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NYT a Holocaust denier.
by Matthew X 01 Sep '02

01 Sep '02

In the years that followed the Second World War, Lord Beaverbrook's old Sunday Express would regale its readers with the secret history of the 1939-45 conflict: "What Hitler would have done if England was under Nazi occupation"; "How Ike almost cancelled D-Day"; "Churchill's plans for using gas on Nazi invaders." Often though not always the stories were true. After war come the facts. It's not so long ago, after all, that we discovered that Nato's mighty 1999 blitz on Serbia's army netted a total of just 10 tanks. But it took Eric Lowe of Hayling Island in Hampshire to remind me of the inversion of history, the way in which historically proven facts, clearly established, come to be questioned decades later or even deleted from the record for reasons of political or moral weakness. Eric runs a magazine called Palestine Scrapbook, a journal for the old British soldiers who fought in Palestine against both Arabs and Jews until the ignominious collapse of the British mandate in 1948. In Mr Lowe's magazine, there are personal memories of the bombing of British headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem a "terrorist" bombing, of course, except that it was carried out by a man who was later to become Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. Dennis Shelton of the King's Royal Rifle Corps writes a letter, recalling an Arab attack on a British Army lorry in Gaza. "We opened up on them, the ones who could still run away. We found two [British] army bods under the wagon, both badly wounded. I went in the ambulance with them to Rafah hospital. I was holding the side of one's head to keep his brains in. I often wondered if indeed they recovered." Mr Lowe has asked for information about the soldier whom Dennis Shelton tried to save. But he's probably wasting his time, because the British Army's first post-World War Two war the 1945-48 conflict in Palestine has been "disappeared", sidelined as something that no one wants to remember. According to Mr Lowe, many of the British campaign medals for Palestine were never issued. Dennis Peck, of the Sherwood Foresters, only realised he'd been awarded one in 1998. Until two years ago, the campaign was never mentioned at the Armistice parade in London. There's not even a definitive figure for the British troops who died around 400 were killed or died of wounds. And it took over 50 years for British veterans to get a memorial for the dead: in the end, the veterans had to pay for it from their own pockets. But in the late Forties, all Britain was seized by the war in Palestine. When Jewish gunmen hanged two British sergeants, booby-trapping their bodies into the bargain, Britons were outraged. The British, it must be added, had just hanged Jewish militants in Palestine. But now nothing. Our dead soldiers in Palestine, far from being remembered at the going down of the sun, are largely not remembered at all. So who are we frightened of here? The Arabs? The Israelis? And isn't this just a small example of the suppression of historical truth which continues over the 20th century's first holocaust? I raise this question because of a recent and deeply offensive article by Stephen Kinzer of The New York Times. Back in 1915, his paper then an honourable journal of record broke one of the great and most terrible stories of the First World War: the planned slaughter of 1.5 million Christian Armenians by the Turkish Ottoman government. The paper's headlines, based in many cases on US diplomats in Turkey, alerted the world to this genocide. By 16 September, a New York Times correspondent had spoken of "a campaign of extermination, involving the murdering of 800,000 to 1,000,000 persons". It was all true. Save for the Turkish government, a few American academics holding professorships funded by Turkey and the shameful denials of the Israeli government, there is today not a soul who doubts the nature or the extent of this genocide. Even in the 1920s, Winston Churchill himself called it a "holocaust". But not Mr Kinzer. Over the course of the past few years, he's done everything he can to destroy the integrity of his paper's brilliant, horrifying, exclusive reports of 1915. Constantly recalling Turkey's fraudulent claim that the Armenians died in the civil unrest in Asia Minor at the time, he has referred to the genocide as "ethnic cleansing" and treated the figure of 1.5 million dead as a claim something he would surely never do in reference to the 6 million Jews later murdered by the Nazis. Recently, Mr Kinzer has written about the new Armenian Genocide museum in Washington, commenting artfully that there's "a growing recognition by advocacy groups that museums can be powerful tools to advance political causes". In other words, unlike the Jewish Holocaust museum and the Jewish Holocaust itself, which would never be used by Israel to silence criticism of its cruel behaviour in the occupied territories there might be something a bit dodgy about the Armenian version. Then comes the killer. "Washington already has one major institution, the United States Holocaust Museum, that documents an effort to destroy an entire people," Mr Kinzer wrote. "The story it presents is beyond dispute. But the events of 1915 are still a matter of intense debate." Are they hell, Mr Kinzer. But why should we be surprised at this classic piece of historical revisionism? Israel's own ambassador to present-day Armenia, Rivka Cohen, has been peddling more or less the same rubbish, refusing to draw any parallels with the Jewish Holocaust and describing the Armenian Holocaust as a mere "tragedy". She is, in fact, following the official Israeli Foreign Office line that "this [Armenian Holocaust] should not be described as genocide".Israel's top Holocaust scholar, Israel Charney, has most courageously campaigned against those who lie about the Armenian genocide I advise readers to buy his stunning Encyclopaedia of Genocide and he has been joined by many other Jewish scholars. But with Turkey's alliance with Israel, its membership of Nato, its possible EU entry, and its massive arms purchases from the United States, the growing power of its well-paid lobby groups has smothered even their efforts. Which raises one last question. Armenian academics have been investigating the identity of those young German officers who were training the Ottoman army in 1915 and who in some cases actually witnessed the Armenian Holocaust whose victims were, in some cases, transported to their deaths in railway cattle-cars. Several of those German soldiers' names, it now transpires, crop up again just over a quarter of a century later as senior Wehrmacht officers in Russia, helping Hitler to carry out the Jewish Holocaust. Even the dimmest of us might think there was a frightening connection here. But not, I guess, Mr Kinzer. Nor the modern-day New York Times, which is so keen to trash its own historic exclusives for fear of what Turkey or Israel might say. Personally, I'd call it all a form of Holocaust denial. http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?dir=140&story=3289…

