Oil and the Permanent War

What a magnificent and informative article -- I am telling all my friends to read this. Thank you.

Mary Carver

The Puzzle of the Enron Coverups

Be as diligent in this investigation as you would be if you were investigating Clinton and I will have faith in the media once more. Clinton was pennyante but this is Pulitzer Prize.

R. Miller

I am IMPRESSED! This piece was the most thorough, most concise, most readable examination of the Enron/Bush/Cheney deregulation scandal that I have ever read, and I have read a LOT on the subject. The only newspaper that came close to telling the hard truths was the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story before Enron went bankrupt.

On the basis of this one piece alone, I am now a devoted reader, and I will subscribe to the Monitor. Please keep these types of hard-hitting, but easy to read stories coming! The next investigation you should tackle is the hysterical push by the Bush people for war on Iraq.

L.C. Hallak

Wonderful article. Can't you make this info more public? How about Donahue or some such media.

"Imox2001"

Israelis Most at Risk From Iraq War

President Bush's current policy brings Israel even closer to danger, greater than ever before, since the Israeli government depends on the U.S. and cannot object. The Israeli government is the only government in the world that unconditionally stands by the Bush administration in attacking Iraq, though her citizens are almost certainly the only ones expected to be hurt by this war.

Any reasonable Israeli must object to a war endangering him and his family, spelling disaster to the future of his country. But we are stuck in the same 35-year-old problem: our government is run by messianic-nationalists and a war-craving military elite, who get support and encouragement from the extremist conservatives of the Bush administration. We are captives of the U.S., unable to say No. We must stand against this war, as independent Israeli citizens.

We have to say: No Thank You, Mr. President!

Lev Grinberg (Israel)

Dr. Lev Grinberg is a political sociologist, and Director of the Humphrey Institute for Social Research at Ben Gurion University. His editorial, Israel's State Terrorism appeared in the MONITOR last April.

-- Editor

Cowed Politicians Afraid to Criticize Israel

Palestinians are upset because 400,000 Israelis are living illegally on their property. Palestinians want the Israelis to leave. Palestinians want Israel to respect UN-mandated borders and Geneva Conventions.

By contrast, Israel's Ariel Sharon says he intends to keep 58 percent of the West Bank and 20 percent of Gaza, which Israel currently occupies. Sharon continues to give Jews financial incentives to move onto Palestinian property.

Palestinian organizations that sponsor suicide bombers say that they are fighting for freedom from this Israeli occupation. They say that they will stop fighting if Israelis get off their land.

Meanwhile, not a single congressional candidate criticizes Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land or speaks up for justice for Palestinians. The best way for politicians to support Israel is to urge it to do the right thing, not to condone its oppression of Palestinians with their silence.

Bob Krasnansky

Bush Sets a Poor Example

If Mr. Bush makes the case to our nation that it is right and necessary to "hit first,"what do we tell the children? What do I tell my granddaughter, Briann, when she says she punched Melissa during recess, because yesterday Melissa punched Bill? Do I say it was right to strike first? That there is no consequence for her actions? What does the "playground bully" have to lose if struck first? Nothing. If Saddam Hussein really has weapons of mass destruction, what better justification could he find to use them against the aggressor, or the aggressor's ally, Israel? If Hussein has no such weapons, then he is falsely accused. Either way, we lose.

Cynthia Strom

Israel Should Kill Arafat

The United States' choice to go along with the UN's demand that Israel end its siege of Yasir Arafat's compound is a betrayal of Israel and of our own "war on terrorism."

Instead of calling on Israel to back down and let Arafat go, the United States should be calling on Israel to eliminate him.

Arafat is as much a terrorist as bin Laden is, and deserves the same fate. It is extremely hypocritical of President Bush to hunt down terrorists half a world away and at the same time prevent Israel from capturing and prosecuting terrorists like Arafat in its own backyard.

Israel has as much right to self-defense as America does. It is time for the United States to recognize this right and give Israel the green light to fully exercise it.

Dr. Yaron Brook Executive Director, Ayn Rand Institute

The Saudi Arabia Card Game

The United States is so hooked on oil that no matter how involved the Saudis are in terrorism against the U.S. -- directly or indirectly -- the U.S. is eunuchized. The list of evidence against Saudi Arabia is so overwhelming that the U.S. government has had to campaign to the free world that the Saudis are great allies on the war against terrorism. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Saudi royals paid bin Laden and his terror organization not to attack Saudi Arabia ($475 million). This money enabled al-Qaeda to fund training camps in Afghanistan later attended by the September 11 hijackers. To reinforce the deal, the Saudis agreed to provide oil and financial assistance to both the Taliban and Pakistan plus release and extradite any and all al-Qaeda members held by their government.

