NUCLEAR
Mystery metal bombs may cause Afghan war syndrome
Russia sends Iran nuclear reactor body
Hanford alarm miswiring was human error
To Forestall a 'Digital Pearl Harbor,'
Unlikely allies fight federal anti-terror initiatives
Other countries could face US military action
MILITARY
Taliban prisoners yielding clues to al Qaeda
Changes in Macedonia law aid minority groups
Wellstone wins on veterans funding bill
OTHER
Senate approves tax breaks for families of victims
POLICE / PRISONERS
U.S. runs its own terror camp
ACTIVISTS
Alice Hamburg -- peace activist for 5 decades
Sister Rosalie Bertell still fighting the dangers of radiation
Please come! Louise Franklin-Ramirez Tribute December 4th, 7 PM
Federal Judge Upholds First Amendment Right to Demonstrate
Animal rights activist buried
OUR RADICAL HISTORY
Protesters march on G-20 meeting site
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- depleted uranium
Mystery metal bombs may cause Afghan war syndrome
UK MEDIA BRIEFING: 17 November 2001 12.00 hrs Dai Williams, Occupational Psychologist and DU researcher
From: "Dai Williams" <eosuk@btinternet.com>
The rapid retreat of the Taliban may be partly due to a mystery metal used in new "hard target" weapons in the Afghan bombing campaign. It has been kept secret by the US and UK governments since 1997 but latest analysis of Afghan war reports and military information websites indicate that it is probably Depleted Uranium (DU).
If DU has been used then UK troops, aid-workers and media teams in former Taliban locations may be entering toxic disaster areas. Without immediate environmental monitoring they risk the same health hazards suffered by Gulf War veterans and Iraqi civilians - an Afghan War syndrome. So what is the mystery metal? The UK Government was asked this question three weeks ago but has not answered it.
Hard target weapons
The new generation of "hard target" smart bombs and cruise missiles can penetrate 10 feet of reinforced concrete before exploding. They were used to attack Taliban bunkers, caves, command centres, fuel and ammunition stores. They use "dense metal" warheads to double their penetrating power on hard targets.
The 2 ton GBU-37 Bunker Busters and 2000 lb GBU-24 Paveway smart bombs, plus the Boeing AGM-86D, Maverick AGM-65G and AGM-145C hard target capability cruise missiles all use "advanced unitary penetrators" (AUP-113, AUP-116, P31) or BROACH warheads with the mystery high density metal in alloy casings.
Uranium or Tungsten?
The mystery metal must be hard and at least 2x as heavy as steel. Tungsten and Depleted Uranium (DU) are the main options. Both are used by US and UK forces for armour piercing shells. DU is preferred because it is burns inside the target to become an incendiary bomb and is far cheaper and easier to manufacture.
Uranium hazards and Dirty DU
DU (U238) is reprocessed nuclear waste. It burns in military targets and plane crashes to produce Uranium oxides as a fine, toxic, alpha-radioactive dust. The "Dirty DU" found in Balkans War target sites was contaminated with variable traces of U235 plus U236 and Plutonium from reactors. It presents a perpetual health hazard similar to asbestos - especially in the lungs. The UNEP report of DU used in the Balkans War played down its risks. They did not inspect bomb or missile targets.
Uranium oxide dust is a suspected cause of Gulf War syndrome and the epidemic of cancers and birth defects in Iraq since the Gulf War where 300 tons of DU were used. UK EOD (bomb disposal) teams in the Balkans were instructed to use full radiation protection (NBC) equipment when inspecting DU targets (Hansard).
50-100 times greater hazard than in the Balkans
Reports from the Center for Defence Information in Washington indicate that several hundred tons of smart bombs and cruise missiles have been used in the Afghan bombing including many of the hard-target weapons above.
The mystery metal is 50-75% of the weight of the bombs - up to 1.5 tons in the GBU- 37 Bunker Buster bombs. If this is DU then target zones will be 50-100x more contaminated than by the pencil-sized 30 mm (0.27 kg) anti-tank shells used in the Balkans War, and more like the DU ammunition fire in the Gulf War. DU oxide is known to travel up to 25 miles by wind so large areas may be affected by each bomb.
Government in denial about DU?
The UK Government is aware of the problem. They were asked to identify the mystery metal in hard target guided weapons by DU researcher Dai Williams via his MP on 17th October and direct to the Prime Minister on 1st November. No answers have been received.
On 24 October Defence Minister Geoff Hoon told Parliament that "we do not rule out the use of depleted uranium ammunition in Afghanistan, should its penetrative capability be judged necessary in the future" (Hansard). He denied that DU has been used, at least by UK forces, on 1st and 5th November. Can he speak for US forces?
Hard target bombs and missiles have been used extensively in Afghanistan since 7th October. Until the mystery metal involved is identified and independently verified Mr Hoon's denials are not convincing. He is responsible for military, not humanitarian policies. After the bombing political responsibility for the truth is shared by the Cabinet.
Political responsibility: minimising a potential health disaster
This question is an immediate occupational and public health issue for the 4000 UK troops plus aid and media teams about to enter Afghanistan, for those already there and for the civilian population. The first warning was a dying child who led a Taliban doctor to suspect that US forces were using radioactive or chemical weapons (Reuters, 28 October). Many Taliban troops near bombing targets will already be affected if DU has been used. This may be one reason for their rapid retreat.
The US and UK Governments have an immediate political responsibility to disclose the mystery metal used in the Afghan bombing. If DU has been used this will become obvious soon from medical reports. Precautionary action is essential now to minimise a potential health disaster. There is no cure for inhaling DU dust.
In 1999 the UK media questioned the use of DU in the Balkans so troops and aid teams were alert to its potential hazards. They have had copies of this analysis for two weeks but have stayed silent about the mystery metal question in Afghanistan.
In the USA a Bill submitted to the US Congress on 18 October has called for a total ban on DU and facts about its use in Afghanistan. Veteran and environmental groups are waiting for the US Department of Defence's reply.
NGO alert
The Red Cross and Oxfam have been alerted to these potential risks. International aid organisations and allied forces would be wise to assume that the mystery metal is depleted Uranium until there is firm evidence otherwise. DU precautions apply as after the Balkans war (e.g. bottled water) plus avoiding bombed Taliban locations.
-------- iran
Russia sends Iran nuclear reactor body
World Scene
November 17, 2001
Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011117-6962808.htm
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The only Russian factory capable of making a complete nuclear reactor yesterday shipped its first reactor body to Iran despite strong U.S. protests.
Officials presided over a ceremony at the Izhora factory in St. Petersburg dedicated to the completion of the 317-ton, cylindrical reactor body for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, expected to finish by 2003. The contract, signed in 1995, calls for Russia to be paid an estimated $800 million.
Washington, which accuses Iran of sponsoring terrorism, has urged Russia to abandon construction of the reactor, apprehensive that Iran could use the nuclear technology to develop nuclear weapons.
