Faculty Evaluator: Laurel Holmstrom
Student Researchers: Rebecca Aust & Aimee Regan

Mainstream coverage: Seattle Times, July 2, 1999, page B1; Willington-Star News, July 12, 1999, page 3B; News & Observer, Raleigh NC, July 6, 1999, page Al; Spokane Review, Spokane WA, July 2, 1999, page Al; Denver Post, June 30, 1999, page B4

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have charged that animals are being killed unnecessarily in military training classes. A course titled “Survival Skills” taught at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah teaches soldiers to hunt, kill, cook, and eat tame rabbits and chickens.

According to the author, the animals are transported from a local farm to the training grounds by truck. The soldiers then stage an ambush of the vehicle and release, chase, capture, and kill the animals. The officers in charge demand that the soldiers kill the animals with their bare hands.

While PETA was successful in having the class at Dugway discontinued, they also received reports of animal killing at Loring Air Force Base in Maine where soldiers were told to feed and care for rabbits and later to kill and eat them. At Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington, eyewitness accounts describe soldiers who are “required to stroke the rabbit to calm it, then bash it on the head—and the rabbits don’t always die with the first blow.”

Survival skills training classes began in 1947, in Alaska, to expose Air Force members to the harsh Arctic, and later a training camp was opened near terrain that resembles the former Soviet Union. By 1966, several of these classes were developed to train for the action in Vietnam. Marine Sergeant Joe Bangert told Life magazine in 1971, “The day before I went to ‘Nam this staff sergeant came out in front of us with a rabbit. Petting it he pulled out a knife and started skinning it, then disemboweled it.”

Government documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act show that two Air Force bases alone used more than 1,500 rabbits each year at a cost of more than $10,000. According to a 1997 Department of Defense (DOD) report, the Air Force kills more rabbits in survival skills courses than does the DOD in all its intramural research facilities combined. PETA estimates that more than 10,000 animals, including chickens, rabbits, and goats are used each year in dozens of classes at military installations around the country.

These exercises seem to serve no practical purpose and teach no relevant skills to soldiers who may one day experience life-threatening, adverse conditions. Soldiers stranded in wartime are not likely to find tame bunnies and hens sitting on a battlefield. These live animal programs are controversial even within the military. Major General Leo J. Baxter of the U.S. Army base in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, stated, “We [at Fort Sill] are in complete agreement that there is no need to utilize live animals for realistic survival skills training.”

In the past, there have been instances where such exercises were canceled after receiving national exposure, yet thousands of animals continue to suffer each year on military bases that pursue this training.

UPDATE BY AUTHOR D’ARCY A. KEMNITZ: The story “Irrational Rations: Animals Used in Military Training” outlined a campaign begun when soldiers at U.S. military bases learned they were expected to kill rabbits with their bare hands in “survival skills” training classes. Whistleblowers called animal rights groups to try to get this practice stopped, and their reports marked the lurid beginnings of a national effort to stop one of the most outdated, barbaric, and unjustifiable practices in the military. These exercises result in the deaths of more than 10,000 animals annually—including goats and chickens—usually by soldiers using their bare hands or primitive tools such as rocks and sticks.

The practice dates back to World War II and was designed to teach soldiers how to procure food when separated from their divisions for long periods of time. However, in the modern exercises, soldiers are given tame rabbits before heading out to the training field. Nothing about the exercises simulates combat conditions with regard to “hunting” for food, making the classes as pointless as they are cruel.

Following the story’s publication in The Animals Agenda, articles appeared in newspapers in areas near large military installations, and Time magazine covered the story as well. The Pentagon’s public affairs division has frustrated activists by obstructing any communication with decision-makers on the issue.

The mainstream press responded with an emphasis on the gory aspects of small animals being killed by soldiers. Other individuals who were more familiar with such practices took action to stop animals from being killed. For instance, one Seattle-based former survival skills training instructor, who taught rabbit killing exercises to soldiers going to Vietnam, wrote to members of Congress to help initiate legislation to stop the practice. He stated: “As a former Air Force Sergeant survival instructor at Fairchild Air Force Base from 1968 to 1971… I taught survival in both classroom and field settings. Part of that training was the practice of killing a live rabbit with my own hands and then butchering the rabbit as one would a larger animal such as a deer. Since the rabbit was caged and hand-fed for a few days before being dispatched, my students often became attached to this animal and were reluctant to see or conduct the killing themselves …. The killing and butchering of these live rabbits is wholly unnecessary and does not enhance the survival of military personnel.”

What remains now is for military authorities and/or members of Congress to use the information revealed in this campaign and take appropriate action to end this cruel and unproductive practice.

For more information regarding the campaign to stop the use of live animals in military survival skills training courses, contact: The Animals Agenda, P.O. Box 25881, Baltimore, MD 21224; Tel: (410) 675-4566; E-mail:office@ani-malsagenda.org; Web site: http://www.animalsagenda.org.

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Faculty Evaluator: Lynn Cominsky, Ph.D.
Student Evaluator: Jake Medway

Mentally unstable individuals may be in control of U.S. nuclear devices. A screening process called the Personnel Reliability Program (PRP), set in place after a near-disaster in 1959, is supposed to guarantee that only competent, stable, and dependable individuals have access to America’s nuclear arsenal. In fact, the PRP looks mainly for self-announced kooks and fails to identify less sensational cases. As a result, numerous unstable individuals are in control of, and have access to, our nuclear weapons.

PRP is a two-step process consisting of an initial screening and post-approval monitoring. Investigators look for traits such as good social adjustment, emotional stability, and a positive attitude toward nuclear weapons duty. Screening includes a cursory medical evaluation, a review of the candidate’s personnel file, and a background check of profes-sional, educational, and personal histories. However, no routine psychological testing is done. Between 1990 and 1996, 7,000 people were decertified after passing the PRP screening. These thousands were either temporarily or permanently barred from nuclear weapons duties due to various, sometimes emotional, problems on the job.

Candidates can easily lie about their records with little chance of getting caught. FBI background checks only pick up 5 to 8 percent of people who have had trouble with the law, allowing numerous “bad apples” to receive high security clearance positions. According to the Pentagon’s 1996 annual status report on PRP, 758 people were kicked out of the program that year. Out of those, 169 were expelled due to conviction by a military or a civilian court of a serious offense or a pattern of behavior showing contemptuous attitude towards the law.

In several cases, PRP-certified people have gone on to commit murder or suicide, assault, rape, and other serious crimes, exposing unstable mental conditions in their past and present. In one case, where a naval technician committed a murder of two elderly people, investigators were tipped off to his potential violence through interviews with the officer’s acquaintances from before his recruitment. These interviews revealed a history including such warning signs as suspected murder, wife beating, lying, stealing, and “continuous fantasizing.” A sonar technician who was expelled from PRP for failing a drug test stated that abuses that should be grounds for expulsion are frequently ignored. An expelled PRP Marine claimed that heavy drinking and depression are overlooked. There have even been cases of people drinking while on PRP duty. In certain cases, individuals still had their PRP clearance while in prison for a felony conviction. One Marine explained that manpower demand at special weapons stations far exceeds the number of qualified personnel.

Herbert L. Abrams, PRP expert at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, recom-mends that the Pentagon strengthen PRP by requiring a physician to examine all candidates, have standardized psycho-logical testing, and improve its post-approval monitoring procedures. Others insist that the entire program be subjected to tough independent scrutiny.

UPDATE BY AUTHOR KEN SULVERSTEIN: This story is important because even if the risks of a problem are relatively small, the consequences of any problem could be enormous. What are the risks? It is hard to say for certain, especially given the Pentagon’s refusal to open up its records on the PRP. Still, the fact that a few people involved with the program were willing to talk to me (off the record) about their fears, shows that some key insiders believe the screening system is dangerously inadequate.

