THE MASSES ARE ASSES

FALLING EMPIRES:


PREZ CUTS FED PAY RAISES

CRAWFORD, Texas (NYPost) - Citing a state of national emergency brought on by the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush yesterday slashed pay raises that most civilian federal workers were supposed to receive in January...


BUSH SLASHES FED RAISES, BLAMES TERROR

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush cut pay raises promised to civilian federal employees on Friday, saying that giving them the full pay hikes would threaten the war on terrorism...

"Full statutory civilian pay increases in 2003 would interfere with our nation's ability to pursue the war on terrorism," Bush said in a letter to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and President of the Senate, Vice President Dick Cheney...



Bush demonstrating 'fiscal responsibility.'
(US Debt as of Nov. 27, 2002 = $ 6,338,927,203,679.87).

MORE REGARDING HENRY:

KISSINGER'S BACK...AS 9/11 TRUTH-SEEKER FOR BUSH
- David Corn

Asking Henry Kissinger to investigate government malfeasance or nonfeasance is akin to asking Slobodan Milosevic to investigate war crimes. Pretty damn akin, since Kissinger has been accused, with cause, of engaging in war crimes of his own. Moreover, he has been a poster-child for the worst excesses of secret government and secret warfare. Yet George W. Bush has named him to head a supposedly independent commission to investigate the nightmarish attacks of September 11, 2001, a commission intended to tell the public what went wrong on and before that day. This is a sick, black-is-white, war-is-peace joke--a cruel insult to the memory of those killed on 9/11 and a screw-you affront to any American who believes the public deserves a full accounting of government actions or lack thereof. It's as if Bush instructed his advisers to come up with the name of the person who literally would be the absolute worst choice for the post and, once they had, said, "sign him up."

Hyperbole? Consider the record.

Vietnam. Kissinger participated in a GOP plot to undermine the 1968 Paris peace talks in order to assist Richard Nixon's presidential campaign. Once in office, Nixon named Kissinger his national security adviser, and later appointed him secretary of state. As co-architect of Nixon's war in Vietnam, Kissinger oversaw the secret bombing campaign in Cambodia, an arguably illegal operation estimated to have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Bangladesh. In 1971, Pakistani General Yahya Khan, armed with US weaponry, overthrew a democratically-elected government in an action that led to a massive civilian bloodbath. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Kissinger blocked US condemnation of Khan. Instead, he noted Khan's "delicacy and tact."

Chile. In the early 1970s, Kissinger oversaw the CIA's extensive covert campaign that assisted coup-plotters, some of whom eventually overthrew the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende and installed the murderous military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. On June 8, 1976, at the height of Pinochet's repression, Kissinger had a meeting with Pinochet and behind closed doors told him that "we are sympathetic to what you are trying to do here," according to minutes of the session (which are quoted in Peter Kornbluh's forthcoming book, The Pinochet File.)

East Timor. In 1975, President Gerald Ford and Kissinger, still serving as secretary of state, offered advance approval of Indonesia's brutal invasion of East Timor, which took the lives of tens of thousands of East Timorese. For years afterward, Kissinger denied the subject ever came up during the December 6, 1975, meeting he and Ford held with General Suharto, Indonesia's military ruler, in Jarkata. But a classified US cable obtained by the National Security Archive shows otherwise. It notes that Suharto asked for "understanding if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action" in East Timor. Ford said, "We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem you have and the intentions you have." The next day, Suharto struck East Timor. Kissinger is an outright liar on this subject.

Argentina. In 1976, as a fascistic and anti-Semitic military junta was beginning its so-called "dirty war" against supposed subversives--between 9,000 and 30,000 people would be "disappeared" by the military over the next seven years--Argentina's foreign minister met with Kissinger and received what he believed was tacit encouragement for his government's violent efforts. According to a US cable released earlier this year, the foreign minister was convinced after his chat with Kissinger that the United States wanted the Argentine terror campaign to end soon--not that Washington was dead-set against it. The cable said that the minister had left his meeting with Kissinger "euphoric." Two years later, Kissinger, then a private citizen, traveled to Buenos Aires as the guest of dictator General Jorge Rafael Videla and praised the junta for having done, as one cable put it, "an outstanding job in wiping out terrorist forces." As Raul Castro, the US ambassador to Argentina, noted at the time in a message to the State Department, "My only concern is that Kissinger's repeated high praise for Argentina's action in wiping out terrorism...may have gone to some considerable extent to his hosts' heads....There is some danger that Argentines may use Kissinger's laudatory statements as justification for hardening their human rights stance." That is, Kissinger was, in a way, enabling torture, kidnapping and murder.

Appropriately, Kissinger is a man on the run for his past misdeeds. He is the target of two lawsuits, and judges overseas have sought him for questioning in war-crimes-related legal actions. In the United States, the family of Chilean General Rene Schneider sued Kissinger last year. Schneider was shot on October 22, 1970, by would-be coup-makers working with CIA operatives. These CIA assets were part of a secret plan authorized by Nixon--and supervised by Kissinger--to foment a coup before Allende, a Socialist, could be inaugurated as president. Schneider, a constitutionalist who opposed a coup, died three days later. This secret CIA program in Chile--dubbed "Track Two"--gave $35,000 to Schneider's assassins after the slaying. Michael Tigar, an attorney for the Schneider family, claims, "Our case shows, document by document, that [Kissinger] was involved in great detail in supporting the people who killed General Schneider, and then paid them off."

On September 9, 2001, 60 Minutes aired a segment on the Schneider family's charges against Kissinger. The former secretary of state came across as partly responsible for what is the Chilean equivalent of the JFK assassination. It was a major blow to his public image: Kissinger cast as a supporter of terrorists. Two days later, Osama bin Laden struck. Immediately, Kissinger was again on television, but now as a much-in-demand expert on terrorism.

In another lawsuit, filed earlier this month, eleven Chilean human rights victims--including relatives of people murdered after Pinochet's coup--claimed Kissinger knowingly provided practical assistance and encouragement to the Pinochet regime. Kissinger's codefendant in the case is Michael Townley, an American-born Chilean agent who was a leading international terrorist in the mid-1970s. In his most notorious operation, Townley in 1976 planted a car-bomb that killed Orlando Letelier, Allende's ambassador to the United States, and Ronni Moffitt, Letelier's colleague, on Washington's embassy row.

Kissinger has more trouble than these lawsuits. The Chilean Supreme Court sent the State Department questions for Kissinger about the death of Charles Horman, an American journalist killed during the 1973 coup in Chile. (Horman's murder was the subject of the 1982 film Missing.) A criminal judge in Chile has said he might include Kissinger in his investigation of Operation Condor, a now infamous secret project, in which the security services of Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina worked together to kidnap and murder political opponents. (Letelier was killed in a Condor operation.) The Spanish judge who requested the 1998 arrest of Pinochet in Great Britain has declared he wants to question Kissinger as a witness in his inquiry into crimes against humanity committed by Pinochet and other Latin American military dictators. In France, a judge probing the disappearance of five French citizens in Chile during the Pinochet years wants to talk to Kissinger. Last May, he sent police to a Paris hotel, where Kissinger was staying, to serve him questions. In February, Kissinger canceled a trip to Brazil, where he was to be awarded a medal by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. His would-be hosts said he had pulled out to avoid protests by human rights groups.

A fellow who has coddled state-sponsored terrorism has been put in charge of this terrorism investigation. A proven liar has been assigned the task of finding the truth. By the way, in 1976, when Kissinger was secretary of state, he was informed by his chief aide for Latin America that South American military regimes were intending to use Operation Condor "to find and kill" political opponents. Kissinger quickly dispatched a cable instructing US ambassadors in the Condor countries to note Washington's "deep concern." But it seems no such warnings were actually conveyed. And a month later, this order was rescinded. The next day, Letelier and Moffit were murdered. (Peter Kornbluh and journalist John Dinges recently chronicled this sad Kissinger episode in The Washington Post.) Kissinger's State Department had not responded with the force needed to thwart the official terrorism of its friends in South America. Perhaps this provides Kissinger experience useful for examining the government's failure to prevent more recent acts of terrorism.

Other qualifications for the job, as Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney might see it? A leaks-obsessed Kissinger, when he served as Nixon's national security adviser, wiretapped his own staff. (One of his targets, Morton Halperin, sued and eventually won an apology.) And when he left office, Kissinger took tens of thousands of pages of documents--created by government employees on government time--and treated them as his personal records, using them for his own memoirs and keeping the material for years from the prying eyes of historians and journalists. He and the Bush-Cheney White House agree on open government: the less the better.

Remember, the White House was never keen on setting up an independent commission that would answer to the public. Cheney at one point reportedly intervened to block a compromise that had been painstakingly worked out in Congress regarding the composition and rules of the commission. Finally, the White House said okay, as long as it could pick the chairman and subpoenas would only be issued with the support of at least six of the commission's ten members. With Kissinger in control, the secret-keepers of the White House--who already have succeeded in preventing the House and Senate intelligence committees' investigation of 9/ll from releasing embarrassing and uncomfortable information--will have little reason to fear.

The Bush-Cheney administration has been a rehab center for tainted Republicans. Retired Admiral John Poindexter, a leading Iran-contra player, was placed in charge of a sensitive, high-tech, Pentagon intelligence-gathering operation aimed at reviewing massive amounts of individual personal data in order to uncover possible terrorists. Elliott Abrams, who pled guilty to lying to Congress in the Iran-contra scandal, was warmly embraced and handed a staff position in Bush's National Security Council. But the Kissinger selection is the most outrageous of these acts of compassion and forgiveness. It is a move of defiance and hubris.

For many in the world, Kissinger is a symbol of US arrogance and the misuse of American might. In power, he cared more for US credibility and geostrategic advantage than for human rights and open government. His has been a career of covertly moving chips, not one of letting them fall. He is not a truth-seeker. In fact, he has prevaricated about his own actions and tried to limit access to government information. He should be subpoenaed, not handed the right to subpoena. He is a target, not an investigator.

With Kissinger's appointment, Bush has rendered the independent commission a sham. Democrats should have immediately announced they would refuse to fill their allotted five slots. But after Bush picked Kissinger, the Democrats tapped former Democratic Senator George Mitchell to be vice-chairman of the panel, signaling that Kissinger was fine by them. How unfortunate. The public would be better served and the victims of 9/11 better honored by no commission rather than one headed by Kissinger.

BIN LADEN TAPE A FAKE, SWISS LAB SAYS
SCIENTISTS COMPARED RECORDING TO 20 OTHER TAPES OF TERROR CHIEF

PARIS (AP) - The latest audiotape statement attributed to accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is not authentic, a Swiss research institute said.

The Lausanne-based Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence said it is 95-per-cent certain the tape does not feature the voice of the long-absent terrorist leader...

In the tape, the speaker refers to recent terrorist strikes U.S. officials believe are connected to bin Laden's Al Qaeda network...



Since Osama Bin Laden's United States Government 'authenticated' October release,
We Are (warning) The World-vol. 5 (a shout-out to his label, Al Jazeera), we have played witness to;

Iraq ordering (the original CNN story has been deleted) massive amounts of a nerve gas antidote from Turkey (U.S. Ally Turkey immediately denied this allegation), an FBI Warning of the potential for 'Spectacular Attacks' (In the very recent Kenya attacks, suspects are alleged to have US passports and are from Florida - the crop-dusters they used to get to Kenya have yet to be found), President Bush has 'advised' NATO Allies to boost military spending, a Republican consolidation of the Senate and Congress with the Executive is followed by the creation of the 'come play with Barney-sounding' Department of Homeland Security, the 'so shameless it's alarming' appointment of Henry Kissinger as head of the probe into the 'terrorist' attacks of 9/11.

Makes me nervous to see them so nervous.

THE LATEST KISSINGER OUTRAGE
Why is a proven liar and wanted man in charge of the 9/11 investigation?
- Christopher Hitchens



The Bush administration has been saying in public for several months that it does not desire an independent inquiry into the gross "failures of intelligence" that left U.S. society defenseless 14 months ago. By announcing that Henry Kissinger will be chairing the inquiry that it did not want, the president has now made the same point in a different way. But the cynicism of the decision and the gross insult to democracy and to the families of the victims that it represents has to be analyzed to be believed.

1) We already know quite a lot, thanks all the same, about who was behind the attacks. Most notable in incubating al-Qaida were the rotten client-state regimes of the Saudi Arabian oligarchy and the Pakistani military and police elite. Henry Kissinger is now, and always has been, an errand boy and apologist for such regimes.

2) When in office, Henry Kissinger organized massive deceptions of Congress and public opinion. The most notorious case concerned the "secret bombing" of Cambodia and Laos, and the unleashing of unconstitutional methods by Nixon and Kissinger to repress dissent from this illegal and atrocious policy. But Sen. Frank Church's commission of inquiry into the abuses of U.S. intelligence, which focused on illegal assassinations and the subversion of democratic governments overseas, was given incomplete and misleading information by Kissinger, especially on the matter of Chile. Rep. Otis Pike's parallel inquiry in the House (which brought to light Kissinger's personal role in the not-insignificant matter of the betrayal of the Iraqi Kurds, among other offenses) was thwarted by Kissinger at every turn, and its eventual findings were classified. In other words, the new "commission" will be chaired by a man with a long, proven record of concealing evidence and of lying to Congress, the press, and the public.

