GLOBAL POLITICS
II
- U.S. LAUNCHES TERROR MESSAGE LEAK INQUIRY
Leaders of a congressional panel investigating the 11 September
attacks in the United States have asked the Justice Department
to investigate leaks from their hearings. On Wednesday, anonymous
congressional sources told reporters that the National Security
Agency (NSA) had intercepted two messages on 10 September that
could possibly have referred to the attacks. The White House
has complained about the disclosure of the messages, saying it
could be harmful to America's efforts to prevent further attacks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_2057000/2057163.stm
- CHENEY BLAMES LEAKS ON CONGRESS
Vice President Cheney chastised the House and Senate intelligence
committees yesterday about leaks of classified information, and
the panels' chairmen responded by requesting a Justice Department
investigation into the disclosures. The chairmen, Sen. Bob Graham
(D-Fla.) and Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), took responsibility
for the leaks after Cheney complained in separate telephone calls
to them about news stories reporting that the National Security
Agency intercepted two messages on the eve of Sept. 11 suggesting
something would happen the following day but had not translated
them until Sept. 12. Bush administration officials said the disclosure
may be a federal crime.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20394-2002Jun20.html
- HOUSE APPROVES CIRCUMVENTING SUPREME COURT 413-8
The House approved legislation yesterday to circumvent a Supreme
Court ruling that allows computer simulations of children having
sex. Bill sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, attacked
the Supreme Court's ruling as having "a devastating effect
on the prosecution of child pornographers, who are so often child
molesters as well." The legislation, approved 413-8, attempts
to rewrite a ban on virtual child pornography, after the Supreme
Court on April 16 overturned parts of a similar 1996 law as unconstitutional.
"Congress is one step closer to helping the high court side
with children over pedophiles," said Florida Republican
Rep. Mark Foley.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020626-62122.htm
- BUSH SIGNS BILL EXTENDING BENEFITS TO SAME-SEX COUPLES President
Bush has signed a bill allowing death benefits to be paid to
the domestic partners of firefighters and police officers who
die in the line of duty, permanently extending a federal death
benefit to same-sex couples for the first time. http://www.watch.org/linkstat.php3?idx=30415&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.
washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Farticles%2FA44912-2002Jun25.html
- GAS MASKS ORDERED TO PROTECT CAPITOL
Call it another sign of the times: 25,000 gas masks have been
ordered to help protect the Capitol - tourists included - in
the event of a chemical or biological attack.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&514&e=12&u=/ap/
20020626/ap_on_go_co/attacks_gas_masks_2
- PENTAGON EXPEDITES MISSILE-DEFENSE PLAN
The Pentagon is rapidly moving ahead with deploying a new defense
system Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish discussed the $48 billion
development program.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020626-22134864.htm
- DOLLAR PLUNGES AS INVESTORS FLEE U.S.
The dollar has fallen sharply for the second day in a row, battered
by weak stock markets and economic data in the US. From $0.9574
late on Wednesday, the European single currency surged as high
as $0.9669.. The euro has risen 8.5% against the dollar..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_2056000/2056587.stm
- FASCISM AT THE DOOR - It's called the Model State Health
Powers Act.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28036
- CALIFORNIA TO GIVE PILLS TO PEOPLE LIVING NEAR NUCLEAR PLANTS
State officials plan to give potassium iodide tablets to more
than 400,000 people living within 10 miles of two nuclear power
plants that could protect the public if they are exposed to radiation.
Pills will be given to 421,000 residents in northern San Diego
County and southern Orange County who live near the San Onofre
Nuclear Generating Station. About 22,000 residents who live near
Diablo Canyon power plant in San Luis Obispo County also will
receive the pills. The move comes six months after the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission offered the pills to 34 states with nuclear
power reactors. Only 11 states have passed out the pills to residents.
