I wasn't actually present at these protests today (Friday, March 14, 2003), because I'm still in Austin, Texas, but I was able to find a link to some video footage, a legal report (which cops did what to whom),
pictures, and a summary of the details on the Indymedia website.
Protesters Shut Down Stock Exchange, Blockade Bush & Market
3/14: Some 80 protesters were arrested this morning in downtown San Francisco taking part in an emergency direct action to prevent war in Iraq. Direct Action to Stop the War has been organizing "day-after" actions for the business day after war starts, but many felt the need for a "preemptive strike" to stop war before it starts.Over 200 demonstrators gathered at dawn at the old Pacific Stock Exchange building at Pine and Sansome. Several speakers rallied the crowd, including student, queer, labor, faith, and people of color activists. Some protesters formed a blockade outside the financial trading floor, while others blocked the intersection of Bush and Montgomery. About 30 sat down in the street, chanting "We are blocking Bush!", and were arrested around 8:30am after police gave a dispersal order. Protesters continued down Bush Street to Market, where two separate groups blockaded the street and were also arrested and loaded into sheriff's buses.
Today I saw this article on BoingBoing and my friend Cam and I were discussing it while riding in a Taxicab to downtown Austin. (I'm still here for SXSW 2003.)
I mentioned that cab companies around the country already keep information on every pick-up and drop off that takes place, and that the information is already available to the cops without a subpoena or anything. The cops often need a witness or something when a crime has been committed, and can then ask whatever cabby might have been in the area at that time (like in Law and Order). (I gleaned these facts some time ago from my cabbies back home in San Francisco.)
Our Austin cab driver told us that they've had black boxes in Austin for years. That the cops know exactly where every driver is at all times within 10 feet (theoretically), and that they can tell everytime the meter is started or paused, idling, etc., and when the engine turns off and on, etc.
The only way to drive anonymously is to turn everything off inside the car: the meter, blackbloxes, gps, etc. None of the other devices will work without the black box on. (Note: the car itself will operate without the monitoring equipment on.)
Of course, if you turn everything else off, then that in itself looks suspicious (we all mused).
It would appear that the devices currently installed within all of the cabs in Austin, TX already go far above and beyond those described in this WSJ article.
Here's the WSJ article on the subject written by William M. Bulkeley:
Taxis Soon May Acquire Their Own 'Black Boxes'
The devices, somewhat like the "black boxes" in commercial airliners, will sense a crash and automatically report data on speed, location, brake pressure and number of passengers to a crash-records depository run by International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.Ralph Bisceglia, director of American Transit, said it expects to get "important feedback on auto-safety features," and to combat fraud. For example, if a cab driver claims he "was under the speed limit and the passenger claims he was speeding, the box will tell you," he said.
The program illustrates the growing interest of insurers and fleet owners in using "telematics" in vehicles to remotely monitor what drivers do, where they go and how the vehicle is performing.
Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB104752623581462300,00.html?mod=telecommunications%5Fprimary%5Fhs
Taxis Soon May Acquire
Their Own 'Black Boxes'
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Crash-prone New York taxi drivers could soon confront a new witness when explaining accidents to insurers: a black box connected to their car's controls that senses precrash speed and other factors.
Closely held American Transit Insurance Co., New York, which insures 80% of the taxis and limousines in the Big Apple, said the devices will be installed late this summer. The company plans to offer $300 insurance discounts to induce owners of as many as 1,500 cabs to take part.
The devices, somewhat like the "black boxes" in commercial airliners, will sense a crash and automatically report data on speed, location, brake pressure and number of passengers to a crash-records depository run by International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.
Ralph Bisceglia, director of American Transit, said it expects to get "important feedback on auto-safety features," and to combat fraud. For example, if a cab driver claims he "was under the speed limit and the passenger claims he was speeding, the box will tell you," he said.
The program illustrates the growing interest of insurers and fleet owners in using "telematics" in vehicles to remotely monitor what drivers do, where they go and how the vehicle is performing.
Wednesday, IBM and Norwich Union, a car-insurance unit of Britain's Aviva PLC, announced plans to put black boxes in 5,000 volunteers' cars. The aim is to see whether people who drive less should get lower insurance rates. That program could raise invasion-of-privacy issues, because it keep tabs on when, where and how much the cars are driven.
Jim Ruthven, IBM's program director for telematics, said the taxi program shouldn't raise similar concerns, because data would be sent to computer systems only when a crash occurred. IBM, which is developing what it expects will be a large business in telematics for monitoring and communicating with automobiles, is helping design the system and will run it.
The in-car devices take advantage of the multitude of sensors auto makers have deployed in cars, often under government mandates, to monitor emissions and detect passenger presence for air-bag and seat-belt systems. Normally the information stays in the car, but in the taxi system, IBM plans to connect the sensors to a black box the size of a cigarette pack that would send five seconds worth of data about the car as a text message over the cellphone network, every time an air bag exploded.
The black boxes for taxis will be custom-designed, but ultimately will cost a few hundred dollars a vehicle, IBM predicts.
