Flyby News
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
G.B. Catastrophe * KerryIraq * DailyNews * SeaHeat
31 July 2004
"I will immediately reform the intelligence system;
so policy is guided by facts, and facts are never distorted by politics.
And as President, I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition:
the United States of America never goes to war because we want to,
we only go to war because we have to. "
John F. Kerry
DNC speech - July 29, 20041) The Case Against George W. Bush by Ron Reagan- - The Unbearable Costs of Empire
- - Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
- - U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi Says
- - Canadian Sent to Syrian Prison Disputes US Claims Against Torture
- - Did Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shoot seven restrained prisoners?
2) John Kerry and Iraq- - Senator John Kerry's speech to the Democratic National Convention
- - Sharpton answers Bush in speech
- - Jeb Bush integrity and touch screen voting
- - Michael Moore: I Will Bring Cameras to Florida to Monitor November Election
3) Jon Stewart and Ted Koppel, and the dancing monkey
4) Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
Editor's Notes:Last night I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Ellen Mariani, the wife of Louis Neil Mariani, who died when United Air Lines flight 175 was flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11. Ms Mariani spoke in Northampton, MA about her groundbreaking RICO lawsuit against members of the Bush administration, charging that they deliberately allowed 9/11 to occur. At this event over a speaker phone, her attorney, Philip J. Berg, a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania and former candidate for Governor and U.S. Senate, spoke about the case and encouraged the audience to support Ms. Mariani's efforts, especially by signing an
online petition , and to forward it widely for others to join the effort. Ms. Mariani is a special individual, who passed up about a $1M of "hush money" (while on a Social Security income), because of her love for her husband and truth. To date, Phil Berg has paid for the prosecution of this case, largely out of his own pocket. Please support Phil and Ellen's legal battle for 9/11 accountability and justice.
The Mariani vs Bush web site is 911forthetruth.com
Flyby News will be staying on top of this story in future issues
and from our resource page on "The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports." Item 1 in this issue continues to show the catastrophe building by the Bush administration's policies, and its acceleration in a fascist direction. Item 2 is an editorial published in the NY Times, questioning John Kerry's position on US policies in Iraq. Kerry's statements to increase the military budget could make any peace activist nervous, and make independent voters skeptical on how he plans to reduce the budget and create his proposed social programs. Yet, the Rev. Al Sharpton was not ambiguous in his DNC speech, which extended over his allotted time period. This was true, too, of many other speakers in the Democratic Party. One member of the Kucinich4President list serve wrote in the debate of supporting Kerry for President: "..But it's hard to settle for a tiny step out from under Monsters Inc., when what you'd dreamed of was a President Kucinich and the reclamation of the Democratic Party and the United States of America.” Goodsister replied: "Well, let's get the car out of the ditch first. Then we can think about where we might try to drive it." Item 3 includes a transcript of an enlightening interview with political comedian Jon Stewart and ABC News Nightline anchorman, Ted Koppel. And item 4 is not from the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow," but is showing a similar script with evidence of global warming, and species of sea birds in the UK going extinct, a warning for humankind.
1) The Case Against George W. Bush by Ron Reagan- - The Unbearable Costs of Empire
- - Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
- - U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi Says
- - Canadian Sent to Syrian Prison Disputes US Claims Against Torture
- - Did Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shoot seven restrained prisoners?
- - The Case Against George W. BushBy Ron Reagan
Published in "Esquire"
September 2004,
Volume 142, Issue 3
The son of the fortieth president of the United States takes a hard look
at the son of the forty-first and does not like what he sees.
For the complete text of this article, see:
www.esquire.com/features/articles/2004/040729_mfe_reagan_1.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Unbearable Costs of EmpireEstablishment types are trumpeting America's role as global police force.
Too bad the U.S. just can't afford the job
by Mark Weisbrot
Published by Business Week - July 29, 2004
For the article, see:
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0729-02.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. FiringThe New York Times
29 July 2004
Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, July 28 - A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker.
The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2004/07/29/politics/29fbi.final.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - U.S. General Witnessed Abuses, Iraqi SaysAssociated Press
Wednesday 28 July 2004
The American general who headed the U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib personally witnessed abuses there, an Iraqi man alleged in a federal lawsuit protesting his treatment.
In a videotaped deposition from Iraq played yesterday, Saddam "Sam" Saleh Aboud said he endured beatings at the prison. During one session, he said, his hood was removed and he saw Army Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski.
Aboud identified Karpinski in a news magazine photograph that his lawyer, Michael Hourigan, showed him.
"He was adamant that there was an occasion when he was being tortured, in Tier 1A, when she was present and watching and laughing as he was being tortured," Hourigan said. He said Aboud did not know Karpinski's identity until he told him.
