It don't take a weathervane to know which way the wind blows

[Roger Baker]

--Apple-Mail-2-970045038
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset=ISO-8859-1;
	format=flowed

So whats going on? Easy to see. We're staring into a new era of=20
political McCarthyism
whereupon anyone who makes trouble for expansion of the global corporate=20=

empire
will be regarded as an enemy of the state, now that the empire is=20
playing the fear card
for all its worth. Its too soon to know to what degree domestic civil=20
rights are doomed,
but see the piece below.

It looks like we're likely in a world depression, and the response of=20
the US govt. to the
increasing misery of its own population, versus the needs of corporate=20=

expansionism
will be the issue on central stage. There are downsides in appealing to=20=

a fascist
government for protection from terrorism. If you think we have a high=20
proportion of
the population locked up now, just wait. If this keeps up we may all may=20=

be jailors, or
work in missile factories, or else serve synthetic fast food at the junk=20=

food chains.

Corporate profiteering and decades of CIA terror (hidden from the US=20
public and
the mass media) breed counter-terror much faster than more political=20
repression
at home can possibly deal with.  It will take the public a while to=20
catch on that less
rights do not equal more security, but rather corporate slavery.

This will continue until the empire falls, the primary cause being a=20
shortage of fossil
fuel, poisoned by its CO2 waste, and fatigued by its its overstetched=20
military role
of trying to police and manipulate the world, while generating CIA=20
blowback like
bin Laden as a side effect.

This war in Afghanistan was clearly a war planned by the US in advance=20=

for October,
with or without bin Laden, as this link of Jim's shows, based on the=20
BBC, Jane's
intelligence, and an Indian intelligence publication. Bush is kind of=20
like a dimwit Hitler
trying to hide the truth (revealed in the following links) from the=20
public; get screenshots
before the gestapo shuts them down, if it can (the international media=20=

tends to be
shielded from US censors, however):

=
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir010315_1_=
n.
shtml
=
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.s=
tm
=
http://www.indiareacts.com/archivefeatures/nat2.asp?recno=3D10∓ctg=3Dpo=
licy

The Democratic party is busy caving in to corporate domination (Clinton=20=

authorized the
assassination of bin Laden) and Al Gore is hiding in silence, still=20
lusting in his power hungry
soul to be annointed King of the world. Has anyone read "The Twelve=20
Caesars" by Suetonius?
It shows just how fucked-up empires like the Roman Empire can become=20
over time,
with hopeless egomaniac emperors poisoning one another, etc., but its a=20=

fun and gossippy
read -- like the National Enquirer.

Mike may wish to reflect that this turmoil may demand that the Zionist=20=

interests of Israel
may need to be sacrificed at the alter of American corporate necessity,=20=

political baggage
to be jettisoned to prevent Islam and Saudis and Pakistan from=20
polarizing behind the radicals
who may not wish to sell us the oil we need to maintain our current=20
sprawl lifestyle/SUV
addiction at the epicenter of our economy.

Waiting in the wings waiting to emerge onto the central stage is the=20
conflict between
nations over oil and trade as the world economy deflates. World unity in=20=

the fight against
terrorism, my ass. Many more details are covered in the book "False=20
Dawn" by John Gray
of the London School of Economics, and an architect of Thatcher's=20
economics, but now
debunking the concept of free trade as the great destroyer of human=20
civilizations and
social relationships.  Tons of historical evidence by a brilliant=20
conservative economist.

All thats historical details, but meanwhile, it don't take a weathervane=20=

to know which way
the wind blows. Empires fall, this one will too.

-- Peace, Roger

                     *************************************************




Published on Monday, November 5, 2001 in the Boston Globe

Rights Groups Find Atmosphere Difficult
Security US focus, not civil liberties

by Susan Milligan

=A0
WASHINGTON - Pressed for cash, Human Rights Watch recently appealed to=20=

foundations and individuals for financial help. =46rom some donors,=20
organization officials said, came a blunt answer: ''We're not going to=20=

do anything that involves criticism of the US government.''



My feeling is that it's in moments of crisis like this, in times of a=20
national security threat, that our voice is the most unpopular and also=20=

the most important. It's easy to promote human rights when nothing is at=20=

stake.


Ken Roth
Human Rights Watch
It was a jarring development for the New York-based group, considered to=20=

be among the leading human rights watchdogs in the world. But it's a=20
situation many civil-liberties, civil-rights, and human-rights groups=20
are facing, as a frightened American public reconsiders the national=20
security costs of individual freedoms.


