Orwellian Nightmare Down Under? | U.N.
coming for your guns | Russia, PRC
U.S. eavesdrop backs claims of Russian losses
| Treasury shredded Indian-trust documents
Police Behavior in Seattle Condemned
Orwellian Nightmare Down Under?
by Stewart Taggart
3:00 a.m. 4.Dec.1999 PST
SYDNEY, Australia -- Any data seem different on your computer
today?
If you're in Australia, the government has the ability to modify
your files. Its cyber spooks have been given legal power not only to monitor
private computers around the country, but to change the data they contain.
The new powers are contained in a bill passed by Australia's
parliament late last month (the Australian Security Intelligence Organization
Legislation Amendment 1999). They now await only the largely ceremonial
assent of Australia's governor general before becoming law.
"These are really untested waters," says Chris Connolly, a vocal
Australian privacy advocate. "I don't think there's any example anywhere
else in the world that's comparable."
Under the new law, Australia's attorney general can authorize
legal hacking into private computer systems, as well as copying or altering
data, as long as he has reasonable cause to believe it's relevant to a
"security matter."
The keyboard spies will come from the Australian Security Intelligence
Organization (ASIO), Australia's equivalent of the Central Intelligence
Agency. Catherine Fitzpatrick, spokeswoman for Attorney General Daryl Williams,
said the law merely "modernizes" an existing 1979 statute that previously
governed ASIO, and sorely needed updating.
"This just brings ASIO's powers in line with new technologies,"
she said. "It doesn't give them increased powers at all."
For example, the new law bars sleuths from introducing viruses
or interfering with data used for lawful purposes on targeted computers,
she said. In addition, the bill limits the power to alter data on a computer
to concealing surveillance, she said.
While all this is true, the bill also specifically authorizes
-- among other things -- anything that's "reasonably incidental." And it's
broad wording like this -- as well as the weak oversight of the nation's
cyber spies -- that have opponents aghast.
The Minuteman Prayer
GOD grant me the
serenity to accept
the things
I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the superior firepower to make
the
difference.
Let's put these criminals back where they belong!
U.N. coming for your guns | Russia, PRC | U.S. eavesdrop
backs claims of Russian losses
Treasury shredded Indian-trust documents |
Police Behavior in Seattle Condemned
American gun owners and advocacy groups like the National Rifle
Association are suddenly finding that when it comes to firearms legislation,
they had better pay attention to what's happening not only in Congress
and their state legislatures, but at the United Nations, where the Second
Amendment is being quietly dismantled behind closed doors.
Since the end of the Cold War, the disarmament community has
brought small arms and light weapons within its sphere of interest, placing
them and their "proliferation" on a par with such long-standing concerns
as nuclear missiles and bio-chemical weapons. Though the terms tend to
be used interchangeably, the United Nations defines small arms as weapons
designed for personal use, while light weapons are those designed for several
persons operating as a crew. Together, they account for virtually every
kind of firearm from revolvers, pistols, rifles, carbines and light machine
guns all the way to heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft
and anti-tank guns, mortars up to 100 mm caliber, and land mines.
On Sept. 24, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, of
Ghana, called on members of the Security Council to "tackle one of the
key challenges in preventing conflict in the next century" -- the proliferation
and "easy availability" of small arms and light weapons, which Annan identified
as the "primary tools of violence" in conflicts throughout the world.
It was the first time the council had met to discuss the subject,
and Annan praised the United Nations as a whole for playing "a leading
role in putting the issue of small arms firmly on the international agenda."
"Even in societies not beset by civil war, the easy availability
of small arms has in many cases contributed to violence and political instability,"
he said. "Controlling that easy availability is a prerequisite for a successful
peace-building process."
Talk is one thing, but the Security Council then unanimously
adopted the "Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms,"
which had been released Aug. 19 to the General Assembly. The 26-member
group's various recommendations, two dozen in all, add up to a comprehensive
program for worldwide gun control, and call for a total ban on private
ownership of "assault rifles." A few of the recommendations:
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan condemns the "easy availability"
of small arms, calling them the "primary tools of violence" in the world.
All small arms and light weapons which are not under legal civilian
possession and which are not required for the purposes of national defense
and internal security, should be collected and destroyed by States as expeditiously
as possible.