No significant new developments have occurred since the story was published, at least that I know of. However, since the Pentagon is generally not eager to disclose problems with the program, it is impossible to know for certain.

There has been no fallout in the mainstream press. I think this is for two reasons. First, it is not exactly the type of story that you can follow up on as, for example, with a campaign finance scandal, where there are always sure to be plenty of emerging developments.

Also, this is the type of story that is unlikely to get a sharp examination until a problem comes to light (in other words, when it is too late). There is no organization that rigorously tracks the PRP. For anyone wanting to do follow-up research, I recommend contacting the sources named in the story. (Or contact me to see about the unnamed sources.)

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Faculty Evaluator: Phil Beard, Ph.D.
Student Researcher: Jeremiah Price

The Hague Appeal for Peace (HAP) Conference, which took place in the Hague, Netherlands, in May 1999, has set a “Global Agenda” for world peace in the next century. Over 1,000 groups, from 100 different countries, intended to voice their suggestions on how to make international peace possible. The four-day event yielded a turnout of over 8,000 people and resulted in ground-breaking initiatives and resolutions.

One of the many new campaigns launched at the conference was the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). The IANSA goal is to encourage tracking, protesting, and publicizing the sales and shipments of weapons. Referring to the fact that the U.S. sold $119 billion in arms, some 45 percent of the world’s total, from 1989 to 1996, Pierre Sane of Amnesty International stated at the conference that the U.S. is “becoming the arsenal of the world.”

The Hague Global Agenda calls for recognition and enforcement of World Court rulings that over 150 countries have endorsed. The United States has been unwilling to submit to the international jurisdiction of the World Court.

A long-term project put in motion at the conference is the Global Action to Prevent War. Its purpose is to establish a coalition of organizations that will build a permanent body of NGOs, individuals, and eventually governments to support world peace.

Heads of some governments avoided the event, although representatives from various governments attended. Several of the attending representatives were ambassadors and ministers, most of whom acknowledge that the majority of governments will only recognize universal values until they interfere with national or economic interests, and that governments often co-opt the language of peace to justify and protect corporate interests.

The following is the agenda that was set forth at The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference. The Global Agenda outlines 10 fundamental principles for a just world order:

1. Every government should adopt a resolution prohibiting war.

2. All states should accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.

3. Every government should ratify the ICC and implement the Land Mines Treaty.

4. All states should integrate the New Diplomacy—the partnership of governments, international organizations, and civil societies.

5. The world can’t ignore humanitarian crises, but every creative diplomatic means possible must be exhausted before resorting to force under U.N. authority.

6. Negotiations for a Convention Eliminating Nuclear Weapons should begin immediately.

7. The trade in small arms should be severely restricted.

8. Economic rights must be taken as seriously as civil rights.

9. Peace education should be compulsory in every school.

10. The plan for the Global Action to Prevent War should become the basis for a peaceful world order.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised the NGOs and civil society organizations for creating the conference. While the conference was covered by Associated Press and released worldwide, the United States media ignored it, with coverage in the back pages of only a handful of small regional papers.

UPDATE BY AUTHOR ROBIN LLOYD: Ten thousand peace activists, Nobel peace prize winners, and celebrities met for four days in May of 1999 at a conference center at the Hague, the Netherlands, to virtually no U.S. (and skimpy international) coverage. A few blocks away, the boys with the big cameras clustered outside the gates of the International Court of Justice, where Yugoslavia was charging NATO with grievous violations of international law.

After all, there was a war going on. Every day, young people from the conference trooped down with banners, urging the media to provide some coverage. No luck. As a Hague Appeal staffer later explained, “Unless the story has action and can be explained in two seconds, they don’t want to cover it.”

The conference was spurred by a revolutionary idea: abolishing war in the 21st century. Hopelessly idealistic? As Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal, put it, this end-of-the-century conference was convened “because we want peace to have the last word in this most war-filled, most violent century.” That concern also spurred my own partici-pation. I was tired of hearing the millennium being boiled down to an acronym—Y2K. The conference provided a context to talk about renewal and a recommitment to democratic values as we entered a new century.

And it wasn’t a bad story, complete with history (the conference occurred 100 years after the first Hague conference of 1899), hope for the future, revolutionary fervor, youth, and even some celebrities (Kofi Annan, Bishop Tutu, and Queen Noor, among others). Yet, maybe the best story was: how could this “peace conference”—dedicated to abolishing war, and taking place in the midst of one—avoid taking a stand on Kosovo? Virtually every participant had to answer that question upon returning home.

What was the conference’s stand on Kosovo? Officially, it didn’t have one. And that may well have been a factor in the press’s indifference to both the process and the 21st century agenda that emerged.

But now, after the mobilization against globalization in Seattle, the Hague conference reveals a larger story: the potential role of “civil society” in the new millennium. It’s been growing for a while; politely at the Hague, not so politely in Seattle. The people are at the gates, asserting that their interests as human beings are being ignored or manipulated by governments, international financial institutions, and corporations.

“What are these NGOs ‘swarming’ about?” The Economist asked in a December 1999 article. “Are citizens’ groups, as many of their supporters claim, the first steps towards an ‘international civil society’ (whatever that may be)? Or do they represent a dangerous shift of power to unelected and unaccountable special-interest groups?” The way the magazine framed the question suggests that they believe something pretty ominous is happening.

In fact, the number of international non-governmental organizations has increased fourfold, from 6,000 in 1990 to 26,000 today. But the key question is whether civil society can move from knocking on the door of international institutions to taking over the hall and creating a people’s parliament. It’s not as utopian as it sounds. Remember when the U.S. shifted from electing its senators through state legislatures to letting the people decide?

A Millennium NGO Forum will be held at the U.N. from May 22-26, 2000. Its agenda—to build grassroots and public support for a more effective U.N.—is moderate, but it will also provide an opening for international civil society to push the envelope on global governance. As Toward Freedom editor Greg Guma wrote recently in an editorial, “We need to move beyond fear of government and work for democracy at the world level.”

The Hague Appeal for Peace can be reached on the Internet at http://www.haguepeace.org, or e-mail: hapy@ipb.org. The Millennium People’s Assembly Network is at http://www.ourvoices.org. Toward Freedom will continue to track develop-ments on its Web site, http://www.towardfreedom.com.

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Faculty Evaluators: Rick Luttman, Ph.D. & Phil Beard, Ph.D.
Student Researchers: Michael Spigel & Jeremiah Price

Germany and the U.S. collaborated in supporting the development and training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to deliberately destabilize a centralized socialist government in Yugoslavia.

Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Undercover support to the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavor between the CIA and Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany:

“They used German uniforms, East German weapons, and were financed in part by drug money,” according to intelligence analyst John Whitley. As the KLA matured, the U.S. and Germany recruited Mujaheddin mercenaries, financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, to train the KLA in guerrilla and diversion tactics.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a small handful of Pentagon contractors or private military companies providing support to the KLA. One of these contractors is the Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI). In a recent interview retired Army Colonel David Hackworth gave to Catherine Crier of Fox Television, he states that the MPRI used former U.S. military personnel to train KLA forces at secret bases inside Albania.

The MPRI has a starting lineup comprised of retired Pentagon top brass. Its roster includes one retired admiral, two retired major generals, and 10 retired generals. The MPRI employs more than 400 personnel and can access the resumes of thousands of former U.S. military specialists from cooks and clerks to helicopter pilots and Green Berets.

The MPRI has been in the Balkans for years. MPRI military advisers helped plan Storm and Strike, the Croatian offensive that was responsible for driving out 350,000 Croatian Serbs from the Krajina province. In 1996, just one year later, the MPRI received a $400 million State Department contract to train and equip the Bosnian Croat-Muslim Federation Army.