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/northcounty/20020618-0042-ca-radiationpills.html
- SENATE VOTES TO ALLOW ABORTIONS AT MILITARY HOSPITALS ABROAD
Taking up what has become an annual abortion fight, the Senate
voted Friday to lift a ban on women using personal funds to obtain
an abortion at military hospital overseas. However, the House
last month rejected for a seventh straight year an attempt to
end the prohibition, and the two chambers must address the issue
when they meet to work out differences on a $393 billion defense
bill for next year. The Senate vote was 52-40.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,55905,00.html
- HOME DEPOT STOPS DOING BUSINESS WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Home Depot Inc., the nation's largest hardware and home-improvement
chain, has told its 1,400 stores not to do business with the
U.S. government or its representatives. The Post-Dispatch checked
with managers at 38 stores in 11 states. All but two said they
had received instructions from Home Depot's corporate headquarters
this month not to take government credit cards, purchase orders
or even cash if the items are being used by the federal government.
"Engaging in business practices with the federal government
is not a strategic focus of the Home Depot," company spokesman
Tom Gray said. "The Home Depot is not and does not plan
to become a federal contractor or subcontractor."
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/Business/482077
45A176580A86256BDA00389D90?OpenDocument&Headline=Home%20Depot%20stops%20
doing%20business%20with%20federal%20government
- ARE WE AT WAR WITH ISLAM?
Within hours of the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center
on Sept. 11, President Bush and other U.S. and western leaders
were explaining that though we found ourselves in a state of
war, that war was not with Islam. Nine months later, we're still
confused about who our enemy is. If you have any chance of winning
a war, you must be able to identify the enemy. Are we at war
with Islam? Most definitely not. But, Islam is at war with us.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28074
- PENTAGON POISED TO SEND TROOPS INTO WESTERN PAKISTAN
U.S. rapid-reaction forces are on standby to aid Pakistanis in
raids on al Qaeda hide-outs, but the Americans were not activated
early yesterday in a bloody firefight near the Afghan border...
It is in these mountainous - and generally lawless - regions
that hundreds of al Qaeda fighters fled from Afghanistan, making
it one of the most active battlegrounds in the global war on
terrorism.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020627-14696653.htm
- U.S. MARINES, ISRAEL EXAMINE W. BANK OPERATIONS
U.S. and Israeli military commanders are studying the massive
search-and-destroy operation for Palestinian insurgents in the
West Bank. The examination involves the Israeli Defense Forces
and the U.S. Marine Corps. The marines want to learn from the
Israeli experience in urban warfare. The focus of the joint effort
was a review of Israel's capture of the Palestinian refugee camp
outside the West Bank city of Jenin. The three-day battle left
23 Israelis and more than 50 Palestinians dead.
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2002/june/06_27_4.html
- MYSTERY DEEPENS OVER DIVERTED AK-47S
These are the only two things known for certain about a wayward
shipment of 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles that has created an uproar
in at least three countries: (1) The shipment left Nicaragua
on Nov. 2 aboard the 200-foot, Panama-flagged tramp steamer Otterloo.
(2) It was bound for the Panamanian police. Everything else about
the shipment remains a mystery. But the 173-ton arsenal, bought
from the Nicaraguan police in a deal that seemed so clean Managua
officials had notified the U.S. Embassy, evolved into one of
the largest and most daring arms smuggling capers in the region.
Officials still do not know who diverted the weapons to the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as the AUC, an 11,000-member
paramilitary force on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist
groups.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/3465716.htm
- U.S. LAUNCHES AIR STRIKES ON IRAQ MILITARY FACILITY
US aircraft have bombed an Iraqi military facility in response
to an attack against coalition aircraft monitoring the no-fly
zone in southern Iraq, US officials have said. The strike hit
a radar facility at Al-Amarah, about 165 miles (265 kilometres)
south-east of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad at 0520 (0920 GMT) after
Iraq fired on coalition airplanes on Thursday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_2045000/2045221.stm
- BORDER GUARDS GET DIRTY BOMB DETECTORS
Canadian customs officers at border crossings and ports are being
issued radiation detectors to find dirty bombs and stop them
from being smuggled into the United States. Elinor Caplan, the
Revenue Minister, told the National Post yesterday both hand-held
and lapel-style radiation detectors have been in use in select
areas of the country for three months.
http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id={2D938AA2-4D07-40E0-B3D2-6946128C850B}
- MAN ACCUSED OF THREATENING TO BLOW UP WHITE HOUSE
A man has been charged planning terrorist acts in South Florida
and Washington, D.C., according to a release issued Tuesday afternoon
by Guy Lewis, U.S.Attorney. In connection with a Secret Service
investigation, Safraz Jehaludi is charged with using the Internet
to communicate a threat to "blow up" a Florida Power
and Light power plant and the White House. Secret Service agents
arrested Jehaludi in Miami on Monday.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/wplg/20020618/lo/1231157_1.html
- RUSSIA ABANDONS START II ARMS TREATY
Russia has formally withdrawn from the Start II treaty, the nuclear
arms reduction pact it signed with the United States in 1993.
