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Alternative Press Week in Review
Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
Vol. 1, No. 13 - May 19, 2003
A weekly roundup of news, announcements, essays and other items of interest.
http://www.warprofiteers.com/
Website of the Week
Announcements
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http://www.warresisters.org/wrl_2003_conference.htm
War Resisters League - 80th Anniversary national conference
July 18 - 20, 2003, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
WRL has the distinction of reaching 80 years old this year. Now more than
ever, WRL's belief in nonviolent struggle is needed in a world torn apart by
the organized violence that is war. From the "war to end all wars" that
spawned our organization through the current "War on Terror," WRL has been
rooted in the idea that a world without any war is possible. Workshops will
include thoughts on anarchism and nonviolence, the responsibility of artists
in a time of war, theatrics for activists, war tax resistance, new nuclear
weapons research and what that means for our work as activists the
militarization of space, prison issues, community gardens and globalization.
For more information, please contact: War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette
Street, New York, NY 10012 - (212) 228-0450 . fax (212) 228-6193 -
[log in to unmask]
A short list of some of the more interesting items received at the
Alternative Press Review office this week.
Book of the Week
http://www.sevenstories.com/Book/index.cfm?GCOI=58322100481500
You Back The Attack! We'll Bomb Who We Want! - Remixed War Propaganda
By Micah Ian Wright, Seven Stories Press
You Back the Attack! is the brainchild of U.S. Airborne Ranger turned
dissident comic book artist Micah Wright. Stunning, hilarious, and
politically incendiary, this full-color poster book reworks classic American
World War I and II propaganda into commentaries on war, peace, and
patriotism for the post-September 11 era. The forty one-sided posters make
fun of war mentality, the Bush White House, Homeland Security, the War on
Terror, Ashcroft, the 2000 Presidential election, the military-industrial
complex, and much more.
Magazine of the Week
http://www.thebulletin.org
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The magazine of global security and analysis
Volume 59, No. 3 - May/June 2003
Articles on the US government dismissing the findings of UN weapons
inspectors and extensive US intelligence reports, the "duct tape and cover"
civil defense program, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's dirty little
secret, and a report on the group of scientists who studied the possible use
of nuclear weapons in Vietnam.
Newsletter of the Week
http://www.soaw.org/
SOA Watch Update
Summer 2003
SOA Watch is an independent organization that seeks to close the US Army
School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation (WHISC).
Articles of the Week
http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9&mod
e=thread&order=0&thold=0
Repetitive Brain Injury
Brian Dean, Alternative Press Review
Intelligence tests are often used by employers to weed out brainless job
candidates, but an increasing number of UK companies use a test designed to
identify candidates who are too smart.
http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=8&mod
e=thread&order=0&thold=0
Ground Zero: Hiroshima Haunts 9/11
Gene Ray, Alternative Press Review
Ground zero: in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, the spontaneous invocation and rapid popular
acceptance of this freighted term mark a specific and potent return of
repressed American history.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20030526&fname=Cover+Story&sid=
1
Democracy is the Free World's whore
Arundhati Roy, Outlook (India)
It was Frenzy with a Purpose. It ushered in an old doctrine in a new bottle:
the Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strike, aka The United States Can Do Whatever
The Hell It Wants, And That's Official.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/538p22.htm
Military hand in attack on free speech
Buster Southerly, Green Left Weekly
On May 1, poet, teacher, youth poetry coach and <i>Green Left Weekly</i>
writer Bill Nevins received a terse notice from the Rio Rancho School
District informing him that he has been fired from his Rio Rancho High
School (RRHS) teaching position, effective from August. Reasons for his
termination were not stated.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3502558&thesection=news&t
hesubsection=dialogue
So what was the war for?
Robert Fisk, New Zealand Herald
The "liberation" of Iraq was supposed to free us from the bombers of al
Qaeda. So said Mr Blair. So said Mr Straw. Could you talk to us, please,
Messrs Blair and Straw? What was Iraq for?
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery05172003.html
Sharon's Second Front
Uri Avnery, CounterPunch
A suicide bomber kills himself. Should his orphan children be punished for
that? The Israeli army of occupation says: Yes, indeed! Furthermore, anyone
who helps the children is a criminal, an accomplice, a supporter of
terrorism.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/05/14
/ED116756.DTL
The man behind "total war" in the Middle East
William O. Beeham, SF Chronicle
"The sparing of civilian lives cannot be the total war's first priority. . .
