Restoring Chaos in Iraq

April 17th, 2003

Dear Readers,

The first item shown below is an article from England which is the definitive "conflict of interest" statement about the war -- excellent reading and the writer's points need to be discussed and RESOLVED.

My previous email produced several questions about the figures presented by Rokke.  Several of the items in today's newsletter confirm many of Rokkes' numbers.  A further discussion is included below.

An outrageous energy policy has just been approved by the House (Energy Policy Act of 2003 (H.R.6)), no doubt with heavy back-room lobbying by the Bush Administration.  See the item below called: "Dark Day for Consumers, Environment as House Approves Energy Package".  Several other important nuke-related articles are also included.

How did Saddam come to power, anyway?  Why, the CIA put him there!  An must-read article about that is also included.

Lastly, I've included a document I've titled "Support Our Troops -- A Pacifist's View".  It's an awful war, but our troops signed on to defend freedom, with their lives if necessary, and right now that's exactly what they are doing, or at least it's what they are TRYING to do.  For the Iraqi Army, the war is over -- lost.  Yet recently, a Marine was killed guarding a hospital.  Who would commit such an evil act?  A terrorist.  (This is why you should not decapitate the leadership --  now, there's no one left to get the remnants of the Iraqi troops to surrender as a group, no one important left to stand trial, etc. etc..  No one left to answer for the past three decades of repression in Iraq.  No chain of command left that every Iraqi soldier has sworn to follow.  And, as Bob Arnot said on MS-NBC live from Baghdad moments ago, "That's part of the problem.  There was no one left, basically, to surrender" (April 15th, 2003, 1:00 a.m. Baghdad local time).)

Thank you in advance for your interest.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA

P.S. The title of this newsletter refers to a recent Bushism.

Today's contents:

1) Welcome aboard the Iraqi gravy train ---> Bush's war monger Mil/Ind Network
2) Discussion of the numbers from the previous Rokke interview email
3) Followups on the apparent targeting of journalists by the U.S. armed forces
4) Dark Day for Consumers, Environment as House Approves Energy Package
5) Study could fuel suits claiming nuclear plants cause cancer
6) Baghdad Battered by US Gas Bombs
7) US REJECTS IRAQ DU CLEAN-UP
8) Introducing Sid Goodman to our readers
9) Book Burning in Iraq
10) The CIA's role in establishing Saddam should never be forgotten!
11) Support our troops -- a pacifist's view

URL for this newsletter online:
http://animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/2003/RestoringChaosInIrag.htm

==========================================================
1) Welcome aboard the Iraqi gravy train ---> Bush's war monger Mil/Ind Network
==========================================================


At 10:35 AM 4/13/2003 , magnu96196@aol.com posted this on the DOEWATCH forum:
Source:
<A HREF="http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4647171,00.html">
http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4647171,00.html</A>

Re: [DOEWatch] Welcome aboard the Iraqi gravy train ---> Bush's war monger Mil/Ind Network
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome aboard the Iraqi gravy train
Congratulations to all the winners of tickets to take part in the greatest
rebuilding show on earth

Terry Jones
April 13, 2003
The Observer

Well the war has been a huge success, and I guess it's time for
congratulations all round. And wow! It's hard to know where to begin.

First, I'd like to congratulate Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and the Bechtel
Corporation, which are the construction companies most likely to benefit from
the reconstruction of Iraq. Contracts in the region of $1 billion should soon
coming your way, chaps. Well done! And what with the US dropping 15,000
precision-guided munitions, 7,500 unguided bombs and 750 cruise missiles on
Iraq so far and with more to come, there's going to be a lot of
reconstruction. It looks like it could be a bonanza year.

Of course, we all know that KBR is the construction side of Halliburton, and
it has been doing big business with the military ever since the Second World
War. Most recently, it got the plum job of constructing the prison compound
for terrorists suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Could be a whole lot more deluxe
chicken coops coming your way in the next few months, guys. Stick it to 'em.

I'd also like to add congratulations to Dick Cheney, who was chief executive
of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, and who currently receives a cheque for $1
million a year from his old company. I guess he may find there's a little
surprise bonus in there this year. Well done, Dick.

Congratulations, too, to former Secretary of State, George Schultz. He's not
only on the board of Bechtel, he's also chairman of the advisory board of the
Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a group with close ties to the White
House committed to reconstructing the Iraqi economy through war. You're doing
a grand job, George, and I'm sure material benefits will be coming your way,
as sure as the Devil lives in Texas.

