From: covici@ccs.covici.com (John Covici)
Reply-To: covici@ccs.covici.com
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: News 09/04/92
Date: 13 Sep 92 19:0:51 GMT
Organization: Covici Computer Systems

Colombia releases
   Panamanian officer 
   
The Colombian government of
President Ce@aasar Gaviria on Aug. 26
released from prison Maj. Edgardo
Lo@aapez Grimaldo, after holding him as a
political hostage for 61 days in
Bogota@aa's forbidding ``La Picota''
jail. Lo@aapez Grimaldo, chief press
officer of the Panamanian Defense Forces
(PDF) under Gen. Manuel Noriega, was set
free following an international campaign
against his imprisonment. 
   Lo@aapez Grimaldo was arrested by
Colombia's security police (DAS) at the
behest of the U.S.-installed Panamanian
government of Guillermo Endara, which
wanted to prosecute him on purely
political charges. The case was seen as
another attempt to apply the Thornburgh
Doctrine, under which the United States
claims the right to kidnap foreign
nationals anywhere in the world and
subject them to U.S. judicial procedures.
Had Colombia handed Lo@aapez over to
Panama as requested, he would most likely
have been immediately remanded to the
United States to testify against Noriega,
who faces another federal trial in Tampa,
Florida. 
   Following the Dec. 20, 1989 U.S.
invasion of Panama, Lo@aapez was granted
political asylum by Peru, and later went
to live in Ecuador. Lo@aapez was picked
up by DAS agents on a visit to apply for
a visa. ``Clearly, they were following
him,'' said his attorney, who believes
that the plan was to ship Lo@aapez to
Panama quickly and silently, although
Colombia's Constitution forbids ``the
extradition of foreigners for political
or ideological crimes.'' 
   Although he was never charged with
breaking any Colombian law, he was placed
in the maximum-security wing of La Picota
with some of the most dangerous drug
traffickers and other criminals.
Gaviria's government refused to provide
him with adequate medical care or to
release him, despite the fact that he
suffers from a life-threatening
condition, acute arterial hypertension.
Even after a court in Panama dropped all
charges and quashed the arrest warrant
against him on July 22--effectively
annulling the extradition request--it was
more than another month before he was let
go. 

   Somali clan protests 
   U.N. troop deployment
   
The United Somali Congress, led by
Mohammed Aidid, reportedly the most
powerful clan militia, is opposed to a
U.N. plan to send 3,000 troops to
Somalia, purportedly to guard food
shipments, the Aug. 30 {New York Times}
reported. The U.N. Security Council voted
for the additional troops, in addition to
500 troops already deployed, on Aug. 29. 
   The militia said that money and
resources for rebuilding the country's
police force should be sent, instead of
troops. The group accused the U.N. of
intending to occupy the country with the
intent of recognizing rival leader Ali
Mahdi's claim to be President. Other
clans have already ridiculed the force,
noting that food is only stolen when it
is scarce, and if the U.N. really wanted
to prevent starvation and fighting over
food, it would ``flood the country with
food.'' 
   In his July 1 report to the U.N.
Security Council, U.N. Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali argued that the
U.N. should designate a single resident
officer, an ambassador with full
diplomatic powers, in each target
country, who would control all programs.
Somalia is seen as a test case for the
reintroduction of U.N. trusteeships over
former, briefly independent colonies. 
   The director general of the Save the
Children Fund, Nicholas Hinton, demanded
a U.N. czar for Somalia in remarks in
London Aug. 29. ``The U.N. in terms of
its life after the Cold War is a
shambles,'' Hinton claimed. ``What is
lacking is any coordinated planning ...
if you look at Somalia, what you see is
an ill-equipped, ill-informed, and
uncoordinated response.'' He called for
the U.N. to ``confer authority and
leadership on one U.N. agency over all
the U.N. agencies working there.'' 

