Wash.DC   State Dept's former sr expert on N.Korea said Tuesday that Bush admin refusal to engage directly with the country made it almost impossible to stop Pyongyang from going ahead with its plans to build, test and deploy nuclear weapons. 6 nation talks are a good step, but not enough, said Jack Pritchard, who was the dept's special envoy for negotiations with N.Korea until he resigned last month. U.S. should immediately initiate direct talks with the communist nation, he said.
"The idea that in a short period of time you can resolve this problem" in talks where diplomats from 6 countries sit down with 24 interpreters and try to make a deal without private consultations is "ludicrous," Pritchard said. "It cannot happen." Pritchard's resignation came as current and former U.S. officials described bitter fighting in the administration over how to deal with the problems posed by N.Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Some in the administration have argued that all contact with N.Korea, incl negotiations, constituted a reward for the regime of Kim Jong Il, which has long seen better relations with U.S. as key to ending its international isolation. These officials advocate taking a hard line against N. Korea.
The opposing camp has argued that even though U.S. might like to hasten the collapse of the regime, while the nuclear clock was ticking the U.S. must instead seek the narrower goal of persuading N. Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions. They agree that Pyongyang must not be bribed into such a move, but they say Kim must be offered incentives and a way to save face.

Each side claims to be implementing the policies laid out by President Bush. One official, who is in favor of negotiations, expressed frustration with the bickering, saying he did not believe the president knew what his aides were doing in his name. When Bush gives aides his views and they turn it into "guidance" for subordinates to implement, "it doesn't come out anywhere near what a reasonable person would say is what the president meant," the official said.
"The secretary [Powell] got his marching orders from the president on this one," a sr State Dept official said. The administration is willing to talk to N. Korea directly within the context of 6 party talks, but because N. Korea's nuclear ambitions threaten the entire region, its neighbors must be involved in the solution, the senior official said.

Pritchard "says we have to have a bilateral or nothing ever happens. The secretary & president say N. Korea doesn't make the rules," the official said, adding that America will not come running every time N. Korea "does something stupid. Our strategy is to say no." In interview Tuesday, Pritchard, 28 year military veteran, State Dept and National Security Council, said he did not resign in protest, and did not have an ax to grind.
Pritchard said he decided to speak out on policy issues because of the urgent need to stop N. Korea's nuclear weapons program. N. Korea has claimed to be reprocessing its 8,000 spent plutonium fuel rods, and U.S. officials believe that it might produce 6 or more nuclear weapons within a year.

The CIA believes that N. Korea probably already has 2 nuclear devices, and Pyongyang has said it might test or export its weapons depending on how U.S. responds to its demands. At 6 party talks in Beijing last month, the Bush admin made an overture to Kim by saying it would agree to a step-by-step approach by which N. Korea would not have to unilaterally disarm before seeing any benefits. Some news reports billed that as a major shift in U.S. policy.
In remarks Monday at his new employer D.C. think tank Brookings Institution, Pritchard called the movement "minuscule." Pritchard's departure made waves in Washington because he was the longest-serving admin N. Korea expert. He has met with N. Korean diplomats for years and accompanied former Sec. State Albright to her meetings with Kim in 2000. In the Clinton administration, Pritchard was seen as a hard-liner, arguing, for example, that President Clinton should not visit Pyongyang, the N. Korean capital. Later, his support for engaging N. Korea, at least in direct discussions, placed him in the left wing of the Bush administration, and he was denounced in the conservative media as an appeaser.

Pritchard argued Tuesday that mere contact with U.S. did not affect N. Korea's strategic decisions. In 2000, even as sr N. Korean military official was in the Oval Office handing Clinton an invitation from Kim to visit, N. Korea was moving from dabbling with a research & development program in highly enriched uranium to a secret program to make bombs, Pritchard said. (Clinton declined the invitation.)
U.S. later received intelligence that Pakistan had provided N. Korea with a large number of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, according to U.S. & Asian sources. When Asst Sec. State James A. Kelly confronted Pyongyang with the evidence Oct. 2002, N. Koreans first denied it, then acknowledged the program and said they had a right to nuclear weapons.

Since then, however, N. Korea has been insisting that it does not have a secret uranium enrichment program and never told Kelly that it did. It has said that Kelly misunderstood what he was told, perhaps because of a translation problem. N. Korea raised the issue again at the Beijing talks, rattling some of the other participants.
U.S. sources incl Pritchard, however, said the U.S. intelligence community was unanimous in its confidence that the intelligence on the secret program was solid, and that the message to Kelly was unmistakable. "The N. Koreans are rewriting history for their own reasons," Pritchard said.

'Axis of evil' countries push bomb programs U.S. attention might have spurred efforts 12.14.02   Ron Kampeas AP Wash.D.C.   The countries dubbed an axis of evil" by President Bush may be going nuclear, U.S. officials fear. N.Korea said it would resume its nuclear program the same week U.S. officials lent credence to recent reports that Iraq & Iran are actively seeking the fissile material, enriched uranium or plutonium, they need most for membership in the nuclear club. Bush placed containment of all 3 nations at the top of his to-do list in January, when he described an axis of evil in his State of the Union address that posed a "growing danger" by developing weapons of mass destruction. That might have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, said Carnegie Endowment for Intl Peace John Wolfsthal. "While they were proliferating before they were called the axis of evil, calling them by that name may have accelerated their programs," he said yesterday. U.S. is using different approaches to containing each of the 3. Regarding Iran, U.S. officials Thursday endorsed claims by an Iranian opposition group that the govt may be using 2 construction sites in central Iran to develop nuclear weapons, a nuclear fuel production plant & research lab at Natanz and a heavy water production plant at Arak that could be part of a plutonium program. Iran denied the allegations yesterday; U.S. does not believe Iran has yet made nuclear weapons. Iran's lack of fissile material is its main obstacle to building nuclear weapons. Reports that Iran is constructing an underground nuclear facility "reinforce our already grave concern that Iran is seeking technology to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons," State Dept spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday. The concern about Iraq is also about its search for fissile material. The 12,000 pages of documents filed with the Intl Atomic Energy Agency last weekend fail to address U.S. intelligence reports of a recent purchase of uranium in Africa, and purchases in Western countries of high-tech equipt that could be used in a uranium enrichment program. Officials in N.Korea, meanwhile, said they will reactivate nuclear facilities frozen under a 1994 deal with Washington. They blamed the Bush administration's hard line for the policy change. Western officials believe N.Korea built one or two plutonium-based nuclear bombs before it froze its nuclear facilities in 1994, and could quickly generate enough plutonium for several more bombs if the program resumes. Bush spoke by telephone yesterday with S.Korean President Kim Dae-jung and agreed to seek a "peaceful resolution" to the crisis, although both said they could not accept N. Korea's resumption of its nuclear weapons program. Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, sounded optimistic about persuading the North to back down. "We believe that the situation on the Korean Peninsula lends itself to the possibility of a diplomatic solution," he said in Australia. Wolfsthal shares such optimism, saying N. Korea ultimately seeks the good graces of U.S.

Rogue Washington 1/1/01   Christopher Hitchens Minority Report Pyongyang, N. Korea   Whichever of the two losers assumed the presidency of these U.S. mattered not at all in terms of construction of a "Star Wars," or Ballistic Missile Defense, system, since both promised to begin work on it. Indeed, this agreement may well form part of the much-anticipated healing process between the two party oligarchies. (Perhaps Bush will retain the services of William Cohen, who was a compassionate conservative to begin with, at the Defense Dept. Gore could have generously found room for a Powell/Rice clone in the same capacity.) Given the proven & demonstrated unworkability and cost of the proposed system, it is very slightly more probable that Bush could cancel it without loss of face. But the "contractor community" (as I once heard it seriously called) has demands and donations to make and raised expectations to be fulfilled, and the exorbitant amount already committed may need to be justified, so it is sure that we will be hearing a great deal more about the need to protect ourselves from N.Korea. How to convey the absurdity of this? Take the example of the Taepodong missile test, that "shot heard round the world," when the N.Koreans fired a rocket into the air and watched it splash down on the other side of Japan. Red alerts all around, huge talk about a new "rogue state" and a threat from sinister Asian Stalinism. Well, the most salient fact about that missile test was that, like the more grandiose Pacific tests of the Star Wars interceptors, it was a failure. The objective of the Taepodong rocket was to get a N.Korean satellite into orbit; no signal from any such satellite has ever been picked up. This puts the N.Korean regime in an embarrassing position, because it proudly announced that the launch was a success. However, the hysterical Western reaction to the test has helped transform impotence into potency, an uncovenanted propaganda victory for Kim Jong Il and his regime. At the "Mass Games" in the May Day stadium in Pyongyang, which I attended a few days before Sec. State Madeleine Albright arrived to watch the replay, the centerpiece "special effect" was a giant montage of the Taepodong missile thrusting its way skyward, as if to bring the might of the Dear Leader to the attention of a waiting world. They say that visitors to N.Korea see only what the regime wants them to see. This is not true. In a country with almost no vehicles on its roads, one of the commonest sights is a group of soldiers from the Korean People's Army, peering mournfully into the innards of a broken-down transport. I hardly think that these scenes were provided just to lull me into a sense of false security, either, any more than were the bald tires and clapped-out accouterments of the top-of-the-line tourist bus on which I traveled. The power cuts & blackouts in the capital, the people taking care of their laundry & personal hygiene needs in an open drain in the city of Kaesong, the bullocks doing much of the work on main highways, abandoned projects & buildings, the peasants scavenging food by the grain in the fields, none of these are Potemkin showpieces.

It is even worse in the northern provinces, where visitors don't get taken at all. I've seen film secretly shot from across the Chinese border, where towns and factories are completely idle because the plants and machinery were broken up for barter during the famine. Good reports describe the once-vital coal mines as being often flooded and partially abandoned. (The pumps don't work because the vandals took the handles.) It's always worth remembering that N.Korea embarked on the building of a nuclear power station in the first place because it wanted to end dependence on coal.

Everything you have read about the party state in N. Korea is true or understated; from a purely human point of view it is the most literally oppressive and regimented society I have ever seen. But total control has diminishing returns; you cannot orchestrate people more than 100%, and you cannot manage them all the time. The same goes for ideology. In its proclamations about US imperialism the regime outdoes the rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but in its actual negotiations it conducts a tough but entirely pragmatic diplomacy.
If this were not so, there might well have been a nuclear exchange on the Korean peninsula in the summer of 1994. When the worst has been said about the Clinton Administration's abysmal foreign and military policy (much of it by me), it must be admitted that the President did overrule a crazed "pre-emptive-war party" in Washington and, with typical secrecy, hesitation and reluctance-replayed in miniature Truman's veto of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. (For an account of this almost unknown moment of near-calamity, see Don Oberdorfer's invaluable book The Two Koreas.)

In closed sessions, the N.Koreans have agreed to a deal whereby they close down their graphite reactors and put the rods into "cooling ponds," allowing intl inspection of the latter to determine whether there is any stray reprocessable plutonium. In return the U.S. will help furnish light-water reactors (which are much less proliferation- friendly) in order to help overcome the country's energy crisis. I have actually met some of the on-the-ground invigilators of the Intl Atomic Energy Agency, tough & cynical guys who say that the agreement is being properly observed. But this leaves us with a mystery, or at any rate a conundrum.
In secret, the military & intelligence authorities of the U.S. have concluded an agreement with Pyongyang that does them some credit and that has averted what could have been an annihilating confrontation. In public, the political leadership speaks as if an impoverished & exhausted N.Korea is so menacing & intractable that it requires the investment of untold billions in a destabilizing & fraudulent boondoggle. If this is not rogue behavior, then I should very much like to know what is.

