Eat The State!

For the first time in 45 years, the United States has abandoned its support for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland as enshrined in Resolution 194, adopted by the General Assembly on 11 December 1949. The resolution was reaffirmed by the General Assembly on 8 December [1993] with 127 votes in favour, but Israel and the U.S. voted against it…

From the outset of the current 48th session [of the U.N.], the U.S. delegation sought to eliminate, revise or defer many resolutions on the Middle East, claiming that the Declaration of Principles signed by Israel and the P.L.O. in Washington on 13 September 1993 required a change in “obsolete and anachronistic” resolutions. The U.S. delegation opposed references to “occupied territory, including Jerusalem,” claiming they could be considered to prejudge the outcome of negotiations. The U.S. also refused to condemn Israel’s settlement activity because it was “unproductive to debate the legalities of the issue…”

 

Gonzales says the “new paradigm” of the war on terrorism “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”

 

Under current regulations, passed in 1978, prisoners can participate in federally financed biomedical research if the experiment poses no more than “minimal� risks to the subjects. But a report formally presented to federal officials on Aug. 1 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences advised that experiments with greater risks be permitted if they had the potential to benefit prisoners. As an added precaution, the report suggested that all studies be subject to an independent review.

“The current regulations are entirely outdated and restrictive, and prisoners are being arbitrarily excluded from research that can help them,” said Ernest D. Prentice, a University of Nebraska genetics professor and the chairman of a Health and Human Services Department committee that requested the study.

It all began with a tip: In the aftermath of the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on London’s transit system, British authorities received a call from a worried member of the Muslim community, reporting general suspicions about an acquaintance.

From that vague but vital piece of information, according to a senior European intelligence official, British authorities opened the investigation into what they said turned out to be a well-coordinated and long-planned plot to bomb multiple transatlantic flights heading toward the United States — an assault designed to rival the scope and lethality of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings.

By late 2005, the probe had expanded to involve several hundred investigators on three continents. They kept dozens of suspects under close surveillance for months, even as some of the plotters traveled between Britain and Pakistan to raise money, find recruits and refine their scheme, according to interviews with U.S. and European counterterrorism officials.

 

Here are airline restrictions put in place since the discovery of an alleged terror plot aimed at airliners flying between Great Britain and the United States. This information comes from each country’s domestic security and aviation agencies: […]

United States

• Travelers boarding commercial flights at a U.S. airport will not be allowed to carry “any liquids, including beverages, hair gels, and lotions” onto airliners.

• Passengers on flights from Great Britain are prohibited from carrying electronics on board. There are no such restrictions on people traveling on domestic flights or from the U.S. to Great Britain.

• Beverages purchased beyond security checkpoints must be consumed before boarding — they will not be permitted aboard the aircraft. […]

Yep, you read that right: investigators have known of the plot for more than a year, yet not until after the plot had been foiled and the plotters arrested were new security measures put into place.

One may say, “Well, what if some of the plotters remain at large? Shouldn’t we implement these procedures just to be on the safe side?” Fair enough. But until a day or so ago, all of the plotters were at large, yet the security measures had not been implemented.

One may say, “Well, it was known that the plot’s hatching was not imminent.” Maybe. But it’s difficult to believe that on the one hand not enough is known about the plot to say for certain that all of the plotters have been apprehended, but on the other that enough was known that there was no need to worry about being on the safe side (by implementing security measures some time ago).

So why were the security measures implemented only after the foiling of the plot? Either the “authorities” are dipshits, or, they’re election-year politicians. Take your pick.

The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

This is, of course, tacit admission that the torture sessions were authorized by policymakers, and thus were not the rogue activities of a few bad apples. It was obvious anyway. But it’s kinda surprising that Dubya would openly admit as much — though if it’s the choice between that and keeping his shiny white ass out of jail, he perhaps chose wisely.

 

Speaking on a visit to Green Bay in Wisconsin on Thursday, Bush said the foiled plane plot was “a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation.”

