Flyby News Home - Flyby News Archives - Casinni NoFlyby - Flyby Links

Flyby  News

"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"




Bloodstained Abyss * US Regime Change * Sonar Ruling

05 November 2002


"Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal."

-- Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich



1) The Bloodstained Path by Dennis Kucinich
2) Global Eye -- Into the Dark
3) ‘An Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq' by Brian Willson
4) For Whales' Sake, Judge Halts Sonar



Editor's Notes:

We urge everyone to network the Dennis J. Kucinich article in Item 1. Kucinich reasons to find a way out, rather than to attack Iraq, which is "unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal." Item 2 has information on the Bush administration using a policy that incites terrorism for world domination and profit. This article, "Global Eye -- Into the Dark" by Chris Floyd, was published in the Moscow Times. After it you will find links to related articles: ‘Journalist Cronkite warns against potential war'; ‘US plans to dissolve OPEC after Iraq war'. Item 3 links to a CounterPunch posting of an open letter to Senator John Kerry by Vietnam Veteran Peace Activist, Brian Willson. This is followed with information on the opportunity of Massachusetts voters to make a statement to oppose war in Iraq, and discourage John Kerry from running for US President. Item 4 has an article on a recent decision by a Federal Judge prohibiting U.S. Navy from combing the world's oceans with low frequency active sonar, ruling that the booming sounds meant to detect enemy submarines could cause irreparable harm to whales. Here is at least a ‘dab of sanity' in one crazy "human" world.

Update -- Greater New England -- Campaigns, Actions and Events

Two days after election day, Thursday, November 7, 2002, Flyby News will show a video of the Kucinich Speech at the Jones Library in downtown Amherst, MA, 7:00 P.M, "We The People - SUMMIT FOR PEACE" -- (Burlington, VT, UVM, September 28, 2002). Following the video there will be a discussion on US democracy and responsibilities for safeguarding our planet.

The following evening, Friday, November 8, AMY GOODMAN of "Democracy Now"will speak on "The Media and Iraq: Constructing the People¹s Response," (7:30 p.m.) This will take place at First Churches, 129 Main St., Northampton MA , sponsored by Women¹s Congress for Peace, the Media Education Foundation, and Solidago Foundation.

November 12, Dr. HELEN CALDICOTT, will present a talk on the indebtedness of the Bush administration to the arms industry, and the exploitation of American's fear of terrorism for increased military spending. This will happen at Sage Hall, Smith College, Northampton, 7:00 p.m. For more information, see: http://www.gljcenter.net

For more updates, events, campaigns, and resources, visit:
http://www.flybynews.com

November 5, 2002 – VOTE – US 2002 Elections




1) The Bloodstained Path by Dennis Kucinich

The Progressive
November 2002 issue
http://www.progressive.org/nov02/kuc1102.html

Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted, and illegal. The Administration has failed to make the case that Iraq poses an imminent threat to the United States. There is no credible evidence linking Iraq to 9/11. There is no credible evidence linking Iraq to Al Qaeda. Nor is there any credible evidence that Iraq possesses deliverable weapons of mass destruction, or that it intends to deliver them against the United States. When Iraq possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, quite sad to say, it did so with the knowledge of, and sometimes with materials from, the United States.

During the Administration of Ronald Reagan, sixty helicopters were sold to Iraq. Later reports said Iraq used U.S.-made helicopters to spray Kurds with chemical weapons. According to The Washington Post, Iraq used mustard gas against Iran with the help of intelligence from the CIA.

Iraq's punishment? The United States reestablished full diplomatic ties around Thanksgiving of 1984.

Throughout 1989 and 1990, U.S. companies, with the permission of the first Bush Administration, sent to the government of Saddam Hussein mustard gas precursors and live cultures for bacteriological research. U.S. companies also helped to build a chemical weapons factory and supplied the West Nile virus, fuel air explosive technology, computers for weapons technology, hydrogen cyanide precursors, computers for weapons research and development, and vacuum pumps and bellows for nuclear weapons plants. "We have met the enemy," said Walt Kelly's Pogo, "And he is us."

Unilateral action on the part of the United States, or in partnership with Great Britain, would for the first time set our nation on the bloodstained path of aggressive war, a sacrilege upon the memory of those who fought to defend this country. America's moral authority would be undermined throughout the world. It would destabilize the entire Persian Gulf and Middle East region. And it would signal for Russia to invade Georgia; China, Taiwan; North Korea, the South; India, Pakistan.

The United States must recommit itself to the U.N. Charter, which is the framework for international order. We have a right and a duty to defend ourselves. We also have an obligation to defend international law. We can accomplish both without going to war with Iraq.

There is a way out.