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In the Kingdom of Fear.
by Matthew X 01 Sep '02

01 Sep '02

Gonzomeister Hunter S Thomson on 9-11. Q: what I'd really like to know is your reactions on September 11th .. could I get you to tell that story ... A: ... in a low-key way, I had in fact just finished a sports column for ESPN, and no sooner gone over the wire, and I was on the phone with editor john walsh, he was saying you have to write about this disaster. I'd been gong to bed after, I guess my column was late -- TV was on, just for the news, and I happened to see the first plane hit in my fogged condition -- I'd been up all night writing the column ... I don't know why, I'd seen enough real -- yeah there was no mistaking the reality of that, didn't make much sense, and it still doesnâ??t really but -- here we go, this is a column I wrote, lets see -- "It was just after dawn in Woody Creek, Colorado when the first plane hit the WTC in NYC on Tuesday morning and as usual I was writing about sports. But not for long. Football suddenly seemed irrelevant compared to scenes of utter devastation coming out of NY on the television. Q: you went on to say in that article which I have in front of me that even ESPN was broadcasting war news. It was the worst disaster in the history of the US. do you think that the event completely transformed the way in which Americans see themselves and their vulnerability A: No, the event by itself would not have done that. I've seen planes hit the Empire State Building before, I've been blown totally out of my mind, people have been killed, but it was the way the administration was able to use that event and use it as a springboard for anything they wanted to do. Now that may tell you something. I remember when I was writing that column, you sort of wonder when something like that happens, well, who stands to benefit, You know, it's like murder, you know, who had the opportunity and the motive, you just kinda look at these basic things, and Uh, I don't know if I want to go into this on world-wide radio here, but Q: You may as well A: All right, I thought that the US government was gonna benefit, and the White House people. I thought, a distraction to take the mind of the public off of the crashing economy. Now you want to keep in mind that every time a person named Bush goes into office, the nation goes into a drastic --recession, they call it. Q: It sounds almost like the plot of that film Wag the Dog, where film producers sort of concocted a national event to inspire patriotism to take the public's mind off misdemeanors committed by the president, I mean, it seems a very long bow to me, but are you sort of suggesting that this worked in the favor of the Bush administration? A: absolutely, I sort of had time on the inside of the white house and of campaigns and I know enough to know that the public version of an event is never really what happened, and these people I think are willing to take that even further so that I don't assume that I know the truth about what went on that day and yeah, well, I just look around and who had the motive, who had the opportunity, the equipment, and the will. These people were looting the treasury and they knew that the economy was going into a spiral downward Q: from this distance though it does seem extraordinarily conspiratorial that you, that you could sit there and you could see the hand of the US government in that rather than saying international terrorists bent on somehow hurting America and the American people. What sort of reaction did your views get amongst other journalists? A: (Laughs) well, it was greeted universally with kind of nervousness and almost nobody agreed with me. No it was about 99 to 1. But since then... Q: Did you publish those views anywhere? A: I'm not sure if Iâ??ve said that, but if I haven't I meant to, let's see.. Q: I was going to ask you for the reaction to them, because I mean I don't want to seem Pollyanaish here but it does seem an extraordinary conspiracy theory that you're putting forward, that your first reaction was that it was the US government rather than an enemy of the US government A: well, you want to keep in mind that I have lived not just through but very close to a lot of real tragedies in this country, and let me ask you, do you think that you know who killed John Kennedy or Robert Kennedy? Q: Look, I have to say that I was a boy at the time, and no I havenâ??t read the warren commission report, but it seemed to me that in this case, there were so many more people involved, it would seem to be much less likely some sort of internal conspiracy A: well, it does, well I can see where you're a little edgy accepting this from me, Q: well, let me just ask you on that, you've pioneered a kind of journalism called gonzo journalism in which it's almost like thereâ??s no revision, what you see and feel is what goes down on and it's that first blush, that first image that hits the readership. Does that mean that in a way, it's hard for you to appear credible within the US media, people would say that "oh that's just another conspiracy theory from a drug-addled gonzo journalist like Hunter S. Thompson"? A: yeah, that's a problem, Iâ??m not sure if it's my problem or other people's -- or theirs. I mean in this column and the one after it -- I've been right so oftem, my percentages are so high, I'll stand by this column that I wrote that day, and the next one. So that, what appears to be maybe gonzo journalism... Well, I'm not sure, I'm not going to claim any prophetic powers but Q: One of the things you do say in that first article you wrote, you say, "It's now 24 hours later. we're not getting much information about the 5 Ws of this." Now by the "5 Ws" I'm assuming you mean, the who, what, why, how -- is that still how you feel, that a year later those key questions havenâ??t been answered? A: Absolutely, it's even worse now -- I mean this is just a suggestion, 24 hours later 5 Ws. We're still not getting -- well how much have we got beyond that? How much more do we have than we had a year ago? Damn little, I think. We know a lot about the firemen who died. A lot about the people who stole the money from their charity funds, A lot about the people who donated all that blood, the red cross had to throw away 5 tons of blood, something like that, that may be exaggeration, But no, I will stand by almost all my, uh, well, no no, get a grip on yourself, Doc, when you talk like that... Q: Well, just, Hunter S Thompson, let me ask you about your new book I mean "The Kingdom of Fear, Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child of the American Dream". It's a very apocalyptic title. Has this book, this new book, has it come off your reflections about Sept 11th and how it was handled by the American media? A: well, it came off of yeah, the atmosphere in this country as of September 12. Yeah, kingdom of fear. That's the way I see this country and thatâ??s -- Iâ??m not writing just a long screed, you know, front to back, I'm not writing a political tract. But in the book, I'm trying to explain a little bit