The program also involves Safety Intelligence Systems Corp., a Atlanta, Ga., company established by Ricardo Martinez, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Safety Intelligence is developing a central data repository for real-time crash information that it hopes to sell to insurers, auto makers and governments.
Dr. Martinez, a former emergency-room physician, said that most car crashes are studied only after they occur. "There's very little data, and most of that is from laboratories -- not the real world."
Write to William M. Bulkeley at bill.bulkeley@wsj.com
I finally heard back from Wes Brain about his arrest last week. Turns out, there was a scuffle of sorts during the protest that was the basis for his arrest.
Again, officially, he was not arrested for videoing the conference per se. (Whew!)
That said, it would still appear that he was arrested for approaching a woman in her car and asking her to be more careful after she almost hit several student protesters. If speaking to people who almost hit you with their cars is now a crime, I suppose we'll all be brought in sooner or later.
The Lt. Police Chief quoted in the article stated that he feels that the rights of people in cars driving by protesters are more important than the rights of the protesters to not be hit by them. This better not be upheld in the courts or it will be open season on protesters.
The cop also admits that Brain was singled out because the cops were familiar with him and recognized who he was -- while they had no way of going after the rest of the crowd because they didn't know their identities. Freaky.
According to witnesses (see clip below), Brain also took the liberty of chastising police officers about traumatizing children. (Perhaps not the best idea -- yet, arguably not illegal activity.)
Here's what Wes wrote back to me:
Below is a quick update, mainly in the form of the story reported in the Ashland Daily Tidings, our local newspaper. I have received much support and the room packed full of community supporters at Monday morning's arrainment was absolutely fantastic! Words could never explain how that felt. Here is the story. If you click on the link you'll see a photo.Most Grateful for the solidarity,
Wes-
Here's an article with all of the details from the
Videographer pleads 'not guilty'
By Sean Wolfe and Myles Murphy for the Ashland Daily Tidings.
Brain, who works for Southern Oregon University as an environmental health and safety technologist, was arrested by Ashland Police at his workplace, two days after the protest...He was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct, and one count of impeding police. He was then jailed and released on $10,000 bail.
At his arraignment today in Ashland, Brain was backed by a packed house of
supporters and fellow demonstrators. Brain pleaded not guilty to the charges, and asked for copies of the police reports.A trial date is expected to be set after April 1...
Even though at least 6OO people were breaking laws in the un-permitted march
- mainly obstructing traffic - only one man was arrested at the time. That arrest was an act of conscious civil disobedience on the part of Southern Oregon University freshman Cameron Brooks. Brooks, a criminology major, was
arrested after ignoring Ashland Police Department demands to remove himself
from the street.Since then, two others have been charged for alleged criminal action during
the march.A 20-year-old transient Jeremy Dahl was cited for obstructing traffic and
causing a public alarm, and Brain's arrest.According to Ashland Police Lt. Rich Walsh - who was the incident commander
during the march - police were more than justified to single out Brain and Dahl because they "terrorized" a woman attempting to drive through the Plaza area between Oak and Pioneer at the time of the march. The woman - who police declined to identify - was frightened when Brain and Dahl repeatedly jumped in front of her car, and Brain allegedly yelled at her. With a child in the car, and herself pregnant, the woman was very alarmed, Walsh said."She was really upset," Walsh said. "Wes Brain was yelling at her and she
appeared scared to death."We have someone terrified in a car because of these two individuals," Walsh
added. "That incensed me. That woman had more rights at that point in time
than they did."Brain said he had approached a vehicle after it had nearly run down two
protesters."I said to her, lady, slow down, these are our kids. But I didn't yell at her," Brain said.
The police report confirms Dahl's arrest as stemming from actions at that time and place, about 1:30 p.m. at East Main and Pioneer streets. However, the police report on Brain's arrest places his alleged criminal activity at 2:24 p.m. between Mountain Avenue and Southern Oregon University, not at Oak and Main, where he allegedly frightened the unidentified pregnant woman with a child in her car.
"People need to understand what civil disobedience is." Walsh said. "When you get out in the road and block traffic, you're committing a crime."
According to Walsh, another point which led to Brain's late arrest was the fact that police officers knew him and could identify him later, while the majority of the crowd was relatively anonymous...
According to Walsh, police attempted to clear a lane for vehicle traffic. One man refused to get out of the lane. This led to police placing a woman under arrest. When another man attempted to intervene, he was also arrested. Then police lost control of the crowd.
"About 20 protesters jumped in and pulled the officers off the second person and helped him escape," Walsh said. "It happened pretty quickly. Those officers showed incredible restraint at that point - they backed off."
John Fricker, a sound engineer living in Ashland, said the scuffle began as the result of three officers attempting to clear a lane after protesters had passed through the Pioneer Street intersection.
