Flyby News
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
GovernmentCult * DUcensored * Unconstitutional
02 February 2005
"This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers,
stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later
by the prisoners who were freed … were not, as some assumed, inflicted
methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards,
their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees."
– Rudolf Hoess
SS commandant at Auschwitz1) We've Been Taken Over By a Cult- - Iraq Dispatches: Dahr's personal log from Iraq
- - Debate on Alberto Gonzales Continues
- - "Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
- - Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address
2) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
3) "Unconstitutional" -- Peltier -- Sitcha -- new FN list serve"Freedom is when the people can speak,
democracy is when the government listens."
– Alastair Farrugia
1) We've Been Taken Over By a Cult- - Iraq Dispatches: Dahr's personal log from Iraq
- - Debate on Alberto Gonzales Continues
- - "Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
- - Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address
- - We've Been Taken Over By a CultThe Military is Nowhere; the Press is Nowhere; the Congress is Nowhere...
We've Been Taken Over By a Cult
By SEYMOUR HERSH
About what's going on in terms of the President is that as virtuous as I feel, you know, at The New Yorker, writing an alternative history more or less of what's been going on in the last three years, George Bush feels just as virtuous in what he is doing. He is absolutely committed -- I don't know whether he thinks he's doing God's will or what his father didn't do, or whether it's some mandate from -- you know, I just don't know, but George Bush thinks this is the right thing. He is going to continue doing what he has been doing in Iraq. He's going to expand it, I think, if he can. I think that the number of body bags that come back will make no difference to him. The body bags are rolling in. It makes no difference to him, because he will see it as a price he has to pay to put America where he thinks it should be. So, he's inured in a very strange way to people like me, to the politicians, most of them who are too cowardly anyway to do much. So, the day-to-day anxiety that all of us have, and believe me, though he got 58 million votes, many of people who voted for him weren't voting for continued warfare, but I think that's what we're going to have.
Editors' Note: For the complete transcript of remarks by Seymour Hersh at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York, see:
www.counterpunch.org/hersh01272005.htmlSeymour Hersh's latest book is Chain of Command: The Road to Abu Ghraib.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq Dispatches: Dahr's personal log from IraqDahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
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February 01, 2005
What They're Not Telling You About the "Election"
The day of blood and elections has passed, and the blaring trumpets of corporate media hailing it as a successful show of "democracy" have subsided to a dull roar.
After a day which left 50 people dead in Iraq, both civilians and soldiers, the death toll was hailed as a figure that was "lower than expected." Thus…acceptable, by Bush Administration/corporate media standards. After all, only of them was an American, the rest were Iraqis civilians and British soldiers.
To continue reading "What They're Not Telling You About the "Election"" and view intros to other journal writing in Iraq by Dahr_Jamail, see:
dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog The above link is posted @ Flyby News homepage with other featured resources for breaking news!.
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- - Debate on Alberto Gonzales ContinuesDemocrats Lash Out At His Role in Approving Torture
Democracy Now!
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
For DN transcript, (and audio-video links) see:
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/02/1519221Take Action to Oppose Alberto Gonzales for US Attorney General
www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16842&action=1516To call your Senators, call the Congressional
Switchboard telephone number: Tel. 202-224-3121
For US Congress Contact Information, see:
www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic""Standing for the Founding Principles of the Republic"
by US Senator Robert C. Byrd
Remarks delivered Tuesday as the Senate debated the nomination of Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be Secretary of State.
[EXCERPT]
..That view of America is one which encourages our Nation to flex its muscles without being bound by any calls for restraint. The most forceful explanation of this idea can be found in "The National Security Strategy of the United States," a report which was issued by the White House in September 2002. Under this strategy, the President lays claim to an expansive power to use our military to strike other nations first, even if we have not been threatened or provoked.
There is no question that the President has the inherent authority to repel attacks against our country, but this National Security Strategy is unconstitutional on its face. It takes the checks and balances established in the Constitution that limit the President's ability to use our military at his pleasure, and throws them out the window.