Israel       new feyadeen Combatants for Peace MidEast UN peacekeeping AºA 9.11.01, et al kosher UN resolution 3379 Shaul Eisenberg Maurice Templesmann Yesh Gvul Gush Shalom Coalition of Women for Peace Bat Shalom Women in Black Rachel Corrie New Profile Jerusalem IMC Khilafah Jihad Unspun 'islamofascism' per Zion   [ shades of the Stern gang & 1948 ] Israel to stick to killings policy 7.3.01   AP Jerusalem   Ariel Sharon & his closest advisers brushed aside U.S. criticism and said Tuesday that Israel would stick to its policy of tracking down and killing suspected Palestinian militants. Israel television reported that a forum of top Israeli leaders authorized the military to step up the campaign of targeted killings. Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said the number of killings depends on Palestinian efforts to stop attacks. "The less they do, the more we have to do," he said. A senior Palestinian official, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, called the Israeli policy "the biggest violation" yet of the faltering Mideast cease-fire. Israel insists it will carry out pre-emptive strikes in a bid to prevent Palestinian attacks that have persisted despite the U.S.-brokered truce. Israel's deputy defense minister, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, who was part of the forum of Israeli leaders that met Tuesday, defended the policy. "When we know of a terrorist who is a ticking bomb, meaning he is on his way, carrying explosives, to carry out an attack in Israel, it is incumbent on us to prevent it and that is what we do," she said.   [ Who when defines known terrorist on his way carrying explosives? Presumably the military, hopefully distinguished from the secret police. ] Rabin-Pelossof, daughter of assassinated Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, was asked about media reports that Prime Minister Sharon was weighing a broad assault against the Palestinian Authority if the cease-fire collapsed entirely. "We have to consider all the existing options," she told Israel radio. Interviewed by German television, Sharon said he is committed to the cease-fire and blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the violence. "The Palestinian Authority is behind terror and has done nothing to stop it," he said. The continuing unrest has prevented the launch of a seven-day test-period the sides agreed to during Sec.State Colin Powell's visit last week. Israel says that for the count to begin there must be no violence whatsoever. The test-period would trigger a series of other stages leading to resumed peace talks. Israel began its targeted attacks against Palestinian militants last November, and has killed 24 people in 19 attacks, according to the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights. The attacks have included helicopter strikes, exploding telephones and sniper shootings. In the most recent raid, an Israeli helicopter fired missiles Sunday night, obliterating a car carrying 3 militants in the West Bank which was, according to Israel, filled with explosives. A total of 6 Palestinians and 2 Israelis were killed Sunday & Monday in the worst surge of violence since the cease-fire was declared June 13. No major violence was reported Tuesday as of the evening, but both sides said the truce remained unstable. "The Israelis are the ones who violate it," Arafat said. "We are passing through a very dangerous period." Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the truce was in "a profound crisis and everything has to be done to save it." A meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs Monday night was acrimonious and produced no breakthroughs, both sides said. Peres, the most prominent dove in Sharon's govt, has come under criticism from some fellow Cabinet members for his willingness to meet with Palestinian leaders despite the violence. But he said he would press ahead. "If I am not allowed to fulfill the foreign policy in which I believe, there is no point in my being foreign minister," he said. He called for removal of settler outposts in the West Bank, which were set up without permission. "It is a first-class political mistake" to refuse to remove the outposts, Peres said. "It focuses attention on an issue on which the world is united against us." U.S. State Dept said Monday the Palestinians were not doing enough to prevent violence, but spokesman Richard Boucher also stressed that U.S. was "opposed to Israel's policy of targeted killings." Israeli Science Minister Matan Vilnai scoffed at the U.S. criticism. "I'm not sure they (American officials) really understand the rules of the game," Vilnai told Israel Radio. "I would like to see how the Americans would react if a car packed with explosives blew up in the middle of Manhattan." On Monday, 2 car bombs exploded in central Israel, but no one was hurt. A radical Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said it carried out the attack to avenge the killing of Islamic Jihad activists Sunday. Assassinations will continue, Israel says 8.1.01 M.Kalman & B.Nichols USA TODAY Jerusalem   Israel said Wednesday that it will continue targeting extremists despite international criticism of its "pre-emptive strikes" against Palestinian terrorism suspects. The decision came a day after an Israeli army helicopter fired missiles on the offices of the militant group Hamas in the West Bank city of Nablus. Eight people were killed in the attack, including two children. As many as 20,000 people attended the victims' funeral. Among those killed Tuesday was Jamal Mansour, a senior Hamas leader who had been arrested several times by the Israelis and Palestinian Authority. Two Palestinian boys who were in a nearby shop also died. Israel said the Hamas officials targeted in Tuesday's attack planned and executed a string of suicide bombings and were finalizing plans for an attack in Jerusalem. "This really was a preventive action," said Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, a key member of the peace process that has come to a standstill amid a cycle of killing and retaliation. Peres said Israel was under attack and had no choice but to respond with force. "We simply have no other option," he said. This week has been the bloodiest in the region since a suicide bombing killed 21 Israelis on June 1 in Tel Aviv. Since the latest cycle of fighting erupted Sept. 28, 551 Palestinians & 133 Israelis have been killed. The assassinations of Palestinians, so far about 50 have been killed, have generated international outrage. In an interview Wednesday with CNN, Sec.State Powell reiterated the U.S. condemnation of the attacks. "We felt that this was a targeted killing of the kind that we have spoken out and condemned in the past, and we did so yesterday, both at the White House and in the State Dept," Powell said. "This kind of response is too aggressive, and it just serves to increase the level of tension and violence in the region." During a conversation Sharon reportedly had with Powell on Wednesday, the Israeli leader defended the latest missile strike. According to media reports, Sharon told Powell that Israel has a right to defend itself. Also condemning the Israeli attack were China, Egypt and Mary Robinson, UNations' high commissioner for human rights. U.S. officials said no new peace initiatives are planned. They said the administration is committed to a cease-fire that CIA Dir. Geo. Tenet mediated June 13. Peres said the White House's harsh response to Tuesday's strike surprised him. "I was slightly amazed by it because the Americans knew that we didn't do it with joy, with enthusiasm or by choice," he said. Some in the region said the targeted attacks violate international law. "The govt itself does not refer to the current conflict as war," said Gabi Lasky, a lawyer & Peace Now activist. "Regardless of definition, there are rules of war stating what is allowed and what is not." Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called on Israel to agree to international observers. Israel has rejected posting observers in the Palestinian territories. Israel says it would be unfairly blamed for retaliatory and preventive attacks. In Nablus, Palestinians chanting "Death to Israel" marched in a funeral procession for the eight dead. Palestinian flags were used as shrouds for Bilal & Ashraf Khalil, ages 8 & 10, the brothers who were killed Tuesday. The six men were buried in green religious banners. Some of the mourners fired shots in the air amid cries for a jihad, or holy war, against Israel. Israeli airstrike kills 2 Palestinian militants   ¹ Men were reportedly laying a bomb near the fence between Gaza, Israel   2.19.06   AP Gaza City, Gaza Strip   An Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border fence on Sunday, military officials said. 2 militants were killed, Palestinians said. Palestinian medical officials said the 2 bodies were recovered in Khouza'a, a border village near the Palestinian city of Khan Younis. Residents said the 2 men, ages 18 and 20, were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group that has carried out several deadly bombings on Israeli targets in the past. The resistance committees did not immediately comment on the incident. The Israeli military officials told AP the men had been involved in rocket attacks on Israeli targets over the past week. The officials could not be identified under Israeli military regulations. MK seeks court ban on targeting terrorists 8.3.01   Moshe Reinfeld Ha'aretz (Israel) MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) yesterday petitioned the High Court of Justice with a demand that it prohibit PM Ariel Sharon & Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer from approving "executions without trial" of Palestinians from the territories. Barakeh also asked the court to issue an injunction to suspend the "assassination policy" until it rules on the petition. The High Court will discuss the petition in two months, as well as a similar one submitted by the widow of Dr. Thabet Thabet, who headed Fatah in Tul Karm until he was killed by Israeli forces late last year. Barakeh argued that the decisions on "summary executions" are taken behind closed doors, on the basis of unreliable intelligence information and without judicial review. He said the continuation of the assassinations policy escalates the armed confrontation, in which a small number of Palestinians are involved, into unnecessary bloodshed that includes innocent victims on both sides. An example of this, Barakeh claimed, is the fact that after Thabet's death a group of Palestinians shot dead 2 Israeli civilians in revenge. 'Human shields' protect Beit Jala residents 8.3.01   Amos Harel Ha'aretz (Israel) 30 human rights activists from Israel, Europe and America have moved in with Palestinian families in Beit Jala to act as "human shields" against heavy IDF firing into the village across the wadi from Gilo. The IDF says it is trying to find out exactly where the activists are staying for fear that wounding or killing any of them would create an international incident. The group, calling itself "the International Solidarity Movement," says its mission is to prevent harm to innocent Palestinians in the village when the IDF retaliates with artillery & missiles for rifle fire from Palestinian snipers. Several Palestinians and a German doctor have been killed and dozens have been wounded by IDF fire at Beit Jala in response to sniper fire at Gilo. At least two of the 30 are Israeli women and the group says more activists are due to arrive soon. Neta Golan, who has been living in the village for the past few weeks, told Ha'aretz yesterday the activists are staying with Palestinian families in homes that have already been shelled. "I'm living with a family in which a five-year-old boy lost a hand from Israeli fire a few weeks ago. On Wednesday night, shells hit the building." Another activist left a house with the family moments before a missile struck it. Golan says the activists "are not deluded into believing" that they can prevent shooting, "but we hope to draw international attention. It's clear it would be more upsetting to the IDF to hit one of us than some innocent Palestinians." Golan says she has spotted Palestinians firing from Beit Jala toward Gilo. The IDF says it has spotted 3 women from the group in a house snipers have used as a base in the past. Golan concedes the women were in the house, but not while there was any firing from it. "We aren't here to provide cover for Palestinian snipers," she says, "but for the civilians who are hit by Israeli fire." She says most Palestinian shooting is ineffectual and called the IDF responses "exaggerated." She said nobody from the IDF has contacted her to find out where she or the group is staying. IDF sources say the army is aware of the existence of the group in Beit Jala and is trying to avoid hitting any of them. They say that attempts to reach an arrangement with Palestinian officers to prevent fire from Beit Jala failed this week following the helicopter attack on the Hamas offices in Nablus. The sources say the Palestinian officers are "afraid" to confront the gunmen in Beit Jala. Israel launch reprisal attacks 1.26.02   AP Gaza City   Israeli F-16 warplanes have bombed Palestinian positions in Gaza City & the West Bank city of Tulkarem, in reprisal for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that left 18 injured. Warplanes pounded the Palestinian security compound in Gaza City, known as Ansar camp, in two waves. The compound sits next to the offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, which have been blitzed several times since the outbreak of the 16- month Palestinian uprising or intifada. At least one Palestinian was wounded in the late-night strikes, Palestinian hospital sources said. In the West Bank, an Israeli F-16 fired a missile, destroying a building close to the governor's building in Tulkarem, which has also been used as a headquarters for the security services and was hit by warplanes on January 18. A Palestinian security man was killed and some 40 other people were wounded in that attack. Today in Tel Aviv, a suicide bomber killed himself and injured 18 others, 3 seriously, in the first human bomb blast in Israel since Dec. 2. Israeli targeted killings gone awry 4.6.02   Peter Kenyon NPR preface   In addition to its military offensive in the West Bank, Israeli forces renewed its targeting killings of suspected terrorists. The policy is criticized as violation of international law, but Israeli officials defend it as a legitimate way of preventing further loss of innocent lives. Besides the ethical questions surrounding that policy, it can also be dangerous for both Palestinian bystanders & Israeli soldiers. Hebron   The full scale incursion Hebronites were bracing for yesterday didn't materialize although Israeli soldiers manning rooftop sniper posts were on edge. But most of the action in Hebron involved isolated attacks on wanted Palestinian suspects. Both operations proved to be deadly for the wrong people. On Thursday morning, an undercover unit of the Israeli border police pulled up to a Hebron house in an unmarked civilian car. They were looking for Hasan Kafeeshe (sic), a wanted gunmen from the Tanzi (sic) militia which is linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. There are conflicting accounts of what happened next. Israeli officials said a gunfight erupted between the police and Kafeeshe & his brother. Hasan's father said his son ran away as soon as the police pulled up. "I was at the store just down from the house and Hasan was with me. I told him to run away." There's no doubt shots were fired because one of them killed Border Police Superintendent Patrick Poleg (sic). 30 year old Poleg left behind a wife & 2 children. Hasan's wife, Haola, says she doesn't know if the Israelis will keep pursuing her husband. "They want to make our lives difficult. Maybe Hasan carries a gun to protect his family & his house, but, to the Israelis, anyone who carries a gun is a terrorist. I think they were mad because they didn't get him." Signs of Israeli anger & frustration are everywhere. Water pours from a bullet riddled rooftop tank of his neighbor. From the roof, there is a clear view of the remains of Hasan's house. Neighbor Mohammed Abusneni says the army was thorough in its demolition job. Three tanks shells hit the house, then the bulldozer went to work. Then more shells and finally at night, they laid explosives and blew the place up, damaging homes for 100 yards around. Yesterday came the second assassination attempt, a rocket fired from a helicopter destroyed a car sitting at an intersection. The intended target, a wanted Islamic Jihad activist, heard the helicopters and bolted from the car before it was hit, according to witnesses. But others weren't as lucky. A young boy happened to be close to the car when the rocket hit. Witnesses said it looked like Mohammed Shreyer simply burst into flame as the car turned into a fireball. At the hospital, doctors said he suffered second and third degree burns over 90% of his body. 2 operations using state of the art equipt and intelligence resulted in one dead Israeli police officer and one horribly burned Palestinian boy. Israelis have seen similar carnage after suicide bombings. They say something has to be done to stop the attacks. Israeli security sources say with Sec.State Powell's visit imminent, it's critical to try to eliminate as many potential bombers as possible, and these operations will continue as necessary. Cheney sees 'some justification' in Israeli attacks 8.3.01   Reuters WASHINGTON   VP Cheney said Friday that Israel had "some justification" when it deliberately killed Palestinians thought to be planning bombings. In remarks that contradict State Dept policy on the attacks, Cheney told Fox News: "If you've got an organization that has plotted or is plotting some kind of suicide bomber attack, for example, and they (the Israelis) have hard evidence of who it is and where they're located, I think there's some justification in their trying to protect themselves by preempting." ¹ State Dept spokesman Richard Boucher repeated on Thursday the long-standing U.S. position that it opposes the Israeli govt's policy of killing prominent Palestinians. "We're against this practice of targeted killings," he told his daily briefing. On the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday, Sec.State C.Powell criticized an attack that killed 8 people in or near a Hamas office in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday. Cheney told Fox News it would be better if the Israelis could work with the Palestinian Authority of President Yasser Arafat to prevent bombings and imprison people planning them. "In some cases they (the Israelis) have in fact gone to the Palestinian authorities with names & locations, and asked that the Palestinians take action against the terrorists in Palestinian territory. And when the Palestinians have failed to do that, then the Israelis have gone forward and launched a strike," he added. The State Dept & the White House denied this week a Washington Post report that they were at odds over how to deal with Israeli-Palestinian violence. Powell said they had "a consistent view" of Israeli targeted attacks. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "The administration … at all levels, deplores the violence there and that includes the targeted attacks." A State Dept official said he could not comment immediately on Cheney's remarks. Israel's firepower challenged 4.5.02   Paul Adams BBC … mounting Israeli toll inflicted by suicide bombers, the army is perhaps more concerned that recent weeks have seen a devastating sniper attack on an Israeli checkpoint and disabling of 2 Merkava battle tanks. For the military, this is uncomfortably familiar, inviting parallels with events in southern Lebanon, where Israel's occupation ended 2 years ago. Hezbollah guerrillas harried their opponents with roadside bombs & rocket attacks, eventually forcing Israel's withdrawal. Some analysts believe Hezbollah's example has stirred Palestinian militants to follow suit. Both conflicts have provided uncomfortable lessons in what military theorists call "asymmetric warfare", use of unconventional tactics to counter an enemy's overwhelming conventional military superiority. When superior power takes on highly motivated gunmen fighting to protect their homeland, effect on morale can be corrosive, particularly if the superior power starts to take casualties. Years of practice, and support from Syria & Iran, turned Hezbollah into an extremely effective fighting force. Disparate Palestinian militant groups & security organs have yet to coalesce into something equally threatening, but the longer this conflict rages, the harder Israel may find it to maintain the advantage. Israel's foremost military historian Prof. Martin Van Creveld, "he who is wise should never engage the weak for any length of time." During 1987-1993 intifada, Creveld warned a force trained & equipped to fight conventional battles in wars seen as existential struggles might suffer if asked to perform duties more naturally suited to riot police. The second intifada has proved infinitely more complex than the first, with Palestinians gunmen using a variety of weapons. But military imbalance is still glaringly obvious; death toll among unarmed Palestinian civilians appalls outside observers. One result is growing number of soldiers & officers refusing to serve in the occupied territories. Israeli newspapers say that a record number of them, 21, are now in jail. The movement representing so-called "refuseniks" claims that 400 reservists & officers have now signed a letter declaring their refusal to serve in the territories. Despite years of rioting & low-level guerrilla activity, Israeli Defence Force has yet to develop an effective response, relying instead on heavy-handed reprisals that arguably serve to make a bad situation much worse. …

