TruthTalkzIRAQ

Democratization in the Middle East

2006-08-12T11:19:00.000-06:00

The Old Middle East

2006-08-12T08:46:00.000-06:00

The New Middle East

2006-08-12T08:44:00.000-06:00

Is this Anti-Semitic?

2006-08-01T11:48:00.000-06:00

Resistance Demands, Iraq Docs, Civil War, Moulitsas, Tactics, Vietnam, Gay Iraqis

2006-04-10T22:12:00.000-06:00

1) Check this link for a document purporting to be demands for US/UK withdrawal from Iraq, representing the position of the resistance -- courtesy of the Beirut-based Center for Arab Unity Studies. The document is at the bottom of the home page:

http://www.caus.org.lb/ddefault.asp

2) This is a gem for historians of the march to war in Iraq:

http://www.thememoryhole.org/state/future_of_iraq/

Introduction
Russ Kick

Starting in October 2001, about a year and a halfbefore the US and its allies invaded Iraq, the StateDepartment spearheaded an effort called the Future ofIraq Project. Dozens of Iraqi exiles and internationalexperts were brought together to figure out how tocreate a new Iraq should Saddam Hussein somehow betaken out of power.

Within the project, seventeen working groups coveredsuch areas as the justice system, local government,agriculture, media, education, and oil. The variousworking groups began meeting in July 2002 andcontinued through March/April 2003. Twelve of thegroups released reports. The project cost $5 million.
The project's observations and recommendations werealmost wholly ignored by the administration during itspre-war planning for the occupation. Soon after theinvasion, though, CD-ROMs of the reports were sent tothe staff of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Among other things, the working groups foresaw thewidespread looting in the aftermath of invasion andwarned against quickly disbanding the Iraqi Army.

The project's reports have never been made availableto the public. In October 2003, "Congressionalofficials" allowed two New York Times reporters toview the reports, but they were not allowed to takethem. Upon reading this, I immediately filed a Freedomof Information Act request for the reports, which wasgranted in February 2006. Eight of the reports werereleased in their entirety, while the rest wereredacted to some degree. I have scanned them andcreated a PDF file of each report, all of which areposted to the left.

3) Although I agree with this view that the US shouldjust get out of Iraq ASAP, the logic concerning theethics of civil war is atrocious, and itself nearlygenocidal in intent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/07/AR2006040702031.html

Let Them Have Their Civil War
By Caleb Carr
Sunday, April 9, 2006;
Page B01

As the violence in Iraq has expanded, analysts havebeen asking: Are we witnessing the beginning of aformal Iraqi civil war? But far more important when weconsider what role our troops might play in theextended fighting is the question: Does the UnitedStates have any right to forcibly stop such a war,when and if it begins?
Civil war, as defined by many generations of militarytheorists, shares characteristics with insurgenciesand revolutions, but there are distinct differences,too. Although insurgencies are contests of rivalgroups, insurgents need not control any appreciableterritory to be effective. Civil wars, on the otherhand, involve two or more armed groups, eachcontrolling part of a country. And although civilwars, like revolutions, can be influenced by outsideforces as well as ideological considerations,sometimes they are merely struggles for power. Stillothers -- like the American Civil War -- are contestsover not just politics or power, but some highmotivating moral principle as well.

No such principle would seem to be at play in Iraq,for one of the insurgency's glaring deficiencies hasalways been its lack of a coherent ideologicalrallying point for all Iraqis. Its aim, by contrast,has been simple: the return to power of the SunniMuslim minority that held sway under Saddam Hussein,or, failing that, the kind of endless anarchy thatwill make any other government's rule impossible. Theinsurgents have succeeded at the latter: Although anIraqi National Assembly and executive branch have beencreated and elected, the assembly has met only onceand briefly, and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari iswidely viewed as ineffectual and corrupt. Americans,meanwhile, are voicing overwhelming condemnation ofthe war, creating a perhaps unbridgeable gulf betweenthemselves and the Bush administration. This hasalways been a basic definition of insurgent success,as it tends to severely restrict thecounterinsurgents' time frame for operations.

Thus, all the courage that went into organizing andcarrying out Iraqi elections would seem to haveproduced a government unworthy of the sacrifices madeto bring it into being. The resulting frustration isclear in the words and increasingly deadly actions ofmany Iraqis who appear to be giving up on a politicalsolution to their country's problems. This meansmainly the once-persecuted Shiites (who are showingdangerous signs of splintering into fightingsub-factions) and Kurds.

The more the Iraqi government and its U.S. advocatestalk about "fairness" for the Sunni minority, the morethe violence seems to escalate. The insurgents do notwant their people seduced into participating in thenew Iraq, while the Kurds and Shiites seem reluctantto afford true national power to the very people whonot only made Hussein's genocidal rule possible, butare also leading the insurgency.

This may not be textbook civil war, but it iscertainly shaping up to be the beginning of one.

If Americans ever had the power to stave off such aconflict, the past three years of misguided militarypolicy have exhausted it. But military ability to stopa civil war is not the key issue. Nor should excessiveconcern for our own national security cloud our policydecisions: The first casualties of any expandedfighting will almost certainly be both Saddam Hussein(who has been kept alive thanks to U.S. insistence onhis trial -- and thanks to U.S. guards) as well as AbuMusab al-Zarqawi, who is now despised more thanHussein by many Iraqis. No, the real issue ofimportance for Americans with regard to any impendingIraqi civil war is: Are we morally justified in tryingto prevent it?

Before answering, Americans should consider a fewfacts from our own national experience. Our Civil Warwas viewed as an exercise in horrendously destructivenational suicide by most of the nations of Europe --and an expensive one at that, for it cut off Europeantextile mills from Southern cotton. Britain and one ortwo of her fellow members in the European balance ofpower considered intervening -- but intervention wasaverted, mostly through the careful warnings ofPresident Abraham Lincoln and his diplomatic corps.They stressed that civil war in America was a moremorally complex affair than the usual European grabfor power. It was, at its heart, a contest to end theinstitution of slavery.

If the Europeans found its violence deplorable andhorrifying, said Lincoln, that was understandable; sodid he. But as he explained in his second inauguraladdress, in words that we revere so deeply that wehave carved them into his memorial:

"If God wills that [the war] continue until all thewealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fiftyyears of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and untilevery drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paidby another drawn with the sword, as was said threethousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'Thejudgments of the Lord are true and righteousaltogether.' "

Iraqis may refer to their Lord by a different name,but the principle in their case is the same. We arenot dealing with several groups of roughly equalrecent experience; we are dealing with one extrememinority, the Sunnis, many of whom have for years,under the leadership of the worst international tyrantsince Pol Pot, persecuted and murdered the other two-- on a genocidal scale.

As Americans, we cannot condone mass murder as a formof vengeance. But every time an American officialtries to tell the Shiites and the Kurds (along withthe many smaller minorities in Iraq) that they are notentitled to the same judgments and justice as weourselves received and wrought from 1861 to 1865, theymake civil war in that country more -- not less --likely. Such statements reveal the blatantlypaternalistic, even racist, opinion that what wasnecessary in the American experience is not somethingfor which the Iraqis are ready or qualified.

Indeed, if polls in Iraq are reliable (and they seemto have been, thus far) then the American presencethere is only increasing the likelihood that if civilwar comes, it will be more vicious. The presence ofU.S. troops, noble as their efforts at control may be,only fuels more rage, since they keep Kurdish andShiite forces at bay while failing to stop the Sunnisfrom committing daily murder.

And where is the justice for those murders? It doesnot emanate from either an assembly that has met oncein three months or a U.S.-led coalition that continuesto display an extraordinary level of concern for theSunnis. It may well come, in the end, only fromallowing the Kurds and Shiites to fight -- yes, tobloodily settle accounts -- with the Sunnis forthemselves.

Not only is it impossible for Americans to stand inthe way of an internal Iraqi balancing of the scales,it also reeks of hypocrisy. We went to Iraq, accordingto our president, to make Iraqis free. If that is so,and if their first decision as a free people is todeclare war upon one another, just as Americans oncedid, where do we derive the right to tell them theymay not? We cannot, again, condone genocide (we caneven cut it short by keeping land and air units in theregion); but neither can we any longer delay justice-- even if it is to be forcibly dispensed.

Yet right now, that appears to be the unenviableposition into which the Bush administration and Iraqiinsurgents have thrust our troops. Those troops havefulfilled their primary mission of bringing down theHussein regime, and they have done it well, but eventhey cannot create or enforce a just peace in aforeign country -- a laundry list of failed recentattempts in other nations should tell us that.

If the Iraqis wish to try it on their own, better thatwe allow them to use a mixture of their own militiasand conventional forces -- the kind of combinationthat fought our Civil War. That way, we at leastaccord them the respect of equals. They may evenremember, one day, that we did. And that memory may,over time, ease the bitterness created by occupation.

Caleb Carr is the author of "The Lessons of Terror: AHistory of Warfare Against Civilians" (Random House).He teaches military studies at Bard College.

4) Here is a NY Review of Books article about Markos Moulitsas' -- dailykos.com founder and a great role model -- new book concerning internet activism:

The Hope of the Web
By Bill McKibben
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga(click for larger image)
Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics
by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, with a foreword by Simon Rosenberg
Chelsea Green, 216 pp., $25.00

1.When, less than a decade ago, the Internet emerged as a force in most of our lives, one of the questions people often asked was: Would it prove, like TV, to be a medium mainly for distraction and disengagement? Or would its two-way nature allow it to be a potent instrument for rebuilding connections among people and organizations, possibly even renewing a sense of community? The answer is still not clear— more people use the Web to look at unclothed young women and lose money at poker than for any other purposes. But if you were going to make a case for the Web having an invigorating political effect, you could do worse than point your browser to dailykos.com, which was launched in 2002 by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga...

5) This is a nice rumination on how it all went wrong -- without contemplating the possibility that it was doomed no matter what:

http://hnn.us/articles/23637.html

The Day We Lost the Iraq War
By Michael Goldfarb

Mr. Goldfarb is the author of the just published book,Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam,Dying in the New Iraq, which tells the story of AhmadShawkat, his translator during "major combatoperations" in northern Iraq/Kurdistan in the springof 2003.

London -- It is Iraq anniversary season, those fourweeks of the year when assessments and opinions onwhat the Bush Administration wrought when it overthrewSaddam Hussein fill up the airwaves, Internet andnewspapers. We’ll be performing these annualassessments for years to come because the final resultof the Bush action is still unknowable and because somuch of the public debate has been led in a spirit ofwillful ignorance.

When it comes to the Iraq conflict “Fog of War”doesn’t refer to the smoke and dust of the battlefieldbut rather to the hot air emanating from the mouthsand pens of partisans and pundits, many of them livinginside the confines of the Green Zone on the Potomac,virtually none of whom were in Iraq during the periodof major combat operations and very few of whom havemade the journey to that country subsequently. Theiranalysis is flawed by their lack of eyewitnessexperience of the conflict.

Given how little objectivity has been brought to bearon understanding Iraq by the official classes, I havecome to realize that the accounts of those of us whoreported this conflict really are the closest thingthe world possesses to a “first draft of history.”Three years on, based on my experience as anunembedded reporter covering “major combat operations”in northern Iraq, I have reached a conclusion: itdidn’t have to turn out the way it did. I base thisconclusion on what I saw in Mosul, a city of around 1and a half million people on April 11th 2003 andsubsequently....

6) Insurgent Tactics:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900559.html

Ramadi Insurgents Develop Clever Tactics
By TODD PITMAN
The Associated Press
Sunday, April 9, 2006; 4:34 PM

RAMADI, Iraq -- On an eerie, battle-scarred street inthis blown-out urban war zone, a mannequin withpainted black hair stares silently at U.S. Marineshunkered down in sandbagged observation posts atopbuildings a few blocks away.

It's the latest insurgent ruse in an evolving warpitting the world's most powerful military againstguerrilla fighters using their most effective weapon:ingenuity....

7) More Vietnam comparisons:

http://hnn.us/articles/23641.html

Iraq, Vietnam, and the Bloodbath Theory
By Scott Laderman
Mr. Laderman is Assistant Professor of History,University of Minnesota, Duluth.

By now we have all seen the analogies drawn betweenthe present war in Iraq and the war in Vietnam decadesago. Some of these analogies have been insightful.Some, to put it charitably, have not. Nearly all,however, have focused on how the United States enteredand fought both wars. Little attention has been heededto what the Vietnam war might tell us about the UnitedStates getting out of this one. It is an issue thatdeserves our attention.

More than thirty-five years ago, as American civilianand military opposition to the Vietnam war increased,those advocating continued warfare found themselves insomething of a bind. The applicability of the dominotheory to Vietnam had been persuasively challenged.The idea that America was fighting for democracy inVietnam appeared to many observers, given the despoticnature of the successive Saigon regimes, risible. Yetdespite the gap between the government’s rhetoric andobservable reality, a minority of Americans clung tothe idea of the war as a righteous and necessarycause. What little credibility the public explanationsfor American intervention enjoyed, however, waslargely demolished when, in 1971, the top secretDefense Department history of American policymaking inVietnam, the Pentagon Papers, was leaked to the pressby Daniel Ellsberg and published in a number ofoutlets. It is no wonder, given the extent to whichthe government’s own analysts put the lie to whatAmerican officials had been telling the public foryears, that the Nixon administration reacted sohysterically to this turn of events. It is hardly anexaggeration to say that, for much of the Americanpublic, the Pentagon Papers shattered what remained oftheir will to continue the fight in Southeast Asia.American policymakers determined to perpetuate the warwere therefore confronted with a crisis....

8) Here is a video of interviewed Iraqis today, and a poem about Iraq:

http://www.iraqsnuclearmirage.com/Media/TheOtherArabs.wmv

http://www.baghdad4us.com/

9) Gay Iraqis under fatwa threat:

Iraqi Exile Speaks Out Against the Targeting of Gay Iraqis by Shia Death Squads

We speak with a gay Iraqi exile about the systematic targeting of gay Iraqis by Shiite death squads in Iraq. The attacks follow a death-to-gays fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani last October. We also speak with independent journalist Doug Ireland who broke the story.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/23/153203

10) This article explores allegations of US soldier's war crimes in Iraq:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0320-01.htm

11) Here's another proposal for US/UK pullout:

What next for Iraq?
By Hassan Yassin, March 17th 2006.

There is no denying that a point of no return has been reached in Iraq some time ago. Despite a number of democratic and military initiatives, the situation has continued, and continues, to get worse. Public opinion across the world is losing hope in current attempts to consolidate the unity and stability of Iraq, particularly in the military approach.

Politically, the same experts and politicians are rehashing the same failed methods which are supposed to end terrorism and resistance, and restore stability to Iraq. The talk may be about previous mistakes and how to correct them, but all this rh etoric is missing the real point. The argument is always that if coalition troops leave, the situation will only be messier. To the contrary, it seems that withdrawal is the necessary condition for a solution.

Occupation under any name or any banner is an aberration to the people of any country. Nobody wants to see their country occupied by foreign forces, especially when there is no end in sight. We have said this before about Palestine, but we must also say it about Iraq and Afghanistan. The first and foremost thing to do is to make it clear that there will be no long-term occupation of these countries, and to begin implementing a withdrawal strategy.

The most effective way to put this into practice would be by going through a United Nations Resolution. It is not enough for certain officials to occasionally allude to an eventual end to the occupation. There is a saying in Arabic which goes: those who deal out the lashes are not those who count them. It is the Afghan and the Iraqi people who suffer the lashes of humiliation, intrusion and occupation. They must be given a clear assurance that this will end.

A UN resolution would first state that none of the coalition forces intend to stay in Iraq or Afghanistan beyond what is necessary. It would affirm that the UN, coalition forces and local governments would agree on that moment and on a timetable for withdrawal and replacement by UN-sanctioned troops from neutral countries. The most important component of such a resolution would be its intent: withdrawal.

There is no need for endless committees, political psychologists or military experts to analyze the situation. All that is needed is the realization that the occupation itself is the main source of instability and that ending this occupation is a precondition to any progress in Iraq. It has been acknowledged that the planning for the war in Iraq was flawed. Let us at least get our planning for withdrawal right.

12) Shock & Awe Critique:

A war 'shock and awe' didn't winFar from subduing Iraq, flawed doctrine instead produced widespread hatred of a besieged bully

BY FRANK SMYTH
Frank Smyth is a freelance journalist who is writing a book on the 1991 uprisings agaisnt Saddam Hussein
March 21, 2006

Remember when the Bush administration launched its "shock and awe" campaign across Iraq?
Even hardened critics were left starstruck watching the bombs rain down on Baghdad and other targets three years ago this week. It was as if the United States were flaunting its firepower while saying to hostile states and forces around the world: This is what happens to you when you mess with us.

The Pentagon was testing a theory developed seven years earlier by a small team of U.S. National Defense University authors. "The aims of this doctrine are to apply massive or overwhelming force as quickly as possible," the authors wrote. "While there are surely humanitarian considerations that cannot or should not be ignored, the ability to shock and awe ultimately rests in the ability to frighten, scare, intimidate, and disarm" the enemy's will.

It seemed to work at first, as supporters boldly proclaimed we had both won a war and taught the Mideast a lesson. And we did so, or so we thought, by beating the Saddam out of Iraq. "[T]he comatose and glazed expressions of survivors of the great bombardments of World War I," wrote the authors, was exactly the kind of effect on the adversary they proposed.

But the doctrine was even more ambitious. Much the way a schoolyard bully might pummel one smaller kid to send a message to the rest, its proponents wrote that the impressive display of force would compel not only the targeted nation but other states as well to fall into line. This helps explain why the administration thought that the messy politics of Iraq along with the entangled mosaic of the region were not much to worry about, as the other states would all end up coming at least a little more our way once they got wind of shock and awe.

But the doctrine failed its first field test, while the arrogance it dropped on Iraq has since given rise to contingencies its proponents never saw. Far from making Iraqis more pliant, shock and awe helped foment an insurgency that shows no sign of going away, besides helping to uncork sectarian strife that the administration also grossly underestimated. The same hubris has further increased sympathy for al-Qaida in many nations while it has helped Saddam Hussein turn his murder trial into a stage to rally insurgents against the U.S.-led occupation.

Instead of learning to fear us, as the Bush administration's war planners had hoped, the world now understands that even the tallest of giants can end up bogged down, if not crippled, no matter how fierce it starts out. In a world as complex as ours, military strength is only a part of even our nation's overall power. Instead of the kind of decisive, demonstrative victory the administration expected, the legacy of shock and awe may be that being mean and dumb doesn't work.

One lesson we could yet learn is as simple as: The politics matter, stupid. Trying to bully a whole nation along with a region into submission could end up backfiring on us. Showing off our high-tech muscle on even the most despised despotic regime may only result in turning countless people there and elsewhere against us.
Of course, it is never too late to change. But we have to start with our attitude. Arguably, such a transformation is already under way, although the administration would be the last to admit it. Last week, both the United States and Iran announced that, despite their many disagreements, it is finally time after decades of no diplomatic contact to open talks. Now that we know that shock and awe didn't scare the Ayatollahs, either, we've learned the hard way that we have to treat them, like other people, with respect whether we like them or not.

The same goes for Iraq. Having failed to subdue seemingly any sizable part of the population in the long run, we now know that we need to reach out to not only those Iraqis more or less on our side but also to the leaders of the insurgency whom we still hope to bring into the political process. One might call it bunker diplomacy. Instead of walking tall across the battlefield in the wake of shock and awe, we are the ones looking besieged and desperate for a way out.

Despite the grandiosity America sported when we invaded Iraq, the giant that the administration tried to project there sure looks weaker now. It all comes back to basics. The bully may well beat up one kid after another - only to find himself alone, surrounded by ever more people who hate him and hope, if not plot, for his demise.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

Hersch on Iran, Nir Rosen, Iraq Docs, Brain Drain, Baghdad Battle, Desertions

2006-04-09T23:27:00.000-06:00

1) This Seymour Hersch article attracted a lot of attention this weekend, as it's indicative of a replay from the Bush Administration concerning invasion mobilization. Will Iran in 2006 follow Iraq in 2002-03? This is why the actions of 2002-03 are still so important -- to innoculate against just such a repeat:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact

2) Apropos remembering what was said in 2002-03... Here are some examples:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/3/143621/3020

Hans Blix and Perspective
by georgia
10 Mon Apr 03, 2006 at 11:36:21 AM PDT
George W. Bush,
November 12, 2002:

We don't know how close he is today, but a SaddamHussein with a nuclear weapon is a grave, grave threatto America and our friends and allies. link

Donald Rumsfeld, September 19, 2002:
There are a number of terrorist states pursuingweapons of mass destruction -- Iran, Libya, NorthKorea, Syria, just to name a few -- but no terroriststate poses a greater or more immediate threat to thesecurity of our people than the regime of SaddamHussein in Iraq. link

Hans Blix, January 9, 2003:
"We have now been there for some two months and beencovering [Iraq] in ever wider sweeps and we haven'tfound any smoking guns." link

George W. Bush, January 16, 2006:
"Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a grave threatto the security of the world." link

George W. Bush, March 16, 2006:
"We may face no greater challenge from a singlecountry than from Iran. link

Hans Blix, April 3, 2006:(AP) Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blixsaid Monday that Iran is a least five years away fromdeveloping a nuclear bomb, leaving time to peacefullynegotiate a settlement. [...]

"We have time on our side in this case. Iran can'thave a bomb ready in the next five years," Blix wasquoted as saying. link

Condoleeza Rice, March 31, 2006:
"If you're impervious to the lessons you've just comeout of you're brain-dead.'' llink

3) Report from the field in Iraq:

http://bostonreview.net/BR31.2/rosen.html

On the Ground in Iraq
The roots of sectarian violence
Nir Rosen

The Americans came for Sabah one Friday night inSeptember. His house in Radwaniya, on the westernoutskirts of Baghdad, stood in a dry, yellow fieldsurrounded by brick walls. Three cars were parked infront the day I came to visit, two weeks afterAmericans had shot him. It was the month of Ramadan,and our mouths were as dry as his yard. The resistancewas active in Radwaniya, and we drove through fieldsand dry canals to avoid any checkpoints that mightreveal to locals that I was a foreigner. Journalistswere targets now too...

4) Here's a great research source, for those able to use it:

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/23373.html

Iraqi Documents Are Put on Web, and Search Is On Source:
NYT (3-28-06)

American intelligence agencies and presidentialcommissions long ago concluded that Saddam Hussein hadno unconventional weapons and no substantive ties toAl Qaeda before the 2003 invasion.

But now, an unusual experiment in public access isgiving anyone with a computer a chance to playintelligence analyst and second-guess the government.

Under pressure from Congressional Republicans, thedirector of national intelligence has begun a yearlongprocess of posting on the Web 48,000 boxes ofArabic-language Iraqi documents captured by Americantroops.

Less than two weeks into the project, and with only600 out of possibly a million documents and video andaudio files posted, some conservative bloggers arealready asserting that the material undermines theofficial view.

http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm

6) This was fun the other day. Bush's handlers decided about 6 months ago that they'd let their little prince interact with actual citizens -- with predictable results. Interestingly, he's performed better than one might have expected back when all of his appearances were 100% stage managed:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0407-10.htm

Questioner Sharply Criticizes President Bush at Appearance by Ron Hutcheson and Jim Morrill CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - President Bush isn't used to tongue lashings, but he got a scolding Thursday from a North Carolina man who told the president that he should be ashamed of himself...

7) Iraqi brain drain -- somehow this doesn't seem accidental or coincidental:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1738575,00.html

The Iraqi brain drain

As hundreds of Iraqi doctors, professors and teachersare being murdered in what some see as a deliberatecampaign, Jonathan Steele meets the ones who managedto escape

Friday March 24, 2006
The Guardian

Still ashen-faced six days after escaping death, DrAli Faraj pulls his hair aside to display a scar abovehis left ear. One of Iraq's top cardiologists, he wasseeing a patient when a group of kidnappers wearingski-masks stormed into his Baghdad clinic, knocked hisreceptionist to the floor and when he emerged toinvestigate the noise, ordered him to come with them.To his surprise, they said they were taking him to theInterior Ministry. "I know the minister so I said Iwould check if it was really necessary. I put out myhand to pick up the phone, but they knocked my armaside and struck me on the head with a pistol butt.They dragged me to the front gate where a car waswaiting," he says, safe now in Jordan.

"It was about 7pm, already dark. Suddenly we heardshots. I couldn't tell where they were coming from.One of the kidnappers fell to the ground. He had beenhit. Three of them started to lift him up. The fifthman ordered me into the car but I ran back to theclinic in the darkness."

Faraj was not totally unprepared for what has become anormal risk of Baghdad life. "I had a Kalashnikov inthe clinic. My driver took it and started shooting. Ialso had a pistol in my drawer. The kidnappers droveoff."
Bleeding from his head wound, he was taken home bycolleagues. Only the next day did Faraj discover thatthe firing that saved him came from the garden of atribal sheikh who lives opposite: "The man'sbodyguards saw the gunmen going into my clinic, andwere ordered by the sheikh to take cover and shoot ifthey were obviously abducting somebody when they cameout."

Who the kidnappers were remains a mystery. Were theycriminals acting for money or, as they claimed to be,people linked to the police? What is certain is that atrickle of kidnappings and murders which began in thefirst lawless months after US and British forcestoppled Saddam Hussein three years ago has now becomea flood. At least 1,000 people have died in thesectarian tit-for-tat killings that followed thedestruction of one of Iraq's holiest shrines inSamarra last month.

The growing insecurity has set off a massive braindrain, as more and more Iraqis slip away from thecountry, perhaps never to return. While the fall ofSaddam Hussein opened the door for an earliergeneration of Iraqi exiles to go home, now the flow isgoing the other way again. Kidnap survivors are thelucky ones. Hundreds of Iraqi professionals are beingmurdered in what some Iraqis see as a deliberatecampaign to destroy the country's best and brightest.The Ministry of Higher Education and ScientificResearch says that 89 university professors and seniorlecturers have been killed since 2003, and policeinvestigations have led to nothing.
Iraqi academics have compiled a longer list of up to105 names of assassinated colleagues. The most recentwas Professor Ali Muhawesh, the dean of theengineering college at Mustansiriya University, one ofBaghdad's two main campuses. He was shot this week.

The rate of killing is increasing. Some 311 teachershave been murdered in the past four months alone,according to the Ministry of Education. It is not onlyBaghdad that is suffering. The medical college inMosul, a city in northern Iraq, has lost nine seniorstaff.

Even outside Iraq, fear consumes many exiles. InJordan's capital, Amman, the first port of call formost refugees, requests for interviews producedrepeated rejections. Others would only talk if falsenames were used and no mention made of where they workor live. Faraj is one of the few people who have fledwho are willing to speak openly and be photographed.After eluding his would-be kidnappers, he fled toJordan last week. In the chaos and looting whichfollowed the US entry into Baghdad, he had alreadytaken his wife and children to Amman, aiming to waituntil the dust settled. It never did.

His family stayed in Jordan, but he commuted toBaghdad for several weeks at a time. "That's overnow," he says with grim determination. "I will nevergo back to Iraq."

Dr Azzam Kanbar-Agha, a British-educated surgeon,still makes the journey, though he too escaped akidnapping last September. "My whole life has changed.My family is shattered. I'm a sociable person. Ienjoyed sitting in cafes, meeting friends and talkingpolitics, but that's all over now. It's too insecurein Iraq," he says.

In Jordan he earns a third of what he did in Baghdad.So, despite the growing risk, he still goes back onshort visits. His kidnappers did not get as close asthe ones who stormed Faraj's office, but the threatwas equally sudden. At his clinic one day lastSeptember, Kanbar-Agha took a phone call from someonewho announced, "We are the mujahideen" (the resistancefighters). Assuming it was a friend playing the fool,he replied, "Come off it."

"We're serious," the voice countered. "We've beenwatching your clinic and we want you to make adonation to help our cause. We're fighting theAmericans."

When he asked what figure they had in mind, the voicewhispered softly, "We don't want to force you."
"I told them I wasn't used to this kind of talk. Theysuggested $10,000 (£5,750) and promised that no oneelse would bother me. I would be protected. I askedhow I could be sure they were mujahideen. They mightbe a gang. If we were a gang, the man said, 'We wouldjust kidnap you without a phone call'," he recalls.
Kanbar-Agha was given two days to collect the moneybut a few hours later got a chillingly impatient textmessage: "You're not worth negotiating with. We'regoing to act." Next day he threw away his mobile phoneSim card and fled to Jordan with his wife anddaughter.

Despite the danger, he has been back to Baghdad twice.But now he turns up at his clinic at random times. Hisreceptionist gives patients an appointment but warnsthem there could be a long wait. In the afternoons heworks at a crowded hospital where he feels there issafety in numbers.

One family that has strong evidence that the policeare involved in hostage-taking are the Hilmis. Thefather, mother, and four children in their 20s havehad to swap their capacious home in a prosperousBaghdad suburb for a small flat in Amman. Ahmed, 21,who was in his last year at university, was with oneof his sisters in their father's medical supply storelast autumn in Karrada, a busy Baghdad shopping areanear the river Tigris. His sister had the safe open inthe back room when four men arrived. They displayedofficial IDs from an anti-terrorist squad. They puthandcuffs on Ahmed and marched into the back roomwhere they took $40,000 from the safe. Then theyblindfolded him and bundled him into a vehicle for a15-minute drive.

Ahmed could not identify the place where he was heldbut says it must have been a government building sincethe electricity was never cut. He suspects it was thenotorious Jadriyah detention centre, run by theInterior Ministry, where the Americans discoveredclose to 200 people in December whose bodies showedmultiple signs of torture.

His family was asked to produce 25 daftar, ornotebooks, a slang phrase for a bundle of 100 $100bills - in other words, $250,000. The amount was toomuch, but they managed to raise $40,000. Ahmed waslucky. He was only held for five days. He was notmishandled in detention, and his kidnappers acceptedthe "reduced" amount of $40,000. When the family gotthe money together, he was dumped back on the street.

The next day, the Hilmis fled after quietly movingsuitcases to the homes of relatives. They did not daretell their neighbours they were leaving. Their houseis closed up and their new fear, they say, is that ifthe
Americans hear it is empty, they may smash thedoor and search it, leaving it open to looters oncethey go.
Similar stories can be heard from families in rentedrooms throughout Amman. By some estimates, there are amillion Iraqis in Jordan (compared with 300,000 at thetime of Saddam's overthrow). Thousands of others havemoved to Syria, Egypt, and the Gulf States.

In one flat I found an elderly gynaecologist and herdentist husband, both with post-graduatequalifications gained in Britain. They left Iraq lastyear with their four children, all fluentEnglish-speakers with university degrees. Now they arelost to Iraq. "I love my patients. I didn't want toleave them," says the doctor.

The last straw, says her younger son Ahmed Kamal (nothis real name), was when his mother had severe heartpains one evening and they could not get her tohospital because of the daily curfew which starts at8pm. "There are not enough ambulances. So I tried todrive her myself. We stopped at a police station foran escort because I was afraid we would be shot on theway. The police said they were too busy to help, so wehad to go home," he says.

With their various degrees - in electricalengineering, chemistry and agronomy - one might thinka family like this could be an asset in Jordan andquickly settle in. But every Iraqi complains ofJordan's tough immigration rules, under which theyonly get tourist entry permits for three days or aweek. "They hardly ever give residency permits toIraqis. They're afraid of competition," says Kamal."So we have to take work illegally at a quarter of ourIraq salaries. Employers like it that way."

The Jordanian authorities impose a fine of 1.50 dinars(about £1.25) a day for every foreigner who overstayshis or her permit. When they leave, the border policecount the time since they came in and charge them. Asa result, once in Jordan, many Iraqis say they cannotafford to leave. "We're trapped here. We can't workand we can't leave," says a car mechanic from Najaf.

The new sectarian tensions have added to the pressureto escape from Iraq. Like thousands of other familiesin Baghdad, the Kamals are mixed Sunni and Shia. Inthe past they had no interest in what sect theirfriends were but now, against their better instincts,they find themselves beginning to want to know.Group-think is gaining ground. "Most Sunnis thinkShias are all traitors. Most Shias think Sunnis areall terrorists," says Ahmed.

Slow-motion sectarian "cleansing" is under way asminority groups leave home and move to Baghdaddistricts where their sect is in the majority.Kanbar-Agha, who is a Shia but has a Sunni wife, triesto remain optimistic. He blames politicians forexploiting sectarianism. "It's stronger amongpoliticians than ordinary people. I see it in theireyes. They no longer talk about the Iraqi people. Theyonly talk about their own sect or group", he says.

But sectarianism is also being exploited for financialgain. Kandar-Agha says he has heard that an estateagent in Adamiyah, a mainly Sunni suburb in northBaghdad, was paying teenagers to deliver fliers toShia houses, warning them to leave. He hoped to buytheir property cheap or get it to rent out. Faraj sayshis Shia aunt who lives in Amariya, another heavilySunni area of Baghdad, got a letter saying her16-year-old son would be kidnapped if the family didnot leave. "The boy was immediately sent away toTurkey to stay with his married sister, but my aunt isrefusing to go. 'I'm an old widow. Let them kill me,'she says."

In another Amman flat, I met Muhammad Taha Yahir, theowner of a mini-market in Mosul, who had arrived inJordan the previous day. "I decided to leave Iraq amonth ago. I kept hoping things would improve, but nowit's hopeless. Very few people go to the shops. Theyjust come out for an hour or two in the afternoon," hesays. Mosul has few Shia residents and relationsbetween its main communities, Kurds and Sunni, are notbad, he says. What worries him is the generalinsecurity, bombs, clashes between the Americans andinsurgents, and trigger-happy American reactions. "I'mworried car bombs will go off as my kids travel to andfrom school. Or there could be clashes with theinsurgents, and roadblocks. If an American getskilled, they shoot back in all directions," he says."If an Iraqi policeman comes to my shop to buysomething, I have to apologise and ask him to leave.I'm afraid that I'll be thought to be an informer. I'mcaught between both sides.
We know where theinsurgents live, but we can't say anything."

He has never received any threats, but has two friendswho were killed on successive days last week. They hadbeen kidnapped but their families could not raise theransom. Both happened to be from Mosul's Christiancommunity. One ran a hardware store, another a shopselling electrical appliances. In the last few monthsbefore leaving, Taha Yahir rarely visited his own shopfor fear of being abducted. His staff ran everythingfor him.

His wife and family are still in Mosul, while heorganises a place in Amman for them to stay. In a fewdays he will rejoin them and try to sell his shop andhouse. "It will all have to be done with greatdiscretion and through a bank in Jordan. Otherwise, ifpeople know I am going and think I'm flush with cash,the risk of kidnapping will be even higher," heexplains.

When will it be safe for Iraqi exiles to go back? Theguesses range from gloom to the deepest pessimism. "Isee no chance of improvement for at least 10 years,"says Taha Yahir. "Maybe we won't live to see it getbetter," says Kamal. He is not yet 30.

Muhammad Moher el Din sits in the Central Cafe, afavourite haunt for Iraqi men in the crowded streetsof Old Amman, where hours are spent playing backgammonor smoking hubbly-bubblies. A leading Iraqi artist, hearrived in Jordan last week. "In Baghdad there is athreat to everything civilised. The attacks aretargeting doctors, artists, university people, andeveryone who represents civilisation, as well as allof civilisation's symbols, like the shrines in Samarraand Najaf," he says. Suspicion, mistrust, and fear areeverywhere. "Even our character is being changed. Ifeel it in me," he says.

8) What Bush hath wrought:

Battle for Baghdad 'has already started'
By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil
Published: 25 March 2006

The battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims for control of Baghdad has already started, say Iraqi political leaders who predict fierce street fighting will break out as each community takes over districts in which it is strongest.

"The fighting will only stop when a new balance of power has emerged," Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader, said. "Sunni and Shia will each take control of their own area." He said sectarian cleansing had already begun.

Many Iraqi leaders now believe that civil war is inevitable but it will be confined, at least at first, to the capital and surrounding provinces where the population is mixed. "The real battle will be the battle for Baghdad where the Shia have increasing control," said one senior official who did not want his name published. "The army will disintegrate in the first moments of the war because the soldiers are loyal to the Shia, Sunni or
Kurdish communities and not to the government." He expected the Americans to stay largely on the sidelines.

Throughout the capital, communities, both Sunni and Shia, are on the move, fleeing districts where they are in a minority and feel under threat. Sometimes they fight back. In the mixed but majority Shia al-Amel district, Sunni householders recently received envelopes containing a Kalashnikov bullet and a letter telling them to get out at once. In this case they contacted the insurgents who killed several Shia neighbours suspected of sending the letters.

"The Sunni will fight for Baghdad," said Mr Hussein. "The Baath party already controls al-Dohra and other Sunni groups dominate Ghazaliyah and Abu Ghraib [districts in south and west Baghdad]."

The Iraqi army is likely to fall apart once inter-communal fighting begins. According to Peter Galbraith, former US diplomat and expert on Iraq, the Iraqi army last summer contained 60 Shia battalions, 45 Sunni battalions, nine Kurdish battalions and one mixed battalion.

The police are even more divided and in Baghdad are largely controlled by the Mehdi Army of the radical nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Badr Organisation that has largely been in control of the interior ministry since last May. Sunni Arabs in Baghdad regard the ministry's paramilitary police commanders as Shia death squads.

Mr Hussein gave another reason why the army is weak. "Where you have 3,000 soldiers there will in fact be only 2,000 men [because of ghost soldiers who do not exist and whose salaries are taken by senior officers]," he said. "When it comes to fighting only 500 of those men will turn up."

Iraqi officials and ministers are increasingly in despair at the failure to put together an effective administration in Baghdad. A senior Arab minister, who asked not to be named, said: "The government could end up being only a few buildings in the Green Zone."

The mood among Iraqi leaders, both Arabs and Kurds, is far gloomier in private than the public declarations of the US and British governments. The US President George W Bush called this week for a national unity government in Iraq but Iraqi observers do not expect this to be any more effective than the present government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. One said this week: "The real problem is that the Shia and Sunni hate each other and not that we haven't been able to form a government."

The Shia and Kurds will have the advantage in the coming conflict because they have leaders and organisations. The Sunni are divided and only about 30 per cent of the population of the capital. Nevertheless they should be able to hold on to their stronghold in west Baghdad and the Adhamiyah district east of the Tigris. The Shia do not have the strength and probably do not wish to take over the Sunni towns and villages north and west of Baghdad.

Though the Kurds have long sought autonomy close to quasi-independence, their leaders are worried that civil war will increase Iranian and Turkish involvement in Iraq. Mr Hussein said he feared that civil war in Baghdad could spread north to Mosul and Kirkuk where the division is between Kurd and Arab rather than Sunni and Shia.

Already Baghdad resembles Beirut at the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when Christians and Muslims fought each other for control of the city.

9) Sudden increase in tracking down Vietnam deserters appears tied to Iraq war:

03/22/06 05:00 PM

Patriot Daily has a good analysis of the current trend of the U.S. military to track down Vietnam war deserters in what the authors call "an effort to set an example to deter the growing number of Iraq War military resisters who are fleeing to Canada." Since the war in Iraq began, at least 8,000 soldiers have deserted, a number which represents a decrease in desertions since September 11, 2001. The U.S. military denies that it has stepped up its campaign to find deserters, but there is some evidence to the contrary.

At least one Marine official has acknowledged that his office was being more aggressive in tracking down Vietnam war deserters. Chief Warrant Officer James Averhart said that he had ordered cold cases reopened, and that in his first year on the job, his sqad had brought in 27 deserters.

One case of particular interest is that of U.S. Marin Allen Abney, who lives in Canada but who has crossed the border "hundreds of times" to shop to take other trips. Just this month, he crossed the border and was arrested and transferred to military custody. Abney's case received publicity in both the American and Canadian press, and perhaps coincidentally, he will probably be released soon. Abney, like many soldiers, did not apply for amnesty under either the Ford clemency plan or the Carter amnesty plan. Though the Carter plan was much less punitive than the Ford plan, it gave unconditional amnesty to draft evaders only.
- Diane E. Dees

Read the MoJo Blog online for more:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog

@2006 The Foundation for National Progress

10) Send an anti-war message with your tax return, on real stamps:

So you can still join in the movement to send and anti-war message with your tax return this month (and with every letter you mail).

http://www.BringThemHomeNow.com.

Mearsheimer/Walt Report

2006-04-08T23:26:00.000-06:00

Today there is only one topic, the Mearsheimer/Walt report, which has attracted an awful lot of attention since it came out a couple of weeks ago. Here are links to the original report, as well as several reactions to the report. I especially recommend the London Review of Books summary version of the report, Abu Khalil's analysis of it, and Dershowitz's response:

1) This is the London Review of Books shortened version of the report. It's more or less the same as the full report, but without footnotes:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/print/mear01_.html

The Israel LobbyJohn Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt

For the past several decades, and especially since theSix-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US MiddleEastern policy has been its relationship with Israel.The combination of unwavering support for Israel andthe related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughoutthe region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion andjeopardised not only US security but that of much ofthe rest of the world. This situation has no equal inAmerican political history. Why has the US beenwilling to set aside its own security and that of manyof its allies in order to advance the interests ofanother state? One might assume that the bond betweenthe two countries was based on shared strategicinterests or compelling moral imperatives, but neitherexplanation can account for the remarkable level ofmaterial and diplomatic support that the US provides.

Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derivesalmost entirely from domestic politics, and especiallythe activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Otherspecial-interest groups have managed to skew foreignpolicy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as farfrom what the national interest would suggest, whilesimultaneously convincing Americans that US interestsand those of the other country – in this case, Israel– are essentially identical...

2) Full Mearsheimer / Walt Report direct link:

http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
By John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
Working Paper Number:
RWP06-011Submitted: 03/13/2006 Download Instructions

Abstract
In this paper, John J. Mearsheimer of the Universityof Chicago's Department of Political Science andStephen M.Walt of Harvard University's Kennedy Schoolof Government contend that the centerpiece of U.S.Middle East policy is its intimate relationship withIsrael. The authors argue that although oftenjustified as reflecting shared strategic interests orcompelling moral imperatives, the U.S. commitment toIsrael is due primarily to the activities of the“Israel Lobby." This paper goes on to describe thevarious activities that pro-Israel groups haveundertaken in order to shift U.S. foreign policy in apro-Israel direction.

3) Initial Reactions:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1743767,00.html

US professors accused of being liars and bigots overessay on pro-Israeli lobby
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday March 31, 2006
The Guardian

An article by two prominent American professorsarguing that the pro-Israel lobby exerts a dominantand damaging influence on US foreign policy hastriggered a furious row, pitting allegations ofanti-semitism against claims of intellectualintimidation.Stephen Walt, the academic dean of Harvard's KennedySchool of Government, and John Mearsheimer, apolitical science professor at the University ofChicago, published two versions of the essay, theIsrael Lobby, in the London Review of Books and on aHarvard website.
The pro-Israel lobby and its sway over American policyhas always been a controversial issue, but theprofessors' bluntly worded polemic created afirestorm, drawing condemnation from left and right ofthe political spectrum.

Professor Walt's fellow Harvard professor AlanDershowitz - criticised in the article as an"apologist" for Israel - denounced the authors as"liars" and "bigots" in the university newspaper, TheHarvard Crimson, and compared their arguments toneo-Nazi literature.

"Accusations of powerful Jews behind the scenes arepart of the most dangerous traditions of modernanti-semitism," wrote two fellow academics, JeffreyHerf and Andrei Markovits, in a letter to the LondonReview of Books. Critics also pointed out that thearticle had been praised by David Duke, a notoriousAmerican white supremacist.

Prof Mearsheimer said the storm of protest proved oneof its arguments - that the strength of the pro-Israellobby stifled debate on US foreign policy.

"We argued in the piece that the lobby goes to greatlengths to silence criticism of Israeli policy as wellas the US-Israeli relationship, and that its mosteffective weapon is the charge of anti-semitism," ProfMearsheimer told The Guardian. "Thus, we expected tobe called anti-semites, even though both of us arephilo-semites and strongly support the existence ofIsrael."

He added: "Huge numbers of people know this story tobe true but are afraid to say it because they wouldpunished by pro-Israeli forces."

Soon after the publication of the article it wasannounced that Prof Walt would step down from his jobas academic dean at the end of June. However, theKennedy School and Prof Walt's colleagues said thatthe move had long been planned.

The Kennedy school removed its cover page from theonline version of the article but said in a statement:"The only purpose of that removal was to end publicconfusion; it was not intended, contrary to someinterpretations, to send any signal that the schoolwas also 'distancing' itself from one of its seniorprofessors."

"The University of Chicago and Harvard University havebehaved admirably in difficult circumstances. We havehad the full support of our respective institutions,"Prof Mearsheimer said.

The article argues that the US has "been willing toset aside its own security and that of many of itsallies" to advance Israeli interests, largely as aresult of pressure from Jewish American groups such asthe American Israeli Political Action Committee(AIPAC) allied to pro-Zionist Christian evangelistsand influential Jewish neo-conservatives such asformer Pentagon officials Paul Wolfowitz, DouglasFeith and Richard Perle. It argues their combinedinfluence was critical in the decision to go to war inIraq.

Writing in the online magazine, Slate, theBritish-born journalist Christopher Hitchenscriticised the authors' "over-fondness for Jewishname-dropping" and argued that the first occasion theneo-conservatives had a significant influence onforeign policy was to press the Clinton administrationto intervene on behalf of Muslims in Bosnia andKosovo.

No AIPAC officials would comment about the controversyon the record.

Yesterday Prof Mearsheimer said: "We went out of ourway to say that the lobby is simply engaging ininterest group politics, which is as American as applepie."

4) WAR OF WORDS OVER PAPER ON ISRAEL

Scholars' critical examination of U.S.-Israelities is called shoddy and bigoted; others say harshreaction proves the study's point.

http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/27/israel

5) More Meirsheimer/Walt Reactions:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1744960,00.html
Editor hits back over Israel row

London Review of Books stands its ground after beingaccused of anti-Semitism in an article attackingpro-Israeli influence on US policy

Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday April 2, 2006
The Observer

She is, in the words of her many admirers, the 'materfamilias of London's liberal intelligentsia'. Thisweekend, however, Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of theLondon Review of Books, is on the defensive - speakingout for the first time in an escalating transatlanticrow that has seen her respected journal accused ofpromoting anti-Semitism.The argument has erupted over a cover article in thelatest issue of the LRB by two prominent Americanacademics on the influence of the pro-Israel lobby inthe US. The article, which argues that the lobby holdsa disproportionate and damaging sway over Americanforeign policy, prompted a bitter and growingcontroversy, particularly in the US, where rival campshave exchanged claims of anti-Semitism andintellectual intimidation by those accused of beingmembers of 'the Lobby'.

The article, by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, wasoriginally written for, but rejected by, the AtlanticMonthly and picked up by the LRB, when Wilmers 'becameaware of its existence'.

The article set out at exhaustive length to list everyway in which it claimed US foreign policy had beencaptured on behalf of Israel by an all-encompassinglobby of academics, campaign groups, journalists andpro-Israeli activists in government. Among thefiercest critics have been Eliot Engel, a Democraticcongressman from New York, who branded the authors'anti-Semites', and the right-wing New York Sun, whichlikened the piece to the 'rantings' of IranianPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The article has been praised by white supremacist andformer head of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke - a movethat Wilmers admits was 'unsettling'.

'I don't want David Duke to endorse the article,' hetold The Observer from France on Friday. 'It makes mefeel uncomfortable. But when I re-read the piece, Idid not see anything that I felt should not have beensaid. Maybe it is because I am Jewish, but I think Iam very alert to anti-Semitism. And I do not thinkthat criticising US foreign policy, or Israel's way ofgoing about influencing it, is anti-Semitic. I justdon't see it.'

Harvard University, where Walt is a professor, hasalso weighed into the row, distancing itself from thereport.
It is not the first time in recent years that the LRBhas been embroiled in controversy with the US - it wasaccused of anti-Americanism in a special issuefollowing the attacks on 11 September.

President Bill Clinton's special Middle East envoy,Dennis Ross, cited by the authors as having 'closeties' to pro-Israel organisations, said the authorsdisplayed a 'woeful lack of knowledge'.

For their part, the two authors, despite the row,describe themselves as 'philo-Semites'. Wilmers saysthey are members of the Realist School of US ForeignPolicy which insists that America should be guided byits own interests and not by Israel's.

Wilmers defends the article: 'I know Israel thinks itis a monstrous presumption. But then I don't thinkthat the way that Israel behaves is terribly helpful.The article doesn't talk about a "Jewish Lobby" or a"Cabal". I feel very clear about that. We were veryconscious of that risk.'

But while Wilmers feels confident that the articleexamines legitimate concerns - in particular about thelobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee -it is not a view shared by critics of the LRB. Amongthem is Professor Alan Dershowitz, a colleague of Waltat Harvard, who is criticised in the article for beingan 'apologist' for Israel. Dershowitz denounced theauthors last week as 'liars' and 'bigots' and comparedtheir argument to neo-Nazi literature. It is a viewshared by US academics Jeffrey Herf and AndreiMarkovits, who wrote to the LRB: 'Accusations ofpowerful Jews behind the scenes are part of the mostdangerous traditions of modern anti-Semitism.'

But while some have focused on the issue ofanti-Semitism, others, following Dennis Ross's lead,have condemned the article as a shoddy piece ofpseudo-academia. It is a view endorsed by journalistChristopher Hitchens, who has accused the authors ofan exercise in Jewish 'name listing', and perhaps -most surprisingly - by Noam Chomsky, the Nobel-prizewinning academic who has written on the pro-Israelibias of the US media.
'Recognising that Mearsheimer-Walt took a courageousstand which merits praise,' he wrote for onlinemagazine ZNet last week, 'we still have to ask howconvincing their thesis is. Not very, in my opinion.'

Wilmers rejects the accusation by Hitchens, Ross andothers that the Mearsheimer-Walt article has donelittle more than attempt to join up a disconnectedlist of people and organisations lobbying on differentaspects of Israeli concern into a central 'IsraelLobby' - capitalised by the LRB. She admits now,however, that it would have been better to use a lowercase 'l' for the word 'lobby' - to have avoided therisk of being misunderstood.
'It is not true that the authors simply lumpedtogether a long list of people and organisations inthe same piece to make their case for an "IsraeliLobby". To say that because someone is mentioned incontext in a long piece is tainted by association withany other is wrong.'

Wilmers believes, too, that the most angrydenunciations of anti-Semitism - while designed toserve the purpose of censorship by those attempting toforestall criticism of Israel - may actually encourageanti-Semitism in the long run.

'It serves a purpose. No one wants to be thought of asanti-Semitic because it is thought of as worse thananything else, although it is not worse beinganti-Semitic than being anti-black or Islamophobic.
'Really, one of the most upsetting things is the wayit can contribute to anti-Semitism in the long runjust by making so many constant appeals and preventinguseful criticism of Israel. No one can say Israel'sposture does not contribute to anti-Semitism, yetcharges of anti-Semitism are used to justify thatpolicy.'

6) More Reactions:

http://hnn.us/roundup/archives/1/2006/3/#23364

Harvey Sicherman:
The flaws in the noisome paper aboutthe Israel LobbySource:
Foreign Policy Research (3-28-06)

[Harvey Sicherman, Ph.D., is President of the ForeignPolicy Research Institute and former aide to threeU.S. secretaries of state.]

John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison DistinguishedService Professor of Political Science at theUniversity of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, Robert andRenee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at theJohn F. Kennedy School of Government at HarvardUniversity, have stirred great controversy with theirattack on the "Israel Lobby." One version of theirindictment was published in the London Review of Bookson March 26, 2006. The other, longer, footnotedversion appeared under the Faculty Research WorkingPapers Series of the Kennedy School....

7) Abu Khalil on Meirsheimer. This was one of the better analyses on the meaning of the report, as Abu Khalil refuses to explain away all US foreign policy on one lobby:

http://politicalissuesofinterest.blogspot.com/2006/03/asad-abukhalilon-mearsheimer-and-walt.html

8) MORE DEBATE OVER REPORT OF ISRAEL'S INFLUENCE INU.S.

By Tom Regan
Christian Science Monitor
April 6, 2006

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0406/dailyUpdate.html

9) ALAN DERSHOWITZ Response Report. This is a lengthy point by point response to Mearsheimer and Walt's report:

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/research/working_papers/dershowitzreply.pdf

Torture, Katrina, Pipes, Signs, Receipts, NO Film Festival

2006-02-21T23:43:00.000-07:00

This time I'm mixing Katrina and non-Katrina postings, in what I imagine will be a gradual return to Middle East dominant postings. That said, this weekend is all New Orleans all the time, what with the first Mardi Gras after Katrina and my 40th birthday. Time for redemptive release.

1) Here's a New Yorker article on internal efforts to critique/prevent torture from within the US government establishment. There's an accompanying memo attached to the article:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060227fa_fact

2) Hold the Corps Accountable Signs now in NO:
Dear supporters,

A shipment of \"Hold the Corps Accountable\" signs has arrived!

These signs are incredibly important this week with 800 reporters in town for Mardi Gras and next week with 100 Congressmen in town to get a look-see of the devastation we have suffered.

For a yard sign, there are two pickup spots: Uptown: 1421 Soniat St uptown one block off St. Charles Ave on river side (in garage). River Ridge: 10005 Hyde Place in River Ridge off of Sauve Road (on porch). Drop by any time and take what you need.........

Our group got some excellent press today in Bayou Buzz a popular Louisiana electronic newsletter. Check it out at: http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=6311

Keep talking about the Corps! It\'s the Corps!Sandy

3) Get these New Orleans t-shirts -- I did!:

We're finally set up to ship shirts again. The website has been updated slightly and includes a paypalbutton to order the black Defend New Orleans t-shirts.Feel free to send people here, spread the word, andpick up some new gifts...

http://www.defendneworleans.com

Thank You for the continued support, and Happy MardiGras!

4) Katrina Paper Submission Call:

Title: Katrina: Race, Class, and Povery: Reflectionsand Analysis. Location: Louisiana Deadline: 2006-06-30 Description: Hurricane Katrina: Race, Class andPoverty: Reflections and Analysis Call for Papers: TheJournal of Black Studies is requesting contributionsfor a special edition examining the effects andaftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We invitecontributions from African-American Studies, History,Economics, Et ... Contact: Troy_Allen@subr.edu Announcement ID: 149884 http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=149884

5) Hmmm. Daniel Pipes here defends himself from setting off the Danish cartoon scandal (from his own email listserve):

Those Danish Cartoons and Meby Daniel PipesNew York SunFebruary 21, 2006

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3405

Did you know that I had a hand in the Danish cartoons of Muhammad?
No? Well, neither did I until I found this out in early February on a conspiracist Web site. To clear the record, I'll start with the facts, then outline the conspiracy theory.

What actually happened: Flemming Rose, cultural editor of a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, sent me an e-mail on September 29, 2004, introducing himself and requesting an in-person interview during his American trip. I agreed and Mr. Rose came to my Philadelphia office on October 25, when he spent about half an hour asking me questions. His article on me, "Truslen fra islamismen" (or "The Threat of Islamism)," appeared on October 29. It is a standard journalistic piece in which Mr. Rose provided some biographical information about me and had me explain my views on radical Islam. (Both the Danish original and an English translation can be found on my Web site, www.DanielPipes.org.)

After that meeting, I had no further contact with Mr. Rose. To be more precise: We have since then not met, talked, or written to each other. I learned only from the press of his decision, nearly a year after our meeting, to commission and publish the cartoons.

That's the boring reality – a routine interview and nothing else. The more exciting conspiracy theory began when a fringe antisemitic writer named Christopher Bollyn published an analysis on February 3 announcing that "Rose traveled to Philadelphia in October 2004 to visit Daniel Pipes. … Rose then penned a positive article about Pipes."

Two days later, Mr. Bollyn transmogrified this fact into an elaborate conspiracy theory: "The anti-Muslim cartoon scandal is clearly turning out to be a key event in the Zionist Neo-Cons' ‘clash of civilizations,' the artificially constructed struggle to pit the so-called Christian West against the Islamic states and peoples. We know that Flemming Rose is a colleague and fellow of the Zionist Neo-Con Daniel Pipes. He has visited Pipes in Philadelphia and written a friendly biographical article."

Note Mr. Bollyn's three assumptions in this account: that Mr. Rose is my "colleague and fellow," that he and I together intentionally provoked Muslims, and that we are part of a wider conspiracy to worsen Christian-Muslim relations.

Such wild assumptions are standard fare for Mr. Bollyn. Concerning September 11, 2001, for example, he thinks President Bush and press tycoon Rupert Murdoch knew the plans in advance, that the Mossad had a key role in that day's events, that United Airlines flight 175 was not flown into the southern World Trade Center tower, and that the towers were destroyed either by an Israeli-American laser beam weapon or massive underground explosions.

Mr. Bollyn's theory connecting me to a clash of civilizations gained momentum within days. Leftist and Islamist writers variously described Mr. Rose as my "close associate," "disciple," and "protégé" and the Internet buzzed with rumors of my part in a "Neocon conspiracy." Even mainstream elements then picked up these ideas. A leading Arabic newspaper, Al-Hayat, speculated on February 10 about the "mutual admiration society" between Mr. Rose and myself. The PLO representative in Washington, Afif Safieh, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on February 12 that Flemming Rose "is a fan and an admirer" of mine.

The mass-circulation Belgian weekly Knack then called me "the ideologue of the NeoCons" (which will come as news to William Kristol) and accused Mr. Rose, me, and others of instigating an "intentional NeoCon provocation."

I watched the spread of this fantastical account with bemusement and apprehension. As the author of two books and many articles on conspiracy theories, I have intensively studied these misguided attempts to understand reality. This time, I had the dubious privilege of doing so on the inside looking out. In response, I recalled two recommendations from my 1992 CIA-commissioned report suggesting ways for the American government to handle conspiracy theories.

Deny the validity of conspiracy theories: Following my own advice, I placed a correction on my website, discussed the topic on Al-Jazeera television, and am addressing the matter here.

Anticipate malign interpretations: In today's vicious and vulgar political discourse, public figures must anticipate that their actions, however minor and innocent, might randomly be plucked out of obscurity and framed as part of some grand design. One cannot prevent this but the damage can be minimized by keeping careful documentation (e-mails, audio recordings, photographs) and producing them to refute distortions.
To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list, go to http://www.DanielPipes.org/subscribe.php

6) Receipt Check in These United States:

http://www.die.net/musings/bestbuy/

I'm generally adverse to the whole shopping experienceand tend to operate in the power shopping, "hit andrun" mode.

So four shopping days before Christmas I decide thatmy remaining gifts will be digital satellite systems,and I proceed to the back of the Lakewood, CaliforniaBest Buy and end up at the mixed personalcommunications and odd-things-to-attach-to-your-TVcounter. Surveying my options, I feel vaguely lessmanly as I eschew the top-of-the-line,surround-sound-laden, multiple-receiver-ready modelsin favor of a pair of beginners packs inclusive of thedish, appropriate electronics, and every possiblewire, nut or bolt their future owners would need toget each going. Having made my decision, I'm now readyto be done.

I begin to understand that this would not be my fatetoday, though, as the "helpful" salesperson politelyignores my query for more stock than the one box Ifind and proceeds to tell me about the great featuresof the higher end systems, including the dishes thatallow the use of two receivers simultaneously so Iwon't need to buy more than one complete system.

After being convinced that I'm not going to budge frommy decision and trekking off to what must've been theend of the earth to retrieve my box, I'm told thatthese items must be checked out at the counter I'mstanding in front of. Before he will even take mycredit card, though, I have to fill out my name,address, etc on three different forms which then getlaboriously typed into the register. By the time we'rethrough the repeated sales pitch on the extendedwarranty and the inspection of the contents of mypurchases, I'm in what might be considered a hurry toleave.

So when I'm faced with the prospect of standing in along line at the exit to have yet another person riflethrough my property, I dodge the line and head for anunused automatic door, countering an insistent "Sir,can I see your receipt?" with a polite "No, thankyou."

I've gotten so used to this trick at Fry's Electronicsthat I don't really think twice about it. You see,Fry's doesn't trust their underpaid staff manning thecash registers to actually do their jobs right, sothey post a door guard to ask people walking away fromthe registers carrying plastic bags to let them verifythat all of the items in the bag were rung up on thereceipt.

But this verification step is purely voluntary.Merchants basically have two rights covering peopleentering and exiting their stores. They can refuse tolet you enter the premises and/or to sell youanything, and they can place you under citizens arrestfor attempting to leave the premises with any propertythat you haven't paid for. But the second you handover the appropriate amount of cash, they lose allrights to the items. They can't legally impair youfrom leaving the store with your property.

Apparently the employees of my local Best Buy aren'tvery familiar with annoying pedantic individuals whowill choose principals over convenience when walkingout with a shopping cart full of expensive homeentertainment gear. I manage to get about 5 steps outthe door before the door guard catches up to me andgrabs my cart, with the "sir" in his "I need to seeyour receipt, sir" somehow not very complimentary.This is apparently a stalling tactic, as shortly a fewmore blue-shirted employees make a move to block mefrom making any more progress toward my car.

I ask, still calm, if I am being detained forshoplifting. This suggestion apparently shocks mycaptor into regaining some of his senses, and he letsgo of my cart. I explain that unless he wishes to doso, he has no right to stop me.

This is clearly baffling to the poor fellow. Hesuggests again that my receipt simply needs to bechecked, struggling to grasp why it is that I won'tjust be a nice little customer and submit to the storepolicy. I spend a few moments trying to explainmyself, but clearly have too much adrenaline flowingat this point to be particularly erudite. I give upand proceed in the direction of my car.

Shortly a yellow-shirted fellow, who I take to be amanagerial-type, again tries to plead a case for thereceipt-checking. I ask again if I'm being detainedfor shoplifting. He says no, but shortly thereaftermentions that he'll need to call the police shortly ifI don't offer a receipt. I tell him to please do so,while loading my packages into the car. I suggest thatbefore doing so he take a moment to talk to either thehelpful salesperson who rung me up or to compare theirinventory against sales receipts, as to avoid lookinglike an ass to the cops.

As I get in my car to leave, two Best Buy lackeys in apickup truck decide its a good time to park behind me,blocking my path again. By this time, I've had justenough of this crap and not very politely ordiscreetly ask them to get out of the way. With only alittle hesitation, the yellow-shirt nods in theirdirection and I'm soon free to leave.

Its been a few hours, but I'm still half expecting aman with a badge and a gun to show up at my door tocheck my receipt.

-- Aaron Hopkins

7) Women in War Conference:

Dear activists, community leaders and others,

The Women's Studies Committee of South Texas Collegeis currently soliticing papers and presenters for our
Women and War conference to be held 18-20 April, 2006.

As we have already booked Yanar Mohammed and JoyceRiley as speakers, we are interested in havinguniversity and high school students talk aboutcounter-recruitment campaigns and or the differencesbetween fantasy (what recruiters say) and reality(what inductees and "volunteers" learn).
We also might be able to pay the travel and lodgingcosts of those attendees who represent student orpeace groups that deal with these issues (viareimbursement).

NB the offer for reimbursement can only be offered tothe first group or person who respond, who meet thisnarrow criteria - so time IS of the essence.

To get a feeling for the mood and interests of ourconference in general, please see the attachedannouncement (a call for papers), distribute widelyand inform, faculty, students, friends, and media.

Thank you

John Calvin Jones, PhD, JDSouth Texas College (Mid-Valley Campus)Weslaco, TX

Call for papers: Women and War Conference in SouthTexas, April 2006

The Women's Studies committee of South Texas College(McAllen, Texas - only a few miles from the Mexicanborder and 90 minutes from South Padre Island) isorganizing a conference on Women and War this spring(April 18-20, 2006). We have already obtainedcommitments for two dynamic speakers, Ms. YanarMohammed, President, Organization of Women's Freedomin Iraq (OWFI), and former Capt. (USAF) Joyce RileyvonKleist, RN, BSN.

Ms. Mohammed will provide a first-hand account of thelives of women and their families in Iraq since theU.S. invasion and occupation of March 2003, while Ms.Riley shall provide a lecture on the effects ofAmerica's depleted uranium weapons that cause illnessand cancer in civilians, our troops, and spouses andchildren of Iraq war veterans.

To learn more about our speakers please visit thefollowing websites:

http://www.equalityiniraq.com (Yanar Mohammed); and

http://www.beyondtreason.com (the work of Joyce Rileyon the effects of Depleted Uranium)

We invite researchers, faculty, graduate students,community and organizational leaders to presentfindings and observations on a wide range of issuesrelated to "women and war" (or understood as theeffects of war on women) from refugees andreproductive disruptions, to economic and socialchanges and the role of arts, media, and governmentpropaganda in wartime.

As well, we encourage people from all disciplineswithin and without Liberal Arts, Humanities, and theSciences. Given the short notice, we extend theperiod to receive abstracts through March 21, 2006. Please send your completed papers or abstracts viae-mail to the Chair of the Women's Studies Committee,Ms. Jenny Clark at: jclark@southtexascollege.edu orJohn Calvin Jones, PhD, JD at:jcjones@southtexascollege.edu. Please include theterm "Women and War" in the subject line.
We shall make prompt responses of acceptance orrejection.

Thank you

8) Is the Iraq invasion a War of Aggression?:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/20/nirq20.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/20/ixhome.html

Campaigners ask courts to rule Iraq war a 'crime ofaggression'

By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor(Filed: 20/02/2006)

Britain's most senior judges will be asked today for aruling that could lead to the war in Iraq beingdeclared an illegal "crime of aggression".

Until now, the courts have taken the view that theycannot rule on the Crown's prerogative powers to wagewar. But today the law lords will start hearingappeals by peace protesters who claim they wereentitled to commit "criminal" acts in an attempt toprevent what they saw as the greater crime oflaunching an illegal war.
Nobody has been punished for aggression ininternational law since the Nuremberg Tribunalexecuted former Nazi officers in 1946. The newInternational Criminal Court does not yet havejurisdiction over the crime, partly because ofdifficulties in agreeing a definition of it.

But the Government has been told by its senior legaladviser that ministers could face such charges underEnglish law.

In the Attorney General's advice to the Prime Ministerof March 7, 2003, Lord Goldsmith said: "Aggression isa crime under customary international law whichautomatically forms part of domestic law. It mighttherefore be argued that international aggression is acrime recognised by the common law which can beprosecuted in the UK courts."

Lord Goldsmith warned Tony Blair to expect opponentsof military action to bring a case against theGovernment or military personnel. "We cannot becertain that they would not succeed," the AttorneyGeneral said. The first test case involves five peacecampaigners who face criminal damage charges relatingto RAF Fairford, Glos, and who are due to stand trialin Bristol later this year.

Another case involves 14 Greenpeace activistsconvicted of aggravated trespass after they occupiedtanks at Marchwood military base in Southampton.

The third appeal has been brought by a woman convictedof aggravated trespass at RAF Fairford.
All of them claim that they are entitled to a defenceunder Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act, which says "aperson may use such force as is reasonable in thecircumstances in the prevention of crime".

The law lords are not being asked to rule whether thedecision to take military action against Iraq amountedto aggression. Instead, the five campaigners due tostand trial in Bristol want them to rule that they canraise the argument in their defence.

9) ISIM Review Editor's Position (this is a good job):

International Institute for the Study of Islam in theModern World - Editor ISIM Review (Netherlands)
http://www.h-net.org/jobs/display_job.php?jobID=30470

10) On a Potential Israeli Boycott:

Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified

by Norman G. Finkelstein
Aftenposten 01.14.2006

The recent proposal that Norway boycott Israeli goodshas provoked passionate debate. In my view, a rationalexamination of this issue would pose two questions: 1)Do Israeli human rights violations warrant an economicboycott? and 2) Can such a boycott make a meaningfulcontribution toward ending these violations? I wouldargue that both these questions should be answered inthe affirmative.

Although the subject of many reports by human rightsorganizations, Israel's real human rights record inthe Occupied Palestinian Territory is generally notwell known abroad. This is primarily due to theformidable public relations industry of Israel'sdefenders as well as the effectiveness of theirtactics of intimidation, such as labeling critics ofIsraeli policy anti-Semitic.

Yet, it is an incontestable fact that Israel hascommitted a broad range of human rights violations,many rising to the level of war crimes and crimesagainst humanity. These include:

Illegal Killings. Whereas Palestinian suicide attackstargeting Israeli civilians have garnered much mediaattention, Israel's quantitatively worse record ofkilling non-combatants is less well known. Accordingto the most recent figures of the Israeli InformationCenter for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories(B'Tselem), 3,386 Palestinians have been killed sinceSeptember 2000, of whom 1,008 were identified ascombatants, as opposed to 992 Israelis killed, of whom309 were combatants. This means that three times morePalestinians than Israelis have been killed and up tothree times more Palestinian civilians than Israelicivilians. Israel's defenders maintain that there's adifference between targeting civilians andinadvertently killing them. B'Tselem disputes this:"[W]hen so many civilians have been killed andwounded, the lack of intent makes no difference.Israel remains responsible." Furthermore, AmnestyInternational reports that "many" Palestinians havenot been accidentally killed but "deliberatelytargeted," while the award-winning New York Timesjournalist Chris Hedges reports that Israeli soldiers"entice children like mice into a trap and murder themfor sport."

Torture. "From 1967," Amnesty reports, "the Israelisecurity services have routinely tortured Palestinianpolitical suspects in the Occupied Territories."B'Tselem found that eighty-five percent ofPalestinians interrogated by Israeli security serviceswere subjected to "methods constituting torture,"while already a decade ago Human Rights Watchestimated that "the number of Palestinians tortured orseverely ill-treated" was "in the tens of thousands -a number that becomes especially significant when itis remembered that the universe of adult andadolescent male Palestinians in the West Bank and Gazais under three-quarters of one million." In 1987Israel became "the only country in the world to haveeffectively legalized torture" (Amnesty). Although theIsraeli Supreme Court seemed to ban torture in a 1999decision, the Public Committee Against Torture inIsrael reported in 2003 that Israeli security forcescontinued to apply torture in a "methodical androutine" fashion. A 2001 B'Tselem study documentedthat Israeli security forces often applied "severetorture" to "Palestinian minors."

House demolitions. "Israel has implemented a policy ofmass demolition of Palestinian houses in the OccupiedTerritories," B'Tselem reports, and since September2000 "has destroyed some 4,170 Palestinian homes."Until just recently Israel routinely resorted to housedemolitions as a form of collective punishment.According to Middle East Watch, apart from Israel, theonly other country in the world that used such adraconian punishment was Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Inaddition, Israel has demolished thousands of "illegal"homes that Palestinians built because of Israel'srefusal to provide building permits. The motive behinddestroying these homes, according to Amnesty, has beento maximize the area available for Jewish settlers:"Palestinians are targeted for no other reason thanthey are Palestinians." Finally, Israel has destroyedhundred of homes on security pretexts, yet a HumanRights Watch report on Gaza found that "the pattern ofdestruction.strongly suggests that Israeli forcesdemolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether theyposed a specific threat." Amnesty likewise found that"Israel's extensive destruction of homes andproperties throughout the West Bank and Gaza.is notjustified by military necessity," and that "Some ofthese acts of destruction amount to grave breaches ofthe Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes."
Apart from the sheer magnitude of its human rightsviolations, the uniqueness of Israeli policies meritsnotice. "Israel has created in the OccupiedTerritories a regime of separation based ondiscrimination, applying two separate systems of lawin the same area and basing the rights of individualson their nationality," B'Tselem has concluded. "Thisregime is the only one of its kind in the world, andis reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past,such as the apartheid regime in South Africa." Ifsingling out South Africa for an internationaleconomic boycott was defensible, it would seem equallydefensible to single out Israel's occupation, whichuniquely resembles the apartheid regime.

Although an economic boycott can be justified on moralgrounds, the question remains whether diplomacy mightbe more effectively employed instead. The documentaryrecord in this regard, however, is not encouraging.The basic terms for resolving the Israel-Palestineconflict are embodied in U.N. resolution 242 andsubsequent U.N. resolutions, which call for a fullIsraeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza and theestablishment of a Palestinian state in these areas inexchange for recognition of Israel's right to live inpeace and security with its neighbors. Each year theoverwhelming majority of member States of the UnitedNations vote in favor of this two-state settlement,and each year Israel and the United States (and a fewSouth Pacific islands) oppose it. Similarly, in March2002 all twenty-two member States of the Arab Leagueproposed this two-state settlement as well as "normalrelations with Israel." Israel ignored the proposal.

Not only has Israel stubbornly rejected this two-statesettlement, but the policies it is currently pursuingwill abort any possibility of a viable Palestinianstate. While world attention has been riveted byIsrael's redeployment from Gaza, Sara Roy of HarvardUniversity observes that the "Gaza Disengagement Planis, at heart, an instrument for Israel's continuedannexation of West Bank land and the physicalintegration of that land into Israel." In particularIsrael has been constructing a wall deep inside theWest Bank that will annex the most productive land andwater resources as well as East Jerusalem, the centerof Palestinian life. It will also effectively severthe West Bank in two. Although Israel initiallyclaimed that it was building the wall to fightterrorism, the consensus among human rightsorganizations is that it is really a land grab toannex illegal Jewish settlements into Israel. RecentlyIsrael's Justice Minister frankly acknowledged thatthe wall will serve as "the future border of the stateof Israel."

The current policies of the Israeli government willlead either to endless bloodshed or the dismembermentof Palestine. "It remains virtually impossible toconceive of a Palestinian state without its capital inJerusalem," the respected Crisis Group recentlyconcluded, and accordingly Israeli policies in theWest Bank "are at war with any viable two-statesolution and will not bolster Israel's security; infact, they will undermine it, weakening Palestinianpragmatists.and sowing the seeds of growingradicalization."

Recalling the U.N. Charter principle that it isinadmissible to acquire territory by war, theInternational Court of Justice declared in a landmark2004 opinion that Israel's settlements in the OccupiedPalestinian Territory and the wall being built toannex them to Israel were illegal under internationallaw. It called on Israel to cease construction of thewall, dismantle those parts already completed andcompensate Palestinians for damages.

Crucially, italso stressed the legal responsibilities of theinternational community:
all States are under an obligation not to recognizethe illegal situation resulting from the constructionof the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,including in and around East Jerusalem. They are alsounder an obligation not to render aid or assistance inmaintaining the situation created by suchconstruction. It is also for all States, whilerespecting the United Nations Charter andinternational law, to see to it that any impediment,resulting from the construction of the wall, to theexercise by the Palestinian people of its right toself-determination is brought to an end.A subsequent U.N. General Assembly resolutionsupporting the World Court opinion passedoverwhelmingly. However, the Israeli governmentignored the Court's opinion, continuing constructionat a rapid pace, while Israel's Supreme Court ruledthat the wall was legal.

Due to the obstructionist tactics of the UnitedStates, the United Nations has not been able toeffectively confront Israel's illegal practices.Indeed, although it is true that the U.N. keeps Israelto a double standard, it's exactly the reverse of theone Israel's defenders allege: Israel is held not to ahigher but lower standard than other member States. Astudy by Marc Weller of Cambridge University comparingIsrael and the Occupied Palestinian Territory withcomparable situations in Bosnia and Herzegovina,Kosovo, East Timor, occupied Kuwait and Iraq, andRwanda found that Israel has enjoyed "virtualimmunity" from enforcement measures such as an armsembargo and economic sanctions typically adopted bythe U.N. against member States condemned for identicalviolations of international law. Due in part to anaggressive campaign accusing Europe of a "newanti-Semitism," the European Union has also failed inits legal obligation to enforce international law inthe Occupied Palestinian Territory. Although the claimof a "new anti-Semitism" has no basis in fact (all theevidence points to a lessening of anti-Semitism inEurope), the EU has reacted by appeasing Israel. Ithas even suppressed publication of one of its ownreports, because the authors -- like the Crisis Groupand many others -- concluded that due to Israelipolicies the "prospects for a two-state solution witheast Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine arereceding."

The moral burden to avert the impending catastrophemust now be borne by individual states that areprepared to respect their obligations underinternational law and by individual men and women ofconscience. In a courageous initiative American-basedHuman Rights Watch recently called on the U.S.government to reduce significantly its financial aidto Israel until Israel terminates its illegal policiesin the West Bank. An economic boycott would seem to bean equally judicious undertaking. A nonviolent tacticthe purpose of which is to achieve a just and lastingsettlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict cannotlegitimately be called anti-Semitic. Indeed, the realenemies of Jews are those who cheapen the memory ofJewish suffering by equating principled opposition toIsrael's illegal and immoral policies withanti-Semitism.

11) New Orleans Human Rights Festival:

The 2006 Third Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival

APRIL 6 - 15, 2006

The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival was created to support New Orleans’ social justice community. The 2006 festival is dedicated to a vision of justice for New Orleans and worldwide.

We are proud to bring this festival of cinema to New Orleans in partnership with local social justice organizations doing vital work in this city. Our goal is to raise awareness of human rights issues and provide a forum for artistic expression of these themes.

Support The Festival

The Human Rights Festival is an all-volunteer effort. Proceeds support local organizing. Please donate or volunteer to support the festival. Visit www.nolahumanrights.org/support.html for more information.

Call For Entries

The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival is now accepting submissions for the 2006 festival. Films can be from anywhere in the world, fiction or documentary, short or feature – but must deal with issues related to human rights and/or social justice. Film formats can be 16mm, DVD, Super8, VHS or MiniDV. Submissions must be received by February 17. There is no submission fee, however, we cannot guarantee submissions will be returned. For more details email zte@bellsouth.net or info@nolahumanrights.org.

Festival History:
The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival was founded in 2004 by a coalition of local organizers and community members, consulting with local organizations including the Louisiana ACLU, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, New Orleans Palestine Solidarity, New Orleans American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Planned Parenthood of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta, Iron Rail Bookstore and Library, Neighborhood Gallery, Loyola Amnesty International, Zeitgeist Multidisciplinary Arts Center, and more. Although operated by an all-volunteer staff on a shoestring budget, the first annual festival presented a range of local and national premieres including Fourth World War, Until When, Lost Boys of Sudan, Rana’s Wedding, and the first New Orleans showing in at least thirty years of Battle of Algiers.

In 2005, the Second Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival presented 35 new films in 17 days and eight venues and featured two world premieres, Elections Fever and Four Months and Ten Days: A Journey Through Palestine. The following films from the 2005 festival were chosen for special recognition:
AUDIENCE AWARD, BEST FILM:MARDI GRAS, MADE IN CHINA Directed by David Redmond
JURY PRIZE, BEST FILM:SCARED SACRED Directed by Velcrow Ripper.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: OPENING NIGHT FILM:FOUR MONTHS AND TEN DAYS: A JOURNEY TO PALESTINE Directed by Rebecca Rapp
OFFICIAL SELECTION: CLOSING NIGHT FILM:SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: THE JOURNEY OF ROMEO DELAIRE Directed by Peter Raymont
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the people of New Orleans are struggling for justice, human rights, and the right of return.
Despite our hardship and loss, we are dedicated to continuing this festival in tribute to New Orleans’ community of resistance.
SUPPORT JUSTICE FOR NEW ORLEANS

Krewe du Vieux, Boasso Amendment, Prison Article

2006-02-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

For active Katrina links, see:
http://peoplegetready.blogspot.com/

1) Krewe du Vieux satire pictures, regarding Katrina (note the French float):
http://flickr.com/photos/thethirdbattleofneworleans/sets/72057594063757567/

More Krewe du Vieux pix available at:
http://peoplegetready.blogspot.com/

Krewe du Vieux's newsletter, entitled "Monde du Merde":
http://www.kreweduvieux.org/MdM2006.pdf

2) Today the Louisiana State Legislature is debating a one levee proposal. It's been through a lot of debate in the past couple of days, and the politicians appear to have been trying to protect their patronage over protecting their constituents from flooding. Here's some stories and websites for the activism:

"Citizens for One Greater New Orleans" website:
http://cgno.convio.net/site/PageServer

Today's article on the Boasso amendment:
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_02_14.html#112989

Levee bill passes with separate east, west bank boards
By Robert Travis Scott Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE — In a major turnaround, a unanimous Senate passed the governor’s bills to overhaul the New Orleans area levee boards Tuesday after supporters of the proposal yielded to West Bank lawmakers who want separate authorities on either side of the Mississippi River.

The centerpiece legislation of the current special session, Senate Bills 8 and 9 by Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Arabi, still must pass the House before the session ends Friday to become law. Several challenges to the bills remain, including attempts that will be made to pull St. Bernard Parish out of the new proposed consolidated authority and to give West Bank officials more say in who will sit on their governing board and when the new law will take effect.

Coming just two days after stalling on the Senate floor, the chamber’s approval put the legislation back on track and restored the governor’s momentum in the Capitol after a several of her initiatives failed to muster support even from her legislative leadership team. Several lawmakers said the Blanco administration had not lobbied them for the levee board bills until Tuesday....

3) Jordan's Katrina Prison Article:
Imprisoned in New Orleans
By Jordan Flaherty and Tamika Middleton
From Colorlines Magazine (www.colorlines.com) February 2006

When hurricane Katrina hit, there was no evacuation plan for 7,000 prisoners in the New Orleans city jail, generally known as Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), or the approximate 1,500 prisoners in nearby jails. According to first-hand accounts gathered by advocates, prisoners were abandoned in their cells while the water was rising around them. They were subjected to a heavily armed “rescue” by state prison guards that involved beatings, mace and being left in the sun with no water or food for several days, followed by a transfer to state maximum security prisons.

Although their treatment brought national attention to the condition of prisoners in Louisiana, and comparison to prison abuse scandals from Attica to Abu Ghraib, local government officials have attempted to dodge accountability and continue with business as usual.

Raphael Schwartz, a 26-year-old Missouri man arrested and imprisoned for public intoxication in New Orleans on August 27, was sprayed with mace and abandoned by officers in a locked cell with seven other prisoners. According to papers filed by the ACLU of Louisiana, the man had no ventilation and nothing to eat or drink for four days.

Quintano Williams, a 31-year-old office manager picked up on marijuana charges just before the storm hit, testified in ACLU papers to being abandoned for days and then relocated to Hunts Correction Facility, a rural Louisiana maximum security prison, where he was left with thousands of detainees on a football field. There, he witnessed stabbings, but, he said, prison staff “did not interfere with anything that was going on as long as people did not try to get out of the area.”

