1995

Citizens for a sound Economy (CSE) attacked the FDA with a phoney research project. CSE represented companies like Amoco, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, General Electric, General Motors, headed by C. Boyden Gray.

Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell were accused of being complicit in the execution of anti-Shell protester and poet Ken Saro-Wiwa alongside 8 other Ogoni activists. The nine were hanged in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on the 10th of November 1995.
Nigeria – stung by the negative coverage, acted immediately, and hired a PR firm to improve their image. “Nigeria…ordered multipage, glossy colour advertisements in black-owned US newspapers and inviting newspaper editors on expenses paid ‘fact-finding tours’ of Ogoni land.” It worked and criticisms were blunted, with several papers editorialising that it was “racist” to criticise Nigeria’s dismal track record on human rights. www.monitor.net  based on John Stauber’s book “We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future”.

Bob Packwood affair? – sex scandals.

Nazi America
“The Bell Curve” by Charles Murray was published. It attempted to show the innate inferiority of blacks. Written with Richard Hernstein [dead] and sponsored by American Enterprise Institute and respectfully quoted the following – Darwin’s half brother, Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, 19th century figures who believed in the innate inferiority of Jews.
Pseudo-science of IQ testing – Henry Goddard and Lewis Terman – Ellis Island work paved way for 1924 Immigration Restriction Act. Hitler took the Act as a model for Nazi efforts in applied eugenics.

Deregulation
Clinton gave US corporations more control over media  - meaning less free media. Telecommunications Deregulation.

Whitewater
July 18, 1995 -- Thirteen days of Senate Whitewater Hearings, chaired by Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) begin, looking into whether documents were removed from Vincent Foster's office the night he died. August 7, 1995 -- House Banking Committee hearings, chaired by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) begin, looking into whether White House officials improperly tried to influence the RTC investigation of Madison Guaranty and Whitewater. RTC investigator Jean Lewis testified her superiors made "a concerted effort to obstruct, hamper, and manipulate the results of our investigation." Aug. 17, 1995 -- Jim and Susan McDougal and Guy Tucker indicted by a grand jury for fraud and conspiracy. Sept. 29, 1995 -- RTC investigator Jean Lewis resigns. Dec. 21, 1995 -- The White House turns over disputed Whitewater notes to avoid a federal court challenge pushed by Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's Senate Whitewater committee.

Cuba
Jesse Helms, head of Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act – a section of it which has no basis in international law allows Cubans fleeing Castro, and later became US citizens, to advance claims in US courts on property nationalised by Cuban government. Those who plundered Cuba under Batista would directly benefit – Nicolas Gutierrez helped draft legislation – sits on Board of Miami based National Association of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba – Ignacio Sanchez, a lawyer for Bacardi Rum Co which acted to sue Pernod Ricard, French firm using Bacardi’s old plant in Cuba – Juan Prado retired Bacardi executive – Manuel Cutillas head of US-Cuba Business Council and of Bacardi Rum co.
However Clinton stripped the “Bacardi Claims Act” from the bill before congress approved it. Senator Lauch Faircloth – supporter of the pig industry in North Carolina. Senator Larry Pressler – telecommunications: they called him the ‘telephone pole’. Failed South Dakota bar exam twice. Anti-abortion. Congress 1974, senate 1978. In Absam affair Pressler took a bribe. Ran for president in 1980, didn’t expect to win. Friend of Murdoch’s business interests – efforts to sell public broadcasting to Murdoch.

Oklahoma bombing.
Americans believe that loners Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, fuelled by militia inspired conspiracy theories and white supremacist propaganda, perpetrated one of the worst terrorist acts in American history, all by themselves .

Unequal World Trade
UNICEF, in June, reported 13m children who die because rich country denies them pennies of aid.
The US congress planned to reduce by one third the government of $US 425m that had been proposed for UNICEF in following year and slashing foreign aid by $US 3bn over 2 years (not touching the $US 3bn going to Israel or the $2.1 bn going to Egypt). The US had the most miserly aid record of OECD before the cuts.

Around 1995, NAFTA and GATT ratified by US Senate.

US poison the World
“US coporations still exporting huge quantites of hazardous pesticides to the 3rd world countries according to US customs records, as reported by Inter Press Service (12/07/95)” censored news
countries importing hazardous pesticides include Republic of Korea, singapor, Netherlands, India, Zimbabwe, Australia, Costa Rica, Israel, Thailand, El Salvador, Brazil, Japan, france.

US spy on the World
the U.S. first released imagery obtained by the CORONA satellites that operated during the 1960-1972 period as well as images obtained by the ARGON and LANYARD systems that operated in the early 1960s.

An estimated 210 tons of cocaine  - FBI director Louis Freeh compared the influx of cocaine and heroin to an “all conquering army”.

Israel
In Israel Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
Allegations regarding who killed Rabin? Was he refused medical treatment?

Afghanistan
In February the Taliban (students of religion), a strong and popular political force, took control of 9 out of 30 provinces and ushered in a new era. Further clampdown on women’s rights. UN report on violence against women 1992 – 1996. I’m sure Hilary Clinton read it. It was going to be six years before she felt able to comment.
The Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, aka the Moral Police – was established. Women were abnend from Working and school, forced to wear the head to toe burqah.
UN Special Rapporteur for violence against women, Radhika Coormarwamy (check spelling) of Sri Lanka, reported “official widespread, systematic violations of human rights of women in the Taliban areas areas of Afghanistan.”
Women punished for being raped – or for adultery.
Rabbani’s government 1992 to 1996 – the worst outrages were committed.
Revolutionary Assistance of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) formed in 1977.
Organised resistance – non-violence.
Organised schools and health facilities.
Support for rape victims.
RAWA’s founder Meena Kamal was assassinated in 1987.
Afghan women’s council formed in 1993 to provide schools and health clinics and threatened by mujahideen groups.

Brazil
Brazilian ministry of justice set up a special commission to address the issue of Brazil’s Desaparecidos Politicos (missing political people).
The Comissao Especial Mortas e Desaparecidos, headed by Luiz Francisco da Silva Carvalho, is made up of MPs, soldiers and relatives of the victims.
Cardoso assumed office in January , committed to a series of key constitutional reforms that aimed at accelerating the modernisation of the economic and social fabric and overcoming the federal government’s fiscal crisis. The Real Plan, named for Brazil’s new currency unit, the real, slashed rampant inflation and his popularity soared.

Guatemala
March 1995. Guatemala in the news. A Guatemalan officer on the CIA payroll involved in the murder of an American hotelier and the torture and murder of a guerrilla commander (rebel leader) married to an American.
The press revealed that the “thuggish” Guatemalan military officer was on the CIA payroll. The agency had withheld information from congress about its relationship with this killer. Guidleines were written after this episode for the CIA to follow in order to prevent this sort of thing happening again. This was never made public. The rules state that case officers are to notify h.q. when they recruit a looney such as the violent Guatemalan as a source, and they require the recruitment be reviewed at a senior level. But they didn’t prohibit the CIA from working with terrorists to discover what terrorists are doing. CIA officers were free to seek and pay informants within terrorists outfits. They merely have to alert supervisors back home and receive a go-ahead – but still in 2001 these guidelines were cited in order to explain failure to prevent 9-11.
The civil war in Guatemala ended in 1995, with an accord signed December 29th 1996.

Colombia
May 1995, the Bishop and Priests of the Diocese of Apartudo in the northwest region of Colombia issued a “communique to public opinion” about “the movement of terror” in which people are living, “caused by homocides and disappearances”. “the paramilitary groups have mercilessly decimated entire towns .”
The 1995 upsurge of military atrocities in Colombia seemed to be part of land-grab efforts related to landowners, ranchers, narco-traffickers. Targets are grassroots, civic and popular organisation and their leaders, peasants, indigenous peoples  and black population. Anyone who gets in the way of the alliance of government, drug rackets and “legitimate” economic powers.
Almost half US military aid goes to Colombia, the hemisphere’s leading human rights violator, with a shocking record of atrocities. The pattern is typical but pretext is not. It is held up to be defence against narco traffickers. The recipients of US aid and training and their paramilitary associates are at the heart of the racket.

Ecuador
Border war with Peru in 1995. Congress ousted president Abdala Bucaram for ‘mental incompentence’.

Former Yugoslavia
Feb. 20:Milosevic rejects Contact Group Plan.
Mar. 7: Bosnia and Croatia form military alliance against the Serb forces in their countries.
April: EU negotiator Carl Bildt takes lead in international diplomatic efforts.
30th April 1995 – Bosnian ceasefire expired.
May 1: Croatian army action against Croatian Serbs in Western Slavonia.
16th May – Serbs resume attack on Sarajevo.
May 25: NATO bombs Serb positions in retaliation for Serb attacks on Sarajevo and other UN safe areas.
May 26: Mladic retaliates by taking 350 UN personnel hostage, as “human shields” against further NATO attacks.
June 2nd, Serbs began to release UN hostages.
June 18: UN hostages released. EU began to debate withdrawal of UNPROFOR troops; United States discovers it would be obligated to assist in withdrawal.
July11:The fall of Srebrenica; an estimated 8,000 Muslims executed by Bosnian Serb forces.
“Srebrenica, almost universally described as "genocide" in the West. In that case, as we know in detail from a Dutch government report and other sources, the Muslim enclave in Serb territory, inadequately protected, was used as a base for attacks against Serb villages and, when the anticipated reaction took place, it was horrendous. The Serbs drove out all but military age men and then moved in to kill them. There are differences with Falluja (2004). Women and children were not bombed out of Srebrenica, but trucked out and there will be no extensive efforts to exhume the last corpse of the packrats in their warrens in Falluja. There are other differences, arguably unfair to the Serbs.” Chomsky 2005.
July 15th, Serbs forced muslims out of Srebrenica.
July 23rd, Brit forces sent to Sarajevo.
July 25th, Karadzic and Mladic charged with war crimes.
Aug. 5: Croatian “Operation Storm” retakes the Krajina after one day of fighting.
Aug. 19: Three American envoys killed in accident on Mt. Igman during shuttle diplomacy.
Aug. 28: Serbs mortar the Sarajevo marketplace, leaving thirty-five dead.
Aug. 30: NATO launches operation “Deliberate Force,”massive air attacks on the Bosnian Serb positions nearSarajevo.
Sept. 8: Foreign ministers of Croatia,Bosnia,and Serbia come togetherfor peace talks.Milosevic officially agrees to act as negotiator on behalf of Bosnian Serbs.
Sept. 12: Bosnian-Croat Federation launches massiveoffensive against Bosnian Serbs.Regains significant Serb-held territory.
Sept. 26: Parties agree on framework for Bosnian Constitution: the creation of a unitary Bosnia with two autonomous entities—theMuslim–Croat Federation and a Serb republic.
Oct. 12: Bosnia, Croatia,and Bosnian Serbs agree to cease-fire.
Oct. 30: U.S.House of Representatives passes HR 247 expressing House’s intent that any peace agreement not require deployment of US.ground troops in Bosnia.

Milosevic backed Serbian rebels throughout the three-year civil war. Suffering economic crises and the effects of sanctions, he signed a peace agreement in 1995, ending the civil war in Bosnia.  http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0771127.html

Yugoslavia vs. NATO case adjudicated by the international court of justice. The US was excused, correctly, on the basis of its argument that its not subject to the jurisdiction of the court in this case. The reason is that when the US finally signed the Genocide convention (which is at issue here) after 40 years, it did so with a reservation stating that it is not applicable to the US. Chomsky in 2005.

Iran gate 2 – “a secret alliance was formed between the US Pentagon and radical Islamist Groups to assist the Bosnian Muslims in violation of the UN arms embargo. A vast secret conduit of weapons smuggling through Croatia was organised by the US, Turkish and Iranian clandestine agencies, together with Afghan mojahedin and pro-Iranian Hizbullah. Aircraft from Iranair were used, joined by a US sponsored fleet of e-130 Hercules” – came out of the later Dutch Inquiry into the Srebrenica Massacre – 2000/ 2001?

The Dayton Agreement
1995 American pressure to end the war led to the Dayton Peace Accords, which created a multi-ethnic government in Bosnia. Sixty thousand NATO troops were sent into Bosnia. The Milosevic Era according to PBS
1995 The Dayton Agreement divided Bosnia and Herzegovina between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska. The agreement ends a period of conflict between the Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats, who gain Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Serbs who are quartered in the Republika Srpska. It creates within Bosnia two separate entities—the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation—each with its own government, parliament, and army. In further military action, Croatia wins back most of the land it has lost to Serbia, and many Serbs flee Croatia. The agreement leaves the status of Kosovo unresolved and Slobodan Milosevic remains the de facto power broker in the region.
Nov. 1:Dayton Peace Conference begins.
Nov. 21: Presidents Tudjman, Milosevic, and Izetbegovic initial the General Framework Agreement.
Dec. 4: First NATO troops arrive in Bosnia.
Dec. 14: Official signing ceremony of Dayton Peace Accords in Paris.
Dec.20: In accordance with the Dayton Accords,United Nations turns over all peacekeeping to the Implementation Force (IFOR).

Iraq
Saddam’s son-in-laws fled to Jordan and disclosed information regarding Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons arsenal – later they return and was killed by members of Saddam’s extended clan.
The oil-for-food programme began, allowing Iraq to export oil to buy food and medicine – April 14th.
July – Iraq threatened to withdraw cooperation with inspectors unless some sanctions and oil embargo are lifted by August 31st.
“In 1995 the Security Council authorised a new proposal allowing Iraq to sell somewhat larger amounts of oil and then to use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.” The oil-for-food programme was finally implemented in March 1997.”Jay Gardens, 20/07/04.

Japan
USA pressured Japan to accept more car parts from America in mid-1995.

Northern Ireland
In May Clinton hosted a trade and investment conference in Washington, bringing together US business leaders and representatives of the province’s main political parties.  – US investment in Ulster reached a record $680 million in 1996/7, but American corporate chiefs have long said they would spend more if stability was guaranteed.

In the UK there was a wave of UFO sightings.