ISSUE:
#72. Feb. 10, 2003
THIS WEEK:
IT'S OFFICIAL: IMPERIALIST CARVE-UP OF IRAQ PLANNED!
BIG SURPRISE: KURDS SCREWED YET AGAIN!!
RICHARD PERLE: FRANCE NEXT?!!
ALSO:
* COLOMBIA WAR SPILLS INTO PANAMA!
* COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE SPILLS ATOMIC DEBRIS ON TEXAS!
*CIA ANALYST ON IRAQ WAR: IT'S THE WATER, STUPID!
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: ORANGE
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom, Special Correspondent
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Gaza: Deadly Demolition, Attack on Nursing Home
2. West Bank: Death Toll Climbs, Samaritans Caught in Fire
3. Israeli Ambassador to Jordan: No "Transfer" in Iraq War
4. Jane's: Israel to Expel Arafat in Iraq War
5. Israeli Troops Expel Palestinian Farmers
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Powell Spooks U.N.
2. Picasso's "Guernica" Censored!
3. U.S. Approves Turkish Intervention
4. Barzani Warns of Chaos
5. Turkoman Front Warns of "Third World War"
6. Ansar al-Islam Leader: I Was Wooed by CIA
7. Ansar Attacks Kurdish Parliament
8. "Did Saddam Really Gas His Own People?" (Well, Yeah...)
9. The Real Agenda Behind the War Drive: Oil or Water?
10. Mandela: It's the Oil Stupid!
11. Richard Perle: France Must Be "Contained"!
12. Greenpeace Anti-War Actions in UK, France, Australia
13. Resistance in Germany
14. Resistance in Australia
15. Resistance in New Zealand
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. RAWA Commemorates Meena Martyrdom
2. Afghan Lessons Forgotten in Iraq War Drive
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. Colombia War Spills into Panama's Rainforest
2. Blast Brings War to Bogota
3. Venezuelan Oil Industry Rides Out Strike
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. NPA Guerillas Threaten New Offensive if U.S. Attacks Iraq
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. Bombers on Alert to Hit North Korea
2. Nuclear "Bunker-Busters" on "Fast Track"
3. Update: Nuclear Materials in Space Shuttle Debris?
4. Whistle-Blower: NASA "Repeatedly Ignored" Warnings
5. NASA Protecting Corporate Pals
6. Israeli, Indian Military Interst in Columbia Shuttle
THE WAR AT HOME
1. FBI Warns U.S. Jews of Al-Qaeda Attacks
2. JDL Militant Guilty in Bombing Scheme
3. North Carolina Rep OK With WW2 Internment Camps
4. Farouk Abdel-Muhti Faces Transfer Threat
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. Municipal Revolt Against War Drive
2. Senate Revolt Against Pentagon Cyber-Snoop Program
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. GAZA: DEADLY DEMOLITION, ATTACK ON NURSING HOME
Israeli forces terrorizing the Gaza Strip killed two Palestinian farmers,
one of them aged 60, as they worked thier lands in the village of Abasan,
east of Khan Yunis on Feb. 3. Two others, including a woman, were wounded.
(BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Feb. 3) Israel claims the men were
planting a roadside bomb to destroy a tank. (Xinhua, Feb. 3)
Eight Palestinians in the Khan Younis refugee camp--three of them children
aged 4 to 6 years old--were injured in an Israeli raid on Feb. 4. Israeli
forces stationed at the Jewish settlement of Neveh Dekalim, west of Khan
Younis, attacked the area with tanks shells and heavy ammunition. (Xinhua,
Feb. 5) A Jewish settler was also shot and wounded Feb. 4 in an ambush by a
Palestinian militant. The attack occured near the Gaza Strip settlement of
Kfar Darom. (Xinhua, Feb. 4) Palestinians report a Palestinian was
seriously wounded that day when Israeli forces opened fire on his car near
the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of
Israel, Feb. 4)
A 62-year old Palestinian by-stander was wounded as he watched an Israeli
incursion into the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Feb. 5. Ten Israeli
tanks had entered the camp and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants.
(AP, Feb. 5) Israeli forces also shot and wounded four foreign doctors as
they attempted to bring food and medicine to the beseiged al-Mawasi
neighborhood west of Khan Younis that day. Two of the of the doctors are US
citizens. The 2,000 residents of al-Mawasi have been besieged four two
years by Israeli forces. The neighborhood is surrounded by Jewish
settlements, and the residents are not allowed to leave. (Xinhua, Feb. 5)
Two male Palestinian nurses were killed by random fire from an Israeli
helicopter in eastern Gaza City on Feb. 5. Two others were injured. The
incident occurred at a home for the elderly. AP writes: "The army said the
helicopter fire was not aimed at anyone in particular, but was intended to
deter possible attackers." (AP, Feb. 6) The Irish Times reported "the army
said the helicopter fire was meant as cover for troops trying to arrest a
Palestinian militant." At the funeral, with 1,000 mourners, one banner
read, "end this bloodshed and protect the human angels."(Irish Times, Feb.
7)
A 10-year old child, Mustafa Ibrahim Adwan, from the town of Bani Suhaylah,
east
of Khan Yunis, was killed by a high caliber-bullet on Feb. 8. The fire came
from Israeli forces stationed at Nave Deqalim settlement. (BBC Monitoring:
Voice of Palestine, Feb. 9)
On Feb. 9, a 24-year old Palestinian in Rafah was wounded by Israeli
troops. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Feb. 9) An explosives-laden
car with three Palestinians onboard also blew up near an Israeli army
outpost in the Gaza Strip. Four Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded. (AP,
Feb. 9)
65-year-old Kamila Said was killed when her house in al-Maghazi refugee
camp was destroyed with her still inside. Said was hard of hearing, her
relatives say. The army said it blew up her house because her stepson had
killed two Israeli soldiers during an attack on a military outpost near the
Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom two years ago.
"She was an old lady and sometimes she had difficulty hearing," said Awatif
Mohammed Said, 50, second wife of Kamila's late husband. "I told the
Israelis that she was in the house and I wanted to go and get her but they
refused. They said, 'Go, and we will bring her out'." Kamla's son, Hussein,
the only one of her adult boys still alive and and not in prison, rejects
Israel's description of his dead brother as a terrorist. "It's our right to
defend our land against the settlers and it was his right to defend his
country," he said.
The army said it searched the house before destroying it, and that Said
must have slipped back in. Said Awatif: "I'm worried and sick and I've five
children in prison and one dead and my home demolished. It's agony. My son
was like any other person. He made an action and he was killed, two years
ago. He was punished already. Why is his family being punished like this,
his brothers arrested and the house demolished? Is that fair?" (Sydney
Morning Herald, Feb. 8: UK Guardian, Feb. 8)(David Bloom)
[top]
2. WEST BANK: DEATH TOLL CLIMBS, SAMARITANS CAUGHT IN FIRE
The daily Ha'aretz reports that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed 46
Palestinians in the occupied territories in January, as compared with 45 in
December. Included in the January toll were 17 noncombatants, including
four children under the age of ten, and one was mentally retarded. (Xinhua,
Feb. 3) The death toll continues mounting in February. The youngest
Palestinian victim this week in the West Bank was 11; the eldest was 70.