. The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another
people."
http://www.counterpunch.org/wells05162003.html
In Iraq, Water and Oil Do Mix
Leah C. Wells, CounterPunch
An anonymous U.S. State Department official quoted in National Geographic
said, "people outside the region tend not to hear about the issue (of
water). It just doesn't make the news." By design, not by accident, this
issue is obscured from Western eyes because the propaganda machinery from
Washington, DC has not allowed it.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3397.htm
In Bed with Bush - The Bechtel Story
William Bowles, Information Clearing House
Shade of dark brown eh? A little research into the history of the Bechtel
Corp reveals almost a 'classroom example' of how the links between big
business and government work, and what works for Bechtel can be applied to
the 100 or so, major corporations that control America and dictate not only
its foreign policy but also its domestic one.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=5a088c12620fca
e70755524cb2ea8e1d
Saudi Bombing - A Calculated Act With a Political Message
William O. Beeman, Pacific News Service
The brutal bombings in Riyadh that killed at least 30 people were far from
random, irrational acts directed primarily at Americans, writes PNS
contributor William O. Beeman. Their target -- a U.S.-based company that
trains the Saudi National Guard - suggests local, anti-monarchist
motivations and attackers who may have little or no connection to Osama bin
Laden.
http://www.iht.com/articles/96547.html
Chaos in Iraq: Who is the US trying to fool?
William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune
The situation in Iraq, even by friendly accounts, seems to be deteriorating,
and unfriendly accounts in both the British and the French press are
scathing.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/wmd-m17.shtml
No Iraqi weapons of mass destruction?-US media scoundrel shrugs his
shoulders
David Walsh, WSWS
The pollution of the American body politic continues unabated. US media
pundits, whose lies about Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" have been
exposed by events, are rapidly inventing new falsehoods to justify the old
ones.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Edwards_Iraq-Grit.htm
Grit Your Teeth Surgery in 'Liberated' Iraq
David Edwards, Media Lens
How many readers are aware, for example, that, according to UNICEF, more
than 300,000 Iraqi children are currently facing death from acute
malnutrition that is, twice as many as under Saddam? What does it say of
the US-UK occupation that we have managed to double the suffering previously
experienced by children under "one of the most sadistic regimes on the
planet", as Andrew Rawnsley of the Observer described it?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,956255,00.html
The truth about Jessica
The Guardian - Special reports
Her Iraqi guards had long fled, she was being well cared for - and doctors
had already tried to free her. John Kampfner discovers the real story behind
a modern American war myth
http://www.proutworld.org/news/apr/20030428eco.htm
Economic Consequences of Iraq Occupation
Garda Boeninger, ProutWorld
The U.S. real economy is in virtual shambles. It is the most debt-ridden
country in the world, with every American having an average debt of $12,000.
Its position is worse than that of Indonesia when it imploded in 1998, and
it is even worse than that of Argentina. In February and March of 2003
another half a million Americans were laid off from their jobs.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2003/051503a.html
A CIA Officer's Calamitous Choices
Jerry Meldon, Consortium News
The documents reveal that Gehlen had hired and protected hundreds of Nazi
war criminals. The more notorious of these Hitler henchmen included Alois
Brunner, Adolf Eichmann's right-hand man in orchestrating the Final
Solution, and Emil Augsburg, who directed the Wansee Institute where the
Final Solution was formulated and who served in a unit that specialized in
the extermination of Jews.
http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos18217.html
Work and the Free Society - Part 1
Anarchist Federation (UK)
Work eats up our lives. It dominates every aspect of our existence. When
we're not at the job we're travelling to or from it, preparing or recovering
from it, trying to forget about it or attempting to escape from it in what
is laughably called our 'leisure' time. Work is
a truly offensive four-letter word too horrifying to contemplate.
http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos18218.html
Work and the Free Society - Part 2
Anarchist Federation (UK)
As Bob Black argues: "You are what you do. If you do boring, stupid,
monotonous work, chances are you'll end up boring, stupid, and monotonous.
Work is a much better explanation for the creeping cretinization all around
us than even such significant moronizing mechanisms as television and
education."
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=3623
Making Media Monopoly Part of the Constitution
Robert W. McChesney, ZNet
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this has nothing to do with free
markets or a free press, but that it is all about cronyism and corruption.
The massive media firms that have bankrolled and supported the Bush
administration want their payback and the administration is determined to
give it to them, the public be damned.
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2003/05/15/matrix_reloaded/index.htm
l
A future worth fighting for
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
So what do we learn in Andy and Larry Wachowski's second installment about
the war between the human race and the machines that keep 95 percent of
humanity imprisoned and enslaved, keep it living out "real life" in a highly
sophisticated set of software programs whose simulated world strongly
resembles, well, Western civilization circa right now?
http://nypress.com/16/20/news&columns/cage.cfm
The mixed-metaphor madness of Thomas Friedman
Matt Taibbi, NYPress
Reading Friedman is fascinating-the same way that it's fascinating to watch
a zoo gorilla make mounds out of its own feces. The gorilla is a noble,
intelligent animal that will demean itself in captivity. Friedman is a less
noble animal of roughly the same intelligence, whose cage is the English
language. It's an amazing thing to behold.
http://www.mediainfo.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vn
u_content_id=1886454
Press Not Ready to Cover Our Own Gaza
Barbara Bedway, Editor & Publisher
We've become a bit like blacksmiths, almost an anachronism now. I find it
very frightening. It is similar to the end of the Roman Republic, when the
spectacle of the arena replaced real political debate and participation in
political life.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/REI305A.html
The Guaranteed Failure of the "Road Map"
Tanya Reinhart, Yediot Aharonot
Every few months, a "peace plan" is pulled out of the drawers of the white
house and keeps the public discourse busy for a few weeks. Although this
ritual has a fixed pattern and predetermined end, it is curious that many in
Israel are still tempted to believe that this time it is different.
http://www.rabble.ca/rabble_interview.shtml?x=21636
Israel's New Anti-Activist Strategy
Allison Gifford, Rabble News
The past several weeks have seen the Israeli military taking an increasingly
hard-line new tack towards international anti-occupation activists in Gaza -
so much so that those attempting to act as "human shields" have lost their
special ability to, well, shield.
http://globalpublicmedia.com/ARTICLES/richardheinberg.museletter.petroleumpl
ateau.2003-05.php
The Petroleum Plateau
Richard Heinberg, GlobalPublicMedia.com
The realization that modern industrial society is approaching the peak in
available net energy to fuel the economy is a powerful shock to one's entire
belief system. It literally changes everything.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/DeRooij_Hydra.htm
The Hydra's New Head: Propagandists, and Selling the US-Iraq War
Paul de Rooij, Dissident Voice
As the fog of war lifts, the propaganda model followed by the United States
to sell the US-Iraq War is now clear, and the best way to understand this
campaign is to consider it as psychological warfare against the US
population.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/05/13/2268304
Censorship and Prisoner Rights in West Virginia
Jamie Loughner, Infoshop
The Mount Olive Correctional Complex / WV Dept of Corrections inmate
regulations call for a 90 day Loss of Privileges for an inmate's name being
found on the Internet through search engines.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/05/13/5982512
Grand Jury Repression
Oread Daily
Organizers of the conference "Revolutionary Environmentalism: A Dialogue
Between Activists and Academics," have criticized Fresno State University
for acceding to a grand jury subpoena for videotape of their gathering.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3343.htm
Bechtel And Blood For Water
Vandana Shiva, Information Clearing House
The U.S. led war first bombed out Iraq's hospitals, bridges, water works,
and now U.S. corporations are harvesting profits from "reconstructing" a
society after its deliberate destruction. Blood was not just shed for oil,
but also for control over water and other vital services.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3366.htm
Defense Dept Secretly Tapped Halliburton Unit To Operate Iraq's Oil Industry
In Nov.
Jason Leopold, Information Clearing House
Months before the United States military showered Iraq with bombs and
missiles, the Department of Defense was secretly working with Vice President
Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton Corp., on a deal that would give the
world's second largest oil services company total control over Iraq's oil
fields, according to interviews with Halliburton's most senior executives.
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=185_0_1_0_C
Bursting Bubbles
Dean Baker, In These Times
Why the economy will go from bad to worse.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ELI305A.html
Can You Spot the War Crime?
Gregory Elich, Centre for Research on Globalisation
There is much confusion about what does and does not constitute a war crime.