Fricker, who said he attended the demonstration as "a peacekeeper," said he
saw officers Teresa Selby, Phil Gray, and School Resource Officer Mike Vanderlip approach the demonstrators from behind, asking them to move out of the left lane."My immediate response was to follow them as the mass of people was very
large and my initial thought was that their task was impossible," Fricker said.The scuffle began, according to Fricker, when officers approached a couple and spoke to them.
"At first the couple did not respond and then it appeared one officer placed their hand on the shoulder of one of the pair. One protester turned, and the other appeared to trip and fall. It appeared that the couple and one officer then fell to the ground," Fricker said.
At that point according to multiple eyewitnesses, a female demonstrator was
thrown to the ground. Another protester was then thrown against a parked car
by Gray.At that point a group of protesters - roughly 20 - surrounded the officers and called for calm.
"The officers were together at all times, and I did not see any protester grab, block, or attack an officer," Fricker said.
Brain said he was about 80 feet away from the incident, and filmed the latter part of the events. He has not yet released a copy of his video to The Tidings, pending advice from his attorney.
A family of demonstrators who arrived at the courthouse today to support
Brain said they also witnessed the fracas.Edgar Morton, 33, said he saw two officers wrestling two individuals to the ground, and that they were approached by a third person, who was "sent
headfirst into a parked car by Officer Vanderlip."At that point Morton, his wife and roughly 18 other demonstrators surrounded
the three officers. Morton's two children, aged 4 and 10, also witnessed the
scene."At this point the officers were no longer physically dominating the kids because they were aware of their surroundings," Morton said.
Morton said he saw Brain approach the officers with his video camera.
"He told the policemen they should be ashamed of themselves for traumatizing
little children," Morton said.Margaret Morton, Edgar's wife, said she found the whole scene intimidating.
"All the kids were screaming and crying," she said.
Paul Morton,10, concurred with his mother's view.
"When I saw the cops start throwing people down, it made me angry, and then
I got scared," he said.
Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.dailytidings.com/2003/news0311/031103n1.shtml
Videographer pleads 'not guilty'
By Sean Wolfe and Myles Murphy
Ashland Daily Tidings
The recent arrest of videographer Wes Brain is just one of the many
controversies now bubbling up from the March 5 protest event in Ashland.
Brain, who works for Southern Oregon University as an environmental health
and safety technologist, was arrested by Ashland Police at his workplace,
two days after the protest.
"My presence with the video camera was very much there, and my gut reaction
is that the police didn't like that," Brain said.
Wes Brain (with cap) awaits the start of his arraignment proceedings with a
full crowd of supporters this morning in Ashland's Municipal Court. Photo by
Denise Baratta
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brain, who is also a union shop steward, said he attended the rally to shoot
footage for Rogue Valley Community Television. He was charged with two
counts of disorderly conduct, and one count of impeding police. He was then
jailed and released on $10,000 bail.
At his arraignment today in Ashland, Brain was backed by a packed house of
supporters and fellow demonstrators. Brain pleaded not guilty to the
charges, and asked for copies of the police reports.
A trial date is expected to be set after April 1.
Following his arraignment, Brain said he looked forward to "justice being
done."
"This will be a big trial. It's not just about me, or about Cameron
(Brooks), but a lot of people being booked up across the U.S. right now,"
Brain said.
Even though at least 6OO people were breaking laws in the un-permitted march
- mainly obstructing traffic - only one man was arrested at the time. That
arrest was an act of conscious civil disobedience on the part of Southern
Oregon University freshman Cameron Brooks. Brooks, a criminology major, was
arrested after ignoring Ashland Police Department demands to remove himself
from the street.
Since then, two others have been charged for alleged criminal action during
the march.
A 20-year-old transient Jeremy Dahl was cited for obstructing traffic and
causing a public alarm, and Brain's arrest.
According to Ashland Police Lt. Rich Walsh - who was the incident commander
during the march - police were more than justified to single out Brain and
Dahl because they "terrorized" a woman attempting to drive through the Plaza
area between Oak and Pioneer at the time of the march. The woman - who
police declined to identify - was frightened when Brain and Dahl repeatedly
jumped in front of her car, and Brain allegedly yelled at her. With a child
in the car, and herself pregnant, the woman was very alarmed, Walsh said.
"She was really upset," Walsh said. "Wes Brain was yelling at her and she
appeared scared to death.
"We have someone terrified in a car because of these two individuals," Walsh
added. "That incensed me. That woman had more rights at that point in time
than they did."
Brain said he had approached a vehicle after it had nearly run down two
protesters.
"I said to her, lady, slow down, these are our kids. But I didn't yell at
her," Brain said.
The police report confirms Dahl's arrest as stemming from actions at that
time and place, about 1:30 p.m. at East Main and Pioneer streets. However,
the police report on Brain's arrest places his alleged criminal activity at
2:24 p.m. between Mountain Avenue and Southern Oregon University, not at Oak
and Main, where he allegedly frightened the unidentified pregnant woman with
a child in her car.
"People need to understand what civil disobedience is." Walsh said. "When
you get out in the road and block traffic, you're committing a crime."