Some of the KLA’s military leadership includes veterans of the MPRI-planned operation Storm and Strike. Agim Ceku is the military commander of the KLA and was a former brigadier general in the Croatian army. According to the London Independent’s Robert Fisk, Ceku is an ethnic cleanser in his own right. Ceku, along with MPRI military advisers, helped plan the Croatian military offensive that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs from Krajina.

UPDATE BY AUTHOR WAYNE MADSEN: The story on the U.S. mercenary connection to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was virtually ignored by the corporate-controlled media during NATO’s Balkans War. Playing into the hands of the Pentagon’s information warfare and perception management cadres, as well as Clinton Administration spinmeisters, the major media sang the praises of the KLA, refusing to peer inside the covert assistance program rendered by Pentagon “private military contractors” to this shadowy group long connected to criminal enterprises in both Eastern and Western Europe.

The U.S. private military contractors and police advisory teams associated with the Justice Department’s and United Nations peace monitoring teams continue their activity in the world’s most volatile trouble spots. As private entities, these companies are not subject to congressional oversight or Freedom of Information requests.

MPRI stepped up its military training activities in Bosnia after the suspension of the firm’s arms transfers to the Bosnian army was lifted by the State Department. MPRI activities included training a rapid reaction Bosnian special forces unit and providing direct support to the Bosnian Defense Ministry. Pentagon insiders reported that MPRI also provided weaponry to paramilitary forces loyal to Montenegro’s pro-Western President Milo Djukanovic and continued covert assistance to the KLA in Kosovo.

Also, MPRI’s activities in Africa increased. Not only did the company’s personnel increase their profile in Angola, helping that nation in its war against Washington’s former UNITA allies, but the firm’s representatives showed up in Abuja, Nigeria, after the swearing in of democratically elected president Olusegun Obasanjo. MPRI is a central player in the Pentagon’s African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) and Nigeria was long sought as a military partner of the United States in that effort. However, neither former dictator Sani Abacha nor former president-elect Chief Moshood Abiola were acceptable to Washington as military partners. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering provided much of the high-level liaison between Obasanjo’s government and MPRI. Ironically, Dickering was present during a July 1998 meeting with Chief Abiola when the imprisoned president-elect suffered a heart attack and died minutes later. MPRI is also active in counter-narcotics military operations in Colombia.

There has also been a blurring of law enforcement and military activities of companies like Dyncorp and Science Application International Corporation (SAIC). One of Dyncorp’s U.N. police monitors was wounded by pro-Indonesian East Timorese militiamen in the post-referendum violence that swept the ravaged territory. Others, providing police services in NATO-occupied Kosovo, were attacked by both Serb and Albanian militia groups.

SAIC became more active, through the CIA-connected ICITAP, in paramilitary counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations in Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, and Panama-all long-time favorite haunts of CIA operatives. ICITAP also stepped up training of Bosnian federal and cantonal police units and various South African police services. Former ICITAP director Janice Stromsem was joined by another ICITAP employee, Mick Andersen, who charged that agencies other than the Justice Department were engaging in “illegal activities” in Haiti. Stromsem and Andersen were both forced from their jobs with ICITAP and have been effectively ostracized within the government after blowing the whistle.

During 1999, Dyncorp faced charges that it was raiding police departments around the country luring away experienced officers with six-figure salaries. In September 1999, the mayor of Surf City, New Jersey filed suit against one of his police officers for abandoning his job to join Dyncorp’s force in Kosovo. A retired Bloomington, Indiana police officer returned home from Kosovo after becoming disenchanted with his duties. Still others cited difficulties in dealing with the Albanian Mafia in Kosovo. Moreover, some 10 percent of the U.N. police candidates dropped out of Dyncorp’s Fort Worth-based training program after they initially signed up. Aside from radio interviews with progressive radio stations in New York, there was no other media reaction to the story.

For more information peruse the following Web sites:

http://www.mpri.com
http://www.dyncorp.com/areas/intlpm.htm
http://www.saic.com (key site’s search engine for ICITAP)
http://www.ciponline.org/facts/icitap.htm
http://www.us.net/cip/icitap3.htm
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/ forum84.html
http://www.whistleblower.org/www/antigag.htm
http://www.eucom.mil/programs/acri/

UPDATE FROM AUTHOR: MIOHEL CHOSSU-DOVSKY: As Western leaders trumpet their support for democracy, state terrorism in Kosovo has become an integral part of NATO’s post-war design. The KLA’s political role for the “post-conflict” period had been mapped out well in advance. NATO had already slated the KLA “provisional government” (PGK) to run civilian state institutions. In the weeks following NATO’s military occupation of Kosovo, the KLA took over municipal governments and public services including schools and hospitals. The KLA has a controlling voice on the U.N.-sponsored Kosovo Transitional Council, UNMIK. In the weeks following the military invasion, the KLA “Provisional Government” established links with a number of Western governments.

Under NATO occupation, the rule of law has visibly been turned upside down. Criminals and terrorists are to become law-enforcement officers. With the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and police, the KLA without delay took control of Kosovo’s police stations. Under the formal authority of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Coop-eration in Europe (OSCE) was entrusted with the task of training and installing a 4,000-strong police force with a mandate to “protect civilians” under the jurisdiction of the KLA-controlled “Ministry of Public Order.” The evidence suggests that the KLA-controlled police force was also responsible for the massacres of civilians organized in the immediate wake of NATO’s military occupation of Kosovo.

Moreover, despite NATO’s commitment to disarming the KLA, the Kosovar paramilitary organization is slated to be transformed into a modern military force. So-called “security assistance” has already been granted to the KLA by the U.S. Congress under the Kosovar Independence and Justice Act of 1999. While the KLA’s links to the Balkans narcotics trade (served to finance many of its terrorist activities) had been highly publicized, the paramilitary organi-zation was granted an official U.S. seal of approval as well as being deemed a “legitimate” source of funding. In turn, Washington’s military aid package to the KLA was entrusted to Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI) of Alexandria, Virginia, a private mercenary outfit run by high ranking former U.S. military officers.

In September 1999, the KLA was officially dissolved and transformed into the newly formed Kosovo Protection Force that was funded by U.S. military aid. Shift in military labels: KLA Commander Agim Ceku was appointed Chief of Staff of Kosovo’s newly created armed forces.

Barely a few weeks after Commander Ceku’s NATO sponsored appointment, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced that it was “investigating Ceku for alleged war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs in Croatia between 1993 and 1995” (AFP, October 13,1999). This information had been withheld by the ICTY during the mandate of Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour. In other words, the U.N. and NATO knew that Agim Ceku was an alleged war criminal prior to the onslaught of NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia in March 1999. More-over, KFOR Commander Mike Jackson and UNMIK head Dr. Bernard Kouchner (and 1999 Nobel Peace Laureate as cofounder of Doctors Without Borders) were fully aware of the fact that an alleged war criminal had been appointed as Commander in Chief of the KPF: “If we lose him it will be a disaster,” said a diplomat close to Bernard Vouchner, the U.N. s special representative. “When you get to the second level of the TMK [Kosovo Protection Force], you’re down to a bunch of local thugs.” American diplomats have suggested any indictment of Ceku would most likely be “sealed” and thereby kept out of the public domain [meaning that public opinion will not be informed of the Court’s decision]. Another diplomat said he believed KFOR, the NATO-led peace-keeping force, could not contemplate a public relations disaster with the Albanians by arresting Ceku (Tom Walker, “Kosovo Defense Chief Accused of War Crimes, Sunday Times, October 10, 1999).