3) In his second career as an obfuscator and a falsifier, Kissinger appropriated the records of his time at the State Department and took them on a truck to the Rockefeller family estate in New York. He has since been successfully sued for the return of much of this public property, but meanwhile he produced, for profit, three volumes of memoirs that purported to give a full account of his tenure. In several crucial instances, such as his rendering of U.S. diplomacy with China over Vietnam, with apartheid South Africa over Angola, and with Indonesia over the invasion of East Timor (to cite only some of the most conspicuous), declassified documents have since shown him to be a bald-faced liar. Does he deserve a third try at presenting a truthful record, after being caught twice as a fabricator? And on such a grave matter as this?

4) Kissinger's "consulting" firm, Kissinger Associates, is a privately held concern that does not publish a client list and that compels its clients to sign confidentiality agreements. Nonetheless, it has been established that Kissinger's business dealings with, say, the Chinese Communist leadership have closely matched his public pronouncements on such things as the massacre of Chinese students. Given the strong ties between himself, his partners Lawrence Eagleburger and Brent Scowcroft, and the oil oligarchies of the Gulf, it must be time for at least a full disclosure of his interests in the region. This thought does not seem to have occurred to the president or to the other friends of Prince Bandar and Prince Bandar's wife, who helped in the evacuation of the Bin Laden family from American soil, without an interrogation, in the week after Sept. 11.

5) On Memorial Day 2001, Kissinger was visited by the police in the Ritz Hotel in Paris and handed a warrant, issued by Judge Roger LeLoire, requesting his testimony in the matter of disappeared French citizens in Pinochet's Chile. Kissinger chose to leave town rather than appear at the Palais de Justice as requested. He has since been summoned as a witness by senior magistrates in Chile and Argentina who are investigating the international terrorist network that went under the name "Operation Condor" and that conducted assassinations, kidnappings, and bombings in several countries. The most spectacular such incident occurred in rush-hour traffic in downtown Washington, D.C., in September 1976, killing a senior Chilean dissident and his American companion. Until recently, this was the worst incident of externally sponsored criminal violence conducted on American soil. The order for the attack was given by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who has been vigorously defended from prosecution by Henry Kissinger.

Moreover, on Sept. 10, 2001, a civil suit was filed in a Washington, D.C., federal court, charging Kissinger with murder. The suit, brought by the survivors of Gen. Rene Schneider of Chile, asserts that Kissinger gave the order for the elimination of this constitutional officer of a democratic country because he refused to endorse plans for a military coup. Every single document in the prosecution case is a U.S.-government declassified paper. And the target of this devastating lawsuit is being invited to review the shortcomings of the "intelligence community"?

In late 2001, the Brazilian government canceled an invitation for Kissinger to speak in Sao Paulo because it could no longer guarantee his immunity. Earlier this year, a London court agreed to hear an application for Kissinger's imprisonment on war crimes charges while he was briefly in the United Kingdom. It is known that there are many countries to which he cannot travel at all, and it is also known that he takes legal advice before traveling anywhere. Does the Bush administration feel proud of appointing a man who is wanted in so many places, and wanted furthermore for his association with terrorism and crimes against humanity? Or does it hope to limit the scope of the inquiry to those areas where Kissinger has clients?

There is a tendency, some of it paranoid and disreputable, for the citizens of other countries and cultures to regard President Bush's "war on terror" as opportunist and even as contrived. I myself don't take any stock in such propaganda. But can Congress and the media be expected to swallow the appointment of a proven cover-up artist, a discredited historian, a busted liar, and a man who is wanted in many jurisdictions for the vilest of offenses? The shame of this, and the open contempt for the families of our victims, ought to be the cause of a storm of protest.

AN EXCERPT FROM AN INDYMEDIA POSTING

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our lord and emperor Bush has just tied together the entire ball of 9/11 lies and related wax, stuck a wick in it, and handed us the match. Not in my craziest moments could I have conceived that his cabal would so obviously expose themselves and provide the absolute fattest possible target as the head of the New Warren Commission.

So in case you haven't heard, let me be the first to break today's news for you:

BUSH NAMES KISSINGER TO HEAD 9/11 PROBE

This news should bring not just shock or desperation at the sheer brazenness of it, but absolute laughter for its folly...This is the latest signal of an absolute and open intent to play HARDBALL, so let us be wary of any sudden surprises in the next days and months...

On Sept. 11, 2001, I had the unpleasant experience of hearing Kissinger calling in to CNN to announce that the attacks fully justified any American response, that the U.S. now had every right to destroy states that ‘harbored terrorists’, regardless of whether they had anything to do with the attacks.

Strength and best wishes to you all,

"Jack Riddler"
OSAMA's KIDNEYS...

"EVERYTHING MUST BE DONE TO AVOID THAT SUCH A TRAGEDY CAN OCCUR AGAIN"

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed legislation creating a new independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks Wednesday and named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead the panel.

"This commission will help me and future presidents to understand the methods of America's enemies and the nature of the threats we face," Bush said at a White House signing ceremony with lawmakers, survivors and victims' families…"This investigation should carefully examine all the evidence and follow all the facts wherever they lead," he said. "We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th."...

"Dr. Kissinger will bring broad experience, clear thinking and careful judgment to this important task," Bush said at a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. "Mr. Secretary, thank you for returning to the service of your nation.”…

[Kissinger] spoke briefly to family members before addressing reporters. "To the families concerned, there's nothing that can be done about the losses they've suffered, but everything must be done to avoid that such a tragedy can occur again."...

[Bush] pledged his administration will "continue to act on the lessons we've learned so far to better protect the people of this country. It's our most solemn duty."...



Calling on the fox to guard the henhouse.

IMF WARNS CANADA ABOUT MEDICARE CASH BOOST

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada must be cautious in boosting health-care spending or risk undoing all its efforts to balance the national books and lower taxes, the International Monetary Fund said today.

The major study into Canada's finances came only two days before the long-awaited final report of the Romanow commission on the future of health care. Romanow is expected to call for sizable increases in health budgets in his report, to be released Thursday.

In its study, completed last week but only released today, the IMF praised Canada's efforts to eliminate its deficit and cut deep into the country's long-term debt. That has helped insulate Canada's economy from the global downturn and put it on the best growth track seen this year among the world's richest countries, said the IMF. But all the sacrifices Canadians have made to achieve fiscal stability could be undermined if Ottawa goes too far in health-care spending, the report said.

"It will be important to ensure that reforms pay due attention to the cost-effectiveness as well as the equity and quality of health care delivery...," said the economists who completed the IMF study...



To recap, the IMF is fighting for lower taxes, health care equity and health care quality.

CANADA SHOULD SPEND MORE ON DEFENCE: RUMSFELD
MILITARY SPENDING OF UP TO 4% OF GDP AFFORDABLE, HE ARGUES

WASHINGTON (CP) - Any country interested in peace should be able to spend triple the amount Canada does for national defence, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld said today…

While Rumsfeld said there had been "wonderful co-operation" between Canada and the United States in Afghanistan, he did say it was easy for cost-cutting governments to look at defence spending as a target item rather than a priority.