Oh, before I forget, a big round of appreciation for Jack Sheehan, a retired
general who sits on the Defence Policy Board which advises the Pentagon. He's
a senior vice president at Bechtel and one of the many members of the Defence
Policy Board with links to companies that make money out of defence
contracts. When I say 'make money' I'm not joking. Their companies have
benefited to the tune of $76bn just in the last year. Talk about a gravy
train. Well, Jack, you and your colleagues can certainly look forward to a
warm and joyous Christmas this year.

It;s been estimated that rebuilding Iraq could cost anything from $25bn to
$100bn and the great thing is that the Iraqis will be paying for it
themselves out of their future oil revenues. What's more, President Bush will
be able to say, with a straight face, that they're using the money from Iraqi
oil to benefit the Iraqi people. 'We're going to use the assets of the people
of Iraq, especially their oil assets, to benefit their people,' said
Secretary of State Colin Powell, and he looked really sincere. Yessir.

It's so neat it makes you want to run out and buy shares in Fluor. As one of
the world's biggest procurement and construction companies, it recently hired
Kenneth J. Oscar, who, as acting assistant secretary of the army, took care
of the Pentagon's $35bn-a-year procurement budget. So there could also be
some nice extra business coming its way soon. Bully for them.

But every celebration has its serious side, and I should like to convey my
condolences to all those who have suffered so grievously in this war.
Particularly American Airlines, Qantas and Air Canada, and all other travel
companies which have seen their customers dwindle, as fear of terrorist
reprisals for what the US and Britain have done in Iraq begins to bite.

My condolences also to all those British companies which have been
disappointed in their bid to share in the bonanza that all this wonderful
high-tech military firepower has created. I know it must be frustrating and
disheartening for many of you, especially in the medical field, knowing there
are all those severed limbs, all that burnt flesh, all those smashed skulls,
broken bones, punctured spleens, ripped faces and mangled children just
crying out for your products.

You could be making a fortune out of the drugs, serums and surgical hardware,
and yet you have to stand on the sidelines and watch as US drug companies
make a killing.

Well, Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President, has some words of comfort for us
all. As he recently pointed out, this adventure by Bush and Blair will have
created such hatred throughout the Arab world, that 100 new bin Ladens will
have been created.

So all of us here in Britain, as well as in America, shouldn't lose heart.
Once the Arab world starts to take its revenge, there should be enough
reconstruction to do at home to keep business thriving for some years to
come.


------------------------ Yahoo! ---------------------

The Magnum-Opus Project---The Mission: To do a greater good.
Righting the wrongs of the Manhattan Project's deceit and treachery national security methods using openness and accountability.
DOE Watch List--Where toxic health damage is not a mystery.
A news list combined with scientific studies to expose the problems.
Subscribe:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/doewatch
DOE Watch OR Web page:  http://members.aol.com/doewatch
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Insoluble toxic metals and fluorides, via a pneumonia like dust in lung process, concentrate in lymph nodes and cause foreign body granuloma damage to node macrophages, leading to false cytokine stimulation, then rising viral waste damage to mitochondria, and this leading to illnesses.  See the analysis at http://members.aol.com/magnu96196/cfs.html

In the 1980's, Oak Ridge managers established a national alliance of DOE friendly supplanted activists and old DOE scientists to mislead gullible fluoride affected sick workers and communities in order to fabricate a health mystery and avoid the extreme liabilities of the fluorides health damage to uranium gas diffusion chemical plant workers and communities.  Don't let DOE and its minions stone wall known disease processes known for millennia and involved in religion icon imagery.

Yahoo!

===================================================
2) Discussion of the numbers from the previous Rokke interview email
===================================================

At 06:08 PM 4/10/2003 , Richard Wilcox wrote:
Russell,

I received the following enquiry about DU missiles as reported by
nomorefakenews, what do you think? Rappaport of NMFN does acknowledge that
this is controversial...(see his website)

>>>
Rich,
 Thanks again for sending me important material.  The DU matter is a huge
issue, but I am a little suspicious of some of  the data below.  I never
heard of missiles carrying DU.  I thought it was used for artillery shells
and that its specific military value was punching through the armor of tanks
etc.  DU in missiles?  Are you sure that's accurate?
 Best Wishes, Doug
>>>


Thanks!

be well,

Richard

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Richard,

D.U. is used in LOTS of things -- I believe the "bunker busters" each have over ONE THOUSAND POUNDS OF D.U. in them.  Also, it's used in rotors for helicopters, ailerons on airplanes, counterweights for fins on cruise missiles, tank armor, A10-Warthog shells, M1A1 Abrams shells, and probably lots of other places besides -- anything they need a shell that has good penetration capabilities, pyrophoric properties, and is real cheap so they can expend a lot of them, you'll find D.U.  That's just about everywhere!

