Issue 85 Table of Contents

Issue 85
Table of Contents

	CA Gov. Gray Davis Secretive Energy Deals	by Elizabeth McCarthy As of mid-March 2001, California is spending an average $46 million per day to buy electricity for the utilities that claim near-bankrupcy. Gov. Davis and the state agency buying the power, the Dept. of Water Resources, are said to be making deals worth as much as $43 billion. But nobody outside the Governor's circle knows for sure
	School Shootings and White Denial	by Tim Wise Once again, we hear the FBI insist there is no "profile" of a school shooter. Come again? White boy after white boy after white boy, with very few exceptions to that rule (and none in the mass shooting category), decides to use their classmates for target practice, and yet there is no profile? Imagine if all these killers had been black: would we still hesitate to put a racial face on the perpetrators? Doubtful
	Israel Wants To Supress History Book	by Ben Lynfield Ê Palestinian ghosts from 1948, recalled by Arabs simply as "the catastrophe" because of the destruction of Palestinian society that accompanied Israel's emergence, have surfaced in recent months. "I can understand the hesitations of Beilin that splashing stories of Israel Defense Force atrocities would harm the negotiations with the Palestinians," said author Benny Morris. "But this must be put against the more general argument that there will be endless negotiations with the Palestinians and Arab states and that this could remain as the [state's] contention for the next 50 years. It is a question of freedom of information versus foreign policy expediency"
	Coca Planting Spreads from Colombia to Ecuador	by Kintto Lucas Displaced families said that armed men gave them 24 hours to leave their homes and their land if they did not want to "die in fire and flames." A few days later, another group of Native peasant families left their homes in the same area, bringing the number of displaced to over 750. They complained that it was impossible to continue living there, because the Ecuadorean army failed to provide protection
	Nike PR on Trial	by Josh Richman In a lawsuit that could have far-reaching implications for corporate "greenwashing" campaigns, a San Francisco man will soon take on Nike Inc. over its public claims about conditions in its Asian factories
	Adidas PR Release Greeted With Caution	by Greta Hopkins Ê With a recently revised code of conduct on core labor standards in hand, representatives of the sports manufacturing giant Adidas met quietly with key European Union policy-makers in an effort to show that the company respects workers rights. However, a trade union representing workers in 135 countries, told IPS that almost every multinational retailer -- including Adidas -- is still sourcing from factories that exploit workers
	Outrage At Bush Nominee For UN Ambassador	by Nefer Munoz Human rights organizations in Honduras expressed surprise and anger when they learned of the new United States ambassador-designate to the United Nations, John Negroponte, who they say is tied to past acts of repression and torture. "This designation is a slap in the face for the Honduran people," Berta Oliva de Nativi, director of the Committee of Families of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras told IPS. De Nativi asserted that Negroponte, as ambassador to Honduras, allowed political persecution to take place and that he decided whether political dissidents would live or die
	Bush Abandons Global Warming Pledge Made During Campaign	by Danielle Knight In a move that shocked environmental groups and moderate lawmakers, President George W. Bush reversed his campaign pledge to impose mandatory emissions reductions of carbon dioxide at electrical power plants
	Childhood Obesity Directly Linked to TV Habits, Study Shows	by Lois Baker If there seem to be a lot more fat kids around than, say, 20 years ago, it is not an illusion, and it should come as no surprise that television-watching appears largely to blame
	With Another Bush In White House, Rev. Moon Makes Comeback	by Bill Berkowitz In one of his first moves as president, George W. Bush signed a proclamation designating the day after the inauguration as a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. Hold onto your prayer shawls my friends, because behind the most prominent Inaugural weekend prayer event was the Rev. Sun Myung Moon
	Pinochet Faces New Trial On Reduced Charges	by Gustavo Gonzalez Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet will return to the Supreme Court after an appeals tribunal ruled March 8 that the elderly retired general must face trial for human rights abuses, though on lesser charges of having covered them up rather then directly ordering them
