United States News Digest
New Hampshire Paper Interviews State Rep Who Demands LaRouche's Inclusion
In addition to publishing the Associated Press wire on Lyndon LaRouche's leading position in the number of campaign contributions to a Democratic Presidential candidate in its May 3 issue, the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader also has a short interview with Rep. Barbara Richardson (D-NH), who signed the Open Letter to the South Carolina Democratic Party asking that Lyndon LaRouche be included in their Presidential candidates' debate. In a section called "Quick Takes," the Leader reports:
"Rep. Barbara Hull Richardson is among the 37 Democrats from across the country who signed a letter asking that extremist Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche be allowed to participate in Saturday's South Carolina debate. Richardson, a McCarthy delegate to the 1968 Democratic convention, said, I just think it's only fair. He is controversial, for sure, but I just think he should be given an opportunity to air his views.' Richardson said she is 'leaning toward' backing [former Vermont Governor Howard] Dean in '04."
Viceroy Garner Stung by JINSA Link; Now Reports to Bremer
On May 2, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told UPI, "Jay Garner is doing a truly outstanding job for the nation.... Any suggestion to the contrary is flatly untrue and mischievous." But Rummy didn't comment if President George W. Bush was being "mischievous" when he announced, at an elaborate White House photo op on May 6, that he had just appointed L. Paul Bremer, a career State Department official, the civilian administrator of Iraq, with authority over Garner, who had been the Chickenhawks' choice for "Viceroy" of Iraq.
On April 30, Newsweek magazine leaked that Bremer would be replacing Garner, triggering a week of rumors and counter-rumors that the Bremer appointment was a "victory" for Colin Powell, against the neo-conservative putschistsCheney, Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz.
Whether Bremer is an opponent of the neo-cons' imperial policy cannot be known at this time. But the truth about the demotion of Garner is that he was stung badly by the exposure of his association with JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, an organization whose leading figure, Stephen Bryen, has been investigated for passing classified defense secrets to Israel, and which has advocated treating Palestinian leaders, like President Yasser Arafat, to the Osama bin Laden treatment.
In 2000, Garner signed on to JINSA's letter of praise for the Israel Defense Forces' "restraint" in their murderous assaults on Palestinian civilians. EIW was the first to document "Viceroy" Garner's Israeli and neo-con connectionsfrom praising the IDF, to profiteering off the contracts to supply Israel with the Arrow air defense. On April 26, Garner told the New York Times that he would not have signed the JINSA letter if he had it to "do over again."
Bremer, however, has his own worrisome connections to the neo-con warmongers. EIW summarizes his history here:
On April 2 at UCLA in Los Angeles, Bremer set the stage for Defense Policy Board "Chickenhawk" James Woolsey, and Straussian William Bennettwho was recently exposed as a multimillion-dollar gambling addict, fond of lecturing on "virtue." With both Woolsey and Bennett defending preemptive war, Bremer said of Islamic terrorists: "They hate us for the fundamentals of Western Civilization."
A brief biosketch by his employer Marsh McLennan Company (MMC) gives the following highlights:
*Ambassador Bremer was appointed in June 2002 to the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council, and at the same time he held the position of Chairman and CEO for Marsh, Inc. Crisis Consulting Practice.
*Before joining MMC in October 2000, Bremer had been Managing Director of Kissinger Associates, Inc., which he joined in 1989 after 23 years in civil service.
*In September 1999, apparently while still at Kissinger Associates, Brenner was appointed by House Speaker Dennis Hastert as chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism.
*In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed him Ambassador-at-Large for Counter Terrorism, after a tour as U.S. Ambassador to Norway.
*In 1981, Al Haig appointed him Executive Secretary of the State Department, and Special Assistant to the Secretary of State, and also to the State Department's 24-hour-a-day crisis management and emergency center.
In a Denver Post article of Feb. 7, 2003, Bremer is quoted as saying, "First-strike war proves a tough call....
"What 9/11 taught is: These guys [terrorists] want to kill so many of us that it is no longer politically acceptable to wait in response. We have to move from 'wait and respond' to 'detect and destroy.' You've got to destroy them.... The minute the threat is imminent, it's too late to do anything about it."
Bush Administration Escalates Hype on Iran's 'Nuclear Danger'
Beware of new "Chickenhawk" disinformation. During the same week that New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh exposed how intelligence operatives in the Defense Department's Office of Special Plans (see this week's INDEPTH article by Jeffrey Steinberg), the same intelligence networks in the Bush Administration are hyping a nuclear threat from Iran.