And the Samaritan people once again found themselves trapped in the middle
of the conflict.
On Feb. 3, 15-year-old student Shirin al-Jamal and 14-year-old student
Maryam Abu-Hadid were wounded in the old city of Hebron and a number of
students suffered tear gas inhalation when Israeli occupation forces fired
gas canisters and live fire on Al-Zahra School. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of
Palestine, Feb. 3)
One Palestinian police officer was killed and another wounded as they were
leaving a police station in the West Bank town of Qalqilya on Feb. 5. The
building was surrounded by Israeli forces. (AFP, Feb. 5)
18-year-old Samer Zurba was killed by Israeli forces in Nablus on Feb. 5.
The army claimed Zurba was armed--which Palestinian residents deny. Nablus
Gov. Mahmoud Alool told Xinhua that Zurba was throwing stones when he was
killed. (Xinhua, Feb. 5)
That same day, Israeli forces killed an 11-year-old Palestinian boy, and
another six sustained light injuries in clashes in Tammoun, southeast of
Jenin. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Feb. 5; Xinhua, Feb. 5)
Israeli forces shot a Palestinian man near the village of Jubara, south of
Tul Karm, on Feb. 6. Eyewitnesses said they saw the man bleed to death in
the space of half an hour, and then Israeli forces took the man's body
away. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Feb. 6)
In Tulkarm, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man who was
crossing into the West Bank from Israel. The man was returning from working
in Israel without an Israeli permit. Many Palestinians sneak into Israel
to work. He apparently tried to flee with soldiers spotted him. (AP, Feb. 6)
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and one was wounded in an ambush by
Palestinian militants who infiltrated a military base near Nablus. The
three militants were killed in a gunbattle which lasted over an hour.
(Xinhua, Feb. 6) The attack occurred at Mt. Gerizim, home to the Samaritan
people and site of their ancient temple. The Samaritans were unable to
reach their shops and businesses in Nablus that day because the Israelis
sealed the area off. (AP, Feb. 7) For more on the Samaritans, see WW3
REPORT# 36
Palestinian Culture and Information Minister Yasir Abd-Rabbuh said he holds
the Israeli government responsible for the death of a female Palestinian
student when a school bus overturned in occupied Jerusalem on Feb. 8. The
bus was taking students to school over rough dirt roads, since all paved
roads in the area have been shut for more than two years by the occupation
authorities. Seven other students were injured. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of
Palestine, Feb. 8)
Four stone-throwing Palestinian youths were wounded in Tul Karm on Feb. 8.
The army shot them with rubber bullets. "Earlier there were violent riots
in Tul Karm with Palestinians throwing stones, bricks and molotov cocktails
at the force. It was a threat to them so they used non-violent crowd
dispersal means," the army said. (AFP, Feb. 8) On Jan. 28 in Tul Karm, WW3
REPORT saw an Israeli army armored personnel carrier (APC) approach a crowd
of Palestinian boys trying to block the army's entrance into the city
center in order to enforce curfew. As the APC approached the youth, over
the vehicle's loudspeakers, a soldier sang "Hatikva," the Israeli national
anthem, in a drunken-sounding childlike voice before opening fire at the
boys with rubber bullets and tear gas.
On Feb. 9, A 70-year-old woman, Khatimah Muhammad Ulayan, from Kfar Jammal,
south of Tulkarm, died when Israeli forces prevented an ambulance she was
traveling in from reaching the hospital for treatment of a heart-attack.
(BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Feb. 9)(David Bloom)
[top]
3. ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO JORDAN: NO "TRANSFER" IN IRAQ WAR
The Israeli ambassador to Jordan said Feb. 5 that there will be no mass
expulsion of Palestinians into Jordan during a war with Iraq. "It can't
happen," David Dadonn told Reuters. "I can't imagine any Israeli government
ordering the transfer of population." He added that "No responsible leader
in Israel can believe that this option is possible, moral, logical or
desirable." He noted that successive Israeli governments viewed Jordanian
stability to be a strategic asset to Israel. "The transfer of population is
against the deepest interests of the state of Israel and all its moral
values," Dadonn said. (Ha'aretz, Feb. 5) Dadonn's statements marked the
first time a representative of an Israeli government has publicly refuted
the possiblity of a mass expulsion. Previously, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
refused to rule it out as a possibility. Responding to a Jordanian request
made through the US government to formally rule out transfer, Ariel Sharon
reportedly told a source who was involved in the contacts with Jordan that
he "took exception to the Jordanians raising such a suspicion about him."
(Ha'aretz, Nov. 28) (See also: WW3 REPORT #62)
While in the West Bank in January, WW3 REPORT encountered few Palestinians
who fear a mass expulsion under the cover of an Iraq war. Most thought it
was unnecessary, because the occupation alone is effective in itself in
causing Palestinian migration. The system of roadblocks and curfews are
compelling Palestinians to move from villages where they live to cities
where they work, and the construction of the Apartheid Wall may likewise
force Palestinian migration away from the affected area. Many also pointed out that Palestinians would not
willingly leave again, because it was clear after the 1948 and 1967
expulsions that they would not be allowed back to their homes when the
conflict subsided, and that they would rather die in their homes than face
further expulsion. Dr. Saleh Abdullah of Ras Atil, a farming village in the
Qalqilya region, told WW3 REPORT: "We have learned the lesson from before.
When they killed people, the rest fled. Now we will remain because there is
no place to go. So the Palestinian people will say." Dr. Abdullah did add,
"those that are in prison, we think they will transfer them to Jordan." (David Bloom)
See also: "Transfer"/Ethnic Cleansing Resources
[top]
4. JANE'S: ISRAEL TO EXPEL ARAFAT IN IRAQ WAR
The respected British defense and intelligence publication Jane's Foreign
Repor claims in a Feb. 6 article that Israel intends to expel Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat during a US-led war on Iraq. Jane's says that
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz have
made the decision secretly. Sharon has concluded that sometime this
year--after installation of a new government in Iraq as a result of the
US-led intervention--the US will pressure Israeli to cease military
activity and talk with the Palestinians, even if suicide attacks continue.
Jane's says Sharon has agreed in principle--on one condition: that he will
not deal with Arafat personally. The Bush administration does not object to
Arafat, Jane's says, and does not want the Israelis to kill him. So Israel
has decided to expel him instead.
Mofaz is said to have a deeply incriminating tape of Arafat. Writes Jane's:
"Not enough Jews were being killed, Arafat told his aides. They replied
that they needed orders. The taped voice, was said to sound like Arafat,
then told presidential aides: 'You know what to do.' The Israelis will soon
release the tape. They say they had been unwilling to release it because
they might, in doing so, reveal their methods of tracing Arafat and 'burn'
prime sources." Jane's adds: "All aboard for Khartoum [the capital of
Sudan]."
