The SPOTLIGHT, by Liberty Lobby

The SPOTLIGHT December 1, 1997

U.S. TAXPAYERS BAIL OUT WALL ST.

History is repeating itself as Clinton bails out Asia to save speculators from going bust.

By Warren Hough

Megabankers, Wall street financiers, "free-traders" and hot money investors are planning to stick American taxpayers with refloating the economies of Asian countries torpedoed by currency speculators. This financial salvage operation is expected to require around $120 billion by current estimates.

The same elite group who set up the $50 billion Mexican bailout in 1994 is expected to benefit from your "loans" to these high-risk clients.

As this issue of The SPOTLIGHT went to press, Manhattan's financial district was abuzz with rumors Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has already laid out $10.5 billion to help "stabilize" the finances of Indonesia, shaken in recent weeks by the marauding of foreign currency traders.

To put up the money, Greenspan drew on the so-called Exchange Stabilization Fund of his agency, a seldom-noted Fed slush fund that now totals $37 billion, these sources say.

Such huge and devious bailouts are necessary because otherwise the "contagion" and ripple effect" of a financial crisis might spread from one affected region throughout the global economy, argues Robert Hormats, vice- chairman of New York's giant Goldman, Sachs investment bank and a powerful former Clinton administration official.

"What Hormats really means is that without a handout from U.S. taxpayers, the Indonesian developers and entrepreneurs who have borrowed heavily from Wall Street -- most of whom are in trouble these days -- will default on their debt to U.S. banks such as his own Goldman Sachs," explained economist Lillian Tarrant, a lecturer in international finance at the state University of New York.
ASIA IN TURMOIL

Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea -- where five of the 10 largest industrial conglomerates are believed to be bankrupt -- are all experiencing similar turmoil in the wake of devastating raids by international currency speculators who have wrecked the economic equilibrium of all Asia this summer.

"Most of the High-flying Asian deal-makers are in hock to their eyebrows to Wall Street,' says Tarrant. "Citibank , for example, has a whopping $70 billion in outstanding loans to Asian borrowers on its books. Unless there is a broad bailout, those debts will go largely sour."

But does the cause of saving Citibank's annual earnings reports - and sky- high profits -- justify handouts of tens of billions of dollars from U.S. public funds?

"Of course not," says business writer Claude Dalgleish. "Anyone can see now that behind the Clinton administration's loudly trumpeted slogans for a 'global economy' and 'free trade' the reality is merely a rush of debt-driven, dicey speculation."

Wall Street has grown fat and sassy on its rake-offs in so-called "emerging markets," Dalgleish noted. "But forcing or conning taxpayers into supporting this sort of profiteering with their hard-earned money should be treated as a crime."

The SPOTLIGHT December 1, 1997

BILDERBERG MAPPED AGENDA FOR SUMMIT

The sky is falling, so give the world government America's sovereignty, say some ecologists and one-worlders.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

The Bilderberg/Trilateral clique has set the agenda for the December ecology summit in Japan, which will try to sell the American public on the idea of a supranational agency to patrol the world's air and waterways.

"Government bureaucrats who want a world government are not my only sources for this information," said a State Department official who has been a reliable Bilderberg observer for 10 years. He pointed to a SPOTLIGHT report on the Bilderberg meeting in Vouliagmeni, Greece:

"Also high on the Bilderberg agenda is the establishment of a new, huge UN bureaucracy on the environment, so the industrialists can reap immense profits from new technology to clean the world's air and water," (SPOTLIGHT, May 10, 1993).

"Nothing has changed from when that was written," the official said. "By establishing an ecology commission, the United Nations further intrudes into the domestic affairs of nations, reducing their sovereignty piece by piece until there is none left."

The same story, May 10, 1993, reported Bilderberg's delight that President Bill Clinton, a new recruit would sign the 1992 Rio Treaty, which calls for such a UN agency.

"Adding a new UN agency to police the environment among once-sovereign nations advances the Bilderberg goal of turning the United Nations into a dejure -- rather than a de facto -- world government," The SPOTLIGHT reported.

Under the draft agreement, the United States would have to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2010, requiring a cutback of 8 percent. This would send costs in this country skyrocketing.

Meanwhile, "developing countries," including Mexico and Red China, would be exempt.

The SPOTLIGHT December 1, 1997

ETHICAL QUESTIONS RAISED BY MEDICAL RESEARCH

Until now the subject of horror/science fiction a head transplant could be possible in the foreseeable future.

By Fred Blahut

Scenario: An ill and aging, but very wealthy, man finances unscrupulous scientists in a project to transplant his head onto a young, healthy body. Until this year, that was the subject of fiction.

But that was then; this is now.

"Surgeons have transplanted monkey's heads onto fresh bodies, paving the way for a new era in human transplant technology," writes Lois Rogers, medical correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. According to the story, by maintaining the brain stem, which deals with reflexes such as breathing, hert function and digestion, an American research team has been able to keep the new heads supplied with fresh, oxygenated blood.

To date, the monkeys with transplanted heads have lived for several days.

The latest developments in the 20-year project, including the vital step of achieving respiration in the transplanted heads, have been reported by Robert White, professor of neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

"I have devised the operation that would need to be done in humans,' White says. "I have been to autopsy rooms and dissecting rooms, and examined the sort of incisions which would have to be made, and at what level, and how the various vessels would need to be reconnected."

Commenting on "possible" versus "ethical," the professor said, "We are talking about an operation that could be done on humans. Whether it should be done is another question."

A series of experiments involving up to 30 animals has allowed surgeons to perfect a technique of minimizing loss of blood supply to the heads during severance operations.

The researchers also believe there was little disturbance to the monkey's higher brain functions as a result of the procedure.

So far, the bodies pumping blood through the transplanted brains have remained completely paralyzed because researchers have been unable to reconnect the nerve fibers from the spinal cord in the body to the brain.

The brains can think and are conscious, but cannot communicate with the limbs. "I have no doubt this treatment will be available in the public arena within the next 25 to 30 years." White said. "There will be a lot of ethical and moral arguments, but I think they are inappropriate.

"What we are trying to do here is to prolong life," he added. "The human spirit or soul is within the physical structure of the brain. I don't think it's in your left arm or anywhere else.

The neurosurgeon admitted the definition of "brain dead" would have to be altered to allow bodies -- possible those in a persistent vegetative state in which there was still some brain stem activity -- to be used as donors.

In Britain, scientists reacted with incredulity to White's work. Researchers in the UK are investigation the possibility of treating paralysis by regrowing severed spinal nerves -- not by transplanting bodies.

The Sunday Times reported that Peter Jamlyn, a leading neurosurgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, who helped set up the British Brain and Spine, Foundation, said the work was cruel and irrelevant.

"Your head might as well be in a jar as attached to another body," he said. "The fact that it is tied to a body acting simply as a pump would just be an inconvenience because you would have to drag the body around.

