October 25, 2001
The Big Brother Files #6: The Horrific Insanity of War
Hello everyone
I was not planning to send you this one immediately but in view of the developing situation in Palestine - hardly reported by the U.S. TV networks as far as I can see, thanks in no small part to the oh! so convenient smoke screen cover of the anthrax scare (akin to the Monika Lewinsky scandal in its newsmedia blanketing effect), I've decided to go ahead with it. More details at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011024/wl/mideast_dc_161.html
Read and share!
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
"Bin Laden's capture would no more end the terrorism than did the capture and eventual killing of the drug baron Pablo Escobar halt drug tafficking from Colombia. Bin Laden "should be pursued with the same diligence that the Israelis once hounded Adolf Eichmann. With quiet police work, not noisy war work."
- Jonathan Power, October 20, 2001, Los Angeles Times, Commentary
To read entire article, see at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion and choose "US Has Put Itself Out on a Long Limb".
CONTENTS
1. A Feedback
2. PHR-ISRAEL APPEAL: SEVERE VIOLATIONS OF HUMANITARIAN LAW REGARDING MEDICAL CARE
3. The human butchery called war
4. FEMA - The Secret Government
5. Philip Berrigan review of "Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War"
Israel's Sharon needs a Lesson from U.S. Taxpayers (SOME VERY STRONG WORDS!!)
We could build many schools with the over $8 billion in military and other aid to Israel
http://aztlan.net/sharonaid.htm
Anthrax Terrorists may be Zionists
http://aztlan.net/anthrax.htm
Cipro Takers Developing Toxic Shock: http://www.Lucianne.com
(In view of the current panic-taking of CIPRO in the U.S., this is something ELSE not being told to people...)
Sources close the American Media in Florida reporting a problem no one wants to talk about. Several people taking Cipro have developed toxic shock reactions. A half-dozen ambulance calls to new building in last couple days. . . people having convulsions.
1.
From: "Hanne Macsay" <hmacsay@mail1.stofanet.dk>
Subject: The Light Series #1
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001
Dear Jean
Your Light Series #1 was wonderful and uplifting to read. We sure need something uplifting in between to keep up our trust in global peace. Not that I would do without the rest of what you send. I also find it absolutely necessary to KNOW what is going on considering the obvious lack of
honest information in the media.
On behalf of myself and my e-mail circle I want to thank you, dear long distance friend, for your enormous work for humanity and for our precious planet!
LOVE, Compassion, Joy & Peace prevail on Earth!
L&L :-)
From HANNE (a Danish grandmother)
2.
WHAT ISRAEL IS DOING IN THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (as described below) IS INSANE, MONSTRUOUSLY INHUMANE AND DESERVING THE HARSHEST INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION. ALL GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD MUST IMMEDIATELY IMPLEMENT THE SAME ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL BOYCOTT MEASURES THAT WERE APPLIED TO THE FORMER APARTHEID REGIME OF SOUTH AFRICA. DOING ANYTHING LESS IS TANTAMOUNT TO CONDONING THESE ONGOING ATROCITIES. SIMILAR PRESSURES MUST ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES TO DO EVERYTHING IN ITS POWER TO STOP ANY AND ALL ATTACKS AGAINST ISRAELIS IN AN EFFORT TO DENY THE SHARON/PERES GOVERNMENT ITS "RATIONALE" FOR THEIR RANDOM KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS. ALL VIOLENCE MUST COME TO AN END NOW AND POLITICAL NEGOTIATIONS MUST BE RESUMED AT ONCE. ENOUGH OF THIS POGROM!
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001
From: Physicians for Human Rights-Israel <phr@netvision.net.il>
Subject: PHR-ISRAEL APPEAL: SEVERE VIOLATIONS OF HUMANITARIAN LAW REGARDING MEDICAL CARE
October 24, 2001
PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-ISRAEL
I. PHR-Israel reports on hospitals in direct line of fire in Beit Jalla and Bethlehem, and on the death of a Palestinian baby after passage is denied at Israeli army checkpoint.
II. PHR-Israel demands immediate investigation : Injured Palestinians lie bleeding for 5 hours at Beit Rima, while medical personnel are denied access.
I. Hospitals in direct line of fire in Beit Jalla and Bethlehem
Yesterday, 23rd of October, the Acting President of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel), Dr. Ruchama Marton, and Mr. Salah Haj Yihyeh, PHR-Israel's fieldworker, drove through the El-Khader army checkpoint and ëthe tunnel road' on their way to visit the Al-Hussein hospital in Beit Jalla, and the Holy Family hospital in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, Palestinian Occupied Territories. Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint demanded Red Cross cards in order to allow them passage, and after the representatives identified themselves as workers of PHR-Israel, they were warned that the area was hazardous, and were allowed passage.
That day, tanks had retreated from positions adjacent to these hospitals, due to a solidarity visit organized by Moslem and Christian religious personages. This visit led to a short interval of quiet in the area. Below is a report of our visit.
Visit to Al-Hussein hospital, Beit Jalla
Testimony of the deputy manager of the hospital, Dr. Issa Ja'nini, Cardiologist:
Dr. Ja'niin reviewed the condition of healthcare services in the region. He noted that since last Thursday (18th of October) up to 23rd of October 16 people were killed in the area of Bethlehem, Beit Jalla, El-Khader and the refugee camps el-Aeda and el-Azza. Many of those killed were passers-by; some were killed inside their homes. Four were women.
The number of injuries admitted at the hospital:
18.10.01 - 15 injured parties admitted
19.10.01 - 20
20.10.01 - 22
21.10.01 - 31
On 22.10.01 only 5 injured parties were admitted, despite the fact that many severe events were recorded in the town, leading to many injuries. Dr. Ja'nini explained this decrease, saying that the hospital was located directly in the line of fire of Israeli tanks and guns. The patients were either too afraid or did not succeed in approaching the area in order to receive treatment. Moreover, the hospital management warned inhabitants via local media not to approach the area of the hospital since it was in the line of fire, and recommended that they turn to safer places. Dr. Ja'nini referred to the psychological predicament of the inhabitants, chiefly the children, and noted that a team of psycholgists was treating children in states of anxiety.
Testimony of Amjad Bil'awi, 25, anasthetic technician in the hospital
We found Amjad lying in the intensive care unit, after surgery was performed on him. Amjad was shot and injured to a degree defined as ëmedium' (on 20.10.01), probably by sniper fire from the direction of the Israeli settlement Gilo. Bil'awi, who had been in the emergency room that morning, heard noise from the main entrance gate of the hospital, which is not far from the emergency room, and went out to see what was happening. While he was talking to a young man standing at the entrance to the hospital, he saw another young man, Issa Abu Khalil, 23, collapsing in front of him. The young man had been hit by a bullet in his back, and ëhis chest exploded' in front of Amjad's eyes. He died on the spot. Seconds later, Amjad Bil'awi also fell, hit by a bullet in the leg.
In the same incident, Raed Abu Douli, the hospital gatekeeper, was also injured in his hand. He sustained minor injuries and was released two days later.
During our visit in the hospital, we saw clear marks of gunfire in the walls and ceilings of the hospital, epecially in the entrance way, as well as on ambulances parked in the hospital courtyard. We also saw shattered windows, and were told this was the result of shockwaves from tank shells shot very close to the hospital. We were also told that an ambulances was put out of service for two weeks because it had been damaged by gunfire.
Visit to the Holy Family hospital for gynecology, obstetrics and neonatals in Bethlehem.
Dr. Marton and Mr. Haj Yihyeh met Dr. Rober Tapash, the hospital manager, Dr. Yousef Abu Jarayes, and Dr. Bahij Khayyat.