This doctrine of preemptive strikes places the sole decision of war and peace in the hands of the President and undermines the Constitutional power of Congress to declare war. The Founding Fathers required that such an important issue of war be debated by the elected representatives of the people in the Legislative Branch precisely because no single man could be trusted with such an awesome power as bringing a nation to war by his decision alone. And yet, that it exactly what the National Security Strategy proposes.
Not only does this pernicious doctrine of preemptive war contradict the Constitution, it barely acknowledges its existence. The National Security Strategy makes only one passing reference to the Constitution: it states that "America's constitution" -- that is "constitution" with a small C -- "has served us well." As if the Constitution does not still serve this country well! One might ask if that reference to the Constitution was intended to be a compliment or an obituary?
As National Security Advisor, Dr. Rice was in charge of developing the National Security Strategy. She also spoke out forcefully in support of the dangerous doctrine of preemptive war. In one speech, she argues that there need not be an imminent threat before the United States attacks another nation: "So as a matter of common sense," said Dr. Rice on October 1, 2002, "the United States must be prepared to take action, when necessary, before threats have fully materialized."
But that "matter of common sense" is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. For that matter, isn't it possible to disagree with this "matter of common sense?" What is common sense to one might not be shared by another. What's more, matters of common sense can lead people to the wrong conclusions. John Dickinson, the chief author of the Articles of Confederation, said in 1787, "Experience must be our only guide; reason may mislead us." As for me, I will heed the experience of Founding Fathers, as enshrined in the Constitution, over the reason and "common sense" of the Administration's National Security Strategy.
We can all agree that the President, any President, has the inherent duty and power to repel an attack on the United States. But where in the Constitution can the President claim the right to strike at another nation before it has even threatened our country, as Dr. Rice asserted in that speech? To put it plainly, Dr. Rice has asserted that the President holds far more of the war power than the Constitution grants him.
###
For the complete transcript of Senator Byrd's speech, see the following link:
www.commondreams.org/views05/0125-34.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural AddressDemocracy Now!
Tuesday, January 25th, 2005
Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address: "The Most Un-American Speech I've Ever Heard"
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1458238
2) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and CiviliansThe following excerpts # 4 of Project Censored's most censored story in 2005. "The Mission of Project Censored is to educate people about the role of independent journalism in a democratic society and to tell The News That Didn't Make the News and why. Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State University which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."
Project Censored - Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, CA 94928
(707) 664-2500
censored@sonoma.edu
ProjectCensored.org- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(#4) High Uranium Levels Found in Troops and Civilians
URANIUM MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER, January 2003
Title: "UMRC's Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan & Operation Enduring Freedom"
and "Afghan Field Trip #2 Report: Precision Destruction- Indiscriminate Effects"
Author: Tedd Weyman, UMRC Research Team
AWAKENED WOMAN, January 2004
Title: "Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan"
Author: Stephanie Hiller
DISSIDENT VOICE, March 2004
Title: "There Are No Words…Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs"
Author: Bob Nichols
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, April 5,2004
Title: "Poisoned?"
Author: Juan Gonzalez
INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, March 2004
Title: "International Criminal Tribune For Afghanistan At Tokyo, The People vs. George Bush"
Author: Professor Ms Niloufer Bhagwat J.
Evaluator: Jennifer Lillig, Ph.D.
Student Researcher: Kenny Crosbie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States' use of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries are bound to feel the effects as well.
In 2003 scientists from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) studied urine samples of Afghan civilians and found that 100% of the samples taken had levels of non-depleted uranium (NDU) 400% to 2000% higher than normal levels. The UMRC research team studied six sites, two in Kabul and others in the Jalalabad area. The civilians were tested four months after the attacks in Afghanistan by the United States and its allies.