"There might be a few cranks who would want it done, but for normal people, the whole point of having a brain is that it interacts with the body,' Jamlyn added.

"It is indicative of the disastrous route that Western medicine is taking,' says Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics. "I any individual so important to society that we should tolerate attempts to lengthen their existence in a way which most people would find abhorrent?"

In past decades, a heart transplant was considered in the same light, and to day it is considered commonplace, if not routine.

The SPOTLIGHT December 8, 1997

IMPEACHMENT DRIVE PICKS UP STEAM

The worst-kept secret in Washington is President Bill Clinton's vulnerability to an impeachment vote in the House.

By The SPOTLIGHT Staff

As allegations against Bill Clinton mount, so does the momentum to get him out. In addition to the 18 Republican House members who have sugned an inquiry of impeachment, now even Democrats want him out.

Just as Democrats saw the anti-NAFTA handwriting on the wall ad were instrumental in defeating Clinton administration-sponsored fast track legislation, so too the president's own party will bring him down. That's the consensus of Capitol Hill insiders who spoke to The SPOTLIGHT on condition of anonymity.

And, as several SPOTLIGHT readers have written: if bill Clinton is impeached, tried and found guilty, we will get Al Gore. That's what the Democrats are thinking.

The private thinking at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is that, if Clinton is allowed to finish out his term, he will destroy the chances of a Democrat being elected in 2000. If Gore takes over, however, he will be able to salvage enough credibility to position himself for a 2000 run. And the DNC likes Gore much better than House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), who doesn't take orders nearly so well.

Meanwhile, the evidence of malfeasance and nonfeasance at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. is mounting. For instance:

* The president has politicized virtually all the law enforcement agencies of the federal government. He used the FBI, IRS, and Justice Department to smear Billy Dale. Dale was the longtime head of the White House travel office Hillary decided had to go. The politically induced investigation of Dale and acquisition of FBI files under false pretenses is an impeachable offense.

* The president compromised the FBI into providing him raw background files on GOP political appointees. Clinton turned the leadership of the Resolution Trust Corporation and the Treasury Department into a dragnet for information about potential prosecutions relating to Whitewater. Impeding this investigation is an impeachable offense.

* Under Clinton's administration, Attorney General Janet Reno has become a tool in criminal cover-ups. Obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense.

* The immigration and Naturalization Service was used to naturalize thousands of aliens who would not ordinarily qualify for citizenship, some of them convicted criminals. Many believe they became instant Democratic voters.

* The White House has extensive computer facilities and a broad database paid for with taxpayer funds, which is to be used solely for government purposes. However, at the command of Bill and Hillary, this computer system and database were used to support Clinton's reelection campaign. Theft of government property is an impeachable offense.

* Since entering the White House, Bill and Hillary have used the White House Counsel's office like their own personal law firm. The late Vince Foster worked on the Clintons' personal tax problems related to Whitewater while he was deputy White House counsel. Personal use of government lawyers is an impeachable offense.

* Paula Jones brought sexual harassment charges against Clinton dating from when he was governor of Arkansas. The evidence appears t be stronger than that brought against Marv Albert. The later took a plea bargain. This sexual harassment is impeachable conduct.

* The Clinton White House has sold access and policy changes to Red China "Clinton's conduct on these matters is in fact impeachable as simple gross misconduct, and a failure to faithfully uphold laws and protect the U.S. against enemies foreign and domestic, as he pledged to do in the oath of office," the Center for American Values says. Bribery is an impeachable offense.

* Through his 1996 reelection campaign, President Clinton engaged in massive, thorough, and wide-ranging violations of federal campaign contribution laws. This is an impeachable offense.

* Clinton provided disgraced Justice Department official and 'Friend of Bill' Webb Hubbell with massive funds, through third party friends, after Hubbell was thrown out of the White House and before his jail term. Clinton critics call this 'hush Money.' Bribery is an impeachable offense.

* Following Vince Foster's death, White House aides seized documents pertinent to an ongoing criminal investigation. If you try it, you'll likely be charged with obstruction of justice. No charges were pressed against Clinton. Obstruction of justice is an impeachable offense.

"President Clinton has conducted himself and his administration with brazen lawlessness unprecedented in American history," says the Center for American Values. 'The members of the House of Representatives would be failing to uphold their oaths of office if they do not vote to impeach William Jefferson Clinton and send this case to the Senate for trial."

The SPOTLIGHT December 8, 1997

'HATE' A CONVENIENT EXCUSE FOR BRAINWASHING

By Sam Francis

What would "racial reconciliation" really amount to if you didn't use it to enhance the powers of the state and inflict some old-fashioned, unreconciled punishment on those who just don't get the message? While President Bill Clinton and his commission on race have been dangling the carrot of racial reconciliation in various speeches and interviews for some months, and interviews for some months, the president has at last pulled out the stick.

At a conference on "hate crimes" at George Washington University, Clinton spelled out what will be done with those who won't be reconciled by 'fessing up to their own "racism." He proposes that American schools start mandatory "diversity teaching" to overcome the hatred kids supposedly learn from their parents, that federal hate crime laws be expanded, and that a "national hate crimes network" be established to keep tabs on just how much we really do hate. All in all, it was a pretty good week for hatred.

The latest hate crisis comes straight out of the nightmarish vision of American society that possesses the Clinton administration. In that nightmare, the entire culture is suffused with hatred. "Children have to be taught to hate," the president preached to the audience, and presumably the need for anti-hatred classes in the schools means that parents are teaching their children to hate -- blacks, Jews, foreigners, women, homosexuals, the handicapped. Who says the Clintonites lack faith in America?

But while the whole nation is being cranked up to form a mass lynch mob against "hatred," it might be well to stop and think what the concept of a "hate crime" really involves.

In the first place, by making certain kinds of attacks on certain kinds of people federal crimes, the concept is a jolly way of expanding federal law enforcement powers even further at a time when those powers are already far too large. In the second place, such laws arguably violate the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the law. Some people are being protected more than others, and some lawbreakers are being punished more that other law- breakers for essentially the same offense. In the third place,, the essence of the concept of a hate crime is totalitarian.

It is totalitarian because it seeks to punish motive -- that is, the thoughts, attitudes and emotions that lead a person to commit an action -- rather than the action itself. This is precisely what totalitarian states like those of Stalin and Mao Tse-tung sought to do, an it is what distinguishes their particular contribution to the high science of tyranny.

Most states, tyrannical or free, have been content with controlling conduct. Even in most tyrannies of the past, you could think what you wanted, but if you challenged the power of the state, you got clobbered. The same is true in free societies: it doesn't matter why you assault, rape rob or murder. What matters as far as the law is concerned is what you do, not why you do it.
NOT WHAT, WHY

But the "hate crimes" concept is qualitatively different. The crime committed (assault, killing, etc.) Is illegal anyway, but by adding penalties to the crime merely because of the motive, the state is criminalizing the motive -- that is, the thought. It is the criminalization of motive that makes the concept of "hate crimes" equivalent in principle to totalitarian brainwashing.

