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Friday,
September 30th, 2005
Volume
4, No. 17
5
Articles, 12 Pages
3. The Militarization of American Youth
5. How Corporations Cashed in On Katrina
(A
New Class of Radioactive Weaponry)
BY
SIMON
HARAK
Since at least
1991, the US has used a new class of radioactive weaponry. During
the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, the US fired about 300 metric
tons of radioactive weaponry and conservatively twice as much
during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In between, the US employed the
weapon against the people of Kosovo and Afghanistan in the
attacks there.
In referring to
this weapon, the military prefers the term "depleted
uranium." The term is misleading since it can imply that the
weapon has been "depleted" of most or all of its lethal
radiation. While the weapons formed from this non-fissionable
material lack the commonly understood "punch" (i.e.
blast, light, heat) of nuclear weapons, they create the effects
of a "dirty" bomb, spreading radiation and causing harm
over a longer period of time.
There are two
sources for this radioactive weaponry. The first comes as a
by-product of nuclear weapon production. Radioactive materials,
like uranium, emit particles that are smaller than atoms. Certain
kinds of radioactive materials emit more of these subatomic
particles than others. The more radioactive a metal is, the more
useful it is for making nuclear weapons. The military makes
atomic bombs and the "triggers" for the larger hydrogen
bombs by extracting from naturally occurring uranium its most
radioactive isotope, known as U 235. What remains from this
extraction process is a radioactive metal which, we will see, is
also used for weapons.
The second source
of radioactive weaponry is from depleted enriched U 235 that has
been used as nuclear fuel. Most of that fuel is used in nuclear
power plants; smaller amounts of enriched U 235 (the exact
percentage is classified) are also used by submarines and some
navy ships. After this nuclear radioactive fuel is spent, the
remaining metal can also be used for weaponry.
Uranium from both
sources is called "depleted uranium" by the military.
However, it should be noted that this second source of
radioactive weaponry is more dangerous than the first since it
has been used in nuclear reactions and therefore acquires other
highly radioactive elements like plutonium.
From Waste to
Weapons
From its nuclear
production programs, the US Department of Energy currently
possesses over 700,000 tons of used uranium with about 50,000
tons being added every year. Extremely corrosive, heavy metal
toxic, and with a natural tendency to break off into microscopic
particles (a process called "spalling"), this metal is
dangerous to handle and difficult to store. Furthermore, it has a
half-life of 4.5 billion years, meaning it will take that
much time for the uranium to become half as radioactive (and
another 4.5 billion years for it to become one quarter as
radioactive and on and on for most of eternity…). What to do
with all this poison?
With so much of
this material, the Department of Energy began to sell it cheaply
or give it away. It is used as ballast in many commercial jets or
yachts as well as in some building materials.
Meanwhile the
military discovered that this uranium waste-metal has properties
that make it attractive as a weapon. It is extremely hard—1.7
times as dense as lead and 2.5 times as dense as steel. At the
same time it is malleable, easily shaped and sharpened. Finally,
it can self-ignite and burn, like magnesium.
The military began
to shape the uranium waste-metal into sharpened projectiles. It
made 30mm bullets to be fired from Gatling guns mounted on A-10
Thunderbolts (nicknamed "Warthogs") capable of firing
4,000 rounds a minute. It made rocket- propelled grenades and
tank shells for penetrating opponent's tanks. It made missiles
whose fuselage broke apart in flight to expose a long atomic rod
again for hard-target penetration. It also made uranium-waste
protective shielding (called "cladding") to protect its
own tanks.
Traveling at two to
five times the speed of sound, these weapons easily penetrate the
most hardened target. As they penetrate the armor of a tank or
armored personnel carrier, friction wears them away, superheating
the uranium and causing it to self-sharpen and catch fire. When
it penetrates thorough to an open area, the metal explodes with
tremendous heat. The heat turns between 17 and 70 percent of the
weapon's mass into particles of uranium oxide so small that they
can be considered a gas. These particles are also encased, or
ceramicized, into microscopic glass containers.
Outside the body,
this radioactive waste does not cause much damage—except of
course if people are exposed to mass amounts of it in one place.
Problems truly arise when this weaponized uranium waste gets
inside the body, which can occur in a number of ways.
Dust and small
particles can enter the bodies of those who are handling this
uranium waste, especially considering its aforementioned
corrosive and spalling tendencies. The threat was heightened for
example on July 12th, 1991, when a fire broke out at
the US Army Blackhorse Base in Doha, Kuwait, and 9,000 pounds of
weaponized uranium waste was destroyed.
But the danger is
increased exponentially after this radioactive weaponry is fired
in battle. Naturally, everyone inside the tank or armored
personnel carrier is burned to death. However, outside the range
of this immediate killing, shrapnel-like fragments of the weapon
can also penetrate a body.
