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Tells the Facts and Names the Names JUNE 16-30, 2000 Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair VOL. 7, NO.12 • IN THIS ISSUE -Gore's Platform WHICH PARTY .he last rousing party political plat rule over "a smaller, more efficient, less form in America was probably the bureaucratic government" that <::schews Is PLEDGING ••• TPopulists' in 1892, written mostly "big government solutions" and empha by Ignatius Donnelly, and concluding its sizes " the private sector as the main en • More Cops, More Prison preamble thus: "The fruits of the toil of gine of economic growth". No talk here millions are boldly stolen to build up co of the New Deal. In its place, the platform Time, More Death lossal fortunes for a few, unprecede!lted calls for government to act not as a de Penalties in the history of mankind; and the posses fender of the downtrodden and disenfr an sors of those, in tum, despise the Repub chised, but as a mechanic for the "engines • More Breaks for lic and endanger liberty. From the same of a new global economy " by greasing prolific womb of government injustice we "the lifelines of American commerce" so Big Oil Companies breed the two great classes ~ tramps and that "private businesses can prosp er" , millionaires." Globalization is accorded a passion (And If You Don't Like The national platform Al Gore 's draft ate embrace . Although the sensitive topic It They'll Spray Gas ing team has served up to the Democratic of China is delicately side stepped , the In Your Face!) Party has only the merit of truth in pack docum ent proudly touts Gor e' s role in aging. In nearly every respect it is an una brokering "more than 200 trade agree shamed assault on what once were the core ments, including NAFTA and GATT", and THEPENTAGON ON constituenci es of the party: working peo vows to secure "fast track authority " so that OOERNEfPATROL ple, blacks, organized labor, peace activ he can freelance new deals with nations such ists , greens , the poor . Gone .now are the as Chile and Brazil. The only scraps tossed days . when the leadership of the Demo organized labor were some tepid phras es • Meet ACERT: cratic Party was briefly encumbered by a promising environmental and worker-rights It's Based in Fort progressive platform th_at its national can side-agreements in future pacts. Belvoir, Ready didates would have to delay a week after Domestically, the goal of Gor e's eco to Zap Peace Sites the convention before discarding . nomic policy is a fanatic quest to "elimi This shouldn 't surprise us . Despite nate the federal debt ". The economic Gore's cyber-call a few months ago for "an planks res emble an austerity program FUNGUS IN COLOMBIA intera ctive platform" that would be con cooked up by the IMF for Bulgaria. It is structed on the Internet by party members shorn of any commitment to reinvest the • The New York Times from across the nation , the_first draft was swelling budget surplus into programs for scripted by Elaine Kamarck, a former the greater public good. The normally pru Takes a Dive wonk at the Public Policy Institute , the dent Jeff Faux of the Economic Poli cy whitepaper division of the Democratic Institute has described Gore 's plan as "an MEAT IN AMERICA Lead ership Council. economic plan to the right of Herbert Hoo . The Democratic National Committee's ver". The platform exults over the disman platfonn committee , which gathered in St. tling of the federal welfare program and • Why We Can't Get Louis on July 7 and 8, was headed by Jim vows to keep up the war on the poor by Good Sausage Hunt , governor of North Carolina , and cracking down on " food stamp fraud". Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the Lt. Gov Still, there are two recipients the Gore • Veggies Blitz ernor of Maryland. Both Townsend and platfonn is eager to ply with federal dole Hunt covet a spot as Gore's running mate . lars: the military and law enforcement. The Batgirl The 41-page document opens by platfonn endor ses Gore 's notion of "for preaching the chief tenet of Gore 's politi ward engagement ," an interventionist for- cal philosophy: namel y that he wants to (Platform continued on page 6) 2/COUNTERPUNCH JUNE 16-30, 2000 their shameful assent to a provision in the Colombian aid bill requiring the hapless Colombians to cooperate in the destruc tion of their country's ecosystem . BIOWAR MEETS THE NYT therefore quite possibly spread to species related to the cocaine-producing plants, PENTAGON'S INFO WAR Weeks after CounterPunch 's June ex with profou1id and disastrous e!Tects on the Jim Redden reports that the US gov pose of war criminal and drug czar Barry ecology of the region, not to mention the ernment is laying the groundwork to knock McCaffrey's plan to wage biological war human population. inconvenient