AltPress E-Newsletter No 23 January 2007
By Alternative Press Center

The Alternative Press Center's "Picks of the Month!" Links to articles on US corporate plunder of Iraq, call for boycott of all government-supported Israeli cultural institutions and its unintended consequences, Alexander Cockburn on 9/11 conspiracy theories, the demise of the Independent Press Association, the Stern Review on the economics of climate change, the development of YouTube….

There is something politically odd about Bush’s tour of various Latin American countries. South American nations were ‘lost’ to the U.S. some time ago – the price paid for America’s fixation in the Middle East. Bush is loathed internationally but is particularly despised in Latin America. The Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez accurately called Bush a “political cadaver” and led 20,000 Argentinian supporters in the chant, “gringo go home”, during his counter-tour of the region.

Prior to the leadership of John Howard and his defence minister, Brendan (studs) Nelson, the Australian Defence Forces always did Australia proud. The reputation of the ADF preceded them in any theatre of war. Aussie fighters were once considered highly specialised and skilled, so it is with a sad heart and severe disappointment that I report the raid on Alfredo Reinado’s hide-out resulted in the needless deaths of four Timorese and a ‘rebel leader’ who easily escaped to the mountains. No one is actually sure Reinado was present at the time of the attack!

A February 25 report in the New York Times on Venezuela's international arms purchases ("Venezuela Spending on Arms Soars to World's Top Ranks") used selective information and an alarmist tone to suggest that Venezuela's military spending was a potential threat to regional stability. Read more of FAIR's analysis of the Times bias against Venezuela.

One of the first big show trials in the post-9/11 US homeland was of a Muslim professor from Florida, now 49, Sami al-Arian. Pro-Israel hawks had resented this computer professor at the University of South Florida long before Atta and the hijackers flew their planes into the Trade towers, because they saw al-Arian, a Palestinian born in Kuwait of parents kicked out of their Homeland in 1948, as an effective agitator here for the Palestinian cause. At the direct instigation of Attorney General Ashcroft, the feds threw the book at al-Arian in February 2003. He was arrested with much fanfare and charged in a bloated terrorism and conspiracy case. He spent two and a half years in prison, in solitary confinement under atrocious conditions. To confer with his lawyers, he had to hobble half a mile, shackled hand and foot, his law files balanced on his back. Read more about the situation of Sami al-Arian.

An Australian son abandoned by the nation and his government has decided to fight the fabricated charges brought against him by the criminal Bush regime. You bloody little bewdy! Against all odds and after years of psychological and physical torture Hicks proves his mettle. The murdering yanks and the slimy Howard government COULDN’T BREAK OUR LITTLE AUSSIE FIGHTER! One can only imagine the forlorn faces of the Howard servile government who no doubt desperately hoped that Hicks would break and accept a plea bargain in time for the elections. The Hicks case as previously stated has all the ingredients to bring down the servile government of John ‘deputy-sheriff’ Howard.

Anyone familiar with the criminal tactics of thoroughly corrupt State Institutions would not be surprised to learn of the plea bargain offered Guantanamo Bay detainee, David Hicks. After five years of torture and various other forms of physical and psychological abuse, the U.S. has offered a deal that would see Hicks released from Guantanamo but not necessarily from continued incarceration.

Australian Special Forces have today surrounded the 'rebel’ Major Alfredo Reinado in occupied Timor-Leste; it seems Reinado has passed his use-by-date; a tense stand-off presently exists with Reinado threatening to shoot any Australian soldier who ventures too near.