Powell says U.S. opposes targeted Israeli killings 7.5.01   Reuters   ¹ Wash.D.C.   Sec.State Powell on Thursday underlined U.S. opposition to targeted strikes against Palestinian militants, one day after the Israeli security cabinet decided to resume the tactic. "We continue to express our distress and opposition to these kinds of targeted killings and we will continue to do so," Powell said in an interview with Reuters. However, he said that since the Israeli decision came out in media reports, there had been no such action by Israel. "But our well-known opposition to this kind of action is intact," he added. Powell said he still believed the Israelis, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and Palestinians could not get started on a plan for peace sketched out by a committee led by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell until violence levels fell. But the two sides disagree about what constitutes an appropriate level from which to start moving, he noted. "Mr Sharon says it has to go down to what he calls absolute quiet. The Palestinians believe that it's at a level now that we should move forward on the Mitchell plan," Powell said. Neither U.S. nor any other institution or country was "in a position to dictate to the parties when it begins. It is a judgement that the two of them have to make and Mr. Sharon has set for himself a very high standard," he said. Powell's remarks contrasted starkly with a Palestinian emphasis on moving swiftly beyond a cease-fire and cooling-off period prescribed by Mitchell to confidence-building measures. "At the moment I don't think any reasonable person would look at the situation ... and say that the level of violence has gone down to a point where someone would say we should all agree that it has reached a level where we should move forward," he said. Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and critically wounded another in the West Bank on Thursday, further eroding a shaky three-week-old cease-fire. Powell said there was no immediate plan for a high-level visit like his trip to the Middle East last month or by CIA Director George Tenet, who mediated the June 13 truce. But he said Washington remained committed to the peace process, stressing his belief that the Mitchell plan, which he has described as "the only game in town", was the way forward. U.S. officials say there is "no plan B" if Mitchell's fails. "We remain deeply involved and engaged. It's a source of continuing discussion here. It's a source of continuing discussion between me and my ambassadors in the region and our consul general in Jerusalem. "I will continue to consult with the parties in the region, but there is no scheduled plan right now for another high-level visit," Powell said. pleas for calm He made clear his strategy for now was to plead for calm. "I just keep imploring both sides to do everything they can to restrain their passions, to keep from inciting the other side with statements and rhetoric and to do everything within their power to bring under control those who might be responsible, and are responsible, for violence and terrorism." This is a far cry from July last year when the Clinton administration hosted a marathon summit at Camp David that ended inconclusively but broke new ground in tackling some of the toughest issues, including the fate of Jerusalem. The U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said there was "no alternative in mind" if the Mitchell plan failed. "We've given it our best shot ... Hopefully the period of relative calm developing over the last few days is going to stay," he said. "The plan isn't very complex because the problem is so incredibly simple. It's that the two sides don't trust each other and they can't get a hold of the violence." The Mitchell plan envisages confidence-building steps by the two sides after seven consecutive days of calm, and a return to talks shattered when violence erupted in September. "We're hopeful but it's hard to be optimistic given how many times we've seen a period of calm followed by renewed violence," the U.S. official said. U.S. urges Syria to exercise restraint after raid 7.7.01   Reuters Damascus   U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns urged Syria on Saturday to exercise maximum restraint after an Israeli strike on a Syrian military post in Lebanon in which three soldiers were wounded. Burns told reporters he also told Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara that Syrian-Israeli peace talks, broken off over 18 months ago, could revive if the confrontation halted in Lebanon between Israel, Syria and Syria's Hizbollah guerrilla allies. The U.S. envoy, who held similar talks with Lebanese leaders in Beirut on Friday, said attacks across the United Nations "blue line" on the Lebanese-Israeli border would block peace efforts. "I emphasized the critical importance for all parties at minimizing violence, maximizing restraint, and avoiding the escalation which can arise from violations of the blue line," Burns said. "Violence of that sort will make it much harder to revive the comprehensive process that I think we all seek," he said. The U.N. envoy's talks in Damascus follow last Sunday's Israeli air strike on a Syrian radar post deep inside Lebanon in retaliation for a Hizbollah missile attack on Israeli troops occupying the disputed Shebaa Farms area near the border. Two Syrian troops & a Lebanese soldier were wounded in the raid on the Syrian post in the Bekaa valley, where Syria maintains some 20,000 troops. The raid, which drew a Hizbollah counter-strike on Israeli troops in Shebaa farms, was the second such attack since April. Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, led Lebanese resistance which forced Israel to withdraw its troops out of south Lebanon last year after a 22-year-old occupation. The United Nations recognized Israel's pullout as complete and demarcated its extent with the so-called blue line, at the edge of which lies Shebaa Farms. The U.N. regards Hizbollah attacks on Shebaa and Israeli counter-strikes as violations of the blue line. It does not recognize Lebanese claims that Shebaa is Lebanese territory, saying it is Syrian land occupied by Israel. Syria has held sporadic peace talks with Israel since 1991 but the negotiations broke off in January last year without reaching agreement on the fate of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview released on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was planning a war in the region. "Today he is planning an even more extensive war because he cannot cope with a crisis in Israel," Assad told the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. U.S. asks Israel to end policy of assassinations 8.3.01   N.Guttman & A.Benn Ha'aretz U.S. yesterday asked Israel to stop conducting operations such as the helicopter attack on the Hamas offices in Nablus earlier this week because such actions damage Washington's relations with other countries in the Middle East. In contacts between Israeli and American representatives after the Tuesday attack, U.S. officials asked Israeli counterparts to "understand Washington's interests" in the region and to keep them in mind. But Washington yesterday refrained from a direct public condemnation of the govt decision to continue the policy of assassinations against known terrorists while stating its reservations about the policy. A U.S. State Dept spokesman said that the U.S. "has always been against a policy of assassinations," while White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that the U.S. calls on all sides to show restraint "and that definition includes" opposition to the assassination policy. The U.S. also did not directly and publicly condemn the use of U.S.-made Apache helicopters for the missile attack on the Hamas offices. The security cabinet yesterday decided to continue with the current policy of "downing terrorists." A senior diplomatic source said that "the current policy is much more effective against terror and also politically. This is not the time to bomb empty buildings or move into Area A. And nobody suggested escalation. The decision remains to continue and to monitor the situation, and to adapt policy if necessary." "We are committed to the Mitchell report and the Tenet plan, to regional stability and the prevention of escalation. And we are acting with the necessary responsibility." PM Ariel Sharon, who received a phone call from U.S. Sec.State Powell last night, convened the security cabinet for a 5 hour discussion of the govt's strategy versus the Palestinians. Ministers heard briefings from all the relevant security services, and there was a consensus between the head of the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has the situation under his control, influences and encourages terror attacks. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that Arafat should not be attacked. According to participants in the meeting, nobody in the meeting suggested a major military operation or any other form of toppling the PA. Sharon, Peres, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and his deputy Dalia Rabin-Pelessof, and Finance Minister Silvan Shalom took part in the meeting. The Sharon-Powell conversation was initiated by Powell who asked about the situation. Sharon said the Nablus attack was against people who had organized terror attacks in the past and planned more in the future. He told Powell, "it's our right and duty to defend ourselves, the way the U.S. defends its citizens. The PA doesn't act to prevent the murders and hasn't stopped the fighting for a single day." He said that 45% of Israeli casualties since the beginning of the Intifada have been by Palestinian Authority forces, "and Arafat has done nothing to stop the terror and Israel won't negotiate under fire." Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher called Peres to express concern about the situation and to condemn the "assassinations" policy. Peres denied that Israel was involved in the deaths of the six Fatah men in Jenin earlier this week, before the Nablus attack. He justified the Nablus attack, saying that the names of the Hamas activists had been given to the PA but it did nothing to stop their activities. Later yesterday, Peres said the time had come to seek a cease-fire by talking with the Palestinians "across the board, and not just about military affairs." The Peres-Maher conversation created a brief flurry of tension between Peres' office and Sharon's, after Peres issued a statement saying that Israel agreed to an American presence in Rafah, as requested by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. An hour later, Sharon's office issued a statement saying that Israel had not agreed to anything regarding observers or monitors." And an hour after that, Peres' office said that Arafat had raised the idea of Rafah monitors in his last meeting with Peres in Cairo. Peres promised to look into it and the next day told Egypt that Israel was not opposed. But nothing had happened since. Peres also spoke with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer yesterday, who expressed concern about the deteriorating situation. Washington's worried U.S. anxiety about the impact of the hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians on U.S. relations with the Arab world is beginning to have an impact on Washington's attitude toward the crisis. Saudia Arabia has been applying pressure on the administration to restrain Israel and return the parties to the negotiating table. Egypt and Jordan have also been calling for Washington to intervene to calm the situation. President George Bush heard that directly from King Abdullah in a phone call on Tuesday. State Dept Spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that Israel heard U.S. reservations about the helicopter attack on the Nablus Hamas offices from both Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage, who met with Cabinet Secretary Gideon Sa'ar, and in a meeting between U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer and Israeli officials in Israel. Hours after the Israeli attack on Tuesday, Cong. John Dingell held a hearing on U.S. relations with the Arab world, where various spokesmen for the American-Arab community called for a more balanced U.S. policy toward the conflict. At the hearing, Boucher said that U.S. policy is based on a regional approach and consideration of U.S. bilateral relations with countries in the region. He confirmed that there have been many approaches to Washington by govts in the region on the issue, but "all agree that the way to resolve the crisis is through the Mitchell plan." Canceled security session The scheduled Israeli-Palestinian security committee session, which was to be held last night in Tel Aviv and chaired by a representative of the CIA, was canceled last night by the Palestinians. An Israeli source said that the Palestinians told the Americans yesterday morning that they won't make it to the meeting as a protest against the situation in the territories and "Israel's actions against the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian people." Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, back from a trip to Washington, said that the U.S. expressed interest in a joint project to study ways to identify explosives, and promised to send Israel 2 new "robots" used for neutralizing bombs by remote controls after 5 Israeli robots have been destroyed by bombs since the start of the Intifada. Billy Graham apologizes for comments 31.02   Darlene Superville AP Wash.D.C.   The Rev. Billy Graham apologized Friday for a 1972 conversation with former President Nixon in which he said the Jewish "stranglehold" of the media was ruining the country and must be broken. The conversation was among 500 hours of Nixon tapes released by the National Archives. Most were recorded between January and June 1972. "Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon ... some 30 years ago," Graham said in a statement released by his Texas public relations firm. "They do not reflect my views and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks." In the conversation with Nixon, the Southern Baptist evangelist expressed disdain for what he saw as Jewish domination of the media. "This stranglehold has got to be broken or this country's going down the drain," Graham said, agreeing with Nixon's own comments earlier in the conversation. "You believe that?" Nixon says in response. "Yes, sir," says Graham. "Oh boy. So do I," Nixon agrees, then says: "I can't ever say that but I believe it." "No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something," Graham says, reassuring the president. Friday, Graham said his legacy has been one of working for stronger bonds between Jews and Christians. "Throughout my ministry, I have sought to build bridges between Jews and Christians," Graham said. "I will continue to strongly support all future efforts to advance understanding and mutual respect between our communities." Graham, 83, has been in frail health for years. The friendship between Graham and the president began during the Eisenhower administration, when Nixon was vice president. At a later point in the conversation, when Nixon raises the subject of Jewish influence in Hollywood and the media, Graham says, "A lot of Jews are great friends of mine." "They swarm around me and are friendly to me. Because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth. But they don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them," Graham says. Nixon says: "You must not let them know." We bought & paid for carnage of Palestinians 4.9.02   Robert Jensen Houston Chronicle UTAustin journalism prof., Nowar Collective member auth. Writing Dissent, "Citizens of the Empire" … new report by Institute for Southern Studies shows that in the one-year period after the Sharm el-Sheikh peace agreement in Sept. 1999, U.S. govt pumped $3.6 billion worth of arms into Israel, odd policy for a country playing a supposedly neutral role. … Israeli tanks rolling through cities & refugee camps of the West Bank made in U.S. & purchased by Israel with U.S. aid. Israeli jets & helicopters used in the assault are American F-16s, Blackhawks and Apaches. Machine guns, grenade launchers, missiles and bombs, made in the USA, paid for with our tax dollars, … Current Israeli attack on West Bank towns is not a war on terrorism, but part of long, brutal war against Palestinian people for land & resources. … Israel's war against the Palestinians would not be possible without U.S. military & economic support, $3 billion a year in direct aid. [ $8 to $10 million per day ] Israel can continue to ignore … U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on it to end the occupation because of U.S. support. … regional arms control should be part of reducing insane levels of armaments globally, of which U.S. is leading salesperson. … Confessions of an Israeli reservist   ¹ 4.13.02   Tarik Kafala BBC     Yesh Gvul Jerusalem   Israel has called up about 20,000 reservist soldiers to support its operations in the West Bank. But sending the reservists into refugee camps to destroy what the govt calls the Palestinian "terrorist infrastructure" has been controversial. Killing of 13 reservists in ambush 4.9.02 in the Jenin refugee camp shocked Israelis. Parents of the dead soldiers complained that their sons were sent unprepared into "a hornets' nest of terrorism". Yoni, reservist serving in the West Bank, told BBC News Online: "We have become cannon fodder. We are reservists. Many people are asking why we don't just go in and carpet bomb the place." Yoni did not advocate the bombing of refugee camps because of the civilian casualties. But he said that even regular Israeli soldiers, let alone reservists, should not be sent into the alleys and tightly packed buildings of the Palestinian camps. Current operations on the West Bank are being strongly criticised internationally. Death toll among civilians is believed to be high and aid agencies say the humanitarian crisis in the closed off Palestinian towns & villages is critical. However, the operations are popular with the Israeli public as a response to a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. Israeli leaders have made it clear that they will not pull back until their mission is completed. Yoni, who is probably in the minority in Israel, argued that he saw no military solution to the conflict because "it is about people. Take this for an example," he said. "There is a village where we have intelligence that someone is planning a terrorist attack. We surround the village and move in but there is a 17-year-old shepherd in a field on the edge of the village. He could be a terrorist, or he might warn them. Do I arrest him, blindfold him, tie his hands? Do I tell him to get inside quick? We are trained to fight armies & soldiers, and yet we have to deal with people in this situation." The whole principle of Operation Defensive Shield was questionable, Yoni said. He & many of his colleagues, he said, are not as sure as their political & military leaders that the campaign in the West Bank will stop terrorist attacks. "How do you destroy the terrorist infrastructure? We can get the weapons & the terrorists, but this infrastructure is in people's hearts and it cannot be uprooted from there. They hate me because I am an Israeli soldier, not personally. The people are not being held hostage by the terrorists, they sympathise with them. They think terrorism is going to help their national cause." "The most terrible thing is to go into houses and see that they are just regular families. The children with their wide frightened eyes, I find very difficult. We all have kids at home. We are serving here because it is our duty. But I don't know where it is leading and we would all rather be at home."

Hamas official says suicide attacks to resume 12.8.03   Reuters Gaza   A top official of Islamic group Hamas said Monday the recent lull in Palestinian militant suicide attacks against Israel was just a break between waves. "The martyrdom operations come as waves so there are gaps between the waves," Hamas chief spokesman Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi told Reuters in an interview. "We are just in the period of a gap between waves." A day after the collapse of talks among Palestinian factions on a complete cease-fire with Israel, which Hamas opposed, Rantissi said Palestinian militants were emboldened by Israeli PM Sharon's domestic woes and U.S. problems in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Everything is changed. Locally, regionally and internationally," Hamasco- founder Rantissi said. "The problems of America and the situation of America in Iraq & Afghanistan has its effect on the situation in Palestine. I believe that Palestinian people are stronger than before." Sworn to destruction of Israel and at the forefront of a suicide bombing campaign, the radical Islamic group opposes U.S. as the Jewish state's main ally. While Hamas urges resistance to the Americans in Iraq, it says it has no link to any groups fighting there.

Palestinian officials have said the decision by Hamas & other Muslim militant groups to spurn a truce reflected a poor grasp of the international climate. "They had a very weird analysis of the international situation," said Ahmed Ghneim, senior official in President Yasser Arafat & PM Ahmed Qurie's mainstream Fatah faction who participated in the Cairo talks. "They believe U.S., Palestinian Authority and Israel are in a crisis, while they are not."
Sr Arafat security adviser Jibril al-Rajoub added: "Apparently Hamas has not understood changes in the international arena."

Hamas agreed in June 2003 to a one-sided truce, but Israel never recognized it and it crumbled amid violence within weeks, hobbling a U.S.-backed peace plan that Hamas opposes. Rantissi said Hamas now sensed that Sharon's position had been weakened by a rise in domestic opposition to Israeli policies in occupied territories. Sharon has recently come under criticism from his own army chief and former heads of the security service while polls at the weekend put his support at an all-time low.
"I believe they (the Israelis) are in a bad situation because of the policy of Sharon, the murderous Sharon, and they are in a bad situation economically and of morale and of many other things," he said.

Israeli security sources say they believe Hamas itself has been weakened by the killing of some of its leaders and arrests of militants, but Rantissi said resistance would continue. At Egyptian-brokered talks which collapsed in Cairo on Sunday, Hamas said it was willing to stop attacks on civilians inside Israel proper if Israel reciprocated. But the Israelis rule out any cease-fire that would not also cover soldiers & Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, occupied since the 1967 war.
A cease-fire is seen as vital to any meaningful revival of a U.S.-backed "road map" designed to lead to a Palestinian state by 2005.

Girl suicide bombers ¹ 4.2.02   A.Applebaum Slate Last weekend, following the Friday suicide of Ayat Akhras, an 18-year-old Palestinian girl who blew herself up at the entrance to a Jerusalem supermarket, the BBC broadcast a small segment of the video tape she had recorded beforehand. A flash of dark eyes & long black hair, a checkered head scarf. A few words in Arabic could be heard then the BBC switched to another set of pictures. Excerpts from such videos have a weird formality about them and a stage-managed feel that somehow fails to evoke much emotion on the part of the viewers. After Ayat Akhras appeared on screen, however, it was hard to focus on the rest of the news. In part, it was the shock of seeing a girl's face behind the keffiyeh, although rationally there is no reason to be surprised by a female martyr, plentiful enough in Western cultural history. Catholic Church martyred female saint Joan of Arc and women terrorists with Italy's Red Brigades, Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang, and America's Weathermen, among many others. In the Arab-Israeli conflict, woman combatants are hardly exceptional either: The Israeli army itself has female soldiers. Yet Ayat Akhras, third Palestinian woman to die carrying out a suicide attack, was still unusual. She fit no standard description of "typical" suicide bombers. She not male, she was not overtly religious, not estranged from her family, not openly associated with any radical groups. She can hardly be described as a woman without a future. She was young, she was a good student, and she was engaged to be married, all of which is why her death reveals a great deal about the changing nature of the Palestinian terror campaign. Her death tells the effects Israel's border policy has on terrorist organizations inside the territories. Up to a point, the Israeli checkpoints work. Since the middle of the 1990s, it has been almost impossible for unmarried men under the age of 40 to get legitimate permits to cross the border into Israel, for any reason at all. Terrorist groups therefore look further for potential volunteers. They had some success among Israeli Arabs; Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, group that armed Akhras, claims to have a special unit to train female suicide bombers. "We have 200 young women from the Bethlehem area alone ready to sacrifice themselves for the homeland," an Al-Aqsa leader told the Guardian last week. Use of young women isn't entirely a matter of terrorist tactics. The the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or backers' public relations at work by sending someone like Akhras knowingly breaks frail, lingering barriers between combatants & noncombatants, terrorists & innocent civilians in the MidEast. War has come to women & children now killing women & children. [ Strategically labeled "total war" ] One of the two Israelis who died following Akhras' suicide attack was a teen-ager, a year younger than her. The message for Israel, and the rest of the world, is clear: Terrorism is not just a fringe phenomenon. Terrorists are not just strange young men whispering in dark rooms. Terrorists are high-school students, terrorists are women and terrorists are all around you. No one can be discounted. All Palestinians are potential terrorists, and terrorism will never go away. Whether or not all of this is actually true is immaterial: The point is to make the Israelis think it is, and thus give up, withdraw, quit the MidEast or else undertake a massive & potentially disastrous military operations of sort begun this week. Unlike al-Qaida, Palestinian terrorist attack groups are not all religious fanatics. People killing themselves in the name of the Palestinian cause are not necessarily doing so because they believe they will be granted entrance to paradise or because God will reward them with a succession of beautiful virgins. Nor are those in charge of this war madmen gripped by holy ecstasy or by a burning desire to see all their female relatives locked behind black veils. This is political war, not religious war, and suicide bombings carefully planned & executed are part of precise political strategy. Men who sent a young girl into a supermarket carrying explosives knew what they were doing as did she. Palestinian bomber kills 3   Female student blows herself up on shopping mall steps in northern Israel. 5th attack in 2 days.   5.20.03   M.K.Stack & P.Richter L.A. Times Jerusalem   A Palestinian literature student climbed the steps to a thronged shopping mall in northern Israel on Monday afternoon and blew herself up, killing 3 bystanders and wounding dozens more in the fifth such suicide attack in 48 hours. The string of blasts suggested that U.S. efforts to quell the violence in this region have divided the Palestinian leadership, shattered Palestinian militants' cease-fires and thrust the 31-month-old intifada into a dire new phase. "This is a declaration of war," Israeli PM Sharon advisor Ranaan Gissin said after the Monday bombing. Nevertheless, President Bush, chief force behind recent peace efforts, insisted in Washington he remained committed to pushing the process forward. "The road map still stands," Bush said, referring to a new internationally designed peace plan during an appearance at the White House with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. "The vision of 2 states existing side by side in peace is a real vision and one that I will work toward. I not only believe, I will move the process forward," Bush vowed. Administration officials said they had maintained contacts with the 2 sides since the bombings began and were continuing to prod them to take incremental steps toward a final peace. Some admin officials were privately somber about the developments and said that at the least, the increase in violence would greatly lengthen the time needed to coax the parties forward. U.S. experts were also pessimistic. Former asst sec. of State for MidEast Edw. S. Walker Jr, said the attackers had succeeded in "stopping things cold. Frankly, I don't expect this administration to push Sharon while his people are suffering," said Walker, now Washington think tank Middle East Inst. president. He predicted that the bombings would also undercut authority of new Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas unless U.S. can find a way to end the violence. In the latest attack, a woman identified as 19-year-old Hiba Daraghmeh stood in line at the entrance to a shopping mall in Afula, a sleepy, working-class town not far from the line that separates Israel from the northern West Bank. She neared security guards, then set off her explosives, witnesses said. There was a flash of fire, flying metal, the crack of exploding windows. Off-duty border policewoman Eti Pitilo stood a few feet away when the explosion occurred. She was blown onto her back and lay smelling the smoke and another odor she couldn't quite place. "I think it may have been the smell of the bodies," she said later from her hospital bed. "I couldn't see, I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk. I was just crying." Sharon and Abbas met Sat. night to talk peace. 2 days & 5 suicide bombings later, Abbas was complaining that the string of attacks played into Sharon's hands by providing him with a ready excuse to delay further negotiations. "We strongly condemn the killing of innocent civilians," he said Monday, "be they Palestinian or Israeli." Islamic Jihad & Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, military offshoot of Palestinian Auth. Pres. Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, both took credit for Monday's attack. As the militants vowed to keep fighting occupation, tense Israel tightened roadblocks & closures in the Palestinian territories. In bid to further isolate Arafat, Israeli officials also decided to boycott any foreign dignitaries who might visit him. Meanwhile, frustrated Israeli lawmakers urged Sharon to pluck Arafat from the ruins of his West Bank compound and send him into exile. Deporting Arafat is a suggestion that seems to surface whenever Palestinian militants have dealt Israel a particularly painful blow. But this time, officials hinted that their patience was wearing thin. "If Arafat continues to act as the main obstacle to the process," Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said in a speech to Tel Aviv Univ. board of trustees, "there will be no alternative but to think about steps to deport Arafat." Sharon, however, ignored the calls to exile his longtime foe, a move that would certainly further destabilize the region and anger intl mediators. "Arafat causes less damage in the Muqata", the Palestinian leader's compound in Ramallah, Gissin said. "For the moment, he has to stay put." Israelis who helped engineer the appt of Abbas, Arafat's choice for prime minister, now say they overestimated his popularity and ignored Arafat's staying power. As Israel pushes Abbas to dismantle the infrastructure of Palestinian militants, the resistance organizations grow scornful of the new prime minister, and wary of being disarmed by his security forces. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade abandoned its cease-fire around the time of Abbas' appointment 4.30.03. The powerful Islamic resistance group Hamas followed suit. "Things are exploding now because patience has its limits," said Hamas spokesman Ismail abu Shanab in the Gaza Strip. "We were trying to give the peace effort a chance, but now the resistance continues." Since Saturday, Hamas bombers have killed 9 people, striking Jews in the West Bank city of Hebron, soldiers in Gaza and blue-collar commuters in Jerusalem. With violence surging around him, Sharon backed out of a visit to Washington planned for today, drawing sharp criticism from his govt. Lawmakers berated the prime minister for squandering a moment of vulnerability, when it might have been easier to win U.S. sympathy for Israel's objections to the peace plan. Sharon, who prides himself on his close relationship to Bush, slapped aside the complaints. "Leave these matters to me," he told legislators from his Likud Party. "My relationship with the U.S. admin & U.S. president is such that they perfectly understand the situation here." Palestinians & Israelis are stuck, each side demanding that the other act first, each awaiting U.S. intervention . Palestinian negotiators say they won't tighten security until Israel accepts the U.S.-backed peace plan, and are calling for U.S. to force Sharon to cooperate. "We thought the Americans would really put more pressure on the Israelis, but has Bush got the courage?" said Palestinian analyst & negotiator Manuel Hassassian. "This is the real test of power." In White House comments, Bush called it "sad & pathetic" that some people in the region "still cannot stand the thought of peace." The president also understood Sharon's reasons for postponing his White House visit, aides said. Bush "respects this decision, understands it," said Wh.House press secretary Fleischer. "He looks forward to greeting Prime Minister Sharon at the first opportunity." Admin officials said Palestinian authorities must take steps to close down Palestinian terror organizations. Then, Israel must "think of how it can act in ways to support PM Abbas & his new govt and show respect for the life & dignity of the Palestinian people," said chief State Dept spokesman Richard Boucher. U.S. officials said that they were also urging Palestinian & Israeli security officials to work together to try to halt terrorism and that only through such joint efforts can progress be made. Sec.State Powell talked Sunday with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom & Abbas and was keeping in contact with other regional leaders, Boucher said. U.S. officials also made it clear to the Israelis that they agreed with Sharon's decision to resist efforts to have Arafat expelled. Walker said he too believed that the best hope lies in trying to foster cooperation between Israeli & Palestinian security organizations. "They need to work together and recognize that it's in their best interests to do so," he said. Fdtn for Middle East Peace pres. Philip C. Wilcox Jr argued U.S. officials cannot follow Sharon's demand that all violence stop before the 2 sides move toward peace.

feyadeen   feyadeen black widows Muslim brigands veterans' Gaza reunion Combatants for Peace L.A. 8 Jose Padilla Article 32 dupes Wahhabi Rachel Corrie David Hicks Iron sheik media incitement shahada Sergei Nechayev Robt Pape H. John Poole ibid Ahmed Hashim Nir Rosen David Galula John Nagl B.E. O'Neill Lester Grau Robt Taber Robt Asprey Ian Beckett Carlos Marighella Che Guevara Geo. Grivas Mao V.Nguyen Giap insurgency titles Sept. 1956, Fedayin begin "armed struggle" against Israel Female bomber's mother speaks out 1.30.02   BBC The mother of the first female Palestinian suicide bomber has said she is proud of her daughter and hopes more women will follow her example. Body parts found at the scene suggested that an attack on Sunday, which killed an 81-year-old Israeli man and left more than 100 injured, was the first of its kind by a woman. But confirmation of the bomber's identity did not come until Wednesday, when relatives identified her as Wafa Idris, a 28-year-old divorced paramedic. The al-Aqsa Brigades militant faction, part of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, also published a leaflet saying she had carried out the bombing in response to Israeli military actions. Wafa's tearful mother, Wasfiyeh, described her only daughter as a martyr, as she was consoled by relatives at their home in Amari Refugee Camp near Ramallah. She told the BBC she did not know what turned her daughter into a bomber. "Maybe it was because of all the wounded people she saw in the ambulances. She wanted to help her people. She was a daughter of Palestine," she said. Mrs Idris said Wafa was not a known activist with any Palestinian militant group, although her 3 brothers are Fatah members. She said she had suspected nothing when her daughter, who had been shot several times by Israeli rubber bullets during her work for the Red Crescent, rushed from home on Sunday morning saying she would be late for work. "When I heard in the media that a woman may have been behind the bombing in Jerusalem and she didn't show up, I believed this could be the only explanation for her absence," Wasfiyeh told the Reuters news agency. Ms Idris's sister-in-law said Wafa, whose father died when she was a child, had become withdrawn and morose in the weeks preceding the attack. The paramedic was angered by seeing children shot and killed during confrontations in Ramallah, she said. "She was happy when martyrdom attacks were carried out against the Israelis and told me she wished she would one day carry out such an attack," another relative, Manal Shaheen, said. It is still not clear, however, whether Ms Idris blew herself up intentionally, or whether explosives she was carrying detonated accidentally. The BBC's Orla Guerin in Ramallah says that Wafa Idris is already a heroine on the streets of the refugee camp where she lived. One woman from the Amari camp, a pregnant mother of three, told the BBC she would carry out a similar operation if she was given the opportunity. Wafa Idris's notoriety is also spreading rapidly: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has called for a memorial in her honour to be built in one of Baghdad's main squares, according to reports in Iraqi newspapers on Wednesday. Daughter's hidden truth: an angry martyr's soul 3.31.02   Joel Greenberg NY Times HEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank   Palestinian construction foreman Muhammad Akhras thought he knew his 18-year-old daughter, Ayat, as well as anyone. But on Friday he was devastated to learn the truth. She left that morning at the normal hour, 7am, for half-hour walk to her high school in neighboring village. Straight-A high school senior, she hoped to study journalism in college and was preparing for graduation exams, her father said. But that afternoon Mr. Akhras was horrified to learn it was Ayat who was the suicide bomber who struck a supermarket in Jerusalem, killing herself & 2 Israelis and wounding at least 30 others. One of the 2 Israelis she killed was a teenager just a year younger than herself. Ayat left behind a farewell video, her head wrapped in checked Arab head scarf, and the bombing was claimed by Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, militant group affiliated with the mainstream Fatah movement. Mr. Akhras, who said he has worked with & befriended many Jews, said today that he found the video too heartbreaking to watch for long. He sat cross-legged on a mattress on the floor of his spare home as people streamed in to pay condolence calls. "You can't see anything because of the grief, and anyone who tells you he can focus is lying," he said. Ayat Akhras was third & youngest woman bomber of the current Palestinian uprising, her attack signaling new readiness among some Palestinian women to join ranks of dozens of men who became human bombs in the fight against Israel. Mr. Akhras, grief-stricken & baffled, discovered after his daughter's death that she was living a far different life than the one her family thought. On the surface, he said, everything seemed normal. Ayat was engaged to be married to a local tile layer this summer, she was an outstanding student, and her days revolved around school, homework & housework, he said. There wasn't even a hint of anger, despair or political zeal that could have led her to a suicide mission. "She kept it a secret," Mr. Akhras said. "Had I known I would have closed the door & locked it with a key." Out early to work in the morning and back in the afternoon for a meal, his prayers and an early bedtime, Mr. Akhras said he did not get a chance to spend enough time with his 11 children, of whom Ayat was the seventh. Neither he nor anyone else in the family had a clue what she was planning, he said. Older brother Fathi Akhras, 26, said he saw only a teenager going about her daily routine. "After school she would come home and help with cooking, laundry, ironing," he said. "What was inside remained inside." Did she harbor a seething hatred for Israelis, stoked by months of deadly violence, or was she perhaps acting out of personal distress brought on by a planned marriage she did not want? Her relatives said they had no clue. "Had I known, I would have prevented it," said another older brother, Samir Akhras, 27. "She didn't show anything, and we didn't sense anything. We're against this killing & blood. If people want to fight, they should fight soldier to soldier, man to man. What is the guilt of Israeli civilians?" But there were others outside the house who voiced pride in what Ayat Akhras had done, pronouncing her a martyr for the cause. "We're proud of her, " said Jamil Qassas," 32, whose teenage brother was killed in the first Palestinian uprising more than a decade ago. "How many children and innocent people have the Israelis killed? This is a natural response. The equation works both ways." Mr. Akhras was devastated. A foreman at construction sites in the Jewish settlement of Beitar, he said he had made Jewish friends there and at previous jobs in Israel proper, friendships that have survived 18 months of deadly conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. "Politics is one thing, and work is something else," he said. "We work together, eat together, live together, like family. I love them like my children, and they love me like an older brother. I'm concerned for them like I am for my own son." "I taught my children to love others," he said. "We hope for life."

At 18, bomber became martyr & murderer 3.30.02   Graham Usher Guardian Jerusalem   Aayat al-Akhras, 18, yesterday became third & youngest female suicide bomber of the Palestinian intifada. She blew herself up, killing two Israelis, in a supermarket in suburban West Jerusalem. Her "martyrdom" came within 48 hours of a suicide bombing in the seaside town of Netanya that left 22 dead and more than 100 wounded, the worst Palestinian atrocity in Israel in 18 months of fighting. It gave chilling testimony to an even bleaker future prophesied yesterday by the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Ahmed Korai: "Israel is pushing us more and more. If it continues, there will be a million suicide bombers." Akhras approached the Supersol supermarket on a wet, windy afternoon in W.Jerusalem's Kiryat Yoval district, crowded with shoppers stocking up for the sabbath & the Passover holiday. Witnesses said there was nothing unusual about her appearance. Her western dress & European looks melded seamlessly into a middle class neighbourhood. Suspicions were aroused by her behaviour & heavy bag slung over her shoulder. She passed one guard at the supermarket before being confronted by another. She detonated her bomb, killing herself & two Israelis, a man & woman. 20 people were wounded, 2 seriously. "The blast was huge. She was just a few meters from the entrance inside," a witness said. Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said she set off her explosives as the security guard attempted to keep her out of the store. The guard's efforts "saved a large number of lives," he said. Hanna Cohen, who spoke to Israel Radio, said she was about to enter the store when there was "a huge blast and I saw people flying all around, arms & legs". 38-year-old doctor Avraham Ben-Yakov remembered telling the security guard as he entered that he was doing a good, important job. A few steps behind the doctor, the bomber approached the guard. "I saw a very intense explosion with dark smoke," Dr Ben-Yakov said. "People started running, crying." He rushed to help the wounded and found the young security guard barely breathing, both of his legs severed. "He lost all of the blood," he said. Police said the bomber was carrying parts of mortar shells that had yet to explode. "It was a partial explosion. Had she gone up fully, we would have an even worse carnage here," Mr Kleiman said. Akhras was claimed as a "martyr" by the al-Aqsa Brigades, linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. They have reportedly set up a special unit for female suicide bombers. "We have 200 young women from the Bethlehem area alone ready to sacrifice themselves for the homeland," an al-Aqsa leader in Bethlehem said last week. The bombing occurred after fights between Palestinian youths & Israeli police broke out at the al-Aqsa mosque mosque compound, contested site in occupied E.Jerusalem to Muslims & Jews. After Friday prayers, Palestinians threw rocks at Jews worshipping at the Western Wall. Israeli police stormed the compound, using stun grenades to disperse Palestinian worshippers. One Israeli police officer was injured and a Palestinian was arrested. A sudden deluge of rain & sleet doused tempers. The more Israel raises heat on Arafat in Ramallah, the more likely to ignite Jerusalem. Akhras lived in Bethlehem's Dehaisha camp, home to 10,000 Palestinian refugees. AP reported last night that as word of the bombing spread through the camp, some residents celebrated, handing out sweets & firing guns into the air. Akhras was engaged, according to a source in the camp. But instead of marriage she chose to follow in the footsteps of Wafa Idriss, woman bomber who killed herself & an Israeli in W.Jerusalem in January, and Daria Abu Aysha, English literature student from a village near Nablus who killed herself & wounded 3 soldiers at West Bank checkpoint in February. Palestinians in Dehaisha expressed "astonishment" at her death. But a glance at her history revealed motives for vengeance. Born into a family made refugees by the 1948 Arab- Israeli war, she witnessed one cousin killed by Israeli soldiers in the first Palestinian intifada, a second left permanently disabled and a third wounded. Amjad, friend of the Akhras family, speculated that the incident that had helped to turn Aayat into a killer was Israel's invasion of Dehaisha earlier this month. 3 Palestinians were killed, hundreds were arrested and women & children were held captive by Israeli soldiers in their homes. "It bred in us all feelings of despair & revenge," he said. "And that is what a suicide bomber is: a mixture of despair & resistance. You don't have to be a man to feel that. You don't have to be a woman. You can be a boy or a girl."

Sharon's war? 12.26.03   Robert D. Novak CNN Wash.D.C.   Sen. Chuck Hagel R-NE, having just returned from a week-long fact-finding trip to the MidEast, addressed the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations 12.16.02 and said out loud what is whispered on Capitol Hill: "The road to Arab-Israeli peace will not likely go through Baghdad, as some may claim." The "some" are led by Israeli PM Sharon. In private conversation with Hagel & many other members of Congress, the former general leaves no doubt that the greatest U.S. assistance to Israel would be to overthrow Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime. That view is widely shared inside the Bush administration, and is a major reason why U.S. forces today are assembling for war. "Military force alone," Hagel told his Chicago audience, "will neither assure a democratic transition in Iraq, bring peace to Israelis & Palestinians, nor assure stability in the MidEast." The senator returned from the Mideast more concerned than his prepared speech indicates. As the U.S. gets ready for war, its standing in Islam, even among longtime allies, stands low. Yet, the Bush administration has tied itself firmly to Gen. Sharon & his policies. Gen. Amran Mitzna, new Labor Party leader challenging the heavily favored Sharon in the Jan. 28 election, is denied access to senior U.S. officials. In private conversation, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has insisted that Hezbollah, not al Qaeda, is the world's most dangerous terrorist organization. How could that be, considering al Qaeda's global record of mass carnage? In truth, Hezbollah is the world's most dangerous terrorist organization from Israel's standpoint. While viciously anti- American in rhetoric, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah is focused on the destruction of Israel. "Outside this fight (against Israel), we have done nothing," said the organization's secretary general Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a recent NY Times interview. Thus, Rice's comments suggest that the U.S. war against terrorism, accused of being Iraq-centric, actually is Israel- centric. That ties GWBush to Sharon. The PM says astonishing things to U.S. visitors. He once rejected hope for negotiations, contending that Arabs & Jews will kill each other for a hundred years. More recently, he promised to put a Jewish settlement on top of any high ground. …	Suicide bombings kill 23 in Tel Aviv 1.6.03   CNN Tel Aviv   Two nearly simultaneous suicide bombings rocked central Tel Aviv early Sunday evening, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, Israeli police said. The explosions happened around 6:30 pm (11:30 am ET), the peak of rush hour, near a closed bus station. The neighborhood is home to a large number of immigrant workers and was the scene of another suicide attack in July that left 5 people dead. Just hours later, Israeli forces fired rockets at targets in Gaza. Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the Tel Aviv explosions went off about 150m (165 yards) apart and were timed "very close." Police said 103 wounded people were evacuated from the scene. Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, militant offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, initially claimed responsibility for the attack and said the bombers were 2 Palestinians from Nablus. But in a fax sent later to CNN on the group's letterhead, the group denied all responsibility. "The brigade remains fully committed to the legitimate Palestinian leadership headed by Yasser Arafat and stick by it," the statement said. The group is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Dept. Islamic Jihad, likewise on State Dept's list of terrorist groups, also claimed responsibility in a phone call to CNN's Beirut bureau, but its militant wing later denied the claim. After the attack, Israeli PM Sharon called an emergency meeting of his top Cabinet ministers, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Finance Minister Silvan Shalom. Sharon held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the terror attacks. "All attempts to lead to a cease-fire, even today, are failing due to the Palestinian leadership that continues to support, fund and initiate terror," he told a group of intl students in Jerusalem. Even as the Cabinet ministers were meeting, Israeli forces fired 9 missiles at targets in Gaza early Monday, witnesses said. One of the targets was a workshop. At least 4 people in a house were injured when one of the missiles apparently went astray, witnesses said. On the West Bank, Nablus and Bethlehem were under complete curfew early Monday, as was the part of Hebron near the settlement of Kiryat Arba. The attack was the deadliest since March 2002, when the bombing of a hotel dining room during a Passover seder killed 29 Israelis and wounded 140. Sharon spokesman Ra'anan Gissin was swift to hold the Palestinian Authority responsible for the bombings, saying it "instigated & supported" attacks on Israeli civilians. But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat condemned the attacks and called Gissin's assertions a "broken record, assigning blame & finger-pointing at us." He called on U.S. to step in to bring both sides back to the negotiating table. "We need the help of a third party," Erakat said. "We need the help of an American administration because the trust level between us & Mr. Sharon is below zero." Sharon said talks would not resume until attacks on Israelis ended. "Our goal is to stop the brutal terror, to achieve calm & quiet," Sharon said. "Only when the brutal terror is stopped, only then we will be able to talk peace." Gissin suggested the attacks may have been intended to influence Israel's Jan 28 election in which Sharon faces a challenge from Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna, dovish former general. The last suicide bombing in Israel was 11.21.02, when a Palestinian bomber killed 11 people and wounded 50 on a bus in Jerusalem. But Gissin said that the "relative calm" has been deceptive because Israeli authorities stopped several planned attacks before they could be carried out. President GWBush & U.S. Sec.State Powell condemned the bombings in separate statements Sunday evening. … Powell: "These attacks on innocent Israelis only serve to set back further the hopes of the Palestinian people and the president's 6.24.02 vision of 2 states, Israel & Palestine, living side by side in peace & security." … war update 3.30.03   CNN … battles … An Egyptian electrician working for the U.S. military drove a pickup truck Sunday into a line of American soldiers waiting outside the post exchange at Camp Udairi in Kuwait's northwest desert, injuring 15 of them. Fedayeen militia bears Hussein's stamp of cruelty 3.25.03   Scripps Howard News Svc Cairo   Saddam Hussein's most trusted paramilitary militia, Saddam's Fedayeen, has assassinated the Iraqi leader's enemies, put down protests and ruthlessly cracked down on dissidents since its founding in 1995. Now, with U.S.-led coalition troops advancing toward Baghdad, Saddam's Fedayeen are putting up stiff resistance and trying to prevent regular army soldiers from surrendering. Reports from the front suggest fedayeen members have organized battlefield ruses, like posing as civilians or faking surrender, to trap U.S. & British forces. Such scenes played out in An Nasiriyah & Umm Qasr, where the advancing troops suffered their first major casualties. The result of the fedayeen activity, intended or not, is to sow suspicion & division between the invading troops & the civilians and stop any uprising against Hussein. U.S. intelligence believes the fedayeen were dispatched from their strongholds in the Baghdad area to outlying areas over the last few weeks. Gen. Tommy Franks, speaking yesterday in Qatar, said U.S. forces had "intentionally bypassed enemy formations," and the fedayeen had been harassing the U.S. rear in southern Iraq. "We know that the fedayeen has in fact put himself in a position to mill about, to create difficulties in rural areas," Franks said. "I can assure you that contact with those forces is not unexpected." The guerrillas were formed to quash internal dissent & disturbances after Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War, esp. in the oppressed Shiite Muslim areas in central & southern Iraq. The first recruits, all extremely loyal to the ruling Baath party, incl criminals who were pardoned in exchange for serving in the units. Prewar U.S. intelligence estimates put the fedayeen's strength at between 20,000 & 25,000. Training includes urban warfare & suicide missions. By all accounts, Iraqis stand in mortal fear of these operatives, who favor either all black or all white attire, along with ski masks or scarves to hide their faces. They are renowned for cutting out the tongues of those who dare to criticize Hussein, and executing anyone believed to be plotting to topple his regime. Before this war, they also would sever the ears of those who deserted the army. For a time, they were shown on Iraqi TV butchering cats & dogs, then eating the raw meat. During 2000 & 2001, the fedayeen ascended to a new level of violence & intimidation through a campaign of publicly beheading the wives, sisters or mothers of those believed disloyal to Hussein as their offspring were forced to watch. Iraqi journalist Ali Abdel Amir, operating in neighboring Jordan, said Hussein trusts the force even more than his elite Republican Guard. "They have blind loyalty, they might even kill their fathers if they are ordered to do so," he told AP from Amman. Fedayeen members receive up to $100 a month, compared with the $3 govt employees are paid each month. They receive plots of land & other privileges, such as extra food rations & free medical care. The fedayeen report directly to Hussein's eldest son, Odai, powerful figure in Iraq with a reputation for extravagance & violence. This month, Al Zawra, a weekly newspaper owned by Odai, reported that fedayeen units were sent to the southern town of Al-Majar to crush a protest by villagers. The fedayeen can be expected to fight to the death because, if Hussein falls, they will not only lose their jobs, but also likely face violent retribution from the families of those they have harmed in the past.
Iraq Before move on Baghdad, allies to go after fedayeen   3.26.03   Michael R. Gordon NY Times Camp Doha, Kuwait   Allied forces have shifted the focus of their land campaign in Iraq to concentrate on defeating the fedayeen and other militia serving Saddam Hussein in the south before beginning the battle for Baghdad, senior officers said last night. The strategy had been to bypass Iraq's southern cities and drive toward the capital to take on Hussein's Republican Guards and ultimately topple his regime. But the resistance from the militia groups to the rear of the advancing forces has been so stiff that commanders have concluded that this Iraqi threat has to be addressed first. The attack on the Republican Guard will be delayed while American & British forces fight in and around Iraq's southern cities. "We will go to where the enemy is," a senior U.S. military official said last night. While the British were moving to the outskirts of Basra, forces from the Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment fought a battle near Najaf with what was reported to be a mixture of fedayeen & regular troops. Hundreds of the enemy were reported killed. In An Nasiriyah, Marines captured paramilitary fighters in a hospital that they had turned into an outpost. There was also fighting near Samara. The forces available to attack the paramilitary groups, incl special operations forces, light infantry as well as mechanized units. U.S. military officials said they intend to cut off the routes to the southern cities and, if necessary, send forces into those cities & towns to take the fight to the Iraqis. The goal will be to avoid street-to-street fighting and to direct attacks against the command centers, weapon caches and hide-outs used by the fedayeen, 60,000 fighters said to be commanded by Hussein's son Odai, hard- core members of the ruling Baath party and other Iraqi security forces. That commits allied forces to some form of urban warfare in southern Iraq. Yesterday, for instance, the British forces around Basra called in an air attack on the Baath party headquarters. American satellite-guided JDAM bombs turned the building into a pile of rubble, allied officials said. Allied military officials said the strategy is necessary to protect the long & still lengthening supply lines upon which the U.S. military relies to support the advance on Baghdad by the Army and the Marines. The shift in tactics is also of psychological importance: to demonstrate to Iraqis in the south, overwhelmingly Shiite Muslims, that allied forces are prepared to encourage and protect any rebellion against Hussein. Bush admin & British govt had hoped that allied troops would be hailed as liberators, a development that might mollify critics of the war, especially in the Arab world. But many Shiites have been sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see whether the Americans or Hussein will prevail. According to Iraqi exiles with contacts in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, the city was well stocked with food ahead of the war and put under virtual martial law to discourage any revolt. Shiites in the south recall the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the American-led allies called for the Iraqi people to rebel against Hussein but did not intervene with support when the Shiites did so. "We are going to prosecute this fight in a violent manner," said land war command chief operations officer Maj. Gen. J. D. Thurman. "We must make the people know we are prepared to take care of them." The strategy was in evidence yesterday. British forces, under the command of Maj. Gen. Robert Brims, moved toward Hwy 6 to cut off Basra from other Iraqi forces. British deployment & air attack on the Basra party HQ came amid reports of rebellion in the Shiite-dominated city and harsh reprisals by security forces loyal to Hussein. A woman who waved to British forces on the outskirts of the city was said to have been found hanged, and Iraqis moved artillery to shell rebellious residents. A huge cache of arms was discovered at Tallil air base, near An Nasiriyah. U.S. officials said the fedayeen were retrieving the weapons from the bunker to use against allied forces. There were reports that American uniforms had been found north of Basra. U.S. officials had anticipated that they would have to confront the fedayeen, but the general assumption was that they would primarily be a problem in Baghdad. The principal opposition in the south had been expected to come from Iraq's Republican Guard troops. In recent days, however, it became clear the paramilitary group was a far bigger problem than U.S. had anticipated. Dressing in black or civilian clothes, they have been driving in SUVs and using guerrilla tactics: hit & run attacks on American forces. One consequence of the new focus on fedayeen is that attack on Baghdad will be delayed. Allied commanders sought to dispel any suggestion that the delay would be long, suggesting that it would be measured in days, not weeks. The delay has a silver lining since there were indications that the U.S. forces could use more time to prepare for a major battle in and around the capital. A delay will give allied warplanes more time to bomb the Republican Guard positions near Baghdad. American warplanes yesterday bombed the Medina division, which is defending one of the approaches to Baghdad. A delay will also give the Army more time to move up men and supplies. Even now, units like 101st Airborne Div. were trying to get all their units ready for the Baghdad engagement.
Iraq files complaint with UN Mkt strike 'a violation of all united laws & principles' 3.31.03   CNN Baghdad   Iraqi govt has written a letter of complaint to the United Nations denouncing what it says was a missile strike last week in a shopping area in Baghdad. Iraqi officials said 15 civilians died in the explosion at the Shaab District market Wednesday. U.S. officials said coalition forces were not responsible, but Iraq insists they were. In a letter read Sunday on Iraqi TV, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri called the incident "a crime against humanity and all principles.These raids are a pure violation of all U.N. principles that prohibited everyone from attacking civilians and spreading terror among them," the letter said. The letter was addressed to U.N. SecGen Annan. A U.N. spokesman said Sunday that Annan had not received the letter, which called on the UN to take action. "This is a violation of all united laws and principles," Sabri wrote. "This aggression challenges the UN and the intl community as a whole." U.S. Central Command said earlier that what happened at the marketplace "may never be known. We think it's entirely possible that this may have been in fact an Iraqi missile that either went up and came down or, given the behaviors of the regime lately, it may have been a deliberate attack inside of town," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said. Brooks said coalition planes flew a mission over Baghdad at the time the marketplace was hit, but "not in that area." Both sides have charged the other with violations of the Geneva Conventions, which call for the humanitarian treatment of POWs & civilians during conflicts. According to Sabri's letter, 420 Iraqis have been killed since the beginning of the war, and more than 40,000 had been injured. Iraq's casualty numbers cannot be verified independently. … "Kofi is aware that the war has had casualties and insists all sides do everything to minimize casualties and to insure that all humanitarian norms regarding conflicts be respected," said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq. The March 26 market incident was the first of two such explosions in Baghdad. Iraqi TV reported that more than 50 were killed in a market bombing Friday. The Pentagon said both incidents were under review. Also, fires raged Sunday when explosions went off near the 28 April Shopping Center in central Baghdad. The blasts occurred around 2 a.m., when the center was closed. The source of the blast was not known. However, coalition forces said they targeted the Ministry of Information near the shopping center.	Militants call Israel suicide bomb 'gift to Iraq' At least 49 injured in Netanya attack 3.30.03   CNN Netanya, Israel   A suicide bomb that injured dozens in northern Israel Sunday was "a gift to the Iraqi people," according to a Palestinian militant group that claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing, which took place at a busy cafe in the coastal town of Netanya, injured at least 49, 5 seriously, Israeli police & ambulance services said. 10 Israeli soldiers were among the injured. Israeli govt official called the attack "another indication the Palestinian terror campaign against Israeli civilians continues. Palestinian terrorists continue to make every effort to strike at Israelis in the heart of our cities. Israel will take whatever measures are necessary to prevent such attacks from occurring against us." In a leaflet, the Islamic Jihad said the attack was "a gift to the Iraqi people from Palestine." Moreover, the group said it was "happy to announce" it had sent a fighting force to Iraq, a "kamikaze brigade" that had already arrived in Baghdad. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. It has been declared a terrorist group by the U.S. State Dept. The bomber was identified as Jamil Ranem, a Palestinian from Tulkarem, Islamic Jihad sources told CNN. The sources said the group is calling for Palestinians to act against coalition forces in Iraq and for those who can to act against Israeli civilians in a way to show solidarity with the Iraqi people. A report on Iraqi TV praised the mission. The Palestinian Authority moved quickly to condemn the bombing and urged the so-called Mideast Quartet to revive its efforts to create a "road map" to MidEast peace. Elsewhere in the region Sunday, 3 Palestinians were killed by Israel Defense Forces in incidents in the Gaza Strip and on the Israeli side of a fence marking the Gaza border. 2 Palestinians crossed into Israel from Gaza and were shot to death by IDF forces as they headed toward Kibutz Erez armed with Kalashnikov rifles & hand grenades, Israeli military sources said. IDF soldiers also killed a Palestinian and wounded 4 others whom the IDF identified as "suspicious figures" in an area of central Gaza closed off to Palestinians. The Palestinians were talking on cellular phones and using binoculars to observe a road that connects 2 Israeli settlements, possibly gathering information for future terrorist activities, the IDF said. The Palestinians were shot while trying to run away after the Israelis had told them to stop and had fired warning shots, the IDF said. It said that 3 other Palestinians escaped.

Israel's last suicide bombing happened in the northern port city of Haifa 3.5.03, when an attacker set off an explosion that destroyed a suburban bus, killing 17 people and injuring at least 40 others. Witnesses told CNN's Jerrold Kessel that a security guard or Israeli soldier stopped the suicide bomber from entering the cafe. The bomber then detonated his explosive outside the eatery, Israeli media reported. The attack occurred before 1 p.m. at the London Cafe in downtown Netanya's Independence Square. Many of the injured were sitting outside the eatery, enjoying the day's fair weather. The bomber's body was found outside the cafe, witnesses said.

Israel has been on a heightened state of alert since a U.S.-led coalition launched a war against Iraq 3.19.03. "This is another attempt to paralyze the Israeli society and to cause death," said Israeli Police Minister Tsahi Hanegbi. "We knew in advance that there will be an attempt to take advantage of the war in Iraq in order to cause casualties in the country. Fortunately, we don't have many casualties today. But we're still expecting more problematic events during the time of the conflict in Iraq," Hanegbi said.
A senior Bush administration official said, "We condemn this act of terrorism in the strongest terms." The leaflet claiming responsibility for the attack said, "This mission comes on the 27th annual day that marks the Land Day. This is our answer to the Israeli crimes against our people." Land Day is observed in Israel & Palestinian territories 3.30.03. Israeli Arabs hold annual protests on the day to mark what they claim were Israeli land seizures after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Netanya is north of Tel Aviv, only a few miles from the West Bank. The city has been the target of a number of suicide bombings & attacks in the past. One of the worst, known as the Passover suicide blast, happened 3.27.02. In that incident, a suicide bomber walked into the seaside Park Hotel and made his way toward a dining room, where police say 227 people were having their Seder meal. 29 died and more than 150 were injured.

nuclear   N.Korea Quemoy & Matsu sunk Soviet subs Nagasaki thyroid Pakistan rad pills Osirak Martian Cold War relics Sunburn vapor NATO pre-NPT 2000 CND NRDC re lab review NRDC re NIF 1999 Atomic Mirror Zion's secret arsenal Michael Collins Piper Francis Boyle

Bush wants nuclear test ban treaty to die
7.7.01   Reuters

[ (0.45)(0.37) = 0.17   acceptable fatality level for collateral damage by current conflict contingency norms ]

Age at the time of exposure was also an important factor in the development of thyroid nodules. The most significant effects were seen in those under 10 at the time of exposure. The study found no association between radiation exposure and autoimmune thyroid diseases, such as Graves' disease.
"The effects of radiation exposure may last for a lifetime," said author of an accompanying editorial Rockville MD International Epidemiology Institute scientific dir. Dr. John Boice Jr in the same issue of the journal. "Even exposure that occurred many years in the past still can have biological effects today."

That information may be important not just for survivors of atomic bombs, but also for anyone who's had medical treatment with radiation, particularly during the 1940s or '50s. Boice, also Vanderbilt University School of Medicine medicine prof.in Nashville TN, noted that anyone with a history of such treatment needs to let their current physician know about it, so they can receive proper follow-up.
He stressed that the risk remains low, and that risks from common radiation exposures, such as through X-ray or CT scans, are much lower still.

olive branching   veterans Combatants for Peace Gene Sharp Samantha Smith CEO contras rubber bullets al Iraq St. Augustine, Saroyan & sediton peaceful resolutions tools Direct Action to Stop the War Yesh Gvul Canadian haven CCCO AFSC re recruits SIPRI Wash. Peace Ctr Bushcorp boycott California Peace Action Calif. Law Students Dissent Byakko Shinko Kai orgs Peace Brigades Intl/USA Greenpeace Vote No on War ¥ No War Resolution Not In Our Name Pax Christi Bayard Rustin UN peace & security Vets for Peace Viet Vets against war Patriots for Peace Vets against Iraq war national Gulf War resource ctr Wildfaith Hague Appeal for Peace 4th Geneva Convention 4th Geneva Convention United for Peace & Justice Inst. of Science, Tech & Public Policy David Leffler Kenneth Boulding David Cortright Bill Sutherland, Matt Meyer Peter Ackerman, Jack DuVall Jonathan Schell Burmese Harp Carl von Ossietzky War comes second to Gulf camel races 1.18.03   Nicholas Blanford Times London Kuwaiti desert   American warplanes, invisible against the pale sky, roar overhead. But all eyes are on the camels racing around the 6 mile (9.7km) sand track. Children as young as 5 perch on the rear of their camel's hump, listening to instructions from the owner, relayed to a mobile phone tied around their neck, while flicking sticks against their steed's flanks. The Camel Racing Club in the desert about 25 miles south of Kuwait City is a welcome diversion from the uncertainties of a possible war with neighbouring Iraq. Hundreds of Kuwaitis attend the weekly meetings, with official race tournaments attracting thousands of visitors from all over the Gulf, incl royalty. "This is the heritage of Kuwait," said avid racegoer Ghanem Mutairi. "People are anxious about what is going to happen with Iraq, but there is nothing we can do so why not enjoy the racing." Yet even in the desert it is hard to escape the sounds of looming conflict. U.S. troops are training a few miles north, near the Iraqi border. The club, founded in 1992, has 5,300 members. Camel-owners, some of whom own up to 60 animals, watch the races from the comfort of plush leather sofas in a cool grandstand. Televisions and an enthusiastic commentator keep fans updated. As betting in Kuwait is forbidden under Islamic law, racegoers make predictions on who will win and get a prize, cash or cars, donated by the club or members of Kuwait's royal family. There's big money, too, buying & selling racing camels. United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al- Nahayan recently bought one for the equivalent of £205,000. Some camels can fetch up to £1.5 million.

simple potentially powerful grassroots campaign to protest war. Place 1/2 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (snack-size Ziploc). Squeeze out excess air & seal bag. Wrap it in a piece of paper on which you have written, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them." Romans12:20. Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them." If you are of a different faith than Christian, substitute a statement from your own faith tradition. Place the paper & bag of rice in an envelope (either letter-sized or padded mailing envelope; both are same cost to mail) and address it:   President, White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW   Washington, DC 20500 Attach $1.06 in postage. Trio of 37¢ stamps equal $1.11 circa 2.1.03   Quemoy & Matsu "In the mid-1950s, the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, learning of famine in the Chinese mainland, launched a 'Feed Thine Enemy' campaign. Members & friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice to the White House with a tag quoting the Bible, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." As far as anyone knew for more than 10 years, the campaign was an abject failure. The President did not acknowledge receipt of the bags publicly; certainly, no rice was ever sent to China. What nonviolent activists only learned a decade later was that the campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in preventing nuclear war. Twice while the campaign was on, President Eisenhower met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider U.S. options in the conflict with China over 2 islands, Quemoy & Matsu. The generals twice recommended use of nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower each time turned to his aide and asked how many little bags of rice had come in. When told they numbered in the tens of thousands, Eisenhower told the generals that as long as so many Americans were expressing active interest in having the U.S. feed the Chinese, he certainly wasn't going to consider using nuclear weapons against them."   People Power David H. Albert p43

Gene Sharp   Kyrgyz' Ukrainian blueprint IRI Soros Bringing Down a Dictator per video producer OTPOR! Nonviolent Action Self Reliant Defense Without Bankruptcy or War Civilian-Based Defense Civilian Based Defense in a New Era Dynamics of Nonviolent Action National Security through Civilian-Based Defense Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power Weapons of the weak Domination & arts of resistance Making Europe Unconquerable Making Abolition of War a Realistic Goal Social Power & Political Freedom Gandhi as Political Strategist Methods of Nonviolent Action Power & Struggle Evan W. Thomas Alternatives to Violence Spider Robinson Albert Einstein Institution sr scholar in residence, Cambridge, MA Univ. of Massachusetts Dartmouth Political Science prof. emeritus Harvard Univ. Ctr for Intl Affairs assoc.

"When the great lord passes,   the wise peasant bows deeply and silently farts." auth. Waging Nonviolent Struggle (2005) From dictatorship to democracy (2003) Self reliant defense w/o bankruptcy or war (1992) Civilian-based defense (1990). Role of power in nonviolent struggles (1990) National security through civilian-based defense (1985) Politics of nonviolent action   series   Power and Struggle (1973)   Methods of nonviolent action (1973)   Dynamics of nonviolent action (1985) Making Europe unconquerable (1983) Making the abolition of war a realistic goal (1981) Social power & political freedom (1980) Gandhi as a political strategist (1979) The politics of nonviolent action (1973) Exploring nonviolent alternatives (1970) Gandhi wields the weapon of moral power (1960)

"Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare", pioneer developing civilian based defense, Sharp "has identified 198 different 'methods' of nonviolent action, categorized into 3 general classes of action and 49 subclasses". ¹ He applies results of his studies on nonviolent struggle to the problems of deterrence & defense. Political power is not intrinsic to rulers but derives exclusively from citizens. Thus political power requires social support. Therein lies key to nonviolent action: "Political power disintegrates when   people withdraw their obedience & support" His works explain for general public & policymakers how massive & selective noncooperation & defiance by country's population & institutions deny attackers their objectives without the dangers of modern war. Sharp attempts to correct common "misconceptions" about nonviolence. Among these:

"Success with nonviolent action does not require (though it may be helped by) shared standards & principles, a high degree of community of interests, or a high degree of psychological closeness between contending groups".

Gene Sharp: What do they prefer that the U.S. spend the money on?

M. Spencer: They just shouldn't interfere. No country should interfere in the affairs of another country.

Gene Sharp: No country should have been upset with the Nazi regime? That's a clear example. Whoever is in control of the state apparatus, no matter what they do, should be untouchable?
I think any superpower has a responsibility to explore other kinds of struggles that might be developed so that frustrated people seeking democracy don't kill thousands of people. Superpowers should devote one or two percent of their military budgets to exploring these other possibilities. That's the least that one could ask for.

M. Spencer: What about nonviolent action in Tibet? When I interviewed Samdhong Rinpoche he mentioned some contact with you and hoped you would help them do something.

Gene Sharp: I have been waiting for a report on recent developments since we were with them in India. We don't yet have it yet. There is a clear case, I think, where nonviolent struggle is the only option they have of their own accord.
When the US was funding guerrilla activity in Tibet against the Chinese, it was disastrous.
Just meditating on nonviolence and reaching higher levels of spiritual achievement doesn't exactly remove an aggressive Chinese occupation. This is about all they have.

Whether they all see that, and what they choose to do about it, that's another question.
I also have a book in Tibetan; it is not published in English. The English translation of the title is The Power and Practice of Nonviolent Struggle. The Dalai Lama wrote the introduction to it. Although his approach is not identical to mine, he was welcoming this examination of nonviolent action.

M. Spencer: You once told me that military people understand you better than peace people do.

Gene Sharp: Yes. That does not mean that no peace people can understand this. Some are very good at it. Some see nonviolent struggle on a pragmatic basis as a fulfilment of their principles. But there are many people in peace organizations who don't like conflict.
A few years ago, I gave a talk about national defense by prepared nonviolent resistance. Someone in the audience was very shocked, and accused me: "All you are doing is taking the violence out of war!"
And someone else in another audience said, "Well, my goodness, what if the Nazis had learned to use this nonviolent resistance?"

M. Spencer: What did you say?

Gene Sharp: That there would have been 6 million Jews left and millions of other people would not have been killed. If the Nazis had expressed their racial theories through boycotts and so forth, it wouldn't have been wonderful, but it would have been a whole lot better.

M. Spencer: How far would you go with that? Suppose some neo-Nazis came to you and said, "We want to learn how to do nonviolent action."

Gene Sharp: I would say, "Here is a list of publications on nonviolent struggle. I think your world outlook and your racial theories are detestable. I will not advise you on how to conduct your struggle. If you want to learn how to use nonviolent methods, they are there. I would prefer that you change your outlook on the world and on other people. If you continue to be Anti-Semites, then it is better for you do this than to slaughter people."

This was reflected in the U.S. South. I was in Europe during most of the Civil Rights struggles, but when the civil rights workers found the local gas station wouldn't sell them gasoline, or when the bank manager foreclosed on loans early, because they were campaigning for rights for African Americans, that was bad, but it was much preferable to lynching, of which there were many cases.

M. Spencer: The example of Iran confirms that. The opposition to the Shah was nonviolent. I know of no one who supported having the Ayatollahs take charge and create theocracy. Nevertheless, I'm glad they did it nonviolently.

Gene Sharp: Yes. I don't think all the people participating in the Iranian situation of 1979 were in favor of theocracy. Some of them were just for more democracy.
There is the phase of the struggle and then there is the phase of transition of the regimes. If you are not careful, you can be successful in undermining a regime that is oppressive and then leave yourself wide open to a new group taking over and installing themselves as dictators.
That's what Lenin and the Bolsheviks did in 1917 and that's apparently what the Ayatollahs did in Iran. There are other cases of this, so you have to plan the transition carefully and have methods planned to block future takeovers or coups d'etat.
<>p> One of my new publications is called The Anti-Coup. There have been many cases where a regime has been undermined but then a new group takes advantage of the confusion and the people passively submit instead of resisting that outfit too.

M. Spencer: My sense is that nonviolence needs to be coupled with an emphasis on democracy and what to do after you have destabilized dictatorship. By itself, nonviolence is only half of the equation.

Gene Sharp: I have a few pages on that point in the booklet From Dictatorship to Democracy, which was written for the Burmese democrats and published in Bangkok in 1993.
There's a case where the 1988 uprising undermined the military dictatorship, which had been established by the coup d'etat long ago. They undermined three or four military governments.
Then the democratic leaders started arguing among themselves over who was going to head the new democratic govt.

This gave the military a chance to carry out a new coup d'etat, and people collapsed in the face of massacres. Though they really undermined the military dictators in Burma, the democrats did not use that partial victory effectively and helped mess things up themselves.

M. Spencer: Which is what also happened in Serbia, before and after Milosevic. The democratic parties couldn't get their act to gether.

Gene Sharp: I don't know much about that. When was I there, I think it was in May of 2001, they certainly had a democratic govt. They didn't have a perfect regime. You can't expect that, if you do one nonviolent struggle, then you've got a kingdom of God on earth.
They held a democratic election, with different parties and they weren't aiming for a complete transformation of all the society or getting rid of all their problems. But it was infinitely better than what they had previously. It gave them a chance to make that society better. Whether they used this opportunity well or not, I can't judge.

M. Spencer: Well, as I understand it, the murder of Djindjic finally woke some people up and made them realize they actually had to get rid of some of these Mafias that had been buddies with Milosevic. Yes, they are cleaning house now, but only because they had this assassination.

Gene Sharp: I heard that too. There is a naivete among some advocates of nonviolent means. They think that if you've had one nonviolent struggle, you are not going to have any more serious problems.
I have heard people say that all the nonviolent struggles for independence in India and all of Gandhi's work was a waste. They still have the caste system, they still have poverty, they have an Indian Army, as though one series of struggles for independence from a colonial power could have possibly solved all these problems.

That's nonsense. They set much higher standards for evaluating effectiveness and success of nonviolent struggle than for violent struggle.

M. Spencer: What about a nonviolent struggle against a nonviolent struggle? Such as in, say, Venezuela. Both sides in conflict now have largely used nonviolent methods.

Gene Sharp: I haven't been to Venezuela. A couple of people who worked with us, including Bob Helvey, have been there and done a workshop for Venezuelans, but I am not well informed on that situation.
However, without discussing Venezuela, which I don't know much about, the idea that you can have nonviolent resistance confronting nonviolent resistance, that's wonderful.
We don't think it's strange that in a war both sides use violence. If you can get both sides using nonviolent struggle against each other, that's a great advance. We should be welcoming that, even though we could still take sides.

M. Spencer: I raised the Venezuelan case because it illustrates another point, that whether or not the side using nonviolence is the one with the better policies, it won't win if citizens don't strongly support them.
Chavez is steering the wrong course on economic matters. They won't get out of the hole until they have different policies. But the nonviolent opposition against him lost. I am not sure that nonviolence always gives the best political outcome, but at any rate, I would rather see nonviolence used than violence.

Gene Sharp: Nonviolent struggle can fail because it wasn't planned well, because it had a poor strategy. People sometimes say, "Let's just have a strike and stop everything from functioning economically".
But how long can people not feed their families because they are not getting any pay? There is a limit on how long a strike can continue. When it fails, it doesn't necessarily mean the population favored one side over the other. It may have been a simplistic economic solution to what was largely a political problem.

Some of the means being used now by the Chavez govt such as the currency limitations mean that people can't buy things abroad. So the newspapers, which have often been anti-Chavez, cannot buy newsprint. Therefore opposition newspapers will be driven out of business, which means govt control of the news.
So it is a very complex situation.

M. Spencer: What do you think about the use of force in such cases as Rwanda or East Timor, to prevent oppression by part of the population or by the govt itself on its own people?