While many have a clear notion of the concept, others are befuddled. In
order to bring clarity and understanding to this troublesome subject, a quiz
is offered below.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/banchik1.html
Uprising in the Chechnya Ghetto
Nadezhda Banchik, Antiwar.com
I will never forget the words of a Chechen refugee woman in Moscow, who
cried out desperately to me, "Do you really consider us humans?" Indeed, the
Russian forces' conduct in Chechnya has begun to equal their behavior there
during Stalin's Great Terror: They routinely employ torture, forced
confessions, and mass killing. Concentration camps honeycomb the entire
republic.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=3607
Rachel Corrie, Jessica Lynch, and the Unequal Worthiness of Victims
Paul Street, ZNet
You can learn much about the toxic and authoritarian role of the American
"mainstream" (corporate-state) media by asking a representative sample of
Americans to identify and tell you what they know and think about two young
women recently in the news - Rachel Corrie and Jessica Lynch.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff05122003.html
America's Dirty Bombs
Dave Lindorff, CounterPunch
The notion of Baghdad, a city of five million, being dusted with uranium
oxide, is grim, as it will likely produce widespread injuries and death,
particularly among children, who are closer to the ground and who routinely
play in the dirt.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/nyt-m13.shtml
Journalistic ethics, hypocrisy and war at the New York Times
Bill Vann, WSWS
With the Blair case, a sober "editors' note" was published on page three,
detailing the Times' response to the reporter's alleged misconduct as well
as plans to review newsroom procedures. No such note was forthcoming with
Miller's piece, though it certainly was far more warranted than in Blair's
case.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0512-07.htm
Bush Should Be Impeached and Tried for War Crimes
Denise Giardina, Charleston Gazette (WV)
The American people should be clear about two things. History never judges
kindly a rich, powerful nation that attacks a small, poor one. The second is
that empires - all empires - end up on the ashbin of history. George W. Bush
should be impeached. After that, he should stand beside Saddam Hussein in
the dock to be tried for war crimes.
NewsWire
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0518-02.htm
At least 1,700 civilians were killed and more than 8,000 injured in Iraq's
capital
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/weekinreview/18BAMF.html
Big Brother is Tracking You. Without a Warrant.
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~1399587,00.html
Billboard Liberation Front gives sign anti-Bush makeover
http://observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,958289,00.html
Secrecy over shoot-to-kill fear in Gaza
http://observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,958429,00.html
US troops vandalized ancient city
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WorldNewsTonight/grenade_030516.html
Police Thugs Kill Innocent Woman in Botched Raid
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/05/16/8700623
30 Arrested in St. Louis on way to Biodevastation Conference Against Genetic
Engineering and Monsanto
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=406657
Baghdad pays the postwar price: 242 die in three weeks
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0516-03.htm
Bitter Iraqi Soldiers Threaten Attacks Against US
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/17/international/worldspecial/17IRAQ.html
In Reversal, Plan for Iraq Self-Rule Has Been Put Off Indefinitely
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1395274,00.html
Activists stack the deck against war profiteers
http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp?id=2B4E069E-EF00-436F-AF80-BB8937183E85
Saskatchewan farmer in battle with Monsanto star of Biodevastation
conference
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=57528
Police offering reward to identify anti-war protesters
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,451925,00.html
The Pentagon's Total Information Awareness program gets an image makeover
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3030851.stm
Extent of UK snooping revealed
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=669
Homeland security tracks Democrats
http://www.msnbc.com/news/912480.asp?cp1=1
Blogger arrested
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2003/2003-05-14-03.asp
Great Fish Going the Way of the Dinosaurs
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1392748,00.html
Berkeley group uses real photo to show U.S. once backed Iraqi leader
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0515-01.htm
Toxic Bullets Litter Iraq: high levels of radiation left by US
armor-piercing shells
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_782178.html?menu=news.latestheadlines
Iraqi POWs 'tortured by British and Americans'
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/13/interna
tional0144EDT0417.DTL
Influential South Korean Internet site uses ``citizen reporters'' to cover
news
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/134/oped/Building_a_nation_of_snoops+.shtm
l
Building a Nation of Snoops
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2003/05/12/daily13.html
CSOs and senior security executives worried US becoming a police state
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/international/worldspecial/15ARMY.html
Fear of Baghdad Unrest Prompts a Halt in Sending Troops Home
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=87532
Anti-US pop songs top charts in Pakistan
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12947490&method=full&
siteid=50143
Galloway Hits Back Over Faked Documents, Dirty Tricks
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-05-13/s_4384.asp
Landless peasants invade Brazilian Indian reserve
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0513-10.htm
Victims of Iraq War File Lawsuit Against US Commander
http://www.jihadunspun.net/intheatre_internal.php?article=54936&list=/home.p
hp&
Afghan reporters face death threats
http://richmond.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3343&group=webcast
Former ELF Spokesmen Form New Revolutionary Organization
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43018-2003May11.html
When Things Get Rough for Protesters, These Lawyers Go on the March
http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr/pr080503.html
US Army Patents Biological Weapons Delivery System, Violates Bioweapons
Convention
http://www.irna.com/en/head/030511200201.ehe.shtml
Move to bring Bush, Blair to trial taking on international scale
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=405397
A minister quits, buildings burn, rubbish rots. So much for the
'reconstruction'
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0512/p01s03-woiq.html
Disorder deepens in 'liberated' Baghdad
Week in Review editor: [log in to unmask]
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