Rachel Francois was arrested in mid-August, and as far as her family was able to discover never had charges filed against her. “We tried to bail her out,” her mother, Althea Francois, said. “It was the day before Katrina, and the bail bonds places were all closed. If they had been open, she would have been released that day. Instead, we could not get her released until two months later.” Francois, a prisoner-rights advocate, searched for two weeks before she found out where her daughter was being held. Rachel and other women were taken to Hunts and then Angola, an all-male prison. “When I found out she was at Angola prison, just the idea really broke my heart,” her mother said. “She didn’t have a bed until the last few days she was there. She had no food for four days. She saw them throw food at the men like they were animals, but even then they didn’t give the women anything. The women were having panic attacks and were in fear for their lives. ”

Most of the people trapped in this brutal web of governmental abuse and neglect would have been released within a few weeks even if convicted. However, as of this writing several months later, many remain locked in maximum security prisons such as Angola, Louisiana’s notorious former slave plantation. The flooding of New Orleans showed vividly the results of local, state and federal governments’ misplaced priorities, as well as the privatizing and militarizing of relief. In the months after the disaster, while the people of New Orleans wanted to return and rebuild their city, what they got instead was “security.” Hundreds of National Guard troops, as well as police forces from across the U.S. and private security forces including Blackwater, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International began patrolling the nearly empty city.

Long before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was hit by hurricanes of disinvestment, deindustrialization, corruption and neglect. Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the country—816 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 state residents. By comparison, Texas comes in a distant second place with 694 per 100,000. Although Blacks make up 32 percent of Louisiana’s population, they constitute 72 percent of the state’s prison population. Pre-Katrina, New Orleans industry had already left, and most remaining work involved low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy. Orleans Parish Prison was the eighth largest jail in the country, made up of several buildings located in Midcity New Orleans. The population of the jail was predominantly people from the city’s many low-income communities and communities of color. The jail also rented out cells to the federal government to house immigration detainees and other federal prisoners. However, most of the prisoners left behind as the jail flooded had not been convicted of any crime, but were being held pre-sentencing. Lawyers and researchers working on behalf of the prisoners say that most were accused of misdemeanors, such as minor drug possession, parking violations and public drunkenness.

Mary Howell is a civil rights lawyer who has been active in defense of prisoners from OPP for years. “Last year, 80,000 people came into OPP as arrestees,” she said. “Very few were eligible for rehabilitation programs. This prison has mostly been warehousing people. We’ve suffered under a policy where the city builds a huge jail that is then required to be filled with human beings, or else it's a waste of money.”
“Being a sheriff in Louisiana is one of the most powerful positions in the state,” adds Howell. “ There's virtually no oversight. At the time of the hurricane they had about 1,200 employees under the Sheriff in Orleans Parish. Those employees, under state law can also be used by the sheriff for political campaigns. That adds up to a political empire and a patronage empire.”

Ursula Price is a staff investigator for A Fighting Chance, a nonprofit organization that works for indigent defense in Louisiana, as well as a part of Safe Streets Strong Communities, a coalition dedicated to transforming New Orleans' criminal justice system. She has been working around the clock since the hurricane hit, despite losing everything she owned in the flooding of New Orleans. “Investigating what happened to these prisoners and where they are is not supposed to be our job. This should be the city’s concern,” she said. Initial reports gathered from testimony of both inmates and guards put the number of inmates unaccounted for anywhere between a dozen and several hundred. Sheriff Marlin Gusman has been sticking with an official statement that, "all inmates housed in Orleans Parish were safely evacuated from our 10 facilities by boat and transported to state and parish facilities by bus." He also suggested to media that reports of abuse come from “disgruntled” inmates who “lie.” Human Rights Watch and ACLU responded that these reports are consistent from many different prisoners and also match with reports from interviews with guards at OPP. In late November, Gusman’s office quietly put out arrest warrants for 14 inmates, while still denying that any were missing, other than two who had been recaptured.

The defense of these prisoners has been managed by just a few organizations and individuals. Phyllis Mann, a lawyer from rural Alexandria, Louisiana, found that many of the OPP prisoners had been moved to a prison near her, and she started visiting them. According to Price, Mann dropped everything in her private practice to dedicate herself to their legal defense—and had 12 former prisoners living in her house. Official negligence is just the beginning of the obstacles advocates have faced. “Immediately after the flooding, the governor issued an order suspending the clock on court proceedings,” Price said. The state no longer had a time limit—formerly 60 days—under which to present charges or release prisoners. “It's stopped due process,” Price continued. “Almost all of the public defenders have been laid off. There are only seven left in Orleans Parish. Meanwhile, in trying to defend these folks, we have massive travel costs and almost no funding.” For the prisoners, there are other hardships. “These are Katrina survivors, but they’re not getting their FEMA money or Red Cross aid or food stamps," said Price. " They’ve lost contact with their families; many have children and they don’t know where they are.”

Ross Angle, who has since been released, told Human Rights Watch, “Picture waking up everyday in a prison somewhere—you don't even know where you are—knowing you were supposed to be free, not knowing how long they were going to keep you there. Not knowing if it would ever end. After they moved me, I kept asking for someone to look at my case, and they just kept telling me, ‘We're waiting on the DOC guys, we don't know anything.' If my lady wasn't seven months pregnant, calling them everyday and yelling, then I would probably still be there…It made me feel worthless.” After the hurricane, the incarceration of suspected “looters” was the first city function to restart. Due process and civil liberties were almost nonexistent for new arrestees, who were put in cages in a makeshift prison at a Greyhound bus station, with no access to phones or lawyers. When ACLU attorney Katie Schwartzmann went to observe proceedings, a sheriff’s deputy at first refused her access, as well as taking and reading her notepad. According to advocates and recently released prisoners, new arrestees are offered a choice—either plead guilty and be put to work on city cleanup crews, or plead not guilty and face months in Angola prison with no access to a lawyer.

From the initial images broadcast around the world, demonizing the people of New Orleans as “looters,” and criminals, there have been two very different visions struggling for the future of the city. One vision is a vision of “security,” exemplified by Governor Blanco bringing in National Guard troops with the words, “They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded...These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.” This is a vision of corporate security and restructuring, handing the city over to Blackwater Security’s armed guards and Halliburton’s disaster profiteers, while “redeveloping” Black neighborhoods into golf courses and luxury housing.

The other vision is of justice and human rights. This vision involves restoring jobs, health care and housing for New Orleans, rather than offering minimum wage dead-end jobs, crumbling infrastructure and more prisons. It is a vision supported by the work of countless activists and organizers from around the US, as well as the overwhelming majority of the people of New Orleans. “Despite all of the horror we are seeing daily, my hope is this is an opportunity for change,” Price said. “OPP corruption is being laid bare—people being held past their time is nothing new in this system, it’s just more extreme now. This is something to organize around and fight against.”

(This article has been slightly altered from the version appearing in Colorlines Magazine)=====================================
Tamika Middleton is the Southern Regional Coordinator for Critical Resistance and a member of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition. ---------------

Jordan Flaherty is a resident of New Orleans, an organizer with New Orleans Network and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. His previous articles from New Orleans are at http://www.leftturn.org/articles/SpecialCollections/katrina.aspx

===================================== GRASSROOTS, PEOPLE OF COLOR-LED GULF COAST ORGANIZATIONS TO DONATE TO: http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=689&type=W =====================================
Other Resources for information and action:
Reconstruction Watch - http://www.reconstructionwatch.orgNew Orleans Network - http://www.neworleansnetwork.orgFamilies and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children - http://www.fflic.orgPeoples Hurricane Relief Fund - http://www.communitylaborunited.net Justice for New Orleans - http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/ Common Ground - http://www.commongroundrelief.org Four Directions Solidarity Network - http://www.eswn.org/Color Of Change - http://www.colorofchange.orgBlack Commentator - http://www.blackcommentator.comComprehensive website for information and action related to prisoners in New Orleans: http://www.criticalresistance.org/katrina/

Secession Time

2006-02-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

This long sojourn was something of a self-imposed sabbatical, enhanced by a profound sense of inertia. Interestingly, the blog connected to this listserv still attracts a solid 29 hits a day -- no less, no more. I'm convinced that the National Security Administration [NSA] has simply hooked my blog up to its listening network through 29 separate software nodes. Perhaps that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it makes a lot more sense to me than the idea that 29 different (or same) people check this blog daily when it's been inactive for nearly 6 weeks now. I'm equally convinced that the FBI visit that my parents were treated to on my behalf in the spring of 2003 was triggered by the NSA listening program. In other words, they were listening to me (in Jordan at the time, with MSF), and they sent the FBI to check up. Perhaps we should be reassured that they're on the beat, that they didn't ever really harass us, or that we can all feel safer that we're all being watched -- except that every time Bush repeats the assertion that it's a "limited" program monitoring the activities of those with "suspected ties to al-Qaeda," I'm reminded that he means me, and I'm part of a "limited" phenomenon. Folks always wonder why European Jewry didn't get out of town when the writing was on the wall in the 1930's. I think I know why -- the crawfish boil scenario. That is, if you throw crawfish into boiling water they struggle to get out. If you heat it up slowly, they don't even struggle. Analogy certainly works.

Back to Katrina affairs. Last night Mr. Bush once again shook all of us New Orleanians out of any sense of laissez-faire by pointedly, intentionally, and brusquely ignoring the long awaited initiatives necessary to bring back New Orleans. In his State of the Union, the greatest national disaster (financially) in US history was all but ignored -- and New Orleanians are pissed.

Granted, our fine mayor Mr. Nagin has not helped matters lately, what with his "chocolate city" comments followed by profuse (and sincere, it appears) apologies. Many folks are energized by the recently announced candidacy of Mitch Landrieu (Jesuit graduate, Louisiana Lt. Governor) ibn Moon Landrieu (Jesuit graduate, NO mayor back in the 1970's, namesake for the "Moonwalk," and HUD cabinet secretary for President Carter). Although I've got nothing against Ray Nagin, I have to admit that Nagin's national credibility is shot and Mitch would probably be a great improvement at this point.

Following Bush's symphony of silence last night, today LA Governor Blanco announced state intentions to recover oil and gas royalties which up until now have effortlessly flowed into that Black Hole known as the US Treasury (see article below). Now, that's what we're talking about! Her initiative would "only" bring in about 2 billion USD per year, but that would at least give LA state govt enough cash to do something for itself. Pissing it away to -- oh, so uncorruptable -- DC is simply getting us nowhere.

Which brings me to the main point of today's posting -- secession. I have been talking it up for months now, and have always said that if no significant federal reconstruction funds materialize by this summer, it'll be time to start talking secession. As far as I'm concerned, last night moved the schedule up. The Gulf Coast is simply no longer on the national agenda. We're on our own. Period. To paraphrase our friendly neighborhood Evangelicals: "the feds help those who help themselves."

Here's a proposal, to "help ourselves". We need to immediately start a serious petition drive to put on the November 2006 election ballot a referendum on secession from the United States of America. If nothing else, it'll be hard to ignore the symbolic significance of a secession referendum in any part of the US. One might argue that this would alienate the rest of the US, but I don't see how we could be more ignored than we were last night. I would argue the opposite -- maybe this would wake DC up on the one hand, and spread some useful ideas for community activism in the rest of these United States. So, any ideas for secession petition logistics are hereby welcome.

The argument is as follows: we in the Gulf Coast have been paying our federal taxes and sending our troops to die halfway around the world for decades. As of last night, exactly 50 Louisianians have died serving in the US Armed Forces in Iraq since 2003. When Katrina hit, 1/3 of our LA National Guard was in Iraq -- absolutely useless to their home state. We pay oil and gas royalties to the tune of well over 5 billion USD per year. The Port of Louisiana is the primary export gateway for US grain exports. New Orleans is the center for one of the few worthwhile cultural contributions America has ever given the world -- Jazz. Widening it out a bit, the Gulf Coast has big time gambling coming soon on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Keesler Air Force Base, Pensacola Naval Training Facility (where they learn to land planes on old carriers), the (bustling) Port of Mobile, Avondale shipyards, the Biloxi shipyards (where they build state of the art destroyers), Michoud (space shuttle gas tanks), Stennis NASA facility (rocket engine testing facility), etc. In a nutshell, all of this has been provided to the US Government and society. In return, all we've ever asked for is protection. In New Orleans, the levees -- a federal responsibility -- breached. After the breach, recriminations, excuses, clean-up funding, and...no more. Well, it's time to take "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" to the next level.

While it may seem purely symbolic at this point, the utopian vision is as follows: we should push for an independent nation state with the following borders: Lake Charles (or Galveston) to the west, Pensacola (or Mobile) to the east, Lafayette-Baton Rouge-Hattiesburg to the north, and the Gulf Coast to the south. It's a little sliver of America, but it's got some jewels. Export tariffs, oil and gas royalties, transport fees, tourism, gambling, etc -- we can finance our own recovery. It's a little sketchy, but there it is. Who knows, maybe France will send some money over, via the EU.

Now that South Park is hitting on Katrina, I guess there's pleny more to say. But enough for today.

In case I don't write anything for another 6 weeks, I urge you to follow the following blogs, each of which is kept up frequently and has further links on Katrina:

http://peoplegetready.blogspot.com/
http://worldclassneworleans.blogspot.com/

Our one article today, regarding secession (I have saved many more, but...maybe later):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-5586693,00.html

La. Governor Demands U.S. Pay Royalties

Wednesday February 1, 2006 7:46 PM

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. Kathleen Blanco isdemanding that the federal government give Louisianamore of the billions in royalties from oil and naturalgas extracted off its coastlines, saying she'll blockfuture leases without an increase in the state'sshare.

Blanco's warning, in a letter this week to the federalagency that manages offshore drilling, comes as thestate is struggling to finance up to $40 billion inhurricane recovery and protection projects, andcomplaining that the federal government isn't helpingenough.

The state wants half the royalties from oil and gasproduced beyond its three-mile boundary - a sum thatcould amount to more than $2 billion a year.

The state currently gets 27 percent of royaltiesproduced between three miles and six miles offshore.For oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico fromsix miles offshore to international waters, Louisianareceived just $32 million of the $5.7 billion thefederal government brought in.

Under federal law, for lease sales to go through,governors in adjacent states must agree that the salesare consistent with their states' coastal managementplans.

The U.S. secretary of the interior, who oversees theMinerals Management Service, could override Blanco ifshe attempts to block the next lease sale. But SidneyCoffee, Blanco's executive assistant for coastalactivities, said the federal government probably willwant to avoid the yearslong legal battle that couldresult.

The Minerals Management Service has not completed itsreview of Blanco's letter and has not issued aresponse, an agency spokesman said Wednesday.

The governor met with oil and gas industry officialslast week.

Jeff Copeskey, of Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and GasAssociation, said Blanco's letter is meant to bringattention to the issue, and is not a slap at theindustry.

Katrina Encours et Toujours XXX

2005-12-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

[A lot of this content is decidedly local in nature]

I've now been in New Orleans for 5 days, and there are some clear impressions about what's going on here. It started it off by going to a Saints game in Baton Rouge -- possibly the last Saints game ever to be played in Louisiana. It was one of the most pathetic sights I've ever seen in pro sports. Only about 15-20,000 fans in attendance (official tally was 30,000, but I don't believe it), and a lot of really depressed fans wondering what would happen to their beloved team over the next year. Just in case it was their last game, I saved our ticket and went around hunting for programs after the game to hold onto for later E-Bay sales.

After that, it's been several days of seeing friends, touring the city, and seeing how things are going. At first I was heavily depressed, because NO is like a limping old dog in an ICU unit. Never a wealthy town (at least in my lifetime), NO is now 70% empty, with miles upon miles of empty neighborhoods. However, while all I could do was mope the first couple of days, I had pointed out to me that a lot of good things are happening -- and that the folks who've been back for the past couple of months are long since past depression. By the third day, I could see why -- every day something or someone else comes back. For example, last week the streetcars started running again, for free until March. Tonight is the last night of the 2:00 AM curfew. This week is the end of temporary visiting rules for the entire city west of the Industrial Canal. Congress finally passed a significant Katrina reconstruction package -- although it had better not be the last one. FEMA trailers are pouring into town by the trainload. At this rate, NO will be something of a sick old dog by summer -- but no longer in ICU.

Yesterday, since I'd finally finished grading final exams, it was time for a big city tour. Pretty depressing on the whole, but with some bright spots. We started off going to West End Blvd, looking for the first levee breach at the 17th St Canal. It had become a pilgrimage site for visitors, as we were one of several cars coming in for pictures. That neighborhood, which had been a very comfortable middle class hood, was almost totally destroyed. Strangely, though, one house had already been completely renovated within 2 blocks of the breach. FEMA trailers were here and there, at about 1 per block -- a clear sign that homeowners were planning to rebuild.

Then it was off towards Lakeview, and the striking thing to me there was that the damage is inconsistent. There are completely trashed houses and there are eminently repairable houses, usually because they were elevated or on a slightly higher block. Most of the debris had been carted off in all of these neighborhoods, which I think must've been the primary focus up to now. At least one could go down streets without passing mounds of garbage -- meaning these parts of town are already looking better than they looked a few weeks ago.

Some islands of quick reconstruction or minimal damage popped up in the strangest places. The neighborhood bounded by City Park, Bayou St. John, Orleans, and Carrolton is coming back quickly. It has two bars already reopened, and most of the houses -- wealthy and elevated -- seem occupied and ready to go already. Lake Vista, a wealthy planned community right off Lake Pontchartrain, seems to have sustained absolutely minimal damage. This is bizarre, considering their location right off the lake. What I'd never realized until just now is that they are essentially an island, protected on all sides by levees. Both of these neighborhoods are quite wealthy, which is a pattern that holds quite frequently.

Mandino's -- a fantastic local family-owned neighborhood restaurant in Mid-City -- had a banner announcing "We WILL be back!" Several such signs were hanging here and there, which is encouraging.

Then we noticed several pelicans on Lake Pontchartrain right off Lakefront Airport. There's a poster going around the city urging people to consider the pelican their sign of rebirth, and the sight of several pelicans -- nearly extinct 15 years ago and now fully on the comeback -- was especially heartwarming.

Then up to NO East, a part of the city that is mostly African-American and stretches for miles and miles. Much of NO East is post-1960's and architecturally not that interesting. A lot of people died in NO East, as it was especially hard hit by flood surge. What was intriguing to me was the signs of activity going on in NO East, at least by the lake. Their were blue tarps covering about 20% of the houses, which is a sign that someone's looking over those houses. There were a lot of people going about started to work on houses.

Then Chalmette, which was devastated by floodwater. I saw a lot of signs of anger and defiance, scrawled on flooded out cars, houses, etc. There were hundreds of FEMA trailers at the parish government complex, and the place was bursting with activity. Chalmettans are a special breed, and they're especially tightknit. With all that activity, I'm fairly confident they'll be back -- although not in those flooded out slab houses.

Then off to the Lower Ninth, which was the most devastated area -- and by now the most famous. We saw the breach that destroyed the Lower Ninth, Arabi, and Chalmette. This was an unforgettable sight. There was a massive barge sitting half a block in from the breach, in the midst of a 10 square block area where not a single house remained on its foundations. They were all swept by the force of waters straight into the houses behind them. A total loss -- nothing can be saved in that part of the Lower Ninth.

In Metairie, the French Quarter, Uptown, and Bywater, you might be forgiven for thinking a storm had never happened. Aside from a lot of blue tarping on roofs, things are much as they were before. Metairie is bursting at the seems, with seemingly more population than before the storm. A lot of restaurants are closed, because there aren't enough restaurant workers in town to keep them up and running. Restaurants that are open are full of customers, though.
There are little placards, like election yard signs, all over town. They tend to announce roofers, house guttering, contractors, mold dryers, insurance lawyers, etc -- the detritus of disaster.
Blue tarp is everywhere, and whenever you see it, you're encouraged that someone's determined to protect at least that house. What's still depressing, though, is that there are thousands upon thousands of houses that aren't being looked after. A house that's not looked after over a couple of years gradually becomes beyond saving. This is why people have to come back now, not next year. Anything that pushes people to come back now should be encouraged. Anything that gets them comfortable elsewhere should be discouraged. While there is progress, there's so much more that needs to be done.

As I'd mentioned earlier, the curfew is finally being lifted tomorrow. It's been surreal having a curfew in one of the few places in the world where 24 hour bars are not at all unusual, and where staying out all night is routine and even a bedrock of the local economy. The police have been spotty enforcing the curfew, but in at least one case they've been way over enthusiastic in enforcement. A friend of mine, an educator, was stopped a couple of weeks ago on Magazine St at 2:15 for being out after the curfew. The officer then got her for DUI (she'd had 3-4 beers over the course of several hours at Tipitina's), then for a lapsed brake tag, and then for something else. She spent the next 5 hours driving around NO in the back of the officer's patrol car, and then a couple of hours in Central Lockup, until a well-placed phone call to the right contact in NOPD got her sprung from jail within a half hour of the workday starting. Now she's going to have to spend several hundred dollars to clear her record, which is incumbent on educators who hope to continue working. No one is going to mind seeing the end of this curfew.
The education system has taken a huge hit, at all levels. At the university level, Tulane has gotten hit worse than most. They had flooding north of Freret on their main campus. Their downtown medical school facility was completely flooded out and will require millions to reopen. They laid off over 250 teaching staff, and are going to be hurting for years. Loyola got off with only 4-5 million USD in damage, but they're deathly worried about the size of next year's freshman class. 82% of current students have a paid their deposit to return in the spring, and they're hoping a sizable freshman class will come in and get them back on their financial feet.
At the high school level, things are all over the map. Two Catholic boys schools, Brother Martin and Rummel, are sharing Rummel's campus. Also sharing Rummel's campus are three Catholic girls schools, Mt. Carmel, Dominican, and Ursuline. These three schools merged into one temporary basketball team, called the Rummel Transitional Team (which I guess sounds better than "Mt. Dominiline"). The team is winning, but will be disbanded in a couple of weeks, because each campus will reopen in January. Three Black Catholic schools have formed something called "MAX" -- St. Mary, St. Augustine, and Xavier Prep -- and they're holding classes at Xavier I think. Several Orleans Parish schools are being converted into charter schools, and Lusher is planning to take over Fortier's campus and expand into K-12 education. That one sounds a bit like a land grab, but we'll see if it sticks. For locals, these are huge shakeups. I wonder what it will all mean in the long term.

Oh well, that's enough for now. We'd all like to thank Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska for wrapping his ANWAR drilling bill into Katrina relief funding, which cost Louisiana several billion dollars of potential federal assistance when everyone opposed to ANWAR was forced to vote against the bill. That's the same senator who refused to give back his bridge to nowhere to help finance Katrina relief assistance. Thanks Ted.

Katrina Encours et Toujours XXIX

2005-12-18T03:53:00.000-07:00

For previous postings, please see www.truthtalkziraq.blogspot.com

Tonight we drove into NO from VA. It was a rainy day, and there wasn't much to see as the sun set on us at the LA-MS border. There was a palpable sense of excitement as the sign welcoming us to LA said "Welcome to Louisiana - Bienvenue en Louisiane". And then, as if on cue, we switched to 99.5 WRNO, the "Rock of New Orleans," an old classic rock station that only became classic rock in the mid-1980's when its rather bizarre owner decided that all musical development ended with Styx. That station has always acted like a security blanked for us old NO natives returning home, especially as they always feature the old local bands' "who's behind the door?" song which the rest of the country has long since forgotten about.

Beyond the song, there was the rotten old highway, which has for years been behind the Mississippi roads that we had just left. And after we had been in WRNO's range, they made a joke: "giving it to Katrina", which somehow felt perfect at that moment.

After we had driven into LaPlace, which was normal enough, we ended up in Kenner, which for some unknown reason had a huge traffic jam. Once sorted through that, and the blown away hotel or two along the way, we went off to the West End exit, and circled back to the bonnabel exit that wasn't so bad. Basically, West End was nothing but darkness, contracter pickups, contractor signs on the median advertising their wares along with newly re-opened businesses, and a couple of lonely pickup trucks heading to their contractor destinations. Then up to Bonnabel, which was flooded with such signs.

Then it was a sashay down I-610 to Franklin, where the whole city was done up in streetlights, but no house lights were on. And then, and this is the bizarre thing, I got into Marigny, and the Upper 9th, and all was fine again, at least at some level. I found some folks. I found the old bars, and all looked sorta normal. It's bizrre, it's unhinged, and it's a goner. And there we are.

Torture, Contractors, Sectarianism, Syriana, CRS Report

2005-11-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

I've let Middle East topics on this blog go disturbingly dormant, but will try to pick it up again, even while mixing the Katrina stuff in as we go. I have lots of stuff backed up, but let's just throw in the most recent stuff tonight.

1) Some truly horrific things must be going on inIraq, mostly unreported:

www.dailykos.com

"Trophy Video" of Civilian Shootings By ContractorsEmerges
by Hunter
Sun Nov 27, 2005 at 03:27:47 PM PDT

Oh, that's just great. Just great. From the SundayTelegraph (UK):

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards inBaghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparkedtwo investigations after it was posted on theinternet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private securitycompanies, which are not subject to any form ofregulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could beresponsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocentIraqis.

According to the Telegraph reporter, the video is evenset to music: "Mystery Train", by Elvis Presley.
And so the circle -- or spiral -- continues. For thosewith short memories, it was the alleged misconduct ofarmed contractors in Iraq that led to the killing andpublic display of four of them, hanging from abridge... which led to two separate massiveretaliatory assaults against Fallujah... which led toa widespread backlash in Iraq... which led to, amongother things, a widened insurgency... whichcontributed to a situation in Iraq in which armedcontractors are necessary for protection of privateclients... which led to the alleged misconduct ofseveral of them...

Which leads to what, I wonder?

Oh, I remember. Now comes the part where reportingcivilian deaths is anti-American, because the Iraqisthemselves really can't figure out that this crap isgoing on until they see it in British and Americannewspapers. Because they don't know when their ownrelatives have been killed until some paragon ofAmerican soldierness posts trophy pictures of them inexchange for Internet porn, or some dumbass "securitycontractor" sets it to music and puts it on theirwebsite.

God help us. And I mean that literally.

Update [2005-11-27 17:54:48 by Hunter]: And see here,from the LA Times:

WASHINGTON — One hot, dusty day in June, Col. TedWesthusing was found dead in a trailer at a militarybase near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot woundto the head.

The Army would conclude that he committed suicide withhis service pistol. At the time, he was thehighest-ranking officer to die in Iraq.

The Army closed its case. But the questionssurrounding Westhusing's death continue.

Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one ofthe Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a fullprofessor at West Point who volunteered to serve inIraq to be able to better teach his students. He had adoctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was anextended meditation on the meaning of honor.

It should be read in full...[below]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colonel27nov27,0,6096413,full.story

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQA Journey That Ended in AnguishCol. Ted Westhusing, a military ethicist whovolunteered to go to Iraq, was upset by what he saw.His apparent suicide raises questions.

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer

"War is the hardest place to make moral judgments."

Col. Ted Westhusing, Journal of Military Ethics

WASHINGTON — One hot, dusty day in June, Col. TedWesthusing was found dead in a trailer at a militarybase near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot woundto the head.

The Army would conclude that he committed suicide withhis service pistol. At the time, he was thehighest-ranking officer to die in Iraq.

The Army closed its case. But the questionssurrounding Westhusing's death continue.

Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one ofthe Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a fullprofessor at West Point who volunteered to serve inIraq to be able to better teach his students. He had adoctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was anextended meditation on the meaning of honor.

So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when helearned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors inIraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing receivedan anonymous complaint that a private security companyhe oversaw had cheated the U.S. government andcommitted human rights violations.

Westhusingconfronted the contractor and reported the concerns tosuperiors, who launched an investigation.

In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especiallyupset by one conclusion he had reached:

thattraditional military values such as duty, honor andcountry had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq,where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractorsfor jobs once done by the military.

His death stunned all who knew him. Colleagues andcommanders wondered whether they had missed signs ofdepression. He had been losing weight and not sleepingwell. But only a day before his death, Westhusing wonpraise from a senior officer for his progress intraining Iraqi police.

His friends and family struggle with the idea thatWesthusing could have killed himself. He was a lovingfather and husband and a devout Catholic. He was anextraordinary intellect and had mastered ancient Greekand Italian. He had less than a month before hisreturn home. It seemed impossible that anything couldcrush the spirit of a man with such a powerful senseof right and wrong.

On the Internet and in conversations with one another,Westhusing's family and friends have questioned themilitary investigation.

A note found in his trailer seemed to offer clues.Written in what the Army determined was hishandwriting, the colonel appeared to be strugglingwith a final question.

How is honor possible in a war like the one in Iraq?

Even at Jenks High School in suburban Tulsa, one ofthe biggest in Oklahoma, Westhusing stood out. He wasstarting point guard for the Trojans, a team that madea strong run for the state basketball championship hissenior year. He was a National Merit Scholarshipfinalist. He was an officer in a fellowship ofChristian athletes.

Joe Holladay, who coached Westhusing before going onto become assistant coach of the University of NorthCarolina Tarheels, recalled Westhusing showing up atthe gym at 7 a.m. to get in 100 extra practice shots.

"There was never a question of how hard he played orhow much effort he put into something," Holladay said."Whatever he did, he did well. He was the cream of thecrop."

When Westhusing entered West Point in 1979, thetradition-bound institution was just emerging from acheating scandal that had shamed the Army. Restoringhonor to the nation's preeminent incubator for Armyleadership was the focus of the day.

Cadets are taught to value duty, honor and country,and are drilled in West Point's strict moral code: Acadet will not lie, cheat or steal — or tolerate thosewho do.

Westhusing embraced it. He was selected as honorcaptain for the entire academy his senior year. Col.Tim Trainor, a classmate and currently a West Pointprofessor, said Westhusing was strict but sympatheticto cadets' problems. He remembered him as"introspective."

Westhusing graduated third in his class in 1983 andbecame an infantry platoon leader. He received specialforces training, served in Italy, South Korea andHonduras, and eventually became division
operationsofficer for the 82nd Airborne, based at Ft. Bragg,N.C.

He loved commanding soldiers. But he remained drawn tointellectual pursuits.

In 2000, Westhusing enrolled in Emory University'sdoctoral philosophy program. The idea was to return toWest Point to teach future leaders.

He immediately stood out on the leafy Atlanta campus.Married with children, he was surrounded by young,single students. He was a deeply faithful Christian ina graduate program of professional skeptics.
Plunged into academia, Westhusing held fast to hismilitary ties. Students and professors recalled himjogging up steep hills in combat boots and camouflage,his rucksack full, to stay in shape. He wrote a paperchallenging an essay that questioned the morality ofpatriotism.

"He was as straight an arrow as you would possiblyfind," said Aaron Fichtelberg, a fellow student andnow a professor at the University of Delaware. "Heseemed unshakable."

In his 352-page dissertation, Westhusing discussed theethics of war, focusing on examples of military honorfrom Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to the Israeliarmy. It is a dense, searching and sometimes personaleffort to define what, exactly, constitutes virtuousconduct in the context of the modern U.S. military.

"Born to be a warrior, I desire these answers not justfor philosophical reasons, but for self-knowledge," hewrote in the opening pages.

As planned, Westhusing returned to teach philosophyand English at West Point as a full professor with aguaranteed lifetime assignment. He settled into lifeon campus with his wife, Michelle, and their threeyoung children.

But amid the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he toldfriends that he felt experience in Iraq would help himin teaching cadets. In the fall of 2004, hevolunteered for duty.

"He wanted to serve, he wanted to use his skills,maybe he wanted some glory," recalled Nick Fotion, hisadvisor at Emory. "He wanted to go."

In January, Westhusing began work on what the Pentagonconsidered the most important mission in Iraq:training Iraqi forces to take over security dutiesfrom U.S. troops.

Westhusing's task was to oversee a private securitycompany, Virginia-based USIS, which had contractsworth $79 million to train a corps of Iraqi police toconduct special operations.

In March, Gen. David Petraeus, commanding officer ofthe Iraqi training mission, praised Westhusing'sperformance, saying he had exceeded "loftyexpectations."

"Thanks much, sir, but we can do much better andwill," Westhusing wrote back, according to a copy ofthe Army investigation of his death that was obtainedby The Times.

In April, his mood seemed to have darkened. He worriedover delays in training one of the police battalions.
Then, in May, Westhusing received an anonymousfour-page letter that contained detailed allegationsof
wrongdoing by USIS.

The writer accused USIS of deliberately shorting thegovernment on the number of trainers to increase itsprofit margin. More seriously, the writer detailed twoincidents in which USIS contractors allegedly hadwitnessed or participated in the killing of Iraqis.

A USIS contractor accompanied Iraqi police traineesduring the assault on Fallouja last November and laterboasted about the number of insurgents he had killed,the letter says. Private security contractors are notallowed to conduct offensive operations.

In a second incident, the letter says, a USIS employeesaw Iraqi police trainees kill two innocent Iraqicivilians, then covered it up. A USIS manager "did notwant it reported because he thought it would put hiscontract at risk."

Westhusing reported the allegations to his superiorsbut told one of them, Gen. Joseph Fil, that hebelieved USIS was complying with the terms of itscontract.

U.S. officials investigated and found "no contractualviolations," an Army spokesman said. Bill Winter, aUSIS spokesman, said the investigation "found theseallegations to be unfounded."

However, several U.S. officials said inquiries on USISwere ongoing. One U.S. military official, who, likeothers, requested anonymity because of the sensitivityof the case, said the inquiries had turned upproblems, but nothing to support the more seriouscharges of human rights violations.

"As is typical, there may be a wisp of truth in eachof the allegations," the official said.

The letter shook Westhusing, who felt personallyimplicated by accusations that he was too friendlywith USIS management, according to an e-mail in thereport.

"This is a mess … dunno what I will do with this," hewrote home to his family May 18.

The colonel began to complain to colleagues about "hisdislike of the contractors," who, he said, "were paidtoo much money by the government," according to onecaptain.

"The meetings [with contractors] were never easy andalways contentious. The contracts were in dispute andalways under discussion," an Army Corps of Engineersofficial told investigators.

By June, some of Westhusing's colleagues had begun toworry about his health. They later told investigatorsthat he had lost weight and begun fidgeting, sometimesstaring off into space. He seemed withdrawn, theysaid.

His family was also becoming worried. He describedfeeling alone and abandoned. He sent home brief,cryptic e-mails, including one that said, "[I] didn'tthink I'd make it last night." He talked of resigninghis command.
Westhusing brushed aside entreaties for details,writing that he would say more when he returned home.The family responded with an outpouring of e-mailsexpressing love and support.

His wife recalled a phone conversation that chilledher two weeks before his death.

"I heard something in his voice," she toldinvestigators, according to a transcript of theinterview. "In Ted's voice, there was fear. He did notlike the nighttime and being alone."

Westhusing's father, Keith, said the family did notwant to comment for this article.

On June 4, Westhusing left his office in theU.S.-controlled Green Zone of Baghdad to view ademonstration of Iraqi police preparedness at CampDublin, the USIS headquarters at the airport. He gavea briefing that impressed Petraeus and a visitingscholar. He stayed overnight at the USIS camp.

That night in his office, a USIS secretary would latertell investigators, she watched Westhusing take outhis 9-millimeter pistol and "play" with it, repeatedlyunholstering the weapon.

At a meeting the next morning to discuss constructiondelays, he seemed agitated. He stewed over demands fortighter vetting of police candidates, worried that itwould slow the mission. He seemed upset over fundingshortfalls.

Uncharacteristically, he lashed out at the contractorsin attendance, according to the Army Corps official.In three months, the official had never seenWesthusing upset.

"He was sick of money-grubbing contractors," theofficial recounted. Westhusing said that "he had notcome over to Iraq for this."

The meeting broke up shortly before lunch. About 1p.m., a USIS manager went looking for Westhusingbecause he was scheduled for a ride back to the GreenZone. After getting no answer, the manager returnedabout 15 minutes later. Another USIS employee peekedthrough a window. He saw Westhusing lying on the floorin a pool of blood.

The manager rushed into the trailer and tried torevive Westhusing. The manager told investigators thathe picked up the pistol at Westhusing's feet andtossed it onto the bed.

"I knew people would show up," that manager said laterin attempting to explain why he had handled theweapon. "With 30 years from military and lawenforcement training, I did not want the weapon to getbumped and go off."

After a three-month inquiry, investigators declaredWesthusing's death a suicide. A test showed gunpowderresidue on his hands. A shell casing in the room boremarkings indicating it had been fired from his servicerevolver.

Then there was the note.

Investigators found it lying on Westhusing's bed. Thehandwriting matched his.

The first part of the four-page letter lashes out atPetraeus and Fil. Both men later told investigatorsthat they had not criticized Westhusing or heardnegative comments from him. An Army review undertakenafter Westhusing's death was complimentary of thecommand climate under the two men, a U.S. militaryofficial said.

Most of the letter is a wrenching account of astruggle for honor in a strange land.

"I cannot support a msn [mission] that leads tocorruption, human rights abuse and liars. I amsullied," it says.

"I came to serve honorably and feeldishonored.

"Death before being dishonored any more."

A psychologist reviewed Westhusing's e-mails andinterviewed colleagues. She concluded that theanonymous letter had been the "most difficult andprobably most painful stressor."

She said that Westhusing had placed too much pressureon himself to succeed and that he was unusually rigidin his thinking. Westhusing struggled with the ideathat monetary values could outweigh moral ones in war.This, she said, was a flaw.

"Despite his intelligence, his ability to grasp theidea that profit is an important goal for peopleworking in the private sector was surprisinglylimited," wrote Lt. Col. Lisa Breitenbach. "He couldnot shift his mind-set from the military notion ofcompleting a mission irrespective of cost, nor couldhe change his belief that doing the right thingbecause it was the right thing to do should be thesole motivator for businesses."

One military officer said he felt Westhusing hadtrouble reconciling his ideals with Iraq's reality.Iraq "isn't a black-and-white place," the officersaid. "There's a lot of gray."

Fil and Petraeus, Westhusing's commanding officers,declined to comment on the investigation, but theypraised him. He was "an extremely bright, highlycompetent, completely professional and exceedinglyhard-working officer. His death was truly tragic andwas a tremendous blow," Petraeus said.

Westhusing's family and friends are troubled that hedied at Camp Dublin, where he was without a bodyguard,surrounded by the same contractors he suspected ofwrongdoing. They wonder why the manager who discoveredWesthusing's body and picked up his weapon was nottested for gunpowder residue.

Mostly, they wonder how Col. Ted Westhusing — father,husband, son and expert on doing right — could havefound himself in a place so dark that he saw no light.

"He's the last person who would commit suicide," saidFichtelberg, his graduate school colleague. "Hecouldn't have done it. He's just too damn stubborn."

Westhusing's body was flown back to Dover Air ForceBase in Delaware. Waiting to receive it were hisfamily and a close friend from West Point, alieutenant colonel.

In the military report, the unidentified colonel toldinvestigators that he had turned to Michelle,Westhusing's wife, and asked what happened.

She answered:

"Iraq."

2) If you believe the Darth Cheney administration was sincere about the intelligence connected to Iraq in 2002-2003, or that they don't "do torture," you're simply haven't been paying attention. If you don't believe me, consult the encyclopaedic book "The Torture Papers":

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1653936,00.html

Cheney 'may be guilty of war crime'

· Vice-president accused of backing torture · Claims on BBC by former insider add to Bush's woes
Julian Borger in WashingtonWednesday November 30, 2005The Guardian

Vice-president Dick Cheney's burden on the Bush administration grew heavier yesterday after a former senior US state department official said he could be guilty of a war crime over the abuse of prisoners.Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005, singled out Mr Cheney in a wide-ranging political assault on the BBC's Today programme.

Mr Wilkerson said that in an internal administration debate over whether to abide by the Geneva conventions in the treatment of detainees, Mr Cheney led the argument "that essentially wanted to do away with all restrictions".

Asked whether the vice-president was guilty of a war crime, Mr Wilkerson replied: "Well, that's an interesting question - it was certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror and I would suspect that it is ... an international crime as well." In the context of other remarks it appeared he was using the word "terror" to apply to the systematic abuse of prisoners.The Washington Post last month called Mr Cheney the "vice-president for torture" for his demand that the CIA be exempted from a ban on "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of detainees.

Mr Wilkerson, a former army colonel, also said he had seen increasing evidence that the White House had manipulated pre-war intelligence on Iraq to make its case for the invasion. He said: "You begin to wonder was this intelligence spun? Was it politicised? Was it cherry-picked? Did, in fact, the American people get fooled? I am beginning to have my concerns."

Mr Cheney has been under fire for his role in assembling evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Mr Wilkerson told the Associated Press that the vice-president must have sincerely believed Iraq could be a spawning ground for terrorism because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard".

Such charges have kept the Bush administration on the defensive for several months. Mr Bush yesterday repeated his earlier assertion that the US "does not torture and that's important for people around the world to realise". He is also due to make the first of a series of speeches today, outlining his plan to defeat the insurgency and pave the way for US withdrawal. The White House will also publish a declassified version of its war plan.

But it has now emerged that two justice department memos listing permissible interrogation methods have been kept secret by the White House, even from the Senate intelligence committee. The New Yorker recently quoted a source who had seen a memo as calling it "breathtaking".

"The document dismissed virtually all national and international laws regulating the treatment of prisoners, including war crimes and assault statutes, and it was radical in its view that in wartime the president can fight enemies by whatever means he sees fit," the magazine reported.

One technique allegedly used by the CIA in questioning suspects is "waterboarding" (strapping a detainee to a board and submerging it until the prisoner believes he or she is drowning). The White House is accused of defining "torture" so narrowly as to exclude such methods. But James Ross, a legal expert at Human Rights Watch said such a narrow definition was at odds with international norms.