Gene Sharp: First let me react to your use of the word "force." I have a problem with that word because it's a polite term for military violence. It assumes that nonviolent means are incapable of force. It sets up a terminological bias in favor of military means. We say it is "force" and that is more respectable.
But the question of genocide by the govt, that is a grave problem. We can't wait to find an answer until the slaughter starts. It's like getting a car on the edge of a cliff and saying, "If you don't like the way I'm driving, you take over".

You get to the point where there is no easy solution, whereas we should have started in a different direction long ago. Hannah Arendt's book, Eichmann in Jerusalem, for which she was maligned, is very important. She said that the slaughter that the Nazis perpetrated will not be the last.
At that time, many people thought, "Oh good, it's over!" She was saying, No, it's not over. This is going to happen again and we have to examine how it happened if we are to block it it in the future.
She showed that the Nazis did not get as many Jews and Gypsies out of occupied countries as they wanted. In some cases they got massive numbers to the gas chambers. In other countries they got very few, not that they didn't want them; they just couldn't get them.

She asked: Why were more people saved in some countries than in others? It turns out it was largely because someone whose help was needed, refused to help the Nazis. Sometimes even German officials didn't give the instructions or make their troops available. Sometimes it was the general population that hid the Jews or helped them escape.
Sometimes it was Jews themselves who made themselves difficult to collect and send on to the gas chambers.
Decades ago I proposed studying cases of attempted genocide and the degree to which the perpetrators' attempts were successful, how they were blocked, so we can learn what forms of resistance are likely to be useful in the future.

There are more studies of genocide now, but that kind of comparative study has not been done. When you have a massive slaughter going on, what do you do? I don't have easy solutions. We should have started those kinds of studies before, knowing there is ethnic hatred in an area where military institutions are continuing to build up that can be transferred to a different purpose when they get the command.
If such institutions weren't there, if people had training in noncooperation & resistance and identifying the danger points, we could put a stop to it now. Then we wouldn't be depending upon military or international assistance, which may or may not be helpful.

Genocide happens under wartime conditions. Goebbels and Hitler both recognized that fact and were looking forward to a war in order to exterminate Jews and others.

M. Spencer: Some critics say that a nonviolent campaign requires special circumstances, such as a free press and means of communicating with members of the opposition.

Gene Sharp: Well, obviously, under a totalitarian regime communication is more difficult and the activities are more dangerous. But the idea that it cannot happen under such conditions is ridiculous. It has happened.

M. Spencer: Where?

Gene Sharp: Nonviolent struggle occurred in Nazi occupations. In Norway, for example, and the Netherlands. Newspapers were published in the hundreds of thousands of copies per issue in Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Not just one, but several.
In Norway, they published small newspapers, newsletters, and books. Copies of them are in the Norwegian Resistance Museum in Oslo. The same thing happened in the Soviet Union with their "samizdat" publications. It happened in Poland during the Soviet presence and the Communist regime. They had underground publishing houses.

M. Spencer: Let's talk about the future. How can we advance this technique? What research issues still need to be addressed? How can we promote nonviolence as a message?

Gene Sharp: First, we need to disseminate knowledge about this type of struggle. How do you face difficult conditions? I acknowledge that there are difficult conditions, but difficulties are not the same as impossibilities.
Bob Helvey focuses on one important element: How can people control their fear and act despite it? I am not sure whether this is different from soldiers in the front lines of conventional wars. They are afraid, yet they keep fighting. How do they do this?

In nonviolent struggles people knowingly face terrible potential consequences for their actions and their protests. They have to learn what not to do. Don't deliberately march down the street toward the machine guns. Stay home! Mobilize the city in silence! It will be harder for them to kill anybody, let alone thousands of people in a few minutes.
Some people oppose strategic thinking. Time after time, people march down facing the guns, very brave. Sometimes the soldiers lower their guns and sometimes they don't. But resistance movements need to plan. This is no time for spontaneity or feeling.

People say, "I feel that … " in many nonviolent action planning groups. How conceited! Their feeling is more important than whether the struggle succeeds?
This is one of the terrible things that happened in Tiananmen Square. The students had voted to leave the square. Then students came from other parts of China who had not had a chance to demonstrate yet, so they voted to stay in the square, because they wanted to. Foolish!

How to plan to make nonviolent struggle more effective? My next book will have 4 chapters on planning strategies for nonviolent struggles. People in nonviolent struggles rarely understand what the word means, so be careful when you hear people talk about "strategy".
It means calculating how to remove the sources of power from the oppressive regime. You have to identify what makes those sources strong. You must also be aware of the weaknesses of the regime and how to aggravate them and make the regime disintegrate.

In Poland they came up with 9 points: Do not do this, do this, do that, a simple list. Then disseminate this knowledge right away. Correct our history books. Put nonviolent struggles into the places they merit in history. How people view the past helps determine their present and future.
Our military establishments are well prepared for decades in advance. Nonviolent struggles may be prepared a few days in advance, and frequently that's not done well. This tips the bias in favor of the use of military means. Methods of undermining dictatorships can be presented in clear terms and spread throughout the whole population. Then they will have greater chance of success.

We need programs on genocide prevention. Instead of just considering how to do it at the last minute, ask, how can we prevent it from getting started? How can we prevent the rise of new dictatorships, not just how we can fight them when the Gestapo is knocking at our door.
If they are there, how can we disintegrate those dictatorships before they slaughter a population or engage in international aggression or develop methods of mass extermination? We have a lot to do.

Man arrested for 'peace' T-shirt 3.4.03   Reuters NYC   A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall. According to the criminal complaint filed Monday, Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance" that he had just purchased from a vendor inside the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, NY, near Albany. "I was in the food court with my son when I was confronted by 2 security guards and ordered to either take off the T-shirt or leave the mall," said Downs. When Downs refused the security officers' orders, police from the town of Guilderland were called and he was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, charged with trespassing "in that he knowingly enter(ed) or remain(ed) unlawfully upon premises," the complaint read. Downs said police tried to convince him he was wrong in his actions by refusing to remove the T-shirt because the mall "was like a private house and that I was acting poorly. I told them the analogy was not good and I was then hauled off to night court where I was arraigned after pleading not guilty and released on my own recognizance", Downs told Reuters in a telephone interview. Downs is the director of the Albany Office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of misconduct against judges and can admonish, censure or remove judges found to have engaged in misconduct. Calls to the Guilderland police and district attorney, Anthony Cardona and to officials at the mall were not returned for comment. Downs is due back in court for a hearing on March 17. He could face up to a year in prison if convicted.

Samantha Smith 8.24.00   K.L. Demarest Mayer NAPF … In the 1980s, the U.S. & Soviet Union were in the midst of "Cold War", war between the ideologies of democracy & communism. 10 year old Samantha Smith from Manchester, ME was concerned about peace. She suggested that her mother write to the new president of the Soviet Union. Instead, Samantha's mother proposed Samantha write to him. In her letter, Samantha expressed her fear about a "nuclear war" between Russia & U.S. She questioned why Andropov wanted to "conquer the world or at least our country." She stated that "God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight." The following April, Samantha received a 3 page letter from Andropov. He addressed her concerns and said that the Soviet Union did indeed "want very much to live in peace, to trade & cooperate with all our neighbors on this earth." In his letter, Andropov invited Samantha to visit the Soviet Union in the summer. The press showed up at the Smith household. Samantha was an instant celebrity. 7.7.83 Samantha flew to the Soviet Union. She toured the country; met with the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova; met with the U.S. ambassador; and attended the Soviet youth camp Artek, on the Black Sea. The children at the Artek Pioneer Camp were members of a group called the "Young Pioneers," similar to the Boy & Girl Scouts in America. … After returning, Samantha continued to be involved in the crusade for peace. She made speeches & television appearances. She wrote a book, Journey to the Soviet Union. She traveled with her mother to the Children's International Symposium in Kobe, Japan. … Tragically, Samantha & her father were killed in a plane crash Aug. 1985 when she was 13 years old. The Soviet govt issued a stamp in her honor and named a diamond, flower, mountain and planet after her. In Augusta ME a life size statue stands in commemoration of the brave girl. The statue shows Samantha releasing a dove while a bear, the symbol of Maine & the Soviet Union, clutches at her leg. Candidate makes a push for peace 8.10.03   Dick Stanley American-Statesman Critics called him Dennis the Menace in 1977 when the 31-year-old was "the boy mayor" of Cleveland. But he was elected to save the city's electric power system. He did. Now the 56-year-old Ohio congress from , who was campaigning in Austin on Saturday, wants to be the Democratic nominee for president. He thinks he can wrest the presidency from GW Bush. "I'll be appealing to the basic courage of the American people," Kucinich said. "This administration is based on fear. They're totally manipulating the people of America." Kucinich has been endorsed by Willie Nelson, based on a pledge to restore rural communities & family farms by breaking up agricultural monopolies. The candidate was in town for a speech to the national convention of the Campus Greens at the Austin Music Hall. He flew in from an appearance in San Francisco, plans to appear on CNN this morning from an Austin TV studio, and will fly to New Hampshire in the afternoon. "This election will be based on what happens on America's campuses," Kucinich said Saturday. "To rouse America to the cause of peace. Principal among that is eliminating the waste in the Pentagon and the programs that are preparing us for World War III." He is the author of legislation to create a cabinet-level Dept of Peace as a counterbalance to the Dept of Defense and to establish nonviolence as a principal in domestic & foreign affairs. "It's about challenging the underlying assumption that war is inevitable," he said. Kucinich dismisses critics who say that after 9.11.01 a Democratic presidential peace candidate has about as much chance as Democratic president nominee George McGovern did in 1972 when McGovern lost 49 states in his race with President Nixon. "To the contrary, I am the taxpayer's friend," Kucinich said. "What the Bush administration has done is scare the American people into believing we should passively x a huge increase in defense spending."

An antiwar chief (and proud of it) 4.6.03   Amy Cortese NY Times Lan Kligerman is the first to say he has had good fortune. He has prospered as an entrepreneur, he says, and appreciates the rights he enjoys as an American. "I am for this country," he said in an interview last week. "Nobody should misinterpret that." In that assessment, he hardly stands out among the ranks of corporate executives. But he has distinguished himself in one particularly contentious way: he has been a vocal & unrelenting critic of President Bush and the war in Iraq. Despite the prominent role that business executives have played in shaping debate on other matters of public policy, from deregulation to tax cuts and labor law, remarkably few have publicly expressed an opinion about the war, either for or against. Vanderbilt Univ. M.B.A. program leadership communication prof. Fred Talbott says chief executives in particular often have perspectives that can be valuable in a national debate. "Business & other leaders," he said, "seem to be reluctant to speak out at all." The reasons, Mr. Talbott and others say, include a fear of offending their co. shareholders & customers, and of being publicly labeled unpatriotic. As Egg Harbor Township, NJ AkPharma Inc. founder & CEO, Kligerman shrugs off such concerns. He built a small empire creating digestive aids like Lactaid, brand of milk for people who cannot digest lactose, or milk sugar. He also developed Beano, enzyme that breaks down the complex sugars that can make beans hard to digest. He sold the rights to both of those products years ago, though AkPharma makes versions of Beano & Lactaid for pets, as well as several new antacid products, including Prelief, for people. "The U.S. is a land of unbelievable, unparalleled upward economic mobility for the entrepreneur," Kligerman said. "That is something I truly appreciate." He was born in Atlantic City and worked in his parents' dairy business near there, delivering milk to customers. After studying dairy science at Cornell, he started an ice cream delivery service in the late 1950's and later founded a low-sugar ice cream company called SugarLo. From there, he moved into nondairy ice cream and then lactose-reduced dairy products; that business became Lactaid Inc. in 1974. At the same time, Kligerman raised 5 children with his first wife. He is now married to pianist Donna Battista, and has 7 grandchildren. Through the Kligerman Fdtn which he chairs has contributed to nutritional research & other philanthropic causes.

While praising the U.S., Kligerman does not hesitate to speak out against the Bush administration. He contends that its policies, particularly involving the war in Iraq, are tarnishing the worldwide image of U.S. as "a haven for the oppressed, a place of free speech, free thought and free yet governed economic growth." Kligerman, who will turn 73 this month, protested the Vietnam War in the 1960's. He supports the Anti-Defamation League & NAACP. He supports Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, nonpartisan group of business executives & former military officers who contend that govt's spending priorities, particularly involving the military, do not address the nation's most pressing needs.
Mr. Kligerman's name has appeared in antiwar advertisements that the group has run in newspapers & magazines to warn that war in Iraq will not only take a terrible toll in human life but will also hurt the economy and breed terrorism. In addition, he has given speeches & written op-ed essays criticizing govt positions on the war, energy policy and civil rights. Most of all, he has lamented what he calls the hubris that characterizes the Bush administration.

In debates about the war in Iraq and the country's domestic & foreign agendas, such views are not uncommon. What is unusual is for a business executive to express them as publicly and as often as Kligerman does. He acknowledges that it is easier for him to speak his mind because his co. is small & privately owned. Leaders of large, publicly traded companies, on the other hand, generally find it too risky to take a stand on the war, for or against.
The few who have made their feelings known have been harshly rebuked. Milwaukee Wisconsin Energy Corp. chair & CEO Richard Abdooin , for example, was pilloried as un-American by talk-radio hosts and criticized in an editorial in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after he made a private $250 donation last Nov. to the Not in Our Name Project group opposed to the war. Mr. Abdoo's name appeared on the group's Web site, as did the name of his co. A spokesman for Wisconsin Energy said Mr. Abdoo was trying to put the episode behind him and would not comment on it.

Unlike Hollywood celebrities or other public figures who have been openly critical of the govt, corporate executives have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders that makes it difficult to separate personal actions from official duties. Not surprisingly, most of the executives who have taken a public stance on the war have been from small or private companies, or are retired.
One notable example is R. Warren Langley, one of dozens of antiwar protesters arrested in mid-March trying to disrupt the Pacific Stock Exchange. Former USAF Lt Col. Langley, was president of the exchange from 1996 to 1999. Kligerman said he had received no negative reactions to his public comments and had no second thoughts about making them. "The Bush administration does not embody America," he said. "America to me is not a country that suddenly suspends constitutional rights, imprisons without charge, without access to legal counsel or family."

Enemy soldiers gather - to strive for peace   Shunned by their respective govts, former Israeli & Palestinian fighters have been meeting in secret, seeking common ground.   ¹ t ª
4.6.06   Amelia Thomas Christian Science Monitor

Arram, West Bank   The stark white room buzzes with Arabic and Hebrew conversation as a group of about 50 men jovially shake hands and arrange themselves in seats around its perimeter. The men range in age from 20 to 60. Some wear suits and polished shoes; others are dressed casually in sweat pants and T-shirts.
They have one thing in common: All are former combatants who struggled to defend their state - but half of them are former Israeli soldiers or pilots, while the other half are former Palestinian "freedom fighters," many of whom served time in Israeli jails.

These men once fought against each other. Together they form a new organization called Combatants for Peace, which, after being kept secret for a year, will make its public debut in Jerusalem 4.10.06. The date coincides with the Jewish holiday of Passover and Palestinian Prisoners Day, which is devoted to those detained in Israeli prisons.
Combatants for Peace brings together these ex-fighters to encourage dialogue, peace, and an end to conflict in the region.

Former commander Zohar Shapira, an elite Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldier for 15 years, started the ball rolling when he left the army because he felt its actions and incursions in Palestinian territories were "immoral." He contacted a group of former Palestinian Fatah fighters from around Bethlehem. In their first meeting, Shapira says, all were stunned to find so much common ground, and they decided to formalize an alliance.
"Our members are fighters from all ranks of Israeli military and Palestinian militant factions," says Bassam Aramin, one of the Palestinian cocreators of the group. They "know the meaning of freedom, and the price of war."

The group's monthly meetings are charged with emotion, says Yonatan Shapira, Zohar's brother and another cofounder. For new Palestinian members, it may be the first time they have seen an unarmed Israeli soldier, Yonatan says. "For Israelis," he continues, "they're often at first afraid of talking in front of Palestinians about what they did during combat. For every new member, it's a frightening experience, but it's also exhilarating."
Aramin, who served seven years in an Israeli jail for "acts of defiance" against Israeli soldiers, agrees.
"It's a paradox," he says. "You hear a man talking about how he shot, killed, damaged your neighbor's house. But you feel empathy for him. You realize that we are all from the same background, but just from different sides. The soldier wanted to protect his people, and so did we. But we've all discovered we were wrong in how we did it."

