Advertisement

Trust, war and terrorism

In a democracy, leaders must earn and retain the public's trust. No matter how loudly those leaders proclaim their dedication to fighting terrorism, we must not flinch from examining whether they are trustworthy.

On March 17, 2003, in a major address to the American people, President George W. Bush declared: "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." On April 10, in a televised message to the people of Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "We did not want this war. But in refusing to give up his weapons of mass destruction, Saddam gave us no choice but to act."

Before and during the war on Iraq, we heard many other such statements from top officials in Washington and London. Ostensibly they justified the war.

Among the horrors of that war are weapons known as cluster bombs. I use the present tense because now -- months after the Pentagon and the British military dropped thousands of cluster bombs on Iraq -- they continue to explode, sometimes in the hands of children who

White House Silenced Experts Who Questioned Iraq Intel Info Six Months Before War

Six months before the United States was dead-set on invading Iraq to rid the country of its alleged weapons of mass destruction, experts in the field of nuclear science warned officials in the Bush administration that intelligence reports showing Iraq was stockpiling chemical and biological weapons was unreliable and that the country did not pose an imminent threat to its neighbors in the Middle East or the U.S.

But the dissenters were told to keep quiet by high-level administration officials in the White House because the Bush administration had already decided that military force would be used to overthrow the regime of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, interviews and documents have revealed.

The most vocal opponent to intelligence information supplied by the CIA to the hawks in the Bush administration about the so-called Iraqi threat to national security was David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector and the president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington, D.C. based group that gathers information for the public and the White House on nuclear weapons programs.

Britain -- not quite a parallel media universe

LONDON -- The people of Britain and the United States are living in parallel, yet substantively different, media universes. Bonds of language and overlaps of mass culture are obvious. But a visit to London quickly illuminates the reality that mainstream journalism is much less narrow here than in America.

One indicator of a robust press: Nearly a dozen ideologically diverse national daily papers are competing on British newsstands.

Granted, the picture isn't all rosy. Tabloids feature lurid crime headlines and include exploitive photos of bare-breasted women. Several major newspapers reflect the distorting effects of right-wing owners like Rupert Murdoch (who has succeeded in foisting the execrable Fox News on the United States). And the circulation figures of Britain's dailies show that the size of press runs is inversely proportional to journalistic quality, with the Sun at 3.5 million and the Daily Mail at 2.3 million -- in contrast to two superb dailies, the Guardian (381,000) and the Independent (186,000).

Yet the impacts of the Guardian and the Independent, along with

Budget imbalance

AUSTIN, Texas -- In the "physician, heal thyself" department, please note the response of White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer to a bulletin from North Korea that said: "The intention to build up a nuclear deterrent is not aimed to threaten and blackmail others, but to reduce conventional weapons. North Korea hopes to channel manpower resources and funds into economic construction and the betterment of people's living."

Fleischer piously replied: "Perhaps from this glimpse of North Korea acknowledging that its own people suffer as a result of North Korea's policies, it will help North Korea to now make the right decisions. And the right decisions are to put their people first, to feed their people, to get health care to their people ..."

Not only should feeding the people and getting health care to the people be more important than a nuclear program, it should even be more important than tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy. The United States now spends $400 billion a year on the military -- that's 50.1 percent of all discretionary spending (non-discretionary includes Social Security, Medicare

Make a difference... for a living!

National Director of non-profit voter registration and empowerment organization needs self-starting administrative assistant. Tasks include: scheduling appointments, manage donor database, coordinate mass mailings, correspondence, and Web page upkeep. Salary low 20s, free parking, benefits.

Please email resume to pvnatasst@acorn.org or fax it to (614)523-2720.

The 'Help America Vote Act'

Dear Editor:

Our Democratic process is again vulnerable with the "Help America Vote Act." If computerized voting is enacted it is essential that the voting process be subject to great scrutiny as the opportunity for exploitation is more serious than ever. At this time the process for review and comment on the Preliminary State Plan. Our concern is that any voting machine that does not have a verifiable paper trail. The growing concern from election reform specialists and computer security experts about the integrity of the machines on the market indicates to me that it would be wise for Ohio to move slowly and not to aim for 2004 primaries. The HAVA is causing states to rush to purchase machines that suffer serious flaws. Hundreds of renowned computer scientists consider a voter-verified paper trail to be a critical safeguard for our precious voting rights. The current HAVA does nothing to protect the integrity of our elections against computer malfunction, computer hackers, and computer fraud.

Powell Denies Intelligence Failure In Buildup To War, But Evidence Doesn't Hold Up

The evidence, or lack thereof, speaks for itself. In the months leading up to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration produced hundreds of pages of intelligence for members of Congress and for the United Nations that showed how Iraq's President Saddam Hussein possessed tons of chemical and biological weapons and was actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

  The intelligence information, gathered by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, a Department of Defense agency that gathers foreign military intelligence for the Pentagon, was used by the Bush administration to convince the public that Iraq posed a threat to the world.  

But the information in those reports, much of which has been declassified and is now available online, hasn't panned out as U.S. military forces comb Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, it turns out that a bulk of the intelligence contained in the reports was just plain wrong, suggesting that either the intelligence was doctored to make a case for war or, even worse, that a massive intelligence failure is rampant inside the CIA and other U.S. government agencies.  

Why do Africans get AIDS?

 Initially I was much taken with an interesting piece in the latest issue of Discover magazine, Vol. 24 No. 6, dated June 2003, containing an article, "Why Do So Many Africans Get AIDS?" by Josie Glausiusz.

            Every major campaign against AIDS in Africa, Glausiusz writes, has been based on the premise that heterosexual sex accounts for 90 percent of transmission in adults, Yet safe-sex efforts have not stopped the spread of the epidemic, which now affects 30 million people. Economic anthropologist David Gisselquist therefore suspected that HIV might be spreading primarily by another route.

            After analyzing 20 years of epidemiological studies, he and his colleagues concluded that unsafe injections, blood transfusions and other medical procedures may account for most of the AIDS transmission in African adults. Their analysis indicates that no more than 35 percent of HIV in that population is spread through sex.

            Gisselquist's interest in AIDS was stimulated by the guidance he received while traveling through Africa as a World Bank consultant. "They

Psst, kids, <i>there's money in the wind</i>

AUSTIN -- Remember the guy in "The Graduate" who tells Dustin Hoffman, with heavy emphasis, "Plastics"? This column is sort of in the same vein. Psst, kids, there's money in wind. If I were a fresh graduate looking for something useful and profitable to do with my life, I'd sure take a close look at windpower.

            The American Wind Energy Association recently met in Austin, and danged if there aren't over 500 businesses involved, and vendors with high-tech booths and all that good trade show stuff. As they say on Wall Street, there's been "solid growth" in the wind biz. Naturally, the United States is lagging behind Denmark, et al, but even so, this thing is ginnin'. This will be huge.

            According to the Wind Energy Association, they expect the industry to grow by 25 percent in 2003, moving from the current production of 4,700 megawatts to 6,000 megawatts (enough to serve 1,500,000 homes).

            The industry is still small enough and new enough so you can sit around and drink coffee with already-legendary founders and pioneers such as

Protect the Ridges

To the editor,

President Glidden once again is failing to keep his promises to protect the Ridges, a state treasure of natural beauty in Athens with old forests, prairies and hilltops with grand vistas.

Pages

Subscribe to ColumbusFreePress.com RSS