Russia called the accord "meaningless" given the current
US defence policies. The move comes a day after the expiry of
the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, from which Washington
unilaterally withdrew so it could work on a missile defence system.
The Start II treaty was also superseded by a nuclear arms reduction
treaty signed on 24 May this year in Moscow by Russian President
Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, George W Bush. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_2044000/2044941.stm
- CONGRESS HAILS BUSH'S 'HIT' ORDER ON SADDAM
Top leaders in Congress yesterday confirmed that President Bush
has OK'd covert operations that could kill Iraq's Saddam Hussein
- and most applauded the move. The order directs the CIA to use
all possible means, including covert CIA and Special Forces teams
- like those in Afghanistan - that could employ lethal force
against Saddam if they're acting in self-defense. http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/50498.htm
- SADDAM'S HEIR ESCAPES ASSASSINATION
The heir to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is said to have escaped
an assassination attempt. Iraqi opposition sources said Qusay
Hussein, the younger son of Saddam, survived a car bombing..
Seconds later, the booby-trapped vehicle exploded and killed
Qusay's driver and three bodyguards. http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2002/june/06_24_2.html
- CHINESE PLAN BIG RUSSIAN ARMS DEAL China is negotiating to
buy eight submarines from Russia in a $1.6 billion deal that
would significantly increase China's ability to blockade Taiwan
and challenge U.S. naval supremacy .. deal part of massive $4
billion package of weapons that Russia has committed itself to
provide to China over the next four to five years.
http://www.iht.com/articles/62411.html
- ZIMBABWE FARMING BAN DEFIED
An order to almost 3,000 white farmers in Zimbabwe to stop working
and begin leaving their land has been widely ignored as many
vowed to stay put. They were told to stop working at midnight
on Monday, and now have 45 days to leave their farms or face
imprisonment, under a deadline imposed by Zimbabwe's government.
The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) says farmers do not want
to leave their crops to rot at a time when a severe food shortage
is affecting millions of Zimbabweans. The policy of confiscating
white-owned farms was begun by President Robert Mugabe over two
years ago, and his critics say it is partly to blame for the
food shortages.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_2064000/2064468.stm
- STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN SOUTHERN PERU
A state of emergency has been declared in the Peruvian city of
Arequipa after three days of protests. President Alejandro Toledo
authorised the military to use force to maintain control in the
country's second largest city, after widespread anti-government
demonstrations and rioting. The protests were over the privatisation
of two state electricity companies. President Toledo said he
would not bow to the protesters' demands, and pledged to continue
with similar privatisation plans in other parts of the country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_2049000/2049144.stm
- SECRET PLAN FOR U.K. NUCLEAR BOMB FACTORY
A massive nuclear bomb-making factory is being planned for Aldermaston,
raising concern that Britain is heading towards a new era of
atomic weapon production. The plant will be able to test, design
and build a new generation of nuclear bombs. http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,738352,00.html
- CUBA TO ENSHRINE COMMUNIST STATE, SEES U.S. THREAT
Cuban President Fidel Castro's government said on Thursday it
will adopt amendments enshrining its communist system in the
national constitution to counter threats from President Bush.