Photo at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20011116/wl/1005933312russia_iran_nuclear_spg101.html http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20011116/capt.1005933312russia_iran_nuclear_spg101.jpg
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- washington
Hanford alarm miswiring was human error
Sat, Nov 17, 2001
By John Stang Herald staff writer
Tri-City Herald
http://www.hanfordnews.com/2001/1117-1.html
Three fire alarms near the main vault of Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant were miswired and could not ring, posing a safety risk to people working nearby.
An investigation concluded human error was to blame - but could not pin down how the error occurred or who committed it.
The wiring problem was discovered Sept. 23 after the alarms did not ring during a Sept. 19 drill.
The alarms had worked during previous tests. The vault holds most of the PFP's 4.4 tons of plutonium. PFP workers routinely move different forms of plutonium in and out of the vault daily.
The investigative report - dated Nov. 8 - classifies the alarm problem as an "off-normal" incident, the least serious of three levels of cataloging Hanford's notable problems.
The wiring mistake did not stop a fire signal from going to Hanford's Fire Department, and it did not affect sprinklers that would go on automatically during a fire, said Scott Sax, Fluor Hanford nuclear materials stabilization deputy director.
No security problems materialized from the problem, said Pete Knollmeyer, Department of Energy assistant manager for Hanford's central plateau.
The fire alarms could not ring because a "jumper" within a circuit box was rerouted incorrectly. The investigation determined the problem was not deliberate, Knollmeyer said.
The fire alarms worked properly during tests June 16 and July 14, the investigation found. Since June 16, there has been only one official job package that required circuits to be rerouted in the circuit box.
That job did not require any change in the jumper that was found misrouted in September. Also, no paperwork has been found that called for the rerouting, the report said.
As a remedial measure, Fluor and DOE are overhauling some of the supervision and double-checking those associated with such work.
-------- us nuc politics
To Forestall a 'Digital Pearl Harbor,'
U.S. Looks to System Separate From Internet
By ALISON MITCHELL
The New York Times
Saturday November 17 02:55 PM EST
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nyt/20011117/tc/to_forestall_a_digital_pearl_harbor_u_s_looks_to_system_separate_from_internet_1.html
The Bush administration is considering the creation of a secure new government communications network separate from the Internet that would be less vulnerable to attack.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 The Bush administration is considering the creation of a secure new government communications network separate from the Internet that would be less vulnerable to attack and efforts to disrupt critical federal activities.
The idea for such a system, called GovNet, is the brainchild of Richard A. Clarke, a counterterrorism expert whom President Bush recently named his special adviser for cyberspace security.
Mr. Clarke, who has been warning for some time of the possibility of a "digital Pearl Harbor" if the nation does not invest more in cybersecurity, began working on the idea of a government network before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But he says the attacks showed that it is imperative to imagine the ways terrorists could disrupt the nation's information infrastructure and the computer networks that control telecommunications, the electric grid, water supplies and air traffic.
"Prior to 9/11," he said in an interview, "there were a lot of people who thought that the only thing the terrorists could do is what they have already done. Now we know they can do something really catastrophic."
"The worst case here," he said of a cyberspace attack against the government, "is that we might not be able to communicate for essential government services. And it might happen at a time when we're at war. It might happen at a time when we're responding to terrorism."
Mr. Clarke said a critical question for the administration would be how much a government computer network would cost. No one is quite sure of that sum, although he speculated that it could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Assessing the possibility of a separate computer network for the government is just one example of how the administration is looking toward technological advances to bolster homeland security, much as Ronald Reagan and now Mr. Bush turned to the idea of a missile defense system.
After examining devices for sensing radiation and chemical and biological agents, Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, said this week that technology would be "at the heart of strategy" for making the nation more secure. Mr. Ridge is one of two officials to whom Mr. Clarke reports; the other is the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.
Prowling his office in the Old Executive Office Building, Mr. Clarke used a multicolored flowchart to describe a government communications system that would have its own routers, keeping it segregated from other computer users.
He envisions a system that would be strictly monitored and constantly scanned for viruses. "You would find abuse of the system early, you would limit it, you would stop it," he said.
Some in the technology industry fear what they see as the implications for the Internet: a separate cyberspace system for the government, they say, might create a trend in which other institutions as well would begin building their own networks separate from the Net. Civil libertarians, meanwhile, ask whether the idea would make the government less accessible to the people.
But Mr. Clarke said he did not see the system as a substitute for the Internet. Government agencies would simply be able to use two separate systems for varying functions, with the non-Internet system employed by federal agencies for the most essential needs requiring the greatest security. Some agencies, like the Energy Department, already have their own internal computer networks, on a smaller scale.
The administration has asked the industry to submit information by next week about how such a system might work and what it would cost. Industry officials say the request has sparked debate over everything from cost to technical feasibility to the implications for the Net.
"A lot of companies are putting various proposals together," said Harris N. Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America. "I think you're going to see hundreds of companies submit comments."
As for cost, "some critics have said that this will be vastly expensive and is therefore folly," Mr. Clarke said at a recent conference sponsored by Microsoft. "If it turns out it will be vastly expensive, I suspect we won't do it, but we'll never know unless we ask."
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat interested in technology issues, said Congress too would want to weigh whether the benefit was worth the cost. "The question," Mr. Wyden said, "is whether for the same amount of money is it going to be possible to get these key agencies access to the Internet we already have in a secure way?"
Once the first information comes in next week, the ideas will be studied by a team of government experts as well as outside academics.
----
Unlikely allies fight federal anti-terror initiatives
November 17, 2001
By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011117-30167686.htm
Rep. Bob Barr is seeking congressional hearings to examine some "sweeping" legal changes unilaterally put in place by the Bush administration to combat terrorism, which he says he finds "very disturbing."
Specifically, Mr. Barr is concerned about a change that allows, without a court order, monitoring of attorney-client communications of prison inmates suspected of links to terrorists, and another that would authorize foreign terrorism suspects to be tried by military tribunals.
The conservative Georgia Republican joined eight liberal Democrats in a news conference yesterday on Capitol Hill to protest the White House rulings.
"We stand on the verge of a civil liberties calamity in this country," Rep. John Conyers Jr., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in opening the news conference.
The Michigan Democrat accused the White House of having "taken a series of constitutionally dubious actions that place the executive branch in the untenable role of legislator, prosecutor, judge and jury."
Other Democrats who took part were Reps. Maxine Waters and Zoe Logren of California, Jerrold Nadler of New York, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, Robert C. Scott of Virginia and Melvin Watt of North Carolina. Turning to Mr. Barr, Mrs. Jackson-Lee said, "I think the statement being made today is that civil liberties and justice have no claim of any particular political party."
The primary focus of yesterday's news conference was a White House executive order, which President Bush signed Tuesday, that allows special military courts to try suspected terrorists who are not U.S. citizens. The military tribunals would have jurisdiction over foreigners designated as terrorists by the president, whether they are picked up in Afghanistan, other countries or in the United States.
Unlike trials in U.S. federal courts, which are a matter of public record, proceedings before military courts would be secret. This would prevent the disclosure of sensitive information, such as how the government gathers intelligence.
Also, defendants convicted by military courts would not have the opportunity for lengthy appeals of verdicts, and the military panel could order the death penalty for those convicted.
While many Democrats oppose the executive order, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, South Dakota Democrat, says he believes it has merit.
