-Project Censored’s Alert

1. The Ashcroft-Rove Connection: The Ties That Blind
2. Oppression of Afghani Women Continues
3. Big Brother Is Watching
4. Rash Indicates New Breast Cancer Risk

1. The Ashcroft-Rove Connection: The Ties That Blind

Attorney General John Ashcroft is refusing to appoint an independent
prosecutor to investigate who in the administration leaked the name
of a CIA operative to journalists. This despite the fact that
Ashcroft has long standing ties to one of the main suspects:
President Bush’s top political advisor Karl Rove. Rove has been
accused of leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, in
retaliation for her husband, veteran diplomat Joseph Wilson, blowing
the whistle on the Bush administration’s charge that Saddam Hussein
attempted to import uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger.
Rove is best known as the driving force behind Bush’s taking of the
presidency, but he also worked for Ashcroft over the course of two
decades. Author James Moore says that it goes all the way back to
the mid 1980ís when John Ashcroft first ran for governor and then
when he ran for the United States Senate against Mel Carnahan. Karl
was so intimately involved.

Not only did Rove work for Ashcroft in the 80ís, but he was one of
the main forces behind Ashcroft’s controversial appointment to the
job he currently holds as attorney general. Rove lobbied intensely
for his former employer’s nomination after Ashcroft lost his senate
seat to the late Mel Carnahan.

While Ashcroft was not Bush’s first choice for attorney general, Rove
reportedly told Bush that spilling some blood over the nomination of
the fiercely right-wing Ashcroft was “a no-lose proposition” Now
attorney general, Ashcroft is refusing to hand over the reigns of the
criminal investigation of his political ally, former employee and
longtime advisor, Karl Rove.
Source : Democracy Now!, Fall 2003, “The Ashcroft-Rove Connection:
The Ties That Blind” by Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill & the staff of
Democracy Now! Researched by Vanessa Castellanos.

2. Oppression of Afghani Women Continues Despite Media Hype

Afghani women continue to be oppressed in Herat, Afghanistan’s the
second largest city in the country live in fear after the Taliban has
left. Women are mainly in fear of talking to any men who aren’t their
husbands. Gynecologist in Herats hospital who asked to be called Dr.
Afzali says she was forced to perform numerous “chastity tests” on
women who have been arrested for talking to any man even their own
relatives. Dr. Afzali says that security officers don’t ask questions
of the women but take them in and have the doctor perform forced
chastity tests on teenage girls and women against their will if they
are thought to be doing something wrong. Dr. Afzali also makes the
comment that any young woman arrested in this manner that their
reputation is destroyed due to false accusations.

The writer Sevick also comments on how the American
government falsely led the public to belief that the oppression of
women stopped after the Taliban. It started with President Bush
comment shortly before the bombing in Afghanistan in October 2001 in
which he says that the Taliban oppression of women was over than
their was Laura Bush first lady who went on to say after Taliban was
chased out by the Northern Alliance, “Women are no longer imprisoned
in their homes.” Even in the state of the union address after the
victory in Afghanistan President Bush says, “Today Women are free.”
All false indications of the extent of freedom of oppressed women in
Afghanistan actually enjoyed within their communities.

The reality of the matter is that US has made some gains in
the capital of Kabul where Unicef has estimated 1.2 million girls
last year have been going to school and some women have been able to
work in the capital in the regions where peace keepers are in place.
But CNN has reported on Kabul prisons reveals that oppression of
women is evident in the prison have still been implemented in regions
where the supposed peacekeepers are in place. This is one indication
that women have some freedom in Kabul, but other regions like Herat
the governors and warlords known as “regional commanders” are
commanding regions in Afghanistan. These commanders in the regions
are forcing women into marriage and threatening families if they
don’t comply.

The central governments are denying arrests of women because of moral
crime, but arrests are being done on the grounds of false adultery
often without a trial. Another issue is the fact that the country has
seen plenty of destruction because of Bush’s war. Promised rebuilding
has been focused on construction not on programs for women. To top it
off in October the U.S. backed the government in Kabul and expects a
constitution that will give women equal rights sadly that doesn’t
seem to matter much when warlords and lack of money for women’s
program funding will ever appear or be resolved. To some it up Dr.
Afzali said, “With one side of the mouth, the government is granting
new rights to women. But with the other side, they are trying to
control us.”

Source: The Mother Jones, July-August 2003, “What Liberation? The
Taliban may be gone, but women in Afghanistan are still being
arrested for “moral” crimes” by Kimberly Sevick. Researched by John
Hernandez.

3. Big Brother Is Watching

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency,
operating within the Pentagon, is bringing a new form of surveillance
into our private worlds. CTS, otherwise known as Combat Zones that
See, is an urban surveillance system that uses thousands of cameras
linked to a central computer to track, record, and analyze the
movements of every vehicle in the city. Its software can identify
your cars by size, shape, license plate – and even by your face. It
let’s authorities (government and corporate) keep an eye over
everyone’s movements in entire cities.

CTS say that its goal is to “track everything that moves,”
storing and categorizing phenomenal amount of data so that it is
instantly retrievable. Act suspicious and CTS flashes an alert to
authorities, complete with your profile. DARPA says that CTS is only
for foreign surveillance but the corporate contractors developing the
system claim differently. “The whole theme here is homeland
security,” says one of the staff.

DARPA is also the agency that have given us such systems as:
the Total Information Awareness Program which can ransack any and all
databases and compile secret profiles on each of our lives, and PAL,
the cognitive computer system with sensors that let its wearers
secretly record our words and movements.

Source: The Texas Observer, 2003, “Stranger Than Strangelove” by Jim
Hightower. Researched by Brooke Finley.

4. Rash Indicates New Breast Cancer Risk

There is a new breast cancer disease popping up in America. In
November 2002 a rare form of breast cancer was found, a woman
developed a rash on her breast, similar to that of nursing mothers.
The woman’s mammogram was clear so the doctor treated her with
antibiotics for an infection. The rash continued to get worse and
the doctor sent her for another mammogram, and this time it showed a
mass. Further study of a biopsy found a fast growing malignancy.
The patient started chemotherapy to shrink the growth and after
intense treatment she was declared a full bill of health. The cancer
later returned to the liver and she was only given five months to
live.

This rare form of breast cancer is found on the outside of the
breast, on the nipple and areola. It appears as a rash and later
becomes a lesion with an oozing crusty outer edge. Usually only one
nipple is affected. Symptoms include itching and/or soreness. The
biggest problem with this disease is that such symptoms appear to be
harmless. It is frequently mistaken for skin inflammation or an
infection. If this woman had been diagnosed with breast cancer in
the beginning, perhaps it would not have spread. Therefore women and
their doctors are urged to pay extra attention and look for these
rare signs.

Source: Mother Warriors Voice, pg.12, Spring 2003, “A New Form Of
Breast Cancer” by Jill Shinn. Researched by Sabrina Bronson.

Also these stories:
Washington Buys Friends by Giving Out Weapons to Rogue Nations
The U.S Government’s Tests of Warfare Agents on Servicemen and Civilians
International Movement Takes on Water Industry
US Rejected Peace Offerings from Iraq and Afghanistan
Public Relations and the Pharmaceutical Industry
How Bush and his coal industry cronies are covering up one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Doping Kids
Indian Rice Feeds Cattle and not Starving Indians
Sex Discrimination in Florida
Corporations Privatize Freedom of Speech
Pharmaceutical Companies Spend More on PR than on Disease
Do Childhood Vaccines Cause More Harm than Good?

http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/newsflash.html

Top 2003 Censored Stories
1: The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance

#2: Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty

#3: US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq U.N. Report

#4: Rumsfeld’s Plan to Provoke Terrorists

#5: The Effort to Make Unions Disappear

#6: Closing Access to Information Technology

#7: Treaty Busting by the United States

#8: US/British Forces Continue Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Despite Massive Evidence of Negative Health Effects

#9: In Afghanistan: Poverty, Women’s Rights, and Civil Disruption Worse than Ever

#10: Africa Faces Threat of New Colonialism

#11: U.S. Implicated in Taliban Massacre

#12: Bush Administration Behind Failed Military Coup in Venezuela

#13: Corporate Personhood Challenged

#14: Unwanted Refugees a Global Problem

#15: U.S. Military’s War on the Earth

#16: Plan Puebla-Panama and the FTAA

#17: Clear Channel Monopoly Draws Criticism

#18: Charter Forest Proposal Threatens Access to Public Lands

#19: U.S. Dollar vs. the Euro: Another Reason for the Invasion of Iraq

#20: Pentagon Increases Private Military Contracts

#21: Third World Austerity Policies: Coming Soon to a City Near You

#22: Welfare Reform Up For Reauthorization, but Still No Safety Net

#23: Argentina Crisis Sparks Cooperative Growth

#24: Aid to Israel Fuels Repressive Occupation in Palestine

#25: Convicted Corporations Receive Perks Instead of Punishment
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/index.html

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