January 1991

1/1/91

The Nov. 30 meeting of Bush w/Ch foreign minister didn’t contradict ban on high-level exchanges because they were “contacts” rather than “large ceremonial exchanges.” So the ban was only on meaningless events

USSR presidential decree allows groups of workers to descend on food comps, shops or restaurants & supervise food distrib, institute criminal proceedings

Moscow has abandoned talks w/Baltics unless they agree to stay in USSR

Swiss Fed Tribunal has overridden the lack of ♀ suffrage in the last canton


1/3/91

Bush: “No price is too heavy to pay to expel Iraq from Kuwait.” Oh good.

Nicaragua arrests 4 Sandinista army officers for selling anti-aircraft rockets to Salvadoran rebels. I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t a coverup for Contra sales.

FMLN killed 3 US soldiers in bringing down a helicopter. US claims they were shot after helicopter landed.

Ethnic Greeks are streaming out of Albania

Ger drug comps refusing to sell drugs in E Ger, where they’re supposed to charge 45%

Soviet military surrounds Latvia’s (CP-owned) printing plant, provoking strike, preventing most newspapers coming out
-Also took Lithuanian CP HQ

Jordan’s new cabinet inc 5 from militant Muslim Brotherhood. Israel not happy. They got ed., soc devt, health, relig, justice. Hold 22 seats of 84

Gov. Wilson of CA. appoints to Senate John Seymour of Orange Cty to replace himself. Seymour a heavy Bush contributor who allegedly moved to moderation, converting to abortion & against off-shore drilling 1989

1/4/91

Fr’s Gladio network also recruited from fascists, based on Vichy’s sec gen of police René Bousquet, key in deporting Jews.
-And the It. Gladio is definitely related to P2

AIDS no longer a barrier to visiting US

Troops in Gulf to be given an untested botulism vaccine

Iraq moving gov out of Baghdad

Pentagon working on restrictive guidelines for a war press pool: military escorts at all times, all interview on record, prior censorship, ban impromptu interviews w/military officials entering buildings. And no tv of “personnel in agony or severe shock” or “imagery of patients suffering from severe disfigurements.”

No one in John Major’s cabinet speaks decent German, and Major & Heseltine know no foreign languages


1/5/91

Baker will meet Iraqi foreign minister Jan. 9

2 of the released Argentine general-dictators are demanding complete vindication of military policies


1/6/91

Baker says this talk will be the last

Coup in Haiti, goddamit, by ex-head of the Macoutes, interior & defense min., a month before Father Aristide would have taken office. This is the man who returned in July, an arrest warrant was never carried out. He tried to run for president & was disqualified

Mali has come to peace w/Tuaregs, giving them a sort of autonomy


1/7/91

US now leads world in imprisonment. 1m people, 426 of every 100,000, costing $16b. Black rate is 3,109/100,000. SA rate is 333, black 729. USSR 268

Haiti coup stopped by military

USSR sending paratroopers to Baltics to enforce draft. Baltics released draft-age people in bureaucracy so could go into hiding

Bush has appointed yet another board of directors to Legal Services Corp through recess appointment

Pentagon to drop press rules banning impromptu interviews & require all interviews of servicepersons be on record or ban pictures of severely wounded

Israel expelled another 4 Palestinians. Sup Court refused to release the evidence against them

1/8/91

An ally of Ríos Montt elected president Guatemala. Another right-wing born-again loon

SA 2/3 of black students failed high school finals (4% whites, 5% Inds, 21% coloureds) & under 7% well enough to apply for college

Gorby decrees that Georgia’s dissolving of the autonomous status of Ossetia is invalid. GA says any attempt to implement this will be an act of war


1/9/91

Baker & Iraq foreign min meet 6 hrs, accomplish nothing.
-Bush asks Congress for resolution supporting use of force (aka blank check)
-Will cont. to extend terms of service of reservists up to 2 yrs
-Iran & Iraq meet & agree on a border & a buffer zone
-Aziz refused to accept a letter from Bush to Hussein because it wasn’t polite surrender

The paratroops in Lithuania surrounded Parl building & tv

Salvador is interesting. Just when Bush wanted to release the $42.5m over the failure so far of prosecution of Jesuit killings, there is the incident of rebels shooting down a copter & executing, perhaps, 2 Americans. Today, a) State said the money would be released, b) guerillas detain 2 rebels for the incident, c) 2 prosecutors resign, claiming interference by atty gen & military. And a Congressional report also says military manipulated the inquiry

Serbian parl Dec. 28 secretly & illegally ordered local branch of national bank to issue $1.8b w/out backing or fed approval, amounting to ½ of planned credit expansion for 1991. Used it on money-losing plants, pensions, farm price supports. Essentially a theft from other republics


1/10/91

The new several-yr implanted birth control device offers new scope for court-ordered contraception, as one court has already done

A Fed judge finds the anti-obscenity pledge in NEA grants unconst.

A 1st: a hospital wants a patient taken off life support, against family’s wishes

Exactly 2 in Congress have a child in Middle East

Gorby threatening to impose dir rule on Lithuania. Has sent another division of paratroopers. And is allowing fed employees there to take time off to demonstrate in favor of dir rule
-One more bribe by Bush
-As Landsbergis (Lith. prez) says: “This is the sort of presidential rule that is now going on in Kuwait.”

F W deKlerk’s son seems to be engaged to a coloured woman

In hearings to start on whether case against Noriega is hopelessly compromised, prosecutors are refusing to produce José Blandón, who not only probably leaked the tapes, but says he provided prosecutors w/analysis of them

Doug Ireland says of Gorby’s new Quayle-like VP Vanunu that early 70s he administered foreign exchange programs for CP officials so must have worked closely w/KGB
-And says Gorby surrounding himself w/mediocrities

Hunter Thompson: “The ‘90s will be the ‘80s without the money.”


1/11/91

At talks on Yugoslav future, Serbia said if becomes confederation, Serbia will demand land from other republics to get all Serbs.

Soldiers taking over more facilities in Lithuania


1/12/91

Today violently took over radio & TV, opening fire on civilians in Lith.
-An alternative gov has popped up, a “nat salvation cmte”

And USSR has closed ind news agency & cancelled a popular satirical tv show. (Later:) the news agency has resumed, in facilities provided by Yeltsin

Lith. parl has voted to allow the republic’s foreign minister, visiting Poland, to form gov in exile if necessary

Congress has given Bush a declaration for use of force, essentially dec of war, Senate 52-47, House 250-183

Bureau of Indian Affairs can’t account for $95m of last yrs $1b budget

1/13/91

USSR claims the nat salvation front cmte asked army into Lithuania & Lithuanians opened fire 1st
-Yeltsin has signed mutual-defense agreement w/the Baltic states & asked Russian soldiers to think before repressing others
-Latvia has offered Lith. parl a place to sit
-NYT claims the Salvation Cmte is in charge & has banned pub. gatherings, outlawed possession of tv cameras or tape recorders & imposed searches
-The violence by Lithuanians which started this is supposed to be firing on tanks which crushed crowds
-Moscow claims no one in Moscow ordered the repression
-Bush won’t stop easing of trade restrictions or call off summit
-This Salvation Cmte is using the broadcast facilities seized by the military. It seems to be largely Russian. If Moscow intends to use Russian minority as 5th columns, it should do wonders for unity

Iraq’s Tokyo Rose (Baghdad Betty) says movie stars are taking the women of soldiers — Robert Redford, Bart Simpson


1/14/91

Israeli Sup Court ordered army to give Occupied Palestinians gas masks. Army says it doesn’t have 1/10 enough

In vote on force 70% D’s of both houses against, 98% R’s favored. Southerners for by 86-32, SW 35-13, New England against 23-13, Midwest 74-63, Pacific evenly split

