But on the ground, Monday, October 31st at midnight, Soundscapes, Oblique Strategies,
Fellini's Clowns, Raymond Chandler and Film Noir, Halloween Special, WBAI.
If you read Justice Souter's opinion in this, you will find yourself wondering how this
man made it through law school, much less got to the Supreme Court.
Maybe the same way he got to the court, by saying nothing, writing nothing, and doing
nothing.
He's been called the most dangerous lawyer in America.
Fearless, abrasive, tenacious, heroic, incendiary.
Attorney William Kunstler, author of A New Controversial Book on the Conduct of Justice
in America, will keynote a community symposium on Saturday, October 29th, 1 p.m. at Public
School 167 on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, on the topic, Creeping Fascism, the Reversal
of Democracy in America's Inner Cities.
Also on the panel will be journalist Clayton Riley, attorneys Mimi Rosenberg and Muntu
Matsumeda, and special invited guest, the Honorable Judge Bruce Wright.
That's on Saturday, October 29th, 1 p.m. at Public School 167 on Eastern Parkway and
Schenectady Avenue in Brooklyn.
For more information, call 212-330-8277.
That's 330-8277.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse, but if it could, it would.
Bundy Lee Bond for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Bundy Lee Bond!
Bundy Lee Bond!
And a very good evening to everybody.
This is Off the Hook.
Emanuel Goldstein here with you for the next hour or so, and we'll be discussing some dramatic
news in the Internet.
Hopefully we'll be speaking with FiberOptic from prison this week, and of course taking
your phone calls.
First, a very, very dramatic story.
And that calls for dramatic music.
Well, it's as dramatic as we could find on short notice.
The White House confirmed today that the FCC will become the federal agency to assume responsibility
for regulating the so-called Information Superhighway.
Today, this consists of an autonomous network of computers known collectively as the Internet.
Usually reliable sources revealed that the government is becoming increasingly apprehensive
about the Internet's uncontrolled growth and the potential for damage to national security.
A highly placed government source was quoted as saying,
Now anyone with a thousand dollars can obtain the computer hardware and software necessary
to communicate on the Internet.
Responsible individuals can easily transmit messages worldwide.
Clearly, there is a need for government regulation.
In response to these concerns, the FCC is rumored to be preparing restrictive regulations
to assure responsible use of the Internet.
The FCC is reportedly cooperating with other national and international agencies to coordinate
these regulations.
Several former Eastern Bloc countries and Italy are reportedly coordinating their internal regulation,
their internal regulation planning with the FCC.
Although details are sketchy at this time,
these new regulations are likely to take the form of some sort of license examination for Internet users.
Despite the fact that a costly new government bureaucracy will be established,
it will likely save money in the long run, according to government sources.
A single Usenet posting may cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Therefore, if licensing reduces such postings by only 10%,
the savings will more than recover these additional costs, said a highly placed government source.
Expert government watchers have been able to piece together a fairly comprehensive picture
of the soon-to-be proposed license requirements.
Based upon the past history of the FCC, the test will likely consist of three parts,
theory, jurisprudence, and practice.
The theory portion of the examination will include written examination of the principles of digital logic,
elements of generic machine language programming,
and comprehensive knowledge of TCPIP and network interfacing hardware.
The jurisprudence portion will assess the candidate's basic knowledge of the regulations governing use of the Internet
and will cover ethical as well as legal issues.
Licensing will likely include an Internet Oath requirement,
in which the candidate will swear to uphold certain basic standards of conduct.
Users of the Internet will be required to broadcast their license numbers at logon
and intermittently after connection to the Internet.
The practice portion of the examination is likely to be the most controversial.
Reportedly, all candidates must pass a typing skills examination
and achieve no less than 40 words per minute to obtain a temporary novice license.
This must be raised to 80 words per minute before a regular status license will be issued.
Novices will be restricted to operating network computers
having speeds of less than 5 MHz or operation of slip or dial-up connections of no greater than 2400 baud.
It is rumored that the FCC will make 5 MHz replacement crystals available at a nominal charge
to temporarily slow computers of novice operators.
The FCC also recognizes that there are conditions when terminal emulators are not available.
Therefore, an expert class will be established for communication using only numeric keypads and bi-digit numeric displays.
Although needing a minimum of equipment,
this mode will require sending, receiving and manual translation of raw ASCII codes.
Guidelines for minimum communication rates for this mode have yet to be established
while the FCC awaits public input.
Although felt to be a desirable goal for all users,
this class of license will only be required by individuals operating wireless RF local area networks.
Asked what the effect of proposed regulations would have on the Internet,
a highly placed official noted that these rules should not be considered prohibitive
as they simply bring regulation of the Internet in line with other communication modes under FCC governance.
However, the source did feel that such regulations should be very helpful in restraining the rapid growth of the Internet.
Well, I guess I should point out at this stage that that particular notice has been sent all over the Internet
and it's caused no end of confusion and problems.
It's a joke, OK? It's not really happening.
But it's something that could definitely happen in some form.
Maybe not quite as ridiculous a form as that, but believe me,
there are people out there that want some kind of regulation and they want it now.
Actually, they want it yesterday.
The Internet has just grown way too fast and out of control for most control freaks to feel comfortable.
Actually, the most telling sign that this was a fake story was the fact that it was credited to UPI.
You don't see very many stories credited to UPI these days, but that's something else.
Yeah, so that's been making it all over the Internet.
In fact, that's been out since August, so you may have very well seen it passed around.
But it's causing a fair share of panic and a lot of people avowing various things,
but it's not necessary because it's not really happening.
But it's a good idea to keep an eye out for things like that.
Digital telephony was officially signed last Saturday by President Bill,
and we'll be talking about that next week as far as what it means to us.
It's not good news.
I don't care what you hear on the net.
I don't care what the Electronic Frontier Foundation is saying about how this is actually carving out a niche for cyberspace.
I don't buy it. I'm sorry.
