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Patriot * WMD Poof * Censored * Arctic's Away


25 September 2003

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase
a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
– Benjamin Franklin

"Will we stand by as the Administration formulates
a second more dangerous "PATRIOT Act" because,
in the President's words, 'the first bill didn't go far enough'?
Or will we step back from this atmosphere of fear
and work to restore our basic freedoms and rights?
With the introduction of the True Patriot Act,
I say we take back our Constitution."
– Dennis Kucinich
(September 25, 2003)

1) "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act"
- - "Kucinich puts nation's interests first"
2) Pilger's Proof of WMD Lies
- - Top Ten Surprises In Bush's Address To The United Nations
3) Top US Censored Stories of the Year
4) Flowers in the Granite State - to Michael Moore
5) Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks up

Editor's Notes:


Dennis Kucinich this week introduced the first comprehensive bill to repeal offensive sections of the misnamed "USA PATRIOT Act." What a delight to have positive things to report. Thank You Dennis!

Item 2 is an article on a television report by investigative journalist John Pilger who uncovered video footage of US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 -- stating that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. In other words, the lies are adding up. The Bush administration days are marked, even if the US media are complicit in lengthening the time. Item 3 highlights this sad truth by providing the top four stories of 2002-2003 "most censored" by US media. Some day Flyby News may get some recognition for reporting on most censored stories omitted by the mainstream media, but even at a recent "progressive" event in Manchester, NH, at the Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour, Flyby News was the only press prevented from interviewing Michael Moore after his talk. Yet I wasn't alone in being shunned by the managers of this event. Dennis Kucinich was the only Presidential Candidate that responded to an invitation to speak at this event. However, Kucinich was refused the opportunity of speaking to the audience from the main stage. Yet this didn't stop Dennis from delivering another powerful in-depth presentation of what he would do as US President. It didn't stop the overwhelming interest and positive response and cheers of those listening. Why were the Rolling Thunder Manchester managers so disrespectful? They continued broadcasting their loud system from the main stage even while Dennis shared with the audience, squeezing close, to hear the candidate and chair of the Progressive Caucus share a vision on what we can accomplish together for all life on Earth. I sent the letter in item 4 to Michael Moore with all due respect, who spoke after Dennis and acknowledged much about this man, but the focus of his talk seemed somewhat defensive in his almost endorsing General Wesley Clark for President. I am hoping this letter will help Michael Moore lose the fear that stops him from endorsing the real progressive, the real peace candidate, the only non-corporate-connected candidate with the highest levels of qualifications to respond to the last four years of the Bush administration. Perhaps Michael Moore would appreciate your letters in support of Kucinich, who deserves our support especially in the Primaries, when the only thinking about voting should be about choosing the best individual for the job, not about corporate or media electability.

The last item may be the most significant for each of us, and most all life on Earth. Here again another unprecedented break-up of Arctic Ice. "The largest ice shelf in the Arctic, a solid feature for 3,000 years, has broken up, scientists in the United States and Canada said on Monday. . . A freshwater lake drained into the sea, the researchers reported."

This is another example of why we need drastic changes in the US government. Our lives are on the line. Please respond to a campaign that offers a commitment to reaching 20% of US energy needs from renewable sources by 2010. You will hear many promises from each of the candidates, so look at the record, on what each one has accomplished, and which one you can trust to be in alignment with the ideals of the US Constitution.

Right at press time I learned of the October 2003 release of a new book by Dennis Kucinich --

A Prayer for America
Dennis J. Kucinich, Foreword by Studs Terkel

Paperback, October 2003
Product Details:
ISBN: 1560255102
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press

From the Publisher

When Congressman Dennis Kucinich delivered his speech, "A Prayer for America," to the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, it electrified the whole country. In his speech, Kucinich—a 2004 presidential candidate—warned against an America that had discarded the constitutional liberties integral to its identity: "Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?" A Prayer for America collects Kucinich's essays and speeches. It represents his holistic worldview and carries with it a passionate commitment to public service, peace, human rights, workers' rights, and the environment. His advocacy of a Department of Peace seeks not only to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, but to make war a thing of the past. A Prayer for America includes an introductory essay from Kucinich that reflects on his political journey from his election as the youngest mayor of a major American city to his role as a dynamic, visionary leader of the Progressive Caucus of the Congressional Democrats.




1) "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act"


- - "Kucinich puts nation's interests first"

DEADLINE FOR THE "PATRIOT ACT"

Congressman Dennis Kucinich continued his leadership today on Capitol Hill today by introducing the first comprehensive bill to repeal offensive sections of the misnamed "USA PATRIOT Act." The Kucinich bill -- called the "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act" -- is already supported by the ACLU, NAACP, a Jewish group, an Islamic group, and 20 members of Congress.