voices off line during the next fare on Colombia by releasing Fusarium oxysporum is highly poison international military confrontation. mycoherbicides in coca-growing areas, the ous to anyone eating infected plants. A You can ' t blame the folks over at New York Times' Tim Golden has belat . mysterious outbreak in Peru in the early Antiwar.com for feeling paranoid these edly caught up with the story. True to 1990s, shortly after inhabitants of the af days . The libertarian-oriented, anti-mili fo1111,Golden made every effort to obscure fected area saw helicopters spraying coca tary website hosted its second annual con the more horrifying aspects of fields, rapidly spread to food crops, caus ference on March 24 and 25. Held at the McCaffrey's scheme . ing sickness among people and farm ani Villa Hotel in San Mateo, , the theme of As we reported , the US government mals that consumed them. the conference was " Beyond Left & Right: plans to introduce a strain of the fungus Well aware of the risks in their biowar The New Face of the Antiwar Movement" . fusarium oxysporum q1lled EN4 into Co plan , not least that of being charged with Among the speakers was Alexander lombia in the hope that this strain will at violating the biological weapons conven Cockburn who gave an account of the event tack and wipe out the local coca crop. The tion , the US has recruited a UN agency , to CounterPunchers shortly thereafter. Colombian aid bill that finally prevailed the UN Drug Control Program, into act A short time later , Antiwar.com in Congress, with the infamous support of ing as a front for the enterprise. Funding founder Eric Garris was startled to learn most Democrats, includes a provision re for the program being pushed on the Co that his site had been added to a list of quiring the Colombians to take EN4 along lombians will be channeled through this "militia-related" websites maintained by with the helicopters and money. UN office , thus giving an "international" Mark Pitcavage, research director for the Colombian scientists are aghast, point fig leaf to the project-although no other federally-funded State/Local Anti-Terror ing out that EN4 will almost certainly ex country has yet to give support or fund i s r'n Training (SLATT) program . tend its toxic reach beyond the targeted ing, despite a plea from Madeleine CounterPunch reported on Pitcavage's coca plant , since there is no evidence that Albright last year. curious operation in its May l -15 issue . it is "host specific "; that is, restricted in In his New York Times article Golden Then in late May , the software for count its assaults to the intended victim. It may is quick to assert that "several plant pa ing the number of visitors to Antiwar.com thologists who h_ave studied the fungus crashed two days in a row. The reason? Editors extensively said there was little scientific An unusually high number of hits from a ALEXAND ER COCKBURN basis for the assertions about its danger ." single visitor. JEFFREY ST. CLAIR Golden could not have looked very far. When columnist Justin Raimondo Cowriter One plant pathologist who would indeed tracked down the curious party, he discov A NDREW COCKBURN assert that there is little scientific evidence ered it was a Pentagon-funded unit of for danger is David C. Sands , a professor cyber-soldiers known as the Anny Com Proofing from Montana State University, who origi puter Emergency Respons e Team. The CHRIST Y WARD nally identified EN4 after an outbreak at a counter crashed after recording 2,000 hits research station in Hawai ' i in the early from A CERT on the first day alone . Every Design .1980s. Ever since then he has been seek · file on the website was visited at least DEBORAH THOMAS ing to · market EN4 an anti-drug once . CounterPunch contacted ACERT mycoherbicide . headquarters and reached public affairs Counselor Last year Sands came close to selling assistant Shirley K. Startzman who con BEN SONNENBERG a program using another strain, of fusarium firmed the military had prowled Antiwar.com . She said A CERT uses com Published twice monthly except to the Florida drug control authorities , August , 22 issues a year: until the state Environmental Protection mercially available web search tools to $40 individuals , Program pointed out that the "continuously research for websites on the $ I 00 institutions/supporters mycoherbicide could easily spread to Internet that may have information relat $30 student/low-income Florida 's agricultural cash crops . ing to potential cyber threats ." Startzman Counter Punch. Ac cording to researcher . Jeremy claimed that this work is "d efensive in All rights reserved. Bigwood , a ranking authority on the nature", intended to "protect Am1y com Counter Punch fusarium issue, Sands has threatened Co puter systems from hackers or denial of 3220 N.