The doctors testified that 2 or 3 tanks shells had landed within the precincts of the hospital, in addition to massive shooting from guns from the same tanks. The soldiers shot towards ëanything that moved in the courtyard of the hospital', and for two consecutive days the hospital was under gunfire from tanks and from guns on the tanks. During our visit we saw heavy damage caused by the gunfire to the neonatals department of the hospital. We were told that after the department had been damaged, all the neonatals had been moved by the hospital to a safer wing. The laundry wing of the hospital, adjacent to the neonatals department, was damaged, and all its windows were shattered. During our visit we saw that the floor was still covered with glass fragments and bricks. Part of the living quarters of the hospital staff was also damaged. None of the patients was hurt, but severe damage was caused to the structures, and the patients underwent traumatic experiences.
Dr. Yousef Abu Jarayes said, that the shooting and shelling continued for hours on end, during which no one could enter or leave the hospital. During an interval of a few hours one of the patients who had been discharged from the hospital tried to leave with her husband, who had come totake her in his car. However, the moment their car was seen by the tank opposite the hospital, fire was opened on them from the tank's guns. They were not injured, but they returned immediately into the hospital.
In the hospital grounds there is also a shelter for orphans and abandoned children, home to 100-120 children. This structure was also hit. The children were put into a state of anxiety and did not sleep all of the night before our visit. The sister in charge told us that she had put them to bed at noon. A team of psychologists arrived to provide support.
Death of a baby after passage is denied at army checkpoint.
In the same hospital is the patient Rawida Naji El-Rashid from the village of Walajeh. She is hospitalized since 22.10.01. Her husband, Nasser Mustafa Muhammad Abed-Rabo, with whom we spoke, told us how they had lost a child they had been awating for five and a half years. Rawida became pregnant after treatment. In her 7th month, she went into labor, after which the couple tried to reach the hospital. At first they tried to drive via the Wallajeh army checkpoint, at 9.30am, in a private car. For 10 minutes Nasser tried to persuade the soldiers that his wife was in labor. They laughed at him and forbade him passage.
The couple returned to their village and changed car. This time they set out with Nasser's mother to the same checkpoint, manned by Israeli Border Guards. Again, 20 minutes of arguments were to no avail. Nasser decided to bypass the checkpoint through dirt tracks. The journey took an hour an a half; on the way, Rawida gave birth to a premature baby, who weighed 1416 grams - a weight which has good chances for survival, given proper care. But the baby arrived at the hospital too late, in severe condition, with low body temperature. The doctors' attempts to save it were futile, and it died an hour after admittance.
Jabel Daoud hospital
This orthopedic hospital is empty and closed temporarily. It houses medical equipment. This hospital was also damaged by gunfire from tanks. All the north wing was severely damaged. Bullets bored holes in all the patients' rooms (which were empty). The physiotherapy and management rooms were severely damaged.
General Impression
In Beit Jalla: we passed through the streets of Beit Jalla, which were completely deserted. All the shops are closed. The roads are empty of cars and pedestrians. Traffic islands and traffic lights have been mown down by tanks. The fronts of the buildings are riddled with holes from gunfire. Fences and walls are destroyed. The Paradise hotel was completely burned, and the walls of its parking space collapsed. We saw cars by the sides of the roads, that had been crushed by tanks, despite the fact that the ways were clear, and the vehicles were parked by the sides, not obstructing the movement of the tanks.
In Bethlehem: the Church of the Holy Virgin, adjacent to the Holy Family hospital, was damaged from shelling and shooting. One stained glass window was completely destroyed, and other parts of the church were damaged.
Summary:
Israeli security forces caused severe damage to medical infrastructure in Beit Jalla and Bethlehem. This damage almost completely prevents the functioning of the healthcare systems in the region. Today, not only do patients find it almost impossible to access medical aid, and doctors cannot reach their work - now even patients within medical institutions are exposed to gunfire and danger of injury and death.
II. Injured Palestinians lie bleeding for 5 hours at Beit Rima, while medical personnel are denied access.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel applied today to the Israeli Defense Minister demanding that the circumstances of denial of medical care to Palestinian injured parties at Beit Rima be immediately investigated.
According to evidence received by PHR-Israel the injured people lay bleeding for close to 5 hours without access to medical care.
Testimony of Dr. Bassem Rimawi, manager of emergency services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, and resident of Beit Rima:
"Between 2 and 2.30am I heard there were people injured in the village. I tried to get there to help but the Israeli soldiers did not let me approach them. I contacted the [PA] Health Ministry and the Palestine Red Crescent Society and told them there was a problem. After five hours they told me that an Israeli officer would come to my home and take me to see the injured parties. He indeed came to my home and we went to two injured people who were inside houses. We treated them and they were taken in an Israeli ambulance. One of the patients was in serious condition because he had been bleeding for a long time. He had a bullet in his stomach. The entry wound was on the right side. The second patient was in stable condition. I saw I was the first person to treat them. I also knew this because throughout the five hours that had passed, neighbors of the injured people had been phoning to ask me to come and treat them. I knew there was another injured person in the area and I went there with the Israeli. I saw he was dead; he was covered in blood. He had a gunshot wound in the neck."
Dr. Mustapha Barghouti, head of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, applied in the morning to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, saying:
"From about 2 am, when the Israeli army entered, until 8 am, the patients bled and did not receive medical care. The army prevented ambulances that stood at the entrance to the village from entering, and denied access of doctors living in Beit Rima to the injured parties". Following Barghouti's application we contacted the spokesman of the coordinator of Israeli operations in the Occupied Territories. The officer on duty, named Ma'ayan, told us that ambulances were permitted to enter Beit Rima somewhat after 8 am.
Leaving injured parties with no access to medical care for five hours is opposed to international humanitarian law and to basic human values. PHR-Israel demands that the case be urgently investigated.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in 1988, comprising some 500 members who combat Israeli health and human rights violations, and strive to ensure equal and adequate health services for all.
To contribute to our work please send cheques to: Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, 30 Levanda St., Tel-Aviv 66020, Israel. Tax-Exempt contributions may be made through the New Israel Fund. Contributions should be marked as donor-advised to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel:
New Israel Fund, PO Box 91588, Washington DC 20090-1588, USA, or New Israel Fund of Canada, 801 Eglinton Avenue, West Suite # 401, Toronto, Ontario M5n 1E3, Canada, or New Israel Fund of Great Britain, 26 Enford Street, London, W1h 2DD, Great Britain
Tel: 972 3 6873718
Fax: 972 3 6873029
e-mail: phr@netvision.net.il
3.
From: Stan Penner <srp33@SoftHome.net>
Subject: The human butchery called war
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001
Maybe you can use the following or some of it somewhere.
I dare say that if people would see the human butchery called war in all of its bloody gruesomeness they would literally scream at their leaders to stop it. (And I also say that the oft-villified peace marches would be far too mild a protest if the truth were shown.) Scenes of mutilated bodies don't sit well with any glamourized notion of war and so such photos are seldom published.
During the Vietnam War when one magazine ran a picture of a decapitated soldier, people got sick to the stomach. I hate to say this but maybe we should start showing shattered limbs, faces shot off, bowels protruding, genitals torn off, and brains oozing out. (I "hear" you shout, "Stop already.") But I've not even started on the psychological and emotional damage and then, too, these are only words, not photos or TV clips, and a far cry from the moans, the gore, the stench, and the utter agony of the battlefield itself.
Anyone who thinks that soldiers "give" their lives for their country is badly mistaken; those
precious lives are brutally wrested from them. People who clamour and push for war, manufacturers and dealers of arms who help to create war, politicians who are ever ready to send young people into war (why don't the old guys go for a change and let the young stay home-even our women politicians push for war these days), religious people who loudly proclaim so-called Just and Holy War theories, or even those who just simply accept war as inevitable seldom have seen the horror of it; it just might help if they saw it at its worst.
4.
From: "Kerry" <successmachine@home.com>
Subject: FEMA - The Secret Government
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001
Hang on to your socks - you should see what these guys can do:
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons
Etc. etc. etc.
Is this for your own good and Protection? Where in the constitution does it say that these guys can suspend the constitution?
Read "FEMA - The Secret Government" at:
http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html
Some people have referred to it as the "secret government" of the United States. It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in public disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of dollars. This government organization has more power than the President of the United States or the Congress, it has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution.
Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States, but it was not even created under Constitutional law by the Congress. It was a product of a Presidential Executive Orders, it is not the U.S. military nor the Central Intelligence Agency, they are subject to Congress. The organization is called FEMA, which stands for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Originally conceived in the Richard Nixon Administration, it was refined by President Jimmy Carter and given teeth in the Ronald Reagan and George Bush Administrations.
CLIP
5.
From: "Boudewijn Wegerif" <bw@jak.se>
Subject: WHAT MATTERS-18: Philip Berrigan review of Planet Earth
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001
Dear list members,
Sr. Rosalie Bertell, a Catholic Grey Nun from Toronto, is an internationally recognized epidemiologist who has studied the consequences of war and war preparation for 30 years. Below is an extract from what Philip Berrigan has written about her new and deeply disturbing book- Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War. Originally published in Britain by the Women's Press, Planet Earth is now available from The Catholic Worker Bookstore for $24.95 - E-mail pmagno@igc.apc.org , or Paul Feldstein, Managing director, Trafalgar Square Publishing - E-mail pfeldstn@sover.net.
The book is relevant right now; for clearly, what the money beast is after in Afghanistan is a devastated land, with a compliant people, for passing a gas pipeline through - see WHAT MATTERS-17 posted earlier today - and depleted Uranium shells may well be used, if not already in use, with terrible consequences on the civilian population, as in Iraq and the Balkans.
Phil Berrigan wrote his review of Planet Earth in a U.S. prison, where he is serving a judicial aftermath (probation violation) of two Plowshares anti-nuclear peace witnesses - the first a disarmament of a new Aegis destroyer at the Bath Iron Works (Bath, ME) in February, 1996, and the second against two A-10 Warthog fighter/bombers (the chief dispenser of Depleted Uranium in both Iraq and Yugoslavia). The present sentence will culminate 11 years of imprisonment for non-violent resistance to America's "bosses and warriors", in Phil's words.
The full length review appeared under the heading "Our Military - Asset or Albatross" in the summer 2001 issue of Year One - obtainable from Jonah House, 1301 Moreland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21216.
I had the privilege of staying with the Plowshares and Atlantic Life Community at Jonah House for several weeks in 1985, and got to know Phil well enough for me to want to dedicate much of my work to him.
In friendship,
Boudewijn Wegerif
What Matters Programme
---
OUR MILITARY - ASSET OR ALBATROSS
Extract from a review by Philip Berrigan of
Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War, by Sr. Rosalie Bertell
Nuclear war is here, but not as we imagined it.
Meanwhile, the American military is sacrosanct, as untouchable, a NO-NO, a sacred cow. One can liken it to an obscene priesthood "sacrificing" for our "freedoms". To criticise it strenuously by word and resistance is to incur an immense social ostracism. Suddenly, one is at odds with all the institutions (cf. John 9 - the man born blind tossed out of the synagogue). War is our #1 business, war is the health of the State, war bonds and unites government, corporations, banks and people, war lends lustre to the capitalist claim that it alone "works".
The military is threat, peril, quick and slow assassin of us and the earth.
In our sad and bloody history, we could never afford it, least of all now, with its potential for global destruction, nuclear winter, the extinction of all life. We must dismantle it, transform it into a Conservation Corps, give it an unarmed peacekeeping role, assign it to environmental cleanup and public works.
WHAT OF EVIDENCE?
It is overwhelming, most of it suppressed by government and media. Dr. Rosalie Bertell's grim report on the casualties of 56 years of nuclearism and interventionary war strips the military of its protective coloration. To my knowledge, she is the only scientist with the competence and courage to publicise such a study.
She finds that the military, especially the American military, is both mass killer and global polluter. The nuclear club - led by the U.S. - has killed, maimed or diseased 1.3 billion people since July 1945, with the first atmospheric test at Alamagordo, New Mexico.
Since the U.S. initiated the Doomsday Race and led it to the present, one can safely assume that the American responsibility is roughly half - approximately 650 million people. Divine that dismal total by 56 years, and one has a quotient of 12 to 13 million every year, an equivalent Holocaust every year. (An unspeakable, unprecedented crime.)
HOW DID OUR MILITARY KILL, MAIM OR DISEASE SUCH STAGGERING NUMBERS OF CASUALITIES?
- By nuclear wars - three of them: Japan (1945), Iraq (1991), Yugoslavia (1999).
- By 104 nuclear power plants, which have a military function as well as a commercial one. Moreover, tests have indicated that cancer incidence and birth deformities multiply as one nears these deadly plants. They emit radiation into air, soil and water. Nor can their waste be safely stored.
- By 144 nuclear weapons facilities. According to the Department of Energy, 109 of them must be isolated as national sacrifice zones because they can't be cleaned up. They sicken workers and poison neighboring soil and water.
- By Depleted Uranium. Its main lethality is not the shell, which penetrates armored vehicles, but aerosolized dust, radioactive and gravity free, released on impact. This dust can be inhaled or ingested - it contaminates air, soil, water, vegetation - it can't be cleaned up and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. In war zones, war factories and testing grounds, Depleted Uranium shells, bombs and cruise missiles have already killed more civilians and military than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.
- By uranium tailings (low grade ore). In countries mining uranium - the U.S., Australia, South Africa, Canada - seven to eight million tons of uranium tailings lie exposed to the elements (wind, rain, frost) leaching radiation into air, soil, water, vegetation. In addition to the toxins they spread, these tailings are a reminder that the harm has been done - once dug up, uranium can't be returned safely to the earth.
THE FOLLOWING ARE SAMPLES OF MILITARY DECIMATION OF PEOPLE AND THE RAPE OF THE EARTH
- The Love Canal disaster in the 1970s was caused by both uraniu7m waste from the Manhattan Project and Agent Orange. One soldier returning from war in South East Asia encountered in his backyard the same Agent Orange left behind in Vietnam.
- 2.6 million American Gi's reported sick on return from Vietnam, and one million Vietnamese were poisoned by Agent Orange.
- The American war in Vietnam ravaged 54% of mangrove and river delta wetlands. The word ecocide was coined from that destruction.
- The U.S. military plans to use the Earth as a weapon, harnessing the power of its natural processes for war. (Bertell)
- The 300 megatons of nuclear xplosions set off from 1945 to 1963 reduced the ozone layer by 4%.
- Between 1978 and 1990, the ozone layer in the Northern Hemisphere decreased another 4-8% and in the Southern Hemisphere by 6-10%. A 20% decrease in the ozone layer causes multiple skin cancers, and depression of the immune system, allowing the development of other forms of cancer.
- In 1958, the U.S. Navy exploded three atomic bombs 300 miles above the South Atlantic. About the same time, the War Department exploded two hydrogen bombs 100 miles above Johnson Island in the Pacific. These tests caused a doubling of cancer rates. The explosions also disrupted (perhaps permanently) the Van Allen Belts, which protect the Earth from the sun's rays.
- In April 1964, a U.S. rocket was aborted, scattering 17,000 curies of plutonium over a large area. At least two more attempts to put nuclear power in space cattered 34,000 curies of plutonium at the completion of the mission. NASA's history displays numerous disasters from its space programs.
- The General Accounting Office revealed that the War Department generates 500,000 tons of toxins annually, more than the five leading chemical companies combined.
- The War Department reported to Congress that 17,484 military sites can't meet federal environmental standards.
- With Ulysses (another space probe) in 1990, plutonium in space became routine. When Cassini carried 72 lbs. of plutonium into space in 1997, scientists estimated 20 million lung cancer victims if it exploded over populated areas.