Rejecting U.S. demands that the island open up to democracy and
a market economy, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon
said Bush -- backed by anti-Castro exiles in Florida -- wanted
to destroy Cuba's revolution and reverse half a century of social
gains. "We will affirm that the political, economic and
social bases of our constitution are unchangeable," Alarcon
said at a rally in Havana's Revolution Square where he received
23 truck-loads of signatures supporting the amendments.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/703545/posts
- ANTI-MISSILE WORK BEGINS IN ALASKA
Federal officials broke ground Saturday on six underground missile
interceptor silos as part of the new national missile defense
system. It will take more than two years to install the silos
115 feet beneath the earth at Fort Greely for the Ground-based
Midcourse Defense system.. The Pentagon hopes to have it ready
as an emergency anti-missile system by September 2004, should
the need arise.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&514&e=13&u=
- /ap/20020616/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/missile_defense_2
- E.U. SLAMS U.S. THREAT TO WORLD WAR CRIMES COURT
The European Union has attacked United States efforts to undermine
a global war crimes court which came into existence in April
despite Washington's opposition. In a statement issued after
a meeting in Luxembourg late on Monday, EU foreign ministers
severely criticized the draft American Servicemembers' Protection
Act, which seeks to guarantee that U.S. soldiers could never
face trial before the International Criminal Court. The 15-nation
bloc expressed concern that the bill, being considered by Congress,
would restrict U.S. participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations,
prohibit the transfer of evidence to the court and bar U.S. military
assistance to parties to the tribunal.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=9&u=
- /nm/20020618/ts_nm/eu_usa_court_dc_2
- GLOBAL CRIMINAL COURT COMES INTO BEING JULY 1ST
Brazil on Thursday became the 69th country to ratify the treaty
establishing a new and permanent International Criminal Court
to pursue heinous wrongdoing such as genocide and war crimes.
The court, to be based in The Hague, Netherlands, will not begin
functioning until next year although it formally comes into being
on July 1. The court treaty required ratification by at least
60 countries before it could come into force. That milestone
was reached in April.
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=worldnews&StoryID=1115852
- CELEBRITIES EMBRACE U.N., CRITICIZE WASHINGTON
Film star Angelina Jolie said working with the United Nations
on refugees "changed my life," singer Harry Belafonte
spoke about the "power of our adversaries" and Irish
politician Mary Banotti warned Washington of the "dreadful
tragedy" of unsafe abortions. Lending some glamour to the
United Nations, more than 40 Hollywood stars, athletes, writers
and other public figures, gathered Tuesday to discuss how they
used their names to fight poverty, AIDS and war. All are unpaid
advocates for the world body.
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=OXN32YTXR2WZO
CRBAEZSFFAKEEATIIWD?type=entertainmentnews&StoryID=1105454
- CONTROVERSIAL BOOK ON 9/11 TO HIT U.S.
Thierry Meyssan says he got four death threats on Monday alone--and
that's a normal day for him. Meyssan is the author of an incendiary
book claiming that no plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept.
11, and that all the attacks that day were plotted by a faction
within the U.S. military. The book has been widely ridiculed
by the entire French media. But somehow it has become a hit,
scoring in the top 10 on best-seller lists for three months.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-book26.html
- MEXICAN MILITARY DRUG RUNNING AT BORDER?
U.S. law-enforcement officers in the Southwest are convinced
that Mexican military units are crossing the Arizona-Mexico border
to aid smugglers in carrying drugs into the United States.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28125
- SUSPECTS LACKING LAWYERS ARE FREED IN ATLANTA
The release of 69 people from jail last week was a significant
victory in a long battle in Georgia to provide lawyers for people
who cannot afford them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/04/national/04LAWY.html?todaysheadlines
- BUSH SLASHING AID FOR E.P.A. CLEANUP AT 33 TOXIC SITES
WASHINGTON, June 30 ..The cuts, imposed because the cleanup fund
is hundreds of millions of dollars short of the amount needed
to keep the program on schedule, mean that work is likely to
grind to a halt on some of the most seriously polluted sites
in the country, confronting the surrounding communities with
new uncertainty over when the work will resume, how quickly it
will proceed and who will pay for it...
Like all sites covered by the Superfund program, the 33 that
are targeted for reductions are among the most contaminated grounds
in the country and pose some level of health and environmental
hazards to their communities. The documents provided by the inspector
general did not indicate how these sites were chosen for cuts...
Businesses have long complained about the Superfund program.
At one time, chemical and oil companies, among others, were required
to pay a special tax that cost them collectively about $1 billion
a year. The tax went into the fund to clean up contaminated sites,
but businesses said the system of allocating the money was unwieldy
and badly managed.