Even the trappings of totalitarianism were present during the president's appearance at the conference. One speaker was a Jewish woman named Tammie Schnitzer, whose family was supposedly subjected to anti-Semitic attacks in Billings, Montana. Mrs. Schitzer told the conference, "We need to understand this isn't a children's issue. We have children we educate in our school systems, and then they go home and hear racial jokes from their parents. I have to teach my grandparents first, before I can teach my kids."

Now with all due respect to Mrs. Schnitzer, It's doubtful she really has much to teach her grandparents about hatred. But the larger point is that what she is proposing, and what Clinton agrees with, is the totalitarian device of enlisting children to enforce the new orthodoxy on parents, a device developed to perfection by the aforesaid. Stalin and Mao. In the New Order, you see, there can be no privacy that is exempt from the prying and poking of the omnipresent state.

With the unveiling of the president's new "anti-hatred" campaign, the mask has fallen from the real face of Clinton's growing obsession with race. What we can now plainly see behind the mask has nothing to do with hatred, or race, or reconciliation, but everything to do with the construction of a state that would be impossible to resist because even the thought of resistance would be a thought crime.

The SPOTLIGHT December 8, 1997

SOMETHING ELSE MADELEINE WASN'T TOLD

A European researcher has found Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's family tree goes all the way back to the Kremlin and the Bolshevik Revolution.

By Alyn Denham

With Kremlin permission, personnel from three European nations are assigned to the former Soviet KGB's Historical Records Section. For more than 18 months their primary goal has been the determination of the fate of Western nationals reported to have been imprisoned during the Stalin regime.

Even though their search is vastly limited they occasionally uncover interesting tidbits that escape the surveillance of their hosts. One such item was the record of a 1930 speech made by Josef Stalin to members of the Young Communists League at the University of Moscow, according to a reliable European source.

The man Stalin credited with an "important role in the success of the Bolshevik Revolution, and the outstanding achievement in funding current and future party goals," was Martin Kerbel, Madeleine Albright's grandfather.

According to the records, Stalin referred to Kerbel as 'my right arm."

Kerbel is said to have traveled extensively throughout the world, especially the United States, gathering cash and pledges from banks, multinational companies, well-heeled Jewish temples, industrialists and grants extended by the U.S. government. Many of his fund-seeking travels were financed by U.S. foundations.

The SPOTLIGHT December 8, 1997

RUSSIA COULD DEPLOY WEATHER CONTROL SYSTEM

Russian scientists have developed a system to control weather from satellites orbiting in space, according to recent reports from Malaysia, where the system will be tested.

By John Bishop

Skies from Thailand to Australia have been clogged with thick haze for the past four months, which is caused by Indonesian forest fires, most of which were ignited intentionally to clear land.

Now come reports from a Russian state-owned company that says it can utilize a weather control system in an effort to break up the haze, which is said to be endangering the health of millions.

Malaysian authorities say the Russians can utilize satellites to produce cyclones that will disperse the haze.

Currently, according to press reports from Malaysia, the Malaysian government has put a deal for the experiment in writing and is awaiting word back from the unnamed Russian company.

Reports from Malaysia say the satellite system has already been tested, somewhere in Russian territory.

The Russian company, with Russian government approval, has agreed to provide a demonstration of the system for the Malaysians, according to Malaysian Environmental Minister Law Heing Ding.

"Since it does not cost us anything," Ding said, "there is no harm in allowing them to demonstrate to us.

"The new technology," Ding explained, "uses satellites and not rockets, gigantic fans, airplanes or chemicals."

The environmental minister said that the technology is "strong enough to change weather systems."

Ding said if the system works, Malaysia could invest millions of dollars to create the cyclones to disperse the menacing haze. He added that it is expected that "no significant damage" will be caused by the man-made cyclones.

There have been few reports in the United States about the haze menace or how it might impact upon weather in this country. Debris and haze created by volcanic activity can cause cold weather patterns thousands of miles from an eruption.

U.S. intelligence sources say scientists in Russia have been working on weather control for years. Many reports have appeared stating both the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in projects to alter and control the weather as weapons of war.

In the November 24 issue of The SPOTLIGHT, Vivian Bird reported on British attempts to create a weather weapon during the early 1950s. Some blame a flood that killed 34 on the experiments.

The test proposed to be undertaken in Malaysia has surprised some Western scientists, who were not aware of the apparent successes in the field of weather control achieved by Russian experts.

Westerners were also amazed that the Russian government has approved releasing the program from beneath the heavy wraps that have concealed their scientific work for decades.

The SPOTLIGHT December 8, 1997

POLITICIANS AND THEIR BENEFACTORS LIKE TO KEEP MONEY DEALS PRIVATE

Swiss banks and their numbered accounts are popular places for funds to change hands between the politically well connected and thseir benefactors.

By Maj. Alyn Denham

There are several types of foreign numbered bank accounts. One type is the most common, used by depositors for various legitimate reasons. However, there are many other types that are preferred by criminals politicians. Embezzlers and so forth.

These "other" types have all sorts of provisions to protect the identities of the provisions to protect the identities of the depositors and beneficiaries; safeguards such as secret deposit numbers used by depositors when they put money into a numbered "parent" account.

When these "benefactors" want to transfer funds to a politician anonymously, they advise the bank to set aside "X" number of dollars to be withdrawn from the "parent" account by the beneficiary presenting a secret withdrawal number.

Following the money trail to and from these {"parent" accounts is next to impossible, as it involves transfers from the largest international banks to small, out-of-the-way banks. The process is too complicated to explain in this limited space.

Following are partial lists of secret 'parent" numbered accounts, numbered "transfer" accounts and numbered "distribution" accounts. The first list identifies the accounts. The second is of individuals. Organizations and governments with interests in one or more of the accounts.

ACCOUNTS
* 342 88 2120 ANB;
* 4823 0023 2161 Citibank;
* 3688412947661 Vaduz;
* 0428 41124 4 11 Wien ONB;
* FY5616 0176 4329 Credit Suisse;
* D4450 242 BL 216 Credit Suisse;
* 728 22 19 266 Credit Lyon;
* BM7 4189 62 Banco de Espano;
* 42113 982764 Belgium Cre Lux
* 825 27893 114 1021 Lyonnaise;
* GP 3556 1076 00 Banco de Espano;
* 001 028 32307 Amex Trans;
* 23 1026 78283 Amex Trans;
* 42D 1123 21612 Citibank;
* 551 79 2322 ANB;
* 551 50 2326 ANB;
* 92267 97 01 World Bank.

Following is the second group -- persons, groups, organizations and countries doing numbered account business. Key: (D)= primarily a depositor; (R)= primarily a recipient; (P)=personal account.