The ICTY also cautioned that the inquiry did not necessarily imply that Ceku was responsible for wrongdoings in Kosovo: “The court’s inquiries relate to atrocities committed in Krajina between 1993 and 1995.” Ceku’s record in Kosovo itself is not thought to be in question, although the office of Carla del Ponte, the new chief prosecutor, said an investigation into his activities with the KLA could not be ruled out. The possibility that Ceku, a respected figure in Kosovo, could be accused of war crimes, has sent “shivers through the international community in Kosovo…” (Ibid.).

In other words, the so-called “international community” has firmly relied on an “alleged war criminal” to replicate in Kosovo the massacres and ethnic cleansing conducted in Croatia against Krajina Serbs. Visibly what was shaping up in the wake of the bombings in Kosovo was the continuity of NATO’s operation in the Balkans. Military personnel and U.N. bureaucrats previously stationed in Croatia and Bosnia had also been routinely reassigned to Kosovo. In this context, the assignment of Mike Jackson to Kosovo as KFOR Commander was remarkably consistent with the appointment a few months earlier of Brigadier General Agim Ceku as Commander of the KLA.

KFOR Commander Mike Jackson had also been routinely reassigned to Kosovo following his earlier stint in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Croatia. His experience in “ethnic warfare,” however, predates the Balkans. From his earlier posting, while in Northern Ireland as a young captain, Jackson was second in command in the “Bloody Sunday” massacre of civilians in Derry in 1972. Under the orders of Lieutenant Derek Wilford, Captain Jackson and 13 other soldiers of the parachute regiment opened fire “on a peaceful protest by the Northern Ireland civil rights association opposing discrimination against Catholics. In just 30 minutes, 13 people were shot dead and 13 injured. Those who died were killed by a single bullet to the head or body, indicating that they had been deliberately targeted. No weapons were found on any of the deceased” (Julie Hyland, “Head of NATO Force in Kosovo, Second-in-Command at ‘Bloody Sunday’ Massacre in Ireland,” World Socialist Web site, June 19, 1999).

Jackson’s role in “Bloody Sunday” “did not hinder his Military career” (Ibid.). From his early stint in Northern Ireland, he was reassigned to the theatre of ethnic warfare in the Balkans. In the immediate wake of Operation Storm and the ethnic massacres in Krajina, Jackson was put in charge as KFOR commander, for organizing the return of Serbs “to lands taken by Croatian HVO forces in the 1995 Krajina offensive.” And in this capacity General Mike Jackson had “urged that the resettlement of Krajina Serbs not be rushed to avoid tension with the Croatians while also warning returning Serbs of the extent of the land mine threat (Jane’s Defense Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 7, February 14, 1996). In retrospect, recalling the events of early 1996, very few Krajina Serbs were allowed to return to their homes under the protection of the United Nations. According to Veritas, a Belgrade based organization of Serbian refugees from Croatia, some 10,000-15,000 Serbs were able to resettle in Croatia.

A similar process took place in Kosovo where the conduct of senior military officers conformed to a consistent pattern because the same key individuals were reassigned to a “peace-keeping” role in Kosovo. While token efforts were displayed to protect Serb and Roma civilians, those who fled Kosovo were not encouraged to return under U.N. protection. In post-war Kosovo, ethnic cleansing was carried out by the KLA while under the auspices of NATO and the U.N. It has been accepted by the “international community” as a fait accompli.

Moreover, while calling for democracy and “good governance” in the Balkans, the U.S. and its allies have installed in Kosovo a “civilian paramilitary government” with links to organized crime. The outcome is the outright “criminalization” of civilian state institutions in Kosovo and the establishment of what is best described as a “Mafia State.” The complicity of NATO and the Alliance governments (namely their relentless support of the KLA) points to the de facto “criminalization” of KFOR and of the U.N. peace-keeping apparatus in Kosovo. The donor agencies and governments (e.g., the funds approved by the U.S. Congress in violation of several U.N. Security Council resolutions) providing financial support to the KLA are, in this regard, also “accessories” to this criminalization of state institutions. Through the intermediation of a paramilitary group (created and financed by Washington and Bonn), NATO ultimately bears the burden of responsibility for the massacres and ethnic cleansing of civilians in Kosovo.

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Faculty Evaluator: Laurel Holmstrom
Student Researchers: Corey Hale & Katie Anderson

Mainstream coverage: Although some aspects of this story did receive coverage in the New York Times and other papers, the extent and reasons behind the Vatican’s power in the U.N. were not explored.

A special delegation to the Vatican, the Holy See, holds a position in the United Nations that is more powerful than any other non-governmental organization (NGO). As a “nonmember state permanent observer,” the Vatican enjoys the same status as politically neutral Switzerland. When confronted about its problematic “nation” status, the thousand-member male population of the Vatican City legitimizes its position by claiming to be the representative of “the entire people of God.” In its position as a nonmember state permanent observer, the Holy See does not have a vote in the General Assembly, but it can speak, lobby, and negotiate on virtually equal footing with any nation.

During more heated proceedings, the priests circulate through the hall, shaking hands and distributing literature to the delegates. This action is a privilege not available to any other NGO. For example, the Vatican wields this power to promote its agendas by threatening to “pull out” of any of the 300,000 health care facilities it owns worldwide if the U.N. should attempt to force any of those facilities to provide abortion services or contraception services. This threat creates a hostage situation for poorer countries who are reliant on the church for poverty relief and basic health care. As governments around the world—such as the U.S.—farm out more health care services to private operators, including the Catholic Church, these countries become more vulnerable to having the Catholic Church’s doctrine imposed upon them.

Last spring, the See Change Campaign was launched by over 100 international women’s, religious, and reproductive rights groups, to challenge the Vatican’s power in the U.N., and to downgrade its status from a nonmember state to a traditional NGO. This campaign was spearheaded by Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC). According to Kissling, “the Vatican occupies 100 square acres of office space and tourist attractions in the middle of Rome, with a citizenry that excludes women and children … and should not have a place at the table where governments set policies affecting the very survival of women and children….”

When U.N. committees try to create consensus on issues involving reproductive rights or contraception, the Holy See is the one consistently dissenting organization. In the case of using condoms for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and AIDS, the Holy See’s representatives declare, “We cannot approve.” This scene was played out in 1999, at the Cairo+5 conference, which recognized women’s empowerment and reproductive health as keys to stemming global population growth. During the conference, the Holy See stalled proceedings for days over language in the final document. In this capacity, the papacy sets its political perimeter not only around a country but around the world.

UPDATE BY AUTHOR LAURA FLANDERS: The United Nations spends lots of time pondering the world’s approach to the environment, development, and people’s social and political rights. Drop in on one of the organizations’ massive conferences, and you will see 185 member nations trying to reach agreement on complex documents that aim to set policy for the globe. From abortion to children’s education, the U.N. has a policy document addressing it. That policy is drawn up by the 185 member-nations and one nonmember state—the Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican, the only non-governmental organization, is permitted to debate in the General Assembly, vote on policy at conferences and lobby nation representatives from the floor of the hall, while NGOs are restricted to watching from afar. This consideration has irked women’s rights advocates for decades—as they have found themselves at odds with the Church on reproductive rights and health education time and again.

Back in 1995, at the U.N. conference on Women in Beijing, close to 10,000 people signed on to a letter asking the Secretary-General to review the Holy See’s status. Still, it has only been in the last year, at the five-year anniversary of the U.N. conference on Population in Cairo, that the campaign has gathered steam. If the Vatican is a state, then Euro-Disney deserves a place on the Security Council, says Kissling. At last count, more than 250 groups from around the world had joined with CFEC in the effort to change the Vatican’s diplomatic rank.

