11/27/2001 10:33 AM
WTO STRIKES BACK? A couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Prince, who owns the
Gatt.org domain, received a call
from Verio, Gatt.org's upstream provider because the World
Trade Organization had asked them to shut down the domain for copyright
violations. Verio told Prince that it would do just that if nothing was
changed by November 13—the last day of the Doha Ministerial, as it would
happen. An official
email followed.
THE YES MEN STRIKE BACK In response to the attack, the Yes Men have released a
piece of open-source
"parodyware" that will "forever make this kind of censorship obsolete,"
according to Peabody. "Using this software, it takes five minutes to set up a
convincing, personalized, evolving parody of the WTO.org website, or any other website of your choice," said
Peabody, who helped to develop the program. "All you need is a place to put
it—say, WTOO.org, WorldTradeOrg.com, whatever."
11/26/2001 7:37 PM
HOT ON THE TRAIL 2 The day after 23 presumed homosexuals were
sentenced to hard labor in the Emergency State Security Court in Cairo, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
(IGLHRC) reports on the arrest of four more presumed homosexuals under the
same charges.
ON THE AIR On Freespeech Internet TV, Noam Chomsky [RealAudio required] analyzes the use of
terrorism as a tool of state policy, and a regular tool in the arsenal of the
United States.
RULING CLASS "They
rule" rules! [Flash required]
SHOW ME THE MONEY Opensecrets.org is a "guide to the money in American
elections" where they track the payback.
ON THE JOB IN KANDAHAR It's amazing that Robert Fisk has managed to find his way to Kandahar. The
Independent
claims that he's the only Western journalist who has been able to do so.
His first dispatch from Kandahar tells of refugees fleeing American
bombing and Northern Alliance assaults.
I'm outta here.
NOVEMBER 16-20 . . .
Sad to say, I'm going to be away on travel for several days. In the
meantime, I recommend these resources for consistently intelligent and fresh
perspectives:
BLOWBACK
. . . when wartime decisions come to haunt the people that made them
BOOKNOTES
. . . Books, libraries, preservation, digital convergence, music,
politics
KILL YOUR TV . . . and the
other DC bloggers listed on the left here.
NOVEMBER 15, 2001
FOUR FUCKED UP THINGS
NOVEMBER 14, 2001
BLACKLISTS? Patrick Healy reports that in a report issued Tuesday, the
American Council of Trustees
and Alumni names names and criticizes professors for making statements
''short on patriotism and long on self-flagellation.''
PROFILES IN COWARDICE Victor Navasky on Bill Maher, Ann Coulter, and Dan
Rather.
FUCKED UP Designed primarily to
benefit corporations, the "stimulus" bill passed by the House is
retroactive, multi-billion-dollar tax giveaway to America's biggest
corporations including:
Not to worry, these giveaways are a mere drop in the budget bucket
compared to America's military budget . . . $849,314,880 every day, in
case you were wondering.
ANTHRAX PAST It reads like a news story from yesterday, but it's a Salon
piece from 1998 that recounts the arrest of Larry Wayne Harris in Las
Vegas with a car full of suspected biological weapons. He claims to have made
anthrax from a pit where infected cows had been buried 40 years ago. According
to the Salon piece, "Harris is associated with the extremist Aryan
Nation as well as the Christian Identity movement, which refers to non-whites as
'mud people' and advocates a homeland for whites in the Northwest United
States. The Southern Poverty
Law Center, which tracks extremist groups around the nation, says that
certain militia and white supremacist organizations are becoming more
interested in the use of biological weapons." Where have we heard this story before?
NOVEMBER 13, 2001
BOMBS AWAY In keeping with its sophisticated "with us or against
us" foreign policy, the US bombed the offices of Al-Jazeera in Kabul while the
Northern Alliance celebrated their victory by executing P.O.W.s, seizing aid trucks, massacring students and wiping up the troops that the Taliban left behind. According
to Fisk, the behavior of "our" foot soldiers comes as no
surprise. An Afghan woman remembers their entry into Kabul in 1992: "Are
these rapists any better than the hard-liners they replace?" Silly woman.
At least we can't say that we weren't warned. Anyway—with the Northern Alliance setting everything
straight in Afghanistan, its time for the US to move on to its next target
against terrorism while Americans sit and wait to see what/who will
be the next target of terrorism in the US.
NOTE TO SELF Civilian casualties not news.
NOW MORE ON WHY THEY HATE US It was ten years ago yesterday (11/12)
that Indonesian
troops massacred at least 270 East Timorese at the Santa Cruz cemetery in
Dili, East Timor.The Indonesian troops who committed the massacre used M-16
rifles provided by the US; their officers were trained and supported by the
US.
WHERE IS NANCY WHEN YOU NEED HER The US today wants to talk to 5,000 males, aged 18 to 33, who
entered the United States on non-immigrant visas after Jan. 1, 2000, from
specific countries. Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker says that the
interviews would be "consensual." In other words, just say no!