The lethal blast
spreads massive amounts of those tiny particles of uranium oxide.
They are so small that they can be inhaled without causing a gag
response. They can also be ingested without one being aware of
it. These tiny toxic particles can cling to the carbonized bodies
of those inside the tank or armored personnel carrier. They can
cling to the surfaces of the shattered vehicles. They can float
into the air, fall and become re-suspended (especially in a
desert climate) over many miles. When they finally rest on the
ground, their weight gradually carries them down into the water
beneath the earth. Then they reemerge in the grains and grasses
and are consumed by animals and humans.
Once inside the
body, the combination of radiological and chemical toxicity of
this uranium waste do more genetic damage than they could
separately. They especially damage soft tissue such as lungs,
liver, bone marrow etc.—places where there is the most cell
division. Because the particles are ceramicized, the body cannot
easily absorb and flush them, so they continue to do their
internal damage over a long period of time. Children whose bodies
are still growing are, of course, more susceptible to this
genetic damage, resulting in leukemia and other forms of cancer.
This US military
did its own private study of this radioactive weaponry and stated
that the aftermath of its use showed no ill effects. The US has
blocked independent scientific studies on the effects of this
radioactive weaponry both on the national and international
level. However, six years ago, the College of Medicine at Basra
University carried out a study into the rate of cancer among
children under age of 15 in southern Iraq from 1976 to 1999. It
revealed a horrific change between 1990 and 1999. The College of
Medicine in Basra, Iraq reported that between 1990 and 1999, the
incidence of cancer of all types rose by 242 percent, while the
rate of leukemia among children rose 100 percent. Children living
in the area were falling ill with cancer at the rate of 10.1 per
100,000. In districts where the use of depleted uranium had been
the most concentrated, the rate rose to 13.2 per 100,000.
Most cell division
occurs in the body in the reproductive system. Thus what would be
expected has indeed occurred in Iraq: an explosion of childhood
genetic deformities. In Iraq, the rate of such birth defects
after increasing tenfold from 11 per 100,000 births in 1989 to
116 per 100,000 in 2001, is rising even more in 2005. Birth
defects are striking the children of "coalition" Gulf
War vets as well.
Disarming DU
In August, 1996,
the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights voted a ban on the use of
depleted uranium radioactive weapons as a weapon of mass
destruction. And in February 2003 the European Parliament
requested "the Member States to immediately implement a
moratorium on the further use of depleted uranium ammunition (and
other uranium warheads), pending the conclusions of a
comprehensive study of the requirements of international
humanitarian law." We should support those efforts and all
efforts to ban the use of the military's radioactive depleted
uranium weaponry.
On Dec. 19th,
1999, Philip Berrigan, Susan Crane, Rev. Steve Kelly S.J., and
Elizabeth Walz performed a plowshares action against two A-10
"Warthogs," hammering on the Gatling guns and pouring
their blood into the engines. In the face of the immense, nearly
eternal destructiveness of this weapon, and continuing government
denial of the nature of its lethality, this and similar actions
seem warranted.
In the US, Alliant
Techsystems makes almost all of the radioactive bullets used for
combat. The public can put pressure on this company and make sure
that when they come to recruit the young minds of our country,
they are denied access to them.
Additionally, two
veterans, Melissa Sterry, a Gulf War I vet in Connecticut, and
Bob Smith, a Louisiana Vietnam vet were instrumental in having
their states pass laws requiring that returning veterans be
tested for radioactive contamination. A similar national bill [HR
2410] was introduced to the 109th Congress in May 2005
and has been referred to the House Armed Services Committee.
Finally, Dr. Jawad
Al-Ali, an oncologist with 35 years of experience, plans to
undertake the first scientifically sound study of the effects of
depleted uranium in Iraq. It will involve interviewing 1,000
families and will be able to discriminate between effects from
chemical exposures and those from depleted uranium. The cost of
the study will be high, yet the results may be of critical
importance in improving health conditions in Iraq and taking
steps to end future use of radioactive weapons.
The nature of this
radioactive weapon gives deeper and broader force to
peace-makers' contention that war scars the world in the present
and for ages to come. We must make every effort to ban these
weapons, along with the war making that keeps calling for more
and more weapons that destroy our lives and those of future
generations.
For More
Information
On banning depleted
uranium:
International
Coalition to Ban DU Weapons, Ketelhuisplein 43, 1054 RD
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, + 31 (0)20 6168294.
Louisiana Activist
Network/New Democracy Rising, POB 480 Franklinton, LA 70438
www.newdemocracyrising.com/uranium/asp
On the Plowshares
vs. DU action:
Jonah House
1301 Moreland Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21216
(410) 233 6238
www.jonahhouse.org/du.htm
BY
The men from Blackwater USA
arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina hit.