All States should determine in their national laws and regulations
which arms are permitted for civilian possession and the conditions under
which they can be used.
All States should ensure that they have in place adequate laws,
regulations and administrative procedures to exercise effective control
over the legal possession of small arms and light weapons and over their
transfer in order ... to prevent illicit trafficking.
States are encouraged to integrate measures to control ammunition
... into prevention and reduction measures relating to small arms and light
weapons.
States should work towards ... appropriate national legislation,
regulations and licensing requirements that define conditions under which
firearms can be acquired, used and traded by private persons. In particular,
they should consider the prohibition of unrestricted trade and private
ownership of small arms and light weapons specifically designed for military
purposes, such as automatic guns (e.g., assault rifles and machine-guns).
The report notes with approval countries like China that have
acted to "strengthen legal or regulatory controls." China reported that
some 300,000 "illicit" guns were seized and destroyed last year by officials
acting in response to "new and more stringent national regulations that
have come into force ... on the control on guns within the country and
on arms exports." France, too, in 1998 "acted to reinforce governmental
control over military and civilian arms and ammunition, and introduced
more rigorous measures regulating the holding of arms by civilians." And
the United States gave assurances that the federal government has taken
"a number of relevant national measures." All United States citizens, wherever
located, and any person subject to United States law, must now register
in order to engage in arms brokering activities. ..." That is, prior written
approval from the State Department is required.
Contacted for comment, a State Department official who requested
anonymity denied that the report spelled out gun control programs being
imposed on this country via the United Nations, despite the fact that a
State Department senior foreign affairs specialist, Herbert Calhoun, had
served as a member of the group and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
-- representing the United States on the Security Council -- had endorsed
the report.
"The United Nations will not dictate domestic gun control for
any nation," the official told WorldNetDaily. "They can make recommendations
and nations can act on those recommendations as they see fit, but we will
never have the United Nations telling countries what they should do."
Questioned about specific recommendations, he replied, "Those
are just recommendations -- and surprisingly, a number of countries, including
the U.S., take them up on those recommendations. In fact, we support all
24 of those recommendations."
World 'awash' with small arms
The current surge of activity at the United Nations against
small arms was signaled in January 1995 by then-Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali in his "Supplement to an Agenda for Peace," a position paper
on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
The world, he said, was "awash" with small arms that were responsible
for "most of the deaths in current conflicts." Traffic in these weapons
is "very difficult to monitor, let alone intercept." Boutros-Ghali urged
that since progress had been made in the area of weapons of mass destruction
and major weapons systems, "parallel progress in conventional arms, particularly
in respect to light weapons," was needed.
In response to Boutros-Ghali's call, in 1997 Secretary General
Kofi Annan upgraded the United Nations' disarmament office to departmental
status as the Department of Disarmament Affairs, citing his intention to
place greater emphasis on small arms and light weapons. The Department
for Disarmament affairs is headed by Under-Secretary General for Disarmament
Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka.
The new department continues to work on the traditional issues
of nuclear missile systems, test ban treaties and the like -- but there's
now a special website for small arms issues.
This activity at the international level quickly drew the attention
of the National Rifle Association, which has posted a warning in a fact
sheet on its website.
"While the actions of the U.N. do not have direct impact on
U.S. law unless passed as a treaty by the U.N. General Assembly and ratified
by the U.S. Senate, ... the U.N. can do a great deal to interfere with
gun owners' rights by lending an appearance of legitimacy to oppressive
anti-gun measures. It is clear that one of the goals of this effort is
to demonize civilian ownership of guns and make strict regulation of firearms
appear as the only acceptable alternative."
An 'unholy alliance'
Attorney Thomas Mason, who represents the National Rifle Association
at meetings of the United Nations, told WorldNetDaily how this effort to
radically reduce private gun ownership is being furthered not only by U.N.
bureaucrats and delegates, but with the help of non-governmental organizations
-- "NGOs" as they're called -- that have been granted special consultative
status to observe the proceedings and, when invited, present information
and exert considerable influence on delegates and staff.
