1998

1998: February- The fatal shootings of two Serb policemen by militant Kosovar Albanians spark a heavy-handed police reprisal.
March - Drenica Valley Massacre; 80 members of one extended family, including babies, killed by Serb Police (attempting to "abolish terrorism").  As a result the very small group of KLA gained recruits.
August- Various offensives by KLA on Serb police earn responses of bombing, looting, and burning whole villages.
September- UN Security Council (China abstaining) demand for cessation of hostilities.
October - Further killings of Kosovar Albanian civilians.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/kosovo/99748.stm

January 1998
State of the union address –President Clinton spoke of how we must “confront the new hazards of chemical and biological weapons, and the outlaw states, terrorists and organised criminals seeking to acquire them” – Iraq? He laid into Saddam fro ‘developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons” and called for strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention – but USA had been the supplier of much of the source materials used to create Iraq’s bio-warfare program.
January - An ethnic Serb politician is killed in apparent retaliation for the reported killing of an ethnic Albanian by the police.
Iraq barred UN arms inspectors led by an American from working – January 13th 1998.
January 13th to 22nd Iraq withdrew cooperation with UN inspectors, claiming too many members are American and GB then denied UN inspectors access to presidential sites.
Whitewater - January 16, 1998 Starr receives permission to expand his investigation into whether Clinton and his close friend Vernon E. Jordan Jr. encouraged a 24-year-old former White House intern to lie under oath about her alleged affair with the president.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
Clinton denied reports regarding Monica Lewinsky and tried to get her to lie – January 21st, and again on the 26th. Ended up with Republicans on House Judiciary Committee drawing up four articles of impeachment against him – all out of the Lewinsky affair and his attempt to cover up – December 9th to 12th.
John Ashcroft was the first Senator to call for Clinton’s resignation. So we can see where the Lewinsky scandal originated.

February 1998
Middle East military build up continued as 2,200 US marines headed for the Gulf, Feb 6th.
US Sec of State Allbright began tour of Europe, Middle East, to garner support for stand against Iraq – January 29th.
February 11th offered to open 8 presidential sites to inspections conducted under direct authority of UNSC for 60 days Washington dismissed proposal.
UN Sec Genral Annan arrived in Baghdad – stand off with Iraq. DATE?
Feb 23rd – three days of talks in Baghdad, Annan and Iraq signed a deal allowing full access to suspected Iraqi weapon sites.
Albright travelled round the world to gather support for yet more bombing of Iraq. The price being paid soley by Iraqi people – a million or so men, women and children dead from previous bombings and seven years of sanctions. – malnutrition, severe shortages of medicine.
Saddam refused to cede all sovereignty to the USA which demanded every structure in Iraq – palaces – be available for inspections of WMDs.
Six years on and off – significant destruction of stocks forbidden chemical, biological and nuclear weapon material and research and development programs and UN team still refuses to certify that Iraq is clean enough.
Less than one year before the US Senate passed an act to implement the “Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction”. (aka Chemicals Weapons Convention).
International treaty ratified by more then 100 nations in its five year life.
The Senate Act, section 307 stipulates that “the president may deny a request to inspect any facility in the US in cases where the President determines that the inspection may pose a threat to the national security interests of the US. – which is all Saddam wanted.
Is it feasible that under mutual agreements the White House, Pantagon etc. could be inspected? An American colonel demanded to visit the military iunit responsible for Saddam’s personal security.
Section 303 – “Any objection by the President to an individual serving as an inspector…shall not be reviewable in any court.”
A recent team of 16 inspectors included 14 from USA and Britain, Saddam’s two main adversaries, who are busily planning new bombing raid son Iraq. The team was led by a US Marine Corps, veteran of the Gulf War, accused of spying on Iraq. Iraqis do not have a corresponding right of exclusion.
The Senate Act also provides that an FBI agent “accompanies each inspection team visit.”
Iraq wanted to place certain sites off limits and to have less partisan inspectors. The media ignored this issue and asked “what do they have to hide?”. Well, “What do the US and GB have to hide?”
Bombing looked inevitable even in 1998. Washington Post reported that Sec of Defense William Cohen has indicated that “US officials remain wary of doing so much military damage to Iraq as to weaken its regional role as a counterweight to Iran.2 http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American.holocaust.htm
Pilger in September 1998 – Reckons that Clinton was stopped from attacking Iraq earlier in 1998 because of public opinion. People were able to see the “consequences of the imposition of ‘economic sanctions’ “ by US and Britain.
“Blair said he wept for the children who were killed in Omagh by a terrorist act; but he is silent on the children who die in Iraq as a result of one of the most enduring terrorist acts of the late 20th century.
Food and Agricultural Organisation and The WHO – both UN agencies – estimate over ½ million children died directly from sanctions. – others say over a million. Baby food and enriched powedered milk are blockaded, vital hospital equipment, stethoscopes, x-ray machines, medical swabs, scanners, and water-pruifiers. But then Clinton did attack in September – and we saw on tv – flag burning, “bearded wild men of Islam” – the “enemy of the future” said Washington.
Denis Halliday – the UN coordinator of humanitarian relief who resigned in protest against embargo in 1998 – said Saddam has been strengthened by the economic sanctions.
He was succeeded by a bloke called Hans von Sponeck. He resigned in 2000 for similar reasons. 
UNSCOM (UN Special Commission on Iraq) ‘the disarmament phase of the SC’s requirements is possibly near its end in the missile and chemical weapons area.’
December 15th the International Atomic Energy Agency had eliminated Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme.
Scott Ritter – senior UNSCOM weapons inspector: “by 1998 the chemical weapons infrastructure had been completely dismantled or destroyed by UNSCOM or by Iraq in compliance with our mandate.” And went on to say the biological and nuclear weapons programmes were gone and all major facilities eliminated. “If I had to quantify Iraq’s threat, I would say [it is] zero.” Page 56 Pilger. The US led UN Arms inspection team left Iraq – other inspectors continue their work.