"He knew she was a supervisor, because she had a star on her hat and she was in an American uniform," Hourigan said. "He said the other soldiers would defer to her."
Neither Karpinski nor her lawyer returned several telephone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Joseph Yoswa, said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the pending litigation.
Karpinski, who was suspended by the Pentagon in May, has denied knowing about any abuses at the prison until photographs surfaced at the end of April. U.S. investigators have not implicated Karpinski directly in any of the abuses.
Aboud's assertions were presented as supporting evidence in a federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit against military contractors Titan Corp. of San Diego and CACI International Inc. of Arlington was filed on behalf of Aboud, three other alleged victims and the family of a fifth man who died at the prison. It seeks unspecified damages.
For this above and related article,
"Iraqi Prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Widow Sue U.S. Contractors<
Published in Agence France Presse - 28 July 2004
is posted at Truthout.org:
See:
www.truthout.org/docs_04/073004B.shtml = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Canadian Sent to Syrian Prison Disputes US Claims Against Tortureby Shannon McCaffrey
Published by Knight-Ridder, July 29, 2004
www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0729-01.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Did Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shoot seven restrained prisoners?Published on Thursday, July 29, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
"Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shot seven restrained prisoners"
Greetings From the Memory Hole
Our Media kills a Troubling Story that the Rest of the World Saw
by Joshua Holland
The allegation that Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shot seven restrained prisoners (killing six) in a fit of anger—with a number of witnesses present—is certainly newsworthy.
But, remarkably, the U.S. media has chosen not to cover it, preferring to accept official denials. The foreign press is not so trusting. The disconcerting result is that we simply aren't getting the same picture of Iraq that citizens of every other English-speaking country see.
If you haven't caught the story, here's how Australia's leading daily, the Sydney Morning Herald broke it on July 17th:
"Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.
They say the prisoners – handcuffed and blindfolded – were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum- security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security center…
The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the center and he did not carry a gun. But the informants told the newspaper that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence…"
For the complete article and links to reference articles, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/0729-11.htm
2) John Kerry and Iraq- - Senator John Kerry's speech to the Democratic National Convention
- - Sharpton answers Bush in speech
- - Jeb Bush on integrity and touch screen voting
- - Michael Moore: I Will Bring Cameras to Florida to Monitor November Election
- - John Kerry and Iraq
New York Times Editorial - July 30, 2004
John Kerry needs to give America a clearer idea of how his choices would have differed from President George W. Bush's - particularly when it comes to the war in Iraq. The nation should be told whether Kerry would have voted to authorize the invasion if he had known that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Kerry, as the world already knows, is not a black-and-white kind of thinker, especially when it comes to foreign policy. That's good - it should give voters a real sense of choice this fall, given Bush's tendency to view the world in absolutes. But it's not an excuse for fudging every issue. Kerry's history on the critical Iraq question has been impossibly opaque.
He voted to authorize Bush to go to war. He voted against $87 billion to pay for extra costs - after offering an amendment to raise the money by increasing taxes on the wealthy. That produced the infamous explanation, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Kerry is very, very sorry for that phrasing. His campaign is well aware that if he had simply said, "I voted to spend the money - I just opposed increasing the deficit," the Republicans would have been deprived of one of their most effective commercials.
Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, have said that they voted to give the president the power to go to war to strengthen Bush's hand with the United Nations. They also had been given alarming intelligence reports, which they believed were accurate, showing that Saddam was stockpiling biological and chemical weapons and at least attempting to develop nuclear bombs.
We can appreciate Kerry's complaints that he was misled on both counts. But he and Edwards have refused to say whether they would have acted differently if they had known then what they know now. That's unfair. When it comes to using force abroad, voters need a clear idea of how high Kerry would raise the bar from where Bush lowered it.
We know that Kerry does not rule out pre-emptive strikes if a country poses a clear and serious danger to the United States or its allies - that's longstanding American policy, and it's in the UN charter.
But voters need to know whether Kerry agrees with Bush that even though no weapons of mass destruction have been uncovered in Iraq, the war was justified because of Saddam's military ambitions and because Iraq is better off without him. Or would Kerry have held back on invading Iraq and chosen instead to pursue the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the destruction of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and to focus diplomatic resources on places like North Korea and Iran?
Kerry's advisers don't want more accusations of flip-flopping, and they've told him to avoid hypotheticals. But while voters are certainly prepared to accept a candidate with a complex worldview, they also value the courage that comes with occasionally taking a leap and giving an answer that's straight and simple.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Senator John Kerry's speech to the Democratic National ConventionBoston, July 29, 2004
legitgov.org/speech_kerry_dem_convention_072904.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Sharpton answers Bush in speechThursday, July 29, 2004
BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton brought down the house with a passionate speech to Democratic National Convention delegates about what's wrong with the Bush administration and how Sen. John Kerry will help fulfill America's promise. This is a transcript of his remarks:
"..Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us. This vote can't be bargained away. This vote can't be given away. Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.."
