Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Fisk: What Bush has actually done is give way to the crazed world of Christian Zionism. The fundamentalist Christians who support Israel's theft of the West Bank on the grounds that the state of Israel must exist there according to God's law until the second coming, believe that Jesus will return to earth and the Israelis - for this is the Bush "Christian Sundie" belief - will then have to convert to Christianity or die in the battle of Amargeddon.

What better recruiting sergeant could Bin Laden have than George Bush. Doesn't he realise what this means for young American soldiers in Iraq or are Israelis more important than American lives in Mesopotamia?

First the Spanish complain about the war, then they are made to suffer for it - and then they are condemned as "appeasers" by the Bush regime and its craven journalists when they complain that their husbands and wives and sons did not deserve to die.

Bush legitimised "terrorism" this week - and everyone who loses a limb or a life can thank him for his yellow streak. And, I fear, they can thank Mr Blair for his cowardice too.

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Royal Dutch/Shell executives knowingly hid an oil and gas reserves shortfall for years and feared the game was up as far back as 2002, an independent review revealed on Monday.

The eagerly-awaited report, commissioned by non-executive directors in the aftermath of the reserves debacle and compiled by U.S. law firm Davis, Polk and Wardwell, unearthed memos in which one executive talked of his "lying" and about how the firm had "fooled" the market.

It also showed that internal audits on booking reserves -- a crucial measure of value in the oil industry -- were undertaken by a single former Shell employee working part-time.

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Organizers of protests like Randall's "G-8 Carnival" must put up refundable deposits equal to the city's estimated cost for clean up and police protection. Demonstrations may only last 2 hours, 30 minutes. Signs and banners may not be carried on sticks that might be brandished as weapons. And the signs may not be larger than 2-by-3 feet.









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