Albright travelled round the world to gather support for yet more bombing of Iraq. The price being paid soley by Iraqi people – a million or so men, women and children dead from previous bombings and seven years of sanctions. – malnutrition, severe shortages of medicine.
Saddam refused to cede all sovereignty to the USA which demanded every structure in Iraq – palaces – be available for inspections of WMDs.
Six years on and off – significant destruction of stocks forbidden chemical, biological and nuclear weapon material and research and development programs and UN team still refuses to certify that Iraq is clean enough.
Less than one year before the US Senate passed an act to implement the “Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction”. (aka Chemicals Weapons Convention).
International treaty ratified by more then 100 nations in its five year life.
The Senate Act, section 307 stipulates that “the president may deny a request to inspect any facility in the US in cases where the President determines that the inspection may pose a threat to the national security interests of the US. – which is all Saddam wanted.
Is it feasible that under mutual agreements the White House, Pantagon etc. could be inspected? An American colonel demanded to visit the military iunit responsible for Saddam’s personal security.
Section 303 – “Any objection by the President to an individual serving as an inspector…shall not be reviewable in any court.”
A recent team of 16 inspectors included 14 from USA and Britain, Saddam’s two main adversaries, who are busily planning new bombing raid son Iraq. The team was led by a US Marine Corps, veteran of the Gulf War, accused of spying on Iraq. Iraqis do not have a corresponding right of exclusion.
The Senate Act also provides that an FBI agent “accompanies each inspection team visit.”
Iraq wanted to place certain sites off limits and to have less partisan inspectors. The media ignored this issue and asked “what do they have to hide?”. Well, “What do the US and GB have to hide?”
Bombing looked inevitable even in 1998. Washington Post reported that Sec of Defense William Cohen has indicated that “US officials remain wary of doing so much military damage to Iraq as to weaken its regional role as a counterweight to Iran.2 http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American.holocaust.htm

February/March - Dozens are killed in Serbian police operations against suspected Albanian separatists in the Drenica region of Kosovo. Houses are burned, villages emptied, and dozens of ethnic Albanians killed. Street clashes erupt as tens of thousands protest in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, against the violence, and street clashes erupt. Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, disregarding Western calls for compromise, demands outright independence for Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians vote for a president and parliament in elections which are considered illegal by Belgrade. – Dr S D Stein, Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk, ©S D Stein.  
Milosevic sent troops to Kosovo to bring order to the region – March 1998 – and a guerrilla war broke out.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/kosovo/99748.stm

March 1998
WHITEWATER - March 8, 1998 James McDougal dies just months before he hoped to be released from prison.

April 1998
April 1, 1998 The General Accounting Office announces that Starr had spent nearly $30 million on his investigation as of September 1997.
April 16, 1998 Starr says there is no end in sight to his investigation, and officially declines the Pepperdine job, which was being held open for him.
April 23, 1998 Susan McDougal, finally serving her two-year fraud sentence after completing her 18-month contempt of court sentence, refuses yet again to testify before Starr's Little Rock grand jury.
April 25, 1998 Starr and deputies question Hillary Rodham Clinton about Whitewater for nearly five hours at the White House. The testimony is videotaped for the Little Rock grand jury.
April 30, 1998 A new set of tax evasion and fraud charges is brought against Webster Hubbell.
May 4, 1998 Susan McDougal is indicted on charges of criminal contempt and obstruction.
April 30, 1998 A federal judge dismisses the tax and fraud charges against Hubbell and criticizes Starr for going on "the quintessential fishing expedition."
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