That can be short-sighted, he said. "There isn't a country on the face of the earth that can't afford to spend two or three, four per cent of their GDP to contribute to peace and stability in the world."...

U.S. EXPECTED TO APPROVE $14 BILLION AID REQUEST

Israel will today submit a request for $14 billion in economic aid to U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. President George Bush is expected to quickly approve the request - $4 billion in defense aid and U.S. guarantees for $10 billion - with minor changes, Israeli sources said.

The sources said the Republican congressional majority would approve the aid within 3-6 months…

Sharon told Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz during a meeting eight days ago with Finance Minister Silvan Shalom, that as soon as the U.S. makes a positive decision on the defense grant, he will consent to some of Mofaz's requests for budget increases. The sources say the grant will allow the government to direct defense spending to growth oriented projects…

Sharon first raised the question of aid in his Washington meeting with Bush in mid-October. The formal request was completed by Marani's staff in the past two weeks, with the explanation that Israel has increased military spending in the past two years because of the Palestinian uprising and the expected U.S. war with Iraq. Last week, Turkey and Jordan received generous American military aid of $2 billion to prepare for the possible war with Iraq…

Last week Washington approved Israel's annual military aid of $2.16 billion for 2004, and is expected to approve its civil aid soon.

LIEBERMAN ASKS BUSH TO TELL ALL ABOUT SAUDI TIES

(Washington-AP) -- U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman is calling on the Bush administration to tell what it knows about any Saudi ties to terrorism. Lieberman helped set up an independent commission that will investigate last year's terror attacks.

Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation, he offered piercing criticism of Saudi Arabia, saying they have "accommodated themselves to the most extreme, fanatical, violent elements of Islam."

The FBI is investigating financial records indicating that Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador, wrote monthly checks that ultimately went into the accounts two men who may have provided money to two of the hijackers of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

Lieberman says the Bush administration needs to unclassify documents and provide a full and public accounting of any Saudi ties to the terrorists.


Senator Joe Lieberman, in his first starring role, will play Chief Justice Earl Warren. Insiders suggest that recent FBI spin like 'Saudi terrorist financing' and 'the plane that crashed into the Pentagon' should be little trouble for government defence lead Arlen 'Magic Bullet' Spector.

NATO 'TOMATOED'

PRAGUE -- Two Russian-speaking protesters threw tomatoes at NATO chief George Robertson and shouted that NATO was "worse than the Gestapo" as he closed the alliance's landmark summit here. Shouting that they were from the National Bolshevik Party of Russia, they stood up as he finished taking questions and threw two tomatoes at Robertson, missing him and hitting a back wall.

INSPECTIONS OR NOT, WE'LL ATTACK IRAQ

GEORGE Bush's top security adviser last night admitted the US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons. Dr Richard Perle (Perle 1, Perle 2) stunned MPs by insisting a "clean bill of health" from UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix would not halt America's war machine…

Dr Perle told MPs: "I cannot see how Hans Blix can state more than he can know. All he can know is the results of his own investigations. And that does not prove Saddam does not have weapons of mass destruction."

The chairman of America's defense policy board said: "Suppose we are able to find someone who has been involved in the development of weapons and he says there are stores of nerve agents. But you cannot find them because they are so well hidden…

Perle says the Americans would be satisfied with such claims even if no real evidence was produced.

ISRAEL EYES UP TO $10B IN U.S. AID

JERUSALEM - Israel will ask the United States for loan guarantees aimed at jump-starting its economy which has been damaged by two years of violence and the request will total between $8 billion and $10 billion, a senior government official said Thursday.

The request for guarantees on foreign bank loans would be in addition to the $2.9 million in direct loans and grants that Israel receives annually from the United States, the official said. Israel, which receives the largest U.S. aid package of any country, relies on the loan guarantees to borrow at lower interest rates…

The United States guaranteed $10 billion in loans for Israel a decade ago to help it absorb immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

PM AIDE CALLED BUSH A MORON

OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs called on Prime Minister Jean Chretien to fire a top aide Thursday after she reportedly referred to U.S. President George W. Bush as "a moron."

The remark was reported by National Post reporter Robert Fife from Prague, where NATO leaders, including Bush and Chretien, are meeting. Fife quoted a PMO official as saying "What a moron." He did not name anyone.

The report came out of a comment by Chretien's communications director Francoise Ducros, overheard complaining in a private conversation that Bush was using the NATO summit to beat war drums against Iraq.

Chretien tried to douse the controversy, saying the remark was inappropriate. Bush is "a friend of mine," Chretien said. "He's not a moron at all, he's a friend…”

ALLIES COOL TO U.S. CALL

(The Associated Press) - Many nations around the world, including top U.S. allies, were balking yesterday about supporting a possible war on Iraq, after the United States said it had quietly asked 50 countries to chip in troops or military materials.

Australia said it was too soon to talk about committing forces. Japan couldn't even confirm receiving such a request. South Korea, which hosts about 37,000 U.S. soldiers, said it was undecided. The tepid response comes a day after a senior aide to U.S. President George W. Bush said the U.S. had contacted dozens of nations, including Canada, Britain and Germany, for military backing if Bush decides to use force in Iraq.

Opening a two-day summit of the growing military alliance, the leaders issued a four-paragraph statement saying, "NATO allies stand united in their commitment to take effective action to assist and support the efforts of the U.N. to ensure full and immediate compliance by Iraq, without conditions or restrictions."

The statement does not specifically endorse military action should Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fail to comply, but Bush administration officials said they were pleased nonetheless.

ISRAELIS RETURN TO BETHLEHEM

BBC News - Israeli forces have entered the West Bank city of Bethlehem, in response to the suicide bomb attack on a Jerusalem bus on Thursday…The suspected Jerusalem bomber, whom Israeli police identified as 23-year-old Nael Abu Hilail, was believed to have come from Bethlehem.

Israeli military spokesman Doron Spielman told the Associated Press that Palestinian militants had set up a "terror infrastructure" in Bethlehem since Israeli troops pulled out in August as part of a confidence-building security deal.

Israel announced that the deal was off after Thursday's bombing, which killed 12 people including several children. Earlier, Israeli troops entered the village of al Khader on the outskirts of Bethlehem, ordering Palestinian residents out of at least 25 homes...

[The Jerusalem attack] came two days after Israeli troops shot dead six Palestinians, including a teenager, during a raid on the West Bank town of Tulkarm. Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned the bus blast, but said that Israel was responsible for continued violence due to its army's behaviour in Palestinian towns and cities...

KAZAKHASTAN DEFENSE MINISTER'S PLANE GROUNDED BY US FIGHTER JETS

Prague, Czech Republic - AP - Kazakhstan's defense minister was delayed on his visit to the NATO summit in Prague -- after his plane was grounded by U-S fighter jets.

