[APR-news] October 11, 2006

Wed Oct 11 04:18:54 PDT 2006

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org - October 11, 2006

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"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our 
problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the 
dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and 
millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that 
people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation 
and stupidity, and war, and cruelty." -- Howard Zinn

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http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=652&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Torture: An American Institution
By Mickey Z.

A casual glance at the news these days might give one the impression that 
the Bush Administration invented torture last month. However, in the 
corporate media equivalent of a scoop, the Washington Post "broke" the story 
of U.S. torture of Arab and Afghan "detainees" nearly four years ago.

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Other articles of interest

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2971
Study Finds Lack of Balance, Diversity, Public at PBS NewsHour
Public TV's flagship news program offers standard corporate fare
FAIR, www.fair.org

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS's flagship news program, touts its 
"signature style-low-key, evenhanded, inclusive of all perspectives"; 
Corporation for Public Broadcasting ombud Ken Bode called it "the mother 
ship of balance." But a new FAIR study finds that the NewsHour fails to 
provide either balance or diversity of perspectives-or a true public-minded 
alternative to its corporate competition.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=128465
Death of a Courageous Journalist
Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation

Russia and the world have lost a great and courageous journalist. The 
killing of Anna Politkovskaya on October 7 is horrifying and shocking, but 
not unexpected. As Oleg Panfilov, who runs Moscow's Center for Journalism in 
Extreme Situations, said upon learning of her murder, "There are journalists 
who have this fate hanging over them. I always thought something would 
happen to Anya, first of all because of Chechnya."

http://www.alternet.org/rights/42458/
American Prison Camps Are on the Way
Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet

Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, is constructing a huge 
facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of Bush's 
"unlawful enemy combatants." Americans are certain to be among them.

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-frank101006.htm
Bye, Bye Civil Liberties: Blame The Democrats
Joshua Frank, Countercurrents.org

In the wake of September 11, it wasn't surprising that Clinton's successor 
George W. Bush legislated additional infringements upon civil liberties in 
the name of patriotism and national security. And yes, the Democrats 
overwhelmingly supported the Patriot Act in both of its awful versions. But 
it wasn't the Patriot Act that allowed the federal government to make those 
sweeping detentions across the country immediately following 9/11 -- it was 
Clinton's Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty bill. So, who is 
honestly supposed to believe that ushering the Democrats back into office in 
November will bring any sort of legitimate change -- in Iraq, or back at 
home?

http://www.heatherwokusch.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=78
Now that you could be labeled an enemy combatant.
Heather Wokusch, heatherwokusch.com

Since Congress recently handed Bush the power to identify American citizens 
as "unlawful enemy combatants" and detain them indefinitely without charge, 
it's worth examining the administration's record of prisoner abuse as well 
as the building of stateside detention centers.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct06/Rockstroh06.htm
Six Flags Over Neo-Nuremberg: Bush, Oprah, the San Diego Chicken, and a
Proto-Fascist Panopticon of the Mind
Phil Rockstroh, Dissident Voice

Many believe fascism will come to the United States of America resembling 
contrived spectacles such as The Super Bowl, The Academy Awards, and 
American Idol, with the proceedings intercut with teary, yet ultimately 
triumphant, Oprahesque tales of how redemption can be gained through the 
renunciation of one's rights, liberties, as well as, the dutiful turning in 
of one's subversive neighbors. Don't reach for that remote, folks: It's 
already here.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mickey_z_061009_who_killed_michael_m.htm
Who killed Michael Moore?
Mickey Z, Op Ed News

So, what would the American left wing do if Moore were deported like Emma 
Goldman, Charlie Chaplin, and (almost) John Lennon? What if he was 
railroaded, denied a fair trial, and imprisoned like, say, Mumia Abu-Jamal 
or Leonard Peltier? What if he was to be publicly executed even in the face 
of massive protests, e.g. Sacco and Vanzetti, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, 
Tookie Williams, or Ken Saro Wiwa of Nigeria? How about an assassination; a 
straight-out hit job along the lines of Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, Martin 
Luther King, or even Patrice Lumumba and Salvador Allende?

http://www.gnn.tv/A02578
CRITICAL INQUIRY VS. CONSPIRANOIA: How wild 9/11 conspiracies undermine the 
left
Bill Weinberg, GNN.tv