The company known for its
private security work guarding senior US diplomats in Iraq beat
the federal government and most aid organizations to the scene in
another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed Blackwater
troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of
New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces
"join[ing] the hurricane relief effort." But its men on
the ground told a different story.
Some patrolled the streets
in SUVs with tinted windows and the Blackwater logo splashed on
the back; others sped around the French Quarter in an unmarked
car with no license plates. They congregated on the corner of St.
James and Bourbon in front of a bar called 711, where Blackwater
was establishing a makeshift headquarters. From the balcony above
the bar, several Blackwater guys cleared out what had apparently
been someone's apartment. They threw mattresses, clothes, shoes
and other household items from the balcony to the street below.
They draped an American flag from the balcony's railing. More
than a dozen troops from the 82nd Airborne Division stood in
formation on the street watching the action.
Armed men shuffled in and
out of the building as a handful told stories of their past
experiences in Iraq. "I worked the security detail of both
Bremer and Negroponte," said one of the Blackwater guys,
referring to the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul
Bremer, and former US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte. Another
complained, while talking on his cell phone, that he was getting
only $350 a day plus his per diem. "When they told me New
Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?'" he said. He
wore his company ID around his neck in a case with the phrase
Operation Iraqi Freedom printed on it.
In an hour long conversation
I had with four Blackwater men, they characterized their work in
New Orleans as "securing neighborhoods" and
"confronting criminals." They all carried automatic
assault weapons and had guns strapped to their legs. Their flak
jackets were covered with pouches for extra ammunition.
When asked what authority
they were operating under, one guy said, "We're on contract
with the Department of Homeland Security." Then, pointing to
one of his comrades, he said, "He was even deputized by the
governor of the state of Louisiana. We can make arrests and use
lethal force if we deem it necessary." The man then held up
the gold Louisiana law enforcement badge he wore around his neck.
Blackwater spokesperson Anne Duke also said the company has a
letter from Louisiana officials authorizing its forces to carry
loaded weapons.
"This vigilantism
demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government," says
Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional
Rights. "These private security forces have behaved
brutally, with impunity, in Iraq. To have them now on the streets
of New Orleans is frightening and possibly illegal."
Blackwater is not alone. As
business leaders and government officials talk openly of changing
the demographics of what was one of the most culturally vibrant
of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like DynCorp,
Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an
Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI)
are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as
government projects and institutions. Within two weeks of the
hurricane, the number of private security companies registered in
Louisiana jumped from 185 to 235. Some, like Blackwater, are
under federal contract. Others have been hired by the wealthy
elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who brought in private security
to guard his $3 million private estate and his luxury hotels,
which are under consideration for a lucrative federal contract to
house FEMA workers.
A possibly deadly incident
involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the dangers of private
forces policing American streets. On his second night in New
Orleans, Quinn's security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he
worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical
Security (BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en
route to pick up one of Quinn's associates and escort him through
the chaotic city. Montgomery told me they came under fire from
"black gangbangers" on an overpass near the poor Ninth
Ward neighborhood. "At the time, I was on the phone with my
business partner," he recalls. "I dropped the phone and
returned fire."
Montgomery says he and his
men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and that they unleashed a
barrage of bullets in the general direction of the alleged
shooters on the overpass. "After that, all I heard was
moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it.
Enough said."
Then, Montgomery says,
"the Army showed up, yelling at us and thinking we were the
enemy. We explained to them that we were security. I told them
what had happened and they didn't even care. They just
left." Five minutes later, Montgomery says, Louisiana state
troopers arrived on the scene, inquired about the incident and
then asked him for directions on "how they could get out of
the city." Montgomery says that no one ever asked him for
any details of the incident and no report was ever made.
"One thing about security," Montgomery says, "is
that we all coordinate with each other--one family." That
co-ordination doesn't include the offices of the Secretaries of
State in Louisiana and Alabama, which have no record of a BATS
company.
A few miles away from the
French Quarter, another wealthy New Orleans businessman, James
Reiss, who serves in Mayor Ray Nagin's administration as chairman
of the city's Regional Transit Authority, brought in some heavy
guns to guard the elite gated community of Audubon Place: Israeli
mercenaries dressed in black and armed with M-16s. Two Israelis
patrolling the gates outside Audubon told me they had served as
professional soldiers in the Israeli military, and one boasted of
having participated in the invasion of Lebanon. "We have
been fighting the Palestinians all day, every day, our whole
lives," one of them tells me. "Here in New Orleans, we
are not guarding from terrorists." Then, tapping on his
machine gun, he says, "Most Americans, when they see these
things, that's enough to scare them."
The men work for ISI, which
describes its employees as "veterans of the Israeli special
task forces from the following Israeli government bodies: Israel
Defense Force (IDF), Israel National Police Counter Terrorism
units, Instructors of Israel National Police Counter Terrorism
units, General Security Service (GSS or 'Shin Beit'), Other
restricted intelligence agencies." The company was formed in
1993. Its website profile says: "Our up-to-date services
meet the challenging needs for Homeland Security preparedness and
overseas combat procedures and readiness. ISI is currently an
approved vendor by the US Government to supply Homeland Security
services."
Unlike ISI or BATS,
Blackwater is operating under a federal contract to provide 164
armed guards for FEMA reconstruction projects in Louisiana. That
contract was announced just days after Homeland Security
Department spokesperson Russ Knocke told the Washington Post he
knew of no federal plans to hire Blackwater or other private
security firms. "We believe we've got the right mix of
personnel in law enforcement for the federal government to meet
the demands of public safety," he said. Before the contract
was announced, the Blackwater men told me, they were already on
contract with DHS and that they were sleeping in camps organized
by the federal agency.
One might ask, given the
enormous presence in New Orleans of National Guard, US Army, US
Border Patrol, local police from around the country and
practically every other government agency with badges, why
private security companies are needed, particularly to guard
federal projects. "It strikes me…that that may not be
the best use of money," said Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
Blackwater's success in
procuring federal contracts could well be explained by
major-league contributions and family connections to the GOP.
According to election records, Blackwater's CEO and co-founder,
billionaire Erik Prince, has given tens of thousands to
Republicans, including more than $80,000 to the Republican
National Committee the month before Bush's victory in 2000. This
past June, he gave $2,100 to Senator Rick Santorum's re-election
campaign. He has also given to House majority leader Tom DeLay
and a slew of other Republican candidates, including Bush/Cheney
in 2004. As a young man, Prince interned with President George
H.W. Bush, though he complained at the time that he "saw a
lot of things I didn't agree with--homosexual groups being
invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kind
of bills. I think the Administration has been indifferent to a
lot of conservative concerns."
Prince, a staunch right-wing
Christian, comes from a powerful Michigan Republican family, and
his father, Edgar, was a close friend of former Republican
presidential candidate and antichoice leader Gary Bauer. In 1988
the elder Prince helped Bauer start the Family Research Council.
Erik Prince's sister, Betsy, once chaired the Michigan Republican
Party and is married to Dick DeVos, whose father, billionaire
Richard DeVos, is co-founder of the major Republican benefactor
Amway. Dick DeVos is also a big-time contributor to the
Republican Party and will likely be the GOP candidate for
Michigan governor in 2006. Another Blackwater founder, president
Gary Jackson, is also a major contributor to Republican
campaigns.
After the killing of four
Blackwater mercenaries in Falluja in March 2004, Erik Prince
hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a PR firm with close ties to
GOPers like DeLay. By mid-November the company was reporting 600
percent growth. In February 2005 the company hired Ambassador
Cofer Black, former coordinator for counter terrorism at the
State Department and former director of the CIA's Counter
terrorism Center, as vice chairman. Just as the hurricane was
hitting, Blackwater's parent company, the Prince Group, named
Joseph Schmitz, who had just resigned as the Pentagon's Inspector
General, as the group's chief operating officer and general
counsel.
While juicing up the firm's
political connections, Prince has been advocating greater use of
private security in international operations, arguing at a
symposium at the National Defense Industrial Association earlier
this year that firms like his are more efficient than the
military. In May Blackwater's Jackson testified before Congress
in an effort to gain lucrative Homeland Security contracts to
train 2,000 new Border Patrol agents, saying Blackwater
understands "the value to the government of one-stop
shopping." With President Bush using the Katrina disaster to
try to repeal Posse Comitatus (the ban on using US troops in
domestic law enforcement) and Blackwater and other security firms
clearly initiating a push to install their paramilitaries on US
soil, the war is coming home in yet another ominous way. As one
Blackwater mercenary said, "This is a trend. You're going to
see a lot more guys like us in these situations."
3. THE MILITARIZATION OF AMERICAN YOUTH
BY
BRYN
LLOYD-BOLLARD
The US government via the
Pentagon set up the Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps
(JROTC). Before the enabling laws went into effect 1/3 of all
high schools in the country felt it inappropriate to give out
information to recruiters. The law now coerces schools into
giving the military unimpeded access. By law, parents may request
that information about their child be kept private yet there is
no system in place that informs parents or students of these
rights, so many remain unaware.
The Pentagon also gets
information about students through administering its Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test (ASVAB). This test is
offered to schools free of charge, and while it is marketed as a
way to help students choose between a variety of military and
civilian careers, the test is primarily designed to assess a
person's military qualifications. When a student takes the exam,
their contact information and test scores are automatically sent
to recruiters, who may use the information as they see fit.
There are currently 500,000
students aged 14 and over enrolled in JROTC programs throughout
the country. The government set up JROTC as an elective high
school class. However, many schools have begun to enroll students
in the program automatically. Federal law mandates that at least
100 students or 10% of the student body must be enrolled in each
JROTC unit in order to maintain the program in a school. Thus,
school administrators can feel pressured to bend, if not break
the rules regarding the voluntary nature of the program by making
it difficult for students to find alternative courses. A JROTC
unit costs a school an average of $75,000, which drains
resources from other school activities and vital programs.
School administrators often
think of JROTC as a good alternative for students who do not
excel at academics or who have behavioral problems, but the JROTC
track record at helping "at-risk" youth is far from
perfect. Since 1990, there have been numerous violent incidents
involving JROTC recruits. Murders, gang activity, sexual
assaults, and violent hazing have been linked to JROTC
instructors, members and graduates. Rather than teaching students
about peaceful alternatives, the JROTC promotes violence by
teaching students to use guns and to take part in mindless drills
that train them to follow orders without hesitation and without
thought.
Counter Recruitment
In response to the growing
military presence in schools throughout the country,
counter-recruitment efforts have also been growing. In 1986, the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that under the
First and Fourteenth Amendments, schools creating a forum for
proponents of the military must also provide equal access for
those with opposing points of view. Counter recruitment programs
help students understand the real implications of military
service and educate them about alternatives to military
enlistment and ways to get out once already signed up.
The majority of young people
who join the military enlist through the Delayed Entry Program
(DEP), which allows them up to a year before they must report for
active duty training. Many of these recruits are unaware that
they have the option of leaving the military during the time
period before training begins. All they need to do is write a
letter requesting separation that fully explains the reason why
the recruit is unable or unwilling to serve. While the military
defines specific separation categories, almost any reason is
acceptable so long as the recruit states clearly the he or she is
no longer interested in serving in the military.
Fight the Draft
To reduce the chances of
being selected during a draft, there are a couple things young
people can do. When turning 18, men are supposed to register with
the Selective Service and join the draft-ready pool of their
peers. However, they can actually wait until their 26the birthday
before registering. While federal Government threatens a fine of
$250,000 and a maximum of five years in prison for those who
don't register, there are no known recent cases of this being
imposed. State penalties vary and include denial of admittance to
public colleges and universities, denial of state employment and
denial of student financial aid. States are also beginning to
link drivers' licenses to selective service registration.
When filling out the
selective service form, the registrant has the option of
registering as a conscientious objector (CO). A CO writes that he
is totally opposed to war and cannot conceive of any situation
where he would be willing or able to take the life of another
human. This statement can be written on the margins of the
selective service form and/or in a separate letter. He
should make a copy for his records, place it in a sealed
envelope, mail it to himself, and keep it, along with additional
documentation that shows he is against all war (journal entries,
letters, poems, etc.).
In addition to having a
complete understanding of the disparities between what recruiters
say about military service and reality, young people are advised
to take some precautionary steps when meeting with recruiters.
They should take along a family member and/or a trusted ally as a
witness and advocate and have them read over the enlistment
agreement. Potential recruits should always ask questions about
parts of the agreement they don't understand and should keep a
copy for their records. They should be truthful about their
police records and medical conditions and not allow recruiters to
falsify documents on their behalf. They should know that
everything about their service contract is negotiable but that
the military can override any contract in a time of crisis (as is
the case with Stop Loss orders). Enlistees should also be aware
that spoken promises are worthless and should require the
recruiter to put all of his or her promises in writing.
Anti-War Movements
Militarism in our schools is
an issue of serious and growing importance. Using a variety of
clever tricks and persuasive tactics, the Pentagon takes
advantage of our nation's youth, especially the underprivileged,
by marketing dead-end military jobs. With its vast budget and
immense political power, the military is trying to sell itself as
a cure for our country's social and economic problems, even in
the face of considerable evidence showing that a military career
can cut short a student's education and make it even harder to
find a productive livelihood.
Despite its best efforts,
however, military recruitment rates continue to decline. This
testifies to the fact that the real implications of military
service are slowly gaining widespread attention and that
counter-recruitment campaigns are succeeding. As the antiwar
movement and all people concerned about the welfare of our
nation's youth continue to expose the military's lies about
enlistment, it will become more and more difficult for the
Pentagon to continue fighting its wars abroad and to mislead and
misuse the country's young citizens at home.
For more information, the
Western Massachusetts American friends Service Committee in
partnership with the Military Recruitment Education Network has
an active network of volunteers engaged in GI Rights work,
Counter Recruitment, capacity building trainings and programs,
that can be contacted at (413) 584 8975, [email protected], and www.WesternMassAFSC.org.
(The
Settlements and Their Sewage)
BY
KATHLEEN & BILL CHRISTISON
Every so often, the usually even-tempered
Ahmad bursts forth with an exclamation of deep anger, almost
startling in its intensity. He is talking about the confiscation
of vast tracts of land belonging to West Bank Palestinian
villages for construction of Israel's separation wall and to
provide lebensraum for the network of Israeli settlements
throughout Palestinian land. "Why you want to put your shit
in my salon?" he exclaims. Then he catches himself.
"Sorry for the language, but sometimes it gets on my
nerves."
"Gets on my nerves" is quite an
understatement. Although Ahmad is talking figuratively, of
Israeli settlements and Israeli walls and -- something you don't
usually hear about -- Israeli trash dumps throughout the West
Bank, scarring the landscape and invading Palestinian space, the
reference to what is being dumped in the Palestinian salon
applies literally as well as figuratively in the small village of
Wadi Fuqin southwest of Bethlehem. A large settlement, Betar
Illit, looms over this village and has on two occasions quite
literally dumped its sewage down into the fertile valley where
the village's life-sustaining agricultural land lies. That's
sewage from a settlement of 25,000 poured onto a village of
1,200.
Located exactly on the Green Line marking
Israel's pre-1967 border, Wadi Fuqin is a long narrow oasis
between high ridge lines, about to be squeezed from both sides by
Israeli encroachment. The Green Line is on the western side, atop
one ridge. The hillside here is covered by olive groves, but the
Israelis will soon start construction of the separation wall
here, meaning the destruction of hundreds of olive trees. This is
despite the fact that Wadi Fuqin has had good relations with the
nearby Israeli town throughout the 38 years of the occupation. On the
eastern side, the burgeoning Israeli settlement of Betar Illit
looks down on the village, pushing in from the other side.
Wadi Fuqin could once claim 12,000 dunams
(some of the old-timers say it was 17,000) but lost everything
except 3,000 dunams (about 750 acres) to Israel in 1948. Now it
has lost another 1,000 dunams to Betar Illit, and it will lose
still more land to the wall. We approach from the north,
gradually descending the surrounding hills, past Betar Illit, and
come to a high point where we can look down to the valley, lying
bright green below. The place is like a garden. Stretched out
over two miles, the valley is a neat patchwork of small orchards,
right now producing pomegranates and figs; vegetable plots of
cucumbers, cabbages, herbs, squashes; and well tended olive
groves. Brilliant bougainvillea drape the walls around many
houses. Fields are fed by five natural springs, dating back to
Roman times. Collection pools for irrigation water, constantly
replenished from the springs, lie alongside the road throughout
the village. Those who have been spreading the myth for decades
that only the Israelis have made the desert bloom would be a bit
chagrined.
We pick figs and a farmer gives us cucumbers
right off the vine as we walk through town. Farther along, school
is just letting out, the children dressed neatly in school
uniforms even in this tiny place. At one spot, several kids,
probably eight or nine years old, are using one of the pools as a
swimming hole. Only the boys dive in, but several girls stand
around the pool laughing with the boys. They are all delighted to
have their pictures taken and show off for our benefit.
The nearly idyllic scene is marred halfway
up the hillside toward Betar Illit, where the Israelis have
dumped all the construction debris from the settlement. Although
it began as a small settlement twenty years ago, Betar Illit has
grown rapidly, its population expanding by 50 percent, in the
last five years. So much debris has been cleared to make room for
the settlement's large apartment blocks that the contours of the
ridge line have changed over the years, encroaching dramatically
on Wadi Fuqin and its fields. In one long stretch, the Israelis
have built a makeshift retaining wall of huge boulders, rather
precariously settled at the bottom of the hillside, all on top of
Wadi Fuqin's agricultural fields, to hold the dirt, rocks, and
other debris from settlement construction.
Near the top of the new ridge line at one
spot is a very evident large-diameter sewage pipe. The village
leader who shows us around says that twice in the last few years,
the settlement has experienced some kind of overflow problem and
has poured sewage onto the field below. Now the only part of the
village not blooming, the field below has obviously been
polluted. The pipe is still there, ready for other Israeli
"emergencies."
It's Everywhere
Much of the spectacular landscape of
Palestine is so beautiful it takes your breath away. Wadi Fuqin
is one of the breathtaking places in the southern West Bank,
where the hills of the central range open up to a rich landscape
of vineyards and fruit trees and fields of vegetables in the wide
valleys between hillsides. Farther north, the mountains and steep
valleys and endless terraced olive groves form a serene
landscape, dotted with small villages of white stone houses and
tall minarets. In the east, the desert hills unfold in gentle,
pastel-colored undulations. Israeli debris is increasingly
scarring this landscape everywhere.