The See Change story received some coverage this summer and fall, as the General Assembly met. Described as “quixotic” by Legal Times (August 16, 1999), the effort has typically been portrayed as a dispute between Kissling and the Vatican (ignoring the powerful groups from South and Central America that are leading participants), and solely about abortion—though the See’s interventions go way beyond that. For instance, this spring, the Church’s opposition prevented U.N. peacekeepers from distributing RU-486 to rape victims in Kosovo. The larger question raised by the See Change campaign remains woefully under-reported: the Vatican’s growing power.

With 300,000 health facilities worldwide, the Roman Catholic Church is a major global health provider. When challenged to provide abortion services, the church repeatedly responds that if forced, it will stop health services. As governments privatize social services worldwide, and more and more public hospitals fall under Catholic Church control, the Vatican’s power grows. As an adamantly anonymous source in the Secretary General’s office put it—the Secretary General’s no match for the Pope.

For more information on the See Change Campaign, you can contact Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) 1436 U St., NW, Washington DC 20009. Tel: (202) 986-6093; Fax: (202) 332-7995; E-mail: CFFC@igc.apc.org; Web site:http://www.seechange.org

The post 21. The Vatican’s U. N. Status Challenged appeared first on Project Censored.

Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips, Ph.D.
Student Researchers: Jeremiah Price & Lisa Desmond

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were leading contributors to economic tensions in the Balkans that stimulated the breakup of Yugoslavia. The divisiveness in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Kosovo was reported by media to be caused by “aggressive nationalism” and the ongoing ethnic and religious conflicts. However, other causes involving the IMF and the World Bank contributed to the rise in ethnic tensions.

Declassified documents from 1984 reveal that a U.S. national security decision directive, entitled “United States Policy Towards Yugoslavia,” set a policy for destabilizing the Yugoslavian government. U.S. policy was to expand efforts to promote a “quiet revolution” to overthrow Communist governments and parties, while reintegrating the countries of Eastern Europe into a market-oriented economy.

In the early 1980s, the World Bank and IMF provided loans to the former Yugoslavia to supposedly “fix” the economic hardship of the region. The loans from these two organizations included mandated macroeconomic restructuring that, rather than helping, in fact destroyed the industrial sector and dismantled the welfare state. In 1980, when the first phase of macroeconomics reform started, industrial growth began its seven-year decline from 7.1 percent per annum during the years of 1966-79, to 2.8 percent from 1980-87.

Within a climate of severe inflation and wage freezes, restructuring moved on to include new laws, which ushered in import liberalization and a freeze on credit. This caused investment and industrial growth to plummet to zero. Consumer price indexes increased 2,700 percent. Hundreds of firms filed bankruptcy or liquidation, and tens of thousands of industrial workers were laid off. In Kosovo, one of Yugoslavia’s poorest provinces, economic depression sparked ethnic conflict between the Albanian majority and Serb minority. Albanian pressure to secede increased and Slobodan Milosevic began moves to suppress Albanian nationalism. In the process, hundreds of Albanians were thrown out of state jobs.

In 1990, the IMF and the World Bank delivered a new “financial aid package” that required new extensive expenditure cuts by the federal government. Belgrade suspended transfer payments to republics and provinces, and real wages collapsed by 41 percent causing half a million workers to have their wages suspended. Inflation began to rise and industrial growth plummeted to 10.6 percent. The entire Yugoslavian banking system began to be dismantled under the supervision of the World Bank. A year later, in 1991, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia and civil war broke out in Croatia.

The IMF and World Bank involvement led to the impoverishment of the population, which in turn led to hatred, confusion, and divisiveness. The United States and NATO wanted to see Yugoslavia become a market-oriented economy, but due to structural adjustment programs the country has experienced out of control inflation and enormous drops in real wages. Now that the economy is in shambles, the U.S. and the European Union have installed a “full-fledged colonial administration” to replace the sovereign economic control of the country. Unfortunately, most of the Western world doesn’t realize the root of the problems in the Balkans and sees NATO and the U.S. as the saviors of an “ethnic war.”

UPDATE BY MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY: The military invasion and occupation of Kosovo is but a stage in the broader process of conquest and political destabilization of Yugoslavia. After the separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia, the Alliance is intent on promoting the secession of Montenegro, Yugoslavia’s only remaining access to the Adriatic. Washington has backed the puppet government of President Milo Djukanovic, politically as well as financially since 1997. Conditional upon the adoption of “free market” reforms, U.S. assistance has included support to the 12,000 strong police force loyal to President Djukanovic, not to mention the financing of the Montenegrin civilian militia. (See U.S. State Department, Press Conference, Washington, DC, June 9, 1999; see also The Statements of Secretary M. Albright and President M. Djukanovic, State Department Press Conference, April 22, 1999).

Advised by Western economists and consultants, the preconditions for Montenegro’s “economic separation” from Yugoslavia had been firmly established. The Deutschmark was adopted as the “official” currency in November 1999 leading to Montenegro’s de facto withdrawal from the Yugoslav monetary system alongside the paralysis of federal transfers to the Podgorica government. A Currency Board was installed on the model of Bosnia-Herzegovina under the Dayton Agreement. Meanwhile, Montenegro’s Central Bank had severed its ties with the Yugoslav Central Bank in Belgrade with a view to eventually establishing its own currency pegged to the Deutschmark. The new currency would be established under the currency board arrangement, with the support and financial assistance of the IMF.

By November 1999, the political and economic secession of Montenegro was already de facto with the exception of the cutting off of Serbia from its access to the Adriatic. In this regard, the U.S. is intent with the support of the Djukanovic government of mounting an effective blockade of Bar, which is the port of entry for imported oil into Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, the Pentagon had already set out operations plans (OPLANs) “for the invasion and forcible expulsion of Serb forces in Montenegro” (Truth in Media, September 29, 1999). The same source indicates “that the unit designated as the spearhead for the invasion of Montenegro, II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF), stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, has an Operational Planning Team (OPT) in Macedonia calculating how best to secure bridgeheads to militarily support the Montenegrin government should it decide to declare its independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)” (Truth in Media, September 29, 1999).

Destabilizing Vojvodina: Vojvodina is a “bread basket” and a source of raw materials for Yugoslavia. NATO’s ultimate objective is the total collapse of Yugoslavia as a viable national economy. Vojvodina has within Serbia the same status as Kosovo. It is an autonomous province with Novi Sad as its capital. NATO’s hidden agenda is to destabilize Vojvodina, calling for the establishment of a “special status.” The Budapest government (now a member of NATO) has called for the return of the northern territories ceded from the Austro-Hungarian empire as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Barely a month after the end of the bombings, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met behind closed doors with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen. On the agenda: autonomy to ethnic Hungarians in the north of Vojvodina.

Economic Reconstruction: The so-called “reconstruction” by foreign capital of the Balkans under the “stabilization program” will signify multi-billion dollar contracts to multinational firms to rebuild roads, airports, and bridges that will eventually be required (once the embargo is lifted) to facilitate the “free movement” of capital and commodities. The proposed “Marshall Plan” financed by the World Bank and the European Development

Bank (EBRD), as well as private creditors, will largely benefit Western mining, petroleum, and construction companies, while fueling the region’s external debt well into the third millennium.

Free market reforms have been envisaged for Kosovo under the supervision of the Bretton Woods institutions largely replicating the structures of the Rambouillet Agreement. Article I (Chapter 4a) of the Rambouillet Agreement stipulated that: “The economy of Kosovo shall function in accordance with free market principles.” The KLA government will largely be responsible for implementing these reforms and ensuring that loan conditionalities are met. In close liaison with NATO, the Bretton Woods institutions had already analyzed the consequences of an eventual military intervention leading to the military occupation of Kosovo. Almost a year prior to the beginning of the War, the World Bank con-ducted “simulations” that anticipated the possibility of an emergency scenario arising out of the tensions in Kosovo (World Bank Development News, April 27, 1999).

