The Internet Anti-Fascist: Wednesday, 30 Aug 2000 -- Special #463

[Paul Kneisel <tallpaul@xxxxxxxx>]

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             The Internet Anti-Fascist: Wednesday, 30 August 2000
                            Special Issue #463
__________________________________________________________________________

                        WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING
   stories via <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story6/.txt>

AP, "Teens confess to torching refugee shelter," 21 Jul 00, "Four teenagers
confessed to participating in an arson attack on a shelter for asylum
seekers that injured three children whose family had fled Kosovo, police
said Thursday. An 11-year-old girl suffered serious burns when a Molotov
cocktail was thrown into the center Sunday morning. Two others were injured
by broken glass. All were members of an ethnic Albanian family from the
Yugoslav province of Kosovo that had sought asylum in Germany. Police said
the suspects, ages 14 to 18, were skinheads with extreme-right leanings."
<1751.txt>

AP, "Museum Allowed To Keep Sculpture," 13 June 00, "The Art Institute of
Chicago has reached an agreement allowing it to keep a sculpture that was
sold at auction during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II.  The
museum announced Monday that it will make a payment to the heirs of
Federico Gentili di Giuseppe for the sculpture "Bust of a Youth," by
Italian Francesco Mochi. In turn, the family will donate the artwork to the
institute." <1752.txt>

Alan Choate (Mobile [AL] Register), "Foes say implication of amendment is
Alabamians are racists: Confederate heritage groups campaign against
amendment, saying ban does not exist in state constitution ," 26 Aug 00,
"Confederate heritage groups plan to start fighting a constitutional
amendment repealing restrictions on interracial marriage - not because they
object to minorities and whites marrying each other, a spokesman said, but
because they consider the vote unnecessary." <1753.txt>

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (press release), "ADC San
Francisco Billboard Calls for End to Iraq Sanctions; Thousands of San
Francisco Commuters to See Human Face of US Policy on Iraq," 25 Aug 00, "On
August 28th, a billboard calling attention to the destructive human impact
of the sanctions on Iraq will go up at one of the Bay Area¹s most heavily
traversed stretches of Highway 101, above Grand Avenue exit just south of
San Francisco.  The paid advertisement will feature the face of a four year
old girl with the statement, "Sanctions are killing my generation," along
with a quote from UNICEF reports stating that 5,000 Iraqi children die
every month as a direct result of the sanctions on Iraq." <1754.txt>

Henry Weinstein (Los Angeles Times), "Persecuted Gay Man Wins Asylum Case:
Mexican who was harassed in his country for having a female sexual identity
is granted sanctuary in U.S. ," 22 Aug 00, "Gay men who face persecution in
their home countries because they manifest female sexual identities are
entitled to political asylum in the United States, a federal appeals court
in San Francisco ruled Thursday. The unanimous decision from the U.S. 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals broke new ground in asylum law, expanding the
class of people who can be granted asylum on the basis of sexual
persecution. The appeals court has jurisdiction over cases in California
and eight other western states." <1755>

AP, "Germany Warns of Nazi Web Hit List," 22 Jul 00, "Neo-Nazis are
targeting left-wing representatives and foreigners for attacks by
publishing lists on the Internet with their names, addresses and
photographs, German justice officials say." <1756.txt>

WCCO Minnesota., "Man Faces Lawsuit For Sending Harassing Letters: Attorney
General Says Man Targeted Jewish Community," 6 June 00, "Attorney General
Mike Hatch on Monday filed a civil lawsuit against a St. Paul man accused
of targeting Minnesota's Jewish community with terroristic and harassing
threats." <1757.txt>

AP, "Suspect in 1963 bombing says he needs his full FBI file," 25 Aug 00,
"One of two former Ku Klux Klansmen charged in the 1963 church bombing that
killed four black girls said his defense needs the complete FBI files about
him." <1758.txt>

AFP, "Colombian, US Human Rights Groups Blast Clinton's Waiver On Military
Aid," 24 Aug 00, "Colombian opposition leaders warned Wednesday that a 1.3
billion dollar US aid package to counter drug trafficking will unleash an
intensified campaign of rebel violence here, a week before US President
Bill Clinton is to visit.  Opposition leader Jaime Dussan, a fierce critic
of US financial assistance to Colombia's program to bring peace to the
nation, warned the package could accelerate the 36-year civil war."
<1759.txt>

