Monday, January 13, 2003
- Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?
Occasionally the truth will come out even in places like Time Magazine:
North Korea 10.4 %
Iraq 16.1 %
The United States 73.5 %
Total Votes Cast: 76441
From this page
http://www.time.com/time/europe/gdml/peace2003.html
As of January 13, 2003
- NOT ALL WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS ARE PUSHOVERS
By Norman Solomon
At 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., reporters usually shuffle along to a snoozy beat. But anyone who denigrates the mainstream media in general, or the White House press corps in particular, should acknowledge that exceptional journalists do strive to ask deeper questions while most colleagues go through the motions.
The latest in a long line of presidential spinners, Ari Fleischer, began a news conference on Jan. 6 with a nice greeting: “Good afternoon and happy New Year to everybody.” But his bonhomie didn’t last more than a minute.
“At the earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the president deplored the taking of innocent lives,” Helen Thomas began. “Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world?”
It was a simple question—and, unfortunately, an extraordinary one. Few journalists at the White House move beyond the subtle but powerful ties that bind reporters and top officials in Washington. Routinely, shared assumptions are the unspoken name of the game.
- Peace is made with enemies
By Sean Gonsalves
(Please visit http://zmag.org to see how you can help ZNet by becoming a sustainer)
How do you explain the president’s threat to invade Iraq, in keeping with the “preventive” war prescription laid out in the September 2002 National Security Strategy Directive, while he talks about diplomacy in dealing with North Korea?
That U.S. policy-makers are preparing for war against an Iraqi military that analysts say we can easily crush while going the diplomatic route with North Korea—a country we can’t beat up on as easily—is evidence of an ugly principle at work: might makes right.
Friday, January 10, 2003
- 9-11 families Visit Iraq in Solidarity with Civilian Targets
Family members of people killed in the September 11 attacks are currently in Iraq. The four-member delegation represents September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an advocacy group seeking effective, non-violent alternatives to war and terrorism.
COLLEEN KELLY
Kelly lost her brother, Bill, at the World Trade Center on September 11. Kelly went to Iraq because she “wanted to understand that Iraq is not just one man, Saddam Hussein, but many, many people, with hopes and dreams and families, just like my brother.” Currently in Iraq, Kelly said: “I’ve found immediately an understanding of what we have gone through, which is something that you do not always find in America....”
Thursday, January 02, 2003
-Dow sues penniless Bhopal survivors: How low can Dow go?
[url=http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=Bhopal&s=blue2]
Tell Dow to clean up Bhopal [/url]
Mon 23 December 2002
In a stunning example of corporate insensibility, Dow Chemical, the worlds largest chemical company, and new owners of Union Carbide is to sue survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. While the site of the disaster lies covered in toxic waste and survivors struggle with continuing ill health and deadly pollution from the site, Dow has decided to add to their woes with a Indian lawsuit.
- American Towns Oppose War
Counter Resolutions As Protest
By Jessica Azulay
(Please support ZNet, from which this commentary originated: http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm
In the face of a massive failure of the United States government and the United Nations to heed the will of the national and international antiwar majority, some U.S. cities are taking matters into their own hands. Despite sizable dissent, President Bush has resolved to declare war on Iraq, and the United States Congress has declared its support of his policy, ignoring a huge outpouring of letters and phone calls by constituents demanding the opposite. Bought into line, the U.N. Security council passed a new resolution on Iraq, which seems to be designed to set Iraq up for inevitable failure and attack. In response to the obvious flouting of democracy and international law, antiwar activists have shifted their focus away from Congress and are convincing their city councils to make some resolutions of their own.
Monday, December 23, 2002
- An open letter to BBC News Online by Harel Barzilai
This is reprinted from the Znet Sustainers forum with the permission of the author.
Dear BBC:
I am writing with great concern about BBC’s bias, unprofessional, and indeed self-contradictory reporting on the Iraq weapons inspections—and your omissions of critical and central parts of the report by UN’s chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El Baradei.
