The New American articles from January 2005

The New American archives from January 2005

The case against steel tariffs.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 10, 2005... In a recent article entitled "Foreign Nations Target U.S. Steel" (November 29, 2004 issue), Mr. William Jasper presents many good facts, but none of these justify the reenactment of steel tariffs! Steel tariffs would help steel producers in...

Adaptability as a court-martial offense?(Insider Report)
January 10, 2005... "(Y]ou go to war with the Army you have... not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." So spoke Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a December 8 "town meeting" with Iraq-bound troops in Kuwait. Rumsfeld's delphic...

Christians may form militias in Iraq.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... In Mosul, one of the key Iraqi cities "liberated" by the U.S.-led invasion, leaders of the dwindling Christian population are considering the creation of militia units to protect themselves against attacks by radical Muslim groups. "As...

Decimating our counter-intelligence capacity.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "New CIA Director Porter J. Goss's terrible swift sword has a keen edge, but the reforms being introduced by Goss and his associates do not seem designed to improve the intelligence product," reports former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, a private...

FBI/KGB "counter-terrorism" pact.(Insider Report)(Federal Counterintelligence Service and United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation to cooperate each other to control terrorism)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... On Independence Day 1994, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh visited Moscow to sign a cooperation accord with Russian Interior Minister Viktor Yerin and Sergei Stepashin, chief of Russia's Federal Counterintelligence Service (a successor...

U.S. to become net food importer.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "For nearly two years, U.S. farmers and ranchers watched as the second shoe grew bigger and bigger," wrote columnist Alan Guebert in the December 7 Peoria Journal-Star. "On November 22, it officially dropped. According to U.S. Department of...

UN promoting global ADA.(Insider Report)(Americans with Disabilities Act)
January 10, 2005... In 1990, the first President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a measure that placed literally every millimeter of every business under federal regulatory scrutiny. Eleven years later, President Bush the younger...

A familiar story in forgotten Afghanistan.(Insider Report)
January 10, 2005... "Excellent news from Afghanistan," wrote Toronto Sun foreign affairs analyst Eric Margolis in a December 12 column. "A new president, chosen in the country's first democratic election, has just been sworn in. He pledges to extend democracy...

Russia/China/India axis.(Insider Report)
January 10, 2005... According to the December 9 Asia Times, the Russian government of "ex"-KGB officer Vladimir Putin is calling "for a Moscow-New Delhi-Beijing axis, an alliance of three nuclear-armed countries of some 2.5 billion people that theoretically would...

Kentucky parents are not tolerating "tolerance training".(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Voting with your feet is a powerful way of making a statement. And the statement parents in the Ashland-Boyd County school district of Kentucky are making is that they don't want their children exposed to pro-homosexual "tolerance training."...

Should Kofi Annan resign?(snapshots)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "It's time for Kofi Annan to step down. If this widespread corruption had occurred in any legitimate organization around the world, its CEO would have been ousted long ago in disgrace. Why is the UN different?" As chairman of the Senate...

Tally ho! The fox hunt will continue.(snapshots)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "If one is going to break the law, one doesn't announce it. So let's just say you will see me out here for the hunt season for a very long time into the future." British aristocrat Ted Barclay responding to a new law that will soon ban...

NBC news hands over anchor job to Williams.(snapshots)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "[Brian Williams] seems intent on doing the job in a graceful, understated manner--despite his network's taste for histrionics and hullabaloo." New York Times reporter Alessandra Stanley seems not to be a fan of the way NBC News operates.

Rumsfeld gets tough question--and his response generates heat.(snapshots)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "[W]hy do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles...?" Army Specialist Thomas Wilson of the Tennessee Army National Guard questioned the secretary...

Test results show U.S. schools still lagging.(snapshots)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "The United States really is an underachiever given our economy, our educational level, and the resources that we put into education." Co-director Ina V.S. Mullis of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study who presented...

Hurricanes shrink tomato crop.(snapshots)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... "Due to the dramatic increase in the price of tomatoes (remember Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne), there will be a $.35 surcharge on all sandwiches with tomatoes. We apologize but the price of tomatoes has literally quadrupled."...

