The State

hydrarchist writes: "On Wednesday we published the article "Toni Negri -- Terrorism is an Essential Sickness of the System", having found it in French on italy.indymedia.org. The article was attributed to Toni Negri, for reasons which are plain from viewing the original french post. It has been brought to our attention that this article was in fact written by a Juan Domingo, participant in the Yahoo e-group on Toni Negri. Someone saw fit to repost his article with Toni Negri listed in both the subject line, and as author. The text has made its way rapidly around the net, and generated considerable confusion, as is clear from the messages in french which eventually clarified the mistake, which you can find in the comments section. We apologize to our readers and particularly to both Toni Negri and Juan Domingo for any confusion.

For purposes of transparency you can read the article and some correspondence below. There are also some short remarks by Michael Hardt which are verifiably his own!

The Herald in London writes: "CIA paid Saudi to poison bin Laden

Ian Bruce



THE CIA paid a Saudi intelligence agent £140,000 to poison Osama bin Laden in 1998 after the failure of a missile attack on his Afghan bases in retaliation for the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.



But the world's most wanted man survived the assassination attempt by a hairsbreadth, suffering acute kidney failure in the process. He still walks with the aid of a stick and has not fully recovered.



The man chosen for the task was Siddiq Ahmed, an agent working for Saudi Arabia's external intelligence agency who was already operating covertly on behalf of Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, the governor of Riyadh, the Saudi capital.



Roping the Saudis into the act circumvented the US congressional ban on state-sponsored assassinations. The money paid to Ahmed, posing as a mujahideen volunteer, was also ostensibly Saudi, although intelligence sources say Prince Salman was reimbursed from CIA "black funds".



Former President Bill Clinton admitted at the weekend that he had authorised a special forces' operation to seize or kill bin Laden the same year. This had been called off at the last minute by the State Department, the US Foreign Office equivalent, on the grounds that any attempt to storm the terrorist leader's mountain lair in the Hindu Kush would result in "unacceptably heavy American casualties".



Full story at http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/25-9-19101 -1-4-59.html"

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Could the anonymous comrade who sent us this piece please forward information regarding its source?

Interviewer: How is Empire after the 11th of
September?




Some things seem so obvious that they needn't be said.
The condition of sovereignty isn't the same as before.
This condition of imperial sovereignty is the only one
that counts. On the one hand, even in the United
States, the most powerful nation-state isn't sovereign
anymore. It cannot seperate itself from the rest of
the world. And on the other hand, it cannot find a
sovereign partner. It seeks a sovereign partner but
instead there are only pliant[fluido] partners, not
sovereign ones.



Interviewer: (Asking about the fragility of Empire
after the attacks against the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon.)




Michael Hardt: Our idea that there isn't a center
of the Empire means that there is no center of the
financial world to strike against....that even the
terrorists are mistaken if they think they can strike
at the center of the Empire.



On the other hand, it is true as you say that Empire
is fragile but it is fragile for a completely
different reason. It's not fragile because some
single group can strike a blow against a center.
It is fragile because there is a whole world
of people in movement [fluido] who are creating and
searching for another
way. This is the fragility. Not because there isn't
security against terrorism. It's not because of
terrorism that Empire is fragile.

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Anonymous Comrade writes: "cryptome.org has posted a transcript of testimony given to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs by David M. Walkerk, Comptroller General of the United States (General Accounting Office): HOMELAND SECURITY: A Framework for
Addressing the Nation's
Efforts
"

Louis Lingg writes: "Preliminary draft copies of the Mobilization Against Terrorism Act (MATA) have been bouncing around the internet. Discussion site wartimeliberty.com has posted a US Justice Department analysis of the proposed legislation."

bertrand writes:

The Combating Terrorism Act (CTA) and Mobilization Against Terrorism Act (MATA) are being rushed through Congress, in what could threaten to be the largest erosion of U.S. civil liberties since the McCarthy era. Despite the efforts of John Ashcroft and Congressional sponsors to curtail debate on or disclosure of this legislation, civil rights groups are organizing on a large scale to publicize and hinder CTA and MATA.