Another tacit admission. Namely, that nine hundred cajillion dollars worth of bombs and missiles have not succeeded in winning any hearts or minds. Bush will no doubt soon trumpet the foiling of the plot as proof that the Administration is “winning” the “War On Terror”. But in fact the existence of the plot proves exactly the opposite.

But fear not: Dubya will use this latest development to help secure even more funding for high-tech weapons systems.

 

Moving right along:

“The American people need to know we live in a dangerous world, but our government will do everything we can to protect our people from those dangers,” he said.

“Everything”, though, isn’t quite as thorough as it may sound. Doesn’t include, for example, assuring that the American people will be protected from the danger of un-reliable oil supplies (which, let’s face it, is the gravest danger imaginable — even ask Dick “The American way of life is non-negotiable” Cheney):

Fourteen years ago Congress urged the Transportation Department to start regulating low-pressure pipelines such as those blamed for shutting down Alaska’s North Slope oil production.

But it didn’t happen. And only now, after questions about pipe maintenance and two damaging oil spills in Alaska, are officials pushing hard to establish federal rules and standards for such lines.

Before Ms. Rice heads to Israel on Sunday, she will join President Bush at the White House for discussions on the Middle East crisis…

Schya, and the “discussions” can be expected to proceed a little like this:

BUSH: Hezbollah needs to stop this shit.

CHENEY: Yeah, Hezbollah can go fuck themselves.

RICE: I can’t spend too long over there, ’cause I need to get some shopping done.

BUSH: You’re doing a heckuva job, Condi.

Folks,

Sorry I didn’t get this up til this morning; my phone and e-mail has essentially been out for the last three days, causing all sorts of hassles… (Thanks, Qwest. Thanks, Earthlink.) For the next three weeks I’ll be on the road, so I’ve also been busy with preparations for that trip. KEXP’s technology willing, I will continue to do the radio program, over the phone, while out of town. *If* I have time I’ll also try to post these notes. Thanks for the positive feedback!

KEXP JULY 15 2006

LOCAL

Last Saturday, Mark Wilson, an anti-war primary opponent to Sen. Maria Cantwell who had based his campaign on criticizing Cantwell’s record on the Iraq war, withdrew from the race, threw his support joins Cantwell campaign, urged his supporters to volunteer for her campaign, and then joined the campaign himself. It was announced later in the week that Wilson had become Cantwell’s outreach director, paid $8,000 a month, an upper-echelon salary for a statewide campaign. In addition, it emerged that Hong Tran, the remaining (and also anti-war) primary opponent to Cantwell, had also been offered a job by the Cantwell campaign, and that Wilson had called a week before to inform her of his decision and to urge her to withdraw as well. Tran says she’s staying in the race.
The move has angered anti-war Democrats. Prior to withdrawing, Wilson had been calling for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq; at a Sunday press conference with Sen. Cantwell, he reversed himself, invoking Pres. Bush’s meme of “when the Iraqi troops stand up, we’ll stand down.� The hiring has also generated negative publicity for Sen. Cantwell, whose general election race against Bush Republican Mike McGavick has been tightening in the polls.

Thursday the Sound Transit board agreed to ask for funding for a proposed light rail route along the I-90 corridor to the Eastside as part of a proposed 2007 Regional Transportation Improvement District (RTID) road and transit ballot measure.

The Stranger reported Thursday that Mayor Greg Nickels is proposing a harsh new nightclub licensing procedure. The ordinance would place unprecedented burdens on nightspot owners, operators, and managers to soundproof their businesses so they are not audible outside their doors, and to police not only their own grounds, but all adjacent public and private properties within 100 feet, including all patrons and prospective patrons. Among many other measures, the city can also add licensing requirements or yank a club’ license at any time. A new nightclub and entertainment industry lobbying group has formed to combat the measure; one opponent calls it “ten times worse than anything Mark Sidran ever drafted.�

NATIONAL

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson have filed a civil suit against Dick Cheney, “Scooter� Libby, Karl Rove, and “other unnamed senior White House officials� for their role in revealing Plame Wilson’s identity, and thus destroying her career.