According to Walsh, another point which led to Brain's late arrest was the
fact that police officers knew him and could identify him later, while the
majority of the crowd was relatively anonymous.
Even before the march, APD officials were concerned about what might happen
when children and young adults from Ashland Middle School, Ashland High
School, and Southern Oregon University gathered for the march.
"Based on the information I had, i didn't know what to expect," Walsh said.
"I hoped for the best but prepared for the worst."
In a written statement, Brain detailed what he did the day of the protest.
"That day I shot one hour and 41 minutes of raw footage which shows the
colorful march and rally with 500 or 600 (some say more) students
demonstrating that money for war should instead be spent on education (books
not bombs)," Brain wrote.
"This footage shows some of the things not reported by the local mainstream
media like the SWAT team that was called in from a neighboring county to
square off against our peacefully protesting students. This footage looks
like it is taken from another planet, I mean can you imagine riot cops
squaring off against young kids?… My footage also shows the tail-end of a
scuffle in the street which shows the Ashland police throwing people to the
ground. I did not capture the beginning of this incident but do have an
interview of someone who says she saw it from the start and that the police
instigated the scuffle."
The SWAT team in question was actually a mobile response team and an arrest
team - 26 in all - contributed by the Jackson County Sheriff's Department,
according to county sheriff Mike Winters.
With respect to the scuffle, police and demonstrators have come forward with
different accounts.
According to Walsh, police attempted to clear a lane for vehicle traffic.
One man refused to get out of the lane. This led to police placing a woman
under arrest. When another man attempted to intervene, he was also arrested.
Then police lost control of the crowd.
"About 20 protesters jumped in and pulled the officers off the second person
and helped him escape," Walsh said. "It happened pretty quickly. Those
officers showed incredible restraint at that point - they backed off."
John Fricker, a sound engineer living in Ashland, said the scuffle began as
the result of three officers attempting to clear a lane after protesters had
passed through the Pioneer Street intersection.
Fricker, who said he attended the demonstration as "a peacekeeper," said he
saw officers Teresa Selby, Phil Gray, and School Resource Officer Mike
Vanderlip approach the demonstrators from behind, asking them to move out of
the left lane.
"My immediate response was to follow them as the mass of people was very
large and my initial thought was that their task was impossible," Fricker
said.
The scuffle began, according to Fricker, when officers approached a couple
and spoke to them.
"At first the couple did not respond and then it appeared one officer placed
their hand on the shoulder of one of the pair. One protester turned, and the
other appeared to trip and fall. It appeared that the couple and one officer
then fell to the ground," Fricker said.
At that point according to multiple eyewitnesses, a female demonstrator was
thrown to the ground. Another protester was then thrown against a parked car
by Gray.
At that point a group of protesters - roughly 20 - surrounded the officers
and called for calm.
"The officers were together at all times, and I did not see any protester
grab, block, or attack an officer," Fricker said.
Brain said he was about 80 feet away from the incident, and filmed the
latter part of the events. He has not yet released a copy of his video to
The Tidings, pending advice from his attorney.
A family of demonstrators who arrived at the courthouse today to support
Brain said they also witnessed the fracas.
Edgar Morton, 33, said he saw two officers wrestling two individuals to the
ground, and that they were approached by a third person, who was "sent
headfirst into a parked car by Officer Vanderlip."
At that point Morton, his wife and roughly 18 other demonstrators surrounded
the three officers. Morton's two children, aged 4 and 10, also witnessed the
scene.
"At this point the officers were no longer physically dominating the kids
because they were aware of their surroundings," Morton said.
Morton said he saw Brain approach the officers with his video camera.
"He told the policemen they should be ashamed of themselves for traumatizing
little children," Morton said.
Margaret Morton, Edgar's wife, said she found the whole scene intimidating.
"All the kids were screaming and crying," she said.
Paul Morton,10, concurred with his mother's view.
"When I saw the cops start throwing people down, it made me angry, and then
I got scared," he said.
Sorry for the large file sizes. I can't crunch media well at all on this stupid laptop while I'm away from home. I'll have properly compressed versions up next week...
Here is a complete MP3 and a partial video file of Tuesday, March 11, 2003 panel:
Audio - Sterling and Woodgate at SXSW 2003 ( MP3- 76 MB)
Video - Sterling and Woodgate at SXSW 2003 (47 MB)
Wow. Every now and then those "checks and balances" actually manifest themselves. How cool.
Yes, I am against the death penalty. Those of you who already think of me as a bleeding heart liberal probably already assumed that I'm against it for hippy-dippy reasons, but there's really more to it than that.
I feel that the risk of putting even a single innocent person to death is far too great -- that it's better to pay for housing all of the criminals than to attempt to save money by putting the "bad ones" to death.
With all the talk lately about the elimination of due process for those suspected of "terrorist" acts, and the kind of non-criminal behavior that is routinely being misinterpreted as "suspicious" activity (like reading certain books at the library, etc.), the prospect of putting suspects to death without due process makes this scenario even more frightening. Without due process, errors can easily be entered into the system. Even with due process, errors can easily be entered into the system. Humans make errors. Plain and simple. Witnesses are mistaken, etc.
