:::News and Commentary, Feb 24th:::

Section-by-Section Analysis of Justice Department draft �Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003,� also known as �PATRIOT Act II�

The Student Peace Action Network

A grassroots peace and justice organization working from campuses across the United States. We organize for an end to physical, social, and economic violence caused by militarism at home and abroad. We campaign for nuclear abolition, disarmament, and an end to weapons trafficking. We support a foreign policy based on human rights and international cooperation, and a domestic agenda that supports human and environmental concerns, not Pentagon excess. War is not inevitable. We push for practical alternatives.

There is a new Yahoo Group dedicated to stopping the war with Iraq. Check them out here: Put An End To War

O what a wicked web they spin! *They* can make up any stories they want for as long as they want, but I will never believe anything other than Paul Wellstone was assassinated for being a threat to pResident Bush. Check out the latest spin (posting the entire article because this is from Yahoo News and they remove articles after about a week):

Weather Worried Wellstone's Pilot, Documents Show

By Tim Dobbyn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pilot of a plane that crashed killing Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone and all seven others aboard in October was concerned about icy weather and nearly canceled the trip, documents released on Friday showed.

Wellstone himself may have been worried. The plane's pilot, Richard Conry, had another pilot who had just flown a similar route talk to Wellstone just before departure.

"The King Air pilot told the senator that 'the weather was at minimums, but the pilots could handle it,"' wrote investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The board on Friday released facts gathered on the crash but offered no conclusions. The probable cause of the crash will be considered at a later date.

Wellstone, a Democrat, was in the midst of a tight re-election campaign when he, his wife, his daughter, three campaign staffers and two crew were killed in the Oct. 25 crash on approach to Eveleth, Minnesota, from St. Paul.

The impact and post-crash fire in a wooded area two miles short of the runway destroyed the twin-engined Beechcraft King Air A100.

There has been speculation that Wellstone's plane may have had ice on its wings, which would require a higher speed to avoid losing lift and falling from the sky.

Early on the morning of the flight, Conry had called the air weather service for conditions along the St. Paul to Eveleth route.

On hearing the cloud ceiling was between 300 and 600 feet with light snow and mixed icing, Conry told the weather specialist: "OK, ah, you know what, I don't think I'm going to take this flight."

But an hour later he checked again and the cloud ceiling had lifted to 900 feet. "OK, that's what I need, at least it's above my minimums," Conry said.

Aviation Charter Inc. supplied records showing Conry had flown into Eveleth four times before, most recently on Sept. 19 and 20. Co-pilot Michael Guess had never flown to Eveleth.

Engine experts assembled by the safety board said the engines were operating normally at impact. Damage observed to the propellers suggested operation at low power.

The plane contained no flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder (how convenient!) but the last radar contact showed an altitude of 2,300 feet and a ground speed of 160 knots or 184 mph.

Wellstone's plane was heading west, straight for the runway at the start of its approach, but began a slight turn to the south before crashing. Tests of a navigation beacon at Eveleth showed an error during a flight test the day after the accident but an Oct. 28 comprehensive ground check was normal.

Crash site evidence suggested no in-flight breakup. The plane descended through the trees at a 25 degree downward path with wings approximately level. (there was no in-flight breakup because the plane was being flown by remote control! I would stake my own life on that!)

**Comments in italics are my own.

US plays the arms sales game

By Derrick Z. Jackson, 2/21/2003

IN A PARTICULARLY seething rant in December about ''weapons of mass destruction,'' President Bush said: ''We will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes and terrorists to threaten our nation and our friends and allies with the world's most destructive weapons.''

''Weapons of mass destruction pose a grave danger. They could allow America's adversaries to inflict massive harm against our country, our military forces abroad, and our friends and allies.''

''For terrorists, WMD would provide the ability to kill large numbers of our people without warning. They would give them the power to murder without conscience on a scale to match their hatred for our country and our values.''

Because of this, Bush said, ''we will pursue robust counterproliferation policies and capabilities to deter and defend against the use of these weapons.''