Complying with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of two weeks ago, a Pentagon memo this week extended Geneva Conventions protections to “terrorism suspects in
Military custody.� However, the Bush administration has thus far failed to extend the Supreme Court ruling to prisoners held by the CIA, or prisoners kidnapped or held by the CIA and then “rendered� to third countries known or their torture practices. And just because there’s a memo doesn’t mean the Pentagon will actually comply with the ruling.

Abramoff updates: A House committee investigation has subpoenaed Abramoff’s former employer, lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig, for billing records of contacts between Abramoff and his staff and the White House.
The Alabama-Coushatta tribe of southeast Texas has sued Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Michael Scanlon (former Tom DeLay chief of staff, like Abramoff now convicted), Neil Volz (former Rep. Robert Ney chief of staff, also convicted), and a lobbyist working for Abramoff, over a fake religiously themed moral crusade in 2001 to defeat bill in the Texas legislature that would have legalized gambling in Indian casinos. Abramoff, Reed, and colleagues ran a number of such deceptive campaigns in the South in 2000-02, taking money from one tribal casino to prevent other tribes from opening competing casinos. With the Texas bill’s defeat, the Alabama-Coushatta had to close their casino in 2002, bringing economic hardship to the tribe.

The House of Representatives (finally) renewed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 this week, over the objections of southern GOP legislators who claim there is no longer racism in the South. (Pause for laugh track.)
Also this week, a court threw out the new Georgia law requiring birth certificates or other proof of citizenship in order to vote. The measure, ostensibly targeted at illegal immigrants trying to vote (?), was expected to disenfranchise large numbers of mostly poor, mostly black, mostly Democratic voters unable for various reasons to produce such ID.

The House Intellience Committtee’s Republican chairman was quoted this week as learning from a federal whistleblower that there is yet another unreported, “significant� White House spying program, which the committee had not been informed of. After a letter to Pres. Bush, the chairman was briefed, but the rest of us still have no idea whether this program is foreign or domestic, appropriate or inappropriate, legal or Bush-like.

Wednesday’s New York Times reports on a Dept. of Homeland Security Inspector General report blasting the DHS national database of potential terrorist targets for, in essence, being ridiculous. The list includes a petting zoo, flea market, a mule ride, and much, much more. Indiana is the state listed as having the most terror targets (over 8,000); Washington state has twice as many national monuments as the District of Columbia. Conclusion: Al-Qaeda is scary; the War on Terror bureaucracy is scarier.

INTERNATIONAL

Lebanon: On Wednesday, Hebollah crossed into northern Israel and killed eight soldiers, seized two others, a day after Iran rejected US terms for bilateral talks. Thursday, Israel killed 47 in south Lebanon, bombed the Beirut airport twice, and launched an air and sea blockade of Lebanon, and has since continued its heavy assault, bombing civilian infrastructure and causing scores of deaths.
The anti-Syrian Lebanese government denounced Hebollah’s attacks, but has been held “responsible� by Israel anyway. A Hebollah reprisal attack on the northern Israeli city of Haifa used new, longer-range, Iranian-made missiles, increasing the likelihood that Syria or Iran might also be attacked by Israel. Iran and Syria signed a mutual defense pact earlier this year, so an attack on one is the same as the other, and in either case the US will also be held responsible, opening the door to attacks on US troops and facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf, and a broad regional war involving the US. This raises the question: What, if anything, is Pres. Bush doing to prevent an Israeli escalation into a bloody regional war that would be disastrous for the US?
Bogus reasonihg dept: “If they [Lebanese government] are not able to deal with terror, we will have no choice but to fight with them.”â€â€?Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz.
Meanwhile, back in Gaza: another IDF soldier has been captured; IDF retakes Gaza towns, divides Gaza in two.
Palestinian “militants� stormed the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, allowing thousands of Palestinians into Gaza that had been stranded at the border when Israel sealed it two weeks ago. At least five Palestinians had died from lack of urgently needed medical care or from heat stroke at the border crossing in recent days due to the Israeli closure.
A bomb intended for a “senior Hamas official� instead killed a Gaza family of nine, including seven children.
Earlier in the week, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution opposing Israel’s attack on Gaza and its targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, and its collective punishment of civilians (all war crimes under the Geneva Convenrions).
As tensions escalated, oil prices shattered records and are now nearing $80 a barrel, underscoring the huge economic costs of a wider regional war.