The plane was forced to land about 60 miles away from the Czech Republic's capital due to a lack of communication with air traffic control. That caused a 90-minute delay for the minister, who was traveling to the opening gala dinner.

Czech and American military aircraft have been patrolling the skies over the NATO summit in a joint security effort. Kazakhstan isn't a member of NATO -- but the country has relations with the alliance.

US fighter jets ground one non-communicative Kazakhstani plane in Czech airspace after failing to scramble to any of the 4 hijacked airliners on September 11, 2001. It's no coincidence that the mainstream press is choosing to 'sit on this one.'

NATO HEADS BACK DISARMING IRAQ, BUT DIVIDED ON WAR

Weapons inspector Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived back in Vienna saying Iraq had promised full cooperation with the U.N. resolution demanding total disclosure of suspected weapons programs. "I think they understand the seriousness of the situation," he told reporters. "I think we have to try every chance to avoid war if we can."

U.S. forces have little need of practical military help from NATO allies for any attack on Iraq, although airbases such as Turkey's are strategically important. But President Bush used the Prague talks to lobby NATO leaders to provide at least clear moral support. The wording of Thursday's summit declaration, however, was watered down by alliance members wary of eventual war.

A French official in Prague was quick to express the desire of his government to rein in U.S. military plans. An Iraqi denial that it possesses weapons of mass destruction, in an arms inventory demanded by the U.N. by a December 8 deadline, would not justify war, the official said.

The official was responding to a warning by Bush on Wednesday that if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein denied in a declaration to the United Nations on December 8 that Iraq has nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, he would enter his "final stage" and reap the most severe consequences.

"That is his own interpretation and we do not share it," the French official told reporters. "We have never said there was proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We say there are indications."

BUSH TO ALLIES: BOOST MILITARY

PRAGUE—George W. Bush delivered a message to Canada here yesterday, calling on some NATO allies to spend more on defence as part of a stronger, more militaristic alliance.

"Great evil is stirring in the world," Bush said in a speech on the eve of a NATO summit.

Bush said the alliance "will stand firm against the enemies of freedom and we will prevail." But for that to happen, he said, every member will have to make a substantial military contribution.

"For some allies, this will require higher defence spending. For all of us, it will require more effective defence spending, with each nation adding the tools and technologies needed to win a new kind of war."

Only military spending can stop the stirring evil doers.

EDUCATION TOOLS

WASHINGTON –– One in 10 young Americans could not locate his own country on a blank map of the world, a survey of geographic literacy shows. Only 13 percent could find Iraq.

"Someone once said that war is God's way of teaching geography, but apparently today neither war nor the threat of war can adequately teach geography," John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society, said Wednesday...

CHINESE MISSILE HAS TWICE THE RANGE U.S. ANTICIPATED

THE WASHINGTON TIMES - China recently test-fired a new cruise missile with twice the range U.S. intelligence agencies initially estimated, intelligence officials say.

The test results surprised U.S. intelligence officials. Until recently, the estimated range of the YJ-83 had been assessed to be about 75 miles. The new missile test showed that its range is about 155 miles.

Officials say the missile represents a new capability for the Chinese military in conducting "over-the-horizon" attacks on U.S. or allied ships in any conflict with China. The YJ-83 is believed to be a derivative of the C-801 anti-ship cruise missile but can travel at supersonic speeds, making it very difficult for ships to stop...

The Washington Times playing its part in lining up the next dance partner.

ANNAN SAYS IRAQI NO-FLY ZONE FIRING NO VIOLATION

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Iraq's firing on U.S. and British aircraft enforcing "no-fly" zones in Iraq is not a violation of the latest Security Council resolution, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday.

Contradicting the United States' interpretation of Resolution 1441 on Iraq adopted two weeks ago, Annan indicated that the Security Council would not see such action by Iraq as a trigger for war.

"Let me say that I don't think that the Council will say this is in contravention of the resolution of the Security Council," Annan said when asked if Iraq was violating 1441 by firing at alliance planes, as Washington contends.

"Recent claims that Iraq's actions in the "no-fly" zones can be seen as a violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution 1441, have no legal grounds," the Russian foreign ministry said.

The US is currently waging a propaganda war to create the impression that the Iraqi No Fly Zones are legally approved by the UN and that Iraq's attempts to protect its sovereignty and air space is, probable cause for a material breach of existing UN resolutions.

Prior to the ratification of the most recent security council resolution on Iraq (Security Council Resolution 1441), the US and British governments insisted the no-fly zones were 'legal', claiming they are part of, or supported by, the Security Council's Resolution 688. (There is no reference to no-fly zones in Security Council resolutions, which suggests they have no basis in international law.)

'The issue of no-fly zones was not raised and therefore not debated: not a word. They offer no legitimacy to countries sending their aircraft to attack Iraq. They are illegal.'
- former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali commenting on Security Council Resolutions and US/British No Fly Zones.

PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF PENTAGON CRASH

...I have estimated the hole in the Pentagon wall to be about 65 ft wide, by comparing it with the height of the building which is 77 ft...It should be noted that the original hole was much smaller. The 65 ft wide hole developed when a section of the wall collapsed later...

By what means could a plane with a wingspan of 125 ft and a length of 155 ft fly into a building, leaving a hole 65 ft by 65 ft, leaving no significant wreckage outside? Is it possible to calculate a wing angle at which the plane might have fitted through? If not, where is the wreckage that did not enter the building?

The plane cannot have impacted with the wings in a near parallel to the ground position and have had the wings enter the building. If it impacted in this manner, the wings must have broken off before they had a chance to hit the building. 125 ft of wing cannot pass through a wall without leaving a 125 ft hole. In order to suggest that the entire plane passed through the 65 ft hole, we must calculate the angle at which the wings would have to have been tilted...

The article contains a significantly more detailed technical analysis than the above excerpt would indicate. The chosen passage is more question than comment. How often can one say the words 'the entire plane passed through the 65 ft hole' while keeping a straight face?

BUSH WINS SENATE PASSAGE OF HOMELAND SECURITY

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate handed President Bush a major victory on Tuesday by passing a bill to create his proposed Department of Homeland Security to better protect against another Sept. 11-type attack...

...A chief aim is to avoid a repeat of the breakdowns in communication between the two agencies (FBI and CIA) exposed by the hijacked airliner attacks last year on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington.

Bush, in a statement, said he looks forward to signing the legislation into law, saying it would "help our nation meet the emerging threats of terrorism in the 21st century."

"This legislation will improve the security of all Americans in the age of insecurity that we entered after Sept. 11," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat...

N.Y. TIMES EXECS TALK NEWS COVERAGE

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - In a public discussion about their editorial process, The New York Times' top decision-makers answered critics about the paper's coverage of the Middle East and the possible war against Iraq.

