Bulletin N° 105


Subject: MORE TESTIMONIES ON REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE : FROM THE
  CENTER FOR THE ADVANCED STUDY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL
  MOVEMENTS, GRENOBLE, FRANCE.
 

18 January 2004
Grenoble, France

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Our research center continues to receive mail from colleagues wishing to share information on the
current state of American political culture and its impact at home and abroad.

The newly devised policies of political repression are being put into place, it would appear, using as
a justification (as usual) the unqualified claim for necessary "National Security" (aka "Anything
goes!")....

First, we would like to thank Professor Ed Herman for the article he forwarded to us on the
"Manufacture of Paranoia," by William Bowles. (Please visit : <http://www.williambowles.info>)

Item A. below is a communication from Jim Hightower, whose weekly radio program "Common-Sense
Commentaries" reaches millions of Americans living in the Southwestern United States, and who in this
excerpt is critical of the American media manipulations of "political concensus."

Item B., sent to us by Professor Ronald Creagh (Unviersity of Montpellier), is a detailed description of
police repression at airports in North Carolina and the apparent criminalization of the U.S. Green Party by
the Bush administration.

Item C., is a disturbing account of an assult on academic freedom at Columbia University, sent to  us by
Professor Richard Du Boff.

Item D., another communication from our research associate, Professor Ronald Creagh, concerns the
lawsuit against President Bush that has been filed by the wife of a victim of the 9-11 attack.

Item E. is an open letter sent to us my Marielle Giraud, Secretary of LiberTerre, who is active in
international attempt to stop Israeli imperialism, and the U.S. support of their criminal activities. It is a call
for "human respect" and recognition of the status of conscientious objector within the Israeli military.

Item F. is from Professor John Gerassi (Queens College, NYC) and again concerns resistance in Israel,
within the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) : Israeli colonel resigns over army's 'immoral' actions".

And finally items G. and H., sent to us by Kathleen Ross-Allee, is information on the resistance activities of
Move-on, and the anti-National Rifle Association organization --two expanding social movements which
promise to be part of the political landscape in the United States of America for some time to come....
 

Sincerely,

Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research

________________________
A.
from Jim Hightower :
Austin, Texas
Subject: Jim Hightower's Common-Sense Commentaries
updates@updates.jimhightower.com
January 6, 2004

THE KOPPEL PRIMARY
Who needs presidential primaries when we've got Ted Koppel? America's media sparklies have gotten way too big for their
britches. Take a gander at the puffed-up arrogance of Koppel and his network, ABC, toward our country's democratic electoral
process. Ted recently moderated a debate in New Hampshire among the nine Democrats running for president. But ABC's
celebrity newsman, who in recent years has become almost-visibly bloated with this own sense of self-importance, decided that
he was the star of the show - and what a show he put on!
http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1634042&l=13629
NOTE: If your browser is unable to read the above link, please cut and paste the following link into your browser window:
www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11263

THE STAMP OF AUTOCRACY
Shhhhh. I have to whisper this to you because it's a secret that the Bushites want to keep from you: They have become totally
obsessed with secrecy and are spending billions of our tax dollars in an anti-democratic lockdown to keep public information
from... well, us - the tax-paying public. http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1634042&l=13630
NOTE: If your browser is unable to read the above link, please cut and paste the following link into your browser window:
www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11264

THE MODERN MONOPOLIST IN OUR MIDST
The "free" in free markets is not an adjective, it's a verb - we must diligently work to free the market of conniving monopolists
who try to lock it down and rule like autocrats. http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1634042&l=13631
NOTE: If your browser is unable to read the above link, please cut and paste the following link into your browser window:
www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11265

WHEN SALMON GO WRONG
Few things that we eat are as good or good for us as a nice piece of fresh, pink salmon pulled out of the cold, pristine waters of
our northern oceans and rivers. Or at least, that's the image of this noble fish.
http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1634042&l=13632
NOTE: If your browser is unable to read the above link, please cut and paste the following link into your browser window:
www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11266

