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Date Posted: 10:49:52 11/24/07 Sat
Author: part 2
Subject: Re: November 24, 2007
In reply to: part 1 's message, "November 24, 2007" on 10:45:39 11/24/07 Sat

UNITED STATES

NATIONAL SCHOOL ASSOCIATION CRITICIZED FOR SUPPORTING GATES AND
MURDOCH'S SOCIAL NETWORKING

Nov. 23, 2007 (LPAC)--A report issued by the National School
Boards Association (NSBA) came under heavy attack last week by a
group supporting teachers and parents for its promotion of
MySpace and Facebook social networking in the schools. The NSBA
represents the nation's 95,000 local school boards. The report
based on a study funded by Microsoft and News Corp, is called
"Creating and Connecting".
On Nov. 17, the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood,
wrote a letter to the NSBA which said: "We are writing to urge
the National School Boards Association to disavow its report ...
which suggests, among other things, that schools consider easing
their restrictions on the in-school use of social networking
sites.... If the report was merely the product of Microsoft,
Verizon, News Corp and a PR firm, it would be easy to dismiss its
self-serving findings. But with NBSA imprimatur, the
recommendation that schools 'reexamine social networking
policies' that ban the use of MySpace is likely to be taken
seriously."
The report also claims that social networking especially
helps students who are "nonconformists" writing: "Nonconformists
-- students who step outside the online safety and behavior rules
-- are on the cutting edge of social networking, with online
behaviors and skills that indicate leadership among their peers.
About one in five (22%) of all students surveyed are
nonconformists."
Not said however, is that the recent school shooters in
Finland and other shooters would fall into the category of
"nonconformists." [ddp]

WESTERN EUROPE

RESERVED RUSSIAN RESPONSE TO US MESSAGE ON MISSILE DEFENSE

Nov. 23, 2007 (EIRNS)--Russia is disappointed with a U.S. reply
to its offer that Washington use its radar systems as an
alternative to missile defense plans for Central Europe, a
Russian Foreign Ministry source said on Friday. The Ministry
added that it was studying the reply, which was delivered
yesterday, and declined to comment further.
A Foreign Ministry source quoted by RIA Novosti this
afternoon said that the reply was not what Moscow had expected,
and contradicted earlier U.S. pledges. "Initial studies show that
our hopes have not been justified. This is not what Russia was
promised at talks in Moscow [in October] in the '2+2' format
[between the foreign and defense ministers]," the source said.
(rap)

MURDOCH TRIES TO MAKE ANOTHER KILLING WITH "LINKEDIN"; WHAT THEY
KNOW CAN HURT YOU

Nov. 23, 2007 (LPAC)--My Space undertaker Rupert Murdoch is
planning to buy LinkedIn, another leading Internet forum network,
which specializes in the corporate sector, reports the British
press today. The January 2008 deal is still uncomfirmed says the
Telegraph.
But, highly important is the growing number of major
investigations throughout Europe of the danger of such networking
sites after the Perugia, Italy, and Jokela High School massacre
in Finland. In October, the European Network and Information
Security Agency (ENISA), of the European Union, issued a position
paper on Internet social networking security, called Social
Networking -- How to Avoid a Digital Hangover, which was
presented at a conference, called Exchallenges, at The Hague,
reported Europa.website on Nov. 7. ENISA has identified a series
of risks involved in adding personal details to a social
networking website, including face recognition, personal
information being obtained by blackmailers or spammers, so-called
spear phishing (i.e., fraudulent emails sent to companies seeking
their confidential data), reputation damage through identity
theft, cyber stalking, and bullying.
On Nov. 22, ENISA issued a warning against MySpace,
Facebook, and the like, as forums that can be easily misused for
purposes detrimental to users whose data are being spied upon.
ENISA compares MySpace and the like to digital cocktail parties
attended by many uninvited guests whose interest it is to compile
dossiers on certain people. Users often are not aware how many
people have access to their profiles. The aura of intimacy among
digital friends often leads to inappropriate and damaging
revelations. (rap,mjs)

SOUTHWEST ASIA

SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS HE WILL ATTEND ANNAPOLIS SUMMIT

