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July 10, 2003 --- The "Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride,", a national protest slated for late September calling attention to illegal immigrants' rights, is intended to highlight U.S. immigration policies that organizers say undermine workplace rights, family reunification and workers' progress toward legal residency and citizenship. "We're going by bus to deliberately invoke the civil rights movement and to declare that the struggle for civil rights is not over. "It's not over for black Americans. It's not over for new immigrants." Unions are among the most recent to speak out for immigrant rights. In the past, unions have opposed liberalizing immigration policy as a form of protectionism. "Labor is changing course," Williamson said. "A number of unions said AFL-CIO position wasn't working for them. That's one reason. But we also realized we were wrong," Williamson said. "It's not easy to say that. That's not a small thing." Participating in the freedom ride is a high profile way to recognize the shift, he said. Williamson said that in the world of global markets -- "the worker who thinks they are going to keep their job by keeping an immigrant out of the country" is "living in an illusion." "Part of this is to say, 'hey, you have to listen to us," said Hate Free Zone Executive Director Pramila Jayapal. "This is a way to put people on notice that these are issues that require the nation's attention." Israeli Attack on USS Liberty During 1967 Invasion of Egypt, Syria, and Tranjordan Investigated By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM - Newly declassified transcripts back up Israel's claim that its sinking of a U.S. spy ship during the 1967 Middle East war was an accident, a Florida judge who has been investigating the case for 16 years said Wednesday. Israel has always maintained it thought the USS Liberty was an Egyptian military supply ship when it ordered its forces to attack on June 8, 1967, killing 34 American sailors and wounding 171. But critics charge Israel knew the ship was American. Questions about the case have long dogged U.S.-Israel relations. Israel was at war with Egypt, Syria and Jordan at the time. Some of the Liberty's survivors and some officials in the U.S. defense establishment contend that Israel deliberately targeted the ship to keep the United States from learning that Israel was planning to attack Syria as part of its strategy during the war. An Israeli commission of inquiry concluded the Israeli air force believed the targeted ship was an Egyptian cargo vessel ferrying supplies to Egyptian troops fighting Israeli forces. MODERN HISTORY GAY TIMES Kamal Ahmed, political editor Britain's 5,000 transsexuals who have gone through a full medical sex change are to be given the legal right to marry and have the gender changed on their birth certificate. The Government's move on transsexuals came after the European Court of Rights ruled in 2002 that the Government's failure to recognise people who have changed their sex breached the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been incorporated into British law. Transsexuals have lived in legal limbo for decades. At present they are not legally allowed to marry someone of the opposite sex, as their birth certificate still carries the gender they were born with. In a move that the Government will promote as another step to treating everyone equally, whatever their sexuality, the new Constitutional Affairs Department will announce a Bill to bring about the changes in the next fortnight. 'Obviously it is not exactly mainstream, but it shows that when we talk about equality, we mean it,' said one official. Last week the Government announced that rights for gay couples would be brought into line with those of heterosexual married couples. Officially registered gay partnerships will have the same pension and divorce rights as other marriages. Supreme Court's Kennedy cites foreign cases in justifying decision Writing for the majority in a landmark decision supporting gay civil rights, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that the European Court of Human Rights and other foreign courts have affirmed the ''rights of homosexual adults to engage in intimate, consensual conduct.'' Never before had the Supreme Court's majority cited a foreign legal precedent in such a big case. Kennedy's opinion in Lawrence vs. Texas, which was signed by four other justices, has ignited a debate among analysts over whether it was a signal that the justices will adopt foreign courts' views of individual liberties. "This case has the potential to be revolutionary," said David Garrow, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "If they come down in favor of the plaintiffs, the word 'landmark' is an understatement." Mass. Court set to decide on gay marriage Gay rights advocates say a victory could parallel the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, referring to the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned school segregation. The advocates say that if homosexual couples could legally marry in Massachusetts, they could seek to have their marriages recognized by other states. May 28, 2003 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military, struggling to restore law and order, on Saturday gave Iraqis three weeks to hand in automatic and heavy weapons as part of a campaign to crackdown on lawlessness after the fall of Saddam Hussein. "Starting June 1, the people of Iraq will have a 14-day amnesty period to turn in unauthorized weapons to coalition forces at weapons control points here and throughout the country," the military said in a statement in Baghdad. "After June 14, individuals caught with unauthorized weapons will be detained and face criminal charges." Many people have weapons in Iraq, where guns are an expression of masculinity. "Individuals will be instructed to turn in unauthorized weapons by placing the unloaded, disassembled weapon into a clear plastic bag provided by Coalition forces and walk slowly to the collection point. Collection points will be at designated locations like police stations and jointly manned by Iraqi and Coalition forces," it said.It said weapons turned over to U.S.-led forces would either be destroyed or set aside for use by the new Iraqi army or police forces. Only Kurds to keep heavy weapons BAGHDAD - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq, apparently preserving the prewar distinction between Kurdish-controlled northern areas and the rest of the country, will allow Kurdish fighters to keep their assault rifles and heavy weapons, but require Shiite Muslim and other militias to surrender theirs, according to a draft directive. "Maybe we didn't fight with the coalition, but we didn't fight against them," said Adel Abdul-Mahdi, an official of the largest Shiite group, headed by Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, who arrived from exile in Iran earlier this month. "We want conditions where all militias are dissolved and we will not accept that other militias will be allowed to stay there with their weapons while we will not be there with ours." Under the draft order, obtained by The New York Times, "militias that assisted coalition forces who remain under the supervision of coalition forces" will be authorized "to possess automatic or heavy weapons." Gen. Franks Confirms Top Iraqi Officers Took Bribes To Surrender Senior Iraqi officers who commanded troops crucial to the defence of key Iraqi cities were bribed not to fight by American special forces, the US general in charge of the war has confirmed. Well before hostilities started, special forces troops and intelligence agents paid sums of money to a number of Iraqi officers, whose support was deemed important to a swift, low-casualty victory. General Tommy Franks, the US army commander for the war, said these Iraqi officers had acknowledged their loyalties were no longer with the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, but with their American paymasters. As a result, many officers chose not to defend their positions as American and British forces pushed north from Kuwait. "I had letters from Iraqi generals saying: 'I now work for you'," General Franks said. It is not clear which Iraqi officers were bribed, how many were bought off or at what cost. It is likely, however, that the US focused on officers in control of Saddam's elite forces, which were expected to defend the capital. The Pentagon said that bribing the senior officers was a cost-effective method of fighting and one that led to fewer casualties. "What is the effect you want?" a senior Pentagon official said. "How much does a cruise missile cost? Between $1m and $2.5m. Well, a bribe is a PGM [precision guided missile) - it achieves the aim but it's bloodless and there's zero collateral damage. "This part of the operation was as important as the shooting part; maybe more important. We knew that some units would fight out of a sense of duty and patriotism, and they did. But it didn't change the outcome because we knew how many of these [Iraqi generals] were going to call in sick," he added. The revelation by General Franks, who this week
announced his intention to retire as commander of US Central Command,
helps explain one of the enduring mysteries of the US-led war against
Iraq: why Iraqi forces did not make a greater stand in their defence
of Baghdad, in many cases melting away and changing into civilian
clothes rather than forcing the allied troops to engage in bitter,
street-to-street fighting. After attacks from civil liberties advocates on the left and the right, the Pentagon is planning to change a controversial system now being developed to hunt terrorists plotting attacks on the U.S. Change its name, anyway. In a report to Congress expected May 20 and now being circulated to top Defense Department brass for comment, the Total Information Awareness program headed by controversial ex-Navy Admiral John Poindexter is slated to be re-named with the more narrowly-focused moniker Terrorist Information Awareness, sources in and outside the Pentagon tell TIME. Pentagon spokespeople declined comment on the plan or on what, if any, substantive changes might accompany a possible name-change. In report ordered by Congress 90 days ago, DARPA said the old name "created in some minds the impression that TIA was a system to be used for developing dossiers on U.S. citizens. That is not DoD's (Department of Defense's) intent in pursuing this program." Rather the goal is "to protect U.S. citizens by detecting and defeating foreign terrorist threats before an attack" and the new name was chosen "to make this objective absolutely clear." Gov'ts will track all cash transactions with 'radio tags' (RFID) in Euro cash Radio tags the size of a grain of sand could be embedded in the euro note if a reported deal between the European Central Bank (ECB) and Japanese electronics maker Hitachi is signed. Japanese news agency Kyodo was reportedly told by Hitachi that the ECB has started talks with the company about the use of its radio chip in the banknote. RFID tags are microchips half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response. "RFID (radio frequency identification) tags also have the ability of recording information such as details of the transactions the paper note has been involved in. It would, therefore, also prevent money-laundering, make it possible to track illegal transactions and even prevent kidnappers demanding unmarked bills," Chopra said. In February, the Japanese firm said it had successfully operated the world's smallest noncontact chip, which measured only one-third of a millimeter across. Hitachi said its "mu-chip" is capable of wirelessly transmitting a 128-bit number when radio signals are beamed at it. In a euro note, the number could contain a serial code, as well as details such as place of origin and denomination. 1999: Federal Reserve Wants Tracking Devices To Tax US Currency WASHINGTON - US currency should include tracking
devices that let the government tax private possession of dollar
bills, a Federal Reserve official says. US Building Nuclear Bombs Again April 24, 2003 - The Energy Department's announcement on Tuesday marks a symbolic and operational milestone in rebuilding America's nuclear weapons complex, which began a long retrenchment in the late 1980s as the Cold War ended and the toll of environmental damage from bomb production became known. Under a Bush Administration plan, the Energy Department will begin limited production of plutonium parts for the country's stockpile of nuclear weapons and begin laying plans for a new factory that could produce parts for hundreds of weapons a year.
Sen. Feinstein Husband Lands Big Army Contract April 24, 2003 - URS Corp., a San Francisco planning and engineering firm partially owned by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, landed an Army contract Monday worth up to $600 million. The award to help with troop mobilization, weapons systems training and anti-terrorism efforts is the latest in a string of plum defense jobs snared by URS. In February, the firm won an army engineering and logistics contract that could bring in $3.1 billion during the next eight years. Richard Blum, Feinstein's husband, serves on the
company's board of directors and controls about 24 percent of the
firm's stock, according to Hoover's Inc. research firm. |
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Spector Slide Show.. Dennis Prager to Wrangle for U.S. Senate Seat LOS ANGELES 12 February 2003 (CitizineMag) - Local personality Dennis Prager hopes to make his moral voice one of the 100 most powerful in the country by challenging Senator Barbara Boxer for her U.S. Senate seat in 2004, according to a February 4, 2003 broadcast of The Dennis Prager Show. |
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