Guilty "criminals" are proven "not guilty" after new evidence and the re-opening of investigations all the time.
The situation below is just a perfect example of human error in action. These errors can take years to surface. You can never give these people (or their families) their lives back after the fact.
Supreme Court stops 300th Texas execution
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped Texas from executing its 300th inmate since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1977, granting a dramatic last-minute stay to condemned killer Delma Banks.Banks' claims that he was wrongly convicted of a murder 23 years ago were backed by three former federal judges.
His lawyers told justices that he was poorly represented at trial, that prosecutors improperly kept blacks off the jury, and that testimony from two prosecution witnesses was shaky. Banks is black, his victim was white and the jury was all-white.
The court issued the stay, without comment, about 10 minutes before the 44-year-old was to be put to death for the 1980 murder of 16-year-old Richard Wayne Whitehead, a co-worker at a restaurant. Banks shot Whitehead ‘‘for the hell of it" after a night of drinking, according to testimony Banks gave at his trial.
Here is the full text of the entire article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/03/12/supreme/index.html
March 12, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) --
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stopped Texas from executing its 300th inmate since capital punishment resumed in the United States in 1977, granting a dramatic last-minute stay to condemned killer Delma Banks.
Banks' claims that he was wrongly convicted of a murder 23 years ago were backed by three former federal judges.
His lawyers told justices that he was poorly represented at trial, that prosecutors improperly kept blacks off the jury, and that testimony from two prosecution witnesses was shaky. Banks is black, his victim was white and the jury was all-white.
The court issued the stay, without comment, about 10 minutes before the 44-year-old was to be put to death for the 1980 murder of 16-year-old Richard Wayne Whitehead, a co-worker at a restaurant. Banks shot Whitehead ‘‘for the hell of it" after a night of drinking, according to testimony Banks gave at his trial.
Banks has been on death row 22 years, longer than Whitehead was alive.
One of the three former federal judges supporting the Supreme Court intervention was former FBI Director William Sessions, who submitted a brief to the high court in which he cited ‘‘uncured constitutional errors" in Banks' case.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week refused to block Banks' execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles would not hear his plea because it was filed too late.
Tempting....but perhaps ultimately distracting more than anything else...
Meeting Assembled By Conyers Mulls Seeking Bush's Impeachment Over Iraq
Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm
Meeting Assembled By Conyers Mulls Seeking Bush's Impeachment Over Iraq
Thu Mar 13 2003 10:30:03 ET
House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.) assembled more than two-dozen prominent liberal attorneys and legal scholars on Tuesday to mull over articles of impeachment drafted against President Bush by activists seeking to block military action against Saddam Hussein. ROLL CALL is reporting on Thursday.
MORE
The two-hour session, which featured former attorney general-turned-activist Ramsey Clark, took place in the downtown office of a prominent Washington tort lawyer. Participants said Conyers, who hosted the meeting, was the only Member of Congress to attend. 'We had a pretty frank discussion about putting in a bill of impeachment against President Bush,' said Francis Boyle, an Illinois law professor who has been working on the impeachment language with Clark.
Developing...
Perhaps this will give the administration the out it needs to pull out of Iraq and still save face.
FBI Probes Fake Evidence of Iraqi Nuclear Plans
By Dana Priest and Susan Schmidt
The forgery came to light last week during a highly publicized and contentious United Nations meeting. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the Security Council on March 7 that U.N. and independent experts had decided that the documents were "not authentic."ElBaradei's disclosure, and his rejection of three other key claims that U.S. intelligence officials have cited to support allegations about Iraq's nuclear ambitions, struck a powerful blow to the Bush administration's argument on the matter.
To the contrary, ElBaradei told the council, "we have to date found no evidence or plausible indications of the revival of a nuclear program in Iraq."
The CIA, which had also obtained the documents, had questions about "whether they were accurate," said one intelligence official, and it decided not to include them in its file on Iraq's program to procure weapons of mass destruction.
Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
The FBI is looking into the forgery of a key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program, including the possibility that a foreign government is using a deception campaign to foster support for military action against Iraq.
"It's something we're just beginning to look at," a senior law enforcement official said yesterday. Officials are trying to determine whether the documents were forged to try to influence U.S. policy, or whether they may have been created as part of a disinformation campaign directed by a foreign intelligence service.
"We're looking at it from a preliminary stage as to what it's all about," he said.
The FBI has not yet opened a formal investigation because it is unclear whether the bureau has jurisdiction over the matter.
The phony documents -- a series of letters between Iraqi and Niger officials showing Iraq's interest in equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons -- came to British and U.S. intelligence officials from a third country. The identity of the third country could not be learned yesterday.
The forgery came to light last week during a highly publicized and contentious United Nations meeting. Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the Security Council on March 7 that U.N. and independent experts had decided that the documents were "not authentic."