"Waterboarding is clearly a form of torture. It has been used since the Inquisition. It was a well-known torture technique in Latin America," Mr Ross said.

Human Rights Watch this year called for a special counsel to investigate any US officials - no matter their rank or position - who took part in, "ordered, or had command responsibility for war crimes or torture, or other prohibited ill-treatment against detainees in US custody".

The report focused on the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, for his alleged command responsibility for abuses at Abu Ghraib, but Mr Wilkerson argued Mr Cheney was ultimately responsible.

The US is a signatory to the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture, which bans inflicting "severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental". Such practices are also a crime under US federal law.

3) A copy of Conclusions and Recommendations of 2nd International Symposium on Higher Education in Iraq, which took place at University of Westminster, London, 15-17 Sept 2005 can be found at:

www.wmin.ac.uk/iraq-he

4) The sectarian conflict's getting dirtier:

Shiite Urges U.S. to Give Iraqis Leeway In Rebel FightAmericans Have Blocked Tougher Tactics, Cleric Says
By Ellen KnickmeyerWashington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, November 27, 2005; A01

BAGHDAD -- The leader of Iraq's most powerful political party has called on the United States to let Iraqi fighters take a more aggressive role against insurgents, saying his country will only be able to defeat the insurgency when the United States lets Iraqis get tough.

"The more freedom given to Iraqis, the more chance for further progress there would be, particularly in fighting terror," said Abdul Aziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Shiite Muslim religious party that leads the transitional government and whose armed wing is the most feared of Iraq's many factional forces.

Instead, Hakim asserted in a rare interview late last week, the United States is tying Iraq's hands in the fight against insurgents. One of Iraq's "biggest problems is the mistaken or wrong policies practiced by the Americans," he said.

In more than an hour of conversation at his Baghdad home and office, Hakim denied accusations that the Shiite-led government's security forces -- with alleged involvement by his party's armed wing -- have operated torture centers and death squads targeting Sunni Arabs. He also renewed his call to merge half of Iraq's 18 provinces into a federal region in the oil-rich, heavily Shiite south, and he played down Iran's interests in Iraq, saying that the Shiite theocracy to the east wants only what the United States claims to want: a stable Iraq.

During much of the interview, Hakim was critical of U.S. policies toward Iraq, though he acknowledged that U.S. forces must remain in the country as a "guest" of the Iraqi government while it builds its security forces. The Americans are guilty of "major interference, and preventing the forces of the Interior or Defense ministries from carrying out tasks they are capable of doing, and also in the way they are dealing with the terrorists," Hakim charged.

Hakim gave few details of what getting tough would entail, other than making clear it would require more weapons, with more firepower, than the United States is currently supplying. He also urged the United States to take a tougher stand against countries harboring insurgents and their supporters, and called for faster trials of insurgent suspects.

His repeated assertion that the United States was being too weak against Iraq's insurgency, allowing attacks to mushroom, appeared to suggest that any future Iraqi government that included him would share his view. With Iraqis scheduled to vote Dec. 15 for the country's first full-term government since the U.S. invasion in 2003, some analysts predict that Hakim will come from behind the scenes into direct political contention.

Until now, Hakim has opted not to hold office; the highest-ranking member of the Supreme Council in the current government is Adel Abdel-Mehdi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents. But as head of the Supreme Council, which was founded by exiles in Iran as an armed Shiite opposition group to Saddam Hussein, Hakim commands the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's transitional parliament.

In addition, Hakim oversees the party's armed wing, formerly known as the Badr Brigade. Its fighters are widely feared for what even many Iraqi Shiites say are habits of torture and other ruthless tactics learned from Iranian intelligence and security forces. Now officially converted into a private security detail and political group, the renamed Badr Organization is widely alleged to control many command-level and the rank-and-file officers in the Interior Ministry -- police, commandos, intelligence agencies and other branches.
The United States, at times openly distrustful of the Supreme Council's Iranian links and of its armed wing, took the allegations of Badr involvement in a secret Interior Ministry prison that was discovered last week seriously enough to publicly warn the government against allowing factional militias to control Iraq's security forces or ministries.

In the interview, Hakim, the son of an ayatollah, wore the black turban signifying descent from the prophet Muhammad and the long, close robes of a scholar of Islam. He spoke in a spare, formal marble-floored audience room in his Baghdad home, which until the U.S.-led invasion had been the Baghdad residence of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

Sitting straight and intently in a high-backed chair, Hakim repeatedly invoked the assassination of his brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim, who was killed by a car bomb in Najaf in August 2003. He evinced distrust of the Iraqi government's principal ally, the United States, even more often.
In Iraq, "there are plans to confront terrorists, approved by security agencies, but the Americans reject that," Hakim said. "Because of that mistaken policy, we have lost a lot. One of the victims was my brother Mohammad Bakir, because of American policies."

"For instance, the ministries of Interior and Defense want to carry out some operations to clean out some areas" in Baghdad and around the country, including volatile Anbar province, in the west, he said.
"There were plans that should have been implemented months ago, but American officials and forces rejected them," he said. "This has led to the expansion of terrorism.

"We have a capacity to move more quickly than currently," he said.

The issue points to a key difference between U.S. officials and some of Iraq's conservative Shiite leaders about what it will take to end the insurgency. Even the top U.S. generals say the ultimate solution is a political one, bringing minority Sunnis into a democracy that without them stands to be dominated permanently by the Shiite majority. But the leaders of many Shiite religious parties, reflecting their years in exile and their bitterness over the killing of relatives and supporters during Hussein's dictatorship, say the endgame is a military one.

Hakim charged that the United States, evidently fearful of alienating Sunnis, was blocking the arrests of Sunni political leaders who had ties to insurgents. "The mixing of security and political issues" was just another U.S. mistake, he said. "Terrorists should know there would be no dealing with them."

Indeed, some former members of Hussein's Baath Party who initially took up arms against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government have said they have abandoned the insurgency and sought a political role largely because of the effectiveness of what they alleged to be Shiite death squads rounding up and executing Sunni men since the Shiite-led government took office last spring.

Hakim said "the problem is not with the Sunnis, it is with the terrorists. There are Sunnis who have strong ties with us, who speak frankly and in pain, asking for help in getting rid of the terrorists."

Yet suspicion of the Badr forces runs strong among Iraqis, especially since the discovery by the U.S. military this month of a secret prison in central Baghdad containing what Interior Minister Bayan Jabar, a Shiite, acknowledged were at least five to seven detainees who had been subjected to torture.

Hakim said charges of torture have long been drummed up by Hussein loyalists, and he asserted that the U.S. military is often present in Interior Ministry facilities. American troops, he said, had been in the building where the prison was discovered "four times a week."

"These are all baseless allegations," he said. "We say, bring us one single piece of evidence to prove these allegations."

Hakim also made clear he wanted leaders elected in December to move forward toward creation of a massive federal region in the Shiite south, an idea he first broached in August before thousands of supporters in a ceremony in the Shiite holy city of Najaf marking the second anniversary of his brother's assassination.
Some Americans and Iraqis have charged such a state would put much of Iraq, and its oil, under a Shiite-controlled theocracy heavily influenced by Iran. But Hakim noted that the Kurdish-populated north already has such a region, and he contended that Baghdad, with its mixed population, and the heavily Sunni west should form separate regions as well.

The draft constitution voted in this year "approved that Iraq should become regions," he said. "While we want to form a region in the south, we strive to maintain the unity of Iraq."

Hakim said the United States could find "many areas" of agreement with Iran on Iraq, if it wanted to. For example, he said, "from the Iranian point of view, it is in the Iranian interest that Iraq be stable. That is also supposed to be the American intent."

Hakim made clear his own role would remain at the national level, rather than limited to any new Shiite region. Asked twice if he would seek political office directly, he said both times that he seeks only to be a servant of all Iraqis and showed one of his few, small smiles of the night.

Asked how different Iraq would look five years from now, Hakim said the answer depended on the actions of the United States. "For sure, the policies of America will have great influence on whether security and
reconstruction are present," he said.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

5) Here's an analysis of the new film "Syriana" and its political messages by Mark LeVine:

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/18700.html

Mark A. LeVine
Syriana and Iraq

Mr. LeVine is professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture, and Islamic studies at the University of California, Irvine, and author of the forthcoming books: Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil; and Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948. He is also a contributor, with Viggo Mortensen and Pilar Perez, to Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation. Click here to access his homepage.

Critics have been hailing "Syriana," George Clooney's latest film to take on the policies of the Bush Administration, as a cinematic tour de force that has "compelling real-world relevance" and is "unsettlingly close to the truth." But what is the truth "Syriana" supposedly approaches? Put briefly, the plot describes the ramification of a bungled CIA-authorized assassination of a Middle Eastern leader who decided to sign a major oil deal with China instead of an American oil company with close ties to the US Government.

Given the increasing numbers of Americans who believe that the Bush administration deliberately misled the country to justify the Iraqi invasion, many film-goers will no doubt walk accept the film's argument that Big Oil shapes American policies to its interests, even when they violate our core ideals. But is the movie really a case of art imitating life, or does "Syriana" veer towards the kind of hyperbole and exaggeration that marred Oliver Stone's "JFK?"

The evidence would seem to speak for itself. It includes:

- Newly discovered documents, reported in the Washington Post, that reveal that as early as February 2001 senior executives of at least four of the country's biggest oil companies, ExxonMobil, Conoco, Shell and BP America, met with Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force.

- Documents from these meetings obtained by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch--including a map of Iraq and an accompanying list of "Iraq oil foreign suitors"--reveal Iraq, with perhaps the world's second largest oil deposits, to have been a major topic of discussion. Indeed, the map erased all features of the country save the location of its main oil deposits. The list of suitors revealed that dozens of foreign companies were either in discussions over or in direct negotiations for rights to some of the best remaining oilfields on
earth.

- The meetings occurred at a moment when scientists and industry leaders began worrying that the "age of peak oil production" is approaching faster than previously assumed. Once it arrives, it will no longer be possible to extract enough oil from the earth to replace what we consume, thereby setting off a potentially explosive competition for the world's remaining supplies.

- In such a scenario, insuring American access to, and where possible leverage or even control over, the world's major oil deposits would be a natural concern for an Administration umbilically tied to Big Oil, particularly in the context of escalating competition with an aggressive, energy-hungry China.

- A 2002 report by Deutsche Bank explained the major US companies would lose if Saddam made a deal with the UN, whereas the Europeans, Russians and Chinese would come out ahead. But in a post-Saddam Iraq, the report argued, the US oil majors--specifically, according to the report, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco--could manage the country's resources. No wonder the executives of those companies denied meeting with Cheney's staff only weeks after George W. Bush's inauguration.

- At the very moment the first Energy Task Force meetings with industry officials were held, in February 2001, the National Security Council issued a directive for staff to cooperate with the Energy Task Force in the "melding" of new "operational policies towards rogue states" with "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields." No place on earth was more amenable to such melding than Iraq.

- Two and a half yeas after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration continues to resist calls for a major troop withdrawal, despite the fact that most intelligence reports, and Iraq politicians, confirm our presence to be the main motivation for the insurgency.

With American losses and expenditures mounting daily, the threat of WMD disproved, the promise of peace
and democracy seeming increasingly pollyanish, the Bush Administration is running out of good reasons for the US to maintain a long-term presence in Iraq. Two that come to mind, however, are oil and military bases--subjects, needless to say, that remain largely unbroachable in polite discourse in Washington or Baghdad.
But it's hard to think of anything else that would constitute the "core interests" both the Bush Administration and leading democrats (most recently Senator Joseph Biden) argue will be threatened by an American withdrawal from Iraq any time soon.

It took roughly fifty years for the CIA to admit that it organized the overthrow of Iranian President Mossadeqh when he dared to nationalize his country's oil industry. Our government also helped organize coups that put the Baath Party in power in Iraq twice, in 1963 and 1968. There's no doubt who was behind the toppling of Saddam. The question that remains, however, is: What was the real reason we invaded Iraq? On that score, "Syriana" hits closer to home than most politicians on either side of the aisle would care to admit.

Posted on Saturday, November 26, 2005 at 3:29 PM

6) The Congressional Research Service's Middle East affairs specialist, Dr Kenneth Katzman, has written two reports for CRS in recent months summarising governance and democratic reforms being attempted in Iraq. They are both available online: 'Iraq: Elections, Government and Constitution', last updated 2 August, 2005, at: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/52733.pdf ;

and 'Iraq: U.S. Regime Change Efforts and Post-Saddam Governance', last updated 5 July, 2005, at: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/50172.pdf

7) Darth Cheney's story:

http://hnn.us/articles/18668.html

The Long March of Dick Cheney
By Sidney Blumenthal

Mr. Blumenthal is a columnist for Salon.com and the Guardian. He is the author of The Clinton Wars. He served as Assistant to the President, 1997-2001.

The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined.
Richard Nixon is the model, but with modifications. In the Nixon administration, the president was the prime mover, present at the creation of his own options, attentive to detail, and conscious of their consequences. In the Cheney administration, the president is volatile but passive, firm but malleable, presiding but absent. Once his complicity has been arranged, a closely held "cabal" -- as Lawrence Wilkerson, once chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, calls it -- wields control....

8) Here's another Iraq-interested blog:

http://malakandsky.blogspot.com/

9) Campus discussion:

Following is an article from JTA — The Global News Service of the Jewish People. For in-depth coverage of the latest developments affecting Jews all over the world, click: www.jta.org

Effort for review of anti-Semitism
on campus meeting new resistance By: Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (JTA) — The effort by some Jewish groups to establish a government review procedure to address claims of anti-Israel bias and anti-Semitism on university campuses appears to be under threat just as it’s making serious headway.

Buried in a massive budget bill passed recently by the Senate are two paragraphs with language stating that the U.S. Department of Education must not “mandate, direct, or control an institution of higher education’s specific instructional content, curriculum, or program of instruction.”

The inclusion suggests resistance among conservatives in Congress and elsewhere to reforms that Jewish groups say are needed to alleviate what they claim is a hostile environment toward Jewish students on some campuses.

The resistance came to the fore last Friday when three Jewish groups testified on the matter before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, encountering tough questions from the more conservative commissioners.
The Senate language, inserted in the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 and passed by the Senate on Nov. 3, would gut plans to make universities that receive federal funds accountable to the Education Department to the degree that some Jewish groups have sought.

“There should be something in there that requires a balance of viewpoints,” said Susan Tuchman, director of the Center of Law and Justice at the Zionist Organization of America, a group that has been lobbying hard for federal review of universities’ Middle Eastern studies. “It’s not enough to ensure that appropriate changes are made.”

The American Jewish Congress, also a leader in the effort, has been fighting hard to remove exactly the same language from another bill making headway in both houses, said Sarah Stern, the AJCongress’ director of governmental affairs.

Stern said the inclusion of the language in the deficit-reduction bill came “completely under the radar.” Three other Jewish groups involved in pressing for the legislation said they only learned of the language in recent days, some because of JTA’s questions.

At least one of the groups was still reviewing the legislation and wasn’t ready to condemn it outright.

The American Jewish Committee said other provisions in the bill might meet the standards it has been seeking by giving the secretary of education some limited powers of review.

“It has always been our contention that those reforms would not allow the secretary to interfere with academic freedom or autonomy of institutions,” said Richard Foltin, the AJCommittee’s legislative director.

A U.S. House of Representatives version of the deficit-reduction bill that scraped through last Friday does not include the language, and Jewish groups were hoping it might disappear in the version that emerges in the House-Senate conference before Christmas break.

It’s not clear which senator inserted the language during the lengthy process of composing a bill that deals mostly with budget cutting to offset the costs of war and hurricane recovery, but it would have had to pass Republican muster. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the chairman of the Senate’s Budget Committee, initiated the bill, and it passed 52-47, largely along party lines.

As Foltin noted, the bill does provide some redress. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings would be able to suspend federal funding for a university for 60 days if she deems a complaint serious enough, but after that she would be required to resume the funding whether or not the complaint has been resolved. She also would be authorized to take such complaints into account when renewing grants to universities.

Additionally, the bill suggests linking funding for universities to their success in creating a cadre of Middle East experts in government.

However, the language that keeps the education secretary from touching “specific instructional content, curriculum, or program of instruction” means that she wouldn’t be able to require a university’s Middle East studies department to balance a reliance on Arabists such as Edward Said with other historians with a more pro-Western tilt, such as Bernard Lewis.

Groups like AJCongress, ZOA and the Institute for Jewish and Community Research allege that anti-Western bias pervades American universities’s Mideast studies departments. Other groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the AJCommittee, agree that there is a problem but say progress is being made.
“Institutional anti-Semitism, discrimination and quotas against Jewish students are largely a thing of the past,” the ADL said in written testimony to the Commission on Civil Rights.

Should the language survive the House-Senate conference, another bill promoting much tougher measures could fall by the wayside, Jewish lobbyists said. Legislators could argue that a solution is already on the books, so they don’t need to pursue the matter further.

Jewish groups favor another bill that would establish an advisory committee to review complaints of bias, a measure that academic organizations say smacks of McCarthyism. That has passed a House committee but has yet to be considered by the full House, meaning the diluted version passed by the Senate on Nov. 3 is much further advanced.

Witnesses at the Civil Rights Commission hoped they would get a sympathetic ear for the proposed advisory committee. The commission has no enforcement powers, but its recommendations would have moral force in Washington.

Citing a litany of complaints from Jewish students across the country, Stern of the AJCongress, Tuchman of ZOA and Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, painted a picture of a pervasively hostile environment.

“Anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism are systemic ideologies in higher education,” Tobin said.
Instead of the sympathy they expected, the witnesses got a sometimes-testy exchange on the role of government in policing campuses.

Significantly, the toughest questions came from commissioners most closely associated with the Bush administration, which recently revamped the commission to more closely reflect its own conservative values.

“I am extremely nervous about administrative oversight on university campuses,” said Abigail Thernstrom, the commission’s vice chairwoman. “You do not want administrators waking into classrooms and deciding what a professor is teaching is acceptable or unacceptable.”

Stern said such worries were unfounded. By mitigating bias, a federal advisory panel that would review complaints would encourage debate, not inhibit it, she said.

“Any intellectually honest person with integrity would say, ‘Wait a minute, there is another side here,’ ” she said.

Tobin said the threat of withdrawing federal funding would be a last resort meant to spur universities into using tools already at their disposal — for instance, increasing the involvement of trustees in hiring and firing decisions.

“This truly is a nuclear option,” he said of the proposed legislation.

The witnesses got a more sympathetic hearing from the two Democrats on the eight-person commission.
“Simply because something happens in the arena of a university does not qualify it as untouchable,” said Michael Yaki, a San Francisco lawyer.

He also chided conservatives on the commission who suggested that only physical harassment was out of bounds, noting that the legal definition of sexual harassment includes its verbal forms.

The conservative commissioners were equally skeptical of a federal role in policing anti-Semitism on campus.

Thernstrom, who is Jewish, said posters that had appeared on campuses that depicted Israelis as baby-killers were appalling, but might be part of the necessary give-and-take of university life.

“I don’t want universities to be comfortable places for students,” she said.

Katrina Encours et Toujours XXVIII

2005-11-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

1) Katrina relevant links definitely worthy of checking up:

This entire blog is devoted to Katrina and NO reconstruction:
http://worldclassneworleans.blogspot.com/

This is NYC for NOLA website, including an Onion takeoff:
http://nycnolahelp.org/creoletomato/

Here's the most comprehensive Katrina info blog I've seen yet:
http://peoplegetready.blogspot.com/

Here's a local website devoted to reconstruction (another appropriate destination for donations):
http://www.proudtocallithome.org/

Here's a relief website devoted to local arts phenom "Blue Dog":
http://www.bluedogrelief.com/

2) As I mentioned in a previous posting, last week I tried to argue MESA's [Middle East Studies Association] holding it's 2012 convention in NO. The results were mixed, with one of the staff asking what MESA would do if there were to be another hurricane in 2012. I mentioned that Miami, Orlando, SF, and LA all suffer from potential hurricanes or earthquakes, and that Katrina's damage had never been seen in NO history. That was the negative point. On the positive point, she did say that the MESA powers-that-be are seriously considering NO for 2012. Let's hope they decide to hold the convention in NO. For encouragement, let's start by posting this article, stating that the DNC will hold its 2006 meeting in NO. Let's hope the Dems' 2008 convention will be in NO as well. As always, nag your local Dems:

http://bizneworleans.com/109+M5542bb32fcb.html

Democratic National Committee to meet in N.O.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Democratic National Committee will bring about 400 people to New Orleans for its first meeting of 2006 to help rebuild the Gulf area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

DNC chairman Howard Dean says the three-day meeting will begin April 20, the weekend of the French Quarter Festival.

Dean say the group usually uses only union hotels, but got a special dispensation from labor officials to book the downtown Sheraton.

Dean says the Sheraton is the only full-service hotel that' reserving rooms and can handle a convention.
The American Library Association, which has to book years in advance because it brings about 20,000 people to its midyear conference, confirmed early this month that it will keep its June 24-27 dates in New Orleans.

Dean says New Orleans is also among 33 cities invited to compete for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The April meeting is the major one before the midterm elections.

3) As another point pushing MESA to hold its 2012 convention in New Orleans, here's an announcement by the APA, or American Psychological Association. I should point out that the APA will be holding its convention in NO during the height of hurricane season with what will be a weakened levee system. First of all, kudos to the APA. Secondly, let this be an example to MESA, whose conventionas are always in mid-late November, or long after hurricane season. Thirdly, NO had better not screw this one up -- the APA will be a large convention and will be a test case for post-Katrina NO convention viability:

The American Psychological Association

The 2006 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association will be held in New Orleans, August 10 - 13, 2006, the APA Board of Directors announced today. The decision to keep the meeting in New Orleans was made by unanimous vote.

APA has been actively monitoring the New Orleans storm recovery,including a site visit on October 31. A number of factors went into the Board's decision to keep the 2006 meeting in New Orleans, including:

* Parts of the city most critical to our meeting, the convention center area, our convention hotels, and the French Quarter, did not sustain any damage due to flooding and suffered much less serious storm damage than other parts of the city. These areas are well on their way to full recovery;
* Air quality tests conducted by federal, state, and private entities have shown that the air in New Orleans is safe;
* As of October 6, the Louisiana Office of Public Health announced that tap water is safe to drink in the convention center, downtown, and the French Quarter areas;
* In February New Orleans will host its annual Mardi Grascelebration. This spring and summer the city will also host a number of large conventions and society meetings. These events and others are expected to increase staffing and service levels across the city.

All indications are that New Orleans is on a strong trajectory ofrecovery and will be well prepared to host our meeting next summer. Our top priority in making the decision about New Orleans was the health and safety of meeting attendees and the city's ability to provide the services necessary for a high-quality meeting. Based on health reports and our own site visit, we are pleased with the progress of the recovery effort. We look forward to a very successful meeting in New Orleans and to being part of the revival of the city.

For more information about convention planning, go towww.apa.org/convention and as a reminder, convention programsubmissions are due to divisions on December 2.

Hope to see you in New Orleans!

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Norman B. Anderson, PhD, CEO
The American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
Phone: 202-336-6020
Email: Conventionupdate@apa.org

4) This is a long auto-biographical diary detailing an absolutely outrageous story concerning the conjunction between Katrina, failed government relief efforts, and the war of terror:

http://www.nola.com/weblogs/bourbon/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_bstdiaries/archives/2005_11_24.html
Thursday, November 24, 2005

Rescue efforts lead to arrest nightmare for N.O. businessman

Abdulrahman Zeitoun of New Orleans writes about his experiences rescuing storm victims, and about his arrest and ordeal on suspicion of terrorism and looting:

My name is Abdulrahman Zeitoun. I am the owner of Zeitoun A. Painting Contractors LLC, and Zeitoun Rentals LLC. I have been in business in New Orleans for almost 12 years. I have a very good reputation through out the City of New Orleans, and I am listed with the Better Business Bureau.

I am originally from Syria, and I came to the United States in 1973. I started my life from scratch, and worked my way up to where I am now. I am married to Kathryn M. Richmond, I have 3 daughters and a son with her....

5) If you really want to help NO, forward this NOLA.com op-ed as far as you can, and urge everyone you know to contact the following Congressional members after the posting, especially if you are a constituent. Tell them that NO needs their commitment to levee strengthening, coastal restoration, and reconstruction:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/news/content/editorial112005.html

An Editorial: It's time for a nation to return thefavor
Sunday, November 20, 2005

The federal government wrapped levees around greaterNew Orleans so that the rest of the country couldshare in our bounty.

Americans wanted the oil and gas that flow freely offour shores. They longed for the oysters and shrimp andflaky Gulf fish that live in abundance in our waters.They wanted to ship corn and soybeans and beets downthe Mississippi and through our ports. They wantedcoffee and steel to flow north through the mouth ofthe river and into the heartland.

They wanted more than that, though. They wanted toshare in our spirit. They wanted to sample the joyousbeauty of our jazz and our food. And we were happy tooblige them.

So the federal government built levees and convincedus that we were safe.

We weren't.

The levees, we were told, could stand up to a Category3 hurricane.

They couldn't.

By the time Katrina surged into New Orleans, it hadweakened to Category 3. Yet our levee system wasn't asstrong as the Army Corps of Engineers said it was.Barely anchored in mushy soil, the floodwalls gaveway.

Our homes and businesses were swamped. Hundreds of ourneighbors died.

Now, this metro area is drying off and digging out.Life is going forward. Our heart is beating.
But we need the federal government -- we need ourCongress -- to fulfill the promises made to us in thepast. We need to be safe. We need to be able to goabout our business feeding and fueling the rest of thenation. We need better protection next hurricaneseason than we had this year. Going forward, we needprotection from the fiercest storms, the Category 5storms that are out there waiting to strike.

Some voices in Washington are arguing against us. Wewere foolish, they say. We settled in a place that islower than the sea. We should have expected to drown.

As if choosing to live in one of the nation's greatcities amounted to a death wish. As if living in SanFrancisco or Miami or Boston is any more logical.

Great cities are made by their place and their people,their beauty and their risk. Water flows around andthrough most of them. And one of the greatest bodiesof water in the land flows through this one: theMississippi.

The federal government decided long ago to try to tamethe river and the swampy land spreading out from it.The country needed this waterlogged land of ours toprosper, so that the nation could prosper even more.
Some people in Washington don't seem to remember that.They act as if we are a burden. They act as if we woreour skirts too short and invited trouble.

We can't put up with that. We have to stand up forourselves. Whether you are back at home or still inexile waiting to return, let Congress know that thismetro area must be made safe from future storms. Calland write the leaders who are deciding our fate. Getyour family and friends in other states to do thesame. Start with members of the Environment and PublicWorks and Appropriations committees in the Senate, andTransportation and Appropriations in the House. Floodthem with mail the way we were flooded by Katrina.

Remind them that this is a singular American city andthat this nation still needs what we can give it.

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER
Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; 509 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-3344; Web site: www.frist.senate.gov .

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss, chairman; 113 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-5054; e-mail address: senator@cochran.senate.gov .

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., ranking member; 311 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-3954; e-mail address: senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska; 522 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-3004; Web site: www.stevens.senate.gov

SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman; 393 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-3324; Web site: www.gregg.senate.gov

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., ranking member; 530 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-2043; Web site: www.conrad.senate.gov

SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman; 453 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-4721; Web site: www.inhofe.senate.gov

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., ranking member; 511 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510; (202) 224-2651; e-mail address: max@baucus.senate.gov

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.; 235 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-2976; Web site: www.house.gov/hastert

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER
Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; 217 Cannon House Office Building; Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-6536; Web site: www.blunt.house.gov

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., chairman; 2112 Rayburn House Office Building; Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-5861; Web site: www.house.gov/jerrylewis

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., ranking member; 2314 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-3365; Web site: www.obey.house.gov

HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE
Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, chairman; 303 Cannon House Office Building; Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-2911; e-mail: nussleia@mail.house.gov

Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., ranking member; 1401 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-5501; Web site: www.house.gov/spratt

6) Here's another activist posting by Jordan Flaherty, concerning Katrina activism, reconstruction, and local politics:

Community and Resistance
by Jordan Flaherty
November 23, 2005

A couple months before New Orleans flooded, I remember walking through my neighborhood on a beautiful weekend afternoon and hearing music.

I followed the sound a couple blocks, to where about thirty people, all of them Black, followed a few musicians through the streets. They were mourning the death of a loved one, New Orleans-style. Most folks were wearing custom t-shirts with a picture of the deceased. Next to the photo were the words “sunrise” along with the date of his birth, and “sunset,” above the date of his (recent) death - he was 20. Also on the shirt were the words, “No More Drama.”

On the back, the shirts were individualized, with the relation of the wearer to the deceased. One woman’s shirt said “momma.” A few teenagers had shirts that said “cuz.” A small child’s shirt said “daddy.”

Despite their loss, they were dancing through the streets. When the band finished their final song, everyone danced their hearts out. I don’t know what else to say, except that's how we do it in New Orleans, and the image of those people mourning through celebration sticks with me as I see New Orleans today, struggling with so much loss and tragedy.

Cornel West, who has visited New Orleans often, said shortly after the city was flooded, “New Orleans has always been a city that lived on the edge, with Elysian Fields and cemeteries and the quest for paradise. When you live so close to death, behind the levees, you live more intensely, sexually, gastronomically, psychologically. Louis Armstrong came out of that unbelievable cultural breakthrough unprecedented in the history of American civilization. The rural blues, the urban jazz. It is the tragicomic lyricism that gives you the courage to get through the darkest storm. Charlie Parker would have killed somebody if he had not blown his horn. The history of black people in America is one of unbelievable resilience in the face of crushing white supremacist powers.”

More than anywhere else in the US, New Orleans is a city where people live in one neighborhood their whole lives, where generations live in the same community. According to a recent census, of all US cities, New Orleans ranked second in the percentage of its population born in the state, at 83 percent. (Santa Ana, Calif., was first; Las Vegas last.) 54 percent of the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward had been in their homes for 10 years or more, far above the national average.

All of this is to say that New Orleans is not just a tourist stop. New Orleans is a unique culture, one that is resilient, and with a history of community and resistance. And, despite everything, resistance continues.
The People’s Hurricane Fund has been doing direct outreach and organizing in cities across the US for their People’s Tribunal and March for Justice, scheduled for December 8-10 in Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans. They have organized communication centers in Jackson and New Orleans with plans for centers in Houston, Baton Rouge and Atlanta.

On a national level, organizations such as colorofchange.org have mobilized thousands of people to pressure politicians, and the Congressional Black Congress has worked to keep this issue alive, both through legislation, and through joining protests, as Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney did by showing up for a march from New Orleans to Gretna a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, just days after DC organizers announced plans for a protest at FEMA headquarters, FEMA officials announced that they were pushing back the date after which they would stop paying for hotels for Gulf Coast evacuees from December 1 to December 15. Continued pressure from across the US caused them to move the date again, to January 7.

Here in New Orleans, volunteers with the Common Ground Collective have set up neighborhood distribution centers with food and supplies, have served hundreds of people in their free health clinic, setup a media center complete with a community radio station, and embarked on a project to rehabilitate houses in the Ninth Ward. This week, hundreds of volunteers have arrived to continue this work, most of them staying on mattresses on the floors of warehouses and houses, sometimes thirty or more to a room.

Any convergence of hundreds of mostly young and white activists in a overwhelmingly Black community is bound to bring skepticism and controversy, and Common Ground has received criticisms from some local organizers. However, Common Ground in many ways represents a big step forward for the global justice movement. Rather than coming in, leading a protest, and leaving, activists were invited by Malik Rahim, a longtime community organizer, and have followed through and done real work in communities. They have been true to their commitments, and have shown by example that people with a vision of radical change and social justice can put FEMA or Red Cross to shame.

Finally, yesterday saw a major legal victory in the struggle for housing.

According to the statement from the New Orleans Grassroots Legal Network, lawyers representing a range of organizations, “brought suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, Orleans Parish, and Jefferson Parish on behalf of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, UNITE-HERE Local 50-2, SEIU Local 21, ACORN New Orleans, and individual tenants being victimized by landlords post-Hurricane Katrina. Because of the immense pressure that has been placed on the government and the landlords by the people, Plaintiffs were able to achieve the following result from this lawsuit: (1) All evictions in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes are immediately stayed — meaning, all eviction proceedings in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes stop immediately against residents who are not in the area and whose whereabouts are unknown to landlords.
(2) Under the judge's order, FEMA is required, upon request, to provide to the Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, current contact information for the tenants who landlords are seeking to evict. Upon this contact information being provided by FEMA, the Parishes have to provide written notice of eviction to the tenants at the tenants' most current addresses. Tenants then have at least 45 days from the date of the mailing of the notice respond to the eviction action.

“This victory means that displaced people have an almost two-month reprieve from having to face loss of their personal property and their homes. This victory also means that for the first time FEMA has finally agreed to provide information to protect survivors. This is huge.

“But overall, this case is just another step that the Grassroots Legal Network has taken to bring recognition that people who have suffered the worst impact by the natural and government disaster of Hurricane Katrina have a right to return to their homes. This victory also provides an opportunity for political and social rights activists to organize with grassroots people to assert pressure on those in power to respect their humanity.”
All of this leaves me feeling, for the first time in a while, that all of this fighting really does mean something, and New Orleans lives on.

=====================================
Jordan Flaherty is a union organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. This is his eleventh article from New Orleans. You can contact Jordan at NewOrleans@leftturn.org. Jordan’s previous articles from New Orleans are at http://www.leftturn.org/articles/SpecialCollections/katrina.aspx =====================================
Based on conversations with organizers and community members, Left Turn Magazine has compiled a list of grassroots New Orleans organizations focused on relief, recovery, social justice and cultural preservation that need your support. The list is online at http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=689&type=W =====================================

7) Here's an article on Gulf Coast Zoning changes being considered right now. It goes without saying that
the local govts have to clean up what has been an abominably lax zoning system (which is itself a problem throughout the country, and is due to developers' interests). I've been nagging here frequently about what the feds have to do, but this is something that the locals must do at the same time. People may not rebuild much until they know that their construction will match whatever new codes are enacted, as well as knowing that the Cat 5 annoucement is made...

http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/051118code.asp

Gulf Coast States Consider Code and Zoning Change
November 18, 2005

While still picking through the debris from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gulf Coast states have begun reexamining their building codes. The disasters have strengthened calls for areas without codes to adopt them, and for consistent codes within states.

"Every state should have a statewide minimum code," says James Lee Witt, CEO of the International Code Council (ICC) and former FEMA director. "It's critical. It's a form of mitigation."....

8) This from NO's local Offbeat magazine, on the role that the music industry is poised to play in NO's reconstruction:

RANDOM NOTES The Edge Commits to NOLA...Music Retailers Reopen...Music Coalition News
Reid Wick, saxophonist, publicity guru for Loyola University Music Business Program and recent MusiCares administrator tells OffBeat that he's made a new friend: The Edge of U2. He reports: "Yes, I spent the whole day with Edge. I took him to meet with musicians (Deacon John, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Brian "Breeze" Cayolle, and Joe Krown--he even had a jam session with Walter). I took him on a tour of much of the devastated areas, including the 17th Street Canal levee break, Lakeview, NO East and Chalmette. Later that night, we had dinner with Quint Davis [Jazz Fest producer] and Mitch Landrieu [Louisiana Lieutenant Governor] showed up for a little while. Rolling Stone magazine was in tow the entire day. An article should appear in next week's issue. It all totally blew his mindl He called me on Friday evening to thank me for what he called 'one of the most moving days of his life.' I then got a call from [producer] Bob Ezrin, saying that Edge had called him earlier that morning and that I blew his mind with the great musicians he met and the first hand view of the city. Bob and I are working to find a time for him to visit the city."

Obviously, Edge's first-hand experience with New Orleans' devastation has led to his conviction that (according to USA Today) "music is key to New Orleans' survival. So The Edge is launching Music Rising, a campaign to replace instruments that were lost after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck. He and producer Bob Ezrin have joined forces with VH1, MTV, Ticketmaster, SpinCo, MusiCares and others to provide up to 3,000 instruments for players, plus gear for churches, schools, repair shops and music academies. Lead partners Gibson Guitar and the Guitar Center are pledging $1 million and issuing a limited-edition guitar to benefit the program. 'We can't overdo this,' says Edge, who spent Thursday in the Crescent City meeting musicians and surveying the devastation on the ground and by helicopter. 'Anyone who has earned money from music owes a huge debt to New Orleans. It's the birthplace of jazz, it has origins of rock 'n' roll, and it's spawned some amazing hip-hop. The music culture is so rich and unique that it's absolutely crucial to support it.' Recalling the area's vitality before Katrina, he says: 'You'd see and hear things you'd get nowhere else. We all need New Orleans. We can't let that culture vanish in the flood.'"

The Louisiana Music Factory opened with a bang on October 31 and is open and ready for business this Thanksgiving weekend. Ditto Tower Records at 408 N. Peters Street. “Nearly three months since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Tower Records is thrilled to bring music and spirit back to the city that we so love,” stated Kevin Cassidy, Executive Vice President of Retail for Tower Records. “The people of New Orleans, our customers and employees alike, have been through so much. Their perseverance and dedication to re-build is a great inspiration to us all. It therefore gives Tower Records great satisfaction to re-open our French Quarter store,” said Kevin Cassidy, Regional Tower manager.

The New Orleans Music Coalition is seeking information on where New Orleans musicians have relocated for the Louisiana Music Directory database. If you are a musician or music business, and haven't posted your new contact information (including mailing address, cell phone, contact phone and email address), don't wait. There are opportunities you may be missing. Tipitina's has begun listing available housing at Come Home New Orleans

9) Another music industry article, this time from Biz New Orleans:

http://bizneworleans.com/109+M57bd8ab98b1.html

Music download leader compiles N.O. fundraiser

LOS ANGELES — Nugs.net, the leader in live music downloads, has assembled an all-star compilation of live tracks to raise money for several New Orleans charities benefiting local musicians. The music service provider’s artist partners donated the recordings for the compilation, including an exclusive release from Widespread Panic's archives, hand-picked by Panic front man John Bell and an exclusive, never-before-released song, "Low," from former Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and his new band 70 Volt Parade.
Nugs.net and the 17 artists featured on the benefit release organized the effort to provide continued support for this vital American music community. Other artists contributing to the benefit compilation include Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Jerry Garcia Band, David Grisman Quintet, The String Cheese Incident, Gov't Mule, Yonder Mountain String Band, Mike Gordon and the Benevento/Russo Duo, Umphrey's McGee, Tea Leaf Green, Particle, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Outformation, and local New Orleans legends The Radiators and Galactic.

Nugs.net and all the artists involved will donate 100 percent of the money raised from the sales of this hurricane benefit compilation to the following registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit charities: Tipitina's Foundation, New Orleans Musician's Clinic, New Orleans Musician's Hurricane Relief Fund and Conscious Alliance.
"(W)e are empowered that so many people in our country recognize the importance of New Orleans' own music heritage and its talented musicians,” said Bill Taylor, director of the Tipitina's Foundation. “Monies raised from these efforts go immediately to help support displaced musicians as well as our greater mission to support the music and culture of New Orleans as we rebuild in the years to come."

This two CD benefit compilation album will be available for $10.95 as MP3 downloads and $15.95 as CD-quality FLAC downloads. To purchase, go to nugs.net and help support nugs.net's efforts to rebuild the New Orleans community of musicians.

Dave Malone of The New Orleans Radiators expressed his thanks and said: "Everybody knows that the swamp and river have popped out some pretty incredible musicians! Now is your chance to give back to some of those great musicians who are in need and get some ultra-cool music as well."

Nugs.net offers high-quality, mastered soundboard recordings of all tracks in MP3 and lossless CD-quality FLAC formats. All download files are compatible with Windows, Mac and Unix, allowing for maximum flexibility and ease of use. Once downloaded, these files can be burned to CD an unlimited number of times, transferred to portable audio players such as Apple's iPod, or played through a computer.

"UNION, JUSTICE & CONFIDENCE, A nugs.net NEW ORLEANS MUSICIANS BENEFIT ALBUM" is available exclusively through nugs.net.

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10) Here's another story about music revival efforts in NO:

Raising up a city through jazz

Irvin Mayfield's rousing return brings down the cathedral

Saturday, November 19, 2005
By Keith Spera
Music writer

To stand on the steps of Christ Church Cathedral on Aug. 31 was to witness a city at its most desperate.
To return to the 2900 block of St. Charles Avenue 11 weeks later was to share in the same city's rebirth.
On Aug. 31, that first terrible Wednesday after Hurricane Katrina, looters roamed at will as shell-shocked residents filed out of Central City, paused briefly on the Christ Church steps, then pressed on toward the unfolding crisis at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

On Thursday, an overflow crowd filled the 119-year-old sanctuary as trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra unveiled "All the Saints," a triumphant new composition of grief and resolve. It was a defining moment for Mayfield, the orchestra and post-Katrina New Orleans.

