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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (59673)	12/3/2002 11:36:21 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

UN agency charges Israeli soldiers destroyed their food warehouse in Gaza (UPDATE) By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS www.villagevoice.com A UN agency charged Monday that during a weekend incursion into the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers blew up a warehouse full of food for needy Palestinians. The World Food Progamme, affiliated with the United Nations, said in a statement that on Saturday night, six Israeli tanks surrounded a warehouse in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, checked the interior and then blew up the building with dynamite. The group said the warehouse contained food worth $271,000 dollars, meant for more than 40,000 Palestinians who are suffering severe economic hardships because of two years of Palestinian-Israeli violence. The statement said the building was clearly marked, and the food was stored on the ground floor. The military said it would check the group's complaint. After the Israeli incursion, the military said soldiers destroyed three houses belonging to suspected militants. In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "extremely concerned" about the report and called for an investigation. The World Food Programme statement urged "the Israeli government to observe humanitarian principles and compensate the agency for its loss." It was the second incident involving Israel and the United Nations in 10 days. On Nov. 22, UN aid worker Iain Hook was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers during a battle between the soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp. Israel said soldiers mistook a cell phone Hook was holding as a weapon. Hook was the first senior UN official to be killed during the current conflict. Previous article Next article

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (59673)	12/3/2002 11:43:56 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Kissinger wrong leader for Sept. 11 investigation By SEAN GONSALVES SYNDICATED COLUMNIST Tuesday, December 3, 2002 Just when you thought it couldn't get any more Orwellian, Henry Kissinger is named chairman of the "independent" commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. What's next? Pete Rose being named chairman of a blue ribbon committee to investigate gambling in professional sports? Or how about Oliver North being appointed head of a federal probe into the illegal arms trade? At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the Bush administration appointed O.J. Simpson chairman of a new national task force on domestic violence, given No. 43's post-9/11 concern for women's lib, especially in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. (The Marines are now fighting the feminist cause?) My mother used to tell me: "Sean, sometimes perception is everything." I'm sure former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt can relate. Pitt resigned his chairmanship last month, realizing that with his record of meeting with the heads of companies under SEC investigation and with his close ties to the accounting industry at a time when the SEC is supposed to be cracking down on corporate accounting fraud, it was best that he step aside. In a letter to President Bush, Pitt said he was resigning because of the "the turmoil surrounding my chairmanship . . . Rather than be a burden to you or the agency, I feel it is in everyone's best interest if I step aside now to allow the agency to continue the important efforts we have started." Will Kissinger follow suit? Even though his international consulting firm client list has not been made public, "reports have been widely circulated that it includes Persian Gulf states, oil companies and transportation firms," The Boston Globe reported. The Globe also reported the reaction to Kissinger's appointment by Scott Armstrong, National Security Archive founder and former staff member of the Senate Watergate committee: "He laughed for a solid minute." Perhaps Armstrong was laughing to keep from crying. Kissinger "has so many clients whose interests are so completely tied up in the results of this investigation," Armstrong told the Globe. "The minute you start talking about clerics in Saudi Arabia, it's in no way in the interests of his clients for the whole truth to be told." Anyone with even the slightest political consciousness knows the war crimes Kissinger is alleged to have been involved with. But if you are not familiar with some of the lowlights, read Christopher Hitchens' book "The Trial of Henry Kissinger." In it, you'll read about the esteemed statesman's connection to the bombing of Cambodia and about his role in helping to set the stage for the 1973 coup in Chile that brought Pinochet to power. Armstrong also told the Globe that when Kissinger left his government post in 1976, he took thousands of State Department documents to help him write his memoirs. Kissinger has yet to return them. Kissinger, Armstrong said, is "a man with a private sense of history. He does not have a credible approach to assuring the public that he's interested in getting to the bottom of things or that we will do so through an open process." President Bush urged Kissinger's commission to "follow the facts wherever they may lead." One thing the panel ought to get to the bottom of is the report that two employees of the instant messenger service firm Odigo, (which has offices in Israel and, before Sept. 11, in the World Trade Center), received warnings of the pending attack hours before it happened. In the weeks following the attacks, one of Israel's leading dailies, Ha'aretz, quoted Odigo CEO Micha Macover as saying "Two workers received the messages predicting the attack would happen." And Alex Diamandis, Odigo vice president of sales and marketing, told Newsbytes reporter Brian McWilliams that Odigo workers in New York were warned but that the message did not identify the World Trade Center as the target. According to Computerworld reporter George A. Chidi Jr., Odigo officials have been cooperating with the FBI in investigating exactly what transpired. Don't you think it's important to know if, in fact, Odigo employees had better intelligence than the FBI and CIA? I'd like to see Kissinger go before the International Criminal Court for his alleged war crimes. But even if he is never tried, I'd feel a lot better if he weren't the chairman of the 9/11 investigation commission, but, instead, devoted the rest of his public life to performing deep voice duets with Barry White or being cast as the voice of cartoon characters in Disney animated movies. seattlepi.nwsource.com