Kucinich's bill would repeal sections of the original "PATRIOT Act," that authorize 'sneak and peak' searches; warrantees library, medical, educational, and financial record searches; and the detention and deportation of non-citizens without meaningful judicial review. Passage would be the final deadline-- or death -- for the "PATRIOT Act."

Rep. Kucinich is the only presidential candidate who voted against the "PATRIOT Act" in October, 2001. The other Democrats in Congress currently running for president all voted for it -- and Howard Dean has said, "I never criticize them for that" in view of the post-9/11 pressure. Congressman Kucinich stood up to the pressure then...and now.

At a news conference today, Kucinich invoked the words of Ben Franklin, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Kucinich added: "Will we stand by as the Administration formulates a second more dangerous "PATRIOT Act" because, in the President's words, 'the first bill didn't go far enough'? Or will we step back from this atmosphere of fear and work to restore our basic freedoms and rights? With the introduction of the True Patriot Act, I say we take back our Constitution."

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- - "Kucinich puts nation's interests first"
by Richard Graham-Yooll
Published in Boston Globe (page A-14)
September 18, 2003

JAMES CARROLL'S Sept. 16 column, ''Saying 'no' to the war in Iraq,'' was bold and brilliant and stirs an outrage that demands greater redress than a tired political system can easily accommodate.

I almost lamented that Carroll is not a presidential candidate until I remembered that one Democratic candidate has adopted a consistent and uncompromising opposition to America's military presence in Iraq.

I, like many others, have been reluctant to throw support behind Dennis Kucinich, believing he compromises too little with the country's mainstream opinion. But when confronted by the outrageous, isn't outrage the right response?

Kucinich has an intellectually coherent platform fully in accord with a mainstream tradition of putting our country's interests first. Single-payer health care and a balanced budget become feasible once defense spending is targeted at defense alone rather than empire building.

James Carroll is right. Extremism demands resistance.

RICHARD GRAHAM-YOOLL

Marblehead

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

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Following is a URL link to another poll=> http://tinyurl.com/o9v4
in which earlier today Dennis was leading with 55% of the vote.
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FYI. September 30th presents the quarterly fundraising deadline for presidential candidates. This is the time for true Patriots to support this unique candidate who is taking his battle against the "PATRIOT Act" and other key issues nationwide.

To donate go to following URL link:
https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php

For more on Kucinich: http://www.kucinich.us



2) Pilger's Proof of WMD Lies


- - Top Ten Surprises In Bush's Address To The United Nations

Journo claims proof of WMD lies
By Paul Mulvey in London
September 23, 2003

AUSTRALIAN investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie that could cost George W. Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

A television report by Pilger aired on British screens overnight said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat.

But after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 that year, Pilger claimed Rice said the US "must move to take advantage of these new opportunities" to attack Iraq and claim control of its oil.

Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."

Two months later, Rice reportedly said, "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt." Powell boasted this was because America's policy of containment and its sanctions had effectively disarmed Saddam.

Pilger claims this confirms that the decision of US President George W Bush - with the full support of British Prime Minister Blair and Howard - to wage war on Saddam because he had weapons of mass destruction was a huge deception.

Pilger interviewed several leading US government figures in Washington but said he did not ask Powell or Rice to respond to his claims.

"I think it's very serious for Howard. Howard has followed the Americans and to a lesser degree Blair almost word for word," Pilger told AAP before his program was screened on ITV tonight.

"All Howard does is say `well it's not true' and never explains himself.

"I just don't believe you can be seen to be party to such a big lie, such a big deception and endure that politically.

"It simply can't be shrugged off and that's Howard's response.

"Blair has shrugged it off but Blair is deeply damaged. It's far from over here, there's a lot that is going to happen and much of it could wash onto Howard.

"And it's unravelling in America and Bush could lose the election next year.

"I've not seen political leaders survive when they've been complicit in such an open deception for so long."

Howard last week dismissed an accusation from Opposition Leader Simon Crean that he hid a warning from British intelligence that war against Iraq would heighten the terrorist threat to Australia.

In his report, Pilger interviews Ray McGovern, a former senior CIA officer and friend of Bush's father and ex-president, George Bush senior.

McGovern told Pilger that going to war because of weapons of mass destruction "was 95 per cent charade."

Pilger also claims that six hours after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he wanted to "hit" Iraq and allegedly said "Go Massive ... Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

He was allegedly talked down by Powell who said the American people would not accept an attack on Iraq without any evidence, so they opted to invade Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden had bases.