   Assassinations of PKK
   leaders okayed by Turkey
   
The national security council of
Turkey authorized operations to kill
leaders of the Kurdish PKK separatist
group, in its joint session with
President Turgut O@auzal in Ankara on
Aug. 27, the daily {Hurriyet} reported
the following day. 
   While the official communique@aa
just spoke of ``operations inside and
outside the country,'' {Hurriyet}
elaborated that Turkey is thinking of
deploying special teams to do to PKK
leaders what Israel has done many times
outside of Israel's borders to the PLO,
namely, eliminate leaders and key cadre. 
   PKK Chairman Abdullah Ozcalan, who
is said to hide out in Syria, is mooted
to be a prime target of such an
Israeli-style operation, {Hurriyet}
wrote. Earlier comments by Turkish
Interior Minister Szesgin that his forces
would hunt ``these terrorists down no
matter where they are, even if we would
be forced to chase them outside of our
borders,'' has been reported again in the
Turkish media. 

   Rabin threatens 
   massive retaliation
   
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
vowed Aug. 28 to retaliate massively
against the cities of any Arab state that
launched conventional missiles at Israel.
Rabin told the Israeli daily {Haaretz}
that Israel would not hold back if
attacked by Iraqi missiles as it had done
during the Gulf war. ``I do not think that
Iraq will act against Israel,'' he said,
``but if it does, Israel has a wide
variety of means of action which there is
no point to detail publicly.'' 
   Asked how Israel could deter other
Arab states from missile strikes, Rabin
replied: ``Generally, when talking about a
nearby state like Syria in the context of
all-out war, there are two components.''
The first, he said, is ``to make clear
that a strike against Israel with
conventional weapons would bring a
massive conventional strike against the
cities of that state.'' The second, he
said, would be ``to come to a quick
decision in the war and not have a
situation like [Operation] Desert Storm
in which for 45 days our rear was
exposed. Regarding states that are
further off--develop the ability to hit
the population centers of those states.'' 

   Second mass grave of monks 
   discovered in Mongolia
   
A second mass grave of Buddhist
monks executed during a Stalinist reign
of terror in the late 1930s has been
discovered in Mongolia, Reuters reported
Aug. 26. 
   Munkhdalain Rinchin, historian to
Mongolia's President, said in a recent
interview that the second mass grave had
been found on a mountainside in June
just a few kilometers from the first,
discovered in 1991. He said he had
supervised the exhumation this summer of
about 1,000 skeletons from the two
graves. Each skeleton bore a single .22
calibre bullet hole in the back of its
skull. In the second mass grave, at Ar
Zuraa in Mongolia's northwestern Hovsgol
province, skeletons still swaddled in the
saffron robes of Buddhist monks were
found piled on top of each other to a
depth of 12 meters. 
   ``The soldiers must have shot the
monks one by one in full view of each
other and pushed them on top of each
other into the grave,'' said Rinchin. ``It
must have been a scene of shocking
cruelty.'' Rinchin had a videotape which
showed young men wearing gas masks
excavating the monks' skeletons along
with possessions found in the folds of
their gowns--prayer beads, statues of
Buddha, snuff bottles, and pages of
scripture. 
   The atrocities were carried out on
the orders of Mongolia's communist
dictator Horloogiyn Choibalsan as part of
a campaign to smash the power of this
country's ancient Buddhist theocracy.
Historians estimate that 17,000 monks
were executed and dumped in mass graves.
In addition, 746 monasteries containing
most of Mongolia's wealth and learning
were destroyed. Choibalsan, by his death
in 1952, is reported to have executed
about 100,000 people. 
   Mongolian historians now sifting
through hitherto classified state
archives say that Josef Stalin, paranoid
that Mongolians would collude with
expansionist Japanese armies in
Manchuria, ordered many of the
executions. 

   Lebanese patriarch warns 
   of anti-Syrian uprising
   
Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Zuphia
warned the government to call off the
ongoing elections or risk generating a
``popular uprising'' among the Christian
and Muslim populations, who see the
elections as being orchestrated by the
Syrians to ensure their continued
occupation of Lebanon, according to
wire reports. The elections are being
conducted in several rounds, the first
and second round of elections were held
on Aug. 23 and Aug. 30. 
   Although the elections on Aug. 30
were to be held in the Christian areas,
the entire Christian community boycotted
them while the Christian trade unions
organized a strike. 
   Despite the highly rigged nature and
low voter turnout in the Aug. 23 round of
elections in the eastern and southern
part of the country, the results showed a
decisive anti-Syrian bias. 