"A dynamic for worldwide gun control efforts has developed in
the international arena over the past five years -- an unholy alliance
between NGOs, small to medium-size governments and the United Nations,"
said Mason. "People have no idea that the United Nations is a totally closed
process. There is no public records law or open meetings law. As a member
of the public you do not have an automatic right to attend committee meetings.
To get in the door you have to be an accredited NGO."
There are over 1,000 non-governmental accredited organizations
dealing with the numerous issues with which the United Nations concerns
itself: education, health, land use and the environment, and guns. The
National Rifle Association received accreditation in 1995, and is one of
only two pro-gun NGOs to have been certified. The other is the Sporting
Shooters Association of Australia.
"We sought NGO status to monitor the activities of the U.N.
in terms of issues that are important to our membership, more so than to
become an active lobbying force there," explained Patrick O'Malley, deputy
director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. "That's primarily
the role we continue to act in today -- that of observer, monitoring any
number of initiatives that they're working on in places as far flung as
Geneva, Vienna, Cairo."
"But make no mistake," he added, "We are working actively to
ensure that the discussions on specific gun control-connected issues do
not in any way pose a threat to our domestic sovereignty or the public
policy process that we have here in the United States -- that's the goal
of many of the [anti-gun] groups -- to seek a global harmonization -- as
they call it -- of domestic gun control laws.
"And when they speak of 'harmonization,' they don't talk about
other countries coming to our level where we [in the United States] have
a basic right to own a firearm; they're talking about taking the United
States to the standard of many other countries where firearms ownership
is essentially completely banned.
"There are some highly extremist proposals out there," O'Malley
continued, "proposals that range from the bizarre to the ridiculous. Proposals
have been put forward that every single round of ammunition manufactured
be trackable by satellite so that we can establish a protocol for monitoring
what they call 'flows' of small arms and ammunition into areas of conflict."
First landmines, next small arms
This diverse mix of non-governmental organizations -- most with
anti-gun agendas -- national governments, and U.N. leaders has been holding
workshops and conferences throughout the world on firearms-related issues.
"Workshops in the international arena are essentially meetings
to deliberate issues," said Mason. "When a government or NGO sponsors a
workshop, it's much more serious than the ordinary person might think.
That's where the thinking and talking is done and decisions are made."
One such meeting will be held today at the United Nations headquarters
in New York City to discuss the draft of a field guide on light weapons
designed for use by humanitarian and relief personnel working in arms control
programs in hot spots around the world.
The two-hour technical workshop is sponsored by the Program
on Development and Security -- called SAND -- of the Monterey Institute
of International Studies, a private graduate school in Monterey, California,
and the Bonn International Center for Conversion in Germany. The two "think
tanks" are well connected to the United Nations through their work on the
international weapons trade and its perceived impact on communities and
peace-keeping efforts around the world. Dr. Edward J. Laurance, executive
director of the SAND program at the Monterey institute and co-author of
the field manual, also serves as a consultant to the United Nations Panel
of Governmental Experts on Small Arms and the U.N. Register on Conventional
Weapons.
Although it's not unusual for independent groups to give presentations
at the United Nations, today's meeting will be chaired by Jayantha Dhanapala,
under-secretary general for disarmament affairs. The session and its choice
of host are a testimony to the growing influence of NGOs at the United
Nations, and highlight the increased attention paid by that body to the
"proliferation" of personal firearms throughout the world and their possession
by "civilians." The significance of Dhanapala's role heading up the event
is well-appreciated by Laurance.
"All NGOs and governments are invited to look at the first draft
of our field manual," he told WorldNetDaily. "We're unveiling it at the
workshop and getting feedback. But the important thing for us is that the
workshop is hosted by the under-secretary general for disarmament."
Laurance sees an even greater role for organizations like SAND
and the Bonn International Center in the U.N. decision-making process as
that body opens its doors to "civil society."
"Civil society -- that's sort of a buzz word -- meaning NGOs,
academic experts, the public at large," he explained. "The U.N. increasingly
asks people like me and others as consultants. Increasingly, conferences
are held cooperatively with the NGO community, and NGOs are being used
to provide information and ideas."
Laurance called attention to the success of NGOs in the International
Campaign to Ban Landmines. After six years of campaigning, 129 governments
in 1997 signed a treaty banning the production and use of land mines. The
United States is not one of them.