This week in Iraq: The US declared “war� on Shia Mahdi Army of Moktada al-Sadr, a move buried in the news because it happened the same day as Israel’s attacks on Beirut.
Baghdad this week descended into all-out civil war; from Sunday-Wednesday over 160 were killed in various sectarian massacres. From a Thursday Times of London story: “West Baghdad is no stranger to bombings and killings, but in the past few days all restraint has vanished in an orgy of ethnic cleansing.�
There has been a total of at least 1600 killed in Iraq since the supposed “turning point� of the formation of a “government of national unity� six weeks ago.
Gen. Casey on Weds: Al-Qaeda is responsible for the deaths in Baghdad (and for triggering Shia reprisals), and they’re doing it to show they’re “still relevant.� The US isn’t that idiotic; this is even cruder, more dishonest propaganda than usual.
See the latest entry in the blog “Baghdad Burning� for a good sense of just how bad it’s gotten.
The US Army is ending exclusive contract for services in Iraq with Halliburton.
After rape of a 14-year-old girl and the killing of her and three other family members by US soldiers, Iraq will ask th UN to end legal immunity for US soldiers in Iraq.

Mexico: On Thursday, PAN’s Felipe Calderon was declared winner. However, a seven-judge panel can still annul the election results. A huge pro-Lopez-Obrador rally is scheduled for Sunday in Mexico City. Lopez-Obrador and his left-leaning PRD supporters are alleging mass fraud. Bush helped. Lopez-Obrador wants a full recount of all votes. See Troy Skeels’ report from Mexico in the upcoming ETS!.

200 died in seven bombings in Mumbai, India Tuesday; a Kashmiri terrorist group (trained and backed by Pakistan) is suspected. The last time Mumbia had a huge terrorist bombing, in 1993, the news was buried in the US; this time it was front page news, the value of reminding people of terrorism connected to Muslims.

On Wednesday, 70,000 marched in Seoul against negotiations taking place there for a new US/South Korea free trade deal, a pact there’s been zero media coverage of here.
Meanwhile, the US is blackmailing Russia over its admission to the World Trade Organization. All other WTO members have agreed to Russia’s inclusion, but the US has enough votes to veto it, and so we are insisting first that Russia accept a certain amount of US-produced farm goods. In other words, the US is trying to ensure a certain level of underwriting for a domestic industry�what WTO is supposed to outlaw. Hypocrites.

Friday morning, July 14, I’ll be on KOMO AM 1000 from 10-noon, filling in for a vacationing Ken Schram on “The Commentators� and debating John Carlson on, well, pretty much everything he says. As KOMO hopefully knows, I am not easily mistaken for Ken Schram. Should be fun. Tune in!

About a month ago, a federal judge in Yakima threw out in its entirety I-297, the 2004 statewide initiative that prohibited the federal government from sending more radioactive waste to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation until most types of existing noncommercial waste was cleaned up. The next day, a King County judge did the same thing for I-747, a 2001 Tim Eyman initiative limiting property tax increases.

Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna wasted no time announcing that he would appeal the ruling on I-747, an initiative broadly supported by state Republicans. But he would not commit one way or another on launching an appeal on the Hanford initiative, sponsored by the anti-nuclear watchdog group Heart of America Northwest, even though I-297 passed by a wider margin than any other initiative in state history.

Now, nearly a month later, McKenna has decided. Quietly, his office has filed an appeal on I-297. No fanfare, no press conference, but to his credit, McKenna has done the right thing.