"We have got to do everything we possibly can do to track down the terrorists and bring them to justice. I do think we have to be concerned about constitutional prerogatives and liberties here that may be at stake, but the bottom line is, we have to find a way to make this work," Mr. Daschle said in an interview on CNN's "Newsnight."
But Mr. Barr is clearly worried. "The scope of this executive order takes your breath away, if you read the details of it," he said.
The Georgia Republican noted that the "ink is really not even dry" on legislation passed by Congress at the request of Mr. Bush shortly after the September 11 attacks to give the Justice Department more capability to track down, catch and hold suspected terrorists. Mr. Barr said some in Congress - himself included - felt that measure went "farther than it really needed to meet the terrorist threat." Nevertheless, he said, lawmakers supported it to give the administration "some necessary tools with which to fight terrorism."
But now the White House is "taking onto itself vast new powers," Mr. Barr said.
Because of his concerns about these latest changes, Mr. Barr said he sent a letter yesterday to Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asking that he hold "immediate hearings" on this matter.
Hearings should be held, said Mr. Barr, "to look into both the substance and the process whereby these changes to the most fundamental of all criminal procedures - for example, habeas corpus - are being sought to be implemented."
John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, said Mr. Barr is in the minority among House Republicans. "The Republican conference overwhelmingly supports" having accused terrorists tried by military tribunals, he said yesterday.
But Jeffrey Deist, spokesman for Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican, said Mr. Paul believes "those responsible for the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center" should be tried in federal courts, as were the defendants in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
In New York yesterday, an independent U.N. legal specialist slammed the concept.
In a letter to the Bush administration, Dato Param Cumaraswamy yesterday expressed concern about the absence of a guarantee to legal representation and the failure to establish a review process or the right to appeal. He also questioned the exclusion of the jurisdiction of any other courts.
But former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, now in private practice in Washington, says he sees some advantages to a military tribunal.
"There can't be any constitutional objections, since the Supreme Court approved the use of military tribunals during World War II. And there's obviously some advantage to holding a swift trial in secret with the availability of the death penalty," said Mr. Thornburgh, chairman of the Washington Legal Foundation's legal advisory committee.
However, Elisa Massimino, director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said, "We have real concerns about this. There is an adversarial criminal justice system in the United States to make sure you convict the right people. This system was arrived at through the democratic process. It seems as if the administration has forgotten that when you convict the wrong people, the bad guys go free."
The State Department yesterday defended Mr. Bush's order.
"The order contemplates full and fair trials, and our focus is on justice," the State Department's deputy spokesman Philip Reeker told reporters. "What the president is doing is creating another option. He has to designate any individual who would be brought to trial before such a tribunal. We have full confidence that any military commission would protect the rights of any defendants."
•Betsy Pisik and Nicholas Kralev contributed to this report.
-------
Other countries could face US military action
Up to 50 states are on blacklist, says Cheney
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor,
Guardian
Saturday November 17, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4301152,00.html
The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, warned yesterday that after the Afghanistan campaign is over, America could use military action in a second wave of attacks directed against states which harbour terrorists.
Mr Cheney said that up to 50 states could be targeted for a range of action, from financial and diplomatic to military, on the grounds that they had al-Qaida networks operating there.
Somalia, the east African country which is a haven for al-Qaida supporters, would be high on any US list of targets, alongside Iraq.
Planners in Washington and London are considering the next steps. The ease with which Kabul has fallen has encouraged hawks within the US administration who are keen to extend military action, particularly against Iraq.
A Foreign Office source said: "Thinking is going on about a second phase but no decision has been taken yet and we would never speculate on it."
The British view is that direct military action against another state is unlikely and that action is more likely to be in partnership with other states against internal enemies.
Mr Cheney, in a rare public foray, said in an interview for the BBC's Pashtu service yesterday morning: "There are a great many places round the world where there are cells of the al-Qaida organisation. Maybe as many as 40 or 50.
"We're working with the services of other countries and other governments to try to wrap those organisations up."
This threat of military action serves a useful purpose for Washington, making governments more amenable to action against terrorism, either inside or outside their own boundaries.
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, asked the Pentagon to come up with post-Afghanistan options in which they were to think the unthinkable. The resulting general command papers were reported to have been dismissed by Mr Rumsfeld for not being radical enough.
As yet, no specific military target outside Afghanistan has been agreed. That would change overnight if Osama bin Laden were to turn up in a country with close ties to al-Qaida, such as Somalia.
Somalia
Somalia would be an easy target as it is a "failed" state that is even more run-down than Afghanistan.
Dominic Simpson, an analyst with the Kroll Middle East Monitor, said he thought the next phase of the military campaign might involve Somalia. "The sense of violation would be less than if the US was moving against a government that was functioning. It could be the next base for Bin Laden if he is not caught in the meantime."
Action in Somalia would offer an opportunity to settle an old score: 18 US soldiers were brutally killed there in 1993 and since then the US has been wary of committing ground troops anywhere.
Neighbouring African countries claim al-Qaida has been active in Somalia since 1993. They say it was the base for bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania five years later and still has camps there.
If Bin Laden was to escape from Afghanistan, Somalia is one of the few countries left that might provide him succour, though it is a harder place to hide in.
German forces have served in Somalia before and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently reported a plan for a joint US-German operation in which German troops would take Berbera, with the US taking the harbour and airport.
The US-German force could operate in alliance with one of the Somali factions or with the neighbouring Ethiopia.
The main Somali group identified by Washington as close to al-Qaida is al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (Islamic Unity), which is trying to take over a north-eastern region.
Yemen
Yemen is home to several militant groups linked to al-Qaida. The remit of the government does not extend into tribal areas where such groups have their camps.
The danger was reinforced last year when al-Qaida operatives successfully launched an attack on the USS Cole from a dinghy. The Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has been invited to the White House this month, suggesting the US wants to work in conjunction with the existing government.
Iraq
Mr Rumsfeld has described as significant meetings in Prague between Mohammed Atta, a suspected leader of the September 11 hijackers, and an Iraqi intelligence official. However, a firm connection between al-Qaida and Iraq has proved elusive. Indeed, Bin Laden's people have fewer footholds in Iraq than they do in Britain.
However, Saddam Hussein, is regarded by Washington as one of the most dangerous leaders in the world, with potential access to weapons of mass destruction, and that is increasingly being regarded as sufficient justification for war. For many in the US administration, it is unfinished business.
Britain, though cooperating with the US in bombing Iraq in southern and northern no-fly zones in the past decade, is opposed to extending the war to Iraq because of the lack of a firm link.
The test of US intentions could come next month when the UN security council discusses sanctions against Iraq. Saddam's refusal to allow in UN weapons inspectors could turn out to be a casus belli.
Asia
Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, which all have problems with al-Qaida groups within their borders and with Muslim militants in general, have agreed to combined operations.
The US, which has a good relationship with these countries, yesterday expressed a desire to participate in any such operations. It is especially close to the Philippines, and has offered it a generous military package, with an emphasis on counter-terrorism.
Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy defence secretary, recently told the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review that he saw a clear need to confront al-Qaida in Indonesia: "Going after al- Qaida in Indonesia is not something that should wait until after al-Qaida has been uprooted from Afghanistan."
-------- MILITARY
-------- afghanistan
Taliban prisoners yielding clues to al Qaeda
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 17, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011117-71565479.htm
Somewhere in Afghanistan, Taliban prisoners and defectors are being questioned: "Where is Osama bin Laden?" "Did you see him?" "Where does he hide?"
Senior Taliban military officials now in rebel hands are the latest of the growing list of sources for U.S. intelligence in the hunt for bin Laden and the other leaders of the al Qaeda network.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday the prisoners would be questioned.
These new sources are adding to the existing military and CIA reconnaissance efforts throughout the country, military and other U.S. officials said. Since the Taliban's rapid retreat from most of northern Afghanistan, U.S. troops and intelligence operatives are able to shine a brighter light across vast regions of the country, taking advantage of the chaos to find targets for military strikes.
It's already paying off.
This week, information obtained by U.S. intelligence quickly led to at least three airstrikes on al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, killing several, U.S. officials said. The highest ranking so far has been Muhammad Atef, bin Laden's terrorist-operations chief and possible successor, who is believed to have been killed by U.S. bombs outside of Kabul.
The strikes are a product of what's called "actionable" intelligence - information so up-to-date and credible that bombers or commandos can be dispatched to a target.
"We've been using various intelligence assets trying to locate folks, looking for large movements of people as they're flushed out, going after caves and tunnels, going after activities and businesses and movements," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters yesterday.
Officials declined to specify how they learned of the senior officials' whereabouts for last week's strikes, but said the rout of the Taliban has created an environment thick with opportunities.
U.S. special forces can safely enter many communities in Afghanistan once closed to all but covert operatives.
Eavesdropping aircraft and satellites may gain more new information from a breakdown in communications discipline among enemy leaders, who use tapped satellite phones to call for help.
-------- balkans
Changes in Macedonia law aid minority groups
November 17, 2001
By Jasmina Mironski
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20011117-5341403.htm
SKOPJE, Macedonia - Macedonian President Boris Trajkovsky appealed to the international community yesterday to help restore stability to the volatile Balkan state after the country's parliament proclaimed a new constitution that broadens rights for the ethnic Albanian minority.
Macedonia's leaders now face a new crucial step in the peace process - implementing an amnesty for ethnic Albanian rebels of the National Liberation Army (NLA), whose conflict with government forces from February to August brought the country to the brink of civil war.
The constitution was approved by a large majority after a much-delayed debate, with 94 deputies voting in favor and only 14 voting against measures that form the backbone of a Western-backed peace plan signed in August.
The tension in Macedonia, which officials here in Skopje charged was fed by ethnic Albanian groups operating in neighboring Kosovo, threatened to ignite a new round of ethnic clashes in the region and had caused major concern in both Washington and leading European capitals.
Mr. Trajkovsky immediately gave assurances that the promised amnesty for NLA rebels would be honored.
"Immunity will be applied to former NLA fighters who voluntarily handed over their arms [to NATO] before September 26," the president confirmed in a letter to NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana.
Mr. Trajkovsky confirmed that authorities would be instructed not to arrest anyone under immunity or start legal proceedings against them, the only exception being rebels suspected by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of committing crimes.
He praised parliament for its "courageous decision in difficult circumstances," but said there was still much work to do and called for the restoration of state sovereignty and law across the land.
The 15 amendments to the 1991 constitution approved overnight make Albanian Macedonia's second official language, give ethnic Albanians a voice in parliament and other public bodies, and guarantee their political, religious and cultural rights.
The modified preamble to the constitution says ethnic Albanians and other minority groups are "peoples" alongside the Macedonian majority.
The vote came six weeks later than scheduled under the August peace accord, as debate laid bare continuing divisions within parliament and the majority Macedonian community.
In a television address, Mr. Trajkovsky urged Western nations to "meet their responsibilities" and he called for a donor conference to be held as soon as possible in order to rebuild Macedonia's ruined economy.
Such a conference had been planned for mid-October, but was put off because of the lack of progress on the domestic political front. However, European envoy Alain Le Roy said it could be held in mid-December as long as conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund are met.
Three Macedonian policemen were killed a week ago in an attack blamed by the authorities on rebels from the NLA, which has officially disbanded. It was the first armed clash since the August peace accord was signed.
-------- u.s.
[Oh, you young people so eager to fight, do you know where old veterans are spending the night? Don't be too sure your leaders are right. But here is one who cares. et]
Wellstone wins on veterans funding bill
November 17, 2001
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Sen. Paul Wellstone has succeeded in breaking a secret hold on his bill to fund programs for homeless veterans.
The bill won unanimous consent in the Senate late Thursday.
The Minnesota Democrat put a hold on all nonemergency bills Nov. 1 in retaliation for a senator anonymously blocking the veterans measure.
Republicans needed a final-passage vote on a measure that expired Oct. 21 to extend a ban on Internet taxes for two years.
Mr. Wellstone blocked the vote until the secret hold was lifted from his measure to increase funding from $24 million to $50 million for job training and placement for homeless veterans.
"This is a tremendous and hard-fought victory for America's veterans," Mr. Wellstone said.
"We still don't know who was objecting to passage of the bill - they never came forward - but the important thing is that they got out of the way," Mr. Wellstone said.
"It's unfortunate that I had to break the bill free the hard way - by holding up other legislation. But I think once other senators realized that I was serious, and all nonemergency legislation would be stalled in the Senate until we got this done for veterans, we started to see some progress," Mr. Wellstone said.
The House last month passed a more aggressive, bipartisan homeless veterans bill that would authorize $1 billion over 10 years to end "chronic" homelessness.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican and chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and Rep. Lane Evans, Illinois Democrat.
Mr. Smith said yesterday they want a final version sent to President Bush by Thanksgiving to send a message to veterans they have not been forgotten.
"Veterans are going to soup kitchens on Thanksgiving and they need to know there are protections and concerns coming their way to raise their spirits," Mr. Smith said.
"All they need is a second chance and that's what this bill does," Mr. Smith said.
"Shame on us if we don't prioritize our veterans. We have sweated every detail," he said.
There are 225,000 homeless veterans on any given day, many with drug addictions from post-traumatic stress disorder, Mr. Smith said.
During a September hearing on the House version, a homeless veteran told Congress he had lived in an abandoned vehicle until it was towed to a junk yard.
"He said, 'One day they towed my home.' My eyes welled up and that is what this is all about," Mr. Smith said.
The House measure authorizes 2,000 additional HUD Section 8 low-income housing vouchers for homeless veterans.
It consolidates existing laws relating to homeless veterans and authorizes $285 million for the Homeless Grant and Per Diem Program.
Additionally, $250 million would be used to strengthen the Labor Department's Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.
"We've got a bill we can be absolutely proud of and we are going to make sure that bill gets to the White House," Mr. Smith said.
-------- OTHER
-------- terrorism
Senate approves tax breaks for families of victims
USA Today
11/17/2001
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/16/tax-breaks.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks would get tax breaks under legislation approved Friday by the Senate.
"This is not all we could do. It is only the beginning of what we should do," said Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., a prime sponsor of the 10-year, $430 million bill. "But it is something we can do."
The bill, which passed on a voice vote, heads back to the House, where a less expansive version was approved shortly after the attacks. House leaders were unsure Friday whether the Senate bill would be acceptable or if a conference would be necessary to work out a final agreement.
Under the Senate bill, people who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and those killed when a hijacked plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania would not owe income taxes in the year of death and at least one previous year.
Any income taxes paid during those years would be refunded. Also refunded would be two years' worth of the payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare.
"The terrorist attacks left thousands of wives, husbands and children suffering," said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "I hope this eases at least some of the hardship and worry for the aggrieved."
At last count, 4,376 people were listed as dead or missing as a result of the attacks. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., attached language that would make many of the tax breaks apply to victims of the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; 168 died in that attack. Anthrax victims and their families are also included.
There was also help Friday from the Internal Revenue Service, which issued a notice that said charities are free to provide money to victims of the terrorist attacks without fear of losing their tax-exempt status. Legal questions were raised about payments made to families of rescuers by the Twin Towers Fund in New York because they are not necessarily in dire financial need.
"Groups who act in a reasonable, good-faith manner to get help to victims will not endanger their tax-exempt status," said IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti.
For the victims and their families, Senate bill would also:
- Make workers' compensation benefits, death benefits and payments from government retirement plans untaxable. Disability benefits for people injured in the attacks also would not be taxed.
- Shield the first $8.5 million in assets from federal estate tax in 2001 only.
- Exempt from taxation payments to employees from employers for "personal, living, family or funeral expenses" as well as government aid, such as disaster payments, and payments made by airlines to victims.
- Give the Treasury Department flexibility to postpone tax filing deadlines for up to one year in cases related to declared disasters, terrorism or military action.
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U.S. runs its own terror camp
Fort Benning training tied to atrocities in Latin America
By RACHEL WHITE
11/17/2001
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/opinion/devoice/11172001.html
President Bush has declared an all-out war on terrorism, demanding that nations freeze the financial assets of terrorists and close their training camps. However, the Bush administration has yet to demand closure of a terrorist training camp on American soil whose graduates have tortured, raped, assassinated and massacred people in the Western Hemisphere during the last 50 years.
This school receives $18.4 million of our tax money annually. Although Americans know little or nothing about the U.S. Army School of Americas, people throughout Latin America know too well the acts of terror committed by its alumni.
First established in Panama in 1946, the SOA left in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty and moved to Fort Benning, Ga. The school, recently renamed the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, has trained more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers in combat skills such as commando tactics, , psychological warfare and torture.
The school has not acknowledged its history of terror, but groups such as SOA Watch have documented the central role it served in training terrorists throughout Latin America.
In 1993, the United Nations Truth Commission revealed the prominent role SOA graduates played in atrocities during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s. SOA graduates included: two of the three officers cited in the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero; 19 of the 26 officers cited in the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter; 10 of the 12 officers cited for the massacre of more than 900 civilians in El Mozote; and two-thirds of more than 60 officers cited for the worst atrocities in El Salvador's brutal war.
The SOA trail of terror extends far beyond El Salvador. SOA graduates have terrorized civilian populations of most other Latin American countries. In Guatemala, U.S.-supported dictator Lucas Garcia, an SOA graduate, created the civil patrols responsible for some of the most brutal atrocities in Guatemala's civil war.
Gen. Hector Gramajo, also an SOA graduate, directed the policies that resulted in the extermination of thousands of indigenous people. He later gave the address at SOA graduation ceremonies in 1991, six weeks after a U.S. court found him guilty of numerous war crimes. In Honduras during the 1980s, four of the five officers who organized death squads known for murder, torture and the use of shock and suffocation devices in interrogations were SOA-trained. Jose Vallé, an SOA graduate and admitted torturer, later testified that SOA classes had taught him techniques
The SOA has trained dictators such as Manuel Noriega of Panama, Roberto Viola of Argentina, Velasco Alvarado of Peru and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. The Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet staffed his repressive regime with numerous SOA graduates who carried out genocide, terrorism, torture and illegal arrest followed by disappearance.
Colombia indicates that SOA graduates continue to terrorize civilians. For example, a Human Rights Watch report in 2000 confirmed that SOA-trained Brig. Gen. Canal helped establish the Calima Front, responsible for 2,000 disappearances and at least 40 executions since 1999.
So much exposure of the school's shame scared its proponents into reopening it under a new name, though changes are mainly cosmetic.
Defenders of the SOA argue that the behavior of alumni does not necessarily reflect the training. However, the 1996 U.N. Truth Commission revealed that SOA training manuals recommended that "interrogation techniques like torture, execution, blackmail and arresting the relatives of those being questioned" should be used on so-called insurgents -- union and student organizers, social workers and religious leaders.
Also, many notorious SOA graduates responsible for human rights atrocities are honored in its Hall of Fame photo gallery and invited back as guest speakers and instructors.
A non-violent movement to close the SOA has blossomed. At a vigil outside the base last November, 10,000 people, standing in solidarity with people throughout Latin America, demanded SOA's closure.
This weekend, students, religious leaders, veterans, union members and families will again gather at Fort Benning and demand that the U.S. close its own terrorist training camp.
Rachel White lives in Newark.
-------- activists
Alice Hamburg -- peace activist for 5 decades
Eric Brazil, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2001
SF Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/11/17 /MN141124.DTL
Alice Sachs Hamburg, a peace activist for more than half a century, died Monday at age 96 in her Berkeley home.
Mrs. Hamburg became an international spokeswoman for the peace movement when she founded Women Strike for Peace in 1950, and she was active in the movement until her death.
She had been organizing protests against the current war in Afghanistan and in a recent interview with The Chronicle said the movement had shown surprising vitality, responding more quickly than at the initial stages of the Vietnam War.
"Our motto is justice, not vengeance," she said. "Let us not become the evil we deplore.
"I don't know if I will see rapprochement with our enemies in my own lifetime," she added. "But I owe it to my progeny to help us get there."
Mrs. Hamburg's death occurred just as her autobiography, "Grass Roots: From Prairie to Politics," is coming out. It will be published on Dec. 1 by Creative Arts Book Co. of Berkeley.
Born to an impoverished Jewish immigrant family on a North Dakota homestead, she ventured west to study economics at the University of California at Berkeley, from which she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1927. That year, she married rancher Sam Hamburg, who pioneered large-scale industrial farming in the Los Banos area of Merced County and, later, cotton growing in Israel.
Mrs. Hamburg taught school in the San Joaquin Valley farming community of Dos Palos (Merced County) before moving to Berkeley in 1948. Her activism caught the worried attention of officialdom early on, and she was subpoenaed to testify before the California Senate's Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities -- the so-called Burns Committee -- in 1951.
In pressing what became a one-woman global campaign after founding Women Strike for Peace, Mrs. Hamburg arranged exchanges with Soviet women and peace groups in India, Japan and elsewhere.
During the 1960s, Mrs. Hamburg became engaged in the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley and the Mississippi Summer campaign for civil rights in 1964. She also was a leader in several organizations that demonstrated against the Vietnam War.
During the 1980s, while producing oral histories of prominent Berkeley figures, Mrs. Hamburg also served as coordinator for the 1987 Mother's Day demonstration at the Nevada nuclear test site.
She was widely praised by influential Californians.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Linus Pauling said he had been "inspired by Alice's strong commitment and contributions to world peace and justice."
Former Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Oakland, commended her for "decades of work on behalf of world peace and disarmament."
And the late Chronicle columnist Herb Caen wrote in 1983 that "as usual . . . Alice made nothing but sense and enlightenment."
Mrs. Hamburg was honored by the Commission on the Status of Women in 1993 and in 1997 with the Jane Addams Peace Association Tribute Award. She was also honored by the Berkeley Community Fund and the American Friends Service Committee for a lifetime of peace advocacy.
She is survived by twin daughters Tanya Goldsmith of San Francisco and Sonya Ruehl of Orinda, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Her son, Aron, predeceased her.
A memorial service is pending.
The family suggests contributions to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom -- East Bay, 2303 Ellsworth, Berkeley, CA 94704.
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Sister Rosalie Bertell still fighting the dangers of radiation
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001
From: "Rosalie Bertell, GNSH" rosaliebertell@greynun.org
Dear John Steinbach,
Thank you for your note and paper. Please extend my best wishes to Louise! I am at our Motherhouse Infirmary in Yardley PA trying to recover from from an E-coli blood poison which I picked up in Bangladesh last December, and subsequent major surgery, myocardial infarction, renal failure and other complications. Tell Louise Ramirez Franklin I feel like 96 although I am only 72! Slowly I am recovering, but am still using a walker, heart medicine and shots for anemia.
I am glad you are still fighting for honest radiation standards. I am on the British Radiation Protection list serve - which is interesting. Once in a while I put in some new thoughts - however they have all studied from the ICRP books.
Last Sunday I was awarded the Sean MacBride International Peace Prize in Helsinki by the International Peace Bureau. I could not go, but the award was received for me by the Canadian Ambassador to Finland and Larisa Skuratovskaya MD, of Moscow read my speech (enclosed). You can order my new book: "Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War" from our office in Toronto at: <info@iicph.org>
Love, Rosalie
Terrorist Attack on the Global Civic Community
Although I prepared a speech for the Sean MacBride Award ceremony a few weeks ago, I feel that I need to update my remarks in view of the extraordinary events of 11 September 2001. Ironically, in the original speech I called for more dispersed demonstrations against economic and military globalization so as to avoid confrontation and violence. The current protests have been vulnerable to infiltration. Moreover, demonstrators are susceptible to being dismissed by media and political leaders as "hooligans"; their serious messages and voices are not being heard. Confrontational military and police with shields, mace and tear gas are useless against a dispersed civil society protest group which is well synchronized, relevant and having clearly articulated goals. Terrorists have also noticed that dispersion is a tactic not easily fought with nuclear bombs and missile defense.
I do not really believe in coincidence, and I think there must be some significance in the International Peace Bureau (IPB) choice of a North American peace activist in 2001. Although I was born and brought up in Buffalo NY, USA, I have lived in and strongly related to my Canadian inheritance for the past twenty one years. I am actually a fourth generation Canadian, and also a fourth generation American. I chose to live in Canada because of a long distaste for the U.S. Superpower mentality and constant escalation of the nuclear arms race. It was difficult to plan and work creatively for a peaceful and free world while constantly having to respond to the "next generation" weaponry.
Today I want to re-assume my American heritage and speak to the suffering soul of this great nation which absorbed the blows to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the face of this terrorist attack it is incumbent on the global peace community not just to call for non-violent solutions, but also to flesh out some of the real life options and supports for peaceful resolution of these events. The American psyche has absorbed the shock, and is filled with compassion for the dead and wounded, and for their families. They are unclear about appropriate actions in the face of the obvious need for justice and the passionate calls for vengeance. Americans are also generally unaware of the international efforts already underway to curb organized crime, or of the United Nations conference on this issue held in Sicily this year. Publicly joining this initiative would be a logical beginning of meaningful response.
The terrorist attacks were well planned, and the targets apparently carefully chosen as symbols of international trade and military planning. The attacks were also clearly international in scope, transcending America. Nationals of eighty countries were victimized and the terrorists with their support groups were multi-national. The suicide tactic was not derived from Islamic law or piety, and even Muslim people are distancing themselves from these extremists. The struggle is not based in religion. Another disturbing dimension of the crime was the terrorist "insider trading" through which they placed bets that the stocks price of airlines, financial investment companies housed in the World Trade Center and insurance companies, would fall, thereby providing millions of dollars to fund their "holy war".
First I would like to witness to the heroism of the people of New York, Washington, the fourth highjacked plane and all Americans in responding to the trauma. There was an outpouring of love and selfless assistance to those caught in the building collapses, fires and chaos. Those in the stricken buildings used their cell phones to call home, and their messages were all the same: "I love you!" In prayer services, spontaneous gatherings and public media, "God bless America" was sung over and over. Crowds of people lined the streets to cheer the fire and police officers who were risking their lives to rescue people. Organizations sent lunch baskets, sandwiches and even dog food for the police and their dogs trying to locate survivors. From hundreds of miles away from New York and Washington, socks and gloves were collected for rescue workers. The generous compassionate heart of America was broken.
Most people did not wildly hit out at local Muslims or persons of Arab origin The overwhelming majority of Americans were both numb with grief and focused on helping in any way they could. There were however some attacks on Muslims, vandalism at Mosques and some harassment of Arab Americans, as I believe also happened in England and perhaps elsewhere Such misplaced anger has no place in our search for viable responses.
It is generally agreed by most thinkers in both the peace and military communities that this is a new kind of attack and will spawn a new kind of "war". It seems to be also clear that an American wild western type of posse and lynching is equally inappropriate and counterproductive.
Bombing the already devastated and suffering peasants of Afghanistan is cruel and unnecessary. Afghanis are not the "enemy". In fact taking the law into one's own hand will do little but spawn more hatred and mass murder of innocent people. We do have an international civic society, international law, an international criminal court and a supportive global community. The clearest message which the peace community could deliver to the United States is: "DO NOT TRY TO GO IT ALONE".
What is called for is not an international coalition to support and back U.S. anti-terrorism policy decisions and actions. It is for the U.S. to step back and let the international community take initiative in the pursuit, prosecution and punishment of the criminals. A Father whose daughter has been raped and killed should not undertake the pursuit and punishment of the perpetrator. This is a basic tenant of domestic law.
None of us are exempt from the passion arising in response to so much pain. Far from losing face internationally, the true stature and maturity of the American Nation would be clearly manifested in this stepping back.