''This is the first time in a generation, probably the first time in two=20=

generations, that the American public has felt personally at risk,''=20
said Ken Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director. ''That has=20
suddenly changed, and there are many people whose instinct is for the=20
government to do whatever it takes to protect them.''


Groups like this are on the defensive, mindful that their voices may be=20=

lone - or unwelcome - at a time when the United States is waging a=20
military war abroad and a terrorist dragnet at home.


People for the American Way, a leading free speech organization, briefly=20=

stopped its direct mail appeals after Sept. 11, and is cutting costs in=20=

the face of lagging fund-raising. Jeanne Butterfield, executive director=20=

of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, has stopped doing=20
talk-radio shows to alert the public to the plight of 185 individuals in=20=

the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service under=20
suspicion of terrorist activities or knowledge.


''All you do is get screamed at,'' Butterfield said.


The events of Sept. 11 have forced the activists into an unanticipated=20=

and tough battle of their own. They are seeking to draw attention to=20
civilian deaths and rights abuses in Afghanistan at a time when the=20
American public is largely focused on the US military effort there.


They are trying to provide due process to arrested and detained=20
immigrants at a time when Congress and the public are demanding a=20
reassessment of immigration policy, and a tightening of US borders.=20
Rights groups are questioning the new FBI authority granted in the=20
antiterrorism package recently signed into law, at a time when many -=20
including the groups' most devoted allies on Capitol Hill - are calling=20=

for more powers for law enforcement to fight terrorists.


''Obviously, it's in times like these that human-rights and civil-rights=20=

groups are the most challenged, because the values that we stand for and=20=

that we try to promote are under attack,'' said Elisa Massimino,=20
Washington director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.


Butterfield said: '' We're in a defensive posture. There's not a lot of=20=

tolerance right now in this country for dissent of any kind. We're going=20=

to have to craft our message differently and figure out how to reach=20
them.''


''Our work is more essential today than it was two months ago,'' said=20
Kit Gage, director of the National Committee Against Repressive=20
Legislation. ''Is it scarier? Yes. Are we more likely to get hate mail?=20=

Yes.''


For immigration-control groups and law enforcement officials, the events=20=

of Sept. 11 underscored points they say they have been trying to=20
communicate for years: borders are too porous, security too lax, and the=20=

reins on law enforcement too tight.


But lulled by peace and prosperity, the American public was reluctant to=20=

limit immigration further, said Dan Stein, executive director of the=20
Federation for American Immigration Reform. ''You could say that's=20
changed 180 degrees'' in the last seven weeks, he said.


Sept. 11 ''was a spark that just ignited broad public concern that has=20=

been simmering for years,'' Stein said. ''People have long felt that the=20=

system's out of control, poorly regulated.''


Attorney General John Ashcroft - whom civil-liberties and civil-rights=20=

groups targeted for defeat when he was nominated this year - got much of=20=

what he wanted in the antiterrorism package from Congress, drawing=20
support from lawmakers in both parties.


While some civil liberties lobbyists painted Ashcroft as a political=20
bogeyman who would limit individual freedoms, the public and Congress=20
have shifted their attention to another, bigger enemy in suspected=20
terrorist Osama bin Laden.


Civil and human rights, Roth lamented, are not foremost in Americans'=20
minds. ''I've done a few TV shows where I've been the lone voice against=20=

torturing terrorists,'' Roth said. ''The spectrum of permissible conduct=20=

has shifted.''


Nan Aron, head of the Alliance for Justice, said: ''Obviously, there's a=20=

sense that this administration has gone to great lengths to exploit the=20=

current sense of fear. To many of us, those fears are very real.'' While=20=

her group will continue to fight for civil rights and liberties,=20
''there's a need to appreciate people's sense of a lack of security,''=20=

she said.


Civil liberties leaders say they will soldier on, choosing their=20
messages and the moments carefully. Amnesty International is keeping its=20=

focus on the use of torture, the forcible conscription of children as=20
fighters for the Taliban, and civilian casualties in the war. ''It is=20
important to the US that we not sacrifice our own values and principles=20=

during wartime,'' said Alex Arriaga, the organization's director of=20
government relations.


Human Rights Watch is counting civilian deaths in Afghanistan and is=20
looking warily at political alliances they fear the United States may=20
make with repressive regimes in the name of building an antiterrorist=20
coalition.


People For the American Way's executive director, Ralph Neas, has been=20=

lining up allies across the country to monitor the implementation of the=20=

antiterrorism package. The American Immigration Lawyers Association is=20=

trying to keep track of foreigners detained or arrested since Sept. 11.


''My feeling is that it's in moments of crisis like this, in times of a=20=

national security threat, that our voice is the most unpopular and also=20=

the most important,'' Roth said. ''It's easy to promote human rights=20
when nothing is at stake.''