The “reconstruction” of Kosovo financed by international debt largely purports to transfer Kosovo’s extensive wealth in mineral resources and coal to multinational capital. In this regard, the KLA has already occupied (pending their privatization) the largest coal mine at Belacevac in Dobro Selo, northwest of Pristina. In turn, foreign capital has its eyes riveted on the massive Trepca mining complex that constitutes “the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, worth at least $5 billion” (Chris Hedges, New York Times, July 8, 1998). The Trepca complex not only includes copper and large reserves of zinc but also cadmium, gold, and silver. Also, it has several smelting plants, 17 metal treatment sites, a power plant, and Yugoslavia’s largest battery plant. Northern Kosovo also has estimated reserves of 17 billion tons of coal and lignite.

The most profitable state assets are being transferred into the hands of foreign capital under the World Bank-sponsored privatization program. Strong economic medicine imposed by external creditors will contribute to further boosting a criminal economy (already firmly implanted in Albania) that feeds on poverty and economic dislocation.

Also, Kosovo is slated to reimburse this debt through the laundering of dirty money. Yugoslav banks in Kosovo will be closed down and the banking system will be deregulated under the supervision of Western financial institutions. Narco-dollars from the multi-billion dollar Balkans drug trade will be recycled towards servicing the external debt, as well as financing the costs of reconstruction. The lucrative flow of narco-dollars thus insures that foreign investors involved in the “reconstruction” program will be able to reap substantial returns. In turn, the existence of a Kosovar “narco-state” insures the orderly reimbursement of international donors and creditors. The latter are prepared to turn a blind eye. They have a tacit vested interest in installing a government that facilitates the laundering of drug money.

The post 20. IMF and World Bank Contributed to Economic Tensions in the Balkans appeared first on Project Censored.

Faculty Evaluator: Derek Girman, Ph.D.
Student Researchers: Lisa Desmond & Julia O’Connor

Mounting research shows that a bacterium in cow’s milk may cause Crohn’s disease, a debilitating chronic inflam-matory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. Although four studies indicate that the bacterium, mycobacterium paratuberculosis (Mp), is capable of surviving the pasteurization process, two studies say it is not. Consequently, a strong scientific debate has ensued, primarily behind closed doors, while the American public remains unaware of the hidden dangers. Yet despite scientific concern, little funding has been provided to address this issue.

Estimates are that between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people in the U.S. have Crohn’s disease, and that it is spreading rapidly. Approximately 55 Americans, mostly between the ages of 15 and 25, will be diagnosed with this incurable disease every day, and at least half of the Crohn’s patients will require surgery for the removal of inflamed intestine. Crohn’s disease causes severe diarrhea, excessive weight loss, debilitating abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, bowel obstruction, fistulas, and abscesses.

More than a century ago, Heinrich Johne discovered Johne’s disease, a debilitating intestinal disorder in cattle characterized by diarrhea, excessive weight loss, reduced milk production, and ultimately death. The possible connection between infected cow’s milk and Crohn’s disease in humans was suggested as early as 1913. For more than 70 years the bacterium (Mp) that caused Johne’s disease could not be located in human Crohn’s patients, but the similarity between the two diseases and recent research implicating that Mp can resist the pasteurization process is too compelling to ignore. Experts agree that Mp “is excreted directly into the milk of infected cows… and it happens before the animal shows signs of Johne’s disease.”

In a 1981 study, Dr. Rodrick Chiodini, a microbiologist, successfully isolated the same Mp bacterium in six patients with Crohn’s disease. This important discovery has led to significant debates among medical and veterinary researchers and the discovery has not led to well-funded research by the government or the dairy industry.

Without well-funded research, however, there are no definitive answers to these vexing questions, such as: Does Mp cause or contribute to Crohn’s disease in humans? Does Mp survive the pasteurization process? Is it currently in the retail milk supply? Are our children at risk? And if the answer to any of these questions is even possibly “yes,” why isn’t the American public aware that this is indeed a concern?

Dr. John Hermon-Taylor, chairman of the department of surgery at St. George’s Hospital Medical School in London, is conducting research that will test the retail milk supply in Britain. His initial studies revealed that 7 percent of the retail milk contained the DNA thumbprint of Mp. After growing the cultures for up to three and a half years, he determined that “16 percent of the retail milk samples that originally tested negative came up with long-term cultures which tested strongly positive.” The same pasteurization process is used in the United States.

In addition to the strong correlation between the genetic thumbprint for Mp and people with Crohn’s disease, Hermon-Taylor says that when he treats patients with antibiotics known to be effective against mycobacterial infections, between two-thirds and three-quarters of his patients report improvements. Due to Hermon-Taylor’s work, the British government announced that they will spend 18 months testing 1,000 samples of all types of milk for Mp. This news made headlines in Britain but not a word was mentioned in the American press.

Crohn’s disease is only seen in milk drinking areas such as the U.S., Australia, South Africa, Europe, Canada, and New Zealand. It is not seen in India where they boil their milk first. Just as Crohn’s disease is on the rise, so is Johne’s disease in cattle. A 1996 study by the United States Department of Agriculture estimated that 22 percent of U.S. dairies are infected with Johne’s organism and that larger herds are more likely to be infected. The same study also shows that 45 percent of dairy producers are either unaware of Johne’s disease or know little about it despite the fact that the dairy industry is losing $1.5 billion a year due to infected animals.

UPDATE BY AUTHOR LISA CHAMBERLAIN: I first learned about a possible connection between a bacteria in milk and Crohn’s disease while working for a member of Congress, but not from having access to inside information. One of our constituents, whose wife has suffered with the disease for 30 years, had done research on the issue and was asking for our help. Having previously worked in journalism, I understood immediately the implications of this story, and was taking copious notes before he was through.

Using his research as a guide, what I found was that scientists had done serious investigations into the possibility that millions of people worldwide are contracting a debilitating gastrointestinal disease from infected cow’s milk. Despite shoestring budgets, credible research shows the theory is not just viable, but likely. The foremost experts on the microbe and the disease are the people who have shown there is, at a minimum, a possible correlation between a bacterium in milk and Crohn’s disease. Considering that the suspected organism is known to cause a similar disease in cows and is also known to be shed live in their milk, indicates the relationship is causal.

I first worked on the issue in Congress, which consisted of trying to get a Congressional hearing, among other things, all to little avail. Then I tried to convince a producer I know at 60 Minutes to do the story. His response was something to the effect of, “Unless you can prove it, the story will not happen. After the tobacco stuff, they are not taking any chances.”

So upon returning to journalism, I worked on the story myself. It took six more months to conduct the interviews and research, and get over the worst case of writer’s block I have ever had. Once the piece was finished, I joked to a friend, “It is my Pulitzer story, but it will probably end up on the Top Ten Most Censored List.”

Since the story was reported, not a single other American media outlet has touched it, including other papers owned by the same company as mine. (Only Now, Toronto’s weekly paper, published the piece.) Mother Jones passed on a rewrite of the story, too.

And the most disturbing news has only recently been discovered. The bacteria suspected of causing Crohn’s disease has been cultured from the breast milk of two Crohn’s patients. Still, not a word about one of the most far-reaching public health/food safety issues has appeared anywhere else in the media.

For more information, visit Paratuberculosis Awareness and Research Association at http://www.crohns.org.

The post 19. Bacterium in Cow’s Milk May Cause Crohn’s Disease appeared first on Project Censored.

Faculty Evaluator: Peter Duffy
Student Researchers: Jeremiah Price & Michael Spigel

In California, minors as young as 14 are being pushed into the adult criminal justice system. As a result children face adult punishments sometimes as severe as life in prison.