Anything that has wiretapping as such a high priority or the equivalent of wiretapping is not good,
and it's something that we will be focusing on in the weeks to come, starting next week.
What else have we?
Okay, this is something that I saw in today's newspaper.
Today's Newsday, actually, a new service called Newsday Direct,
an electronic multimedia service making the day's news and other information available by computer,
and it's being launched today.
This isn't particularly dramatic, is it?
No, okay.
The electronic newspaper has been under development since April with Prodigy,
the nation's largest online service.
Despite that fact, though, they are continuing,
and today they have started something called Newsday Direct.
Now, I'm kind of confused with the service because I'm reading about this in the paper here,
and it's being offered through Prodigy,
but I don't think you have to subscribe to Prodigy to get this.
So, basically, what's going to be happening,
and the article goes into some details, but not all of them.
So far, no one has made a cent from any online newspaper service, according to analysts.
Well, that's great.
Let's see what they actually are offering.
The software that subscribers need to use the service is being supplied by Newsday for free through retailers,
and it's also available by calling 1-800-4-NEWSDAY.
The software automatically connects subscribers with the electronic paper,
and after that, they'll be charged $6.95 a month for the service.
Now, that's what I'm wondering about.
Are they actually offering a service that allows you to tie into a newspaper,
get online news wires and scores and things like that for $6.95 a month?
That's quite good if that is, in fact, the case.
According to the article, Newsday and New York Newsday subscribers,
or electronic subscribers, that is, will receive additional stories, background,
and other material in daily electronic packages related to top stories and events.
Subscribers also will have access to news and sports wires similar to those received in the newsroom
and to weather reports updated hourly.
At last, hourly weather reports. Thank God.
A community section allows government, educational, health, and other institutions
to contribute a variety of information not printed in the paper.
Good way to get rid of all those people without having to print anything.
Newsday direct subscribers also will be able to search back issues of the paper
for specific words or phrases and retrieve articles online,
exchange email and post messages on computer bulletin boards,
and use electronic guides to entertainment, personal finance, and other areas covered by the paper.
Well, splendid. Sounds great.
Let's find out if it's true.
Let's get a dial tone here.
All right, we're going to give a call to this service here.
I dialed the extra Y there. I didn't need to.
Welcome to Newsday direct, the online service of Newsday and Prodigy.
Your call will be handled by the Prodigy Services Company.
If you have a touch-tone phone, please press 1 now.
Well, we do. Here we go.
Please select one of the five following options.
For information on how to order software or if you are responding to an advertisement, press 1.
To know the best phone number for you to use to access the service, press 2.
For questions about your bill, ID password, or new kit order, press 3.
If you are having difficulty installing or connecting to the Prodigy service,
CM, or other error message, press 4.
For questions about using the service after installation, press 5.
I think 1 is probably the best. Let's try that.
For quality control and training purposes, this call may be monitored by a supervisor.
It may be monitored by a few million listeners, too.
Thank you for calling the Prodigy service. This is Terry Keith. How may I help you?
Hi, I'm calling about Newsday direct, and I was curious how I get the software.
Okay. Was there an extension number that you were interested in, sir?
No, any extension number is fine with me.
Okay. Well, what we have for the Newsday is thank you for your interest in our Newsday direct offer.
You can purchase that here, and you have chosen a great time to call.
And if you enroll by November 30th, you are entered in our online contest for a free trip with the Delta Airlines.
And what you'll receive, sir, is your first month free, five free hours of the bulletin board usage.
The second month, it will go to $6.95, and bulletin boards and service usage will be $2.95 an hour.
And, sir, you will have to pay your shipping and handling fee, which is $4.95, and you do need a major credit card for that.
Wow. Okay. Now, do I get the software for free?
Yes, we're sending the software for free. Are you currently a Prodigy member?
No, I'm not.
Okay, yes, we will send you the software. All you pay is your shipping and handling fee, and we've sent out our Newsday direct start-up kit.
Okay. And how much is the shipping and handling?
It's $4.95.
$4.95. Okay. Now, once I'm subscribed to the service, to Newsday direct, the cost is $6.95 a month?
Yes.
And is that unlimited time?
Yes, you have unlimited usage.
Okay. And Newsday direct ties me into Newswires and things like that?
Okay, that is the newspaper, is what it basically is.
Uh-huh. What's the difference between a newspaper and Newsday direct?
Okay, well, the Newsday direct is like the newspaper. Okay, let me tell you what it has on it.
Okay.
Okay, it has updates on local, state, national, international news, access to Newsday news and information resources, constant news update, Newsday, classifieds, movie listings, complete and timely sports coverage.
It's basically everything that it has, timetables, forecast, town, country, and school information, statistics, directories, profiles of area, colleges, and universities. Okay?
Okay, and that's what I get for $6.95 a month?
Yes.
And I can use that as much as I want?
Yes, you have unlimited access, unless you go into the bulletin boards, which I told you is $2.95 an hour or $0.05 a minute.
Okay, and what are on the bulletin boards?
Okay, the bulletin boards have various topics.
Okay, so that basically just allows me to communicate with other people, in other words. Is that right?
Uh-huh.
That allows me to communicate with other people?
Uh-huh.
Okay. All right, so if I want access to that, I simply, I'd need a credit card for this?
Yes.
And I'd pay $4.95 for the software and then $6.95 a month, unlimited usage?
Yes, that's exactly correct.
And I get access to all the wires and things like that. Now, how does Prodigy work into this?
Okay, Prodigy is not a part of that, but you can access the Prodigy with that software, but it will be an extra charge for the Prodigy if you go into the Prodigy.
Okay, well, I think what I'll do is I'll think about this for a little while. Are you open 24 hours?
Yes, we are.
Okay, I'll give you a call back.
Okay, thanks.
Thanks for calling or answering or what have you.
Well, that's very interesting.
Apparently, it seems like a good deal from what I've heard. $6.95 a month, unlimited usage, and you can get access to wire reports and things like that, if that is true.
If that is true.
And, you know, I've had experience with these things before where they tell you something and then all of a sudden the rules change.