Ewen MacAskill (Manchester Guardian), "Britain Snubs U.S. On World Court,"
22 Aug 00, "The British government will formally break ranks with the US on
Friday by supporting the creation of an international criminal court to
prosecute those responsible for genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Downing Street confirmed yesterday that the foreign secretary, Robin Cook,
is to publish a consultation paper and a draft bill paving the way for
British participation in the court. Britain would become a founder member."
<1760.txt>

Brendan Schurr (AP), "Sentence cut after court reverses hate-crimes
ruling," 22 Jul 00, "A Vineland man whose sentence on a hate-crime
conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to be
released soon. State Superior Court Judge Rushton H. Ridgway on Thursday
reduced the sentence for Charles C. Apprendi Jr. from 12 years to seven in
the wake of a Supreme Court ruling in June that the finding that Apprendi
was motivated by bias was improperly made. The judge said, because of the
Supreme Court's decision, the longer sentence for a bias crime had to be
vacated." <1761.txt>

By Andrew Guy Jr. (Denver Post), "Feds arrest militia trainer," 22 Jul 00,
"A Golden man who operated a militia training exercise in the mountains was
arrested by federal agents Friday on explosives charges. Paul Giovanni
Graham, 32, is one of two men indicted last week for allegedly selling
quarter-sticks of dynamite made with a highly sensitive substance. Graham
is charged with four counts of making and dealing in explosive materials.
He faces a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each
count. He was released on $10,000 bond." <1762.txt>

Kevin Flynn (Denver Rocky Mountain News), "Two men indicted in explosives
inquiry: One-time militia leader, businessman accused of selling devices to
agents," 23 Jul 00, "Two Golden men have been indicted for allegedly
manufacturing numerous explosive devices and selling them to undercover
agents." <1763.txt>

Paul Lashmar and David Northmore (Independent), "MI5 and MI6 ordered to
open files to the public," 22 Jul 00, "The intelligence services - M15 and
M16 - have been ordered to open their secret files to public scrutiny.
Every British citizen will, in theory, have the right to look at his or her
file held among thousands of secret documents. The Data Protection
Commissioner, Elizabeth France, has ordered the services - and GCHQ, the
Government's information-gathering centre - to comply with data protection
law after losing patience with them following years of failed
negotiations." <1764.txt>

Amelia Hill (The Guardian), "SAS founder was a Nazi sympathiser: New book
reveals how a great patriotic hero was seduced by pre-war Germany," 23 Jul
00, "He was one of Britain's bravest wartime heroes and co-founded the
lethally effective SAS. Without Lieutenant Jock Lewes, history would have
been very different. But shocking revelations in a new book could change
for ever the way he is remembered. The discovery of more than 450 letters,
written by Lewes to his parents between 1924 and 1941 and left forgotten in
a garage for more than half a century, has revealed that Lewes visited
Berlin regularly in the years leading up to the Second World War and
developed strong sympathies with the National Socialists." <1765.txt>

Thomas B. Edsall (Washington Post), "Buchanan's Bid Transforms the Reform
Party," 23 Jul 00, "Patrick J. Buchanan's presidential bid has turned the
once-centrist Reform Party into a magnet attracting leaders and activists
of such extreme right organizations as the National Alliance, the Liberty
Lobby, the Council of Conservative Citizens and the League of the South.
Many of these white nationalist groups are promoting Buchanan's candidacy
in their publications and on their Web sites, and one controversial group
set up an independent committee to back his bid for the presidency. Some
leaders of these organizations have held Buchanan fundraisers, collected
petitions for Buchanan and spoken at state Reform Party meetings. The flood
of support from the extreme right, including groups that are intensely
anti-black, anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant, reflects the profound
transformation of the Reform Party." <1766.txt>

Carol J. Williams (Los Angeles Times), "Right-wing radicals on rise in
eastern Germany," 23 Jul 00, "The dreary industrial city of Guben is
Germany's skinhead capital, its center of neo-Nazi violence and nationalist
hatred. Ever since local thugs shoved an Algerian asylum-seeker through a
glass door last year and drank beer while he slowly bled to death in the
stairwell, Guben has become the rallying point for Fascist rabble and the
focus of much soul-searching about disaffected youth. Guben's reputation as
eastern Germany's deepest wellspring of right-wing extremism lately has
come in for fierce ompetition, with vicious attacks in city after city. But
the worst news is that statistics confirm what many in eastern Germany
dismiss as an erroneous impression: Neo-Nazis are on the rise in the
depressed former Communist east." <1767.txt>