11) Activist posting:

The People's Hurricane Relief Fund & The Mississippi Distress Relief Coalition presents

FROM OUTRAGE TO ACTION

State of Emergency Survivor's Conference Thursday & Friday - December 8 & 9, 2005 in Jackson, Mississippi& Saturday, December 10, 2005 - March & Rally in New Orleans, LA
Conference Agenda:

State of Emergency People's Conference - Youth Speak Out December 8, 2005 - 7:00 - 9:00pmJackson State University School of Business - 1300 Lynch Street

Survivor's Assembly & ConferenceDecember 9, 2005 - 9am - 6pm at Anderson United Methodist Church6405 Hanging Moss Road
December 9, 2005 - 8pm - 11pmRally/Cultural Program featuring AMIRA BARAKA, SONYA SANCHEZ, DEAD PREZ, & Louisiana & Mississippi Artists

Survivor's March For Self Determination & Right to ReturnDecember 10, 2005Gathering at Congo SquareNew Orleans, LAcall 1-888-310-7473

FROM OUTRAGE TO ACTION !!!
**********************************************
STATE OF EMERGENCY CONFERENCE AND SURVIVORSGENERAL ASSEMBLY, JACKSON, MSDECEMBER 8, 9, 2005
**************************
MARCH ON NEW ORLEANSDECEMBER 10, 2005"DEMAND THE RIGHT TO RETURN"
Remembering the horrors of Katrina and the history of racial and class oppression is not enough. The time has come to turn outrage to action.

On December 8, 2005 through December 10, 2005 scores of survivors and their supporters, people who believe in freedom and justice, will gather in Jackson, MS and New Orleans.

We will gather for the National State of Emergency Conference in Jackson on the 8th and 9th of December. Supporters and representatives and leaders from over 50 black organizations, and labor unions and their third world and anti-racists allies will meet in support and solidarity of the survivors initiate an action plan to rescue the black population and all oppressed populations from their dependency on racist and incompetent governments. Most important the Katrina Survivors will gather at the same place and time to form a General Assembly to speak for themselves and to exercise their rights to self determination.

Survivors have raised the demands are for immediate jobs, education, housing, clothing and food. Survivors have made the demand to place the control and direction of Gulf Coast reconstruction in their hands.

Survivors demand opportunity to exercise the right to return to the Gulf Coast with dignity and without poverty. Survivors have demanded a complete investigation into and prosecution of all government agencies for crimes against humanity and human rights violations.

OBJECTIVESThe Objectives of the December 8-10, 2005 Assembly/Conference and the Demonstration are as follows:

1. To build a Hurricane Katrina Survivors General Assembly which will speak for the Gulf Coast Survivors and which will demand and exercise the peoples right to self determination in New Orleans and other effected gulf coast areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

2. To demand the people's right to return to New Orleans and to the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast with dignity and without poverty.

3. To demand reparations for the governments' criminal indifference, negligence, and malicious actions towards the Victims and Survivors, before, during and after Katrina.

4. To demand, launch and/or continue investigations, law suits and prosecutions of governments, agencies and persons responsible for the human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed before, during and after Katrina.

5. To build a national united front in support and solidarity with the self determination and reparation demands of Katrina Survivors, and through this front to design and initiate a plan of action and institutions which will allow black people to fortify themselves and serve their own needs in the face of future disasters which are either natural or by human hands.

6. To link today's demands for reparations and self determination to the historical and future struggle of black people and other oppressed populations for self determination and reparations.

CONTACT INFORMATIONFor further information call 1-888-310-PHRF(7473), or call 601-353-5566, or email outrage2action@yahoo.com.

12) This from LA Democrats list, which partially explains why I sometimes advocate a secession referendum for the Gulf Coast if Congress refuses to commit necessary reconstruction funds:

LOUISIANA GENERATES $5 BILLION PER YEAR IN OIL and gas revenues for the United States. When Louisiana is allowed to receive 50% of the oil and gas revenues it generates, like the other 49 states, our coastal wetland restoration and the levee systems needed for protection against Category 5 hurricanes will be adequately financed. Congressman Jindal and other Louisiana legislators may be finally taking up the call by Senator Landrieu and former-Senator Breaux to rectify this injustice. Join the spontaneous Louisiana-to-the-Nation letter-writing campaign to make our case to other Americans.

13) Here's an initiative by a New York University PhD Candidate, Departments of Middle East Studies/History:

Hi Folks. Gobble gobble.

(I apologize for having massed you all together here. But it does raise the question: do the masses have a voice?)

I'm writing to you in the spirit of the holiday.

Many of you will know about the pending House bill that presumes to cut $50 billion from social service programs like food stamps and Medicaid, as well as slashing education and labor programs. According to the House Agriculture Committee, this would result in at least 220,000 Americans losing food assistance. These reductions were proposed to pay for the bulk of a $70 billion tax break for the wealthiest Americans, which will be considered after Thanksgiving.

All of you know about the suffering of hurricane survivors on the Gulf Coast. A lot of these people, in particular, now depend on the government programs currently on the chopping block.

I would like you to know about an effort some Princetonians and I have put together to address this cruel juxtaposition. We are asking Americans to give back their tax cuts in order to help lessen the vulnerabilities of the people on the Gulf Coast. Because our current government has disowned its responsibility to its citizens, our only real option is giving to private relief funds. But private charitable giving affirms the anti-government philosophy that allowed the tragedy in the first place. A dilemma, all right.

Our solution is to ask people to give in the context of an argument that government should accept its responsibility to act as a steward for the community. I am asking you to help us make this argument. Please visit www.mytaxcutforkatrina.org and make a donation -- whatever you can -- to one of the participating charities. We have three goals:

1. Start a new round of charitable giving. America has changed the channel on Katrina. Private relief efforts are drying up a lot faster than the needs created by the flood waters.
2. Provide the rhetorical platform those Congresspeople need, who are seeking to repeal the tax cuts to the wealthiest 1% of Americans. This is the way democracy works.
3. Encourage people to think differently than they do now about their relationship to federal govt, taxation, and spending. Taxes are a moral issue -- how we pool our resources in order to purchase fundamental public goods -- not just a question of individual financial savings.

I would also like to ask two other things of you.

First, please let your family, friends, and colleagues know about this initiative. When we worked on the filibuster last spring, we were successful because of grassroots word-of-mouth (www.filibusterfrist.com). The goal of this campaign is to impact public debate. It can be successful, too, if enough people articulate their individual support. (Here's a sense of scale: if a Senator receives 2000 phone calls in a couple of weeks on an issue, that issue gets on her agenda. We can get to that number with your help, no question.)
Second, when you visit the website, view it critically. What does it do poorly, need to do better? Let me know by responding (Notate bene: NOT REPLY-ALL) to this email. If you have any other suggestions or contacts, please let me know. It is all very much a work in progress.

There are two other very important holidays this week. My brother's birthday was yesterday and mine is Saturday. Consider the donation-making/word-spreading/improvement-suggesting a triple birthday present to us.

Thanks a lot.

With much affection,Peter (and brother Chris)
Peter Turner609 933 7544

14) Here's an idea for the Creole Tomato, from a friend:

Another message from another displaced lawyer in Texas. I'm sorry you didn't cotton to my idea for a story about building levees out of Mardi Gras beads, but I must say, Roman candy is probably a better substance and one you would only know about if a local. My new idea is below. Today Mary Landrieu said she would keep the Congress from going home unless they addressed flood protection. This brings to mind the classic movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", and I think Mary should be compared to Jimmy Stewart!

The thing that would clinch the deal, straight off, would be Mary's reading a confession by the Canal Street brothel madam of all the names in her little black book, which as I understand may contain some nationally prominent figures (rumored to be very prominent)!! That's the way to get the funding!! The madam that saved a city! Make her the Queen of one the crews or something!! Why not have Mary bring the little black book to read out names during the filibuster (sic. if incorrect, lost the bound O.E.D. in the flood and spell check didn't have the damn word), just like Jimmy did when he read great documents from American history? I personally think the little black book is a prominent document in American history, or why would the feds supress it? I hope you like this idea for a new story. Keep up the good work. I check in every other day and you lift my very low spirits!

15) Here's a Thanksgiving rumination on Katrina:

I am a very lucky survivor of Hurricane Katrina and I have a lot to celebrate this Thanksgiving.

First, I am thankful for technology.

I am thankful for the computer models that surprised me Friday afternoon when they had moved from Pensacola to New Orleans since that morning. My co-workers and I thought maybe it was a glitch and said casual good-byes with chuckles about evacuating. I am thankful for the radio to which I listened while I filled my car with gas - just in case they were right. I am thankful for the self-serve checkouts so I didn't have to stand in the long lines to get water.

I am thankful for the television that I turned on at 5am Saturday morning because I couldn't sleep. I am thankful for the Internet on which I searched for a hotel room at 5:15am and for the ATMs that are open early Saturday mornings when banks are not. I am thankful for the car that carried me, a friend, pets, my family recipe book, some favorite pictures, and my address book away from Katrina. I am thankful for the cell phone on which I called my parents and some friends to let them know I was heading to Houston and not to worry.

I am thankful for all the gizmos that kept me in communication for the five weeks I was there. For the text messaging that worked when cell phone service did not. For cameras that showed the pictures. For webcast of local TV station WDSU that helped me to feel connected to my great city even through I was so far away.

Second, I am thankful for people.

Thankful for the woman in Houston who welcomed her son, me, my friend, and two birds into her two bedroom condo with two cats, two dogs, and a recuperating husband and said "stay as long as you need." I am thankful for my parents who needed me to call every day to let them know that I was still "safe and well-fed in Houston."

I am thankful for my friends from around the country who called, text-messaged, and emailed to see if I was okay and to offer me places to stay and to help me find a job.

I am thankful for the brave people who stole boats and busses to bring humans out of that terrible mess that my city had become.

I am thankful for a hot shower.

I am thankful for the Adventures in Birds store in Houston that gave me a bigger cage for my flock when we realized that we were going to be there a while and who allowed me to come in when I wanted and visit with all their noisy birds. I am thankful for a big green bird named Maddy who sings, "Glory, Glory, Halleluuuuuuuuujah" and made me laugh. I am thankful for the owner of the store and for all the Houston people who came for ten days to rescue hundreds birds from the snakes, alligators and other water creatures who were invading the birds' homes.

Thankful for the people in Houston who gave me discounts... Wattaburger, Academy Sports, Fuddruckers. Thankful for the associate at Sam's who gave me a hug when I burst into tears in the middle of the aisle for no real reason nearly three weeks after Katrina. Thankful for the people behind me in the checkout at the grocers who didn't look at me funny when I screamed "I just want to go home!" two weeks after that.

I am thankful for the counselors who talked with the young doctors I know after they worked for nearly a week at flooded and powerless Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans. For the people who put the electricity back on. People who cleared the streets. People who passed out water and food to my friends in Kenner when they went back early.

I am thankful for the people who invented all the technology and bleach, rubber gloves, back hoes, chain saws, fire hoses, dump truck covers, water bottles, and those 2000 pound sand bags that temporarily plugged the holes in the broken levees. I am thankful for the ships, trailers, and relatives who house roughly 85% of the New Orleanians that I know.

I am thankful that my apartment was undamaged and that I could call my Florida friends before hurricane Wilma and let them know that they had a place to stay. And thankful that they didn't need it. Thankful that people finally realize that they needed to open shelters for people with pets.

I am thankful that I have a job- especially when they laid off the other four people who worked on my program and thankful that I don't have to commute to Baton Rouge from New Orleans - a 75 mile trip that recently took me nearly three hours.

I am thankful for all the people who gave money to the Red Cross and to the Louisiana SPCA. I am thankful for the people who contributed to my Katrina Toy and Book Drive and sent over 1,000 items, many of them individually packaged with a note, and a SASE and pen to write back. Thankful for the strangers from whom packages "just arrived;" for the girl's hockey team from Rochester, NY who spent their fundraising money on porcelain dolls; for the Trak Microwave folks in Tampa who put together an office drive; for the neighbors who put together boxes and sent them to me.

I am thankful for the thousands of people who left their homes and their families to come help us rebuild.
I am thankful for New Orleanian who spray-painted "Do not open. FEMA director inside" on the taped up refrigerator on the side of Carrolton Avenue. And for the people who created the T-shirts that say, "Make levees not war." And for the person who put the scarecrow in their front yard holding a blue tarp in one hand and an MRE in the other.

I am thankful that some of the food and the culture that I love in New Orleans are slowly returning. For the Chicken Bon Femme that I had the other night at Tujaques on Decatur Street and for the café au lait and beignets at Café Du Monde afterward. Thankful that WWOZ is back webcasting all of our great NOLA music throughout the city and throughout the world. Thankful that most of my favorite New Orleans musicians are safe Cowboy Mouth, Kermit Ruffins, Fats Domino...

Thankful that Mardi Gras parades will roll again - even if it is for six days instead of 12. Thankful for the history of the season and for the people making that possible.

I am thankful for the resilience, strength, and humor of the people of New Orleans. I am thankful that I live in one of the greatest cities in the world and that it will come back better and stronger than ever.
As we say in New Orleans, "Laissez les bon temps rouller" encour en Nouvelle New Orleans! ("Let the good times roll" again in New New Orleans!)

-XXX-

Gale Marie Abbass lives in New Orleans and is organizing the Black Iron Skillet Project to get seasoned, cast iron fry pans to the people who lost theirs in the hurricanes. This is the favorite kitchen tool of southern cooks and thousands of these that had been passed on for generations, were lost. How can you have a good fried chicken without a well-seasoned skillet? She can be reached at gabbass@juno.com.

16) Time Magazine on Katrina (and all the rest):

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,1101051128,00.html

17) Katrina dislocation costs Jesuit High School (my school) its first State Swimming Championship for nearly 20 years..We only had 12 swimmers. We usually have 60.

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-21/113247377975600.xml

18) Here's a Katrina commentary by Chris Wiseman that aired over a week ago:

Comrades & Family,

Just found out via the web that my commentary ran today (Friday, November 18, 2005) on Marketplace’s evening show.

For what it’s worth, the link is here:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/11/18/PM200511188.html

Special thanks to my friend Deborah Clark for helping me get a little word out about the Gulf Coast. Very special thanks to my friends Armand St. Martin and Patty Lee for recording my bit in their recently flooded and now under-repair home.

Peace,
Chris Wiseman
New Orleans
http://worldclassneworleans.blogspot.com/

Katrina Encours et Toujours XXVII

2005-11-19T02:46:00.000-07:00

I have let this ball drop quite a bit in the past 6 weeks, and I'm afraid that postings will probably not rise above once a week until mid-December, when I return to New Orleans itself and should have a lot more to contribute. There's a lot here, though, so I hope you give some of it a look.

In the past week, I have tried to do two little things to help New Orleans from afar, neither of which will amount to much I'm afraid. On Wednesday morning I addressed my local Rotary Club with a slide show about Katrina, appealing to the audience to write their Congressional representatives to get them to support a Federal statement stating that the US Govt is committed to improving NO's levee system and coastal restoration efforts to the level of withstanding a Cat 5 storm. I told them that this would cost an estimated 20-30 billion USD over 20 years, and that without it NO would never recover. Let's just say the reception was tepid, to say the least. When I contrasted (verbally, I wish I had the visuals that are lost in my inbox somewhere) Dutch, Italian, and British efforts against the sea, one attendee simply said "do they ever see Cat 5 storms?" I responded that Holland sees strong storms daily and that NO has been there since the 1720's and has never saw anything like Katrina, so therefore the engineering should be within reach. She harrumphed. The rest of the audience was quiet, as they silently thought about their tax dollars slowly drained away to support a bunch of po folk in the swamps. I closed with the proposition of "which would you prefer, six more months in Iraq, or rebuilding NO?" They remained non-committal. Pathetic, and it got me thinking more and more about secession.

The second thing I tried to do was to get my professional association to commit to holding their next unscheduled convention in New Orleans. I did this by emailing our upcoming Association President. He said he'd mention it at the business meeting this next week. They came to NO in the 1980's and everyone says a great time was had by all (imagine that). Unfortunately for NO, we're a small convention (ca. 1000 attendees), and our conventions are committed up until 2011! So, even if we schedule NO for 2012, it'll be after the upcoming 4-5 crucial years will have played out.

On to the clippings.

1) Here's a posting by Chris Wiseman, fellow Blue Jay (local reference) and activist. I haven't heard the commentary yet, but Chris says it relates to national responsibilities vis-a-vis NO reconstruction:

Comrades & Family,

Just found out via the web that my commentary ran today (Friday, November 18, 2005) on Marketplace’s evening show.

For what it’s worth, the link is here:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/11/18/PM200511188.html

Special thanks to my friend Deborah Clark for helping me get a little word out about the Gulf Coast. Very special thanks to my friends Armand St. Martin and Patty Lee for recording my bit in their recently flooded and now under-repair home.

Peace,Chris Wiseman
New Orleans

http://worldclassneworleans.blogspot.com/

2) And here is Chris's original blog announcement. Give it a look, because he is there and I am here. He has been quite active since he set this up, and there's a lot of great nuggets there:

To work out some of my thoughts and observations and experiences regarding these extraordinary times in New Orleans, I’ve joined the stampede to the blogosphere.

If you feel like checking it out (and even putting me in my place), here’s the address:

http://worldclassneworleans.blogspot.com/

Enjoy, ignore, or enjoy by ignoring.
Peace,
Chris Wiseman

3) This website is a New Orleans ripoff of The Onion, and it's usufruckin fantastic. The jokes are extremely local, though, so treat it as a test of how local you are or have been in recent years. In intent, it's wonderful. And for you NYC supporters of NO, here's your platform:

http://nycnolahelp.org/creoletomato/

4) Allright, I know y'all have a short attention span, so I put this activist notice near the beginning of the post, in order to beg you to save NO through contacting your local Rep:

In 15 minutes, your friends and family can help make stronger levees for New Orleans a reality. Ask your friends and family who live OUTSIDE of Louisiana to send letters to their senators urging support for strengthening New Orleans levees to withstand a Cat 5 storm surge. Studies released daily show that the current levee system is antiquated and appropriate for farmland, not a major city. If the government sees the need to build a proper levee system, then New Orleans residents and businesses will return. Letters to non-Louisiana politicians are a powerful thing and can make a difference for you. Your family and friends can email their senators by typing: http://LASTNAME.senate.gov/

So Hillary Clinton'swebsite is http://Clinton.senate.gov/ Click on "contact" and follow the easy directions. They can also send a snail mail letter or call. One freshman representative who would be great to write is Rep.Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska who grew up in Baton Rouge; another is Rep. John Linder of Georgia, brother of Bill Linder of WH Linder and Associates in New Orleans. Those letters make a difference and also spread the word that the federal government's incompetence caused hundreds of deaths and the destruction of thousands of peoples' homes andlivelihoods.

Your levee champion,Sandy Rosenthal

5) Here's another neat Katrina link, pertaining to St. Bernard Parish:

http://www.labucketbrigade.org/

6) Here's some bathroom graffiti from Markey's in Bywater (must be read with a Yat accent): "I once knew a girl named KatrinaI thought I'd be so happy to see herBut she came into town and blew me aroundAnd now I'm hangin out with Fema"

7) Here are some LA government docs concerning Katrina:

http://www.gov.state.la.us/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=archive&navID=3&catID=1&startIndex=201&numPerPage=251

8) Here's another posting by Jordan:

FACING SOUTH: Who's watching the Gulf?

FACING SOUTH A Progressive ReportNovember 14, 2005

Dear Friends,

Around much of the Gulf Coast coast, there's an eerysilence. It's been over two months since thehurricanes. The flood waters have receded, and the TVcameras are nearly all gone.

But for those living in the hurricane-ravaged South,the struggle for the region's future has just begun.
While Gulf residents focus on picking up the pieces, ahandful of powerful interests -- well-connectedcontractors, unscrupulous developers, ambitiouspoliticians -- are cutting deals and hatching plans tocapitalize on the disaster.

But who's watching them?

We are. Today, the Institute for Southern Studies andSouthern Exposure have launched an urgent new projectto watch-dog what's happening in the Southern Gulf,and promote a more democratic and accountable future:Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch.

http://www.reconstructionwatch.org

And we need your help to make it a success.

We're bringing together a talented team ofinvestigative reporters, community leaders, bloggers,and others to deliver coverage you won't find anywhereelse.

We are going to watch the power-brokers and follow themoney. We'll tell you who stands to gain, who's beingleft out, and what it means for the South and country.

We'll also introduce you to ordinary people who aredoing extraordinary things to make their communitiesbetter.

Now we need you. Here's how you can help:

1) Be a Gulf Watcher: Active readers like you can helpus find important news and leads. Send us an anonymoustip here:

http://www.reconstructionwatch.org/modules.php?name=Submit_News

2) Get Active: Reconstruction Watch will featureregular action steps you can take to support thoseworking for a just and accountable rebuilding in theGulf.

3) Support our Investigative Fund: Contributions fromreaders like you are what make our award-winninginvestigative reports and progressive voice possible.Your support today will help us expand our coverageand increase the impact of Reconstruction Watch.

We need to raise $20,000 to fully launchReconstruction Watch, and you can help us reach thatgoal. Please take a moment and make a tax-deductiblecontribution to our Investigative Fund today:

http://www.southernstudies.org/support.asp

Thank you for your support!
Chris KrommDirector, Institute for Southern Studies

P.S. -- Your tax-deductible contribution of $35, $50or more today will help us expose what's happening inthe Gulf and put Katrina back on the national agenda.Join us today!
magglass

GOAL: $20,000Quick Links...NEW! Gulf Coast Reconstruction WatchJoin or ContributeInstitute HomeFacing South Blog
Join our mailing list!email: chris@southernstudies.orgweb: http://www.southernstudies.org

9) Here's an excellent article about architects' ideas about what to do with the mess we're left with:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5411827,00.html

Architects Envision New Orleans Rebuilding

Sunday November 13, 2005 11:16 AM

AP Photo LASS101
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Michael Willis has designed anairport terminal in San Francisco and a 750million-gallon water treatment plant in Los Angeles,but nothing on the architect's resume gives him ablueprint for rebuilding New Orleans.

Not since the Nazi blitz of London or the bombing ofHiroshima have architects and urban planners seen aproject on par with resurrecting thishurricane-ravaged city, according to Willis.

``The scale of it overwhelms the normal city planningprocess,'' he said Saturday during a break at theLouisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference, astate-sponsored event organized by the AmericanInstitute of Architects to discuss the city's future.

Hundreds of civic and business leaders, electedofficials and planning experts have been weighing theoptions during the three-day conference that wrappedup Saturday. The goal: come up with written agenda tohelp guide the massive rebuilding effort.

``Before you can plan something like this, you have toget the fundamentals. You've got to work theprinciples out,'' said Ron Faucheux, head ofgovernment affairs for the Washington-based AIA.

Several architects, including Willis, urged civicleaders to avoid a ``one-size-fits-all'' approach.
This is a unique opportunity to create ``walkable,''densely populated neighborhoods with a rich texture ofdemographic and architectural diversity, said DavidDixon, a principal at the Boston-based Goody, Clancyarchitectural firm.

``New Orleans can go one of two directions: It can beLas Vegas, a city based on entertainment,'' he said,``or it can be America's greenest, most walkablecity.''

Preserving historic architecture must be a guidingprinciple for any approach, Willis said.

``At the end of the day, it's got to look and feellike New Orleans,'' he said.

For the audience, though, the cost of rebuilding was amajor concern, and Dixon's suggestion that state andlocal officials share the financial burden with thefederal government didn't go over well.

``We don't have money. We have zero revenue at themoment,'' said city Councilwoman Jacquelyn BrechtelClarkson, who represents the French Quarter.

The mayor already cut the city's work force by half,the state is facing a nearly $1 billion deficit, andhundreds of businesses and homes that supported thecity's tax base have been destroyed.

Tom Reese, who works at Tulane University and hasresearched contemporary architecture, said thearchitects were ``selling dreams'' when they urgedcity leaders to embrace planning concepts like ``smartgrowth,'' ``green architecture'' and mixed-usedevelopments.

``There is so little discussion about the economicrealities of this region,'' he said. ``If you don'tknow that, you can't begin to create any kind ofsolution.''

10) Nola.com has been running an excellent series comparing Dutch and Louisiana flood protection. Here's a recent installment:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/speced/ruinandrecovery/articles/dutch13.html

Dutch system of flood control an engineering marvelSunday, November 13 2005By John McQuaidStaff writer
TER HEIJDE, NETHERLANDS -The North Sea's furiouswinters can kick up storm surges more than 13 feethigh - a lethal threat to a country where millionslive below sea level, some as much as 22 feet down.And the Dutch have devised a peerless system of flooddefenses - one of the world's engineering marvels - tokeep that water out.
Giant barriers straddle ocean inlets, their gatespoised to slam shut to repel the invading sea. Massiveearthen dams run for miles, blocking off vast areasonce open to the North Sea, now converted tofreshwater lakes and new living space.
Those are among the master strokes. But the Dutchsystem is also noted for its subtlety. The only thinglying between the tiny red-roofed village of TerHeijde and the sea, a scant 200 yards away, is a bigpile of sand.
It's no ordinary dune, however. Monitored andmaintained with obsessive care, it's built to absorbpounding blows from ocean waves. It may erode,requiring repair, but it won't fall down. It'sengineered to fail less than once every 10,000 years,making it 50 times safer than the New Orleans leveeswere supposed to be before Hurricane Katrinaoverwhelmed them.
But authorities aren't complacent about those numbers.Concerned about projected sea level rise, thegovernment is studying how to further fortify thedune. "It's adequate, but we do know we will need moreprotection for the future, " said Ter Heijde nativeJacqueline Voois. "Growing up here, you learn youcan't trust the sea. "
The Netherlands' flood defenses - a sculpted landscapeof dunes, dikes, dams, barriers, sluices and pumpsdesigned to repel the twin threats of ocean stormsurges and river flooding - are light years ahead ofthe New Orleans area's busted-up levee system.
As American policymakers and the Army Corps ofEngineers study how to rebuild the levees to protectagainst a Category 5 hurricane, Dutch engineers saythey can learn a lot from the Dutch model, where allelements - from structural engineering to long-termpolicymaking - fit seamlessly together.
"Your levee system doesn't appear to have beendesigned as a system. It's designed in a veryhaphazard way. One structure built one way, one builtanother, " said Jurjen Battjes, a professor emeritusof engineering at the Technical University of Delftand a member of the American Society of CivilEngineers team investigating the New Orleans levees.
"They can move vehicles on Mars. Why should yoursystem fail because of a wall collapsing or because anoperator left the pumping station? "
State to look closely
There was a time when New Orleans led the world inflood control and the Netherlands looked west forguidance, importing the huge screw pumps designed byAlbert Baldwin Wood that had drained low-lying areasand greatly expanded New Orleans' habitable turf.Today, the Dutch system offers a trove of examples,from policy ideas to engineering fixes, that could beuseful to New Orleans. Indeed, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieunext month will lead a delegation of Louisianaofficials and congressional colleagues to theNetherlands to study them.
Like New Orleans, which built up its river leveesafter the 1927 flood and its hurricane levees afterBetsy in 1965, the Dutch system has been forged indisaster. But the Dutch have a lot more disasterexperience, and it shows.
For the past 1,000 years they have sculpted andresculpted their landscape to repel floods, only tosee it repeatedly inundated - most recently by a 1953North Sea storm surge that killed more than 1,800people. Each time, they have rebuilt bigger, betterand with greater sophistication. Flood protection isthe number one national priority, and that isreflected not only in dikes and barriers but inpolitics, budgets and the concerns of everydaycitizens.
Their philosophy, shaped by centuries of combatingfloods, is to fight water - but also to accommodate itrather than just containing it, preserving naturalflows where possible. "There's one important lessonwe've learned as Dutch - we're fighting a heroic fightagainst nature, the sea and the rivers, " said TedSluijter, a spokesman for the giant Eastern Scheldestorm surge barrier. "But if you fight nature, natureis going to strike back. Water needs space. "
The Netherlands learned such lessons by trial anderror over the centuries. To a far greater extent thanin the United States, citizens' lives depend on flooddefenses. Studies show that without its elaboratenetwork of flood control structures, 65 percent of thecountry would be underwater.
The Dutch Ministry of Water, Public Works andTransportation spends $1.5 billion a year on flooddefense and water management. If the United Statesspent that much on a per-citizen basis, it would costupward of $30 billion annually, seven or eight timesthe Corps of Engineers' annual budget of $4 billion.
Sinking and sinking
The country's most densely populated region is builton what used to be low-lying marshes. Three riversflow out to the North Sea through the Netherlands: theRhine, the Meuse and the Schelde. For millennia thewestern part of the country consisted of estuaries andpeat bogs repeatedly reshaped by floods and tides.
But somehow the forebears of today's Dutch settledthese areas, leading a precarious existence on naturalor man-made ridges.
"There the ocean throws itself, two times a day, dailyand nightly, in a tremendous stream over a widecountry, so one doubts if the ground belongs to theland or to the sea, " wrote Roman philosopher Plinythe Elder, who as a soldier in the first century A.D.helped construct a canal in what would become theNetherlands. "There lives a miserable people at thehighest known levels of the tide and here they havebuilt their huts, living like sailors when the watercovers their environment and as if shipwrecked whenthe water has gone. "
Around 1000 A.D., Europe's population swelled andfarming expanded. The Dutch began to use limitedtechnologies and their own ingenuity to drain theswamps and keep them dry. Over the centuries, thetools grew more sophisticated and more and morepolders - drained areas ringed by dikes - werecreated.
But draining peat bogs has one major drawback: Theysink. Peat and clay soils contract when drained. Thelower they get, the more susceptible they become tofloods. The increased flooding in turn made people digtheir drainage ditches and canals ever deeper, avicious cycle that continues today. The problem,compounded by the loss of silting from rivers nowcontrolled by dikes, is similar to the subsidenceplaguing the New Orleans area.
Combined with gradually rising seas, the change isshocking. In 900, the Netherlands averaged more than12 feet above sea level. By 1500, it had dropped evenwith the sea. Today, it averages 8 feet below sealevel and is still dropping at the rate of a quarterinch each year.
Battles won by the sea
Holland's struggle with the sea has shaped itshistory, and every six generations or so has beenmarked by a terrible defeat, a catastrophic flood thathas swept over swaths of the country, destroyingdikes, homes, property and human lives. The Dutchlandscape is dotted with reminders of past floods andthe measures taken to ensure such a disaster wouldnever happen again.
The only thing left of Koudekerke, a villageoverlooking an estuary of the Schelde, is the PlompeToren, a brick church tower that casts a lonelysilhouette over nearby farms. A 16th-century floodswept away 13 villages, Koudekerke among them. Thetower was all that remained. Later rebuilt, it wasleveled again during World War II and permanentlyabandoned. A recording in the tower tells the legendof a merman who cursed fishermen from the village forcatching his wife.
Visible to the east is a breached dike from the 1953flood that was never repaired - authorities insteadopted to rebuild farther back from the water. The areabehind the breach is now a marsh. Visible to the westis the enormous Eastern Schelde storm barrier thatblocks North Sea surges from the estuary.
Completed in 1986, as part of $14.7 billion inpost-1953 improvements, the Eastern Schelde barrier isa monument to the Netherlands' innovative approach toflood control and includes features the corps islooking at for New Orleans.
Shortening the defenses
For centuries, the Dutch protected themselves byringing settled areas and farmland with dikes,essentially the same approach used in south Louisiana.But the 1953 flood revealed a big weakness in thatstrategy: Storm surge water could move far inlandthrough the estuaries, which were open to the sea.
This was also a key failing of the New Orleans system,Battjes and other Dutch engineers say: The region'slevee-lined canals were conduits for Katrina's stormsurge to pour into the heart of the city. From theeast, water flowed into the Intracoastal Waterway andIndustrial Canal, where floodwalls were topped andthen collapsed, flooding the Lower 9th Ward, St.Bernard Parish and eastern New Orleans. From LakePontchartrain, it flowed into the 17th Street andLondon Avenue drainage canals, which were breached,flooding central New Orleans.
In the wake of the 1953 flood, engineers andpolicy-makers presented the Netherlands with a choice:They could build dikes higher and stronger as they hadalways done in the past. Or they could take adifferent, more ambitious approach, building largebarriers across estuaries and other open waterways.
The second option had one crucial advantage: It wouldeffectively shorten the country's tortuously longcoastline by hundreds of miles. If the length of thecountry's defensive barrier shrank, the thinking went,so would the chance that a dike might fail at someunnoticed weak point and lead to a larger catastrophe.Many miles of older dikes would become secondary,backup protections.
"It's much more logical to shorten your line ofdefense, " said Battjes, the retired engineeringprofessor, who advised the new system's designers. "Tomake a military analogy, the water is the enemy. Youdon't let the enemy, before the fight starts,penetrate your territory. "
Installing surge gates
American engineers have begun looking at how toaddress this problem in a Category 5 design. Onesolution would be to put floodgates on some canals.Another would be to retool New Orleans'generations-old stormwater drainage system and movepump stations from the middle of town to thelakefront.
On a more ambitious scale, some officials suggestupgrading an old proposal to build a large levee andfloodgate system across the marshes to block surgesfrom entering the Chef Menteur and Rigolets passesinto the lake. An early version of the plan wasabandoned after environmentalists raised questionsabout impacts on marshlands.
The Netherlands example provides a template for how togo about this. Early Delta Works plans called for damsto be constructed across all the region's estuaries -just as the government had dammed off a 20-mileopening along the northern coastline in 1933, creatinga giant freshwater lake. But by the 1970s,environmentalists, commercial fishing organizationsand other groups were complaining that the completeddams were ruining the region's ecology.
They sparked a national debate and eventually acompromise, one that balanced storm defenses againstharm to the environment.
The largest result of the change is the enormousEastern Schelde storm surge barrier, a massive seriesof 62 floodgates snaking across the water. The gates,which range from 19 to 29 feet high, depending ontheir position on the barrier, are left open most ofthe time to allow tidal flows in and out, preservingthe estuary behind it. When the high-water alarmsounds - as it has on average twice a year since itopened - the gates are shut until the danger passes.
Thinking big from start
As a reminder of why the barrier is there, the heightof the 1953 flood - about 13 feet - is marked by athick red line at a point along the barrier's southernendpoint.
That reminder is also imbedded in the design DNA ofevery flood protection project in the country in theform of very high, legally mandated safety standards -something New Orleans most assuredly did not have.
The biggest flaw of New Orleans' pre-Katrina leveesystem was that it provided a low level of safety: Itwas built only to withstand storm surges from some,but not all, Category 3 hurricanes and was virtuallyguaranteed to fail in a stronger storm. In retrospect,engineers say it didn't even live up to its Category 3billing. In fact, no one knew precisely what level ofsafety it provided because of its many weak points,changes in the landscape over time and the corps'outdated assessments.
Such problems are inconceivable in the Netherlands.Urbanized areas of the country - such as the regionsurrounding Ter Heijde, which includes The Hague andRotterdam - are engineered to withstand the kind ofstorm surge that comes only once in 10,000 years. Moresparsely populated areas, such as those protected bythe Delta Works, are safe against a 1-in-4,000-yearflood. The lowest level of protection, found in ruralareas, is for a 1-in-1,250-year flood. All are manytimes safer than New Orleans ever was.
Feeling safer
Those numbers are more than risk calculations. In asense, they're as much the bedrock of the nation'sflood security as any dike or barrier. Everybody knowsthose numbers. They reassure citizens, many of whomnow take sound flood protection for granted.
"We feel safe - nobody is afraid. Nobody's thinking,when is the water coming? " said Andre van der Beek, ahome care worker in Nieuw-Lekkerland, who paused fromriding his bike near a line of 200-year-old windmillsand two pumping stations, all built to keep waterlevels down. "There are a lot of believers here, andthey believe the story of Noah, that God promised inGenesis there would not be another flood. "
But the water is still rising, and the land issinking, and because of those changes in thelandscape, Dutch officials say that some dikes andother parts of the system no longer meet thestandards. So they are giving the whole thing atop-to-bottom review to identify emerging weaknesses.Vigilance, they say, must be eternal.
"We are not going to allow the level of protection todecrease, " said Marion Smit, the Water andTransportation Ministry's top water policy official.
Achieving that long-term resoluteness might prove tobe the single greatest challenge facing New Orleans.Flood control is a national religion in theNetherlands. In 49 U.S. states, it's Louisiana'sproblem.
John McQuaid can be reached atjohn.mcquaid@newhouse.com or (202) 383-7889.