	Germany May Send "Mad Cow" Suspect Beef To N Korea	by Yojana Sharma North Korea's request for German beef as food aid for its famine-stricken regions has raised ethical questions on whether meat from herds suspected of contamination with mad cow disease should be sent to poor countries in dire need, regardless of the risks
	Growing Japanese Anger Over Boat Sinking By Sub	by Suvendrini Kakuchi Reports that a U.S. submarine which rammed a Japanese fishing boat last month was at sea only because it was taking 16 civilians on a tour are likely to lead to more anti-American sentiment from an already upset Japanese public. Both Japanese and U.S. officials have been scrambling to patch up bilateral relations, but indications are that the Japanese people themselves will not be easily appeased. "The Japanese are very angry about the incident," says Aoyama University Professor Tomihasa Sakanaka, who is an international relations expert. "The outpouring of sympathy in the public reflects an ugly mood that stems from the fact that innocent people have been killed"
	Our 2-Party System: Spineless Demos, Ruthless GOP	by Randolph T. Holhut In 1993, the Democrats set the pattern of retreat that continues today. They failed to force an investigation into the many illegalities of the Florida vote that gave George W. Bush the presidency. They failed to put up a fight against John Ashcroft, Gail Norton and the rest of Bush the younger's odious cabinet picks. And they are about to roll over on the rest of Bush's dubious policies -- the big tax cut for the rich, Star Wars, oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness, ending the separation of church and state -- because they are completely void of any semblance of courage. A seemingly innocuous concession today can turn into a devastating defeat down the road. The GOP knows this, and that's why they will pursue Bill Clinton and anyone associated with him until there is nothing but bones to pick over
	Vote Fraud in Tennessee: Worse than Florida?	by Catherine Danielson Solid coverage has come from the Black press, newspapers like the Tennessee Tribune, Nashville Pride, and Urban Flavor. And yet there is massive evidence that thousands -- perhaps even tens of thousands -- of people were disenfranchised, the vast majority of whom were Black. How to explain the mainstream media's silence?
	Dick Cheney's Suicide Mission	by Arianna Huffington When asked if he thought his ailing No. 2 should cut back on his responsibilities, our compassionate president said no: "He's plenty strong and plenty capable of carrying the workload that he's been working in the past." Of course, to the Bush family, Cheney is just a political version of the help
	The Dirty Politics Of Redistricting Begins	by Steven Hill and Rob Ritchie Once the census data is provided to states this month, legislative districts must be redrawn to ensure they are equal in population. With few public interest checks on their near-Godlike power in drawing state legislative and congressional districts, incumbents use increasingly sophisticated computer software and demographic data to literally choose the voters before the voters have a chance to choose them
	Congress: The Real Pros At Quid Pro Quo	by Arianna Huffington No Congressional committee is trying to uncover the quid pro quo in H.R. 333, the first major piece of legislation to come out of the 107th Congress. Passed by a vote of 306 to 108, the bill will make it harder for consumers to declare bankruptcy. It will also, not coincidentally, add billions of dollars to the bottom line of banks and credit card companies. That's the quid. And here's the pro: The credit card and finance industries doled out $9.2 million to federal candidates and the Democratic and Republican parties in 2000, more than doubling the $4.3 million they donated in 1996
	Credit Card Banks Lobbying Hard For Anti-Consumer Laws	by Jennifer Bauduy These powerful interests have lobbied hard over the last few years to overhaul bankruptcy laws and make it harder for people to get debt relief. Former President Bill Clinton vetoed a similar bill last year. Now, with control of the White House, Republicans are trying to ram a bankruptcy bill through Congress, a bill that could be the first that Bush signs into law. The bill would make declaring bankruptcy more difficult, more bureaucratic and more expensive
	Clinton "Pardon Scandal" Basics	by Will Durst Q. So, what's the deal with Bill and Hill? A. Apparently the Republicans are trying to impeach them again
	Right Targets Defunding Liberal Orgs	by Bill Berkowitz For years, "defunding the left" has been an idea that has resonated deeply with conservatives. Now that Republicans have control of the White House and Congress, it's an idea whose time may be coming faster than you think. President Bush's initiative to move government services to faith-based organizations and the battle over the nomination of Attorney General John Ashcroft may provide the necessary trigger to turn the right's twenty-plus-year pipedream into a reality
	FBI Spy Case Shows Cold War Never Ended	by Eric Margolis Under veteran KGB-agent Vladimir Putin, Russia is quickly dropping its pretense of being an American partner and reverting back to traditional national geopolitical interests. With the Kremlin firmly in the hands of KGB's Young Turks and the military, Moscow is flexing its muscles, particularly across the expanse of the former Soviet Union
	Class Warfare Is Back In Fashion	by David Corn This was how Republicans and the corporate lobby tried to demonstrate the Bush tax cut is good for working Americans:Ê the National Association of Manufacturers sent out a memo to business groups that urged lobbyists to show up at a Capitol Hill tax cut rally wearing hard hats and non-business attire. "WE DO NEED BODIES -- they must be DRESSED DOWN, [to] appear to be REAL WORKER types, etc," said the note, which was obtained by The Washington Post. Camouflage -- just like in real warfare -- to hide the truth
	Searching For A Cause To Define Bush	by David Corn If George W. Bush committed billions of dollars to colonizing space for American interests, would we consider him a visionary? What if he committed to a much grander and more attainable goal -- saving Africa from AIDS?
	Will Clintons Repair Their Tarnished Image?	by David Corn Clinton has turned out to be a bad-boy bellhop who dumped a truckload of baggage on his party. And on the night George W. Bush unveiled his specifics-lite budget and tax-cut plan during a congressional address, McAuliffe appeared on television and had to answer questions about the latest in PardonMe-gate -- rather than use the occasion for a full-blast at Bush's phony numbers and a trickle-down tax cut. "A week ago we thought we were going to get out of this," a senior Democratic congressional aide said that day. "It looked like the pardon stuff would blow over. But it's like we stepped in shit and we can't scrape it off"
	The Clintons As Culture War Icons	by David Corn There is something that motivates the Clinton crazies beyond opposition to Clinton policies and beyond a self-proclaimed desire for probity in public office. As my friend, a Clinton-suspicious progressive, noted, Clinton enacted welfare reform, passed a crime bill that expanded capital punishment, embraced balanced budgets, increased military spending, nominated mostly centrist judges, and sided with corporate America against labor on the NAFTA accord and trade with China. From a Republican perspective, that's not bad for a Democrat. So what accounts for the profound detestation? It's not merely the Monica mess. This deep animus predated the point when the nation learned the President spilled his seed upon an intern's dress
	World Bank Plan Led To Government's Collapse	by Gumisai Mutume Structural adjustment conditions imposed upon a former Soviet republic were disliked so intensely that they led to the collapse of at least three successive governments, an internal World Bank document has revealed. Despite widespread discontent with the World Bank's plan of structural reforms, the government of the southeast European country of Moldova stuck to the austere conditions set down in order to secure a $40 million loan
	Chemical Industry Expose Expected To Shake Up Industry	by Don Hazen At its core, the Moyers show asks a deeply troubling question: With more than 75,000 synthetic chemicals having been released into the environment, what happens as our bodies absorb them, and how can we protect ourselves? As part of the report, Moyers took tests designed to measure the synthetic chemcials in his body -- a measurement known as "chemcial body burden." Moyers learned that his body contained 31 diffferent types of PCBs, 13 different toxins and pesticides such as malathion and DDT