WATCH OUT FOR THE WATER GRABBERS
An old English nursery rhyme goes: "They hang the man and flog the woman/ That steal the goose from off the common/ But let
the greater villian loose/ That steals the common from the goose." http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1634042&l=13633
NOTE: If your browser is unable to read the above link, please cut and paste the following link into your browser window:
www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11267

________________________
B.
from Professor Ronald Creagh :
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004
Subject: Fwd: U.S. Green "terrorists" prevented from travelling abroad
 
 

Green Party "Terrorists"
                   by Frederick Sweet
                   Intervention Magazine
                   January 6, 2003

Writing about his no-fly nightmare in the Fairfield County Weekly, art
dealer Doug Stuber, who had run Ralph Nader's Green Party presidential
campaign in North Carolina in 2000, was pulled out of a boarding line and
grounded. He was about to make an important trip to Prague to gather artists
for Henry James Art in Raleigh, N.C., when he was told (with ticket in
hand)that he was not allowed to fly out that day. Asking "why not?" he was
told at Raleigh-Durham airport that because of the sniper attacks, no Greens
were allowed to fly overseas on that day. The next morning he returned, and
instead of paying $670 round trip, was forced into a $2,600 "same day" air
fare.

But it's what happened to Stuber during the next 24 hours that is even more
disturbing. Stuber arrived at the airport at 6 a.m. and his first flight
wasn't due out until nearly six hours later. He had plenty of time. At
exactly 10:52 in the morning, just before boarding was to begin, he was
approached by police officer Stanley (the same policeman who ushered him out
of the airport the day before), who said that he "wanted to talk" to him.
Stuber went with the police officer, but reminded him that no one had said
he couldn't fly, and that his flight was about to leave. Officer Stanley
took Stuber into a room and questioned him for an hour.

Around noon, Stanley had introduced him to two Secret Service agents. The
agents took full eye-open pictures of Stuber with a digital camera. Then
they asked him details about his family, where he lived, who he ever knew,
what the Greens are up to, and other questions. At one point during his
interrogation, Stuber asked if they really believed the Greens were equal to
al Qaeda. Then they showed him a Justice Department document that actually
shows the Greens as likely terrorists - just as likely as al Qaeda members.
Stuber was released just before 1 PM, so he still had time to catch the
later flight.

The agents walked Stuber to the Delta counter and asked that he be given
tickets for the flight so that he could make his connections. The airline
official promptly printed tickets, which relieved Stuber, who assumed that
the Secret Service hadn't stopped him from flying.
Wrong! By the time Stuber was about to board, officer Stanley once again
ushered him out the door and told him: "Just go to Greensboro, where they
don't know you, and be totally quiet about politics, and you can make it to
Europe that way." In Greensboro, after Stuber showed his passport he was
told that he could not fly overseas or domestically. Undeterred, he next
traveled an hour-and-a-half to Charlotte. In Charlotte, the same thing
happened. Then Stuber drove three hours to his home after 43 hours of trying
to catch a flight. Stuber said he could only conclude that the Greens, whose
values include nonviolence, social justice, etc., are now labeled terrorists
by the Ashcroft-led Justice Department. Questions about how one gets on a
no-fly list creates questions about how to get off it. This is a classic
Catch-22 situation. The Transportation Security Agency says it compiles the
list from names provided by other agencies, but it has no procedure for
correcting a problem. Aggrieved parties would have to go to the agency that
first reported their names. But for security reasons, the TSA won't disclose
which agency put someone on the no-fly list.
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/index.php

_____________
Frederick Sweet is Professor of Reproductive Biology in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis.

________________________
C.
from Professor Richard Du Boff :
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004
Subject: "Campus Watch...a consumer guide to Middle East studies"
Washington Post January 13, 2004
 

Middle East Studies Under Scrutiny in U.S. Watchdog Groups Allege Left-Wing Bias
By Michael Dobbs

When Rashid Khalidi took over the newly established Edward Said Chair of Middle East Studies at Columbia University last fall, the appointment was generally viewed as an academic coup for the school, which had succeeded in wooing away a prominent Middle East expert from the University of Chicago, a longtime rival.

