June 1986

6/1/86

More police depts are allowing use of semi-autos

Gen. Motors will stop selling vehicles to police & military agencies in SA. Ford refused earlier to do likewise

End 1985: 374 nuclear reactors in 26 countries = 15% world’s electricity. Electricity = 35% energy consumed so nukes = 5% energy use & 2-3% energy delivered to end users (Fr. 65%)
-The USA uses 2X as much energy per unit of GDB (>2X per capita) than Japan
-40% world electricity from coal plants

Is Cory Aquino ever going to hold elections?


6/2/86

Ms Aquino appointed a panel to write a new const. Will be approved by plebiscite

Kwa Ndebele will become ind Dec. 11 [no it didn’t]

We are in a trade fight w/Canada, starting w/our tariff on lumber

SA demolishing Crossroads squatter camp. They intend to create a smaller, more sanitary version

Today Sen. proceedings started being televised

It was definitely a CIA agent who brought down Eden Pastora by inducing 6 sr. commanders to desert. Pastora is in jail in Costa Rica, trying to get pol asylum
-All of which is capped by last week’s unity plan among the contras. Pol control may shift more to Cruz & Robelo but Calero& the former Somosista Nat Guards will still control military ops--obviously the only important part since they have no chance of taking power
-Caleo was served w/a subpoena in Miami for Contra cocaine smuggling

A small W Ger nuke plant leaked radiation & covered it up--maybe. It may have had a meeting w/someone who went on holiday. May have blamed radiation on Chernobyl


6/3/86

In the beating deaths of the Palestinians, it seems that it may have been ordered by the head of the security police. Peres keeps saying that the case could compromise nat security--Israel’s capability of combating terrorism, ie, he considers beating a legitimate tool

Why has RR declared intention to end compliance w/SALT II, a treaty which favors us anyway, at a time when Congress is so unwilling to spend $ on the likely ensuing arms race?

RR is inviting all 100 Senators to breakfast to lobby for arms sale to Saudi Arabia--to be served is bacon & eggs. Is this a joke?


6/4/86

SA gov to remove job reservation on the mines

The Israeli Cabinet replaced the atty gen who wanted to investigate Shin Beth. Can they just fire him for doing his job?

SA banned all anti-apartheid meetings inc white, inc indoors--10th anniversary of Soweto coming


6/5/86

US working on an extradition treaty w/Br to ease sending back IRA

Pastora got his pol asylum in Costa Rica

Jefferson Sessions, nominated to District Judge, racist-at-large, rejected by committee

Desmond Tutu will defy ban on meetings over Soweto--this would be more impressive if the ban inc relig meetings

Philippines will meet w/CP insurgents w/in 2 days

SA may have attacked an Angolan port. Aimed at destroying ships & oil facilities--the port is the main oil region as well as port for transshipments of Soviet arms to ANC. Note also a major Angolan offensive against UNITA--is SA trying to a) weaken Angola, b) interdict arms to ANC, c) support UNITA, d) all of the above? And is SA in southern Angola in some force?

Anti-gov demos getting nasty in Haiti

Thought for the day: The Soviet ideal comes down to centralized control & planning, w/an emphasis on the latter. The American ideal comes down to the indiv. The scale of the modern world, and esp of our 2 countries, makes mockery of those ideas, esp those of America. The USSR is simply too big to be that centralized: the center of control & planning is too distant from its implementation. Therefore, there develop alternate centers of power lower down, and esp at the level of the indiv & shop-floor. The American ideal is also made nonsense of by scale. One is free to compete w/General Motors in manufacturing cars if one has a few billion lying around (dollars that is, not cars); freedom of speech and politics ditto--try competing w/the two-party system or the SF Chronicle.


6/6/86

The ship sunk by SA yesterday was Cuban. And 2 Soviet freighters damaged

A US judge ordered customs to return Marcos’ $s

Moderates seem to have taken over Philippines CP & begun negotiations


6/8/86

Kurt Waldheim pres of Austria w/54%
-Israel has registered its complaints


6/9/86

Sup Court decided Fed gov had no jurisdiction in cases where medical assistance denied a deformed baby


6/10/86

From Kurt Vonnegut’s Dead Eye Dick:
“It may be a bad thing that so many people try to make good stories out of their lives. A story after all is as artificial as a mechanical bucking bronco in a drinking establishment.
“And it may be even worse for nations to try to be characters in stories.
Perhaps these words should be carved over doorways of the United Nations and all sorts of parliaments, big and small: LEAVE YOUR STORY OUTSIDE.”