If such a campaign worked with landmines, what about personal
firearms?
"If you followed the Land Mine Treaty, that's a perfect example
of where NGOs were used," he explained. "There was a group of so-called
like-minded states that really wanted the treaty and a bunch of others
that were on the fence. So the NGOs were used to get the countries that
were on the fence to jump in and sign the treaty."
Laurance credits the environmental movement for developing the
process domestically and at the international level.
"The environmental groups showed the way," he said. "They had
the information and they made it available. We've made that point with
the small arms and light weapons issue: that civil society has information,
particularly at the local level. It's civil society that's being hurt by
these weapons. Civil society can tell governments what weapons are doing
the damage and why, and where they come from."
"Many governments understand this," he continued. "The United
States is a special case because of the whole gun control issue, and the
United States has a very special challenge: They have to constantly worry
that what they do in this area internationally doesn't have any domestic
effects."
Besides his work in academia and with the United Nations, Laurance
and the SAND program are active participants in a newly-formed, globe-spanning
coalition of national and international peace, disarmament, humanitarian
and anti-gun groups called the International Action Network on Small Arms
-- which he helped found. It is the kind of far-flung association that
would have been all but impossible to organize and direct in the days before
the Internet and e-mail.
'Flame for peace' gun bonfire
"Perhaps the way forward for the peace movement will be the
high-tech route, using modern technology to lead campaigns of the 21st
century," according to Tamar Gabelnick of the Federation of American Scientists,
and a founder of IANSA. In an article describing the new group, Gabelnick
wrote, "IANSA will act as a coordinator and facilitator for groups worldwide
working to prevent the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light
weapons. A small secretariat will be complemented in its role as an information
warehouse and facilitator of 'mini-campaigns" by heavy reliance on the
web and e-mail. This format will help to harmonize the activities of a
diverse group of organizations while allowing the flexibility necessary
to address the components of this multi-faceted issue."
Recalling Mason's remarks about the "unholy alliance," funding
for the new group has come largely from five agencies of small to medium-size
governments: The Belgian Ministry for Development Cooperation; the Swedish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
the United Kingdom Department for International Development; and the Finnish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After several organizing meetings beginning in December 1997,
IANSA was formally launched May 11 of this year at The Hague during the
Appeal for Peace Conference, which reportedly drew an estimated 7,000 delegates
from around the world to celebrate the centennial of The Hague Peace Conferences
of 1899. To celebrate the formation of the new coalition, organizers destroyed
a collection of firearms donated by governments in a "Flame for Peace"
bonfire in the city center.
Four months after its debut, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
spoke glowingly of the new organization for its role in directing public
attention to the issue of firearms.
"The momentum for combating small arms proliferation has also
come from civil society, which has been increasingly active on this issue,"
Annan said in his Sept. 24 address to the Security Council. "The establishment
early this year of the International Action Network on Small Arms has helped
to sharpen public focus on small arms, which has helped us gain the public
support necessary for success."
"IANSA is a coalition of non-governmental organizations that
was established to organize international efforts for controlling the global
trade in firearms -- that's its main purpose," said Michael Klare, one
of its founders. Klare teaches Peace and Conflict Studies at Hampshire
College in Massachusetts and is co-director of the Project on Light Weapons
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
"It's not designed to become a large organization on its own,"
he continued. "People feel very strongly about not creating a new bureaucracy.
We don't have officers at this point because the understanding is that
the members of IANSA are organizations themselves and only those organizations
can set their own policy."
E.J. Hogendoorn of Human Rights Watch and, like Klare, one of
IANSA's founders, views it more as a campaign.
"It's a very encompassing campaign by different groups that
bring different agendas to the campaign, but all of them center around
the misuse of light weapons and small arms," said Hogendoorn. "So, for
example, Human Rights Watch -- we're not a gun control organization per
se, and traditionally most of our work has been on human rights concerns.
But we do care about people selling weapons to human rights abusers."
