The SPOTLIGHT July 5, 1999

RUSSIA WINS KOSOVO SHOWDOWN

Clinton's rosy picture of Kosovo doesn't stand up to a reality check. The Russians got all they wanted.

By Mike Blair

The deal hammered out in Helsinki, Finland on June 19 leaves the Russians in control of a vital airport in the capital of Pristina.

The agreement was negotiated by U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen with Russian Defense Minister Marshall Igor Sergeyev on the issue of the part the Russians will play in so-called "peacekeeping" efforts in the war-torn Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

Cohen had been given marching orders by President Bill Clinton to have a deal in place over Kosovo with the Russians by the time he was scheduled to meet with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, two days later at the economic summit in Cologne, Germany.

The agreement has been haild as a great achievement for the Clinton administration and NATO, but the Establishment media has only glossed over the fine print. The United states and Nato have left their planned 50,000 occupying troops in Kosovo at high risk, with the Russians clearly holding the key to their security.

When Cohen met with Sergeyev, the Russians held a dagger to his throat -- some 300 of their crack airborne troops in total control of the Pristina airport. The Russians refused entry to NATO forces.

Much of the Pristina airport is built underground to make it survivable under nuclear attack.

Despite being hit numerous times by NATO bombers, Yugoslav MIG jet fighters based there came through the bombardment undamaged in underground hangars. The airport was considered by Yugoslav forces as one of its top=secret facilities.

The airport is key to the future of NATO occupation of Kosovo because most supplies and support for the peacekeeping forces must pass through it.

At the end of the Cohen-Sergeyev negotiations, a deal was signed by both which leaves the airport in Russian control. Russian troop strength there was increased to 750 men.

AIRPORT A FORTRESS

By the time the agreement was made the Russians had already turned the airport into a fortress. It was ringed with a barrier of dug-in snipers to discourage any infiltration.

The deal allows the airport to remain the headquarters for Russia's agreed upon 3,600 troops in Kosovo, with its commander also in charge of the airport itself.

The Russians will also be running airport maintenance and security. NATO forces will be in charge of airport traffic control to facilitate the landings and take-offs of NATO aircraft flying supplies, as well as troops or reinforcement in the event of a crisis.

The Russians are in a position to shut down the airport at any time, leaving NATO unable to adequately or quickly supply its 50,000 peacekeepers.

Also under the agreement, the Russian troops will have 16 liaison officers in Kosovo and will patrol the province in three main areas: The northern part of the sector controlled by U.S. forces, the northwestern part of a section under German control and a small piece of a French-controlled sector in the north.

The key word here is "north." The Russians will have a presence in the part of Kosovo most important to the Serbs - the north -- where most of their religious sites are located, as well as many of the province's mines and natural resources.

The SPOTLIGHT July 5, 1999

MEDIA BOOSTS BILDERBERG LINE

The mainstream press carries Bilderberg's silent message.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

You are reading a lot about Bilderberg in the Establishment press but the term is never used as the secret elite sends its "silent message" around the world.

Bilderberg called for forgiving big chunks of Russian and other poor nations' debts at its recent meeting in Portugal (SPOTLIGHT, June 21, 1999).

Just days after Bilderberg emerged from behind the guarded, sealed-off Caesar Park Penha Longa resort in Sintra, Portugal, one of its house organs, The Washington Post called for such debt forgiveness in an editorial (June 16).

Carrying the message back to Washington was Post publisher Donald Graham, a first-time Bilderberg participant. Helping carry the Bilderberg message was Jim Hoagland, associate editor and regular participant in Bilderberg and its brother group, the Trilateral and its brother group, the Trilateral Commission.

The Post's Paul Blustein did not attend Bilderberg but took his dictation from those who did, lifting the words "new global architecture" from the mouth of Kenneth Clarke in a commentary on world finance June 20.

Clarke, a British member of parliament and former chancellor of the exchequer, called for a new "international financial architecture" was announced in the Financial Times two days (June 8) after Steven Rattner, deputy chief executive of Lazard Freres & Co., returned from the Bilderberg meeting.

In endorsing the Bilderberg agenda, the Post editorial said:

"The Question then, is not whether to write off some debts but how many and in what way...The developed world could easily afford to be more generous.

President Clinton, who attended the Bilderberg meeting in 1991, called for forgiving $70 billion worth of debt to 46 African nations on June 17. The current federal budget provides for $245 million in debt forgiveness and the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2000 includes $237 million in debt relief.

Also, as directed by Bilderberg, leaders of the world's seven leading industrialized nations, meeting in Cologne, Germany, acted to relieve Russia's financial stress.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, host of the summit, told Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin that the G-7 would urge the International Monetary fund to release $4.5 billion in aid and help restructure its $69 billion debt from the Soviet era.

Russia is to get more money, the amount yet unspecified, to help dismantle obsolete nuclear weapons, safely dispose of plutonium stocks and find employment for scientists who might otherwise be tempted to sell their nuclear expertise to "rogue" nations.

FINANCIAL TRENDS

What could be the beginning of the new "international financial architecture" was announced in the Financial Times two days (June 8) after Steven Rattner, deputy chief executive of Lazard Freres & Co., returned from the Bilderberg meeting.

"The Lazard investment banks in London, Paris and New York are to centralize their ownership structure," the Times reported.

"The planned change signals Lazard's acknowledgment that its loosely-federated structure needs to be updated to deal with its global clientele," the Times reported.

That the announcement was dictated by Bilderberg becomes clear when the Times' financial entanglements are examined.

Pearson, a media group that owns the Financial Times, also owns 50 percent of Lazard Partners and has smaller direct stakes in the New York and Paris bands. Companies associated with Lazard own 7.1 percent of Pearson.

SURPRISE VISITOR

The action follows a Bilderberg-prompted trend of recent years toward huge bank mergers putting control of the world's money into fewer -- but more powerful -- hands.

A SPOTLIGHT reader has informed this newspaper that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was present at this year's Bilderberg meeting. The official guest list ran in the June 21 issue. Chretien isn't mentioned.

