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Louis Lingg writes: "cryptome.org has posted 'Watching the Warheads' by Seymour Hersh, recently published in The New Yorker.

An excerpt: 'Some of the [US] government's most experienced South Asia experts have doubts about Musharraf's ability to maintain control over the [Pakistani] military and its nuclear arsenal in the event of a coup; there are
also fears that a dissident group of fundamentalist officers might try to seize a warhead. The Army and the influential Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I., have long-standing religious and personal
ties to many of the leaders of the Taliban, dating back to Afghanistan's war against the Soviet Union in the nineteen-eighties, when Pakistan was the main conduit for American support.

One U.S. intelligence officer expressed particular alarm late last week over the questioning in Pakistan of two retired Pakistani nuclear scientists, who were reported by authorities to have
connections to the Taliban. Both men, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudry Abdul Majid, had spent their careers at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, working on weapons-related
projects. The intelligence officer, who is a specialist in nuclear proliferation in South Asia, depicted this latest revelation as "the tip of a very serious iceberg," and told me that it shows that
pro-Taliban feelings extend beyond the Pakistani Army into the country's supposedly highly disciplined nuclear-weapons laboratories. Pakistan's nuclear researchers are known for their
nationalism and their fierce patriotism. If two of the most senior scientists are found to have been involved in unsanctioned dealings with the Taliban, it would suggest that the lure of
fundamentalism has, in some cases, overcome state loyalty "They're retired, but they have friends on the inside," the intelligence officer said.'"

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In view of the impending large-scale famine in Afghanistan as a result of
the U.S. bombing campaign and disruption of food supplies, Adam Jones, a
Canadian scholar and economist teaching in Mexico, attempted to raise a
question on the academic list H-genocide of whether this famine should be
referred to as genocide. However, the editorial board refused to let this
question be raised, smearing Jones as an apologist for terror and so on.



Article at http://www.counterpunch.org/jones.html



Full text of the rejected posts, and comments from the editorial board, at:



http://adamjones.freeservers.com/h-genocide.html

Louis Lingg writes: "Is Pakistani President Musharraf and his ISI (Interservices Intelligence) playing a double game with the U.S.? antiwar.com has posted With a Friend Like Pakistan by Christopher Deliso.

He explores several intriguing questions: Is Musharraf sabotaging American strikes to impede the advance of the Northern Alliance? Are Taliban militiamen building bases in Balochistan with Pakistani connivance? Are Amercian mis-hits onto civilian structures and facilities a result of Pakistani intelligence dis-information? The Taliban just caught and executed opposition figure Abdul Haq; who was the rat?

One of War Secretary Rumsfeld management mantras is "expand the problem." If military action in Afghanistan stalls, and Pakistani deception proves true, will the problem be expanded to include a nuclear-armed Pakistan?"

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Autonomedia writes: "Asia Times Online (Hong Kong) Oct. 23, 2001



Party slams its door on Jiang's plan

By Xu Yufang



BEIJING - With no fuss and without a word in public at all, the ruling
Chinese Communist Party (CPC) has repudiated the bold plan of its
leader, General Secretary Jiang Zemin, to open the party to
capitalists and entrepreneurs.



In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the US, it seems no one
bothered to check on the fate of Jiang's plan, which he first made public in
an historic announcement on July 1. The proposal met its end, in fact, in
the CPC Central Committee plenary session of September 24-26, according to
informed sources.

jim writes: "The New Statesman - Oct 15, 2001

"War on Terror":



The exile who despairs of his "ignorant" homeland
denounces the war and its hawks.



Gore Vidal interviewed by Johann Hari



The United States has been forced to reimagine itself this past
month. So who better for the New Statesman to track down in his
obscure mountain hideaway (no, not Bin Laden) than the man who has
dedicated his life and writing to telling Americans their real,
non-sanitised history: Gore Vidal. This is a man, after all, who knew
and influenced the icons that defined 20th-century America. He was a
close friend of more than one president (not forgetting that Eleanor
Roosevelt urged him to run for elected office), was sucked off by
Jack Kerouac, was attacked (both in print and to his face) by Norman
Mailer, was a confidant of the Oklahoma bomber and Bill Clinton, and
had to tell Tennessee Williams to stop trying to cruise Jack Kennedy.
Now that the 20th century has truly reached its symbolic end, this is
surely the ideal man to help us understand the new, battered America.