But Khalidi soon became the target of an Internet campaign that questioned his patriotism. Conservative critics zeroed in on his
outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq and his public expressions of sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

"Columbia vs. America," declared a story on Campus Watch, a Web site dedicated to revealing the alleged bias of mainstream
Middle East studies programs at U.S. colleges and universities. The New York Sun dubbed Khalidi "the professor of hate."

These are the best of times and the worst of times for the once-neglected field of Middle East studies. Enrollments in
Arabic-language courses and area studies programs have boomed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Government funding is up. Universities and colleges are recruiting Middle East experts as fast as
they can.

At the same time, academics who specialize in the region complain that they are under siege from conservative think tanks and
self-appointed campus watchdog organizations. They say these efforts have resulted in a flood of abusive e-mail and calls for
tightening congressional control over the funding of Middle East studies programs, which, they contend, could undermine
academic freedoms.

Barbara Petzen, outreach coordinator at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, denounced a "right-wing
thought police that is sending spies into classrooms to report on what teachers are saying in class." Michael C. Hudson, director
of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, said his campus has become the target of a McCarthyist
"witch hunt."

"Middle East studies have not served us well," countered Daniel Pipes, who founded Campus Watch a year ago as an offshoot of the Middle East Forum, a private think tank dedicated to "promoting American interests in the Middle East." He said mainstream academics had failed to adequately explain the threat posed by Islamic terrorism and were prone to overlook political repression in Arab countries.

"Americans need to know what terms like 'jihad' mean, and why we are being attacked," he said. "This is at the very heart of our foreign and domestic policy."

In recent months, Pipes and other conservatives have begun pushing for stronger congressional oversight of the $95 million in
government subsidies for Middle East and other area studies programs. Legislation under consideration by Congress includes a
provision for the establishment of an advisory board to ensure that government-funded academic programs "reflect diverse
perspectives and [a] full range of views."

Some Middle East experts fear that the seven-member board would be dominated by spokesmen for the Bush administration andstrong advocates of Israel. "It's the thin end of the wedge," said Khalidi, who argues that the demand for "balance" in Middle East studies could degenerate into a "political correctness test."

Pipes, who has angered Arab American groups by calling for stringent background checks on Muslim visitors to the United
States, said the McCarthyism charge is "silly." Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) was "a high government official with coercive
powers at his disposal," Pipes said. "We are a tiny think tank, with few resources." He described Campus Watch as a kind of
consumer guide to Middle East studies. "We are like the toaster specialists who want to see how the toaster works," he said.

Government funding of area studies programs goes back to the height of the Cold War, when the launch of Sputnik in 1957
appeared to demonstrate an "education gap" between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Eisenhower administration
responded with the National Defense Education Act, which authorized the public funding of foreign-language studies and national resource centers for politically sensitive areas, including the communist world and the Middle East.

Area studies went into a sharp decline after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, and grant money began to dry up. At many leading universities, including Harvard and Princeton, it was much easier to raise money for political science
programs than for area studies.

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon reversed the trend. Within a few weeks of the attacks, Congress
authorized an additional $20 million for area studies and language programs, with much of the money for focus on the Middle East and Asia. There are now 17 national resource centers for Middle East studies at U.S. universities, up from 14 in 2001. Grants for graduate research have increased by 250 percent, according to data collected by Miriam Kazanjian, a consultant for the Coalition for International Education.

Colleges across the country are scrambling to recruit Middle East experts, said Amy Newhall, executive director of the Middle
East Studies Association, who teaches an introductory course in Arab literature and culture at the University of Arizona. Last fall, about 400 students signed up for Newhall's course, nearly double the pre-2001 attendance.

The increased visibility of Middle East studies has also spawned a cottage industry of mostly conservative critics who comb
through what was once an academic backwater for signs of "bias" or "lack of balance." Campus Watch and other Web sites urge students to supply information about their own professors.

"Academic colleagues, get used to it," wrote Martin Kramer, a Pipes ally and author of "Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of
Middle Eastern Studies in America." "You are being watched. Those obscure articles in campus newspapers are now available on the Internet, and they will be harvested. Your syllabi, which you've also posted, will be scrutinized. Your websites will be visited late at night."

Kramer's comments were cited by Lisa Anderson, dean of international and public affairs at Columbia, as evidence of an
atmosphere of intimidation that now surrounds Middle East studies at many universities.

Kramer, who teaches Arab history at Tel Aviv University, described his remarks as "tongue in cheek" and accused many Middle East scholars of being overly sensitive to criticism. "Academics make their living ridiculing government policies and the
superficiality of the media, but when anybody examines their performance, they throw up their hands with cries of McCarthyism," he said. "There's a real asymmetry here."

Some professors, including Khalidi, said they became the target of massive e-mail campaigns after they were denounced as
"left-wing extremists" by Pipes in a June 2002 article in the New York Post. Columbia professor Hamid Dabashi said his voice
mail was filled with "racist and obscene" messages, including one denouncing him as "a stinking, terrorist Muslim pig."

Pipes has also become a divisive figure on American campuses. Many Arab Americans were outraged last year when President
Bush appointed him to the board of directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a government-funded think tank in Washington.
When Pipes addressed a recent meeting at Yale University, he was greeted by dozens of student protesters dressed in black with black gags across their mouths.

A favorite target for Campus Watch is the late Edward Said, a Columbia University professor best known for his book
"Orientalism," which denounced the "neo-colonialist" policies of successive U.S. administrations. Its hero is Bernard Lewis, a
professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton and the author of several books that analyze the rise of Islamic terror movements.

Pipes said the push for an advisory board to supervise the distribution of government funds for area studies programs was
designed as a "shot across the bows" of what he considers to be the radical Middle East studies lobby centered in universities
such as Columbia, Georgetown and the University of Chicago. "It is important symbolically," he said. "It will not materially change anything, but it will alert Congress to the problem."

The proposed changes are now under consideration by the Senate after receiving unanimous approval in the House. Officials at
Columbia and other universities say the subsidies represent less than 10 percent of the money they spend on Middle East studies, and they would prefer to reject government funding altogether than to accept outside supervision.

Last year, Georgetown was accused by Campus Watch of using government money to organize a symposium on the war in Iraq dominated by critics of the Bush administration. University officials are unrepentant, saying it is pointless to look for political balance in every single seminar or lecture.

"We are very sensitive to having strings attached to what we do," said Hudson, the director of Georgetown's Arab studies
program. "If an Arab government came to us and said, 'We will give you money, but we will have an advisory body check up on what you do with it,' I don't think we would take the money."
 

________________________
D.
from Professor Ronald Creagh :
<mailto:ra-l@univ-montp3.fr>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004
 

9-11 Widow Files rico Lawsuit
(public signatures sought to support Investigation)

PHILADELPHIA, Jan 6 -- Ellen Mariani, whose husband died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when UAL 175 was flown into the World Trade Center, has filed suit in a US District Court alleging Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and other co-defendents had sufficient warning to stop the terrorist attacks but failed to either warn or protect the public.

According to a recent CBS News report, the Republican 9-11 Commission Chairman agrees:

9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable
(CBS News -- December 18, 2003) For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11
attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall
Pinkston....

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the
administration and laying blame.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/17/eveningnews/main589137.shtml

Mariani's suit also charges the Bush Administration with burying evidence of its failure and refusing to release vital information.

Philadelphia Attorney Philip J. Berg, who filed the suit on Mariani's behalf, says the Administration must be held accountable.
Berg launched the suit on November 26, and has since put up a website explaining the
details of Mariani vs Bush, et al. The Bush Administration is currently trying to have the charges dismissed in court.

