Australians Nation-Wide Rally for no War Against Iraq, No Australian Involvement
John Pilger gave a fiery speech at the Sydney rally. Among other points, he claimed that the marchers were the opposition, they were the moderates; while the government and the "consensual system" were the extremists. He also attacked the media and made an appeal to working journalists to "REBEL against this system" and "stop telling lies."

Australians Nation-Wide Rally for no War Against Iraq, No Australian Involvement
John Pilger gave a fiery speech at the Sydney rally. Among other points, he claimed that the marchers were the opposition, they were the moderates; while the government and the "consensual system" were the extremists. He also attacked the media and made an appeal to working journalists to "REBEL against this system" and "stop telling lies."

Peace Activist Caoimhe Butterly shot by IDF soldier
"On Friday, Ian Hook, a British UN volunteer, was shot and killed in Jenin. Caoimhe Butterly, a 23-year-old Irish activist, was also shot, but survived. In October, I spent two weeks filming Caoimhe for a documentary I am making. I had been inspired to meet her by the footage of her blocking Israel Defense Force tanks as they fired over her head, and stories of her standing in the line of fire between soldiers and Palestinian children, as the IDF threatened to "make her a hero". "

Peace Activist Caoimhe Butterly shot by IDF soldier
"On Friday, Ian Hook, a British UN volunteer, was shot and killed in Jenin. Caoimhe Butterly, a 23-year-old Irish activist, was also shot, but survived. In October, I spent two weeks filming Caoimhe for a documentary I am making. I had been inspired to meet her by the footage of her blocking Israel Defense Force tanks as they fired over her head, and stories of her standing in the line of fire between soldiers and Palestinian children, as the IDF threatened to "make her a hero". "

UN Consecrates Water As Public Good, Human Right GENEVA - The United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights issued a statement Wednesday declaring access to water a human right and stating that water is a social and cultural good, not merely an economic commodity.

The Committee stressed that the 145 countries that have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are now obligated to progressively ensure access to clean water, "equitably and without discrimination".

UN Consecrates Water As Public Good, Human Right GENEVA - The United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights issued a statement Wednesday declaring access to water a human right and stating that water is a social and cultural good, not merely an economic commodity.

The Committee stressed that the 145 countries that have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are now obligated to progressively ensure access to clean water, "equitably and without discrimination".

Scathing Chomsky critique of U.S. policy
"I'm sure every one of you knows from your own lives and the lives of the people around you that the Bush administration is carrying out a major attack against the American population," Chomsky said.

"In his view, its agenda follows the outline set by Ronald Reagan in the early '80s: Drive the country into a huge budget deficit, use that fiscal crisis to slash social programs, and hide behind a propaganda campaign that instills fear across the country.

"They are trying to enrich a pretty small group of corrupt gangsters, who they are protecting all the time," Chomsky said. "And they are carrying out a war against the public to do it."

"In his writings, Chomsky has indicted the United States as a rogue nation, bullying and oppressing poor people from South America to Europe to further its interests and the interests of large corporations."

Scathing Chomsky critique of U.S. policy
"I'm sure every one of you knows from your own lives and the lives of the people around you that the Bush administration is carrying out a major attack against the American population," Chomsky said.

"In his view, its agenda follows the outline set by Ronald Reagan in the early '80s: Drive the country into a huge budget deficit, use that fiscal crisis to slash social programs, and hide behind a propaganda campaign that instills fear across the country.

"They are trying to enrich a pretty small group of corrupt gangsters, who they are protecting all the time," Chomsky said. "And they are carrying out a war against the public to do it."

"In his writings, Chomsky has indicted the United States as a rogue nation, bullying and oppressing poor people from South America to Europe to further its interests and the interests of large corporations."

Chomsky: Why Iraq?
"Chomsky said President Bush is using the Iraq issue to forward a broader conservative agenda.

"It is the strategy of the right oligarchy to direct mass discontent into nationalism and fear, he said. This strategy has been working quite brilliantly, you can see it in the midterm elections.