Pilger claimed war was set in train on September 17, 2001 when Bush signed a paper directing the Pentagon to explore the military options for an attack on Iraq.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7350504%5E2,00.html

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- - Top Ten Surprises In Bush's Address To The United Nations
For another resource :-) check this following URL link for the
"Top Ten Surprises In President Bush's Address To The United Nations"
From the David Letterman Show 9/23/03
http://tinyurl.com/ola3



3) Top US Censored Stories of the Year


Project Censored [http://projectcensored.org] is an organization with its headquarters at Sonoma State University in California. Its primary objective: "..is to explore and publicize the extent of censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for one reason or another. Thereby, the project hopes to stimulate responsible journalists to provide more mass media coverage of those issues and to encourage the general public to demand mass media coverage of those issues or to seek information from other sources."

Following are the top four of its list of 25 most censored stories for 2002-2003:

1. The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance

Sources: The Sunday Herald (9/15/02), Harper's Magazine (10/02), Mother Jones (3/03), Pilger.com (12/12/02)

Project Censored has decided that the incredible lack of public knowledge of the US plan for total global domination, represented by the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) represents the media's biggest failure over the past year. The PNAC plans advocated the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan and other current foreign policy objectives, long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Chillingly, one document published by the PNAC in 2000 actually describes the need for a "new Pearl Harbor" to persuade the American public to accept the acts of war and aggression the administration wants to carry out. "But most people in the country are totally unaware that the PNAC exists," said Peter Phillips, a professor at Sonoma State, "and that failure has aided and abetted this disaster in Iraq."

According to Project Censored authors. "In the 1970s, the United States and the Middle East were embroiled in a tug-of-war over oil. At the time, the prospect of seizing control of Arab oil fields by force was considered out of line. Still, the idea of Middle East dominance was very attractive to a group of hard-line Washington insiders that included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, William Kristol and other operatives. During the Clinton years they were active in conservative think tanks like the PNAC. When Bush was elected they came roaring back into power.

In an update for the Project Censored Web site, Mother Jones writer Robert Dreyfuss notes "There was very little examination in the media of the role of oil in American policy towards Iraq and the Persian Gulf, and what coverage did exist tended to pooh-pooh or debunk the idea that the war had anything to do with it."

2. Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberties

Sources: Global Outlook (Winter 2003), Rense.com (2-11-03 & Global Outlook, Volume 4), Center for Public Integrity (http://www.publicintegrity.org) Corporate Media partial coverage: Atlanta Journal-constitution (5/11/03/), The Tampa Tribune (3/28/03), Baltimore Sun (2/21/03)

While the media did cover the Patriot Act, and the so-called Patriot Act II, which was leaked to the press in February 2003, there wasn't sufficient analysis of some of the truly dangerous and precedent-setting components of both acts. This goes especially for the shocking provision in Patriot II that would allow even US citizens to be treated as enemy combatants and held without counsel, simply on suspicion of connections to terrorism.

3. US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq UN Report

Source: The Humanist and ArtVoice (March/April 2003), first covered by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

Story three is the shockingly under-reported fact that the Bush administration removed a whopping 8,000 of 11,800 pages from the report the Iraqi government submitted to the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The pages included details on how the US had actually supplied Iraq with chemical and biological weapons and the building blocks for weapons of mass destruction. The pages reportedly implicate not only Reagan and Bush administration officials but also major corporations including Bechtel, Eastman Kodak and Dupont and the US Departments of Energy and Agriculture.

4. Rumsfeld's Plan to Provoke Terrorists

Source: CounterPunch (11/1/02)

Moscow Times columnist and CounterPunch contributor Chris Floyd developed this story off a small item in the LA Times in October 2002 about secret armies the Pentagon has been developing around the world. "The Pro-active, Preemptive Operations Group (or "Pee-Twos') 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 US forces," Floyd wrote. "The Pee-Twos will thus come in handy whenever the Regime hankers to add a little oil-laden real estate or a new military base to the Empire's burgeoning portfolio. Just find a nest of violent malcontents, stir 'em with a stick, and presto: instant justification for whatever level of intervention-conquest-raping that you might desire."

For the complete list and links of the "Top 25 Censored Stories," see:
http://projectcensored.org/publications/2004/index.html



4) Flowers in the Granite State - to Michael Moore


This following letter was sent to Michael Moore on September 21 and 22nd by email to mike@michaelmoore.com

Dear Michael,

Thanks for speaking in Manchester Saturday, 20 September. Your wisdom and caring has contributed significantly in the art of human endeavors. I am sorry I could not see you when you met with the Press. First the Rolling Thunder folks were questioning my PRESS PASS. It looked legitimate, with a logo of a missile surfer and poor earth getting bombarded. But then they said that I heckled you during your talk. I was communicating with you. I appreciate you too much to ever heckle you. You were so right in the Bowling movie, fear can become a dominating force in humanity.

