Issue 61
Table of Contents |
Bombs Unleash Toxic Clouds Over Belgrade |
A combined
petrochemicals and fertilizer factory and
oil refinery in the Belgrade suburbs was bombed by NATO forces April 15, releasing large amounts of
toxics into the air and water
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After the Bombs, Eco-disaster and Hunger |
by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic
Apart
from the razing of Yugoslav industrial sites
and infrastructure, NATO air attacks are causing an ecological disaster that
could endanger the Balkans as a whole, Serbian officials and ecology experts
warned.
Important rivers, lakes and agricultural land are now contaminated with
chemicals and depleted uranium, while the country's fertilizer plants have
been destroyed at the height of the seeding season. The result, experts say,
might be widespread hunger
| |
End Eco-Destruction, Yugoslav Scientists Plead |
Scientists
are warning that the NATO bombs being
dropped on Yugoslavia are destroying not just military targets but the entire ecology of the region. One of
the healthiest areas in Europe is turning into an environment hazardous for human health as land and
water are being irreversibly polluted, they report
| |
KLA Donations Likely Going to Drug Biz, Germany Warns |
by Yojana Sharma
Funds
continue to flow to the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA), often to buy arms, despite warnings by Germany's
credit agencies that Kosovo Albanians could be using accounts in Northern
Europe to launder the gains of heroin-trafficking gangs operating around
Europe
| |
Spectre of Ground War Haunts NATO Summit | by Jim Lobe | Like Banquo's ghost in Shakespeare's Macbeth, the spectre haunting this weekend's NATO summit is "bloody and muddy"|
Russian Threats Begin to Disturb U.S. |
by Jim Lobe
With
Moscow and Washington at loggerheads over
NATO's bombing campaign against
Yugoslavia, Russian specialists here are urging Clinton to be
cautious.
Their advice follows warnings by Russian President Yeltsin that a NATO
decision to send ground troops into Yugoslavia could prompt Moscow to
intervene militarily in the conflict
| |
U.S. Trying to Block UN Censure for Kosovo Eco Destruction |
by Thalif Deen
The United States and its allies at the
United Nations are trying to head off a Russian resolution critical of NATO for causing environmental
destruction in Yugoslavia | |
To Serbs, It's Now the NATO War |
by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic
NATO countries may be fighting their war against
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, but in the eyes of ordinary Serbs,
six weeks of air raids have systematically destroyed the works of many
generations.
| |
NATO Bombs Unite Serbs |
by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic
Western military analysts seem startled and confused by the Serbian reaction
in front of their country's devastation. In view of now massive "collateral
damage," Western media are
also airing doubts and looking for explanations, some of them wild
| |
Dancing on the Bridge |
by Randall Major
Internet essay claimed to come from U.S. ex-pat states,
"The very fact that NATO is blowing up Yugoslavia's bridges is symbolic
in a way. Each time a bridge goes down, a tie with the West is broken.
A childhood memory is obliterated. Loved ones are separated. And anger
grows towards the ones who have done it. By blowing up the bridges,
NATO countries are cutting all ties between themselves and the ordinary
citizens of Yugoslavia"
| |
Is China Playing a Hidden Role in the Kosovo Crisis? |
by Franz Schurmann
When countries break diplomatic
relations with each other they usually set up temporary quarters in a
friendly embassy. It seemed natural for the Serbs to have gone to the
Russian embassy. They didn't and instead went to the Chinese embassy.
If Belgrade had decided that a "long haul" war is in the cards, as Clinton
has warned, then it makes more sense for them to go to the Russian embassy.