On this particular night, 8 new Israeli & Palestinian members attend, bringing the total membership to roughly 90, evenly divided between both sides. After a brief introduction from two chairmen, a new Israeli member stands up and nervously greets the group. The new member remains anonymous; there is no pressure for attendees to reveal their names.
The room becomes quiet. At first he is hesitant, but then he opens up, describing the turning point that made him decide to refuse army orders in Palestinian territories.
"I was a soldier in Nablus," he explains, "and was told to fire 'light bombs' [powerful exploding flares] to illuminate the sky one night during a military operation. I fired 7, but the 8th had a problem. I knew it would explode somewhere on the ground if I fired it."

His commanding officer, however, ordered him to fire the bomb regardless of possible civilian casualties.
"When I fired," he recalls, "I asked myself how I could be doing something that could kill innocent people."
This is not an uncommon experience in this group. Another member, a former Israeli Air Force pilot, was ordered to bomb a building in Gaza in order to assassinate an alleged terrorist. It was only when he returned home and turned on the television that he realized 15 innocent women and children had been killed in the attack.
"At first I asked him," says Aramin, "how he could live, how he could look at his wife and children. But this is his way of making amends."

Raed, a Palestinian father of two from Hebron, stands up next. He relates how, after an Israeli soldier killed his best friend, he engaged in "activities against soldiers," including throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops. He was a fugitive for a year before he was caught and put in jail. His time there, however, only made him more committed to his cause, and he began planning a "large attack" against Israel.
"But then, my cousin was killed, and something changed," he says. "I suddenly started thinking there must be another way. First I lost my friend, then my cousin. I didn't want to lose more. There had to be a way out of this violent circle. I hope," he says, adding, "this group will become an important part of both our societies, and an example to the world of how peace is possible, even among fighters."

The leaders of Combatants for Peace felt it was important to keep their group secret until they had established clear goals. Their aim: To press for an end to Israeli settlements and military incursions, and for the creation of clear frontiers between independent Israeli and Palestinian states.
So far, the group's low-key approach has confined it to speaking at smaller public events, to Jewish groups in the United States and young Palestinians and Israelis. Following their official public launch on Monday, though, they will start addressing larger international audiences, promoting their vision of a "road to peace."

That road is not without obstacles. First, it's difficult for the group to find a meeting location. It is illegal for Israelis to enter most of the West Bank. For most Palestinians, procuring entry permits into Israel is time-consuming and often fruitless. But the group has been able to meet in Arram, an area just north of Jerusalem that is part of the Palestinian Territories, surrounded by security checkpoints and roadblocks administered by Israel.
Members say it will become even more difficult to meet as the "security wall" goes up. Half-finished sections of wall currently slice through a main road in the center of town.

Despite its efforts to promote peace and understanding, the group has opponents on both sides of the conflict. Group member Elazar Elchanan says they are "staunchly opposed by the Israeli government." Aramin says Hamas, too, sees the group as part of the opposition.
"We may be putting our lives in danger just by meeting," says Yonatan Shapira, "but we need to do this for the sake of everyone. Palestinians have tried for years to oppose the occupation, and everything they've done has just made the response more brutal. So we want to create an alternative to the military, so that young people on both sides can join us instead of army or militia groups."

Yonatan knows, though, that the group's decision to go public will have repercussions for its members. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of the September 2003 "Pilots' Letter" signed by 27 Israeli Air Force pilots that stated, "We, who were raised to love the state of Israel ... refuse to take part in Air Force attacks on civilian population centers."
"I was at the center of a storm," he says. "It was a real crisis in my life when that letter went public."
Nevertheless, he says, as the new members' introductions come to an end and the group divides up to discuss strategies for the upcoming launch, these former fighters are willing to face another storm in order to "truly serve their families, to finish the occupation and be able to live in peace together."

"It doesn't cease to be hard," says Aramin with a smile and sighing deeply. "You must listen to what each person has to say, even though he might be the one who once hit you, or killed a member of your family. But you must listen, and you must forgive, even for the most difficult things."

local Orange Cty Peace & Justice Intl Action Ctr   nee Orange Cty Peace Coalition   714.840.6862   email "ideologically broad-spectrum alliance of OC's Catholic Worker, Unitarian Society, Veterans for Peace, Green & Libertarian parties, and others" per OCW 7pm last Monday Community Room B142 Irvine Univ. Ctr, Campus Dr in passage between Comedy Club & Cinema [405 to Jamboree exit, S to Campus, left to Stanford, left to parking lot, left into lot] YANO / COMD celebratory pacificism

Stop the war … in L.A. 1.23.02   L.A. Times Community leaders last week called for a cease-fire, not in the Gaza Strip but in L.A. Pleading for a moratorium on violence over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, a coalition of south L.A. nonprofit organizations & neighborhood activists launched a campaign against gang terrorism that last year cost at least 50 lives in the Police Dept's 77th Street Div. alone. After falling for 7 years, homicides citywide rose in 2000 and again last year, to 584, with most tied to drugs & gangs. The increase has sparked fears of a return to 1992's record high of 1,096, about the number of Israelis & Palestinians killed in MidEast violence over the past 15 months. Why don't such numbers strike outrage here? Outrage struck south L.A. in Nov. 2001 when 13-year-old Marquese Rashad Prude, who was not involved with gangs, was killed by suspected gang members in the lobby of the St. Andrews Park Recreation Ctr. From the response to the tragedy, 200 people attended a meeting on the shooting, came the coalition. Its first goal after the weekend moratorium is to create safety zones at parks, schools and community functions. To get there, the coalition aims to improve historically testy relations between the black community & the Police Dept so that police officers are seen as community partners, not an occupying army. As coalition member Henry T. Stuckey put it, "It's impossible for us to stop the violence without the LAPD. And it's impossible for the LAPD to stop the violence without us." The group has also enlisted the participation of L.A. school board member Genethia Hayes, who promised to work to expand after-school programs. Ahead are plans to hold town hall meetings in churches citywide to develop neighborhood-based plans to counter gang violence. Because south L.A. residents are shouldering their share of responsibility doesn't absolve the rest of L.A. from doing its part. Like many cease-fires, the King holiday moratorium was broken; the 3 day weekend did not pass without violence. But police reported that violent crime, including aggravated assaults, robberies, sexual assaults and homicides, was down 16% from last year's holiday. Whether the decrease had anything to do with the moratorium is impossible to measure. What is certain, however, is that nothing will really change until all of L.A. decides that it won't tolerate homicide numbers here that rival the number of murders in the MidEast. Our gangs, our terrorists 1.5.02   L.A. Times Polls show the U.S. public stands firmly behind the war on terrorism. It didn't take an intl terrorist to upend Julia Zepeda's life, just a trio of home-grown ones. Zepeda's daughter died the day after Christmas as she waited in a pickup truck with a friend outside a Hawthorne apartment while the driver went inside to retrieve a gift. Neighbors saw 2 young men chasing another and heard shots, an all-too-common sound. Police believe Leslie Zepeda was caught in gang cross-fire. She was 11 years old. … Sharon Johnson's 18-year-old son, Andre Morgan, was walking to a friend's house in Inglewood after basketball practice when he was shot multiple times by a gunman, who then got into a car that had been waiting. Morgan was not mixed up with gangs. He was an honors student & basketball player who had his eye on playing for UCLA. He died a week before he was to take his SATs. Inglewood City Councilwoman Judy Dunlap said that in 2001 a killing occurred in Inglewood every 8 days. In central L.A., gang members stopped Esteban Ortiz, 21, as he walked down E. Manchester Ave and demanded to know which gang he was from. It didn't matter that he didn't belong to any gang. They attacked him, and when his 19-year-old brother, Arturo, and their 18-year-old friend Jesus Silva ran to his aid, the gang members opened fire. Estaban was wounded, his brother & friend killed. It was 11 days shy of Christmas. It took an act of intl terrorism on U.S. soil to make many Americans feel vulnerable for the first time in their lives. For residents of some of Southern California's poorer neighborhoods, it just takes getting up in the morning. The terrorists among us 3.27.03   L.A. Times Compared with rallies against the war in Iraq, the gathering Wednesday in front of the mid-city First Presbyterian Church on West Blvd was small. About 50 men & women had come to protest the death of 13-year-old Joseph Arthur Swift … (who) died Sunday across the street from the church. It was the sunny middle of the day, and he had just left his Bible study class. Witnesses say a car with tinted windows passed, spitting bullets at pedestrians on either side. "They talk about Osama bin Laden," said Joey's grandfather Wm Arbuckle. "There are Osama bin Ladens in my neighborhood. There are Osama bin Ladens in east L.A.. There are Osama bin Ladens in Whittier & Compton." Joey's mother Lorri Arbuckle told those at the rally that her boy had died in her arms saying he loved her, saying he would be OK. "Children are supposed to be able to go to church and be safe," she said. It sounded like a plea. Police believe that the shooters were gang members, and Wednesday they promised protection, incl relocation, to witnesses afraid to speak up. When it was his turn, community activist Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope urged witnesses to "break this black code of silence." "I have one message to these gang members," he said. "The murder of Joseph Swift is an act of war against this community." As with any antiwar demonstration, this one had tensions & divisions. One speaker worried that talk of terrorists & war would compel police to rush to arrest every African American man they see in certain neighborhoods, although the vast majority, like Joey, are just trying to live & learn, work & play, like most boys and young men in Pacific Palisades, Eagle Rock and Valencia. They spoke of the need for jobs to deter crime and urged members of the news media to "bring your corporations, not just your cameras." But mostly they pleaded for attention to the violence that, despite a promising downturn citywide, plagues too many of Los Angeles' poorer neighborhoods. About 10,000 people have turned out for 22 major demonstrations against the war in Iraq in the last week alone, according to LAPD. Joey's aunt, Loreal Arbuckle, somehow found the strength to talk at the rally. Afterward, her voice barely audible, she said: "I can't feel anything … I was there when he was born, and you're telling me I have to bury him? … I can't accept it." active duty personnel   per Globalsecurity.org 1.10.06 China 2,250,000 U.S. 1,625,852 incl. mobilized National Guard & Reserve India 1,325,000 N. Korea 1,075,000 Russia 960,000 S. Korea 685,000 Pakistan 620,000 Iran 540,000 Britain 515,000 Turkey 515,000 Myanmar 490,000 Vietnam 485,000 Egypt 450,000 Syria 320,000 Thailand 315,000 Ukraine 295,000 Taiwan 290,000 Brazil 285,000 Germany 284,000 France 259,000

Stockton finds to stop gangs, disarm them   ¹ Using tough multi-agency approach, city taken 1,200 guns off the street & lowered killings from about 20 to 4 per year.   9.24.01   Rone Tempest L.A.Times Stockton   After seven young women were killed or wounded in the cross-fire of gang shootings here in 1997, city officials decided to try something new to stem the city's rampaging gang violence. Borrowing from a program pioneered in Boston, they launched Operation Cease-Fire, a multi-agency carrot-and-stick effort to get guns out of the hands of gang members. Since then, gang-related killings have dropped from about 20 to four per year. Crime in schools has fallen 40%. The number of people younger than 24 killed by firearms has been cut in half. The success comes in one of California's toughest cities, a San Joaquin River port and agricultural center that annually records one of the state's highest crime rates. An estimated 150 gangs prowl Stockton's streets, representing a variety of ethnic and geographic groups typical of diverse California: Hmong, Cambodian, black, Norteno, Sudeno. The approach features intensive enforcement by specialized police units that work with county probation officers to identify gangs most prone to violence. Community liaisons called Peacekeepers, often recruited from gang ranks, are sent into the toughest neighborhoods offering help: job training, high school diploma studies--and warning of draconian consequences to those who do not take it. Cease-Fire, launched on a limited basis last year in East Los Angeles and in San Francisco, does not employ the gang sweeps that became notorious in the Rampart scandal. "The problem with those approaches," said David Kennedy, one of the creators of the Cease-Fire concept at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Govt, "is that much of this kind of incessant policing actually strengthens gang identity and alienates police from the community. Cease-Fire is not directed at gangs as such. It is an anti-violence strategy." Funded by a $400,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice and administered by Rand Corp., the Los Angeles experiment with Operation Cease-Fire is limited to the Boyle Heights area. But George Tita, a UC Irvine criminologist who is a consultant to Rand on the project, said the program has been slowed by the Rampart controversy, the police manpower drain caused by last year's Democratic National Convention and a change of leadership in Los Angeles. "It has been difficult to maintain continuity," said Tita, "but there is a core of individuals within the Probation Dept, the prosecutors' office and the Los Angeles Police Dept who are committed to the project." The San Francisco program is still in the beginning stages. Operation Cease-Fire does not try to solve all of society's ills, proponents say. Rather, it aims its efforts specifically against guns and violent crime. If a gang engages in drug dealing or petty crime but does not commit violence, it is likely to be left alone by Cease-Fire personnel. But a violent gang is likely to be pursued relentlessly for everything from drugs to expired bicycle licenses. Stockton Police Lt. Mike Becker, who heads the city's gang intelligence unit, often encourages landlords to evict tenants in homes where gang shootings have occurred. City building codes are strictly enforced in known gang hangouts, even family homes. "What we do is tell the gangs that if they do violence," said Stewart Wakeling, juvenile justice coordinator for San Joaquin County, "then we will make it very hard for them to do all the other things they really like to do, such as sell drugs or sit on a stoop and drink a 40-ouncer." According to Cheryl Maxson, a UC Irvine criminologist who specializes in gang issues, it is this clarity of message that distinguishes the Cease-Fire program from other anti- gang efforts. "This is a strategy that is being picked up across the country," Maxson said. "It involves a clear message and a follow-up. It tells the gang, 'If you do this particular thing, the wrath of the state will be called upon all of your members.' " In the Sacramento office of Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Bender is a glossy photograph, arranged like a team picture, of one of Stockton's most violent street gangs, the Southside Stocktone. The photo was taken two years ago by a police officer who somehow managed to get the gang to pose in a local park. To Bender's satisfaction, nearly all of the gang members in the picture are in prison or face trial in federal court on drug and gun charges after 200 federal, county and city officers swept through the gang's turf in the summer of 2000 and again this year. So far, 23 members of Southside Stocktone have been charged. "Between the two busts," said Bender, "we took the core out of what had been the Southside Stocktone." It is Jose Gomez's job to make sure that the lesson of the Stocktone crackdown gets out to other gangs. Gomez, 32, is a muscular former Marine who works for the Peacekeeper unit. He is also a former gang member, who in his youth was arrested for possession of a sawed-off shotgun and for his involvement in a drive-by shooting. "The Marines are the most powerful gang in the world," Gomez said. "Joining them was the best thing I ever did. They turned me around." Now Gomez spends his time counseling gang members, warning them about dangerous behavior and gently using his example as a path out of violence that they might also take. "That kid has really expressed a desire to change," Gomez said after riding around in one of Stockton's toughest neighborhoods with a reporter and a young gang leader dressed in his blue colors. "He's smart. He's streetwise. But he's got the death wish." When he gets a chance, Gomez, who makes about $35,000 a year, said he likes to drive some of his favorite gang leaders into the Sierra, where they can experience trees and snow. "I just like to show them that there is a different world," he said. His biggest success, he said, has been convincing several of his proteges to enlist in the Marines. On the front lines of Operation Cease-Fire is Stockton Police Sgt. Brian Ingersoll, a 12-year veteran who commands one of the five-man Gang Street Enforcement Teams, known on the streets as G-SET. When gang violence breaks out, G-SET swings into action. On a recent night, Ingersoll's job was to crack down on two rival Asian gangs for a series of shootings. His first step was to contact members of the county Probation Dept. One of the key components of Cease-Fire is the involvement of probation and parole offices in sweeps of gang neighborhoods. Ingersoll asked the probation officers to identify members of the two gangs who were under court supervision and therefore subject to search without a warrant.

For several hours the plainclothes G-SET team, backed up by uniformed patrol officers, conducted impromptu searches of gang members' homes and cars, recovering three guns and several thousand dollars from one young man who had a 9mm handgun under his front seat. "We are part of the high-visibility enforcement--saturation enforcement," said Ingersoll. Later that night, Ingersoll and his team would station themselves at key intersections in a neighborhood where the 2 gangs are at war, hoping to intercept them. Other tactics include shadowing gang members in public places, such as a weekly flea market that one of the gangs likes to frequent. This clearly has not earned the G-SET any favor with gang members. Popular gang graffiti includes "187 G-SET," using the police code for homicide.

But the saturation tactics have been effective. According to program director Wakeling, Stockton officers recovered 1,200 guns in the first year of the program. This compared to 600 guns in Boston, a city more than twice Stockton's size. As the G-SET unit searched the ranch-style family home of one gang member, recovering a rifle and a shotgun, Patrolman Dave Brown, a 10 year veteran, looked on. "You can't believe how much this place has changed," said Brown, a native of Chicago. "A few years ago this was like Vietnam."

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