	Torture Industry Now Global, Says Report	by Samanta Sen With more than 150 companies worldwide manufacturing tools of torture, selling such implements is a lucrative and rapidly growing business, says the global human rights lobby Amnesty International in a new report. The United States topped the list with at least 74 companies involved in marketing electro-shock weapons, leg irons, shackles, thumbcuffs and other restraints. Of these, 42 companies produced or offered to supply electro-shock stun weapons
	Taliban Defiance on Buddah Statues Will Hurt Afghanistan	by Nadeem Yaqub Even as the world is at a loss to understand why the Taliban turned a dear ear to the pleas of the international community, some think that the decision was driven more by political than religious considerations. Hamid Mir, editor of leading Pakistani Urdu daily Ausaf and an expert on Afghan affairs, believes that the Taliban became angry at the numerous offers to save the relics, even as the Afghan people die of hunger and cold
	Marc Rich's Hidden History as a Union-Buster	by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman What is now widely known about Rich has cast a dark cloud over what Clinton hoped would be a glorious exit from the presidency. What is not widely known, at least outside of West Virginia and certain labor circles, is that Rich played a central role in one of the highest profile union-busting efforts the United States has seen in recent decades
	Former Soviet Biowar Labs Still Pose Risk	by Blaine P. Friedlander, Jr. Despite recent efforts by Washington to turn pathogens into panaceas, Russia's once-immense biological weapons (BW) program continues to be a cause for anxiety. That country's research institutes and production facilities are poorly guarded and susceptible to corruption and theft, all causes for concern about the proliferation of lethal microbes and bioweapons expertise, says a Cornell University researcher
	Fish Farms Not Sustainable, Experts Warn	Aquaculture, the fastest growing sector of the world food economy, is increasing by 11 percent a year. Many people expect this growth to relieve pressure on ocean fish stocks, most of which are now fished beyond capacity. One out of every four fish consumed worldwide was raised on a farm. But the irony is that fish farming often comes at a surprising cost to wild fish populations
	Enviros Surprised, Happy at Bush Proposed Bank Cutback	by Danielle Knight Ê In an attempt to balance the budget and reduce taxes, the Bush administration is proposing to cut government subsidies for U.S. corporations, a move that has angered big business and delighted environmentalists. The White House is considering reducing the U.S. Export-Import Bank's current budget by 24 percent
	Ice Caps In Africa, S America Likely To Disappear Soon	Lonnie Thompson, professor of geological sciences, reported that at least one-third of the massive ice field atop Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa has disappeared, or melted, in the last dozen years. About 82 percent of the ice field has been lost since it was first mapped in 1912. "These glaciers are very much like the canaries once used in coal mines," Thompson said. "They're an indicator of massive changes taking place and a response to the changes in climate in the tropics"
	India Switch To Cash Crops Decimating Water Table	by Bharat Dogra A quarter century after farmers in large parts of Madhya Pradesh state switched from food to cash crops, it is becoming clear that the prosperity has come at a price. Grains that helped feed tens of thousands of landless peasants in the region are no longer available, forcing the poor to buy expensive and less nutritious food at market prices. The new farm irrigation methods are also drying up groundwater in the mainly arid region, which experts warn may soon become unproductive
	Technology Widens The War On Privacy	by Steve Chapman The way the lower courts see it, measuring your home's heat emissions is no different from watching what you do when you're standing in front of your picture window. If you're just going to brazenly disperse your excess heat in front of God and everybody, they insist, you can't very well expect other people to turn away their thermal imaging devices. And if it happens that you're just growing tomatoes, doing some welding, or baking a lot of cookies, surely you won't mind letting those nice officers take your home apart to confirm your innocence
	Massive Rally Caps March	by Diego Cevallos The audience listened to speeches by four Native commanders and Marcos, who explained that their fight is to conquer a worthy social space for Mexico's native peoples, the poor and the marginalized. The high point was when Marcos spoke. As always, he was dressed in his traditional black and tan rebel's uniform with munitions belts across his chest, a canteen on his belt and an intercom headset over his ski mask
