Now,
They Talk About Conventions of War? Winning Hearts and Minds Bush-Style March
27, 2003 By LINDA S. HEARD Athens, Greece. Britain’s ITV showed a small
Iraqi boy lying on a stretcher in a Baghdad hospital. He was shrieking from pain
caused by burns over more than two-thirds of his tiny body. I could see from the
top half of his face, which had escaped the flames, that he had been an
exceptionally beautiful infant with huge dark eyes, now stricken with fear. The
reporter said that this angelic looking child was not expected to last the day.
This was the first of a juxtaposition of events which brought home to me just
how immoral is the American-led invasion of Iraq. counterpunch.org
British troops lay siege to Basra March
27, 2003 By Peter Symonds Amid a welter of media reports, rumour and
speculation about a possible anti-Hussein “uprising” in the southern Iraq
city of Basra, simple facts have been conveniently buried. A large force of
mainly British troops has surrounded and laid siege to the city of 1.3 million
people, most of whom now have no electricity and clean water, and is responsible
for creating a humanitarian crisis, potentially of huge proportions. The Wafa
al-Qaed water treatment plant, which supplies over 60 percent of the city’s
water, was put out of action last Friday during the attacks by British and US
warplanes. Bombing knocked out high-tension cables, cutting the city’s power
supplies and shutting down pumping and treatment facilities at the plant. wsws.org
Americans and Dollars Not Welcome March
27, 2003 By Kevin O'Flynn A few regional
businessmen have joined a worldwide boycott brought on by the Iraq war and are
refusing to serve U.S. and British customers or sell American products. The five
grocery shops owned by Nikolai Gerasimov in Kstovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod
region, now have signs reading "Yankee! Go Home!" to show their
opposition to the U.S.-led war. "It's a form of protest against the
politicians of the U.S.,'' Gerasimov said, adding that the attack on Iraq was
being orchestrated by a bully."It's like walking into a zoo carrying a gun
with a sight," he said in a telephone interview. A Narodny clerk standing
near a sign telling Americans that they won't be served. themoscowtimes.com
Resistance Continues In Spite of US Media
Blackout March 27, 2003 The role of the
mainstream media as mouthpieces
of the White House and Pentagon has become even more blatant since the start of
the attack on Iraq. Protests receive scant coverage as many corporate news
websites and newspapers shift
their focus to coverage of the invasion itself, which the military restricts
or manipulates.
Despite all this, protests continue to rage across the country in San
Fransisco, New York, Chicago,
Los Angeles, and Washington,
DC. Reports indicate that the corporate media has been skewing
protest size estimates, inflating pro-war protests while underestimating the
size of antiwar protests. But the media has been not just been misreporting
news, but actively creating it in many cases: ClearChannel Communications, which
owns over 1200 radio stations in the US, has
sponsored pro-war rallies in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, Cincinnati and
other cities. http://indymedia.org/
American Legal System
Is Corrupt Beyond Recognition, Judge Tells Harvard Law School March
2
7, 2003 By Geraldine Hawkins The American legal system has been corrupted
almost beyond recognition, Judge Edith Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Fifth Circuit, told the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School on February
28. She said that the question of what is morally right is routinely sacrificed
to what is politically expedient. The change has come because legal philosophy
has descended to nihilism. "The integrity of law, its religious roots, its
transcendent quality are disappearing. I saw the movie 'Chicago' with Richard
Gere the other day. That's the way the public thinks about lawyers," she
told the students. massnews.com
How To
Take Back America March 26, 2003 by Thom Hartmann Marching in the
streets is important work, but wouldn't we have greater success if we also
took control of the United States government? It's vital to point
out right-wing-slanted reporting in the corporate media, but isn't it also
important to seize enough political power in Washington to enforce
anti-trust laws to break up media monopolies? And how are
progressives - most standing on the outside of government, looking in - to
deal with oil wars, endemic corporate cronyism, slashed environmental
regulations, corporate-controlled voting machines, the devastation of
America's natural areas, the fouling of our air and waters, and an
administration that daily gives the pharma, HMO, banking, and insurance
industries whatever they want regardless of how many people are harmed? thepeoplesvoice.org
Bodies of 500 US, UK soldiers lying in Jacobabad
March 26, 2003 ISLAMABAD, Around 500 dead bodies of American and British
soldiers killed during military operation in Afghanistan after September 11
blitz have been lying in a morgue at Shebhaz Airbase in Jacobabad. American and
British authorities because of fear of strong reaction from their masses had
kept the dead bodies of as many as 500 soldiers in a morgue established at
Jacobabad Airbase instead of shifting them to their own countries, credible
sources informed Online here Tuesday.The bodies of these soldiers, who were
killed during last five months in Afghanistan, were brought from Baghram Airbase
and other areas of war-ravaged country, sources disclosed. Sources said American
and British authorities, which were planning to shift these dead bodies from
their own countries, delayed the decision after eruption of war in Iraq.
American and British authorities feared that shifting of dead bodies at this
moment would affect the ongoing campaign of coalition forces in Iraq, sources
pointed out. They maintained that dead bodies would be kept at Shebhaz Airbase
until US and British authorities take the final decision. libertyforum.org
British
troops withdraw from Basra March 26,
2003 By afp and Martin Bentham in BASRA,
Fierce resistance has forced British troops to
withdraw from Basra to regroup, British military officials said this afternoon,
as the Red Cross warned of a potential humanitarian crisis in the city. Elements
of Britain's Seventh Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, withdrew from the
southern Iraqi city - the nation's second largest. They had come under attack,
as they blocked the main routes into the city from the north and south, from
mortar fire and from guerrillas disguised in civilian clothes. Military
officials also said that irregular forces pretended to surrender and used women
and children as decoys. British commanders said
this evening that they were considering calling in Royal Marine Commandos
and the 16th Air Assault Brigade, the parachute regiment. timesonline.co.uk
US prepares for slaughter in Iraq
March 26, 2003 By Bill Vann With the failure of the Bush
administration’s war strategy to secure either the speedy collapse of the
Iraqi regime or the support of the Iraqi people, the Pentagon is preparing to
dramatically escalate its onslaught against the country’s civilian population
as well as its military. It was announced Tuesday that British Prime Minister
Tony Blair will arrive in Washington Thursday for a day of meetings with Bush.