Franci Richardson  (Boston Herald), "Face of hate on the North Shore:
Malicious crusade worries neighbors of young zealot," 23 Jul 00, "Valerie
Walsh never knew her father. And her poor, single mother was always busy
working menial jobs. While her high school friends tried out for
cheerleading, she could be found - if anyone was looking - at the library.
And a failed attempt at college led to a short stint at a toy store. Walsh
belonged nowhere. Until now. At 25, she has discovered a remedy for the
hole in her soul. She has found herself in the midst of hate." <1768.txt>

AP, "4 arrested in Dinkytown [near planned genetic conference] , charged
with lurking," 23 Jul 00, "Minneapolis police made four arrests Saturday
morning, but they didn't occur near the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown."
<1769.txt>

Keith Perine (TheStandard.com), "The Trouble With Regulating Hate :
Governments in the U.S. and Europe are looking for ways to limit the reach
of online hate sites. One problem: Free speech," 24 Jul 00, "The Internet
has revolutionized the business of hate. There are anywhere from hundreds
to thousands of Web sites with racist or otherwise hateful content. For
hate groups, the Net is a cheap and easy way to reach vast audiences under
a cloak of anonymity. 'The lunatic fringe might be on the fringes, but they
understand the power of the Internet as well as anyone in society,' says
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks hate
groups. The center estimates there are more than 2,300 'problematic' Web
sites, including more than 500 extremist sites authored by Europeans, but
hosted on American servers to avoid stringent antihate laws in Europe."
<1770.txt>

AI, "Amnesty International seeks ban on secret evidence," 24 Jul 00,
"Amnesty International is calling today on the USA Government to urgently
review the case of Mazen Al-Najjar -- detained in the USA for more than
three years without charge on the basis of secret evidence purportedly
linking him to a terrorist organization. The organization believes that the
failure to provide any detailed reasons for the detention to both Mr Al
Najjar or his attorney meant that he was unable effectively to defend
himself and challenge the basis for his detention." <1771.txt>

Steve Bird (The Times [of London]), "Mob attacks man mistaken as
paedophile," 25 Jul 00, "An innocent man was attacked by a mob who mistook
him for a paedophile named in a national newspaper campaign, it emerged
yesterday. Iain Armstrong, 49, from Bradford, was confronted by vigilantes
who believed that he was somebody who had been named by the News of the
World on Sunday." <1772.txt>

Matt Wells (The Guardian), "US style 'shock jocks' turn off radio listeners
in Britain, say watchdogs," 25 Jul 00, "Radio shock jocks have become an
institution in the United States, but their confrontational style is
proving a turn-off for British listeners. Research conducted by radio
watchdogs has found mounting concern about the treatment meted out to
unsuspecting callers by over-zealous presenters. Listeners are annoyed by
phone-in hosts who appear to encourage controversy simply to boost ratings,
and two-thirds told researchers that they switch off or re-tune if they
hear something offensive." <1773.txt>

Mark Fischer (Red Action), "Welcome Where?," 25 Jul 00, "Over the last few
weeks RA members have been participating in the UK Left Networks discussion
page at www.egroups.com. During this time our position on asylum seekers,
summarised in Asylum Seekers And Anti-Fascism, has come under sustained
criticism from virtually every left group represented in the discussion.
However on 20th July the 'Welcome Where?' article shown below was posted to
the site. The article was written by the national organiser of the
Communist Party of Great Britain and broadly agrees with the Red Action
analysis. This represents a welcome break from the standard position of the
British left which regards working class perspectives on the issue of
asylum seekers as being largely irrelevant." <1774.txt>

Sherri Borden (Halifax Herald), "KKK member to appeal: Ontario woman got
two years for threatening Dartmouth pastor," 25 Jul 00, "A Ku Klux Klan
member is applealing the prison term she received for threatening a black
Dartmouth church pastor. Donna Marie Upson, 22, of Ontario, was handed two
years earlier this month for threatening to kill or harm Rev. Elias utale,
destroy property at Victoria Road United Baptist Church in Dartmouth and
kill black people." <1775.txt>

F.N. D'Alessio (AP), "lack journalist recalls Nazi German childhood," 25
Jul 00, "In 1933, when he was a second-grader in his native Hamburg, Hans
J. Massaquoi wanted to show what a good German he was, so he cajoled his
baby-sitter into sewing a swastika onto his sweater. Massaquoi's mother
spotted the Nazi emblem that evening and promptly snipped it off, but a
teacher already had taken a schoolyard snapshot of Massaquoi wearing the
badge. The other children in the picture are typical fair-haired north
Germans, but young Hans--the only child with a swastika--is dark-skinned
and has kinky hair. The startling photo appears on the dust jacket of
Massaquoi's autobiography, Destined to Witness: Growing up Black in Nazi
Germany, published in the United States by William Morrow & Company Inc.
last November." <1776.txt>

