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US logging company yields to activist
pressure
By Jeffrey Allen
Washington, DC, Sept. 4— In a move that environmentalists
hope will lead industry toward greater forest stewardship and heightened
environmental standards, a major U.S. wood and paper products company
committed Wednesday to protecting endangered forests and preventing
illegal logging.
The Idaho-based company, Boise Cascade, agreed to completely eliminate
the purchase of wood products from endangered areas, to end the practice
of harvesting timber from old-growth forests in the United States, and
to “responsibly source” wood from key tree species in endangered
areas around the world.
Boise also pledged to give preference to suppliers who provide wood
products from certified, well-managed forests “whenever feasible,”
and to reinforce efforts to thwart illegal logging, including cutting
in parks, reserves, or other areas where logging is prohibited by law.
The new standards were announced in a statement entitled “Boise
and the Environment,” developed with input from conservation groups
including Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the American Lands Alliance,
and the National Forest Protection Alliance.
“Logging, distributing or selling endangered forests is a barbaric,
outdated practice that has entered its endgame in the American marketplace,”
said Michael Brune, Executive Director of RAN. “Any company that
is still engaged in this practice is on the wrong side of history.”
RAN, a San Francisco-based activist organization dedicated to protecting
the earth’s forests and the rights of their inhabitants, has been
campaigning to save remaining old growth forests since 1992, receiving
support and publicity from such popular music figures as R.E.M., the
Indigo Girls, and the Dave Matthews Band.
The group began a full-scale public campaign targeting Boise in October
2000, when it floated a 12-story dinosaur balloon over the company’s
headquarters with a banner that read, “Boise: I Love Logging Old
Growth.”
According to RAN, nearly 80 percent of the earth’s virgin, old
growth forests have already been destroyed or degraded, and 96 percent
of original forests in the US are gone forever. Tropical rainforests
contain at least half of all life on earth, and global deforestation
is causing a mass extinction of life, unparalleled since the disappearance
of the dinosaurs.
With Wednesday’s announcement, Boise became the first major US
forest products company to adopt a comprehensive environmental statement
for its operations.
In August 1999, Home Depot, the single largest retailer of lumber in
the world, agreed to phase out its sales of old growth wood. Following
the Home Depot announcement, six of the world’s top ten lumber
retailers and three of America’s largest homebuilders followed
suit.
Activists hope that Boise’s commitment, which was called “one
of the most important corporate advances in forest protection”
since the Home Depot announcement four years ago, will convince other
forest products companies to make similar pledges.
On the heels of the Boise statement, RAN sent letters to 12 of the company’s
competitors challenging them to meet or beat Boise’s commitment.
The conservation group accused these companies, which they call the
“Dirty Dozen,” of being the largest importers and distributors
of endangered, old growth forest products, the worst converters of native
forests to monocultural plantations, and the leading manufacturers of
non-recycled, virgin tree paper.
“Polls have shown that Americans care where their two-by-fours
and toilet paper come from. While the Bush administration is selling
out the American people by allowing even more commercial logging on
taxpayer-owned land, Boise has shown what a real initiative for healthy
forests looks like,” said Jennifer Krill, Old Growth Campaign Director
for RAN. “Boise’s commitment demonstrates that industrial
evolution is possible. It should serve as a wake up call to loggers:
evolve or go extinct.”
Source: OneWorld.net
Britain, US backing down on WMDs
By Andy McSmith, Raymond Whitaker and Geoffrey Lean
Sept. 7— Britain and the US have combined to come
up with entirely new explanations of why they went to war in Iraq, as
inspectors on the ground prepare to report that there are no weapons
of mass destruction there.
The “current and serious” threat of Iraq’s WMD was the
reason Tony Blair gave for going to war, but last week the Prime Minister
delivered a justification which did not mention the weapons at all.
On the same day John Bolton, US Under-Secretary of State for arms control,
said that whether Saddam Hussein’s regime actually possessed WMD
“isn’t really the issue.”
The 1,400-strong Iraq Survey Group, sent out in May to begin an intensive
hunt for the elusive weapons, is expected to report this week that it
has found no WMD hardware, nor even any sign of active programs. The
inspectors, headed by David Kay, a close associate of President George
Bush, are likely to say the only evidence it has found is that the Iraqi
government had retained a group of scientists who had the expertise
to restart the weapons program at any time.
Foreshadowing the report, Bolton said the issue was not weapons, or
actual programs, but “the capability that Iraq sought to have ...
WMD programs.” Saddam, he claimed, kept “a coterie” of
scientists he was preserving for the day when he could build nuclear
weapons unhindered by international constraints. “Whether he possessed
them today or four years ago isn’t really the issue,” he said.
“As long as that regime was in power, it was determined to get
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons one way or another. Until that
regime was removed from power, that threat remained -- that was the
purpose of the military action.”