A front-page story in the May 8 New York Times presents the "round two" format for Iran as the biggest danger of nuclear weapons development, more so even than North Korea. Absolutely no new information is presented, but "Administration officials" have announced that a re-evaluation of the results of IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei's February tour of the recently constructed uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, indicates that Iran is doing terrible thingslike enriching uranium. Never mind that this is legal, that the Iranians announced it openly, that they invited El-Baradei to inspect it, and El-Baradei reported that it was all within the prescribed rules of international agreements.
Writes Weisman: "But American officials say that a recent evaluation of what Dr. El-Baradei found in February, as well as other nations' intelligence, has convinced American and other experts that Natanz is so obviously a weapons facility that the International Atomic Energy Agency can be persuaded to act on it." Weisman also reports that "the Administration is pressing Russia, Western European nations, and others" to get El-Baradei to revise his story. Such Chickenhawk methods of persuasion are increasingly well known around the world.
As to the "other nations," it is not left to speculation: the U.S. official is quoted as saying that "'there's also a lot of hammering from the Israelis for us to take the problem seriously.'"
Tens of Thousands of Public Workers Protest U.S. Cuts
With the end of the fiscal year (June 30) now seven weeks away, elected officials, faced with multibillion-dollar deficits, are wielding the budget axe. City, state and county workers are taking to the streets in protest:
New York: 20,000-40,000 educators and citizens rallied at the state's capital in Albany on May 3 to demand more monies for schools. The state legislature restored much of Gov. Pataki's education cuts, but Pataki has threatened to veto their new budget. Even with the restored cuts deficits still abound in school districts.
In New York City, thousands of union workers rallied at City Hall to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget cuts axing 4,500 city workers. District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, was joined by teachers, sanitation, and transport workers. Bloomberg didn't show. Instead, speaking uptown, he rebuked them and threatened "more job losses" unless unions make concessions on healthcare, pensions, and productivity demands.
Connecticut: The threatened closure of historical museums has caused protests where museum entrances were draped with funeral cloths. The Appropriations Committee has restored the cuts, but the full Legislature has not yet voted, and Gov. John Rowland said he'll veto any increases in spending.
Massachusetts: Hundreds of wheelchair-bound citizens rallied in Boston at the end of April to protest Gov. Mitt Romney's murderous health-care cuts. These citizens rely on personal care attendant (PCA) services for daily home help in order that they may work or otherwise be active despite their disabilities. Governor Romney is cutting the PCA program by 30%, which will result in closure of independent living centers, causing at least 200 people in Boston to be sent to nursing homes, and affecting another 8,000 statewide.
Indiana: Hundreds rallied at the statehouse to protest the Medicaid cuts.
Minnesota: Firefighters and citizens took to the streets of Minneapolis in mid-April when 55 firemen were laid off by Mayor Rybak after Gov. Pawlenty cut state aid to local government in an effort to close the state's deficit. "You feel like the city doesn't value your life. It's hurt the department's morale," remarked Capt. Josh Tjaden of the city's fire department. The impact is real; instead of four fighters to a truckone on the pumps, one to guide the hose, one to control the spray nozzle, and one to scout and look for flash points or back draftsthe layoffs mean only three to a truck. The first 8-10 minutes are crucial in any blaze, since a fire doubles in size each minute it is unchecked; now only one firefighter will make the initial entry. "It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed," say firefighters.
Texas: In mid-April members of a disability rights group, ADAPT, camped out overnight in front of the Governor's mansion to protest the "immoral" budget cuts made to help reduce the $9.9-billion deficit, which will "force many into nursing homes." ADAPT estimates that the cuts will affect 60,000-90,000 people.
South Carolina: Several thousand teachers rallied at the statehouse in mid-April to protest funding cuts to public schools. The South Carolina Education Association said the cuts would eliminate 6,600 teaching jobs and force increases in class size. The per-child spending will also be cut.
Hospital Inspection Agency Warns of Shutdown of D.C.'s Greater Southeast Hospital
Dennis O'Leary, the president of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the national organization that certifies the standards of hospitals, took the unusual step of sending a letter to Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams at the end of February, warning that Greater Southeast Community Hospital "is now in real jeopardy of having its accreditation denied." O'Leary, who spent two decades working in D.C. hospitals, said that Greater Southeast's role "became critical with the recent closure of D.C. General Hospital," and he urged the D.C. government to intervene to help restore the hospital's standards, so that the only remaining hospital in the eastern part of the District will not have to also shut down.