2nd day of fighting at Crossroads. Sounds like the conservs (ie., black vigilantes) in control. They (called the Fathers) helped by military. BBC says pictures of what may be military men--white men w/rifles leading black bands. Sounds like there may also be concerted attacks on media

Sudden high level of radiation Finland--wind was blowing from USSR

USSR will compensate its E Eur neighbors for Chernobyl


6/11/86

What is there to th reports that the US knew about martial law in Poland before it was imposed & did nothing, perhaps because “a Polish solution was better than a Soviet one?”

USSR dismantled or replaced >1200 nuke launchers to stay w/in provisions of SALT II & the 1972 interim agreement (SALT 1½?). If Soviets add the possible 4 additional MIRVed warheads to the SS-18 of which there are 308, would be 1,232 more warheads. Our MXs would only add a net of 350 warheads.
-So what does RR hope to gain?
-We’ve been bitching about Soviet coding of test-flight signals. They’ve asked what info we need, but we won’t tell them becuase it would reveal info-gathering capabilities
-Our delegate on disputes has not been getting instructions: “He is authorized to complain but is not authorized to resolve the issue.”
-Admin not supplying Congress w/a report on what USSR could do if treaty ended

Ronald Pelton was convicted of spying w/out even the jury knowing what NSA secrets he leaked to USSR--20 yrs from now we’ll found out it was Reagan’s shoe size

RR press conf: his proof that the Israelis aren’t spying on us: they say so

Sup Court again affirmed right to abortion, 5-4

RR doesn’t think anyone in NASA should be prosecuted for Challenger “explosion”

An interesting point is made that, in comparison, w/Voortreker complaints, US complained in 1776 that Br wouldn’t give a free hand against Amerinds


6/12/86

Something from American-Israeli Civil Liberties Coalition informs me that: Israel never legally adopted a Const or bill of rights, that domestic law comes under relig courts, that many pub entitlements are contingent on military service (unless they’re Yeshiva students)--therefore Arabs denied rights & service; newspapers are licensed, the right on conscientious objection is ltd to Orthodox yeshiva students, only Orthodoxism is legally accepted, & 40% of children in Israel’s schools feel that Israel should be a democracy only for Jewish citizens.

Project Censored list of 10 ignored stories of 1985:
1) Aerial war in El Salvador--since US funding began in Jun84, more than 3,000 tons of US-made bombs dropped-- >2,000 dead, 1.2m homeless (20%, higher than in SVN at height). And there are many US reporters there & they are literally shaken when Guazapo volcano carpet-bombed
2) Military toxic waste sites-- 500,000 tons of waste/yr--more than the top 5 chemical comps, & not regulated by EPA, many dangerous--leaking nerve gas & so forth
3) 10 yrs of genocide in E Timor
4) The Reagan Revolution: Exec Order 12291 of 1982 used to apply cost-benefit principles on programs legislated by Congress, as decided by Exec Branch
5) Mergers in media
6) Birth defects on Navajo reservation--from uranium mining-- more defects in Shiprock, NM than in Hiroshima & Nagasaki
7) Phony Star Wars test results. Project scientists are forbidden to talk about failures...
8) The Pentagon nuclear decapitation report. Commission by Congress, classified it so high that not Congress or even its author can read it. Only 4 people allowed to read it. Evidently, the US command & control system could be rendered useful by a few warheads
9) All $ allocated for homeless is diverted [This week, it was decided that no new pub housing units would be built, all $ going to maintain old units
10) Health hazards from electronics

SA dec state of emergency. Many anti-apartheidists arrested

The extradition treaty w/Br was approved

It was announced today that SALT II was dead. RR said yesterday that the Soviets could do things to rectify it. Speakes said he didn’t know what RR was talking about
-Kenneth Adelman, head of Arms Control & Disarmament Agency said on McNeil-Lehrer that we should go back to the old constraints on Soviet nukes--econ considerations. I.e., unrestrained arms race

Why does it figure that the Reagans would own a dog called Rex?