Canada's ambassador to the U.S. has already called for open borders with the United States.

Often times the plutocrats' "official" list fails to mention all of the participants. For example, first lady Hillary Clinton visited the Georgia confab in 1997, she wasn't mentioned by the one-worlders.

The SPOTLIGHT July 5, 1999

INTERNATIONAL DEBT DRIVES GLOBALISM

Starving children are being held as pawns in the affairs of internationalists.

By Martin Mann

The specter of a homogenized world, ruled by cosmopolitan financial elites, turned into menacing reality this month at the summit meeting of seven wealthy nations and Russia, the G-8, when the assembled leaders adopted a major new international bailout scheme known as "debt relief."

They announced there will be some debt forgiveness for poor and developing nations, and sounded smugly self-satisfied about it, too," related Diamad Donnelly, the Irish broadcast reporter who covered the summit held in Cologne, Germany.

What the summiteers failed to announce was that any government requesting such relief "will have to surrender its economic sovereignty unconditionally to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the world Bank and other global financial bureaucrats," he explained.

The Cologne conclave's conclusions now await ratification by the legislatures of the participating governments.

"It's a new coalition of politicians and bureaucrats, heads of state and chiefs of government, who are inexplicably willing to subordinate their historic sovereign posers to the dictates of one-world economists and cosmopolitan speculators," says Dr. Ulla Borggren, a visiting lecturer in European economic history at the State University of New York.

The G-8 decision makers are national leaders who just want to be "global citizens," Dr. Borggren said.

They have "re-pledged their allegiance, so to speak, to the international financial markets instead of their own countries and constitutions," she added.

CRIPPLING

Led by President Bill Clinton, the G-8 group announced on June 21 that it intends to cancel some $70 billion of the crippling foreign credits owed by Third world countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America.

Clinton hailed the decision as "an historic step to help the world's poorest nations achieve sustained growth and independence."

But the announcement met with a skeptical reception even among Establishment commentators and economists.

"The question is whether reality will match up with this self-congratulatory rhetoric," sneered Robert Chote, economics editor of the influential Financial Times.

It will not, asserted Prof. Steven Radelet, a Harvard University economist. "This is a very insubstantial set of proposals...we may be merely setting up ourselves for a crisis," he concluded.

Other observers warned that the crushing foreign debt these barefoot countries must service already amounts to a crisis.

Describing the plight of the 41 strapped states, know in World Bank "bureaucratese" as heavily indebted poor countries, British economist Kevin Watkins pointed out that some 50 million primary school-age children are not in school in these nations.

"This year, 4 million of these children will die of poverty-related causes, largely because their governments spend a great deal more on debt service than on health and education combined. The cost of international borrowing effectively claims the lives of some 11,000 Third World children each day," Watkins argued.

But neither these children nor the rest of the world's poor will see much benefit from the latest scheme to discard a fraction of the long delinquent IOUs of these struggling countries, warned Dr. Borggren.

"More than half of the proposed debt-reduction total, some $65 to $70 billion, is owed to the IMF and the World Bank, and already flagged as 'incollectible'" he explained. "But debt cancellation will enable these two self-promoting global credit crunchers to continue pretending that there are no defaults, ever in their loan portfolios."

NO CHARITY

The G-8 plan to write off some of these long-lost loans is not a charitable impulse. It represents an entirely different, and hidden, strategy: To bring a large group of impecunious but independent countries under the direct governance of one-world financial bureaucracies such as the IMF and the World bank, Wall Street insiders and policy analysts say.

"Governments that apply for loan reduction will have to admit permanent IMF 'surveillance and compliance' teams into their home offices," said Adrian Pradier, a former World Bank economist.

Ensconced in the national treasury, finance ministry, central bank and presidential palace, the teams of administrators sent in by the IMF, the World Bank and the UN, will not just oversee but effectively control -- in fact, micro-manage -- the economies and the social order of these needy nations, he explained.

"It means the end of national sovereignty, constitutional governance and exonomic independence as we have known it," warned Donnelly. "It will be the beginning of real round-the-clock, house-by-house world government by financial elites, just as the populists have long predicted and protested it."

The SPOTLIGHT July 12, 1999

CLINTON MAY BE INDICTED FOR WAR CRIMES

The people of Yugoslavia are living under the rule of an indicted war criminal. Will the American public face a similar fate?

By Margo Turner

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is the first sitting head of state indicted for murder, forced deportations and persecution. The Serbian dictator may have company if an international lawsuit leads to the indictment of President Clinton and other NATO leaders for war crimes in the alliance's 11-week bombing against Yugoslavia.

Lawyers from Britain, Canada, Greece and Switzerland have met with Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor of the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to discuss evidence that showed NATO violated international law, thereby causing civilian death, injury and destruction in Yugoslavia.

Fifteen lawyers and law professors from Canada, Spain and France, as well as the American Association of Jurists which is a Pan American organization of lawyers, judges, law professors and students, are convinced that Clinton and other NATO leaders have committed war crimes in the NATO bombing Campaign against Yugoslavia.

In its lawsuit, the group names Clinton and 60 other heads of state and governments as well as foreign ministers, defense ministers and NATO violated the United Natins charter, the NATO treaty, and the Geneva Convention and the Principles of International Law recognized by the Nuremberg Tribunal.

During the NATO bombing, Yugoslavia was "exposed to extensive civilian destruction, unprecedented in modern history of the world," according to the lawsuit NATO focused its attacks "primarily on civilian targets, directly threatening the lives and fundamental human rights of the entire population" of Yugoslavia.

The lawsuit alleges that NATO leaders admitted to having agreed upon and ordered the bombing of civilian targets "being fully aware of their nature and effects." There is ample evidence in public statements by NATO leaders that "these on civilian targets are part of a deliberate attempt to terrorize the population to turn it against its leadership," the lawsuit claimed.