On May 6, City Administrator John Koskinen (a former official of the Federal Office of Management and Budget) was leading a delegation from Greater Southeast hospital to a JCAHO hearing in Chicago, where they were to plead to have Greater Southeast's accreditation restored. The most recent inspection of Greater Southeast found serious problems with blood transfusion, infection control, the clinical laboratory, and training and screening of workers and doctors. Greater Southeast, and its gangster-like owner, DCHC, went into bankruptcy last November.
U.S. Homeland Security Runs Phony 'Nuclear Terror' Attack
The U.S. government will conduct a $16-million homeland security exercise from May 12-16. In the scenario, a radioactive "dirty bomb" hits Seattle, and Chicago hospitals are crowded with patients showing mysterious flu-like symptoms. Washington officials will scramble to respond. The exercise involves a fictitious television station, and a fictitious terrorist group. Some 8,500 Federal, state and local officials will participate; only President Bush and his staff will be represented by stand-ins. The Canadian government will be involved; they will try to address cross-border issues raised by the Chicago epidemic.
Newspaper ads will appear over the weekend, telling people what to expect.
Bush's Fourth Economic Adviser Quit as Insider Trading Charge Surfaced
White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels announced his resignation on May 6, the fourth economic adviser to leave the Bush Administration. All of Bush's original economic advisers have now left his Administration. Daniels, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, notified Bush in a letter "that he will be leaving the White House in 30 days," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. No reason was given for Daniels' resignation, although he may run for Governor of Indiana in 2004, Administration officials said.
While Daniels was disliked for having stonewalled during testimony to Congress, there also may be a scandal behind the resignation. Daniels was subpoenaed May 2 for alleged stock dumping and insider trading, reported Associated Press, four days before he resigned as OMB chief. Indiana securities investigators have asked Daniels, along with 30 former executives of IPALCO Enterprises, to provide information about their stock sales prior to AES Corp.'s acquisition of the utility in March 2001. A separate shareholder lawsuit alleges securities violations. Daniels sold 60,000 shares of IPALCO stock in January 2001 (when he joined the Bush Administration); then AES shares plummeted after the merger closed, reaping more than $550,000.
Cheney's Halliburton Scandal Grows
As EIW reported months ago, the firm that pays Vice President Dick Cheney $1 million a year, is profiting from the Iraq war that Cheney pushed. Halliburton's subsidiary KBR was not only authorized to put out oil well fires in Iraq and to do related repairs, but was authorized to operate Iraq's oil facilities and even to distribute and sell the oil. This heretofore hidden element of the sole-source (no-bid) contract awarded by the Bush Administration to Halliburton was disclosed in a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).
"I find it inexplicably difficult to get a straight story," Waxman said, noting that the Army Corps is releasing information in "dribs and drabs." Waxman charged that this "stands in contrast to the Administration claims that Iraq resources will be controlled by Iraq, that we're not there to run the Iraq oil industry."
The value of the no-bid Halliburton/KBR contract has now risen to $76.7 billion, with the expanded role of restarting the oil industry accounting for an additional $24 billion.
Evangelicals' President Demands End to 'Demonizing' Islam
In an unmistakable swipe at the Christian supporters of the neo-conservatives' war against Islam, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and other Evangelical leaders call for an end to demonizing Islam. The Rev. Tim Haggard, who is President of the NAE, brought together a nucleus of 40 pastors from this far-ranging organization who were concerned that the remarks made by "Elmer Gantry" Televangelists for raising big bucks from their domestic constituency, would inflame Muslim governments, spark riots that have already led to deaths, and endanger Christian aid workers and make missionary efforts harder.
Cited in particular for these inflammatory remarks were: the Rev. Franklin Graham, who in November 2001 called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion"; "Blood Diamond" Pat Robertson, who said in February 2002 that Islam "is not a peaceful religion that wants to co-exist," and that the Prophet Mohammed was "an absolute wild-eyed fanatic, a robber and brigand"; and the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who said in October 2002 that Mohammed was "a terrorist."
The Rev. Haggard had invited Graham, but the latter said that he would prefer to help his father preach a "revival" in San Diego. Haggard said that he would invite Graham, Falwell, and Robertson, as well as other Televangelists and leaders of mega-churches within six months, to refine a set of proposed guidelines on Christian-Muslim dialogue.
Covering the same event, the May 8 Washington Times (owned by the Moonies) highlighted a poll conducted by Beliefnet and the Washington-based EPPC, which showed that a sampling of Evangelicals and Televangelists showed 79% do not believe that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, and just 10% agreed that (in President Bush's words) Islam is fundamentally a "religion of peace."
|