April – 95% of Serbs voted against international mediation in Kosovo. The Contact Group for the Former Yugoslavia, with the exception of Russia, agrees to impose new sanctions against Yugoslavia. - Dr S D Stein, Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk, ©S D Stein, http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/Kosovo/Kosovo-chronology3.htm

May 1998
May -- Milosevic invited Rugova for peace talks. Although negotiators begin talks in Pristina, the fighting intensifies. - Dr S D Stein, Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk, ©S D Stein,
 May - US envoy Richard Holbrooke begins a round of shuttle diplomacy which results in Milosevic inviting Ibrahim Rugova for peace talks. Ethnic Albanian and Serb negotiators start talks in Pristina as fighting continues.

Amy Chua, Professor of Law at Yale University.
Suharto was ousted in 1998
May 1998 Indonesian mobs looted and torched over 5000 ethnic Chinese shops and homes. A hundred and fifty Chinese women were gang-raped and over 2000 people died. Why? Because of unrestrained combination of democracy and freemarkets according toChua.
In the 1980s and 90s aggressive shift to freemarket policies in Indonesia allowed Chinese minority – about 3% - to control 70% of private economy.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=1998+letter+to+newt+gingrish+from+project+for+new+american+century
May 29th 1998 – From article by Robert Fisk: “Rumsfeld, Cheney and a bunch of other right wing men – most involved in the oil business – created the Project for the New American Century, a lobby group demanding ‘regime change’ in Iraq. In a 1998 letter to President Clinton, they called for the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. In a letter to Newt Gingrich, who was then speaker of the house, they wrote that ‘we should establish and maintain a strong US military presence in the region and be prepared to use that force to protect our vital interests in the Gulf – and, if necessary, to help remove Saddam from power’. The signatories o one or both letters included Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, now Rumsfeld’s Pentagon deputy [Jume 2003], John Bolton [under sec of state for arms control in 2003] and Richard Armitage, Colin Powell’s under sec at the state department”.
They also included Richard Perle, former assistant sec of defence [2003 – chairman of the defence board], and Zalmay Khalilzad, former UNOCAL Corp oil industry consultant who became US special envoy to Afghanistan where Unocal Corp oil industry consultant who became US special envoy to Afghanistan – where Unocal once tried to cut a deal with the Taliban for a gas pipeline across Afghan territory – and who now [2003], miracle of miracles, has been appointed a special Bush official for Iraq.”
Elliot Abrams also a signatory – “the most pro-Sharon of pro-Israeli US officials, who was convicted or his part in Iran-Contra scandal. Abrams it was who compared Israel prime minister to Winston Churchill.
The 2002 war in Iraq was concocted here by a bunch of oil men.

june 1998
 “Iraqi anger at US air strike”, 24th June, 1998, Guardian. US warplane fired a missile at an Iraqi radar site when 4 RAF Tornado jets came under apparent threat from attack. It was a routine patrol in the NFZ south of Basra. US defence sec described the missile attack as a warning to Baghdad.
Richard Butler in June said the US was still refusing to provide information on missiles, biological weapons and the chemical warfare agent VX, while Baghdad claimed a breakthrough.
Pilger in September 1998 – Reckons that Clinton was stopped from attacking Iraq earlier in 1998 because of public opinion. People were able to see the “consequences of the imposition of ‘economic sanctions’ “ by US and Britain.
“Blair said he wept for the children who were killed in Omagh by a terrorist act; but he is silent on the children who die in Iraq as a result of one of the most enduring terrorist acts of the late 20th century.
Food and Agricultural Organisation and The WHO – both UN agencies – estimate over ½ million children died directly from sanctions. – others say over a million. Baby food and enriched powedered milk are blockaded, vital hospital equipment, stethoscopes, x-ray machines, medical swabs, scanners, and water-pruifiers. But then Clinton did attack in Septmeber – and we saw on tv – flag burning, “bearded wild men of Islam” – the “enemy of the future” said Washington.
Denis Halliday – the UN coordinator of humanitarian relief who resigned in protest against embargo in 1998 – said Saddam has been strengthened by the economic sanctions.
He was succeeded by a bloke called Hans von Sponeck. He resigened in 2000 for similar reasons. 
UNSCOM (UN Special Commission on Iraq) ‘the disarmament phase of the SC’s requirements is possibly near its end in the missile and chemical weapons area.’