But if Milosevic feels there is a chance for peace then China poses some
advantages Russia doesn't have
| |
Anti-Environmental Riders on Kosovo Relief Bill |
One introduced by Alaska Republican
Senator Frank Murkowski would open Glacier Bay National Park to commercial
fishing, including waters designated as wilderness by the Alaska National Interest
Lands Conservation Act, without any federal safeguards or regulation. Another would provide royalty relief of up to $123,000,000 for the
owners of marginal oil wells that are barely productive, often owned by the same large oil companies
| |
Bush Raking in the Bucks |
by Jim Hightower
Bush is putting together a campaign-finance structure that's a pyramid of
wealth. "The 200 pioneers" at the top have national financial networks of
their own, including other corporate executives, their country-club pals,
people who owe them favors, companies that do business with them
| |
Why Pundits are Never Wrong |
by Jeff Grabmeier
Study suggests that political leaders and others may have a hard time learning from history -- or at least learning lessons that don't fit their existing beliefs and ideologies. When experts were wrong, they interpreted events to fit their preconceived notions, rather than change their notions to fit reality. Some of the popular defenses used by incorrect experts included "I was almost right" (The predicted events didn't happen, but almost did) and "I was just off on timing" (The predicted events have not occurred yet, but they eventually will)
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The Latest S&L Scandal |
Public Campaign
Without a single hearing or debate, Congress has voted to hit
the public with another bill that could reach $30 to $50 billion, not
counting interest. Last fall, at the urging of industry lobbyists, The New
York Times reports, members of Congress "tucked into appropriations
legislation a two-paragraph provision....[requiring] taxpayers to pay such
sums as necessary to satisfy all final court judgments" stemming from the
1989 bailout law that brought the Looting Decade to a halt
| |
A "Moral Authority" For Bombing |
by David Corn
In the dark days of the Rwanda holocaust, the entire human rights
brigade in Washington was beseeching the Clinton Administration to
intervene. Try to jam the radios used to broadcast the killing orders, they
pleaded. Try to place pressure on the French, who have influence in the
area. Announce that war criminals would be pursued. Use the word "genocide"
in describing the tragedy. The human rights activists were met with worse
than silence. They received a shrug conveying the message, we know it sucks
but we don't feel politically we can do much
| |
Demos Roll Over For NATO Bombing |
by David Corn
Where have all the Congressional liberals gone? As bombs fell on Yugoslavia, commentators
listened for the sound of antiwar protest from the left and discerned mostly
silence. In the middle of last week, CNN's William Schneider pronounced:
"There are no antiwar protests on the left; liberals can rally behind a war
for human rights." He wasn't far wrong. All the rock-'em/sock-'em,
in-the-media action had been on the right
| |
Bear Lincoln Case Finally Over |
by Nicholas Wilson
The Deputy Attorney General told the Mendocino County Superior Court judge that his office had reviewed the case and decided that "at this time the charge cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and I would move to dismiss." The judge immediately dismissed the manslaughter charge "in the interest of justice." The Lincoln supporters who filled the small courtroom to capacity could barely contain themselves, and cheering erupted when the brief hearing was over
| |
U.S. Refuses To Destroy Smallpox Stockpile |
by Jim Lobe
Clinton has decided against
destroying the remaining U.S. stocks of smallpox virus, claiming that, to do
so, could harm scientific, health, and national security interests.
The decision, reached after lengthy internal debate, reverses a government
pledge in 1996 to destroy the stocks by June as part of a plan by the
WHO to achieve the final elimination of the
smallpox virus
| |
Protect Ecosystems, Not Species, Study Warns |
by David Stauth
Two new studies suggest that ecosystems can be
far more vulnerable than often assumed, subject to disruption by
fairly small environmental changes or loss of "minor" species not
traditionally thought to be important -- and in considerable peril
from global change
| |
Few Cheer Oil Giant's Earth Day Award |
by Danielle Knight
The giant oil company BP Amoco picked up an
award here on April 22 for its forward-looking approach to the problem of global
warming, to the mixed applause of environmental groups
| |
Error 404: News Not Found in Your Daily Paper |
The media war over Kosovo; Europeans make emergency plans for biotech disaster;
Project Censored on TV; Paul Robeson, Cold War martyr; Henry Hyde and the sock puppet
| |
Demonstators Protest KPFA Firings, "Gag Rules" |
by Nicholas Wilson
With up to a thousand angry demonstrators blocking the Berkeley street in front of its studio, radio station KPFA unquietly celebrated its 50th birthday
| |
Rebellion at Pacifica |
by Alexander Cockburn
Pacifica's bosses have imposed gags, brought in union busters and jimmied the rules so its governing body of 14 can preside over the $200 million to $300 million in Pacifica assets without accountability
| |
Rwanda Copes With Murderous Past on "Genocide Day" |
by Farah Stockman
The story goes the same across the country, as a mostly peasant population
explain why many of them tried to murder every member of their neighbor's
household, down to the smallest child. Five years after the unimaginable
happened in Rwanda, people are still sorting out who is responsible, who to
forgive and what to forget
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Central America a Cocaine Warehouse |
by Nefer Munoz
Writer-philosopher Helio Gallardo believes that the region's countries place
too much emphasis on police repression and not enough on the public health
aspect of the problem.
"The joint patrol plan is doomed to fail," said Gallardo, who also believes
that the region should think about legalizing drug use in the long term.
"Drug consumption cannot be prevented in modern societies. What we can do, is
keep the drugs out of the mafia's hands"
| |
Stop Police From Stalling Trial, Judi Bari Lawyer Tells Court |
by Nicholas Wilson
Frustrated by delaying tactics by law enforcement, Cunningham had dramatically held up an exhibit binder during the hearing. "I showed these same photos (of the bombed car clearly showing the bomb was hidden under the driver's seat) here in this court in 1993," he said. "We're six years down the road now, with this appeal. The FBI will be in here next with their ... appeal, and it'll be another two years ... another six years. We're entitled to intervention (by the appeals court to stop these delaying tactics)"
| |
Christian Identity and the Y2K "Conspiracy" |
by Laura Maggi
James Wickstrom, who operates out of Michigan, is the
pastor and leader of a Christian Identity group called the Posse Comitatus, is hammering away that this would be on the one hand the collapse of this
system that they say is controlled by an international Jewish conspiracy to
enslave the American public, and white people in particular. The idea is
that this whole Y2K thing is part of a conspiracy
| |
Canadian Natives Sitting on Diamond Mine |
by Mark Bourrie
Native communities in Canada literally may be
sitting on a diamond mine, possibly the second largest in the world
| |
Vietnam Might Sue for Agent Orange Damage |
by Sergei Blagov
Sooner or later, the U.S. military could face huge compensation claims from
the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, the wartime defoliant it sprayed in
that Indochinese nation decades ago
| |
Revolving Doors: Monsanto and the Regulators |
by Jennifer Ferrara
Traditionally, key figures at the FDA in particular have either held important positions at Monsanto, or are destined to do so in the future. Is it surprising therefore that Monsanto gets clearance for its often dangerous products?
| |
Blaming Everything Except Guns |
by David Corn
The NRA recruits for its gun-centric world, and aims quite
young. At a 1998 convention, a gun enthusiast could buy NRA baby bibs and
infantwear and children's products featuring Eddie Eagle, the group's
mascot. (Think of a Joe Camel who is packing.) According to a study produced
by the Violence Policy Center, which advocates gun control, the NRA in 1997
announced a $100 million campaign to reach children, and its youth magazine,
InSights, routinely contains ads for firearms with violent-sounding names,
such as the Savage Arms Predator, a combination rifle/shotgun. Two of the
four guns used by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were Savage shotguns
| |
Media Rushes to Exploit Littleton Tragedy |
by Judith Gorman
CNN sent 70 staffers to Littleton, and NBC and ABC counterpunched with
another 50 apiece. With a hearty anchors aweigh, Rather, Jennings, and
Brokaw arrived on the day after the shootings to offer low seriousness and
live standups in front of Columbine High. A mobius strip of Dateline, 20/20,
and Inside Edition squeezed excruciating sound bites out of grief stricken
relatives and hospitalized victims, in what has become an obligatory
exercise in televised vivisection
| |
Media Finds Easy Monster in 'Goth' Subculture |
by Malcolm Howard
It wasn't just national TV tabloids that marched with klieg lights in hand
in a quest to find a modern-day Frankenstein in today's growing goth scene.
That same night, one local Colorado report segued to
coverage of last week's concert by heavy metal band Slayer, referring to
those waiting for the show as "members of the Goth cult."
Never mind that the ominously named death-metal group is not a "goth" band
per se -- and that most goths aren't particularly impressed with Marilyn
Manson either -- such distinctions were missed by a mass media intent on
lumping almost anyone who wears black into some pop-music doomsday cult
| |
The War Comes Home Again |
by Alexander Cockburn
In the aftermath of the Littleton shootings in Colorado, there's been collective determination among editorial writers to omit from possible motivating factors the U.S. bombing of Serbia. The typical editorial response has been "keep guns out of the hands of troubled youngsters." Of course, the institution most adept at putting guns into the hands of youngsters, many of them troubled, is the U.S. military, which insists on the right to accept teenagers at an age younger than most nations
| |
Littleton Signals Death of the "Public" School |
by Richard Rodriguez
After the ribbons fade, after the dead are laid to their rest, after the
reporters drift away, the last casualty of the massacre at Columbine High
may turn out to be the idea of public school
| |
There is no Epidemic of Teen Violence |
by Randolph T. Holhut
If one divides the number of violent crimes by
the number of people living in poverty, the so-called epidemic of teen
violence disappears. Adjusted for poverty, the crime rate for
13-19-year-olds is almost the same as people in their 40s, and is lower
than those in their 20s and 30s
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Just Never Good Enough |
by Lyn Duff
The response to Columbine will be metal detectors, or more police at
schools, or gun control, or limits on Internet freedom -- anything that
"protects" kids by demonizing them and putting more distance between them
and the adults in their lives
| |
Rush to Internet Judgment in Littleton Tragedy |
by Donna Ladd
The whole Net conspiracy nonsense peaked Wednesday evening. By then,
second-tier Denver radio host Peter Boyles had gotten a field promotion to
MSNBC "expert" commentator. He talked ominously about how the "Trenchcoat
mafia" were in a number of schools. And they had a big Internet presence
| |
Ban Shrimp Farms, Enviro Groups Tell UN |
by Danielle Knight
Vast areas of the coasts in tropical Asian and Latin American countries,
particularly mangrove forests, other wetlands, and agricultural lands,
including rice paddies, have been stripped away to build shrimp farms
| |
Researchers Find History of Rainforest Told in Birdsong |
To human ears it may sound like music -- but to the birds, birdsong
represents survival.
It decides not only differences between species, but also success
in the unending battle over food, territory and mates. It may mark
the distinction between survival and genetic death for an
individual bloodline
| |
What Makes The Birdies Sing? Melatonin |
by Gary Dorsey
About
20 years ago, it was discovered that a portion of a bird's
brain involved in the control of song actually increases in volume as days grow longer.
The longer
daylight hours of springtime, they found, causes songbirds' gonads
to grow from the size of pepper flakes to marbles. It was almost
as if birds entered puberty every spring, and then the gonads
shrink again every fall
| |
Mexican Army Destroying Chiapas Rainforest |
by Diego Cevallos
The fragile 500,000-hectare Lacandona jungle represents 50 percent of North
America's tropical rain forests. It is home to most of Mexico's tropical
trees, 33 percent of the country's species of reptiles, 80 percent of
butterfly species and 32 percent of bird species.
| |
The 200,000 Skeletons in Richard Holbrooke's Closet |
by Sunil Sharma
A little-known chapter in Richard Holbrooke's career in the U.S. government is his
complicity in Indonesia's campaign of genocide against East Timor. On December 7, 1975, Indonesia invaded East
Timor, which it continues to occupy today, killing over 200,000 Timorese in
the process -- approximately one-third of pre-invasion population. The U.S. supported
Indonesia in ways which are already well known; there is no doubt that the
invasion, ongoing occupation, and genocide could not have been possible
without U.S. support
| |
11,000 or Not, Signs of a Bad Dow Crash |
By Mark Scheinbaum
The most horrifying thing about these vignettes is not in
the telling (since some of them are actually quite humorous), but in the
truth of the telling. Yes, they are all true stories, with the names
changed or abbreviated to protect the guilty
| |
PBS Promotes the "Stock Market" Game |
By Jim Hightower
A recent feature on public radio's "All Things Considered" news
show told about a new game called the "Stock Market Game." This is a blatant
piece of Wall Street propaganda being directed at 11 and 12 year olds --
just the kind of thing that PBS was created to expose and lampoon. But, no,
the new, corporate-friendly public radio network broadcast the feature
without an iota of journalistic skepticism, much less criticism or outrage
| |
Gun Zealots Promote Discredited Study |
by Kathryn Eastburn
University of Chicago economist John Lott released his study to the press,
drawing rapid attention to such statements as: "If the rest of the country
had adopted right-to-carry concealed handgun provisions in 1992, about 1,500
murders and 4,000 rapes would have been avoided."
Anti-gun organizations like the Violence Policy Center met Lott's findings
with skepticism and quick attacks on his integrity as an academic
researcher.
As a result of the attacks, however, Lott became a poster child for pro-gun
activists who labeled him a victim of the PC crowd.
But in months to follow, Lott's study came under more serious scrutiny. Academics uncovered serious enough flaws in
Lott's analysis to discount his findings completely
| |
The Hard Business of Telling False Science From True |
by Donella H. Meadows
So goes science, back and forth, up and down, maybe, maybe not, that's an
interesting finding but let's see if we can repeat the experiment, let's see
if there are other explanations, let's put it in the perspective of all
these other findings.
And so goes column-writing, a handmaiden of politics, which likes to seize
any shred of evidence to support what one already thought and hit everyone
over the head with it. A difficult combination, science and politics.
Especially in a democratic society where the public is charged with figuring
out what to believe
| |
In Praise of Asking "Wrong" Questions |
by Norman Solomon
In late April, at a glitzy hotel in New York, the Overseas Press Club held its annual awards dinner. For the journalists who show up -- and particularly for those being honored -- the event is usually perceived as an opportunity to preen and be seen.
But this time around, two independent-minded journalists -- Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill of Pacifica Radio -- chose to take advantage of a different sort of opportunity. Rather than bask in the limelight, they decided to speak out for human rights and journalistic integrity
| |
Worthy and Unworthy Victims of War |
by Norman Solomon
Central to U.S. news coverage is a paradigm as old as the macabre art of propaganda itself. Routinely, media reports make a huge distinction -- sharp yet cloaked -- between worthy and unworthy victims. Policy-driven from the White House, the coverage emphasizes some suffering and downplays or ignores other suffering
| |
Martin Luther King, War Protester |
by Norman Solomon
The war
coverage is becoming routine. Missiles fly, bombs fall. Live briefings from the Pentagon -- featuring talkative generals, colorful charts and gray videos -- appear on cable television like clockwork. The war on Yugoslavia is right in front of us and very far away. The media atmosphere is numbing.
Early this month, the anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. came and went. In the media world, he's presented as a dreamer, a martyr on a postage stamp
| |
To Serbia From Vietnam |
by Alexander Cockburn
Being a peacenik is definitely out of style. Liberals are learning once again -- did they ever truly forget? -- that it's fun to be a warmonger and cheer the high explosive as it falls. After suffering indigestion toward the end of the Vietnam affair, they got the taste for war again in the mid-1990s, with Bosnia
| |
Driving While White |
by Alexander Cockburn
The DEA took up Vogel's profiling in 1987. It wasn't long before cops in every state were using the vehicle laws as the pretext. Dirty license tags, a brake light burned out, almost anything you could dream of. So you get stopped. The cop sizes you up. Let Webb tell it: "At the moment your license and registration are returned, you are technically free to leave. Now, you and Officer Friendly are just having a 'consensual' chat. And your new friend is free to ask anything | |
The Televised Revolution of Michael Moore |
by Kathy Newman
In his new series, The Awful Truth, Moore
successfully uses irony, derision and wit to expose of the folly and
wickedness of corporate America. Moreover, under the Moore microscope,
corporate America looks hapless, hostile, and humorless
| |
Letters |
Kosovo, the wrong war; the death of Steve Kangas; cancer link to rBGH; KPFA protests; Kevin Mitnick
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Albion Monitor Issue 61 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor)
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