about how I got this way, and why you should pay attention to my predictions Q: is this a critical time for the credibility of US journalism, how this current war, how it's being covered and who it's being reported on and the sort of information US people get? Is this a critical test of the credibility of US journalism? A: I think definitely, but Iâ??m not sure how much credibility US journalism really has, given that we in 5 years we lost 2 presidents and a civil rights leader to mysterious bombs and assassins, you know, bushy haired strangers, and US journalism has never dug out the truth about that. One of my great shames as a journalist is that I still don't know who killed John Kennedy. There's no doubt that I don't know and there's not much doubt that journalism in general doesn't know, and in a lot of ways that may be because we haven't asked. When I say asked, I mean the people who uh --well most of the witnesses were killed, werenâ??t they? Q: but does that need for certainty, is that what underpins your critique, that US journalism has failed to provide in your life the key answers to key events that you needed answered? A: well, I would say that and would include myself, I worked as hard as anybody -- the rules really changed when Reagan came in and started these test invasions of other countries, and when they decided to test the policy of no more battlefield access for any journalist. See, Vietnam was totally different, and that's why we got that war ended. But, I start with Grenada and thatâ??s in this book too. You could see it forming right there. I'd never seen journalists beat up by military police and hogtied in the middle of the road. I'd always had press pass and access. But when the military -- the Pentagon reallyâ??-thatâ??s when they seized the advantage and never gave it up. The military still are not letting people know what's happening in Afghanistan and wherever they're fighting. Itâ??s always press releases or staged events Q: Hunter S Thompson, do you think that the so called gonzo style of journalism for which youâ??ve become famous and some would say notorious, do you think that there's a specific legacy that makes that type of journalism work, makes it more necessary at the moment? A: Well, I've never defined that term even for myself Q: what do you think it does mean ? A: Well, from my point of view it means being very skeptical of any pronouncements of authority, and that as a gambler, it's a bit of an even bet that if you question the statements and truths of the white house that more often than not youâ??ll be right, and I just try to get as close to the truth as possible in order to find out what's really happening, and in fact a lot of times itâ??s weirder than what happens in my stories. I mean the truth is usually stranger than fiction. At least in my life. Q: HST, will you be at home watching the commemoration programs on the 11th of September? Will you be among the audience which I imagine will number tens of millions that watch what happens in New York? A: that's a good point, thatâ??s a good question and, no I wonâ??t -- I think I'll take a road trip or just go off and have a little fun. Why sit around and watch that stuff? Now what I'm afraid of, see is that that's going to be a cover for a sudden move on Iraq -- you know, that that little monster will come on and take the TV and say "today we invaded Iraq". Now, this seems so impossible that I'd be happy to lose money on it if I bet on it, but it seems too logical for that kind of Texas thug mindset that this is a time to do it. I can't think of a better time if I was gonna do it, letâ??s put it that way. Q: Because the nation's effectively distracted by the commemorations in NY that itâ??s almost like saying "Quick while no oneâ??s paying attention let's invade another country" A: exactly, and itâ??s so cynical and so stupid and so self-defeating in the long run that youâ??d think that nobody in their right mind, no president would plunge us into a war like that, with no allies and no __the other side of the world Q: just out of interest, for these kinds of comments to be broadcast on this network, which is part of the public broadcasting network, it occurs to me that you probably wouldnâ??t hear those sorts of comments on many other outlets in the US. Where would ... to give voice to your conspiracy theories about the role of the US government.? A: well. I definitely will be when this book comes out in December. Now unfortunately we're going to have this election here in November. And that's going to be a really key time in this country to vote. I've been working on this book for so long, I feel like Iâ??ve been in a decompression chamber of some kind. Q: Where else would people hear views like yours. I know theyâ??re coming out later in the year in your book, But across the US media, where would these very critical comments such as the one you've been making come out? A: where else, eh? Where indeed. I know a lot of journalists across the country who would agree with me. But whether theyâ??re writing this stuff and saying it in public I donâ??t know. Now you could ask Maureen Dowd whether she feels Iâ??m right. Boy, it really is lonely out here. Q: HST, just as a final question -- it's a big question, let me ask it anyway. How did you see, as a critic on the left of â?¦ how do you see the future of journalism in your country? A: Well, I have a very dim view of it, I guess which I really thought was unbounded after Watergate but right now, thereâ??s not a hell of a lot of reason to be optimistic about it, because of the uh, not just because of this one huge scam they pulled off here, but because of the everyday reality of, uh, journalism is celebrity-driven. The news over here barely covers, ...I watch some BBC and some CNN foreign news, world news that doesnâ??t get into the country. I read Paris herald tribune that kind of news doesn't get through in this country. You have to read the NY Times very carefully to maybe see what they're talking about. But, I don't think my views would be seen as absurd or out of the question in most countries of the world. Q: Do you ever worry given the climate and the surge of patriotism in the country, that you could be personally at risk, that your own personal security might be threatened A: yeah, I think about it. Definitely could be true Q: have there been occurrences youâ??ve been threatened? A: oh yeah. I have been all my life. But in journalism, that sort of goes with the territory, thereâ??s going to be threats and thereâ??s going to be... people are very unhappy -- knock knock -- It's a matter of luck. I pretty well stuck to my battle plan, yeah they tried to come after me, the federal government, all kinds of governments, Iâ??ve had constant wars in courts, I keep some of the finest criminal lawyers on retainer. But that's how it goes -- the stork didn't bring the bill of rights, you have to fight for it. Q: So that's how you'd see yourself, as fighting for freedom of speech in America? A: Absolutely. http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=201001&group=webcast