Public support is critical, says Berg, who has posted an online petition. "We need at least a million signatures for them to take it
seriously." He added that mounting a class action is also being considered. Concerned American citizens are urged to read and
sign the petition here:
http://www.911forthetruth.com
______
Notice: You are asked and encouraged to freely distribute, publish and/or otherwise disseminate this release as widely as
possible.
 

Related stories:
NY Times:
"The White House said tonight that President Bush had been warned by American intelligence agencies in early August that
Osama bin Laden was seeking to hijack aircraft..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/16/politics/16INQU.html

CNN:
"President Bush's daily intelligence briefings in the weeks leading up to the September 11 terror attacks included a warning of the
possibility that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network would attempt to hijack a U.S.-based airliner, senior administration officials
said Wednesday"
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/15/bush.sept.11/index.html

UK Guardian:
"George Bush received specific warnings in the weeks before 11 September that an attack inside the United States was being
planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, US government sources said yesterday.

The memo received by Bush on 6 August contained unconfirmed information passed on by British intelligence in 1998 revealing
that al-Qaeda operatives had discussed hijacking a plane to negotiate the release of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the Muslim
cleric imprisoned in America for his part in a plot to blow up the World Trade Centre in 1993."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,718312,00.html

Sunday Herald:
"Britain gave President Bush a categorical warning to expect multiple airline hijackings by the al-Qaeda network a month before
the September 11 attacks which killed nearly 3000 people and triggered the international war against terrorism."
http://www.sundayherald.com/24822

Village Voice:
"The U.S. government had received repeated warnings of impending attacks and attacks using planes directed at New York and
Washington for several years. The government never told us about what it knew was coming."
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0332/mondo4.php

AP:
"...the briefing given to the president a month before the suicide hijackings included recent intelligence that al-Qaida was planning to send operatives to the United States to carry out an attack using high explosives."
http://www.sunspot.net/business/nationworld/bal

MSNBC:
"One such CIA briefing, in July 2001, was particularly chilling and prophetic. It predicted that Osama bin Laden was about to
launch a terrorist strike 'in the coming weeks,' the congressional investigators found. The intelligence briefing went on to say: 'The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning.'"
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3067907/

MSN: Condoleezza Rice's False Statement:
A: "The overwhelming bulk of the evidence was that this was an attack that was likely to take place overseas."
- White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, in a May 16 news briefing.

B: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."
- Title of the CIA's Aug. 6 briefing memo to President Bush . . .
http://slate.msn.com/?id=3D2066154

Newsweek:
"On Sept. 10, NEWSWEEK has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning,
apparently because of security concerns." http://www.msnbc.com/news/629606.asp

SF Gate:
For Mayor Willie Brown, the first signs that something was amiss came late Monday when he got a call from what he described
as his airport security - - a full eight hours before yesterday's string of terrorist attacks -- advising him that Americans should be
cautious about their air travel.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2001/09/12/MN229389.DTL

Florida State: Jeb Bush Declares Martial Law 9-7-01
"Based on the potential massive damage to life and property that may result from an act of terrorism at a Florida port, the
necessity to protect life and property from such acts of terrorism..."
http://www.state.fl.us/eog_new/eog/orders/2001/september/eo2001-261- 09-07-01.html

CBS News:
"In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/ printable303601.shtml

UK Independent:
"Weeks before the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the United States and the United Nations ignored warnings from a secret
Taliban emissary that Osama bin Laden was planning a huge attack on American soil."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=3D331115

NY Times:
"Egyptian intelligence warned American officials about a week before Sept. 11 that Osama bin Laden's network was in the
advance stages of executing a significant operation against an American target, President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview on
Sunday."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/ abstract.html?res=3DF30D16F73B5E0C778CDDAF0894DA404482

Intl. Herald Tribune:
"When the hubbub about what the White House did or didn't know before Sept. 11 dies down, Congressional or other
investigators should consider the specific warnings that friendly Arab intelligence services sent to Washington in the summer of
2001."
http://www.iht.com/articles/58269.html