Los Angeles County juvenile district attorney Tom Higgins ships more than 600 children into the adult system every year. Higgins states, “The highest violence potential is for people between the ages of 16 and 31. If we have incar-cerated a large part of the population for that part of their lives, we have probably made a significant impact on crimes.” Justifying these numbers, Higgins claims that “There is a lack of judgment, maturity, reflection in a youth. There is a failure to appreciate consequence, an aura of invincibility.”

A fitness hearing trial is used in California to determine whether a minor should be tried as an adult. Paul S. D. Berg, Ph.D., a forensic pathologist who has testified in dozens of fitness hearings states: “The only cases that end up in these hearings are serious cases, so the criterion is met by definition.” Though the state does not keep track of how many of their youths go from fitness hearings to adult court, research into prosecution patterns in seven counties reveal that between 80 and 90 percent of juvenile suspects given a fitness hearing do, in fact, end up in adult court. Once these kids end up in adult court, there is little to no tracking process to follow up on results. The state of California has no idea how many teenagers are being sentenced to life in prison.

Section 707 of the penal code was revamped in 1994 by the then-state assembly members Steve Peace (D-El Cajon) and Chuck Quackenbush (R-San Jose) who were using 707 to attract tough-on-crime votes. Section 707 makes it easier to try teens accused of serious offenses in the adult system. While the lock-kids-up-for-life policy may have sounded like a good idea to many voters sick of violent crime, criminologists say it has no crime-fighting value, and punishes kids who really didn’t understand the consequences of their actions.

In 1996, Eric Lotke of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives and Vincent Schiraldi of the Justice Policy Institute studied the effect of transferring juveniles to adult court. “The data shows that states with higher transfer rates do not have lower homicide rates,” their report stated. “Connecticut has the highest transfer rate in the nation, and it has the same youth homicide rate as Colorado, whose transfer rate is nearly zero. Michigan and Massachusetts have nearly the same transfer rates, but their youth homicide rates are among the highest and lowest, respectively.”

Professor Thomas Grisso, a leading researcher in developmental psychology and director of forensic training and research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, says you don’t have to be a developmental psychologist to recognize the difference between a 14 year-old and a 24-year-old. “As a parent, imagine your 14-year-old approaching you and saying, ‘Dad, I want to get married.’ The parent will probably reply with something like, ‘They just aren’t ready to take responsibility,’ or ‘They just aren’t able yet to see all the consequences of the choices they might make.’ That parent is right. Developmental psychologists will tell you that while 14-year-olds on average are capable of considering future consequences, they simply aren’t accustomed yet to doing it.”

UPDATE FROM AUTHOR A. CLAY THOMPSON: Fueled by a youth-phobic media, politicians at all levels are busy dismembering America’s century-old juvenile justice system. With little discussion, more than 40 states in the past decade have passed laws making it easier to cast kids into adult courts and prisons.

“The Lost Boys” is a look at California’s juvenile justice rollback—a process that began in earnest in 1994 and is blazing on as I write. Working on the story I was startled by how little information is collected on the kids who are being treated as adults by the courts. Nobody knows how many kids are being shipped to the criminal big leagues, what kind of sentences they’re getting, or what happens to them when they get to state penitentiaries. Top-level state officials acknowledged they have almost no data on the trend. Nationwide statistics are skimpy at best. Despite the lack of data-and a half decade of plummeting teen crime rates-politicians across the country are rushing to gut the juvenile justice system entirely.

As our society’s ultimate Other, incarcerated kids are voiceless in the mainstream media. For “The Lost Boys,” I went to court so one boy might tell his story. Charged with a drive-by slaying, 16-year-old Sou Liem Saechao of Alameda County, California, was awaiting trial as an adult and looking at life in prison. Sou wanted to talk; his lawyer granted me permission to interview him, as did his parents. Yet the county that deemed Sou mature enough to spend perpetuity in the pen said he was too young to speak to the press—even though the daily papers had named him as an indicted murder suspect. I won—or rather, my paper’s attorney won—the legal battle to interview the teen, but not until after deadline. To tell Son’s story I was forced to rely on his jailhouse writings and conversations with his family.

The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice is tracking the juvenile justice rollback. To learn more, call the center at (415) 621-5661 or check its Web site at http://www.cjcj.org.

The post 18. California Convicts and Punishes Teenagers as Adults appeared first on Project Censored.

Faculty Evaluator: Bryan Baker, Ph.D.
Student Researchers: Jennifer Mathis, Melissa Bonham, & Lisa Desmond

The World Bank funds large dam projects, but does little to help the displaced millions who are forced to relocate. A recent report by the World Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department (OED), which reviews the Bank’s record on complying with its own directives, paints a gloomy picture of the Bank’s resettlement record for the people displaced by these large dam projects in the name of development. The most recent data available indicate that 1.9 million people are being displaced by projects in the Bank’s current portfolio and that these numbers continue to grow.

The report, “Recent Experience with Involuntary Resettlement,” published in June 1998, provides a detailed analysis of the resettlement record of eight dam projects approved between 1984-91 in six countries. To date, the World Bank has helped finance more than 600 large dams.

The OED report acknowledges major problems with the Bank’s resettlement record. Their biggest concern is over the Bank’s ability to restore the incomes of those resettled. The authors of the report state that the Bank showed only “intermittent interest” in providing follow-through to support its resettlement programs once a loan was disbursed. Another problem stems from The Bank’s typical practice of gearing compensation disbursements to a project’s construction schedule. This practice results in the Bank exiting the project before staff can reach the Bank’s primary responsibility—restoring or improving incomes and standards of living for the displaced populations.

The report recommends that the Bank move away from its policy of offering replacement land for lands lost to a project. Big dam sites usually eliminate the only productive farming systems in the region, leaving resettlers with barren land. People indigenous to these valleys have few skills that are transferable to activities other than farming. They become displaced and unemployable in a foreign environment. Alternatives to land-for-land compensation such as cash compensations or so-called income generating schemes have been tried for years. Several investigations by the World Bank Inspection Panel demonstrate that, at least in rural settings, such options have universally failed. Even the OED report confirms that the Bank’s special income strategies have been uniformly ineffective. Still, they are recommending that the Bank weaken its compensation policy by de-emphasizing the current practice of offering replacement land to displaced farmers. One of the OED report authors has said, “In reality, resettlers lose the best land in the area, river valley land, and it’s replaced with the most awful land around, because that is what is left.”

AUTHOR UPDATE BY LORI POTTINGER: An estimated 40 to 60 million people have been displaced by large dams in this century, most of them rural poor. The great majority of those displaced have been further impoverished and abandoned by the dam builders and governments responsible for their plight. The World Bank has been a major force behind the world’s rush to dam its rivers, and Bank projects as a whole continue to displace nearly 500,000 people a year. The Bank’s resettlement policies have long been considered the “gold standard” that forcibly moves people for development schemes. Yet the Bank has failed at resettling people effectively, and instead has increased poverty the world over.

Since the original story was published, the World Bank began to rewrite its resettlement policies, but many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have criticized the document thus far as far weaker than previous ones, especially on issues of restoring incomes and “land-for-land” compensation. Many NGOs question the entire idea of a policy on forced resettlement. Says Patrick McCully of International Rivers Network (IRN), “[The draft policy] insures that the only people certain to be better off due to Bank-funded involuntary resettlement will be resettlement consultants.” IRN and other NGOs propose that the Bank no longer engage in forcible resettlement, which the U.N. Commission on Human Rights calls “a gross violation of human rights,” but instead approve projects only after potentially affected people have freely given their consent. “Bank-financed resettlement should be voluntary and based on negotiated settlements with affected people to which project developers can be held accountable. If forced resettlement continues to be normal practice for the Bank, project-affected people and their allies will continue to mobilize against Bank projects,” McCully writes in a letter to the Bank.