How many smoking guns or how much evidence is needed to realize that the war on terrorism is nothing more than posturing and a friendly game of oil supply and demand between the U.S and Saudi Arabia. Both countries should put their respective cards on the table and tell the rest of the world the truth before thousands more innocent people get murdered in this deadly game.

Doug Snedden (Ottawa)

Juror Talks about the Bari vs. FBI Trial

Great article. Thanks for doing it. I was in tears reading it. Ms. Nunn and Judi are truly great Americans. We need more like them in this country.

Grant Sawyer

The Chinese Spy Scandal That Wasn't

I'd forgotten all about Wen Ho Lee until I read your article for a class assignment. I remember when it happened. I'm a Californian at heart and a minority to boot. When this happened there were a lot of stupid comments in reference to Lee's case and of course about Chinese people. Generalizing became increasingly apparent by some students and teachers on campus. Unpleasant things were said -- but not blatantly in people's faces. I didn't follow the events because my gut feeling was: as usual the government and media were sprouting pure fallacy. Now that your article has perked my interest again. It's a shame that only one person had enough courage to apologize, it makes me ill and ashamed to call myself an American.

"Love2disagree"

Should Jeb Lose His Public Housing?

Barbara Hill's grandson was caught smoking marijuana in the parking lot of her Oakland public housing complex.

Noelle Bush was arrested a few blocks from the Florida governor's mansion occupied by her father Jeb. Posing as a doctor, Noelle had called in a phony prescription for the narcotic Xanax.

The Supreme Court just ruled it's legal for Barbara Hill to be evicted from her home of 30 years because of her teenage grandson's first-time offense. Hill and three other elderly public housing residents had challenged the federal "one strike and you're out" policy. The policy promotes evicting families who live in public housing or receive rental subsidies if any household member or guest engages in criminal activity, alcohol abuse, or illegal drug-related activity on or off the premises.

There is no law saying politicians' families should be evicted from public executive housing if their family members or guests are arrested. What if the Bush family lived in low-income public housing instead of the governor's mansion? Noelle's brother George P. Bush was arrested for burglary and criminal mischief when he was 18. John Ellis Jr. was arrested at the Tallahassee Mall for sexual misconduct. According to Florida motor vehicle records reported in the press, Noelle Bush has been involved in three car accidents, received seven speeding tickets, and been cited for five other traffic violations since 1995. Noelle has been driving under the influence of substances, and a limo was sent to retrieve her when she crashed into other family's cars. She faced up to five years in prison for her felony arrest for Xanax. Noelle Bush has been treated for drug addiction in the past and was recently hospitalized at Tallahassee Memorial's psychiatric center. Noelle was arrested in Arizona for shoplifting $350 worth of clothing.

Unfortunately, lawmakers don't do unto others what they would have others do to them. The powerful live by different rules.

Claude Fourth

Santa's Little Sweatshop (1996)

Your article really touched me. I am surprised that a company like Nike operates and makes the huge profit it is making by using child labor. I am a mother and just cannot imagine my son being exploited.

Why is your government and your people tolerating this? The American government and its people find fault with what is happening everywhere else in the world, but your do nothing worthy when it comes to your own mistakes. I hope to God you do something.

Anuradha Ramachandran (India)

How the Press Helped Bush Gain the Presidency

In a Sept. 24 article on Vice President Al Gore's recent speech ("Gore Assails Bush's Stance on Iraq, Questions Motive for War"), the LA Times quoted Mr. Gore as saying the following:

"Vice President [Dick] Cheney, meanwhile, has indignantly described suggestions of [political motivation] as reprehensible. And then the following week [he] took his discussion of the war to the Rush Limbaugh show."

The newspaper then added: "(Cheney's appearance, scheduled to observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, was in fact canceled.)"

The writers (Mark Z. Barabak with help from James Gerstenzang) are either completely ignorant of the facts -- or worse, they deliberately intend for us to believe that Mr. Cheney never appeared on the Rush Limbaugh show, when in fact, exactly as Al Gore said, Mr. Cheney appeared the following week.

Despite the obvious and ongoing slant of the entire article against Mr. Gore (the LA Times is but one of many irresponsible players in this disgusting era for America), it is also by far a prime example of the lazy and incompetent journalism being practiced nationwide.

Joseph Vecchio

The Making of a Pigeon Activist

If you love pigeons so much why do YOU get some and stock your neighborhood with them. Oh, that's right -- it's because your neighbors would probaly hurt you for being so damn dumb!

"Welldriller"