"As to the administration's choice of Iraq as the target, Chomsky credited the stupendous strategic powers that control of Iraq's oil reserve would confer."

Chomsky: Why Iraq?
"Chomsky said President Bush is using the Iraq issue to forward a broader conservative agenda.

"It is the strategy of the right oligarchy to direct mass discontent into nationalism and fear, he said. This strategy has been working quite brilliantly, you can see it in the midterm elections.

"As to the administration's choice of Iraq as the target, Chomsky credited the stupendous strategic powers that control of Iraq's oil reserve would confer."

Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
"When the Zionists first proposed, in 1897, to create a Jewish state in Palestine, they knew that they would have to find an imperialist sponsor and sell the idea to audiences in Europe and United States. Within a few years of its creation, the moral case for Israel had been sold like a Spielberg blockbuster. The Zionists had succeeded in presenting Israel as a small,
beleaguered but heroic country, defending Western values against
the onslaught of Islamic vandals. Next to the creation of Israel, the launching of this narrative has been the greatest triumph of
Zionism."

Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
"When the Zionists first proposed, in 1897, to create a Jewish state in Palestine, they knew that they would have to find an imperialist sponsor and sell the idea to audiences in Europe and United States. Within a few years of its creation, the moral case for Israel had been sold like a Spielberg blockbuster. The Zionists had succeeded in presenting Israel as a small,
beleaguered but heroic country, defending Western values against
the onslaught of Islamic vandals. Next to the creation of Israel, the launching of this narrative has been the greatest triumph of
Zionism."

Henry Kissinger Fears Arrest
"An indictment of Henry Kissinger for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes would include (but not be confined to) the following.

"VIETNAM: Kissinger scuttled peace talks in 1968, paving the way for Richard Nixon's victory in the presidential race. Half the battle deaths in Vietnam took place between 1968 and 1972, not to mention the millions of civilians throughout Indochina who were killed.

CAMBODIA: Kissinger persuaded Nixon to widen the war with massive bombing of Cambodia and Laos. No one had suggested we go to war with either of these countries. By conservative estimates, the U.S. killed 600,000 civilians in Cambodia and another 350,000 in Laos."

Henry Kissinger Fears Arrest
"An indictment of Henry Kissinger for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes would include (but not be confined to) the following.

"VIETNAM: Kissinger scuttled peace talks in 1968, paving the way for Richard Nixon's victory in the presidential race. Half the battle deaths in Vietnam took place between 1968 and 1972, not to mention the millions of civilians throughout Indochina who were killed.

CAMBODIA: Kissinger persuaded Nixon to widen the war with massive bombing of Cambodia and Laos. No one had suggested we go to war with either of these countries. By conservative estimates, the U.S. killed 600,000 civilians in Cambodia and another 350,000 in Laos."

Chomsky: US plans to take oil.
"Anatol Lieven, senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, observes that the Bush administration's efforts conform to "the classic modern strategy of an endangered right-wing oligarchy, which is to divert mass discontent into nationalism" through fear of external enemies.

"The administration's goal, Lieven says, is "unilateral world domination through absolute military superiority", which is why much of the world is so frightened."

Chomsky: US plans to take oil.
"Anatol Lieven, senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, observes that the Bush administration's efforts conform to "the classic modern strategy of an endangered right-wing oligarchy, which is to divert mass discontent into nationalism" through fear of external enemies.

"The administration's goal, Lieven says, is "unilateral world domination through absolute military superiority", which is why much of the world is so frightened."

Awesome new resource: Google News
News sites can now be searched, compared and contrasted. Indymedia sites also covered.

Awesome new resource: Google News
News sites can now be searched, compared and contrasted. Indymedia sites also covered.