The lawsuit cites a statement made by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson:

"In the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Large numbers of civilians have incontestably been killed, civilian installations targeted on the grounds that they are or could be of military application and NATO remains sole judge of what is or is not acceptable to bomb. In this situation, the principle of proportionality must be adhered to by those carrying out the bombing campaign. It surely must be right to ask those carrying out the bombing campaign to weigh the consequences of their campaign for civilians in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Professor Michael Mandel from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada, is one of the professors making the charges. He says the bombing of civilians in Yugoslavia is criminal and punishable under the laws governing the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

"You cannot kill a woman and a child in Belgrade on the theoretical possibility that it might save a woman and a child in Pristina," Mandel added. "Even in a legal war you cannot kill civilians and destroy an entire country as a military strategy. But this is an illegal war and the NATO leaders are acting like outlaws."

Whether or not Clinton and other NATO leaders named in the lawsuit are indicted remains to be seen. The ICTY is conducting an ongoing investigation, according to Arbour when she announced May 27 the indictment of Milosevic and four senior associates - Milan Milutinovic, President of the Republic of Serbia; Nikola Sainovic, deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia; Dragoljub Ojdanic, chief of the general staff of the armed forces of Yugoslavia; and Vlajko Stojilkovic, Serbia's minister of internal affairs.

"This indictment is the product of intense efforts by a large number of people in my office," Arbour said. "It does not represent the totality of the charges that may result from our continuing investigation of these accused, nor does it represent our final determination of the responsibility of others in relation to the same events."

An appendix to the indictment includes 344 Kosovars who were casualties of mass killing in seven town in March and April. They range in age from 95 (Selim Nebihi, a male) to 2 (Diona Caka, a girl).

Milosevic and the four senior associates are alleged to be criminally responsible for the actions of Yugoslav military forces, the police force of Serbia, some police units from Yugoslavia and associated paramilitary units based on:

* Their individual responsibility, having planned, instigated, ordered or otherwise aided an abetted their planning, preparation or execution (Article 7.1 of the statute); and,

* In relation to four of them (Sainovic is the exception), their superior authority, having known or had reason to know that their subordinates were about to commit such acts or to punish those subordinates who did those acts (Article 7.3 of the statue).

The indictment is "a giant step for human rights, on the order of gen. Augusto Pinochet's arrest in London this past October, and has the integrity missing from NATO's war," according to an editorial by the Center for International Policy (CIP), based in Washington, D.C.

The editorial pointed out that NATO was quick to "trumpet" the indictment as justification for its air war against Yugoslavia. It further stated:

"But tribunals and truth commissions have validity only as alternatives to war and vengeance, not as adjuncts to bombing campaigns. Milosevic's crimes do not diminish the seriousness of NATO's violations of the Geneva convention or the immorality of its actions, which have caused dozens of civilian deaths and widespread destruction f non-military targets. The judges of the World court, even as they rejected Yugoslavia's petitions seeking an end to the bombing on the grounds that hey lacked jurisdiction, expressed 'profound concern" about the legal basis for NATO's action. How can the alliance applaud Milosevic's indictment under international law when it views itself as above those standards?

The ICTY "is everything this war is not," the editorial explained. The tribunal is chartered by and responsible to the UN, and is "truly transnational in leadership" -Mrs Arbour is Canadian, her predecessor was South African, and the judges are from Malaysia, Morocco and other countries. It is "rooted in a humane vision of international law as a vehicle for defending the victims of state abuse of power."

The SPOTLIGHT July 12, 1999

INTERNATIONALISTS CHARGED AS WAR CRIMINALS

Specifically charged in the lawsuit, by country are:

UNITED STATES: President Clinton, Secretary of Stare Madeleine Albright and Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen.

CANADA: Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Lloyd Axworthy and Arthur Eggleton.

BELGIUM: Prime Minisster Jean-Luc Dehaene, E. Derycke and J.P. Poncelet.

CZECH REPUBLIC: President Vaclav Havel, J. Kavan and V. Vetchy.

DENMARK: Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, N.H. Petersen and H. Haekkerup.

FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac, Lionel Jospin, H. Vedrine and 'Alain Richard.

GERMANY: Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, J. Fischer and R. Scharping.

GREECE: Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, G. Papandreou, A. Tsohatzopoulos.

HUNGRY: Prime Minister Viktor Orban, J. Martonyi, J. Szabo.

ICELAND: Prime Minister David Oddsson, H. Asgrimsson and G. Palsson.

ITALY: President Massimo D;Alema, L. Dini and C.Scognamiglio

LUXEMBOURG: Prime Minister Mean Claude Juncker, J. Poos and Alex Body.

NETHERLANDS: Prime Minister Willem Kok, J. van Aartsen and F.H.G. de Grave.

NORWAY: Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, K. Vollebaek and D.J. Fjaervoll.

Poland: Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, B. Geremek and J. Onyszkiewicz.

PORTUGAL: Prime Minister Antonio Manuel de Oliverira Guterres, J.J. Matos da Gama and V. Simao.

SPAIN: President Jose Maria Aznar, A. Matutes and E. Serra Rexach.

TURKEY: Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, I. Cem and H.S. Turk.

Also charged in the lawsuit are NATO officials Javier Solana, Jamie Shea, Wesley K. Clark, Harold W. German, Konrad Retag, D.J.G. Wilby, Fabrizio Maltinti, Giuseppe Marani and Daniel P. Leaf.

The SPOTLIGHT July 12, 1999

HYDE BILL PROTECTS FIFTH AMENDMENT

If the senate and president agree, the Feds could be held accountable for stealing your property.

By Christopher J. Petherick

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation to rein in the Justice department's (DOJ) Asset Seizure Program, only minutes after rejecting an amendment sponsored by Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) That would have gutted the reforms.

On June 24 the House passed H.R. 1658, the Hyde Civil Asset Forfeiture Bill, by a vote of 375 to 48. The bill was sponsored by House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.).

The legislation was directed at a procedure known as "civil forfeiture" under the DOJ's Asset Seizure Program.

According to DOJ's annual report, civil forfeitures "are brought directly against the proceeds or instrumentalities of the crimes. For that reason, civil forfeiture is available even if the owner of the property is not convicted of an offense."