UK News-Telegraph:
Israeli intelligence officials say that they warned their counterparts in the United States last month that large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent."
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/

NY Post: "A Minnesota FBI agent investigating Zacarias Moussaoui testified yesterday that he notified the Secret Service weeks before Sept. 11 that a terror team might hijack a plane and 'hit the nation's capital.'"
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/57848.htm

Yahoo News:
"An FBI supervisor, sounding a prophetic pre-Sept. 11 alarm, warned FBI headquarters that student pilot Zacarias Moussaoui
was so dangerous he might 'take control of a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center,' a congressional investigator said in a
report Tuesday."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/

Independent:
"American intelligence received many more clues before the 11 September attacks than previously disclosed, that terrorists might
hijack planes and turn them into weapons, a joint congressional committee was told yesterday."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/

Washington Post:
"U.S. intelligence agencies received many more indications than previously disclosed that Osama bin Laden's terrorist
network was planning imminent "spectacular" attacks in the summer of 2001 aimed at inflicting mass casualties."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36754-2002Sep18.html

Yahoo News:
"U.S. intelligence agencies picked up threats of attacks inside the United States and of using airplanes as weapons during the
spring and summer before last year's Sept. 11 attacks, but were more focused on the possibility of an assault overseas, a
congressional source said on Tuesday."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/

Vanity Fair:
"Patrick Tyler of the New York Times is reporting from Washington: 'In the first days after the attacks on Sept. 11, the
Saudi Arabian ambasador to Washington, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, supervised the urgent evacuation of 24 members of Osama
bin Laden's extended family from the United States fearing they might be subjected to violence.'"
http://www.guerrillanews.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/

Sydney Morning Herald:
"US special agents were told to back off the bin Laden family and the Saudi royals soon after George Bush became =
president, although that has all changed since September 11, it was reported today."
http://www.old.smh.com.au/news/0111/07/world/world100.html=20

Ha'aretz Daily:
"Odigo, the instant messaging service, says that two of its workers received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack
on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, and the company has been cooperating with Israeli and American law
enforcement, including the FBI, in trying to find the original sender of the message predicting the attack."
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=3D77744

NY Times:
"Richard Clarke, who ran White House crisis team after Sept 11 terror attacks, says top White House officials personally
approved evacuation of dozens of influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, from United States in days after Sept
11, when most flights were grounded." http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/090503A.shtml

Tampa Tribune:
The hastily arranged flight out of Raytheon Airport Services, a private hangar on the outskirts of Tampa International Airport, was
anything but ordinary. It lifted off the tarmac at a time when every private plane in the nation was grounded due to safety
concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks. "
http://www.dirtybush.com/connectthesedots.html

UK Minister:
"...it is not surprising that some have seen the US failure to avert the 9/11 attacks as creating an invaluable pretext for
attacking Afghanistan in a war that had clearly already been well planned in advance."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,1036588,00.html

Marvin Bush ran security company in charge of WTC, Dulles Airport and United Airlines "Marvin P. Bush, the president's
younger brother, was a principal in a company called Securacom that provided security for the World Trade Center, United
Airlines, and Dulles International Airport. The company, Burns noted, was backed by KuwAm, a Kuwaiti-American
investment firm on whose board Marvin Bush also served."
http://www.utne.com/web_special/web_specials_2003-02/articles/10292- 1.htm

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/911security.html

___________________________
E.
from Marielle Giraud (LiberTerre Association) :
<liber.terre@wanadoo.fr>
Pontivy, France
15 January 2004

To: Mr. Moshe Katzav
President of the State of Israel
The President's house, Jerusalem,
Israel
 

Dear Sir,
I was appalled to hear about the draconian sentence that was meted out to the five conscientious objectors, Adam, Noam,
Haggai, Matan, and Shimri.

These young men have been sentenced to a year in military prison in addition to already having been imprisoned for over a year.
In the past 30 years, no country priding itself as a democracy has handed out such a severe punishment to conscientious
objectors.