Conspiracies exist. Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandals were 
conspiracies. More to the point, history reveals the contrivance of the 1964 
Tonkin Gulf incident, the fabrication of Polish incursions against Germany 
in 1939, and the deception of the Reichstag fire in 1933 as real 
conspiracies. But the 9-11 buffs too frequently seem to buy into not merely 
conspiracies but what has been called "the conspiracy theory of history"-the 
notion that an all-powerful hidden elite constitute the fundamental motor of 
human events. This error is evidenced in the "Essential Truth" flyer's 
depiction of elite conspiratorial designs as "the root causes of war and 
injustice." This is nearly a reversal of reality. "Root causes" have to do 
with political economy-the unjust social order which requires war and 
deception to maintain itself, and breeds terrorism. It is the conspiracies 
which are mere symptoms. Reversing the equation leads the conspiracists into 
a number of logical errors and outright deceptions (if self-deceptions) of 
their own.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100906_new_harbor.shtml
9/11 and The New Pearl Harbor: A Response to Bill Weinberg
Michael Kane, FTW

Recently Bill Weinberg has trashed everyone who believes 9/11 was 
perpetrated by the U.S. Government in a report published at GNN.tv. He makes 
some valid points regarding bad analysis and sloppy documentation put forth 
by some who claim to be 9/11 "skeptics" searching for "truth." But where 
Weinberg falls flat on his face is in his evasive analysis of the most 
important area of research surrounding 9/11: The multiple 9/11 war games.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1891707,00.html
George Bush should be congratulated - he has surely earned the right to join 
the ranks of despots
Terry Jones, The Guardian

It is with great pleasure that we in the World League of Despots note that 
you have now appropriated to yourself all the powers of arbitrary arrest and 
torture that Saddam once enjoyed. You are now one of us. Congratulations!

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/101006a.html
Moon, North Korea & the Bushes
Robert Parry, Consortium News

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's business empire, which includes the right-wing 
Washington Times, paid millions of dollars to North Korea's communist 
leaders in the early 1990s when the hard-line government needed foreign 
currency to finance its weapons programs, according to U.S. Defense 
Intelligence Agency documents. The payments included a $3 million "birthday 
present" to current communist leader Kim Jong Il and offshore payments 
amounting to "several tens of million dollars" to the previous communist 
dictator, Kim Il Sung, the documents said.

http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/johnson/johnson10.html
The AWOL Heroes
Robert L. Johnson, Strike the Root

Darrell Anderson is a hero. He did what he thought was right regardless of 
the consequences. He is standing up to the government because the government 
is trying to force him to do what is wrong. Anderson joined the US Army in 
January of 2003. The government of draft dodgers and pseudo-warriors like 
Dick Cheney and George W. Bush sent him to the neocon war in Iraq. While in 
Iraq, Anderson was wounded and received the Purple Heart. After returning 
home, he was notified by the government that they were again going to send 
him to Iraq. After reflecting that the Iraq war is an illegal war based on 
the government lies of George Bush and the neocons regarding nonexistent 
Iraqi WMDs, he decided he didn't want to play any more. He went to Canada 
instead.

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NewsWire

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/10/03/investigation-of-advise-data-mining-program-ordered/
Homeland Security program to datamine "dangerous" websites

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/04/news/scan.php
Major universities working with Homeland Security to monitor negative press 
overseas

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442_pf.html
Study: Iraq death toll has reached 655,000

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15261.htm
War Crimes Report Shows US Violations of International Law;  Demands 
Prosecution of US Military and Civilian Leaders

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/09/AR2006100901269_pf.html
Get your war on: Precision weapons of mass derision

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppoz084922734oct08,0,27561.story
The terrorists who aren't in the news

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1009-03.htm
Earth's Ecological Debt Crisis: Mankind's 'Borrowing' from Nature Hits New 
Record

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061009/wl_asia_afp/asiaaustraliaclimatewarmingwarning_061009064320;_ylt=AoDjMYb38080oZqATnMugdtrAlMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Asia Pacific faces global warming disaster

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15176444/site/newsweek/
Why the frogs are dying

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1891588,00.html
Our rivers are starting to run dry

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-10-09T063014Z_01_SP93549_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA-SEALEVELS.xml&WTmodLoc=IntNewsHome_C2_worldNews-2
Rising sea levels could leave millions homeless

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20061009094411978
Punk club CBGB's closing after 33 years

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/09/real_estate/arms_nightmare/index.htm?postversion=2006100913
Tick. Tick. Beware the mortgage time-bomb

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