* Vince Foster (R,P);
* Hillary Clinton (R,P);
* President Bill Clinton (R,P);
* George Bush (R,P);
* Albert Gore Sr. (P);
* Henry Kissinger (R);
* MS Foundation (P);
* Rockefeller Foundation (D,P);
* Ron Brown (R);
* Jane Fonda Turner (R,P)
* Libya (D);
* Ted Turner (D,P);
* Morris Dees (P);
* James Brady (P);
* Israel (D);
* George Miller (R);
* Harley Staggers (P);
* Robert Torricelli (R,P);
* Henry Waxman (P);
* Ted Weiss (R,P);
* Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (R);
* Legal Services Corp. (R);
* People's Republic of China (D);
* Bruce Babbitt (P);
* Tom Lantos (P);
* American Civil Liberties Union (R);
* National Council of Churches (D);
* Environmental Defense Fund (D);
* Nelson Mandela (P);
* Winnie Mandela (P);
* Daniel K Inouye (P);
* Patricia Ireland (P);
* Stephen Solarz (R);
* Robert Matsui (P);
* Robert Matsui (P);
* Howard Metzenbaum (R,P);
* Bob Packwood (R,P);
* Leon Panetta (P);
* Sarah Brady (R,P);
* David Pryor (R,P);
* Nick Rahall (P);
* Charles Rangel (P);
* John D. Rockefeller IV (P);
* Peter Rodino (R,P);
* Dan Rostenkowski (R,P);
* Paul Sarbanes (R,P);
* Charles Schumer (R,P);
* Lowell Weicker (R,P);
* Richard Armitage (P);
* Robert Mugabe (P);
* Kin Chong-II (D);
* Handgun control, Inc. (D);
* Democratic socialists of America (R); and
*Lindy Boggs (P).

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to piece together the whole puzzle.

The SPOTLIGHT December 15, 1997

UN PLANS WORLD POLICE FORCE

Freeh Works With Russians

If masters of the Global Plantation have their way, there will soon be a cop on every corner. Problem is, he won't speak English.

By Mike Blair

The United Nations Has plans to develop a worldwide program of civilian police to be able on short notice to move into any country, including the United States.

One-worlders want to be able to take control of policing the population during any crisis within any country, as determined by the world body.

The UN is taking the lead of Swedish Foreign Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen, who as president of the UN Security Council has called for member states to "make appropriately trained police available to the organization [UN] at short notice."

The Security council is encouraging member states to provide appropriate training of civilian police for international service and to seek additional means to enhance the manner in which such police units are established and supported.

The council is encouraging efforts to plan joint training between civilian and military components designated for UN operations anywhere in the world. The UN "encourages the secretary-general to provide assistance and guidance to member states in order to promote a standardized approach toward the training and recruitment of civilian police."

American civilian police are already serving as "volunteers" with so-called "peacekeeping" forces in war-torn Bosnia.

FBI director Louis Freeh recently returned from Moscow, where he met with Russian officials to discuss joint efforts against organized crime and terrorism.

"Shortly before departing for the trip to Moscow, Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno met with Red China's Justice Minister Xiao Yang, who at the time was visiting Washington,' the Associated Press reports.

In July 1994, Freeh went to Moscow to open the first FBI office there. Since then the bureau has attaches in the U.S. embassy there and is involved now in 300 "current pending cases" there.

To date, the FBI, falling in line with the UN edict, has conducted more than 50 joint training sessions in Russia with Russian police officers.

While in Moscow, Freeh met with Army Gen. Anatoly Kyulikov and Lt. Gen. Nikolai Kovaleve. Kyulikov is minister of foreign affairs and heads the Russian national police force (MVD).

Kovaleve is director of the Federal Security Service, Russia's primary counterintelligence and counterterrorism agency. The Federal Security Service is one of several agencies that succeeded the much-feared Soviet KGB.

AT POLICE SCHOOL

Freeh also visited the Russian national police academy, where joint FBI-MVD police traning is under way.

Meanwhile, in the United States, local police agencies continue to play host to Russian, as well as other former Soviet bloc police officers.

One of the most recent examples of these visits has taken place in Louisiana and Mississippi, where Sergei Markin, deputy commander of a police battalion in the city of Petroavodsk, was guest of several U.S. police departments.

Markin's visit was sponsored by the left-wing Project Harmony, based in Vermont. Project Harmony received a State Department grant to provide training and internships for 12 Russian and Ukrainian police officials in 1997.

According to a report in the Baton Rouge Advocate a Project Harmony introductory letter describes the program "as a way of helping Russian and Ukrainian officers in their transition to a new order of law enforcement."

At the present time, with 25,000 agents, the FBI, according to its critics, is on its way to becoming an American version of the Russian state-controlled MVD national police.

While director J. Edgar Hoover repeatedly resisted efforts to turn the FBI into a national police force. This plus the fact that he was anti-communist, earned him the hatred of liberals. Now that he is gone, the pressure has intensified to make the FBI into an American version of the old KGB.

According to a May 1997 report, the FBI maintains offices and agents in 46 foreign countries. The FBI's original charter confined it to activities within the United States. Although the CIA is supposed to be involved in only foreign operations, it is well known that it operates internally.

Neither agency honors its charter.

The SPOTLIGHT December 15, 1997

FEDERAL POLICE RANKS SWELL TO 80,000

What's a sure sign that a government fears its own people? Gun policies are a good place to start.

By The SPOTLIGHT Staff

Even as the federal government works to disarm honest citizens, it is arming its menial functionaries. This is in addition to those one would expect to be armed, such as members of the U.S. Marshall's Service or agents of the FBI.

WorldNetDaily reported finding nearly 60,000 armed federal agents. But a continuing investigation Indicates that number is conservative in the extreme. New documentation shows the number is more than 80,000.

With 25,000 new agents in training each year at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for the next three years -- as is projected -- that number is sure to rise.

According to reports by the General Accounting Office (GAO), there are 49,630 agents engaged n criminal investigation and law enforcement distributed through 45 agencies. Of these, 45,366 are in 13 agencies -- FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, National Park Service and so forth.

Each has more than 700 armed agents. An additional 4,264 law enforcement investigators work in 32 agencies that have fewer than 700 armed agents.

The Customs Service has 2,826 agents counted in the 49,630 GAO report. Not counted are an additional 7,145 Customs inspectors and 317 Customs pilots. The omission can be attributed to bureaucracy. These 7,462 are not covered by certain retirement provisions, according to the Office of Personnel Management and were, therefore, outside the parameters of the request by Congress to the GAO.

Also, their jobs are not, primarily, law enforcement. The Treasury Department does, however, count the armed inspectors, since they are authorized to conduct investigations, searches, make arrests and -- carry firearms.

MORE YET

All together, the figure nears 60,000. And, two recent GAO reports revealed another 1,669 armed agents, including:

* 959 additional law enforcement rangers in the National Park Service;
* 303 AMTRAK police;
* 220 Tennessee Valley Authority police;
* 109 Library of congress police; and
* 78 U.S. Supreme court Police.