I did find SOME of the numbers in that report to be a bit "surprising", but the overall flavor of Rokke's message seems completely accurate.  D.U. is used in everything these days!

Dusting Iraq part 1:
http://animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/2003/DustingIraq.htm

More on D.U. (with a comment from Dr. Helen Caldicott):
http://animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/2003/krugmanNYT.htm

Dusting Iraq part 2:
http://animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/2003/DustingIraqtwo.htm

Yours,

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:18:07 -0700
Subject: FW: [greenaction] War Toxins Pour Down into Iraqi homeland
From: bluespin <bluespin@earthlink.net>
To: Russell Hoffman "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>

hey Russell
I forwarded your material thru the GA list and got this response.
can you give this woman the data she needs?
Scott

----------
> From: "Julia Stege" <julia@graphicgirlz.com>
> Organization: Graphic Girlz
> Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 11:56:21 -0700
> To: "bluespin" <bluespin@earthlink.net>, "\(*\) Green Action"
> <greenaction@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [greenaction] War Toxins Pour Down into Iraqi homeland
>
> Do we have original sources that prove these claims?  I would want to check
> these.  Has anyone seen the admission on the part of the Pentagon regarding
> the 700 lost missiles?  Proof that Uranium is being used in all of the bombs
> just dropped, etc?  This article makes claims that could embarrass one
> unless the original sources are checked.  I personally would love to know
> where to find the official documentation that supports these claims.
>
> thanks
> Julia
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "bluespin" <bluespin@earthlink.net>
> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 7:04 PM
> Subject: [greenaction] War Toxins Pour Down into Iraqi homeland
>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discussion of #s presented in the Rokke document from the previous newsletter, and related numbers:

1:
Estimates of the number of Desert Storm veterans with symptoms range from 20,000 to more than 150,000. -- Toledo Blade, April 13th, 2003
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030413&Category=NEWS28&ArtNo=104130118&Ref=AR

2:
It should be noted that I believe Rokke was presumably assuming that Cruise Missiles are basically lost after launch -- they fly extremely low, are extremely maneuverable, and send out no signal so that they cannot be detected and locked onto, and thus, shot down.  So virtually all claims of accuracy are based on guesses, unless you have someone on the ground watching where they land, or you use post-strike "BDA" (Battle Damage Assessment).

3:
From:  CENTER FOR DEFENSE INFORMATION
http://www.cdi.org/missile-defense/patriot-performance.cfm
"Fourteen Iraqi missiles have been launched at U.S. forces in Kuwait since hostilities began Thursday. Of those, nine have reportedly been intercepted by U.S. Patriot missiles, four were allowed to fall unharmed, and one landed in Kuwait City's harbor..."

4:
Also suggest seeing (for historic reference):
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/12/19/981219-tech.htm
(Published Saturday, December 19, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News: THE ATTACK ON IRAQ: This time, weapons are more accurate, BY PETE CAREY Mercury News Staff Writer)

5:
Also see:
http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/1999/04/29/p1s2.htm
(Published THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1999, A SPECIAL REPORT: The Trail of a Bullet: The armor-piercing wonders of depleted uranium helped win the Gulf War. As it is loaded for use in Kosovo, questions about its long-term dangers linger. First of two parts, by Scott Peterson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor.)