ElBaradei's disclosure, and his rejection of three other key claims that U.S. intelligence officials have cited to support allegations about Iraq's nuclear ambitions, struck a powerful blow to the Bush administration's argument on the matter.
To the contrary, ElBaradei told the council, "we have to date found no evidence or plausible indications of the revival of a nuclear program in Iraq."
The CIA, which had also obtained the documents, had questions about "whether they were accurate," said one intelligence official, and it decided not to include them in its file on Iraq's program to procure weapons of mass destruction.
The FBI has jurisdiction over counterintelligence operations by foreign governments against the United States. Because the documents were delivered to the United States, the bureau would most likely try to determine whether the foreign government knew the documents were forged or whether it, too, was deceived.
Iraq pursued an aggressive nuclear weapons program during the 1970s and 1980s. It launched a crash program to build a nuclear bomb in 1990 after it invaded Kuwait. Allied bombing during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 damaged Iraq's nuclear infrastructure. The country's known stocks of nuclear fuel and equipment were removed or destroyed during the U.N. inspections after the war.
But Iraq never surrendered the blueprints for its nuclear program, and it kept teams of scientists employed after U.N. inspectors were forced to leave in 1998.
And he's giving it away for free! (just like the beasties)
Updated June 15, 2003 - The Video has been released
To Washington
By John Cougar Mellencamp
TO WASHINGTON
Eight years of peace and prosperity
Scandal in the White House
An election is what we need
From coast-to-coast to Washington
So America voted on a president
No one kept count
On how the election went
From Florida to Washington
Goddamn, said one side
And the other said the same
Both looked pretty guilty
But no one took the blame
From coast-to-coast to Washington
So a new man in the White House
With a familiar name
Said he had some fresh ideas
But it's worse now since he came
From Texas to Washington
And he wants to fight with many
And he says it's not for oil
He sent out the National Guard
To police the world
From Baghdad to Washington
What is the thought process
To take a humans life
What would be the reason
To think that this is right
From heaven to Washington
From Jesus Christ to Washington
A friend of mine sent me these links regarding Iraq and North Korea's recent switches to the Euro.
I'm just learning about all of this stuff myself, so I won't pretend to understand any of it yet.
It all seemed quite relevant and I felt compelled to pass the information on to you...
http://www.praesentia.us/archives/000117.html
December 06, 2002
Euro Vs. Dollar - The real reason behind Gulf War II?
This could be also titled, "The real reason behind Bush's Axis of
Evil statement"
What would happen if the Dollar stopped being the currency that most
of the world traded in/with? Some smart fellows at the Democratic
Underground have some ideas about this event.
Many thanks to GoreN4 and Reality Bytes for this wonderful information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
THE REAL REASONS FOR THE UPCOMING WAR AGAINST IRAQ
...(Hint: It has nothing to do with any threat from Iraq's Weapons of
Mass Destruction, but it does have something to do with the mid-term
elections, not much about Isreal, but mostly it has to do with how
the ruling class at Langley and the Bush oligarchy view Iraq, Iran
and Saudi's hydrocarbons at the macroeconomic and geo-strategic
level.)
Short Answer about Iraq = Oil profits, geo-strategic control of the
2nd largest unclaimed hydrocarbon deposits, controlling OPEC, and the
threat to the U.S reserve currency from the Euro.
Long Answer about Iraq = OPEC, U.S. Dollar vs. Euro oil transaction
standards, and the Real Reason for a War with Iraq: "The Federal
Reserve's greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its
international transactions from a dollar standard to a euro standard.
Iraq actually made this switch last year (when the euro was worth
around 80 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering
the dollar's steady depreciation against the euro.
The real reason the Bush administration wants a puppet government in
Iraq - or more importantly, the reason why the
corporate-military-industrial network conglomerate wants a puppet
government in Iraq - is so that it will revert back to a dollar
standard and stay that way" (while also helping veto any wider OPEC
momentum for the switch from Iran - which is seriously considering
switching to euros as their oil transaction currency as of Sept 2002
- or other members such as Saudi Arabia whose regime appears
increasingly threatened/weak from an internal coup). The
administration is acutely aware of this and in preparation for
invading Iraq we will create a huge and permanent military presence
in the Persian Gulf region, just in case we need to grab Saudi's oil
fields as well as Iraq's oil fields
"Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the euro in late
2000 and converted his $10 billion reserve fund at the U.N. to euros
- at that point, another manufactured Gulf War become inevitable
under Bush II. Only the most extreme circumstances could possibly
stop that now and I strongly doubt anything can - short of Saddam
getting replaced with a pliant regime."
Big Picture Perspective: Everything else aside from the reserve
currency and the Saudi/Iran oil issues (i.e. domestic political
issues andl international criticism) is peripheral and of marginal
consequence to this administration. Further, the dollar-euro threat
is powerful enough that they'll rather risk much of the economic
backlash in the short-term to stave off the long-term dollar crash of
an OPEC transaction standard change from dollars to euros. All of
this fits into the broader Great Game that encompasses Russia, India,
China."