=A9 Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company

###

--Apple-Mail-2-970045038
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/enriched;
	charset=ISO-8859-1

<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>So
whats going on? Easy to see. We're staring into a new era of political
McCarthyism

whereupon anyone who makes trouble for expansion of the global
corporate empire=20

will be regarded as an enemy of the state, now that the empire is
playing the fear card=20

for all its worth. Its too soon to know to what degree domestic civil
rights are doomed,

but see the piece below.=20


It looks like we're likely in a world depression, and the response of
the US govt. to the=20

increasing misery of its own population, versus the needs of corporate
expansionism

will be the issue on central stage. There are downsides in appealing
to a fascist=20

government for protection from terrorism. If you think we have a high
proportion of=20

the population locked up now, just wait. If this keeps up we may all
may be jailors, or=20

work in missile factories, or else serve synthetic fast food at the
junk food chains.


Corporate profiteering and decades of CIA terror (hidden from the US
public and=20

the mass media) breed counter-terror much faster than more political
repression=20

at home can possibly deal with.  It will take the public a while to
catch on that less

rights do not equal more security, but rather corporate slavery.


This will continue until the empire falls, the primary cause being a
</color>shortage of fossil=20

fuel, <color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>poisoned by its CO2 waste,
and fatigued by its its overstetched military role

of trying to police and manipulate the world, while generating CIA
blowback like=20

bin Laden as a side effect.=20


This war in Afghanistan was clearly a war planned by the US in advance
for October,=20

with or without bin Laden, as this link of Jim's shows, based on the
BBC, Jane's=20

intelligence, and an Indian intelligence publication. Bush is kind of
like a dimwit Hitler=20

trying to hide the truth (revealed in the following links) from the
public; </color>get screenshots=20

before the gestapo shuts them down, if it can (the international media
tends to be=20

shielded from US censors, however):<color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>


=
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir010315_1_=
n.shtml

=
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.s=
tm=20

=
http://www.indiareacts.com/archivefeatures/nat2.asp?recno=3D10&mp;ctg=3Dpo=
licy


The Democratic party is busy caving in to corporate domination
(Clinton authorized the=20

assassination of bin Laden) and Al Gore is hiding in silence, still
lusting in his power hungry=20

soul to be annointed King of the world. Has anyone read "The Twelve
Caesars" by Suetonius?=20

It shows just how fucked-up empires like the Roman Empire can become
over time,=20

with hopeless egomaniac emperors poisoning one another, etc., but its
a fun and gossippy=20

read -- like the National Enquirer.


Mike may wish to reflect that this turmoil may demand that the Zionist
interests of Israel=20

may need to be sacrificed at the alter of American corporate
necessity, political baggage=20

to be jettisoned to prevent Islam and Saudis and Pakistan from
polarizing behind the radicals=20

who may not wish to sell us the oil we need to maintain our current
sprawl lifestyle/SUV=20

addiction at the epicenter of our economy.


Waiting in the wings waiting to emerge onto the central stage is the
conflict between=20

nations over oil and trade as the world economy deflates. World unity
in the fight against=20

terrorism, my ass. Many more details are covered in the book "False
Dawn" by John Gray=20

of the London School of Economics, and an architect of Thatcher's
economics, but now

debunking the concept of free trade as the great destroyer of human
civilizations and=20

social relationships.  Tons of historical evidence by a brilliant
conservative economist.


All thats historical details, but meanwhile, it don't take a
weathervane to know which way=20

the wind blows. Empires fall, this one will too.

=20

-- Peace, Roger


                    *************************************************





Published on Monday, November 5, 2001 in the <underline>Boston
Globe</underline>=20


Rights Groups Find Atmosphere Difficult

Security US focus, not civil liberties=20


by Susan Milligan


=A0

WASHINGTON - Pressed for cash, <underline>Human Rights
Watch</underline> recently appealed to foundations and individuals for
financial help. =46rom some donors, organization officials said, came a
blunt answer: ''We're not going to do anything that involves criticism
of the US government.''=20




My feeling is that it's in moments of crisis like this, in times of a
national security threat, that our voice is the most unpopular and
also the most important. It's easy to promote human rights when
nothing is at stake.



