[APR-news] Alternative Press Review - September 23, 2004

[AlternativePressReview]

Alternative Press Review
Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org
Thursday - September 23, 2004 
Over in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin is using terrorism to increase his power and erode his people's civil liberties. It's nice to see the American way of life catching up around the world. -- Jay Leno, The Tonight Show 

Mike Bonanno Talks about "The Yes Men," Impersonating WTO Officials and the Truth about George W. Bush
Buzzflash.com
Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum, two activists who live in New York, went on a truth finding mission to uncover what happens at various conferences and meetings on free trade by posing and speaking as World Trade Organization officials. The documentary follows the irreverent pair pulling off hilarious stunts and suggesting to eager trade lawyers and representatives how to increase productivity by ending the siesta in Spain or using electric shocks to spur on workers, even if they are child laborers. Instead of outrage from the free trade representatives to such ideas, The Yes Men discovered an eerie quiet acceptance from the men and women who would auction off every possible resource of the planet in the guise of free trade. 

Culture and Dissent
By Am Johal
About a fifteen minute walk from the street vendors and businesses of the downtown Palestinian cultural capital of Ramallah, is a dangerous subversive place according to the Israeli authorities. So much so that they in fact in 2002 raided the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center and according to the Miami Herald "seized a computer and a cellphone, broke dozens of windows, swept books off shelves, peppered walls with shrapnel and bullets, spit pumpkin seeds on the floor and allegedly stole 3,700 shekels." The Georgetown educated Director Adila Laidi said at the time, "It was just vandalism, part of a conscious desire to ruin everything Palestinian. Once you decide to do that, you go and methodically destroy every institution. Subconsciously, they are dreaming about shoving the whole Palestinian people out of existence." 

Oil: It's Supply And Demand, Stupid!
by Marshall Auerback, Prudent Bear
A near doubling of crude prices over the past 18 months amidst record OPEC production can no longer simply be ascribed to the work of idle investment bankers, simply turning their speculative attentions away from dotcoms and telecoms to "the black gold rush". The reality is that dramatic changes in underlying fundamentals have gone unnoticed for years by the majority of investors. The world is now losing more than a million barrels of oil a day to depletion - twice the rate of two years ago - according to a new analysis published this month in Petroleum Review, the oil and gas magazine of the Energy Institute in London. 

Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food
By Kaayla T. Daniel, Mothering Magazine
Americans rarely hear anything negative about soy. Thanks to the shrewd public relations campaigns waged by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Protein Technologies International (PTI), the American Soybean Association, and other soy interests, as well as the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) 1999 approval of the health claim that soy protein lowers cholesterol, soy maintains a "healthy" image. 

>From the National Archives: New proof of Vietnam War atrocities
by Nicholas Turse, Village Voice
The archives have hundreds of files of official U.S. military investigations of such atrocities committed by American soldiers. I've pored over those records-which were classified for decades-for my Columbia University dissertation and, now, this Voice article. The exact number of investigated allegations of atrocities is unknown, as is the number of such barbaric incidents that occurred but weren't investigated. Some war crimes, like the Tiger Force atrocities exposed last year by The Toledo Blade, have only come to light decades later. Others never will. But there are plentiful records to back up Kerry's 1971 testimony point by point. 

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Other articles of interest 

CNN's Dobbs Attacks Annan on Iraq War Legality
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
When U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a September 15 interview that he thought the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was illegal, CNN's Lou Dobbs was outraged, calling it "another incredible outburst by Kofi Annan" (9/16/04). But Dobbs and his CNN reporters neglected to pursue the most important aspect of the story: Was Annan right? 

The Failure of Mainstream Media - Defending Dan? Rather Not
Jack Random, Dissident Voice
Shall we rise in defense of Dan Rather? Sorry, Dan, rather not. In truth, Dan Rather's star fell from the sky long ago when he killed the story of an insider's expose of the great tobacco industry lie. Dan Rather, you are no Walter Cronkite. When he donned the uniform of an embedded journalist (an oxymoron if ever there was one), it only confirmed what we already knew. Corruption is absolute. 

Speaking of Phony Documents...Attention Deficit America
By Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch
Excuse me, but the story is not CBS and the George W. Bush National Guard documents. The story is: How did the US Congress, the opposition party, the news media, and the US public let the Bush administration start a war based on phony documents? 

The Story That Didn't Run: The piece that '60 Minutes' killed for its report on the Bush Guard documents
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek
The journalistic juggling at CBS provides an ironic counterpoint to the furor over apparently bogus documents involving Bush's National Guard service. One unexpected consequence of the network's decision was to wipe out a chance-at least for the moment-for greater public scrutiny of a more consequential forgery that played a role in building the Bush administration's case to invade Iraq. A team of "60 Minutes" correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell Newsweek. 

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NewsWire 

House may revive parts of Patriot Act II 

Airlines ordered to turn over passenger data 

Singer Cat Stevens refused entry into the US 

State department bans distinguished muslim scholar 

An old law turns protesters into threats against president 

Adbusters files legal action after broadcasters block ads 

Government should not control the airwaves 

Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election 

Pentagon tapping into $25 billion emergency fund for Iraq war to prepare for major troop rotation, intense fighting this fall 

Forgotten Casualties: Mentally scarred by horrors they've endured, many returning soldiers get little help from military 

Sham Sovereignty: America still running the show in Iraq 

Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster 

Wind carries GM pollen record distances 

Dire Prophecy: As Prices Soar, Doomsayers Provoke Debate on Oil's Future 

Oil industry faces a stark choice 

Oil and Gas: Facing the Music Before it Stops 

Public Pension Meltdown 

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