DOJ's program has brought in billions for the government since the late 1980s, when civil asset actions were stepped up by federal prosecutors seeking to hit criminals where they hurt most -- their wallets.

Groups such as Forfeitures Endanger American Rights (FEAR), however, say that DOJ's program has left behind a wake of innocent victims with staggering legal bills, who rarely receive compensation when the government makes a mistake.

Brenda Grantland, a forfeiture lawyer, responding to the passage of the legislation, said law enforcement officials "don't need the power to punish innocent people...to have so many procedural advantages that the normal citizen doesn't stand a chance against them."

Under the bill, owners will get more time to challenge seizures. They can sue DOJ for having their property taken, with the burden on the government to prove the forfeiture was warranted with "clear and convincing evidence." the legislation also allows judges to release seized property while forfeiture cases are being decided.

In the case of the new bill, unlike in most other civil cases, owners who fight their civil asset seizures can have a lawyer appointed for them if they cannot afford one.

Those who are successful in getting their property back can sue for the back interest it would have accrued while in the government's possession.

AMENDMENT TO BILL

The House defeated the Hutchinson amendment by a vote of 155 for and 268 against.

Hutchinson, a former prosecutor said Hyde's bill "tilts too far against law enforcement in favor of criminal elements."

His amendment would have lowered the government's burden of proof and ensured that the property-owner protections in the bill could not be abused.

Hutchinson would have only allowed judges to appoint counsel for indigents, and only after weighing the value of the property against the cost of a lawyer.

The SPOTLIGHT July 19, 1999

NEWSPAPER PROMOTES BILDERBERGERS' AGENDA

A flack for the Washington Post is leading cheers for the New world Order.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

President Clinton is boldly pushing the Bilderberg doctrine, which calls for the United Nations to become a world government with a global army to enforce its decrees.

It appears in the daily newspapers for all to read, but too many sleep.

Until Clinton, who was a Bilderberg attendee in 1991, public leaders were circumspect in calling for world government. But, mostly unchallenged, the president speaks boldly.

In Europe, shortly after the latest Bilderberg meeting, Clinton addressed NATO meeting on June 22. "Whether you live in Africa, or Central Europe, or any place, if somebody comes after innocent citizens and tries to kill them en masse because of their race, their ethnic background or their religion, and if it's within our power to stop it, we will stop it," he promised.

This follows the public pattern established at the NATO summit in Washington last April and pursued when Bilderberg met in Sintra, Portugal, in June.

NATO celebrated the fact that it defied its own stated mission as a defensive organization and, in its only act of war during 50 years, invaded the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia, which posed no threat.

At this summit, NATO leaders said they were now empowered to patrol the world -- but only on directions of the UN Security council. This was amplified and celebrated at Bilderberg, where NATO was ordered to ease its demands and end the war, which had become an embarrassment.

These developments were celebrated by The Washington Post's Bilderberg representative Jim Hoagland on June 27.

"The president promises a future in which Americans stand ready to intervene militarily if they can stop wholesale racial or ethnic slaughter 'within or beyond other nations; borders,'" Hoagland wrote.

"He sees a future in which the United states actively works with the United Nations and other international bodies to thwart and punish political mass murders...he promises a New World Order," Hoagland wrote approvingly.

"The president has acted boldly as well as spoken ambitiously," Hoagland continued. The war on Yugoslavia, he said, "has dismantled borders as a barrier to military action."

The SPOTLIGHT July 19, 1999

TELEPHONE COMPANIES FALL BEHIND ON Y2K

Instead of hearing, "You have mail," or "Hello," telephone customers may not hear anything on New Year's Day.

By Margo Turner

Many of the 23 largest American companies are falling behind schedule in preparing their computers for the Y2K computer bug, claims Weiss Ratings Ind., which provides Y2K readiness ratings n Fortune 100 companies, banks and insurance companies.

Bell South, Comcast Corp., Cox Communications and Cablevision Systems Ind. Received "low" ratings from Weiss. MCI Worldcom Inc., Ameritech, Bell Atlantic and Sprint were rated "below average." "Rated "average" were AT&T, GTE Corp. and U.S. West. None of the companies had a "high" rating.

"Slow progress could have an impact on a company's productivity and earnings for and after the deadline," said Martin Weiss, chairman of Weiss Ratings. "So investors should seriously consider the Y2K readiness rating among the various fundamental factors that guide their decisions. Unfortunately, based on the companies' disclosures, we cannot determine what most consumers want to know: Whether or not we will have a dial tone on our phones come Jan. 1, 2000."

Overall, the 19 telecommunications companies rated by Weiss have budgeted $3.9 billion for Y2K-related preparations, but have spent $1.8 billion, only 46 percent of the funds allocated, Weiss said.

"With the short time remaining, this indicates widespread delays," he said. "The potential repercussions for our nation must not be ignored. Even if only a small percentage of the U.S. population is unable to use its phones and faxes on Jan. 1, 2000, it could be a major disruption for the country and the economy."

The Weiss Y2K ratings for telecommunications companies as well as for Fortune 1000, are based on the proprietary model that compares Y2K budgets and expenditures over time and in relation to industry peer groups as disclosed by each company's public filings with the Security and Exchange Commission.

The SPOTLIGHT July 19, 1999

AMERICA'S COMPLEXION IS GETTING A BIT DARKER

The United states faces the continued influx of legal and illegal aliens -- especially among Hispanics -- while Congress does little to curb immigration.

By Margo Turner

The U.S. population of 270 million is expected to increase to 310 million by 2015, and Hispanics will constitute the largest minority group in the country, according to the Population reference Bureau, a Washington, D.C.-based independent research group.

Two years ago, when the latest statistics were available from the Bureau of Census, Hispanics along with blacks, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Eskimos, Aleuts and American Indians made up 73.1 million, or 27 percent, of Americans. Blacks represented the largest single minority group in America, or 32.3 million of the population, with the majority living in New York.