11) What's troubling about this analysis is that it does make some sense. If SE Louisiana is slipping into the Gulf, what are we meant to do after all? I don't agree with him, but his argument is devoid of stupidity and actually makes a formidable case. My answer would be that with sufficient commitment, wecould save SE LA with coastal restoration -- in order to slowly correct the unfortunate engineering which has been the reason we've been sinking since they started putting levees in back in the 1920's...While I think he makes some valid points, I also think that the process is reversible and that he's a water engineer trying to pad his CV with the worst case scenario op-ed in a major newspaper (hell, we all do it) -- and I don't agree with his conclusion. We can beat this, which entailes zoning laws requiring houses on stilts from here on out, higher levees, and a major engineering initiative to restore the wetlands south of the city.
Unfortunately, outside of the Port of New Orleans itself, there isn't an ironclad economic case for saving SE LA that would appeal to the good citizens of, say, Iowa. I suppose we could continue to retrench up the Mississip until it's, er, St. Louis sitting on the coast instead of us -- but maybe someone would do something before it gets that far. Hard to know for sure, in this particular insane asylum that is "These United States":
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/25/time_to_move_to_higher_ground
Time to move to higher groundBy Timothy M. Kusky September 25, 2005
New Orleans is one of America's great historic cities, and our emotional response to the disaster is to rebuild it grander and greater than before. However this may not be the most rational or scientifically sound response and could lead to even greater human catastrophe and financial loss in the future.
New Orleans is located on a coastal delta basin up to 10 feet below sea level [ACTUALLY I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY 4 FT, BUT WHO'S COUNTING?] and still sinking as much as one inch per year. Much of the city could be 18 feet below sea level by the end of the century, or even more if sea level rise becomes significant.
The city has other problems of location. To protect communities along the Mississippi River, the Army Corps of Engineers built a 2,000 mile long system of levees [OF WHICH ONLY ABOUT 200 MILES ARE N.O.] that help prevent river flood waters surging from the channel and inundating low lying areas. However, the levees also channel sediments that normally get deposited on the flood plain and delta far out into the Gulf of Mexico, causing the land surface of the delta south of New Orleans to sink below sea level at an alarming rate. A total land area the size of Manhattan is disappearing every year, meaning that New Orleans will be right on the Gulf Coast by the end of the century.
The projected setting of the city in 2100 is in a hole up to 18 feet below sea level directly on the hurricane-prone coast. The city will look like a fish tank battered by coastal waves, surrounded by 50- to 100-foot-high seawalls that are barely able to protect it from hurricanes that are only as strong as Katrina. Such a city is untenable, and we as a nation need to face this reality.
The levees have an additional collateral effect that may doom the future of New Orleans. A river confined by levees builds its base higher than without levees. Catastrophic floods occur when the river base rises tens of feet above the flood plains, then breaks through the levees. The Chinese know this from their history of flooding along the Yellow River, known as the River of Sorrow after the millions of people who have died there, more than from any other natural disaster in the world. As we consider rebuilding New Orleans we need to remember China's experience.
The Mississippi has over geological time altered its course, with its mouth migrating east and west by hundreds of miles. Each abandoned delta subsides below sea level after the river jumps to another location, as buried muds compact and the river no longer replenishes the delta with sediment. The lower Mississippi now follows a long and circuitous course from the Atchafalaya River junction, through New Orleans, to its mouth near Venice. The river is ready to switch its course to follow the Atchafalaya, offering it a shorter route to the gulf. When this occurs, perhaps triggered by catastrophic flooding and a drenching hurricane, it will be devastating to the lower delta, which will quickly subside. New Orleans will be rapidly inundated by waves and storms from the Gulf of Mexico. To mitigate this hazard the Army Corps maintains an extensive system of diversions, levees, and dams at the Mississippi/Atchafalaya junction, with the aim of keeping the Mississippi in its channel.
New Orleans is sinking further below sea level every year, and the shoreline is rapidly approaching the city. The river is rising, and more hurricanes and floods are certain to strike the region in the next 100 years. The decision whether to rebuild or relocate an historic city is a difficult one. Moving the bulk of the city would be more costly, at least at this stage before sinking increases and another disaster strikes. The costs of either decision will be enormous, but relocating makes more sense and will eventually be inevitable. Whether we cut our losses now and move or wait until a super-hurricane makes a direct hit and kills hundreds of thousands of people must be carefully considered.
One option would be to begin building newer, higher, stronger seawalls around the business and historic parts of the city, and declare other parts a national monument, in tribute to those who lost their lives to Katrina. The process of moving could be gradual, relocating refugees, destroyed businesses, port facilities, and other infrastructure to a new New Orleans.
Katrina (even before Rita) was a warning: New Orleans is sinking unbearably below sea level, and it's time to move to higher ground.
Timothy M. Kusky is a professor of natural sciences at Saint Louis University.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

12) This analysis makes a lot more sense to me than the idea of just "cutting and running" on NO and moving to higher ground. This is where it's at. Again, the T-P is rising above it's lame past:
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_11_18.html#094833
Friday, November 18, 2005 Consultants to city: Shrink livable areas
By Martha Carr Staff writer
In the most comprehensive recovery plan proposed todate, a panel of more than 50 specialists in urban andpost-disaster planning said New Orleans shouldconcentrate its rebuilding efforts on the sections ofthe city that occupy the high ground, while securinglower-lying areas for potential rebirth in thelong-term.
Tackling what is certain to be the most controversialaspect of any rebuilding plan, the contingent from theUrban Land Institute said Friday that the city shoulduse its original footprint, as well as lessons learnedfrom Hurricane Katrina, as a guide in determining whatareas are most logical for redevelopment.
Firing off a collection of bold ideas, the group alsoproposed creating a public development corporationthat would buy and sell property to speed the city’sredevelopment; establishing an oversight board withbroad powers over the city’s finances; and engineeringa secondary flood-control network inside the city thatwould use natural ridges, levees, water reservoirs,and green space to stop widespread flooding.
The panelists, many of whom helped rebuild cities likeNew York after 9/11 and Los Angeles after theNorthridge earthquake in 1994, said it’s not practicalto redevelop every acre of New Orleans in theshort-term, considering that 300,000 residents and160,000 jobs have been lost. It’s also not sociallyequitable to allow residents back into neighborhoodsthat do not have adequate levee protection and may betoxic.
“These areas are going to take more data gathering andmore time,” said Joseph Brown, president of EDAW, aSan Francisco-based architecture and environmentconsulting company. “Some collective action may beneeded here.”
The group went so far as to draft a color-coded map ofthe city showing three “investment zones” the city maywant to follow. The first zone included the high partsof the city, like Uptown and the French Quarter, whichpanelists say is ready for rehabilitation immediately.The second zone highlighted the mid-ground, which thepanel suggested is also ready for individualrehabilitation, with some opportunities to puttogether parcels of land for green space orredevelopment.
The last zone, which included some of the city’shardest hit neighborhoods, needs additional study, butcould have the potential for mass buyouts and futuregreen space, the panel said. Those areas include mostof New Orleans east, Gentilly and Desire; the northernpart of Lakeview; and parts of the Lower 9th Ward,Broadmoor, Mid-City and Hollygrove.
In those neighborhoods, the panel emphasized that allhomeowners should be compensated for their property atpre-Katrina values. They also stressed that if theworst-hit areas are allowed to redevelop in ascattershot way, homeowners will begin to rehab houseson partially abandoned streets, creating the shantytowns with little to no property value.
The panel’s map also included green areas runningalong natural ridges and between neighborhoods, wheremembers suggest creating a network of flood-protectionmeasures, from inner-city levees to new parks, toreduce the risk of flooding and stop waters fromblanketing the city.
While the proposal was immediately questioned by NewOrleans City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, whorepresents eastern New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward,others attending the panel’s presentation were morereceptive to the idea, but questioned whether thepolitical will exists to make it happen.
“This is going to take tremendous will on our part,”said New Orleans resident Jean Nathan. “I think we aregoing to need help on a sustained basis.”
The map wasn’t the panel’s only daring concept.
The group called for the creation of the Crescent CityRebuilding Authority, a non-profit developmentcorporation that would be in charge of all fundsfunneled into the city for the rebuilding effort.
The corporation, to be created by the statelegislature, would have the power to do land banking,buy homes and property, purchase and restructuremortgages, finance redevelopment projects, issuebonds, assist with neighborhood planning, and fosterthe creation of community development corporations.
While the city already has a redevelopmentauthority——NORA——ULI panelists said the agency is weakand not suitable for the monumental task of assemblingland and orchestrating mass rebuilding efforts.
Panelists also said their concept differs from theLouisiana Recovery Authority currently proposed byU.S. Congressman Richard Baker. That agency would betotally controlled by the federal government. The CCRAboard, on the other hand, would have appointees namedby the President, Governor, Mayor and City Council.Both entities may be able to work in concert if theconcepts are tweaked, panelists said.
Carl Weisbrod, president of Trinity Church RealEstate——one of New York City’s biggest commercialproperty owners——said that it only took 10 weeks after9/11 for that city’s leadership to band together andcreate the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation,signaling to the federal government that everyone wason the same page. That group has served as the city’scentral rebuilding agency.
“We put our differences aside for a short period oftime to address the immediate challenges,” saidWeisbrod, who served on the LMDC’s board. “Because ofthat, we were able to get immediate federal aid.”
It’s too late for the CCRA idea to be taken up in thecurrent legislative session, which ends Tuesday. Butlegislators could consider the idea in January, whenthey are expected to convene a second special session.Weisbrod said ULI has not lobbied for the idea at thestate level. Members of Mayor Ray Nagin’s Bring NewOrleans Back Commission on Friday said they werehearing the proposal for the first time.
The Urban Land Institute was paired with Nagin’scommission shortly after Hurricane Katrina by localdeveloper Joe Cannizaro, who serves on the commissionand is also former chairman of the WashingtonD.C.-based think tank.
The group has spent the last several weeks workingpro-bono to advise the 17-member commission as itattempts to develop a comprehensive rebuildingstrategy by year’s end. All of the experts whoparticipated on the week-long panel, most of whom runmajor corporations or municipalities——like PittsburghMayor Tom Murphy and Manhattan burrow president C.Virginia Fields——volunteered their time to serve. Thegroup has also committed to long-term assistance inNew Orleans, as well as in Baton Rouge and WashingtonD.C.
Their final report is due next month.
“All of us who went through this process are hookedbecause you all became part of our team,” said ULIpresident Marilyn Taylor. “If you will have us, wewill be with you continuing to help.”
Ten members of the mayor’s commission were present forthe report at the Sheraton Hotel downtown. Nagin,however, was in Washington D.C.meeting with federallawmakers.
Other recommendations of the panel included creating atemporary financial oversight board to help the cityavoid bankruptcy; reforming the city’s tax code;creating an internal system of levees and canals thatwould serve as secondary protection and enhance greenspace; and consolidating fragmented agencies to take aregional approach to levee protection, transitservices, emergency response and economic development.
Murphy said the financial oversight board, which wouldbe created by the Legislature and run by appointeesfrom all levels of government, would oversee andapprove the city’s budget, approve major contracts,and recommend financing options for redevelopment. Inthe end, it would create a layer of accountabilitythat could alleviate the concerns of federal lawmakersthat money will be misspent. The panel alsorecommended that the city create an Inspector Generaland Board of Ethics as authorized in the City Charter.
“There are interests here who want the rules to stayas they are,” he said. “It won’t be pretty. You haveto be willing for some conflict.”
Murphy also said the tax structure, which was cobbledtogether over 200 years, must be changed to deal withthe absence of tax revenue in post-Katrina reality:especially when it comes to the city’s practice ofunder assessing property.
“Your tax structure stinks and you need to change it,”said Pittsburgh Mayor Murphy. “We are makingrecommendations for tough love here.”
On the economic development front, the panelrecommended focusing on the city’s traditionaleconomic sectors, like tourism and shipping, butplacing new emphasis on the music business and thehealth care and biosciences sector. Key to the city’sgrowth is bringing back musicians, finding them work,and getting them equipment. Same with the city’s keymedical researchers and institutions, they said.
As for the cityscape, the panel embraced the ideas setforth by the Louisiana Recovery and RebuildingConference last week, mainly the use of smart growthprincipals, including advocating for levee and wetlandimprovements, developing local and regionaltransportation systems that connect neighborhoods, andbuilding in areas that are safe and non-toxic. Thepanel advocated for rehabilitating historicproperties, building infill housing in existingneighborhoods, and increasing green spaces by buildingcorridors, bike paths and parks that connect areas.
Throughout their presentation, the experts emphasizedthe need to set short-term benchmarks for success, andto break the planning into three phases: the recoverystage, which should last through Aug. 2006; therebuilding stage, which should go from 2006 to 2010,and the growing stage, which would end in 2018, whenthe city celebrates it’s 300th anniversary.
Among the goals the panel set for the next few monthsis restoring electrical service to all neighborhoodsby January, creating benchmarks for toxicity levels byMarch, rebuilding levees to pre-Katrina levels andbuilding a protection system for pumps and watertreatment facilities by June, and stabilizing port andwater management facilities by August.
The group also urged urgent housing actions, includinggetting trailers to the area, repopulating suitablepublic housing, adopting a building code, askingfinancial institutions to extend mortgage forbearanceperiods, and creating centers where residents can gethelp rehabbing their homes.
“Your housing is now a public resource,” said TonySalazar, a developer with McCormack, Baron and Salazarin Los Angeles. “You can’t think of it as privateproperty any more.”
When the panel concluded its hour-long presentation,members of Nagin’s commission said they were extremelyimpressed by the detail of the draft report and thepanel’s wealth of ideas. While the ULI panel stoppedshort of advocating a merger of Nagin’s commission andGov. Blanco’s Louisiana Recovery Authority, it didstress that city and state leaders must craft a singlevision, and move more quickly in their rebuildingefforts.
“I appreciate your bluntness,” said commissionco-chair Barbara Major. “You have challenged us tomake more difficult and controversial choices. As myaunt used to say, ‘God can put a ram in a bush.’ Therehas to be some behavioral changes across the board. Ithink we just have to kick a little butt and do whatwe have to do.”
Before the panel submits a final report, it will holdtown hall meetings in Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Houston,Dallas and Memphis. For more information, go towww.uli.org.
Martha Carr may be reached at mcarr@timespicayune.comor at (504) 826-3306.

13) Here's another local eyewitness report, relating to the father of a bartender we know in the Quarter:
In case you missed it, this is the story on Chart Room Lisa's Dad. http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-5/1132037896260250.xml

14) The Saints last week got another 2 year lease on life as a New Orleans franchise. I urge every New Orleanian to think of that timeframe as a game clock. We've got 2 years to hold on to all that's precious psychologically (i.e. the Saints). Get to work pressing them palms:
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_11_18.html#094833
'Save the Saints' stops in New Orleans
By Jeff Duncan Staff writer
The “Save the Saints” road show will make a stop inNew Orleans on Monday night after a disappointingdebut Thursday in Baton Rouge.
In an effort to rally support for the Saints in theaftermath of Hurricane Katrina, state officials planto invite New Orleans-area business leaders Monday toa meeting at the New Orleans Convention and VisitorsBureau on St. Charles Avenue. No time has been set.
The effort is being headed by Louisiana Stadium andExposition District leaders, Tim Coulon, the SuperdomeCommission chairman;, Doug Thornton, regional vicepresident of SMG;, and Larry Roedel, the LSED’s leadattorney.
Thornton said he expects some Saints executives toattend and hopes to lure an executive from the NFLoffice, if possible.
“We’re committed to showing the league that we’regalvanized in our mission,” Thornton said.
Everyone involved is hoping for more support than wasshown in Baton Rouge, when a disappointing gatheringof about 30 business leaders from the area met withSaints and state officials to discuss ways they cansupport the team during the transition period. Stateofficials had invited around 200 business leaders tothe session.
Saints officials almost outnumbered the Baton Rougecontingent Thursday night. Owner-executive Rita BensonLeBlanc, Ggeneral Mmanager Mickey Loomis and chieffinancial officer Dennis Lauscha spoke to the groupand implored them for their support in the communityfor the final two games at Tiger Stadium.
“The turnout wasn’t as big as we expected, but it’s astart,” Roedel said.
Lauscha said the Saints (2-7) have sold less than30,000 tickets for their final two games at TigerStadium, against Tampa Bay on Dec. 4 and Carolina onDec. 18.
“It’s important to us an organization to show what wecan do,” he said.
LeBlanc said she understood the frustration fansexperienced in the first game at Baton Rouge againstMiami, when laborious ticket exchanges forced manyseason-ticket holders to miss parts of the game whilestanding in long lines.
She also defended her grandfather, owner Tom Benson,who, she said, has become “a punching bag” for fansand media this season and asked fans to move forwardand “prove that Louisiana can come together despiteemotional issues and differences.”
Former Gov. Charles “Buddy” Roemer, however, stole theshow. Speaking to the crowd after Saints and stateofficials had spoken, he delivered a heartfelt speechthat captured the room and challenged Saints officialsto keep the team in Louisiana.
“There is no excuse for the Saints to go anywhere,” hesaid. “I love the Saints, but I love the Saints fanseven more. They have stood by the Saints’ side for30-something years.”
Roemer asked LeBlanc to take a message to Benson.
“It’s time for your grandfather to say, ‘There’s noreason to go. I’m committed (to Louisiana),’¤” saidRoemer, who today develops retirement communitiesstatewide for a company in Baton Rouge. “The Saintsare our team. They’re not Tom Benson’s team.”
Jeff Duncan can be reached atjduncan@timespicayune.com or (504)¤826-3405.

15) This is precious, out of the Guardian, and discussing an Irish mayor somewhere. I'm guessing he's been to Bourbon St. in his day.:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/hurricanes2005/story/0,16546,1646339,00.html
Katrina 'sent by God to punish New Orleans gays'
Angelique ChrisafisSaturday November 19, 2005The Guardian
A Democratic Unionist councillor who said hurricaneKatrina was sent to the US by God to punish the NewOrleans gay community yesterday stood by his viewsdespite calls for his resignation.Maurice Mills, twice mayor of Ballymena, said NewOrleans was about to host an annual gay pride festivalwhen God intervened through Katrina.
It was a warning to nations "where such wickedness isincreasingly promoted and practised". Northern Irelandgay rights campaigners said he should be sacked. Buthe said: "This is me as an individual taking a standfor God."

16) Bob Marshall has been doing some of the best reporting about the mechanics of the levee breaches. I think he was doing hunting and fishing reporting before Katrina...:
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_11_17.html#094537
Water in yards could have been clue to breach
By Bob MarshallStaff writer
A year ago Beth LeBlanc and her neighbors on BellaireDrive had a problem no one could seem to fix. Theiryards, which swept to the base of the 17th StreetCanal levee, kept filling with water. Then on Aug. 29,as Hurricane Katrina moved out of the area, that leveecollapsed and tumbled into their homes, allowing LakePontchartrain and a world of misery to pour into thecity.
Now the residents of Bellaire Drive have questions.
"We called Sewerage & Water Board, and one of theirguys tested the water and said it was coming from thecanal," LeBlanc recalled. "They sent repair crews out.They tore up sidewalks and driveways. Things gotbetter, but it never got dry.
"So I keep wondering why no one ever came out to askabout it. No one from the Corps of Engineers. No onefrom the Levee Board. Sewerage & Water Board nevercame back."
The corps wonders as well.
"If someone had told us there was lake water on theoutside of that levee -- or any levee -- it would havebeen a red flag to us, and we would have been outthere, without question," said Jerry Colletti,operations manager for completed works at the corps’New Orleans office.
"We have nothing on that, nothing at all. That’ssomething we should have been told about."
But investigators on forensic engineering teamsprobing the failures said they aren’t surprised thecorps didn’t know about that leak -- or about numerousother leaks and problems with the levees thatresidents reported to them. That ignorance reflects aminefield of twisted bureaucratic jurisdictions, poorlevee maintenance, missed opportunities and suspectengineering they say likely contributed to thecostliest natural disaster in American history.
Interviews with Bellaire Drive residents; officials atthe corps, the Orleans Levee District and the Sewerage& Water Board; and engineers who investigated thebreaks paint a picture of a disaster that was bound tohappen.
"Certainly, that kind of leaking is a warning signthat should have raised alarms, that something waswrong with an important component of the hurricaneprotection in the city," said J. David Rogers of theUniversity of Missouri, a noted forensic engineer witha specialty on levees and floodwalls who led aninspection of the levee failures.
"But, sad to say," he said, "I’m not surprised if itwas missed." He said most of those on the forensicteams investigating the levee failures "do not knowwho has responsibility for what in New Orleans. That’sjust the opposite for the rest of the country wherelevees and dams and such are concerned.
"The residents were right to be concerned."....

17) There's also a great flood system series of articlesin nola.com right now comparing Dutch and New Orleansflood control systems. Give it a read -- and do theright thing.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_11_14.html#093820
Chafee: Government should consider high cost floodprotection
By Keith Darcé ûStaff writer û
The federal government should consider building anouter layer of flood protection structures beyond thetraditional levees around the New Orleans area, buthigh construction costs could block that from becominga reality, said U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a member ofa levee oversight committee who touredhurricane-devastated parts of the city Monday.
“That may be the route to go,” the Rhode IslandRepublican said while noting that an outer floodprotection system shielding the New Orleans area fromhurricane storm surges could cost $14 million for eachmile of structure.
“That’s expensive,” he said. “But then there is anenormous amount of revenue generated from the successof New Orleans. It’s a city that generates billionsand billions in revenue. That’s a factor.”
Chafee, who sits on the Senate Environment and PublicWorks Committee, which oversees levee construction,flew to New Orleans with Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La.,and David Vitter, R-La., on Monday morning. The grouptoured a home on Louis XIV Street in Lakeview and tooka driving tour of the Lower 9th Ward, stopping at thelevee breach along the Industrial Canal.
Chafee was stunned by the level of destruction. “Youhave to see it,” he said.
The visit was the latest in a series of trips byranking members of Congress to areas of the city thatwere hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.
The long-term viability and success of the region aretied to the eventual construction of an outer floodprotection system, Vitter said after a news conferencethat ended Chafee’s visit.
“Taking that next step is vital,” Vitter said.
In a closed-door presentation to the senators, ArmyCorps of Engineers representatives discussed thepossibility of building outer flood protectionstructures that would serve as a front-line defenseagainst Gulf of Mexico storm surges, similar to theseries of high-tech gates and barriers built in recentdecades by the Dutch to protect the Netherlands fromNorth Sea flooding, Vitter said. Traditional levees,which for New Orleans are now the primary and the lastline of defense, would remain in place as a secondlayer of protection.
Some people have suggested imitating the Dutch, whospent 40 years and $14.7 billion building a network ofbarriers, gates and dams after a disastrous flood in1953.
“You can’t build levees high enough around (NewOrleans). You have to go out,” Vitter said.
He said the corps engineers described a “veryconceptual” vision of an outer flood protection systemwithout specifying whether it would comprise levees,dams, gates or a combination of those structures. “Thebasic idea is to have an outer level of protectionfurther out from the city, particularly to the southand east,” he said.
The Louisiana senators are pushing for Congress toapprove by the end of the year financing for the corpsto study and design such a system, Vitter said.
A visit to New Orleans in late November by theNetherlands’ ambassador to the United States willprovide another opportunity to explore using Dutchflood control technology in Louisiana, Landrieu said.
Dutch officials also have agreed to host members ofCongress who want to visit the Netherlands to seetheir gates and barriers at work, she said.
“Whether we design a system like theirs isn’timportant. What is important is the chance to seetheir designs and ideas,” Landrieu said.
Meanwhile, money already is available for the corps torebuild by June the region’s existing levee system towithstand a storm surge from a Category 3 hurricane,Landrieu said. The work will correct flaws in thelevees that are believed to have contributed toseveral major breaks during Katrina that flooded 80percent of the city. Corps officials have said aCategory 3 system by the start of the next hurricaneseason actually represents an improvement, becausesubsidence had lowered many New Orleans levees to lessthan that standard before Katrina hit.
In addition, some investigators reviewing the leveesystem in the wake of the storm say portions of thestructures did not meet original design standards.
Vitter said the upcoming work by the corps will fixthose problems.
“It’s not just plugging the holes. It’s doing a wholelot more than that to build true Category 3protection, which we didn’t have before Katrina,” hesaid.
Keith Darcé can be reached at kdarce@timespicayune.comor (504) 826-3491.

18) This is late by nearly a week, but still relevant. The source is Paulette:
According to sources who have seen this list, FEMA andEPA have determined that people should not be allowedto return to their homes in the following zip codesbecause homes there are seriously contaminated byhealth-threatening mold and/or petroleum problems. There is reportedly a much longer list of 200 pages orso that breaks these zip codes down further intoblocks - adding the 4 digit number after each zip codearea.
This list has been shared with our elected officialson the federal state and local level.
We must demand that this information be publiclydisclosed and the information that was used to createthis list must be publicly disclosed and debated.
Here are the zip codes:701127011370116701177011970122701247012570126701277012870129
7003270043700757008570092

19) Here's another posting by Jordan, including a lot of important messages concerning the situation on the ground for some and more eyewitness reports:
Friends and Allies,
Below is an important message from Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC - www.fflic.org) - it speaks about the current situation of the people of New Orleans and Southern Louisiana better than I could.
Also, at the bottom of the message is a list of needs from FFLIC - they are an excellent organization, they still need your support and solidarity, as all of us here fighting for justice in Louisiana do.
For an excellent collection of articles, resources and organizations related to New Orleans (as well as great coverage of the current unrest in France, politics in Lebanon and Syria, organizing at the US-Mexico border, the nonprofit industrial complex, and much more) check out: http://www.leftturn.org/
Special New Orleans collection at: http://www.leftturn.org/articles/SpecialCollections/katrina.aspx
The struggle isn't over.
in solidarity,
-jordan---------------------------------------UPDATE FROM FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF LOUISIANA'S INCARCERATED CHILDREN
We know that this update is long overdue and appreciate your patience in our getting it out. First of all, we want to thank everyone again for all your support. We especially want to thank everyone who has sent love, clothes, and other donations to Flora, Marcy and others. We also want to give special thanks to those who donated computers, office supplies, fax and copy machines and furniture to help get our Lake Charles office off the ground. It has not been an easy month. Our staff and members continue to struggle with the aftermath of both Katrina and Rita -- houses are destroyed, jobs are gone, offices are barely functional, loved ones need to be buried. Grieving and rage seem to be part of all of our daily realities as we try to fully comprehend what has happened and vision where we will go now that all has changed. Grief is both for our members and allies whose lives were lost, and for all of us whose homes are gone, whose lives as we knew them will never be the same. We also grieve for a nation who has already lost interest in our struggle, a country that had an opportunity to rise up and declare an undying committment to eradicating the racism and greed which nourished these disasters, but somehow just hasn't. And we are rageful at a city and state who intend to rebuild the city of New Orleans without us and indeed exclusive of us. A city which continues to glorify the police and sheriffs despite proof that they left people to die in the city's jail and plainly killed others who were trying to escape the flood waters. A city that approves of contractors who exploit migrant workers - hiring them to do dangerous and hazardous clean up and then refusing to pay the promised wage or anything at all for weeks at a time. A state that allows for thousands to be evicted everyday with no dispute because those being evicted neither know nor can attend the hearing from their new "evacuation location" - but will arrive back home eventually to find a new lock on the door and their belongings on the corner with the rest of the trash on the street. A city and state that imply over and over that the city will be a better place without the poor and the Black despite the truth that New Orleans was built by poor people of color and destroyed by greed and racism. We are not hopeless, we know our day will come. And we will still be here. We wont grieve and rage forever, but for now, our hearts are still heavy. One thing that gives us hope is getting back on our feet. Our new southwest LA office is located at 188 Williamsburg Street, Lake Charles, LA, 70605. Thanks to everyone who helped us, it is a beautiful office space and has most of what we need to keep on! We still need some desks and chairs and phones, but we have what we need to keep doing the work. Come visit us! For those who are wondering about our central city office, we still have our office space in New Orleans and Gina is working from there half time as the city gets back to its feet. FFLIC was also finally able to meet as a staff and put together a new plan with priorities. We now have two main directives along with our ever-present organizing and juvenile justice reform work: 1) to locate every one of our members from the affected areas and as much as we can assist them with whatever their particular needs may be; and 2) work with other coalitions to document and bring attention to the stories and experiences of the survivors. This information and attention can be used to build demand for an independent investigation into the disasters and also ensure that the reconstruction of New Orleans not continue without the voices, desires and dreams of the people of New Orleans. We have located many folks already and have distributed thousands of dollars to those who needed it. We have gathered clothes and furniture donations for our members. We are hosting a workshop this week on Human Rights Documentation for those of our members interested in interviewing and documenting survivors' experiences. We have travelled from DC to Los Angeles to Chicago to Atlanta and throughout Louisiana speaking and marching and talking and organizing in the hopes that that a unified coalition might evolve to lead us in this struggle and resistance. We have begun to work with a growing coalition of lawyers and organizers focused on ensuring that the reconstruction of New Orleans does *not* include a 7000 bed prison in its center, does *not* include a corrupt and brutal police force and does *not* include 2 dilapidated and dysfunctional juvenile detention centers. We could go on and on but know that folks have much to read and do. Below are reports from our staff for folks who are wanting more detail about what our days and nights are like. Please know that we appreciate each and every one of your all's support and solidarity. We are still accepting donations: under the updates is a list of our and our members' wants and needs. All donations can be sent to our new office address. Thank you and much peace, Gina, Grace, Kori & Xochitl, FFLIC Staff ***************************************************************** Grace, our Lake Charles organizer wrote the following update after a day of calls and searching for our members (*names have been changed): "Mary* is living in a little camping trailer, with a leaking roof, in her driveway. They have received their Fema, Red Cross and food stamps. She was very excited to hear about FFLIC opening it's doors here next week. She told me Rhonda* and her family had to move and have gone to Philadelphia to start a new life. There apartment complex was next door to Vera's* and is torn up. Ms. Dana's* son, Steve* has run away twice in the last two weeks from Youth Challenge, been gone since Tues and she has no word on him. She has received her Fema and Red Cross but has yet to get her food stamps. I told her where to go and she is going to try next week. She is down mentally and struggling with Steve. She needs help financially and I will meet with her on Wed of next week. She is ready to get back to court and is very excited about the new office. She said Damon*, one of the boys she was working with when she was thrown out of court, was beaten badly by a guard that we know from JDC during the evacuation to Baton Rouge, in front of a van load of other kids being evacuated.
Miss Paula* is in very poor shape. Her son lost it 2 weeks ago. He was in a psychiatric hospital when he smashed his eyeball out with his hand and they have transferred him to a mental hospital in another parish. She is spending an enormous amount of money traveling all the way there to see him. She says he is completely out of it and the stress and fear I sensed from her end scared me. She seems close to losing it herself. I am meeting her tomorrow afternoon after she sees him to eat supper and see what support I can offer. I think we should also offer help financially for the cost of fuel and meals. What do you all think?
Carol* is at her breaking point after returning to find her newly remodeled house ready for the bulldozer. Her lodge that she rented out washed away and her mobile home she rented out with the roof gone.
All in Hackberry, one of our hardest hit areas near the coast. She says there is no way she could think of going to work now.
As I told all of you yesterday Vera* is ill and down mentally as well.
I have a doctor's appointment on Monday morning but after that I am going back to work hard. Everyone's need is just so great we must get things moving right away and I sense a place for all to come and support one another is a vital need at this time.
I was also thinking maybe we should hold a support group meeting and let folks just talk in the next two weeks and provide a good old FFLIC fried chicken dinner and plan for just for a couple of hours of sharing. Maybe Sat. the 29th in the early afternoon or the following Sun? This is what makes us FFLIC is coming together in the time of need and loving one another, plus it would give folks something to look forward to instead of just surviving day to day. Plus those that could help get things ready, it would give them a sense of purpose and things to do. How do your calendars look? I can handle all of the arrangements, alongside our members. Just need your time.
This has been an exhausting and heartbreaking day.
These are our people and their hurt is so real. I have finally stopped feeling sorry for myself and am seeing work much clearer than I have in a long time.
These folks have suffered so much. I found it hard to keep from breaking down and crying with them but God gave me the strength to offer them solace and support. This feeling I have now is similar to what I felt like coming home as the destruction I was seeing became worse and worse along the roads bringing us home. But now it is about our people and their hearts and their souls and I feel compelled to leave the whole mess I have here and go help others. This is the true damge of Rita and Katrina and there is no accounting for that in Bush's tallying of damages to the Gulf Coast.There is no account for this pain and hardship. Our fund will not be able to help these folks with this but it can ease their other worries and bring some peace to them that maybe what pulls them through.
Gina, Kori and Xochitl I love you all and am thankful to all of you for the support and love I receive from each of you. More thankful than any of you may ever know. We must take what we have between us and share it within our circle quickly, as I know where some of these folks are and I have been there. I have no doubt in my heart that without the folks of the JJPL and FFLIC I would have never had been able to get through those hours of darkness in my life that I believe most of the folks I have mentioned in this email are facing tonight. This is the unwritten part of our mission, the giving of ourselves in the hard times, that will draw folks in and make us stronger.
It is this need and giving that has created the LC FFLIC group that has remained united for so long. My plea is that you will come quickly and as wholeheartedly as possible. "
Co-Director, Gina wrote the following when she returned home for the first time: "Ok, I'm writing this while I'm drinking the biggest daiquiri I could find on the westbank. It is with great sorrow and devestation Im writing this email. I just came from my house and well, I thought I would be prepared for what I would find. There is nothing that prepared me for what I would see there. I knew I had 5-6ft of water but the level of crossness was completely overwhelming. As I drove into the deserted city, I was shocked at the level of devestation found there. Trees downed everywhere, electical pole and lines spewn through the streets and absolutely no one in the streets other than military personnel. Cars and boats thown everywhere. As I made it to my home, I expected to see my clothes and shoes all ruined, but as I approached my driveway I found my iron fence laying on the ground (mind you I could never open it cause I didnt have a key).
The water line was above my sister and my moms cars and my bedroom door had rotted so it had given way and was ajar. I walked into what was my newly painted room, by yours truly, to find the paint peeling, clothes and shoes everywhere and my mattress still dripping wet. I dont need to discuss the stench. In my den, my sofa, dining table and refrigerator were thrown all over the floor, my wine and the cabinet over sink completely thrown on the floor. all the books that I have collected over the years, ruined. Ok, you guys know Im generally a "whatever" kind of person and I had already seperated myself from the material things but when I realized just how many of my photo albums I left behind I just lost it. I cant believe all of the memories of my children and my older dearly departed family just gone. When you pick up the albums they just crumble in your hands. I thought they were up high enough but obviously I was wrong. My foyer walls are now decorated with mold and mildew. I cant even imagine this house to be livable again. I didnt want to bring Jessica with me, but its a good thing she came as she at least had the foresight to go and get the clothes out the dirty clothes hamper as all of my things and the boys things are lost. I guess I am homeless and clotheless. This is unbelieveable. I'm not sure how I will recover from this emotionally. It's not even about the material things really, but knowing that each and every one of those items represented a moment in time that I will never get back, time shopping with a friend that I havent seen in years perhaps. Lord, I dont know how people will deal with this. I keep thinking about Ms. Collins* and other people whose entire house was under water. How will we ever rebuild this city..that is everywhere outside of the french quarter, garden district and downtown!!! To think as I look down my block and for miles on end that homes look this exact same way and hundreds of people will return to find the same thing. Those of you that pray and even those of you that dont please do so this time for me and my children and families all across the gulf coast."******************************************************************************For those who would like to continue to support FFLIC in our work, please send all donations to 188 Williamsburg Street, Lake Charles, LA, 70607. We cant tell you how much we appreciate you! Needs:Clothes for Ms. Lecia, a member of the Lake Charles Chapter of FFLIC whose family lost everything:Woman size 26/28 and 11/12 shoe; man size 36 pants 17neck shirt or Large; 11 shoe; woman size 24 and 11/shoe; man size 48 pant and 3x or 19 1/2 neck shirt and 12 shoePlease send to: Hotel Ramanda Inn, 2700 Hwy 82E, Greenville, MS 38701 and send us an email to let us know
For other members: calling/phone cardsgift cards from places that sell furniture, clothes or gasFor our office: folding chairs for meetingsoffice chairspicture frames & other office decorationsa microwavea coffee pota vacuum cleanera tv/vcr combo for video showingstape recorders for use in documentationchildren's books, toys and play area items
For the FFLIC Hurricane Relief Fund:cash and check donations that will be used to help our members rebuild their homes and their lives EMAIL CONTACT FOR FFLIC: Xochitl Bervera - xochitl@mediajumpstart.org
http://www.fflic.org/_______________________________________________From the Friends_of_fflic mailing listTo Subscribe Send email to: Friends_of_fflic-subscribe@lists.mayfirst.org Or visit:https://lists.mayfirst.org/cgi-bin/mailman/options/friends_of_fflic/anticapitalist%40hotmail.com

20) Some Levitation:
'Twas the Night Before Katrina (cajun style)
'Twas de night before Katrina, when all tru da state Not a gas pump was pumpin', Not a store open late All da plywood was hung, on de windows wit care, Knowing dat a hurricane, Soon would be dere.
Da chilren were ready wit deir flashlight in hand While rain bands from da hurricane covered over our lan And Mom wit her Mag-lite, and me wit my cap Has jus filled da battub for flushing our crap..
When out on de lawn, there arose such a clatter I sprang from da closet to see what was de matter The trees on da terrace, and de neighbor's roof torn, We feared we'd be dyin' in dis terrible storm.
Wit a little wind gus, so lively and quick, I membered quite clearly our walls was not brick More rapid than Eagles, her courses they changed! And she whistled and wafted and surged all the same.
Off shingles! Off sidings! Off rooftops! Off power! Down trees! Down fences! Down trailers! Down towers! On da street of New Orleans, she continued to maul, Screaming Blow away! Blow away! Blow away all!
As da wind ripped and tossed da debris tru de sky, I peeked out the shutters at the cars floatin' by. So go to the attic my family did do, With a portable radio and some batteries too.
And den in a twinkling, I heard on da set, The end was not coming for a few hours yet! As I calmed down da kids and was turning around Tru de window it came with a huge crashing sound
A tree branch it was all covered in soot De wind blew it smack-dab on top of my foot! A bundle of twigs now lay in a stack And my Livin' Room looked like it was under attack.
De wind how it howled, de storm very scary, Myself and my family were all too unwary. Da dangers of hurricanes are serious ya know, Dey are taken for granted as Betsy did show.
Wit da winds dying down and da danger beneath, I noticed my tool shed was missing its sheath So I grabbed my last tarp, and nailed it on down, Den I got in my car and drove into town.
Da traffic was awful and stores had no ice, My 5-gallon cooler would have to suffice Generators was scarce, not one left in town, Dere was trees on the roads and power lines down.
FEMA was ready wit people to work, Electrical companies came in from New York. I sprang to da car, and gave my family a whistle, Den away we all went like a Tomahawk missile!
You could hear us exclaim as we drove out of sight, "The heck wit dis place, Texas seem just right!"
(Author unknown)

21) Here is another obituary attributed to Katrina, ultimately:
Msgr. John Lyle Newfield (1921-2005)
Msgr. John Lyle Newfield, the son of Paul C. Newfield Sr and Marie Louise Terrell, was born January 5, 1921 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and baptized at Sacred Heart Church (on St. Bernard Avenue) in New Orleans. During his formative years John Lyle served as an altar boy at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish, on St. Roch Avenue in New Orleans.
On December 22, 1945, Fr. John Lyle Newfield was ordained a Roman Catholic priest by New Orleans Archbishop, Joseph Francis Rummel, at which time the young priest inherited the chalice and paten that had belonged to his former pastor at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, the late Msgr. Joseph A. Levesque (1863-1940).
Msgr. John Lyle Newfield died Friday, November 11, 2005 in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He will be interred at __________ Cemetery, ___________, Louisiana. Details will be announced as they become available.
Parishes and Assignments:
~ 1. St. Agnes Parish, Metairie, Louisiana (1946-1950), Assistant Pastor
~ 2. Sacred Heart Parish, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (1950-1955)
~ 3 St. Henry, New Orleans (1955-1957)
~ 4 St. Anthony of Padua, Barataria (1957-1961, Pastor, with responsibilities for two mission churches: ** Sacred Heart, Lafitte, Louisiana ** St. Pius X, Crown Point, Louisiana
~ 5. St. Genevieve of Paris, Thibodaux, Louisiana (1961-1966), Founding Pastor
~ 6. Our Lady of Prompt Succor, Westwego, Louisiana (1966-1971), Pastor
~ 7. St. Francis de Sales, Houma, Louisiana (1971-1987), Pastor
He was named Monsignor in 1977, shortly before the founding of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. With the creation of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in 1977, his new title became Rector of the Cathedral, and he continued to serve in that capacity until his retirement from active parochial duties in 1987.
~ 8 Chaplain at Metairie Manor Retirement Home, Metairie, Louisiana (1987-1989)
[Illness: During a brief period of illness, he resided with his brother and sister in Arabi, Louisiana.]
~ 9. Holy Savior, Lockport, Louisiana (1990-1991), in residence, [Fr. Brendan Foley, Pastor]
He retired to a private residence in Raceland, Louisiana, from whence he served as chaplain to the Dominican Missionary Sisters. In 1991 he moved to Chateau Notre Dame in New Orleans.
Msgr. Newfield served as a Canon Lawyer in the Tribunal of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, handling marriage cases. Even after his transfer to Houma, he continued to serve in that capacity. After the creation of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in 1977, he was appointed Chief Judge of that diocese’s Tribunal.
He was a member of the Knights of Columbus (4th Degree); a member of the Knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem; and a member of the Canon Law Society of America.
Msgr. John Lyle Newfield attended Our Lady Star of the Sea Elementary School in New Orleans; Holy Cross High School (1933-1935); St. Joseph Seminary at St. Benedict Abbey (1935-1940); and finally Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana (1940-1945), where he earned degrees in Philosophy and Theology. On December 1945, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
He celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a priest in December 1995, with a festive reception at St. Francis de Sales in Houma.
He was the brother of the late Paul C. Newfield, Jr. of Mandeville, Louisiana; of Frank H. Newfield and Virginia Newfield (both presently residing in Thibodaux, Louisiana, but formerly of Arabi, Louisiana; and of Mrs. Guy M. (Marie Louise) Francis of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is also survived by a host of cousins, nieces and nephews. Funeral arrangements by Chauvin Funeral Home, Houma, Louisiana.
+ Requiescat in pace domini. +
[Photos attached.]

22) A Correction of the last post, put where any newspaper woulda put it...:
"Our state budget is $18 Billion in a normal year. We also had a 350 million dollar surplus due to oil royalties. It was balanced before the storm and the State also has a 450 million dollar "rainy day" fund. Say what you want about LA politicians, but we WERE one of only six states not in the red. 5 of them energy producing states."

Katrina Encours et Toujours XXVIa

2005-11-09T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today I heard on WWOZ internet broadcast that Mid-City Rock N Bowl will be reopening this Thursday night. For those who don't know, Rock N Bowl is one of those amazing local sites that tourists rarely see -- a bowling alley with live music, local food, and a dance floor. It's in Mid-City, which was completely flooded. It's on the second floor of an old strip mall, which is why it could reopen so soon. The fact that it's reopening is a great sign in an otherwise devastated neighborhood.

1) Here are a series of photos of the Lower 9th Ward, taken by my brother. That's one massive cleanup:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=d0f0jwl.9q7huyw5&Uy=c6pv0n&Ux=1

2) New Orleans needs a Category 5 declaration, pronto!:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1131262466233480.xml

Category 5Sunday, November 06, 2005

Greater New Orleans needs a levee system capable ofwithstanding a Category 5 hurricane. Our homes, ourjobs and our lives are at risk, and so are theeconomic interests of an entire nation.

Now that the floodwaters have receded and anightmarish hurricane season is ending, the metro areais out of imminent danger. But our efforts to recoverfrom Hurricane Katrina are caught in limbo. Owners offlooded houses can tear out carpets and pick throughmementos, but can they rebuild? Should they raisetheir homes on pilings? If so, how high?

The answers to these questions and many others willdepend on the strength of the levees protecting us.Which neighborhoods will remain viable? Will floodinsurance be offered at a decent price? Morefundamentally, how many people will feel safe enoughto resume their lives here? For residents who wererescued from their attics, for business owners whoseemployees and customers fled in the face of advancingfloodwaters, for people who have been cut off fromloved ones for weeks or months, peace of mind dependson the levees, too.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,President Bush vowed to "make the flood protectionsystem stronger than it has ever been." But sincethen, the White House has been conspicuously silentabout how strong that might be. If the president andCongress withhold their support for a Category 5system, they will cripple this metro area for good.
. . . . . . .

The present levee system was designed to stand up to aCategory 3 hurricane. But three storms reachedCategory 5 in the Gulf of Mexico this year. HadKatrina tracked slightly to the west, and had thestorm not weakened somewhat as it approached theshore, the effect on the New Orleans area would havebeen even more catastrophic.

As it was, Katrina laid bare the weaknesses in thecurrent levee system. Whipped up by the storm, theGulf of Mexico surged across coastal marshes and intoLake Pontchartrain, rushed over earthen bermsprotecting St. Bernard Parish and pressed hard againstthe floodwalls along canals in New Orleans. When thosewalls gave way, water rushed out in a torrent. In someplaces, homes broke loose from their foundations. Inother neighborhoods, the inundation was a slowtorture; water crept down streets and bubbled upthrough storm drains and cracks in the pavement. Morethan 1,000 of our neighbors, friends and relativesdied.
But despite the outpouring of sympathy for Katrina'svictims, few members of Congress seem to understandwhy our levee system is their problem.

Here's why it is: The federal government has longtaken responsibility for building flood-controlstructures along the vital Mississippi River. Indeed,the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed the currentlevee system.
The levees along the Mississippi have a significantdownside. Because they have cut off the flow ofsediment from the river, they contribute to thedeterioration of coastal marshland that used to shieldmetro New Orleans from hurricanes. (Energy explorationin Louisiana has benefited the entire nation butexacerbated the erosion problem.) To make mattersworse, during Katrina's onslaught some parts of themetro area's levee system, including the 17th Streetand London Avenue canals, appear to have failed underconditions they should have withstood.
. . . . . . .

Building a Category 5 levee system for SoutheastLouisiana will be an enormous undertaking, bothfinancially and as an engineering project, but it canbe broken into segments.

The highest priority should be the segment that wouldprotect the most people: a barrier extending from theMississippi River in St. Bernard Parish across themouth of Lake Pontchartrain and over to the PearlRiver basin near the Mississippi state line. The seagates into the lake would remain open most of thetime, to minimize disruptions to the environment, butcould be slammed shut when hurricanes approach. Thecost of this segment, perhaps $4 billion, is hardlypocket change -- but it's much less than the amount ofdamage Katrina caused.