Like Human Rights Watch, most members of IANSA are not gun control
organizations per se, nor are they involved in domestic gun-related issues
-- but the measures developed to control gun trafficking at the international
level will necessarily require backup by domestic measures. Membership
in IANSA is open to non-governmental organizations, community groups and
professional associations that support at least some of the group's policy
ojectives and "do not oppose or advocate opposition to those objectives
which they do not explicitly support." Organizers have developed a list
of gun control measures IANSA supports, including:
Reducing the availability of weapons to civilians in all societies.
Providing resources to develop the capacity in national and
local governments to achieve effective controls over small arms possession
and use.
Promoting safe storage practices for small arms on the part
of citizens and states.
Systematic collection and destruction of weapons that are illegally
held by civilians.
Collection and verifiable destruction of surplus weapons as
part of U.N. peacekeeping operations.
Promoting programs to encourage citizens to surrender illegal,
unsafe or unwanted firearms.
Banning the advertisement and promotion of small arms to civilians.
International gun control treaty coming?
At least 200 organizations have signed on with IANSA as supporters
or active participants, including Human Rights Watch, the Federation of
American Scientists, Pax Christi, World Council of Churches, Amnesty International,
Gun Free South Africa, Viva Rio, the leading anti-gun group in Rio de Janiero,
the Arias Foundation in Costa Rio, and the British American Security and
Intelligence Center -- or Basic, which has offices in London and Washington.
The lobbying efforts of IANSA and "likeminded" governments has
begun paying off. A conference is in the works to be held in 2001 that
will cover all aspects of small arms -- and some kind of a firearms protocol
or treaty will probably be on the agenda.
According to the National Rifle Association's Tom Mason: "Proposals
are being floated of an international treaty banning civilian possession
of military-style firearms -- though it's impossible to distinguish military
from civilian; other proposals are calling for the destruction of all surplus
military firearms, calling for the registration and regulation internationally
of all manufacturing and shipping of firearms -- there's a whole series
of very radical proposals.
"They will have their first meeting to prepare for the conference
on February 28," Mason said.
Stephan Archer and Sarah Foster are staff reporters for WorldNetDaily.
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MONDAY, DECEMBER 06, 1999 23:55:47
ET XXXXX
Russia, PRC to act jointly to ensure world security-source.
BEIJING, December 7 (Itar-Tass) - A high-level source in the
Russian delegation, who made preparations for Russian President Boris Yeltsin's
trip to the capital of the People's Republic of China (PRC), told Itar-Tass
on Tuesday that, following an informal meeting between President Yeltsin
and Jiang Zemin, Chairman of the PRC, opening here on December 9, Russia
and China intend to act jointly in the efforts to ensure security and stability
in the world.
The source emphasised that "the leaders of Russia and China
are brought together by an exceptionally warm personal relationship". The
source drew attention to the fact that the Yeltsin-Jiang meeting will be
the Chinese leader's first rendezvous with the top leader of a foreign
state on Chinese soil. Until now, Russian and Chinese leaders have had
seven meetings, with one of them being informal.
END
* * * * *
Yeltsin, Jiang to hold meetings in Beijing Dec 9-10.
MOSCOW, December 6 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin
and Chinese President Jiang Zemin will have three or four meetings in Beijing
next week, a high-ranking official said.
Yeltsin will arrive in Beijing in the first half of the day
on December 9 and will fly back home in the afternoon of December 10.
Yeltsin and Jiang will have "an opportunity to have a semi-
official and completely unofficial conversation".
They will discuss ways to enhance coordination between the two
countries in the interests of security, the source said.
Yeltsin and Jiang plan to discuss "what adequate measures Moscow
and Beijing can take in connection with the current international situation
which worries both countries."
Not for reproduction without permission of the author
U.S. eavesdrop backs claims of Russian losses
Tuesday, 7 December 1999 2:56 (GMT)
(UPI Focus)
U.S. eavesdrop backs claims of Russian losses
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI National Security Editor
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) - Russian army radio traffic
monitored by U.
S. intelligence supports claims that last week the Russians
suffered
their most serious casualties in the current Chechnya conflict.
On the same day that a North Caucasus political
leader alleged the
Russian army lost more than 200 dead in a single engagement,
Russian
troops suffered heavy casualties in another engagement, according
to
monitored radio traffic, well-placed U.S. intelligence sources
told
United Press International on Monday.