Demographers Philip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley at the Population Reference bureau noted in a report that more than 8 million immigrants have legally entered the United states during the 1990s. This is equal to the 8.8 who came to American shores, mostly from southern and eastern Europe, at the turn of the 20th century.

The SPOTLIGHT pointed out in its May 17 issue that an estimated 5 million illegals, primarily Hispanics, live in the border area of Texas. Some 600,000 jobless and homeless from Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador were making their way to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, according to researchers at CID-Gallup of Costa Rica, a subsidiary of U.S. Gallup Organization. Another 280,000 immigrants from these central American countries were already there. Immigration policies were practically nonexistent when America was first formed. Federal, state and local governments, as well as in the private sector -- railroads, shipping companies, churches and others -- freely promoted immigration to America.

As immigrants from eastern and southern Europe began pouring into this country following the Civil War, Congress made attempts to require immigrants to take literacy test, but legislation was vetoed by three different presidents.

Congress passed legislation in 1921 that placed restrictions on how many immigrants could enter America each year. In an effort to maintain the ethnic/racial composition of the country at that time, a quota system was established under the Immigration Act of 1924.

Major changes in immigration laws were not made until less than 20 years ago.

Since Congress approved the Immigration Reform and control Act of 1986, some 2.7 million illegal immigrants were legalized under that law. The measure also made it illegal for U.S. employers to hire immigrant workers without legal documents.

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

NEW WORLD ORDER WANTS TO SAY 'ADIOS BORDER'

Are the one-worlders dissolving the U.S. southern boundary?

By The SPOTLIGHT Staff

President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order (EO) 13122, which establishes a group of government bigwigs to force the White House's agenda on state and local government.

The EO established the Interagency Task Force on the Economic development of the southwest border, on May 25, 1999, creating a task force to speed the administration's efforts on implementing the so-called Border XXI program.

The question no one is asking is: What is the White House agenda? Is this an internationalist effort to dissolve the border or perhaps create a new international agency to control Mexico and the United states?

The SPOTLIGHT first reported on Border Region XXI in the June 2, 1997 issue. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one f the goals behind Border Region XXI is to create "binational law enforcement teams."

Critics have long worried these international bodies will tell landowners what they can and cannot do on their property.

The order also doubled the size of the region from its original 62.5-mile strip north and south of the traditional U.S.-Mexican border to 150 miles. (See accompanying article).

The region stretches from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean. Millions of people live in the region.

Border XXI, the "Southwest Border," or "Southwest Border Region," according to the EO, includes huge areas in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California.

The newly-formed task force is heavily weighted with cabinet members of the executive office. The directors of the Environmental Protection agency, the departments of State, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Education, Health and Human Services, HUD and Energy and the Justice Department all sit on the panel.

The secretaries of Treasury, Labor and Agriculture co-chair the task force and answer to the vice president and Gene Sperling, the director of the National Economic council.

Specifically, the group's function is to scrutinize all data on the program, recommend changes as they see fit and ensure the federal government's initiatives are implemented.

The task force is to "consult and coordinate" with the localities, paying "particular attention to maintaining existing authorities of the states, tribes and local governments. But it is to also maintain federal involvement in the "economic development and other needs" of the region by establishing "pilot communities" accountable to the feds.

Mexico also has several agencies involved in the region.

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

SMITH GIVES POLITICAL LIFE FOR COUNTRY

A Populist politician has seen the light: New Hampshire's senior senator will go the independent route in his quest to become president.

By James P. Tucker

Sen. Bob Smith (I-N.H.) committed "political suicide" to better serve his country by quitting the Republican Party for betraying patriotic principles, according to people close to him.

Smith is likely to further agitate Establishment Republicans by making a third-party run for president, probably as the Taxpayers' party nominee.

Republican leaders are reluctant to strip Smith of his seniority - he is chairman of the Ethics Committee. Smith will also vote with Republicans much of the time.

But he is no longer a Republican and is now listed as an "independent" senator. This means he will lose millions of campaign dollars and the help of the GOP apparatus in New Hampshire when he comes up for re-election in 2002.

Smith is vulnerable. He was elected by small margins both times.

Smith was keenly aware of his sacrifice when he looked his Republican colleagues in the eye on the Senate floor July 13, telling them that the GOP had backed off from conservative, patriotic principles in favor of winning elections at any cost.

His likely run for president will probably be his last campaign, but the most important if it moves Republicans back to their basic principles, associates said.

"Some career politicians simply cannot understand putting your country first and your ambitions second," said one Smith aide.

"I've come to the cold realization that the Republican Party is more interested in winning elections than supporting the principles of its platform," Smith said in his resignation speech on the Senate floor.

"It's just a charade," Smith said. "The Republican platform is a meaningless document that has been put out so suckers like me -- and maybe suckers like you out there -- can read it."

Earlier, Smith spoke of his commitment to outlawing abortion, protecting the constitutional rights of gun owners and other issues.

"Many who want to lead our party -- specifically candidate George W. bush -- won't take a position on these issues," Smith said.

In his Senate speech, Smith said the moment the Republicans "allowed the Democrats to take over the government" came when President George Bush broke his 1988 pledge of "no new taxes."

He was heartened, smith said, when Republicans gained control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections on the strength of their "Contract With America." but after winning with a conservative message, the party lurched left.

"Conservatives have become a problem," he said. "The pollsters advised us not to debate controversial issues...even though past elections proved that when we ignore our principles, we lose."

Smith has placed a "hold" on Senate participation in a conference committee with the House on gun control legislation. The House has rejected new hun laws, but they are part of a juvenile justice bill passed in the Senate, which some conferees hope to keep in the final legislation.

Several senators said they did not want to punish Smith by stripping him of his seniority, and that to expel him from the GOP caucus would threaten Republican control.

"He has been a solid supporter on issues that matter," said Sen Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "Bob is with us philosophically."

"We're not the party that tries to punish people," said Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.).