Chomsky interview: Deterring democracy in Italy
"I don't know about Italy, but here the population is polled very extensively, so we have a pretty good grasp of public attitudes. There is, in fact, at Harvard a project called 'The Vanishing Voter Project', which I hope tells you something. It does extensive polling analysis to try to determine why the voters have been losing interest in elections over the past twenty years. One of the things they measure is the sense of helplessness, that is, that you feel you cannot do anything that will affect the political process. It hit a new high this year, far beyond anything before. Right before the election about 75 per cent of the population felt that there was no election at all, that it was just some kind of game being played by rich contributors, party bosses and the media. The whole public relations, or advertising, industry was crafting candidates, training them to use certain gestures and produce certain words that the research industry showed might increase the number of votes. But they didn't mean what they said and you weren't supposed to be able to understand what they said and it was all meaningless, just some kind of public relations game".

Chomsky interview: Deterring democracy in Italy
"I don't know about Italy, but here the population is polled very extensively, so we have a pretty good grasp of public attitudes. There is, in fact, at Harvard a project called 'The Vanishing Voter Project', which I hope tells you something. It does extensive polling analysis to try to determine why the voters have been losing interest in elections over the past twenty years. One of the things they measure is the sense of helplessness, that is, that you feel you cannot do anything that will affect the political process. It hit a new high this year, far beyond anything before. Right before the election about 75 per cent of the population felt that there was no election at all, that it was just some kind of game being played by rich contributors, party bosses and the media. The whole public relations, or advertising, industry was crafting candidates, training them to use certain gestures and produce certain words that the research industry showed might increase the number of votes. But they didn't mean what they said and you weren't supposed to be able to understand what they said and it was all meaningless, just some kind of public relations game".

US Hyperpower: The New International Order
"With the publication this September of the Bush's administration's document defining the new "national security strategy of the United States"... the world's geopolitical architecture now has at its apex a single hyperpower, the US, which "possesses unprecedented and unequalled strength and influence in the world" and which "will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defence by acting pre-emptively." Once a threat has been identified, "America will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed."

"This doctrine re-establishes the right to preventive war which Hitler used in 1941 against the Soviet Union and which Japan used in the same year against the US at Pearl Harbour. It also summarily abolishes one of the basic principles of international law, established with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, that one sovereign state does not intervene, and especially not militarily, in the internal affairs of another (a principle already discarded in the 1999 Nato intervention in Kosovo.

"This means that the international order laid down in 1945 at the end of the second world war and overseen by the United Nations has come to an end."

US Hyperpower: The New International Order
"With the publication this September of the Bush's administration's document defining the new "national security strategy of the United States"... the world's geopolitical architecture now has at its apex a single hyperpower, the US, which "possesses unprecedented and unequalled strength and influence in the world" and which "will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defence by acting pre-emptively." Once a threat has been identified, "America will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed."

"This doctrine re-establishes the right to preventive war which Hitler used in 1941 against the Soviet Union and which Japan used in the same year against the US at Pearl Harbour. It also summarily abolishes one of the basic principles of international law, established with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, that one sovereign state does not intervene, and especially not militarily, in the internal affairs of another (a principle already discarded in the 1999 Nato intervention in Kosovo.

"This means that the international order laid down in 1945 at the end of the second world war and overseen by the United Nations has come to an end."

A CENTURY OF US INTERVENTIONS:From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan. Compiled by Zoltan Grossman

A CENTURY OF US INTERVENTIONS:From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan. Compiled by Zoltan Grossman

Edward Said: Waiting on a Countervailing Force
"The ideological position common to nearly everyone in the system is that America is best, its ideals perfect, its history spotless, its actions and society at the highest levels of human achievement and greatness. To argue with that -- if that is at all possible -- is to be "un-American" and guilty of the cardinal sin of anti-Americanism, which derives not from honest criticism but for hatred of the good and the pure."

Edward Said: Waiting on a Countervailing Force
"The ideological position common to nearly everyone in the system is that America is best, its ideals perfect, its history spotless, its actions and society at the highest levels of human achievement and greatness. To argue with that -- if that is at all possible -- is to be "un-American" and guilty of the cardinal sin of anti-Americanism, which derives not from honest criticism but for hatred of the good and the pure."

The US & Weapons Of Mass Destruction
"In 1979, Daniel Ellsberg listed a total of thirty known occasions when the US "used" nuclear weapons, which he compared to the "use" of a pistol in the commission of a crime, "whether or not the attacker actually pulls the trigger."

The US & Weapons Of Mass Destruction
"In 1979, Daniel Ellsberg listed a total of thirty known occasions when the US "used" nuclear weapons, which he compared to the "use" of a pistol in the commission of a crime, "whether or not the attacker actually pulls the trigger."

How does dissent effect government policy, ie the war? "Our actions do not educate the government. It is not that we open their eyes to moral precepts they had missed, or to world relations they were blind to. Their morals are not changed by our actions, but remain unswervingly self-centered, profit-oriented, and power-driven. And they see the same world that we do; it is just that they like the implications we reject. The result of our activism is not the reeducation or moral uplift of elites, Rather, dissent creates a new context in which elite calculations change.

"The government pursues its policies, overwhelmingly to serve elite corporate and geopolitical interests. The aim, for example, of the proposed war on Iraq, is to further delegitimate international law, to further imbed in world consciousness the fear that the U.S. will economically and militarily crush any serious opposition to its pursuits, to further expand the "war on terrorism" because of its great utility in scaring populations into supporting policies they would otherwise reject, to enhance electoral prospects for the Republicans by drowning objections to their domestic policies in a flood of patriotic fervor, and to establish and entrench U.S. control over the oil resources of Iraq and the Middle East more generally."

How does dissent effect government policy, ie the war? "Our actions do not educate the government. It is not that we open their eyes to moral precepts they had missed, or to world relations they were blind to. Their morals are not changed by our actions, but remain unswervingly self-centered, profit-oriented, and power-driven. And they see the same world that we do; it is just that they like the implications we reject. The result of our activism is not the reeducation or moral uplift of elites, Rather, dissent creates a new context in which elite calculations change.

"The government pursues its policies, overwhelmingly to serve elite corporate and geopolitical interests. The aim, for example, of the proposed war on Iraq, is to further delegitimate international law, to further imbed in world consciousness the fear that the U.S. will economically and militarily crush any serious opposition to its pursuits, to further expand the "war on terrorism" because of its great utility in scaring populations into supporting policies they would otherwise reject, to enhance electoral prospects for the Republicans by drowning objections to their domestic policies in a flood of patriotic fervor, and to establish and entrench U.S. control over the oil resources of Iraq and the Middle East more generally."

Collateral Damage: the health and environmental costs of war on Iraq

The evidence-based report, introduced by Dr June Crown, Medact President and former president of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians UK, summarises from a public health perspective the effects of the previous Gulf War, and outlines the likely impact of another war on the people of Iraq, on the combatants and on the wider world. It concludes that the threatened war could have disastrous short, medium and long-term consequences for all concerned and summarises alternatives to war. Medact is the UK affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The report will be launched on the same day by IPPNW and its US affiliate Physicians for Social Responsibility in Washington, and by other affiliates in Australia, Canada, Germany, Guatemala, India, Japan, the Netherlands and the Philippines.

Collateral Damage: the health and environmental costs of war on Iraq

The evidence-based report, introduced by Dr June Crown, Medact President and former president of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians UK, summarises from a public health perspective the effects of the previous Gulf War, and outlines the likely impact of another war on the people of Iraq, on the combatants and on the wider world. It concludes that the threatened war could have disastrous short, medium and long-term consequences for all concerned and summarises alternatives to war. Medact is the UK affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The report will be launched on the same day by IPPNW and its US affiliate Physicians for Social Responsibility in Washington, and by other affiliates in Australia, Canada, Germany, Guatemala, India, Japan, the Netherlands and the Philippines.

Effects of bombing Iraq
Like people everywhere, most people in the US think it’s wrong to kill civilians as a means of pressuring their government. But for many, the link between this conviction and opposition to the US plan to attack Iraq is severed by fear, misinformation and a desensitization to what war will really mean for ordinary people in Iraq. This guide is intended to help combat the euphemisms ("collateral damage") and passive language ("bombs fell") that obscure the suffering that the Bush Administration’s plans will cause. What does war mean for women and families in Iraq?

The Bush Administration wants to bomb Baghdad, a city of five million people. This would cause a humanitarian catastrophe equivalent to a heavy air bombardment of Los Angeles.

A November report by the global health organization Medact estimates that at least 50,000 civilians are likely to be killed by a US attack (www.medact.org/tbx/pages/section.cfm?index_id=2) .

Effects of bombing Iraq
Like people everywhere, most people in the US think it’s wrong to kill civilians as a means of pressuring their government. But for many, the link between this conviction and opposition to the US plan to attack Iraq is severed by fear, misinformation and a desensitization to what war will really mean for ordinary people in Iraq. This guide is intended to help combat the euphemisms ("collateral damage") and passive language ("bombs fell") that obscure the suffering that the Bush Administration’s plans will cause. What does war mean for women and families in Iraq?

The Bush Administration wants to bomb Baghdad, a city of five million people. This would cause a humanitarian catastrophe equivalent to a heavy air bombardment of Los Angeles.

A November report by the global health organization Medact estimates that at least 50,000 civilians are likely to be killed by a US attack (www.medact.org/tbx/pages/section.cfm?index_id=2) .

Land Tax not an impediment to investment
"The institute's national president, John Hill, instead challenged the Government to provide an incentive package by cutting its own stamp duty and land tax demands on investors - "the two biggest impediments to investment". "

Land tax is not an "impediment to investment", rather it is an incentive for investment to put sites to their highest and best use. Hill's statement, endlessly reiterated by the REI, reflects how the Real Estate Institute serves the interests of the rent-taking class and not the public.

Land Tax not an impediment to investment
"The institute's national president, John Hill, instead challenged the Government to provide an incentive package by cutting its own stamp duty and land tax demands on investors - "the two biggest impediments to investment". "

Land tax is not an "impediment to investment", rather it is an incentive for investment to put sites to their highest and best use. Hill's statement, endlessly reiterated by the REI, reflects how the Real Estate Institute serves the interests of the rent-taking class and not the public.

Tom Billionaire heir James Packer reported to be involved with Scientology
The son of Australia's richest man is a prize catch for the Church of Scientology. Rich, famous and friends with the church's star disciple, Tom Cruise, James Packer is just the kind of recruit the church loves to welcome in one of its "celebrity centres" around the world.

Tom Billionaire heir James Packer reported to be involved with Scientology
The son of Australia's richest man is a prize catch for the Church of Scientology. Rich, famous and friends with the church's star disciple, Tom Cruise, James Packer is just the kind of recruit the church loves to welcome in one of its "celebrity centres" around the world.

Iraq: U.N. Plan Is Pretext for War
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In a point-by-point protest, the Iraqi government complained to the United Nations (news - web sites) Sunday that the small print behind the weapons inspections beginning this week will give Washington a pretext to attack.

The new U.N. resolution on the inspections could turn "inaccurate statements (among) thousands of pages" of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).

"There is premeditation to target Iraq, whatever the pretext," Sabri said.
Sabri's letter, dated Saturday and released Sunday, complained that a key passage on providing documentation is unjust, "because it considers the giving of inaccurate statements — taking into consideration that there are thousands of pages to be presented in those statements — is a material breach."

Sabri wrote that the aim was clear: "to provide pretexts ... to be used in aggressive acts against Iraq."

Iraq: U.N. Plan Is Pretext for War
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In a point-by-point protest, the Iraqi government complained to the United Nations (news - web sites) Sunday that the small print behind the weapons inspections beginning this week will give Washington a pretext to attack.

The new U.N. resolution on the inspections could turn "inaccurate statements (among) thousands of pages" of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).

"There is premeditation to target Iraq, whatever the pretext," Sabri said.
Sabri's letter, dated Saturday and released Sunday, complained that a key passage on providing documentation is unjust, "because it considers the giving of inaccurate statements — taking into consideration that there are thousands of pages to be presented in those statements — is a material breach."

Sabri wrote that the aim was clear: "to provide pretexts ... to be used in aggressive acts against Iraq."