"They are required by law to do the remedy even if they
don't have the money," Mr. Spiegel said. "Someone will
have to pay, and the Bush administration wants the American people
to do it."..
But the trust fund is running out of money. Congress let the
corporate taxes expire in 1995. Without them, the fund has dwindled
from a high of $3.8 billion in 1996 to a projected $28 million
next year. President Bush's budget made clear that he did not
intend to reauthorize the tax.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/01/national/01SUPE.html?todaysheadlines
- 86 FIRMS FINED FOR TRADING WITH 'ENEMY'
The U.S. government disclosed it has fined 86 companies, including
Ikea A/S, CNA Insurance Cos. and the Los Angeles Dodgers, for
violating a law that bars companies from doing business with
an 'enemies' list of nations that includes Iran, Iraq, Cuba and
North Korea. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control released a list of 115 fines totaling $5.8 million for
violations of the Trading With the Enemy Act dating back to 1998.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/775595.asp
- 84 MARINES, SAILORS CAUGHT IN DRUG OPERATION
Authorities in North Carolina have seized $1.4 million worth
of narcotics and have convicted more than 80 Marines and sailors
for using or distributing designer drugs, officials said yesterday.
A recent drug scandal at the Air Force Academy, for example,
implicated 38 cadets.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020703-31752340.htm
- SCHOOL SAYS IT MAY HAVE SOLD, MIXED BODY PARTS
Federal agents in Galveston are closely examining records at
the University of Texas Medical Branch after the school admitted
the possibility that body parts in its Willed Body Program were
sold. A routine audit recently determined there was a possibility
that some of the bodies willed to the institution for research
had been sold by one of those assigned to handle the delicate
program. That same audit concluded that many of the ashes from
the donated bodies had been co-mingled and that relatives may
have received a mix of several people's ashes.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020703-22020124.htm
- FRESH ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE 'NECESSARY', SAYS TUTU
ENI 2 JULY 2002 - White farmers are ordered to stop farming and
let their harvest rot and give up their farms. Following is Tutu's
solution: Harare (ENI). A potential political crisis in Zimbabwe
could be averted by a re-run of the country's controversial March
presidential election, Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop
from South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has said. The
election, which extended President Robert Mugabe's rule for a
sixth term, was characterised by international observers as "fundamentally
flawed" and fraught with violence and intimidation. [ENI-02-2002]
- ON JUNE 4, 2002, THE WHITE HOUSE DOWNLOADED FROM CUTTING
EDGE WEBSITE
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1541.cfm which is entitled,
"September 11, 1990, President Bush (Senior) Presents Speech
To Congress Entitled, 'Moving Toward A New World Order'. On September
11, 2001, World Trade Center Is Bombed - an interval of '11'
years! Since we consider this article to be one of the "Smoking
Guns" implicating the Illuminati in the precise planning
of 9/11, we found it highly interesting the W.H. was reading
this article today!
- JUDGE DECLARES FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY 'UNCONSTITUTIONAL'
A Manhattan judge has declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional,
likening it to "state-sponsored murder of innocent human
beings." Federal Judge Jed Rakoff handed down his dramatic
ruling yesterday, nixing a government bid to seek the death penalty
against a pair of alleged Bronx heroin pushers accused of murdering
an NYPD informant.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/51614.htm
- U.S. PEACEKEEPERS 'TO STAY IN BOSNIA'
US peacekeeping troops will stay on in Bosnia, despite a row
over the United Nations mission there, both Nato and the US ambassador
to Bosnia have said. A spokesman for Nato said that an emergency
meeting of Nato ambassadors on Monday had decided that the thousands
of troops serving in the alliance's stabilisation force (S-For)
would remain in Bosnia and no contributing country would withdraw
its troops.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_2079000/2079028.stm
- CIVILIANS TARGETED IN SUDAN WAR
Tens of thousands of people are fleeing fighting in Sudan's oil-rich
region of Western Upper Nile, following the fall of the key rebel-held
town of Mankien to government forces in June. The charity Christian
Aid says there is clear evidence that civilians are being targeted
in the government offensive.. Men, women and children are driving
livestock before them in search of a place of safety.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_2082000/2082624.stm
ISRAEL
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