Bush-Blaster Jailed; Freed
US-Style Growth Bad for Planet and People
Iraq Survey Finds 37,000 Died in Six Months
Flotsam & Jetsam
August 29, 2004
Bush Reporter/Challenger Arrested and Freed
911ShareTheTruth.com and sources
On February 10, GOP "9/11 Truth Candidate" (and Edge contributor) John Buchanan was arrested in Florida. Buchanan, an investigative reporter whose revelations caused acute embarrassment to the Bush family, was facing an unusually fast-tracked trial that could have sent him to prison for up to five years for stalking.
Buchanans arrest, which happened in Dade County -- Jeb-Bush country -- would have prevented him from attending the GOP convention, where he hoped to challenge the nomination of George W. Bush.
Buchanan ran against George W. Bush in the New Hampshire Republican primary as the "9/11 Truth Candidate." His investigative revelations have been featured in David Ray Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor and he appears in the film, 9/11: The Greatest Lie Ever Sold.
On February 4, while on his way to speak at the National Press Club, Buchanan was kidnapped and interrogated by federal agents who claimed to be Secret Service officers.
Four days later, upon his return home, he was arrested again. This time, on phony criminal charges contained in a 14-count felony complaint for aggravated stalking against a victim the state failed to produce.
On June 14, after the "victim" failed to appear for a deposition for a second time, the judge informed the Florida state attorney that he would dismiss the charges if the victim failed a third time to appear. The victim failed to appear last Thursday.
Despite this default, the judge inexplicably changed his mind. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle then refused to let Buchanan plead guilty to a misdemeanor so that he could return to Maine prior to going to the Republican Convention in New York.
Buchanan's readers believe he is being persecuted by the Bush regime for his courage in breaking the "Bush-Nazi story" in the New Hampshire Gazette last fall and then opposing Bush as a Republican challenger demanding the truth about 9/11.
On August 16, after a tense four-and-a-half-hour court confrontation, Judge Jose Jiminez threw out all charges against Buchanan. The judge acted when, once again, the Florida state attorney failed to produce the alleged "victim." The case was greatly helped by the torrent of phone calls and emails that flooded the judge and DA's office. The DA seemed visibly anxious since she is now fully aware that John can sue her office, arresting officer (Miami Beach Detective Osvaldo Ramos), and various police officers for the past three months' harassment and violation of his rights.
Given the role of federal agents and Florida state officials in Buchanan's persecution, many observers were left to conclude that the real victim behind this bizarre arrest was Governor Bush's brother George. Buchanan has been hounding George W. Bush for months, pursuing him on the campaign trail and planning to dog Mr. Bush right up to the steps of the Republican Convention.
Buchanan's website has been removed from the Internet. A message from CompleteCampaigns.com ("committed to assisting political committees in better accessing their information and managing their campaigns") states:
"This Website is No Longer Available." [Some archived pages can still be found here.]
Buchanan plans to broadcast live radio coverage of the RNC in New York. (You can listen in at: www.jackblood.com
For more on Buchanan, see: Buchanan on The-Edge
BACKGROUND:
Buchanan's April 2, 2004 Letter
To the Head of the US Secret Service
Mr. Ralph Basham,
Director US Secret Service
245 Murray Drive,
Building 410
Washington, DC 20223
Dear Mr. Basham:
This is a formal and respectful request that your office assist in the proper investigation and criminal prosecution of an illegal campaign of political dirty tricks and police harassment that have been used against me since I began running for President as a Republican against George W. Bush last fall. Acts of harassment taken against me have included my detention for two hours by two Secret Service agents at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on February 5.
I am an award-winning and nationally published journalist and investigative reporter whose work has appeared in more than 200 newspapers, magazines and major web sites on six continents. As a result of my experiences in New Hampshire and since, I have already contacted and met with senior Republican staff members of the House Judiciary Committee of the US Congress, and been in contact with the Attorneys General of the States of New Hampshire and Florida. I trust that given the serious nature of my allegations, you and your office will give the matter the immediate attention it deserves.
There is compelling evidence I have been the victim of a sustained and ongoing campaign of political dirty tricks and illegal harassment during my campaigns in the 2004 Presidential primaries. As examples, I was the target of a false police report filed by Jayne Millerick, chair of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, which led to a series of confrontations with the Concord Police Department.
On February 5, based on a "tip" from someone in New Hampshire, two US Secret Service agents removed me from a flight from Manchester, NH to Washington, DC and interrogated me for two hours before I was released and allowed to give my scheduled speech at The National Press Club to a group of fellow journalists. Subsequently, Secret Service agents harassed and intimidated my fellow Republican candidate, Richard P. Bosa of Portsmouth, NH. Finally, on February 10, I was arrested in Miami -- on serious, and false, felony charges.
Given the gravity of the illegal activities undertaken against me, among others, to silence opposition within the Republican party, it is imperative that you and your staff assist in the full and vigorous investigation of the serious infractions committed against me, and the democratic process itself, by errant New Hampshire authorities and political leaders.
I look forward to your prompt response to this most serious matter.
US-style Economy Is Bad for People and Planet
LONDON -- A prestigious scientific panel established by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999 and headed by Jonathan Porritt, the country's leading environmentalist, has declared Britain "far adrift" from meeting its national and global environmental goals.
According to the 18-member Sustainable Development Commission, the Blair government "has failed to get a grip on fossil fuel emissions responsible for climate change. Aviation and road transport are growing out of control and Britain is languishing near the bottom of the European league table on recycling waste."
The panel found that economic growth has been "accompanied by much greater inequality in income, and a long-hours, high-pressure employment culture more characteristic of American society" and observes that "there is no evidence [that]
economic development is making people happier or giving them a better quality of life."
As Porritt told The Independent: "Far more effort needs to be made to differentiate between 'smart growth' (that generates wealth and social benefits without damaging the environment) and today's wholly unsustainable growth that inevitably ends up damaging our quality of life. We must see a more determined effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a move away from consumption as the sole route to well-being, and new policies that lead to healthier environments and lifestyles for all."
While Blair has constantly stated that the government is on course to meet its fossil-fuel-reduction targets, the commission concluded that the Labour Party will not be able to meet its main environmental commitment, a 20 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, which it acknowledged is needed to avert catastrophic climate change.
Projected increases in road and air travel will cancel out reductions in other areas. The commission fault's Blair for failing to use taxation to discourage the profligate consumption of fossil fuels. Despite modest improvements in water and local air quality, the report laments an overall failure to halt the runaway consumption of natural resources over the past five years.
The report concludes: "The Government sees a world in which reasonable progress is being made in Britain on most aspects of the protection of the environment and natural resources. We see a world in which biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate, in which many forms of pollution are spreading, which is gravely threatened by long-term climate change, and in which the total impact of the UK's activity (including its interactions with the rest of the world through trade and travel) is adding to the world's problems. We see a world in which gaps between rich and poor, advantaged and disadvantaged, are getting progressively wider both within and between countries, and whose peace and security both internally and externally is gravely threatened by these divisive trends."
Iraqi Group Claims More Than 37,000 Civilians Killed
Ahmed Janabi / Al Jazeera
(July 31, 2004) -- The People's Kifah, or Struggle Against Hegemony, movement said in a statement that it carried out a detailed survey of Iraqi civilian fatalities during September and October 2003. Its calculation was based on deaths among the Iraqi civilian population only, and did not count losses sustained by the Iraqi military and paramilitary forces.
The deputy general secretary and spokesperson of the movement told Aljazeera.net he could vouch for the accuracy of the figure. "We are 100% sure that 37,000 civilian deaths is a correct estimate. Our study is the result of two months of hard work which involved hundreds of Iraqi activists and academics. Of course there may be deaths that were not reported to us, but the toll in any case could not be lower than our finding," said Muhammad al-Ubaidi.
"For the collation of our statistics we visited the most remote villages, spoke and coordinated with grave-diggers across Iraq, obtained information from hospitals, and spoke to thousands of witnesses who saw incidents in which Iraqi civilians were killed by US fire," he said.
Detailed Figures
Al-Ubaidi, a UK-based physiology professor, provided a detailed breakdown of the 37,000 civilian deaths for each governorate (excluding the Kurdish areas) relating to the period between March and October 2003:
Baghdad: 6103
Mosul: 2009
Basra: 6734
Nasiriya: 3581
Diwania: 1567
Wasit: 2494
Babil: 3552
Karbala and Najaf: 2263
Muthana: 659
Misan: 2741
Anbar: 2172
Kirkuk: 861
Salah al-Din: 1797.
The People's Kifah said the process of data gathering stopped after one of the group's workers -- Ramzi Musa Ahmad, a 32-year-old Iraqi engineer -- was arrested by Kurdish militias and handed over to US forces in October 2003. The fate of the worker remains unclear.
As of now, there are no reliable estimates of total Iraqi civilian fatalities. The interim Iraqi government has not made available any statistics, while US occupation authorities in Iraq reportedly issued orders to the forensic medicine department not to talk to the media about the number of bodies it receives.
Liqa Makki, a political analyst, said that Iraqi officials are prohibited from releasing any information about body count. "The director of forensic medicine department said publicly some months ago that his department was receiving 70 bodies a day. But he was reprimanded and a statement was published in the Iraqi press prohibiting the announcement of any kind of body count," Makki said.
The only serious independent attempt to collate war statistics is the Iraq Body Count Project, which involves both US and British academics. The project's website currently places Iraq's civilian toll at between 11,000 and 13,000. The website has been criticized in some quarters for its tardiness in updating its figures. But Iraq Body Count Project says it is not a news portal and puts accuracy ahead of speed.
According to the Arab and western media, between 15,000 and 20,000 Iraqi civilians have perished since the launch of the invasion. But some cast doubt on the figures, saying the number of Iraqi civilians who have died at the hands of the US army may never be known.
Iraq's interim government is preparing the first post-Saddam census in Iraq. The Planning Ministry issued instructions to Iraqis not to leave their homes on 12 October when 150,000 workers will be engaged in conducting the census. The interim government says the census will be the last step before the January 2005 general election. According to the last official census in 1997, Iraq had a population of 24 million.
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