Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Dark Daze Till Dawn FEATURED ARTICLES - Ramping up Lawrence Livermore Lab -  Rhino'd rather not! - Neoconned! US intelligence fears Iran duped hawks into Iraq war, By Julian Borger, The Guardian (UK), - Film gives U.S. a closer look at Al-Jazeera, Reuters, via New York Times - Nader Calls for Impeachment of Bush Over the War in Iraq, By THOMAS J. LUECK, NY Times - Our Darkest Days Are Here, by Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes QUOTE OF THE DAY "The image of one bad young woman with a naked man on a leash did more to damage America's reputation than all the good things we've done over the years ever helped our reputation.  What were the secrets they were trying to get from captured Iraqis? What important information did that poor devil on the leash have that he wouldn't have given to anyone in exchange for a crust of bread or a sip of water? - Where were your officers? If someone told you to do it, tell us who told you. If your officers were told - we should know who told them." - - Andy Rooney (from today's BOTTOM LINE) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - MAY 26th 1946 -- Janos von Neumann & Klaus Fuchs file for a patent on the H-bomb. America corners the market in yet another sub-category of "Weapons of Mass Destruction". 1954 -- US Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend use of atomic weapons in Indochina. 1966 -- 2nd day of International Days of Protest: 20,000 march on 5th Ave, NYC; called by "National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam". 1972 -- Anti-Ballistic Missile (SALT I) Treaty signed by U.S. & USSR. 1978 -- 15,000 demonstrate for disarmament in New York City. 2001 -- US Congress approves a $1.35-trillion tax cut bill. "Balanced Budget" Republican Voodooers, now in control of the White House, change their tune, send the American economy deeper into the tank. RHINO HERE: It's coming so fast these daze, a rhino has little time to forage for vegetation nor comment on all the changes. But for today, I'll let the commenting be offered by one Andy Rooney. This past Sunday on 60 minutes, he took his regular  segment to speak from his heart about the American run prison torture revelations. His words are today's BOTTOM LINE.  But first... Ramping up Lawrence Livermore Lab -  Rhino'd rather not! The Department of Energy is planning on ramping up Lawrence Livermore Laboratory's  weapons program over the next 10 years. The program, among other things, will double the amount of plutonium used: A doubling of the amount of highly-toxic plutonium on-site, and a tripling of the amount allowed "at-risk" at one time. A ten-fold increase in allowable tritium "at-risk." Dangerous new experiments with plutonium vapor clouds, and small-scale fission in the NIF mega-laser. And all of this, sandwiched between two earthquake faults, less that 50 miles from seven million people in the Bay Area. More at Tri Valley Cares: http://www.trivalleycares.org Also included in the 10 year plan, development of  more biological weapons: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2003/so03/so03kelley.html The Department of Energy is taking public comments through May  27th . Tri Valley Cares has a letter you can add to and/or sign that's directed to DOE's Thomas Grim.  http://www.trivalleycares.org Also, Waging Peace  is urging people to contract their reps, and others, to cut spending on proposed nuclear weapons development. You can call the Capitol switchboard toll fee at: (800) 839-5276. http://www.wagingpeace.org Neoconned! US intelligence fears Iran duped hawks into Iraq war By Julian Borger, The Guardian (UK),  5/26/04 An urgent investigation has been launched in Washington into whether Iran played a role in manipulating the US into the Iraq war by passing on bogus intelligence through Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, it emerged yesterday.  Some intelligence officials now believe that Iran used the hawks in the Pentagon and the White House to get rid of a hostile neighbour, and pave the way for a Shia-ruled Iraq. According to a US intelligence official, the CIA has hard evidence that Mr Chalabi and his intelligence chief, Aras Karim Habib, passed US secrets to Tehran, and that Mr Habib has been a paid Iranian agent for several years, involved in passing intelligence in both directions. The CIA has asked the FBI to investigate Mr Chalabi's contacts in the Pentagon to discover how the INC acquired sensitive information that ended up in Iranian hands. MORE: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=16323 Film gives U.S. a closer look at Al-Jazeera Source: Reuters, via New York Times When the United States went to war against Iraq, Jehane Noujaim went out to make a documentary about something many Americans regarded as no less a public enemy -- Al Jazeera television. With U.S patriotism at fever pitch and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld branding the Arabic network "Osama Bin Laden's mouthpiece," Noujaim never expected her documentary film "Control Room" to get a U.S. theatrical release. "I thought, oh my goodness, nobody's going to see this film. Maybe they'll show it in Canada," Noujaim, an Egyptian-American, told Reuters on the eve of its U.S. release in New York last week. The film opens in Los Angeles next month and then nationally. But there are plenty of surprises in "Control Room," Noujaim's fly-on-the wall portrait of how Jazeera covered the Iraq war for its estimated 40 million Arabic-speaking viewers. MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-iraq-media-jazeera.html Nader Calls for Impeachment of Bush Over the War in Iraq By THOMAS J. LUECK, NY Times, May 25, 2004 Ralph Nader, the independent candidate for president, condemned President George W. Bush yesterday as a "messianic militarist" who should be impeached for pushing the nation into a war in Iraq "based on false pretenses." Mr. Bush's actions "rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors," Mr. Nader said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan. He said Mr. Bush had exceeded his authority in the face of widespread opposition at home and abroad.  "The founding fathers did not want the declaration of war put in the hands of one man," he said, contending that United States foreign policy goals are being hindered because the president tends to "talk like an out-of-control West Texas sheriff."  Mr. Nader said the White House should set a specific date before the end of 2004 to withdraw American troops. At the same time, he said he would advocate internationally supervised elections in Iraq. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/politics/25nade.html 8:06:41 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Our Darkest Days Are Here Our Darkest Days Are Here by Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News, May 23, 2004 If you were going to make a list of the great times in American history, you'd start with the day in 1492, when Columbus got here. The Revolution when we won our independence would be on the list. Beating Hitler. Putting Americans on the moon. We've had a lot of great days. Our darkest days up until now have been things like presidential assassinations, the stock market crash in 1929, Pearl Harbor, and 9-11, of course.  The day the world learned that American soldiers had tortured Iraqi prisoners belongs high on the list of worst things that ever happened to our country. It's a black mark that will be in the history books in a hundred languages for as long as there are history books. I hate to think of it. The image of one bad young woman with a naked man on a leash did more to  damage America's reputation than all the good things we've done over the years ever helped our reputation.  What were the secrets they were trying to get from captured Iraqis? What important information did that poor devil on the leash have that he wouldn't have given to anyone in exchange for a crust of bread or a sip of water? Where were your officers? If someone told you to do it, tell us who told you. If your officers were told - we should know who told them. One general said our guards were "untrained." Well, untrained at what?  Being human beings? Did the man who chopped off Nicholas Berg's head do  it because he was untrained? The guards who tortured prisoners are faced with a year in prison. Well, great. A year for destroying our reputation as decent people. I don't want them in prison, anyway. We shouldn't have to feed them. Take away their right to call themselves American - that's what I'd do. You aren't one of us. Get out. We don't want you. Find yourself another country or a desert island somewhere. If the order came from someone higher up, take him with you. In the history of the world, several great civilizations that seemed immortal have deteriorated and died. I don't want to seem dramatic  tonight, but I've lived a long while, and for the first time in my life, I have this faint, faraway fear that it could happen to us here in America as it happened to the Greek and Roman civilizations. Too many Americans don't understand what we have here, or how to keep it. I worry for my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren. I want them to  have what I've had, and I sense it slipping away. Have a nice day. POSTED AT:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/20/60minutes/rooney/main618783.shtml "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:47:49 AM    comment

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