Israeli construction on a massive scale is
changing the pastoral landscape of Palestine in striking ways,
intruding on the Palestinian salon. Large settlements spill down
hillsides, looking like crusader castles. (They are not
particularly unattractive, if their identical concrete-block
style happens to please you -- the red-tile roofs give them a
Mediterranean flair -- but their massiveness and the
regimentation of the large apartment blocs very noticeably change
the character of the pastoral terrain.) Wide highways, meant to
connect the settlements and avoid the need for Israelis to pass
through or near Palestinian towns, and accessible only to those
with Israeli license plates, make sweeping cuts in the land.
Outside Jerusalem, where Israel is planning to link the huge
settlement of Maale Adumim to the city, vast expanses of the
steep hillsides and wadis that once made this a place of
spectacular unspoiled beauty have been cleared of trees and rocks
in preparation for building roads and housing -- a grim
urbanization of a peaceful landscape.
The separation wall is the most oppressive.
Over 400 miles long when all its twists and loops are completed,
the wall appears seemingly everywhere, on that hillside, around
this corner. It is ugly, it is destructive. Where it is a
concrete wall, it is dull gray, lacking any design, and lumpish,
a bit of urban blight slashing through city neighborhoods. Where
it is a fence, its combination of electronically monitored chain
link, razor wire, and trenches and patrol roads bulldozed through
destroyed agricultural land make it look exactly like the hostile
border marker that it is. Hardly the "good fence" that
Israel and its American supporters are trying to portray, it is
altogether an ugly gash in the landscape, visible at great
distances. (Where the wall is on or near the Green Line and
Israelis might actually have to see it from their side, it has
been hidden more or less completely with neatly landscaped mounds
of earth that reach almost to the top.) Although Israel's friends
defend the barrier by noting that a major portion is a fence
rather than a concrete wall, it is -- and is intended to be --
totally impenetrable, and one part is no more or less destructive
than any other. Although they claim it is temporary and easily
removable if only the Palestinians will behave, the wall, whether
concrete or fence, has destroyed homes, land, and the very
essence of the landscape that cannot ever be restored.
Destruction accompanies all of this building
of walls and settlements. In addition to vast landscapes
excavated, urbanized, and polluted, there is a helter-skelter of
debris. Mounds of construction junk like the one hovering over
Wadi Fuqin are everywhere, creating new hillsides in some places,
evident in small piles on roadsides elsewhere. In one place near
a settlement under construction, you see the remnants of spilled
cement and torn cement sacks, obviously with Hebrew lettering.
Elsewhere, you come across olive groves and agricultural fields
strewn with boulders that local Palestinians say have been
excavated from settlement construction sites and simply dumped
there throughout the fields. In other places, the roads are
littered with rusted cars, many with Hebrew lettering that gives
away their origins.
Trash disposal is a major problem throughout
the West Bank. In the town of Anata, for instance, which lies
almost entirely in a section of the West Bank totally controlled
by Israel, just outside Jerusalem, there is little or no trash
pick-up for the town's 9,000 residents. Anata bought one garbage
truck a few years ago with donations from the EU, but the nearest
dump is in another town, through several checkpoints and on the
other side of the wall from Anata, so trash and garbage are
burned or simply piled up. The large city of Ramallah and its
suburb of al-Bireh are facing a near-term crisis. Israelis
authorities have informed the two municipalities, which together
have a population of approximately 85,000, that the solid waste
landfill they have been using for the last several years, which
was originally built to serve a population of 100,000, will be
closed to the Palestinians at the beginning of 2006, although it
will remain open for Israelis from the nearby settlement of
Psagot. Israeli authorities closed the landfill to Palestinians
for a couple of years at the start of the Intifada in 2000,
forcing Ramallah and al-Bireh first to reopen an old landfill
that had been abandoned because it was overloaded and, when that
became so totally overburdened that it posed environmental risks
to the municipalities, to halt trash pick-up altogether until the
usable landfill was finally reopened. The towns will have no
alternative if this landfill is again closed to them.
These are only a few examples of a critical
environmental situation throughout the West Bank. A recent
devastating analysis of widespread ecological destruction,
written by dissident Israeli environmentalist Ethan Ganor and
published in Earth
First! Journal, reports that waste from unregulated
settlement factories that produce aluminum, plastics, fiberglass,
batteries, and pesticides pollutes the land and the water.