Now, you know, you read a news day and they say that they're making the software available for free and then they charge you $4.95 for handling.
I mean, come on, that's kind of...
But, you know, if it's only $6.95 a month for access to the equivalent of the Associated Press, that's not a bad deal, in my opinion.
Again, I'm sure our listeners will test it out and let us know if it is, in fact, what it says it is.
That's something right there.
Now, speaking of things that are what they say they are and things that are not what they say they are,
The 800-for-Pay scam may be wiped out soon, this according to Communications News.
The vexing problem of 800-number phone fraud, that's billing for calls to what are typically toll-free numbers, may be nearing a resolution.
Fraud expert John Howe of Telecommunications Advisors told a session at the Association of College and University Telecommunications Administrators Conference
that some telephone companies have stopped billing for the calls and that a new FCC policy will help.
This is a real one, this is not a joke.
The problem arose when pornographic phone services began automatically creating account numbers for customers based on the number they originally dialed from.
So, if the first call was placed from your business, all subsequent calls were also billed to your business, regardless of where the caller later dialed from, as long as he used that particular account number.
This was possible because of a regulatory loophole that allowed billing for 800-number calls if there was a pre-subscription with the caller.
One motel chain had $400,000 worth of such calls billed to it by mid-year.
Users were faced with the cumbersome options of blocking 800 calls or reconfiguring their call accounting systems to track all outgoing 800 calls.
However, 9X, Bell South, and Bell Atlantic have stopped billing for those calls.
Howe says the best tactic is to refuse payment to your telephone company.
If you do, the phone company returns the bill to the billing company to collect, and in four out of five cases, the company will not pursue it.
Also, the FCC's and Federal Trade Commission's new rule taking effect later on this year bans billing for 800 calls unless the owner of the line agrees in writing to such billing.
Now, that brings up the question of this MCI scam that we've been talking about over the past week or so.
1-800-CALL-INFO
You've all seen the ads on television, America's long-distance information service, where you can call them up and ask them any question about virtually anything, I think.
You can get information for anywhere in the country.
You can find out the area code for anywhere in the country.
Of course, you can already get the area code for anywhere in the country for free by calling the operator.
However, they have you believe that they're saving you money by providing this service.
Now, the service costs 75 cents, and that is, I believe, the same exact figure that they charge for information if you call long-distance information.
You're allowed two numbers.
I think you're also allowed two numbers on most long-distance information services, and they'll connect the call for you as well, but then they'll charge you MCI rates.
Now, what's particularly sleazy about this is the fact that 1-800-CALL-INFO is doing the same thing as 1-800-COLLECT in that they are not identifying themselves as MCI.
You have to wonder, why don't they do that?
And, of course, the more important thing is the fact that this is an 800 number that is charging you money.
Now, what are these people thinking?
This is probably about the worst thing MCI could do.
That's probably why they don't say they're MCI.
But we read articles like the one we just heard about how they're wiping out this kind of thing, and because the problem is with pornographic services.
Whenever there's a problem with something, always drag pornography into it, and people will listen.
But now they're coming out with this service that bills you without any kind of written contract, any kind of agreement, or anything like that, and they expect to get away with it.
I mean, I don't understand what they are thinking.
This 1-800-CALL-INFO is being lambasted around the nets and in the telecommunications field.
Everybody hates it. Everybody thinks that it's a pretty sleazy thing to do.
I mean, this can be offered with a 900 number, but the reason why they are not offering it with a 900 number is because they don't want to have these people that block 900 numbers not be able to reach them.
They want to be able to bypass the 900 restrictions that some people put on their lines.
And they put these restrictions on their lines because people rack up huge phone bills.
So, it's really something.
So, what we're going to do right now, a little affectionate trick that we like to play sometimes with companies like this.
Now, we know that the WBA iPhone system will not accept billing to this particular 800 number.
It's a good thing, too.
I believe the way to prevent that, the way to prevent being billed for 800 calls is to have a collect block on your line.
In this particular case, that's what we have.
And since we don't accept collect calls here, they see that when you call in.
And they say that they can't bill it to the number that you're calling from.
So, they need a billing option.
You have to either provide another phone number, a calling card number, a credit card number, something like that.
If you did not have that blocking, from what I understand, MCI will just bill you without even saying that they're about to bill you.
Although, that's something that I've heard.
That's something that I've heard is true and is not true.
Sometimes, they pick up the phone and say that the call cost 75 cents.
Sometimes, they don't.
All right.
So, obviously, with the phone system we have here, we cannot be billed.
So, we have to provide them with another phone number to get information out of them.
Our goal here tonight is to get information out of them without them billing us.
Or without them billing it to another phone number.
Let's see if we can do it.
All right.
Let's see if we can play games with this.
1-800-CALL-INFO service.
Oh, they deserve it.
I'll even dial the extra digits there.
1-800-CALL-INFO.
Directory assistance for only 75 cents.
How would you like to bill your call?
Oh, I'm sorry.
What number did I reach?
1-800-CALL-INFO.
Oh, I just picked up my phone and you suddenly appeared.
Oh, boy.
What city are you located in?
Florida.
Pensacola.
Oh, wow.
I think there's something wrong with my phone.
It just dialed our number, sir.
Apparently, something like that just happened.
You know, I should probably just contact repair.
Yes, sir.
Are you on the eastern coast?
Yes, sir.
In Florida.
What time is it there?
It is 923.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir.
Bye-bye.
They gave us the time for free.
We just saved ourselves the call to a 976 number.
And that's 36 cents in our pocket there.
Thank you, MCI.
But you know what?
They gave us the wrong time.
It's 1023, not 923.
You know, if their time abilities are anything like their information abilities,
I would not use them.
Okay, so you can use them to get the time, and we know that much.
I wouldn't use them for anything else, though.
All right, we have an announcement.
This is concerning all you MetroCard hackers out there.
And right after this, we'll be taking some phone calls at 212-279-3400.