This info about oil currency is completely censored in the
corporate-controlled U.S. media - as the truth would curtail consumer
confidence, reduce spending\ borrowing and it would create immense
political pressure on the Bush junta to form a new energy policy that
slowly weans us off middle-eastern oil. This article from Radio Free
Europe confirms Iraq switched from dollars to euros on Nov. 6, 2000
'Iraq: Baghdad Moves to Euro'
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/11/01112000160846.asp
Keep in mind that - contrary to one of the main points in this
November 2000 article - the steady depreciation of the dollar versus
the euro since Sept 2001 means that Iraq has profited handsomely from
the switch in their reserve & transaction currencies. The euro has
gained roughly 15% against the dollar in that time, which means any
reserve funds that Iraq would've previously held in dollars have
gained that same percent value since the euro transition.
Otherwise, the effect of an OPEC switch to the euro would be that
oil-consuming nations would have to flush dollars out of their
reserve funds and replace these with euros. The dollar would crash
anywhere from 20-40% in value and the consequences would be those one
could expect from any currency collapse and massive inflation (think
Argentina currency crisis, for example). You'd have foreign funds
stream out of the U.S. stock markets and dollar denominated assets,
there'd surely be a run on the banks much like the 1930s, the current
account deficit would become unserviceable, the budget deficit would
go into default, and so on. Your basic 3rd world economic crisis
scenario.
The United States economy is intimately tied to the dollar's role as
reserve currency. This doesn't mean that the U.S. couldn't function
otherwise, but that the transition would have to be gradual to avoid
such dislocations (and the ultimate result of this would probably be
the U.S. and the E.U. switching roles in the global economy)."
The following two articles from the summer of 2002 discuss Iran's
vacillating position about switching to the euro as their standard
currency payment for oil exports, and this may help explain Bush's
sudden urgency to topple Saddam. In the build-up for Iraq it is clear
the Bush junta plan to keep a large and permanent U.S. military force
in the Persian gulf to "maintain order" in a post-Saddam Iraq (aka.
to protect their newly installed puppet regime). Iran would become
essentially surrounded by the U.S. military in that scenario
'Economics Drive Iran Euro Oil Plan, Politics Also Key' (August 2002)
http://www.iranexpert.com/2002/economicsdriveiraneurooil23august.htm
'Iran may switch to the euro for crude sale payments' (Sept 2002)
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntm23638.htm
This administration is deceiving and manipulating the American people
on an unprecedented scale about the underlying weakness of our
economy due to massive debt manipulation and unsustainable personal
indebtedness, our utter dependence on middle-eastern oil, their
apparent complicity in allowing the September 11th attacks for occur
for geo-strategic and political purposes, as well the very real but
unspoken macroeconomic reasons for this upcoming war with Iraq. We no
longer have a free media, as the ugly truth is out there for those
who dare to seek it, and can face their own cognitive dissonance. For
those who wish can handle the truth about 9/11, this essay by the
famous American writer Gore Vidal is a good intro:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2531833.stm
North Korea embraces the euro
Communist North Korea has said it will stop using American dollars
from Sunday and start using euros instead.
The decision was made soon after a US-led international consortium
announced that it was halting fuel aid to the state because of its
covert nuclear weapons programme.
But the move is seen by many analysts as an attempt by the
authorities to exercise control over the foreign currency hoarded by
its citizens.
The US currency has been used widely in the black markets
Foreign residents in Pyongyang are none too happy with the enforced
currency swap and many have complained about the low exchange rates
set by the North Korean authorities.
Libraries post Patriot Act warnings
Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them
The signs, posted in the 10 county branches last week and on the library's Web site, also inform the reader that the USA Patriot Act "prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you.""Questions about this policy," patrons are told, "should be directed to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530."
...Section 215 of the act allows FBI agents to obtain a warrant from a secret federal court for library or bookstore records of anyone connected to an investigation of international terrorism or spying.
Unlike conventional search warrants, there is no need for agents to show that the target is suspected of a crime or possesses evidence of a crime. As the Santa Cruz signs indicate, the law prohibits libraries and bookstores from telling their patrons, or anyone else, that the FBI has sought the records.
Here is the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/10/MN14634.DTL
Libraries post Patriot Act warnings
Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them
Bob Egelko, Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle Staff Writers Monday, March 10, 2003
Click to View Click to View
Along with the usual reminders to hold the noise down and pay overdue fines, library patrons in Santa Cruz are seeing a new type of sign these days: a warning that records of the books they borrow may wind up in the hands of federal agents.
The signs, posted in the 10 county branches last week and on the library's Web site, also inform the reader that the USA Patriot Act "prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you."
"Questions about this policy," patrons are told, "should be directed to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530."
Library goers were swift to denounce the act's provisions.
"It's none of their business what anybody's reading," said Cathy Simmons of Boulder Creek. "It's counterproductive to what libraries are all about."
"I'm not reading anything they'd be particularly interested in, but that's not the point," said Ari Avraham of Santa Cruz. "This makes me think of Big Brother."