Jane's cites "informants" claiming the IDF's elite Duvdevan unit, used for
covert action in the West Bank, is currently training to assault what is
left of the Muqata'a, Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, and capture Arafat
alive. This is reportedly due to "start at the first stage of the US
intervention in Iraq." Arafat will then be flown to Sudan with at least 40
top advisors, most of whom arrived with Arafat from exile in Tunisia in the
Palestinian territories eight years ago. Jane's says "some independent
Israeli security sources criticise the plan, but the sources agree Arafat
is an obstacle for an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. But they warn it
might end in tragedy."
Jane's cites Palestinian sources as saying expulsion will finish Arafat as
a leader. Jane's concludes: "If the Israeli plan succeeds, and some sort of
agreement is reached, Israeli sources say a visit by President Bush to
Israel, and maybe Palestine, could take place later this year." (Jane's
Foreign Report, Feb. 6)
On Feb. 9, Sharon confirmed Jane's claims about his intentions: "The new
government will face difficult tasks: the war against terrorism and against
its leader, the head of the Palestinian Authority." Sharon made the comment
after President Moshe Katsav invited him to form the next government. "The
new government will have to finish off the battle against terrorism, remove
its leadership and create conditions for the emergence of a new leadership
with which it will be able to reach a real peace," he said. (AFP, Feb. 9)
(David Bloom)
[top]
5. ISRAELI TROOPS EXPEL PALESTINIAN FARMERS
According to an account of a Palestinian farmer which ran in Haaretz Feb.
3, the IDF actively collaborated with armed Jewish settlers on the West
Bank, terrorizing local residents from their traditional agricultural
lands. The troops acted in violation of an Israeli court order from Dec.
19, which ordered the IDF to allow Palestinian farmers to work their fields
in the area.
Mohammed al-Nuaja, a farmer in the south Mt. Hebron area, described the
abuse. "For two months we've been seeking authorization from the Civil
Administration in Hebron to plow our lands near the settlement of Susia.
Last week Major Tarek Shanan...told us we could plow the land" on Feb. 1.
But al-Nuaja said that shortly after noon that same day "an armed settler
showed up with a walkie-talkie, threatened us and told us to leave
immediately. A soldier on duty at the settlement, who spoke with Tarek
before, told the settler we had permission to plow. The settler ignored him
and said 'Who's Tarek? I decide around here.'" Al-Nuaja said he called Maj.
Tarek
Al-Nuaja continued: "A few minutes later, a group of soldiers showed up
accompanied by an army jeep, followed by a settler's jeep. The settler
spoke with the soldiers and the soldiers ordered us onto our tractors to
follow them. When we reached the road, I saw Tarek and asked what happened.
He said everything would be straightened out when we got to the nearby army
base. When we reached the army base, soldiers were waiting with plastic
handcuffs and rags. They cursed us, handcuffed us, blindfolded us, and
threw us into a wadi [dry river bed]. Every once in a while, someone came
by and kicked us. Some soldiers competed over who could throw stones that
would hit us. One of us has a piece of metal in his spine, and I asked for
permission that he be allowed to sit in a more comfortable position. The
soldiers laughed and asked if maybe we want them to bring us pillows."
Al-Nuaja said they were finally released at 8 PM, with the warning that
"the next time we went to the fields, they wouldn't talk to us, but simply
shoot us." He said they were also told to send people in the morning to the
base to retreive the tractors. But when they did, "they were handcuffed and
blindfolded until night time and told to come back the next day for the
tractors."
Al-Nuaja concluded: "Meanwhile, we can't plow, and this morning, the
settlers brought large trees--not saplings--and planted them on our land.
Three settlers warned us that we have to guard their trees. I heard that
the Civil Administration is saying that we were plowing our land in an
off-limits area [which the Civil Administration in fact told Haaretz].
That's a total lie! Do you really believe that after we've waited so long
for permission to plow, we'd risk going into an off-limits area? We didn't
do anything bad. They want to make us leave our lands. One of the soldiers
said to me, `This isn't your land, it belongs to the Jews.' I told him
we've been living here thousands of years, and he laughed and said, `but we
came from the sea.'" (Ha'aretz, Feb. 3)
(David Bloom)
[top]
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. POWELL SPOOKS U.N.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell made a dramatic presentation at the UN
Security Council Feb. 5, brandishing a small vial he said could hold the
amount of anthrax that was needed to shut down the Senate during the fall
2001 scare. The asserted that "Iraq declared 8,500 liters of anthrax," with
UN inspectors estimating that the figure could actually be 25,000 liters.
He then produced scratchy recordings in Arabic which he claimed were Iraqi
officials ordering the hiding of evidence, and satellite photos of what he
claimed were trucks and rail cars converted into mobile laboratories. He
called these exhibits "irrefutable and undeniabe" evidence that Iraq is not
in compliance with UN disarmament resolutions. (Newsday, NYT, Feb. 6)
The next day in Washington, President George Bush declared "the game is
over," and challenged the UN to approve military action. "The dictator of
Iraq is making his choice; now the nations of the Security Council must
make their own," he told reporters at the White House. "Saddam Hussein will
be stopped." (Newsday, Feb. 7)
[top]
2. PICASSO'S "GUERNICA" CENSORED!
As Colin Powell spoke to journalists outside the Security Council chamber
Feb. 5, the reproduction of Picasso's "Guernica" which hangs over the press
conference area to remind viewers of the horror of war was completely
obscured by a baby-blue curtain, with the flags of the council's member
nations placed in front of it. UN officials said the covering of the
reproduction was for one day only, and cited large crowds. One anti-war
protester stood outside the UN in the cold holding a small reproduction of
the famous painting. (Newsday, Feb. 6)
"Guernica" was Picasso's statement on the aerial bombing of a Basque
village by the Nazi Luftwaffe in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. The
bombardment left 1,600 civilian casualties, and the village burned for
three days. This was history's first massive aerial bombardment, and it
shocked the world. The US is today preparing the most intensive aerial
bombardment camapign the world has yet seen, with certain casualities
exponentially greater than those at Guernica.
[top]
3. U.S. APPROVES TURKISH INTERVENTION
You read it in WW3 REPORT first, but its appearance on the front page of
the New York Times now makes if official. The Feb. 7 story date-lined
Anakara began: "American diplomats are engaged in delicate negotiations
here that could allow tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers to occupy part
of northern Iraq behind an advancing American army, Turkish and Kurdish
officials said today." The story emphasized that a large part of the effort
focused on winning the support of the leaders of the two Kurdish factions
that jointly control Iraqi Kurdistan, the KDP and PUK. Turkey is already
massing troops on the Iraqi border, and is said to have 1,200 troops
already operating inside Iraq. While (anonymous) US officials insisted the
Turkish troops would be confined to "a limited area, close to the border,"
an (anonymous) Turkish official said "that his government was planning to
send troops into northern Iraq in numbers that would exceed those
distaptched by the Americans." The Times also quoted Turkish Prime Minister
Abdullah Gul, who told reporters that week, "Turkey is going to position
herself in that region in order to prevent any possible massacres, or the
establishment of a new state."
The Washington Post reported Feb. 2 that Turkey's National Security Council
endorsed opening the country to US troops for the Iraq campaign
(conditional on "international legitimacy"), and has asked the nation's
parliament for official approval.
