Friday, November 2, 2001

• House Republicans Pass Their Version of Aviation Security

  
  

  The Republican- controlled House voted yesterday for an aviation security bill that does not require the nation’s28,000 airport security workers to become federal employees but protects the owner of the World Trade Center fromlawsuits. Congressperson Gary Ackerman commented that "Republicans are more afraid of Unions than terrorists" as the286-139 vote delivered president Bush a victory by approving a bill that would let him decide whether to makesecurity workers federal employees or keep them as security guards working for private companies, though understricter supervision. The House vote will force potentially contentious negotiations with the senate, whichunanimously passed a bill to federalize airport security workers last week.

• From Anthrax to AIDS Drugs: AIDS Activists Protest US Trade Representative Robert Zoellickfor Championing Drug Company Patent Abuse

  
  

  Health rights, fair trade, and anti-poverty activists gave US trade representative Robert Zoellick a rousing"send-off" demonstration one week before the World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar yesterday outside theWashington, DC offices of the US Trade Representative.

• As the U.S. Carpet Bombs Afghanistan, Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan and Pakistan Deepens

  
  

  Huge US B-52s attacked front line positions north of Kabul this morning, carpet-bombing Taliban troops in the field in wave after wave of strikes. Plumes of black smoke rose over the Shomali Plain about 30 miles outside the city as the bombs hit.

• 60s Radical Turned Community Activist Sara Jane Olson Pleads Guilty to Charges That Sheplanted a Bomb Decades Ago, But Says She Is Innocent and Afraid of Being Tried in This Climate in Thewake of the

  
  

  Sara Jane Olson, a sixties radical turned community activist in Minneapolis, plead guilty this week to charges thatshe plotted 26 years ago to bomb two police cars. But upon leaving the courtroom, Olson said she was still innocent,and that she plead guilty because it would be impossible for her to receive a fair trial in the current politicalclimate.

• Saudi Oil, U.S. Troops, and the Murky Relationship Between the Saudi Royal Family, the Bin Laden Family, and the Bush Family

  
  

  As the U.S. military continues to bomb Afghanistan, U.S. officials announced last week that fifteen of the 19 men who hijacked the four airplanes involved in the September 11 terror attacks hailed from Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden,who President Bush has named as the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks, is Saudi Arabian. The Saudi government has allowed Saudi-based Muslim charitable organizations to funnel money to Al Qaeda. Since Sept. 11,Riyadh has refused pleas from Washington to freeze Osama bin Laden’s assets and those of his associates. Riyadh has so far refused to cooperate fully with Washington’s investigations of hijacking suspects And Riyadh has barred Washington from using Saudi air bases to launch attacks against Afghanistan.

• George Bush Senior Furthers the Business Interests of a Lucrative $12 Billion Private Equityfirm with Connections to the Bin Laden Family

  
  

  During the presidential campaign last year, former President George Bush took time off from his son’s race to call onCrown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a luxurious desert compound outside Riyadh to talk about American-Saudibusiness affairs.