We've learned from our transit authority sources that at least one token booth clerk
It's harder to say than you might think.
At least one token booth clerk has been fired and arrested for theft.
It seems that the original software had a bug
that allowed programming the MetroCard with money
without keeping the information in the token booth computer's memory
or the main transit authority computer's memory.
Consequently, these cards could be made and sold in any amount
with the token clerk pocketing that amount.
Unfortunately, they'd be good for only one use.
After that, the transit authority's main computer would compare
the serial numbers of cards used at turnstiles
to the serial numbers of cards that had money put on them at the booths.
These cards wouldn't match.
The central computer would then notify turnstiles to consider these particular cards
valued at $5, $10, $50, whatever,
to consider them void, losing the money for the passenger.
So the thing would be devalued to zero.
I don't know, I imagine if you swiped it really, really quick several times,
you could probably get, you could probably have quite a, you know,
a profitable business running there on the side of the turnstile there
where you just sort of, you know, charge people a buck and swipe the thing
until it runs out, until the main computer gets notified.
But it'd probably look pretty damn obvious.
Anyway, this guy got busted.
There may be others involved directly or independently.
The transit authority's not saying.
And, of course, that is no surprise, is it?
So we have a request.
As you know, our hackers and scientists are hard at work on the MetroCard,
and for many reasons we need more experimental subjects, more MetroCards.
So if you use a MetroCard, help us out.
When you buy it, make note of the booth you buy it from.
The booth number is near the top of the booth,
like A-60 or R-203 or N-506.
I never actually noticed that.
And also on the token clerk's badge holder at the bottom of the glass window of the booth.
Anyway, write the booth number on the MetroCard,
and when the value goes to zero, don't refill it.
Come to the 2600 meeting where we'll have someone collecting them.
That's right.
Just collect those empty MetroCards and write down the booth numbers,
and this data will be used to learn something.
And, of course, we'll share the information right here and in 2600.
The next 2600 meeting will be taking place at the City Corps Center.
It's right there between Lexington and 3rd and 53rd Street.
And it'll be the first Friday of November between the hours of 5 and 8 p.m.
And you can find us simply by following all the security guards.
We generally hang out by the pay phones on the first floor,
although we can be found wandering all over the place.
All right, that's pretty much it as far as administrative stuff that needs to be dealt with.
Again, our phone number is 212-279-3400.
All right, let's take some phone calls,
and hopefully we'll be hearing from FiberOptics sometime soon.
Good evening.
Hi, Emanuel.
How are you doing?
Good.
I was interested in that 1-800-CALL-INFO.
I saw some ads for that last week, and I figured I would give them a call.
Yeah, they've been barraging the networks with these call info ads.
Well, I called them up, and they did mention the 75-cent charge,
and I asked them how that was going to work,
and they said it would just appear on my bill.
And I said, well, I don't want any information from you, but I want to know how it works.
And they said that they could tell some people who called in would not allow billing.
So I said, well, how do I arrange to have that done to my phone?
They said they didn't know, but I should call my local phone company.
I live in New Jersey.
So call your local phone company and ask them how you can be billed for 800 numbers.
How I can avoid being billed for 800 numbers.
Right, okay.
So I called my local phone company, and they said there was no way that they could stop it.
That's spelled Atlantic.
The customer service rep was unaware of any way it could be stopped,
and I said, well, isn't that 800 number supposed to be free?
And she was very, she agreed with me 100%,
but there were these people who made these decisions somewhere upstairs, in her words,
and there was nothing she could do about it but sympathize.
So I was flipping through, as I was talking to her, I was flipping through the front of the phone book,
and then I came to page 18.
And page 18 in front of my phone book says, you may call 800 services at no cost to you.
And I said, I read this thing to her, I said, this is what it says on page 18.
She said, oh, you found page 18.
Page 18, yes.
Yes, well, what do you do for people who found page 18?
She says, we issue them credit.
Well.
Like that.
That's how it works, I guess.
In New Jersey, you know, just remember page 18.
The magic page, the page of liberty, the page of freedom.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Okay, take care.
Thanks for the call, thanks for the info.
212-279-3400, good evening.
Good evening.
If you'd like to, hello?
Yes, go ahead.
Yes, if you'd like to try 800-call-info, I'll do it for you.
If, I'm not sure what you're asking.
I'll process the call and conference it for you, and you can play.
It's an unrestricted line, so you should be able to experiment the way you wanted to.
You mean you'll accept the charge for us?
I'll accept the charge.
75 cents.
That's really big of you, sir.
Well, what should we ask for?
Just do your experiment.
The first experiment, I've tried this.
The first experiment is to see if, indeed, they announce the fact that you're going to be charged.
And then the second one is to use it.
So far, every time I've called them, they have announced the price.
I don't think you'll find they do now.
Okay.
I mean, you're saying if your line shows up as unrestricted, they don't announce the price.
My recollection, I've only tried it once when I heard about it last week.
Okay.
I think maybe I'll just try and get the phone number for the White House.
How's that?
Which I know right away is 202.
You don't need to know anything about me.
Apparently, you can just dial the number if it's unrestricted.
So I'll do it for you if you'd like.
Okay.
You have good sound quality on your line?
It's a direct conference.
Okay.
Let's try it.
Hold on.
This is an example of how listeners get involved with the whole process here.
I hope they can hear me.
I hope they don't recognize me.
You're the clown that got the time.
It's all yours.
Okay.
Thank you.
1-800-CALL-INFO.
Directory assistance for only 75 cents.
City and state, please.
Yes, hi.
I need the number for the White House, please.
One moment.
Yeah, he's getting the number now.
I know.
One moment, sir.
Thank you very much.
I can't believe I misplaced that number.
And I'm still searching.
One moment, sir.
Okay.
I think it's in Washington, D.C.
Yes, sir.
One moment.
I'm not sure what the area code is for that.
Perhaps you can help me with that, too.
One moment.
Thank you.
Yeah, hang on.
He's getting it.
Still searching.