   Withdraw from U.N.,
   Malaysian figure urges
   
Kassim Ahmad, an author, the former
chairman of the Malaysian People's
Socialist Party, and now with the ruling
UMNO party in Malaysia, called on Muslim
and Third World nations to withdraw from
the United Nations, in a telegram to
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed
on Aug. 23. 
   In a statement released later in the
day, Kassim Ahmad said the text of his
telegram read: ``Congratulations for
requesting a special session of the U.N.
General Assembly to discuss Bosnia. The
Anglo-Americans whose aims are the
destabilization of continental Europe and
the wiping out of a Muslim state in
Europe are behind the Serbian atrocities.
The U.N. can no longer be relied upon.
The Muslim nations have been deceived by
[President] Bush. Why do we continue to
let Iraq face the lawlessness of the
Anglo-Saxon neo-imperialists alone? Where
are our principles? I call upon Muslim
and Third World nations to withdraw from
the U.N. and form another more equitable
and just world body.'|''    

   THE MAASTRICHT
Treaty was attacked
by Pehr Gyllenhammar, chairman of Volvo,
in an Aug. 24 radio interview. It ``is
badly written and hardly intelligible. It
gives again the impression that the
experts make the decisions,'' he said. 

   BURMA
has opened its
universities in another step to lighten
martial law, according to wire reports
Aug. 25. Since a change of leadership
this spring, the junta has released
political prisoners, involved the
opposition in planning a new
Constitution, and tried to work with
Bangladesh to deal with the Muslim
refugees who were driven out of western
Burma. 

   FAIEZ NAGIB,
president of
the Coptic government in exile, called
for the formation of a Coptic Pharaonic
republic in upper Egypt, in late August.
The call came while clashes among
Muslims, Copts, and security forces have
killed over 70 people since last March. 

   TAIWAN
weaponry expert Hei You-lung
appealed for U.S. aircraft to meet the
expanding military capacity from the
mainland, China News Agency reported Aug.
26. He warned that if the Chinese Air
Force has obtained in-flight refueling
technology as reported, many more of
China's 6,000 military aircraft pose an
immediate threat to Taiwan's security. 

   THE TIBET
government in exile
accused China of planning a mass increase
in Han occupation, Reuters reported Aug.
25. Tibetans say 100,000 Chinese settlers
had arrived in June and July, and there
are reported plans to move 700,000 more.
``The Chinese are speeding their sinister
campaign of demographic aggression of
Tibet,'' the statement said. It ``could
very well be a part of China's `Final
Solution' for Tibet.''      

   GREENPEACE
threatened once
again on Aug. 26 that it would intervene
to stop plutonium shipments traveling
from France to Japan, where it will be
stored, pending possible fuel
fabrication. ``Once we exhaust political
and diplomatic venues we will clearly
follow with other acts,'' a spokesman for
the terrorist-environmentalist group
said. 

Book claims Templars,
   Masons discovered America
   
A new book due out next month, {The
Sword and the Grail: Of the Grail the
Templars and a True Discovery of
America}, by Andrew Sinclair claims that
``More than 90 years before Columbus,
Prince Henry St. Clair of Orkney reached
North America with a Venetian captain and
300 colonists.'' This attack on the
Columbian evangelization of the Americas
further claims: ``Based on stunning new
archaeological evidence, this book
confirms Prince Henry's voyage and
reveals the role played by the outlaw
Order of the Knights Templar, who later
merged with the Masons of Scotland,''
according to Crown Publishing. The
Templars were a French-based Gnostic
cult, sometimes said to have claimed that
the French royal family were descendants
of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. 
   Crown's description continues:
``{The Sword and the Grail} is both an
important revision of the history of the
discovery of America and a fascinating
revelation of the origins of the Masons
of the world. Some of the Templars fled
with their treasure to the St. Clair
castle, where their relics are still
buried. The tomb of their Grand Master
with the Grail carved on his stone lies
in Roslyn, the core chapel of the Masonic
movement. 
   ``With the help of the sea skills
and wealth of the Templars, Prince Henry
tried to found a new Jerusalem in the new
World, landing first in what is now Nova
Scotia and then in New England. Written
by a descendant of Prince Henry, this
book reveals startling evidence of the
pre-Columbian settlement of North
America. It unveils secrets about the
Knights Templar, the Grail, and the
Masons that will fascinate readers whose
interests were stimulated by {Foucault's
Pendulum} and {Holy Blood, Holy Grail.}'' 