NDU is more radioactive than depleted uranium (DU), which itself is charged with causing many cancers and severe birth defects in the Iraqi population–especially children–over the past ten years. Four million pounds of radioactive uranium was dropped on Iraq in 2003 alone. Uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning armed forces. Nine soldiers from the 442nd Military Police serving in Iraq were tested for DU contamination in December 2003. Conducted at the request of The News, as the U.S. government considers the cost of $1,000 per affected soldier prohibitive, the test found that four of the nine men were contaminated with high levels of DU, likely caused by inhaling dust from depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops. Several of the men had traces of another uranium isotope, U-236, that are produced only in a nuclear reaction process.
Most American weapons (missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets, tank shells, cruise missiles, etc.) contain high amounts of radioactive uranium. Depleted or non-depleted, these types of weapons, on detonation, release a radioactive dust which, when inhaled, goes into the body and stays there. It has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Basically, it's a permanently available contaminant, distributed in the environment, where dust storms or any water nearby can disperse it. Once ingested, it releases subatomic particles that slice through DNA.
UMRC's Field Team found several hundred Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation.
At the Uranium Weapons Conference held October 2003 in Hamburg, Germany, independent scientists from around the world testified to a huge increase in birth deformities and cancers wherever NDU and DU had been used. Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the Ryukyus University, Okinawa calculated that the 800 tons of DU used in Afghanistan is the radioactive equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The amount of DU used in Iraq is equivalent to 250,000 Nagasaki bombs.
At the Uranium Weapons Conference, a demonstration by British-trained oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali showed photographs of the kinds of birth deformities and tumors he had observed at the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra just before the 2003 war. Cancer rates had increased dramatically over the previous fifteen years. In 1989 there were 11 abnormalities per 100,000 births; in 2001 there were 116 per 100,000—an increase of over a thousand percent. In 1989 34 people died of cancer; in 2001 there were 603 cancer deaths. The 2003 war has increased these figures exponentially.
At a meeting of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan held December 2003 in Tokyo, the U.S. was indicted for multiple war crimes in Afghanistan, among them the use of DU. Leuren Moret, President of Scientists for Indigenous People and Environmental Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, testified that because radioactive contaminants from uranium weapons travel through air, water, and food sources, the effects of U.S. deployment in Afghanistan will be felt in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China and India. Countries affected by the use of uranium weapons in Iraq include Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, and Iran.
UPDATE BY BOB NICHOLS: (Oklahoma City) Throughout the world people are familiar with the "smoking gun" solution so prized by murder mystery writers. Many think that once the smoking gun in any mystery is discovered, it is time for the "bad guys" to give up. Wish it were only so.
The smoking guns are Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone from New York's 442nd Guard Unit—they are the first confirmed cases of inhaled uranium oxide exposure from the current Iraq conflict. Dr. Asaf Durokovic, professor of Nuclear Medicine at the Uranium Medical Research Centre
www.umrc.net conducted the diagnostic tests. The story was released April 3, 2004 in the New York Daily News. There is no treatment and there is no cure.
www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.htmlLeuren Moret reports, "In my research on depleted uranium during the past 5 years, the most disturbing information concerns the impact on the unborn children and future generations for both soldiers serving in the depleted uranium wars, and for the civilians who must live in the permanently radioactive contaminated regions. Today, more than 240,000 Gulf War veterans are on permanent medical disability and more than 11,000 are dead. They have been denied testing, medical care, and compensation for depleted uranium exposure and related illnesses since 1991."
Moret continues "Even worse, they brought it home in their bodies. In some families, the children born before the Gulf War are the only healthy members. Wives and female partners of Gulf War veterans have reported a condition known as burning semen syndrome, and are now internally contaminated from depleted uranium carried in the semen of exposed veterans. Many are reporting reproductive illnesses such as endometriosis. In a U.S. government study, conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs on post-Gulf War babies, 67% were found to have serious birth defects or serious illnesses. They were born without eyes (anophthalmos), ears, had missing organs, missing legs and arms, fused fingers, thyroid or other organ malformations."