PEOPLE POWER Greenpeace
goes to Japan. Fifty go to WTO in Qatar. Thousands go to
hundreds of cities and almost 40 countries to protest against the ministerial
meetings of the WTO. Tamara
Straus says "If this week's WTO meeting in Qatar fails, it won't be
because of street protests or media scrutiny, but because international trade
has been transformed in the the post-9/11 age."
[NEW Just added a new ON ANARCHY section to the left . . .
as always, contributions, links, comments, suggestions, or whatever are
welcome at geoff85858@mac.com.]
NOVEMBER 10, 2001
FUCKED UP The Justice Department has decided to listen in on the conversations of lawyers with
clients in federal custody, including people who have been detained but
not charged with any crime. Stunned defense lawyers and civil libertarians
assailed the order as an unconstitutional attack on the right to
counsel and, in the words of American Civil Liberties Union official Laura W.
Murphy, "a terrifying
precedent."
MIA Forget Osama, where the hell is George
Bush?
SILLY ME I actually thought this was a joke.
1000 WORDS Images of War
ISRAEL From a broadly left-zionist perspective on Israel, Israelinsider.com is one of the best internet
resources—special sections include the geo-politics of the conflict with an
excellent section of evolving maps from pre-1948 to post-Oslo 2000,
comparative demographic charts, and (in the politics section), the political breakdown of Israeli
political parties, the coalition government and the Israeli cabinet. (Flash required)
NOVEMBER 9, 2001
[NEW I just beefed up the permanent IRONY and NEWS
sections to the left . . . as always, contributions, links, comments,
suggestions, or whatever are welcome at geoff85858@mac.com.]
NOVEMBER 8, 2001
WEBLOGGING AND 9/11 Part diary, part news portal, these eclectic,
mostly autocratic and sometimes unashamedly opinionated Web logs have provided Internet users with both uniquely
individual points of view and broader insights on the world at large. They are
not new, however. If you are at all interested, here's Rebecca's history and perspective on webloggers. S ome of us
are already
addicted bloggers!
STEP ASIDE CNN! A decade ago we watched Baghdad burn on CNN. This
time millions are glued to footage from an Arab satellite channel broadcasting
from a station Hosni Mubarak called a "matchbox" in a nation few Americans
could find on the map. Clearly, Al-Jazeera has cornered the conflict. Cursor.org has
compiled an extensive list of articles on the network. There is an amazing
automated translation of the Al-Jazeera website at a-Jeeb which also has a translation of the important Arabic
paper, al-Hayat.
BLOWBACK The Federation of American Scientists (commies!) has a
very interesting document on their website on arms transfers. It's a guide to U.S.
arms sales policies of the past and present that impact the current
conflict. It would seem that they feel there is some connection to what is
going on now in Afghanistan. They, as well as the
Mennonites, deal with the whole unfortunate cluster bomb thing at their site also. At least no one is
claiming that they are smart or precise.
ESCAPE AND EVASION: Yesterday's Drudge rumor, today's
fact. Reading Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article about the botched
Delta Force raid of October 20th raises questions about what exactly
happened in Somalia all those years ago . . . It just so happens that PBS
Frontline hosts an outstanding multimedia site documenting the
bloody 1993 special forces battle in Mogadishu that left 18 dead and 84
wounded, in a debacle that continues to haunt US planners as they map
their "strategy" in Afghanistan. [via blowback]
RIGHTS: Not that we would ever need to refer to it , but the
Library of Congress has the Bill of Rights on their website along with a searchable
constitution. It's an interesting read.
INTERNET AND 9/11: The web has no memory, unless it is created.
NOVEMBER 7, 2001
ON THE WAR
A Drudge report on how the US Delta-Forces are not as good as the Pentagon
portrays
them.
The Northern Alliance's perspective of last weekend's B-52 carpet bombing festival.
FUCKED UP: 'Am I a Terrorist or a Member of Al-Qaeda or a Taliban Fighter or
Not?' [via seethru] All
imagery courtesy of US bombing in Afghanistan. (Once at the site, be sure to
hit the refresh button several times . . . you'll get the idea . . . )
SHOT DEAD: Digna Ochoa y Placido, a prominent human rights lawyer
who has defended Zapatista rebels and sympathisers in the past was found shot dead in the office of two fellow human rights attorneys
on Friday.
APPLE—ROTTEN TO THE CORE?:An African-American man, who was employed
by APPLE COMPUTER as a Product Design Engineer, has slapped one of the
nation's largest computer manufactures with a $40 million racial discrimination lawsuit.
MORE FUCKED UP: In April 1997, an 18-year-old football player in
Minersville, Schuylkill County, and a 17-year-old male friend were stopped by
police after leaving a party. The arresting officer, F. Scott Willinsky,
allegedly asked if they were "queer" and threatened to tell their families
they were gay. Marcus Wayman, the football player, told his friend he was
going to kill himself. A few hours later, he did just that. Now, a civil suit filed by Wayman's mother over her son's death is
set for trial in federal court in Allentown. The suit charges that the town
and three of its police officers violated Wayman's right to privacy.
