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Weekly Newsletter of the Green Party of Ohio
Vol. I, No. 26 -- November 17, 2001
(This newsletter distributed to 2,877)
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F E A T U R E D   I N   T H I S   I S S U E
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1) WIEHL CLOSE IN ATHENS CITY COUNCIL RACE
2) CINCINNATI PASSES PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FINANCING
3) MISSOURI JOINS GREEN PARTY OF THE U.S.
4) U.S. POLICY TOWARDS TALIBAN INFLUENCED BY OIL
5) IN A TIME OF TERROR, PROTEST IS PATRIOTISM
6) UNINSURED AMERICANS: WEAK LINK IN DEFENSE
7) MAINE VOTERS FAVOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
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1) WIEHL CLOSE IN ATHENS CITY COUNCIL RACE
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Provisional votes are to be certified Nov. 20 in the
Athens City Council race in which Green Party endorsed
candidate Paul Wiehl is within 13 votes of winning
a seat. There are 389 provisional votes not counted
in the Nov. 6 total which may help put Wiehl on top
or require a state-mandated recount.

For the entire Nov. 15 story from The Athens News, visit:
http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=5382

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2) CINCINNATI PASSES PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FINANCING
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"Cincinnati will have public financing of political
campaigns after all.

"Issue 6, the Cincinnati charter amendment for public
financing of city candidates' campaigns, apparently
failed on Election Night - Nov. 6 - by a mere 23 votes
in the unofficial count, but it passed by 547 votes in
the official count Saturday, out of nearly 85,000 cast.

"There will be no recount. If there were, opponents
would have to pay nearly $4,000 to do it, and an oppo-
sition leader said Saturday that is highly unlikely. . . .

"Proponents of the charter amendment, who were outspent
by about 5-to-1 by the opposition, were jubilant Saturday
that the official count -- which included several thousand
punch card ballots that were not counted on Election Night
-- gave them a victory. . . .

The new system, which goes into effect with the 2003 city
council election cycle, is aimed at cutting the costs of
running for council and mayor.

Candidates who agree to limit their spending to three
times the annual salary of the office they are seeking
would get $2 in public funds for every $1 they raise
on their own.

Council candidates would agree to spend no more than
$167,103 on their campaigns. Some candidates have
routinely spent much more than that in recent council
elections.

It would also set campaign contribution limits --
$1,000 from individuals, $2,500 from political action
committees, and $10,000 from political parties.

"The system is voluntary -- candidates can opt not to
take the matching funds and raise as much as they want. . . .

"Other cities, including Tucson, Ariz., and New York
City, have similar public financing laws and have not
had successful legal challenges, Mr. Strauss said. . . ."

For the complete Cincinnati Enquirer article, see:
http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/11/18/loc_official_count_yes.html

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3) MISSOURI JOINS GREEN PARTY OF THE U.S.
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On November 8, 2001 the Green Party of the United
States admitted to its ranks the Progressive Party
of Missouri (PPM), the 34th state Green party to join
the national federation.

Founded in June, Missouri's new Progressive Party
is led by veteran Green organizers, including some
who've been Green activists since 1984, and others
who joined the party for municipal and statewide
campaigns since then. Missouri Greens took part in
the Nader/LaDuke presidential campaigns of both 1996
and 2000.

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4) U.S. POLICY TOWARDS TALIBAN INFLUENCED BY OIL
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-- By Julio Godoy, Inter Press Service

PARIS, Nov 15 (IPS) - Under the influence of U.S. oil
companies, the government of George W. Bush initially
blocked U.S. secret service investigations on terror-
ism, while it bargained with the Taliban the delivery
of Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recogni-
tion and economic aid, two French intelligence
analysts claim.

In the book "Bin Laden, la verite interdite" ("Bin
Laden, the forbidden truth"), that appeared in Paris
on Wednesday, the authors, Jean-Charles Brisard and
Guillaume Dasquie, reveal that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's deputy director John O'Neill resigned
in July in protest over the obstruction.

Brisard claims O'Neill told them that "the main obstacles
to investigate Islamic terrorism were U.S. oil corporate
interests and the role played by Saudi Arabia in it."

The two claim the U.S. government's main objective in
Afghanistan was to consolidate the position of the
Taliban regime to obtain access to the oil and gas
reserves in Central Asia.

