Flashpoints Nov 13: Israel steals more Pal farms; US war aims; RAN vs CitiBank

Wednesday, Nov 13, 2002 - Start Audio
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: US and Britain want to redraw the map of the Middle East.. Israel continues to steal Palestinian Arab land.. Rainforest Action Network targets CitiGroup.
-00:48 Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: without conditions and unreservedly Iraq agrees to the new UN resolution in spite of "the evil it contains"; Bush pledges 'zero tolerance'.. Pakistani dictator creates a parlimentary figleaf.. CIA shooter, Mark Warner's execution protested by Pakistan.. Amnesty International.. 2 year old Palestinian boy killed in Gaza.. tanks and helicopters sweep into Nablus and Tulkarm.. Kofi Annan says Israel must give back stolen Arab land.. notes farmers shot dead, and reiterates support for Israel.. Helen Thomas speaks at MIT, says no other presidents ever wanted to go to war, Bush's preemptive war policy validates Japans attack on Pearl Harbor
-06:00 Dennis: in recent years Israel has stepped up its theft of Palestinian land.. now w Huwaida Arraf of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).. Huwaida: about the 'security fence' that Israel is building.. not being built along the internationally accepted 'green line'.. twice as high and as long as the infamous Berlin Wall.. will isolate and divide the most fertile Palestinian farmland.. bulldozers uprooting hundreds of trees in this little town.. 600 durnams to be taken for the wall.. 9000 more isolated.. 7 water wells.. Israel saying there will a gate you can go through.. permits, checkpoints.. red tape.. depressing to see hundred year old olive trees uprooted.. the farmers trying to replant them.. we have to live together.. Israel is sowing hatred.. some villages will be completely surrounded by an 25 foot high wall, with watchtowers.. horrendous, where your occupier has such total control.. in actuality imprisoned.. about the impact on families, and the fear here.. people here say how can this be happening.. farming communities.. worked on the land all their lives.. five men had heart attacks seeing 100 year old olive trees uprooted.. we can't get the mainstream media to focus on what is happening.. a hopeless feeling.. CATERPILLAR CORP BULLDOZERS.. people were on the land, protests.. blocking the bulldozers.. in less than 7 hours, another big action.. laying in front of bulldozers.. will chain ourselves to trees.. WE JUST WANT THE TRUTH TO BE KNOWN.. ISRAEL'S PLAN TO CUT US OFF FROM OUR LAND AND WATER.
-15:48 music break Dennis: according to sources in the British government.. US and Britain advocating redrawing the map of the Middle East.. welcome Flashpoints reporter, Sasha Lilly author of New Age of Empire.. Sasha: quoting the Rand Corporation presentation.. "taking the Saudi out of Arabia.. seizing the oil fields, and the holy sites of Mecca and Medina.. Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot, Egypt as the prize".. Scottish MP George Galloway says this plan is circulating at the highest levels in Londdon and Washington, DC.. partitioning.. George: the Iraqi war aims are much wider than the excuses given.. if free elections were held in Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden would win in a landslide.. the US wants to withdraw from most of Saudi Arabia, and redraw the boundaries.. most of the Muslims who live in the oil fields.. Saudi Arabia cannot let the US use its bases for an attack on Iraq.. the populace would rise up in anger.. like the Shah in Persia, the house of Saud will come crashing down.. the US and Britain thinking of fallback positions.. if they invade Iraq and install a puppet government, they can replace Saudi Arabia with Iraq.. Bush and Blair will not back down.. but it may go wrong.. the chicken hawks, always ready to fight to the last drop of someone else's blood.. the cost will be severe.