2 PLO leaders assassinated in Tunisia inc the #2

NYT says Moscow strategy to create impression of civil war in Lithuania to justify presidential rule. says Gorby aides talk “as if the central Government’s army had somehow come under control of a hurriedly cobbled Communist front group in Lithuania that operated with neither the knowledge nor the blessing of Mr. Gorbachev’s office.”
-Gorby said nothing for 36 hrs & spoke as if he were on the sidelines
-Lithuanian CP chief ideologist, & spokesman for the Nat Salvation Cmte says its sole purpose is to dissolve the Lith. gov, then it will dissolve “and the world will never know their names.” He admits they are a minority but says the majority suffers from “national psychoses and euphoria.”
-Gorby doesn’t disown the violence, said it was Lith’s fault, it is hard to est dialogue “when the republic is led by such people.”

Latvian CP cent. cmte called on a salvation cmte to take over if Parl refused to disband & gov to resign

Tass: “There is no doubt that all these casualties are fully on the conscience of the present leadership of Lithuania and Sajudis.”

Yugoslav Sup Court overrules Slovenia dec of sovereignty & priority of its laws

After UN refugee agency complained that Hong Kong civil rights groups are giving boat people “false hopes,” HK helpfully banned legal assistance groups from detention camps, or from leafletting on their rights, etc


1/15/91

Iraq changing its flag, adding “God is great.”

Prince of Kuwait say if Iraq bombs Kuwait, “we’ll do the same to Iraqi cities.”

When Israeli army told court Occupied wouldn’t be attacked anyway, judge asked why Jewish settlers get gas masks. Answer: politics.

GATT talks, perhaps now scuppered, is supposed to eliminate barriers to trade based on health, by leaving “scientific” claims to an industry-inf Codex Alimentarius. For US, would end the zero-tolerance for cancer-causing additives in food. 42% of Codex’s pesticide standards are lower than FDA’s. Would overturn mkting standards for infant formulas. Kill bans by local & states on anti-toxics, bans on non-recyclable containers. And Congress won’t be allowed to amend this.

Yeltsin says Russia may need to form own police & army units in self-defence
-There are claims by Moscow & Salvation Cmte that Lithuanian gov had plot to kidnap communists, take their families hostage & force them to recant. And that the gov in league w/CIA
-The army commander insists no one died, inc the 10 crushed & bullet-ridden bodies lying in state.
-NYT claims this follows a careful script
-On Jan 8, PM Prumskeine met Gorby, who refused to assure force wouldn’t be used.

Report shows uninsured patients 3X as likely to die as insured

Br Parl voted for force, only 57 against. Kinnock’s a wimp

Gorbachev to Latvian deputies: “How can you expect a reasonable reaction after what you’ve done” — whatever that is.

Sup Court 5-3 says mandatory busing can end even if housing patterns (if from priv choice) leads right back to segregation

Slovenia & Croatia are defying cent. gov’s deadline to disband paramilitary forces or face military crackdown


1/16/91

US has bombed Baghdad and everything else. This is a biggie. Claim to have taken out Iraq’s capacity to threaten Israel. 100s of sorties. Their air force is supposed to have been destroyed on the ground

Gorbachev proposed 1st to suspend the law guaranteeing freedom of press, then got a resolution allowing gov to “insure objectivity” in news coverage
-Speaking of which, the popular tv host of “300 seconds” reported from Lithuania, complete w/a fake siege of Soviet troops, claimed the troops seized tv after shooting began, that nationalists seized young girls to form a human barrier, that the tank & machine gun victims really died of heart attacks & traffic accidents, and that Soviet troops saved Lithuania “from a bloody disgrace, from the frenzy urged around the clock by television inciting people to go on a rampage and fomenting ethnic hysteria.”

This Sunday will be National Sanctity of Human Life Day. This refers to abortion--baaaad! not war -- good!

US claims over 1,000 sorties w/1 plane down. For 1st 16 hrs, CNN broadcast from Baghdad before being shut up


1/17/91

Iraq launched c.7-10 missiles harmlessly at Israel, which seems to be restraining itself from entering the fray

Soviet troops in Lithuania are rounding up large #s of young men

CNN has resumed in Baghdad, but censored

Gorbachev Tuesday asked Latvian leaders “How did you manage in such a short time to alienate workers, soldiers, and now even farmers?” He should talk?