Heart of America Northwest, of course, wants more. Pointing out that the judge in the case did rule that some limits were within the state’s authority, it wants McKenna and Gov. Christine Gregoire to use that authority to “enact legislation and agency rules to implement the principles in Initiative 297.�

It’s not entirely clear how the Governor or AG can “enact legislation.� (Doesn’t that require, like, the legislature? Which meets in another six months?) But the activists have a point; their basic concept is correct. The state does have some authority under the federal ruling, and it clearly has the backing of Washington’s voters, who have already waited two long years for any action to follow from the consequences of their presumably legally binding vote. Well?

The Tribe Of Anthropik’s podcast for the week of June 10: John Michael Greer on Catabolic Collapse.

One of this blogger’s running themes (archives are still pending…) has been that the Bush Administration is finding itself increasingly unable to maintain the empire. Greer touches on the obvious example of Latin America, but also argues that collapse is already underway here at home.

He cites not only the virtual abandonment of New Orleans, but also claims that many towns in South Dakota and Kansas have been shuttered — even that regions of South Dakota have been depopulated to the extent that they’ve crossed the threshold for classification as “pioneer” territory.

Well worth a listen.

Anti-war candidate Mark Wilson, who for the last 16 months has been waging an uphill primary campaign against Democratic incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell, announced this afternoon that he was withdrawing from the primary and urging his supporters to volunteer for Cantwell’s campaign. The official announcement will come at a 2 P.M. press conference tomorrow at the Seattle headquarters of Cantwell’s campaign.

In comments this afternoon to Horse’s Ass blogger (and avid Cantwell supporter) David Goldstein, Wilson said that he’d never intended to run all the way through to the primary, and that part of his campaign’s purpose was “keeping those Democrats opposed to the war engaged in the process.� What process? Supporting a futile campaign the candidate himself wasn’t committed to, as opposed to, say, organizing against the war? Or lobbying? Or humanitarian assistance to war-ravaged Iraqis, or any of a half-dozen other more productive tasks? It’s a bewildering statement.

So is the cryptic passage, in Wilson’s letter this afternoon to his supporters announcing his decision, that “”I have had a deep and personal one-on-one conversation with Senator Cantwell. I came away convinced we are on the same path when it comes to solving the crisis in Iraq and the potential crisis with Iran.” WTF? After 16 months of skewering Cantwell on her record of support for the war, anti-war Democrats are supposed to suddenly take Mark on his word on this, with no specifics whatsoever?

Very, very odd. It’ll be interesting to see how many of the anti-war Democrats now dissatisfied with Cantwell’s national security positions will follow Wilson’s lead, and how many will simply jump to the other anti-war candidate challenging Cantwell in the primary, former federal low income housing attorney Hong Tran. For many war opponents, who supported Wilson more out of principle than any belief that he could win, Wilson’s move is likely to be viewed less as political pragmatism, and more as a betrayal of the cause

Hey folks — Welcome to our experiment in posting, in blog form, brief summaries of the stories addressed during the “Eat the Airwavesâ€? segment of Mind Over Matters, 8:30-9:00 AM each Saturday morning on KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle. It’s a huge amount of information jammed into half an hour, too much probably to absorb all at once, so this might be more digestible, as well as a more accessible permanent record and a reference for folks who can’t listen in a given week. And we don’t always have time to get to each story each week.

I’ll be on the road July 20-Aug. 10, and therefore unable to do this then, but for the next couple of weeks I’ll be typing out into short paragraphs the cryptic notes I prepare to prompt myself during the KEXP show. Let me know if this is useful; e-mail your responses and suggestions to info@eatthestate.org. If the response is favorable and it’s not too time-consuming, I’ll try to do this each week in the future.

 

The audio for this week’s program is also available online, at 

– Geov

KEXP JULY 8 2006

*LOCAL*

Virginia Mason attempt to break nurses’ union by reclassifying all 600 of its nurses as “supervisors; key precursor case to an important series of rulings on the tactic by the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board this summer. (Demonstration Monday July 10, 4-5 PM at Virginia Mason.)