   Trial motion shows
   Bush was `in the loop'
   
A pre-trial motion filed Aug. 25 in
the case against Caspar Weinberger
discloses a memo of a telephone
conversation between Secretary of State
George Shultz and Secretary of Defense
``Cap'' Weinberger that pokes holes in
George Bush's claim that he was ``out of
the loop'' in the Iran arms-for-hostages
trade. The notes refer to an interview
the vice president gave to the
{Washington Post} that appeared Aug. 6,
1987 in which he said: ``If I'd have sat
there and heard George Shultz and Cap
express it [opposition] strongly, maybe I
would have had a stronger view. But when
you don't know something, it's hard to
react.... We were not in the loop.'' 
   The notes dictated by George Shultz
to an aide after his conversation with
Weinberger on Aug. 7, 1987 read: ``VP
[Bush] in papers yest. sd [yesterday
said] he not exposed to Cap or my
arguments on Iran arms. Cap called me &
sd that's terrible. He [Bush] was on the
other side. Its on the Record. Why did he
say that.'' 

   Terry pursues next victim
   for Va. electric chair
   
Virginia Attorney General Mary Sue
Terry is set to execute her next victim,
African-American Willie Leroy Jones, on
Sept. 15. On Aug. 27, Jones lost a
{habeas corpus} motion in state court.
His attorney argued that his sentence
should be voided because of the
``unconstitutional vagueness'' of the
``vileness of the crime'' standard on
which he was sentenced to death. The
state had failed to show ``torture'' or
``aggravated battery,'' opting to argue
that Jones had acted with ``depravity of
mind''--a thought crime. 
   Jones will now appeal to Virginia's
Supreme Court, which has never granted a
{habeas }motion. 
   The fact that Jones had no previous
criminal record, his honorable military
discharge, and other important character
testimony were never brought before the
jury at sentencing, because his first,
inexperienced court-appointed lawyer had
never defended a capital case before. 
   Comparing the Sept. 15 execution to
the Birmingham, Alabama Ku Klux Klan
church bombing that killed four girls on
Sept. 15, 1963, civil rights leaders who
oppose the execution are saying that what
the Klan used to do through bombings and
lynchings is now being done by the
courts--and by the White House under
Bush, and the state houses, including in
Bill Clinton's Arkansas. 
                             
   Debate set on judgeship for
   `Mr. Death Penalty' Carnes
   
The Senate will debate the
nomination of butcher Ed Carnes to the
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in
Alabama as soon as the Congress
reconvenes on Sept. 8. The Congressional
Black Caucus is attempting to organize a
filibuster, which could only be cut off
if 60 present senators vote cloture. A
successful filibuster could mean the
nomination would not be voted on in this
session of Congress. 
   Carnes has been head of Alabama's
Capital Litigation Section for the past
10 years, and wrote the state's death
penalty laws. His nomination is being
supported by Montgomery attorney Morris
Dees, in an effort to provide a patina of
backing from the civil rights community.
   Dees, the founder of the Southern
Poverty Law Center and Klanwatch, in
fact, has done no death penalty defense
work for the past 10 years, according to
a source, in order to pursue his
so-called Klan-watching. Carnes himself
was involved in a few Klan prosecutions,
and Dees and Carnes, both from
Montgomery and both educated at Harvard,
became close through such activities, the
source said. The source continued, Dees
``needs the Department of Justice to help
him prosecute the Klan.'' 
   On Aug. 29, syndicated columnist Nat
Hentoff wrote his fourth attack on the
Carnes nomination. Hentoff pointed out
that Judge Frank Johnson, who initially
endorsed Carnes as his replacement and
whose endorsement was trumpeted by Dees,
has now retracted the endorsement. Judge
Johnson had cast the decisive vote to
enforce bus desegregation in Alabama in
1956. 