When asked if he is sleeping well, knowing that the US is in Dubbya's
hands, he replies: "Let's just say I'm in a total state of insomnia."
Unlike those who are rallying behind the president, Vidal retains his
withering contempt for the man. His father was a "failure", and "when
you get a bad gene pool, you don't necessarily enlarge it for high
diving, if I may complete the grotesque metaphor". Bush has, in
Vidal's eyes, failed to rise to the occasion since the attacks. "For
those with an eye and ear for the false note, every note is truly
false." It is not his mangled and incoherent words that appal Vidal,
however. "No, I'm judging by actions. Obviously, requesting all those
special powers pushes us even further along the path towards Hitler's
Enabling Act of 1933. That is the worst that he could do."

Anonymous Comrade writes: "The Saudi Connection
Stephen Schwartz

Spectator (The Dominion 13 Oct 2001)



The first thing to do when trying to understand "Islamic suicide
bombers" is to forget the cliches about the Muslim taste for
martyrdom. It does exist, of course, but the desire for paradise is
not a safe guide to what motivated last month's suicide attacks.
Throughout history, political extremists of all faiths have willingly
given up their lives simply in the belief that by doing so, whether
in bombings or in other forms of terror, they would change the course
of history, or at least win an advantage for their cause. Tamils blow
themselves up in their war on the government of Sri Lanka; Japanese
kamikaze pilots in World War II flew their fighters into United
States aircraft carriers.

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We have had a lot of submissions of Anthrax related conspiriacy theories and info. Here is a digest of some of it.--Uncle Fluffy

one Anonymous Comrade writes: According to an artricle in the Tehran Times , Ex-CIA Director Admits US Supplied Iraq with Anthrax Bacteria in 80s
"The former director of Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) confessed that the U.S. had supplied the Iraqi regime with the
anthrax bacteria during 80s -- Iran-Iraq wartime.



another reader submited a piece that has appeared numerous times on the indymedia.org site. In this conspiracy the conections are between Bush, Bin Ladden and the BioPort corporation


Numerous people have been pointing out that in 1998 two members of a right-wing militia group were arrested after ordering "weapons grade anthrax"

and another anonymous comrade sent in a longer rant about Iraq, Anthrax, and the Hawks, where Matthew Rothschild--editor of the Progressive-- deconstructs the CIA's desire to blame the anthrax attack on Iraq.

Anonymous Comrade writes: "Passion and Reason

by Umberto Eco

from Der Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/0,1518,1639 07-3,00.html
(original Italian; re-translation from German by Kermit Snelson)



The religious wars that have drenched the world in blood for centuries all
arose from a passionate attachment to simplifying binaries: we vs. they, good
vs. evil, black vs. white. If Western culture has proven fruitful, it is
because it has been forced to "liberate" itself from such damaging
simplifications through the spirit of inquiry and criticism.



Of course, this has not been invariably the case. Hitler burned books,
condemned "degenerate art" and killed members of "inferior races", but he too
belongs to the history of Western culture. But if we are to prevent new towers
from collapsing, even those that will come after us, it is the best aspects of
our culture which we must discuss with young people of every skin color.

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TAZ writes: "What a refreshing alternative consideration ! The only one that makes sense, is it possible to "halt the war on Afghanistan?"


UN set to appeal for halt in the bombing

Jason Burke, Peshawar

Sunday October 21, 2001

The Observer

The United Nations is set to issue an unprecedented appeal to the United States and its coalition allies to halt the war on Afghanistan and allow time for a huge relief operation.

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Louis Lingg writes: "The Times of India has posted an article on Washington's efforts to gain a handle on Pakistan's nuclear weapons system, as well as their free-wheeling intelligence apparatus--the ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence).

Caveat: India, of course, is Pakistan's nuclear-armed rival, and is providing the opposition Northern Alliance in Afghanistan with military and financial support."

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