United States News Digest
Accused Spy Franklin Hires Lawyer; Won't Seek Plea Deal
According to Oct. 7 news wire reports, Larry Franklin, the Pentagon/DIA analyst charged with possible espionage for Israel, has cut off his negotiations with prosecutors over a plea agreement, and has hired a prominent, and expensive, criminal defense lawyer, Plato Catcheris. Catcheris has represented convicted spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, as well as Clinton-era Mata Hari, Monica Lewinsky. According to sources close to the case, government prosecutors have a hard case against Franklin, on a relatively minor charge of mishandling of classified documents. For weeks, news reports had indicated that Franklin was cooperating with prosecutors, who were interested in AIPAC and its ties to Pentagon neocons, and Israeli diplomats in Washington. According to one source, AIPAC recently hired Washington "super-lawyer" Nathan Lewin, to run their damage-control efforts against the government probe, which has been going on for more than two years.
White House Forced To Retract Pacific Command Nomination
The Bush Administration was forced to withdraw the nomination of Air Force General Gregory S. Martin to head the U.S. Pacific Command, currently headed by Adm. Thomas Fargo. The nomination is being pulled, in light of the Boeing aircraft-lease scandal involving, among others, neo-con big-wig Richard Perle. General Martin, who is head of the Air Force Materiel Command, worked with Darleen Druyun, who was sentenced to nine months in prison, in connection with the scandal.
Martin is not accused of wrongdoing in the matter, but was grilled by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), during his confirmation hearing. McCain has been fighting with the Pentagon over e-mail traffic related to the Boeing deal.
Black Caucus Fears Minority-Voter Shutout
Voter intimidation was one of the subjects of an Oct. 7 hearing of the Congressional Black Caucus, on whether or not the United States is ready for the 2004 election. Most of the opening statements of the CBC members present, revolved around the vow that what happened in Florida in the 2000 election must not be allowed to happen again. However, the testimony of Rep. Corinne Brown (D-Fla) and Jorge Mursuli, Florida state director of People for the American Way, indicated that large-scale disenfranchisement of minorities, particularly African-Americans, may happen again in Florida. Mursuli testified that new means of voter suppression have replaced the old methods, such as the poll tax, and that government agencies are actively involved in such efforts. He recounted how efforts he has been involved in, in Florida, to register newly naturalized citizens to vote, have been systematically disrupted by the Department of Homeland Security and the city of Miami Beach. He also noted that because of the four hurricanes that have hit Florida in the past two months, many people are no longer living where they were, and that minority communities have been hit the hardest by this.
Brown, in her opening statement, lit into Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a political appointee of Bush, saying that they have put in a system to disenfranchise African-American voters, which is the subject of numerous lawsuits; they even issued an executive order saying that recounts would be illegal, which was overturned by a Federal court. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-Ohio) gave a similar account for the her state, and said that "it's an effort by some who want chaos to reign."
Robertson Threatens Bush with Evangelical Desertion
"Fellowship" televangelist Pat Robertson, visiting Israel under the sponsorship of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), warned President George W. Bush, on Oct. 5, not to take for granted his support by the religious right: "If [Bush] touches Jerusalem and he really gets serious about taking East Jerusalem and making it the capital of a Palestinian state, he'll lose virtually all evangelical support," Robertson said. "The President has backed away from [the road map], but if he were to touch Jerusalem, he'd lose all Evangelical support," Robertson said. "Evangelicals would form a third party."
Ha'aretz Oct. 5 quotes Robertson reprimanding Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom: "Who do you think you are, handing Jerusalem over to Arafat?" Robertson said Arab nations don't want peace; the UN Relief and Works Agency should be abolished; a Palestinian state with full sovereignty would be a launching ground for WMD and a threat to Israel.
Coinciding with the visit of Robertson and 4,000 of his followers, Israeli police blocked off streets for some 20,000 ICEJ-led Christian marchers for Jerusalem. Meanwhile, a representative of Israel's National Union party, Yuri Stern, will travel to the U.S. this week to meet with Robertson, with "conservative Congressmen"i.e., Tom DeLay and friends, and with groups of Russian emigrants based in Cleveland, New York, and Washington. Stern is saying that a U.S.A. that invades Iraq cannot support the creation of "another terrorist state," meaning a Palestinian state.
Muslim Group Endorses Kerry
The Muslim American Political Action Committee announced Oct 4 that the "Muslim American choice in 2004 is Senator John F. Kerry for President." Mukit Hossain, President of MAPAC, said that if President Bush were reelected, there would be harsher foreign policies toward Muslim Americans in the name of combatting terrorism. "It also means a menacing rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in America, covertly nurtured by the neo-conservatives, and openly fanned by government officials like Lt.-Gen. Boykin and Attorney General John Ashcroft," Hossain emphasized.
Public-Health Crisis Looms Over Shortage of Flu Vaccine
Ten days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for the broadest expansion yet of people it recommends be vaccinated against annual influenza, the country's anticipated stock of 100 million doses of flu vaccine was cut by half, after one of only two producers of this year's vaccine announced some of its 48 million doses were contaminated. Chiron Corp., which produces the vaccine Fluvirin in Liverpool, England, first announced its vaccine would be late because some of its lots were contaminated with Serratia bacteria that can cause severe, even fatal infections in humans. But, on Oct. 5, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the British agency that oversees production, suspended Chiron's license to sell vaccine, and cancelled all of the vaccine for three months while it investigates. According to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, "more than a million doses" of the Chiron vaccine are already in the country.
The CDC claims that the remaining vaccine supply of nearly 54 million doses of Fluzone, produced by Aventis Pasteur, is enough to protect the population if healthy adults forego vaccination. But this is a dangerous folly. Public-health measures nationally have collapsed, the population is not getting even basic health-care needs met, and the last flu season was harsher, started earlier, and lasted longer than usual. At the same time, infectious disease experts warn that pandemic flu, and new or re-emerging infections are upon us.
Influenza already kills well over 36,000 people every year in the U.S. The CDC estimates that only 4.4% of the nation's children aged 6 to 23 months were fully vaccinated against influenza during that season. Now, they are urging all children get double doses of vaccinewhich is unlikely since even doctors' offices can't get their hands on vaccine.
Byrd Decries Bush-Cheney Preemptive War Policy
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVa) spoke out against the Bush-Cheney doctrine of preemptive war, in a strong speech in the Senate chamber Friday afternoon. He referred to the new report confirming that there were no WMD in Iraq, and denounced the Administration for their "misbegotten war," and called to task the Congress for going along with this, against the Constitution. Byrd ridiculed the Administration catch-phrase, "Stay the course." He asked, "Stay the course? What course?" How long can we allow this to go on?
Also speaking out was Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La), who focussed on the new defense budget doing nothing"not even a comment"about the financial plight of the National Guard and Reserve duty forces, whose families are losing their homes, their jobs, and all means of managing their households.
Chafee Won't Back Bush
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) told the Oct. 4 New York Times that he will not vote for President Bush on Nov. 2, but rather, "choose a write-in candidate."
It has earlier been reported that Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI) would not be backing Bush, but in his discussion with the Times, he identifies a post-2000 election meeting with Dick Cheney as the trigger for the alienation of moderate Republicans from the Bush-Cheney team. Chaffee reported that one day after the Supreme Court nailed Bush's election, Cheney held a private lunch with five moderate GOP Senators, to discuss the new agenda.
"I literally was close to falling off my chair ... it was no room from discussion. I said, 'Well, it's a 50-50 Senate; you're going to need us moderates.' He said, 'Well, we'll need everyone.'" Cheney had told the Senators about the tax-cut plan, the planned U.S. pullout from the ABM Treaty and the Kyoto Treaty.
On the eve of the first debate between Bush and Kerry, John Eisenhower, son of President Dwight Eisenhower, and a lifelong figure in the Republican Party, endorsed Kerry in a strong statement in New Hampshire.
Mass New Registrations May Favor Democrats
The Oct. 4 New York Times ran a front-page national survey of the very large increases in voter registration which are swamping election boards around the country, citing experts who say that the number of new registrants for this election is the largest in two decades. While the long article is full of cautions about not knowing how many of the newly registered voters will vote, and for whom, some indications come through. The Times says its surveys show that the new voters picture is "extreme" in urban areas and in swing states, less extreme in rural areas and more reliable states. And it says that "huge gains have come in areas with minority and low-income populations. In some of these areas in Ohio, registrations have quadrupled since 2000."
Philadelphia-area counties have started to release figures actually detailing the Democrat-Republican breakdown in new registration, which has closed. In heavily Democratic Philadelphia, there are 128,000 new Democrats registered, to 14,000 new Republicans. In Montgomery County, normally "a Republican town," there are 13,500 new Democrats registered, 9,000 new Republicans. In Chester County, which went for Bush in 2000, it's 4,400 Democrats, 3,000 Republicans. And in Bucks County it's 6,600 new Democrats to 5,200 new Republicans registered.
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