The Times has sought to ensure an open and honest political debate takes place before the nation decides whether to wage war, Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. told a forum at the University of California, Berkeley on Monday.

"That's our job," said Sulzberger, who appeared with Howell Raines, the Times' executive editor, in a dialogue moderated by Orville Schell, the dean of Berkeley's graduate school of journalism, and Mark Danner, a professor at the school who also is a staff writer for the New Yorker...

...On the Middle East conflict, Raines took issue with a question from the audience about why the Times has no bureau in the West Bank or Gaza, and instead covers the area from Jerusalem.

The question "presumes that where you sit influences how you think," Raines said. "The address does not determine where our reporters go or how they think."

Raines elicited groans from some in the audience when he said the Times was not wrong when it reported on Oct. 27 that thousands of protesters attended a peace march in Washington the previous day, fewer than organizers hoped for.

A story in the Times later that week included a police estimate of 100,000 people and an estimate by organizers of 200,000, adding that the turnout "startled even organizers."

"The first story was incomplete," Raines said. "The number was a judgment matter ... a matter of scope."

U.S. FEARS PROSECUTION OF PRESIDENT IN WORLD COURT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official said a principal motive for U.S. opposition to the newly created International Criminal Court was fear that the court might prosecute the president or other civilian or military leaders.

"Our concern goes beyond the possibility that the prosecutor will target for indictment the isolated U.S. soldier. ... Our principal concern is for our country's top civilian and military leaders, those responsible for our defense and foreign policy," Under Secretary of State John Bolton said in a speech released on Friday.

"A fair reading of the treaty (setting up the court) leaves one unable to answer with confidence whether the United States would now be accused of war crimes for legitimate but controversial uses of force to protect world peace," Bolton told the Federalist Society in Washington on Thursday...

PURSUE THE TRUTH ABOUT SEPT. 11

So on Friday, the American Congress voted to create an independent commission to investigate why the United States could/did/would not prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. Finally.

Now let's see if President George Bush signs off on this, as he indicated he would. And, if he does, how far will the commission go, how many stones will it overturn and how many worms will it unearth?

The White House sure was stalling on this one, citing concerns about possible leaks that could compromise ongoing intelligence work. An investigation, it claimed, would distract authorities from the fight against terrorism.

Isn't that just a touch convenient, not to mention suspicious? Or am I just being paranoid? I mean, there were the relatives of the victims, pleading and protesting and pressing for an investigation. But did anyone pay much attention? Nah. Once the networks had their way with the widows and orphans for the big one-year-after mourn-athon, there was nothing left to discuss...

OSAMA IS UNDER YOUR BED

It's been a nervous week. Every night before bed, I've taken a broom handle and thrust it under my bed. Each time, I'm waiting for the "Oof!" Osama is under there, I just know it. If the President says it, it must be true, right? One of these nights, I'll bust that Osama in the ribs with my handle. Just you wait. I'm keeping my feet under the covers, though. You know, just in case.

It happens like clockwork these days: A significant piece of legislation comes before Congress that was ostensibly drafted to help defend the nation against terrorism. Line items within the legislation do away with previously sacrosanct personal freedoms outlined within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Should said legislation pass, the power of the federal government to arrest and detain citizens without trial or access to attorney, to search private homes without warrant or notice, to tap telephone and computer communications, and to keep vital information secreted away from the eyes of the public, would be greatly enhanced.

In the days leading up to the mandated Congressional debate regarding said legislation, terror warnings suddenly bloom like nightshade. The White House or the FBI or the CIA, or all three in concert, ratchet up the national tension level with forecasts of doom and death and fire from unknown quarters. Said legislation passes without so much as leaving a wake in its path, nothing explodes, and everyone goes on with their lives in the belief that they just narrowly dodged a bullet. At the conclusion of the process, the foundations of American freedom have been redacted, edited, clipped and round-filed.

The PATRIOT Act was passed in such a fashion. When that bill came up, the entire country was collecting its mail with oven mitts on to avoid exposure to anthrax, despite the fact that Democratic Senators like Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle were the intended targets of this assassination attempt. The media got its dose of the poison, ensuring that all publicly aired conversation regarding the legislation would be coated with a veneer of hysteria. All of us were going to get 'thraxed, and so let us pass this ruinously contra-constitutional legislation without even reading it. I'd bet some serious folding green that many of the Senators who voted the thing into existence a year ago still haven't read it.

Sometimes, this has happened when no legislation is pending. Sometimes, this happens when Mr. Bush and his pals feel they have too much light on them. When Time and Newsweek came out with blazing cover stories, and the headline "Bush Knew," when word got out that the administration had been warned specifically and in detail about terrorist plans to hijack airplanes and slam them into buildings, all of a sudden the threat siren began howling. They're going to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge! They're going to blow up the Statue of Liberty! Run for your lives! ...

THE PROPAGANDA FILES: U.S. AUTHENTICATES BIN LADEN TAPE

U.S. intelligence have concluded that a new audiotape of Osama bin Laden is an authentic, unaltered and recent recording of the al Qaeda leader, U.S. officials said Monday.

"Intelligence experts do believe that the tape is genuine," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "And it is clear that the tape was made in the last several weeks as well."

Asked about the tape at the a White House briefing, McClellan said that while "it cannot be stated with 100 percent certainty," intelligence experts were still certain bin Laden's voice on the tape.

"They do believe it is. It's a reminder that we need to continue doing everything we can to go after these terrorist networks and their leaders wherever they are, and we will," McClellan said.

'Because it mentions recent terrorist attacks, officials concluded the tape was made in the
last few weeks.' - U.S. Intelligence Official

GERMAN GOVERNMENT TRIPLES ALLOCATIONS TO GERMANY'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

BERLIN (AP) - In a historic demonstration of support, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced an agreement Thursday to give the Central Council of German Jews the same legal standing as Germany's predominant Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches.

The accord would recognize the importance of Jewish life in Germany and triple the council's annual allocation of government funds to $3 million, reflecting the surge in the Jewish community from 30,000 to 100,000 over the last decade.

The announcement came as the Jewish community wrapped up two days of commemorations marking the 50th anniversary of one of the earliest postwar agreements between Germany and the world Jewry. The 1952 Luxembourg accords with Israel and the Claims Conference, which helps administer payments, formed the basis for German federal restitution to Holocaust survivors.

Since then, Germany has paid $90 billion in restitution, said Claims Conference president Israel Singer. "It's a lot. It's a great achievement."

THE PROPAGANDA FILES: FBI WARNS OF "SPECTACULAR ATTACKS"

This regularly scheduled terror alert has been upgraded for your listening pleasure. Welcome to Mass Hysteria 101, where maintaining an extremely high state of alarm and fear will help us enjoy our freedoms all the more (once our civil liberties are reinstated).