They affirm that until August, the U.S. government saw
the Taliban regime "as a source of stability in Central
Asia that would enable the construction of an oil pipe-
line across Central Asia," from the rich oilfields in
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, through
Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Indian Ocean.

Until now, says the book, "the oil and gas reserves of
Central Asia have been controlled by Russia. The Bush
government wanted to change all that."

But, confronted with Taliban's refusal to accept U.S.
conditions, "this rationale of energy security changed
into a military one," the authors claim.

"At one moment during the negotiations, the U.S.
representatives told the Taliban, 'either you accept
our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a
carpet of bombs'," Brisard said in an interview in Paris.

According to the book, the government of Bush began to
negotiate with the Taliban immediately after coming into
power in February. U.S. and Taliban diplomatic representa-
tives met several times in Washington, Berlin and Islamabad.

To polish their image in the United States, the Taliban
even employed a U.S. expert on public relations, Laila
Helms. The authors claim that Helms is also an expert in
the works of U.S. secret services, for her uncle, Richard
Helms, is a former director of the Central Intelligence
Agency.

The last meeting between U.S. and Taliban representatives
took place in August, five weeks before the attacks on New
York and Washington, the analysts maintain.

On that occasion, Christina Rocca, in charge of Central
Asian affairs for the U.S. government, met the Taliban
ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad.

Brisard and Dasquie have long experience in intelligence
analysis. Brisard was until the late 1990s director of
economic analysis and strategy for Vivendi, a French
company. He also worked for French secret services, and
wrote for them in 1997 a report on the now famous Al Qaeda
network, headed by bin Laden.

Dasquie is an investigative journalist and publisher of
Intelligence Online, a respected newsletter on diplomacy,
economic analysis and strategy, available through the Internet.

Brisard and Dasquie draw a portrait of closest aides to
President Bush, linking them to oil business.

Bush's family has a strong oil background. So [do] some
of his top aides. From the U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney,
through the director of the National Security Council
Condoleeza Rice, to the Ministers of Commerce and Energy,
Donald Evans and Stanley Abraham, all have for long worked
for U.S. oil companies.

Cheney was until the end of last year president of
Halliburton, a company that provides services for oil
industry; Rice was between 1991 and 2000 manager for
Chevron; Evans and Abraham worked for Tom Brown, another
oil giant.

Besides the secret negotiations held between Washington
and Kabul and the importance of the oil industry, the
book takes issue with the role played by Saudi Arabia
in fostering Islamic fundamentalism, in the personality
of bin Laden, and with the networks that the Saudi
dissident built to finance his activities.

Brisard and Dasquie contend the U.S. government's claim
that it had been prosecuting bin Laden since 1998.
"Actually," Dasquie says, "the first state to officially
prosecute bin Laden was Libya, on the charges of terrorism."

"Bin Laden wanted [to] settle in Libya in the early 1990s,
but was hindered by the government of Muammar Qaddafi,"
Dasquie claims. "Enraged by Libya's refusal, bin Laden
organized attacks inside Libya, including assassination
attempts against Qaddafi."

Dasquie singles out one group, the Islamic Fighting Group
(IFG), reputedly the most powerful Libyan dissident
organization, based in London, and directly linked with
bin Laden.

"Qaddafi even demanded Western police institutions,
such as Interpol, to pursue the IFG and bin Laden, but
never obtained co-operation," Dasquie says. "Until today,
members of IFG openly live in London."

The book confirms earlier reports that the U.S. government
worked closely with the United Nations during the negotia-
tions with the Taliban.

"Several meetings took place this year, under the arbitra-
tion of Francesc Vendrell, personal representative of UN
secretary general Kofi Annan, to discuss the situation in
Afghanistan," says the book.

"Representatives of the U.S. government and Russia, and
the six countries that border with Afghanistan were pre-
sent at these meetings," it says. "Sometimes, representa-
tives of the Taliban also sat around the table."

These meetings, also called "6+2" because of the number
of states (six neighbors plus U.S. and Russia) involved,
have been confirmed by Naif Naik, former Pakistani Mini-
ster for Foreign Affairs.

In a French television news programme two weeks ago, Naik
said during a "6+2" meeting in Berlin in July, the discus-
sions turned around "the formation of a government of
national unity. If the Taliban had accepted this coali-
tion, they would have immediately received international
economic aid."

"And the pipe lines from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan would
have come," he added.

Naik also claimed that Tom Simons, the U.S. representa-
tive at these meetings, openly threatened the Taliban
and Pakistan.

"Simons said, 'either the Taliban behave as they ought
to, or Pakistan convinces them to do so, or we will
use another option'. The words Simons used were 'a
military operation,'" Naik claimed.

Copyright © 2001 IPS North America

This article can be read on the Web at:
http://commondreams.org/headlines01/1115-06.htm

To subscribe to The IPS Daily Journal Online:
http://www.ipsdailyjournal.org

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5) IN A TIME OF TERROR, PROTEST IS PATRIOTISM
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Jim Hightower -- former Texas Agricultural Commis-
sioner (1983-91), national radio commentator, and
author of If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They
Would Have Given Us Candidates -- gives his per-
spective on current events at:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11924

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6) UNINSURED AMERICANS: WEAK LINK IN DEFENSE
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Uninsured Americans represent "one of the weakest
links in our homeland defense" against bioterrorism,
Ted Halstead and Michael Lind of New America Founda-
tion wrote in a USA Today opinion piece published
Nov. 12.

Halstead and Lind write, "Health experts say the
early detection of illness is one of the best ways to
counteract bioterrorism. But how can we do that when
nearly 40 million Americans lack access to basic
health insurance?" They add that uninsured workers
who cannot pay for doctor visits and tests and forgo
early diagnosis or treatment may become "unwitting
accomplices of bioterrorism."

According to Halstead and Lind, the delay in diag-
nosis or treatment could "delay the discovery that
they -- and others around them -- are victims of
biological warfare." They write, "Thanks to the
anthrax attacks, the debate about whether every
American should have health insurance should be
over. The only question now should be how to pro-
vide universal coverage."

Halstead and Lind propose a "citizen-based," rather
than employer-based, universal health care system.
They write that employer-based health insurance
"made some sense" in the past, when many employees
"aspired to lifetime jobs with one firm." However,
Halstead and Lind point out that U.S. employees
today have an average job tenure of only three to
five years, adding that the employer-based health
system has left 40 million Americans without insur-
ance. They suggest that Americans should purchase
their own health insurance in a system where the
government would subsidize the cost for those "too
poor or sick to pay for coverage," similar to a
system in Switzerland.

Halstead and Lind conclude that in an era of bio-
terrorism, the number of uninsured Americans repre-
sents "not only a personal disaster for those
struggling to stay well without health insurance,"
but also a "threat to the security of all Americans."

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7) MAINE VOTERS FAVOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
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On Nov. 6, Portland, Maine, residents voted in favor
of universal health care in a test of public sentiment.
According to the final unofficial tally, the advi-
sory referendum for a single-payer health care system
passed by 532 votes, a 52% to 48% margin. The ballot
measure, a non-binding resolution, calls on the Portland
City Council to send a resolution to the state Legis-
lature in support of a universal health care system.
In addition, the ballot initiative would require the
Portland Health and Human Services Department to issue
an annual report to the council about the benefits of
a single-payer system.

Supporters of the ballot measure, led by the Labor Party,
a five-year-old political party with chapters in 26 states,
said that Portland residents could "send a strong message"
to state lawmakers that Maine should become the first
state to establish a universal health care system. However,
opponents of the ballot initiative, including Maine insurers,
said that a single-payer health care system would cost Port-
land residents an additional $170 million per year in taxes
and limit "consumer choice." They also said that a universal
health care system would lead to longer waits for treatment
and limited access to specialists and prescription drugs.
The unusual ballot measure was highlighted in the last few
weeks after Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state's
largest insurer, and other insurers launched a $380,000
statewide television and radio advertising campaign to
defeat the initiative. Last year, Maine lawmakers rejected
a proposal to create a $3.4 billion single-payer system but
created a board to study the issue. The panel is expected
to issue a report by March.

To read a NY Times article on this referendum, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/16/national/16MAIN.html?todaysheadlines

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Copyright © 2001, Green Party of Ohio.
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