- In July 1996, a Navy missile test off eastern Long Island, an area chosen because of heavy commercial traffic and dense ground cultter went fearfully wrong. Aegid computers aboard a Navy destroyer, locked on TWA 800 rather than a drone, destroyed the plane and killed 240 passengers and crew. The official investigation was certainly a strenuous cover-up.
- HAARP - High Frequency Active Auroral Research program - is a huge ionospheric heater, built in Alaska between Anchorage and Fairbanks, to be completed in 2002. with 180 transmission towers. Natural gas from nearby oil fields powers it. HAARP generates extremely low frequency waves (ELF). It is unabashedly military in nature - theoretically a space shield, a weather modifier, a counter insurgency measure to curb dissent and resistance, a technology to explore the Earth's topography for oil and minerals. A Federal Environmental Impact Statement, filed by the Air Force, says this: "Transmission can raise internal body temperatures of people, ignite road flares in trunks of cars, detonate aerial munitions, scramble aircraft communications, navigation and flight control systems." Slight increases in transmission can "cause cataracts and leukemia, alter brain chemistry, blood sugar levels, blood pressure and heart rates."
- Earthquakes have increased in recent years, said Secretary of War William Cohen in April 1997: "Others are engaging in eco-terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes and volcanoes remotely through electro-magnetic waves." It is called "blaming the victim" - accusing others of doing what we are doing.
- The U.S. spends more than $1/2 trillion on past, present and future wars, more than a combination of all remaining nations. Conveniently subtracted from fiscal war budgetting is the more than $100 billion of interest in financing this lunatic sum.
- The U.S. Air Force boasts that it will "own" the weather by 2005.
- The Guardian (English newspaper) reported that the Depleted Uranium shells fired in Iraq and Kuwait has left at least 40 tons of radio-active dust.
- In Iraq, we gutted that society with our bombing: electrical power generators, water treatment plants, telephone and radio transmission, food processing, storage and distribution warehouses, animal vaccination stations, agricultural irrigation sites, railroads, bus depots, bridges, public transportation vehicles, oil wells, pipelines, oil storage depots, gasoline filling stations, sewage treatment and disposal systems, and factories producing cars and textiles for civilians.
- The Guardian calls the bombing of Yugoslavia "in environmental terms, the dirtiest war the West has ever fought... a war which targets chemical factories and oil installations, which deploys radioactive weapons in towns and cities, ir a war against everyone, civilians as well as combatants, the unborn as well as the living."
- A conservative estimate of oil consumption in the Iraqi war, a war to protect accessible and cheap oil: 900 million gallons.
War causes vast death and crippling of the living, the unborn, the human gene pool. But after the killing stops and the diaspora of refugees, a blasted environment remains, sometimes for hundred and thousands of years. Added to war itself, moreover, research and development of weapons, war games, maneuvers and the general preparation for battle undermines our life support system.
The terrible number of those killed, maimed or diseased, an irreversibly damaged ecology, the obscene cost of nuclearism and interventionary war - over ‡ trillion spent by the U.S., all require harsh conclusions. Whatever their motivation, the bosses, warriors and arms hucksters are killing us, while simultaenously, they kill the environment. The attack on humans and the natural world is indistinguishable. They coincide in an attack on life itself. For the Earth is our matrix, our womb, our mother. God created us from the soil and water of the Earth.
The military as an instrument of mass killing is a waste institution - humans, energy, oil, metals, scientific and technical skills, money - it consumes all and restores nothing to the resources of the planet. Any faithful or sane scrutiny would conclude that it must be dismantled. It kills, threatens and wastes - it is the BIG LIE institutionalized. Its veneer and untouchability gives new meaning to the demonic.
Is anybody out there listening?
You can read WHAT MATTERS e-mails 1-18 at the WHAT MATTERS web site http:/www.whatmatters.nu/wmemails/wmemailsindex.html
To subscribe to the WHAT MATTERS E-letter: http://whatmattersnu/contacts.html
Boudewijn Wegerif
Torsberget, 669 92, Deje Sweden
Tel: +46.552.21112