Anyway, the issue with seeing you was resolved, somewhat, when the staff of Rolling Thunder, with a policeman beside her, offered to forward you information. Unfortunately, my business card with note fell off in all the confusion, so, "Voila!", [here it is], a whole letter. I hope you received the info, a couple of a hard copies of Flyby News, and flier on exciting film-discussion program for severing the corporate hold on democracy. Coming out of the Cassini flyby era we knew of "Vision 2020" and plans of the US military to take the higher ground for world domination. Only one leader will stop Star Wars and the insidious nature of our government. I hope you will stay open for endorsing Dennis in the Primaries and the Democratic Nominee for US President in 2004.

I know I responded while you were speaking, on a trade idea with Democrats to support Greens. I really feel IRV [instant run-off voting] is the most effective way to get a multi-party system in US government, and that wipes out the spoiler factor, so people are invited to choose the best candidate for the job. But IRVs won't happen either unless there is a powerhouse of a leader for real change in the White House. Though Howard Dean was the first candidate to endorse IRVs, I still can't trust him. While he was Governor of VT he endorsed a mirage of an investigation that prevented us from really know what the heck happened when two policemen unloaded 7 bullets into my friend's body, and who refused him medical treatment on the scene by a doctor. Did I mention that he was in a Church, and although apparently perturbed, he threatened no one but himself (with a pen knife), and fought for political sanctuary in a community space used as a Unitarian Church and Synagogue.

More on this is linked from FlybyNews.com, if interested, and you may be interested in an update of a patent for developing a new 200kW Stirling engine for waste heat to onsite power production. Flyby News tries to find solutions to problems, and not just to focus on the problems alone.
Thanks for all your work. I hope to have a chance to interview you the next time I have the honor of hearing your many pearls of wisdom of truth with humor and grace.

Please, if convenient, please pass on my deepest respect for Jim Hightower, and mutual loss, and for hope, that endings and beginnings are a part of our eternal nature.

Thanks Michael for your bright light in the Granite State and sharing in Veteran's Park.

Jonathan Mark
Publisher/Reporter
Flyby News

PS: Your description of wanting Dennis on your side in a fight was much appreciated and I am learning it to be true. Anyway, I hope we team up in any way possible, and help our world.



5) Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks up


CNN.com / Science & Space
Report: Giant Arctic ice shelf breaks up

Monday, September 22, 2003 Posted: 4:04 PM EDT (2004 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The largest ice shelf in the Arctic, a solid feature for 3,000 years, has broken up, scientists in the United States and Canada said on Monday.

They said the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, broke into two main parts, themselves cut through with fissures. A freshwater lake drained into the sea, the researchers reported.

Large ice islands also calved off from the shelf and some are large enough to be dangerous to shipping and to drilling platforms in the Beaufort Sea.

Local warming of the climate is to blame, they said -- adding that they did not have the evidence needed to link the melting ice to the steady, planet-wide climate change known as global warming.

Warwick Vincent and Derek Mueller of Laval University in Quebec City, Canada, and Martin Jeffries of the University of Alaska Fairbanks lived at the site, flew over it and used radar satellite imaging for their study.

Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Vincent's team said all of the fresh water poured out of the 20 mile (30 km) long Disraeli Fjord.

This in turn has affected communities of freshwater and marine species of plankton and algae, said Mueller, a graduate student who has studied the tiny creatures.

Only 100 years ago the whole northern coast of Ellesmere Island, which is the northernmost land mass of North America, was edged by a continuous ice shelf. About 90 percent of it is now gone, Vincent's team wrote.

The area has been getting warmer, they said. A similar trend in the Antarctic has caused the break-up of huge ice shelves there.

"There's a regional trend in warming that cycles back 150 years," Mueller said in a telephone interview. "I am not comfortable linking it to global warming. It is difficult to tease out what is due to global warming and what is due to regional warming."

Records indicate an increase of four-tenths of a degree centigrade every10 years since 1967. The average July temperature has been 1.3 degrees Celsius or 34 degrees F -- just above the freezing point -- since 1967.

Climate change has affected ocean temperature, salinity and flow patterns, which also influence the break-up of ice shelves in the Antarctic. "It's not just as simple as it gets x degrees warmer and the ice melts this much," Mueller said. Warmer temperatures weaken the ice, leaving it vulnerable to changed currents and other forces.

Copyright 2003 Reuters.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/09/22/arctic.ice.reut/index.html


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