	Women Have Key Role In Zapatista Command	by Diego Cevallos Unlike the majority of Mexico's Native women, the female members of the rebel group have decision-making power, decide how many children they want and when to have them, and are free to choose their own partners, said the four women leaders. "We must not be looked down on just because we are Native and dark-skinned, or because we speak our own languages...being Indian is a great source of pride," said Esther, a member of the Tzeltal ethnic community. Of Mexico's roughly 10 million Indians, women are the most vulnerable, with a life expectancy of 71.5 years compared to 76 years among Native men, and 48 percent illiteracy against 29 percent among men
	"Peaceful Uprising" In Mexico Coming If Rights Ignored	by Diego Cevallos Native groups in Mexico that back the Zapatista guerrillas threatened to stage a "peaceful national uprising" if their rights are not recognized. This is the moment to put an end to the marginalization and racism suffered by Mexico's 10 million Indians, said the participants in the third National Indigenous Congress, held last weekend
	Catholic Church Was Instrumental In Rebellion Early Days	by Diego Cevallos At least five of the 24 Native leaders of Mexico's Zapatista guerrilla movement, who this weekend began a two-week march to the capitol, have served the community under the Catholic diocese here. The pastoral work carried out since 1960 by bishop Samuel Ruiz, who was tagged as "red" by conservative groups, left its mark on the birth of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), agree observers. "That is what some say here (in San Cristobal), to the point that they believed Father Samuel himself was one of the guerrillas," a nun serving this southern Mexico diocese said
	Zapatista Convoy Leaves For Mexico City	by Diego Cevallos The February 25 farewell ceremony, in which they accused President Vicente Fox of being insincere in his desire for peace, was less solemn than the rally organized on the night of Feb. 24 in the central square of San Cristobal, the capital of Chiapas, which began five hours earlier than expected and stretched almost to midnight. This is a "march for dignity," not a "march of peace," as Fox has been publicizing it, said Subcomandante Marcos
	Zapatistas Stake Future on Historic March to Capitol	by Diego Cevallos In a communique issued Feb. 21, Marcos accused the government of Vicente Fox of opposing the EZLN march -- which he described as a "peaceful political initiative" -- and of endangering the incipient peace process by getting the International Committee of the Red Cross to announce that it would not provide protection for the convoy
	The Crash Of '29, For Those Under 40	by Molly Ivins It's not losing their money that's the problem. It's losing their faith -- not just in the "new economy" but in themselves. As you know, when Americans go off searching for new faiths, the results are often quite peculiar
	Time To Stand Up For Reform	by Molly Ivins I think they ought to rename the bill, with all respect to its long-fighting sponsors, and call it the Marc Rich Memorial Reform Law. This bill is about everything that's wrong with the American political system and all those folks like Rich who can afford to buy "access." (Big campaign contributors never buy votes or special favors -- they just buy "access.") This is our chance to level the playing field so that someone besides the big rich can be heard at the federal level
	The Muddled Bush Foreign Policy	by Molly Ivins Foreign policy happens, and last week it happened that Secretary of State Colin Powell "signaled" (don't you love diplomatic language? One envisions him standing out on a runway with colored flags) that we would go for "smarter" and smaller sanctions against Iraq. This would be good, because although it is rarely mentioned in this country, our sanctions in Iraq are believed to cost the lives of 5,000 children every month, causing other nations to think of us as hideously brutal and callous. You can't imagine how surprised many of our allies were when George W. put a gag order on women's clinics in foreign countries because he couldn't stand the idea of little babies' lives being taken in abortion. This is widely believed to be an example of inconsistency