A bicyclist was arrested at the monthly Critical Mass bicycle protest last Friday evening, June 30, when he intervened as a fellow protestor was attacked by burly men who turned out to be undercover King County Sheriff’s Officers who were out of uniform and not identifying themselves as police. The cops, of course, have a completely different (an unlikely) story. A week later, it’s stll unclear whether the rider will be charged. It’s a very different (and more cop-skeptical) media and political reaction than an amazingly similar incident of SPD officers attacking a Critical Mass ride (and then charging three riders with “assault�) in February 1997.

*NATIONAL*

NSA scandal update: A New Yotk lawsuit alleges the NSA sought AT&T phone records seven months before 9-11. At the time the NSA wanted AT&T to build the monitoring capacity for it, but wound up building its own capacity instead.
Meanwhile, USA Today backed off its claim that Verizon and BellSouth provided phone call reoords to the NSA. They now say they still think the companies provided the data, but they can’t prove it. Both phone compaies have denied the allegations.

Banking records scandal Update: AP reports that money transfer agencies such as Western Union have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries since 9-11 on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed. Westerm Union claims it had no choice legally and that its clerks were simply following guidelines given to the company by the US Treasury Department to scrutinize cash flows for terror links. Most of the flagged transactions were delayed a few hours; some were blocked entirely.

Abramoff scandal update: According to the Dept. of Justice Inspector General, ex-Ashcroft aide Kevin Ring, hired by Abramoff, was a key conduit to extensive Abramoff influence in the Ashcroft-led Justice Dept. during Bush’s first term. In particular, the Abramoff connection helped spike probes into Abramoff’s alleged corruption activities during a legislative election in the Northern Mariannas Islands, and again regarding proposed court reforms in Guam. Boh happened while Abramoff worked for the Seattle-based law firm Preston, Gates, Ellis prior to 2001.

Ten thousand EPA scientists have signed an unprecedented letter to Congress asking it to stop the planned Bush administration closure of all EPA libraries. The letter reflects the bitter frustration of many federal scientists over the anti-science Bush administration.

Republican Senators Chales Grassley (IA), John Warner (VA), and John McCain (AZ) have written a strongly worded letter to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, questioning the Boeing Co.’s attempt to write off $615 million in penalties assessed inthe scandal a few years ago over Boeing’s corrupt practices in its snagging of a lucrative Air Force contract — a contract later rescinded. The notion that taxpayers are supposed to pay Boeing’s penalty (in the form of reduced tax revenue to government), as opposed to, oh, I dunno, BOEING, is staggering. Next questions: where are the Democrats on this? And especially, where are the Democratic senators from Boeing’s new home state of Illinois, Richard Durbin and wunderkind Barack Obama, and where are the Democratic senators from Boeing’s old home state of Washington, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell? 

According to the Los Angeles Times, California’s State Department of Homeland Security has compiled daily reports this year on political and anti-war demonstrations under the embattled Schwarzenegger regime. Overall, sixty such reports have been prepared since March State officials say only the two such reports viewed by Times reporters happen to contain such information. Curiously, some of the information seems to have been received from various federal agencies, including previously unreported sources of dissent monitoring such as immigration officials.

Cobblestone magazine, a publication aimed at preteens age 9-14 and distributed nationally in schools and libraries, has drawn fire for its latest issue, which is essentially given over entirely to U.S. Army recruiting propaganda. The issue features a cover photo of a soldier in Iraq clutching a machine gun and articles on what it’s like to go through boot camp, a rundown of the Army’s “awesome arsenal,” and detailed descriptions of Army career opportunities. Most controversial is a set of classroomm guides that suggest teachers invite a soldier, Army recruiter, or veteran to speak to classes and ask kids if they might want to join the Army someday.