June -- U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke meets June 23 with Milosevic in Belgrade to urge an end to the conflict. On June 24, Holbrooke meets with commanders of the ethnic Albanian commanders in the village of Junik. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan cautioned NATO that it must seek a Security Council mandate for any military intervention. - Dr S D Stein, Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk, ©S D Stein,

July 1998
 “Russell Weston Jr – July 1998 – during the Monika Lewinsky scandal – Weston tried to kill House Majority whip Tom Delay (R, Texas) an outspoken critic of Clinton. He shot and killed a guard in Delay’s office and was about to shoot Delay. DeLay fled to Houston and told of a plot to kill him and his family. He returned to Washington under heavy guard. Weston, disappeared into a mental hospital. Why did he do it? Why DeLay in particular? “How many assassins make it into the House of republicans with a car parked outside?” Sherman H Skolnick on his website.

July -- France and Britain draft a U.N. Security Council resolution in an attempt to bring about a ceasefire. On July 6, the U.S. charge d'affaires in Belgrade, Richard Miles, and his Russian counterpart launched the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission (KOM) to report on freedom of movement and security conditions throughout Kosovo. - Dr S D Stein.

August 1998
August - A massive month-long offensive severely weakens the KLA until a significant stronghold - the village of Junik - falls into Serb hands on the 16th of the month. The UN called for a cease-fire.
August -- The U.N. calls for a ceasefire after the village of Junik, a KLA stronghold, falls into Serb hands on August 16 following a month-long offensive.  - Dr S D Stein.
The US State Department branded Kosovo Liberation Army a terrorist organisation, financing its oprations from the heroin trade and funds from Islamic countries and individuals.
But “this did not stop the US from arming and training KLA members in Albania and sending them back into Kosovo to assassinate Serbian mayors, ambush Serbian policemen and intimidate hesitant Kosovo Albanians…Despite a UN amrs embargo, and with the support of the US arms, ammunition and thousands of fighters were smuggled into Bosnia to help the Muslims…OBL and his network were also active inKosovo, and KLA members trained in his camps in Afghanistan and Albania.” James Bissett, former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia. – Michael Meacher, Guardian, March 27th 2004.

Attacks on US embassies in Nairobi and Dar er Salaam. Not in a single press statement, conference or interview did a US leader or diplomat explain why the enemies of America hate America.
Why does the Arab world hate America? Betrayal of the principals of the peace process. Unconditional support for Israel. Sanctions killing thousands of Iraqi civilians. Continued presence in Saudi Arabia.

Clinton, now at the height of his scandal over Monica Lewinsky launched an attack on Sudan and a base in Afghanistan at which OBL was supposed to be living.

In Khartoum missiles destroyed a factory which made medicine for sudan’s deprived population. OBL was not there.
“The plots in which OBL is now supposed to have been involved, according to Americans, are now taking on ‘Gone with The wind’ Proportions. OBL, we are told, was behind not only the US embassy bombings but alos the earlier bombing of US troops in Dhaham (?), anti-government violence in Egypt, the 1993 NY bombing of the WTC, and now – wait for it – an attempt to kill the pope.” R.Fisk 22nd August 1998

“What was immediately grasped in the region yesterday, however, was the ease with which the Americans could once again choose an enemy without disclosing any evidence for his guilt and then turn journalists and television commentators into their cheerleaders.”
All over the media talk of “compelling evidence” and no one had a clue what that compelling evidence was.
Linkling OBL to Kenya and Tanzanaia bombs journalists in London and Washington were adopting the US government’s claims without question.
Arabs who murder the innocent are always ‘terrorists’ but Israeli killers who slaughter 29 Palestinians in a Hebron Mosque or assassinate their prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, are always called ‘extremists’.
“Arab sense of betrayal has never been greater. America’s continued presence in Saudi Arabia, its refusal to bring Israel to heel as it continues to build Jewish settlements on arab land in violation of the Oslo agreement, its almost lip-smacking agreement to continue sanctions which are clearly culling the civilian population of Iraq.”
“Cruise missiles do not represent due process.”
“Bin Laden is protected in Afghanistan by the Taliban. But the Taliban are paid, armed and inspired by Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia is america’s best friend int he Gulf, so close an ally that US troops are still stationed there (which is of course, bin Landen’s grouse).
Powerful people in fundamentalist and undemocratic Saudi Arabia support bin laden?
R. Fisk
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36712659/Age-of-the-Warrior  
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/as-my-grocer-said-thank-you-mr-clinton-for-the-kind-words-1173139.html

“The United States wants peace, not conflict.” – said Bill Clinton just before the US launched a cruise missile attack against Sudan and Afghanistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile_strikes_on_Afghanistan_and_Sudan_(August_1998)



September 1998
Aircrash
Swissair flight 111 from New York to Geneva, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, September 2 1998
Casualties: 229 dead, 0 survivors
Type of plane: McDonnell Douglas MD-11
Cause of crash: Black boxes stopped six minutes before the plane crashed, suggesting a complete failure of the aircraft's systems
Air crashes blamed on military pulses
Robin McKie, Science Editor; Sunday September 10, 2000; The Observer
Electromagnetic pulses from military craft may have been responsible for several civilian airline disasters in the past four years. If the theory is proved correct, it suggests navy ships and air force planes pose a lethal threat to passenger flights.
Crash investigators have been startled by similarities between several tragedies. In particular, they have uncovered common features in two crashes: Swissair 111, on 2 September 1998, and TWA 800, on 17 July 1996. Both planes took off from the same airport, New York's JFK, on the same day, a Wednesday, at the same minute, 8.19pm. Both followed the same route over Long Island. Both reported trouble in the same region of airspace, and both suffered catastrophic electrical malfunctions. And on both occasions the planes were flying at a time when extensive military exercises - involving submarines and US Navy P3 fighter planes - were being conducted.
These factors - outlined by Elaine Scarry in the forthcoming issue of the New York Review of Books - suggest to many investigators that a routine weekly event, probably involving the generation of strong electromagnetic pulses by military personnel, may have triggered short-circuits in the two planes.
In the case of the TWA 800 flight, this could have caused a spark to set off a fire in its fuel tanks. Alternatively, a pulse could have knocked out instruments, causing the Boeing 747 to spin out of control, making metal parts tear and produce sparks.
In the case of the Swissair 111, a fire was reported in the cabin and the plane plunged into the sea off the coast of Nova Scotia.

September 7 -- John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights, and former Senator Bob Dole delivered a stern warning to Milosevic concerning prisoners and refugees in Kosovo. - Dr S D Stein.
September 23 -- The U.N. Security Council approved (China abstained) resolution 1199, which demands a cessation of hostilities and warns that, "should the measures demanded in this resolution...not be taken...additional measures to maintain or restore peace and stability in the region" will be considered. Document compiled by Dr S D Stein, Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk, ©S D Stein, http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/Kosovo/Kosovo-chronology3.htm
September 24 -- NATO took the first formal steps toward military intervention in Kosovo, approving two contingency operation plans, one for air strikes and the second for monitoring and maintaining a ceasefire agreement if one is reached.  - Dr S D Stein.
September 29 -- The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees announces on September 29 that as many as 200,000 civilians have been displaced within Kosovo since fighting began in February.  - Dr S D Stein.
September - The Serbian army continues to attack villages in the Drenica region of Kosovo.
United Nations Security Council votes in favour of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Kosovo, and warning the Yugoslav Government of "additional measures" if it fails to comply. Nato takes the first formal steps towards military intervention in Kosovo.
Heavy fighting continues despite Serbian assurances that the offensive is over. At least 36 ethnic Albanian civilians are reported to have been massacred in three separate incidents.

October 1998
October 31st Iraq suspended all cooperation with inspectors.
October 1 -- The White House urges Yugoslav President Milosevic to heed Western demands for a ceasefire and withdrawal of Serbian troops from Kosovo and the Clinton administration's national security team lays the groundwork before members of Congress for possible NATO military intervention. Special U.N. Security Council consultations on the Kosovo crisis begin at the initiation of the British government.  October 12 -- Clinton announces that Milosevic has committed to comply fully with UN 1199 and to allow for a verification regime. NATO agrees to delay a decision on air strikes for 96 hours.
Milosevic agreed at last minute.com to a truce calling for the removal of Serbian troops from Kosovo. Fighting continued in the region.
October 15 -- NATO Secretary General Solana signs the agreement for NATO forces to carry out the air verification regime on Serbia's committment to comply with UN 1199.
October 16 -- OSCE President Geremek signs the agreement covering the ground verification regime for the 2,000 members of the Verification Mission. Document compiled by Dr S D Stein, Stuart.Stein@uwe.ac.uk, ©S D Stein, http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/Kosovo/Kosovo-chronology3.htm
October 16 -- NATO extended the deadline for the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" to come into compliance with terms of the accord on Kosovo, giving President Slobodan Milosevic until October 27 to honor the agreement.
October - Western nationals are advised to leave Yugoslavia as Nato prepares for air strikes.
Nato countries give the go-ahead for military action against Yugoslavia if President Milosevic does not comply with United Nations resolutions on Kosovo.
Following intensive diplomatic efforts by US envoy Richard Holbrooke, Yugoslavia agrees to allow a 2,000-strong monitoring force into Kosovo to ensure it complies with UN demands, averting the immediate prospect of Nato airstrikes.

November 1998
WHITEWATER - Nov. 13, 1998 Starr brings a third indictment against Hubbell, this one alleging lies to Congress and federal banking regulators.
Nov. 19, 1998 During the first day of impeachment hearings, Starr clears Clinton in relation to the firing of White House travel office workers in 1993 and the improper collection of FBI files revealed in 1996. He also says his office drafted an impeachment referral stemming from Whitewater in 1997, but decided not to send it because the evidence was insufficient.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

1998 – Hart-Rudman Commission established by Clinton in 1998 to study homeland security. Hart lobbied the new administration “but noone wanted to hear what he and his fellow commissioners had to say.” Former Whitehouse intelligence Chief Richard Clarke said he started talking to Condi Rice – but she would not listen to his warning that the “terrorists are coming”…”Every time he said OBL they said Saddam Hussein.” – Gary Hart.
Bin Laden – CIA director George Tenet seemed to take the various threats seriously. In December he wrote to his deputies that ‘we are at war’ with OBL. So impressed was the FBI by his warnings that by 20th September 2001, ‘the FBI still had only one analyst assigned full-time to al Qaida.’ Gore Vidal – Observer.

Clinton missile attacked Sudan’s al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory on grounds that Sudan was harbouring evil bin liner terrorists making chemical and biological weapons. The factory was making vaccines for the UN.


November 4th – The UN Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Iraq and demands that it immediately resume cooperation with the inspectors.
November 7th – The UN began withdrawing its arms inspectors from Baghdad.
November 15th to 16th – Iraq does an about face and agreed to let UN inspectors in. Clinton vows the US is “ready to act” in case…
November -- Dozens of international monitors begin training in Kosovo before fanning out throughout the province to verify October's cease-fire agreement.
November- The United States special envoy for Kosovo, Christopher Hill, says the humanitarian and security situation in the Serbian province has improved significantly in the few weeks after the Belgrade ceasefire agreement.
But later in the month Nato and the US accuse both the Belgrade government and the ethnic Albanian rebels of endangering the cease-fire in Kosovo.
Dozens of international monitors begin training in Kosovo before going into the field to verify October's ceasefire agreement.

December 1998
Decemebr 15th the International Atomic Energy Agency had eliminated Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme.
Weapons inspectors withdrew from Iraq on December 16th, ordered out by Richard Butler, the head of UNSCOM
Scott Ritter – senior UNSCOM weapons inspector: “by 1998 the chemical weapons infrastructure had been completely dismantled or destroyed by UNSCOM or by Iraq in compliance with our mandate.” And went on to say the biological and nuclear weapons programmes were gone and all major facilities eliminated. “If I had to quantify Iraq’s threat, I would say [it is] zero.” Page 56 pilger. The US led UN Arms inspection team left Iraq – other inspectors continue their work.
Hours later 4 days of US-GB air and missile strikes began. Punishment for lack of cooperation.
December 16th – US launched operation Desert Fox – an airstrike on Iraq a day after Chief UN weapons inspector Richard Butler issued a report saying Iraq had failed to live up to its promise to restore full co-operation with the UN special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of disarming Iraq.
The bombing of Iraq was conducted without SC approval and without consultations with allies. The withdrawal of the inspectors was ordered by Richard Butler, the head of UNSCOM. “France was also annoyed with Washington for getting Butler to pull out his inspectors from Iraq without discussions with the SC. “US Sec of state Allbright did not speak with Sec Gen Annan, issued a personal statement calling this a ‘sad day’ for the world and ‘me personally’ because of his failure to avert the use of force.” Steven Erlanger – “US Decision to Act fast, and then Search for Support Angers Some Allies”, NY Times, December 17th, 1998, p.A14.
USAF and RAF daily bombing of Iraqi civilians in December 1998. According to Hasifa Zengana, Iraqi novelist and painter, September 17th, 2002.
Decemebr 28th – US jets fire on an Iraqi post in the northern no-fly zone. Iraq claimed four Iraqis dead, seven wounded. Similar incident on December 30th. Iraq vowed to defy western patrolled NFZ in north and south Iraq.

December 13 -- Serbs claim more than 30 ethnic Albanians are killed in a series of engagements along the border
December 23 -- The United States condemns the military action undertaken by combined forces of the Yugoslav Army and internal security police near Podujevo, Kosovo.
December - The Serbian authorities say their forces killed at least 30 ethnic Albanians in the worst clash since October's ceasefire agreement.
US special envoy Richard Holbooke warns differences between Serbs and ethnic Albanians over the future of Kosovo remain very grave.
Fresh fighting breaks out in northern Kosovo, jeopardising international efforts to renegotiate a truce.

Indonesia – Suhart ousted

Orlando Letelier assassination?

Afghanistan
Clinton Administration backed plans for a $4.5bn (£2.78bn) oil pipeline deal between Unocal and the Taliban. Four Afghan clerics arrived on an oil rig (by helicopter) in the Gulf of Mexico to meet Unocal directors – Washington Post revealed it.
Then a month later – a meeting in Texas.
Pipeline needed to carry Caspian Sea oil to the Indian sub-continent. 790 miles – oil from North Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan and out into the Persian Gulf.
Clinton believes that the line would free the new states of Central Asia from dependency on Russia and bypass Iran and Iraq.
US women’s movement trying to stop the deal. Setting up a bizarre partnership of feminists and right wing Republicans in Congress.
Madelaine Allbright called the Taliban regime “despicable”.

The Taliban aware of US concern over OBL suggested in October 1999, “a trial by a panel of Islamic soldiers or monitoring of “OBL Afghanistan” by the organisation of Islamic Conferences (OIC) or the United Naitons.” www.nsarchive.org
The US government – between 96 and 2001 had pressed the Taliban over 30 times to expel OBL – talks were always fruitless. Only thee of the approaches took place in the first year of GW’s administration. www.nsarchive.org

The US tried to enforce an international investment blockade of Iran – but European and Asian energy companies ignored it, especially from the UK. Shell and Monument oil were leading a consortia to build pipelines from Turkmenistan, into Iran and auto world beyond.
Rift between US and Europe on this issue.

Turkmenistan president – Saparmurad Niyazov. – courted and encouraged by the US in his attempts to reduce dependence on Russia.
Turkmens cannot sell their oil – cut off for decades by neighbour Iran and Moscow.
In March the gas to Russia was switched off. In December joined Iran in opening a new gas pipeline between the two countries.
US alarmed at (1997?) £1.2bn French-Russia-Malaysia deal to develop an Iranian gas field, the US is now watching Shell carry out a 9 month survey of a nine-month survey of a future 940-mile pipeline to carry Turkmen gas through Iran to Turkey.

Philippines
Joseph Estrada, former actor, became president – failed to resign after bribery claims which led to impeachment in 2000.

Gaby Rado got an Amnesty Internaitonal Award for a story about oppression of muslim minority Uighurs in northwest China.

US embassy bombings – Kenya and Tanzania – “al Qaida affiliated” group claimed responsibility. The Islamic Army – 224 killed in embassies.
Polish-Islamic convert Christian Ganczorski.
Sheikh Mohammed – a Kuwaiti
Rohan Gumaratna – terrorism expert at St Andrew’s University.

Panama
1996 – 1998 multiple armed confrontations took place between Panamanian National Guardsmen and rebels of the Northwestern bloc of the FARC (revolutionary armed forces of Colombia). In 1998 the control exercised by the FARC in the Uraba region of Colombia adjacent to Panama virtually collapsed in the face of a offensice by some 1,800 right wing paramilitary forces led by Carlos Castano. – CNN

Brazil
October – Cardoso, first ever re-elected President. IMF provides “rescue” package after economy hit by collapse of Asian stock markets.

Cyprus
Government began EU accession talks.

Northern Ireland
Former President Bush offered “economic tsar” for Northern Ireland? 29/04/98 – Guardian.
Gordon Brown made a private approach to Bush in June 97.

Arms Dealing
“BAe wins US arms contract”, Financial Times, October 1998.
The contract is to run Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Kingsport, Tennessee – the only US manufacturer of explosives HMX and RDX used from bullets to nuclear bombs and RDX used in Anti-personnel landmines. Some 40% to be made in Bridgewater, Somerset, due to US plant being closed for modernisation. Landmines Act 1998 makes it an offence to supply or enter into a contract to supply any component part of anti-personnel landmines. US are not signatories of Ottowa Convention banning production and use of Anti-personnel landmines.
BAe contract to produce 500,000 assault rifles in Turkey channel four story about munitions made in Pakistan under licensed production by Royal Ordinance, turned up in Algeria, BAe had a 20% stake in a company called PSG Ltd which did sell Electro shock batons.
Government reinsurance scheme (ECGD) - ? and BAe.

Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) Debt Initiative failed to ease burden of debt on the poor. “A significant proportion of the existing Third World debt has arisen as a result of the high military spending of authoritarian and militaristic regimes. During the Cold War creditors lent indiscriminately to military regimes who used the resources to fund arms purchases rather than development programmes.”
“Many military regimes have [now] been replaced by democratically elected governments…[but] find themselves financially constrained by the burden of debt inherited from previously regimes…over half the countries currently classified as HIPCs are engaged in conflict or have recently emerged from conflict and are highly fragile states…the IMF’s stringent economic reform programmes has exacerbated internal inequalities and tensions.”

CAAT report.

US refugee Ritt Goldstein, former JP and local councillor in Norwalk, Connecticut. He and his home repeatedly attacked and his brakes disconnected. He had been campaigning for the local police force to be overseen by a civilian board. So he went to Sweden  and requesed asylum. WHAT HAPPENED?


Human Rights Watch says that although zero-tolerance policing has been credited with lowering crime rates, it has also led to sharp increases in complaints against the police. Guardian – date?

Colombia
Chomsky: in Colombia the situation deteriorated to such an extent that one of Colombia’s most prominent and courageous human rights activists, Fatehr Javier Giraldo, who heads the church based peace and justice centre, had to flee the country under death threats.
Human rights Watch reported on Colombia in 1998.
The state Terror questions follow guidelines provided by the JFK administration. Page 50. “lessons from Ksosvo”. US military aid continues to be “used in indiscriminate bombing” and other atrocities.
Washington gave Colombia $289m in foreign aid to improve its military and police capabilities to confront guerrillas and drugs. US to increase Colombia aid to greater than $1bn next year.
Dole is the leading producer and supplier of fresh fruit and vegetables and a leader in the production of bananas and pineapples (2001 revenues of $4.5 billion). It has been expanding into fresh-cut flower production and markets a growing line of packaged foods. Dole is the largest employer in Colombia and employs 51,000 workers in Latin America on 44,000 hectares of prime farmland. They control banana production in Colombia and in 1998 they bought 25 percent of the flower cultivation industry. Colombia is the second largest exporter of flowers in the world. Two-thirds of fresh-cut flowers sold in the United States come from Colombia. Dole is the largest producer of fresh flowers in Latin America with over 90 percent of production shipped into North America.
The industry has hurt the environment of a central savannah where most of the flowers are grown. Aquifers there have dried up, requiring water to be brought in from Bogotá. Toxic residues from pesticides banned in Europe have turned up in groundwater. One-fifth of the chemicals used in the Colombian industry’s greenhouses have been restricted in the United States for health reasons (Aldicarb, DDT, Lindane, Aldrin, and Metomil). Studies by local non-governmental organisations have found that nearly two-thirds of Colombian flower workers suffer from peculiar illnesses, ranging from nausea to miscarriage. Dole employs 11,133 mostly women workers in the Colombian flower industry. Many make less than 60 cents an hour and women who become pregnant are immediately terminated from their jobs. Last year Dole agreed to participate in an environmental standards program, but the government provides no effective monitoring or enforcement of the standards.
The IUF, an international union of agricultural and restaurant workers, has been waging a campaign for a year now against Dole Food. This dispute originated over Dole’s treatment of banana workers and subcontracted co-operatives in the Philippines. Dole gets about 40 percent of its bananas from Colombia and Ecuador. In Ecuador Dole is considered the largest employer of child labour and is active in resisting unions and improvements in working conditions. In mid-July Dole agreed to pay $24 million to 3,000 Honduran banana workers exposed to sterility and cancer causing pesticides used on company plantations over the last 30 years.
BP having difficulties operating in Casanare region of Colombia – where it had been exploiting oil reserves worth more then £25m since 1991. The area is largely controlled by left-wing guerrillas – BP employees have been killed.
Investigation by Jose Castro Caycedo, the Colombia government’s highly respected independent ombudsman – into BP’s environmental record 1991 – 1997.
“A devastating catalogue of pollution, illegal deforestation, water contamination and the dumping of untreated toxic waste in Casanare.”
BP have been levied fines for “serious environmental damage caused by 12 wells and 2 oil processing facilities during the period 1991 to 1997.”
BP received the biggest fine in Colombia history for serious environmental damage at 5 oil rigs in 1994. Criticism of its human rights record too – Human Rights Watch says BP “has not taken adequate steps to prevent abuses and to address those that have occurred.”
“Since 1994 at least six people have been assassinated and others falsely imprisoned or harassed by the army for speaking out against the environmental excesses of the BP led oil boom in the area.” BP had made payments to the Colombian military – criticised by Euro Parliament and NGOs.
BP bought Amoco? Sir John Browne – it’s his plan to meld Amoco and BP – the world’s biggest industrial merger and will make BP a world player. Able to rival Exxon and Shell. Unique among senior oil executives for committing to serious debate on global warming – he drove BP to break ranks with the oil industry – taking global warming seriously.
David Simon – Lord Simon – British minister for Trade and Competitiveness in Europe – headed BP at time of abuses after 1991.