Have we ever. Amid the flaming debate over Iraq, the United States not only continues to seed the world with conventional weapons of mass destruction but arms contractors are increasingly entering into deals that all but give away US technology.

Recent newspaper reports have detailed how American contractors are aggressively pursuing arms sales in India despite the frictions between India and Pakistan, both of which have nuclear weapons programs. ''The potential in this market is significant,'' said Dennys Plessas, a Lockheed Martin vice president, to The New York Times.

Another recent New York Times story detailed the growing trend by American defense contractors to offer new goodies to nations that purchase US arms. While Bush has labeled North Korea as one of the nations in his ''axis of evil,'' Boeing has a $4.4 billion contract with South Korea for 40 F-15 fighters. Part of the reason South Korea picked Boeing was because 75 percent of the contract's value comes in Boeing giving enough technical and manufacturing jobs to South Korea to allow that nation to build the fighter itself eventually.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently criticized the ''old Europe'' of France and Germany, which oppose a US invasion of Iraq. One of the countries he smiles upon in his ''new Europe'' is Poland. One of the reasons is because the government and Lockheed bought Poland's support. The White House will plunder the Treasury for a $3.8 billion, below-market-rate loan to help Poland buy 48 F-16s. According to the Times, that loan is more than all direct loans for military aid to the rest of the world combined for the last decade.

In addition, Lockheed offered $3 billion in ''offsets'' in the form of jobs in Poland to build engines for the fighter and parts for commercial US aircraft and to help the nation modernize steel mills and its high-tech sector. The government has defended the deals by saying they need them to ''build influence'' in the region. Critics call it what it is: bribes and corporate welfare.

The game of offsets is so widespread that it goes from wannabe powers such as Poland to England, our most staunch ally against Iraq. American contactors are so desperate to keep business going they give offsets even to super-rich Switzerland.

In the already unstable Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, which is getting 80 Lockheed F-16s for $7 billion, has an office devoted to offsets. Israel is so good at the game of offsets that it has already developed its own arms from US technology. American contractors end up competing in the arms market against Israeli weapons developed with the help of the United States.

The practice of giving other nations jobs in exchange for contracts has already cost the US economy 4,200 jobs in the last decade, according to the government. Arms analyst William Hartung of the World Policy Institute said the Bush administration does not ''have any principle of restraining arms sales. If anything, it's like a mixture of the Clinton policy that arms are just another export and the Reagan policy of arming favorable warlords. Their whole focus is cutting down on red tape without one thought about if arms ended up in the wrong hands.''

Under the guise of ''robust counterproliferation'' against weapons of mass destruction, the United States is using its wealth to put arms and military technology in the hands of just about any nation that claims to be our friend today - with no thought as to who will be tomorrow's axis of evil.

Bush says that Saddam Hussein's toxins are the scariest, most unpredictable weapons on the planet. No matter how much he repeats that, he cannot hide the fact that the United States continues to ensure that the world will remain full of weapons that are desired precisely because they are proven to be the most efficient and most reliable weapons of mass destruction on earth.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is [email protected].

This story ran on page A19 of the Boston Globe on 2/21/2003.

� Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

When U.S. Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy

Paul S. Boyer writes: Does the Bible foretell regime change in Iraq? Did God establish Israel's boundaries millennia ago? Is the United Nations a forerunner of a satanic world order?

For millions of Americans, the answer to all those questions is a resounding yes. For many believers in biblical prophecy, the Bush administration's go-it-alone foreign policy, hands-off attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and proposed war on Iraq are not simply actions in the national self-interest or an extension of the war on terrorism, but part of an unfolding divine plan.

Planet X Talk for SPRE at the Lincoln Center in Ft. Collins Colorado

March 9th

Mark Hazlewood writes: I will be giving a talk for the UFO organization SPRE regarding Planet X this coming March 9th. Call Charlie Wiechert (president of SPRE) at 970 221-1078 or his assistant Terry at 970 498-9718 if you wish to attend.

