1. The Ashcroft-Rove Connection: The Ties That Blind 2. Oppression of Afghani Women Continues 3. Big Brother Is Watching 4. Rash Indicates New Breast Cancer Risk 1. The Ashcroft-Rove Connection: The Ties That Blind Attorney General John Ashcroft is refusing to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate who in the administration leaked the name of a CIA operative to journalists. This despite the fact that Ashcroft has long standing ties to one of the main suspects: President Bush’s top political advisor Karl Rove. Rove has been accused of leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, in retaliation for her husband, veteran diplomat Joseph Wilson, blowing the whistle on the Bush administration’s charge that Saddam Hussein attempted to import uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger. Rove is best known as the driving force behind Bush’s taking of the presidency, but he also worked for Ashcroft over the course of two decades. Author James Moore says that it goes all the way back to the mid 1980ís when John Ashcroft first ran for governor and then when he ran for the United States Senate against Mel Carnahan. Karl was so intimately involved. Not only did Rove work for Ashcroft in the 80ís, but he was one of the main forces behind Ashcroft’s controversial appointment to the job he currently holds as attorney general. Rove lobbied intensely for his former employer’s nomination after Ashcroft lost his senate seat to the late Mel Carnahan. While Ashcroft was not Bush’s first choice for attorney general, Rove reportedly told Bush that spilling some blood over the nomination of the fiercely right-wing Ashcroft was “a no-lose proposition” Now attorney general, Ashcroft is refusing to hand over the reigns of the criminal investigation of his political ally, former employee and longtime advisor, Karl Rove. Source : Democracy Now!, Fall 2003, “The Ashcroft-Rove Connection: The Ties That Blind” by Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill & the staff of Democracy Now! Researched by Vanessa Castellanos. 2. Oppression of Afghani Women Continues Despite Media Hype Afghani women continue to be oppressed in Herat, Afghanistan’s the second largest city in the country live in fear after the Taliban has left. Women are mainly in fear of talking to any men who aren’t their husbands. Gynecologist in Herats hospital who asked to be called Dr. Afzali says she was forced to perform numerous “chastity tests” on women who have been arrested for talking to any man even their own relatives. Dr. Afzali says that security officers don’t ask questions of the women but take them in and have the doctor perform forced chastity tests on teenage girls and women against their will if they are thought to be doing something wrong. Dr. Afzali also makes the comment that any young woman arrested in this manner that their reputation is destroyed due to false accusations. The writer Sevick also comments on how the American government falsely led the public to belief that the oppression of women stopped after the Taliban. It started with President Bush comment shortly before the bombing in Afghanistan in October 2001 in which he says that the Taliban oppression of women was over than their was Laura Bush first lady who went on to say after Taliban was chased out by the Northern Alliance, “Women are no longer imprisoned in their homes.” Even in the state of the union address after the victory in Afghanistan President Bush says, “Today Women are free.” All false indications of the extent of freedom of oppressed women in Afghanistan actually enjoyed within their communities. The reality of the matter is that US has made some gains in the capital of Kabul where Unicef has estimated 1.2 million girls last year have been going to school and some women have been able to work in the capital in the regions where peace keepers are in place. But CNN has reported on Kabul prisons reveals that oppression of women is evident in the prison have still been implemented in regions where the supposed peacekeepers are in place. This is one indication that women have some freedom in Kabul, but other regions like Herat the governors and warlords known as “regional commanders” are commanding regions in Afghanistan. These commanders in the regions are forcing women into marriage and threatening families if they don’t comply. The central governments are denying arrests of women because of moral crime, but arrests are being done on the grounds of false adultery often without a trial. Another issue is the fact that the country has seen plenty of destruction because of Bush’s war. Promised rebuilding has been focused on construction not on programs for women. To top it off in October the U.S. backed the government in Kabul and expects a constitution that will give women equal rights sadly that doesn’t seem to matter much when warlords and lack of money for women’s program funding will ever appear or be resolved. To some it up Dr. Afzali said, “With one side of the mouth, the government is granting new rights to women. But with the other side, they are trying to control us.” Source: The Mother Jones, July-August 2003, “What Liberation? The Taliban may be gone, but women in Afghanistan are still being arrested for “moral” crimes” by Kimberly Sevick. Researched by John Hernandez. 3. Big Brother Is Watching DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, operating within the Pentagon, is bringing a new form of surveillance into our private worlds. CTS, otherwise known as Combat Zones that See, is an urban surveillance system that uses thousands of cameras linked to a central computer to track, record, and analyze the movements of every vehicle in the city. Its software can identify your cars by size, shape, license plate – and even by your face. It let’s authorities (government and corporate) keep an eye over everyone’s movements in entire cities. CTS say that its goal is to “track everything that moves,” storing and categorizing phenomenal amount of data so that it is instantly retrievable. Act suspicious and CTS flashes an alert to authorities, complete with your profile. DARPA says that CTS is only for foreign surveillance but the corporate contractors developing the system claim differently. “The whole theme here is homeland security,” says one of the staff. DARPA is also the agency that have given us such systems as: the Total Information Awareness Program which can ransack any and all databases and compile secret profiles on each of our lives, and PAL, the cognitive computer system with sensors that let its wearers secretly record our words and movements. Source: The Texas Observer, 2003, “Stranger Than Strangelove” by Jim Hightower. Researched by Brooke Finley. 