6:
Also see:
http://www.strike-the-root.com
From: Not to worry, I've found the WMD:
"Depleted Uranium (DU) -- DU was first employed in the Gulf War, then the Balkans, and now Iraq, despite what you may be hearing or reading to the contrary. Steven Rosenfeld writes at TomPaine.com, "DU is a byproduct of making nuclear reactor fuel. It is denser and more penetrating than lead, and breaks up and vaporizes on impact. Each round fired by a tank shoots one 10-pound uranium dart that, in addition to destroying targets, scatters into burning fragments and creates a cloud of uranium particles . . . (small enough to) enter lung tissue and remain embedded." In addition to tank ordnance, DU ammo is being used by A-10 "Tankbuster" aircraft and in bomb casings, tank shields, counterweights and ground penetrators, to name just a few Government Issue spots this poisonous substance calls home. According to last year's statistics from the Veterans Administration, there are 221,000 Gulf War vets now on disability and another 51,000 seeking that dubious status (out of about 695,000 total). These veterans have reported mysterious illnesses like muscle and joint pain, chronic fatigue, ruined immune systems, brain malfunctions, amnesia, allergies and rashes. Their inhalation of DU in the Gulf exceeded recommended limits threefold and their risk level was 17 times that of the general public's. Yet for several years the Pentagon was able to produce so-called doctors who claimed that DU poses no dangers to those exposed to it. Were these the same doctors that the cigarette companies produced who denied the link between nicotine and cancer? According to Dr. Doug Rokke, former director of the Army's DU project, "People are sick over there (Iraq, 2003) already. It's not just uranium. You've got all the complex organics and inorganics that are released in those fires and detonations . . . . You've got the whole toxic wasteland."

"...Bunker Buster Bombs ­ Besides containing DU ...", "Cluster bombs or bomblets, which also typically contain DU..."

7:
[ According to Terry Jones writing in The Observer, April 13: the US has
dropped "15,000 precision-guided munitions, 7,500 unguided bombs
and 750 cruise missiles on Iraq so far" ]

8):
The Pentagon estimates coalition forces killed 2,300 Iraqi military, according to figures given on MS-NBC April 12th, 2003.  That is about one for every 10 smart bombs or cruise missiles, and 1 for every 20 if we simply assume that half of those 2,300 were killed by ground forces slogging through Iraq and shooting at whatever pops up, runs, or flashes a spotlight in their general direction.  I believe 2300 Iraqi military deaths to be the most absurd number presented so far in the war.

9):
Meanwhile, while still trying my best to boycott CNN and FOX most of the time, because I think they're biased (ah, but who isn't?), I did notice that CNN is reporting that the Iraqi doctors are saying there are MANY more wounded civilians in their hospitals than in Gulf War 1, and little equipment to care for them with.  Medicines have been ruined because the power has been off for so long now, and/or the generators for the refrigerators have been stolen.  There is a humanitarian crisis in Iraq right now of immense proportions.  They need bandages.  Severe cases need to be airlifted to other countries.  It's a mess.

10:
During GW1, we were told of a nearly 100% accuracy for our Patriot Missiles.  The actual accuracy rate was probably under 10%, and might have been as low as 2% or 3%.  Nowadays, that missile is much more effective (they even shot down an allied fighter jet, accidentally), but to believe the numbers the military presents for the accuracy of their weapons is foolhardy. -- rdh

###

===================================================
3) Followups on the apparent targeting of journalists by the U.S. armed forces. 
==========================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 10:12:03 -0700
Subject: Re: [CAPPcoord] Re: Konformist: US bombs Al-Jazeera center in Baghdad

As a journalist, I deeply appreciate Russell's raising the hue and cry. Before the invasion began, the Pentagon warned that independent journalists would be fair game -- that missiles could hone in on them as they were transmitting their stories. This is in line with the Bush administration's resolve to destroy the Freedom of Information Act and, ultimately, the Constitution.

Richard Knee
Freelance
San Francisco

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Konformist: US bombs Al-Jazeera center in Baghdad
To: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

In a message dated 4/11/2003 1:04:42 PM Eastern Standard Time, rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com writes:

................................................
Jay Leno can joke all he wants about it, but the truth is, we need PUBLIC
OUTCRY over the REPEATED ATTACKS by U.S. Armed Forces against international
journalists.  There will never be a true democracy on this Earth if there
is no free press.  We may not always like what they say (or, in the case of
the things I write tend to about, what they don't say or won't say), but we
ALL MUST defend TO THE DEATH their right to say it!
................................................

You're right, but you'll notice that the Bush administration can call in fire on them any time it wants to.  Most Americans don't know what journalism is.  They think it is related to FOX news.  People in the United States are no longer permitted to make PUBLIC OUTCRY.  Since there's no way to stop the U.S. military from killing them, we need the journalists to stop telling the U.S. military where they are.   Prudy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


At 05:52 AM 4/12/2003 , magnu96196@aol.com wrote:
Source:
<A HREF="http://truthout.org/docs_03/041303D.shtml">
http://truthout.org/docs_03/041303D.shtml</A>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Govt Accused of War Crimes against Journalists
Julio Godoy
Inter Press

Thursday 10 April 2003

PARIS, Apr 10 (IPS) - International journalists' organisations are accusing
the U.S. government of committing war crimes in Iraq by intentionally firing
at war correspondents.