It must involve the United Nations. Inspections for weapons of mass destruction should begin immediately. Inspectors must have free and unfettered access to all sites.

The time has come for us to end the sanctions against Iraq, because those sanctions punish the people of Iraq for having Saddam Hussein as their leader. These sanctions have been instrumental in causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children. Emergency relief should be expedited. Free trade, except in arms, must be permitted.

Foreign investments must be allowed. The assets of Iraq abroad must be restored.

And a regional zone free of weapons of mass destruction should be established.

The only weapon that can save the world is nonviolence, said Gandhi. We can begin this practice today by calling upon the Administration in Washington to stop the talk of war, and stop the planning for war.

In their heart of hearts, the American people do not want war on Iraq. The American people want peace.

There is no reason for war against Iraq. Stop the drumbeat. Stop sending troops and supplies to Kuwait and Qatar. Pull back from the abyss of unilateral action and preemptive strikes.

We know that each day the Administration receives a daily threat assessment. But Iraq is not an imminent threat to this nation. Forty million Americans suffering from inadequate health care is an imminent threat. The high cost of prescription drugs is an imminent threat. The ravages of unemployment is an imminent threat. The slowdown of the economy is an imminent threat, and so, too, the devastating effects of corporate fraud.

We must drop the self-defeating policy of regime change. Policies of aggression and assassination are not worthy of any nation with a democratic tradition, let alone a nation of people who love liberty and whose sons and daughters sacrifice to maintain that democracy.

The question is not whether or not America has the military power to destroy Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The question is whether we destroy something essential in this nation by asserting that America has the right to do so anytime it pleases.

America cannot and should not be the world's policeman. America cannot and should not try to pick the leaders of other nations. Nor should America and the American people be pressed into the service of international oil interests and arms dealers.

We must work to bring Iraq back into the community of nations, not through destruction, but through constructive action worldwide. We can help negotiate a resolution with Iraq that encompasses unfettered inspections, the end of sanctions, and the cessation of the regime-change policy.

We have the power to do this. We must have the will to do this. It must be the will of the American people expressed through the direct action of peaceful insistence.

If the United States proceeds with a first strike policy, then we will have taken upon our nation a historic burden of committing a violation of international law, and we would then forfeit any moral high ground we could hope to hold.


Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, is head of the Progressive Caucus in Congress.

# # # #

For an extensive resource page on Dennis Kucinich, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m




2) Global Eye -- Into the Dark


Moscow Times
Nov. 1, 2002. Page XXIV

Global Eye -- Into the Dark
By Chris Floyd

This column stands foursquare with the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, when he warns that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large. We know, as does the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, that this statement is an incontrovertible fact, a matter of scientific certainty. And how can we and the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, be so sure that there will be more terrorist attacks against the American people and civilization at large?

Because these attacks will be instigated at the order of the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary.

This astonishing admission was buried deep in a story, which was itself submerged by mounds of gray newsprint and glossy underwear ads in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times. There -- in an article by military analyst William Arkin detailing the vast expansion of the secret armies being massed by the former Nixon bureaucrat now lording it over the Pentagon -- came the revelation of Rumsfeld's plan to create "a super-Intelligence Support Activity" that will "bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception."

According to a classified document prepared for Rumsfeld by his Defense Science Board, the new organization -- the "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)" -- will carry out secret missions designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces.

In other words -- and let's say this plainly, clearly and soberly, so that no one can mistake the intention of Rumsfeld's plan -- the United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people. Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people -- your family, your friends, your lovers, you -- in order to further their geopolitical ambitions.

For P2OG is not designed solely to flush out terrorists and bring them to justice -- a laudable goal in itself, although the Rumsfeld way of combating terrorism by causing it is pure moral lunacy. (Or should we use the Regime's own preferred terminology and just call it "evil"?) No, it seems the Pee-Twos have bigger fish to fry. Once they have sparked terrorists into action -- by killing their family members? luring them with loot? fueling them with drugs? plying them with jihad propaganda? messing with their mamas? or with agents provocateurs, perhaps, who infiltrate groups then plan and direct the attacks themselves? -- they can then take measures against the "states/sub-state actors accountable" for "harboring" the Rumsfeld-roused gangs.

What kind of measures exactly? Well, the classified Pentagon program puts it this way: "Their sovereignty will be at risk."


For complete article, see:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/11/01/120.html

]The article concludes:]

"It's not a fight for freedom; it's a retreat into darkness.

And the day will be a long time coming."

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

For related story: Journalist Cronkite warns against potential war"

By Christopher Ferrell
Eagle Staff Writer
October 28, 2002

Walter Cronkite, the veteran newsman who covered almost every major world event that took place during his six-decade career, on Sunday warned that if the United States takes action against Iraq without support from the United Nations it could set the stage for World War III.