Michiko Kautani (New York Times), "Silicon Valley Views the Economy as a
Rain Forest," 25 Jul 00, "As high tech spreads outward from Silicon Valley
to American society at large and people spend more and more time in
cyberspace, the journalist Paulina Borsook steps back to look at the
digerati and their view of the world. Her conclusions: that high-tech
culture is ravingly antigovernment, antiregulation and "psychologically
brittle," that it manifests "a lack of human connection and a discomfort
with the core of what many of us consider it means to be human," and that
its view of human nature "reduces everything to the contractual, to
economic rational decision making" and "ignores the larger social mesh that
makes living as primates in groups at least somewhat bearable." In short,
that high-tech culture promotes an Ayn Rand-ian view of the world, where
the strong in tooth and claw survive, and the meek and unmarketable
perish." <1777.txt>

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, "Pre-Convention Coverage Whitewashes
Police Violence, Distorts Activists' Agendas," 25 Jul 00, "Early coverage
of the upcoming protests at the Republican and Democratic national
conventions has followed a familiar pattern: Mainstream media are stoking
fears about the potential for violence in Philadelphia and Los Angeles by
rewriting the actual history of police brutality at last year's anti-WTO
demonstrations in Seattle. In its place, media are developing a mythology
of dangerous protesters who, for unspecified reasons, violently overpowered
police." <1778.txt>

National Council of La Raza (press release), "NCLR Blasts House Republican
Leadership Attempts to Push a Bad Bracero Program through Congress," 26 Jul
00, "Washington, DC -- Raul Yzaguirre, President and CEO of the National
Council of La Raza, released the following statement regarding the upcoming
mark-up of anti-American-farmworker, anti-Latino worker legislation in the
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration scheduled for Thursday, July
27, 2000:" <1779.txt>

David Hawley, Phillip Pina, and Rachel E. Stassen (Berger Staff), "Calm
returns to streets as police track down suspicious canisters," 26 Jul 00,
"The discovery of suspicious containers investigators believe were left by
genetics conference protesters have kept police and fire officials on edge
the past two days. Police in Minneapolis found seven on Monday and
responded to two false alarms, while St. Paul police were called to deal
with one container at 10th and Minnesota streets that turned out to be hair
gel. The heightened concern, police say, comes after several containers
holding a solution with a small amount of cyanide were found. A jar of
liquid containing cyanide was opened in a Minneapolis McDonald's restaurant
on Monday, sickening four people." <1780.txt>

AA News, "Bill Would Lift Caps On Loans to Religious Groups: Raises
Accountability Issues; Another S&L Scandal In The Making?," 26 Jul 00,
"Under a new bill introduced on capitol hill, credit unions would be
permitted to ignore their federally mandated lending caps as long as they
were making loans to faith-based groups like churches involved in community
social welfare projects.  The measure, known as the "Faith-Based Lending
Protection Act" (H.R.  4701), amends sections of the Federal Credit Union
Act by providing that any member business loan originating with a credit
union would not count toward the total amount which can be disbursed as
provided by federal statutes." <1781.txt>

Workers World Party 2000, "Yet Another Racist Cop Atrocity In Philly," 19
Jul 00, "Six days after the savage beating of Thomas Jones by a crazed mob
of Philadelphia police was captured on  videotape, another police atrocity
has enraged that city. On July 18, Robert Brown, an African American man
with a history of mental illness, was shot and killed by an Amtrak cop at
the crowded 30th Street Station." <1782.txt>

Bob Egelko (San Francisco Examiner), "Former Contra Wins Review of U.S.
Drug Ties: Fights deportation to Nicaragua, says CIA knew of cocaine
deals," 27 Jul 00, "The former Northern California spokesman for the
Nicaraguan contras, facing deportation for cocaine trafficking in the
1980s, will apparently get the chance to convince a federal judge that he
was assured the drug deals had U.S. government approval. The 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a judge should hear and
evaluate Renato Pena's claim that a federal prosecutor in San Francisco had
told him after his arrest in 1984 that he was at no risk of deportation for
having carried cocaine and cash to Los Angeles about a dozen times."
<1783.txt>

