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April 21, 2002
Michelle Campos
Suckered Again in Israel
Mike Leon
200,000
in DC Protest Say:
"We Are All Palestinians Today"
C.G. Estabrook
Sex and Power in Catholicism
Kathy
Kelly
Gimme
Some Truth Now
A Walk Through Jenin
April 20, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Drowning in a Sea of Apathy
Kristen
Schurr
Leaving
Nablus
Bernard Weiner
Israel and the Intifada
for Dummies
Jean-Guy
Allard
A
Coup Signed by Otto Reich
Chris Floyd
The "Grandeur" That Was Rome:
A Letter from the Front
April 19, 2002
Eric Flint
Free
the Books!
David Krieger
A Peace Proposal:
Bring in the Children
Jeff Paterson
Advice
to Recruits from
a Gulf War Vet
Jeffrey St. Clair
From Sen. "Lunkhead" to
Bush Energy Czar: A Year in the Life of Spencer Abraham
April 18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Latin
America's Dilemma:
The Propaganda of Otto Reich
Sam Bahour
Bush is Playing Russian
Roulette with Palestinians
M. Shahid
Alam
A
Colonizing Project
Built on Lies
Alexander Cockburn
Austin Cultural Limits:
Willie Nelson, Film and BBQ
April 17, 2002
Norman
Finkelstein
Behind
the Carnage in Palestine
Kristen Schurr
With the Wounded
and the Homeless in Nablus
Norman
Madarasz
Undoing
Chavez:
The View from South America
Brian Wood
Combing The Ruins of Jenin
George
Monbiot
Chemical
Coup: The CIA's Attempt to Undermine the UN's Weapon Inspector
for Iraq
Robert Fisk
Fear and Learning in America

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April 22, 2002
A Week of Coups...But Now
the Freedom Train Hits Town
By David Wilson
The Bush administration is staffed by those who
made their reputations in the dirty wars under President Reagan:
Otto Reich (policy-maker for Latin America whose boss was Oliver
North), John Negroponte (US Ambassador to the UN who was US Ambassador
to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 when US-trained death squad Battalion
3-16 tortured and murdered union activists, peasant leaders and
journalists) and Elliot Abrams (Senior Director of the National
Security Council and leading theoretician of "Hemispherism",
read as removing radical movements in the Americas).
They are a specialist team in the worldwide
organisation of state terrorism. So what have been up to in the
last one week? The answer is three coups that we know of. This
within the context of the Boss himself who described Ariel Sharon
as a "man of peace" which is a bit like calling Prince
Phillip a Trotskyist.
First there was an unsuccesful coup in
Venezuela where evidence is growing that President Hugo Chavez
was the victim of a CIA / State Department plot. SD boss, Ari
Fleischer, presumptively but imperially informed the US media
that Chavez was "losing his job". How quickly Bush
and our own government welcomed it all. Ha! Pedro Carmona Estanga,
representing Big Business and "democratic stability",
didn"t last 48 hours thanks to the people who took to the
streets and constitutional elements in the military.
This was followed by a successful coup;
the removal on 20 April of Robert Watson, the head of the International
Scientific Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC) , and who has called
for urgent action to curb global warming. Bush, Exxon-Mobil and
other energy companies had been out to get him removed for some
time. They succeeded.
The third coup is in process as I write;
the attempt to remove Jose Bustani, Director General of the Organisation
for the prohibition of Chemical Weapons. His conduct is deemed
unprofessional after he succeeded in encouraging Saddam Hussein
to sign the chemical weapons convention. He also had the nerve
to request access to US chemical weapons facilities.
Enter the music Biz in the form of Brian
Eno who last got politically involved at the time of the Balkan
wars. He encouraged Robbie Williams, Damien Hirst, Salman Rushdie,
Peter Gabriel, Dave Stewart, Thom Yorke, Joe Strummer, Annie
Lennox, Bianca Jagger, Jonathan Ross, Marc Quinn, Robert Wyatt,
Robert Fripp, Holly Johnson, Andy Kershaw, Bonnie Greer, Charlie
Gillettand amongst others to co-sign a letter to the UK Press
This letter was published on the same
day that over 200,000 marched through the centre of Washington
with slogans such as "Sharon, Hitler, they"re the same.
The only difference is the name" and "Peace is Patriotic".
On that latter theme and much unreported
during this one week has been the brave and continuing presence
of Israeli Jews and Americans, French, Italians, Brits and others
on the West Bank bearing witness to the rampant fascism of the
Israeli army.
With all this going on thank you Brian
and friends for joining a growing movement. All aboard the Freedom
Train. This is their letter.
Back Jose Bustani
Saturday April 20, 2002
Tomorrow, the US government will attempt
to remove the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons from his post (Chemical coup d'etat, April
16). By encouraging Saddam Hussein to sign the chemical weapons
convention, Jose Bustani appears to have become an obstacle to
the American intention to engage in military action in Iraq.
If the US succeeds, it will be a victory for unilateralism and
a blow to international law. The OPCW is the first global regime
aimed at abolishing an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
With the backing of the UN security council, Bustani believes
he can persuade Iraq to join the convention, offering the most
realistic peaceful means of eliminating its chemical weapons.
At stake is the independence of the OPCW and of all the multilateral
organisations. After seeking unsuccessfully, in defiance of international
law, to force Bustani to resign, the US government has called
a special meeting, beginning tomorrow, to sack him. It has threatened
to withdraw OPCW's funding if it does not get its way, which
would cripple the organisation. This action is unprecedented.
If the other signatories to the convention give in, the entire
system of international treaties and organisations could become
endangered, as powerful nations see that they can challenge their
independence. The UK's record of support for the chemical weapons
convention has so far been exemplary. We call upon the government
to put world peace ahead of the special relationship by defending
the OPCW against US unilateralism.
David Wilson
lives in London. He can be reached at: Dwil45@aol.com
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