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

BILDERBERG WANTS ALBRIGHT THROWN TO WOLVES

Madame secretary appears to be on the outs among some heavy hitters in the one-world gang.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

Bilderberg luminaries who made Bill Clinton president now want him to throw out Secretary of state Madeleine Albright for messing up their war in Yugoslavia, according to white House and state Department sources.

She is to be replaced by her deputy, Strobe Talbott, Clinton's friend from their days as Rhodes scholars. Talbott shares his dream that "nation states" will disappear in favor of a world government.

Bilderberg wanted a quick, easy war in Yugoslavia -- not something tht lasted three months -- to demonstrate NATO's new role as the United Nations' standing world army (SPOTLIGHT, May, 1999).

Clinton will have an aide go to Mrs. Albright and ask for her resignation, which will be accepted with "great regret" and "tributes" to her service, both sources said.

Mrs. Albright was never taken seriously by the international elite.

But they were outraged that she could convince the draft-dodging president that Yugoslavia would cave in "within days" of relatively light air strikes.

Bilderberg had wanted carpet bombing and early introduction of ground troops to win the war before it became a political problem.

It had become a political problem by the time Bilderberg met behind armed guards with snipers adorning the hilltops in Sintra, Portugal, June 3 -6.

That's why the hone lines were buzzing from the Bilderberg fortress at the Caesar Park Penha Longa to Washington, Moscow and Belgrade.

"Boris Yeltsin was promised the U.S. mint and Clinton's bra collection if he would only persuade Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept terms for peace," a State Department source said.

Milosevic was promised that the bombed buildings, bridges and roads would be rebuilt if he would agree Contrary to Clinton's "victory speech" June 11, the reconstruction deal did not involve Milosevic giving up power.

"Bilderberg is generous with American money," the White House contact said. "Belgrade and other cities get billion-dollar renovations and we 'won' the war? So, with 18 allies, we can invade a small, sovereign country and boast of 'victory'?

Both sources requested anonymity.

The politics of firing a woman in the politically-correct Clinton administration could prove troublesome.

"For clinton to publicly fire Mrs. Albright instead of 'regretfully' accepting her resignation would be difficult," the White House source said. "The women's libbers would screech and Hillary Clinton would bop him about some more."

But the pressure on Mrs. Albright to resign graciously is being applied at this moment, the source added.

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

CLINTON DOUBLES SIZE OF BORDER REGION XXI

The 62.5 mile open zone along the Mexican border has more than doubled thanks to a little-known executive order.

By Van Velsor

The Desert Journal (DJ) carried a front page story entitled "Border XXI Takes In Sierra County." As pointed out in the article, the northern border of the Border XXI area at that time consisted of a 2,000-mile-long strip of land "appropriated" from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

The border stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, 60 miles north of the international boundary between Mexico and the United states.

The wording of the government documents concerned with the Border XXI program indicates that its intended purpose is to erase, or dissolve, the international border between Mexico and the United states and create an "international" territory overseen by none "non Government organizations."

The ultimate goal is the elimination of any activity that they determine adversely effects the environment.

The DJ article explains that Executive Order (EO) 13122 had created a task force to implement what became "law" on Jan. 1, 1997, and in the process expands this unconstitutional land grab by the federal government 150 miles further into the United States.

There is no constitutional authority for executive orders that affect the lives, liberties, property or legal activities of "We the People" or the 50 states.

EO 13122 is only the latest illegal act by President Clinton. Since 1884 he has issued 280 EO's;15 since April this year.

The latest usurpation has undoubtedly occurred because no serious challenge was made to the initial Border XXI program two and one-half years ago.

(The SPOTLIGHT reported on Border Region XXI program in the June 2, 1997, edition.)

There should be a ground swell of opposition. There should be demonstrations. Congress should be swamped with objections to Border XXI and the underhanded way it has been perpetrated against "We the People" in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Request that your congressman cosponsor H.R. 30 introduced by Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-Wash.). H.R. 30, according to the SPOTLIGHT (June 14), "provides that any presidential executive order that 'infringes on congressional powers and duties' or requires spending federal tax dollars 'not specifically appropriated' by Congress would be advisory only and have no effect."

Clinton is a lawyer, a member of the bar and therefore an officer of the court. Federal courts, judges and lawyers make up the judicial branch of government.

He has headed the executive branch of government since taking office in 1993.

By issuing orders, he has usurped the powers of Congress to legislate and/or otherwise make the laws we live by.

The form of central government we were given by the Founders of this country was not a dictatorship. By usurping the legislative power of Congress, as a member of the judicial branch of the government, while acting as chief executive, he has assumed dictatorial authority.

If you are happy with all this, continue to sit on your duff and enjoy your beer and TV. If not, get busy and start bugging your congressman.

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

OFFICIAL SILENCE CLOUDS ISSUE OF MYSTERIOUS SUBSTANCE IN SKY

Why doesn't Uncle Sam explain why the sky is falling?

By Mike Blair

The U.S. government agencies seem to be ignoring the concerns of Americans who are aware of mysterious trails of condensation coming from aircraft around the country.

The SPOTLIGHT has received scores of reports from citizens who say they are being ignored.

As far as The SPOTLIGHT can determine, inquiries made by constituents to their senators and congressmen are going unanswered. Only one report to date has been received confirming that a constituent's letter has been answered.

Sen Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) Replied to a Connecticut resident that the letter of inquiry was referred to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The senator also said that he would respond further when a reply was received from the federal agency. The letter writer has not yet received any other response.

Meanwhile, interest in contrails is growing. For instance, The SPOTLIGHT web site has received messages concerning the white clouds trailing high-flying aircraft. Some writers refer to them as "chem-trails," since residue from the aircraft has reportedly reached the ground in several states. The residue appears as either "spider web-type" material, as globs of "brown colored goo" in Washington state.

In addition, various areas of the country are reporting strange illnesses. Many of those afflicted claim they are getting sick as a result of these "chem-trails." Most claim to have respiratory problems, weakness, nausea and joint pain. Many doctors, apparently unable to pin down the cause of the illness, are dismissing it as "some sort of virus."