Ken Roth

<underline>Human Rights Watch</underline>

It was a jarring development for the New York-based group, considered
to be among the leading human rights watchdogs in the world. But it's
a situation many civil-liberties, civil-rights, and human-rights
groups are facing, as a frightened American public reconsiders the
national security costs of individual freedoms.=20



''This is the first time in a generation, probably the first time in
two generations, that the American public has felt personally at
risk,'' said Ken Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director. ''That
has suddenly changed, and there are many people whose instinct is for
the government to do whatever it takes to protect them.''=20



Groups like this are on the defensive, mindful that their voices may
be lone - or unwelcome - at a time when the United States is waging a
military war abroad and a terrorist dragnet at home.=20



<underline>People for the American Way</underline>, a leading free
speech organization, briefly stopped its direct mail appeals after
Sept. 11, and is cutting costs in the face of lagging fund-raising.
Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the <underline>American
Immigration Lawyers Association</underline>, has stopped doing
talk-radio shows to alert the public to the plight of 185 individuals
in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service under
suspicion of terrorist activities or knowledge.=20



''All you do is get screamed at,'' Butterfield said.=20



The events of Sept. 11 have forced the activists into an unanticipated
and tough battle of their own. They are seeking to draw attention to
civilian deaths and rights abuses in Afghanistan at a time when the
American public is largely focused on the US military effort there.=20



They are trying to provide due process to arrested and detained
immigrants at a time when Congress and the public are demanding a
reassessment of immigration policy, and a tightening of US borders.
Rights groups are questioning the new FBI authority granted in the
antiterrorism package recently signed into law, at a time when many -
including the groups' most devoted allies on Capitol Hill - are
calling for more powers for law enforcement to fight terrorists.=20



''Obviously, it's in times like these that human-rights and
civil-rights groups are the most challenged, because the values that
we stand for and that we try to promote are under attack,'' said Elisa
Massimino, Washington director of the <underline>Lawyers Committee for
Human Rights</underline>.=20



Butterfield said: '' We're in a defensive posture. There's not a lot
of tolerance right now in this country for dissent of any kind. We're
going to have to craft our message differently and figure out how to
reach them.''=20



''Our work is more essential today than it was two months ago,'' said
Kit Gage, director of the National Committee Against Repressive
Legislation. ''Is it scarier? Yes. Are we more likely to get hate
mail? Yes.''=20



For immigration-control groups and law enforcement officials, the
events of Sept. 11 underscored points they say they have been trying
to communicate for years: borders are too porous, security too lax,
and the reins on law enforcement too tight.=20



But lulled by peace and prosperity, the American public was reluctant
to limit immigration further, said Dan Stein, executive director of
the Federation for American Immigration Reform. ''You could say that's
changed 180 degrees'' in the last seven weeks, he said.=20



Sept. 11 ''was a spark that just ignited broad public concern that has
been simmering for years,'' Stein said. ''People have long felt that
the system's out of control, poorly regulated.''=20



Attorney General John Ashcroft - whom civil-liberties and civil-rights
groups targeted for defeat when he was nominated this year - got much
of what he wanted in the antiterrorism package from Congress, drawing
support from lawmakers in both parties.=20



While some civil liberties lobbyists painted Ashcroft as a political
bogeyman who would limit individual freedoms, the public and Congress
have shifted their attention to another, bigger enemy in suspected
terrorist Osama bin Laden.=20



Civil and human rights, Roth lamented, are not foremost in Americans'
minds. ''I've done a few TV shows where I've been the lone voice
against torturing terrorists,'' Roth said. ''The spectrum of
permissible conduct has shifted.''=20



Nan Aron, head of the <underline>Alliance for Justice</underline>,
said: ''Obviously, there's a sense that this administration has gone
to great lengths to exploit the current sense of fear. To many of us,
those fears are very real.'' While her group will continue to fight
for civil rights and liberties, ''there's a need to appreciate
people's sense of a lack of security,'' she said.=20



Civil liberties leaders say they will soldier on, choosing their
messages and the moments carefully. <underline>Amnesty
International</underline> is keeping its focus on the use of torture,
the forcible conscription of children as fighters for the Taliban, and
civilian casualties in the war. ''It is important to the US that we
not sacrifice our own values and principles during wartime,'' said
Alex Arriaga, the organization's director of government relations.=20



Human Rights Watch is counting civilian deaths in Afghanistan and is
looking warily at political alliances they fear the United States may
make with repressive regimes in the name of building an antiterrorist
coalition.=20



People For the American Way's executive director, Ralph Neas, has been
lining up allies across the country to monitor the implementation of
the antiterrorism package. The American Immigration Lawyers
Association is trying to keep track of foreigners detained or arrested
since Sept. 11.=20



''My feeling is that it's in moments of crisis like this, in times of
a national security threat, that our voice is the most unpopular and
also the most important,'' Roth said. ''It's easy to promote human
rights when nothing is at stake.''=20


=A9 Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company=20


###

</color></fontfamily>=

--Apple-Mail-2-970045038--