See following URL link for complete article:
http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/102802cronkite.htm

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Another important and related story ( via http://newsinsider.cjb.net )

US plans to dissolve OPEC after Iraq war


Planning for Iraq's post-Saddam oil industry is being driven by a coalition of neo-conservatives in Washington think-tanks with close links to the Bush administration, and with Iraqi National Congress (INC) officials who have long enjoyed their support. Those hawks have long argued that US control of Iraq's oil would help deliver the destruction of OPEC, the oil producers' cartel, which they argue is ‘evil' -that is, incompatible with American interests.

For the complete article, see:
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,825103,00.html
The Observer [UK], 03 November 2002




3) ‘An Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq' by Brian Willson

October 15, 2002
An Open Letter to Sen. John Kerry on Iraq

by BRIAN WILLSON

Dear John,

It has been a long time since we have had contact. As you might remember our very first meeting was at VVAW's Dewey Canyon III, "A Limited Incursion Into the Country of Congress," April 19-23, 1971, in Washington, D.C. I'm sure you remember asking the Senate that week in an impassioned speech, "How do you ask a man to die for a mistake?" You also stressed the importance of being "totally nonviolent."

The complete article is posted at CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/willson1015.html


For more information, visit
http://www.brianwillson.com

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Please Note: Election Day in Massachusetts, voters have the opportunity to register a protest vote in response to Senator Kerry's vote for a criminal war.

Flyby News endorses write-in candidate Randall Forsberg - http://www.forsbergforsenate.org




4) For Whales' Sake, Judge Halts Sonar


For Whales' Sake, Judge Halts Sonar
Los Angeles Times
November 1, 2002

Navy's worldwide use of powerful new system is banned until military and environmentalists agree on where it's not likely to hurt animals.

By Kenneth R. Weiss, Times Staff Writer

A federal judge Thursday prohibited the U.S. Navy from combing the world's oceans with a powerful new sonar, ruling that the booming sounds meant to detect enemy submarines could cause irreparable harm to whales.

The temporary injunction bans a type of low-frequency sonar that has not been conclusively
linked to marine mammal mortality.

Although the ruling could allow the Navy to resume using the sonar in some places, U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth D. LaPorte imposed a worldwide ban until Navy brass and environmental experts can agree on a list of spots where sailors can deploy the sonar without harming marine life.

In her 58-page opinion, the judge, who is based in San Francisco, agreed with the Navy that even a temporary peacetime ban on the low-frequency sonar system could hamper military preparedness.

She gave the Navy and environmental groups that filed the lawsuit until Nov. 7 to report back to her with an interim solution.

The Navy and federal marine fisheries officials declined immediate comment.

But environmental groups were elated by the preliminary injunction. They had sued to overturn a Bush administration decision in July that gave the Navy permission to "harass" or injure whales in training missions using the sonar designed to search for super-quiet diesel submarines.

"There was no justification for giving the Navy a blank check to operate this sonar in 75% of the world's oceans," said Joel Reynolds, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. If allowed to continue, he said, the sonar system would have "threatened marine life on a staggering and unprecedented geographic scale."

Thursday's ruling is the latest legal victory for environmental groups trying to rein in powerful sonar and other loud sounds that science is increasingly linking to deaths and injuries of marine mammals.

The Bush administration is pushing to exempt military activities from a variety of environmental constraints. In September, a federal judge rejected arguments that sonar use in the deep ocean was exempt from the National Environmental Policy Act.

In early 2000, 16 beaked whales beached themselves in the Bahamas in a mass stranding that the Navy and other authorities have linked to bursts of mid-frequency sonar. A similar mass die-off of whales occurred in September in the Canary Islands, following naval operations by warships from the United States and nearly a dozen NATO allies.

"From a scientific point of view, there is very little question that, given the right set of circumstances, active sonar can kill marine life," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the U.S. Humane Society.

Yet military officials point out that naval operations in the Bahamas and Canary Islands were not using the new surveillance towed array sonar system banned Thursday. That system broadcasts low-frequency sonic waves through 18 speakers dangled behind a ship on cables hundreds of feet long..

For complete article, see:
http://www.latimes.com/la-na-whales1nov01,0,174293.story

For Flyby News updated page for resources and links on low frequency active sonar and its harm to marine life, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid948385848,37113,m



A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.

Your feedback, networking Flyby News, and forwarding us articles of interest, are welcomed and appreciated. You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark info@flybynews.com



FLYBY NEWS

=====Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====>

= = = = = = www.flybynews.com = = = = =


Email address: