United States News Digest
Virginia State Corporation Commission: Slow Down Drive for Energy Dereg
The Virginia State Corporation Commission is recommending, in the words of columnist Ross Mackenzie in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that "Virginia should slow down in converting to a competitive retail electricity environment. The time to hit the brakes is now, in this General Assembly" legislative session.
The SCC report goes on to say: "With rare exceptions, retail competition"that is, deregulation"is not providing meaningful benefits anywhere in the nation. It has been tried now for several years, and has yet to yield sustained savings. Other states have recognized this fact, and delayed, abandoned, or severely curtailed retail choice."
Exhibit A: California, where electricity deregulation caused absolute disaster in 2000 and 2001. The SCC report describes that disaster in detail.
With deregulation, all control of Virginia's power would pass to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, which wants to enforce a so-called "Standard Market Design" (SMD) of a "Regional Transmission Entity" (RTE). But the SCC says, "This Commission is very concerned with the bedrock issues of service adequacy and service prices likely to be available to Virginia under FERC's proposal. As described in this paper, the proposed new FERC structure will hinder Virginia's ability to ensure adequate service at reasonable prices."
Lieberman Slams Gov. Ryan for Commuting Sentences of Illinois Death Row Prisoners
Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), who has announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination for President, issued a strong condemnation Jan. 17 of former Illinois Governor George Ryan's historic commutation of all death sentences in the state of Illinois. Lieberman complained: "Governor Ryan's action was shockingly wrong. It did terrible damage to the credibility of our system of justice, and particularly for the victims. It was obviously not a case-by-case review, and that's what our system is all about." In fact, Ryan did review each and every case, and met with both victims' families and the families of the condemned.
New Jersey Doctors To Strike Against Malpractice Insurance Costs
New Jersey physicians are planning a work stoppage starting on Feb. 3 to force the state government to put a stop to exorbitant malpractice insurance costs. Several months ago, a rally was held at the State House by physicians, primarily by obstetricians, one of the hardest-hit groups.
In a notice circulated at doctors' offices, they state that starting Feb. 3, they will be open only for acute and emergency cases. They anticipate a strike of one week, but conditions will dictate its length.
New Jersey is considered one of the 12 "crisis" states targetted by the American Medical Association for reform of malpractice laws. Doctors' premiums for the mandatory coverage have increased 50-100% or more in the past 12 months, especially in high-risk specialties such as obstetrics, surgery, and radiology.
The underlying causes of this crisis situation are reported in the Jan. 17 issue of EIR; writer Linda Everett reports that in New Jersey, 65% of hospitals say that some physicians have left practice because of insurance premium increases.
However, the proposal by the physicians' organizations that people harmed by medical negligence should receive, besides compensation for medical costs and lost income, only up to $250,000, is not viable. The problem can only be addressed by dealing with the collapse of the financial markets and the physical economy on the basis of the policies put forward by Lyndon LaRouche, including his proposal to "outlaw HMOs" and "managed health care."
U.S., Philippines Open Year-Long Joint Anti-Terror Exercises
Captain Steve Wollman, spokesman for the U.S.-Filipino Joint Special Operations Task Force, said last week that about a dozen U.S. Special Forces troops landed in the southern port city of Zamboanga on Jan. 18 for a 10-month training program aimed at improving combat capabilities against "Islamic extremists"including the Abu Sayyaf gang.
Five special forces teams of between 200 and 300 U.S. troops are expected to arrive in two weeks to work with 16 Philippine light infantry companies. These are the first in a series of joint exercises that will continue through December 2003.
Arriving U.S. troops were met with "credible threats" from Abu Sayyafwhich, during similar exercises last year, was blamed for a string of bomb attacks in which one U.S. soldier and two Filipinos were killed.
U.S. Opposes Election of Libya as Head of UN Human Rights Commission
The United States opposedunsuccessfullythe election of Libya to the post of chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission last week. For the first time in its history, the Commission was forced to vote on the position by the U.S., which said the Commission could not "reward Libya's terrible conduct" in regard to human rights. But the secret ballot turned out with 33 supporting Libya, three opposed (including the U.S.), and 17 abstaining (including the European Union). Libya will thus chair the March 17-April 25 session of the Commission. A Libyan Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "It is a shining victory which gives back their rights to the oppressed peoples."
Ignatius Echoes EIR Warning Against Rumsfeld Hit Teams
Establishment pundit David Ignatius, writing in an op-ed column in the Jan. 21 Washington Post, echoed EIR's Jan. 17 warning against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's hit teams.
An unnamed official worried to Ignatius that the Pentagon may be seeking to develop "offensive propaganda" operations, such as covertly organizing pro-war parades in Europe, but without being subject to the usual process of Presidential "findings" that limit CIA covert action. The classified Pentagon "National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism," some aspects of which were leaked to the New York Times Jan. 17, showed that the Pentagon is seeking wider authority to attack terrorist entities.
What is the purpose of the Army's plan to train 1,000 Iraqi exiles in southern Hungary? (See EUROPE NEWS DIGEST for a report on this.)
Writes Ignatius, "Some officials speak of a potential function as 'military police' to maintain order in postwar Iraq. But some wonder if the Hungary training effort marks the latest step in the Pentagon's efforts to develop what amounts to a covert-action capabilityin this case involving Iraqi opposition groups that the CIA has made clear it regards with suspicion....
"It's not clear what role, if any, secret U.S. military forces may be playing in the Bush Administration's efforts, disclosed last month, to target two dozen or so terrorists on a 'high-value target list.' That effort is largely under the CIA's control. But one former Pentagon official says he worries about the danger of plainclothes military operatives roaming the globe with what amounts to a 'license to kill' terrorists....
"CIA Director George Tenet is said to dismiss worries about Pentagon poaching on his territory.... But out in the field, Defense Department and CIA officers are said to be increasingly concerned that their traditional roles may be blurring. This anxiety stems in part, from a fear that as secret anti-terrorist programs proliferate, neither the military nor the CIA may know what the other is doing abroad.
"A similar kind of Washington turf war took place during the early 1960s.... The CIA had its legendary field operatives [in Vietnam], but an ambitious Secretary of Defense named Robert McNamara created his own version, through the dashing Gen. Maxwell Taylor and his Green Berets.
"Personally," Ignatius concludes, "I've never believed in the plots you see in spy movies, where murder-for-hire operatives for super-secret Defense or CIA cells, karate-chop their way around the world. The real world has too many lawyers for that kind of thing to happen, I thought.
"But the lawyers are in retreat. And these new turf wars aren't like the Customs Service fighting the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This stuff is dangerous."
Armitage Abandons Search for 'Smoking Gun' in Iraq, Says It Doesn't Matter
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has evidently abandoned the search for a "smoking gun" in Iraq, and conveyed that it really doesn't matter what the weapons inspectors do or don't find. Following the script laid out by former UN chief arms inspector David Kay in the Jan. 19 Washington Posthe wrote that the search for a "smoking gun" was a "fool's errand," and that the focus should be on the omissions in Iraq's recent weapons declarationArmitage announced the Administration's new line Jan. 21 at a speech at the misnamed United States Institute of Peace.
Armitage said that the discovery two weeks ago of 16 chemical warheads and new documents about nuclear and missile programs was an important development. "But finding these 16 warheads just raises a basic question: Where are the other 29,984? Because that's how many empty chemical warheads the UN Special Commission estimated [Saddam] had, and he's never accounted for.
"Where are the 550 artillery shells that are filled with mustard gas; and the 400 biological weapons-capable aerial bombs; and the 26,000 liters of anthrax, the botulinum, the VX, the sarin gas that the UN says he has? We don't know because Saddam Hussein has never accounted for any of it....
"Now, there are those who still call for some kind of smoking gun," Armitage continued. "But there are thousands and thousands of weapons, tons of materials and precursors, and hundreds of key documents, including a credible list of Iraqi scientists that remain unaccounted for.
"Some people may say there is no smoking gun; but there is nothing but smoke...."
To emphasize the point, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer recited a similar list, of anthrax, botulinum, VX, and sarin, at the White House press briefing a short while later.
This list appears to be taken from the list of chemical and biological agents given to Iraq by the United States in the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made similar points two days later during a speech to the New York Council on Foreign Relations. Wolfowitz also listed the bio and chemical weapons that, he charged, Iraq has not accounted for (such as "two tons of anthrax growth media"); he accused Saddam of trying to recruit UN inspectors as informants, and of using "cyber intrusion to steal inspectors' methods."
The ultimate point: "We cannot expect that the UN inspectors have the capacity to disarm an uncooperative Iraq, even with the full support of American intelligence and the intelligence of other nations."
Texas Congresswoman Introduces Legislation To Repeal Congressional Resolution on Iraq
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and four co-sponsors have introduced a resolution to repeal the resolution voted up last October by Congress, giving President Bush powers to make war on Iraq whenever he deems necessary.
In a press release issued Jan. 21, the Texas Congresswoman called for the nation to "exercise caution in any military buildup in Iraq" and pressed for Congress to "re-examine the threat posed by Iraq," as the reasons she introduced legislation to repeal Public Law 107-243, the "Use of Force Against Iraq Resolution." Joining Jackson-Lee in filing the legislation were Congressmen Lee, Kucinich, Dan Davis, and Watson.
FBI Recruiting Campus Police into Anti-Terrorism Operations
Feeding fears that 1960s-style FBI Cointelpro spying and dirty tricks will be revived, the FBI has begun working closely with hundreds of campus police departments, in part to gain access and information on students from the Middle East. In at least a dozen cases, the Washington Post reported Jan. 25, the FBI has brought campus police officers into the local Joint Terrorism Task Force. In some cases, campus cops have been given security clearances, with the result that they are working on cases about which their superiors in campus police departments are not allowed to know.
In some areas, the FBI has asked universities and colleges for detailed lists of foreign students and faculty, drawing protests from academic groups and several U.S. Senators.
The Post recalled that in the 1950s and '60s, the FBI infiltrated student groups, stole membership lists, compiled dossiers on student leaders, and even produced bogus student newspapers to spread dissension among student groups.
Simultaneously, according to the New York Post of Jan. 25, the FBI has launched a massive operation to interview Iraqis living in the U.S., in what is described as the biggest intelligence sweep since World War II. It is estimated that over the next few months, 50,000 of the 300,000 Iraqis in the U.S. will be interviewed. The FBI claims to be looking for potential Iraqi spies and terrorists, but is also looking for anyone who could provide information that could be used to help overthrow Saddam Hussein. The interviews, which began about six weeks ago, have caused some Iraqis to fear that they may be deported.
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