In a 1995 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the total number of armed agents was put at 68,825. That's a lot higher than the 1997 figures from the GAO.

The reason is that the justice statistics counted additional categories of armed employees -- those who had arrest powers but did not engage in criminal investigations. These are jobs dealing with security and protection, court operations and so forth. For instance, there are 1,458 armed Postal Service employees. Presumably this is not counting those who "go postal."

Justice also counted 5,852 in the Administrative Office of the U.S. courts, who supervise federal offenders on probation and parole and arrest violators.

Another 11,073 employees are listed in "corrections." The term prison guard is not longer in regular use. The Bureau of Prisons told WorldNetDaily the figure of armed "corrections" officers is about 14,5000.

This is not an official total, as no government agency has ever counted the actual number of armed personnel employed by the government in any and all capacities. Unofficial estimates are more than 80,000 and rising steadily.

The SPOTLIGHT December 15, 1997

BATF INFORMANT LEFT OUT IN THE COLD

The federal government is developing a reputation for turning on its stool pigeons.

By Mike Blair

A former Air Force military police officer who helped the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) infiltrate the so-called Viper Militia in Arizona has been "left out in the cold" by his handlers.

Drew Nolan, 38, worked with the BATF to destroy the 12-member Viper Militia, which the federal authorities claim was planning to bomb federal building.

On seven members who were indicted, five pleaded guilty to lesser charges, one was found guilty in a recent trial, and the seventh defendant was acquitted on one charge. Another charge resulted at the conclusion of his trial in a hung jury.

Now Nolan is heavily in debt and on the run, according to reports received by The SPOTLIGHT.

Nolan helped the BATF infiltrate the Vipers after being promised by the agency it would pay him for his services, reimburse his expenses, keep his identity secret and, if his life was found to be in danger, protect him.

Relying on htese promises. Nolan helped sponsor John Schultz, a BATF undercover agent, as a member of the Vipers. With Schultz on the inside it was only a matter of months before the BATF secured what it considered sufficient evidence to put the so-called militia group out of business.

The BATF arrested the Vipers in July 1996, supposedly fearing they were planning to act soon.

Nolan was told by his handlers he, too, would be arrested to secure his cover. However, his mock arrest was never made, and within hours his name and address were known across the country.

Nolan claims he therefore had no choice but to become a fugitive of sorts.

Nolan is also $25,000 in debt and living under an assumed name.

Schultz, on the other hand, has received high praise for his work by federal officials, including President Bill Clinton, who says the BATF's quick action avoided a repeat of the Oklahoma City bombing.

"If everything had happened the way the BATF said it was going to happen, I'd have no beef at all," Nolan said. "But it didn't. They used me and then threw me in the garbage."

Nolan is not the only BATF informant who found himself the ultimate victim for working for the federal agency.

Carol Howe infiltrated a group believed tied to the Oklahoma city bombing. She warned her BATF handlers a bombing was planned months before the April 19, 1995 tragedy.

In frustration Miss Howe ultimately went public with her story. As a result, she was charged by the Justice Department with conspiracy and had to stand trial. The former beauty queen was found not guilty on all counts, leaving federal agents with egg on their faces.

The SPOTLIGHT December 22, 1997

ASIAN CRISIS TO EXCEED $120 BILLION

Vultures Circle Failed Economies

Washington wants you to finance the Asian bailout so fat cat speculators and bankers, as usual, won't feel the pinch.

By Warren Hough

With bankrupt Asian nations bowing to the merciless dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the staggering bailout - estimated at $120 billion in this newspaper three weeks ago - promises quick benefits to the so- called "vulture speculators" who are cashing in.

Of course, the American taxpayers will ultimately have to pay for it.

"Vultures are circling over Southeast Asia," and they are not small predators, reported Michael M. Phillips of the Wall Street Journal on December 9.

The international financiers who have started "feasting on Asia's wounded properties" are led by Goldman, Sachs and Co., the giant New York investment bank where Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin made his millions, and where he intends to return for more payoffs after he leaves government, Phillips found.

For Wall street megabankers and currency speculators, "such an IMF bailout is a bonanza," says Dr. Reinhardt Bodenhagen, an exchange scholar at New York University specializing in studies of global financial institutions.

"A leading vulture capitalist such as giant Citibank looks on the agony of Southeast Asia as a source of windfall profits," he explained. "To begin with, Citibank is partly responsible for setting up the crisis by lending South Korean and Indonesian banks far too much money in hard-to-repay dollar- denominated loans."

While the Asian borrowers run into hard times and buckle under the weight of their foreign debt, Citibank isn't worried: it knows that U.S. taxpayers, who meekly let the IMF and the World Bank pick their pockets, will mount another bailout.

"I bet not one American voter in a million knows how much of his annual tax return goes into financing such world-wide banking scams,' Bodenhagen noted. "The shocking answer is that it runs into tens of billions of dollars."

Most of these staggering handouts end up feeding the profits of the Wall Street financiers who have caused the breakdown of developing countries in the first place, Bodenhagen revealed.

"The global money managers have loaded down these rapidly growing economies with high-interest IOUs, and then sabotaged their ability to repay with feeding-frenzy raids of currency speculation that devalued the money supply of the hardest-working Asian countries," the economist explained.

When the victim of these financial raids is busted and unable to defend itself, "Goldman Sachs, Citibank, the Soros Fund and other global profiteers swoop down like vultures and begin buying up assets at dirt-cheap bankruptcy prices," says Felipe Vidaurrete, a Mexican export broker who was watched such maneuvers in his own country.

In Asia, Goldman Sachs has just announced the purchase of a controlling interest in the Dusit Thani hotel chain, which manages 25,000 hotel rooms in Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.

Citibank is negotiating to buy several hard-pressed Thai and Philippine financial firms. And the agents of George Soros -- the currency speculator blamed by Asian leaders for sabotaging their payments systems -- are "all over the place, looking for bargain buyouts," Vidaurrete added.

In the consensus of the most sources interviewed for this report, the process of so-called "developing-country bailouts,' has degenerated into a "brutal racket,' says Otho de Cruikman, an experienced Third-World relief administrator.

"It news Wall Street tens of billions of dollars in rip-off profits," he related. "But among the looted countries it leaves behind millions of ruined lives -- people who are thrown out of work even as they are hit with higher fuel and food prices and more biting taxes."

The day will come, Bodenhagen predicted, when the IMF and its banker confederates "will have to face retribution for what they have done to the wage-earners of the world. It won't be a pleasant outcome.

The SPOTLIGHT December 22, 1997

CHILDREN TAUGHT TO ACCEPT SEXUAL PERVERSION

Third-graders-and some as young as kindergarten are being instructed on homosexuality as an "alternative lifestyle."

By James P. Tucker Jr.

School children are being taught about homosexuality and instructed to accept "gays" as they would any "minority" group -- in a little known initiative by President Clinton.