The Paris-based journalists' organisation 'Reporters without Borders' (RSF,
after its French name), called on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding
Commission to investigate whether by attacking journalists in Iraq the
U.S.-British coalition forces were not violating international humanitarian
law.

”A media outlet cannot be a military target under international law and its
equipment and installations are civilian property protected as such under the
Geneva Conventions,” said Reporters without Border secretary-general Robert
MĂ©nard.

”Only an objective and impartial enquiry can determine whether or not the
Conventions have been violated,” Ménard claimed.

It is the first time since its existence that the International Humanitarian
Fact-Finding Commission is being petitioned. Set up in 1991 under the First
Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions, the Commission's task is
investigating any alleged serious violation of international humanitarian
law.

Similarly, the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
called for an independent inquiry on the U.S. attacks against the Palestine
Hotel and the bureaus of Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi television channels.

The New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also called the
U.S. attacks against journalists in Iraq ”a violation of the Geneva
Convention.”

In a letter to U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, CPJ director Joel
Simon wrote on Tuesday: ”The Committee is gravely concerned by a series of
U.S. military strikes against known media locations in Baghdad today that
have left three journalists dead and several wounded.”

”We believe these attacks violate the Geneva Conventions,” Simon pointed
out.

On Tuesday, U.S. troops attacked the Baghdad bureau of the Qatar-based Al
Jazeera, killing one war correspondent, and wounding another. In another
attack, a U.S. tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, killing
two other reporters and wounding three.

The hotel is well known as the unofficial Baghdadi centre of international
press. A large number of foreign correspondents covering the war stay there.

MĂ©nard, RSF's secretary-general, said that all independent evidence on the
U.S. attacks against the hotel shows that the firing was deliberate.

”Film shot by the French television station France 3, and descriptions by
journalists, prove that the neighbourhood around the hotel was very quiet at
the hour of the attack, and that the U.S. tank crew took their time, waiting
for a couple of minutes and adjusting its gun before opening fire,” Ménard
said.

”This evidence does not match the U.S. version of an attack in self-defence
and we can only conclude that the U.S Army deliberately and without warning
targeted journalists,” Ménard added.

Caroline Sines, a French television correspondent covering the war in
Baghdad, confirmed MĂ©nard's accusations against the U.S. troops.

”I was at the Palestine Hotel at the moment of the attack, around one pm,
Baghdad time, and my crew filmed everything,” Sines said. ”Our films shows
that the U.S. tank took its time at targeting the 14th floor of the hotel,
where many journalists are hosted, at a moment of complete calm,” Sines said.

Menard urged the ”U.S. forces to prove that the incident was not a deliberate
attack to dissuade or prevent journalists from continuing to report on what
is happening in Baghdad.”

”We are appalled at what happened because it was known that journalists were
working both at the Palestine Hotel as well at the Al-Jazeera bureau,” Ménard
pointed out.

One Al-Jazeera camera operator was also killed on Tuesday by an apparently
intentional U.S. bombing of the pan-Arab TV station's offices elsewhere in
Baghdad. The nearby premises of Abu Dhabi TV were also damaged by the
bombing.

The Qatar-based television network recalled that prior to the conflict, it
had provided the U.S. military authorities with the specific coordinates of
its Baghdad offices. This information was confirmed by the Committee to
Protect Journalists in the letter to Donald Rumsfeld.

”CPJ has seen a copy of Al-Jazeera's February letter to Pentagon spokeswoman
Victoria Clarke outlining these coordinates,” Joel Simon wrote to Rumsfeld.

Simon called Rumsfeld ”to launch an immediate and thorough investigation into
these incidents and to make the findings public.” The CPJ also recalled to
the U.S. military authorities that more than 100 independent journalists
continue to operate in Baghdad from both the Palestine and the nearby
Sheraton hotels.

”The U.S. military has a clear obligation to avoid harming the correspondents
while carrying out (war) operations,” Simon said in his letter to Rumsfeld.

Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of
Journalists, said, ”There is no doubt at all that these attacks could be
targeting journalists. If so, they are grave and serious violations of
international law.”

