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> Mon., Jan. 12, 2004
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
Bush plotted Iraq war in Jan 2001
Jewish settlers protest Sharon
US on Libya
Addicted to Oil? - Protests of LA Auto Show
Living in a gas chamber – Report from Eloor, India
FSRN Headlines
The U.S. government is getting serious about their plans
to obtain and store vast amounts of personal information on
all air travelers, even U.S. citizens and others with valid
residency papers. More from D.C.
Will the death penalty in NY State Courts require more than
“reasonable doubt” to carry a death sentence?
From WBAI in New York, Ian Forrest reports.
A University of Idaho doctoral student from Saudi Arabia
faces new charges of providing material support to terrorists
by maintaining websites. One of his attorney’s says
he’ll plead innocent. Leigh Robartes reports from Idaho.
Guatemala's highest court ordered the government to stop
payments to former civil patrollers, who some say are responsible
for human rights atrocities. From Guatemala City, Catherine
Elton reports.
President Bush will be in Monterrey, Mexico today supposedly
to discuss with his Latin American counterparts how to benefit
the poor and develop democracy. However, Bush has scheduled
closed-door bi-lateral meetings with some of the hemisphere’s
more friendly although still left leaning leaders in Chile
and Brazil. At this time, there is no scheduled meeting with
populist President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a major US oil
supplier. Chavez is also leading the growing consensus among
developing nations to fight U.S. economic dominance and create
trade partnerships with terms more favorable to home based
groups rather than U.S. or European based multinationals.
Analysts say this is a chance for Bush to mend fences with
President Vicente Fox of Mexico, who the U.S. president distanced
after the invasion of Iraq.
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Bush plotted Iraq war in Jan 2001
President Bush was plotting the war against Iraq just days
after he took power in January 2001, according to a former
Bush cabinet member, Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil.
O’Neil revealed the information to CBS’s “60
Minutes”. FSRN Anchor Deepa Fernandes speaks with Senior
Pacifica Political News Analyst Larry Bensky.
[top]
Jewish settlers protest Sharon
Syria's president Bashar Asad today turned down an invitation
from Israel to visit the country and begin peace negotiations.
This diplomacy takes place as Israeli construction crews today
hoisted 25 ft high concrete slabs into the middle of a main
road in a Palestinian suburb of Jerusalem, cutting off thousands
of people from the city they consider their home. The impenetrable
wall is part of a series of barriers Israel is building around
much of the West Bank, they say to keep out Palestinian suicide
bombers. Palestinians call it an apartheid wall. The concrete
wall has cut Palestinians off from their fields, schools,
hospitals and businesses. Meanwhile some 20,000 Jewish settlers
and their supporters took to the streets protesting against
prime minister Ariel Sharon and his plans to relinquish some
Jewish settlements in a possible peace settlement with Palestinians.
Irris Makler reports from Jerusalem.
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US on Libya
Reports this weekend indicated that the US may be planning
to set up an office in Libya for the first time in over 20
years. As first reported by the Washington Post, the office
would be a diplomatic mission, but US officials later disputed
that description, according to AFP. The two countries do not
have diplomatic relations. The news outlets said the office
would provide logistical, technical and secretarial support
for US and British arms inspectors overseeing the dismantling
of Libya's unconventional weapons programs. Washington and
London announced last month that the North African state had
vowed to abandon its efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction
after nine months of secret negotiations. United Nations sanctions
against Libya were lifted in September after Libyan leader
Muammar al-Qaddafi signed a compensation deal for the 1988
Lockerbie bombing over Scotland, but President Bush last week
said US sanctions would remain in place until Libya's intentions
are verified. Susan Wood reports from the UN.
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Addicted to Oil? - Protests of LA Auto Show
Over the course of 10 days, over one-million people attended
the Annual LA Auto Show, held in Downtown’ Convention
Center. On Thursday, Rainforest Action Network and Global
Exchange unfurled a large banner outside a 32-story building
near the convention to highlight American’s addiction
to oil, leading to the arrest of 5 activists. This past weekend,
hundreds of demonstrators turned out to protest the show.
The march and rally, organized by The Labor/Strategy Center,
The Bus Rider’s Union and Global Exchange, drew a large
mix of public-transportation, human rights, and environmental
activists. From KPFK Aura Bogado files this report.
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Living in a gas chamber – Report from Eloor,
India
Three years after the first World Social Forum (WSF) in
Brazil’s Porto Alegre, this week in the Indian city
of Mumbai, tens of thousands of participants, will attend
over a thousand seminars and conferences, testimonies and
cultural events as part of the first WSF in Asia. The WSF
movement was launched in Brazil in 2001 in opposition to the
model of neo-liberal globalization, making popular the slogan,
“another world is possible”. Meanwhile as Bombay
prepares for the forum, the people of Eloor, a small island
in Kerala, the most literate state of India, are hoping the
international attention on India will spotlight their island
which residents liken to living in a gas chamber. International
environmental groups have named Eloor one of the world's most
toxic spots. Environmentalists charge that the companies have
bought off the people by giving employment to at least one
member of each family in Eloor. The companies make it clear
that any form of protest will result in closure of these pesticide
producing companies. The people of Eloor say they are in a
catch 22 situation -- inhale the poison or protest and die
of starvation? Our correspondent, Binu Alex visited Eloor.
He files this report.
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