-25:20 Sasha: hawks in the US pushing for.. National Security Strategy.. Wolfowitz.. yelling at a Saudi diplomat that 'the gloves were off'.. a broad neo-conservative.. encourage Israel to attack Lebanon and Syria.. close ties to Turkey.. weapons contracts.. imperial non-Arab.. AEI.. Hudson Institute.. advocates ousting the Saudis.. Dennis Ross.. military and conservative media.. American Enterprise Institute.. 'Saudi Arabia and Terrorism' conference.. Institute for Middle East Policy.. David Price Jones.. Max Singer presentation.. a Muslim republic... Conrad Black, Hollinger Incorporated.. Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post.. Spectator.. advocates 'tear up that map.. now w Nassir Aruri. professor of Political Science at the University at Massachusetts in Dartmouth.. Nassir: a lot of literature coming out.. of Israel.. close coordination thinktanks in Israel and the US, Richard Perle.. about the *need* to reshape the Middle East.. done twice the last century already.. Iraq boundaries.. Palestine.. Hashimite dynasty.. 1958 in Iraq.. King Hussein's brother.. the so-called Iraqi opposition.. regime change.. unify Jordan and Iraq.. another scenario.. Iraq, with Turkey and Israel would then be the three pillars for the US.. what of the rest?.. Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia.. not many in the Arab world would shed tears for the regime in Syria.. Syria cooperating with the US.. most Arabs have no great love for Al-Quada, but don't want Syria helping Israel and the US.. Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad.. a growing literature out of Israel that Sharon wants to cleanse Palestine of the Palestinians.. under the cover of war on Iraq.. not an easy task, 3,000,000 people.. to Jordan.. but Jordan taking steps to stem the current flow of Palestinian refugees who cannot take the inhuman conditions.. but in war conditions? could Jordan stop it.. will there be resistance from Iraq to an invasion?.. Iraq is not Afghanistan.. Sasha: about Iran?.. Nassir: looking back to Bush I.. Iran identified as the 'real enemy'.. Bush now says containment has failed.. the key word is 'instability' in the Middle East.. America.. no longer leery of instability.. not like in the cold war.. this is changing.. the Arab leaders don't get it yet, they think if they cry 'instability', someone in Washington will lose sleep.. we're seeing a drastic revision of American foreign policy.. the Reagan Doctrine, the Carter Doctrine both going, going, gone..
-46:00 music break
-46:57 Dennis: in Wednesday's NY Times, an ad says 'someone is using your CitiGroup card without your permission.. with images of smokestacks, clearcutting.. paid for by RainForest Action Network.. now w Michael Bruin and Sarah Riggs.. Michael: CitiGroup the most environmental destructive bank, funding oil, timber projects.. fueling the chainsaws.. Sarah: they do actually have an 'enviromental' unit.. greenwashing.. PR.. about the ad.. (describes).. we're asking people to cut their credit card and sent it back to CitiCorp.. Dennis: Citi says you're speading false information.. Michael: not true.. most American want their last remaining old growth preserved.. even Citi top competitor has agreed to withdraw funding for old growth timbering.. but not Citi.. the only thing they are doing is looking at their own.. Sanford (Sandy) Weill the CEO, under heat recently for his own corporate scandals.. involved in all the other scandals.. also their own enviromental crimes.. at a shareholder meeting.. Sandy confronted time after time.. Actions you can take: check out our website.. write a letter of protest to CitiGroup.. cut your Citi card up and sent it to Sandy
-55:13 Mary Bishop: wrapup
-55:53 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart

The War Prayer, (satire) by Mark Twain: "..help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst.. We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.". (read more)

Tuesday, Nov 12, 2002 - Start Audio
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: troubling human rights report says 4 million may die in Iraqi war.. weapons inspections an alternative to war or a prelude to war?
-00:50 Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: Iraqi Congress votes no to weapons inspections.. Bush looking in a rubber stamp mirror.. Iraq stockpiling nerve gas antidotes.. Putin blows stack about questions about why Russians are exterminating civilians in Chechnan.. mentions circumcision???.. says he'll 'waste Chechyans who sit in their outhouses'.. Israeli pinhead Netanyahu says he would 'expel Arafat' if elected to higher office.. Israel tanks shoot up Tulkarm.. new bin Laden tape airs on Arab TV.. Osama: 'our people in Palestine are being killed, if you don't like looking at your dead, stop killing ours'
-06:00 Dennis Bernstein: the question of weapons inspections from a different angle.. plans for war are weapons inspections an alternative to war, or part of the US war plan?.. now w Larry Everest, author of the forthcoming book, Oil, Power, and Empire.. Larry: the NY Times reported that Bush had finalized his war plans.. made before the UN vote.. 200,000 to invade after an air campaign.. the scenario, US troops to occupy southern and northern Iraq, turn them into 'beachheads'.. the US hope for the quick collapse, segue into occupation.. Bush decided in Oct 2001 to go after Iraq.. the UN resolutions to provide cover for the US.. political *legitimacy* very important to the US.. many Middle East regimes fear for their continued existence if US goes to war with Iraq.. turmoil.. Bush trying to tone down and confuse protestors.. the resolution written in a vague way.. anything at all, Bush will jump on as an excuse.. how inspections part of war plans.. the US not concerned that Saddam has weapons that could target the US.. but concerned that he could have something to use against invading US troops.. Bush wants a quick war, communicating to the world that they are all-powerful.. the US will comb through all the data that inspectors turn up to pinpoint the Iraqi leadership.. the inspectors closely tied to US intelligence.. the inspectors go to a certain palace, a huge security apparatus.. outrageous, they are threatening to remove Iraqi citizens and interrogate them.
-09:36 Dennis: an US attack on Iraq could trigger disaster.. now w Dr. Bernard Lowen of Physicians For The Prevention Of Nuclear War which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.. associated with the London based group MEDACT.. a new report, Collateral Damage: the health and environmental costs of war on Iraq, about the potential casualies, a nuclear war that could kill millions.. Bernard: these are estimates.. the ratio of civilian casualies to military could be as high as 10-1, the reverse of WWI.. near to the Gulf War.. after the war, environmental casualties.. war is the most unpredictable of human undertakings.. these estimate should make us think twice.. about the possibility of nuclear war.. Nuclear Posture Review.. wants to conventionalize nuclear weapons.. nuclear bunker busters.. not invented by us, but buy the Pentagon's own position.. any such weapon if used, would be enormous in it's effect.. would spew radiation, and could kill anything within one kilometer.. in a heavily populated city like Baghdad, means 20,000 dead.. the environmental damage would be enormous.. an urban center.. like launching 100 tornadoes.. frightening might of destruction.. before the first Gulf War, Iraq women had enormous equality.. about the sancions.. medicines.. I witnessed death under my very eyes, especially people with kidney failure, 2000 people no dialysis fluid.. Iraq is now a crippled state.. while we aimed at Saddam, we targeted the Iraqi people.. will breed more terrorism.. and a new war would create more famine and suffering in the citizens.. we destroyed their food supply, water supply, and prohibited them from buying clorine.. massive disease, massive malnutrition.. and (the money spent) means we will weaken the US.. forget US health care, forget education.. the US now spents $400 billion on its military, more than the rest of the world combined.. before the first Gulf War, Iraq infant deaths at 65 per thousand, 103 after the war.. right now Iraq has no way of coping.. we are going to compound this issue..
-24:10 music break
-24:40 Rainjita Geesler: 2500 California prisoners confined in social isolation.. prisoner hunger strikes fighting against this modern form of torture.. now with Mother of Jose Luis: my son forced to take sides in gang wars.. even I was labeled a gang member.. about the brutality my son went through.. my family campaigned intensely.. about the brutality.. in 1999, he was involved in a massive hunger strike to expose the brutality.. hunger strike lasted for two months.. then Grey Davis ordered the breakup of the hunger strike.. ordered 16 men dispersed and put in the 'shoe' (extreme solitary confinement).. my son sent to Pelican Bay shoe.. been there for the last three years.. he has lost his eyesight, has arthritis.. because of the denial of sunlight and movement... many of the men put in the shoe go insane.. denied the five senses.. I have seen what the shoe does to people.. this is torture, this must be abolished.. we fight against this.. we called on Oct 31 2002 an action to expose the torturous shoe.. we had hunger strikes.. exposing the shoe.. the companeros in the Pelican Bay started a hunger strike.. our action in solidarity.. we set up a mock shoe cell on Powell and Market (SF).. inhumane.. we collected signatures and had a tremendous reaction.. collected 1300 signatures in five days.. very successful.. a movement to go forward.. Ca Dept of Correction on Nov 21 to meet with people to discuss the shoe.. to help for for more info: call 408-885-9785 www.BarrioDefence.org.. Davis is committing genocide against our community.. we are located in San Jose.
-37:10 Rain: now w Corey Weinstein of CA Prison Focus.. Corey: the 24 hour lockup, no sunshine.. fresh air maybe.. a diet of monotonous over-cooked food.. health care not good.. prisoners in 8 foot square pods.. an example: a friend in there has high blood pressure, he has to thrust his arm out the food slot, the stress gives an abnormally high reading.. about the mental stress.. many prisoners 'nut up'.. especially if they are too poor to buy books or a TV.. about the second round of hunger strikes.. last year 1000 prisoners began a hunger strike.. after nine days, that was interrupted.. the CA Dept. of Corrections stalled on reforms.. another strike now.. I spoke to the leader Steve Castillo on Wednesday.. lost 9 pounds, his voice weak.. trying to force the state to hold to their promises.. they are demanding due process in their classification hearings.. labeled gang members without any real evidence or representation or opportunity for rebuttal or personal testimony.. all they want is a fairness in this procedure.. this is in the penal code.. mere association is not a crime.. Steve in a very strong man, and a leader inside.. I don't think he is gang member.. he is a 'jailhouse lawyer'.. the department decides to silence him.. he's been in security housing for 7 years.. he is in severe pain.. the custody staff used this as an excuse to mistreat him.. demeaned and taunted.. the medical staff observed this and did not intervene as is their obligation.. the Dept are bad penal managers.. gangs are a legitimate security problem.. but no other state is so lousy.. they believe the people of California will not say anything.. we have the more violent prison system in the country.. more info: call 415-252-9211 or visit www.Prison.org
-50:00 Marvelous Mary Bishop: wrapup
-50:30 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart