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WAR WATCHHOUSE LEADERS SKEWER BUSH CASE FOR WARSo far the White House has spent $300 million in its failed search for illegal Iraqi weapons; now it is requesting $600 million more. After the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee Intelligence scoured 19 volumes of classified material, the committee leaders criticized Washington for using largely outdated, "circumstantial," and "fragmentary" information with "too many uncertainties" to conclude that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda. THE PATRIOT ACT RIDES AGAINMore than 165 communities representing 16 million people in 26 states have passed resolutions condemning the Patriot Act, which has given the government unprecedented surveillance and detention powers. Now President Bush has proposed three new laws that add up to Patriot Act II. One would allow federal agents to use administrative subpoenas to obtain evidence in terrorism investigations. In other words, the government could bypass judicial review and demand records from your bank, hospital, university or library. Those who refuse to cooperate could end up in prison. The other two laws would make it easier for a judge to deny bail to a suspect and would allow wider use of the death penalty. According to a New York Times editorial (Sept. 22), the law expanding the death penalty "is worded so vaguely that it could be used against people with no ties to international terrorism, including domestic political protesters." In addition, a recent U.S. Department of Justice report revealed that the government has used the expanded Patriot Act powers to initiate wiretaps, track internet communications and seize assets in cases having nothing to do with terrorism. THE HUMAN TOLL IN IRAQVernon Loeb reported in the Washington Post (Sept. 2) that "almost 10 American troops a day are now being officially declared wounded in action." Loeb found that since the war began, more than 6,000 service members have been flown back to the U.S. The number includes 1,124 wounded in action, 301 who received injuries in accidents and thousands who became physically or mentally ill. The Observer (June 1) reported that an intelligence map produced by military personnel from the U.S., Britain and Kuwait shows a mass of green circles, diamonds and rectangles, each representing an "explosive location"--an unexploded anti-personnel mine, anti-tank mine or cluster bomb. In June, Reuters reported that the average daily Iraqi casualty count due to U.S. cluster bombs alone is 15. ISRAELI PILOTS REFUSE TO SERVETwenty-seven reserve pilots in the Israeli Air Force have pledged that they will not take part in military actions in civilian areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to accomplish "targeted liquidations" of Palestinian leaders. Their petition says: "These actions are illegal and immoral, and are a direct result of the ongoing occupation which is corrupting all of Israeli society. Perpetuation of the occupation is fatally harming the security of the state of Israel and its moral strength." In a Sept. 19 emergency session, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution demanding that Israel retract its threat to expel Palestinian authority leader Yasir Arafat. Only the U.S., Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands dissented. The U.S. had vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council. Israel has publicly threatened Arafat with both expulsion and murder. DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL--DON'T RECRUIT!A coalition of law professors and students has sued the Defense Department. Universities want to ban military recruiters from campuses, arguing that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy discriminates against gays and lesbians. Since last year, the department has been threatening to end federal funding to colleges whose law schools bar military recruiting on campus. Almost all have caved in. The suit argues that every accredited U.S. law school has adopted policies that bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and that the schools should have the academic freedom to implement these policies without making any exception for "the military and its discriminatory policy regarding sexual orientation." U.S. FARM SUBSIDIES STARVE THE WORLDThe director of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, traveled to Washington to voice the message that thousands of farmers and dozens of developing countries brought to the recent World Trade Organization meeting in Cancún. Diouf estimates that the $22 billion the U.S. spends yearly on subsidies destroys the livelihood of millions of farmers in developing countries. These subsidies enable U.S. farmers to sell cotton and produce so cheaply
that farmers in other countries can't compete. A World Bank study estimates
that reducing agricultural subsidies in the developed countries and ending
tariffs on imports from developing countries could pull 144 million people
out of poverty.
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