in the London Times, but neither paper mentioned the part of the photo that got me, as President of the Humane Society for Putting Bags Over Suspects' Heads, so excited. The foto clearly showed that the prisoners had their arms pinioned behind them and had bags over their heads, secured with metallic tape. We in HSPBOSH have been trying for years to get more armies to put bags over the heads of anyone they suspect of anything. For one thing, the placing of a bag over suspects’ heads protects those not involved from unpleasant feelings of sympathy. Is anything more offensive to ordinary, law-abiding newspaper-readers than seeing rows of sorry-looking peasants being herded into the backs of cattle-trucks by our lads in the Army?! The prisoners often looked frightened, dejected and hungry - how can anyone eat a decent full breakfast over photos like that? Place a bag over their heads, however, and it’s impossible to feel much. They cease to be human-beings and no longer make unreasonable call upon our emotions. The placing of a bag over the suspects' heads has another highly desirable effect: it makes them look guilty. You can’t see a man with a bag over his head without feeling he must have deserved it, and that anything he’s got coming is his own fault. Ditto for the person under the bag. I've never had it done to me personally, but I believe the effect is very disorientating, you cease to feel human as well as look it, while deprivation of sight, smell and balance makes you expect the worst. Which brings us to the economic argument for bags. Once a suspect’s been trussed-up, head-bagged, and driven around in the back of a cattle truck, he’ll usually confess to anything. This saves a lot of time, effort and - most importantly - money in trying to sort out terrorists from ordinary blokes whom the Army’s only rounded up because they had unpleasant beards and/or bad haircuts. This is why the British Government was so keen on putting bags over IRA suspects’ heads in the 1970s. It was very economically effective. Of course those European Court of Human Rights spoilsports kaiboshed it in 1978 when they outlawed the technique as 'amounting to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment' - a form of torture. Luckily the US is free of any soft-centred decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and of the United Nations Convention Against Torture too having been one of the few countries with enough sense not to sign the agreement in 1985. Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Uruguay made the mistake of signing it, and subsequently Venezuela, Luxembourg, Panama, Austria and even the UK and Afghanistan joined in, but America didn't. And now we can see how it's paying off! The US Army can put bags over the heads of whoever they like. But what really excited us at HSPBOSH was that the editors of the New York Times and the London Times could publish the photograph of Afghani suspects with bags over their heads without making any comment at all!! Let's hope this means that the British and American public is finally ready to accept the fact that the only faces that matter are British and American faces. These are the only 'people' who count now - the rest of the world might as well... go around with bags over their heads. http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,628283,00.html # Nils Bohr worked out why the hero always wins in Western shoot outs. It’s because the baddy always draws first, he thinks about what he is doing: this slows him down and leads to mistakes. The hero just reacts physically! on some, effortless higher moral level? Dear Fraser HAPPY BIRTHDAY! wishing you every happiness for the year ahead keep up the good work.I always enjoy reading the upgrades and the GroupMind message board. lots of love vineeta xxx IMPORTANT PROUD //ANNOUNCEMENT: THE GroupMind DEBATA-BOARD-A-THON HAS BEEN RE-LAUNCHED, A HUNDRED TIMES BIGGER & BETTER + VOTING & ALL MOD CONS! check it out and chip in your ten euros worth on: www.parallel-youniversity.com/futuregroupmind # STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? stockport, uk TUES JAN 29 Chris Davies, British MEP and Marco Capatto, Italian MEP, are appearing in Stockport Magistrates Court over their support for Colin Davies, the Dutch Experience, and his fight against cannabis prohibition. Marco Capatto has asked for as many people as possible to witness and support Chris Davies and himself on this day. He’s promised the press to bring more MEP’s from other countries to join in the voluntary arrest actions to show that not only the UK, but every country in Europe, wants cannabis decriminalised. Let’s give these open-minded politicians overwhelming support when they emerge from the Courthouse - there will loadsa international press. We have to make