In a sure sign that Iraqi Kurdish leadership is taking the the bait, on
Feb. 5, Barham A. Salih, co-prime minister of the joint KDP-PUK Kurdistan
Regional Government, had an op-ed in the New York Times, "Give us a Chance
to Build a Democratic Iraq," which boasted of advances in the region since
Saddam's troops pulled out in 1991. "Under our autonomous regional
governmnet, we have used our share of oil revenues to invest not in
chemical and biological weapons, but in education and health... We have a
free and diverse media... We respect the rights of minorities. These
achievements should be celebrated as a model for the rest of Iraq. Indeed,
we Kurds are willing to give up our dreams of an independent Kurdistan in
order to bring our expertise in governing to a new democratic Iraq."
On Feb. 5, Newsday reporter Matthew McAllester in Turkish Kurdistan finally
brought to stateside readers a key strategic concern for Turkish military
planners in the region--the continued presence of the Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK), a guerilla force that fought Anakara throughout the 1980s. The
PKK was largely crushed in a Turkish counter-insurgency campaign that cost
30,000 lives and displaced 2 million Kurdish civilians, but a remnant force
of some 2,000 fighters is believed to have taken refuge across the border
in Iraqi Kurdistan. The PKK's leader Ocalan was captured in 1999, and has
been held incommunicado since Nov. 27, with the Turkish press
sensationalizing about a PKK comeback. The paranoia has become a
self-fulfilling prophecy, as the PKK's official successor
organization--known as KADEK--issued a communique in December giving the
government until Feb. 15 to allow Ocalan access to his lawyers before they
will resume guerilla attacks.
But WW3 REPORT readers should already know all this. See last week's issue.
[top]
4. BARZANI WARNS OF CHAOS
On Feb. 7, Turkey hosted a summit including top Iraqi Kurdish leaders Jalal
Talabani of the Kurdish Patriotic Union (PUK) and Massoud Barzani of the
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), as well as Nechirvan Barzani, co-prime
minister of the joint Kurdistan Regional Government, and Sanan Ahmet Aga,
leader of the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF). Also present were President
Bush's envoy to the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Turkish Foreign
Ministry deputy undersecretary Ali Tuygan, who argued that Turkish troops
should be accepted as allies by the Kurds. Talabani was more persuaded by
this than Barzani, who warned of unrest and chaos in the region if foreign
troops intervene . (KurdishMedia.com, Dec. 7)
For more on Zalmay Khalilzad, see WW3 REPORT #15
[top]
5. TURKOMAN FRONT WARNS OF "THIRD WORLD WAR"
The leadership of northern Iraq's Turkomans--the ethnic group Turkey claims
to be intervening on behalf of--explicitly rejected redrawing Iraq's
borders. Sanan Ahmet Aga, chairman of the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF), in a
Feb. 5 interview with Turkish TRT-2 TV, said: "We do not even want to hear
about the division of Iraq. Our policy is based on Iraq's territorial
integrity. God forbid if such a thing would happen, the issue would not be
restricted to Iraq only; it would drag the entire region to a major war. If
the regional states are drawn into a war, then this would become
international. In other words, a third world war would erupt." (BBC
Monitoring, Feb. 6)
For more on the Turkoman struggle, see WW3 REPORT #48
[top]
6. ANSAR AL-ISLAM LEADER: I WAS WOOED BY CIA
The US propaganda machine has seized on the Kurdish extremist group Ansar
al-Islam as evidence of a Saddam-al-Qaeda connection. In his Security
Council presentation, Powell presented an satellite photo entitled
"Terrorist Poison and Explosive Factory, Khurmal," showing a supposed Ansar
al-Islam training camp and laboratory. Powell called it proof of a
"sinister nexus" linking Ansar to Saddam, who he claimed had an agent
placed high in the movement's leadership. Days later, reporters visited the
Khurmal camp and found only a half-built cinder-block building. "You can
search all you like," they were told by Ansar spokesman Mohammed Hassan.
(AP, Feb. 8)
The accused leader of Ansar al-Islam denies links to either Saddam or
al-Qaeda--and threatened in a prison interview Feb. 1 to produce evidence
of his contacts with Washington prior to the 9-11 attacks. "I have in my
possession irrefutable evidence against the Americans and I am prepared to
supply it...if [the US] tries to implicate me in an affair linked to
terrorism," Mullah Krekar told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat. "I
had a meeting with a CIA representative and someone from the American army
in the town of Sulaymaniya [Iraqi Kurdistan] at the end of 2000. They asked
us to collaborate with them...but we refused to do so," he said. He
dismissed as "fabrications" reports linking his group to al-Qaeda, saying
they were designed to justify war against Iraq. Krekar, whose real name is
believed to be Fateh Najmeddin Faraj, was arrested in the Netherlands last
September. (AFP, Feb. 1)
See also WW3 REPORT #53
[top]
7. ANSAR ATTACKS KURDISH PARLIAMENT
On the night of Feb. 8, presumed Ansar al-Islam gunmen assassinated a
minister of the Kurdish parliament and two other Kurdish officials, and
seized two hostages whose fate remains unknown. The gunmen, who Kurdish
officials said were masquerading as peace negotiators, also killed three
civilians and wounded 12 others. Among the injured was an 8-year-old girl
who was shot in the forehead, and who doctors say is likely to die. The
attack virtually shut down the Kurdish government in the city of
Sulaimaniyah. The assassinated minister, Shawkat Haji Mushir, was a
founding member of the PUK and close confidant of the group's political
boss Jalal Talabani. (NYT, Feb. 9)
[top]
8. "DID SADDAM REALLY GAS HIS OWN PEOPLE?" (WELL, YEAH...)
Stephen C. Pelletiere, top CIA analyst on Iraq in the 1980s, had a
startling op-ed piece in the New York Times Jan. 31, "A War Crime Or an Act
of War?", which aasserted "Iraq is not to blame for the Halabja massacre,"
the 1988 gas attack on the Kurdish city that instantly killed 5,000. While
President Bush uses the claim that Saddam "gassed his own people" to
justify the new war drive, Pelletiere reminds readers that the Halabja
attack took place in the endgame of the gruelling Iran-Iraq war, when
Iranian forces were attempting to take the city. Pelletiere cites a study
by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which claimed Iranian forces,
not Iraqi, gassed the city. Writes Pelletiere: "The agency did find that
each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. The
condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been
killed with a blood agent--that is, a cyanide-based gas--which Iran was
known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the
battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time."
Pelletiere protests: "On the rare occasions the report is brought up, there
is usually speculation, with no proof, that it was skewed out of American
political favoritism toward Iraq in its war against Iran." It is slightly
ironic that Pelletiere should raise this point, given his own background as
the CIA's top Iraq man at a time when the US was actively assisting
Saddam's chemical-weapons capacity. (See WW3 REPORT # 66)
Pelletiere's piece was widely distributed on the Internet under the title
"Did Saddam Really Gas His Own People?" (See, e.g., Palestine Independent
Media Center)
Unfortuntely, even if Iran really was responsible for the Halabja attack,
the answer to that question remains "yes." Halabja was only the worst gas
attack on the Kurds during Saddam's brutal 1988 counter-insurgency
campaign, code-named "Anfal." Numerous smaller chemical attacks went
largely unreported--despite their grisly toll.
The 1991 Human Rights Watch report," "Whatever Happened To The Iraqi Kurds?"
reads: "Halabja was not the first time Iraq had turned its chemical arsenal
on the Kurds. Thousands-- and most likely tens of thousands--of civilians
were killed during chemical and conventional bombardments stretching from
the spring of 1987 through the fall of 1988. The attacks were part of a
long-standing campaign that destroyed almost every Kurdish village in
Iraq--along with a centuries-old way of life--and displaced at least a
million of the country's estimated 3.5 million Kurdish population."
A 1994 HRW report "Iraq's Crime Of Genocide: The Anfal Campaign against the
Kurds," documents Saddam's 1988 "campaign of extermination" against the
Kurdish people of Iraq's north, resulting in the death of at least 50,000
and perhaps 100,000, many women and children. The report is the result of
research by a team of HRW investigators who analyzed 18 tons of captured
Iraqi government documents and carried out field interviews with over 350
witnesses, most of them survivors of the Anfal campaign. The report
"confirms that the campaign was characterized by gross violations of human
rights, including mass summary executions and disappearances of many tens
of thousands of noncombatants; the widespread use of chemical weapons,
among them mustard gas and nerve agents that killed thousands..." It also
asserts "the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of villagers to
barren resettlement camps after the demolition of their homes; and the
wholesale destruction of some two thousand villages along with their
schools, mosques, farms, and power stations."
A word to the wise: anti-war arguments predicated on the
Saddam's-not-so-bad-after-all thesis are doomed to fail.
[top]
9. THE REAL AGENDA BEHIND THE WAR DRIVE: OIL OR WATER?
Former CIA analyst Stephen C. Pelletiere's Jan. 31 New York Times op-ed
piece attempting to exculpate Saddam Hussein of responsibility for the 1988
Halabja gas attack also raised a novel theory as to the hidden
resource-grab agenda behind the war drive: "We are constantly reminded that
Iraq has perhaps the world's largest reserves of oil. But in a regional and
perhaps even geopolitical sense, it may be more important that Iraq has
the most extensive river system in the Middle East. In addittion to the
Tigris and Euphrates, there are the Greater Zab and Lesser Zab rivers in
the north of the country. Iraq was covered with irrigation works by the
sixth century AD, and was a granary for the region. Before the Persian Gulf
war, Iraq had built an impressive system of dams and river control
projects, the largest being the Darbandikhan dam in the Kurdish area. And
it was this dam the Iranians were aiming to take control of when they
seized Halabja. In the 1990s there was much discussion over the
construction of a so-called Peace Pipeline that would bring the waters of
the Tigris and Euphrates south to the parched Gulf states and, by
extension, Israel. No progress has been made on this, largely because of
Iraqi intransigence. With Iraq in American hands, of course, that could
change. Thus America could alter the destiny of the Middle East in a way
that probably could not be challenged for decades--not soley by controlling
Iraq's oil, but by controlling its water."
[top]
10. MANDELA: IT'S THE OIL STUPID!
Former South African President Nelson Mandela protested that Powell's
presentation undermined the UN's own efforts to determine whether Iraq was
concealing weapons of mass destruction. Speaking to the world body before
Powell's speech, Mandela said UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed
El-Baradei were the only ones with the authority to determine whether Iraq
was complying with UN resolutions. "We are going to listen to them and to
them alone. We are not going to listen to the United States of America.
They are not telling us how they got that information," Mandela told
reporters.
The previous week, the Nobel Peace laureate blasted President Bush: "One
power with a president who has no foresight and cannot think properly is
now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust." At the UN, he said he
did not regret those comments. "I'm not changing a word, not even a comma,
of what I said, because I said so because I believe it," he told reporters.
Ignoring the UN when it does not do what you want "is to introduce chaos
into international affairs," he said . (AP, Feb. 5)
In a recent speech before the International Women's Forum in Sandton, South
Africa, Mandela made clear that he believes oil lies at the root of the US
war drive: "It's a tragedy what is happening, what Bush is doing. All Bush
wants is Iraqi oil. There is no doubt that the US is behaving badly. Why
are they not seeking to confiscate weapons of mass destruction from their
ally Israel? This is just an excuse to get Iraq oil." (New Zealand Herald,
Feb. 6)
[top]
11. RICHARD PERLE: FRANCE MUST BE "CONTAINED"!
France is no longer a US ally, and NATO "must develop a strategy to contain
our erstwhile ally or we will not be talking about a NATO alliance,"
Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Policy Advisory Board, said in
Washington Feb. 4. "France is no longer the ally it once was," Perle said,
accusing French President Jacques Chirac of believing "deep in his soul
that Saddam Hussein is preferable to any likely successor." French leaders
insist they will oppose any military action against Iraq without a second
resolution by the United Nations Security Council, where it holds one of
five crucial veto powers.
Perle also questioned whether the US should seek the endorsement of the UN
Security Council for war, stressing that "Iraq is going to be liberated, by
the United States and whoever wants to join us, whether we get the
approbation of the UN or any other institution." He added: "It is now
reasonable to ask whether the United States should now or on any other
occasion subordinate vital national interests to a show of hands by nations
who do not share our interests." (UPI, Feb. 4)
See also WW3 REPORT #71
[top]
12. GREENPEACE ANTI-WAR ACTIONS IN UK, FRANCE, AUSTRALIA
On Feb. 4 morning, 14 Greenpeace activists illegally entered Southampton's
Marchwood Military Port in the UK. Seven were arrested but five managed to
climb into tanks about to be loaded onto Ministry of Defense-chartered
supply ships, destined for the Persian Gulf. The activists secured the
hatches behind them, and two more chained themselves to the tanks. In
Australia the previous night, a Greenpeace team inflated a hot air balloon
outside Parliament House in Canberra, printed with the message "give peace
a chance." Greenpeace also held a protest in the French harbor of Toulon
Feb. 4, against the departure of military aircraft to Turkey. Greenpeace
demanded President Chirac to explain why he is sending aircraft to Turkey
given that he is publicly opposed to military action in Iraq. (Greenpeace
press release, Feb. 4)
[top]
13. RESISTANCE IN GERMANY
On Feb. 1, a US military convoy was blocked by local anti-war activists for
more than an hour at Mannheim-Feudenheim. The transport was heading for the
Rheinau harbor, for deployment to the Persian Gulf. (Independant War
Resisters, Mannheim)
[top]
14. RESISTANCE IN AUSTRALIA
Nine unions in Western Australia are to launch an anti-war campaign,
including industrial action and protests, Radio Australia reported Feb. 6.