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CEO's are Psychopaths.
by Matthew X 01 Sep '02

01 Sep '02

"As well, psychopaths have been known to excel as politicians and lawyers..." Chief executives should be screened to weed out psychopaths: researcher Thursday August 28, 2002 - 16:00:33 EST MICHAEL MACDONALD ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - At the conclusion of a sobering presentation littered with photos of Mafia hit men and sex offenders, Canadian researcher Robert Hare turns his attention to a little-known subset of psychopaths: the corporate kind. Hare, a world-renowned expert on psychopaths, then makes the provocative suggestion that some of the recent, blue-chip accounting scandals could have been prevented if all chief executives were screened for psychopathic behaviours. Please see below for some traits shared by psychopaths "Why wouldn't we want to screen for them?" he said Wednesday after a speech to 150 members of the Canadian Police Association. "We screen . . . police, teachers. Why not people who are going to handle hundreds of billions of dollars?" The problem is that corporate head hunters rely on resumes and standard face-to-face interviews, which reveal little about a candidate's psychological profile. "The average psychopath has no trouble moving through that process," said Hare, who teaches at the University of British Columbia. "That's not even a hurdle." Hare estimates that about one per cent of the population - that's about 300,000 people in Canada - are clinical psychopaths. That's why he's working on something called the B-Scan, a rough checklist to help recruiters quickly spot psychopathic character traits among potential employees. It will be loosely based on a 90-item checklist called a P-Scan, which Hare developed for police officials, prosecutors, corrections personnel and hostage negotiators. Through his research, Hare has found psychopaths possess a cluster of personality traits, which are reflected in their relationships, emotions and lifestyle. Aside from having no hint of a conscience, psychopaths have a barren emotional life marked by few close relationships, impulsive behaviour and an inflated sense of self. They are deceitful, short-tempered and display early behavioural problems that later become anti-social. They also crave excitement and are irresponsible. "They are the central star in their universe," Hare told the crowd as photos of well-known business executives flashed on the big screen behind him. Most of the pictures were taken from recent newspaper articles related to the collapse of energy trader Enron Corp. and telecom giant WorldCom Inc. The deceptive accounting practices and fraudulent dealings of these and other companies in the United States and Canada have led to huge losses on the stock market, massive layoffs and a string of court cases. "These are callous, cold-blooded individuals . . . They don't care that you have thoughts and feelings. They have no sense of guilt and remorse." That's why the arrogant, manipulative behaviour of psychopaths often make them prime candidates for promotion within large corporations built on ruthless competition. As well, psychopaths have been known to excel as politicians and lawyers, Hare says, drawing a round of laughter from the crowd at a downtown hotel. "They have to make decisions very quickly, and they can't worry too much about the potential impact on individuals," Hare said afterward. More importantly, their utter lack of empathy makes them perfect for carrying out budget cuts and layoffs. "That's when the psychopath moves in: rightsizing, downsizing, upsizing. When there's chaos, when the rules no longer apply - enter stage right the psychopath. A psychopath flourishes in that atmosphere." Still, identifying a psychopath isn't easy. Even a checklist isn't much use unless the interviewer has access to the candidate's family, friends and colleagues. "If an agency is willing to spend the money to do a proper job, then you can screen a lot of these people out," Hare said. "If you interview family members and friends, you'll realize there are lots of clues." - Some traits shared by psychopaths: Emotions: Glib, superficial, arrogant, narcissistic, egocentric, ruthless and short-tempered with a distinct lack of empathy and no conscience or sense of remorse. Relationships: Few close relationships and deceitful, but can be incredibly manipulative and charming despite shallow emotions. Lifestyle: Irresponsible, impulsive and sensation seeking but quite rational and able to act in real world. Early social problems often develop into anti-social behaviour later in life. Not rare: Estimated two million psychopaths in North America. Causes: Not scientifically known. Studies suggest a combination of nature and nurture, including abnormal brain functioning. No effective therapy. Source: Without Conscience, by Robert Hare (Guilford Press, 1999) © The Canadian Press, 2002 http://www.therecord.com/business/b082837A.html

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What do you call 2 americans shot dead?
by Matthew X 01 Sep '02

01 Sep '02

A good start. A top figure in a terrorist group has told his armed fighters to target American interests and to extort, kidnap and murder American citizens. "The United States has declared war," he said in a radio message to armed followers. "Your obligation is to fight them." Instructions from a bin Laden deputy holed up in a cave somewhere? Maybe a radical Islamic band in Pakistan? Or extremists in the land of our "ally" Saudi Arabia? None of the above. Wrong region. The threat comes from our very own hemisphere, and was issued by professor Rat. "Leading the world to higher consciousness through mockery and cheap publicity stunts." Face It: Mental Health Isn't for Everyone "...Professor Rat is fully responsible the lives of two Americans and one Indonesian who have been killed today, 31 August 2002. In his ceremonial speech at the 57th anniversary of the unitary Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) on 17 August 2002, he said, "Papua is not a conflict area!", which indicated: - that he does not care at all about and totally ignore the complexities of problems in his own country; - that he is one of the agents of and has already been bought up by the colonial power of NKRI in West Papua; - that he has betrayed his people and his country, and particularly those who died for their independence; Salossa furthermore claimed West Papua as a "Peace Zone" a term that Operasi Adil Matoa 2002 has been using to eliminate the independence movement. "West Papua is not a Peace Zone, it is absolutely a War Zone since 1961, when Trikora was declared in Yogyakarta (Indonesia, 19 December 1961)", says the courier quoting Gen. Murib. "West Papua does have complexities of problems, be it political, economic, human rights, legal, peace, security, and so on. West Papua has people who were killed, who are suffering and who are being chased day and night," Murib was quoted saying. It has flora and fauna as well as natural resources being exploited massively without any concern at all to the ecology and ecosystem of our heritage. Furthermore, he claimed, "Freeport MacMoRan, Copper & Gold Inc. is politically, environmentally and legally responsible for problems in West Papua. Freeport was the compensation given to the states for allowing West Papua to be occupied by ndonesia. "Freeport is a bloody political project of the modern world that has sacrificed the livelihood of tribal people in West Papua. Papuan people have something to do with it, if not today, it will be done tomorrow, surely, surely!"Gen. Murib also said, "West Papuan people have been demanding Indonesia to open a dialogue table, but has refused to do so and it has responded with brutal acts, by exploiting, raping, killing and hunting other humans into the jungles. The colonial governor of Papua is not listening to his people's demand for dialogue, but advocating its bosses' orders to implement special autonomy by force. "Jaap Salossa is indeed fully responsible to give answers to the world: "IS NOT WEST PAPUA A CONFLICT TERRITORY? www.westpapua.net