In the wake of significant setbacks for both British and US forces, and with a
battle pending in Baghdad that may claim many thousands of civilian lives, the
conference at Camp David has the character of an emergency war council. The
logic of events on the ground in Iraq is pushing the two imperialist powers
toward a far bloodier war, with enormous political consequences. wsws.org
Iran to be US next target: CIA Report March
26, 2003 LAHORE The next target of US after
capturing Iraq will be replacement of religious government in Iran with a
secular government as the US forces in Afghanistan have already started
implementation on action plan in this regard. According to reliable
sources, US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had submitted a detailed 300 pages
long report to President George Bush in which it was pointed out that during
possible US attack on Iran religiously motivated Jehadi (holy warrior)
organizations would support Iran from the border areas of Pakistan and
Afghanistan. paktribune.com
Four Women and the Bulldozer of Death
March 26, 2003 By Jonas Conti Peace! Peace is what we want! Don't harm us
anymore Our land is all we have left You have killed our husbands You have
destroyed our homes You are killing our young children Please don't destroy our
trees Our only sustenance comes from the olive trees you want to destroy That's
all we have left now Peace! Peace is what we want! Peace in our own land, a land
we can call our own.....just peace. In Memory Of Rachel Corrie Murdered
by the Israeli People / gooff.com
LIES & GREED BEHIND ILLEGAL WAR March
26, 2003 By Brian Reade WITH every passing day it becomes clear that the
muddled thinking behind this illegal assault on Iraq is based on lies, greed and
ignorance. That the argument for the invasion is so morally weak and the
objectives so vague, that the only justification left is that it has to be right
because Our Boys are there. How patronising and incalculably dangerous that
logic seems, especially if your loved one is now scrambling through the desert.
What an admission that the war is being packaged in myth and sold by deceit. And
nowhere has that become more clear than in the language used to flog it. mirror.co.uk
Prisoners released from Bagram say forced to
strip naked, deprived of sleep, ordered to stand for hours
March 25, 2003 By KATHY GANNON, Associated
Press Writer PESHAWAR, Pakistan - There was a thin layer of ice on the dirt
floor of his cell. His interrogators, American soldiers, ordered him to strip.
"Everything," they said. "Take everything off." Then, as he
was shivering, naked in his cell, two men threw a bucket of ice cold water on
him. "I couldn't say anything. I was so frightened. I didn't know what they
would do next," Saif-ur Rahman told The Associated Press two weeks after
his release from U.S. detention in Afghanistan Rahman's account and that of
another recently freed Afghan gave a rare firsthand look into interrogations of
prisoners held by the United States in the war against terrorism. Human rights
groups have criticized U.S. interrogation methods as abusive. Two prisoners died
in December after
being beaten to death at a prison in Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military
headquarters in Afghanistan. The U.S.
military defended its methods and insisted that they do not constitute torture. news.yahoo.com
The Geneva
Convention makes it illegal for prisoners of war to be shown and pictured and
humiliated, and it's something that the United States does not do. - Donald
Rumsfeld March 23, 2003
When needed most, the voice that could
say 'no' is gone March
25, 2003 Bill Holm The historian Niall Ferguson called World War I
"the greatest error in modern history." This mindless exercise to
"make the world safe for democracy" kicked off the 20th century with
10 million corpses and a botched peace that gave us World War II, the Korean
War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, probably even our current war -- a hangover
from the collapsed Ottoman Empire. But the Bush administration is not interested
in history or its consequences; so it trots out the same old patriotic gore from
1914 to sink us into the Iraqi quagmire. I have the feeling that support for
this military enterprise -- and that only among Americans -- is, like the famous
description of the Platte River -- a mile wide and an inch deep. In coffee
shops, garages, hardware stores, wherever ordinary people gather in conservative
western Minnesota, I find skepticism, even cynicism about the Iraq invasion.
"It's all about oil," "Nothing we can do -- the big boys are
going to shoot their guns," "Don't hear much about Enron or Osama bin
Laden." startribune.com
War fears
crush stocks March
25, 2003 By Alexandra Twin Dow
sees worst session in about 6 months on bets that victory in Iraq will be
tougher than expected. The Dow suffered its worst one-day selloff in six
months Monday as investors ditched stocks on signs that the war with Iraq will
be longer and more devastating than had been anticipated.The Dow Jones
industrial average (down 307.29 to 8214.68, Charts)
tumbled 3.6 percent or 307 points, its worst drop on both a point and a
percentage basis since September 3, 2002, when the Dow fell 4.1 percent or 355
points. The Nasdaq composite (down 52.06 to 1369.78, Charts)
lost 3.6 percent, and the S&P 500 index (down 31.67 to 864.23, Charts)
dropped 3.5 percent. money.cnn.com
Iraq setbacks rock markets March
25, 2003 Heather Stewart and Charlotte Denny Confidence in quick victory
fades · Concern grows that US cannot afford its war bill Setbacks for the
coalition forces in Iraq brought the war rally to an abrupt end yesterday as
stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic plunged more than 3%. Television
pictures of captured US soldiers and jubilant Iraqis surrounding a grounded
helicopter helped rattle confidence and send the FTSE 100 diving 117.8 points,
or 3.1%, to close at 3,743.3, as investors' hopes of a short, sharp war
evaporated. At one point every stock in the FTSE 100 was down. guardian.co.uk
Home-loan foreclosures reach record
March 25, 2003 Weak economy forces more mortgage
holders out of homes. U.S. home loans in foreclosure in the fourth quarter of
2002 hit a record high as the weak economy forced a larger portion of mortgage
holders out of their homes, a mortgage trade group said Monday. msnbc.com
A roller coaster ride to hell March
25, 2003 By Eugene Marner We are living in confusing times.
Americans—citizens of the richest and most powerful nation on earth—are
terrified of the tin pot dictator of a fifth-rate military power that, for 12
years, has been bombed into impotence, sanctioned into penury, and inspected
into military irrelevance. At the same time, those same citizens and the
corporate media that claim to inform them seem to be completely unaware of the
truly alarming news. On Thursday, March 6, the Dow-Jones news wire reported what
may be a world-historical event. Few noticed. What happened is that Saudi Arabia
announced that it would not be able to increase oil flow beyond the present 9.2
million barrels per day to the 10.3 million that they had promised in order to
avoid shortages in the event of war. Why is this so important? onlinejournal.com
Iraqi resistance shatters US propaganda
of "liberation" war March
25, 2003 By Patrick Martin The battles which erupted Sunday and
Monday in southern and central Iraq have exploded Bush administration claims
that the invasion of Iraq would lead to a speedy collapse of the Iraqi
government. Instead of US and British troops being hailed as liberators, they
have encountered fierce resistance in towns such as Umm Qasr, Nasiriya and
Karbala. The first encounter between US forces and the Republican Guard, the
best-trained and best-equipped Iraqi military units, took place Monday morning
near the city of Karbala in central Iraq, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. The
32 Apache helicopters of the 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, US Army V Corps,
attacked an armored brigade of 90 tanks.The helicopters received what CNN
correspondent Karl Penhaul called a “heavy, heavy barrage” of anti-aircraft
fire, which shot down two of the helicopters and forced the others to withdraw.
Penhaul described the pilots as “somewhat dazed, somewhat stunned” by the
level of Iraqi resistance. One pilot called the attack zone “a hornet’s
nest” in which Iraqi fire came from “all sides.” wsws.org
The US media: propagandists for a
criminal war March 25,
2003 By Bill Vann The New York City Police Department announced
recently that as part of its “Operation Atlas” plan for a security crackdown
to accompany the Iraq war it has deployed special patrols to guard television
news outlets in midtown Manhattan. City and police officials claim they are
concerned about terrorists seizing control of a network news studio to broadcast
anti-American messages. The chance of Al Qaeda operatives storming the set of
“Good Morning America” to read a screed from Osama bin Laden seems rather
slim. A far more likely fear—and almost certainly the one that motivated the
beefed-up security—is that Americans opposed to the assault on Iraq will
direct their anger against a media that has systematically excluded their views
and functioned as a privatized propaganda ministry for the Bush
administration’s war drive. wsws.org
Documents Show Ashcroft is Bypassing
Courts With New Spy Powers, ACLU Says
March 25, 2003 NEW YORK Documents
obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union suggest that the Attorney General
is aggressively wielding a disturbing power that - without the approval of a
judge - allows the government to force banks, Internet service providers,
telephone companies, and credit agencies to turn over their customers’
records. (Special
web feature on ACLU's PATRIOT FOIA case) "Without judicial
oversight, there is simply no assurance that the Attorney General is using this
authority in keeping with democratic principles and constitutional rights,"
said Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty
Program. Information about the government’s surveillance powers was obtained
through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed jointly with the
Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Booksellers Foundation
for Free Expression and the Freedom to Read Foundation. According to documents
obtained through the FOIA lawsuit, the government employs "National
Security Letters" - signed by Attorney General Ashcroft or a delegate and
with no judicial approval - to "compel the production of a substantial
amount of relevant information." The government can use this power to
obtain records about people living in the United States, including American
citizens, without probable cause that the person has committed any crime.
Entities that are forced to turn over records are prohibited from disclosing to
their customers - or to anyone else - that the FBI has demanded the
records. aclu.org
U.S. Sees Itself 'Above the Law' March
25, 2003 By Richard Waddington GENEVA (Reuters) - A leading U.S.
rights group accused the United States on Wednesday of seeing itself above human
rights law and hinted this could put its own troops at risk in any conflict with
Iraq U.S. treatment of Taliban and alleged al Qaeda fighters held in the
Guantanamo naval base in Cuba and elsewhere was a "disaster" because
of a refusal to give at least the Taliban the status of prisoners of war, Human
Rights Watch said. Washington had also maintained a "stunning silence"
on accusations that its forces were using interrogation techniques in
Afghanistan that violated international conventions even if they fell short of
outright torture, the U.S. group's executive director Kenneth Roth said.
"There is a view that is increasingly dominant in Washington that the
United States should be above international law," he told a news
conference. news.yahoo.com
"Shut your mouth"
March 25, 2003 By Tim Grieve As radio
giants censor antiwar musicians, TV networks bully pro-peace actors, and
Attorney General John Ashcroft prepares a new assault on civil liberties, a
climate of intimidation creeps over America. As the United States marches toward
Baghdad and braces for terrorist reprisals back home, Attorney General John
Ashcroft may see in America's orange-alert fears and us-against-them attitude a
target of opportunity he cannot resist. The man who pushed the USA PATRIOT Act
through a terrified Congress in the days after Sept. 11 may be planning a new
assault on civil liberties in the wake of the war on Iraq. salon.com
Iraq and Beyond
March 25, 2003 Editorial The Bush
Administration has launched a war against Iraq, a war that is unnecessary,
unwise and illegal. By attacking a nation that has not attacked us and that does
not pose an immediate threat to international peace and security, the
Administration has violated the United Nations Charter and opened a new and
shameful chapter in US history. Moreover, by abandoning a UN inspection and
disarmament process that was working, it has chosen a path that is an affront
not only to America's most cherished values but to the world community. The UN
did not fail; rather, Washington sought a UN imprimatur for a war it had already
decided to wage and scorned it when the Administration couldn't get its way. thenation.com
Strategic Blunders by American Generals
The Liberation of Iraq? March
25, 2003 By GILAD ATZMON Watching an Iraqi mob searching for
“coalition” servicemen on Baghdad’s riverbank reveals the ‘surprising’
truth: the Iraqi people don’t really like their ‘liberators’. This must be
shocking for Blair and Bush who present themselves as the saviours of the Iraqi
people. If this is not bad enough, the Iraqi army refuses to surrender. How dare
they? This is completely against the “coalition” military plans, and Donald
Rumsfeld’s promises. Somehow, we no longer see the victorious images of
American tanks and armoured vehicles racing in the Iraqi wilderness...counterpunch.org
Military Families Speak Out March
25, 2003 An organization of people who are opposed to war in Iraq and who have
relatives or loved ones in the military. We were formed in November of 2002 and
have contacts with military families throughout the United States, and in other
countries around the world. mfso.org
Trapped in Southern Iraq
March 25, 2003 By
Rod Nordland NEWSWEEK On a day that saw
at least 20 American soldiers missing or killed, NEWSWEEK’s Rod Nordland found
hostile Iraqis and a vulnerable supply line as he tried to follow the U.S.-led
advance to Baghdad. It’s Sunday and we’ve been spending the day trying to
find where we can go safely. We’re a small group of
“unilaterals”—journalists not embedded with any U.S. forces—well behind
the American advance, well behind the front lines. And we’ve discovered that
anywhere we go is quite unsafe. msnbc.com
A 'Tough Fight' Indeed
March 25, 2003 By Martin Sieff
President George W. Bush acknowledged reality on a day when the drive to Baghdad
suddenly no longer looked like a walk in the desert park. "It is evident
that it's going to take awhile to achieve our objective," the president
said on his return to the White House Sunday from a weekend at Camp David. And
then he added that he could assure the American people "that this is just
the beginning of a tough fight." upi.com
Footage of captives puts news channels
under pressure from Pentagon March 25, 2003 Matt
Wells and Duncan Campbell As Arab television stations replayed pictures of
bewildered and disoriented US prisoners of war on an endless loop, western
broadcasters acceded to Pentagon requests to hold back until relatives of the
soldiers had been informed.Al-Jazeera, the Arab channel that has become the
curse of US military media managers, showed the footage as soon as it was
available, leading to accusations of partiality and exploitation. The Pentagon
warned that their transmission was a breach of the Geneva convention: US and
British media organisations blurred the soldiers' faces or withdrew the images
altogether. By yesterday, however, they were back on the air, much to the
Pentagon's irritation. When the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, appeared
on the CBS's Face the Nation programme on Sunday, the Pentagon had been denying
reports that 10 US soldiers were captured or missing in Iraq. Then, presenter
Bob Schieffer switched to a videotape from al-Jazeera, showing two confused
American servicemen being questioned by an Iraqi interviewer. Asked what he made
of the footage, he said: "I have no idea." guardian.co.uk
Bush seeks $80bn to cover costs of
conflict March 25 2003 By James Harding
Bush will today call on Congress to provide up to $80bn (€75bn) to fund the
war in Iraq, finance the help provided by regional allies and cover the costs of
heightened US homeland security. The bulk of the $70bn-$80bn requested in the
supplemental budget is to meet the costs of the military action. But the White
House budget planners have also earmarked billions of dollars for related costs,
ranging from financial assistance to Israel to Iraq reconstruction. news.ft.com
Protest Actions Around Oceania
March 25 2003 Reaction in Oceania against the war on Iraq has been both swift
and massive, with huge demonstrations beginning only hours after the first bombs
began to fall. To date there have been emergency anti war demos in Melbourne,
Brisbane,
Perth,
Adelaide,
Sydney,
Honolulu,
Wellington
and Auckland,
with more expected. Actions have included workers
walking off construction sites, students walking out of class, and tens of
thousands of people rallying in the streets. There have been paint bombs and
toilet paper thrown at US
embassies, paint
thrown on Australian Premier Bob Carr's vehicle, and 15 people arrested so
far. indymedia.org
'I'm Edgar from the United States. My name is Edgar'
March 24, 2003 The casualties and the
interviews with four men and a woman were broadcast by the Arab satellite
station al-Jazeera with footage from state-controlled Iraqi television Each was
interviewed individually, and they gave their names and their home states. They
spoke with American accents into a microphone labelled Iraqi Television.
"Why do you come?" the interrogator asked. "Because I was told to
come here. I just follow orders," replied one. "You come to kill Iraqi
people," he was asked. "No, I came to fix broke stuff. I told to shoot
only if I am shot at. They shot at me first so I shoot back. I don't want to
kill anybody," the ashen-faced soldier replied. "How are you see Iraqi
army people?" he was asked. "They don't bother me, I don't bother
them." "Where do you come from?" "Kansas."
"Kansas," the interrogator repeated. The soldier, who said he was PFC
[Private First Class] Miller, was then asked again why he came to Iraq. "I
was told to come here," he replied. Another of the men, who said he was
from El Paso, Texas, stared directly at the camera and spoke in a clear voice as
he answered his captors' questions. "What's your name?"
"Specialist Joseph Hudson, 585650287," he replied. "Why do you
come from Texas to Iraq?" "I follow orders." Asked how many
officers were with him, he said: "I do not know, sir." The soldier
appeared to be often shaking his head and cupping his ear slightly to try to
indicate that he couldn't hear properly. "How do you view the Iraqi
people?" he was asked. "I'm sorry?" "How do you view the
Iraqi people? The Iraqi people." "I don't understand." The camera
focused on a dark-haired soldier lying on a bed, apparently wounded.
"What's your name?" he was asked. "Edgar," he said as he was
forced to sit upright. "Edgar? From what country?" "What do you
mean? I'm Edgar from United States. My name is Edgar from United States." guardian.co.uk
The
Official Version Of 9/11 Is A Hoax
March
24, 2003 By John Kaminski Opposed by everyone in the world who was not
bought off, the illegal invasion of Iraq was undertaken for
many reasons - the imminent replacement of the dollar by the
euro as the world's primary currency, the tempting lure of
untapped oil reserves, the desire to consolidate U.S. Israeli
military hegemony over a strategically vital region - but the
most important reason was to further obscure questions about
the awesome deception staged by the American government that
has come to be known as 9/11. 9/11 was a hoax. This is no longer a wild
conspiracy assertion; it is a fact, supported by thousands of
other verifiable facts, foremost of which are: The attacks of 9/11 COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED
without the willful failure of the American defense system. In
Washington, Air Force pilots demanded to fly but were ordered
to stand down. Yet instead of prosecuting the president and
military leaders for this unprecedented dereliction of duty,
military leaders were promoted and the president was praised
for presiding over a defense system that suspiciously failed
the most crucial test in its history. None of the deaths would
have happened without the deliberate unplugging of America's
air defenses. thepeoplesvoice.org
Al-Jazeera
screens gruesome footage of battle casualties
March 24, 2003 Brian Whitaker Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite channel which
angered the United States with its coverage of the Afghan war, has caused a new
furore by broadcasting blood-and-guts images from the invasion of Iraq. Millions
of viewers throughout the Middle East saw pictures of Iraqi and American victims
at the weekend which many western news organisations would consider too shocking
to publish. One showed the
head of a child, aged about 12, that had been split apart, reportedly in the
assault on Basra. Others came from northern Iraq, where US missiles were fired
at the Kurdish Islamist Ansar al-Islam organisation.Yesterday al-Jazeera relayed
footage of Iraqi television's interviews with five captured US soldiers, which
the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, denounced as a breach of the Geneva
conventions. But the channel was unrepentant. "Look
who's talking about international law and regulations," its spokesman,
Jihad Ballout, said. "We didn't make the pictures - the pictures are there.
It's a facet of the war. Our duty is to show the war from all angles." During the 1991 Gulf war the
Middle East relied on CNN and other western broadcasters for breaking news. But
since its launch in 1996 al-Jazeera's coverage has made it the most watched Arab
channel. guardian.co.uk
War may be longer, more difficult 'than
some have predicted,' Bush warns March 24,
2003 Lawrence M. O'Rourke President Bush met with his war council
Saturday and declared that the battle for Iraq may be long and difficult,
requiring an extended U.S. commitment. "A campaign on harsh terrain in a
vast country could be longer and more difficult than some have predicted,"
the president said in a radio address from the presidential retreat at Camp
David, Md., where he is spending the weekend. startribune.com
US protests at Russian arms sales to
Baghdad March 24, 2003 Peter Slevin
The United States protested to the government of President Vladimir Putin
Saturday for refusing to stop Russian arms dealers from providing illegal
weapons and assistance to the Iraqi military. Bush administration sources said
one Russian company was helping the Iraqi military to deploy electronic jamming
equipment against US planes and bombs, and two others had sold anti-tank
missiles and thousands of night-vision goggles in violation of UN sanctions.
They said Moscow has ignored entreaties from Bush administration officials
concerned about the threat to US forces. guardian.co.uk
Question dogs Bush administration Where
are Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction?
March 24, 2003 By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank Bush administration
officials were peppered yesterday with questions about why allied forces in Iraq
have not found any of the chemical or biological weapons that were President
Bush’s central justification for forcibly disarming Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein’s government. msnbc.com
Brazen Deceit, Lying And Corruption Of
Iraq War News March 24, 2003 By Cheryl
Seal Disinformatiion By The Corporate Media Is A War Crime As the Bush War
escalates, so does the intensity and wantonness of the propaganda disseminated
by the corporate media. Overnight, it has cross the line from exaggeration,
suppression, and calculated spin to outright lies and the total repression of
meaningful coverage of dissent. To prevent the truth from being known is to
permit opinions to be formed and decisions to be made on false pretexts. These
opinions and decisions, in turn, are leading to the promotion of an illegal war
and the deaths, dismemberment and permanent scarring of tens of thousands of
human beings. Thereby, I believe that any news outlet or newscaster that
knowingly disseminates false information or suppressed true information prior to
and during a war - acts we will collectively refer to as disinformation - are
guilty of war crimes and crimes, in general, against humanity, and should be
held accountable. This regularly updated report will present evidence of these
crimes and alerts to the schemes used by the perpetrators. rense.com
Plans For Civilian Internment: Stalag 17
American Style March 24, 2003 By Mary
Louise Along the Danube River in Austria about forty miles from Vienna, a
prison camp called Stalag 17 was one of many prisoner of war facilities during
WWII, containing wooden barracks surrounded by double fences of barbed wire and
guard towers. The 1953 Billy Wilder film "Stalag 17" is a close
reproduction of the actual facilities, although the actors were obviously not as
hungry, dirty, and overcrowded as the real prisoners were. Similar
facilities exist in America, many in remote areas across our country adjacent to
major highways, railroads, and airports. The infrastructure for incarcerating
and executing resisters and dissenters in the coming American Holocaust has been
already set up, according to the 1968 government plans code-named Operation
Cable Splicer and Operation Garden Plot (FM 19-15), sub programs of the Rex 84
Program. Field Manual 3-19.40 or FM 19-40 is the August 2001 version of Military
Police Internment/Resettlement Operations. This publication supersedes the FM
19-40 of February 1976 and FM 19-60 of May 1986 by order of the Secretary of the
Army signed by administrative assistant, Joel B. Hudson. Pending the approval of
the Army Chief of Staff, currently Eric. K. Shinseki, the military can detain
and jail citizens en masse. Rex 84 called for many military bases to be closed
and turned into prisons, based on the pretext that if a mass exodus of illegal
aliens crossed the border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in
detention centers by FEMA. A more honest and realistic scenario would be the
detention of Americans. rense.com
Thank you, President Bush March
24, 2003 By, Paulo Coelho Thank you, great leader George W. Bush. Thank
you for showing everyone what a danger Saddam Hussein represents. Many of us
might otherwise have forgotten that he used chemical weapons against his own
people, against the Kurds and against the Iranians. Hussein is a bloodthirsty
dictator and one of the clearest expressions of evil in today’s world. But
this is not my only reason for thanking you. During the first two months of
2003, you have shown the world a great many other important things and,
therefore, deserve my gratitude. So, remembering a poem I learned as a child, I
want to say thank you. Thank you for showing everyone that the Turkish people
and their parliament are not for sale, not even for 26 billion dollars. Thank
you for revealing to the world the gulf that exists between the decisions made
by those in power and the wishes of the people. Thank you for making it clear
that neither José María Aznar nor Tony Blair give the slightest weight to or
show the slightest respect for the votes they received. Aznar is perfectly
capable of ignoring the fact that 90% of Spaniards are against the war, and
Blair is unmoved by the largest public demonstration to take place in England in
the last thirty years. Thank you for making it necessary for Tony Blair to go to
the British parliament with a fabricated dossier written by a student ten years
ago, and present this as ‘damning evidence collected by the British Secret
Service’. Thank you for allowing Colin Powell to make a
complete fool of himself by showing the UN Security Council photos which, one
week later, were publicly challenged by Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector
in Iraq. wagingpeace.org
Congratulations
March 24, 2003 By Charley Reese Congratulations to me and congratulations
to you. All of us Americans are about to become the proud mamas and papas of 22
million Iraqis — less, of course, the several thousand our forces kill.
President Bush has been understandably coy about explaining to the people that
we are going to adopt the Iraqi nation. Having destroyed its government, we will
have to supply all of the government services to all of the Iraqi people, in
addition to humanitarian supplies necessitated by our destructive war. We will
have to rebuild its infrastructure even as we struggle with our own. You might
have noticed that there has been no talk about an exit strategy. That's because
there isn't one. The Bush administration plans to stay in Iraq to set up an
occupational government and run the country for an indeterminate period of time.
We, of course, will get stuck with the bill, and it will cost hundreds of
billions of dollars. Some of the politicians' corporate cronies are already
being promised lucrative contracts. There's always a profit to be made from war.
You and I won't make it; the soldiers, sailors and airmen won't make it. No, as
consumers, we pay the price in treasure and blood and grief; the big
corporations reap the profit. But we have no one to blame but ourselves. As long
as we are stupid enough to elect unscrupulous politicians to public offices,
they will fleece us. When you look like a sheep, act like a sheep and baa like a
sheep, then you can't blame the wolf for taking you as his dinner. Gee, I hope
the Israelis don't get jealous. They've been on the American dole so long that
the cumulative total is about $100 billion. You'd think that much of American
taxpayers' money would earn at least a smidgen of gratitude, but as a young
American peace activist learned when an Israeli killed her with a bulldozer,
gratitude is not their forte. reese.king-online.com
MURDERERS!!
March 23, 2003
Donald Rumsfeld,
the US Defence Secretary, gloated tonight while Baghdad was subjected to a
terrifying 3 hours of massive bombardment by aircraft and cruise missiles.
Donald Rumsfeld rejoiced with the knowledge that his “shock and awe”
campaign had been a “success”. In a terrorist attack of horrendous
proportions, hundreds of “targets” have been razed in the
city, bearing witness to Rumsfeld’s claims that the US/UK forces would unleash
an attack of “unprecedented” force and scale as he banged his fist
theatrically on the dais in the Pentagon. Speaking of “targets”, Rumsfeld,
like his master George Bush, proves that he has the same lizard-like cold blood
as he showed to the world that he too has no regard whatsoever for the value of
human life. As Rumsfeld gloats, fires rage out of control in Baghdad. The
explosions from the ordnance are so powerful that journalists hundreds of metres
away from the blasts cower under tables as glass is showered around them and red
mushroom clouds rise up high into the sky. Fire crews are unable to put out the
raging fires because they risk being bombed by the incessant attacks. The claims
that only military installations are being targeted mean nothing, since
civilians have been seen hurrying home in the middle of the Armageddon that
Rumsfeld’s legions of evil have brought to the citizens of Baghdad. english.pravda.ru
War in Iraq - the second day of war
March 23, 2003
www.iraqwar.ru The IRAQWAR.RU
analytical center was created recently by a group of journalists and military
experts from Russia to provide accurate and up-to-date news and analysis of the
war against Iraq. The following is the English translation of the IRAQWAR.RU
report based on the Russian military intelligence reports. Moscow - In the
course of yesterday’s US military command meeting on Iraq the primary topic of
discussion was the unexpected tactics adopted by the Iraqi forces. The coalition
aircraft over Iraq encountered a huge number of various kinds of target mockups
and other decoys on the ground. Thus, for example, after the post-strike aerial
reconnaissance mission of an Iraqi airbase near Basra it was determined that all
of the 20 Iraqi aircraft reported earlier by the coalition pilots as being
destroyed in the bombing turned out to be aircraft mockups. Additionally, nearly
all Iraqi radars discovered earlier have ceased transmission and relocated to
new positions. As the result, every third coalition aircraft designated for the
role of suppressing Iraqi air defenses returned to base with its full combat
load unused. The pilots report that there is no way to know if the weapons
released against the Iraqi air defenses hit the real targets or just more
decoys. “…We engaged everything that looked like a radar. But there is no
way in hell we can know what it really was!” – reported one of the coalition
pilots back to ground control after releasing missiles against a suspected Iraqi
radar site. aeronautics.ru
Russia
Vows to Stop US Move to Legitimize Iraq War March
23, 2003 By Maria Golovnina MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia vowed on Saturday
to block any future moves by the United States and its allies to win U.N.
blessing for the military action against Iraq and the post-war power structures
they might set up there. Keeping up fierce Russian criticism of the U.S. and
British offensive, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said he expected Washington to
seek retroactive approval for their action from the United Nations after Iraqi
resistance had been crushed. reuters.com
Pope says war 'threatens humanity'
March 23, 2003 Pope John Paul has denounced the war against Iraq
in his first public comments since the start of hostilities. He said the
military action was a threat against the "fate of humanity". The
pontiff said "it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and
decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just
and united society. "Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of
men." John Paul, with impassioned speeches and Vatican diplomacy, lobbied
against war and in favour of a negotiated solution in the months before the
conflict. He made his remarks in an address at the Vatican to an Italian
religious television channel, Telepace. A few hours after the war began, the
Vatican expressed "deep pain" and faulted both sides for failing to
find a peaceful solution. ananova.com
The American World Order
March 23, 2003 The questions uppermost in
people's minds are how long will the war in Iraq last and what will be the
aftermath. Although on the face of it the action this time may appear to be
similar to that of 1991, there are a number of differences. Twelve years ago a
majority of the world was behind the United States and the allies. The cause
appeared just. Saddam had swallowed Kuwait, a defenceless neighbour, and not a
single country sympathised with him. It was pure aggression and it could not be
supported. The war was given legitimacy by an UN resolution. This time around, a
majority of people, not only within the US and the UK, but all over the world
are against the war. The UN does not support the war. The nations opposing the
US include such heavyweights as Russia, China, France and Germany. The
opposition will increase as the war continues and the body bags start coming in.
rediff.com
Reports from the Frontlines Rosemarie
Gillespie is part of a group of 14 international Human Shields
at the 7th of April Water Treatment Plant, on the Tigris River, in the suburbs
of Baghdad. She reports: "We had a big raid last nite. Very intense. Some
hit close to us. I think they are aiming at the bridges. It seems that I slept
through some of the bombing last night. (Thursday) After a while you get used to
it. It only wakes you up if it is close or right on top of you. I did an
interview with Derryn Hinch this morning and got an idea of the type of bullshit
that is being pushed out through the commercial media." Others, including
veteran journalist Robert
Fisk, are also bearing witness to the US bombardment of Iraq. indymedia.org
Halliburton Makes a Killing on War
March 23, 2003 Pratap Chatterjee As
the first bombs rain down on Baghdad, CorpWatch
has learned that thousands of employees of Halliburton, Vice President Dick
Cheney's former company, are working alongside U.S. troops in Kuwait and Turkey
under a package deal worth close to a billion dollars. According to U.S. Army
sources, they are building tent cities and providing logistical support for the
war in Iraq in addition to other hot spots in the "war on terrorism." guerrillanews.com
US leaves Pakistan as protest spreads
Meanwhile In
Congress... March 23, 2003 By Hamish
McDonald The House Passes Anti-Consumer
Bankruptcy Bill Adam J. Goldberg is a policy
analyst with Consumers Union, a non-partisan public interest group working on
comsumer issues. Few may have noticed that the House has passed a
controversial bill to “reform” the bankruptcy system. The overwhelming vote
on March 19 -- 315 members voted “yes” and 113 voted “no” -- belies just
how controversial the legislation is. Dozens of major consumer, civil rights,
labor, women’s, community and religious organizations have gone on record in
opposition to the legislation -- in the current and in previous Congresses.
It’s easy to see why. Ninety percent of personal bankruptcies are caused by
the loss of a job, high medical bills or divorce. With the economy slumping and
many working families struggling to keep up, it doesn’t make sense that
Congress would be considering legislation that would harm ordinary Americans who
have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. tompaine.com
US
blitzkrieg turns Baghdad into an inferno
March 22, 2003 By the Editorial Board The US bombardment of Baghdad,
which began in earnest Friday, is a horrific, brutal and cowardly attack. It is
being carried out for predatory imperialist aims—above all, the seizure and
control of oil wealth—against the defenseless population of a nation that
represents no threat to the American people. March 21, 2003 is a shameful day in
US history. In the first day of the campaign of “shock and awe”—the modern
equivalent of the Nazi blitzkrieg—as many as 3,000 lethal bombs and cruise
missiles rained down on Iraqi cities, principally Baghdad, a metropolis of some
five million people. American military officials have indicated that they intend
to unleash in the opening phase of the current war ten times the destructive
power employed twelve years ago in the initial stage of the first Persian Gulf
war. According to Rear Admiral Matthew Moffit, aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, some
320 missiles were launched on Baghdad. Each missile can carry a 1,000-pound
warhead and is designed to fly at low altitudes near the speed of sound to hit
“high value” targets. Reported upon with undisguised glee by the American
media. wsws.org
Americans suffer the
colossal losses March 22, 2003 According to
the existing/available information, this morning, during the approach in the
south of Iraq, the column of American troops, after moving to 15 kilometers from
the boundary, fell under the impact/shock of the army of Iraq and sustained the
most serious losses. Practically all helicopters of combat support were
destroyed. The administration of the White House is in the complete confusion. the
losses of American column amount to several hundred soldiers and officers.
Two questions remain. The first - as for long it will be
possible to preserve the losses of coalition from the promulgation. The second -
as the army of coalition will act in the arising situation. probably, we soon
learn responses/answers to these questions. babelfish.altavista.com
A sad day for
America and the world March
22, 2003 I can't remember ever seeing a sadder and darker time for my country
and the world. The un-elected leader of the United States, George W. Bush, along
with his sinister agents such as Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld,
and the "Prince Of Darkness" himself, Richard Perle, has launched a
campaign of horror against untold thousands of innocent human beings in Iraq; a
campaign that is almost certain to plunge America and the world into an abyss of
fear, hatred, revenge, and untold sadness. onlinejournal.com
Fox
News goes to war March 22,
2003 The
attack on Iraq has begun as I sit down to write this, and there is wall-to-wall
war coverage on the television. There are different talking-heads on every
station, but they are all telling the same lies. And everyone is fawning over
the Pentagon's arsenal of military hardware It's
all very "smart," you see. Everyone says so. They are all gushing over
how 90 percent of the bombs used this time around will be "smart"
bombs, whereas only 10 percent of those used the last time were of the
"smart" variety. Everyone is just thrilled. onlinejournal.com
"Shock
& Awe" Blinding Investors
March 22, 2003
The bombing of Baghdad apparently has investors
watching CNN's war coverage instead of the latest economic news. If they
were paying closer attention to the latest economic reports, they would see
that the economy is getting worse, not better. For instance, energy-led
price increases are undoubtedly squeezing consumers, and the employment
situation is getting worse by the week.
safemoneyreport.com
Fans boo as U.S. national anthem is played
March 22, 2003 By Associated Press MONTREAL (AP) Fans booed during the playing
of the U.S. national anthem before the New York Islanders' 6-3 victory over the
Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. The sellout crowd of 21,273 at Bell Centre
was asked to ''show your support and respect for two great nations'' before the
singing of the American and Canadian national anthems. But a significant portion
of the crowd booed throughout ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' in an apparent
display of their displeasure with the U.S.-led war against Iraq. More than
200,000 people turned out for an anti-war demonstration in Montreal last
Saturday. boston.com
A
reckless path March 21, 2003 Paul Craig
Roberts We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their
fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started
it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of
the war for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort
to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of
policy.
— U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson,
U.S. representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, Aug. 12,
1945.
Will Bush be impeached? Will he be called a war
criminal? These are not hyperbolic questions. Mr. Bush has permitted a small
cadre of neoconservatives to isolate him from world opinion, putting him at odds
with the United Nations and America's allies.
What better illustrates Mr. Bush's isolation than
the fact that he delivered his March 16 ultimatum to the U.N. concerning Iraq
from an air base in the Azores, where there was no prospect for massive
demonstrations against his policy. Standing with Mr. Bush against the world were
Britain and Spain.
The U.S., once a guarantor of peace, is now
perceived in the rest of the world as an aggressor. Its victim is a small Muslim
nation unable to defend its own air space, much less to project power beyond its
borders. If Iraqis attempt to resist invasion, they will be slaughtered.
On the eve of Mr. Bush's ultimatum, it came to
light that a key piece of evidence used by the Bush administration to link Iraq
to a nuclear weapons program is a forgery. Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West
Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has asked
the FBI to investigate the origin of the forged documents that the Bush
administration used to make its case that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of
mass destruction.