	Rushing To Scuttle Work Safety	by Molly Ivins According to those vivid imaginations on The Wall Street Journal's editorial page, the new ergonomic safety rules were "hastily" and carelessly enacted by haughty bureaucrats paying no attention to the real-world costs of redesigning workplaces so that repeated movements don't wind up crippling people. Actually, it took ten years to get these regulations ready -- ten years of open hearings, open testimony and invitations to all sides to participate. But as the Journal reports in its refreshingly frank way, contributors who "invested" in Bush's presidential campaign are now looking for "a return on investment"
	Voodoo Economics Redux	by Molly Ivins Compassionate conservatism goes only so far, and it stops well short of the happy political implications of being able to draw redistricting maps without the bother of counting more than 3 million people who pretty much tend to be Democrats. Compassion is all very well in its place, but God forbid that it should interfere with political advantage for the Republicans
	Bush Admin Shows Its Bullying Side	by Molly Ivins Compassionate conservatism goes only so far, and it stops well short of the happy political implications of being able to draw redistricting maps without the bother of counting more than 3 million people who pretty much tend to be Democrats. Compassion is all very well in its place, but God forbid that it should interfere with political advantage for the Republicans
	Bush's Vulgar Tax Proposal	by Molly Ivins This tax cut is carefully back-loaded: We won't fully feel its effects until 10 years into the future, yet we have to start cutting already to accommodate the little wedge of it that will affect this budget. To use one of the great legislative cliches of all time, this year's tax cut is the head of the camel under the tent. And if you think the head causes problems, wait'll you see what the rest of the beast does when it's inside
	What Will Bush Do About The Drug War?	by Molly Ivins That was quite a remarkable moment that George W. Bush had in Mexico. You may have missed it or even assumed he was just pointing out the obvious again, but consider the implications of the president of the United States saying in Mexico, "One of the reasons why drugs are shipped, the main reason why drugs are shipped through Mexico to the United States, is because United States citizens use drugs." And that's not the first time that Bush has pointed out that our problem is not supply but demand
	Dubya's Shifty Tax Reform	by Molly Ivins In the curious logic of the Republican Party, anyone who points out this blatant act of class warfare is accused of "fomenting class warfare." As you may have noticed, rich people are not staggering under their burden of taxation -- there are more of them, and they're richer than ever. If this is what the right calls "redistribution of wealth," it's working fine right now to pump money from the poor to the rich
	The Energy Crisis Scandal	by Molly Ivins The energy suppliers are making out like bandits. Companies like Enron of Houston (CEO Ken Lay is one of George W. Bush's largest financial backers) are raking it in, as is PG&E's parent company, which happens to own generating plants. And guess what else? The utilities put millions of dollars into a secret slush fund to keep Congress from deregulating utilities because they can roll state legislatures far more easily
	Why Isn't George Will Facing Prison?	by Norman Solomon Six months ago, when Gore campaign adviser Tom Downey received a package containing the Bush campaign material prior to the first debate, he immediately turned it over to the FBI. In sharp contrast, 20 years earlier, top operatives in Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign pored through Jimmy Carter's lengthy briefing book swiped from the White House. Back then, behind the scenes, Will was part of the effort to make the most of the illegally obtained papers
	Media Cheered On Stock Market Bubble	by Norman Solomon On a daily basis, CNN's "Moneyline" and many other national TV programs stoked the buying frenzy. It was all quite lucrative -- bringing in record levels of commissions for brokerage houses and high ratings for market-fixated network shows. Only spoilsports warned that disaster loomed, and they didn't get nearly as much air time as the boosters
	Media Lowers The Bar For Bush	by Norman Solomon The Washington Post's Tom Shales greeted the big speech with notable satisfaction at signs of progress: "George W.'s television persona is definitely improving. He was relaxed and confident and thereby reassuring." Evidently, we're supposed to feel reassured that the president is competent, wise and kind -- rather than bumbling, vacuous and greedy -- if he exudes relaxation and confidence on TV screens
	Kissinger And The Blockade Of News	by Norman Solomon Kissinger is still commonly touted by news media as Dr. Statesman Emeritus. On Feb. 16 of this year, CNN interviewed him live a few hours after the United States and Britain fired missiles at sites near Baghdad. Anchor Bernard Shaw asked about the sanctions against Iraq, but neither man said anything about the human toll -- although an estimated half-million Iraqi children have died as a result of sanctions since the early 1990s. Kissinger offered his wisdom: "The United States has absolutely nothing to gain abandoning sanctions." Today, as in the early 1970s, tactical concerns loom large in Washington's corridors of power -- and in much of the news media. On the networks, routine assumptions confine the discourse to exploring how the U.S. government can effectively get its way in the world -- not whether it has a right to do so. For the present, moral dimensions are pushed to the margins
	Clinton And His Enemies	by Alexander Cockburn The vultures are picking his bones. Bob Herbert, Salon, Barney Frank, Joe Biden, Lannie Davis ... they've all finally thrown Bill over the side. In the Wall Street Journal Hamilton Jordan stigmatized Bill and Hillary as "the First Grifters," the term used for scam artists preying on the poor and desperate in the Depression of the 1930s. "The Clintons," Jordan sneered, "are not a couple, but a business partnership, not based on love or even greed, but on shared ambitions. Everywhere they go, they leave a trail of disappointed, disillusioned friends and staff members to clean up after them." Jordan contrasted the elevated moral tone of the Carter White House against the Augean filth of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Clinton time
	Bombing Big Sur	by Alexander Cockburn A new plan issued by the Navy's Strike Fighter Wing in January calls for nearly 3,000 bombing practice runs a year from Lemoore Naval Air Station in the Central Valley and aircraft carriers in the Pacific to Fort Hunter Liggett in the Santa Lucia Mountains, whose oceanward slope is Big Sur. By bombing next to Big Sur, instead of Fallon, Nev., they can save nearly $3 million a year in fuel costs. Of course, the Navy doesn't display such a penny-pinching attitude when it comes to funding for Trident submarines, F-22 jets or aircraft carriers
	Pinochet: The Final Count	by Alexander Cockburn On Jan. 27, Pinochet's old friend, Gen. Joaquin Lagos Osorio, implicated him in the assassinations committed by the Caravan of Death unit. It was payback, of a sort, since only the week before Pinochet had told his interrogators that Lagos was the person behind the killings and that he had acted without his authority. "I am not a criminal," Pinochet exclaimed. But Lagos had evidence to undermine the general: a list of political prisoners on which Pinochet had marked the ones to be killed
	W's Ritual Bombing of Iraq	by Alexander Cockburn Bombing the Iraqis should properly be listed as part of the Inaugural ceremonies -- a man not being truly president of the United States till he drops high explosives on Baghdad or environs. The new team evidently felt that the new Commander-in-Chief could not be allowed to leave the jurisdiction, even to Mexico, without unleashing planes and bombs against Saddam, for whom the bombardment produced the effect of widespread sympathy across the world for Iraq
	What Are Spies For?	by Alexander Cockburn The higher the grade of secrets relayed by a spy, the less his employers are inclined to believe them. The Soviets for many years thought Kim Philby was a triple agent sending them disinformation. Anyway, real secrets, such as divert the mighty over breakfast, don't concern weapons but gossip: the exact capabilities of Dick Cheney's heart, sexual peccadilloes of public figures, and so forth. That's the sort of stuff J. Edgar Hoover used to keep in his safe. These days, the nation's real intelligence work is being done by the National Enquirer. We could cut off the CIA's and FBI's intelligence budgets and improve the security of this nation at once
	GOP Will Never Say Die In Pursuit Of Clintons	by Steve Young With cryogenics playing an ever-burgeoning part of the Republican Party's effort to humiliate the dead President, an amazing simulation of the late Senator Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania, said that, once again, "impeachment would not be out of the question." If the Congress and Senate are successful in their efforts, this would be Clinton's third such impeachment since his death in 2048
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