"LIFE Photoessay:"
www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.htmlMoret concludes, "In Iraq it is even worse where babies are born without brains, organs are outside the body, or women give birth to pieces of flesh. In babies born in Iraq in 2002, the incidence of anophthalmos was 250,000 times greater (20 cases in 4,000 births) than the natural occurrence, one in 50 million births. Takashi MORIZUMI's photos: in
www.savewarchildren.org/ record the tragedy in Iraq."
For more information on the American President's continuing campaign of contaminating the land, check the World Uranium Weapons Conference,
www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/ ,
Check the Uranium Medical Research Center and Dr. Asaf Durakovic at
www.umrc.net/ ,
and for updates on the related Nuclear Power Plants see Russell Hoffman's website at:
www.animatedsoftware.com/hotwords/index.htm .
Write Leuren Moret, Independent Scientist and radiation specialist, City of Berkeley Environmental Commissioner, Past President, Association for Women Geoscientists: leurenmoret@yahoo.com
"Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War" by Leuren Moret, World Affairs Journal, July, 2004.
www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm Read Bob Nichols at:
www.dissidentvoice.org.
For complete article, which includes updates by Tedd Weyman and Stephanie Hiller, see:
www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/4.html
3) "Unconstitutional" -- Peltier -- Sitcha -- new FN list serveThe following was sent to subscribers of a New England area alerts list –
To: Flyby News Alerts < info@flybynews.com >
Subject: "Unconstitutional" -- Peltier -- Sitcha -- new FN list serve
[All email addresses confidentially maintained -
to subscribe, send an email to
flyby@mtdata.com with "subscribe flyby alerts" in subject.]
The following information is on a film called, "Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties", which will be shown in Amherst this Thursday (2/3) in Amherst, MA and Wednesday, Feb. 16 in Shelburne Falls, MA. Also at bottom is information on an event in Antrim, NH on the legal case of native amercian political prisoner, Leonard Peltier.
Also, be on alert that I soon plan to also send you an invite to join a new email list serve for feedback, discussions, and strategies regarding information posted at FlybyNews.com . Please consider joining this list serve. I realize we are all max-out with email, but you could register a new yahoo email address to sign up for this list.. You can also set email to receive them individually, or in digest format, or even get no email from this list, but have the ability to read messages at FlybyNews (@ yahoogroups) home page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlybyNewsI had planned to attend the film this Thursday, but still in search for a vehicle. If you know of any cheap and fairly reliable, please let me know.. thanks.. Please note, too, that the case of Richard Sitcha may be discussed at this film program. I visited Richard at the Greenfield jail last week. This is another crime of 9/11 craziness, to take away the political asylum and freedom of this former Cameroon attorney, and keep him locked in a cage, already, for about 15 months, for no crime committed. . . [we have turned the world upside in such craziness and needless suffering. Richard simply wants to be out of jail. He would welcome going to Canada, or elsewhere, but would not be safe returning to his home in Cameroon.]
For more, see:
FreeRichard.com======
Film:
"Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties", written and produced by Nonny de la Pena, is about the shocking story of how our civil liberties have been infringed upon since 9/11 and the USA Patriot Act.
Thursday 2/3, 7pm, Jones Library, Amherst
also:
Reel World Film Series: Unconstitutional - the War on our Civil Liberties
Wednesday 2/16, 7pm, Shelburne Falls Library
For more information on the film, see:
www.publicinterestpictures.org/unconstitutionalPlease note, too:
in New Hampshire - February 17th 2005
COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ON LEONARD PELTIER
>>>>>
Featuring: > Barry Bachrach, Peltier Attorney
Joshua Rubenstein, Amnesty International
Display of Peltier's artwork
>>>>>
February 17, 2005 at 7:00 PM
Antrim Baptist Church
Main & Concord Streets, Antrim, NH
>>>>>
Information: Shelley Nelkens - 603/588-2916
>>>>>
Refreshments served. Donations welcome.
Proceeds benefit the Peltier Legal Team.
By special arrangement, selected Peltier paintings will be on display.
>>>>>
=+=+=+=+= FREE LEONARD PELTIER NOW! =+=+=+=+=
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