Best protest sign: “Military superiority is not superiority.”

US is supposed to retaliate on Israel’s behalf I believe the Bush expression is “the darndest search and destroy mission...”
-Hussein has promoted Bush to Satan

No CEOs of the top 20 corps have children in Gulf, nor Cabinet & 2 in Congress


1/18/91

US says it is too late for Hussein just to withdraw from Kuwait, but must surrender

Years ago, CA wrote rehabilitation out of the mission for prisons

Friday 9 pm Israel hit by more missiles


1/19/91

List after list of Soviet intellectuals opposing Lithuanian crackdown have been appearing. One of the opponents is the Interior Minister. The conservs got Gorby to sack dec. 1. Given the position of the new one, we can see Gorby had own agenda. Another opponent: Stanislav Shatolin, the economist who created the 500-day dash-to-capitalism plan Gorby is not using. Shatalin calls Lith. action “a proclamation of dictatorship.”
-On yesterday’s 9:00 news the anchorman started to intro a report from Vilnius, stopped, picked up a telephone, asked “Can I run this?” He did, and it was the official line. The more ind midnight news stopped 2 days ago.
-Lith. gov has set up a new tv broadcast from inside parl building

Feb90 Sec State Baker sent around memo saying, “I will continue to recuse myself from any particular matter that has direct and predictable effect upon the price of domestic oil and gas.”

US giving Patriot missiles & crews to run them to Israel, against Iraqi Scuds
-Today’s bombing of Iraq is aimed at troops, past infrastructure
-Baghdad radio is falsely claiming Israeli warplanes are participating in bombing — from Saudi Arabia
-House 399-6-6 supporting Bush’s leadership. Senate passed it 98-0. The 6: Charles Hayes, Gus Savage, Mervyn Dymally, Maxine Waters, Craig Washington, Bernie Sanders

Gorby dropped 7 liberal advisers from the new gov

There are 3 “findings” supporting CIA ops, signed August & Dec. No one has seen fit to mention, but on 1st day of war, we dropped 1m leaflets into Kuwait urging surrender. Finding 1) is for propaganda & deception. On Jan. 7 they neatly combined the 2 functions, convincing themselves that 6 Iraqi helicopters had defected, which Saudis denied. 2) is for Kuwaiti guerillas. 3) to destabilize Hussein
-Yesterday Iraq claimed 94 Allied planes shot down (actually 7). Also, oddly, claim to have captured pilots.
-TV coverage has been abysmal. Given that I‘ve watched several hrs a day, note how little ink has been spilled in this notebook. Pentagon pool coverage is useless, there’s no sense of where anything is happening thanks to military censorship (how are targets in Kuwait chosen? How many? How many bombs dropped on Baghdad?) There is over-reliance on military experts. No real idea of how bombing fits in tactically — will US engage them in Iraq, Kuwait? At what pt will war end?


1/20/91

US admits to having paid Noriega $322,000

SA judge throws out suit by a senior police general against reporter who said he supplied poison to operatives who tried to kill ANC members. Didn’t judge accuracy but said gen. lied & details ind substantiated

US planes now using Turkish air bases. Turkey is keeping the news from its people. A 16-yr old girl just got out of prison after 75 days, pending trial, for hanging an anti-war poster

New Guatemala president Serrano left mins. defense & interior vacant when naming cabinet, saying he had to talk to the army 1st


1/21/91

Iraq’s missiles seem unable to hit Saudi Arabia past US defences
-US has hit the famed Iraqi nuke plant
-Iraq has POWs, already giving speeches against the war
-Hussein says only a fraction of his forces have been used. No kidding.

