United States News Digest
Revolt Grows Against Indian Gambling Casinos
A growing sentiment against gambling casinos in a number of areas across the country, was noted by the New York Times on Feb. 1, despite the promise of easy money and increased school spending they allegedly hold. Complains Buffalo, N.Y. Mayor Anthony Masiello, whose campaign to attract an Indian casino is resisted by voters: "What is shocking to me is that if you had any other company that was going to employ 2,500 people and pay them $30,000 a year and up, and generate millions of dollars in private investment, people would be falling all over them. I don't know what the big deal is."
The article says that anti-casino sentiment is especially strong in Connecticut, where Federal government efforts to grant recognition to the Schaghticoke Indian tribewhich is expected to bring in a casino on the New York borderare being fought by voters in that state. As a sovereign tribe, the Schaghticoke Nation would be beyond the reach of state and local controls. Connecticut Governor Rowland intends to appeal the recognition of the Schaghticokes, but tribal leaders are complaining that this is not anti-casino, but anti-Indian.
The president of the Connecticut Alliance against Casino Expansion, insists that the issue is not moral: "The stigma now is political: Do you want to be associated with an industry that has literally trampled on the rights of voters and the community in which it lives?"
Ashcroft Still Stalling on Blocking MEK in U.S.
A Jan. 21 letter from Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) to Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking him to block a fundraiser organized by the leader of the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq terrorist group has still not been answered, and Ashcroft did nothing to block the event, which was run under the cover of raising money for the earthquake victims in Iran and took place Jan. 24.
The reason Ashcroft is protecting the MEK is twofold: First, the group wants to overthrow the Iranian government, and has been used by the Pentagon OSP (Office of Special Planning) neo-con network to attempt to accelerate regime change; and second, Ashcroft was the recipient of funds from the MEK networks in his Missouri U.S. Senate campaign, at least in 1996.
Ney in his letter reminded Ashcroft that the MEK is banned in the U.S. and listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The letter says, "I ask that you use all the resources available to investigate this Jan. 24 event and the Iranian-American Society of Northern Virginia [the new MEK front]. It is imperative to the security of the United States, and peaceful nations worldwide, that we put an end to all terrorist organizations, and their funding sources.
"The MEK has killed United States military and civilian personnel in the past ... and targetted American civilians for murder. Under no circumstances should this terrorist organization be permitted to raise funds for its terrorist activities in our nation's capital."
MEK paid Richard Perle to speak at the Jan. 24 event, yet Perle claims that he had no idea the event was related to the MEK. A number of investigative reporters indicate that they are on the case.
Iraq War Was a Failure of Logistics In-Depth
An unclassified study of the Iraq war, ordered in 2003 by former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki before he was forced into retirement by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, further exposes the utopian insanity of the neo-cons around Vice President Dick Cheney. The study draws on interviews with 2,300 people, 68,000 photographs and nearly 120,000 documents. What has kept the campaign going is the improvisation of the troops on the line.
Examples: While division commanders could communicate with one another, officers at lower levels often could not. Units separated by long distances found their radios out of range, leading to improvisation using mobile phones or secure e-mailing. Many units ran low on fuel and water during their race to Baghdad in the early stages. Tank engines sat on warehouse shelves in Kuwait due to lack of truck drivers to deliver them. Broken-down trucks were scavenged for working parts and left by the roadside, and artillery units cannibalized parts from Iraqi guns to keep their weapons working.
And despite elaborate plans for "a final battle in Baghdad," which included a detailed mapping of every building of the city, commanders and intelligence analysts didn't have a clue as to how Iraqis would defend the capital. By and large, the associated "psy-ops" propaganda was a failure. In the end, the study found that U.S. reliance on high-tech surveillance and aircraft could be countered by decoys, and imaginative disguises for weaponry, while more powerful warheads for rocket-propelled grenades could offset American armor, and U.S. troops could be drawn into more protracted classic weapons of insurgency, e.g., car bombs.
Senate Office Buildings Closed by Ricin Scare
The offices of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist were tested Feb. 2, after staffers found an envelope containing a white powder in the mailroom; the substance was later confirmed by Congressional police to be ricin, a toxin. All three Senate office buildings were closed that day; 16 staffers on the premises were tested and decontaminated, with further checks underway. The ricin-laced envelope had been delivered by regular Senate mail.
Frist, a physician, said it was premature to rule out the possibility that the incident was linked to terrorist activity. "The question is whether it is a criminal, or a terrorist act. In my mind they are both the same, because it was specifically sent to an individual and meant to do harm," Frist said.
Meanwhile, a suspicious powder was found in an envelope at the Wallingford, Conn. postal sorting center at about the same time that the ricin was found in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. The envelope in Wallingford was addressed to the Republican National Committee. In 2001, anthrax spores were found at the Wallingford postal facility.
According to the Washington Post Feb. 4, the Secret Service last November intercepted a letter addressed to the White House that contained a vial of ricin, but never revealed the incident publicly, did not inform the President, and delayed telling the FBI and other agencies.
House GOP Leadership Out To Kill Plame Inquiry
Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ), who introduced a Resolution of Inquiry in the House in January that would require the White House to turn over documents concerning the Valerie Plame leak, told The Hill on Feb. 4 that many Republicans, including members of House Intelligence Committee, privately support his resolution, but tell him they can't support him publicly. His resolution failed by a 10-3 vote in the Intelligence Committee.
Former Ambassador Joe Wilson, Plame's husband, says that he has talked to many Senate and House Republicans and that they understand that "this is not a partisan issue, it is a national security issue."
White House Agrees to Extension of 9/11 Commission
The White House relented Feb. 4, and agreed to an extension of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The two-month extension beyond the original May 27 deadline was required primarily because the team, headed by Republican Tom Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton, has been stonewalled by the White House itself on documents demanded by the committee. The White House strenuously objected to the deadline being extended further into the election period, since the report is likely to be another blow to the credibility of the Administration.
And the stonewalling continues: The White House is still not releasing the requested briefings, nor even the notes taken by members of the commission who were allowed to view the briefings.
Pentagon Scraps Internet Voting System
The U.S. Department of Defense on Feb. 5 cancelled the use of a project that would have allowed Internet voting for Americans overseas in this year's elections. The system, known as the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE), was developed with financing from DOD.
The decision was announced in a memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to David Chu, the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. A spokesman said, "The Department has decided not to use SERVE in the November 2004 elections. We made this decision in view of the inability to ensure legitimacy of votes, thereby bringing into doubt the integrity of the election results."
As EIR has previously reported, non-secure Internet voting has already been used in some elections, and was used for this past weekend's Michigan Democratic primary caucuses.
Dean, Clark Next Two To Go?
Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Howard "The Scream" Dean sent a desperate e-mail to his supporters Feb. 5, telling them to go all-out to win the Wisconsin primary Feb. 17, or his campaign is finished. "All that you have worked for these past months is on the line on a single day, in a single state.... The entire race has come down to this: we must win Wisconsin.... We will get a boost this weekend in Washington, Michigan, and Maine, but our true test will be the Wisconsin primary. A win there will carry us to the big states of March 2 and narrow the field to two candidates. Anything less will put us out of this race."
Meanwhile, two campaign workers for retired Gen. Wesley Clark anonymously told the Associated Press that Clark considered dropping out after the Feb. 3 primaries, but his wife convinced him to stay in the race, over the advice of some of his backers. And Clark's staff had to agree to a pay freeze, in order for his campaign to pay for TV ads.
Will Sharpton Lose His Matching Funds?
A conservative watchdog group, the National Legal and Policy Center, is asking the Federal Election Commission to withhold matching funds from Al Sharpton, citing a Feb. 5 Village Voice article revealing that GOP consultant and McCarthyite Roy Cohn protégé Roger Stone was conduiting donations to Sharpton from Stone's Republican cronies. The complaint to the FEC also cites extensive travel by Sharpton which is not reported in his FEC filings.
Meanwhile, the New York Times said that Sharpton's poor showing in primaries will hurt his standing in local New York politics. Sharpton got less than 10% in South Carolina, a total which represents only about 20% of black voters in the state. The Times notes that some of Sharpton's supporters are worried about his working so closely with Stone, who reportedly organized the Miami Cuban-American demonstrations against the Floria recount in 2000, which helped tip the election to George Bush.
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