For the complete transcript of this speech, see:
www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/28/dems.sharpton.transcript/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Jeb Bush integrity and touch screen votingWhile Gov. Jeb Bush reassures Floridians that touch screen voting
machines are reliable, the Republican Party is sending the opposite
message to some voters.
www.sptimes.com/2004/07/29/State/GOP_flier_questions_n.shtml= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Michael Moore: I Will Bring Cameras to Florida to Monitor November ElectionFilmmaker Michael Moore announces he is bringing his cameras to Florida in November to make sure there is what he called a "huge spotlight" on state election officials when voters go to the polls. From his press conference in Boston, via Democracy Now!
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/29/140248
3) Jon Stewart and Ted Koppel, and the dancing monkeyIn Boston at the DNC, Jon Stewart accused the media of being "stage managed." Ted Koppel of ABC News program, "Nightline" asks Stewart some probing questions about his role on "The Daily Show." What follows is a partial transcript of a deeply profound interview:
KOPPEL: Back 40 years ago, we would actually come to these events with the expectation that something unexpected was going to happen.
STEWART: But unexpected things used to happen in the world. They don't happen anymore.
KOPPEL: Oh, sure they do.
STEWART: Very rarely. Very rarely is an event not parsed prior to when it happens. And when it happens unexpectedly, it's only because the speculation was off cue.
KOPPEL: When there were only three of us [networks], we were not that easy to manipulate because you could only play A off against B off against C.
STEWART: Ok, that I agree with.
KOPPEL: Right? Now you got 200 of us. You don't like what Jon Stewart is doing? Go to...
STEWART: But we're separate. We're a peripheral, we're a Sunday bar. We're reactive and not actual news, so if you don't like Jon Stewart, you'll have to go to another comedy program, not a news program.
KOPPEL: You're refreshing honest about that, and I appreciate that, but the reality of it is -- and it's no joke anymore -- there are a lot of people out there who do turn to you for...
STEWART: Not for news.
KOPPEL: Well...
STEWART: For an interpretation. A comedic interpretation.
KOPPEL: To be informed. They actually think they're coming closer to the truth with your...
STEWART: Now that's a different thing. That's credibility. That's a different animal.
KOPPEL: That's what I want you to get into a little bit. This notion of... for example, people who listen to Sean Hannity also are looking for...
STEWART: Want a narrative.
KOPPEL: Al Frankin...
STEWART: Gives a narrative.
KOPPEL: A different group of people, different narrative.
STEWART: Right.
KOPPEL: That's the slice. So what I'm trying to get to here, is what is going on now with these literally -- I don't even if there are even hundreds anymore -- there may be close to a thousand outlets here.
STEWART: It's that the partisan mobilization has become part of the media process. That they realize that, this real estate that you possess, television, is the most valuable real estate known to rulers. If Alexander the Great had TV, believe me, he would have had his spin guys dealing. Napoleon would have had people working. The key to leadership is to have that mouthpiece to the people. And that's what this is. You guys are... This is the battle for the airwaves. And that's what we watch, and I think that's what is so dispiriting to those at home who believe that... I think, there's a sense here that you're not participating in that battle, and there's a sense at home that you're ABSOLUTELY participating and complicit in that battle.
KOPPEL: Go a little further on that.
STEWART: I'm a news anchor. Remember this is bizarro world. And I say, the issue is health care and insurance, and why 40 million American kids don't have insurance -- 40 million Americans are uninsured. Is this health insurance program being debated in Congress good for the country? Let's debate it. I have with me Donna Brazile and Bay Buchanan. Let's go. Donna. "I think the Democrats really have it right here. I think that this is a pain for the insurance companies and the drug companies and this is wrong for America." Bay. "Oh no, what it is..." And then she throws out her figures from the Heritage Foundation, and she throws out her figures from the Brookings Institute, and the anchor -- who should be the arbiter of the truth -- says, "Thank you both very much, that was very interesting." No it wasn't! That was Coke and Pepsi talking about beverage truth. And that game has, I think, caused people to think, "I'm not watching this."
KOPPEL: Alright, so you have found an answer through humor...
STEWART: No. It's not an answer.
KOPPEL: Well, an answer that...
STEWART: I found an outlet. I found a catharsis. A sneeze, if you will.
KOPPEL: It's not just a catharsis for you, it's a catharsis for your viewers. Those who watch say, at least when I'm watching Jon, he can use humor to say BS, that's a crock.
STEWART: But that's always been the case. Satire has always been...
KOPPEL: Ok, but I can't do that.