Last week Blair declared at his Downing Street press conference: “Let
me say why I still believe Iraq was the right thing to do and why it
is essential that we see it through. If we succeed in putting Iraq on
its feet as a stable, prosperous and democratic country, then what a
huge advertisement that is for the values of democracy and human rights,
and what a huge defeat it is for these terrorists who want to establish
extremist states.”
He added that if anyone were to ask the average Iraqi whether they would
prefer to be still living under the old regime, “they would look
at you as if you were completely crazy”.
This contrasts starkly with what the Prime Minister said in his speech
to the Commons on Mar. 18, the day when MPs voted to endorse the decision
to go to war. Then Blair asserted, “I have never put the justification
for action as regime change.”
Just as Britain and the US send more troops to Iraq and seek international
help to restore stability, it has emerged that Blair, almost alone among
leaders of major nations, is to stay away from the opening of the UN
General Assembly later this month. The development is bound to increase
the Prime Minister’s isolation following his decision to join the
US in going to war without a UN resolution, and has led to speculation
that he is reluctant to leave the country at a time when his conduct
is under examination in the Hutton inquiry.
Downing Street yesterday refused to comment on the grounds that it does
not disclose the Prime Minister’s movements in advance. But this
has not applied to other international summits, where his attendance
has been announced well in advance.
Source: Independent (UK)
Palestinian PM resigns, Israel takes
aim at Hamas
By Donald Macintyre
Gaza City, Sept. 8—There is a political crisis now
threatening the Palestinian Authority (PA) and with it the “road-map”
supposed to lead to the phased creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
The Israeli policy of assassinating Palestinian militants, or perhaps
as much the potential casualties inflicted on non-militants, has helped
to turn some Palestinian public opinion against Abu Mazen and his moderate,
pro-negotiations stance. It has also helped, in the view of his supporters,
to weaken his position in the power struggle with PA Chairman Yassir
Arafat which reached a climax with the resignation of Abu Mazen from
the post of Prime Minister on Sept. 6.
Abu Mazen left the PA’s legislative council in its closed session
in little doubt that he blamed Israel (and the US for not doing more
to restrain Israel) as well as Arafat and, reportedly, the Arab media
for consistently undermining his position. In his open speech two days
before he also mentioned -- while making clear his anger at the militant
Palestinian factions’ tactics -- the failure to freeze the building
of Israeli settlements, the continued construction of a 370-mile security
fence encircling the West Bank and threatening to surround East Jerusalem,
and the proliferation of checkpoints.
Abu Mazen told the legislative council bluntly on Sept. 6 that the PLO
and its chairman were simply not allowing him the authority appropriate
to a head of government, and that he was not prepared to carry on in
office without it. The compromise put to Abu Mazen of a seven-strong
security council has failed to solve the crisis, because he fears that
it would be packed with Arafat supporters unless it was smaller. As
one legislator put it after that meeting, the Palestinian Prime Minister
had felt himself caught between a “rock and hard place” --
Israel’s hardline stance and the refusal of Arafat to allow him
the power he needed to do his job.
It is not immediately clear how -- if at all -- the crisis will now
be resolved. Despite saying that his resignation was “final,”
Abu Mazen just left the door ajar to a possible return but almost certainly
only if he gets his way on the attempts to wrest power away from Arafat,
who, having seen much of his financial control over the PA diminished,
now appears determined to retain power in other key areas.
Second, Arafat’s own apparent choice as an alternative, the parliamentary
speaker, Abu Ala, looks likely to be unacceptable to either Israel or
the United States precisely because he is, as a Fatah loyalist, Arafat’s
choice.
The real problem, however, is that almost any alternative would encounter
the same problems as Abu Mazen has faced in his dealings with Arafat.
There are some signs that Abu Mazen thought his resignation would shock
Israel and the US -- who certainly did not want it to happen -- so much
that the peace process might be jolted back to life.
Another attempted assassination
The man the Israelis had gone after with an F-16 aircraft and a 250kg
laser-guided bomb was stretched out benignly on a bed Sept. 7, receiving
a steady stream of respectful visitors, in apparent total unconcern
at his dramatically confirmed status as a top target for Ariel Sharon’s
assassination policy.
The Israeli Prime Minister proclaimed that same day that the leading
members of Hamas, which among other attacks has claimed responsibility
for the 22 deaths in the Jerusalem suicide bomb on Aug. 19, were all
“marked for death.”
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the organization’s principal founder and spiritual
leader, was on the ground floor of his own home in Mujama-Islami Street
receiving visitors less than 24 hours after the Israeli bomb injured
12 adults and five children. Most of them, including Sheikh Yassin himself,
were slightly injured, but the bomb wrecked much of the building where
he and others were having lunch with other Hamas members at around 4pm
on Saturday, Sept. 6.
“We saw a lot of dust. There was darkness and the walls were collapsing,”
said Sheikh Yassin, a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic. “We didn’t
know what was happening. God has saved us.”
Sheikh Yassin had appeared to be addressing Ariel Sharon when he said
in front of an angry crowd after emerging from the Shifa hospital: “You
will pay a price for this crime. The Israeli people will pay a price
for this crime.”