The Justice Department says libraries have become a logical target of surveillance in light of evidence that some Sept. 11 hijackers used library computers to communicate with each other.
But the signs ordered by the Santa Cruz library board -- a more elaborate version of warnings posted in several libraries around the nation -- are adding to the heat now being generated by a once-obscure provision of the Patriot Act.
Section 215 of the act allows FBI agents to obtain a warrant from a secret federal court for library or bookstore records of anyone connected to an investigation of international terrorism or spying.
Unlike conventional search warrants, there is no need for agents to show that the target is suspected of a crime or possesses evidence of a crime. As the Santa Cruz signs indicate, the law prohibits libraries and bookstores from telling their patrons, or anyone else, that the FBI has sought the records.
The provision was virtually unnoticed when the Patriot Act, a major expansion of government search and surveillance authority, was passed by Congress six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But in the last year, Section 215 has roused organizations of librarians and booksellers into a burst of political activity, and is being cited increasingly by critics as an example of the new law's intrusiveness.
SANDERS' REPEAL BILL
Even as a leaked copy of a Bush administration proposal to expand the Patriot Act was circulating, Rep. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., introduced a bill last week to repeal the library and bookstore provisions -- the first bill in the House, and the second in Congress, seeking to roll back any part of the Patriot Act.
Sanders, who voted against the Patriot Act, said he decided to target a "particularly onerous" provision that affects large numbers of people. His Freedom to Read Protection Act would allow library and bookstore searches only if federal agents first showed they were likely to find evidence of a crime.
The bill's 23 co-sponsors include four Bay Area Democrats -- Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma, Sam Farr of Carmel and Pete Stark of Fremont.
The Bush administration has refused to say how it has used Section 215 -- prompting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by library and bookseller organizations -- and has made few public comments on the issue. One statement by a high-ranking Justice Department official, however, may have inadvertently helped to fuel the rollback efforts.
In a letter to an inquiring senator, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Bryant said Americans who borrow or buy books surrender their right of privacy.
A patron who turns over information to the library or bookstore "assumes the risk that the entity may disclose it to another," Bryant, the Justice Department's chief of legislative affairs, said in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
'INHERENTLY LIMITED' RIGHT
He said an individual's right of privacy in such records is "inherently limited" and is outweighed by the government's need for the information, if the FBI can show it is relevant to an "investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities."
Bryant's letter, dated Dec. 23, was slow to surface publicly but is now being held up by library and bookstore associations as evidence of the menace of government surveillance.
"Bookstore customers buy books with the expectation that their privacy will be protected," said the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, which represents independent bookstores. "If (Bryant) is in any doubt about this, he can ask Kenneth Starr, who outraged the nation by trying to subpoena Monica Lewinsky's book purchases."
"I find it profoundly disturbing that an assistant attorney general asserts that we have lost the right to privacy in that kind of information," said Deborah Stone, deputy director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. "The republic was founded on the premise that you don't have to share your thoughts."
Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said Bryant was merely pointing out that patrons voluntarily turn over information to libraries and bookstores and shouldn't be surprised if others learn about it. Corallo also said the provisions pose no threat to ordinary Americans, only to would-be terrorists.
Before demanding records from a library or bookstore under the Patriot Act, he said, "one has to convince a judge that the person for whom you're seeking a warrant is a spy or a member of a terrorist organization. The idea that any American citizen can have their records checked by the FBI, that's not true."
U.S. DECIDES WHO IS TERRORIST
Once the government decides someone is a terrorist, Corallo said, "We would want to know what they're reading. They may be trying to get information on infrastructure. They may be looking in the public library for information that would allow them to plan operations."
Responding to such positions, the leaders of the 64,000-member American Library Association passed a resolution in January calling the Patriot Act provisions "a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users" and urging Congress to change the law.
And while the views of individual librarians are apparently more varied than those of their association, a recent nationwide survey found that most felt the Patriot Act went too far.
Nearly 60 percent of the 906 librarians who replied to a University of Illinois questionnaire between October and January believed that the law's so- called gag order -- which prohibits libraries from disclosing that the FBI has requested their records -- was unconstitutional.
Asked if they would defy an agent's nondisclosure order, 5.5 percent said they definitely would, and another 16.1 percent said they probably would -- even though the law makes such defiance a crime.
In Santa Cruz, where library officials are trying to stir up patrons about the Patriot Act, chief librarian Anne Turner has found a more subtle way to sidestep the gag order, if she ever faces one.
"At each board meeting I tell them we have not been served by any (search warrants)," she said. "In any months that I don't tell them that, they'll know. "
Hey guys, how's it going?
Sorry I haven't been blogging much the last few days. You probably already know that there's just a ton of stuff going on this week -- and many of you have been sending me great stories and I'll be catching up on blogging them today.
I've spent the last two days going to films here at the SXSW Film Festival and attempting to crunch the video from the SXSW Interactive conference.
I'll be here in Austin for the protest Saturday, and will, of course, be filming it.
More soon...