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Virus Alert
by abuse＠bizmailsrvcs.net 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

We have detected a virus (WORM_KLEZ.H) in your mail traffic sent from billy(a)auto-csi.com in the file Gipg.exe on 08/31/2002 17:56:23. We took the action delete. If you have questions regarding files or updating/installing Anti-virus protection on your PC, please contact your e-mail administrator or help desk.

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"Terror Suspect" Appears in Court
by Eric Cordian 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

After the Jim Bell and Carl Johnson festivities, I would imagine most readers of this list have an above average ability to recognize bovine effluent in the rantings of federal prosecutors, whose Chicken Little bellowings about conspiracies and threats to public safety often bear little resemblence to actual events. "Illegally discharging firearms during a conspiracy" The mind boggles. Conspiracy is to defendants rights what goose droppings are to traction on grass. ----- Ujaama lashes out at prosecutors in public hearing Man accused of aiding al-Qaida to be transferred to Seattle jail Saturday, August 31, 2002 By M.E. SPRENGELMEYER SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Terror suspect James Ujaama unleashed an angry outburst in federal court yesterday during his first public court appearance since being charged with conspiracy and weapons counts. After weeks of being held in secret as a "material witness," the former Seattle man wasted no time showing his disdain for Justice Department prosecutors who filed the case Wednesday in Seattle. "These guys have lied -- they've always lied," Ujaama said during a terse exchange cut short by Magistrate Judge Barry Poretz. During the 10-minute court appearance, a prosecutor read the charges against Ujaama, then Poretz ordered the U.S. Marshal's Service to transfer him from a Virginia jail to Seattle. He is expected to be moved by Monday or Tuesday, although defense attorney Greg Stambaugh said Ujaama would like to return to a jail in Seattle even earlier if possible. Ujaama stood quietly through most of the proceedings. He appeared gaunt and unshaven, wearing a green jumpsuit marked "PRISONER" on the back. After the routine business was done, Stambaugh complained to the judge that a courthouse guard referred to Ujaama as "bin Laden boy," a reference to al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Before being placed in isolation Thursday, Ujaama had been held among other prisoners in the general population, and such a label could cause Ujaama problems, Stambaugh said. "Clearly, everybody is entitled to respect in this court," Poretz said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg questioned whether the name-calling actually happened, and alluded to Ujaama's repeated complaints about his treatment in statements released through his attorney and a family spokesperson. "His client has repeatedly lied to the public before to manipulate the public," Kromberg said. "It's not beyond the realm of possibility he's lying again to manipulate the public." That drew Ujaama's ire, and he asked the judge for permission to respond. Poretz told him to talk to his attorney first, and then Ujaama spoke loudly and angrily. "These guys have lied -- they've always lied," Ujaama said. "For them to refer to me as a liar when they've leaked material to the press ...." Poretz interrupted, suggesting he speak through his attorney. Ujaama remained quiet. Outside the courtroom later, Stambaugh read a brief statement in which Ujaama, 36, repeated his criticism of prosecutors: "They literally kidnapped me using a material witness warrant. This is further proof of what I've been saying all along: They are criminals posing as 'statesmen.'" Ujaama, who was arrested in Denver on July 22, is accused of providing "training, facilities, computer services, safe houses and personnel" to al-Qaida in a conspiracy to "destroy property and murder and maim persons located outside the United States." He also is accused of illegally discharging firearms as part of a conspiracy, when he allegedly was scouting a training area for terrorists at a property in Bly, Ore. Kromberg said Ujaama could face up to life in prison for the conspiracy charge, although Stambaugh said that would not be consistent with the wording of the indictment. During yesterday's appearance, Ujaama waived a routine identification hearing, where prosecutors must show that the person named in the indictment is the same as the person in custody. The indictment refers to him by his birth name, James Ernest Thompson; the name he took as a Muslim, Earnest James Ujaama; and aliases Bilal Ahmed, Abu Samayya and Abdul Qaadir. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