Wastewater from a large complex of 80 Israeli factories in the
northern West Bank is discharged into a wadi, polluting
Palestinian farmland in several nearby villages. Garbage from
Israel has for years been dumped in a Palestinian quarry near
Nablus, causing great demonstrable damage to groundwater and
plant life. Early this year, Israeli settlers near Hebron
poisoned fields used by Palestinians to graze flocks of sheep; an
extremely toxic rodenticide manufactured only in Israel was found
strewn across a wide area, causing the death of dozens of sheep
and goats and affecting an array of birds and wildlife. Ganor
concludes that "From the Jordan River Valley and Dead Sea
Basin, through the central highlands comprising the West Bank's
populated core, to the fertile western hills bordering Israel . .
. a labyrinth of settlements, industrial zones, dumps, military
camps, fortified roads, electrified fences and a massive concrete
wall . . . is draining the life from this ancient land . . .
causing the West Bank's once-lush ecology to deteriorate. The
cumulative impact on the land's hydrology, topsoil, biodiversity,
food security and natural beauty is severe."
The injustice is overpowering. There is no
acceptable answer to Ahmad's question about why this is happening
in the Palestinians' salon.
BY
RALPH
NADER
Historians like to speak of
special times when leaders "seized the moment" to enact
or implement their priorities. Giant hurricanes make these
"special times," and no one is moving faster to exploit
them than the corporate powers.
Urged on by the Wall Street
Journal's editorials, corporate lobbyists are demanding of
the federal and state governments
(1) taxpayer
funded subsidies;
(2) more tax
reductions;
(3) waivers
from worker pay protection laws;
(4) a host of
waivers from environmental health and land use regulations; and
(5) immunity
from certain liabilities for harmful conduct. Even the shoreline
gambling casinos are pushing for federal monies and getting
support from more than a few so-called conservative Republicans.
After every national tragedy,
large corporations move to cash in. They arrange for
no-competitive bid contracts so that their cronyism can get them
large government contracts awarded with few safeguards to prevent
waste, fraud and abuse.
Of course, these companies have
their favorite politician in the White House and a Republican
Congress marinated in business campaign contributions. Such
indentured servants further encourage the corporate supremacists'
grab of greed.
This is the President who is
supposed to be preparing for mass evacuations in case of attacks
or natural disasters. So what did he demand of Congress earlier
this year? That the federal budget contribution to AMTRAK be
eliminated.
Recall the televised 100-mile
traffic jam out of Houston, Texas, fleeing Hurricane Rita, along
with all other exiting roadways. Did you see any trains? Unlike
Western Europe and Japan, an adequate, modern national railway
system that can lessen congestion on the highways during daily
commutes and serve to evacuate efficiently large numbers of
people during emergencies does not exist for large, populated
areas of the United States. Billions of tax dollars have gone to
the troubled mismanaged airlines, especially after 9/11, but
passenger railroads are expected to find their capital
expenditures (upgrading roadbeds and equipment) on their own.
On the other side of the political
aisle, the forces in Congress for the people can also "seize
the moment." They can "seize the moment" for
expanding both intercity rail systems and modern in-city mass
transit. This will provide more transportation for emergencies,
allow lower-income people to get to their jobs or find jobs
better, reduce gasoline usage and air pollution, and create good
paying construction jobs building a very useful public service.
These forces can also "seize
the moment" by opposing all the repulsive privileges,
favoritism and freeloading by corporate executives exploiting
devastations to innocent people.
There is not much of any
forcefulness on these two objectives yet on Capitol Hill. But
Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) and a coalition of Democrats and
supportive Republicans, have introduced a very modest proposal to
increase the average fuel economy of motor vehicles from the
current absurdly low average of 24 miles per gallon (the lowest
since 1980) to 33 miles per gallon by the fall of 2015.
Why so little, since MIT's
Technology Review reported that SUVs themselves could reach 40
miles per gallon by 2010? The very modesty of the proposal, at a
time of $3 plus per gallon of gasoline perilous reliance on
imported oil, and oceans of gas guzzlers on the highways, is a
test of just how arrogant and stagnant are the auto industry's
domestic leaders.
Sure enough, the Alliance of
Automobile Manufacturers immediately attacked the Boehlert/Markey
amendment with specious assertions, imperiously assuring that the
industry can do the job by itself.
Sure just the way the industry has
been doing going backwards into the future with declining
average vehicle fuel economy year after year.
Even the hot selling
oversubscribed Hybrids by Toyota and Honda for about five years
cannot get the lead out of the rear end of General Motors and
Ford Motor Company. They are making announcements in newspaper
ads that they intend to awaken from their technologically
stagnant slumber, however. That's a verbal start. But not
anywhere near fast enough for motorists, commuters and the
national interest.
Good members of Congress just
"seize the moment."