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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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almarst2002 - 08:33am Jul 31, 2003 EST (# 13186 of 13267)

Outrageous Bush Executive Order on Iraq Oil Must Be Investigated July 28, 2003 EarthRights International - http://www.earthrights.org/news/eo13303.shtml

President Bush has issued an Executive Order, so far completely unreported, that purports to grant broad legal immunity to oil companies operating in Iraq. The Order is, on its face, outrageous, and should be investigated.

Executive Order 13303, issued on May 22, 2003, claims to be essential to Iraqi reconstruction efforts. A cursory reading of the Order indicates that its real purpose is to protect oil companies by giving virtual impunity for any activities undertaken relating to Iraqi oil.

This Order, with broad language that seems to sweep aside federal statutes, including the Alien Tort Claims Act, has received no public attention. It has been brought to light by a researcher with the Sustainable Energy and Environment Network (SEEN).

Under this Order, an oil company complicit in human rights violations, or one that causes environmental damage, would be immune from lawsuits. The language of the Executive Order is so broad that it might as well have been written by lawyers for Halliburton, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco.

In 13303, President Bush declares a national emergency as the basis for protecting the Development Fund for Iraq (an entity intended to fund reconstruction efforts with oil proceeds, overseen by an international board including World Bank officials) as well as all Iraqi petroleum, petroleum products, “interests”, proceeds, and contracts related to Iraqi petroleum. Claiming that interference with Iraqi petroleum, petroleum products, and “interests therein” jeopardizes reconstruction efforts in Iraq, EO 13303 offers a wide range of protections to certain persons, entities and assets associated with the Iraqi oil industry. The document is apparently intended as a sweeping grant of immunity to individuals, corporations, agencies and others involved in Iraqi oil sales, marketing, or other oil-related activities.

The Order provides protection at both the front end—the activities that generate the oil—as well as the back—the profits and proceeds that ensue. U.S. companies engaged in petroleum-related work in Iraq are purportedly given broad immunity from suits for environmental damage, workplace harms, contractual disputes, and numerous other wrongs. For example, a U.S. oil company benefiting from human rights abuses, no matter how egregious, apparently falls within the Order’s immunity from suit. Similarly, the Order purports to protect any assets derived from Iraqi oil from judgment, garnishment, or any other seizure in U.S. courts. For example, if a corporate entity or an individual engages in criminal activity in the U.S., its assets traceable to Iraqi oil are protected by this order. The list of situations in which a person or corporation could get away with, if not murder, then at least millions, is endless.

The title of the EO, “Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has an Interest,” is a sham. This EO may be about Iraq, but it’s also about the oil industry exclusively. (Remember the Administration has claimed that the Iraq war had nothing to do with oil?) There is nothing at all about protecting humanitarian organizations, communications, computer or electrical companies, or other industries that are critical to Iraq’s reconstruction.

EarthRights International is joining SEEN and the Government Accountability Project in investigating the legitimacy of this Order. We call on Congress to investigate EO 13303 immediately.

almarst2002 - 08:45am Jul 31, 2003 EST (# 13187 of 13267)

Back in the game, Poindexter gambles - http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1009324,00.html

Leader Thursday July 31, 2003 The Guardian

Now that the Pentagon has scrapped its bizarre plan for an online terror futures market in which punters wager on predicted atrocities or assassinations, what's the betting that the scheme's chief whipper-in, John Poindexter, will be fired? Two-to-one against, roughly figured. Yesterday's New York Times shortened the odds when it described him as "a man of dubious background and dubious ideas" who should be sent packing. But criticism from such liberal quarters may yet induce his contrary boss, Donald Rumsfeld, to keep him on or move him up. The smart money has Adm Poindexter surviving the row, although any promotion is a long shot at, say, 7-1. And what price his future, untimely demise at the hands of al-Qaida hit-men, mad mullahs or crazed Democrats? 100-1 bar the field. Place your bets with: The Head Bookie, c/o Joseph Heller Memorial Suite, the Pentagon, Virginia. Proceeds to CND. Adm Poindexter is running true to form. He is best known for the Iran-Contra scam in the Reagan years, by which the US illegally armed Iran (the same Iran it now reviles daily) and channelled the profits to Nicaraguan rebels. Rehabilitation came with his appointment to head the Pentagon's shadowy new "total information awareness office". But he quickly blotted his copybook by proposing to snoop on all Americans' personal records, phone calls and emails. That wheeze was vetoed, too (although not for non-Americans). Some believe that Adm Poindexter makes "prince of darkness' Richard Perle look like a choir-boy, that he is Washington's answer to Lord Voldemort.

But maybe such carping is unjust. Given the dismal failure of America's intelligence services to foresee or stop the 9/11 horror, as detailed in last week's congressional report, perhaps an inspired guess, a pin in the map, a private hunch, a twinge in the bones, and a modest flutter on where and when the next attack may come is as much preventive use as anything the CIA or FBI can manage.

almarst2002 - 08:49am Jul 31, 2003 EST (# 13188 of 13267)

Uranium that never was - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1009431,00.html

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