The sources said that U.S. signals intelligence,
which is run by the
giant National Security Agency based in Fort Meade, Md., intercepted
a
call on Friday from a Russian helicopter transport pilot saying
he was
carrying at least 60 Russian soldiers seriously wounded in a
single
engagement.
The pilot went on to say that he could not take
more wounded in his
helicopter, one U.S. source said.
The U.S. intelligence sources said American military
intelligence
analysts believed the radio conversation referred to a clash
Friday
during heavy fighting when Russian army units were seeking to
strengthen
their encirclement of the Chechen capital Grozny.
The monitored conversation took place the same
day that a Russian
unit was reported as surrounded - and then wiped out - by Chechen
guerrillas in heavy fighting around the town of Urus-Martan,
12 miles
southwest of the virtually surrounded Chechen capital Grozny.
News of that second engagement was reported later
Friday by Ali
Dudarov, deputy interior minister of the neighboring Russian
autonomous
republic of Ingushetia. But it then was denied by Russian First
Deputy
Chief of Staff Valery Manikov.
Dudarov claimed that Chechen guerrillas surrounded
and then overran
the Russian unit, killing 200 soldiers in the fighting. They
captured
another 50 alive, but then put them to death by slitting their
throats,
he said.
General Manikov later described Dudarov's comments
as lies and said
he had become "a mouthpiece for terrorists and bandits," according
to
the Interfax news agency.
More than 100,000 people are believed to have died
in the first
Chechen War of 1994-96. Russian human rights activist Yelena
Bonner,
speaking before the Helsinki Commission on Human Rights, has
put that
death toll as high as 130,000.
U.S. intelligence sources said that prior to last
week's fighting,
total Russian combat dead in the three months of military operations
so
far in Chechnya were estimated at around 500 dead. If Dudarov's
account
of the casualties suffered proves accurate, that single engagement
could
have raised by about 50 percent the number of military fatalities
suffered by the Russian army in Chechnya.
Russia has concentrated 100,000 men in the North
Caucasus to counter
Chechen independence, three times as large a force as tried
to conquer
the dissident region in the 1994-96 war. Up to now, Russian
military
casualties have been relatively low, thanks to the army's reliance
on
its overwhelmingly superior artillery and aircraft-delivered
firepower.
However, Russian casualties are expected to rise
quickly if the
Russian army tries to storm Grozny over the next two weeks,
as it
threatened to do in leaflets dropped on the city Monday.
The U.S. intelligence sources said U.S. intelligence
and military
analysts were predicting that Russia would face "intensive"
guerrilla
warfare in the region even after it crushed organized resistance
in
Grozny.
So far, the Russian army has occupied the rural
northern one-third of
Chechnya. But it has not attempted to occupy the mountainous
southern
part of the region in the Caucasus Mountains, allowing the local
Chechens to exploit their superior knowledge of the region,
and
experience in hand-to-hand and guerrilla combat, against the
under-
trained and inexperienced young Russian conscript soldiers.
--
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
All rights reserved
--
Copyright 1999 by United Press International
Police Behavior in Seattle Condemned
SEATTLE, Washington, December 4, 1999 (ENS) - In their efforts
to protect the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings from demonstrators
protesting the WTO's environmental and labor policies, Seattle and Washington
State police trampled on the rights and safety of both protesters and citizens
who were not demonstrating according to many responsible observers.
On Tuesday, November 30 the opening day of the WTO official
meeting, there were at least three kinds of demonstrations. There was a
peaceful march estimated by police at 35,000 people organized by the American
labor unions. There were acts of civil disobedience by small groups who
formed human chains and sat down in intersections to obstruct the passage
of WTO delegates into the hotels and meeting halls. And there was a smaller
group of people who destroyed property, broke windows, spray painted police
cars and buildings and threw clods of earth at police.
On Tuesday night Seattle Mayor Paul Schell declared a dusk to
dawn curfew for the duration of the WTO conference and called on Washington
State Governor Gary Locke to mobilize the National Guard. Governor Locke
declared a state of emergency and ordered up two National Guard units trained
in crowd control.