In particular, the excerpt chosen by BCC to represent a 10 minute video segment [http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/events02/world/un/blix19dec.ram ] of Blix and Baradei was entitled: “Iraq has missed an opportunity says Blix”
However, watching the video reveals a very different picture than the one represented by the title. More alarmingly in terms of the practice of good professional reporting, the lead story “Iraq Accused of UN Violation” continues this distortion.
The story [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2592243.stm ] starts with no fewer than the first three paragraphs quoting US Secretary of State Powell, then followed by two more paragraphs still focusing on official statements by Washington.
- China, U.S. Australia, Google. Panama (etc.) Censor Internet
Welcome to the Global Internet Liberty Campaign Newsletter.
Welcome to GILC Alert, the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign. We are an international organization of groups working for cyber-liberties, who are determined to preserve civil liberties and human rights on the Internet. We hope you find this newsletter interesting, and we very much hope that you will avail yourselves of the action items in future issues. If you are a part of an organization that would be interested in joining GILC, please contact us at
Free expression
Free expression
[1] Chinese Net users face enhanced censorware, arrests
[2] Russian firm cleared in eBook copyright case
[3] Australian high court ruling endangers Net speech
[4] Teen Norwegian DVD programmer faces criminal charges
[5] ICANN shuns public elections in new bylaws
[6] Finnish bill may curb Net chatboard comments
[7] Net blockers deny access to important health info
[8] Vietnamese Net dissident gets 4 year jail sentence
[9] Australian gov’t ponders blocking of protest websites
[10] Google censors German & French search results
[11] Panama tries to block Internet ports
[12] Council of Europe adopts Net censorship protocol
Privacy
[13] US gov’t plans Total Informational Awareness spy system
[14] Regulators warn Verichip tracking implant maker
[15] US appeals court allows easier wiretapping rules
[16] Finland gov’t data retention stance draws fire
[17] Study: British workplace Net monitoring on the rise
[18] New rules unveiled for webbug trackers
[19] TiVo digital recorder makes mistakes, stereotypes users
[20] Court strikes down US gov’t virus spy attack
[21] US court allow blind police Net searches
[22] Swiss Big Brother Awards ceremony held
[23] New GILC member: AEL & EFFI
Reports follow:
- Bush Humor
Friday, December 20, 2002
- Israel/Occupied Territories: Conscientious objectors jailed while soldiers who commit grave violat
Amnesty International has today written to Shaul Mofaz, Israeli Minister of Defence, to express concern over the imprisonment of Israeli conscripts and reservists who refuse to perform military service or to serve in the Occupied Territories, as they believe that by doing so they would contribute to, or participate in, human rights violations.
- Venezuelan Elite Attack President Chavez
Listen to RealAudio version of program: http://66.175.55.251/btl122702.ram AOL users: Click here!
(Needs RealPlayer to listen!)
THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM
1) Venezuelan Elite Attack President Chavez to Block Reforms that Benefit the Poor
Interview by Scott Harris
Gregory Wilpert, a sociologist and freelance journalist currently living in Caracas, assesses the effects of the two-week national strike, popular support for President Chavez and the fate of key reforms proposed by his government.
- MEDIA ALERT: BBC CHANNELING GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA
from MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
We have just sent this letter to BBC news reporter Margaret Gilmore, and to Richard Sambrook, director of BBC news:
Dear Margaret Gilmore
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw declared today that Saddam Hussein “had rejected the path of peace” (BBC1 News at Six, December 18, 2002) increasing the likelihood of military action some time next year. The clouds of war are gathering fast over Iraq.
We have noticed a consistent pattern in recent BBC reports, beginning November 7, the day before the latest UN Resolution (1441) on Iraq. The BBC has passed on almost daily reports of terrorist threats based on government sources. To select a few examples from this month at random: there has been a report that sky marshals may soon be guarding against terror attacks on British planes, a report of possible smallpox vaccinations against the threat of a terrorist attack, of the arrest of a Taliban sympathiser by anti-terrorist police, of North Africans arrested on terrorism charges in Edinburgh and London. Tonight (December 18) you delivered the useful information that intelligence services believe that if al-Qaeda were to carry out an attack in the UK, they would probably go for a ‘soft target’ - large public gatherings - using traditional weapons such as cars packed with explosives, etc.