The contrails are longer than those usually left by the vapor-caused trails produced by high-flying aircraft. Instead of quickly dissipating like normal contrails, they spread out gradually, forming a lace-type pattern that eventually makes them almost indistinguishable from clouds.

Regular contrails appear to begin a short distance from the engines of aircraft, whereas these seem to be coming directly out of the planes, leading to suspicions among some that something is being "sprayed" overhead.

GROUP INVESTIGATING

A Santa Fe, N.M.-based citizens group, Skywatchers, has been formed to try to find answers to the contrail mystery. It held a conference July 9 at the James A. Little Theater in Santa Fe.

Concerned Americans from across the country attended, hearing Canadian researcher and journalist William Thomas, who has researched the contrail sightings for more than a year. Others spoke on the subject, discussing the health problems they believe are caused by the contrails and trade information about them.

For more information, contact Skywatchers at their e-mail address: skywatchers@netscape.net.

Clifford Carnicom, a leader of the Skywatchers group who has been trying to identify aircraft leaving the contrails with high-powered telescopic photography, maintains his own web site at www.carnicom.com

Carnicom told The SPOTLIGHT that when he first set up his Internet web site in February, he averaged just a few inquiries, or hits, each week. Now hits to his site have reached about 450 to 500 every week.

He has been surprised by the origins of some of the visitors to his web site, which include NASA, the Air Force and Army, dozens of defense contractors, chemical companies and the EPA.

The Boeing Company visits the site regularly, some 30 to 40 times," Carnicom said.

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

RUSSIAN PRIDE MAY LEAD TO GLOBAL INCIDENT, NATIONAL CATASTROPHE

It's no surprise that Russia isn't ready for possible Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problems. What could come as a surprise is what happens when the clocks click from 1999.

By F.C. Blahut

Russian pride is seriously wounded from the Balkans debacle in which their traditional allies, the Serbs, were trashed by NATO. That may have a lot to do with Y2K.

Earlier this year, Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to join -- and set up in Moscow -- a multi-national Y2K control room. It was supposed to work like this: If a participating nation received signals indicating a nuclear attack was underway, the various national representatives in the control room would check with their various countries to confirm or deny.

The reason for the worry was not that computers would launch nuclear missiles -- people launch nuclear missiles -- the problem was that computer-controlled satellites that send launch-detection data to ground-based computers might go nuts on 1/1/00. Officials fear a country might believe -- erroneously -- that a nuclear attack was underway.

Everyone was relieved that Russia was participating. But them came the Balkans and Yeltsin kicked out the foreign -- particularly American -- computer experts involved in the project.

Now, Russian say that no one has anything to worry about. Their military communications equipment, including computers and satellites, is fixed.

MAYBE YES; MAYBE NO

But the problem her is that the answer could well be based more on national pride than actual scientific data. There is no way that Russia is going to admit to the international community that it is a rag-tag, third world nation when it comes to computers.

That means there is no guarantee that the Russian military and/or executive bureaucracy will not receive a message that a nuclear strike is in progress.

"But we wouldn't't do that,' you say. Try telling that to Ivan Ivanovich (Russia's traditional man-in-the-street). Ask the average Serb while you're at it. You might come away with some less than complimentary comments about the United states, military attacks and trust.

Elsewhere in the country, things are not looking good vis-a-vis Y2K.

For instance, according to published reports, 60 miles south of the Kremlin in the little town of Stupino, Mike Ruffs, regional technology manager for Mars Inc, the American candy maker, asked the regional government and utility officials last year how they planned to deal with the Y2K bug.

IN THE DARK

What was found was that many did not know that their equipment was vulnerable and that others believed -- wrongly -- that they were already protected.

Reportedly, Mars has since outfitted its two Russian factories so that they can continue some production during power and water breakdowns, and it is stockpiling raw materials in anticipation of transportation and customs problems.

"Our greatest concern is for public utilities and state organizations," Tuffs said. "It would appear that many public organization are not aware of the equipment that they use and how they interact and how a failure in one area will affect another."

Russia has 8 million computers. No one -- including the Russians - know how many will function.

What worries Tuffs also rattles the technology chiefs of other companies, as well as computer experts and consultants.

According to published reports, they say Russian has awakened to the year 2000 threat too late, spread the alarm too thinly and has far too little money to perform much more than digital triage on the government and economy.

There's a potential for major damage to the infrastructure," says Andrei N. Terekhov, a mathematician from St. Petersburg and the general director of Lanit-Terkom, a business that works on Y2K problems.

Many programs were custom written by people who have died, dropped out of sight or have moved to Western Europe or the United States and are working on the problem there.

"There are obsolete applications on which, very often, entire factories, banks and real-time critical systems depend," Terekhov said.

Russian government officials, of course, say they are addressing all problems in critical areas like atomic energy and nuclear missiles. American officials -- again, of course -- said they were confident that human safeguards would prevent accidental nuclear missile launchings.

But if they are confident now, when Russia has withdrawn from the control program, why were they not confident previously before Russia joined? In point of fact, when the multi-national project was launched, all the governments involved said that this was what would prevent "accidental" launches.

Alexander Miasnikov, a Moscow based representative of the Gartner Group, technology consultants from Connecticut, said in an e-mail posting that major Russian companies would solve Y2K problems in their central operations, but that "in remote branches there can be some problems.

According to published reports, the Russian government predicted in April that even if its assault on the year 2000 bug proceeded as planned, up to a fifth of all computers would malfunction in January.

Published reports indicated that, with 56,000 government computer systems, 16,000 of them critical, officials worry about everything from inoperative elevators to a freeze-up in the network that is supposed to tabulate the vote in the parliamentary election on Jan. 12.

The government said its repairs would cost $1 billion to $3 billion. That is up to one-seventh of a federal budget that already cannot pay some pensions and debts.

Aleksandr Krupnov, chairman of the state Committee on Telecommunications and Information Technology, is leading the effort on the Year 2000. "I can't and shouldn't say either that something is not going to happen or speak of catastrophic outcomes," he said. "I stick to something in the middle."