6/13/86

SA under siege rule. Economy at rock bottom

Br to abolish the NI Assembly

Marcos has $1.5b in Swiss accounts frozen--under false names


6/14/86

The Challenger report put much blame on NASA, but stopped very well short of investigating pressure from White House to launch in time for State of Union speech

The brokers for Contra aid evidently stole much of it, socking it away in Grand Cayman or Bahamas. Honduras’s army also seems to have gotten much of it...somehow

Panama’s leader--Gen. Noriega--charged w/money laundering, drug activities, kidnapping an opponent, selling intel to Cuba & US, selling arms to M-19 in Colombia

House Foreign Affairs Cmte urges staying w/in SALT II

The SA Emergency Decree practically makes the police God. 1,000+ detained on 1st day of decree


6/15/86

The SA Emergency Decree inc requiring newspapers to ask police before photographing them. Copies of the Sowetan & Weekly Mail seized. The Sowetan had a huge list of perhaps 2,000 who were seized by police. The Mail is a successor to Rand Daily Mail.
-Use of phrase “white minority regime” by foreign reporters not to be tolerated. No id of those detained. All news channeled to press through Bureau for Info. Police can use any means deemed necessary
-Can be held 180 dys, I think. Or 2 weeks, extendable by Min Law & Order who don’t have to report to anyone or listen to anyone (such as the accused). This is pure police rule
Evidently the 180 dys is an extension from 14, to be enacted, by the State President, only in crisis, like now
-Any police officer above lt-col can order this 180 dys w/out trials if feel it would contrib to ending or preventing violence

SA is (or was) talking about a Nat Council which would inc blacks. Hailed as beginning of power-sharing, it involves appointed members & reps of the bantustans (which is the same thing) & members of bodies repres urban blacks. Botha’s decided council can’t have anyone w/a jail sentence over a yr or belonging to a banned organiz

Business Day comments that the Afk fascist-like AWB, which has been breaking up gov meetings, is using the methods used by Nationalist Party members 1940s (inc young PW Botha) to disrupt UP meetings

SA: reporters banned from areas of unrest w/out permission of police. And can’t talk about activities of sec forces

Denmark is banning all trade w/SA. SA & It. restrict some trade. EEC meets Monday

B of A bans all new loans to SA


6/16/86

From Edgar Pangborn’s Davy: “At twenty-eight I believe my ignorance is expanding in a promising sort of way” (p.10)

Whatever, if anything, is going on in SA has been suppressed successfully. Soweto Day

SA Broadcasting Comp ordered to end facilities for overseas tv (ie live interviews, live anything)


6/17/86

Chief Justice Burger resigned--evidently the anniversary celebration of the Const is more important than the Const itself. Rehnquist to be chief justice, Antonin Scalia justice

Jesse Helms (!) claims that Miguel de la Madrid’s election in ‘82 was fraudulent. Didn’t get 71% but 39%. Poor Mexico, so attacked lately

Rehnquist is 61 yrs old, dammit

Scalia believes in orig intent, god help us. Against affirm. action. More likely to allow relig in pub life. Likes presidential authority

Pik Botha on Nightline has the nerve to say that SA press still free. The state of emergency was merely to protect the blacks. And it prevented a communist revo. Quotes a SACP document
-Koppel suggests, perceptively I think, that the ambiguity about press restrictions is deliberate, to create self-censorship
-Indeed, even press restrictions are to protect men in the media, Botha says!

SA arrested an entire church congregation (250?)


6/18/86

Former Israeli atty gen seems to be keeping Shin Beth case open through well-placed leaks.

Scalia is 50. Burger may have quit when did on assumption that Sen. would return to D’s, making confirmation difficult

11 blacks killed SA Monday, says SA

Afghan rebels finance their war w/opium. Funny how little we hear about that.

Scalia doesn’t believe in right to privacy or protection of homosexuals

A bill in SA would allow dual citizenship w/bantustans--after 5 yrs residency, sounds like

House to order total trade embargo on SA. A UN measure vetoed US & UK--Fr abstained

State Dept claims no proof of ‘82 Mexico vote fraud


6/19/86

Pangborn: “Ever notice that only individuals think?...” p.51

Scalia doesn’t like FOIA. But his extreme judicial non-activism might make him less likely to want to illegalize abortion judicially

There is a bill to illegalize priv use of polygraphs by which 50,000 are denied employment or promotion--2m take them/yr to get or keep jobs

Of Contra aid, $450,000 went to commander in chief of Honduras military, $1.5m to Hond. army

Monday SA cut phone lines to Soweto

SA is denying the June 5 attack on Nambe (Angola)--says it was just UNITA

Arrested in SA up to 3,000


6/20/86

Battle at 2 prisons in Lima w/Sendero Luminoso--400 prisoners killed

NYT has started using “Ms.”

Sup Court: sexual harassment doesn’t require threats to lose job, just a pervasive atmosphere

SA: leaving newspaper areas blank will be considered subversive (as Sowetan & Star have done)
-Something happened which may destroy the Weekly Mail. Current issue being edited by the lawyers

2 new security bills SA give power of detention up to 6 mos & Min Law & Order can give advice to areas of unrest (rejected by coloured & Ind chambers)--perm state of emergency


6/21/86

Sowetan: “We have been advised that the police interpret the blank spaces we have left in the newspaper over the past few days as being ‘subversive.’ We will now fill the spaces with the most innocuous of writings.”

Former contra officers claim top leaders siphoning off funds from US aid

Sen. Armed Services Cmte cut L1.4b from Star Wars program


6/22/86

SA gag order on 118 groups inc UDF, Congress of SA Trade Unions, AZAPO, etc

Sp. Socialist won over all majority. ETA’s pol wing gained a lot


6/23/86

UK, in a reverse, will meet Oliver Tambo

Justice Dept: an employer can fire an AIDS victim for “health” reasons--if they’re in a job that requires sex, pray tell? Nothing else makes med. sense & this is an official seal of approval on non-medical fears. The man who wrote the decision says no decision is made by Justice on med. evidence; i.e, anyone can use the medical tests that appeal to their prejudices. Why does ignorance get such legal lee-way?

Those 2 new security laws in SA were enacted by the Presidential Council (nominated), bypassing Parl. A significant move away from democracy, no?


6/24/86

SA relaxed press restrictions in order to facilitate reporting of limpet mines in Jo’burg. Directed at civilians

A letter in Economist suggests that Malaysia--with a racist const, should be treated as SA is


6/25/86

Was the SA emergency a way of exaggerating a problem in order to get credit for solving it?

Israel: the security chief was dismissed, but with immunity...ie., coverup, no reason to investigate

House voted aid to Contras 221-209


6/26/86

Sup Court: can’t execute insane

Nicaragua ordered La Prensa closed--maybe RR is right & they really were only waiting till it didn’t matter for PR
-Indeed, Ortega on tv threatened action against--I guess--contra sympathisers


6/27/86

World Court asked US to end aid to Contras & pay reparations

EEC threatened sanctions on SA in 3 mos. Want freeing of Mandela, unbanning of ANC

Ireland, divorce defeated in referendum 63%

Craxi’s gov falls


6/28/86

The pardons to Shin Beth men were made before any investigating, so extent of guilt not known


6/29/86

Sir Geoffrey Howe is going to SA as a stall so Br doesn’t immediately have to impose sanctions (rep of EEC). The problem for Br is to convince the Commonwealth that it can inf SA w/out sanctions. Is this possible?
-Many won’t meet Howe, inc Tutu

Talks Ch/Port. over handing back Macao

Aid to contras will inc training, probably by Green Berets


6/30/86

The new identity documents in SA will not refer to race

The Eminent Persons’ Group considered as stumbling blocks th e Gov’s “list of unnegotiables”: 1) the concept of group rights, 2) bantustans, 3) no one-man, one-vote, 4) Population Registration Act, 5) the Tricameral Parl
-For some reason they see this as a sign of unwillingness to negotiate on fundamentals

Fr may have changed mind on SA w/state of emergency be willing to support sanctions

Canada will no longer purchase SA products

The problem w/capital flight is that it allows SA firms to buy up foreign firms cheap & makes sanctions later that much harder

US no longer feels obliged to aid NZ under ANZUS

Sen. John East committed suicide

SA relaxed ban to allow Buthelezi to hold a rally in Soweto--inc Zulus with traditional weapons. This can’t do him any good

Sup Court upheld GA law against sodomy

Sup Court: gerrymandering ok, as long as one-man, one-vote. But struck down a plan that removed black votes. Huh?