But they will not be supported by the powerful Transport Workers' Union,
whose state secretary Jim McGiveron said his 10,000 members won't take part
in any action which disrupts essential services or blocks supplies to
Australian troops. (BBC Monitoring, Feb. 6)
Meanwhile, the Australian Senate has passed an historic no-confidence
motion against Prime Minister John Howard and his conservative
Liberal/National coalition for deploying troops to the Persian Gulf ahead
of a possible war. Howard insists the deployment does not mean his
government has decided to support any new war against Iraq. But so far
Australia and the UK are the only countries to have joined the US in
sending troops to the Gulf. The vote has no binding clout, but is
considered an important symbolic gesture as it is the Senate's first vote
of no-confidence in a serving prime minister in its 102-year history. (BBC,
Feb. 5)
[top]
15. RESISTANCE IN NEW ZEALAND
Protesters tried to scale a fence surrounding the US Embassy in New Zealand
during an anti-war rally Feb. 2, saying they wanted to check for weapons of
mass destruction. Carrying ladders and mock metal detectors, the activists
tried to scale a 6-foot iron gate in front of the embassy compound in
Wellington but were hauled down by police. 23 were arrested. "There might
be rogue nations in the world, but there is only one rogue superpower,"
said protest organizer John Sarvis said. (AP, Feb. 2)
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. RAWA COMMEMORATES MEENA MARTYRDOM
At a Feb. 5 public gathering in Islamabad to commemorate the 1987 marytrdom
of their founder Meena, leaders of the Revolutionary Associations of the
Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) brought together Afghan refugees and
exiles--including many women and children--in a display of protest to the
US-installed regime in their homeland. A play was performed chronicling the
life of Meena, including her death at the hands of Mujahedeen and/or KGB
assassins. Speakers asserted that Afghanistan's liberation is incomplete,
and that the international community is complicit with the oppression of
Afghan women by supporting "democracy without secularism." RAWA again
called for bringing Afghan war criminals--including some in the current
government--to international justice. RAWA's Yaseen Kasib said the world
community "should support democracy instead of fundamentalism." Pakistani
human rights leader Asma Jehangir said that the Afghan experience held
lessons for Iraq. "If America wants to introduce Afghanistan-like democracy
in Iraq, we will condemn it," she said. (Dawn, Pakistan Observer, Feb.5)
[top]
2. AFGHAN LESSONS FORGOTTEN IN IRAQ WAR DRIVE
In the Feb. 2 Washington Post, columnist Ellen Goodman pointed out
dangerous ommissions in President Bush's Jan. 28 State of the Union
Address--which beat the drums for war with Iraq while overlooking some
obvious failures of the ongoing Afghanistan campaign. Noting that over the
past year Osama bin Laden "has completely morphed into Saddam Hussein,"
Goodman wrote: "When the speech rolled out Tuesday night, there was no
mention of Osama, dead or alive. Indeed, al-Qaeda sounded like nothing more
than a branch office of downtown Baghdad. For that matter, as cameras
scanned the guests in Laura Bush's box, no one remembered last year's star,
Sima Samar. The Afghan minister of women's affairs was hailed then as proof
of our moral victory. That was before death threats drove her out of
office."
[top]
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. COLOMBIA WAR SPILLS INTO PANAMA'S RAINFOREST
As reported in WW3 REPORT #70, on Jan. 18, four Kuna Indian community
leaders in Panama's remote Darien rainforest were abducted, tortured and
assassinated by gunmen of the notorious Colombian Self-Defense (AUC), who
infiltrated across the border. In the wake of the attacks on the small Kuna
villages of Paya and Pucuro, nearly 500 Indians have been displaced are
seeking shelter in the village of Boca de Cupe on the Colombian border.
Panama's daily La Prensa reported Feb. 3 that Boca de Cupe has seen a 50%
population increase since the attacks, and the displaced Kuna are facing
severe food shortages, as well as lacking access to medical care for
several sick children.
The official response to the attacks has been to launch a joint
Colombian-Panamanian militarization of the jungle border. The local Kuna
Youth Indigenous Movement reported to the Vermont-based Action for
Community & Ecology in the Regions of Central America (ACERCA) via Internet
that US military helicopters have been spotted in the region.
La Prensa reported Jan. 27 that the General Congress of Kuna Yala, the Kuna
autonomous regional government, condemned the attacks and demanded security
for the region. The statement also protested the presence of other armed
Colombian groups in the area, which they said was being used as a pretext
for the attacks. The Kuna leaders see the militarization of their region as
part of an international design. "It is also no secret that there are
powerful interests in the international community pushing the so called
Plan Colombia, that is a plan almost exclusively for the military, as a
'solution' to the armed conflict in this country, and that it intends to
include the neighboring countries of Colombia," read the statement.
A general re-militarization of Panama, formerly seat of the US Southern
Command, is now underway. La Prensa reported Feb. 6 that 400 Ohio National
Guard troops are conducting maneuvers dubbed "New Horizons 2003" in the
Chiriqui region of Panama. The maneuvers come as President Bush requested
$9 million for Panama out of the $731 million proposed "Andean Initiative"
program against drugs and terrorism for fiscal year 2004--as La Prensa
reported Feb. 4. "Andean Initiative" is the Bush administration's expanded
version of Plan Colombia, and the bulk of the funds--$463 million--is
slated for Colombia, mostly in military aid.
Brendan O'Neill of ACERCA says the Kuna region is strategic to the US
precisely because of its isolation: "It is important to note the
geopolitical importance of the Darien for the expansion of trade. It is the
only break in the Pan-American Highway from Mexico to South America and is
largely inhabited by indigenous peoples who have long resisted the
expansion of the Pan-American highway. Therefore, the Plan Puebla Panama
from the north and Plan Colombia from the south are literally sandwiching
the Kuna."
(Thanks to ACERCA)
See also WW3 REPORT #70
For more on the Puebla-Panama Plan, see WW3 REPORT #60
[top]
2. BLAST BRINGS WAR TO BOGOTA
On Feb. 8, a bomb tore through an elite club in the Colombian capital of
Bogota, killing over 20, wounding 100--and raising fears that left-wing
guerillas are dlivering on their promise to take the war to the cities and
attack the ruling class. The bomb blasted through north Bogota's El Nogal
Club, collapsing floors, blowing brick and mortar on to a busy road, and
starting a fire that burned for about two hours. No one claimed
responsibility for the attack, but the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces
(FARC) announced last year that it would spread the war from the
countryside to the cities and target Colombia's elite. El Nogal Club was
frequented by politicians and business executives and included restaurants,
a mini-golf course, a gym and rooms for overnight guests. Authoirities
called it the worst terrorist attack in Colombia since Pablo Escobar's
Medellin drug cartel orchestrated a wave of bombings and assassinations in
the 1980s and early 1990s. President Alvaro Uribe, who has promised to
crack down on the 40-year guerilla insurgency, visited the scene at
midnight with his top security officials.
The attack was the second guerilla strike in Colombia as many days. On Feb.