Secretary of State Colin Powell denies that the
Bush administration created the phony documents. "It came from other
sources," Mr. Powell told Congress, but he could not identify the source.
As George Santayana said, "Those who do not
remember the past are condemned to relive it." The administration's use of
forged evidence opens Mr. Bush to unflattering comparisons that his enemies will
not hesitate to make. They will point out that it was Adolf Hitler's strategy to
fabricate evidence in order to justify his invasion of a helpless country. washtimes.com
Bush's Shameful War
March 21, 2003 Matthew Rothschild George Bush bears responsibility for
the horrors he is ordering up, and for the horrors that may flow from his
decision to wage war. It was not comforting to hear the President say in his
speech last night that "this will not be a campaign of half measures,"
and that he was going to apply "decisive force." I shudder to think
what that means. And my heart goes out to the five million innocent people in
Baghdad, who are facing an onslaught from the mightiest military ever to array
itself on the face of the Earth. I can only imagine the terror they are feeling
right now. Think what 3,000 missiles hitting Chicago would be like. Babies,
mothers and fathers, grandparents, brothers and sisters-all will be killed in
this unnecessary, this unjust, this illegal war. And U.S. soldiers, too, will
give their lives. And for what? In part, for oil. Did you notice in his speech
on Monday how Bush said, right off the bat, that Saddam better not touch the oil
fields? And then, last night, Bush says flatly, "We have no ambition in
Iraq." Who is he kidding? Our economy is addicted to oil; we're the biggest
guzzlers in the world. Bush should stop acting like America doesn't know where
the oil is. Even the most inebriated alcoholic can locate the liquor store. This
war is also about Bush settling a family score. Getting rid of Saddam has been
on his personal to-do list since day one. He's wanted, as they say, to
"finish the job" his father left incomplete, and to get back at Saddam
for trying to kill his daddy. And Iraq is the test case for the new U.S.
strategic doctrine, the warped brainchild of Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, and
Donald Rumsfeld, which says the U.S. has the right to preventively attack any
country it perceives as a distant threat. This is a brazen repudiation of
international law. progressive.org
Shields on Ground in Iraq: Anti-War Protests
Rage Worldwide March 21, 2003 As the
belligerent U.S. government, with assistance from Australia and the UK, begin
their illegal war against Iraq, anti-war groups are calling all like-minded
people to action. Continuous
protests are planned across the country and around the world. Yesterday's demonstration
in Sydney drew a large crowd as people are urged
to maintain resistance now that hostilities have started. Likewise, massive
anti-war actions are taking place in the UK,
Spain Barcelona, Madrid,
Germany, France,
Moscow, Norway,
Holland, 100,000 in Athens,
the U.S. Boston,
Los Angeles, San
Francisco, DC, New
York, and around the world. Check your local Indymedia center (left sidebar)
for actions near you. http://indymedia.org/
Could U.S. be at war
for years? March 21, 2003 By
Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent A
Pentagon-dubbed 'decapitation' mission, a pre-dawn air assault with Saddam
Hussein as its reputed target, may have been President George Bush's best chance
to stave off a protracted war, which could spell ultimate defeat even if
American troops score strings of tactical victories. But even if the Iraqi
president is killed or captured, could the American people still be facing years
of war, in Iraq or elsewhere? The issue was raised in Israel well before the
assault began, prompted by remarks earlier this week by former prime minister
Shimon Peres. "The war in Iraq is just the beginning," Peres told
Israel Channel One Television. "Problems of the first magnitude can be
expected therafter, as well: Iran, North Korea, and Libya. "The problem is,
can you simply abandon the world to dictators, to weapons of mass
destruction?" Asked if that meant America might then be facing as many as
five or six years of war at this point, Peres replied, "That is very
possible. I don't know how long it will take, but the problem is a global one,
and it will not end in Iraq, even if a new regime is instituted - say a regime
like Jordan's, not a democracy, but orderly and responsible rule." haaretzdaily.com
US warns Belgium over 'genocide
law' March 21, 2003 BRUSSELS The
United States has warned Belgium about the effects of its so-called genocide
legislation that allows suits against foreign leaders on what Washington
considers to be politically motivated charges. Secretary of State Colin Powell
told reporters in Washington that if such prosecutions proliferated, it could be
difficult for senior officials to visit Belgium, home of the Nato headquarters.
On Tuesday the families of victims of a US attack on a shelter in Baghdad in
1991 during the first Gulf War announced they planned to file a complaint in
Belgium against Powell, former President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney
and former US commander General Norman Schwarzkopf. The complaint would be under
Belgium's genocide law, which enables courts to hear human rights cases,
wherever the crimes were committed in the world. expatica.com
March 21,
2003 By Ron Popeski (Adds quotes by Foreign Minister Ivanov) MOSCOW,
March 20 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, in fierce criticism of
the U.S. attack on Baghdad, demanded a quick end to hostilities on Thursday and
challenged Washington's view that Iraq was a threat to world security. Russia
had been aligned with France, Germany and China in opposing any resort to
military action and demanding more time for U.N. arms inspectors to continue
their search for banned weapons in Iraq. "This military action is
unjustified...there has been no answer to the main question which is: are there
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and, if so, which ones," a grim-faced
Putin told Russia's top ministers in the Kremlin. "Military action...is a
big political error,"he said in nationally-televised remarks, adding it
flouted world opinion and international law. alertnet.org
Bush's Proposed Budget Would Cost
Washington $5 Million in Federal Funding for Afterschool, Denying Programs to
8,000 Children March 21, 2003 U.S.
Newswire According to data released today by the Afterschool Alliance,
Washington would lose an estimated $5,501,054 for afterschool programs next year
if Congress accepts President Bush's proposed cut to the 21st Century Community
Learning Centers Program (21st CCLC - the federal government's principal
afterschool program). Using current state allocation funding formulas and the
U.S. Department of Education's estimate of $700 per child for afterschool
programming yearly, the Alliance determined that 7,859 Washington children would
lose access to afterschool programs if the budget cut is adopted. The President
proposed the cut in spite of a demonstrated need for afterschool programs;
Washington received $19.6 million in grant applications in 2002, and had only
$4.1 million in funds available. usnewswire.com