this event a massive one, so get the day off and be there to experience the breaking of the Law by people you just have to meet !! All you have to do is show up - carry a banner if possible, the people on court bail for possession already could all wear a red headband saying: ON BAIL! which should make it easier for the press to see who you are and get your story! THIS IS A PEACEFUL EVENT so a fat joint in advance is advisable :) (it sez here) Nol van Schaik, Chair of Cannafist, Co-founder of the Dutch Experience. http://212.129.240.114/upload/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=26 # WAR CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN? The man who led the U.S. army's Depleted Uranium (DU) assessment team in the 1991 Gulf War said on Tuesday that the continued use of such weapons was a "war crime" which should be stopped immediately. STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? Speaking at a news conference at Britain's Parliament, Dr Doug Rokke, 51, a major in the U.S. army reserves, said he told his government as far back as 1991 of the health hazards of depleted uranium but his warnings had been consistently ignored. Rokke, who led the U.S. Defence Department's DU assessment team responsible for implementing a clean-up and advising on medical care for any U.S. personnel who had been exposed to DU stated: "What we learned during the Gulf War and what we learned during the research scared us." His full recommendations ("Handling Procedures For Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium Or Other Radioactive Commodities") had not been passed on to troops or civilians during NATO's 1999 war against Yugoslavia over Kosovo. An international storm over DU munitions broke in January when Italy reported that six of its soldiers who served in the Balkans had died of leukemia. NATO chiefs, denying there is any proof that DU munitions carry serious health risk, have consistently rejected calls for a moratorium on their use. Rokke, who himself was diagnosed with reactive airway disease due to uranium poisoning, said it was an "absolute lie" that troops and civilians exposed to DU in the Gulf and the Balkans (and Afghanistan?) had not suffered health problems. "We do have birth defects, we do have tumours," he said, accusing the NATO governments of covering up health warnings about DU, and warning that their insistence on continuing to use them raised serious "moral and ethical" as well as medical issues. "When you deliberately and willfully take radioactive waste... and throw it down in places in the world where children can pick it up and be exposed to it... that's a crime against humanity and it is a war crime. "I'm going to make this loud and clear, the individuals who started the warnings on depleted uranium hazards... were the U.S. army's experts -- myself and my team members who were tasked with cleaning up after the Gulf War." # mexico BIODIVERSITY BOMBSHELL An alarming number of genetically engineered (GE) corn plants have been detected growing alongside traditional corn varieties over a widespread area in the state of Oaxaca, Mexican officials have admitted For millennia corn has been sacred to the Maya and other native people of Mexico. Over centuries small farmers have carefully bred and preserved thousands of different traditional varieties of corn, called landraces, which are specific to each geographical region, soil type, and micro-climate of the country. Corn, or maize as it is called traditionally, remains today the most important crop for a quarter of the nation's 10 million indigenous and small farmers. Corn tortillas play a major role in the diet of Mexico' s 100 million people. Critics had warned that GE corn should never be imported into Mexico, the most important world center of biodiversity for corn, since the gene pool of the nation's 20,000 corn varieties and plant relatives, including the progenitor species of corn, called teosinte, could be irreversibly damaged by "genetic pollution" from the genetically engineered (herbicide-resistant or Bt-spliced) maize being aggressively marketed by Monsanto, Syngenta (formerly called Novartis), and other ag-biotech transnationals. Under pressure to protect the nation's corn biodiversity, Mexican authorities have proclaimed a moratorium on domestic cultivation of GE corn. But they have ignored the massive dumping of cheap (US taxpayer-subsidized) GE corn by US corporations CORN DUMPING: COLLATERAL DAMAGE Compounding Mexico's genetic pollution problem is the fact that, since major overseas buyers of corn in Europe, Japan, Korea are stubbornly refusing to buy gene-altered corn, North American exporters dumping increasing amounts of GE-tainted maize on captive markets like Mexico, China, Egypt, Colombia, Malaysia, and Brazil. 