One of the Education Department's "learning tools" is a videotape discussion in which a third-grade teacher in New York asks her students if "gays" should be allowed to marry. A girl provides the "right" answer:

"How would you feel if homosexuals were the majority and the law said you had to be homosexual to get married?"

The justification for this is "AIDS education." Nearly 10 years ago, AIDS education was mandated, mostly at the high-school level.

Since AIDS is predominantly a homosexual disease, it was impossible to discuss AIDS without discussing homosexuals. This began at the high=school level. Instead of trying to prevent the disease by explaining to students that homosexuality is the direct cause of more than 90 percent of AIDS cases, it became a propaganda campaign to make the next generation "tolerant."

Such "tolerance" can only increase -- not decrease - the incidence of AIDS. The lives of a few children are less precious, the Education Department, than the brainwashing of all children.

The administration has endorsed grade-school "diversity" training to teach students to be accepting of homosexuals, the disabled and racial minorities.

The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers' union, adopted a resolution urging schools to develop activities and programs that "increase acceptance of and sensitivity to" homosexuals.

The NEA has a history of supporting leftist causes.

"Teachers need more opportunity dealing with these issues,' said Education Secretary Richard Riley.

School teachers in rural Orange County, Virginia, were shocked to learn what's taking place elsewhere and pledged to be vigilant against Washington slipping the program into their system.

"What does a third-grade student know about homosexuals anyway?" asked one teacher. "Apparently, we are to explain homosexual behavior in young children and tell them that it is good, when they would never have thought about it."

Horror stories keep popping up around the nation:

* A middle school in Florida allowed homosexual advocates to tell the children they would be lucky to be on the receiving end of oral sex and not to worry if their "cut-free" leg happened to be splashed with HIV-tainted blood.

* Provincetown, Massachusetts, has voted to begin teaching preschoolers about homosexual lifestyles and called for hiring preferences for "sexual minorities."

* In Montpelier, Vermont, students are given materials urging them to have sex to build up their self-confidence. The materials also argue that "two lesbians make a more nurturing relationship than a heterosexual couple."

"What did you learn in school today? Is an old question with new significance. Don't be surprised what you might hear from your child if this Clinton initiative makes it into your public school system.

The SPOTLIGHT December 22, 1997

SCANDAL RAISES SECURITY ISSUE

Were national security matters overlooked in the scandal of a friend of President Bill Clinton buried in Arlington National Cemetery?

By Mike Blair

As the nation focuses its attention on the case of the late U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Larry Lawrence being buried at Arlington National Cemetery, what is ignored is how America's national security interests were compromised by the FBI, according to a retired Air Force intelligence officer.

A mandatory FBI background check of Lawrence that was supposed to be made in 1993, when he was nominated by Clinton for the ambassadorship apparently wasn't made.

Such a check, as required in order for Lawrence to receive the necessary top secret security clearance that an ambassador must have, would have delved into the then-nominee's military history. The FBI would have quickly discovered the record was bogus.

The retired officer posed these questions:

* Did the White House ask the FBI to "stand down" on its investigation of Lawrence because he was a massive contributor to the Democratic National Committee and to the 1992 Clinton-Gore election campaign?

* Did the FBI fail to report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee its discovery of the forged military record because Lawrence was one of the now infamous and growing list of "Friends of Bill?"

* Was the State Department really unaware of the fake military history of Lawrence when it urged Army Secretary of Defense Togo West -- now nominated by Clinton to head the Department of Veterans Affairs -- to overrule a decision by officials at Arlington not to issue a waiver allowing the burial?

If the FBI or the State Department at the request of the White House demanded that this "Friend of Bill" be buried in Arlington, then a whole list of serious crimes are involved. These demand passage of an inquiry of impeachment against Clinton.

According to facts that have surfaced in the Lawrence matter, he ordered an aide to research U.S. Merchant Marine records of WWII to find a suitable ship; he chose the SS Horace Bushnell.

Then Lawrence claimed he was a member of the Merchant Marine, had served on this vessel, and had received serious wounds when thrown overboard when the shop was struck by a torpedo from a German submarine in March 1945.

According to the Associated Press, White House sources said they are "exploring the possibility Lawrence used a different name in the Merchant Marine to hide his Jewish heritage in case of German capture."

According to a number of witnesses, it was no secret in California, where the ambassador lived, that he had faked a military war record after the war.

After the faked military history of the ambassador had been revealed in the media, Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.), Chairman of the House Sub-committee on Oversight and Investigations, turned up the heat.

Everett released a series of government documents which indicated that Lawrence's service record was bogus.

It has been revealed that Lawrence gave a total of $10 million over the years to Democrats.

It has also been revealed that in addition to being wrongfully buried at Arlington, the 'Friend of Bill" was also one of the "Democrat fat cats" given overnight accommodations by Clinton in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House.

The SPOTLIGHT December 29, 1997

CLINTON CRONY DISHONORED IN DEATH

You know about the gold and drug connection, you haven't heard the whole story of M. Larry Lawrence.

By Fred Blahut

In Washington, the discredited M. Larry Lawrence was one of many well-heeled "Friends of Bill," Reportedly he gave $10 million to the Democratic Party and various Democratic entities.

In the hinterlands, Lawrence is known as the man kicked out of Arlington National Cemetery, having faked Merchant Marine service during World War II. But in San Diego, California, the ex-ambassador (and non-Merchant Mariner) was the man with enough clout to avoid prosecution -- even investigation -- in a mob-linked gold and drugs operation that stretches back some 30.

According to SPOTLIGHT sources interviewed in San Diego, all of whom spoke to this populist newspaper with the understanding of anonymity, Lawrence was connected to an ex-mayor, current mayor, drug money launderer and previously deceased tycoon -- just to name a few.

"The national media portrays Lawrence as a 'civic benefactor,'" said one source, a man who closely follows local development for business reasons. "But if you examine the projects he was involved in, you'll find out that he was a 'Lawrence benefactor.'"

According to the Washington Post, in San Diego, "Lawrence was known as a political bigwig who got what he wanted." But "that isn't the half of it," said one source to the SPOTLIGHT.

Years ago, before making national headlines, Lawrence was one of three principals in a company called Yuba Natural Resources. According to promotional material put out by the company, Yuba intended to dredge the Sacramento River for gold tailings.

It seems that int the last century, some gold refining and/or separation was done near the mines. The tailings were dumped into the Sacramento River. But lots of gold that can now be extracted using modern methods was left in the tailings, and a fortune lay on the river bottom, waiting to be dredged up.
At least that was the story put out by Lawrence and his two partners, Richard Silberman and Robert Peterson.

"How much gold did they take out?" The SPOTLIGHT asked an "insider" source, a southern California businessman.

"That's just the question that the FBI should have asked," our source replied. No one knows how much gold -- if any = was actually taken from the river bed.

Well, then where did the money come from?