Most Russian government agencies have been told to raid their budgets to solve the problems. One expert in Moscow told western reporters that some businesses were having trouble because the Western suppliers whose equipment needs upgrading have yet to be paid, and they are refusing to make repairs until they receive their money.

And while on the subject of possible "accidental" nuclear war, Russia really isn't the main worry.

What about North Korea? NO one knows what kind of computer systems they have. What is known is that they and the South Koreans have been in shooting scrapes lately and the north is on a war footing.

And then there's India and Pakistan. Both are nuclear countries. They have been shooting at each other over Kashmir. What if one or the other -- or both -- receive information that a nuclear strike has been launched?

What happens then? No one in Washington wants to discuss the matter with reporters.

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

GENERALS SAY EVERYTHING IS 'A-OK'

The government has its priorities when it comes to a possible computer glitch.

By F.C. Blahut

Your social security check might be late on Jan. 1, 2000, but the Air force will be able to bomb you.

Earlier this year, Washington warned that there could be a few glitches in federal service associated with the Year 2000 (Y2K). But our fighting forces will be OK.

During the third week of June, the Air Force announced that U.S. military aircraft will be Y2K compliant and will bee able to "fly fight and win on Jan. 1 and beyond."

That's a quote from an officer overseeing millennium exercises at the giant Nellis Air Force base near Las Vegas, Nev.

Lt. Col. Paul Avella, manager of Y2K Flag, told reporters that no surprises were found during the latest four-day exercise. Y2K Flag is an ongoing major military exercise intended to assess the Air Force's ability to fight and win in the 21st century.

According to published reports, the Defense Department has been preparing, for three years, for any computer glitches that might be encountered at the turn of the century, Avela said.

Various aircraft were tested on the sprawling Nellis range to determine if their complex computer systems are Y2K compliant.

Avella said no surprises were found in the mix of aircraft tested. U-2 and E-8C "sensor" surveillance craft communicated successfully, and B-2, F-117 stealth fighter, F-16 and F-15 aircraft responded to targets during a simulated change of the calendar from Dec. 31 to Jan.1.

The Air force reported that assessments also were made in anticipation of potential air strikes on Feb. 29 during a leap year, which occurs every forth year and will occur in 2000.

Avella said potential problems include readings of calendar dates on aircraft and pilot communications.

To avoid potential problems on Dec. 31 through Jan. 1 and on feb. 29, dates can be programmed. In the case of ground-based communications, vital equipment such as what Avella called a mission planning system can be fixed or "patched" through computer programming in function properly on those days.

Two F-15 pilots participating in the Y2K Flag were injured, neither seriously, when their planes crashed. The cause is under investigation, said an Air Force spokesman.

The SPOTLIGHT July 26, 1999

TIME IS RUNNING OUT ON SOLUTIONS FOR MILLENNIUM BUG

The UN is making soothing noises about the possibility of a Year 2000 disaster.

By F.C. Blahut

John Koskinen, head of President Clinton's council on Year 2000 Conversion, says he's delighted the world is finally focusing on Y2K problems and cooperating to solve them.

Six months after the first global conference on the so-called millennium bug, experts from more than 170 countries met during the fourth week of June at the United Nations to assess progress in dealing with Year 2000 problems and preparations for coping with possible computer glitches.

But even whole soothing noises were coming from Babylon on the Hudson, no mention was made of the near-disasters recently suffered in the UK.

The Year 2000 problem -- also called Y2K and the millennium bug -- occurs because some computer programs, especially older ones, may fail when the date changes to 2000. Because they were written to recognize only the last two digits of a year, such programs could read the digits "00" as 1900, instead of 2000.

"Clearly, I think developing countries are going to have more problems than developed countries, but when the dust settles...it wouldn't surprise me to find that we have more failures in developed countries because we have far more systems," Koskinen told reporters.

Various plans by the nations of the world were discussed t the UN conference. For instance:

* Venezuela is consulting with psychiatrists on how to explain to the public what might happen with the Year 2000 computer bug.
* The Philippines wants to bring the bug to the dinner table - as a conversation topic; and,
* Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are worried about finding enough experts to get rid of the bug.

"My sense is there has been a sea of change in the preparedness of the world in the last six months," Koskinen told reporters. "Nobody is saying this isn't a problem. So what we now have, I think, is a race to the finish line."

According to published reports, U.S. companies and the government are probably spending $80 billion to $100 billion to cope with the millennium bug, he said.

At the June 21 press conference, Y2K coordinators from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia provided a glimpse of some of the problems and challenges they face.

Mario Tagarinski said the 29 countries in East and central Europe and central Asia need independent assessments of their Y2K problems -- and help to fix them.

Two countries, Yugoslavia and Iraq -- for obvious reasons, including being bombed into the stone age by NATO -- haven't even been heard from on the millennium bug issue, he said.

Asked whether media reports that there would be a variety of failures and meltdowns in the region were fair, Tagarinski replied amid laughter: "Yeah, maybe."

At the other end of the spectrum, Venezuela has invested $200 million to ensure oil is delivered on time. The country's Y2K oil expert, Ivan Crespo, said all critical components in the oil industry will be fixed by August.

But Venezuela's national coordinator Hugo Castellanos, told reporters the government doesn't know how to communicate with the people about the Y2K problem.

"We don't know how to explain to the large population now what is going to happen, because we don't know what's going to happen," he said. "We are talking to psychologists and psychiatrists in order to know how to reach the people."

Amable Aguiluz of the Philippines, the East Asia and Pacific regional coordinator, said the media was crucial in raising awareness of the millennium bug.

"Our ultimate objective is to bring Y2K to the dinner table of every Fillipino," he told reporters.

But Aguiluz said he was concerned that some groups might take advantage of the computer problem. Some religious groups have already told members they would be willing to take care of their money to avoid Y2K problems, Aguiluz said.

Baba Mustafa Marong, the sub-Saharan African coordinator, said his region not only needs more computer experts but is concerned about small and medium enterprises, "where you don't know the extent of their exposure to the Y2K bug.