Druid wolf pack dwindles in park

Mike Stark writes: The mighty Druid Peak wolf pack, once the largest and most recognized pack in Yellowstone National Park, is slowly vanishing in the rugged wilds of the Lamar Valley.

At the height of its strength near the end of 2001, the pack had 37 members and was one of the most popular attractions for park visitors.

But over the last year, some members of the Druids have died and others have splintered off to form four other packs.

This is tragic, please read the whole article.

WAR CRIMES

A Report on United States War Crimes Against Iraq to the Commission of Inquiry for the International War Crimes Tribunal

by Ramsey Clark and Others

The Highway of Death

The 3 BIG LIES About Iraq

by John Pilger

1 � Lie Number One is the justification for an attack on Iraq � the threat of its �weapons of mass destruction�.

Few countries have had 93 per cent of their major weapons capability destroyed. This was reported by Rolf Ekeus, the chairman of the United Nations body authorised to inspect and destroy Iraq�s arsenal following the Gulf War in 1991. UN inspectors certified that 817 out of the 819 Iraqi long-range missiles were destroyed. In 1999, a special panel of the Security Council recorded that Iraq�s main biological weapons facilities (supplied originally by the US and Britain) �have been destroyed and rendered harmless.�

As for Saddam Hussein�s �nuclear threat,� the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iraq�s nuclear weapons programme had been eliminated �efficiently and effectively�. The IAEA inspectors still travel to Iraq and in January [2002] reported full Iraqi compliance.

Blair and Bush never mention this when they demand that �the weapons inspectors are allowed back�. Nor do they remind us that the UN inspectors were never expelled by the Iraqis, but withdrawn only after it was revealed they had been infiltrated by US intelligence.

2 � Lie Number Two is the connection between Iraq and the perpetrators of September 11.

There was the rumour that Mohammed Atta, one of the September 11 hijackers, had met an Iraqi intelligence official in the Czech Republic last year. The Czech police say he was not even in the country last year. On February 5, [2002] a New York Times investigation concluded:

�The Central Intelligence Agency has no evidence that Iraq has engaged in terrorist operations against the United States in nearly a decade, and the agency is convinced that Saddam Hussein has not provided chemical or biological weapons to al-Qaeda or related terrorist groups.�

3 � Lie Number Three is that Saddam Hussein, not the US and Britain, �is blocking humanitarian supplies from reaching the people of Iraq.� (British Foreign Office minister Peter Hain).

The opposite is true. The United States, with British compliance, is currently blocking a record $5billion worth of humanitarian supplies from the people of Iraq. These are shipments already approved by the UN Office of Iraq, which is authorised by the Security Council. They include life-saving drugs, painkillers, vaccines, cancer diagnostic equipment.

The UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT is the World�s Greatest TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

The greatest acts of terrorism are not committed by furtive gangs of masked desperados in foreign lands. The most horrific acts of terrorism in world history have always been committed by governments and their militaries.

The government and military of the United States of America have committed massive acts of international terrorism and brutal genocide � from 1899 to the present day.

Official FBI definition of terrorism:

�Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.�

Even by its own definition the hypocrite U.S. government is guilty of terrorism � on a massive, international scale. And for over 100 years!

The U.S. government has broken international law and the Geneva Convention many times with its brutal use of force and horrific violence against persons and property, to intimidate and coerce governments, civilian populations, and many segments thereof, in furtherance of political, social and especially economic objectives.

Check out the link above to see 10 Reasons why the author(s) of this site believe that the U.S. Government committed the September 11th Attacks!

:::Quote of the Day:::

�This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their Constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.�

� Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address
March 4, 1861

This will be the last post for today because reading all of this stuff from the last couple of websites posted here has deeply depressed me. The following post concerns Amira Shelter which was bombed during the Gulf War. The U.S. military at first claimed that it was a military site, but later claimed that they had made a mistake. If any of you remember anything about WWII, just think about the city of Dresden and how it was bombed near the end of the war for nothing more than revenge. Here is the link to Amira Shelter:

Amira Shelter: No Place to Hide