Okay, yeah.
I understand.
Probably a lot of similar listings there.
Yes, sir.
One moment.
Thank you for your patience, sir.
It's okay.
Thank you very much.
Okay, I have several listings.
Tour information.
I just need the main switchboard.
One moment.
Switchboard.
One moment, sir.
Thank you so much.
That area code is 202-456-1414.
Okay, thank you very much.
Place this copy at MCISO rates.
There's no connection charge.
I'm sorry?
Place this copy at MCISO rates.
There's no connection charge, sir.
Okay.
Well, at what point does it start kicking in?
Because it could be a lengthy discussion.
Well, the call is there's no operator connection charge.
You will be charged long-distance rates if it's a long-distance phone call, sir.
Uh-huh.
They answer the phone.
But I'm just saying it's like you hang up and dial it yourself.
Yeah.
Well, actually, we have to confer first.
Now that we have the number, we have to decide what we're going to say.
I'd like to do that.
You're welcome.
That's okay.
I think we'll do it a little later.
Okay.
Thanks for your help, though.
Thank you for using 1-800-CALL-INFO, sir.
Thank you for answering.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Okay, we're separated.
All right.
I'm sorry if I'm wrong.
And, indeed, it is a 75-cent charge.
Well, that may be so.
But I counted at least six one-moment pleases in there.
And that's just too many moments for me.
You know, thank God this was not an emergency call and I had to contact the White House quickly.
Yeah, well, it would be interesting to see what happens with the bill now.
Yeah, well, let us know, okay?
Let us know if it shows up as a collect call or a 900 service.
You see, it's kind of hard to tell when you're being billed for an 800 call
because it doesn't show up as a bill for an 800 call.
What does it show up as?
Something else.
Like a collect call or perhaps even a 900 call.
We'll see.
Yeah.
This line is actually blocked for 900 and all those pay services, so we'll see.
That's why they have the 800 number so that people like you can get through.
Right, right, right, right.
Okay, thanks for offering the service to us.
You're welcome.
All right.
Goodbye.
That's the kind of service we should have, service with no charge, where we all learn something.
Wow.
I mean, I knew that number in my head.
All you had to do was, I mean, what took so long?
You know, the White House is in D.C.
D.C. is area code 202, and you simply punch it up.
And if you have one of those CD-ROMs, which you can get for about, I don't know, 100 bucks now,
that has every single phone number in the country, or so they say,
it doesn't take that long to look it up.
I don't know.
We'll see.
Good evening.
Hey.
It's FiberOptic.
Isn't it?
Yeah.
I wasn't sure there.
Well, how have you been?
Oh, I've been okay.
Yeah?
Okay.
Well, this is the first time we've heard from you in three weeks.
Yeah.
So update us as to what's been going on in your life.
We just had some fun with 1-800-CALL-INFO.
Have you seen those ads?
No.
What is it?
1-800-CALL-INFO is another one of those bogus MCI services, like 1-800-COLLECT.
Ah, I see.
Yeah, and this is something they're reputing to be America's long-distance information service,
and for only $0.75, they'll give you any number anywhere in the country that you ask for.
We just had a listener pair us in with them, and we asked them for the number for the White House,
and it took them about five minutes to get it for us.
And the thing is, it's an 800 number that charges you $0.75.
Pretty shocking, huh?
Yeah.
So that's something that we've been focusing on.
We also were able to get some information out of them for free before by asking them what time it was,
and they told us.
They gave us the wrong time, if you can believe that.
Wow.
So that's what's been happening around here.
Now what's been happening over at Schoolkill, Pennsylvania?
I'll have to think long and hard, because I don't think pretty much of anything has happened over the past few weeks.
Yeah.
Now, we didn't hear from you last week because of what?
Well, I ran kind of short on funds, but that's okay now.
Okay, your funds have been replenished?
Yeah.
Okay.
I won't have to really worry about that too much longer because I'm down to just over three weeks now.
November 22nd is the day that they're letting you go.
Yeah.
And, of course, you'll be here November 23rd.
Yep, that's right.
I guess they're happy to see you go.
Either that or something else is kicking in over there.
So what else?
I mean, I guess really nothing happens over there, huh?
Really?
I mean, it's gotten colder drastically over the past few weeks.
Yeah, isn't that something?
When we dropped you off, it was the dead of winter, and now winter is approaching again.
Yep.
It'll be great not to be there for another winter, but, of course, as you've demonstrated to us,
a lot of people are there for quite a few winters to come.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
In fact, a few nights here already, really late at night, there's been like five-minute snow flurries.
Are you serious? Already?
Yeah.
They only last five minutes, and then they go away.
Wow.
Soon they'll be making people shovel the snow again.
Oh, yeah.
That was your first job, right?
Yeah.
What job do you have now?
Right now I'm still working with the buffing machine.
Still buffing, huh?
Yeah.
They haven't attacked you again?
Oh, no, nothing like that.
Good.
Those buffing machines can be nasty.
Yeah.
Any interesting mail that you've gotten?
Let's see.
Lately?
Well, have you talked about your Argentine adventure?
I talked about that a bit last week, but not really this week.
Well, since then I've gotten a postcard from Argentina.
Okay, that's great.
We mentioned your address over there to a bunch of hackers, and some of them said they would write to you.
Yeah.
That's great.
Let's see.
Today, of all places, I got a postcard from Kuala Lumpur.
Really?
Yeah.
Wow.
How did they hear of you?
The person claimed to have read your synopsis of last winter, FRAC 45.
Wow.
You know, they get FRAC everywhere.
They get it in Argentina, and then we know they get it in Kuala Lumpur.
Things on the Internet just get out there, and people are very aware of what's going on through that.
That's the power of the net.
Yep.
Wow.
So, any interesting rejections of mail recently?
Let's see.
Well, you know, the typical stuff.
I still have my computer-related mail censored.
Most recently, one of the things was an issue of Nuts and Bolts magazine.
And for those of you unfamiliar, Nuts and Bolts is a magazine primarily for electronics hobbyists.
