Wednesday, April 20, 2005

More.............no more please

500 "bombspotters" arrested at nuke inspection
Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 8:47 am
Press Release: Greenpeace

500 "bombspotters" arrested during massive citizens inspection of NATO nuclear weapons
Brussels

500 "bombspotters"were arrested by police today after thousands gathered in Belgium to carry out a citizens nuclear weapons inspection.

A massive police presence greeted inspectors from Greenpeace and Bombspotting at NATO-HQ, SHAPE and Kleine Brogel airbase. Greenpeace activists from the six NATO countries currently hosting the 480 nuclear weapons based in Europe: Italy, Germany, Belgium, UK, Turkey and the Netherlands joined the inspection team .

Greenpeace and Bombspotting are demanding that NATO become a nuclear free alliance.In two weeks the 184 member countries of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty will meet. "They have a clear choice. Either disarmament or a new arms race", said Hans Lammerant, from Bombspotting.

"We choose nuclear disarmament! And a necessary step towards nuclear disarmament is the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from NATO countries, and an end to the role of nuclear weapons in NATO policy."

"At a time when key NATO countries are doing so much to encourage Iran to give up its nuclear aspirations, it would be hypocritical for NATO to not do the same", said Nicky Davies, Greenpeace International.

"We are part of a growing movement of people who will continue to conduct these inspections of nuclear sites, to bear witness and draw attention to these crimes until the world is free of nuclear weapons."



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Bully Bolton Threatens National Security
By Marjorie Cohn
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday, 18 April, 2005

"John Bolton is the wrong man for the job of US ambassador to the United Nations. His status as an avowed UN-hater, standing alone, disqualifies him. But there are other, stronger reasons to reject his appointment to that important post.

If John Bolton is confirmed as US ambassador to the United Nations, our national security will be seriously compromised in these already perilous times."


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2004 Presidential Election Legitimacy Investigated
Tuesday, 19 April 2005, 12:24 pm
Article: Between The Lines
Between the Lines Q&A
A weekly column featuring progressive viewpoints
on national and international issues
under-reported in mainstream media
for release April 18, 2005
http://www.btlonline.org

Questions Surrounding Legitimacy of 2004 Presidential Election Investigated

Interview with Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times, conducted by Scott Harris

Listen in RealAudio:
http://www.btlonline.org/bleifuss042205.ram
(Needs RealOne player or RealPlayer)

Unlike the extended dispute that plagued the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, Democratic Party candidate John Kerry conceded the 2004 race for the White House rather quickly. However, in the months after the Nov. 4th ballot, citizen groups in the battleground state of Ohio launched protests and convened hearings demanding an investigation into allegations of vote count irregularities and Republican Party efforts to suppress the turnout of Democratic voters.

But now, five months after his quiet exit from the presidential election contest, Sen. John Kerry has raised the issue of voter intimidation and GOP dirty tricks, while stating that he does not believe these irregularities would have changed the outcome. Speaking to the Massachusetts League of Women Voters on April 10, Kerry charged that many of his supporters were denied access to the polls through the use of misleading leaflets and telephone calls.

Several issues regarding the 2004 election continue to cause many citizens to be skeptical about the results. Contradictions between exit polls and the final vote tally, and anomalies of electronic voting machine totals are the subject of a forthcoming book by investigative journalist Joel Bleifuss and statistician Steven Freeman. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Bleifuss, editor of In These Times Magazine, who discusses his investigation into questions surrounding the legitimacy of the 2004 presidential election.



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Reforming the Homeland Security Department Is Unlikely
April 18, 2005
Ivan Eland

The Department of Homeland Security has too few incentives to protect Americans from terrorism. Testifying recently before Congress, Michael Chertoff, the Bush administration’s new Secretary of Homeland Security, admitted that his department often fails to adequately collect, piece together, and share intelligence information. (This same problem has afflicted the entire U.S. government in its failure to detect terrorist attacks as far back as September 11, 2001 and has not been corrected.) The situation is unlikely to improve because the massive Homeland Security bureaucracy has a poor incentive structure.

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These are the headlines over a few day period, you have a little inkling on how the USA is misrepresented and how GWB can be so readily hated