His host at the fateful lunch, Marwan Abu Ras, professor of religion
at the Islamic University, now with a broken leg and cuts to his head
and arms, had gone upstairs to visit his family on the second floor
when the missile destroyed the unoccupied half-finished floor above,
collapsing the upper staircase and damaging neighboring buildings.
“Sharon wants to turn every Palestinian child into an explosive
which blows up in the face of Jews,” he said. “I am not a
leader in Hamas,” he insisted. “I am a professor. My home
was blown up. I was almost killed. I would not shed any tears if all
the Jews in Palestine were killed.”
Less in doubt was the impact on neighbors. In the house next door, Awani
Asfur, whose nine-year-old son was cut by broken glass as he drew pictures
by the window when the blast filled her children’s bedroom with
smoke, said: “Before, I was neutral. I was not an angry person.
But now I am very angry. Hamas is defending our rights, our lands.”
Source: Independent Digital (UK)
Abu Mazen: 102 days in power
• Mar. 19: Under pressure from the US and Israel,
Yasser Arafat names his deputy in the Fatah movement, Abu Mazen, as
the first Palestinian Prime Minister. US President George W. Bush hails
the move as a “sign of progress” in long-awaited Palestinian
reforms.
• Mar. 22: Abu Mazen immediately comes into conflict with Arafat,
and is forced to back down over his choice of Interior Minister.
• Apr. 30: Abu Mazen is sworn in, hours after suicide bombers from
Arafat’s Fatah movement kill three people in a pub in Tel Aviv.
In his speech, Abu Mazen says: “The road-map must be implemented
not negotiated.”
• May 1: The US-backed “road-map” to peace is presented
to both sides, with the Palestinians immediately accepting it.
• May 17: Abu Mazen meets the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon,
in the first Israeli-Palestinian summit since summer 2000. Hours later,
a suicide bombing kills seven people on a Jerusalem bus.
• May 25: Israel’s government accepts “road-map”,
with numerous conditions.
• June 4: Abu Mazen and Sharon meet Bush in Aqaba, Jordan, to launch
the peace plan. Abu Mazen calls for an end to the intifada, with Sharon
declaring his support for the creation of a “democratic Palestinian
state at peace with Israel.”
• May 11: A suicide attack on a Jerusalem bus kills 17, right.
Within hours Israel fires missiles at a car in Gaza City, killing at
least six people.
• May 28: Under pressure from demonstrators in Ramallah, Abu Mazen
promises to seek the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
• May 29: The militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups and Arafat’s
Fatah movement declare suspensions of attacks against Israel. Israel
begins pulling troops out of Gaza.
• July 2: Israel evacuates its troops from central Bethlehem, ceding
control to Palestinian security forces.
• July 3: Abu Mazen holds discussions with Hamas and Fatah. Palestinian
police arrest four militants in connection with a rocket attack on Kfar
Darom settlement in the Gaza Strip, triggering further demonstrations
by Palestinians outside Abu Mazen’s house.
• July 25: Israeli soldier fires a machine gun and kills a four-year-old
Palestinian boy and wounds two young girls while all three were in a
family truck at a military checkpoint on the edge of a West Bank village.
The army called the shooting an accident and expressed regret. It was
the third time in four days that Israeli security forces had fatally
shot unarmed Arabs at or near checkpoints.
• Aug. 1: Israel’s Parliament passes law preventing Palestinians
who marry Israelis from living in Israel. The move was denounced by
human rights organizations as racist, undemocratic and discriminatory.
Under the new law Palestinians alone will be excluded from obtaining
citizenship or residency. Anyone else who marries an Israeli will be
entitled to Israeli citizenship. Their children will be affected too:
from the age of 12 they will be denied citizenship or residency and
forced to move out of Israel.
• Aug. 6: Israel releases 339 Palestinians from two detention centers
as a gesture of goodwill. The number is far below that originally promised.
Over 5,000 remain, some 1,500 without charges.
• Aug. 8: Two Hamas militants and an Israeli soldier are killed
in an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in Nablus.
• Aug. 12: Two bus stop bombings in the West Bank and Israeli town
of Rosh Haayin kill three Israelis, increasing pressure on Abu Mazen
to fight militants. Israel suspends release of prisoners.
• Aug. 19: Hamas suicide bombing in a Jerusalem bus kills 22 people.
Israeli army intensifies its military campaign to crush militants.
• Aug. 21: Palestinian militants call off two-month unilateral
cease-fire after Israeli missile strike kills a Hamas political leader.
• Aug. 25: In his continuing power struggle with Abu Mazen, Arafat
appoints Jibril Rajoub, a direct rival, as national security adviser.
• Sept. 4: Abu Mazen calls on parliament to support him or strip
him of his post, saying in-fighting is keeping him from making progress
on the road-map. He accuses Israel of failing to carry out its responsibilities
under the “road-map.”
• Sept. 6: Abu Mazen submits his resignation.
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