MONEY LAUNDERING

Silberman was the target of an FBI investigation of Mafia money laundering and illegal narcotics activities. And he was heard bragging that "for 30 years" he had been laundering drug money for the mob. One of the companies he admitted to using for laundering the cash was Yuba Natural Resources. In 1989, Silberman was indicted on charges of trying to launder cocaine money with reputed organized crime figure Chris Petti.

At the time Silberman went to jail, he was married to San Diego Board of Supervisors Chairman (now San Diego Mayor) Susan Golding, who is currently a candidate for the Senate. She divorced him. Peterson, meanwhile, had been married to another (but former) San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor, at the same time Golding was chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

Silberman, a democrat, served as secretary of business, transportation and housing during the administration of the then-Gov. Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr.
At the time of Lawrence's disinterment state Sen. Larry Sterling(R-San Diego) said of him: Lawrence "has made an enormous contribution to the people of San Diego and nothing can take that away."

But a female SPOTLIGHT source, a long-time San Diego area resident, described him as a "member of a ruling clique; they did things for themselves, not for the people."

According to an affidavit signed by an undercover FBI agent, as part of a federal "sting" operation, Silberman, Petti and two other men conducted financial transactions worth $300,000 in cash -- purported profits of Colombian drug traffickers, according to the affidavit.

The FBI sting operation that netted Silberman and the others began in 1986 with an investigation into the activities of Petti, a long-time reputed mobster, who was suspected of carrying out extortion activities for the Chicago La Cosa Nostra.

As part of the "sting," $100,000 was delivered to Silberman's associates in November 1988, according to the FBI affidavit. The money allegedly was converted into stock of Yuba American gold, a subsidiary of Yuba National Resources, for later trade into cash on the Canadian market. The company, a subsidiary of Standard Prudential Corp. Before May 1, 1974, was inactive from 1974 until 1977 when it again sought to develop its mineral holdings.

In 1983, Silberman led a San Diego investment group to buy 44 percent of Yuba's stock from Marvin Kratter of Las Vegas. The company's main asset was 10,000 acres of land along the Yuba River about 40 miles north of Sacramento.
Silberman took over management of the company in 1983 and directed development of a project to recover silica quartz rock. In 1984, Dow corning corp. Signed a five-year contract for silica quartz rock, a major component of glass and ceramics.

Meanwhile, Yuba Natural Resources installed a gold recovery operation in the silica process, and, in a joint venture with another company, took on additional debt to expand its gold dredging.

But we can go back even further in the Lawrence-Peterson-Silberman alliance. They were all involved with the Kroc family in McDonald's franchises, sold out and created Jack in the box. Then they sold out and formed a bank.

After the bank, they got together for Yuba Natural Resources.

Then came the FBI investigation and the indictment of Silberman. Out on bail pending trial, he disappeared just three days before his scheduled court appearance. Local newspapers headlined the event, but didn't happen to mention his business partner, "Friend of Bill" Lawrence.

Silberman was later found in an upper room of a Las Vegas hotel, suffering from an overdose of sleeping pills. "It was suggested locally that he was threatened by the mob, tried to take his own life, then changed his mind," said one source. "Nothing was ever proved one way or the other."

Rushed to a hospital, his life was saved. Meanwhile, He "copped a plea" to a lesser charge and served some time in a "country club" federal facility in northern California.

While Silberman was an active partner of Lawrence, he served in various state appointed offices, courtesy of the California democratic machine. He was known as the "father of I-15" an important local highway.

"Why isn't anyone questioning Lawrence's connection to Silberman and Peterson?" one source asked then, and no one is asking now, even when Lawrence has been discredited."

When Lawrence first got to town, he was broke, SPOTLIGHT sources indicated. Then he "married money," and used his wife's family's financing to purchase San Diego's famous Hotel de Coronado.

Originally, he filed plans that indicated he purchased the hotel to tear it down, but then refurbished it, "contrary to code," said one SPOTLIGHT source.

Other people who knew Lawrence had a variety of opinions and anecdotes which they related to various news sources, including:

*From former Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin (D-Calif.): Lawrence could get on the phone and shake down $100,000 at a pop. I told former democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis at a fun-raiser at Lawrence's hotel, "You got prime rib from Larry, while I got chipped beef on toast.

* Unidentified "White House official": Lawrence was a charlatan who had told a lie so often he "internalized it to the point where he believed it. It's about a guy who was a billionaire and an ambassador who made up his life and got away with it until the end. He was a charming rogue."

* George Mitrovich, president of the City Club of San Diego and a long time Democratic political operative: "He had the courage of his convictions. He would tell you what he thought and would take public positions." He was always "in your face."

Said one SPOTLIGHT source: "The story around town [San Diego] is that Mrs Lawrence was advised to dig him [Lawrence] up and move him quickly, before the investigation went any further. His connections with politicians and mobsters is well known here, but I don't see any mention of that on the TV news.'

The SPOTLIGHT December 29, 1997

DID PLANE CRASH OR GUNSHOT KILL RON BROWN?

A medical examiner was placed under house arrest for claiming Ron Brown's head had a bullet hole in it when the body was recovered.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

Someone in the Clinton administration would rather not officially know if the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown died because of a plane crash or gunshot to the head.

A hole in the skull was found in Brown's corpse after the April 3, 1996 crash in Croatia, where Brown was leading big Democratic contributors on a junket. Brown and 34 others died.

Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Cogswell, a deputy medical examiner at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, said he believes the head wound could have been caused by a 45-caliber gun.

Cogswell, a medical doctor, said an autopsy should have been performed on Brown to determine the cause of death. There was no autopsy. Cogswell said the head wound is suspicious, based on X-rays and photographs of the remains.

Military authorities have now placed a gag order on Cogswell. He received written orders not to comment to the press on Brown's death. He was ordered to refer all press inquiries on the subject to the public affairs office.

The doctor has also been placed under "command investigation" by the Air Force -- a process similar to an internal affairs inquiry. Cogswell was told he could not leave the floor where his office is located without permission of his superiors.

The death was another convenient one for the administration. Several commerce Department career employees have told The SPOTLIGHT that if Brown were not now in his grave, he would be under indictment.

The SPOTLIGHT was the first national newspaper to report on the former commerce secretary's corrupt links to Vietnamese businessmen (SPOTLIGHT July 5, 1993 and others). Brown was investigated by the FBI.

A Vietnamese-American businessman, Ly Tranh Binh, was called before a grand jury in Miami in 1994.

Binh claimed Brown asked Vietnamese leaders for a $700,000 payoff to be placed in a Singapore bank and a share of oil and other business concessions. In return, Brown would push the Clinton administration to lift trade sanctions then in place against Vietnam.

The sanctions have since been lifted.

Binh was placed under police protection after receiving death threats.

At the time of his death, several indictments were coming down on Brown, accusing him of bestowing favors, at taxpayers' expense, on big Democratic contributors.

The White House told The SPOTLIGHT President Clinton would have no comment.