The WTO trap: the World Trade Organization, a Geneva-based body composed of foreign bureaucrats, will control our nation's economic destiny unless we get out--now!.(Trade Policy)(Cover Story)
January 10, 2005... A delegation of U.S. cotton farmers had their "day in court" on December 13, seeking relief from a damaging regulatory ruling. The "court" to which they made their appeal was a dispute resolution panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a...

Intelligence reform charade: Republican insiders teamed up with the Bush White House and liberal-left Democrats to pass dangerous 9/11 Commission recommendations.(On The Home Front)(George W. Bush)
January 10, 2005... "Maine Republican Susan Collins scored a victory for centrists and vanquished some powerful House conservatives in the process when Congress cleared the intelligence overhaul bill last week." That's how Congressional Quarterly described Senator...

What's in the intelligence act? Contrary to much of the reporting in the major media, few aspects of the Intelligence Reform Act are actually designed to safeguard Americans.(On The Home Front)
January 10, 2005... Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Benjamin Franklin, 1755 "Our vast intelligence enterprise will become more unified, coordinated and effective," said...

Arnold one year later: though Arnold Schwarzenegger gained public office through a popular appeal labeling him as frugal and moderate, his first year in office shows that he is neither.(California)
January 10, 2005... In the fall of 2003, Californians cast an historic vote. In a special recall election, they removed their governor, Gray Davis, who now holds the distinction of being only the second governor in American history to be recalled from office. In...

Free enterprise bridges gap.(The Goodness Of America)
January 10, 2005... Richard Ruelle was a man with a dream. During the late 1950s, while bow hunting and exploring the woods of Michigan, he had discovered an unusual geologic feature known as a sinkhole. Despite its less-than-glamorous name, a sinkhole is a...

Ivan was terrible; neighbors were wonderful!(The Goodness Of America)
January 10, 2005... The city of Pensacola, Florida, sat right in the path of last September's Hurricane Ivan and suffered severe damage. But the aftermath of the storm was replete with so many stories of heroism and self-sacrifice that the Pensacola News Journal...

Rolling against crime.(The Goodness Of America)
January 10, 2005... Robert O'Neal is in some ways a stereotypical "tough guy" New Jerseyite. He is the son of a retired Trenton police detective and a member of Local 68 of the Trenton Ironworkers Union. If he had been a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93,...

For heaven's sake, don't mention God! In a case of "turnabout is fair play," Stephen Williams, a history teacher, is suing a school district because the school district won't let him mention God in his lessons.(Culture War)
January 10, 2005... In the latest attempt to eradicate all public mention of Christianity, the principal of Stevens Creek School (of the Cupertino Union School District in California) has prohibited a teacher, Stephen Williams, from distributing historical...

Scouts: "be prepared" for attacks: the ACLU and other "liberals" are filing numerous lawsuits against the Boy Scouts in an attempt to force the Scouts to retreat from a moral stand.(Culture War)(American Civil Liberties Union)
January 10, 2005... In the narrow but decisive 2000 victory in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Scouts cannot be forced to accept homosexuals as members and leaders. One would have thought the Scouts could put their legal battles...

The rise of Caesarism: the weakened Roman Republic was crushed by Julius Caesar, a charismatic military leader who exploited his popularity with a Roman people who desired security above all else.(History--Rome)
January 10, 2005... This is the seventh installment in a series of articles on the rise and fall of the Roman Republic. The Cilician pirates in the early first century B.C. were the scourge of the eastern Mediterranean. They commanded huge fleets and immense...

Lies about red spies.(Correction Notice)
January 10, 2005... ITEM: A Washington Post feature column for December 3 promoted several movies that ostensibly "tackle McCarthyism," including the documentary "Heir to an Execution" by Ivy Meeropol--described as "the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel...

Conservative masquerade.(Correction Notice)
January 10, 2005... ITEM: Fox television program host Fred Barnes wrote in the Wall Street Journal for November 23 that President Bush "won't kowtow to the D.C. Establishment." The president, continued Mr. Barnes, "wants to impose a breathtakingly conservative...

Using a knife in a gunfight.(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... The Clarion-Ledger of November 3 reported that Christian Corley, a convenience store clerk at a BP service station, used a gun to defend himself from a would-be robber. At about 9 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2, a man, later identified as...

No sunrise serenade.(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Troy Lee Jennings of Center Hill, Florida, rammed the mobile home of his former girlfriend and got shot for his efforts, reported the Daily Commercial of September 23. Apparently, Jennings became angry at his ex-girlfriend, Judith Carr, on...

Stopping a killer.(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... During the early morning of Saturday, November 27, a Decatur, Georgia, security guard was forced to take action against a knife-wielding thug and shoot him, according to a November 29 AP wire service release. The incident began at about...

TV bad for one's health?(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... An October 20 story in the Daily Local News reported that at about 11 p.m. on the night of Monday, October 18, Nakie Thomas of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, was watching television when two men broke into her home. Thomas responded quickly,...

Home invasion stopped.(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... According to a news story covered by WSOC-TV Channel 9 of Charlotte, North Carolina, posted November 24, an intruder broke into an occupied apartment, forcing the homeowner to defend himself. Jamie Harris, the resident, was sleeping on...

The war party's playbook.(The Last Word)
January 10, 2005... During his presidential campaign, the Republican candidate was perceived as a man of modest ambitions, devoted to reining in government growth at home and pursuing a more "humble" foreign policy. Once in the White House, however, this seemingly...

Freedom and liberty.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 24, 2005... Dennis Behreandt's excellent article "Man's Upward Reach" (THE NEW AMERICAN, December 27, 2004 issue) touches on a point needing further clarification: the distinction between freedom and liberty. Freedom means the absence of necessity,...

United Nations urges more abortion.(Insider Report)
January 24, 2005... The Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Committee has urged Poland to "liberalize its legislation and practice on abortion" in its periodic review of compliance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)....

Women headed for combat.(Insider Report)(sending american women into combat)
January 24, 2005... Conservative "values voters" who grudgingly cast their ballots for George W. Bush most likely provided the margin of victory over John Kerry last November. Yet in terms of actual performance, President Bush has actually flanked his Democratic...

Another adult stem-cell success story.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Yet again, claims made by proponents of embryonic stem-cell research have been shown to be inaccurate, according to a December 17 AP news story. (See "Pro-life Stem-cell Therapy" in our December 27, 2004 issue.) During the recent presidential...

"Secret" meeting examines need to boost support for UN.(Insider Report)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... A group of prominent UN backers met quietly last December 5 at the Manhattan home of former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke. Their purpose, according to one participant, was "to save Kofi and rescue the UN." Details about the...

The Bush administration's "Enabling Act".(Insider Report)
January 24, 2005... In early December, without a word of public notice, the Justice Department placed on its website a lengthy September 25, 2001 memorandum entitled "The President's Constitutional Authority to Conduct Military Operations Against Terrorists and...

Russia's new energy monolith.(Insider Report)
January 24, 2005... Shortly before Christmas, the Russian government held a tax auction to sell off shares in the mammoth Yukos oil giant. Moscow claimed that the corporation owed $28 billion in unpaid taxes. The company's former owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has...

"Interdiction," or aggression?(Insider Report)
January 24, 2005... In his 2002 book Bush at War--which was compiled with ample help from the White House, Pentagon, and CIA--Bob Woodward describes a ceremony conducted by U.S. Special Forces and intelligence personnel near Gardez, Afghanistan, on February 5,...

Snapshots.
January 24, 2005... He's Feeling the Heat "I know that certain quarters have been quite persistent in attacking the U.N. and me...." UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reluctantly acknowledged increasing loss of confidence in both the world body and himself...

Red Dragon's southern strategy: capitalizing on growing anti-U.S. sentiment and its huge foreign exchange surplus, Beijing is making large inroads economically and diplomatically in Latin America.(Latin America)
January 24, 2005... While public attention has been focused on Iraq, Communist China has made astonishing inroads in Latin America. In early November, Chinese President Hu Jintao conducted a two-week tour of the region, sewing up several major trade agreements and...

China's presence in Latin America.
January 24, 2005... It was a sight tragically typical of recent Haitian history. Fourteen people were wounded and a teenager was killed last December 15 in Cite Soleil, one of the largest slums in downtown Port-au-Prince, after armed thugs calling themselves...

Communism's resurgence: Communism is not dead in Latin America. In fact, the dominoes are falling south of the border, but no one seems to be noticing.(Latin America)
January 24, 2005... "It's a new day. Communism is dead. It's even dead in Cuba." So declared Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in May 2002. "I hate to say it," she continued, "it's dead." The senator's proclamation was a...