What's particularly striking about the proposed bills, in my opinion, is the heavy emphasis on expanding surveillance over all Internet communication, even though there has been no evidence presented that the Internet played any significant role in recent "terrorist" activity.

One of the most controversial provisions of MATA would, according to the DOJ analysis accompanying the Act, allow that "United States prosecutors may use against American citizens information collected by a foreign government even if the collection would have violated the Fourth Amendment."

Other provisions of MATA and CTA (as summarized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation):

-make it possible to obtain e-mail message header information and Internet user web browsing patterns without a wiretap order;

-eviscerate controls on roving wiretaps;

-permit law enforcement to disclose information obtained through wiretaps to any employee of the Executive branch;

-reduce restrictions on domestic investigations under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA);

-permit grand juries to provide information to the US intelligence community;

-permit the President to designate any "foreign-directed individual, group, or entity," including any United States citizen or organization, as a target for FISA surveillance;

-prevent people from even talking about terrorist acts;

-establish a DNA database for every person convicted of any felony or certain sex offenses, almost all of which are entirely unrelated to terrorism.

more info from the EFF (off site).

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bertrand writes: "New York Governor George Pataki called the state Legislature into special session today, and is asking for the passage of a package of laws concerning terrorism and expanding law-enforcement power. USA Today summarizes as follows:

    "Other provisions of the bills Pataki will lay before lawmakers Monday would:

   •Establish a new crime in New York of "terrorism." People are guilty if they are found to have committed crimes designed to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population" or to influence a policy or the conduct of government. Defendants on trial for such terrorist activities would face heightened penalties for their actions versus non-terrorist conduct.

   •A new crime of making a terrorist threat would subject a defendant to up to seven years in prison.

   •Soliciting the commitment of a terrorist act or supporting terrorism would become a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The same offense would be created in the second degree, with half the maximum prison time.

   •Hindering the prosecution of terrorism in the first degree could be a charge brought against people under another bill Pataki will ask the Legislature to pass. It would call for sentences of up to 25 years to life for people who conceal or harbor a terrorist, provide them money or transportation or suppress physical evidence. A conviction of the same crime in the second degree, for somewhat less egregious behavior, would still bring a prison sentence of 15 years to life.

   •Falsely reporting a bomb threat in any public building, under Pataki's proposal, would have offenders subject to up to seven years in prison. The same would go for people who place a false bomb in hopes that the public would believe it a real explosive device.

"Pataki said his legislation would also widen the discretion of prosecutors and police to use such things as wiretaps and video surveillance cameras when suspected terrorists are the targets of investigations." more."

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Anonymous Comrade aka DrFrog writes: "Hey:
i was wondering if hakim

has any comments on the lastest terrorism


Chomsky and others have been posted here:

http://www.zmag.org/reactionscalam.htm

Edward Said has written a thoughful piece for the Observer newspaper, published in England.

You can find it here.

http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,552764,00.html

The best journalistic work on the Middle East has been done by Robert Fisk (author of the brilliant 'Pity the nation Lebanon at War'). His most recent narticle was published in the London Independent, and you can read the piece "Bush is Walking into a Trap" here.

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=94254

note from Nomadlab: We will post some comments from Hakim Bey soon, until then please add comments with url's of other good commentary."

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Anonymous Comrade writes: "On 24-26 August, 2001, the 3rd Conference of
Autonomous Action took place in the North Caucasus,
Russia. 30 people from more than 10 regions of CIS
were present. We gathered late in the night, 23
August, at a remote hill in a forest. Generally the
need to organise was understood and shared by
everyone. It goes without saying that all three days
were filled with informal conversations — people met
each other, talked, shared experience and views.


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Louis Lingg writes: "The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has posted a 1998 article on police procedures and protocols for use of confidential informants: Inside the Informant File. (The piece was written by Dennis G. Fitzgerald, author of "The Informant Law Deskbook"; he is a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent, former Miami Police Department Narcotics Sergeant and an NACDL member who provides consulting services for the defense bar.)

Also available on-line is the U.S. Department of Justice Guidelines Regarding the Use of Confidential Informants."

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