   New York parents in uproar
   over `anti-AIDS' sex ed 
   
As public schools set to open after
Labor Day, parents in New York City are
in an uproar over the virtual pornography
being peddled under the auspices of
state-mandated ``AIDS education
curriculums [sic].'' Four members of the
school board passed a measure which
requires people brought in to administer
the programs to swear only that they will
commit ``substantially more time'' to
teaching abstinence than other so-called
anti-AIDS measures. School Chancellor
Joseph Fernandez vowed that the program
will continue no matter what. 
   Dolores Ayling, the Brooklyn parent
who is organizing a protest, confronted
the Board of Education at a public
meeting, asking them to explain a page in
the program's manual, {Children of the
Rainbow Curriculum,} which instructs
teachers to foster ``positive attitudes
toward sexuality.'' First-grade teachers
are instructed that they should include
references to homosexuals in order to
help give children a ``healthy sense of
identity at an early age.'' It then says:
``Children need actual experiences via
creative plays, books, visitors, etc., in
order for them to view lesbians and gays
as real people to be respected and
appreciated.'' 
   In the fourth through sixth grade
curriculum, the program would instruct
children in how to conduct anal and oral
sex, despite the fact that these
practices are illegal in New York.

   Arab-Americans slam 
   Kissinger for racist crack
   
The American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee launched an
attack against Henry Kissinger and CBS
News, in connection with a June 3
Jerusalem Foundation benefit, which
solicited funds for the absorption of
Jewish immigrants into Jerusalem. At the
fundraiser, there was a panel discussion
with CBS News anchor Dan Rather, CBS
Middle East consultant Fouad Ajami, and
Kissinger--who is also a board member of
CBS, during which Kissinger commented
that ``you can't really believe anything
an Arab says.'' 
   On Aug. 4, AAADC Director Albert
Mokhiber wrote a letter to CBS News
President Eric Ober demanding a response
to Kissinger's statements. Mokhiber also
wanted to know why neither Rather nor
Ajami objected. Furthermore, during the
debate, Ajami had repeatedly insisted
that democracy was impossible and
undesirable for Arabs! Rather had opened
the debate by warning that Israel's
control of Jerusalem was at risk from an
Arab ``population explosion.'' Rather
also talked about ``celebrating 25 years
after the city was united under Israeli
rule,'' although, as Mokhiber pointed out
in his letter, East Jerusalem is an
occupied territory under international
law. 
   Ober made a wan response on Aug. 7,
saying that ``comments made by
individuals in their personal capacity
are not the responsibility of CBS News.''
Kissinger wrote a letter responding to
Mokhiber on Aug. 17, claiming that he was
a supporter of the AAADC and that his
comments were ``not intended to give
offense''! 
   One wonders who can't be believed. 

   Records of Mossad-linked
   bank head subpoenaed
   
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed
the records of New York real estate mogul
Arthur G. Cohen in connection with his
looting of the Richmond, Virginia
Colonial Savings and Loan Association.
Cohen's 1984 purchase of Colonial saved
its chairman, Robert Suthard, from
possible prosecution in the looting of
the
thrift before Cohen got into it. Suthard
later became superintendent of Virginia's
State Police, and used Colonial for
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)-backed sting
operations against associates of Lyndon
LaRouche. 
   Suthard resigned as Virginia
Secretary of Public Safety in a bribery
scandal late last year. The current
Public Safety Secretary, O. Randolph
Rollins, was the private attorney who
arranged for the transactions giving
Cohen ownership over Colonial. 
   Arthur Cohen was previously
implicated in the massive looting of
American Bank and Trust Co. (ABT), with
his financial partners the Israeli
government, the Israeli Mossad, top
officials of the ADL, and the Michael
Milken organization. Cohen owned the
airplane on which the final looter of
ABT, David Graiver, fled the country. 
                            
   SIERRA CLUB
in Texas has joined
forces with the radical animal rights
group Fund for Animals to abolish hunting
in Texas, reported the Aug. 14 newsletter
of Putting People First. PPF chairman
Kathleen Marquardt made the point that
many sportsmen who donate to the Sierra
Club ``will be shocked to discover just
what they are funding.'' 

   HUNDREDS
of members of the AFL-CIO
and the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC),
picketed the Yugoslav Embassy on Aug. 26
to protest ``crimes against humanity''
committed by Serbian irregular forces
against Bosnia-Hercegovina. JLC President
Lenore Miller presented a letter
co-signed by AFL-CIO President Lane
Kirkland, which condemned ``ethnic
cleansing'' and called for an end to the
arming of the irregulars, and free and
fair elections. 

   GUAM
was declared a federal
disaster area by President Bush, after
much of the U.S. territory was battered
and left without electricity by Typhoon
Omar. Omar struck Guam early Aug. 28 with
sustained winds to 125 mph and gusts as
high as 155 mph, according to Federal
Emergency Management Agency spokesman
Dennis Kwiatkowski. About 80 people were
injured in the storm, and reports said as
many as 10,000 homes were damaged. 

   LOWELL WEICKER,
governor of
Connecticut, said recently that
individuals interested in forming a third
party will hold a ``brainstorming
session'' in Chicago early this month to
plot strategy. Among those expected to
attend the Chicago meeting is John
Anderson, the Trilateral Commission
member who mounted an independent
candidacy in 1980 and now heads the World
Federalists. 

   CALIFORNIA
Gov. Pete Wilson signed
legislation on Aug. 28 which allows
capital defendants to choose lethal
injection instead of the gas chamber as
of Jan. 1, as a means of thwarting
protests against the use of the gas
chamber, which is being widely compared
to the Nazi gas chambers. Supposedly
lethal injection can be accepted as
``more humane.'' 
Medicine
   
Anti-AIDS drug Kemron
   reevaluated by U.S.
   
The anti-AIDS drug Kemron, developed
in Africa, is getting a second look by
the U.S. medical establishment, the Aug.
21 {Detroit Free Press} reported. Kemron
is a form of low-dose alpha interferon,
which is derived from a chemical the body
makes to fight infections. 
   The drug's developer, Kenyan
researcher Davy Koech, has issued a new
report summarizing what he called
breakthroughs in the treatment of 2,500
African patients, which is the basis of a
reevaluation of the drug by federal AIDS
officials. The National Medical
Association, a group of black physicians,
has called for more federal studies of
the drug, based on its endorsement by the
Nation of Islam. 
   The paper noted that Koech and the
Nation of Islam's health chief, Dr. Abdul
Alim Muhammad, ``don't agree on
everything. But they believe low-dose
human alpha interferon works, and that
arrogance and politics have stalled its
development.'' Koech said that the initial
negative evaluations of Kemron by the
U.S. National Institutes of Health were
the result of U.S. drug firms, which
``have a huge financial stake in the
treatment of AIDS.'' 

Development
   
North's abundance depends
   on South's development
   
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali
Alatas warned that ``the developed
countries of the North cannot sustain
their present abundance if the developing
countries of the South are not enabled to
catch up on their development,'' at a
foreign ministers meeting on Aug. 29 in
Jakarta preceding the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) summit that began Sept. 1. 
   Alatas pushed for a united front to
fight for a more equitable world, at the
same time as other Islamic countries
mobilized support to expel what is left
of Yugoslavia from NAM. ``When the death
knell resounds over the famine-gripped
nations of Africa, when it reverberates
over the shell-torn rubbles in the cities
of central Europe, no person or nation
should ask for whom the bell tolls. It
tolls for all of us,'' he said. ``We in the
Non-Aligned Movement shall continue to be
guided by that vision of the solidarity
of humankind and the ideals and
principles that logically flow from it.'' 

   Infrastructure
   
Iraqi `Third River' 
   project nears completion
   
The 350-mile canal in Iraq, designed
to turn the lower Tigris and Euphrates
rivers basin into fertile agricultural
land, will be completed shortly.
   The project has been the object of a
propaganda campaign claiming that its
purpose is to target the so-called ``Marsh
Arabs.'' Deputy Agricultural Minister
Abdul Sattar Hussein denied the charge,
saying that ``there is no connection
whatsoever between this project and the
question of the marshes in southern
Iraq,'' the Aug. 27 London {Guardian}
reported. He said that the canal only
cuts through the southern edge of one
marsh, where a dike would stop the two
water systems from mixing. 
   One of the project engineers,
Mohamad Karabash, said, ``We've been
working 24 hours a day for three months.''
Over 4,500 workers and 3,000 machines are
moving 26 million cubic feet of earth and
sand daily, and 95% of the work is
completed, he said. The project has taken
50 years to plan but has been implemented
in the two years since the cease-fire and
sanctions were implemented. 

   AIDS
   
Saliva likely means
   of disease spread
   
Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan, head of the
Sex Therapy and Education Program at the
Payne Whitney Clinic of New York Hospital
and clinical associate professor of
psychiatry at Cornell University of
Medicine, warned that the AIDS virus can
be spread through the exchange of saliva,
in a column by Howard Fast in the Aug. 24
{Minneapolis Star Tribune.} 
   In the column, entitled ``Guarding
Against Kiss of Death,'' Fast, an author
and screenwriter whose works include
``Spartacus'' and ``The Immigrants,'' asked
Kaplan if AIDS can be transmitted by kissing.
Kaplan replied, ``Yes, if the lips are
parted and if there is any exchange of
saliva.... Saliva is an ideal environment
for the AIDS virus. In fact, the count is
larger in saliva than in the blood of an
HIV-positive person.'' 
   Fast asked Kaplan, ``Then how likely
is it that deep kissing will infect the
partner of a person who tests HIV
positive?'' Kaplan said, ``We are not sure
because we still lack proper statistics.
AIDS can remain dormant for years in an
infected person. When I once presumed to
suggest that the only defense would be to
test the entire population, a cry of rage
broke out on every side.'' 
   Kaplan, when informed of his plans
to print her comments, told Fast, ``Then
beware. The sky will fall on you.... You
will get denial from every side. They
will say there are no reliable
statistics, no scientific tests. They
will tell you that doctors disagree. They
will tell you that my information is
invalid.'' 
   Fast commented, ``Even if the odds
are much longer than Kaplan believes them
to be, it is still stupid and wanton to
toss one's life away for what we used to
call a French kiss. I shall think of that
every time I see a love scene out of that
caring place they call Hollywood, and I
hope to God that the people who make
films will think about it.'' 

   Science
   
Animal researchers
   protected by new law 
   
A new law protecting against animal
rights terrorists was signed Aug. 26 by
President Bush as the result of four
years of lobbying by the group Putting
People First. The new law amends Title 18
of the U.S. Criminal Code to outlaw
break-ins, assaults, and other terrorism
against animal enterprises, including
research facilities, zoos, aquariums,
circuses, rodeos, and similar businesses
that use animals. 
   ``At last federal prosecutors and
judges will have stiff federal penalties
for terrorism against animal-use
facilities,'' said Kathleen Marquardt,
chairman of Putting People First, who
commended Rep. Charles Stenholm (D-Tex.)
and Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) for
sponsoring the legislation. During the
past decade, she said, animal rights
groups have used burglary, theft, arson,
and bombing against at least 90 animal
enterprises, resulting in more than $10
million in damages to taxpayers, in
addition to higher food costs, delays in
research, and hundreds of jobs lost. 
   Every medical breakthrough of 1992
has involved the use of laboratory
animals at a critical stage in the
research process, a study by Americans
for Medical Progress, a nonprofit
organization, reports. Among the medical
breakthroughs in 1992 were an artificial
lung substance tested on rabbits and
rhesus monkeys that prevents respiratory
distress syndrome, a major killer of
premature babies; a blood
substitute developed from bovine
hemoglobin received a patent (this is
important because of the shrinking world
supply of non-infected blood); and the
chemical molecule enediyne, tested on
laboratory rats, was found to be an
anti-cancer agent, attacking tumors while
leaving most normal cells alone. 

   Labor 
   
Polish police used 
   against striking workers
   
Polish riot police intervened
against striking workers at the FSM Tychy
plant on Aug. 28, in the first
strike-busting action of the state since
the overthrow of the old communist regime
in 1989. The move followed shortly after
a ``last warning'' by Labor Minister Jacek
Kuron that workers should halt the
strike. Part of the plant is still
occupied by about 3,000 striking workers,
however. 
   The government's crackdown against
the strike wave was carried out also in
other parts of Poland, with several
hundred workers at the Szczecin shipyards
threatened by the management with being
laid off if they didn't distance
themselves from the bloc of
anti-government unions. About 100 workers
of the Gdansk shipyard who took part in a
banned strike on Aug. 25, have already
received notices that they are fired. 
   Industry Minister Waclaw
Niewiarowski threatened 4,000 striking
mining workers at the upper Silesian coal
mine of Rozbark with ``ruthless action to
restore order,'' if they did not return to
their job. 
   The anti-labor moves come as the
Polish government had riot police raid
the Warsaw offices of the Samoobrona
organization and brutally arrest several
of the staff, causing injuries, AP
reported Aug. 28. The raid is the first
clear step in the realization of the
government's warning that it intends to
outlaw the farmers' self-defense
organization on charges of
anti-constitutional activities. 
   Samoobrona has been leading protests
against International Monetary Fund
austerity and shutdowns of mines, farms,
and industry. 

   Russia 
   
Volvo head attacks
   Harvard economists
   
Pehr Gyllenhammar, head of the
Swedish auto maker Volvo, expressed
pessimism over developments in Russia,
and attacked Harvard economists for their
policy of ``shock therapy'' toward Russia,
in a radio interview on Aug. 24. 
   ``Look,'' Gyllenhammar said, ``the only
country that really implemented the
market economy, eastern Germany, even
causes the richest country in Europe,
Germany, to waver. If you need 1 billion
in eastern Germany, then just calculate
how much you need in Russia!|... I don't
believe in a radical economic change,
because it can lead to catastrophe.'' 
   Gyllenhammar explained, ``A radical
opening of the borders means that all
factories are outmoded. That means a
total collapse, which leads to political
chaos, which can lead to major population
migrations. We have difficulty in
handling the migrations from Yugoslavia,
a relatively small country. We are not
prepared physically or mentally to handle
a problem with Russia.... When it gets
worse, the politicians are driven to make
decisions Harvard economists cannot
imagine, because what is happening now is
unprecedented.'' 

   Agriculture
   
Farm income lower
   with NAFTA, GATT
   
A new study by the Dallas Federal
Reserve says that, if trade were
liberalized, farm income in many of the
most important food-producing states,
including Iowa, would decline
significantly, and U.S. agriculture's
world status would be reduced, the Aug.
28 {Des Moines Register} reported. 
   Income from feed grains, wheat,
sugar, soybeans, and rice would be the
most adversely affected. Associate
economist Fiona Sigalla says trade
liberalization would shift some food
production from industrialized countries,
including the United States, to
developing nations. She says the state by
state effect of this change in production
could be substantial. 
   With free trade, ``income from wheat
production is expected to fall nearly
50%. Corn output would drop only
slightly, but a nearly one-third
reduction in producer prices would lower
income from production of corn by 34%.
Income from sugar production would fall
by 80%, while income from sorghum, oats,
and barley could decline by more than
40%. Income from cotton would go down 43%
and rice by 63%. Four states, Hawaii,
Louisiana, Montana, and North Dakota,
would see farm income decline 20% or
more.'' 

   CHINA
and Russia are establishing
closer ties, {China Daily} reported Aug.
20. A Sino-Russian intergovernmental
commission for trade, economic,
scientific, and technical cooperation met
in Moscow Aug. 18, and is preparing an
extensive trade agreement to be signed in
Beijing during Russian President Boris
Yeltsin's visit to China in November,
Russian State Radio reported Aug. 19. 

   INDIA
plans to launch planetary
probes, Prof. U.R. Rao told the United
News of India Aug. 27. ``The first
mission, probably to study Mars, should
fructify around 1998-99,'' he said. Rao
said the Indian Space Research
Organization, which he heads, also wants
to send probes to Mercury and Venus. ``We
must be ready with the technology and
worry about the funds later,'' he said. 

   THE FOURTH
Asian and Pacific
population conference, sponsored by the
U.N. and hosted by the government of
Indonesia, met in Bali, Indonesia Aug.
19-27, the {Hindustan Times} reported. In
Asia, live births per woman fell from an
average of four in the 1960s to 3.4 by
1990. Zero growth is between 2.3 and 2.1
births per woman. 

   TAIWAN
wants trade, not investment,
in China, Chen Ming-chang, head of the
economic department of the cabinet's
Mainland Affairs Council, told the
{Economic Daily News,} Reuters reported
Aug. 25. Excessive investment in China is
undermining the island's economy, and
Taiwan will try to stem outflows of
capital, he said. 

   MCDONNELL
Douglas may move
part of its operation to Mexico. Having
already reduced its work force from 5,500
to 3,100 at its helicopter plant in
Arizona, McDonald Douglas is reported to
be considering moving its operation to
Mexico where the cheap labor will allow
them to assemble helicopters--80% of
their business--much more cheaply. 



----
         John Covici
          covici@ccs.covici.com

Newsgroups: alt.activism