19% of US corn, 14 million acres, is now genetically engineered, although GE acreage is down 30% from two years ago, mainly due to resistance against Frankenfoods. STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? Under the relentless pressure of globalization, Mexico has been transformed from being a major producer of corn (producing 98% of its needs in 1994) to a major importer.. The reason is simple. Corn costs $3.40 a bushel for family-sized farmers in the US and Canada to produce, and even more for a small farmer in Mexico. Yet multinationals, due to their monopoly control of the market, pay US farmers less than $2.00 a bushel, with the US taxpayer picking up the remainder of the tab. Even with enormous taxpayer subsidies, most years US farmers have trouble even recuperating their costs of corn production. Only organic corn farmers, operating outside the cartels, are receiving a fair price for their harvest. And of course North American organic corn growers are increasingly alarmed over the fact that "genetic pollution" or gene flow from GE corn fields are starting to contaminate their valuable crops. Longstanding Mexican government regulation and support of corn supply and prices have been eliminated, all at the behest of major cartels. The end result of this globalization process is that small and medium-sized farmers, both North and South of the border, can't make a living, while ADM and Cargill (and their preferred customers such as McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Tyson, Smithfield) make a killing. Genetic engineering of agricultural crops and corn dumping also pose a threat to continental peace and stability. Since NAFTA went into effect, local and regional markets for indigenous and small farmers in the region have been undermined and destroyed. Analysts estimate that almost a million small farmers-primary breeders and stewards of thousands of corn and other crop landraces have already been driven from their cornfields and communal lands since Mexico essentially turned over control of its agricultural sector to North American food giants. Farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to sell their corn, beans, coffee, or other crops. Rural poverty and hunger have increased, forcing millions of campesinos to migrate to the US. Mounting desperation has also spawned widespread, at times violent, agrarian conflicts in Mexican states such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero and threatens to reignite armed struggle across Central America. [BioDemocracy News #37] # RACIST TOMMY HILFIGER - DON’T BUY HIS CLOTHES! Good for Oprah Winfrey! When she had Tommy Hilfiger on her show recently, she asked him if the statements about race which he was accused of making were true. Statements like "...if I'd known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jewish and Asians (oriental people included) would buy my clothes, I would not have made them so nice. “ “I wish these people would NOT buy my clothes, as they’re made for upper class white people." His answer was a simple "YES", at which point Oprah asked him to leave her show. Let's give Tommy Hilfiger what he asked for! Let's not buy his clothes, let's put him in a financial state where he himself will not be able to afford the ridiculous prices he puts on his clothes. BOYCOTT TOMMY HILFIGER! PLEASE SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ANYONE YOU KNOW Kachiwala, Raj / new york # Workers at the World Trade Centre discovered 13 bodies in the lobby of one of the collapsed buildings last week, including the corpses of 10 New York City fire fighters. They were removed with the quiet dignity that has characterised the recovery operation. A couple of days earlier, American B-52 and B-1 bombers were accused of killing 50 civilians, many of them children, in Qalaye Niazi, a village in eastern Afghanistan, leaving body parts, clumps of hair and pools of blood in the streets. The American military reacted as it always does, displaying neither regret nor reverence for the dead. Qalaye Niazi, Afghanistan BLOODY EVIDENCE OF US BLUNDER REPORTED IN THE GUARDIAN The attack on Qalaye Niazi was as sudden and devastating as the Pentagon intended. American special forces on the ground having confirmed the target, three bombers, a B-52 and two B-1Bs, did the rest. Commander Matthew Klee, a spokesman at the US central command in Tampa, Florida, had reassuring news: "Follow-on reporting indicates that there was no collateral damage." SOME OF THE THINGS HIS FOLLOW-ON REPORTERS MISSED: bloodied children's shoes and skirts, bloodied school books, the scalp of a woman with braided grey hair, butter toffees in red wrappers, wedding decorations. About two dozen guests had crammed into the three occupied houses for a wedding, raising the number of occupants