And most recently, I got a typical signed form letter from the warden saying that I couldn't receive Nuts and Bolts
because there was an article in it describing the generation of sound waves.
Yeah.
Okay.
The sound waves were unacceptable and constituted a risk to the good order and discipline of the institution.
Good order and discipline could definitely be compromised by the wrong sound waves, I imagine.
I could only assume.
Wow.
That's something.
Anything else?
That was probably one of the more ridiculous ones lately that I could think of.
Yeah.
Boy.
Do you still get mail every day?
More or less.
I mean, there are some days that I don't get any mail, which, you know, is kind of a letdown.
But I still tend to get mail more or less every day or every other day or so.
Yeah.
Okay.
You up for taking some phone calls?
Sure.
All right.
Again, the number is 212-279-3400.
Let's see who's out there.
Good evening.
Good evening.
Hello?
Yes, go ahead.
Sorry.
And speaking of pronunciations, Emanuel, this regular, you always say City Corps Center for the City Corp Center.
Is that intentional on your part?
Well, you know, I have my reasons for saying things in certain ways.
Uh-huh.
But, you know, I've never been in things like the Marine Corps, although I understand there's quite a few corpses in the Marines.
Okay.
So it's kind of, you know, it's hard to keep track of who's what.
Well, let me ask you, while you, after you made the call about Newsday.
Right.
Felt you, just as you seemed to feel a little unsure about her answer about the 295 per hour.
She seemed a little unsure, I think.
And knowing how persistent you must be in those situations, because if you don't ask three or four times, it'll turn out that, sure enough, when they're telling you it's a 695 a month flat rate, what it'll turn out to be instead is that, you know, that there is, it is being timed.
Not the same one you had talked to, insisted that it's only if you go to Prodigy, or only if you use bulletin boards, which are of things that I wouldn't have much interest of, other than would be printed in the daily version of Newsday anyway, things like local events and so forth.
So we both got the same impression that for 695 a month you could use the Newsday direct service unlimited amount of time.
She insisted, yes, and without signing up for Prodigy itself, endless use, now that I think of it, I should have asked her, is that time of day restricted in any way?
If you want to do the Newsday reading without having it timed, use it on a flat rate basis for the 695 per month, do you have to wait till 6pm or what have you?
I know of one service out there that is from Netcom in San Jose to connect to the internet with the slip connection, and there are two time periods, and the lower rate one is only from midnight to 6 or 8 or 9am on the weekdays and all day weekends, so you really do have to be careful.
But now that she confirmed insistently and consistently that you can read the newspaper itself and do the online searches of its contents for a flat 695 a month, though as I say I would still want to check about time of day, though I think it is on a 24 hour basis,
and she said the archive, that is to be able to read back issues as well, is not online yet, but soon will be.
Oh boy, oh boy, my first real computer was delivered on July 20th, and it's been sitting there ever since, sending out guilt vibes, because I haven't been able to face up to putting in, loading in the disks and getting started with it.
Soon as I do, that's the first thing I should do and cancel my awful quality daily delivery.
Uh huh, well that's something, yes.
By the way, if I may make one more comment, I notice when I call you from Brooklyn, it always disconnects after 20 rings.
Right.
If I call other, what, other Brooklyn numbers I guess, it goes 50 rings before it...
Well you see, that is something that's decided within the central office that you are calling.
Of course.
Yeah, and that's, some central offices have a higher number of rings, and of course some long distance companies, if you're calling from New Jersey, you call through AT&T, so they may cut in at some point and cut you off too.
Uh huh.
By the way, was there any unusual, I must thank you with great total gratitude for the scandal you revealed two weeks ago.
Which scandal was that? That was the...
The one where you call House of Windsor catalog number?
Yes, and finally...
That's what I do, is I get the apartment number or the address and department number.
If I didn't have the address already, then it says, would you like us to send a catalog to this party?
Well, I don't want to give these people a hard time and have them cut this off.
At that point, I disconnect, so I've gotten the information.
Well, let me tell you something.
When you disconnect at that point, you know they get a catalog anyway?
We found that out the hard way.
We had about 50 of them delivered to us.
Shoot.
So that's something.
They're nice catalogs, though. I'm sure they'll be happy.
Let me ask you this. Last week, I was not able to listen.
Was there any unusual item of revelation or information?
Well, we talked about Argentina in a bit, but other than that, it was a fairly run-of-the-mill show.
Listen, I'm going to have to go on to another phone call, though.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Another very important thing about the Newsday story, though, $6.95 a month, is it or isn't it,
let's not forget the very important fact, it was reported in Newsday.
Newsday runs the service, so obviously they should get the price right,
and they did say $6.95 a month, and they didn't mention anything about hourly charges.
So I think we can assume, based on what the person answering the phone told us
and what is written in Newsday about their own service, that it is $6.95 a month.
Having assumed that, it sounds like a good thing to check out at this point,
if it's what they say it is.
We'll review it. We'll let you know how it is.
I'm sure our listeners will share information.
Fiber, to update you, there's a service that Newsday just put online today called Newsday Direct,
and they say that you can look through back issues, you can look through current issues,
you can get wire reports and scores and weather reports and things like that.
But only the text, right? No pictures?
No, no pictures yet, I don't think. I haven't seen it myself.
It's being offered along with Prodigy, but you don't have to get Prodigy to get this service.
So they sounded a bit confused when we called them,
but other than that, I think the $6.95 price is true.
Per month or per hour?
Per month. Per month.
And, you know, the way to test is to see if they try charging you after a certain amount of time.
They did print it in the newspaper and they said it over the radio that it was $6.95 a month.
So we'll see if that's true.
That's the kind of thing we want to encourage.
Low-priced information services and, you know, things like the Internet, too.
So let's take another phone call.
Good evening, you're on.
Yes, hello.
Yes, go ahead.
About that 800-call-info thing, two quick points.
If you were to just call the regular information number, 202-555-1212,
would that cost less than $0.75, I wonder?
Well, it depends what long-distance company you use,
but I think $0.75 is the price they now get away with for long-distance information.
If you were in Washington, D.C., however, it would cost less,
or nothing if you call from a pay phone, I think.
The thing is about the charge for the 800 number.
I'm not sure I quite understand your objection to it.
When you call the actual 800 number, you're not being charged for that call, are you?
The charge is $0.75 if they tell you some information.
Yeah, you're being charged for the service, technically.
They're telling you a number, right?
Not for your calling in that number.
Let me explain something to you.
900 calls are the same thing.
When you call a 900 call, you're not paying for the call.
The 900 call is toll-free.
You are paying for the service, all right?
And that service may be $75, it may be $0.10, whatever it is they decide.
800 calls, though, have never had a service attached to them like that.
It's a credit card number or something that indicates that you want to buy something
and pay for it using an agreed-upon billing method.
Now, the way they act when I call them and I have a number that's blocked for collect calls,
they ask me for a billing option.
Okay, that's fine.
But when they bill automatically to the number you're calling from,
a lot of people who don't own the number they're calling from, for instance,
could cause considerable confusion and also be ripped off in the process.
Do you understand?
800 numbers should be free, you know?
You should not be charged for something.
As far as I know, you're not charged for actually connecting to the service.
But you are charged very quickly afterwards if you simply ask a question.
Yeah.
Yeah, and also that's another thing you don't get when you call regular information.
You get it very quickly.
They say, what do you want?
And you tell them and they give it to you.
Yeah.
Okay, well, thanks for that.
Okay.
Excellent show as usual.
Thank you.
Thanks for calling.
Okay, bye.
How are we doing on time, Farber?
About to be cut off.
You got the warning click?
Yeah.
Are you going to be able to call us right back?
In about a minute.
About a minute or so.
Okay, well, we'll be waiting for you.
Okay.
So just click off whenever you get cut off.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Go ahead.
Is this Emanuel?
Yes.
Okay, we've lost Farber.
Go ahead.
I am.
Go ahead.
You're on the radio.
Okay.
About two weeks ago.
Yeah.
We were trying to.
Don't listen to yourself on the radio.
It gets very confusing.
All right.
We're on delay here.
All right.
Two weeks ago we were.
Me and my friend were trying to call you and couldn't get through.
So.
We called information and got your radio station's number.
And then when we called in, we tried lots of different extensions, you know?
Oh, you were hacking our system, huh?
Yeah.
This is the 0707 number.
Oh, great.
I just told everybody how to hack it now.
Okay.
Well, yeah, okay.
So you were being passed around in our really distinguished voicemail system.
Actually, it's not voicemail at all, but.
Yeah.
Did you find something interesting?
Yeah.
Every time we tried, you know, we were trying lots of different extensions.
And every time we would try a certain extension, we'd get you in fiber.
And we'd hear you on the phone, you know?
You'd get an air feed?
Yeah, we heard you.
Yeah.
So you got what was on the radio.
Right.
That's interesting.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
So what kind of numbers would you try to get that?
Well, I was just trying, you know, 001 and 333 worked for the extensions.
And I was also wondering if you know about a program called Pretty Good Privacy?
Yeah, the encryption program that's offered over the Internet.
Yeah, PGP.
You know about, you know, the scandal and everything?
The scandal?
Yeah.
Tell us about the scandal.
All right.
The guy who made it, you know, he.
Phil Zimmerman.
Yeah.
He put it on the Internet, and it's, you know, supposed to be the best one out there.
And it also can encrypt, you know, text files.
So the federal government, you know, went after him because, you know,
they didn't want any foreign companies, you know, countries using this to encrypt their stuff, you know?
So I don't know.
I'm not sure if he was arrested or not.
He has not been arrested.
What has happened is that he's been forced to make two different versions of PGP,
one for overseas people and one for people here in this country.
And it's basically caused a lot of confusion.
People are not allowed to copy ones that they find overseas,
and people overseas are not allowed to copy ones that they find here or something to that effect.
And it's supposed to satisfy some sort of export restriction.
But I don't think it's really being very effective as far as that kind of thing goes.
Suffice to say the government is very concerned with private citizens encrypting things.
But they're really, realistically, logically, there's no way for them to prevent it.
They can have all the clipper chips they want, all the digital telephony laws passed they want.
If people want to keep things private and confidential, they have the right, they have the ability,
and there's just really nothing they can do about it.
Would you mind if I got my friend?
He wanted to ask you a question.
Okay.
All right, one minute.
This isn't exactly quick. This is MCI quick.
Yeah.
Yeah, okay, hello?
One second.
Okay.
Okay.
Sounds like your friend is a machine of some sort.
No, I'm about to call him.
You're calling your friend?
Yeah.
Well, why can't your friend call here?
Because I've got to dial down the other line. I've got a connector here.
Okay, so you're going to three-way us to your friend?
Yeah.
Does your friend know that he's going to be on the radio?
Yeah.
All right.
Okay.
Well, that's not three-way, that's...
Nice quick connection there.
Hello?
Rob?
Yeah, what's up?
You're on the radio, Rob.
Hey, what's up?
This is the strangest phone call I've ever been part of.
Well, you know, it's kind of weird. I didn't call you, but somehow I did.
So do you have something to say on the radio?
Sure.
Okay, well, what is that?
What?
He wants to know about 411.
I want to know about 411?
411.
What about 411?
2-1-1.
2-1-1, that's credit.
Dial 2-1-1.
Uh-huh.
It's...
Just try it.
Just try dialing 2-1-1? Why don't you tell me what happens?
It refunds your money.
Okay.
It tells you that it's refunding your money due to a local calling difficulty or whatever.
Are you sure it's going to happen if I call it?
Yeah.
Okay, because sometimes things happen differently in different places.
Where are you located?
Staten Island.
You're on Staten Island? Okay.
Well, that's a whole other world from here, you know.
I can try it.
You know, I can try it, but I can't guarantee it's going to work.