NOVEMBER 6, 2001
SLA: Saying she could not receive a fair trial because of the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks, Sara Jane Olson, accused Symbionese Liberation Army member,
pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to blow up two LAPD
cars in 1975 in an effort to murder police officers.
AIDS: With controversial U.S.
policy decisions slipping by without scrutiny, it is all the more
important for organizations and individuals (requires realplayer) committed to the
struggle for global access to affordable, life-sustaining AIDS treatment to
take meaningful action. (See also 20 Years—AIDS & Photography in
the side bar on the left.)
FUCKED UP: Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green
Party USA coordinating committee member, Thursday (11/1) at Bangor
International Airport in Bangor Maine, as she attempted to board an American
Airlines flight to Chicago. (Thanks to Michael who drew my attention to this
one!)
WAKING LIFE: How do you make a film about
something that most likely happens entirely in the mind? At the site there is
an brilliant trailer for a movie that is likely to set the tone for a new
generation of animation films. Amazing!
GLOBALISATION: Don't say there are no alternatives! On November 2, Greenpeace released its
alternative to trade liberalisation, proposed by the US and European Union,
for the 4th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
AND FINALLY—go here!
NOVEMBER 3, 2001
FREE SPEECH: Free speech faces the strongest challenges during
times of crisis. Whether or not any of us agree about each particular decision
made to prevent public access to sensitive information, it is the Electronic Frontier Foundation 's responsibility to chart
any such efforts so that we as a society are at least aware of what is no
longer available to us.
OUT OF THE (MAHOGANY) CLOSET: I love it when they name names!
BOOKMARK: Bookmark it, read it, learn it!
KISSING ASS: Yesterday I quoted Isaacson from CNN. It seems that
this was not the first suck-up performed by the CNN chief executive.
OUTRAGEOUS: Mr Bush's personal papers detailing the decision-making process in the
current war on terrorism could remain secret in perpetuity.
INEVITABLE: The Hong Kong designers (Michael Miller Yu and Eric
Chan), who designed the controversial anti-smoking poster, plan to enter it in
international design competitions. Yu explained that "six thousand people died
in the September 11 tragedy but more people die from smoking."
ONE WORLD UNITED: Anthrax in Pakistan?
CLARIFICATION: One thing is clear, and it isn't the objectives of the US war in Afghanistan.
That's all for today!
NOVEMBER 2, 2001
I'm back! and WHOA! so much stuff has come down the pike these past few
days, I don't even know where to begin. The internet has been humming with
information and it seems that more and more Americans are getting their news from non-American
sources. (By the way, that Robert Greenan sure is a looker!)
The State Department, with its latest release on the state of women (and girls?) in Afghanistan,
is now only officially 5
years behind the times. But, hey, better late than never . . . and
particularly when it suits your broader public relations needs.
Alongside the White House and the Capitol building on the alleged
terrorist hit list for September 11 was another, little-noticed target:
Incirlik, a US airbase in southern Turkey. Why Incirlik?
On October 29, a group of civil liberties, human rights, Arab-American,
public access and other organizations, demanded the release of information on the over 900 people
who have been jailed and detained since the September 11th terrorist attacks
behind a curtain of official silence for more than six weeks. The groups
demanded information from the FBI, the Justice Department and the INS under
the Freedom of Information Act, and the constitutional and common law right of
access to public records.
And finally, seemingly from the Let's Go Guide to
Terrorism, one of the organizations listed as a Specially
Designated Global Terrorist [SDGT] entity in Executive Order
12334 is AL-SHIFA' HONEY PRESS FOR INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE, in Sanaa, Yemen,
which according to the order is located "by the Shrine Next to the Gas
Station, Jamal Street." Is this in case well-intended US agents get there and
can't find it?
© Copyright 2001, geoff85858@mac.com. All rights reserved.
PROTEST THE WAR!
MIDDLE EAST LINKS
LAST UPDATE:
11/27/01 11:00 AM
Why are we so happy that Afghans can now fly kites, shave their
beards and wear short skirts when so few of us seemed to care about their plight
before Sept. 11?
What about the millions of Afghans who are in danger of
starvation this winter? Are they, too, flying kites amid the land mines and
unexploded cluster bombs?
Why does Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair get a warm embrace
for helping us wage war, but when Gordon Brown, Britain's chancellor of the
exchequer, asks us to do more to help the world's poor, we give him a cold
shoulder?
Why are atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance more
acceptable than those committed by the Taliban?
Women in Saudi Arabia aren't allowed to drive cars, and women in
Kuwait can't vote. Is that OK because those countries provide us with oil?
The answers wouldn't have anything to do with our selfish,
short-sighted national interest, would it?