Even if the Bank were to adopt a stronger resettlement policy, it would still have to rectify problems from past projects. Dam-affected people have increasingly demanded reparations for their losses. One recent example is ongoing protest over Thailand’s Pak Mun Dam, one of the few projects described as a success in the World Bank’s OED report (the topic of the original story). At press time, 3,000 villagers had occupied the dam site for nearly a year, demanding the dam be removed if the World Bank can’t make good on its promises to restore livelihoods. “The OED report did not tell the truth,” said a Pak Mun villager, in a new report on the project by International Rivers Network. Villagers are asking Bank staff to come see for themselves how their lives and livelihoods have deteriorated.

Neither the original story about the OED’s evaluation of the Bank’s resettlement practices nor the ongoing revision of the Bank’s resettlement policies have received significant media coverage.

Tel: (510) 848 1155 Fax: (510) 848 1008 Web site: http://www.irn.org

About the World Bank’s role in forcible resettlement worldwide:

Bank Information Center
733 15th Street NW, Suite 1126 Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 624-0623
Web site: http://www.bicusa.org

Center for International Environmental Law
1367 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite #300
Washington, DC 20036 Tel: (202) 785-8700 E-mail: info@ciel.org Web site: http://www.ciel.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION: About dams worldwide: Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program and Editor, World Rivers Review International Rivers Network, 1847 Berkeley Way Berkeley, California 94703 USA

The post 17. World Bank Resettlement Program Displaces Millions appeared first on Project Censored.

Faculty Evaluator: Elizabeth Martinez, Ph.D.
Student Evaluator: Marni Goodman

The U.S. media oversimplified the debate on affirmative action and deliberately misled the American public. Media coverage at the national level presented the controversy as a conflict primarily between Blacks and Whites. Minimizing the place of Latinos and Asian Americans in the affirmative action debate misrepresents the true complexities involved in evaluating progress toward equality.

In 1995, headlines, visuals, highlighted quotes, and story-line emphasis demonstrated unavoidable conflict of interest between Whites and Blacks. The media portrayed African Americans purportedly gaining at the direct expense of Whites. A Newsweek cover shows a Black fist and a White fist, knuckle to knuckle, under the headline “Race and Rage.” A CBS Evening News story calls affirmative action “deeply divisive” and also distinguishes two camps on the issue: “Jesse Jackson and African Americans” on the one hand, and “the rest of the country” on the other.

In 11 substantive stories about affirmative action that appeared on CBS Evening News during 1997 and 1998, six framed the story heavily or exclusively in Black-White terms. Three stories linked Blacks and Latinos against Whites, though Black examples and sources predominated. Just one story emphasized Latinos versus Whites and in one the framing was ambiguous.

Surveys in the mid-1990s indicated widespread support for the principle of affirmative action especially when quotas were excluded. A Los Angeles Times poll resulted in a 71 percent favorable sting for affirmative action in 1995, and polls by ABC, NBC, and CNN all found similar results.

Even after these polls, there remained a presumption in media that affirmative action was taking away jobs and opportunities from the dominant coup to benefit a particular minority group. The continued use of the misleading negative buzzword “preferences” in conjunction with affirmative action intensified the emotional context of the issue. The news reinforced racial antagonism, while perpetuating the idea that the White majority are fed up with affirmative action. This false perception may have discouraged White politicians who night otherwise have defended the policy.

Since the media has made affirmative action an issue concerning only Blacks and Whites, Latinos and Asians have been left in peripheral positions while women and Native Americans barely register on the radar screen. Journalists say that this depiction of affirmative action distorts the real picture of the program’s policies and goals, one where White women have benefited the most. Racial nuances often put Latinos on opposing sides of the affirmative action debate. If you’re a dark Hispanic, you’ll fall on the Black side. If you’re a light Hispanic, you’re allowed to choose the other side. Latinos tend to be over-identified with Blacks, and Asian Americans have become honorary Whites.

Media coverage portrayed Asian Americans as monolithically opposed to affirmative action. “We’re used as political shills,” says Helen Zia. “The claims about us that are made by the partisans in the debate are never challenged by reporters, even when they are presented with opposing evidence.”

UPDATE BY AUTHOR ROBERT ENTMAN: The most important recent development in the affirmative action story is probably the emergence of geography-based alternatives to racially-targeted affirmative action in college admissions in California, Texas, and Florida. Most recently, Florida Governor Jeb Bush has pushed a program guaranteeing college admission to all high school graduates who finish in the top 20 percent of their high school classes. The effect is to impose a quota on students from the most affluent, competitive, largely suburban school districts.

These ideas have generated a very positive editorial reaction from such influential newspapers as the Washington Post and the New York Times. Coverage in those outlets and elsewhere continues largely to assume that public opinion has rejected race-conscious affirmative action, and to use preferences interchangeably with affirmative action still without mentioning the many racially skewed preferences that disproportionately benefit White Americans. The media generally sympathize with the goal of maintaining minority enrollment in colleges. This tendency helps explain the largely favorable response to the Bush plan. And data from Texas do suggest that percentages of minority enrollment has reached about the same level under its geographic plan as under its former affirmative action policy.

Yet whatever individual injustices there were under racially conscious affirmative action still occur under a geographic plan, only they are distributed differently. A hard working, poor minority student who happens to go to a more academically competitive high school and finishes in the 78th percentile of his or her class may be denied admission in favor of a wealthy, lazy White student who coasted to an 81st percentile finish at an undemanding school. Thus, many who decry race-based affirmative action programs for using quotas and preferences are now lauding geographically based programs that use those very mechanisms. And the new policies impose quotas far more rigidly than even the most “preferential” race-based affirmative action programs, but with far less moral justification (since society has never discriminated against people purely on the basis of their high school of origin).

Beyond ignoring this puzzle, most stories continue implicitly assuming not only that policies explicitly designed to redress racial discrimination are unpopular, but that nothing in current day America, no contemporary pattern of discrimination against minorities or privileges for Whites, might justify racial affirmative action. Consider in this light another recent controversy about race: The one over taxicab drivers’ refusal to pick up Black men.

This problem illustrates the blind spot in media coverage, and in the dominant culture more generally. The continued potency of race as a signal of threat, and thus a basis of discrimination, is precisely what should allow us at least to discuss the legitimacy of racially-conscious affirmative action. But the most influential media rarely participate in that discussion.

All this said, if taking geography into account helps to remedy centuries of discrimination, advocates of race-based affirmative action should maintain an open mind. At the same time, journalists and Americans of good will should not forget that discrimination persists, from the taxicabs on the street to the boardrooms on the top floors, that a meritocracy based purely on objective indicators has never been practiced, and that public opinion is not universally hostile to this message.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

William G. Bowen and Derek Curtis Bok, The Shape of the River. Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions (Princeton University Press, 1999); Christopher Edley, Not All Black and White: Affirmative Action and American Values (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998); Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki, The Black Image in the White Mind. Media and Race in America (University of Chicago Press, 2000); Oscar Gandy, Communication and Race: A Structural Perspective (Edward Arnold, 1998); Lani Guinier, Lift Every Voice: Turning a Civil Rights Setback into a New Vision of Social Justice (Simon and Schuster,1998); Nicolas Lemann, The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999)

Web sites: The Black Image in the White Mind and related material: http://www.raceandme-dia.com; President Clinton’s initiative on Race: http://www.whitehouse.gov/lnitiatives/OneAmerica/america.html; Fairness and Accuracy in Media report on affirmative action coverage: http://www.fair.org/extra/9901/affirmative-action.html; Civil Rights Forum: http://www.civilrightsforum.org; University of Iowa Site on Gender, Race, and Media:http://www.uiowa.edu/commstud/resources/ GenderMedia/; Color-Lines Magazine: Race, Culture, Action:http://www.arc.org/CLines/AreColorLines.html

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