INTERNATIONAL:

Mexican presidential elections: Felipe Canderon of the conservative, incumbent PAN party (which controls the electoral commission that controls the vote count has officially “beaten� the left-of-center PRD candidate Andres Obrador by less than one percent. The Bush White house and the US heavily supported PAN in last Sunday’s election, and may have shared some of its array of 2000 and 2004 dirty tricks. Both Obrador and many Mexicans, raised on the corruption of the old PRI, certainly think so; a similar election was clearly stolen by the PRI (with Reagan administration help) in 1988.
Obrador had lead in all polls on the eve of the election. PRD officials claim nearly 52,000 polling stations had “grave inconsistencies.” Hundreds allegedly show more ballots cast than registered voters. There will be a rally today by Obrador in Mexico City, civil disobedience, and also a legal challenge. It’s certainly a far cry from how Gore, Kerry, the Democrats, and the American public reacted to similar theft. Former ETS! co-editor Troy Skeels, who lives in southern Mexico, has filed a report on the election for the current (July 6) issue of ETS! and has promised to continue to follow the story.

Israeli leaders have rejected a Hamas and Palestinian offer of a cease-fire in Israel’s two-week-old obliteration of civilians in the Gaza Strip. The US has been the main obstruction to international humanitarian aid efforts for Gaza residents. Eight hundred thousand of its 1.4 million residents are without electricity, food and water are running out in the heat of the Middle East summer, and shelling, bombing, and attacks continue daily.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has quietly canceled his July 26 referendum on statehood due to the Gaza situation and a Fatah/Hamas deal recognizing Israel’s right to exist and committing both parties to a two-state solution. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has in turn shelved his plans for West Bank “unilateral withdrawal.�
Israel has arrested five Hamas parliamentary aides to go with the 60 plus MPs still being held. Israeli planes also buzzed the Syrian presidential palace this week; Israeli officials have, improbably, accused Syria of being “at the root� of the Gaza problems.
Noam Shalit, father of the Israeli soldier whose seizure by Palestinian militants has been the pretext for the attacks, has (oddly enough) been one of the few sane voices in Israel, stating Monday that it was “delusional” that Israel would attempt to reestablish its deterrence at the expense of his son. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that a Jerusalem hospital carried out illegal medical experiments on 50 mostly Arab diabetic women between 2000-2003.

This Week in Iraq: Baghdad Morgue reported 1,595 violent deaths in the Baghdad area in June, mostly due to sectarian violence. It’s up 15 percent from May, after Zarqawi’s assassination by the US -– putting the lie to the Bush administration nonsense that Zarqawi’s death would somehow lessen violence that mostly had little to do with him.
Ex-pfc Steven Green, 21, was charged this week with the rape of a pretty 15-year-old Iraqi girl and the subsequent murder of her, her mother, father, and a younger sister at their home near a US checkpoint, A neighbor says the girl had complained to her mother about harassment from leering American soldiers and was fearful of them. Four soldiers participated in the premeditated attack and then tried to cover it up, blaming the deaths on Sunni insurgents even though the family was itself Sunni. Green also allegedly tried to set the girl’s body aflame, presumably to disguise the rape, after killing her. The sexual violation is particularly offensive to Iraqis and Muslims. An uncle of the girl, responding to a Washington Post reporter, said all that needs to be said about Iraqis’ fatigue with all the American-induced violence: “What is the benefit of publishing this story? People will read about this crime. And they will forget about it the next day.”

Iran: Seymour Hersh has an excellent article (as usual) in the current issue of the New Yorker Among many other things, he reports that the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been fighting Bush war plans for Iran, and JCS opposition has successfully killed Bush plans for a tactical nuclear strike. There’s also friction between the JCD and predictably pro-war Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, leading Rumsfeld to step up his use of special op forces inside Iran. Such forces, unlike the armed services, are directly under his command.

Three days after North Korea ineffectively test-fired seven ballistic missiles, the US has offered direct bilateral talks with Pyongyang as a “sideline� to existing six-country negotiations. The offer is in direct contrast to the Bush administration’s general refusal to negotiate with Iran, Iraq, and other perceived “enemies� it has wished to attack.

EVENTS

Mon July 10 Virginia Mason demonstration aginnst the NLRB and VM’s attempt at union-busting. 4-5 PM.