Soviet Interior Min. troops seized Latvian Interior Ministry, killing 4
-The “All-Latvian Cmte of Nat. Salvation” says it is the gov now
-In Moscow, a protest of 100,000 against crackdown Lith. A Yeltsin statement read about danger of dictatorship

US now says it didn’t get much of Iraq air force at all. But did get ground control & radar

Croatia spreading out special police units to counter possible move to Yug. army

Iraq to use its POWs as shields

Polish Parl’s Solidarity majority rescinds the veteran status & pensions of members of Internat Brigade from Sp Civil War

US bombing targeted Baath Party. What military purpose does that serve?

US press censorship: sometimes used to prevent press reporting something in order that Pentagon can do so itself, and thus no doubt control the spin. Sometimes Pentagon blanks out articles cleared by local commanders. In once case, changed word “giddy” to “proud.”


1/22/91

Bombing of Iraq has far surpassed bombing of Hanoi & Haiphone Xmas 1972, but hasn’t hurt Iraq air force, command & control, tv, mobile missiles in 8,100 sorties.

US war aims: at start, Bush said would destroy Iraq’s nuclear & chemical industries, though former has nothing to do w/this war. This is not part of UN objectives. Cheney said intends to smash Hussein’s army to pt. it couldn’t be used for offense. And now, war won’t stop if Hussein announces w/drawal or even starts, meaning troops evacuating Kuwait would still be bombed.

The new luxury tax, thanks to numerous breaks, will cost more to collect than it will bring in

Latvia forming self-defense unit using refugees from Soviet draft
-Tass claims the unit in Latvia that attacked Interior Ministry was provoked by gang rape of a soldiers’ wife & gunfire

Gorby’s econ adviser, Nikolai Petrakov, resigns, saying the new cabinet, former from military-indust. complex, will not make changes

Soldiers complaining about lack of news on Armed Forces Radio

A human rights delegation to Ch. expelled

Iraqis are blowing up Kuwaiti oil tanks

Yug. warns Croatia to disbands its official Interior Min troops as well as militias. Yug. army now seems to work for Serbia, participating in repression of Kosovo, poorly disguised. And army statements about paramilitary don’t mention Serb vigilantes in Croatia

Hesse elections went to coalition of SPD & Greens, who got 8.8%. Republicans got 1.7%. Kohl’s losing Hesse means lost majority in upper house

Turkey still isn’t telling its people that its air bases being used for bombing raids. Imagine being at war without knowing!

Iraq hit Tel Aviv w/a missile, killing 5, I believe

EC suspends aid to USSR because of Baltics

One of the ground rules of censorship is that the ground rules can’t be divulged

New DOD policy on gays is to let them serve in Gulf, then throw them out


1/23/91

Israel exercising restraint is like a dog dancing, it is not done well...
-Israel asking $13b from US, $3b for war, $10b for absorbing immigrants. Quite a price for staying out. Actually they’re getting quite a bit this yr, inc loan guarantee, surplus military equipment, etc. $1b of what they want is for loss of tourism!
-Bush has reportedly warned Jordan not to get involved if Israel retaliates against Iraq. Considering this would have to go through or over Jordan...

No dead bodies of any nationality have appeared on tv

Sup Court fails to re-examine doctrine that military can’t be sued, allowing District Court to overturn suit based on soldiers killed in van on trip to Disneyland

Iraq said US bombed an infant formula factory. US said it was bio warfare

Op-ed piece says since news abhors a vacuum, official statements are amplified. Journalism has been short-circuited & viewers get raw, unprocessed rumor

Soviet troops seize newsprint warehouse in Vilnius

In last 2 yrs, Fed prosecutors convicted 403 for S&L fraud, 79% of whom got jail terms. Fines of $4.8m, restitution ordered of $231m, out of fraud losses of $6.4b

Pope calls Caths to evangelize, even where Islamic law forbids it

USSR withdrew on v. short notice large bills, ⅓ of currency, exchanging only small amount. Aimed at black mkt & speculators, but who else will it hit?