AA News, "Senate Suspends Rule; Passes Religious Land Use Act," 27 Jul 00,
"Early this evening, and despite growing opposition and calls for further
study, the U.S.  Senate suspended rules and passed the controversial
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, S. 2869.  The measure
is considered a scaled-back version of the Religious Liberty Protection Act
(RLPA) which has languished on capitol hill for over two years.  RLPA, in
turn, was the successor to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, RFRA,
which had been overturned by the U.S.  Supreme Court in the 1997 BOERNE v.
FLORES decision. RLUIPA focused primarily on land use and zoning laws.  The
measure requires that government, including local municipalities, employ a
"compelling interest/least restrictive means" test when dealing with faith-
based groups and practices.  American Atheists had joined with other
organizations in opposing the legislation, and charged that RLPA and RLUIPA
violated the separation of church and state." <1784.txt>

Nicholas Watt (The Guardian), "Race row as rightwinger joins Tory home
affairs team -- MP once advocated voluntary repatriation of black and Asian
people," 28 Jul 00, "William Hague yesterday prompted a new row over race
relations when he gave a job on the Tory shadow home affairs team to a
rightwing MP who once advocated the voluntary repatriation of black and
Asian people. In a move which was condemned by Labour and the Liberal
Democrats, the former Monday Club member John Bercow was given a key slot
on the frontbench working alongside Ann Widdecombe. As a rightwinger in the
1980s Mr Bercow argued for the voluntary repatriation of black and Asian
people, the repeal of the Race Relations Act and the abolition of the
commission for racial equality. His promotion overshadowed the appointment
of Steve Norris as a Tory vice-chairman in charge of recruiting more people
from Britain's ethnic minorities." <1785.txt>

Kate Connolly (The Guardian), "Europe's Gypsies lobby for nation status,"
28 Jul 00, "The main body representing Europe's 12m Gypsies wants the Roma
people to be given recognition as a non-territorial nation, and says it
will back this up with its own 'floating' parliament and embassies in
various countries. It is the first time that the International Union Romani
has made such a demand for international recognition since it was founded
in London three decades ago." <1786.txt>

Kate Connolly (The Guardian), "Europe's Gypsies lobby for nation status ,"
28 Jul 00, "The main body representing Europe's 12m Gypsies wants the Roma
people to be given recognition as a non-territorial nation, and says it
will back this up with its own "floating" parliament and embassies in
various countries. It is the first time that the International Union Romani
has made such a demand for international recognition since it was founded
in London three decades ago. The organisation's fifth world congress
concludes in Prague today with the presentation of a wide-reaching plan
aimed at creating better living conditions for Europe's fastest-growing
ethnic minority and increasing the Roma's power to lobby governments which
discriminate against them. In 1993 the International Union Romani was
granted the status of an advisory committee at the UN, greatly increasingly
its lobbying power, but the congress document is its most significant
political statement so far." <1787.txt>

AA News, "Judge Bars Ten Commandments Monument From Grounds of Kentucky
State Capitol," 28 Jul 00, "A U.S.  District Court judge has ruled that the
Kentucky officials may not erect a monument to the Ten Commandments on the
grounds of the state capitol.  Earlier this year, legislators had voted
overwhelmingly to place the display of Old Testament slogans near the
Floral Clock, a popular tourist attraction.  Along with the monument there
was to be a plaque of the legislative resolution reminding visitors 'of the
biblical foundations of the laws of the commonwealth'." <1788.txt>

Rob Schneider (Indianapolis Star), "Seymour beating called hate crime: 2
are charged with attempted murder in attack on Hispanic man, who is listed
in fair condition,"  28 Jul 00, "People here will tell you Rogelio Aguilar
was an outgoing young man, a factory worker who struck up a chance
acquaintance with a couple of men. On Thursday from his hospital bed,
Aguilar told Seymour police he was just glad to be alive after he was
severely beaten and left for dead in a field near here. Two suspects have
been arrested." <1789.txt>

AA News, "Texas Suit Challenges 'Faith-Based' Social Service Scheme: Tax
Money Used For Bibles: Clients Pressed To Join Church, Change Beliefs," 29
Jul 00, "For the first time, a court will examine the constitutionality of
government funded programs which pay sectarian groups to provide faith-
based social services such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation. A suit filed
this past week in Austin, Texas charges that officials violated the state
and federal Constitutions by allotting contracts to an innocuously named
group which was a "coalition of Christian churches and businesses"
according to the Dallas Morning News, and which offered a 12-week course
heavily laced with religious teachings. Known as Jobs Partnership of
Washington County, the program received over $8,000 in state money."
<1790.txt>

                           * * * * *

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
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                               FASCISM:
   We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
      (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)

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