4. Rash Indicates New Breast Cancer Risk There is a new breast cancer disease popping up in America. In November 2002 a rare form of breast cancer was found, a woman developed a rash on her breast, similar to that of nursing mothers. The woman’s mammogram was clear so the doctor treated her with antibiotics for an infection. The rash continued to get worse and the doctor sent her for another mammogram, and this time it showed a mass. Further study of a biopsy found a fast growing malignancy. The patient started chemotherapy to shrink the growth and after intense treatment she was declared a full bill of health. The cancer later returned to the liver and she was only given five months to live. This rare form of breast cancer is found on the outside of the breast, on the nipple and areola. It appears as a rash and later becomes a lesion with an oozing crusty outer edge. Usually only one nipple is affected. Symptoms include itching and/or soreness. The biggest problem with this disease is that such symptoms appear to be harmless. It is frequently mistaken for skin inflammation or an infection. If this woman had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the beginning, perhaps it would not have spread. Therefore women and their doctors are urged to pay extra attention and look for these rare signs. Source: Mother Warriors Voice, pg.12, Spring 2003, “A New Form Of Breast Cancer” by Jill Shinn. Researched by Sabrina Bronson. Also these stories: Washington Buys Friends by Giving Out Weapons to Rogue Nations The U.S Government’s Tests of Warfare Agents on Servicemen and Civilians International Movement Takes on Water Industry US Rejected Peace Offerings from Iraq and Afghanistan Public Relations and the Pharmaceutical Industry How Bush and his coal industry cronies are covering up one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. Doping Kids Indian Rice Feeds Cattle and not Starving Indians Sex Discrimination in Florida Corporations Privatize Freedom of Speech Pharmaceutical Companies Spend More on PR than on Disease Do Childhood Vaccines Cause More Harm than Good? http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/newsflash.html Top 2003 Censored Stories 1: The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance #2: Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty #3: US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq U.N. Report #4: Rumsfeld’s Plan to Provoke Terrorists #5: The Effort to Make Unions Disappear #6: Closing Access to Information Technology #7: Treaty Busting by the United States #8: US/British Forces Continue Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Despite Massive Evidence of Negative Health Effects #9: In Afghanistan: Poverty, Women’s Rights, and Civil Disruption Worse than Ever #10: Africa Faces Threat of New Colonialism #11: U.S. Implicated in Taliban Massacre #12: Bush Administration Behind Failed Military Coup in Venezuela #13: Corporate Personhood Challenged #14: Unwanted Refugees a Global Problem #15: U.S. Military’s War on the Earth #16: Plan Puebla-Panama and the FTAA #17: Clear Channel Monopoly Draws Criticism #18: Charter Forest Proposal Threatens Access to Public Lands #19: U.S. Dollar vs. the Euro: Another Reason for the Invasion of Iraq #20: Pentagon Increases Private Military Contracts #21: Third World Austerity Policies: Coming Soon to a City Near You #22: Welfare Reform Up For Reauthorization, but Still No Safety Net #23: Argentina Crisis Sparks Cooperative Growth #24: Aid to Israel Fuels Repressive Occupation in Palestine #25: Convicted Corporations Receive Perks Instead of Punishment http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/index.html Top Censored Stories 2002 #1: FCC Moves to Privatize Airwaves #2: New Trade Treaty Seeks to Privatize Global Social Services #3: United States’ Policies in Colombia Support Mass Murder #4: Bush Administration Hampered FBI Investigation 46 into Bin Laden Family Before #5: U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq’s Water System #6: U.S. Government Pushing Nuclear Revival #7: Corporations Promote HMO Model for School Districts #8: NAFTA Destroys Farming Communities in U.S. and Abroad #9: U.S. Faces National Housing Crisis #10: CIA Double Deals in Macedonia #11: Bush Appoints Former Criminals to Key Government Roles #12: NAFTA’s Chapter 11 Overrides Public Protection Laws of Countries #13: Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford Lied to the American Public about East Timor #14: New Laws Restrict Access to Abortions in U.S. #15: Bush’s Energy Plan Threatens Environment and Public Health #16: CIA Kidnaps Suspects for Overseas Torture and Execution #17: Corporate Media Ignores Key Issues of the Anti-Globalization Protests #18: World’s Coral Reefs Dying #19: American Companies Exploit the Congo #20: Novartis’s Gene Research Endangers Global Plant Life #21: Large U.S. Temp Company Undermines Union Jobs and Mistreats Workers #22: Fish Farms Threaten Health of Consumers and Aquatic Habitats #23: Horses Face Lives of Unnecessary Abuse for Drug Company Profits #24: Wal-mart Takes Union Busting to the State Level #25: Federal Government Bails Out Failing Private Prisons http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2003/index.html Project Censored Sonoma State University 1801 East Cotati Ave. Rohnert Park, CA 94928 Tax deductable donations accepted, Please help. http://www.projectcensored.org/contacts/donor.htm — Peter Phillips Ph.D. Sociology Department/Project Censored Sonoma State University 1801 East Cotati Ave. Rohnert Park, CA 94928 707-664-2588 http://www.projectcensored.org/
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