These 5 CO's were found to be guilty for (daring to declare) their opposition to Israel's policy of occupation in the territories. The
decision to incur upon them such a harsh sentence is politicallly motivated and therefore unjustifiable. In the past, you, yourself,
have spoken out on the need for a framework to allow civilian service for young Israeli citizens. THIS IS ALL THAT THESE
YOUNG MEN ARE REQUESTING.

In your hands lies the authority to allow or disallow the carrying out of the sentence. I ask you to nullify the decision of the military
court and thereby prevent this gross miscarriage of justice.

undersigned

Jakvo Schram
prezidanto P.K. de SAT
jakvo@mac.com
http://satesperanto.free.fr/
http://users.pandora.be/jakvo/Esperanto/pef.htm

___________________________
F.
from Professor John Gerassi :
Queens College, New York City
copyright : The Independent, London
5 January 2004
http://www.independent.co.uk/
 

Israeli colonel resigns over army's 'immoral' actions
by Justin Huggler in Jerusalem

A reservist colonel in the Israeli army has resigned
his commission in protest at his army's "immoral
conduct" in the occupied territories. In a searing
open letter to the army's chief of staff, Lt-Col Eitan
Ronel, a veteran of 1973's Yom Kippur War, the
invasion of Lebanon, and the first Palestinian
Intifada, returned his officer's commission.

His resignation came even as five teenage conscripts
were yesterday sentenced to a year in prison each for
refusing to serve in the Israeli army "as long as it
acts as an army of occupation". Scores of reservists
have refused to report for duty for similar reasons,
and many of them have been sentenced to prison terms,
but Lt-Col Ronel, 51, is believed to be the first
Israeli officer to resign his commission in protest.

In his letter to the chief of staff, Lt-Col Ronel, who
was released from active reserve duty two years ago,
wrote that for him, the final straw had been when
Israeli soldiers opened fire last week on unarmed
protestors demonstrating against the "separation
fence" Israel is building in the West Bank. Among the
injured was an Israeli civilian, Gil Naamati, whose
case provoked a storm of controversy in Israel.

"A country in which the army disperses demonstrations
of its citizens with live gunfire is not a democratic
country," Lt-Col Ronel wrote. "An army that educates
its soldiers that such a crime is conceivable has lost
all its borders.

"I saw this deterioration, stage after stage: the
blind eye that was turned to the abuse of detainees in
violation of the army's orders; the blind eye that was
turned to soldiers' gunfire on unarmed Palestinian
civilians; the blind eye that was turned to the
settlers' unlawful behaviour towards Palestinian
civilians; the oppression of the population; the
roadblocks; the curfew; the closure; the blind eye the
army turned towards humiliation and abuse; the
searches and arrests; the use of live fire against
children and unarmed people."

Lt.-Col. Ronel continued: "Stage by stage, the value
of human life has diminished. Step after step, the
values on which we were raised-the purity of arms, the
value of human life, the dignity of human beings as
being created in the image of God-have become a
scornful travesty. And now we have reached the next
stage: soldiers shoot at Israeli civilians in a
demonstration, in keeping with the regulations for
opening fire...This is an educational, ethical and
moral failure.

"This is your failure," he told the chief of staff,
"[the failure] of the army commanders. If I had any
faith in you, I would say to you-clean out the
stables, take responsibility, resign. My faith in you
is gone. You have failed. You and your predecessors
have corrupted my army, our army. I do not want to be
a part of such an army. You gave me the ranks, to you
I return them."

Lt-Col Ronel's decision will resonate deeply in a
country where military service is at the heart of
society, and achieving senior military rank is
considered a great mark of distinction. It comes after
a group of reservists pilots, including a highly
decorated war hero, refused to fly any further
missions to assassinate Palestinian militants over the
occupied territories, because of the civilian
casualties involved - which provoked a furore.