FBI ALERT
In selecting its next targets, sources suggest Al-Qa'ida may favor spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the US economy, and maximum psychological trauma. The highest priority targets remain within the aviation, petroleum, and nuclear sectors as well as significant national landmarks.


When will this madness stop? Our children beg, "why do they hate us, mommy?" Journalists ask, "how long do you think it will take our troops to fully contain Baghdad?" And all the freedom-fighting militia leaders recognize the tactical advantage of not having to protect those towers no more.

"High symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the US economy, and maximum psychological trauma"

The cold, heartless calculation is chilling. Fear has suddenly become a part of our everyday lives. But we must remain strong. If we're afraid to be afraid, then they will have already won.

Although the authenticity of the most recent Osama Bin Laden tape has yet to be determined, the ‘terrorists’ have accomplished their goal. Citizens are terrified, governments are scrambling, and most importantly, France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Russia, and Australia have been given special notice to start ‘buying’ this thing a little more seriously, or else.

How can we describe this most recent chapter in the never-ending war on terrorism? Extremely detailed, sensational, and most importantly, baseless. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said at a White House briefing that the FBI's warnings this week "are a summary of intelligence, not a new warning. This is a summary of intelligence as we know it." Send the message, build the fear and make the appropriate policy changes. The propaganda game is nothing new. Setting the hyperbole and manipulation aside, the problem is not the 'terrorist's' realization that the people have stopped believing. The real problem is how soon the 'terrorists' will try and remind us of their existence.

'DUMB' HOCKEY PLAYERS

"This terrorism, it's on everybody's mind,'' says the native Russian, before ticking off the recent global catastrophes, from the disastrous hostage-taking of a Moscow theatre audience by Chechen rebels, to the Islamic bombing in Bali, to the Palestinian intifada to the winds of war in Iraq.

"It is not a surprise to me,'' says Mogilny, for whom the issues are neither simple nor stark. "If you look deep down, you start to understand why those people do such things. It's so complicated. But you can't just bully people. You have to respect them, respect their world.

"If somebody knocks you over all the time, over and over again, eventually you're going to fight back, any way you can. It doesn't matter if you're Chechens or Palestinians. You can't kill their kids and expect them not to retaliate. They're fighting for their rights, for the blood, for their race, basically.

"They fight the only way they can, as much as I hate to see it, the only way they know to achieve something. I just wish that we could change foreign policy somehow, try to make people happy, not just go out there and bomb everybody and expect that will make the world safe from war.''

It's turned into a startling conversation to have in a dressing room. And Mogilny, with the bus waiting, seems reluctant to end it.

"I have a lot of opinions,'' he says. "Some are not so popular.''

ARGENTINA DEFAULTS ON LOAN REPAYMENT

The Argentine government on Thursday took the extraordinary step of defaulting on a loan repayment to the World Bank, in a sign of its intense frustration over negotiations with the bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.

The decision not to make a due payment of $805m (€798m) places Argentina in the company of countries such as Iraq, Zimbabwe and Liberia, that have defaulted to the international financial institutions.

It makes Argentina ineligible for any new lending from the bank or reductions in interest rates on outstanding loans. Disbursements from existing loans, around $2bn of which has yet to be paid out, will also be stopped if the country does not pay within 30 days.

Economists said the decision showed Argentina's determination to raise the stakes in negotiations with the IMF. The government is seeking to have its $13bn debt to the fund rolled over until the end of next year, but talks have been held up by Argentina's inability to convince the IMF that it can carry through fiscal and banking systems reforms.

The missed payment will make little immediate difference to the operations of the World Bank, which has substantial reserves.

Could that last line be any funnier?

TRAFFIC CHECKS: RANDOM STOPS BEGIN TODAY IN MICHIGAN

Federal agents will begin randomly stopping traffic today, looking for illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers.

Cars will be stopped at unannounced, rotating checkpoints within Michigan, including metro Detroit. U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of follow-up questions.

The effort is part of President George W. Bush's attempt to increase security along the northern border, said Immigration and Naturalization spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar.

U.S. ADOPTING BLOODTHIRSTY WAYS OF OUR ENEMIES

In Yemen, we stalked a suspect (an important word in a democracy) in the planning of the USS Cole bombing until he and his traveling companions were vulnerable and isolated in the desert. The unmanned drone then incinerated the vehicle and the people. The official statement characterized the U.S. actions as an "assassination," and press reports mentioned limbs being airborne. Press photos showed a burnt spot evoking the remains of Wile E. Coyote after a case of TNT had blown him to bits.

In Virginia, the prosecutors are making a case for getting first swat at the suspected (that word again) snipers. Virginia's prosecutors say that they can do a better job, because they, and not Maryland, have the unique capacity to put a minor to death. The assumption is that this is the preferred outcome. A 17-year-old who appears to have been pathologically abused, neglected and manipulated through dependency on an adult is in the crosshairs of our highest authorities. They want him dead.

I am uncertain when our government became so comfortable with killing as a solution, but I don't remember anyone running for office on a platform of carnage. Nevertheless, there has been no outrage expressed, no horror spoken of the theme of the month, or perhaps the decade. The solution to the problem of fear appears to now include ending the lives of those we suspect, or those too young to know better.

In a week when our citizens participated in the most sacred of democratic processes, I became afraid. America has, as a people, affirmed an administration that surpasses any in the past for its secrecy and brutality. Through open admissions of assassinations and a lust for the throat of Saddam Hussein, our administration has succeeded, it seems, in lulling us into believing that this is normal.

HARVARD SPEECH CANCELED

A Harvard University speech by an award-winning Irish poet was canceled yesterday after Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers and several professors and students complained about the poet's verbal attacks on US-born Jewish settlers and Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Summers has become a prominent critic of what he sees as anti-Semitic activities on college campuses.

(The poet, Tom) Paulin, who also teaches at Oxford University, has been a longtime critic of Israel on British television news programs and in his own writing; last year, for instance, he published a poem referring to the Israeli Army as a ''Zionist SS.''

He gained notoriety this year when he was quoted in an Egyptian newspaper, al-Ahram Weekly, describing Brooklyn-born Jews moving to Israeli settlements as ''Nazis'' and ''racists'' and saying that they ''should be shot dead.''

EUROPE LACKS MORAL FIBRE, SAYS US HAWK

Richard Perle, a leading Pentagon adviser on Iraq, last night launched an extraordinary tirade against Europe which he accused of losing its moral direction and providing succour to Saddam Hussein...he reserved his most scathing comments for Germany and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's new anti-war stance.

"Germany has subsided into a moral numbing pacifism. For the German chancellor to say he will have nothing to do with action against Saddam Hussein, even if approved by the United Nations, is unilateralism," Mr Perle said.

THE PROPAGANDA FILES: BUILDING THE FEAR

REPORT: IRAQ ORDERS UP NERVE GAS ANTIDOTE
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Iraq has ordered large amounts of a drug that can be used to counter the effects of nerve gas, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing Bush administration officials.

The orders, which far surpassed amounts needed for normal hospital use, were mainly from suppliers in Turkey, which is being pressed to stop the sales and has indicated in talks with the U.S. State Department that it was willing to review the matter, the officials told the Times.




The next day, we are very quietly told:

TURKEY SAYS NO IRAQ ORDER FOR NERVE GAS ANTIDOTE
ANKARA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Turkish health and pharmaceutical officials on Wednesday denied knowledge of any Iraqi orders for large doses of a drug that can be used as an antidote to nerve gas, state run Anatolian news agency said.

A U.S. official said on Tuesday that suspicions had been raised by an Iraqi order of 1.25 million doses of atropine from Turkey. The New York Times said the United States was pressing Ankara to stop the sales.

ATTACK IRAN THE DAY IRAQ WAR ENDS, DEMANDS ISRAEL

ISRAEL’S Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has called on the international community to target Iran as soon as the imminent conflict with Iraq is complete.

In an interview with The Times , Mr Sharon insisted that Tehran — one of the “axis of evil” powers identified by President Bush — should be put under pressure “the day after” action against Baghdad ends because of its role as a “centre of world terror”.

THE WAR AGAINST TERROR: MORE EVIDENCE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. intelligence believes four nations other than the United States -- Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France -- probably possess hidden samples of the smallpox virus, a U.S. official said.

Al Qaeda is also believed to have sought samples of smallpox for weaponization, but U.S. officials don't believe the terror network is capable of mounting an attack with smallpox. Evidence recovered in Afghanistan pointed to Osama bin Laden's interest in the disease, the U.S. official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

This 'recovered evidence' from the anonymous source will never be detailed.

THE WAR AGAINST TERROR: DEFENDING THE RUSSIANS

THE DAILY NEWS TRIBUNE
They (the hostage-takers) also had threatened to blow up the theater in a mass suicide bombing, and they were equipped to do it...Kremlin officials said the plot was hatched abroad under the guiding hand of al Qaeda.

THE WASHINGTON POST
...In the hours after the Saturday raid, Putin declared it an "almost impossible" victory, while apologizing that "we failed to save everyone"...His aides today said the dire circumstances justified the use of the gas. "Our special services did everything possible," Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko told reporters. "Huge casualties were avoided. It is hard to say what might have happened and how many casualties there might have been if the building had been blown up."...

CNN
The Chechen rebels had also threatened to blow up the building and had rigged it up with explosives...Sergei Yastrzhembsky, an aide to Putin, was quoted by AP as saying: "There was not one scenario that could have guaranteed the lives of the hostages and the special forces in a theatre filled with 330 pounds of explosive devices."

TIME MAGAZINE
"We see it, we feel it, we are breathing through our clothes. We are all going to be blown up!"...But the fast-acting sleeping agent being pumped into the theater was the key ingredient in a daring rescue raid.

YAHOO NEWS: UK
"We have ended up with a situation in which distressingly a large number of lives have been lost and that is, of course, very upsetting. But at the same time there were several hundred people who came out of the theatre where there was a lot of explosives."



Tactically speaking, the element of surprise couldn't have been the reasoning here:

THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Most hostages said they noticed the gas being pumped into the hall before losing consciousness, prompting observers to wonder what prevented the attackers from blowing up the building. Dr. Ponomaryov, from the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, said at least several minutes passed from the moment he first noticed a gas with a "sugary smell" filling the theatre hall until he lost consciousness. At the same time, he remembered hearing shots outside the hall as the Russian commandos rushed into the building.

AMNESTY ACCUSES ISRAEL OF 'WAR CRIMES'

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel committed ``war crimes,'' including unlawful killings, in Jenin and Nablus during a broad military offensive in those West Bank cities in April, the human rights group Amnesty International said Monday.

The Israeli military defended the offensive, saying it was launched against Palestinian militants in response to suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

In the Amnesty report, titled ``Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from Scrutiny - IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus,'' Amnesty said there is ``clear evidence that some of the acts committed by the Israel Defense Forces ... were war crimes.''

Israeli carried out ``unlawful killings, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, wanton destruction of hundreds of homes,'' according to Amnesty.

Soldiers also blocked access to ambulances and denied humanitarian assistance, leaving the wounded and dead lying in the streets for days, and used Palestinians as ``human shields'' while searching for suspected militants, Amnesty said.

US AND ISRAELI FOREIGN POLICY 101

In 1996, an Israeli think tank called the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies published a paper by Richard Perle and Douglas Feith titled, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," which advised incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to renege on the Oslo Peace Process.

Perle is now the chairman of the Defense Policy Board at the Pentagon and Feith holds one of the top four posts at the Pentagon as under-secretary of policy.

THE COMMON SENSE REVOLUTION

...yesterday was the first hint that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Government may move sooner as they face a daily barrage of stories about people who risk having their heat shut off and small businesses saying they cannot survive with hydro bills that are 60 per cent higher than a year ago.

Premier Ernie Eves stressed that he believes the deregulated hydro market — which happened on May 1 this year — will work to consumers' advantage in the long run, characterizing the current price hikes as a growing pain.

Eves and Baird have repeatedly pointed to the record-hot summer as the main culprit behind the high bills people are receiving now.

Double-digit rate increases in the US, continuous blackouts in California, accounting errors at the world's largest energy company and record-hot summers did not keep the government from bringing greater value to Ontario consumers.

FOR BUSH, FACTS ARE MALLEABLE

...On Sept. 7, meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Camp David, Bush told reporters: "I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied, finally denied access, a report came out of the Atomic -- the IAEA -- that they were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need."

The IAEA did issue a report in 1998, around the time weapons inspectors were denied access to Iraq for the final time, but the report made no such assertion. It declared: "Based on all credible information to date, the IAEA has found no indication of Iraq having achieved its program goal of producing nuclear weapons or of Iraq having retained a physical capability for the production of weapon-useable nuclear material or having clandestinely obtained such material."...

WAR CRIMES DEBATE IN ISRAEL HEATS UP AGAIN

A three-month-old controversy in Israel over a peace group's efforts to collect evidence of alleged war crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against Palestinians intensified Tuesday when a senior member of the ruling Likud Party submitted a bill in Israel's parliament that would make it a crime for any Israeli citizen to provide assistance, documents or information to the new International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague...

...The United States, which signed it (the Rome Protocol that establishes the ICC) in the last days of Bill Clinton's presidency, renounced its signature last May and has sought a blanket exemption from the ICC's scope. In addition, Washington is now actively seeking bilateral commitments from countries around the world not to turn over U.S. troops or officials to the ICC. Israel was among the first of a dozen nations that have signed such an agreement with Washington which pledged in return not to turn over any Israeli soldiers to the new court.

US and Israeli foreign policy: Can you see the difference?