The American peace groups could help to educate the public of the United States on the wisdom of not taking the initiative. It is also an opportunity for education on the problems posed to development of international law by the failure of the U.S. to join with the global community on promoting some key international law concepts. There are several international agreements violated by the terrorists and/or needed to counteract terrorism, which the U.S. has not yet signed: The Human Rights Covenant's Social and Economic Rights sections, the World Criminal Court, the Landmine Treaty and The Rights of the Child. The United Nations 2001 conference against organized crime and its resolutions received little media coverage in the United States, in spite of long term U.S. ineffectual efforts to wipe out the Mafia and drug lords. The American public needs to be brought into market place discussions of these international instruments of civility, and the reasons for American dissent should be openly discussed and resolved.
There are other international documents which it would be well for the U.S. to reconsider in view of today's world. For example, the post World War II conditional decision of the U.S. Senate to join the World Court. The condition stated that if the U.S. was brought before the Court it would reserve to itself the decision as to whether the suit was "an internal matter", or in common parlance, none of the Court's business. This clause has been copied by other countries not wishing to accept international law.
This is not the time for isolation of this big hearted, freedom loving community across the ocean from Europe. It is time for symbolic hugging, reassurance and lifting of the burden of "Leader of the Free World" from its shoulders. The International community needs to assume the leadership, curbing that global criminal element which jeopardizes everyone's security. Being a Superpower is no longer desirable or even possible in this new world without borders.
It is with humility that I accept the MacBride Peace Award from the IPB. I recognize the hundred year struggle of this organization to provide non-violent realistic options to nation states embroiled in disputes. Some have heard and appreciated this voice for peace with justice, and I will be proud to work with the IPB, especially with its North American members, to expand this moderating influence into North American culture. On behalf of my American family, I thank the global peace community for their helping hand and true friendship in this crisis. Let us all hope that faith in God, however described, will lead the global community to itself be the guarantor of security in a just and peaceful world.
Dr. Rosalie Bertell, G.N.S.H.
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Please come! Louise Franklin-Ramirez Tribute December 4th, 7 PM
Please note two important events for December.
(1) Tribute to Louise Franklin-Ramirez, Tuesday, December 4, 2001, 7PM, University of the District of Columbia Auditorium (Connecticut and Van Ness Metro and barrier-free)
(see "About Louise Franklin-Ramirez" below)
(2) Welcome for Victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Wednesday, December 5, 2001, 7 PM, La Casa, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St., Washington DC
A high level Hibakusha delegation led by Professor Saturo Konishi is visiting the National Capital Area to voice concern about the proposed National Missile Defense program and to demand the total abolition of nuclear weapons. They will be visiting with Congress, the Bush Administration and Peace Activists.
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 10:38:18 -0500 From: John Steinbach <jsteinbach@igc.org>
==
About Louise Franklin-Ramirez: Pioneer for Peace
Louise Franklin-Ramirez, 96, is a lifelong resident of the Metropolitan Washington area who has been active in civil rights, social justice and peace since she was a teenager.
During World War One, at age 12, she helped raise money for the victims of the Armenian Holocaust; in the mid-1930s she protested the sale of scrap metal to Japan and Germany; in the 1940s she worked to desegregate the D.C. teachers union; in the 1950s she fought against McCarthyism; in the 1960s and 70s she was a Freedom Rider and protested the Vietnam War; and since the 1950s she worked to abolish nuclear weapons and supported the rights of radiation victims. She has raised consciousness about the needs of native people, and has supported an endless variety of activists, helping to promote their various (always nonviolent) causes.
During the 1990s Louise was arrested numerous times for her activism, most recently in 1999 at age 94.
Co-founder of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee of the DC Metropolitan Area Gray Panthers, Louise has fostered awareness of the dangers of nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities in important ways. With her husband, John Steinbach, Louise organizes the annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki Community Commemoration in August at the Lincoln Memorial, and hosts annual delegations of A-Bomb survivors to tell their story around the DC area.
Louise Franklin-Ramirez is perhaps best known for her map and database of "Deadly Nuclear Radiation Hazards, USA" (http://prop1.org/prop1/radiated/drh.htm), considered by many to be the most comprehensive catalog of contaminated and potentially contaminated radioactive sites ever published.
Born September 28, 1905, Ms. Franklin-Ramirez is a graduate of D.C. Public Schools and received her B.A. from the University of D.C. and her M.A. from Columbia University. She was a reading consultant for D.C. public and was the author of the "Basal Progressive Choice Reading Program," an early phonetics curriculum designed to teach learning disabled and dyslexic children. Franklin-Ramirez also owned and operated Georgetown Toys and Crafts, specializing in "developmental" toys.
Ms. Franklin-Ramirez is a founding member of "Women Strike for Peace," "Gray Panthers," and "Unity In the Community" in Prince William County. In 1998, she was the recipient of the Lewis Mumford Peace Award and the Prince William County Human Rights Award, and in 1999 she received the prestigious " Courage of Conscience Award" from the Peace Abbey in Sherborne, Mass.
The Tribute is sponsored by Gray Panthers, UDC Office of Alumni Affairs, Proposition One Committee, and Piscataway Indian Nation
----
Federal Judge Upholds First Amendment Right to Demonstrate
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 15:59:28 +0000 From: info@soaw.org School of the Americas Watch www.soaw.org Contact SOA Watch Media Office: (706) 687-0349
SOA Watch's Annual Funeral Procession Calling for Closure of the School of the Americas to Proceed on Sunday Morning
COLUMBUS, GA. On Nov. 16, 1989 in El Salvador army officers trained at the School of the Americas (SOA) massacred six Jesuit priests and their two housekeepers in El Salvador. Every November since then SOA Watch, a grassroots human rights group, has commemorated that event with demonstrations and funeral processions at Ft. Benning, the home of the SOA, on the outskirts of Columbus.
Since 1990 SOA Watch has been a persistent critic of the School. SOA Watch founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois refers to the School as "the terrorist training camp right here in our own backyard."
This year the City of Columbus sought an injunction forbidding Bourgeois and other SOA Watch organizers from taking part in the procession at the entrance to Ft. Benning. Yesterday, on the 12th anniversary of the Jesuit massacre, Federal Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth denied the City's request. Faircloth said that even war cannot remove safeguards for civil liberties. "It was a question of First Amendment rights, and you can't play with that. I am sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution. I think I did that today," said the Judge, who last May found 26 SOA Watch demonstrators guilty of trespass for participating in last November's nonviolent funeral procession.
Twenty of those demonstrators are currently in federal prisons serving six-month sentences. They are among the 70 SOA Watch activists who since 1990 have cumulatively spent 40 years in prison for their scrupulously nonviolent protests against the SOA (recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).
Tomorrow's funeral procession will begin at 8:30AM at Columbus' Main Gate Plaza, at the corner of Victory Drive and Ft. Benning Rd, a half mile from the Ft .Benning main entrance.
SOA Watch, founded in 1990, is a national, grassroots, faith and conscience- based group committed to nonviolence. We have offices in Columbus, GA, Washington, DC and chapters in communities and on campuses around the country. Our goal is to expose and close SOA/WHISC.
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Animal rights activist buried
The Guardian
John Vidal
Saturday November 17, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,596306,00.html
Led by Kate, a pagan priestess, flanked by a lone policeman and followed by up to 700 people, the featherweight body of animal rights protester Barry Horne was carried through Northampton yesterday before his burial.
Horne, 49, died in jail last week after his fourth hunger strike. He was serving 18 years for burning property, and he did not go quietly. At a rally before the procession, speakers encouraged the crowd to take over from the "bog-standard Northampton dustman" turned anti-vivisection activist.
"I can't say break into the labs, burn the places down, because that's illegal. But don't be afraid. We are going to lose more people. They are going to kill us. The fight starts now," said Keith Mann, an activist who spent eight years in jail for animal rights extremism.
Horne was remembered as "hard work", "a man with a temper" and a "lousy cook". "He wound you up." Despite the animal rights movement being progressively driven underground by legislation branding some of their activities as "terrorism", the turnout was higher than organisers expected. The police, who usually film animal rights demonstrations, kept a low profile.
The procession around Northampton was watched by shoppers. "The problem is these people haven't been through a war. They could get their priorities right," said a 65-year-old woman.
Those in the procession, with many people carrying animals, saw it differently. "Animal rights is a war. We are at war for the animals. We need to make sacrifices for the animals, too," said John Curtis, a seasoned activist.
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OUR RADICAL HISTORY
From: "j t" <nopossesion1@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001
BOOK REVIEW
Zinn on History
by Howard Zinn,
Seven Stories Press, New York, 2001.
You may be familiar with the work of the radical American historian and activist, Howard Zinn. It includes the witty, humane play Marx in Soho, as well as his magnificent Peoples Histories, of the United States and the twentieth century. During the Vietnam War it was Zinn, together with Noam Chomsky, who helped copy, smuggle out and then edit and publish the Pentagon Papers, official documents that illustrated the full and savage involvement of the American ruling class in the appalling invasion and destruction of South-East Asia.
This current volume is a collection of Zinn's essays that date from the mid-sixties to last year, and concern themselves with broadly historical themes-sketches of individuals, tales of action, meditations on the role of the academic and history in general, on Marx and "Marxism".
This sense of history shines through in his essay on the Seattle protests. Zinn welcomes the shift away from the single issue campaigns that characterised much of left-wing US protest in the eighties and nineties, and a growing targeting of capitalism itself. He reminds readers of North America's rich (and sometimes overlooked) history of class resistance and militancy. Seattle was the stage for a general strike in 1919 of some 35,000 dock workers.
Moreover, the area was often deeply militant, with the "Wobblies" (the anarcho-syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World) strong and much anti-war agitation against US involvement in World War I. So often today's anti-capitalist protestors are ignorant of this legacy; Zinn's work is going some way to remedying this.
Socialists will, I think be most interested on his thoughts about Marx and his ideas. Zinn, like Marx before him declares "je ne suis pas marxiste!" ("I am not a Marxist!"). The present reviewer feels the same. Marx's turn of wit was, on this occasion given to one Pieper, a young German sychopant (or "nudnik", as Zinn calls him in wonderfully colourful Yiddish)¸ a self-styled "Marxist", who was attempting to get Marx to attend his Karl Marx society. Zinn, in quoting Marx's weary and witty reply is saying that we ought to reflect on what is relevant and alive in Marx's writings, rather than turning them into sterile dogma.
Marx wasn't just a scholar, but an activist and commentator on the world he often painfully lived in. Zinn points readers to the Theses on Feurbach and the 1844 Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. These are not "early" or "immature" works, he says, but rather rich in insights that are still as profoundly relevant as when they were written. The alienation and exploitation produced under capitalism are appalling; "It [The 1844 Manuscript] simply stated (but did not state simply) that the capitalist system violates whatever it means to be human". To overcome this alienation a complete change-indeed , a transcendence-of capitalist society's social, economic and political relationships is required. Zinn reminds us of Marx's hostility towards nationalism, and points out that he would have been horrified by the so-called "socialist" societies that Stalinism created. Marx instead lauded the 1871 Paris Commune with its direct democracy, egalitarianism, levelling of wages and abolition of the guillotine as his idea of the "dictatorship of the proletariat", as he called the political transition to a socialist society.
The rest of the book is devoted to accounts of Zinn's own activism, mainly against the war in Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. One of the best essays is on the Freedom Schools in Mississippi the free, egalitarian summer schools for poor blacks that Zinn and others set up in 1964, often at risk of injury and death. Zinn reminds us that "education is not just a tool of indoctrination, but a powerful tool of emancipation as well.
I can't pretend to agree with Zinn all the time; yes, some of Marx's economics is dense and difficult, but an understanding of surplus value and commodity production is vital to understanding capitalism. Zinn is also too often prone to supporting reformism on grounds of "pragmatism", provision of public healthcare in the US being a case in point. However, given where he comes from and the generation he belongs to, it is at least understandable.
"Human beings make history, but not always in circumstances of their own choosing," as Uncle Charlie was fond of saying. Given all the history out there being written by bourgeois apologists, plodding careerist empiricists, dull local-fixated antiquarians and childish, pretentious postmodernists, we need more radical historians like Howard Zinn. A touching and worthwhile collection; read it and start reading and researching your own radical history.
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Protesters march on G-20 meeting site, police arrest several
Montreal Gazette
Saturday, November 17, 2001
Canadian Press
http://www.canada.com/montreal/story.asp?id={7BB434C0-CD4A-4631-8493-641A7D5137A9}
OTTAWA (CP) - Police arrested about a dozen protesters Saturday as more than 1,000 marchers converged on the G-20 conference from two sides to demonstrate against the global finance meetings.
Armed officers pushed their way into both marches and pulled out several protesters who were dressed in black. At least one demonstrator was bitten by a police dog and another was hit in the head with a baton. Police appeared to be targeting anarchists, who smashed some windows and vandalized property downtown Friday.
Marchers shouted their opposition but remained peaceful and continued on to Parliament Hill where they gathered in front of metal barricades chanting, "Shut it down," as police looked on.
One group of protesters set an American flag on fire as others cheered.
Most demonstrators then headed for the front of the nearby Supreme Court building where organizers had set up a base. A rock band was playing and there were portable toilets.
Many accused the police of brutality during a peaceful protest.
"The police moved very quickly, very swiftly, viciously with their dogs," said Paul Smith of Global Democracy Ottawa.
"They took people down in the street; they held people off with riot sticks and they threatened them with guns. I don't know whether they were plastic bullets, but basically it was an unprovoked attack."
Protester Jamie Kneen added: 'They are trying to provoke a confrontation."
He said one organizer was arrested for urging police not to haul away demonstrators.
The protesters, including students, labour activists, church groups and others, have a range of concerns. Many complain the meetings of the G-20, International Monetary Fund and World Bank are no help to world's poor.
Finance Minister Paul Martin said early Saturday that he shares many of the same concerns as the activists.
Following a breakfast meeting with non-governmental groups from around the globe, Martin said he has "a commonality of views" with activists from Canada, Africa and Latin America.
The G-20 represents a mix of big and small countries that together make up 88 per cent of the world's economic output and includes 60 per cent of the world's poor.
Members range from Canada, the U.S. and Britain to Saudi Arabia, China, Brazil.
------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)
------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!