to more than 100, said the elder. The bombers came early in the morning. Precision-guided bombs vapourised all 5 buildings, and a second wave an hour later hit people digging in the rubble and, judging from hair and flesh on the edge of three 40ft holes some distance from the complex, those trying to flee. Two days later villagers with shovels and tractors extracted the remains. A hand, an ankle, a bit of skull, sometimes an entire torso, and buried some in 11 graves, each said to contain several people, and relatives from Khost took some for burial in the mountains. Yesterday there were just human scraps and the carcasses of sheep, dogs and a cow, circled overhead by two crows. One villager said 32 died. The United Nations said 52, including 10 women and 25 children. Mr Mohammad said at least 80. Other villagers said 92. Staff at the hospital in Gardez said 107. It is no one's job to count the dead. Rory Carroll in Qalaye Niazi STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4330175,00.html A Stormy Day A little girl walked daily to and from school. Though the weather that morning had been questionable and clouds were forming, her mother had allowed her to make the trek to school. However, by late afternoon, the winds had whipped up, with thunder and lightning. The mother worried that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home, and even that the storm might harm her child, for, following each roar of thunder, a flaming sword of lightning slashed across the sky. Concerned, the mother got in her car and drove along the route to her child's school. Presently she saw her little daughter walking along, but at each flash of lightning, the child stopped, looked up and smiled. Another and another crash and flash followed and, at each, the child looked up at the light and smiled. The mother drew her car quietly up alongside the child, and lowered the window: "What are you doing, darling? Why do you keep stopping?” "I’m trying to look pretty” came the reply. “God keeps taking my picture." [a Heartwarmer from larry morningstar] PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE UK BUDGET BILL WHAT IS DEBT-FREE MONEY AND WHAT WOULD IT COST? Many believe that Kennedy was assassinated because he got the US treasury to mint Silver Dollars, which undermined the privately owned Federal Reserve Board's monopoly on money. Titus Alexander hits the nail on the head with this brilliantly simple proposal that would begin the process of eroding private corporations' monopoly on our money. It would show how artificially construed all this 'got to tighten your belt' mentality is. The pound could become the British peoples' currency again. And the moneymasters would control the euro not the pound. If you're new to the money issue the most crucial principle is that the people, through the Treasury, should create and issue money, not the privately owned and controlled central bank, in the UK case the Bank of England. For more watch Bill Still's very long but totally brilliant 'The Moneymasters' video, available in most international video formats and in broadcast format for TV stations from http://www.themoneymasters.com [TG] At the meeting of the Monetary Reform forum in the House of Lords on December 12th, Rafiq Manji suggested we should propose an amendment to the next budget bill: that the proposed Public Spending Borrowing Requirement (PSBR) of £3billion should be created into existence by the government. This would be an excellent way of putting the case for non-debt money creation to every single MP, the media, other think tanks and the treasury, taking the argument from James Robertson's book: CREATING NEW MONEY into the wider political and public arena It's very important that the argument is presented in a clear and sober way, so that it stimulates MP's and others to want to find out more. I therefore suggest we prepare 1) a one-line amendment which expresses the essence of the proposal, for example: "That parliament establish an independent monetary board to issue debt-free money to replace borrowing for public spending." 2) an A3 folder flier setting out the main benefits, mechanisms, potential difficulties and other background information, together with a reading list. That might be all we need at this stage; even if the government wanted to issue its £3bn PSBR debt-free it would take a year to set up and start after the next election: The point is to get the idea into circulation in such a way that curious people are intrigued enough to want to find out more. This means that the structure of the argument we present is critical: clear, brief, sober and relevant, with enough factual examples of the potential benefits, as well as the costs of the present system. http://www.prosperityuk.com <titus.alexander@mcr1.poptel.org.uk> |