STEWART: No, but you CAN say that's BS. You don't need humor to do that because you have what I wish I had which is credibility and gravitas. This is interesting stuff, and it's all part of the discussion and I think it's a good discussion to have, but I think it's important to take a more critical look. You know, don't you think?
KOPPEL: No.
STEWART: And certainly not from me.
KOPPEL: No, not from you. I've had enough of you.
STEWART: I know my role, I'm the dancing monkey.
KOPPEL: You're finished. (Smiles)
(Shake hands.)
This above transcript was received from::
www.lostremote.com/archives/001905.html
4) Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birdsBy Michael McCarthy Environment Editor
30 July 2004
Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
Leading article: A disaster that should serve as a global warning
Hundreds of thousands of Scottish seabirds have failed to breed this summer in a wildlife catastrophe which is being linked by scientists directly to global warming.
The massive unprecedented collapse of nesting attempts by several seabird species in Orkney and Shetland is likely to prove the first major impact of climate change on Britain.
In what could be a sub-plot from the recent disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, a rise in sea temperature is believed to have led to the mysterious disappearance of a key part of the marine food chain - the sandeel, the small fish whose great teeming shoals have hitherto sustained larger fish, marine mammals and seabirds in their millions.
In Orkney and Shetland, the sandeel stocks have been shrinking for several years, and this summer they have disappeared: the result for seabirds has been mass starvation. The figures for breeding failure, for Shetland in particular, almost defy belief.
More than 172,000 breeding pairs of guillemots were recorded in the islands in the last national census, Seabird 2000, whose results were published this year; this summer the birds have produced almost no young, according to Peter Ellis, Shetland area manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
Martin Heubeck of Aberdeen University, who has monitored Shetland seabirds for 30 years, said: "The breeding failure of the guillemots is unprecedented in Europe." More than 6,800 pairs of great skuas were recorded in Shetland in the same census; this year they have produced a handful of chicks - perhaps fewer than 10 - while the arctic skuas (1,120 pairs in the census) have failed to produce any surviving young.
The 24,000 pairs of arctic terns, and the 16,700 pairs of Shetland kittiwakes - small gulls - have "probably suffered complete failure", said Mr Ellis.
In Orkney the picture is very similar, although detailed figures are not yet available. "It looks very bad," said the RSPB's warden on Orkney mainland, Andy Knight. "Very few of the birds have raised any chicks at all."
The counting and monitoring is still going on and the figures are by no means complete: it is likely that puffins, for example, will also have suffered massive breeding failure but because they nest deep in burrows, this is not immediately obvious.
But the astonishing scale of what has taken place is already clear - and the link to climate change is being openly made by scientists. It is believed that the microscopic plankton on which tiny sandeel larvae feed are moving northwards as the sea water warms, leaving the baby fish with nothing to feed on.
This is being seen in the North Sea in particular, where the water temperature has risen by 2C in the past 20 years, and where the whole ecosystem is thought to be undergoing a "regime shift", or a fundamental alteration in the interaction of its component species. "Think of the North Sea as an engine, and plankton as the fuel driving it," said Euan Dunn of the RSPB, one of the world's leading experts on the interaction of fish and seabirds. "The fuel mix has changed so radically in the past 20 years, as a result of climate change, that the whole engine is now spluttering and starting to malfunction. All of the animals in the food web above the plankton, first the sandeels, then the larger fish like cod, and ultimately the seabirds, are starting to be affected."
Research last year clearly showed that the higher the temperature, the less sandeels could maintain their population level, said Dr Dunn. "The young sandeels are simply not surviving."
Although over-fishing of sandeels has caused breeding failures in the past, the present situation could not be blamed on fishing, he said. The Shetland sandeel fishery was catching so few fish that it was closed as a precautionary measure earlier this year. "Climate change is a far more likely explanation."
The spectacular seabird populations of the Northern Isles have a double importance. They are of great value scientifically, holding, for example, the world's biggest populations of great skuas. And they are of enormous value to Orkney and Shetland tourism, being the principal draw for many visitors. The national and international significance of what has happened is only just beginning to dawn on the wider political and scientific community, but some leading figures are already taking it on board.
"This is an incredible event," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth. "The catastrophe [of these] seabirds is just a foretaste of what lies ahead.
"It shows that climate change is happening now, [with] devastating consequences here in Britain, and it shows that reducing the pollution causing changes to the earth's climate should now be the global number one political priority."
Also in Environment
Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
A giant ecosystem that has functioned for millions of years has begun to break down
Fragile habitats in chalk rivers under threat
Anglers urge cull of cormorants for eating too many fish
Pesticides found in 43% of fruit and vegetables traces of pesticide
For article and links, see:
news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=546138For Flyby News archives, see:
"Mounting Evidence of Global Warming"
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =