Wednesday, November 06, 2002

Future Government for a Synergic Society Timothy Wilken, MD writes: How will we make decisions in a synergic future? In today’s world 2002, it is assumed without question that majority rule democracy is the best way to organize humanity. To even offer a criticism of majority rule democracy is to invite an immediate and often emotional charged attack on oneself. We are quickly asked to choose between majority rule democracy or the dictatorships of communism/fascism. We are quickly reminded that if we don’t like it here in a majority ruled democracy, we are free to leave. ... But what if there were something better? (11/06/02) State of the World: An Imaginary Dialogue Sean Scheiderer writes: The committee on ecological catastrophe hereby makes these three policy recommendations: (1) forgive World Bank debt to developing countries conditional to their preservation of ecologically important environments (2) foster (through funding outside of corporate agendas) and protect (through regulation) global diversity, social and biological, for healthy and balanced systems (ecological, agricultural, economical, etc.) planet-wide; and (3) provide complete disclosure and allow a major role in the debate and decision making to those people and communities most affected by specific technologies. These three policies will work to (1) prevent catastrophes from occurring by removing the financial pressures and information blackouts that fuel devastating behavior which leads to them and (2) limit the immediate damage and minimize the long-term effects of those mishaps that do occur by allowing for the open exchange of pertinent information, both as urgency and maintenance, locally and globally. (11/06/02) Trial by Missile If you are innocent, the missile won't kill you. ... New York Times -- The Central Intelligence Agency, using a missile fired by an unmanned Predator aircraft, killed a senior leader of Al Qaeda and five low-level associates traveling by car in Yemen on Sunday, American officials said today. The officials said the missile strike killed Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, also known as Abu Ali, a man they described as the senior Qaeda operative in Yemen and perhaps one of the top dozen or so Qaeda figures in the world. ... American officials said today that armed Predators had been flying over Yemen for some time, ready to strike in case targets came into their sights. ...Who's sights? The Predator is unmanned. ... In the attack on Sunday, the target was a car in northwestern Yemen. Its occupants in addition to Mr. Harethi were five people described as low-level Qaeda operatives. American officials said the Yemeni government had been kept informed about the operation. ... Although officials said they were unsure if Mr. Harethi was directly involved in the Cole bombing, his leadership role in Al Qaeda in Yemen made him an important target of American efforts there. ... The decision to use military force to attack Qaeda leaders in Yemen rather than to try to arrest them fits in with a broader administration view that the world is a battlefield in the campaign against terrorism, and that Qaeda operatives should be treated as enemy combatants. (11/06/02) Edward Jenner rolls over in his Grave Edward Jenner invented small pox vaccination in 1796. In 1980, as a result of Jenner's discovery, the World Health Assembly officially declared "the world and its peoples" free from endemic smallpox. ... Washington Post -- The CIA now assesses that four nations -- Iraq, North Korea, Russia and, to the surprise of some specialists, France -- have undeclared samples of the smallpox virus. ...  A Bush administration intelligence review has concluded that four nations -- including Iraq and North Korea -- possess covert stocks of the smallpox pathogen, according to two officials who received classified briefings. Records and operations manuals captured this year in Afghanistan and elsewhere, they said, also disclosed that Osama bin Laden devoted money and personnel to pursue smallpox, among other biological weapons. These assessments, though unrelated, have helped drive the U.S. government to the brink of a mass vaccination campaign that would be among the costliest steps, financially and politically, in a year-long effort to safeguard the U.S. homeland. Public health authorities in and out of government project that the vaccine itself, widely administered, could kill more Americans -- 300 is a common estimate, and some are higher -- than any terrorist attack save that of Sept. 11, 2001. It has been left to President Bush to resolve a deadlock among his advisers. Vice President Cheney is said by participants in the debate to be pressing for rapid, universal inoculation, while Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson prefers a voluntary program that would wait at least two years for an improved vaccine. (11/06/02) If the Money is Good then Trading with Evil is Great Yahoo! News -- BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Baghdad International Trade Fair opened Friday with patriotic songs, praise for Saddam Hussein  and condemnation of America. Participation at the two-week fair was at a level not seen since the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam's aides hailed the turnout — nearly 1,200 companies from 49 countries — as a global show of support for Iraq's struggle against Washington's "aggressive policies." But the participants, mostly representing smaller trade firms looking for lucrative deals once a punishing U.N. trade embargo is lifted, said they were here to sell — not to support Saddam's regime. "We are here not for politics, but for pure business," said Guy Jevinoy, a representative of France's E-Sat company, which sells satellite phones. "We are here to establish contacts and hope for better days for Iraq." Attendance at the fair, held at a sprawling complex decayed by years of economic ruin and wars, was well ahead of last year's, which attracted nearly 900 companies from 38 countries. ... Girls waving scarves with Saddam's portrait sang patriotic songs as Iraqi's top brass — except for the reclusive Iraqi president — watched the opening ceremony under watchful eyes of machine-gun totting guards and plainclothes police. "America can say what it wants," the girls sang, "but for the next 1,000 years, we will say Yes, Yes for Saddam." (11/06/02) http://www.SynEARTH.net/   6:19:40 AM

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