Though directed at the chief of staff, Gen Moshe
Ya'alon, Lt-Col Ronel's criticisms will also be seen
as criticisms of Ariel Sharon, under whose premiership
most of the abuses he refers to have taken place. Gen
Ya'alon himself recently spoke out against the
government's military tactics in the occupied
territories, saying they were counter-productive and
fostered Palestinian hatred of Israel.

The Israeli army spokesman's office said the army had
not received Lt-Col Ronel's resignation letter yet,
but that military officials had seen it on the
internet. "At issue is an individual who is using his
rank and position to voice a political position and is
trying to involve the army in politics," a spokesman said.

__________________
G.
from Kathleen Ross-Allee :
Hollywood, California
Subject: Fw: Ad contest finalists
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004

Dear Francis,
Thought you might enjoy seeing some of these.
Kathleen

----------
Dear MoveOn member,
With over 2.9 million votes cast, we're proud to announce the finalists in the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest. These ads have been selected by the rating public from among over 1,000 ads submitted. They're potent, poignant, and funny - it's a great mix. They perfectly capture the grassroots approach to politics we're pioneering together.

If you're in the New York area next Monday (1/12), please join us at Bush in 30 Seconds Live, an awards show to celebrate
these ads and announce the winner. The show will be hosted by Janeane Garofalo and include performances and presentations by Margaret Cho, Moby, Chuck D, John Sayles, and other special guests. With comedy, music, and some of the best political ads the world has ever seen, it'll be a great night. And thanks to a few generous donors who are covering the costs, every cent you pay for tickets will go toward our $10 million campaign to expose Bush's policies in swing states.

You can get tickets now online for $35, $75, and $150 at:
http://www.moveonvoterfund.org/b30slive.html

We also have some special packages for donors of $1,000 or more - check out the bottom of this email for details.
Without further ado, the finalists are:

CHILD'S PAY
by Charlie Fisher of Denver, CO
High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version
IN MY COUNTRY
by Harry Katatsakis, Derek Rittenhouse, Chris Wight of New York, NY
High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version
POLYGRAPH
by Rich Garella, Adam Feinstein of New York, NY
High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version
BRING 'EM ON
by Mike Cuenca of Lawrence, KS
High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version
WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?
by Fred Surr, Ted Page, Janet Tashjian of Needham, MA
High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version

You can also view all of the ads on the Bush in 30 Seconds website:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/

Due to popular demand, we're also adding three new categories for the contest: Funniest Ad, Best Youth Market Ad, and Best
Animation. If you register, you'll be able to vote on the finalists in each of these categories starting on Thursday. You can register at:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/runoff/index.html
We're also working on making the top 250 ads available online indefinitely.

For everyone who submitted an ad or participated in the voting process, thanks for making "Bush in 30 Seconds" an incredible
grassroots phenomenon. With this kind of creativity on our side, President Bush's policies don't stand a chance.

Sincerely,
--Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn.org Team
January 5th, 2003

P.S. If you're interested in supporting "Bush in 30 Seconds Live" with a larger contribution, we've put together $1,000 and
$5,000 packages. The details are below -- if you'd like to discuss these packages further, please contact Vanessa Barrera at:
Vanessa@bergerstrategies.com

$5,000 level
Package includes 4 VIP Box Tickets to "Bush in 30 Seconds Live"; a VIP reception with the honorees and special guests; and
full listing and recognition in event materials.

$1,000 level
Package includes a ticket (preferred seating) to "Bush in 30 Seconds Live"; a ticket to the VIP reception with the honorees and
special guests; and full listing and recognition in event materials.
 

_________________________
H.
from Kathleen Ross-Allee
Hollywood, California
Subject: A Message from Michael Douglas
Organization: STOPtheNRA.com
16 January 2004

Francis,
This message is from NRA blacklist <update@nrablacklist.com>.
Kathleen

http://www.stopthenra.com/site/

www.nrablacklist.com
 

***************************
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research at CEIMSA
http://www.u-grenoble3.fr/ciesimsa
Université de Grenoble-3
Grenoble, France