A federal commitment to a stronger, smarter leveesystem wouldn't relieve Louisiana of the obligation tohelp itself. The state will have to pinch pennies topay for more coastal restoration projects -- even ifCongress starts pitching in more money -- becauseletting more marshland give way to warm, open waterisn't an acceptable option. Also, Louisianians shouldbe ready to abandon the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet,a waterway that offers conveniences to some businessesbut greatly increases the danger of flooding.

And Louisiana's elected leaders will have to agree totreat flood protection as a key public interest,instead of using seats on levee boards as a prestigeposting for second-tier cronies. Gov. Kathleen Blancohas already floated the idea of consolidating thearea's numerous levee boards into a statewide agency.In truth, the hydrology of metro New Orleans isdifferent from that of, say, Lake Charles, and puttingboth under the control of a new state agency makes nosense. But a regional levee board for SoutheastLouisiana would.
. . . . . . .

The New Orleans area is a national treasure, and thepossibility of future Katrinas represents a gravethreat to its survival. Now that the cameras are offand tearful evacuees are no longer begging for help ontheir knees in the street, it's easy for PresidentBush and members of Congress to forget theircommitments to help us rebuild.

But the need for a Category 5 flood-protection systemis urgent. In this stricken region, the danger offlooding will never be yesterday's news.

3) I couldn't agree with this writer more:

http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-20/1131262016233480.xml

Feds are treating Louisiana like enemy
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Bob Marshall

After Hurricane Katrina whacked New Orleans it wasfashionable for commentators to compare our losses tothe devastation wrought by the 9/11 atrocity.Initially, I didn't like the analogy. Sept. 11 was anattack by a human enemy; Aug. 29 was a shot fromnature. But lately I'm finding myself warming to thatassociation, because I'm beginning to hear a hauntingquestion made famous after 9/11: Why do they hate us?
This time it isn't directed at residents of anotherland. It's aimed at Congress and the White House.

How else should a coastal Louisiana resident feelafter last week's news that President Bush has askedCongress to spend $250 million on the state'sdesperately needed coastal restoration projects.Sounds like a big check, unless you know we need $14billion to do the job. Bush knows. And unless he wassleeping on all those tours of the disaster zone, healso knows what's happened to our coastal wetlands andwhy they're important to protecting this city andregion from future storms.

No one would ever accuse this president of being anenvironmentalist, but he's certainly made it clear hecares about security. So maybe he'll review testimonygiven the Senate Homeland Security Committee lastWednesday in a hearing concerning the lack of securityprovided by the city's hurricane protection system. Ifhe does, he'll notice Ivor van Heerden, director ofthe LSU Hurricane Center, giving this answer to aquestion about the role wetlands play in stormprotection:

"It we had the wetlands today we had 100 years ago,the surge would have been dramatically less."
Van Heerden goes on to explain that the marsh andswamps that once blanketed our coast provided enoughfriction to seriously -- and rapidly -- dampen thepower of a hurricane's two main threats: tidal surgeand wind. Van Heerden used Hurricane Andrew -- aCategory 3 storm as it came ashore at the mouth of theAtchafalaya Basin -- as a prime example.

"Andrew made landfall in Louisiana in 1992, and itspath came up the central part of the coast where thereare still extremely healthy wetlands (marshes andswamps) and two emerging deltas. The surge at MorganCity -- just 20 miles inland -- was only seven feet.In terms of wind velocity, between the coast andMorgan City (Andrew) lost 50 percent of its energy.That's an example of how valuable wetlands are inreducing hurricane impacts from wind and surge."

That storm-killing potential has been lost for theportion of our coast surrounding New Orleans. Wetlandsthat once formed a 50-mile-wide security blanketbetween the city and the Gulf were sacrificed to along series of decisions their supporters claimed werein the national interest: levees to protect cities andagriculture from rivers; dredging to prevent deltasfrom being built; 30,000 miles of canals dug forenergy exploration and shipping.

And last week the U.S. Geological Survey announcedKatrina took another 100 square miles of our coastalwetlands.

None of this should have been news to those senatorsor to a president who claims to care about keepingAmericans safe. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,under the ultimate command of the president, spentmost of a decade helping Louisiana create a plan torestore those eroding wetlands. But when the commanderin chief and the Congress were told it would cost $14billion, Louisiana was told the nation couldn't affordthe price.

That was before Katrina, at $200 billion (andcounting), the costliest natural disaster in thenation's history. In the weeks after the full impactswere known, Louisiana, using corps data, askedCongress and the president to approve a Category 5hurricane protection system that could cost roughly$31 billion -- $17 billion for levees and floodgates,$14 billion for the coastal restoration plan.

They were optimistic the plan finally would receive apositive hearing. After all, Katrina had provided thecost-benefit analysis.

"We told them for years what a bargain this would be,"said Sidney Coffee, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's executiveassistant for coastal activities. "Now I think theycan see our plans were pretty darn cost-effectivecompared to what the costs are now."

So far they haven't. Congressmen have been critical,even insulting, about Louisiana's needs for protectionand restoration. Last Wednesday, the president piledon.

The best summation may have come from King Milling,the banker who also chairs the governor's
advisorycommission on the coast, when he told The AssociatedPress:

"I think it is grossly inadequate and reflects a lackof appreciation of the issues that we are facing inthis part of the country.

"Worst of all, if they do understand them (the facts),then it may be that they may have written us off."
Which brings me back to that 9/11 question.
. . . . . . .

Bob Marshall can be reached at
rmarshall@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3539.

4) For those interested in FEMA's Katrina response, here are the emails released by US Representative Melancon concerning Michael Brown. Melancon represents the district that was most completely devastated by the storm (St. Bernard to the coast), and his constituents are in no mood to forgive FEMA:

http://www.melancon.house.gov/news.asp?ARTICLE3337=4608

5) There's some buzz about possibly holding the 2008 Democratic convention in New Orleans. I tried to stoke that buzz a bit myself with the following message to Daily Kos' discussion board a couple of days ago:
As a native New Orleanian and a reader of Dailykossince 2003, I beg all of you to push for a New Orleansconvention in 2008. The infrastructure will be readyby then (the hotels suffered minimal damage, theairport is already back to normal, the showcaseneighborhoods are already returning to normal, and theSuperdome can be ready for normal operations byOctober 2006), and the city will desperately need toshowcase its return to prime time in conventionhosting. That's why New Orleans needs to host theDems.

Why should the Dems choose NO? First of all, there isno better domestic location to showcase Bush'sfailures. Secondly, if the Republican-controlledCongress ends up declining to rebuild New Orleans(which is appearing more likely by the week), then theDems have a chance to pick up both Louisiana andpossibly Mississippi simply by announcing a promise tomake NO capable of withstanding a Cat 5 storm andsupport for a comprehensive coastal restorationinitiative (total cost: ca. 20 billion USD). Whenasked where the money should come from, simply ask whywe're spending more on Persian Gulf warfare than onGulf Coast reconstruction. Finally, if such aconvention is remembered as a milestone on the path toreconstruction, then Louisiana might revert back to asolid Dem state well into the future.

6) Here's an article about the buzz -- anything readers can do to push this buzz into reality is appreciated. For that matter, anything any reader can do to get their associations to land a convention in New Orleans after January 2007 is welcome:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113152157542700.xml

Some Demos touting N.O. for 2008
Convention idea tied to renewal drive
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- A Maryland congressman is urging hisfellow Democrats to hold the party's 2008 presidentialnominating convention in New Orleans as a signal ofnational support for the city after its devastatinglosses from Hurricane Katrina.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., made the suggestion afterparty officials announced that their 2008 conventionwill be held Aug. 25-28. Declaring New Orleans as thehost city for the party's national convention,Cummings said, would demonstrate to its residents thatthe city "has not been forgotten."
It would be reminiscent of when Republicans held their2004 party convention in New York City to show supportfor the area after the 2001 terrorist attacks killedmore than 2,600 people at the destroyed World TradeCenter.

The decision on a convention site will be made byDemocratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean andparty leaders, after reviewing bids from a dozen or socities with sufficient convention and hotelfacilities. The process will begin in January when theparty asks for bids. The choice will be announcedsometime after the 2006 midterm elections.

Democratic members of the Louisiana delegationimmediately embraced the idea, although partyofficials were noncommittal and no mention was madethat the convention is scheduled for the heart of thehurricane season and would end one day before theanniversary of the date that Hurricane Katrina madelandfall.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Rep. William Jefferson,D-New Orleans, liked the idea.

"That would be wonderful," Jefferson said. "It wouldkeep the rebuilding effort in the Gulf center stagefor all Americans."

Landrieu called it "a fantastic idea. Hosting the 2008National Convention in New Orleans would demonstrateto the nation that despite unprecedented tragedy, theCrescent City's spirit remains strong. It is thatspirit of Southern hospitality and national pride forwhich we're still remembered after hosting the 1988Republican convention."

The Democrats aren't the only ones looking at theCrescent City.

Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, said he has alreadysuggested to Republican National Committee ChairmanKen Mehlman that the party hold its 2008 convention inNew Orleans.

"I think it would be a great signal that the city ofNew Orleans is open and ready for business," Jindalsaid. It would be fantastic if the city could hostboth major party conventions, he said.

While New Orleans succeeded in getting the 1988 GOPconvention, which nominated George H.W. Bush and DanQuayle, the city has had no luck in attracting theDemocrats. One reason recently has been that theparty, with its close ties to organized labor, prefersmore hotels with union contracts than New Orleans canoffer.
Josh Earnest, a spokesman for Dean, said the partywould welcome a bid from New Orleans. "It is fair tosay that Governor Dean will be considering bids from anumber of American cities and he'd be pleased toconsider a bid from a revitalized and rebuilt NewOrleans," Earnest said.
. . . . . . .

Bruce Alpert can be reached at
bruce.alpert@newhouse.com or (202) 383-7861.

7) Here's another article by Jordan Flaherty, on post-Katrina NO. Note the extra internet sources at the end of his posting:

Changing New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty
November 4, 2005

Its bittersweet being back in New Orleans. Although the architecture is the same, and its a relief to walk the streets and reunite with old friends, already this is a very different city from the one I love. Its a city where some areas are quickly rebuilding and other parts are being left far behind. A city where people who have lived here for generations are now unwelcome in a hundred different ways.

White New Orleans is steadily coming back, and Black New Orleans is moving out. A grassroots organizer with New Orleans Network tells me she has been speaking to people in every moving truck she sees. She reports that in every case, “they’re Black, they are renters, they’re moving out of New Orleans, and they say they would stay, if they had a choice.”

Inequality continues through the cleanup of New Orleans. Some areas have electricity, gas, and clean streets, and some areas are untouched. Medical volunteer Catherine Jones reports that driving the streets of New Orleans at night, “ I felt like I was in the middle of a checkerboard. The Quarter lit up like Disneyworld; poor black neighborhoods a few blocks over so dark I couldn't even see the street in front of me.”

The Washington Post reports that although both the overwhelmingly White Lakeview neighborhood and Black Ninth Ward neighborhood were devastated by flooding, “It now appears that long-standing neighborhood differences in income and opportunity...are shaping the stalled repopulation of this mostly empty city.”
While Lower Ninth Ward residents are still being kept from returning to their homes, “Lakeview, where 66 percent of children go to private school and 49 percent of residents have a college degree, was pumped dry within three weeks of the storm. Memphis Street (in Lakeview) smells now of bleach, which kills mold, and resounds to the thwack of crowbars and the whine of chain saws. Insurance adjusters have begun making rounds.”

A similar story is unfolding in South Florida, where the Miami Workers Center reports, “Close to 24 hours after Wilma struck, power returned to Miami's affluent and tourist districts such as South Beach, Downtown and the Brickell Financial District. In the past week, power has returned to most suburban communities. But power has been slowest returning to black, latino, and immigrant poor urban neighborhoods. Many of the 400,000 still in the dark have been told not to expect power until as late as November 22nd.”

Miami Workers center volunteer Terry Marshall reports, “this experience is showing...that it’s not a question of where the hurricane hits. It’s a question of where the resources are missed.”

New Orleans was, as more than one former resident has said, the African city in North America. It is a city steeped in a culture that is specifically African American - from Jazz to blues to bounce. It is the number one African American tourist destination in the US. The Bayou Classic and Essence Festival, two vital Black community events, bring tens of thousands of Black tourists to the city every year. Walking around town, its hard to imagine these tourists coming back to the new New Orleans - a city was once 70% Black and now feels unwelcome and hostile - or at least uncaring - to its own past.

Last Wednesday alone, 335 evictions were filed in New Orleans courts - the amount normally filed in a month. There have been countless reports of landlords throwing tenant’s property out on the street without any notice. New Orleans human rights lawyer Bill Quigley reports that “Fully armed National Guard troops refuse to allow over ten thousand people to even physically visit their property in the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood. Despite the fact that people cannot come back, tens of thousands of people face eviction from their homes. A local judge told me that their court expects to process a thousand evictions a day for weeks.
Renters still in shelters or temporary homes across the country will never see the court notice taped to the door of their home. Because they will not show up for the eviction hearing that they do not know about, their possessions will be tossed out in the street. In the street their possessions will sit alongside an estimated 3 million truck loads of downed trees, piles of mud, fiberglass insulation, crushed sheetrock, abandoned cars, spoiled mattresses, wet rugs, and horrifyingly smelly refrigerators full of food from August.”

A recent poll from Gallup reports that, even adjusting for differences in income, White and Black New Orleanians have had deeply different experiences of this disaster. Blacks were more likely to fear for their lives (63% vs. 39%), to have been separated from family members for at least a day (55% vs. 45%), gone without food for at least a day (53% vs. 24%) and spent at least one night in an emergency shelter (34% vs. 13%).

The New York Times and other papers have reprinted former FEMA director Michael Brown’s emails from the time when our city was being flooded - stunning evidence of how little the agency cared about what was happening in New Orleans. “If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god,” reads a typical email from the day after the hurricane hit. Other emails showed Brown and his staffers to be more concerned with his dinner reservations in Baton Rouge and a dog sitter for his house than with anything happening in New Orleans.

The demographics of New Orleans have changed in gender as well as race. The thousands of contractors and laborers that have arrived from across the country - in addition to National Guard, police agencies, security guards, and other workers - are overwhelmingly male. Because most schools are closed, there are few kids below 17 or their families. Women I know who have returned report feeling uncomfortable and unsafe.

A large Latino immigrant population has come to work in the city’s reconstruction. These workers have been demonized by everyone from Mayor Nagin to local talk radio. Grassroots medical volunteers report that some of the workers are forbidden by their employers from talking to anyone or even leaving their rooms at night. They are working in hazardous conditions, for low pay and little safety protection - already many have become ill, and they have no access to medical care, and face a hostile city.

There are still thousands of New Orleans residents who have not been convicted of any crime trapped in maximum security prisons and “no one in a position of power finds this pressing,” says Ursula Price, a staff researcher with A Fighting Chance, an indigent defense group. She estimates at least 2000 prisoners from Orleans Parish Prison remain in Angola, the notorious former slave plantation in rural Louisiana. These are people who were picked up for “misdemeanor offenses such as public drunkenness, traffic violations, soliciting a prostitute,” Price says. If convicted, at most they would have served less time than they have been in for. But, in Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish, courts have been closed for most of this time, and public defenders have been laid off. “The system is not working with us,” Price tells me. “I don't understand why prosecutors are in there arguing against release of someone on a misdemeanor charge. We have women who have had miscarriages, mental heath problems, physical health problems, and no one in power seems to care.” The total population of Orleans Parish Prison at the time of hurricane Katrina was at least 7,000 people. In a city of just 500,000, that's a significant population.

The people of New Orleans are not just physically displaced, but also disenfranchised from their city in other ways. According to the Wall Street Journal, when FEMA officials were asked by Louisiana state officials for access to the FEMA database so that they could inform New Orleans evacuees about their right to vote in upcoming municipal elections, the response was a terse email - “(FEMA) will not let you have a copy of the FEMA applicant list. Sorry!!!” What better way to let people know that the city is not theirs than to have an election to which they are not invited?

Many in New Orleans are struggling with an even more basic and vital concern - the recovery of their loved ones. Less than a quarter of the bodies so far reported discovered in New Orleans have been turned over to families. The rest are at the New Orleans coroners, currently relocated to St. Gabriel’s Parish. “Officials in coroner's offices in several parishes reported that they sought to keep their victims from going to St. Gabriel,” reports today's Times-Picayune, which describes one families long ordeal in recovering their mother’s body. Just one more area where people of New Orleans are left behind.

While this tragedy multiplies, while evictions mount and exploitation increases, the former residents of New Orleans have their choice of a dizzying array of forums, hearings, panels, tribunals, town halls, committees, subcommittees, commissions, meetings, marches and demonstrations, most of which are seeking the input of the people of new orleans.

In the space of two days last week, I went to a public meeting with a representative from the UN High Commission on extreme poverty. I went to a meeting of the housing subcommittee of the urban planning committee of the mayors blue ribbon commission on rebuilding New Orleans. I joined a rally at the State Capitol featuring Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton, and various Government officials. At each event I saw hundreds of poor folks from New Orleans. I also met representatives of a community group for East New Orleans residents displaced to Baton Rouge - they report that 500 people come to their weekly meetings.

This Monday, I will march across the bridge from New Orleans to Gretna, to join in protests called by a wide array of national organizations against a crime Cynthia McKinney has said "might become the worst American civil rights episode of the 21st Century," the blockade by Gretna police of the only exit out of New Orleans for thousands of evacuees. I also plan to join the People's Assembly initiated by the People's Hurricane Fund on December 8-10.

There are many outlets for action, as well as plenty of anger and energy, but also a deep skepticism. The people of New Orleans have a justified distrust of the people and institutions who have arrived with promises and resources. Hundreds of well-meaning volunteers have come in to town, and many have done vital work, but in some cases this has increased tensions. “Some people have come here with this attitude, ‘we’re bringing organizing to New Orleans.’ They don’t seem interested in what was here before,” reports one community organizer.

These divisions are not only concentrated on the grassroots - disagreements within the mayor’s commission on rebuilding New Orleans have become increasingly public, with some representatives complaining to the New York Times of not being invited to private breakfasts between the mayor and other commission members.

"The truth is," said one longtime activist, "people have a lot of anger and grief, and they don't where to direct it." We are all tired, frustrated and sad, but the struggle for justice continues.
=====================================
Jordan Flaherty is a union organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine. This is his tenth article from New Orleans. You can contact Jordan at NewOrleans@leftturn.org.
Jordan’s previous articles from New Orleans are at http://www.leftturn.org/articles/SpecialCollections/katrina.aspx =====================================
Based on conversations with organizers and community members, Left Turn Magazine has compiled a list of grassroots New Orleans organizations focused on relief, recovery, social justice and cultural preservation that need your support. The list is online at
http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=689&type=W =====================================
A Fighting Chance needs donations and volunteers to help with their work providing defense for prisoners in New Orleans. If you have a phone line you can volunteer to help reunite family members from wherever you are located. Email ursula_price1978@hotmail.com.

More info on the March to Gretna this Monday: http://www.upfordemocracy.org/

Other Resources for information and action:
Catherine Jones’ Blog from New Orleans is at: http://floodlines.blogspot.com/
Abram Himmelstein’s Blog from New Orleans is at: http://blogs.chron.com/exile/
United Houma Nation - http://www.unitedhoumanation.org/
Saving Our Selves coalition - http://www.sosafterkatrina.org/
Miami Workers Center - http://www.theworkerscenter.org/

8) Here's job information and an appeal posted by my blogger colleague, Paulette Swartzfager. It sounds grim. If you have any job news for educators, we're all ears:

Hello all

While I am lucky enough to have an undamaged house, some adjuncts have lost everything and are trying to support a family and pay a mortgage.

As many of you know, quite a few of the adjuncts from Loyola will be laid off or have already been laid off. The same is true throughout the Katrina Impact area--UNO, Tulane, Xavier, Dillard, etc. The Chronicle of Higher Ed forum and other such forums are providing a good source of panic, but not much else. I have set up a blog for Loyola Adjuncts to share job links, resources, helpful info, etc. Though we may all have serious issues with what is occurring throughout New Orleans, the really urgent need here is to get us all employed and taken care of.

I can't and won't reactivate APT (the Association for Part Timers) that I had lead years ago. Frankly, there may not be much any adjunct can do except expect fair payment through December (i.e. 1/2 the year long salary), and sufficient notice to be able to apply elsewhere and to apply for unemployment.

It would be really nice if Human Resources provided direct help in doing this and in filing for Cobra --extended health benefits--or as Orleans Parish Schools did-provide a reduced "catastrophic" health coverage for those who could not afford to continue Cobra coverage (where the insured has to pick up the university's cost of the health insurance in order to keep the coverage).

So, I have the following listed on my Loyola home page:

I have started a blog for us to send these messages to each other. You can post a comment anonymously (though I am moderating the comment blog to prevent self-destructive flaming). The blog is called Loyola Adjunct Help and can be found at http://loyolaadjunct.blogspot.com/

If you just want a list of good job links-- http://loyno.edu/~pswartz/jobsites.html

Thanks for any help you can provide to your colleagues.

paulette swartzfagerpswartz1@cox.net

http://www.truthtalkz.blogspot.com/

9) Another article about NO by a UNO prof:

http://hnn.us/articles/17756.html

What Needs to Be Done in New Orleans Now
By Günter Bischof

Mr. Bischof is a professor of history and director ofCenterAustria at the University of New Orleans; in thewake of Katrina he is a guest professor of history atLouisiana State University in Baton Rouge during thefall term of 2005.

Thinking about New Orleans these days always producesambivalent feelings and a jumble of emotions. Someparts of town (Uptown, French Quarter) begin to looknormal even though a lot of businesses are stillclosed and people not back. Other parts continue tolook totally blighted ( Lakeside, Gentilly, 9th Ward)and one does not know when and whether they’ll evercome back. While you see a growing number of peopleback in town going about their business, one can readstories every day about those people who died in thedisaster. It is hard not to get heartsick when youread how a mother in Chalmette drowned in the surgewave with her arms around her quadriplegic son – a sonthat she had taken care of for 30 years after anaccident – because the ambulance service did notevacuate “special needs” as it was supposed to.Imagining their final hours is hard to contemplate andthere are thousands of stories like that, though somewho suffered similar abandonment survived.

Remember conspiracy theories after 9/11 (thegovernment bombed the twin towers)? Disasters ofKatrina's magnitude inevitably produce wild conspiracyhistory. Given the reality of the abandonment ofmostly poor black New Orleansians during the storm,conspiracy theories seem to find very fertile soilamong African Americans, including some of theirleaders. The Reverend Jesse Jackson seems to think NewOrleans does not want its African Americans back (andthere are actually white landlords that do make noisesin that direction). So he bussed a few hundred inhimself, only most of those he brought were apparentlyNOT from New Orleans but people looking for a job. TheReverend Louis Farrakan tops conspiracist thinkingwith the charge that the “U.S. military” was seen todrop charges to dynamite the levies and flood the cityand produce “mass murder” among citizens of NewOrleans. He puts the burden of proof on the federalgovernment that they were not mass murderers. Farrakaneven bests Oliver Stone when it comes to darkconspiracies of the “military industrial complex”against the American people.

Public finances are in shambles locally, regionallyand nationally. Mayor Nagin told the City Council thatthe city has money to pay the (much reduced) workforceuntil March 2006. The State of Louisiana has budgetshortfalls of 1.5 billion dollars and probably more.Health care and higher education are not protected bythe state constitution. So guess where the cuts willbe coming first? The President in Washington isfinally releasing 17 billion of the 60+ billionearmarked by Congress for post-Katrina relief butmainly to rebuild federal facilities and roads – stillno talk about bailing out the hard-struck health careand/or education systems. Senator Landrieu now openlynails President Bush with charges of being moregenerous to Iraq than to Louisiana. Clearly, the GulfCoast can’t be rebuilt in the long term withoutmassive federal relief. The triple punch of Katrina,Rita and Wilma has created such a need for federal aidin the entire Gulf Coast region that Washington isoverwhelmed (as if Iraq, “Plamegate”, and the failedMiers Supreme Court nomination were not enough tohandle at one time).

The politics of advisory panels is interesting toobserve and tells us a lot about the narrow-mindedapproach Louisiana politicians take to rebuilding. TheMayor and Governor have both appointed blue ribboncommittees to advise on the larger issues ofrebuilding. Predictably, these committees are anassortment of Nagin’s and Blanco’s friends (an obscureUniversity of Louisiana-Lafayette fundraiser), localdignitaries (the Archbishop of New Orleans),university presidents (Tulane’s Cowan on Nagin’scommission and Xavier’s Francis chairing Blanco’s),plenty of business people (the State’s panel is heavywith oilmen and the mayor’s thick with localdevelopers and financiers); both commissions are shorton nationally known figures (Walter Isaacson onBlanco’s) and leaders in the culture field (WyntonMarsalis on Nagin’s). Why not put some top-notchnational and international experts on such committees,like the best people from the big nationalphilanthropic organizations, engineering and cityplanning fields? What do the bonanza of oilmen and theabsence of cultural figures tell us about thepriorities of Blanco’s reconstruction authority?Governor Blanco clearly emerges as the Louisianan“professional politician” most overwhelmed by Katrina-- even before the storm hit. A columnist in the localpaper suggested snatching former governor Edwards witha Coast Guard helicopter from federal prison to comeand relieve Blanco.

New Orleans will come back but no one knows how longit will take. Among the big issues of rebuilding thecity are: will there be federal funds rolling into thecity soon to begin building a levy system that willwithstand a category 5 hurricane? What parts of thecity may have to be abandoned because they can’t beprotected against floods? What elevations will homesthat are rebuilt require to get insurance protection?Which insurance companies will abandon the areabecause they no longer want to take the enormousrisks? Will businesses come back and which ones andwill they blackmail the state government to get taxbreaks before they come back? Will developers find aheyday in the city abandoning strict building codes inand around the historic French Quarter? Will theunique historic housing stock of New Orleans vanish asflood-stricken old houses are torn down and arerebuilt without historic preservation in mind?Property rights are sacrosanct in Louisiana aselsewhere in the U.S. So lawyers and legislators arecoming up with ideas about “usufruct rights” and“recovery corporations” for the government to acquiretens of thousands of blighted properties. No one daresto tell the people of Eastern New Orleans and theNinth Ward that probably big parts of those districtscan’t be salvaged and won’t be protected by levies inthe future.

All of us associated with the University of NewOrleans have been taking pride in our leadershipbringing back the university only six weeks afterKatrina – the only New Orleans area institution ofhigher learning up and running again. While the campusis still closed due to mold mitigation and cleaningup, UNO was relaunched from its Jefferson ParishCenter on October 10. 7,000 of 17,000 UNO students areenrolled in classes on line, while another 1,000students are taking regular classes in our satellitefacilities in Jefferson Parish and the North Shore.UNO and the universities obviously will play a crucialrole in the rebuilding of the city. Why not play amore prominent role “below radar” in the long-termplanning of the future of New Orleans too, while themayor’s and governor’s commissions jockey for thelimelight?

UNO’s partner institution, the University ofInnsbruck, had a “jazz brunch” fundraiser in Innsbrucka few weeks ago and raised enough money and more tohost eight UNO students for the fall term in Innsbruck– and this after the Tirol has been hit by terriblefloods just a week before Katrina. Now the Universityof Graz in Austria offers eight semesters free ofcharge for UNO students who want to come and study andthe University of Munich another five slots for NewOrleans students. Good things are happening everywhereto give people hope here too. As Randy Newman said ata recent New Orleans fundraiser at New York’s AveryFisher Hall, “human kindness is overflowing.”

10) I'll never understand why people live in tornado alleys:

http://www.dailykos.com/

IN-08: Mr Hypocrisy strikes by kos
Mon Nov 07, 2005 at 06:03:33 PM PDT

I blogged earlier how Republican Rep. John Hostettler,whose district was decimated by a massive tornado afew days ago, was one of the few to vote againstKatrina reconstruction aid. Well, I didn't realizethat he has just asked the feds to help rebuild hisdistrict.

When the House voted in early September for a $1.4billion relief bill for victims of Hurricane Katrina,Rep. John Hostettler (Ind.) was one of 11 Republicansto oppose it.

Yesterday, the congressman, who is facing a tight racenext year, and several other Indiana members askedPresident Bush for money to help victims of anothernatural disaster -- the tornado that ripped throughmany areas in his 8th District [...]

Jay Howser, the campaign manager for Democrat BradEllsworth, who is challenging Hostettler next year,said that the campaign had already raised Hostettler'sKatrina vote and that now is not the time to bring thetornado, which killed 22, into the conversation.

"I just don't want to go there right now," Howsersaid. "We're less than 24 hours from this happening."
Howser said Ellsworth, the sheriff of hard-hitVanderburgh County, spent yesterday assessing thedamage. The county encompasses Evansville, one of thetwo population hubs in the 8th District. Howser saidthe county includes 25 percent of the voters in thedistrict [...]

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)declined to comment on the race. But privately,Democrats voiced disbelief and amusement withHostettler, saying the fifth-term congressman wouldrather help tsunami victims halfway around the worldand rebuild Iraq than aid poor Americans drenched byhurricanes.

One prominent Indiana Democratic source recalled:"It's something that we were talking about when hemade the first vote. What happens if something likethis happens in our own back yard? And then it did."
Interesting point at the end of the article --Hostettler only has $28K cash on hand at this point ofthe race. Ellsworth has $258K CoH.

11) This quote is in the article: On Friday afternoon, Randy Fertel, a son of the founder of the Ruth's Chris Steak House empire, who heads the family charitable foundation, felt compelled to distance himself from the chain's current executives, who decided to move its corporate headquarters to Orlando, Fla., after serious damage by Katrina. "My mother would never have done that," he said to cheers from the audience, "and she would have reopened our original Broad Street restaurant, too."

DINING & WINE November 2, 2005 Pralines, Seasoned With Tears By R. W. APPLE Jr.

At a food symposium in Mississippi, lamentations for New Orleans food dominated the conversation.

http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/02/dining/02orle.html&OQ=emcQ3Deta1&OP=c84f0bQ2F@TQ7Dy@xJPQ5BZJJW!@!BBQ22@FF@B!@xsrsrQ25@B!JZYQ7D1RW,Y

12) Here's coverage in the Guardian about Katrina:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/hurricanes2005/story/0,16546,1636599,00.html

We'll return for your sister's body, the rescuerssaid. Two months on she was still in the house

Gary Younge in New Orleans
Tuesday November 8, 2005
The Guardian

Nobody knows how long Deborah "Bodie" Fisher, 85, hadbeen trapped in her home with the corpse of heryounger sister, Delia "Sis" Holloway, 82, upstairs,and 2ft of flood water downstairs when help finallyfloated by on September 2.

It was five days after New Orleans's levees hadbroken. Bodie waded downstairs to tell the rescuers toleave her alone. "My sister is upstairs," she toldthem. "Let me die here with my sister." Then sheslammed the door and went back in.

The rescuers overruled her. They broke in through anupstairs window, went past Sis's body and let Bodiepack a bag before they took her to the makeshifthospital at New Orleans airport. They said they wouldcome back for her sister.Two months later two family friends, John Gaines andStacey Martin, went to the house. Ms Martin used toclean for the women and Mr Gaines thought taking herto the house would give her some closure.

"I left Stacey alone to get her memories," Mr Gainessays. "She went upstairs and after a while shescreamed, 'Sis is in here. Sis is in here.' I thought,'Here we go. She's hallucinating.' So I went upstairsand sure enough, there was Sis."

Two months after she was first seen, Sis's body laydecomposing in a townhouse in the business district.Mr Gaines says she died with one of her feet on thefloor, as though she was trying to get out of bed. Thefoot had rotted from the leg. Someone had covered herbody with clothes. But when Ms Martin tried to removethe clothes, Sis's face started to come off with it.Just as downstairs bears the flood's watermark, so theheadboard shows the stain her hair made as it splayedout above her head. "She had no face," Mr Gaines says."The skin had shrunk right up to the bones on the bodyand was jet black. All the fluids had run out of her."

This is the gruesome sequel to the story that startedon these pages two months ago. Bodie is my wife'sgodmother. She had decided, along with her sister, tostay put as Hurricane Katrina came barrelling over theGulf. The house had been in the family for at least acentury and had withstood all other hurricanes.
Mr Gaines kept offering to take them out with him, butthey stayed put. "Bodie was the commander in chief andshe wasn't moving," Mr Gaines says.

"They thought they would be OK," says Sis's daughter,Deborah Holloway. "I wasn't happy with their decisionbut I knew that's how they wanted it to be."

Indeed, the wind caused little damage to the house.But when the levees broke, the bottom floor filled up.Someone managed to get through to the women on theTuesday, and they were fine. Nobody knows quite whathappened between that conversation and the time whenthe rescuers arrived three days later. One of themwrote "Help" in red lipstick back to front on awindow, and hung a red scarf as a sign of distress.All around the house there are bottles of water, somehalf finished; upstairs in the back room is half aloaf of bread.
What followed was a tragic tale of callousincompetence compounded by institutional indifference,and individual kindness negated by systemic failure.

Bodie was flown in an air force plane from New Orleansto San Antonio. Somewhere along the way, says MsHolloway, she had her bag stolen. When the familytracked her down in San Antonio, they went to see her.Ms Holloway says: "She was coherent, talkative, angryand very upset about her sister." Her aunt lookedfrail and had lost a lot of weight.

Ms Holloway went to get Bodie some new clothes and herfavourite Jamocha almond fudge ice cream. Shortlyafter she came back, she died.

"She died in San Antonio but she died because ofKatrina," Ms Holloway says. "I hope she's counted asone of the dead."

Two days later, on September 8, someone wrote in blackmarker pen, "1 elderly DOA [Dead on arrival]. 2ndfloor bedroom. No hazards," on the front wall of theNew Orleans house. On September 10, Ms Holloway wascalled in California and asked for a DNA sample sothat her mother's body could be identified. She wastold that a sample of Sis's DNA had been taken, put itin a pouch with her identification and it would bematched with her daughter's before the body wasreleased.

On September 13 Steven Pacheco, an official of theSociety for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals(nobody knows how that organisation got involved),went to the house and called to inform Ms Hollowaythat her mother was dead and that her mother hadwritten a letter to her daughter that was in herpurse.
Ms Holloway asked him if he would mind going back andgetting the letter and some other keepsakes. MrPacheco did. "There were so many good people all alongthe way," Mrs Holloway says. "But so muchincompetence." That day someone wrote "DOA upstairs"and the date on the same front wall of the house inred spraypaint.

On September 17, Ms Holloway held a double memorialservice for her mother and her aunt, presuming thather mother's body was in St Gabriel's morgue and wouldsoon be released. She kept calling but nobody couldhelp her locate the body. One volunteer said they didnot know which body was in which bodybag.
More than two weeks later, Mr Gaines arrived to findSis's body still in the house. He called the emergencyservices and they finally came to take her away. Thistime they marked the house in yellow spray paint,right over the red.

Three days after the body was removed, thefirefighters came. They were gathering informationabout people who had not been found by their lovedones and wanted to know what had happened to Sis.

As of Friday, her body was at St Gabriel's, still aprisoner of the appalling bureaucracy. "They say theywill not
release her until they have positiveidentification," Ms Holloway says. "And I can't tellyou how long that's going to take. My mother deservedbetter than this. Whatever happened to dignity? Whowas responsible? She can't be the only one."

13) This is a little old now, but it shows how financially desperate LA is going to be. FEMA is currently asking a state with a 7 billion USD annual budget in a good year to pony up 3.7 billion USD for the stellar relief effort they've put together to date:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051104/ts_usatoday/louisianacantpaykatrinaritabills

Louisiana can't pay Katrina, Rita bills
By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
Fri Nov 4, 7:49 AM ET

Flood-ravaged Louisiana can't pay the $3.7 billion that the U.S. government says is its share of hurricane relief, a spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Thursday.

"You can't squeeze $3.7 billion out of this state to pay this bill. Period. That would be difficult for us on a good day," the spokeswoman, Denise Bottcher, told USA TODAY.

Staffers for the governor "about fell over" Wednesday night when they received the Federal Emergency Management Agency's estimate of the state's costs for hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Mark Merritt, a consultant working for Blanco.

FEMA projects that it will spend a total of $41.4 billion in Louisiana, about $9,000 per resident. Federal law requires state and local governments to pay a portion of disaster relief costs. That share can be as much as 25%. The $3.7 billion estimate is roughly 9% of FEMA's projected costs in Louisiana.

The $3.7 billion represents just under half of the $8 billion the state spends per year and comes as the extensive flooding around New Orleans has severely undercut tax revenue. The state is in the midst of heavy cost-cutting to whittle down a projected $1 billion shortfall.

Congress would have to enact legislation to forgive Louisiana's debt, FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said. President Bush has waived certain state and local costs, such as debris removal, but he is bound by law to collect the $3.7 billion from Louisiana, she said.

Mississippi and Texas, also hit hard by this year's hurricanes, have not received FEMA's projected costs.
The issue of a state's obligation to pay disaster relief costs occasionally creates controversy. On rare occasions, FEMA has threatened to report local governments to the U.S. Justice Department because federal money wasn't reimbursed.

The bulk of the money Louisiana must pay will go toward paying for personal property lost in the storms. FEMA pays up to $26,200 per household for uninsured losses. Blanco's office estimates that 60,000 households in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish alone will qualify for the payments. FEMA this week began notifying people that they will receive money.

Merritt is a former FEMA official who now works with former FEMA director James Lee Witt, an adviser to Blanco on hurricane recovery. Merritt said the scope of the disaster far exceeded anything envisioned when the relief agency was created. He called the costs "astronomically unprecedented."

Before Hurricane Katrina, the largest FEMA disaster was the Sept. 11 attacks. FEMA spent $8.8 billion for relief in New York after Sept. 11, which equaled less than $500 per resident of the metro area, Merritt said.
"A disaster of this magnitude ... has never happened on this scale in U.S. history," Merritt said.

14) Katrina comparisons, or why the US is sticking it to NO so far:

Taking offense at comments by Gov Jeb Bush and because of numerous comparisons between our Louisiana experiences and circumstances in Florida or New York City, below is a list gathered from several sources that underscores the extent of the Katrina disaster compared to other hurricanes, including 1992's Florida Hurricane Andrew, formerly considered America's most destructive. All disasters are horrible, all hurricanes frightening, and each death is a tragedy in that family. Every effort to present an accurate picture was made, however one consistent problem has been an inability to nail down firm numbers. No statistics could be found for those still missing since Katrina, or those who died after evacuation to other areas.
Katrina 1,302 lives lostRita 119 lives lost (6 directly)Wilma 47 lives lost (21 directly)Andrew 65 lives lost (26 directly)
Katrina 250,000 to 350,000 homes destroyed Rita 10,000 homes destroyedWilma 150 homes destroyedAndrew 25,000 homes destroyed
Katrina $130,000,000,000 projectedRita 8,000,000,000 Wilma 15,000,000,000 Andrew 25,000,000,000
Katrina disaster assistance from Feds lowers to 75% after November 26Andrew disaster assistance from Feds was 100%September 11th disaster assistance from Feds was 100%
Katrina SBA loan approval rate: 1.6%Over 500,000 out of workCustomary SBA loan approval rate: 40-55%

15) After this article came out, the Saints agreed not to move for another year. This article shows how local sentiment stacked up about a potential Saints move that is still eventually likely:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/nfl/11/03/bc.fbn.benson.saintsgam.ap/index.html

16) A little humor for those fed up with Republicans:

http://www.becomerepublican.com/

Phosphorous, Body Count, Israeli Quotes, LaVine, Business, Blame France, Peak Oil

2005-11-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

1) Italian media now reports that illegal phosphorous weapons were used at Falluja and other locales:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article325560.ece

US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault oncity of Fallujah

By Peter Popham Published: 08 November 2005

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that theUnited States dropped massive quantities of whitephosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during theattack on the city in November 2004, killinginsurgents and civilians with the appalling burns thatare the signature of this weapon.
Ever since the assault, which went unreported by anyWestern journalists, rumours have swirled that theAmericans used chemical weapons on the city.

On 10 November last year, the Islam Online websitewrote: "US troops are reportedly using chemicalweapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensiveon the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grimreminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of theKurds in 1988."

The website quoted insurgent sources as saying: "TheUS occupation troops are gassing resistance fightersand confronting them with internationally bannedchemical weapons."

In December the US government formally denied thereports, describing them as "widespread myths". "Somenews accounts have claimed that US forces have used'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfowebsite said. "Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. USforces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, forillumination purposes.

"They were fired into the air to illuminate enemypositions at night, not at enemy fighters."

But now new information has surfaced, includinghideous photographs and videos and interviews withAmerican soldiers who took part in the Fallujahattack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorusshells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.

In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italianstate broadcaster, this morning, a former Americansoldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard theorder to pay attention because they were going to usewhite phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it'sknown as Willy Pete.

"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the fleshall the way down to the bone ... I saw the burnedbodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes andforms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres isdone for."

Photographs on the website of RaiTG24, thebroadcaster's 24-hours news channel, www.rainews24.it,show exactly what the former soldier means. Providedby the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah,dozens of high-quality, colour close-ups show bodiesof Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whoseclothes remain largely intact but whose skin has beendissolved or caramelised or turned the consistency ofleather by the shells.