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RIAA's Final Solution
by Harmon Seaver 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/html/Dr-Fun/df200201/df20020107.jpg -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com

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Re: Mitigating Dangers of Compromised Anonymity
by Major Variola (ret) 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

At 01:21 AM 8/31/02 -0700, Morlock Elloi wrote: >Just wondering ... in a life & death situation (say, blackmailing att. >general), what would be the choice of readers of this forum: > > >a) use mixmaster remailer from their home/business/friend. Like that one-degree of separation is comforting... >b) use an internet cafe Your face might be recognized later. Willing to shave for the transmission and then go on vacation to regrow the mane? >c) use an open wireless AP Bingo. Use a rented car. Or better, stolen :-) > >b and c assume, of course, one-time use of a throwaway e-mail acct. Why bother even establishing one? Simply use a fake name and domain that your SMTP server takes. Works for me :-) [1] though I don't get personal replies -not something you want anyway for your task. [1] Though header-stripping lne.com can trace me ---real anonymity would require b) or c) or a trusted a) (only without my end being observed before the fact). >c) makes most sense to me, provided that you fake your radio card's MAC and do >it while walking by, with folded laptop in a bag running a script. Or treat your fixed-MAC card as a one-time-use disposable and torch the thing. Along with the laptop, probably. Separately.

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Holidays in Columbia.
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