The hemispheric security puzzle: invoking the fear of terrorism, the Power Elite is moving to build a "security perimeter" encompassing the entire Western Hemisphere.(Latin America)
January 24, 2005... Children have always been fascinated by puzzles, especially intricate picture puzzles containing thousands of pieces that must be assembled with care and patience. More than a few eager children, frustrated by the difficulty of putting such...

Latin America moves left: as Communist groups exert increased influence in Latin America, threats to the U.S. are coalescing and becoming increasingly evident.(Latin America)
January 24, 2005... Thanks in large measure to policies of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank, virtually all of our hemispheric neighbors are bankrupt and hopelessly mired in debt. Unfortunately, the IMF-WB-IDB...

OKC bombing revisited: to support the case presented by the History Channel of a government coverup in the Oklahoma City bombing, additional evidence is presented here.(Terrorism)(Oklahoma City Bombing)
January 24, 2005... On Sunday, last December 12, the History Channel presented the documentary Conspiracy ? Oklahoma City Bombing, which, as the name suggests, was meant to raise doubts as to whether the investigation of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal...

A new life in America.(The Goodness Of America)(Genia: the adopted child)
January 24, 2005... Genia was a little eight-year-old girl in an orphanage in Siberia. Who can think of a more bleak existence? Imagine Genia's delight in learning that an American family had invited her to spend a month with them and, if they took a liking to...

Judge honors origin of law.(The Goodness Of America)
January 24, 2005... Readers of THE NEW AMERICAN are very familiar with the Ten Commandments controversy surrounding then-Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Moore first attracted national attention when, as an Alabama state circuit judge, he hung a...

Virtue is its own reward.(The Goodness Of America)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... The actions of a public-spirited citizen in Kansas City spread light among the gloom in the aftermath of a senseless and violent crime. In the summer of 2002, Ali Kemp, a 19-year-old co-ed at Kansas State University, was strangled to death by...

From republic to empire: the assassins of Julius Caesar hoped to restore the Roman Republic, but they instead set in motion events that encouraged the rise and triumph of despots worse than Caesar.(History--Rome)
January 24, 2005... This is the eighth installment in a series of articles on the rise and fall of the Roman Republic. It is said that Marcus Brutus, one of Julius Caesar's assassins and, along with Cassius, the leader of Rome's last republican army, had an...

Scrappy old soldier.(Exercising The Right)
January 24, 2005... According to the Macomb Journal of December 5, Leonard Gamage, an 87-year-old ex-soldier from Macomb, Georgia, spent 45 minutes fighting off an intruder on the night of Friday, December 3. The incident began at about 9 p.m. when a young man...

Rash of burglaries.(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... A gas station clerk of Medford, Massachusetts, identified only as "Wally," fired at two men who were robbing him, according to the December 8 Boston Herald. Wally, who had been robbed previously, was working in the convenience store at...

Parking lot drama.(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... A December 14 news story by WTKR-TV of Hampton, Virginia, reported that a man, unidentified for reasons of security, fought back when he was confronted by a robber outside a nightclub. After investigating the scene of the shooting, taking...

Free no longer.(Exercising The Right)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... A robbery suspect was found hiding under a porch after he was thwarted in a robbery attempt, reported the December 13 News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware. Police began searching for the robbery suspect, Michael Brown, after he attempted...

Travelogue celebrates mass murderer.(Correction, Please!)(Correction Notice)
January 24, 2005... ITEM: The New York Times, promoting a new film about "Che" Guevara and his place in history, reported on December 19: "The image of Ernesto Guevara, the Argentine revolutionary who became known as Che and helped Fidel Castro seize control of...

Doing nothing about Social Security.(Correction, Please!)(Correction Notice)
January 24, 2005... ITEM: The Des Moines Register maintains that Social Security should be left as it is. On December 21, the Register's editors commented: "The president who believed Americans would be welcomed with open arms in Baghdad now tells us that every...

A slippery way to protect the UN.(The Last Word)(growing corruption charges againg United nations)
January 24, 2005... The stream of reports about UN corruption has approached flood stage. For example, in mid-November Secretary-General Kofi Annan apologized to the world body after Congo-based UN peacekeepers had been found sexually abusing women and children....