Nov. 23, 2007 (EIRNS)--Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al
Faisal said today that he will attend next week's US-sponsored
Middle East peace conference at Annapolis, according to a report
in Ynet. He said the gathering must make serious progress.
Al-Faisal told a press conference that an Arab League
meeting had just decided that Arab countries will attend
Annapolis at the level of foreign minister. "I'm not hiding any
secret about the Saudi position. We were reluctant until today.
And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not
have decided to go," al-Faisal said. "But the kingdom would never
stand against an Arab consensus; as long as the Arab position has
agreed on attending, the kingdom will walk along with its
brothers in one line." But, he cautioned, "We are not prepared to
take part in a theatrical show, in handshakes and meetings that
don't express political positions. We are going with seriousness
and we work on the same seriousness and credibility."
Syria, which also attended the Arab League meeting, has not
yet announced whether it will join. It has already announced that
it will only go if the Syria-Israel track and the return of the
Golan Heights is discussed. [dea]

SYRIAN MINISTERS ON ANNAPOLIS

Nov. 23, 2007--Arab ministers meeting in Cairo, including
ministers from Syria and Saudi Arabia, "have accepted the
invitation to attend the Annapolis conference on a ministerial
level," according to a statement after the talks. But Palestinian
President Mahmud Abbas said Israel and the Palistinians had
failed to agree on a joint document to be presented at Tuesday's
meeting in Annapolis. The Arab ministers had sent an urgent
letter to the US asking to "explicitly" include the issue of the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on the agenda. Differences on the
joint document remain because the Palestinians want a timeline on
efforts to resolve the thorniest issues, such as the status of
east Jerusalem, the boundaries of a future Palestinian state, and
the status of Palestinian refugees; Israel wants a less detailed
document, stating a list of principles on which to base
negotiations.
Nonetheless, Palestinian President Abbas urged the Arab
ministers to seize the "historic opportunity" for peace at
Annapolis. Israel welcomed the Arab decision, and Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said "any step by the Arab world to
support the process of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation is a
postive step. We hope to see an Arab contribution to this
process, and it is clear that peace will require significant
steps from Israel as well as from the Arab world."
Hamas had asked the Arab conference not to go to Annapolis,
and instead they are organizing a "counter-conference" in Gaza on
Monday and staging demonstrations on Tuesday during the Annapolis
talks. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert stated that a failure of
efforts to find a peace deal would have "deadly" results for the
Jewish state. (drr)

Saudis Cover Up Fighters In Iraq With Planted Story

Nov. 23, 2007 (EIRNS)--One day after the news was broadcast
internationally, that 41% of foreign fighters in Iraq were
Saudis, the Saudi-owned {Arab News} ran a story, about how Saudis
have been ``brainwashed'' into becoming suicide bombers. Using
one such fighter Ahmad Abdullah al-Shaie, from Buraidah, the
story tries to exonerate the Saudi religious and government
authorities. Al-Shaie says he went to Iraq in 2005 to fight the
U.S., and expected training by the Iraqis. Instead they told him
to drive a truck, loaded with explosives, to a site in Baghdad.
It exploded, near the Jordanian Embassy, killing 12, but he
survived. After hospitalization he was sent to Abu Ghraib, then
released by the U.S. to the Saudis.
He said he had been shown a ``fatwa'' saying Saudis were
allowed to join the jihad, even without approval of their parents
or the King. He said most Saudis went because they believed in
the fatwa. ``However, we all know that the Kingdom's High Scholar
Committee has not approved these decrees.... I advise young
Saudis not to go to Iraq.'' (mlm)

Larijani Poses National ``Concord'' On Nuclear Policy In Iran

Nov. 23, 2007 (EIRNS)--Ali Larijani, former head of Iran's
Supreme National Security Council, said all political groups in
Iran agree on the nuclear program, but differ as to tactics. He
said the program had been a government priority since the 1979
revolution. As for reported internal conflicts on the issue,
especially during the election campaigns, he said, according to
the news service, IRNA, that he thinks the idea of national
concord should be used to handle the issue. Reference to
election campaigns is interesting in light of remarks by Iranian
sources, that Larijani's recent resignation from that post may
have to do with his own presidential ambitions.
At the same time, President Ahmadinejad has been criticized
for having attacked as ``traitors'' those who oppose his stance
on the nuclear dossier. Joumhouri Islami, a conservative paper,
criticized propaganda against individuals, probably referring to
Ahmadinejad's attacks against Hossein Mousavian, a former
negotiator, as a spy. Hassan Rowhani, also a former negotiator,
said, according to AFP, ``One cannot eliminate one's rivals. One
cannot characterize one's rivals as enemies. One cannot lead the
country with just three or ten people.'' Rowhani, however, also
said, according to Iranian press, that, had the West acted more
rationally, the nuclear conflict could have been settled by now.
Former Presidents Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohamed
Seyyed Khatami have also been criticizing the government. (mlm)

THE TALIBAN CONTROLS HALF OF AFGHANISTAN

Nov. 23, 2007 (LPAC)--A report by the Brussels-based think tank
Senlis Council claims that the Taliban has a permanent presence
in most of Afghanistan, and the country is in serious danger of
falling into the group's hands. "It is a sad indictment of the
current state of Afghanistan that the question now appears to be
not if the Taliban will return to Kabul, but when this will
happen and in what form," claims the 110-page report based in its
"exclusive" research.
According to the {Telegraph} on-line version, the Senlis
Council report coincides with a study from Oxfam for the House of
Commons international developement committee, which warns that
the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating, and
Afghans face "severe hardship comparable with sub-Saharan Africa"
and that aid is not getting to the most needy.
In that situation, the Taliban controls "vast swathes of
unchallenged territory," and are gaining "more and more political
legitimacy in the minds of the Afghan people," states the Senlis
Council report. It proposes that NATO forces in the country
should be doubled to 80,000 front-line soldiers who should be
allowed to pursue militants into Pakistan. It calculates that
NATO countries should contribute 2.3 soldiers per 500 million
pounds of their GDP to provide 71,000 soldiers with 9,000
aditional troops coming from Muslim nations.
The Brussels-based Senlis Council earlier this month
advocated the growth of opium poppies in the country for use as
morphine abroad, in order to weaken the Taliban by offering an
option to farmers and starving the organization of funds. (drr)

UN OFFICIAL SAYS ISRAEL'S SIEGE OF GAZA BREEDS EXTREMISM AND
HUMAN SUFFERING

Nov. 23, 2007 (EIRNS)--John Ging, director of operations for the
refugee agency UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, said that "crushing
sanctions" imposed since the Israeli cabinet declared the Strip a
"hostile entity" in September, had contributed to "truly
appalling living conditions." In a report in today's Independent
of London, Ging made an unprecedented appeal to British
Parliament's Britain-Palestine Group to use their influence to
try to alleviate the impact of "indiscriminate" and "illegal"
Israeli sanctions in Gaza which display "profound inhumanity" and
are "serving the agenda of extremists".
He reported that Israeli cuts in fuel and planned cuts in
electricity, which will begin on Dec. 1 according to today's
Ha'aretz, along with closures which have had "an atrocious"
impact on Palestinian medical care, "destroyed" Gaza's economy
and threatened already "Third World" water and sanitation
conditions. "This presupposes that the civilian population are
somehow more capable of stopping the rocket fire than the
powerful military of the occupying power. My message ... is that
not only are these sanctions not working, but because of their
profound inhumanity, they are counterproductive to their stated
purpose, and while Gaza is not yet an entity populated by people
hostile to their neighbour, it inevitably will be if the current
approach of collective punitive sanctions continues." Ging said
that over the past two years "every hopeful opportunity has been
irrationally dashed and followed by even worse circumstances."
Ging said that 649 Palestinians have been killed this year,
including 63 children. The figure includes more than 330 killed
in internal fighting. He added that UNRWA was unable to provide
more than 61% of the necessary calories to refugees. "At present,
we do not have sufficient funding to provide just one high
nutrient biscuit to 200,000 children in UN schools." Ging added
that the "human suffering and misery for the entire civilian
population in Gaza was creating fertile ground for the
extremists."
The Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights says that
11 patients have died since last month because their treatment
was blocked or delayed. At least 800 more are being denied
treatment abroad.
Ha'aretz reports that Israel will start reducing electricity
to Gaza now that the Attorney General has issued a piece of
sophistry that such cuts will not "harm the humanitarian mininum
to which Israel is committed." [dea]

ASIA

PAKISTANI PRESIDENT READY TO GIVE UP HIS MILITARY UNIFORM

Nov. 23, 2007 (LPAC)--Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is
expected to give up his military post as the Chief of the Armed
Services (COAS) within a few days, following the validation of
the Oct. 6 election by the Parliament and the Provincial
Assemblies, which was issued by a 10-member full court of the
Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar. The
seven-member bench of the Supreme Court also disposed of two
identical petitions on Nov. 23 validating the Nov. 3 Proclamation
of Emergency, Provisional Constitution Order and follow-up
actions, but directed that emergency be revoked at the earliest
possibility.
The outcome of these two decisions means Pervez Musharraf
will be sworn in as the second term president, and will then be
in a position to give up the COAS post. It is also evident that
he does not have to lift the state of emergency until such time
as the administration considers the internal situation is secure.
President Musharraf has already announced that nationwide general
elections will be held on Jan. 8 to constitute the next National
Assembly (Pakistan's parliament) with the country under the state
of emergency.
In essence, President Musharraf has agreed to a number of
western demands--giving up his uniform and holding the general
elections at the scheduled date. But, he has defied the British
and Cheney-led neo-con pressures to lift the emergency. Neither
Musharraf, nor the Pakistani Generals, believe that free and fair
elections can be held without the emergency in place.
This situation is in no way resolved, commented Lyndon
LaRouche today, and Musharraf could be the target of an
assassination in the context of the continuing targetting of
Pakistan. "An assassination of Musharraf is what Cheney's
policies of continuing war in the region implies," says LaRouche.
(rma,mjs)

CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION ON CHINA RELEASES A SUICIDAL
CHINA-BASHING REPORT

Nov. 23, 2007 (LPAC) -- The Congressionally-mandated "US-China
Economic and Security Review Commission" issued its 2007 report
to the Congress this week, further expanding on the China-bashing
tradition which has been its character since its founding in
2000. Even as China has begun to reverse its massive financing of
the US debt in response to precisely such threats from the
foolish Congress, the 2007 report adds new categories of
provocations, as if the Commissioners were intentionally trying
to collapse the US economy.
As Lyndon LaRouche warned earlier this week, speaking about
the global systemic crisis and the dollar collapse: "If you want
to look for a cause, the Senate should look at the way it showed
contempt for China." That didn't cause the crisis, but it
precipitated the crisis. The Senate showed imperial contempt for
China, LaRouche said, and the Chinese retaliated, as they had
warned the Senate, through LaRouche, that they would do. This is
what is behind the large-scale Chinese sell-off of dollar
holdings now ongoing. This new Review Commission report is more
of the same insanity.
On economic matters, the report accuses China of "violating
WTO rules or free market principles" by maintaining "extensive
government subsidies it provides to favored industries.... Worse
still, China formally has adopted a policy of retaining large
amounts of the economy ... under direct government ownership and
control."
Chinese refusal to let the yuan rise without restraint
against the collapsing dollar, is denounced by the Commissioners
as "an illegal export subsidy," recommending that the Congress
enact legislation to that effect, imposing "penalty tariffs."
Acknowledging that "globalization" has left the US defense
establishment dependent on foreign-made goods and materials for
its weapons and equipment, which is a "substantial security
risk," the report calls on Congress to enact laws banning certain
parts and components from China from any use by US contractors
and subcontractors.
The report even warns China that it must use "market-based
incentives" to discourage the purchase of cars and air
conditioners, since they cause pollution.
On security matters, the report accuses China of embracing
"disruptive warfare techniques, including the use of cyber
attacks" which could have "catastrophic effects," and the
technology to "destroy surveillance satellites overhead as part
of its tactical, asymmetrical warfare arsenal." It threatens
China that "it must stop providing trade and diplomatic cover to
countries such as North Korea and Iran." The Chinese military
build-up goes beyond the issue of Taiwan, they add, but is
intended to "enhance its capacity to confront the United States,"
as well as to protect China's expanding global energy supply
routes, while they are "working to surpass the technological
prowess of the West" in science and technology.
The report also concludes that "Chinese espionage in the US,
which now comprises the single greatest threat to US technology,
is straining the US counterintelligence establishment." [mob]

*** END OF BRIEFING ***

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