A top figure in a terrorist group has told his armed fighters to target American interests and to extort, kidnap and murder American citizens. "The United States has declared war," he said in a radio message to armed followers. "Your obligation is to fight them." Instructions from a bin Laden deputy holed up in a cave somewhere? Maybe a radical Islamic band in Pakistan? Or extremists in the land of our "ally" Saudi Arabia? None of the above. Wrong region. The threat comes from our very own hemisphere, and was issued by Jorge Briceno, military chief of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. The communication was intercepted by Colombian police and reported by a television station in Bogota. So far, indications are that the FARC plans to attack American citizens in Colombia itself. So far, no one is saying FARC plans to bring terrorism to American soil. And the best way to assure that that horror does not happen is for the United States to fully support the efforts of Colombia's new president, Alvaro Uribe, to defeat the terrorists who have brought his nation 38 years of war in which more than 100,000 people have died. There might be doubts about the real motives of Middle Eastern governments that are supposedly part of the struggle against terrorism, but there can be no doubt about Uribe. Aside from his very personal motivation - Uribe's father was killed by terrorists two decades ago - the new president of this Andean nation was elected by a landslide after promising voters a hard line against terrorism. His predecessor, Andres Pastrana, had made the mistake of believing FARC would be open to a reasonable dialogue and would negotiate in good faith. Pastrana turned over to the rebels a Switzerland-sized chunk of Colombia, which FARC used as a base to conduct terrorist attacks in the rest of the nation. Pastrana came to his senses when he called off talks this past February. Violence has intensified since. In fact, earlier this month FARC attacked the Colombian Congress while Uribe's inauguration ceremony was being held, killing 21 people in a shower of mortars. It was FARC's way of showing off, of telling the nation that even an event as supposedly secure as the swearing-in of a president was within reach of their violence. Although the attack sowed fear among the long-suffering people of Colombia, it also showed FARC's own fears. Its leaders know that Uribe is no Pastrana, not someone about to be hoodwinked into thinking Colombia's terror groups will settle for anything short of the imposition of a Marxist dictatorship. That Uribe means business is clear from the measures he has taken barely a month in office. He wants to double the size of the professional army to 100,000 and add $1 billion to annual defense spending of $3.1 billion. He has imposed a special war tax on people and businesses with assets of more than $60,000 and has promised to train a network of 100,000 civilians to act as police auxiliaries. http://www.colombiatimes.com/ PUERTO ASIS, Colombia (AP) -- Black spirals of buzzards mark the fresh corpses that turn up in this frontier town and in the nearby coca fields, jungle and pastures, where paramilitary death squads roam freely, killing suspected rebel collaborators or anyone else who gets in their way. Despite patrols by Colombian soldiers and police, the carnage is mounting, and terrified residents don't know where to turn for help. "We are in Puerto Asis, where there is no justice, no law," snapped a medical worker, who asked not to be named for fear he might be killed for speaking out. "Someone could come into this office right now and shoot me, and nothing would ever come of it." The paramilitaries have waged a war of terror across Colombia in their zeal to combat the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and a smaller rebel group. Their bloody battle is among the greatest obstacles to President Alvaro Uribe's promises of finally bringing peace to this country after years of bloodshed. The FARC is fighting its own war against the government, a conflict that has stretched 38 years. In the meantime, Colombian civilians -- like the residents of Puerto Asis -- are caught in the middle. In only a few months, dozens of civilians, including two mayoral candidates, have been shot dead in this town in the steamy southern lowlands of Colombia's cocaine heartland. Many wind up buried in body bags in the trash-strewn "nameless" section of the town cemetery. Police and soldiers set up checkpoints and patrol streets filled with snarling motorcycles, smog-belching buses and horse-drawn carts. But they seem unable to stop the bloodshed. Even the presence in town of an U.S.