Greenspan of Fed wants war financed by debt, not taxes

In a military briefing, the officer wouldn’t even say if there had been good flying weather

Bush is playing detached manager, who hasn’t talked to commander of war Gen. Schwarzkopf since war started, and is watching CNN. Bush has no good Middle E. expert


1/24/91

Fr troops will only operate in Kuwait. They say they want to liberate Kuwait, not destroy Iraq


1/25/91

FBI has been conducting abusive interviews w/Arab-American leaders, allegedly on terrorism

Since OSHA est 1970, 200,000 workers have been killed on job, up to 2m from job-related disease, but only 14 prosecuted & 1 jailed, for 45 days. OSHA has only 1,300 inspectors. Max fine is $70,000 but most fines under $100, max jail term 1st time 6 mos. OSHA has only referred 68 cases to Justice for prosecution

Seems the CIA’s national intelligence officer for warning (?) warned of invasion of Kuwait

Iraq has blocked refugees leaving for Jordan

US has been carpet-bombing Iraq’s 2nd largest city, Basra.

4 Soviet republics are using different rules on exchanging currency, giving more time & Russia more $

AIDS deaths have exceeded 100,000, ⅓ last yr

Iraqis dumping Kuwaiti oil into Gulf, a lot of it

Max Eastman on war: “Men are willing to be dead if they can only be dead in a pile.”

Japan pledged $9b, so it’s out of the dog(s-of-war) house


1/26/91

Iceland to be the 1st country to reopen dipl relations w/Baltics

US got Austria to release $1.6m to Noriega for his defense

Utah passes highly restrictive abortion law, prohibiting all exc rape, incest, grave damage, birth defects. Drs subject to $5,000 + 5 yrs

Soviet army will patrol major cities w/police from Feb. 1

Yugoslav tv showed film it claimed was Croat gov officials buying Hungarian weapons & planning attacks on army

Persian Gulf oil spill is so far 12X Exxon Valdez

Croatia will disband 20,000 militia men @ army reducing presence

Rumors say Hussein has had his heads of air force & air defense executed [Update: oh, of course not]

Pentagon has authorized use of nonlethal riot-control gases. Bush seems determined to leave the high ground. Hussein’s “environmental terrorism” follows US bombing of oil tankers, on which Hussein is blaming the oil spill.

A Voice article 1/21/91 on US signals to Iraq before the invasion complements the Economist one 10/2/90. Five days before invasion, Webster of CIA predicted an invasion, but spokespeople like Asst Sec State John Kelly announced that US would remain neutral. Apr90 Kelly told House Subcmte that Saddam was talking about a new const & participatory democracy. July 19, Cheney said US would defend Kuwait (long-standing policy from Iran-Iraq war) but was repudiated by his spokesman & State Dept & ambassador to Iraq. 2 dys before invasion, when CIA & DIA knew invasion coming, Kelly: “Historically, the US has taken no position on the border disputes in the area, nor on matters pertaining to internal OPEC deliberations.” [Didn’t VP Bush once go to talk up price of oil?] And said he’d never heard of Cheney’s statement.
-In Glaspie’s talk w/Hussein, 1 week before (see 10/2/90), she was following cable instructions by James Baker, who says he shouldn’t be held responsible as there were so many cables...


1/27/91

New Br ed. guidelines have history ending mid-1960s

Ch. has announced leniency for student leaders — only 4 or 7 yrs in jail

A Soviet colonel says Gorby initially approved force in Lithuania & set up an unelected gov,, then backed down


1/28/91

US bombed oil installations to stop pumping into Gulf

Saudi Aramco telling Amers. they must stay or face dismissal

Iraqi planes are escaping into Iran, which says it will hold them till war ends

Soviet troops seizing Lith. checkpts.

Iraq ordering refugees to return to Baghdad for exit visa before leaving Iraq. The highway is being bombed (used as runway)

Iraqi Kurds, refugees in Turkey since 1988, are now locked into their camps. But Kurdish language just legalized, isn’t that sweet


1/29/91

Iraq claims an allied POW killed in bombing

Fr defence minister resigns over Fr role in Gulf. Says went beyond UN goals

There are now 80-90 Iraqi planes in Iran, god knows why; the best planes, too.

Tel Aviv’s mayor says those who leave city are deserters. Shamir says they can change cities but he would condemn leaving the country.

US claims to have destroyed 75-80% of Iraq’s oil produc capacity

Rebels have toppled Somalian gov

Saudis have so far arrested 10 reporters for covering front w/out permission. Can’t travel unsupervised anywhere in country

Bush says US “on the side of God” in this “just war.”

State of Union: US has a “unique responsibility to do the hard work of freedom.”
-This is the most positive war speech I’ve ever heard. Peppy, one might say. Not a word on energy policy


1/30/91

There is a banker, whose employee 1st Nat of MD had him handle money transfers for a CIA front, buying arms. Later sued bank, the comp & CIA. Bank has tried to claim state privilege. CIA wants to prevent discovery & wants a gag order. Essentially wants blanket immunity & the enshrinement of neither-confirm-nor-deny in law

Israel has jailed for 6 mos w/out trial a Bit Zeit U. professor, for spying for Iraq

Congress votes for Agent Orange benefits

Quebec ultimatum: new, decentralized const in 2 yrs, or referendum for ind

US has postponed Gorby summit, loudly denying it’s anything to do w/Baltics

Gorby reaffirmed that army will begin policing Fri., says the use of tanks & armored personnel carriers is solely to prevent crime. And KGB has newspapers to search & investigate indivs & businesses. All under Gorby’s emergency powers

1990 26% of households in US were traditional married couple & children under 18. 31% 1980, 40% 1970. 9.7m single parents, 8.4m of them women. Household size 2.63, from 2.76 1980, 3.14 1970, 3.67 1940

White House waived in Aug. requirement for Pentagon to do environmental impact studies, allowing new weapons tests among other things

Bush said, Star Wars to be reoriented against short-range missiles, like Iraqi Scuds

Mandela & Buthelezi agree on cease-fire

1st major ground battle. Started by Iraq in Saudi

US embassy in Saudi finally gave gas masks to Amers.

Indian parties pissed at PM Shekhar for allowing refueling of US planes on way to Mideast

US & USSR offered cease fire if Iraq commits to pull out. Today, US insists this is not a new initiative, & Israel that it should have been consulted
-Jordan says US bombing civilian refugees on road. Says 4 Jordanians & an Egyptian killed

Yugoslav military has ordered Croatia to arrest its defense minister. It refused. He’s supposed to be part of plan for armed insurrection

The Israeli professor who’s supposed to have spied for Iraq (missile spotting) was at time confined to home in Occupied. If espionage could be proved, 6 mos detention would hardly be adequate

USSR claims its extra troops are out of Lithuania. Reg troops have taken over their positions in buildings. Big deal.

Congress too lazy to deal w/Puerto Rican legislation on referendum on status, so probably will be put off 2 more yrs. If does pass, referendum won’t be binding. What an example for Kuwait


1/31/91

Israeli curfew Occupied is longest ever

US distancing itself from the cease-fire statement v. quickly. Seems no one was told

This yrs’ budget deficit will be a record c.$300b

An Army War College team said can’t confirm claim that Iraq used gas on Kurds 1988

Here’s a forgotten bit of history: the assassination of Israel ambassador 1982 that started invasion of Lebanon was organized by a colonel in Iraqi intelligence. Iraq wanted to pull Syria away from Iran & into a war w/Israel in Lebanon.
-And: May90 Abul Abbas, from Baghdad, launched sea raid on Tel Aviv that ended US-PLO dialogue, paving way for Hussein to use claims of fighting for Palestinians

1st US women POWs

SF Examiner has put Warren Hinkle on unpaid leave after pulling a column against the war right after it started. And Oakland Tribune pulled Doonesbury

Croatia walked out of talks w/other republics because military represented. Quoted a Defense document that army determined to keep Yug. together & under Communists

US won’t give counts of Iraqi dead. Don’t want that Vietnam body-count mentality, eh?