[APR-news] Alternative Press Review - September 30, 2004

[AlternativePressReview]

Alternative Press Review
Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org
Thursday - September 30, 2004 
Satire: Documents Reveal Gaps In Bush's Service As President 

National Guard Bush vs. Swift Boat Kerry
By Thomas Wheeler, Alternative Press Review
Democrats are horrified that anyone would dare attack a "war hero" whose heroism is beyond question. Some of the right-wing attacks against Kerry have indeed been patently absurd, filled with outright lies and falsehoods. But equally absurd are some of the pronouncements from Democrats, liberals, progressives, and military veterans who have staunchly defended John Kerry's service and his actions in Vietnam. 

Government Approved: Journalism in the age of terror
By Maya Schenwar, In These Times
In August, I attended the first-ever "News and Terrorism: Communicating in a Crisis" conference, the Chicago kick-off of a year of counterterrorism workshops geared toward journalists in 10 major cities, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The keynote speaker was none other than the DHS head honcho himself, Mr. Tom Ridge. As we settled into our seats, the late-arriving Ridge laid forth our mission: "We're going to work together to achieve some common goals," Ridge informed us. "There may be a time when your audience needs more than just the story." 

Losing Our Heads: Iraqi Insurgents are Butchers, Yet Not as Bad as Us
By Ted Rall, Yahoo News
Leaders of Al Qaeda and likeminded groups know that a polite letter to the editor, a boycott of American goods, or even a high-concept ad campaign wouldn't convince the United States to pull out of the Middle East or Central Asia. Too much oil is at stake. And no other country or group of countries is powerful enough to make us do so. Terrorism, the time-honored tool of the disenfranchised and powerless, seems the only potential equalizer to those who seek to take us on. 

Seattle Police Chief Kerlikowske Heroically Takes Half A Taser Hit
By Kirsten Anderberg, www.kirstenanderberg.com
Something happened in Seattle recently that just keeps haunting me. It was broadcast on all the local television stations, it was flaunted in the press. It was touted as an amazing thing our police chief did for the public. It was billed as courageous. It was promoted as furthering civil rights in Seattle. But I have to say, what keeps haunting me, is how unbelievably cowardly the police chief was. 

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Other articles of interest 

60 Minutes: Shelving a Story to Boost Bush? CBS puts Niger expose on hold as boss endorses Republicans
In an outrageous politicization of journalism, CBS announced it would not air a report on forged documents that the Bush administration used to sell the Iraq war until after the November 2 election (New York Times, 9/25/04). A network spokesperson issued a statement declaring, "We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election." 

Operation American Repression?
By Eric Boehlert, Salon
An Army Reserve staff sergeant who last week wrote a critical analysis of the United States' prospects in Iraq now faces possible disciplinary action for disloyalty and insubordination. If charges are bought and the officer is found guilty, he could face 20 years in prison. It would be the first such disloyalty prosecution since the Vietnam War. 

Committing a war crime
Michael Jansen, Jordan Times
While Washington expresses concern that "terrorists" could explode a "dirty bomb" containing nuclear waste on a Western city, killing hundreds of people and leaving a radioactive residue which will cause cancer for years to come, the US is dropping "dirty" depleted uranium bunker bombs on Iraq and selling 500 of these devices to Israel. 

'Get Out, America!'
Tariq A. Al-Maeena, ArabNews.com
Get out, America! So many Iraqis echo these words today, as images of death and destruction flash on our television screens. Innocent lives being taken out daily by the indiscriminate bombings by US forces of densely populated neighborhoods. Lives lost of men, women, and children who had been traded one tyranny by another. 

Where is the Florida National Guard?: Bring Them Home, Where We Need Them
By Wayne Madsen, CounterPunch
There are clearly not enough professional and trained disaster recovery people in Florida to deal with the current spate of hurricanes. Most of the most critical Guard and Reserve units, particularly medical and civil affairs personnel, have been called up to Iraq. The only thing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has managed to do was cordon off my mother's neighborhood and refuse to allow anyone to retrieve belongings from damaged buildings until FEMA deems them structurally sound. Knowing Jebbie Bush and his billionaire friends, the Gulf front buildings are likely to be condemned to make way for expensive beachfront condos. 

World Economy on Collision Course
Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley
The world economy is on a collision course. The United States -- long the main engine of global growth and finance -- has squandered its domestic saving and is now drawing freely on the rest of the world's saving pool. East Asian central banks -- especially those in Japan and China -- have become America's financiers of last resort. But in doing so, they are subjecting their own economies to mounting strains and increasingly serious risk. Breaking points are always tough to pinpoint with any precision. Most serious students of international finance know that these trends are unsustainable. But like any trend that has gone to excess, a group of "new paradigmers" has emerged with a compelling argument as to why these imbalances can persist in perpetuity. That is usually the sign that the denial is about to crack -- possibly sooner rather than later. 

Pot Takes Lead in Race for the Cure
By Paul Armentano, AlterNet
Clinical research touted by the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research that shows marijuana's components can inhibit the growth of cancerous brain tumors is the latest in a long line of studies demonstrating the drug's potential as an anti-cancer agent. Not familiar with it? You're not alone. 

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NewsWire 

US agents sieze control of Free Radio Santa Cruz 

Members of Community Radio in Oaxaca Beaten and Jailed 

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon bullies movie producers into showing the U.S. military in the best possible light 

CBS, NBC and ABC refuse to run Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising but Army recruitings are ok 

US imposed national book ban 

Tom Brokaw Broadcasts "Bible Ban" BS 

University of Arizona Professor Reported to FBI for "Hating" America 

Something Bad Has Begun: Cat Stevens says he hasn't changed but the U.S. has 

Anarchists say smears were way out of order 

Living in the suburbs can make you sick 

Health Care is Far Less Affordable Than It Was Four Years Ago 

Greenlanders Mystified by Incredible Shrinking Glacier 

Vanishing Alaska: Global warming is flooding Eskimo villages along the coast 

To save water, consume less meat 

Crude oil breaches $50 a barrel 

Oil and gas drilling leases increase for sacred lands 

Saudi extra barrels wrong kind of crude 

Saudi's dramatically cut oil to US, up supply to China 

The man who foresaw skyrocketing oil prices 

Natural gas supply fears raise prices 

Nigerian rebels to widen conflict, threaten oil 

Insurgents stepping up attacks on oil and gas operations, economic disruption is key goal 

Another round of US airstrikes on Fallujah 

Baghdad's Green Zone 'island' prepares for rough seas 


Strategic collapse: A year and a half after its "liberation", Iraq appears to be coming apart at the seams 

Widespread Resistance to U.S. in Iraq: Iraq rebels attack 2,300 times in a month 

U.S. Tactics Fuel Falluja Insurgency 

US 'must raise troop numbers' to fulfil commitments 

More troops to Iraq. after the election 

Congresswoman Wants Probe Of Re-Enlistment Tactics 

Former soldiers slow to report prompting Army to threaten some with punishment for desertion 

White House Takes Heat for a CIA Plan to Rig Iraq's Elections 

Pentagon link to Guinea coup plot 

Israeli army opens fire on stone-throwing schoolchildren 

Brazil: Lula stuck in neoliberal trap 

Terrorists Welcome - if they're anti-Castro 

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