6, a small plane carrying Minister of Social Welfare Juan Luis Londono and
four other people disappeared on a domestic flight. Suspected FARC rebels
fired at a helicopter searching the for the plane in the mountains of
central Colombia The helicopter was hit four times but returned safely to
its base. No one was injured. (AP, Feb. 8)
See also WW3 REPORT #44
[top]
3. VENEZUELAN OIL INDUSTRY RIDES OUT STRIKE
As the Venezuelan general strike aimed at bringing down President Hugo
Chavez loses steam, oil production has risen back to 1.5 million barrels
per day, Ali Rodriguez, president of the state oil company PDVSA, told
reporters. While this is still well below pre-strike levels of 3.1 million
barrels per day, Rodriguez hopes it will rise to 2.8 million daily by
March. Said Lawrence J. Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry
Research Foundation: "Every day that goes by, the government is winning by
attrition. And every day that goes by, they are winning a little bit more
because workers are going back and production is going up." (NYT, Feb. 1)
In mid-January, production was down to around a half-million
barrels per day. See WW3 REPORT #69
Having failed to win judicial approval of a special election to remove
Chavez from office, strike leaders are now demanding a constitutional
amendment to cut his term. See WW3 REPORT #71
[top]
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. NPA GUERILLAS THREATEN NEW OFFENSIVE IF U.S. ATTACKS IRAQ
Leftist guerillas in the Philippines have threatened to launch a new
offensive against the government if the US attacks Iraq. The Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Feb. 7 vowed to launch sympathy attacks
against government targets if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo supports
the US-led war against Iraq. CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka [Comrade] Roger"
Rosal said the party's 9,000-strong armed wing, the New People's Army
(NPA), will launch a "tactical offensives against the mercenary troops of
the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and the PNP [Philippine National
Police] in order to weaken the puppet Macapagal-Arroyo regime." Rosal
denounced the Macapagal administration for "unabashedly supporting Bush's
jingoism" and demonstrating its "brazen puppetry to US imperialism."
(Philippine Daily Inquirer web site, Feb. 7, via BBC Monitoring)
[top]
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. BOMBERS ON ALERT TO ATTACK NORTH KOREA
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has ordered 24 long-range bombers to
Guam as a warning to North Korea to deter "opportunism" at a moment when
the US is focused on Iraq, the New York Times reported in a front-page
story Feb. 4, citing Pentagon officials.
[top]
2. NUCLEAR "BUNKER-BUSTERS" ON "FAST TRACK"
The Pentagon has launched a "fast-track" program to develop computers to
determine when nuclear weapons should be used to destroy underground
bunkers, according to unpublished documents procured by the Los Angeles
Times. Last year, congressional advocates succeeded in appropriating $45
million for new research on a "robust deep earth penetrator." The
Pentagon's new program is now requesting proposals from defense contractors
to begin research and development on the target analysis system. Some of
the work will be carried out at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
California and at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. The new
computer program is being carried out under the aegis of US Strategic
Command, or StratCom, a new joint command which replaces the Air Force's
old Strategic Air Command and Space Command. "From the start of the Bush
administration, we have seen increasing interest in 'usable' nuclear
weapons," said Christine Kucia, an analyst at the Arms Control Association.
(LAT, Feb. 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #70
For more on "bunker-busters," see WW3 REPORT # 66
For more on StratCom, see WW3 REPORT #44
[top]
3. UPDATE: NUCLEAR MATERIALS IN SPACE SHUTTLE DEBRIS?
Recent disclosures on National Public Radio indicate that there were
radioactive sources on board the doomed space shuttle Columbia. Sherrif
Thomas Kerss of Nacogdoches, TX, told NPR Feb. 1, "There was radioactive
material on board" and that retrieval operations would be testing debris
for radioactivity. On Feb. 3, the Global Network Against Weapons and
Nuclear Power in Space issued a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
to NASA seeking full disclosure of the type, amount, and purpose of
radioactive material on board Columbia. The Global Network also said it is
deeply concerned about the independence of the commission NASA appointed to
investigate this accident, pointing out that "it is dominated by retired
military and aerospace industry executives with vested interests in the
outcome." (Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space press
release, Feb. 2)
See also WW3 REPORT #71
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space:
[top]
4. WHISTLE-BLOWER: NASA "REPEATEDLY IGNORED" WARNINGS
In a letter to the White House last summer, Don Nelson, who served with
NASA for 36 years until he retired in 1999, called for a moratorium on all
space shuttle flights and warned that Bush's "intervention" was necessary
to "prevent another catastrophic space shuttle accident." During his last
11 years at NASA, Nelson served as a mission operations evaluator for
proposed advanced space transportation projects, and was on the initial
design team for the space shuttle. He participated in every shuttle upgrade
until his retirement. Listing a series of mishaps with shuttle missions
since 1999, Nelson warned in his letter that NASA management and the
Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel had failed to respond to the growing
warning signs:
*1999 - Columbia's launch was delayed by a hydrogen leak and Discovery was
grounded with damaged wiring, contaminated engine and dented fuel line;
*January 2000 - Endeavor was delayed because of wiring and computer failures;
*August 2000 - inspection of Columbia revealed 3,500 defects in wiring;
*October 2000 - the 100th flight of the shuttle was delayed because of a
misplaced safety pin and concerns with the external tank;
*April 2002 - a hydrogen leak forced the cancellation of the Atlantis flight;
*July 2002 - the inspector general reported that the shuttle safety
programme was not properly managed;
*August 2002 - the shuttle launch system was grounded after fuel line
cracks were discovered.
White House officials rejected Nelson's plea for a moratorium. He tried to
talk to NASA's administration about his concerns in October but was again
rebuffed. Nelson told the UK Observer that he fears the Columbia disaster
was the culmination of "disastrous mismanagement" by NASA's most senior
officials. "I think what happened is that very slowly over the years NASA's
culture of safety became eroded. But when I tried to raise my concerns with
NASA's new administrator, I received two reprimands for not going through
the proper channels, which discouraged other people from coming forward
with their concerns." (UK Observer, Feb. 2)
[top]
5. NASA PROTECTING CORPORATE PALS
In a front-page story Feb. 3, the New York Times reported that when members
of NASA's own Aeorspace Safety Advisory Panel warned last year that the
shuttle fleet faced safety troubles if the agency's budget was not
increased, NASA removed five of the panel's nine members, and a sixth, Adm.
Bernard Kauderer (ret.) quit in protest. But a NASA spokesperson insisted
to the Times that the purge of the panel "had nothing to do with shooting
the messenger."
A companion piece in the same issue noted that NASA's two top contractors,
Lockheed and Boeing, have pledged their cooperation in the investigation.
Together the two defense giants co-own the United Space Alliance, which had
a $9 billion contract to operate the shuttle program from 1996 to 2002,
extended for $2.9 billion through September 2004. Boeing was chiefly
responsible for refurbishing the Columbia, oldest shuttle in the fleet of
four, and investigators are to focus closely on the company's installation
at Palmdale, CA, where Rockwell International built the shuttles in the
1980s before selling the installation to Boeing in 1996. Ironically but
predictably, industry insiders say the Columbia debacle will likely prove a
boon to corporate contractors, who now stand to develop a new fleet of
shuttles to replace the existing ones. "The paradox of this disaster is
that it could provide the spark for a rebirth of the industry," said Loren
Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a military-affairs think-tank in
Arlington, VA.
[top]
6. ISRAELI, INDIAN MILITARY INTERST IN COLUMBIA SHUTTLE
Writes Yoichi Clark Shimatsu for Pacific News Service: "NASA is not simply
a civilian space agency devoted to the high-minded cause of scientific
discovery. The agency that originated as an extension of the Air Force has
persisted in its often-disguised mission of military research. Columbia's
tragic last mission was no exception, and was watched keenly by much of the
world precisely because of its geopolitical and military significance."
The presence on the flight of Israeli Air Force pilot Col. Ilan Ramon "was
a living symbol of Israeli-American aerospace cooperation, which has
included the Arrow interception technology incorporated into Patriot
missiles (used in the Gulf War) and the sale of U.S.-built F-16s and
helicopter gunships sent by the Ariel Sharon government to attack
Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Ramon was no bystander in the
Mideast conflict. He received flight training at a US Air Force base in
Utah in the 1970s, became a pilot in the Israeli Air Force and was part of
an Israeli bombing mission that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear power plant in
1986. His military role aboard Columbia went beyond symbolic value. Ramon's
research mission involved dual-use technology, an Israeli-built
multi-spectral camera that probes the effect of sandstorms on climate
change. The all-weather camera is also a key technology for military spy
satellites and unmanned drones searching for targets obscured by dust,
smoke and clouds. These murky atmospheric conditions exactly fit the
scenario of the looming war against Iraq."
Israel has now launched its own drive to establish a space program--as has
India, birthplace of the other "international" astronaut, Kalpana Chowla.
Writes Shimatsu: "Her research background in robotics and aerodynamics are
also of direct interest to weapons designers. Her notable achievement was
to design systems to control air turbulence during landing, a serious
problem for vertical-landing aircraft such as the Harrier fighter or the
accident-prone Osprey hybrid helicopter." (PNS, Feb. 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #71
[top]
THE WAR AT HOME
1. FBI WARNS U.S. JEWS OF AL-QAEDA ATTACKS
The Bush administration officially raised the national terrorist threat
color-coded alert from yellow (for "elevated") to orange (for "high") on
Feb. 1. Simultaneously, FBI officials began contacting Jewish leaders
nationwide to warn of a possible imminent al-Qaeda strike on a Jewish
target in the US. (Haaretz, Feb. 8)
This is the first time the alert has been elevated to Orange since the 9-11
anniversary last year. See WW3 REPORT #s 51
& 53
See also WW3 REPORT #40
[top]
2. JDL MILITANT GUILTY IN BOMBING SCHEME
Jewish Defense League militant Earl Krugel pleaded guilty of plotting to
bomb the Los Angeles-area King Fahd Mosque and the offices of Rep. Darrell
E. Issa (R-CA), a Lebanese-American. As part of a plea bargain which also
implicated late JDL leader Irv Rubin, Krugel pleaded guilty to two counts
of conspiracy and faces 10 to 20 years in prison. (Newsday, Feb. 5)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 59 & 12
[top]
3. NORTH CAROLINA REP OK WITH WW2 INTERNMENT CAMPS
Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC), head of the Judiciary Committee's Homeland
Security sub-committee, said on a radio call-in program that he agreed with
the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Coble made the
remark Feb. 5 on WKZL-FM when a caller suggested Arabs in the US should be
confined. Coble said he didn't agree with the caller but did agree with
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who established the internment camps. "We
were at war. They [Japanese-Americans] were an endangered species," Coble
said. "For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be
on the street." Like most Arab-Americans today, Coble said, most
Japanese-Americans during World War II were not America's enemies. But he
concluded: "Some probably were intent on doing harm to us," he said, "just
as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us."
The Japanese American Citizens League has demanded Coble apologize, and
said he should be removed from his committee chairmanship. "We are
flabbergasted that a man who supports racial profiling and ethnic
scapegoating" chairs the subcommittee, the group's national executive
director, John Tateishi, said in a statement. The Council on
American-Islamic Relations demanded that Coble explain his remarks.
Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the comments were "particularly disturbing."
(AP, Feb. 5)
See also WW3 REPORT #45
[top]
4. FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI FACES TRANSFER THREAT
The support committee for detained Palestinian-born New York activist
Farouk Abdel-Muhti reports it has received information that the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS) is planning to move him imminently from
Passaic County jail, where he has been held since September, to an unkown
location. Farouk objects to any move from the New York metropolitan area,
since this would separate him from his family, community, support committee
and legal team, who are all based in and around New York City. A move could
also disrupt progress in a habeas corpus petition Farouk's legal team filed
in federal court in Newark in November, charging that his continued
detention is illegal. The case is pending.
Farouk is a stateless Palestinian who has been detained since April 2002 on
the basis of a 1995 deportation order. His supporters charge the INS knows
it cannot deport him and that he is being held to keep him from exercising
his constitutionally protected right to advocate for human rights in
Palestine. Farouk has continued to be an outspoken advocate since his
detainment. He was one of more than 75 INS detainees from 40 countries who
signed a statement last year calling for an end to INS detentions and
deploring conditions in the Passaic facility. In January he was one of six
detainees who carried out a seven-day hunger strike to protest their
situation.
Farouk's support committee is asking for faxes, calls, e-mails and letters
demanding that Farouk not be moved, and that he be released immediately.
Contact:
David Venturella,
Director, Headquarters Post Detention Unit
Immigration and Naturalization Service
425 I Street NW
Washington, DC 20536
Phone 202-305-2734
Fax 202-353-9435
Email David.j.venturella@usdoj.gov
Andrea Quarantillo, District Director
INS Newark District Office
970 Broad Street, Room 136
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone 973-645-4421
Fax 973-297-4848.
Send copies to the Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-
Muhti at freefarouk@yahoo.com
( Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti)
See also WW3 REPORT #69
[top]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. MUNICIPAL REVOLT AGAINST WAR DRIVE
Spurred by local anti-war sentiment, dozens of cities and counties around
the US have passed resolutions urging President Bush to slow down his
confrontation with Iraq. The resolutions ask for more evidence that Iraq is
hiding weapons, or call on Bush to work more closely with the UN. Almost
all oppose a unilateral strike. City and county councils in 20 states have
passed such measures, from small towns like Woodstock, NY, to big cities
like Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. Many have liberal leanings, like
Berkeley, CA; Madison, WI; and Santa Fe, NM. But others, like Des Moines,
IA; San Luis Obispo, CA; and Blaine County, ID, have large numbers of
Republican voters. (NYT, Jan. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT # 65
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2. SENATE REVOLT AGAINST PENTAGON CYBER-SNOOP PROGRAM
Privacy advocates from the political left and right are joining forces with
Congress to stop funding of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness
(TIA) program. A measure blocking the program passed the Senate in January
but must now survive the House and Senate conference committee. "The folks
behind this amendment aren't exactly a group that flocks together for every
possible issue," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the amendment's sponsor.
"Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives are raising their
voices and saying they don't want their government snooping on law-abiding
Americans. The program amounts to unleashing virtual bloodhounds."
(Washington Times, Feb. 6)
See also WW3 REPORT #69
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