The SPOTLIGHT December 29, 1997

DEADLY FORM OF FLU COULD HIT 1 OF EVERY 10 IN U.S. FAMILIES

U.S. health officials may be sitting on news of a deadly killer flu virus which appears to have originated in Red China.

By Mike Blair

Little is being done in the United States to warn the American people of a flu pandemic that has the potential of equaling, or being worse than the world- wide Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

The 1918 flu outbreak caused the deaths of 642,000 Americans. It killed 20 to 30 million people around the world. Health officials in Asia are working feverishly to warn the people -- particularly in Hong Kong and Japan.

The disease has been labeled H5N1 influenza A virus in Hong King.

While the U.S. media, with the encouragement of government health officials, has "downplayed" this epidemic, residents of Hong Kong are reportedly in a near panic.

Health officials working in Hong Kong, and the Centers for Disease Control (CEC) in Atlanta, claim they don't know how people get the disease. Nine of those stricken are staff members of hospitals where the two people who have died from H5N1 were treated. One victim was a three-year-old, the other was a 54-year-old man.

By last April, before the 3-year-old Hong Kong child was killed, 4,500 chickens on three poultry farms had died from the virus, which led to claims that it was a "chicken flu."

The chickens came from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, which daily exports about 80,000 chickens, providing about a third of the birds sold at markets in Hong Kong.

OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS

Huge numbers of chickens have reportedly died from the flu in Red China's southern provinces. The World Health Organization (WHO) has quietly dispatched a team of scientists to that region to gather data.

Also quietly, the CDC has sent a team of a least five U.S. scientists to Hong Kong to aid health experts there and to study and help develop possible vaccines.

While news of the deadly virus is being hushed in the United States and elsewhere, in Hong Kong health officials are coming under fire for not sounding the alarm to the public sooner.

This led Dr. Leong Che-hung, who represents the medical profession in Hong Kon's parliament, to accuse the health bureaucrats of "sitting on a volcano."

If the hesitancy of Hong Kon's health officials to act with more urgency was due to orders from Red China is not known. News of the outbreak has already led to a 70 percent drop in chicken sales in Hong Kong markets, most of which comes from Red Chinese farms.

"The first case was discovered in August [actually last April-May in the case of the 3-year-old child]," Leong said. "It was only in late November, that apparent actions were taken like the setting up of an expert task force."
SCOPE OF PROBLEM

Hong Kong health officials have now asked WHO to alert vaccine production centers worldwide to monitor developments with the view to begin preparing necessary vaccines.

Japanese health officials are moving quickly. Japanese firms are already preparing to produce vaccines, with the hope of lessening the four-month period that it normally takes to produce a new flu vaccine.

The Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry estimates that if H5N1 reaches Japan some 32 million people -- one in four Japanese - could catch the flu. Scientists are working around the clock to come up with a viable vaccine.

Although there have been warnings in the United States, officials do not appear to be worried.

"We have to realize that this virus is telling us that it's trying to seed itself into the human population," warned Dr Robert Webster, a virologist and influenza specialist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. "If it keeps doing this it will be bad news to say the least."

Some suspect the disease is an airborne contagion, that it is passed by tiny droplets from human respiration.

Experts warn that a flu pandemic has even a worse potential than the 1918 Spanish variety, which is primarily due to modern transportation.

As an example, hundreds of aircraft arrive and depart from Hong Kong every day.

"The whole world scene has changed," said Dr. Kennedy Short bridge, an Australian microbiologist who is Hong Kong University's influenza expert. "With a brand new virus theoretically you could have global dissemination with in 24 hours.

The only known drug to be effective n treating the flu virus is amantadine. However, world supplies of the drug are limited. Large amounts have been sent to Hong Kong.

"H5N1 appears to be something new, something that is not following usual patterns of flu evolution," one expert said.

The SPOTLIGHT Nov/Dec Health & Fitness Supplement

CONGRESS SICKENS SENIORS WITH BAD CARE BILL

Lawmakers Attempting to Return Freedom of Choice to the Elderly

Now that lawmakers have read the omnibus budget bill and have seen how seniors were mistreated, some want to reverse changes that should never have been enacted.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

An obscure provision of this year's Balanced Budget Act, Section 4507, effectively bars Medicare patients from making private arrangements with their physicians.

This is yet another example of Congress voting on a massive bill or how it effects you. Other examples are legion. The North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization implementation legislation, various omnibus crime bills and annual budget bulls are a few examples.

In recent years, as Medicare "savings" were achieved by cutting back on reimbursements, many patients have paid a small extra fee to retain the services of their physician.

Some doctors simply quit seeing Medicare patients because it was unprofitable. Many continued seeing some Medicare patients as a matter of principle.

Here's what Section 4507 does: If you are on Medicare and want to go outside the system to pay your doctor directly, with your own money, for medical treatment or procedure already covered by Medicare, you can do so. But there is a catch.

Your doctor will first have to sign an affidavit agreeing not to submit a payment claim to Medicare for any other Medicare patient for a full two years.
In other words, your doctor will be slapped with a serious financial penalty if he does business with you on a private basis. Your right to contract privately with him outside of Medicare will depend entirely on your doctor's ability or willingness to give up all other Medicare patients for two years.

Congress refuses to say why the government objects to such deals, which involve personal funds and makes more services available to those willing to pay for them.

In Britain, which has a socialist system of medical care patients are allowed to pay more than what the government authorizes in order to see the doctor of choice with no penalty.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who is leading a fight to rescind the law, said if it were applied to Social Security, beneficiaries would be effectively banned from doing business with a stockbroker.

The Medicare Beneficiary Freedom to Contract Act, expected to come up early in the next session, wold kill the provision.

"There's very much a head of steam building under this," Kyl said. "The leadership in both houses is committed to seeing this done."

Kyl is leading the repeal movement in the Senate, while Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Bill Archer (R-Texas) is seeking its abolition in the House.

Republican leaders "should be embarrassed by this," Kyl said. It is wrong that "the people who negotiated the budget deal allowed it to be imposed on us in the first place.

The American Medical Association, other physician groups and a coalition of self-avowed "conservative" organizations are supporting repeal.

AARP DOESN'T WANT CHOICE

But the American Association of retired Persons (AARP), the nation's largest organization of elderly, supports the measure. Since AARP membership is built mostly on economic inducements, it is unable to really speak for its members.

On occasion, when members would read of an AARP position, they would flood the office and members of Congress with calls renouncing the position. It released this position:

"AARP believes the new Kyl bill would weaken critical protections in the budget bill for beneficiaries and the fiscal integrity of the Medicare program."

But another organization of the elderly, with a membership built more around ideology than low-interest credit cards and low-cost travel, supports the Kyl amendment. Said Mike Korbey of the United Seniors Association: "As Medicare keeps ratcheting down payments to health care providers, it may be the private sector will serve as a safety valve for people to go outside the system to get the care that they need.