”The bombing of hotels where journalists are staying and targeting of Arab
media is particularly shocking events in a war which is being fought in the
name of democracy,” White said. ”Those who are responsible must be brought
to justice”.

”The United Nations system and the international media community must be
fully engaged in finding out what happened in these cases and action must be
taken to ensure it never happens again,” White said. ”We can expect denials
of intent from the military, but what we really want is the truth.”

The IFJ says that the global media community, including journalists, media
organisations and press freedom campaigners, should join hands under the
banner of the newly-formed International News Safety Institute to hold a
complete and in depth inquiry.

The INSI is a coalition of more than 100 organisations campaigning for a
global news safety programme.

The IFJ also condemned ”what appears to be Iraqi tactics of using civilians
and journalists as a 'human shield' against attack.” ”The Baghdad
authorities are just as culpable as the U.S. with their reckless disregard
for civilian lives,” White said.

Both the IFJ and RSF recalled that Al Jazeera has become a frequent target of
U.S. and British attacks in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the war in Iraq, four members of the pan-Arab television crew in
the southern city of Basra came under gunfire from British tanks on March 29
as they were filming distribution of food by Iraqi government officials.

One of the station's cameramen went missing and was later found to have been
held for 12 hours by U.S. troops. Al-Jazeera reporters were the only
journalists in Basra at the time.

The Al-Jazeera offices in Kabul, Afghanistan, were also bombed by U.S. forces
during the war against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in November 2001.

To have jurisdiction in a war, the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding
Commission has to be petitioned by one of the parties in the conflict or by
one of the countries that have recognised its jurisdiction.

To conduct an investigation, all the belligerents must accept its authority.
Among the countries involved in the Iraq war, only Australia and the United
Kingdom have formally recognised it, allowing an investigation to go ahead as
far as they are concerned.

Neither the United States nor Iraq have yet accepted the principle of such an
enquiry.

Since the beginning of the Iraqi war on March 20, ten journalists have been
killed by the conflicting parties, and two other died in war related
accidents. At least eight other correspondents have been wounded. Two other
reporters' whereabouts remain unknown.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--

Go to Original

Former Congressman Takes Bush to Court For 'War Crimes'
Associated Press

Friday 11 April 2003

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Former Nebraska Congressman Clair Callan wants a judge to
determine if President George W. Bush is guilty of war crimes in Iraq.

Callan filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in federal court in
Lincoln that would stop the president from ordering further attacks in Iraq.

The former Democratic congressman argued that Bush is in violation of
international treaties for ordering the U.S. military to attack a country
that has not attacked the United States.

Callan filed the motion Thursday. Federal attorneys have 60 days to respond.

A federal judge last month denied Callan's request for the court to block the
president from starting the war.

Callan, who is from Fairbury, served in the House of Representatives from
1965 to 1967.

========================================================

------------------------ Yahoo!-------------------------~->

The Magnum-Opus Project---The Mission: To do a greater good.
Righting the wrongs of the Manhattan Project's deceit and treachery national security methods using openness and accountability.
DOE Watch List--Where toxic health damage is not a mystery.
A news list combined with scientific studies to expose the problems.
Subscribe:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/doewatch
DOE Watch OR Web page:  http://members.aol.com/doewatch
Rocky Flats EIN page: http://members.aol.com/magnu96196/EINHome.html

Insoluble toxic metals and fluorides, via a pneumonia like dust in lung process, concentrate in lymph nodes and cause foreign body granuloma damage to node macrophages, leading to false cytokine stimulation, then rising viral waste damage to mitochondria, and this leading to illnesses.  See the analysis at http://members.aol.com/magnu96196/cfs.html

In the 1980's, Oak Ridge managers established a national alliance of DOE friendly supplanted activists and old DOE scientists to mislead gullible fluoride affected sick workers and communities in order to fabricate a health mystery and avoid the extreme liabilities of the fluorides health damage to uranium gas diffusion chemical plant workers and communities.  Don't let DOE and its minions stone wall known disease processes known for millennia and involved in religion icon imagery.

 Yahoo!


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From/To: "Knee Richard A." <rak0408@earthlink.net>
Subject: Marines raid reporters' rooms

US Marines Raid Rooms at Media Hotel in Baghdad
ChannelNewsAsia

Wednesday 16 April 2003

Masked US marines who said they were searching for weapons raided rooms at a prominent Baghdad media hotel Tuesday, fueling rising tensions between the military and the press.