A biologist in Fallujah, Mohamad Tareq, interviewedfor the film, says: "A rain of fire fell on the city,the people struck by this multi-coloured substancestarted to burn, we found people dead with strangewounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact."

The documentary, entitled Fallujah: the HiddenMassacre, also provides what it claims is clinchingevidence that incendiary bombs known as Mark 77, anew, improved form of napalm, was used in the attackon Fallujah, in breach of the UN Convention on CertainConventional Weapons of 1980, which only allows itsuse against military targets.

Meanwhile, five US soldiers from the elite 75th RangerRegiment have been charged with kicking and punchingdetainees in Iraq.

The news came as a suicide car bomber killed fourAmerican soldiers at a checkpoint south of Baghdadyesterday.

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that theUnited States dropped massive quantities of whitephosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during theattack on the city in November 2004, killinginsurgents and civilians with the appalling burns thatare the signature of this weapon.
Ever since the assault, which went unreported by anyWestern journalists, rumours have swirled that theAmericans used chemical weapons on the city.

On 10 November last year, the Islam Online websitewrote: "US troops are reportedly using chemicalweapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensiveon the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grimreminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of theKurds in 1988."

The website quoted insurgent sources as saying: "TheUS occupation troops are gassing resistance fightersand confronting them with internationally bannedchemical weapons."

In December the US government formally denied thereports, describing them as "widespread myths". "Somenews accounts have claimed that US forces have used'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfowebsite said. "Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. USforces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, forillumination purposes.

"They were fired into the air to illuminate enemypositions at night, not at enemy fighters."
But now new information has surfaced, includinghideous photographs and videos and interviews withAmerican soldiers who took part in the Fallujahattack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorusshells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.

In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italianstate broadcaster, this morning, a former Americansoldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard theorder to pay attention because they were going to usewhite phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it'sknown as Willy Pete."Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the fleshall the way down to the bone ... I saw the burnedbodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes andforms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres isdone for."

Photographs on the website of RaiTG24, thebroadcaster's 24-hours news channel, www.rainews24.it,show exactly what the former soldier means. Providedby the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah,dozens of high-quality, colour close-ups show bodiesof Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whoseclothes remain largely intact but whose skin has beendissolved or caramelised or turned the consistency ofleather by the shells.

A biologist in Fallujah, Mohamad Tareq, interviewedfor the film, says: "A rain of fire fell on the city,the people struck by this multi-coloured substancestarted to burn, we found people dead with strangewounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact."

The documentary, entitled Fallujah: the HiddenMassacre, also provides what it claims is clinchingevidence that incendiary bombs known as Mark 77, anew, improved form of napalm, was used in the attackon Fallujah, in breach of the UN Convention on CertainConventional Weapons of 1980, which only allows itsuse against military targets.

Meanwhile, five US soldiers from the elite 75th RangerRegiment have been charged with kicking and punchingdetainees in Iraq.

The news came as a suicide car bomber killed fourAmerican soldiers at a checkpoint south of Baghdadyesterday.

2) Here's the link to the Italian story referred to above and below:

http://www.rainews24.it/Notizia.asp?NewsID=57784

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/7/11819/9522

Italian Satellite TV to Broadcast Evidence of US Useof Chemical Weapons on Civilians by paper tigress [Subscribe] Mon Nov 07, 2005 at 09:08:19 AM PDT

Italian media going full-bore on the BushAdministration. After its revelations on thesubterfuge behind the Nigergate forgeries, documentaryevidence of the use by US troops of phosphorus and anew formulaton of napalm [MK77] on the Sunni civilianpopulation will be broadcast tomorrow on internationalsatellite TV. Global coverage of the atrocity, folks.

paper tigress's diary :: :: A news program on Italian satellite TV, RAI News 24,has substantiated the claim that the US military hasbeen exploiting the dual use of white phosporus. Inits siege of Fallujah, the chemical was used on thecivilian populace. The story is in today's Repubblica. The Bush Adminstration and the DoD are about to beshamed before the eyes of the world.
:::

Shocking revelation RAI News 24. Use of chemicalweapons by the US military in Iraq. Veteran admits:Bodies melted away before us.

White phosphorous used on the civilian populace: Thisis how the US "took" Fallujah.

New napalm formula also used.

ROME. In soldier slang they call it Willy Pete. Thetechnical name is white phosphorus. In theory itspurpose is to illumine enemy positions in the dark. Inpractice, it was used as a chemical weapon in therebel stronghold of Fallujah. And it was used not onlyagainst enemy combatants and guerrillas, but againinnocent civilians.

The Americans are responsible fora massacre using unconventional weapons, the identicalcharge for which Saddam Hussein stands accused. Aninvestigation by RAI News 24, the all-news Italiansatellite television channel, has pulled the veil fromone of the most carefully concealed mysteries from thefront in the entire US military campaign in Iraq.

A US veteran of the Iraq war told RAI Newcorrespondent Sigfrido Ranucci this: I received theorder use caution because we had used white phosphoruson Fallujah. In military slag it is called 'WillyPete'. Phosphorus burns the human body on contact--iteven melts it right down to the bone.

RAI News 24's investigative story, Fallujah, TheConcealed Massacre, will be broadcast tomorrow onRAI-3 and will contain not only eye-witness accountsby US military personnel but those from Fallujahresidents. A rain of fire descended on the city.People who were exposed to those multicoloredsubstance began to burn. We found people with bizarrewounds-their bodies burned but their clothes intact,relates Mohamad Tareq al-Deraji, a biologist andFallujah resident.

I gathered accounts of the use of phosphorus andnapalm from a few Fallujah refugees whom I met beforebeing kidnapped, says Manifesto reporter GiulianaSgrena, who was kidnapped in Fallujah last February,in a recorded interview. I wanted to get the storyout, but my kidnappers would not permit it.
RAI News 24 will broadcast video and photographs takenin the Iraqi city during and after the November 2004bombardment which prove that the US military, contraryto statements in a December 9 communiqué from the USDepartment of State, did not use phosphorus toilluminate enemy positions (which would have beenlegitimate) but instend dropped white phosphorusindiscriminately and in massive quantities on thecity's neighborhoods.

In the investigative story, produced by MaurizioTorrealta, dramatic footage is shown revealing theeffects of the bombardment on civilians, women andchildren, some of whom were surprised in their sleep.
The investigation will also broadcast documentaryproof of the use in Iraq of a new napalm formulacalled MK77. The use of the incendiary substance oncivilians is forbidden by a 1980 UN treaty. The use ofchemical weapons is forbidden by a treaty which the USsigned in 1997

Fallujah. La strage nascosta [Fallujah, The ConcealedMassacre] will be shown on RAI News tomorrow November8th at 07:35 (via HOT BIRDTM statellite, Sky Channel506 and RAI-3), and rebroadcast by HOT BIRDTMsatellite and Sky Channel 506 at 17:00 [5 pm] and overthe next two days.

3) Monbiot points out how the media has decided to ignore with a conspiracy of silence the Lancet's estimate that by now well over 100,000 Iraqis have died since the US invaded the country:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1636605,00.html

The media are minimising US and British war crimes inIraq

The reporting of the Iraqi death toll - both in itsscale and account of who is doing the killing - isprofoundly dishonest

George Monbiot
Tuesday November 8, 2005
The Guardian

We were told that the Iraqis don't count. Before theinvasion began, the head of US central command,General Thomas Franks, boasted that "we don't do bodycounts". His claim was repeated by Donald Rumsfeld inNovember 2003 ("We don't do body counts on otherpeople") and the Pentagon last January ("The onlything we keep track of is casualties for US troops andcivilians").

But it's not true. Almost every week the Pentagonclaims to have killed 50 or 70 or 100 insurgents inits latest assault on the latest stronghold of theubiquitous monster Zarqawi. In May the chairman of thejoint chiefs of staff said that his soldiers hadkilled 250 of Zarqawi's "closest lieutenants" (or so500 of his best friends had told him). But last week,the Pentagon did something new. Buried in its latestsecurity report to Congress is a bar chart labelled"average daily casualties - Iraqi and coalition. 1 Jan04-16 Sep 05". The claim that it kept no track ofIraqi deaths was false.

The report does not explain what it means by casualty,or if its figures represent all casualties, onlyinsurgents, or, as the foregoing paragraph appears tohint, only civilians killed by insurgents. There is noexplanation of how the figures were gathered orcompiled. The only accompanying text consists of thewords "Source: MNC-I", which means Multi-NationalCorps - Iraq. We'll just have to trust them.

What the chart shows is that these unexplainedcasualties have more than doubled since the beginningof the Pentagon's survey. From January to March 2004,26 units of something or other were happening everyday, while in September 2005 the something or otherrose to 64. But whatever it is that's been rising, theweird morality of this war dictates that it isreported as good news. Journalists have beenmultiplying the daily average of mystery units by thenumber of days, discovering that the figure is lowerthan previous estimates of Iraqi deaths, and using itto cast doubts on them. As ever, the study in the lineof fire is the report published by the Lancet inOctober last year.

It was a household survey - of 988 homes in 33randomly selected districts - and it suggested, on thebasis of the mortality those households reportedbefore and after the invasion, that the risk of deathin Iraq had risen by a factor of 1.5; somewherebetween 8,000 and 194,000 extra people had died, withthe most probable figure being 98,000. Around half thedeaths, if Falluja was included, or 15% if it was not,were caused by violence, and the majority of those byattacks on the part of US forces.

In the US and the UK, the study was either ignored ortorn to bits. The media described it as "inflated","overstated", "politicised" and "out of proportion".Just about every possible misunderstanding anddistortion of its statistics was published, of whichthe most remarkable was the Observer's claim that:"The report's authors admit it drew heavily on therebel stronghold of Falluja, which has been plagued byfierce fighting. Strip out Falluja, as the studyitself acknowledged, and the mortality rate is reduceddramatically." In fact, as they made clear on pageone, the authors had stripped out Falluja; theirestimate of 98,000 deaths would otherwise have beenmuch higher.

But the attacks in the press succeeded in sinking thestudy. Now, whenever a newspaper or broadcasterproduces an estimate of civilian deaths, the Lancetreport is passed over in favour of lesser figures. Forthe past three months, the editors and subscribers ofthe website Medialens have been writing to papers andbroadcasters to try to find out why. The standardresponse, exemplified by a letter from the BBC'sonline news service last week, is that the study's"technique of sampling and extrapolating from sampleshas been criticised". That's true, and by the samereasoning we could dismiss the fact that 6 millionpeople were killed in the Holocaust, on the groundsthat this figure has also been criticised, albeit byskinheads. The issue is not whether the study has beencriticised, but whether the criticism is valid.
As Medialens has pointed out, it was the same leadauthor, using the same techniques, who reported that1.7 million people had died as a result of conflict inthe Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). That findinghas been cited by Tony Blair, Colin Powell and almostevery major newspaper on both sides of the Atlantic,and none has challenged either the method or theresult. Using the Congo study as justification, the UNsecurity council called for all foreign armies toleave the DRC and doubled the country's UN aid budget.

The other reason the press gives for burying theLancet study is that it is out of line with competingestimates. Like Jack Straw, wriggling his way aroundthe figures in a written ministerial statement, theycompare it to the statistics compiled by the Iraqihealth ministry and the website Iraq Body Count.

In December 2003, Associated Press reported that"Iraq's health ministry has ordered a halt to a countof civilians killed during the war". According to thehead of the ministry's statistics department, both thepuppet government and the Coalition ProvisionalAuthority demanded that it be stopped. As Naomi Kleinhas shown on these pages, when US soldiers stormedFalluja (a year ago today), their first action was toseize the general hospital and arrest the doctors. TheNew York Times reported that "the hospital wasselected as an early target because the Americanmilitary believed that it was the source of rumoursabout heavy casualties". After the coalition had usedthese novel statistical methods to improve theresults, Blair told parliament that "figures from theIraqi ministry of health, which are a survey from thehospitals there, are in our view the most accuratesurvey there is".

Iraq Body Count, whose tally has reached26,000-30,000, measures only civilian deaths which canbe unambiguously attributed to the invasion and whichhave been reported by two independent news agencies.As the compilers point out, "it is likely that many ifnot most civilian casualties will go unreported by themedia ... our own total is certain to be anunderestimate of the true position, because of gaps inreporting or recording". Of the seven mortalityreports surveyed by the Overseas DevelopmentInstitute, the estimate in the Lancet's paper was onlythe third highest. It remains the most thorough studypublished so far. Extraordinary as its numbers seem,they are the most likely to be true.

And what of the idea that most of the violent deathsin Iraq are caused by coalition troops? Well accordingto the Houston Chronicle, even Blair's favourite datasource, the Iraqi health ministry, reports that twiceas many Iraqis - and most of them civilians - arebeing killed by US and UK forces as by insurgents.When the Pentagon claims that it has just killed 50 or70 or 100 rebel fighters, we have no means of knowingwho those people really were. Everyone it blows topieces becomes a terrorist. In July Jack Keane, theformer vice chief of staff of the US army, claimedthat coalition troops had killed or captured more than50,000 "insurgents" since the start of the rebellion.Perhaps they were all Zarqawi's closest lieutenants.

We can expect the US and UK governments to seek tominimise the extent of their war crimes. But it's timethe media stopped collaborating.

www.monbiot.com

4) For those who are exasperated by Ahmedinejad's comments about Israel, here are some parallel examples arising from Israeli politicians through the ages:

Words that Went Unpunished
Jihad el-Khazen
Al-Hayat - 07/11/05//

As we all know now, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoting Ayatollah Khomeini as he spoke to students who gathered in Tehran for a conference called "The World Without Zionism."

All hell broke loose after the speech and Iran was threatened by the same countries which apologize for Israel's crimes against the Palestinians.

I said yesterday words don't kill, bullets do. But since the West show more interest in words than deeds, I have the following:

-"If only it would sink into the sea", Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin referring to Gaza, just before signing the Oslo Accords.

"I don't know something called International Principles. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I've killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in 1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian women is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do", Ariel Sharon, current Prime Minister, in an interview with General Ouze Merham, 1956.

-"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population", David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. Also Israel Koenig "The Koenig memorandum".

-"Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories", Benjamin Netanyahu: Speech at Bar-Ilan University, 1989.

-"We must expel Arabs and take their places", David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.

-"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves." Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv , October 1983.

-"[I advocate] using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes [and] against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment. [I do not understand] the squeamishness about the use of gas [...] We cannot in any circumstamstances acquiesce in the non-utilisation of any weapons which are available to procure a speedy termination of the disorder which prevails on the frontier." Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State at the British War Office, authorising RAF Middle East Command to attack rebelling Iraqis with chemical weapons, 1919.

-"The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more".... Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000 .

-"The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." Israeli Prime Minister Menahim Begin in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988
They are all Menahim Begin. But bad as they are they are no worse than their apologists who provide them with cover, and always come up with excuses to justify their crimes.

The Israeli translation company Memri would translate a sermon of an Imam in a desert outpost that no Muslims outside the outpost itself had heard of. But it does not translate the venom of the settlers' rabbis. Four Palestinian civilians have been killed by settlers since the withdrawal from Gaza and about one hundred other civilians by military strikes since the hudna (truce) of February. This is terrorism, not words that mean nothing in practical terms.

http://www.j-khazen.blogspot.com/

5) Here's a website devoted to recording transgressions against the laws of warfare in Iraq:

http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ArticlesIraq2.htm#AlQaim

6) Mark LeVine analyzes the profits to be gained from chaos in the Middle East:

Playing the Chaos Card in the Middle East
By Mark A. LeVine

Within twenty-four hours, on October 16-17, the New York Times ran three stories about the threat increasing chaos posed to emerging, still fragile political orders in Iraq, Palestine, and the Sudan. In all three cases, the chaos afflicting these societies was described as an unintentional and negative consequence of ill-conceived policies put in place by the various governments involved: the U.S. in Iraq, Israel as it withdrew from Gaza, and the Sudanese Government as it finally tried to restrain marauding Janjaweed militias in Darfur. In no case was the chaos viewed as intentional or beneficial to one or more of the forces competing for control of these countries....

7) This article analyzes the effects of current US foreign policy on perceptions of US brand marketing:

Bush's Bad Business Empire
Making the World Unsafe for Microsoft and Mickey Mouse
By Mark Engler

The Bush administration has a reputation for creating an unusually business-friendly White House. Put Dick Cheney's secretive Energy Task Force and massive tax cuts together with corporate lobbyists writing regulations for their own industries, and you've made an argument that seems pretty persuasive.

There are reasons, however, to consider a contrary notion: Maybe George Bush and Dick Cheney aren't very good capitalists at all.

George W. Bush's history as a failed businessman is well known. Dick Cheney, portrayed by conservatives as a brilliant ex-CEO and by progressives as a Halliburton shill, also has a suspect past. While he certainly increased Halliburton's profile in four-and-a-half years as its chief, his foremost accomplishment was the $7.7 billion acquisition in 1998 of Dresser Industries, a rival that turned out to be plagued with staggering asbestos-related liabilities. In the wake of Cheney's reign, multiple Halliburton divisions sought bankruptcy protection and the company's stock price plunged. Rolling Stone magazine reported in August 2004, "Even with the bounce Halliburton stock has received from the war, an investor who put $100,000 into the company just before Cheney became vice president would have less than $60,000 today."

Many analysts hold the Vice President accountable for the downturn, arguing that Dresser's asbestos problems, which cost Halliburton billions, were predictable. Less harsh critics nonetheless question his success as a business leader. For instance, Jason E. Putman, an energy analyst at Victory Capital Management, argues that, as Halliburton chief, "[o]verall, Cheney did maybe at best an average job." Newsweek's Wall Street editor, Allan Sloan, is less complimentary, suggesting Cheney was a "CEO who messed up big-time."

When it comes to Iraq, we hear a lot about the government largesse flowing toward Halliburton, Bechtel, and a handful of other favored firms. Less often do we consider the possibility that the administration's "war on terrorism" has been a major business blunder. If you start, though, with the lackluster corporate records of Bush and Cheney, the administration's foreign policy comes into quite a different focus. Even if you believe that the White House is designing its overseas crusade to benefit U.S. corporations, there's no reason to assume that it has been doing so successfully.

Increasingly, the business press is suggesting that corporate leaders, who once hoped the current administration would push the corporate globalization of the Clinton years to new heights, now fear another fate from the international order Bush has created. Tax cuts and deregulation on the domestic front have been obvious bonuses, but otherwise many U.S. multinationals face a troubling scene. The White House's failed CEOs have pursued a global agenda that, at best, benefits a narrow slice of the American business community and leaves the rest exposed to a world of popular resentment and economic uncertainty.
When it comes to the interventions of Bush, Cheney, Condi, and the neocons in the global economy, "at best an average job" might be a charitable judgment, and "messed up big-time" could be closer to reality. Those business people who have yet to join the majority that opposes the president's handling of his war in Iraq -- or the increasing chorus of conservative critics who have begun questioning the administration's foreign policy -- may soon have a long list of reasons to get on the bandwagon, starting with the bottom line.
Not KFC's War

In recent years, KFC has had some trying moments in the Muslim world. In early September, a bomb exploded inside one of the company's fried-chicken outlets in Karachi, Pakistan. It was not the first time the chain had been targeted. In May, a Shia mob, angered by U.S. backing for President Pervez Musharraf and by reported abuses at Guantánamo Bay, set fire to another KFC outlet -- one decked out with large images of Colonel Sanders set atop fields of stars and stripes. Two other branches were destroyed shortly after the U.S. attack on Afghanistan in 2001.

The woes affecting KFC go well beyond one fast-food chain -- McDonald's, too, has been attacked in Pakistan and Indonesia -- and the torching of fast-food outlets is only the most dramatic sign of the new business climate being fostered by a changing American foreign policy. If Clinton's diplomatic affairs could be described as a sustained effort to make the world safe for Mickey Mouse, Microsoft, and popcorn chicken, the Bush/Cheney agenda represents something altogether more dangerous for business.

The Clinton administration served as a steady advocate for building a cooperative, "rules-based" international economy -- a multilateral order known to critics as "corporate globalization." The Bush administration, while purporting to be interested in issues like "free trade," has offered up a very different set of policies. Aggressive and unilateralist, it has fashioned a new model of "imperial globalization" which has even put multilateral institutions like the World Trade Organization, decried by globalization activists, in jeopardy. Rather than working through such bodies, the current administration has regularly shown intransigence in international negotiations around trade and development; it has focused on tying its aid for other countries directly to its militarist prerogatives; and it has tried to deny war-weary "Old Europe" its traditional role as a junior partner in the globalization endeavor. In the process, it has begun dismantling an international order that se! rved multinational corporations very well in the booming 1990s, and facilitated their rise over the past 30 years.

In short: If Bush is an oil president, he's not a Disney president, nor a Coca-Cola one. If Cheney is working diligently to help Halliburton rebound, the war he helped lead hasn't worked out nearly so well for Starbucks.

A Bungled-Brand America

Whether the administration's bold gamble for U.S. global dominance will prove profitable either in the near future or in the long run, the business costs of this approach are already becoming evident. For starters, the new wave of anti-Americanism sweeping the planet goes far beyond KFC bombings in South Asia or widespread hostility in the Middle East. In Asia, the South China Morning Post has noted that a "strong, growing hostility" toward the United States has complicated Disney's expansion plans in the area. The Bush imperial foreign policy, moreover, is inspiring consumer backlash even among traditional allies.
In December 2004, Jim Lobe of Inter Press Service reported on a survey of 8,000 international consumers released by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc. The survey noted that

"one-third of all consumers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom said that U.S. foreign policy, particularly the ‘war on terror' and the occupation of Iraq, constituted their strongest impression of the United States... 'Unfortunately, current American foreign policy is viewed by international consumers as a significant negative, when it used to be a positive,' comments Dr. Mitchell Eggers, GMI's chief operating officer and chief pollster."

Brands the survey identified as particularly at risk at the time included Marlboro cigarettes, America Online (AOL), McDonald's, American Airlines, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron Texaco, United Airlines, Budweiser, Chrysler, Barbie Doll, Starbucks, and General Motors.

More recent assessments have verified these trends. Indeed, in past months, a litany of stories in the financial
press featured unnerving questions for business. Typical were the British Financial Times in August (World Turning Its Back on Brand America) and Forbes in September (Is Brand America In Trouble?).

A U.S. Banker magazine article from August relaying the results of an Edelman Trust Barometer survey of global elites found that "41 percent of Canadian elites were less likely to purchase American products because of Bush Administration policies, compared to 56 percent in the UK, 61 percent in France, 49 percent in Germany and 42 percent in Brazil."

It's not just snooty foreigners who are negative, either. American business leaders themselves have been starting to link economic woes to imperial policy. The previously mentioned U.S. Banker article warned, "[T]he majority of American CEOs, whose firms employ eight million overseas, are now acknowledging that anti-American sentiment is a problem." And a 2004 Boston Herald story, headlined Mass. Execs: Iraqi War Hurting; U.S. competitiveness becoming a casualty, pointed to the "sixty-two percent of executives surveyed by Opinion Dynamics Corp. [who] said the war is hurting America's global competitiveness."

Regularly featured in stories about America's image problems is a group of corporate executives who have come together as Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA).While avoiding an explicit stance on the Iraq war, the BDA argues:

"The costs associated with rising anti-American sentiment are exponential. From security and economic costs to an erosion in our ability to engender trust around the world and recruit the best and brightest, the U.S. stands to lose its competitive edge if steps are not made toward reversing the negativity associated with America."

Compared to the adverse impacts of Bush's imperial globalization, the administration's efforts at Karen-Hughes-style brand rehabilitation are laughable -- and the BDA knows it. Taking diplomatic matters into their own hands, BDA spokespeople flatly state, "Right now the US government is not a credible messenger."

A Quagmire for Corporations

Is the problem just one of perception, or have the wages of war cut into business profits? In June 2004, USA Today reporter James Cox wrote about how financially ailing companies are pointing to the war as the culprit:

"Hundreds of companies blame the Iraq war for poor financial results in 2003, many warning that continued U.S. military involvement there could harm this year's performance. In recent regulatory filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), airlines, home builders, broadcasters, mortgage providers, mutual funds and others directly blame the war for lower revenues and profits last year."

Among those complaining, Hewlett-Packard claimed that the occupation of Iraq has created uncertainty and hurt its stock price; meanwhile, media companies Hearst-Argyle Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Journal Communications bemoaned the number of TV and radio ads pre-empted by war news.
While fingering the war might be just a convenient excuse for some underperforming executives, the level of grumbling is noteworthy, as are the comments of outspoken fund managers profiled by Cox:

"'The war in Iraq created a quagmire for corporations,' David J. Galvan, a portfolio manager for Wayne Hummer Income Fund, says in his letter to shareholders.

"Vintage Mutual Funds concludes that ‘the price of these commitments (in Iraq and Afghanistan) may be more than the American public had expected or is willing to tolerate'…

"In an SEC filing, Domenic Colasacco, manager of the Boston Balanced Fund, calls the ongoing U.S. occupation ‘sad and increasingly risky.'"

Of course, we know that reconstruction companies are posting profits. Sales of gas masks and armored Humvees are also up. But such war-supported companies are a small minority. On the other hand, the diverse businesses in the tourism industry have taken a huge blow. Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Orbitz, Priceline.com, Morton's steakhouses, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Host Marriott, to name just a few, have blamed disappointing returns on the war. Travel industry leaders have warned:

"The US is losing billions of dollars as international tourists are deterred from visiting the US because of a tarnished image overseas and more bureaucratic visa policies... 'It's an economic imperative to address these problems,' said Roger Dow, chief executive of the Travel Industry Association of America, tourism's main trade body... Mr. Dow stressed that tourism contributed to a positive perception of the US... 'If we don't address these issues in tourism, the long-term impact for American brands Coca-Cola, General Motors, McDonald's could be very damaging.'"

Economic Nightmares Foretold

Every year, the global business elite gathers at a resort in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. In the high-flying Clinton years, a feeling of exuberance pervaded the globalists' gathering -- protests outside their meetings notwithstanding. By January 2003, however, the mood in Davos had already darkened perceptibly. Economic optimism was waning. The coming war in Iraq, in particular, was causing concern. Corporate leaders showed little more enthusiasm than the protestors outside for the impending unilateralist invasion. Analysts fed their misgivings, citing "the threat of war as the biggest question mark hanging over global growth prospects."

Around the same time, progressive economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot detailed a possible worst-case scenario in a policy report entitled The Economic Costs of a War in Iraq. Beyond the costs of anti-Americanism abroad, they focused on three additional areas of concern: A war-related oil shock that might cost the American economy hundreds of thousands of jobs over a seven-year period; a heightened risk of terrorist attacks in the U.S. which might result in increased security costs, slowing the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); and a likelihood that increased oil prices would drag the developing world into a deep recession.

I asked Baker how relevant the report's concerns have proven. Though he emphasizes that the worst did not come to pass, he notes worrying signs. Oil prices have indeed skyrocketed, owing largely to increased demand from China and India, but exacerbated by Iraq's AWOL oil. Moreover, as each new intelligence estimate predicts that we are less, not more, secure because of the Iraqi occupation, the risk of an economy-crippling attack grows. Already, Baker points out, the hours we spend waiting in security lines at the airport or delayed in city subways represent costly economic losses.

Then, of course, there is the as yet unrealized possibility that spreading guerilla warfare and terrorism will include escalating sabotage against vast and largely indefensible stretches of oil pipeline in the Middle East. It is this scenario among others that caused professor of Middle Eastern history and Informed Comment blogger Juan Cole to liken Bush's Iraq debacle to "throwing grenades around in the cockpit of the world economy."
Such costs, foretold before the invasion, suggest that the pre-war pessimism in Davos was well justified. And such a modest list hardly exhausts the possible economic "downsides" to Bush administration policies in Iraq and beyond. The debate about Congressional spending, for one, deserves at least passing mention. Whether fiscal conservatives are right that Iraq- and tax-cut-bloated deficits are necessarily bad for business, or whether Military Keynesianism has actually been helping to soften a periodic economic downturn, the idea of war without sacrifice should sound fishy to any account-minded executive. Take direct war costs running in the hundreds of billions, add in medical bills for disabled veterans, then throw in the costs of National Guard reservists being pulled from small businesses, and pretty soon you're talking real money. At some point the overvalued dollar, which our creditors in the central banks of C! hina and Japan have decided to let ride for the time being, will have to come down and is likely to bring the economy with it. When that happens, Colonel Sanders won't be the only one to feel the pain.

Will Business Turn?

Back in August of the 2004 election cycle, the Kerry campaign distributed a list of 204 business executives who supported the candidate's policies. It was a nice try, but, as Bloomberg News reported, the Democrat trailed Bush badly in corporate support. Fifty-two chief executives from major companies had by then donated to Kerry; 280 to the president's re-election campaign. (Business being business, "at least three executives on Kerry's list also gave the maximum $2,000 to Bush's re-election campaign.")

A year has passed since the elections. Approval ratings for the victorious president continue to sink to all-time lows, and "staying the course" remains official Washington policy for Iraq. In this context, it's not surprising that Republican "realists" like Brent Scowcroft (who warned in a Wall Street Journal op-ed before the war that "it undoubtedly would be very expensive -- with serious consequences for the U.S. and global economy") are making noise again. And it would make perfect sense if an increasing number of those Bush CEOs were by now pining for a return to Clinton-style multilateral globalization of a sort still held out by the defeated Senator from Massachusetts and many other Democrats.

Neither of these alternative camps will seem particularly appealing to progressives, but they pose a genuine threat to the imperial globalists who seem incapable of extracting themselves from Iraq. Indeed, intra-party rivalry among the Republicans -- which is likely to increase as we enter an election year -- could play a vital role in turning White House hawks into dead ducks. All the better if this avian transformation is sped by dissatisfaction from corporate leaders reevaluating the costs of Bush foreign policy and deciding that empire just doesn't pay.

Mark Engler, a writer based in New York City, is an analyst with Foreign Policy In Focus and a contributor to TomPaine.com, Newsday, and In These Times. He can be reached via the web site DemocracyUprising.com. Research assistance for this article was provided by Kate Griffiths.

Copyright 2005 Mark Engler

8) This Guardian op-ed last week caused quite a storm in the UK:

Iraq war has exposed us to terror at home, says Meyer

Ewen MacAskill and Julian GloverSaturday November 5, 2005
Guardian

Britain's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, delivers a damaging critique of Tony Blair's approach to the war in Iraq in an interview in the Guardian today.

Sir Christopher, who had a ringside seat in the decision-making that led to the war, unfavourably contrasts Mr Blair with the boldness and attention to detail of Margaret Thatcher. He says Lady Thatcher took pride in knowing more detail than her officials. "That is why it was terrifying to be summoned into her presence because if you did not know your stuff, she would expose you. There was never that danger with Tony Blair."
He takes issue with the prime minister's claim that the war has not exposed Britain to terrorist attacks: "There is plenty of evidence around at the moment that home-grown terrorism was partly radicalised and fuelled by what is going on in Iraq. There is no way we can credibly get up and say it has nothing to do with it. Don't tell me that being in Iraq has got nothing to do with it. Of course it does."

Sir Christopher gave the interview to mark the publication of DC Confidential, the first account by an insider of the decision-making that led to war, to be serialised in the Guardian from Monday.

Unusually for a diplomat, his account is revealing about a host of cabinet ministers who passed through the Washington embassy, such as John Prescott and Jack Straw, and exposes the vanities of advisers such as Lord Levy, Mr Blair's Middle East envoy.

But the part of the book which will attract the most attention concerns Mr Blair and his dealings with George Bush in the run-up to war. He portrays the PM as a man of moral and philosophical certitude but not overly interested in the nitty-gritty of policy. In the interview, he says it would be wrong to see Mr Blair as "an empty vessel". He adds: "By God, in British politics, when on top of his game, his speeches are incredible."
Sir Christopher, who supported the war, sat in on the crucial meetings between Mr Blair and Mr Bush, reading transcripts of their private phone calls and regularly meeting figures such as Dick Cheney, the vice-president, and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary.

He reveals that the Foreign Office, which raised doubts about the wisdom of the war, had been even more marginalised by Downing Street than had until now been realised. He said he dealt almost exclusively with Downing Street in the 18 months before the war and could recall few, if any, phone calls with the Foreign Office in that time.

Sir Christopher said he had reflected hard on his time in Washington and its influence on the Iraq war. Although he supported the war and still feels it was right in principle, he now believes that much could have been done differently.

9) Blair blames France for preventing the "UN cover" that would have rendered the 2003 invasion of Iraq legal. Perhaps, but if France and the other 11 SC members who opposed war HAD authorized the invasion, that would have been sufficient cause for pretty much the entire 3rd world to leave the UN altogether -- because the invasion would not have been any more legitimate in the eyes of that part of the world, and US forces in Iraq would not faced any less resistance than they are seeing today:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article325480.ece

Blair blames France for Iraq war in reply todiplomat's claims

By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 08 November 2005

Tony Blair has angrily rejected the charge byBritain's former ambassador to Washington, SirChristopher Meyer, that he could have used his "swingvote" to stop the US going to war in Iraq.

Sir Christopher claimed in his outspoken memoirs thatBritain's support for military action was "taken forgranted" by the White House, after Mr Blair agreed tomilitary action with reservations at the Bush ranch inCrawford, Texas, in April 2002.

At his monthly press conference yesterday, the PrimeMinister responded with claims that the FrenchPresident, Jacques Chirac, was to blame for the slideto war without a second UN resolution. He said theFrench had threatened to veto a second UN resolutionon Iraq.

Mr Blair told journalists: "If you go back and look atwhat happened in March 2003, I think you will see thatI made the most strenuous efforts to get a second UNresolution and to end up with a second resolution thatwould have given us more time. The fact is, wecouldn't get one for a very simple reason: the Frenchmade it clear they would veto any such resolution."

Senior French sources accused Mr Blair of a faultymemory. "Only four out of the 15 members of theSecurity Council supported a new resolution andBritain needed nine to win approval. It is completelywrong to blame it on France," said one official.

Sir Christopher supported the French in concludingthat the French opposition to the draft UN resolutionwas not final. He said: "I never interpreted theFrench refusal to accept the draft of a secondresolution as a refusal for ever and a day. Indiplomacy, you never say never.

"Talking to me in private, French officials accuseAmerica and Britain of deliberately exaggeratingFrance's position to justify going to war withoutfurther UN cover."

Sir Christopher, 61, a career diplomat, said that inearly October 2002 he asked a White House contactwhether the US mobilisation for war had advanced sofar that it was unstoppable. "I was told that thePresident had not yet signed off on going to war.Nothing was irrevocable."

He said President Bush would still have faced anagonising decision if he had encountered oppositionfrom his key ally, Britain, in the weeks before thewar in 2003. "The advice the British Prime Ministerthen gave the US President would never have been moreimportant in my time in Washington. It could even bethe swing vote for war or peace. The pendulum neverswung back again."

Tony Blair has angrily rejected the charge byBritain's former ambassador to Washington, SirChristopher Meyer, that he could have used his "swingvote" to stop the US going to war in Iraq.

Sir Christopher claimed in his outspoken memoirs thatBritain's support for military action was "taken forgranted" by the White House, after Mr Blair agreed tomilitary action with reservations at the Bush ranch inCrawford, Texas, in April 2002.

At his monthly press conference yesterday, the PrimeMinister responded with claims that the FrenchPresident, Jacques Chirac, was to blame for the slideto war without a second UN resolution. He said theFrench had threatened to veto a second UN resolutionon Iraq.

Mr Blair told journalists: "If you go back and look atwhat happened in March 2003, I think you will see thatI made the most strenuous efforts to get a second UNresolution and to end up with a second resolution thatwould have given us more time. The fact is, wecouldn't get one for a very simple reason: the Frenchmade it clear they would veto any such resolution."

Senior French sources accused Mr Blair of a faultymemory. "Only four out of the 15 members of theSecurity Council supported a new resolution andBritain needed nine to win approval. It is completelywrong to blame it on France," said one official.Sir Christopher supported the French in concludingthat the French opposition to the draft UN resolutionwas not final. He said: "I never interpreted theFrench refusal to accept the draft of a secondresolution as a refusal for ever and a day. Indiplomacy, you never say never.

"Talking to me in private, French officials accuseAmerica and Britain of deliberately exaggeratingFrance's position to justify going to war withoutfurther UN cover."

Sir Christopher, 61, a career diplomat, said that inearly October 2002 he asked a White House contactwhether the US mobilisation for war had advanced sofar that it was unstoppable. "I was told that thePresident had not yet signed off on going to war.Nothing was irrevocable."

He said President Bush would still have faced anagonising decision if he had encountered oppositionfrom his key ally, Britain, in the weeks before thewar in 2003. "The advice the British Prime Ministerthen gave the US President would never have been moreimportant in my time in Washington. It could even bethe swing vote for war or peace. The pendulum neverswung back again."

10) Peak Oil again:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,1636920,00.html

Jeremy Leggett explains how a bid to defuse the comingglobal peak-oil crisis was sidelined
Tuesday November 8, 2005

History shows that James Schlesinger, a formerdirector of the CIA, is not a man to mess with. Assecretary of defence during the first oil shock in1973, he threatened to invade the Arabian peninsula ifthe Saudis didn't reopen the oil pumps they had shutdown in ire over the October war, thus precipitatingthe crisis.

In an interesting contrast with the US's currentprofessed intentions in Iraq, Mr Schlesinger was onrecord then as saying: "Militarily we could haveseized one of the Arab states. And the plan did indeedscare and anger them. No, it wasn't just bravado. Itwas clearly intended as a warning. I think the Arabswere quite worried about it after 73".

So it was with some surprise that participants in lastweek's oil summit in Rimini, Italy, heard MrSchlesinger give a speech warning of a grave threat tothe world economy from a coming peak in oilproduction.
Addressing a select audience that included oilministers and senior officials from the oil cartelOpec, the energy watchdog International Energy Agency,and the UN, plus advocates of a premature oil peaksuch as the former British cabinet minister MichaelMeacher, Mr Schlesinger offered a graphic analogy.

The peak-oil threat and the response to it arereminiscent, he said, of the rumbles under Vesuviusand the reaction to them of its hapless residents."The peak or plateau is coming," he said.

He's right. We don't know exactly when, but theprobability is sooner rather than later. When it comesto oilfield discoveries these days, oil companies arefinding small deposits, in contrast with the massiveoilfields of old. In fact, 80% of global productiontoday still come from the oilfields discovered before1970, and these are being rapidly pumped towardsexhaustion.

Yet demand is soaring. "Political systems do not dealeasily with long term threats, even if they have aprobability of 100%," Schlesinger warned.

His message was clear: economic horror will descend onthe world if we do not plan ahead, and the time tostart is now. We are asleep at the wheel, like thecitizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum were, looking upat their volcano and thinking that its dormant statewould be destiny. They ignored the rumbles, and endedup buried under ten metres of ash.

Mr Schlesinger threw a barb at the detractors he knewwould follow him at the podium. Most people, and allgovernments, are in denial, he intimated. "Every timesomeone says the peak is far off, there is an audiblesigh of relief."

He cited Daniel Yergin, the chairman of theinfluential oil industry consultancy Cambridge EnergyResearch Associates. "When Daniel Yergin said the peakwouldn't be until 2020 in a recent report, it wasgreeted with elation," Mr Schlesinger said.

This is what people in denial want to hear, MrSchlesinger implied, and people like Mr Yergin arehappy to say it. Somewhat appropriately, Mr Yergingave the last speech in the main plenary. "I don't seewhy human genius can't meet the challenge," Mr Yerginsaid. He recited a long litany of the oil industry'stechnical prowess, and the scope for all the kit andfine minds to find new oilfields in deep water,enhance recovery from existing oilfields, and thelike.

Moreover, he said, his company had access to aproprietary database run by the US-based IHS Energygroup that backs the case for optimism.

Ordinary mortals can buy access to that database for amillion dollars or more. Or they can talk to thegeologist who worked on it in its early years, ColinCampbell, for free. Working on the early version ofthe database, and keeping his own version of itupdated since, Mr Campbell has become the leadarchitect of peak-oil whistleblowing in and around theoil industry.

Mr Campbell was at the Rimini event, and had with himthe draft of a protocol written in the languagegovernments would need if they wanted to defuse thepeak-oil crisis. Advocating the simple and achievableexpedient of demand management at the same rate asglobal depletion, it was to be called the Riminiprotocol.

Mr Campbell's understanding, along with fellowadvocates like Mr Meacher, was that the launch of theprotocol was to be a main feature of the summit.Indeed, the organisers told him that Mikhail Gorbachevwas due to launch the protocol in a plenary speech.

Mr Meacher had earlier appealed publicly for theorganisers to give the protocol maximum publicity,saying that the peak-oil crisis would unleash aneconomic apocalypse if governments didn't act.

It was not to be. Mr Gorbechev didn't show up and MrCampbell was not allocated a slot to speak in the mainplenary. Somewhere, somehow, amid all the machinationsinvolved in persuading the oil industry's glitteratito turn up at the event, the Rimini protocol hadbecome sidelined.

The summit was entitled "The Spirit of the Empire,"and that spirit - exemplified by Daniel Yergin'sbravura performance - expressed itself in accordancewith current global form. The rumblings below theVesuvius of the hydrocarbon age could be heard loudand clear in Rimini. And the citizens of Pompeiielected to dream on.
· Jeremy Leggett's book on peak oil, Half Gone: Oil,Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis, ispublished this week by Portobello Books.