-trained army counternarcotics battalion has had no effect. Planes and U.S.-donated Black Hawk helicopters regularly fly along the horizon on their way to fumigate the coca fields. Authorities say the killers get away scot-free because few witnesses want to point fingers at paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. "They are afraid to report the killings, because they think there will be reprisals against them," said Puerto Asis Mayor Manuel Alzate, who survived an assassination attempt last year. Residents admit they're terrified of being targeted, but also suspect the police and army turn a blind eye to the killings. A paramilitary leader, contacted on the phone in Puerto Asis, refused an interview request. Members of the outlawed group openly prowl through town, wearing baseball caps over close-cropped hair, pistols stuck into jeans beneath loose-fitting shirts. "To arrest someone, we need an arrest warrant," insisted a police officer at the police station, protected by sandbags and rifle-toting officers. "We can't arrest someone just because he looks suspicious." The paramilitaries moved into Puerto Asis about three years ago, while FARC guerrillas occupy rural areas outside the town. The guerrillas are known to commit their own killings in areas they control. The area is becoming among the world's deadliest places, with 128 reported homicides this year, hospital records say. Many more are thought to have gone unreported. That's a ratio of 450 homicides per 100,000 people. In the United States, the ratio last year was 5.5 per 100,000. On the evening of July 28, Leonidas Yague, a municipal official until he resigned in May to run for mayor, left his mother at home and headed to a nearby store, only to be slain on the street. "He said, 'Mom, I'll be back in a little while,"' his mother, Rosa Benavides, recalled as tears sprang to her eyes. "Twenty minutes later he was dead." According to the police report, an unidentified gunman shot Yague five times. "He said he would never leave me," said Benavides, a stocky 73-year-old widow with swept-back short hair. "I'm left all alone here." Other victims included Serafin Merino, another candidate for mayor, who was shot in the head more than a dozen times on August 22 outside a hospital. Days earlier, a woman was executed after she allegedly slapped a paramilitary gunman in a bar. One of the few who takes the carnage in stride is funeral director Maria Cruz. "Business is great, thank God," she told a reporter without a hint of irony, sitting amid empty coffins trimmed with purple velvet. "Sometimes there are bodies everywhere." http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/08/30/colombia.deadly.town.ap/index.…

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Re: Cyberpunks: Seattle "Activist" Is Not an Innocent Webmaster,
by Matthew X 31 Aug '02

31 Aug '02

Bravo Eric! A classic of deconstruction! James... An au citizen goes to Kosovo and becomes a hero protecting helpless locals from serb tanks,he then travels to 'Ghan and is protecting local women there from rapists and murdering slave/opium traders in the North,when he is taken prisoner and kidnapped to Cuba.He is still there,no visitors except ASIO agents,no letters,no rights,no rules.Did I mention he is an AUSTRALIAN.An ALLY.The US ambassador,a crooked shrub crony from Arlington condemns and smears the au citizens name much as you did with similar sounding diabolical scaremongering that was old when tailgunner joe was alive.Actually it was old when they were burning witches at Salem. Another au citizen was kidnapped from Pakistan,he was taken to X-ray as well and is suffering the same cruel,unusual punishment as the other for arguably even less 'reason.' No charges,no trials,no geneva convention rights.No human or civil rights at all.FUCK AMERIKKKA all to HELL! You deserve poison for all your crimes,who poisoned the indigenes? Take your 'intelligence' and shove it up your ass. In a genuine democracy, the rights of even a minority of one are sacred and cannot be violated with impunity. V K Narasimhan.

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