A marine spokesman said the raids at the Palestine Hotel, where many journalists and the military have set up base, were in response to "reliable intelligence reports".Advertisement

Jean-Paul Mari, a journalist with the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur said three marines entered his room and ordered him at gunpoint to lie on the floor.

He said the marines, in full body armour and wearing balaclavas, checked his press accreditation papers then searched his room.

"It lasted 10 minutes," he told AFP.

Soon after the marines left another marine entered his room and apologised but then more troops arrived and searched his room a second time.

Shingo Kinawa, of the Japanese-based Kyodo news service, said his offices in the hotel had also been searched.

"They explained they were searching for a cache of arms," he said.

Marine public affairs officer Corporal John Hoellwarth said room searches were conducted after reports were received by military intelligence, but he would not elaborate.

"We reacted to security concerns that arose from intelligence reports. The marines are always ready to protect the security of journalists, Iraqi civilians and marines on the hotel premises," he said.

The raids came amid rising tensions between the marines and the media, with claims that troops are hampering efforts by the press to cover anti-American protests by Iraqis.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest  in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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4) Dark Day for Consumers, Environment as House Approves Energy Package
==========================================================

FWD:
From: Public Citizen Press Office <pcpress@CITIZEN.ORG>
Reply-To: Public Citizen Press Releases
<PUBCIT_PRESS@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 17:25:28 -0400
Subject: [PUBCIT_PRESS] Dark Day for Consumers, Environment as House
Approves Energy Package

Energy Package

Statement of Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen

In approving the Energy Policy Act of 2003 (H.R.6), the U.S. House of
Representatives has abandoned consumers and the environment in favor of
corporate energy interests.  The legislation repeals important
electricity regulations and does virtually nothing to minimize oil
consumption while offering billions in handouts and tax breaks for some
of the wealthiest and most-polluting companies in the world - even as
budget deficits are growing.

The giveaways to big oil in the House legislation won't lead to
energy independence.  The United States is already the third largest
crude oil producing nation in the world. The problem is not that we
don't produce enough, it's that we consume too much.  Yet lawmakers
rejected a sensible amendment offered by Reps. Sherwood Boehlert and
Edward Markey to reduce demand by improving the fuel economy of cars and
light trucks.

Lawmakers also irresponsibly rejected an amendment offered by Rep. John
Dingell to preserve and strengthen protections for consumers of
electricity.  The bill rewards a fraudulent industry by replacing vital
consumer protections with unregulated corporate control over energy
markets, potentially leading to the kind of price-gouging that plagued
California consumers after deregulation.  It also pre-empts local
control over power lines by giving federal officials the power to
override state decisions and seize private property to build power
lines.

Further, the bills put more people at risk by expanding reliance on
nuclear power.  It mandates bloated spending on nuclear energy research
and development, commits taxpayer dollars to the construction of new
nuclear power plants via the Nuclear Power 2010 program, and extends
Price-Anderson insurance subsidies to proposed new reactors.  These
unjustifiable subsidies to a mature industry distort electricity markets
by granting nuclear power an unfair and undesirable advantage over safe,
clean energy alternatives.  Moreover, provisions to fund reprocessing of
nuclear waste from commercial power plants initiate an inadvisable
reversal of U.S. nonproliferation policy.

H.R. 6 will not lead to safe, clean, affordable energy in America.  As
the Senate moves to consider parallel legislation, lawmakers should
prevent these anti-environment, anti-consumer provisions from becoming
law.
###

Also:

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Bush administration
from gutting rules that forbid the use of the popular "dolphin safe"
label on tuna caught using encirclement nets that endanger dolphins,
writing that the change in the definition appears to have been
influenced more by international trade policies than scientific
evidence.

Read more here:

http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=520

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=========================================
5) Study could fuel suits claiming nuclear plants cause cancer:
=========================================

Note: The following article make two utterly unsubstantiated claims that Dr. Sternglass's work has been successfully "debunked" as junk science, which is incorrect.  It appears to claim that the Tooth Fairy Project received $42 million in funding -- I seriously doubt it.  Lastly, it claims that the half-life of Sr-90 in humans in 10-12 years, without explaining what that means (it's got nothing to do with the radioactive half-life).  Despite these problems, I believe the article properly damns the nuclear industry in spite of itself. -- rdh


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