Seattle physician Dr. Richard DeAndrea reported on police behavior
on Wednesday. "What I saw up here was martial law. This turned into a police
state. Everything you have seen on television regarding local news broadcasts
including National Public Radio was a blackout. The police were using concussion
grenades. They were shooting tear gas canisters directly at protesters'
faces. They were using so-called rubber bullets. These are actually hard
plastic."
Arrest in Seattle Tuesday (Photos by Richard Lewis)
Dr. DeAndrea said, "Some of the damage I saw: these plastic
bullets took off part of one person's jaw, smashed teeth in other people's
mouths. I saw the police arrest people who had their hands up in the air
screaming we are peacefully protesting. The amount of looting that took
place was so minimal I don't even know where they got the footage from.
I am saying this beyond a shadow of a doubt."
Portland, Oregon student Jim Desyllas, observed, "Wednesday
I followed the union protest put together by the Longshoremen's Union.
They went down to the docks and had a rally then marched to Third Avenue.
As soon as they got there the cops started gassing them. There was an old
lady there. She had gone downtown by bus to buy something. This lady was
in her 70s and I saw her trying to run, but she couldn't breathe. She was
in shock. I carried her to a building entryway. She was gasping, terrified.
She had been in Germany, and it was like she was having flashbacks. The
tear gas sounds like gunfire, and there were helicopters overhead, sirens,
cops on horses, everything."
"I was with her in this building and she wanted to go to the
hospital but there was tear gas everywhere. I was afraid if I tried to
move her she'd be gassed again. I went to this line of cops and begged
- I mean begged - these riot police to help her. They ignored me," Desyllas
said.
"I myself saw a girl no more than 18 - a cop had busted her
lip wide open, she was bleeding, and then they gassed everyone including
her. After that she was kneeling on the ground crying like a baby and praying
for 15 minutes, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. Over and over. She was in a state
of shock. They just gassed these people who were sitting down non-violently
and doing nothing."
"They shot rubber bullets from four feet away into the face
of a guy next to me, broke all his front teeth," said Desyllas. "I want
to emphasize, these protesters were NOT violent people. They were the most
non-violent people I have ever seen. Even when I was screaming at the cop,
this girl came up to me and said, 'Do not scream. This is non-violent.'"
Desyllas reported Thursday, "Today, just like yesterday night,
the police were in the residential neighborhoods. People in cafés
were getting gassed and shot at, you could hear it on the windows, bang,
bang, bang. A guy trying to cross the street to go to his house got gassed.
First a drunk guy outside a bar yelled at the cops "Get out of here!" so
they gassed him. And then this other guys was just crossing the street
to go home so the cops figured, might as well gas him too. People got gassed
for coming out of restaruants and bars and coffee shops."
Arrest in Seattle Tuesday
Dr. DeAndrea said, "We're treating people in a studio loft downtown.
I just treated an ear wound. People have been treated for concussion injuries.
There have been people who have been treated for plastic bullet wounds.
Lots of tear gas injuries, lots of damage to cornea, lots of damage to
the eyes and skins. They were using a pepper spray, a tear gas and they
were also using some sort of nerve gas. We had reports of many demonstrators
winding up with seizures the next day. It causes muscles to clamp up, muscle
contraction, seizures."
"This is the beginning of a police state," said Dr. DeAndrea.
"You can quote me on that."
Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network said, "The WTO
is now a household name synonymous with repression of ordinary citizens
for trying to uphold civil liberties, democracy, environmental, labor,
and human rights."
This week's historic mobilization against the WTO has united
the labor, environmental, human rights, and fair trade movements in a lasting
alliance against the globalization of corporate power and for the rights
of free peoples to choose a fair and just economic path, stated the Direct
Action Network.
"I believe that the global economic order will define its history
as the time before Seattle and the time after," said Han Shan of the Ruckus
Society, one of the leading organizers of this week's mass resistance.
reasury Department officials shredded 162 boxes of documents
being sought in a lawsuit involving the mismanagement of Indian trust funds,
covered up their actions for more than three months and lied to a federal
court about it, court records show.
The document destruction was outlined
in a report by court-appointed investigator Alan Balaran, released yesterday
by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth -- who four months ago ordered the
government to pay $625,000 for the earlier "disobedience" of Interior Secretary
Bruce Babbitt and then-Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin in withholding
records in the case.
"This is a system clearly out of control,"
Mr. Balaran said in the report.
-- Continued from Front Page --
Justice Department lawyers, citing
potential "severe and unfair damage" to the reputations of seven Treasury
Department lawyers questioned in the shredding probe and the possibility
of "eroding confidence" in the agencies involved, asked Judge Lamberth
Friday to delay releasing the report. The judge denied the motion.
"It has already been almost seven months
since this matter was brought to the court's attention. The court is unwilling
to allow additional weeks -- or months -- to go by before this matter is
placed on the public record," Judge Lamberth wrote.
The judge said in his five-page order
making the Balaran report public the document destruction was authorized
"on the very same day" Treasury officials were testifying before the court
about their negligence in allowing the destruction of voluminous microfilm
files that should have been preserved.
He also said that on that same day
-- Nov. 23, 1998 -- Treasury and Justice Department lawyers were "repeatedly
assuring the court that all necessary steps were being taken to preserve
all relevant documents."
"Rather than coming forward at that
time and making the necessary admissions, the Treasury officials deliberately
decided not to tell Justice Department officials about the destruction,
arrogating totally to themselves the decision that the documents were not
related to this litigation, a decision that everyone involved now admits
was wrong," the judge wrote.
Attorneys for the Indians told reporters
yesterday the government's actions reflected a continuing pattern of "obfuscation,
stonewalling and delay."
"It is clear from this latest event
and the history of the case that the government continues to not take this
case seriously, and that includes a lot of their employees across this
agency," said John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American
Rights Fund.
In a joint statement, the Treasury
and Justice departments said they would "respond to the court as appropriate."
The statement also said the departments were "disappointed" in some conclusions
in the Balaran report, but was committed to "cooperating with the court
to resolve all issues fully and fairly."
"In fairness to all concerned, we caution
against drawing conclusions prematurely," the statement said.
The document destruction occurred at
a Suitland, Md., warehouse between Nov. 23, 1998, and Jan. 27.
In February, Judge Lamberth held Mr.
Babbitt and Mr. Rubin in contempt of court for failing to turn over Indian
trust records in the pending suit. He issued the contempt citations after
Mr. Babbitt and Mr. Rubin refused to produce trust fund records, canceled
checks and other documents demanded by the court.
The judge said he found "clear and
convincing evidence" that Mr. Babbitt and Mr. Rubin disobeyed his order,
although he noted that Mr. Rubin's involvement came because he "totally
delegated his responsibility to others and they have miserably failed to
comply with this court's orders."
Mr. Babbitt and Mr. Rubin were among
those named in the class-action suit, filed when the Native American Rights
Fund -- representing various tribes -- accused the Interior's Bureau of
Indian Affairs of mismanagement.
Judge Lamberth had sought the records
and other materials involving more than 300,000 individual accounts and
2,000 tribal accounts managed by the Interior and Treasury departments.
The departments manage money from, among other sources, land settlements,
royalties from minerals and other resources, and companies that use Indian
land.
Interior and Treasury officials have
been unable to produce accounting records or statements to verify how much
cash has been collected. An audit by the Arthur Andersen accounting firm
said the Bureau of Indian Affairs could not account for $2.4 billion in
transactions involving the funds.
The suit seeks damages for the lost
money.
Judge Lamberth first ordered the departments
to turn over all documents in the case to allow attorneys for the Native
American Rights Fund to prepare for trial. The departments never complied,
giving the judge a number of reasons for the delay -- including an Interior
Department claim that some of the records have been so tainted by rodent
droppings in a New Mexico warehouse that to disturb them would put department
officials at a health risk.
Treasury lawyers waited more than three
months after the contempt citations before they notified Judge Lamberth
the 162 boxes had been shredded. Government lawyers have since acknowledged
that statements made to the judge about the documents were "patently untrue,"
Mr. Balaran said in his report.
Lawyers for the Indians said last month
they would seek another contempt citation after Mr. Balaran discovered
records concerning the case in a shed with used tires and other debris
on a North Dakota reservation.
Judge Lamberth said he would take no
action on the Balaran report until all objections are reviewed. Each side
now has 10 days to respond to the findings.