Okay.
Okay, we'll give it a shot.
All right.
All right? Well, thanks for calling.
Okay.
All right, take care.
All right, let's give that a shot and see what happens.
Yeah.
Okay, we got a dial tone there?
Dialing 2-1-1.
Welcome to 9X Automated Credit System.
To receive credit for a service difficulty in your local calling area,
simply hang up at the sound of the tone.
Credit will be applied.
For additional credit assistance, please stay on the line.
That sounded like sort of a busy signal there.
Yeah, if you hang up, you get credit.
If you don't hang up, something else happens.
9X, can I help you?
I'm sorry, what number is this?
The operator.
This is the O operator?
Right.
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't dial O.
I don't know how I got you.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Good night.
Apparently, she's the O operator that you get when you dial 9X.
Apparently, she's the O operator that you get when you dial 2-1-1.
Well, that might be a way around some restrictions,
but I won't go into detail on that.
Good evening, you're on the radio.
Hello?
Hi, how are you?
All right.
I was trying to buy a cellular phone.
All these companies, they charge you a $300 fee.
There's no company that doesn't do that?
Well, you know, it's hard to find a good cellular service.
My advice to you would be to wait a few months.
Things are going to get a lot better, a lot cheaper,
and you'll see a plethora of cellular services being offered.
All right.
Where do you get the 2600 magazine?
You can get it at newsstands all over the place.
Where are you, Manhattan?
Brooklyn.
Brooklyn?
I don't know Brooklyn that well,
but ask around some newsstands, bookstores, places like that.
Okay.
All right?
Thanks.
Good luck.
Fiber.
Yeah, did I make it?
Yeah, you made it.
You're on.
We still have four minutes.
Good.
And we're rolling through the phone.
You missed a pretty good phone call there.
We had somebody on and they three-way'd to his friend,
and, oh, it was a lot of fun.
And they made us call credit for no particular reason.
I didn't really hear anything very interesting in credit.
You know that service where they say if you want credit, hang up after the tone?
Yeah, 211.
Yeah, I don't quite know how they do that.
They can tell that you called and you hung up at that tone and you get credit.
And if you don't hang up, you get an O operator.
Or she called herself the O operator anyway.
I don't know.
It's all confusing to me.
Good evening.
You're on the radio.
Hi.
I'm under the impression that in Florida they do not do daylight savings time
so that they are on the standard clock and the time that they gave you is correct.
Well, I guess that is possible.
But, you know, I was just in Florida on the way back from Argentina,
and I asked somebody there what the time was, and it was the same as New York.
But you could be right if that is, in fact, the case.
Maybe some parts of Florida do things differently.
But, you know, I didn't know that Florida didn't do daylight savings time.
Parts of it at least, I think, don't.
Uh-huh.
I was in Miami, so maybe they're in some other part that doesn't do that.
But we will investigate that a little further,
so maybe the MCI people can be vindicated partially.
Okay.
All right.
Thanks for calling.
Okay.
Bye.
That sounds like something you'd know, Fiber.
I never heard that about Florida.
I did hear that about Indiana.
Yeah, Indiana, certain parts of Ohio.
Yeah.
You know, I was looking at a map, a map of time zones,
and, you know, there's an awful lot of cheating and borrowing going on in the time zone world.
You ever look at a time zone line?
They go all over the place.
They zigzag.
They cross over into other countries.
Some countries have times that are a half hour away from other countries.
Like in Iran, if it's 11 o'clock now, it would be something 30.
I don't know exactly what time.
Some countries are 45 minutes past the hour.
Can you believe that?
You know how crazy that is?
Well, in reality, time changes with the curvature of the Earth.
Well, that's true.
Can you imagine if we had a different time zone from New Jersey than we did in Manhattan,
and then the further west you went, by the minute it changed?
That would be crazy, but it's almost as bad.
And if you follow the line that goes down, it's not a straight line.
I don't think any of the lines are straight.
They go all over the place so that, you know, all of Alaska can be one time zone, for instance.
It makes for a lot of confusion and fun, I guess.
I guess we're out of time.
Yeah, we are.
It's time for us to be heading out of here.
So, Fiber, let's see.
Next week, the week after that, and the week after that, you will still be where you are now.
But the week after that, you will be back here.
Right.
All right.
Well, that's something to look forward to.
That would be, is that four weeks from tonight or three weeks from tonight?
Well, it's 23rd.
Yeah, so that's almost exactly a month from tonight.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, we'll look forward to that, and hopefully we'll speak to you again next week.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for calling.
Thanks, everybody else, for calling, and thanks for listening.
Stay tuned for a rebroadcast of the WBAI Evening News.
This has been Off the Hook.
We'll see you next week.
Good night.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Good evening.
In the news tonight, as the ink dries on the Jordan-Israel accord,
what lies ahead for peace in the Middle East?
The United Nations votes overwhelmingly to condemn the economic blockade of Cuba,
and we hear from the mother of the teenager killed by a Lexington, Kentucky police officer,
a shooting that triggered rioting in Lexington's streets.
With these and other stories, I'm Jose Santiago in New York
with Verna Avery-Brown in Washington,
and this is the news for Wednesday, October 26, 1994.
First to Washington for the Pacifica National News.
Yesterday, Israel and Jordan formally signed a peace treaty.
Among its provisions, Israel hands back most of the disputed land to Jordan
and sends over 1.4 billion cubic feet of river water to Jordan every year.
Jordan agrees to lease some land to Israeli farmers.
Amman also says it will never join alliances against Israel,
nor allow its lands to be used by third parties to attack Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin spoke at the ceremony along the Israeli-Jordanian border.
The time has now come not merely to dream of a better future, but to realize it.
President Clinton urged the people of Jordan and Israel to make the peace real.
Clinton also warned against terrorism.
Already they take deadly aim at the future of peace.
In their zeal to kill hope and keep hatred alive,
they would deny all that peace can bring to your children.
We cannot, we must not, we will not let them succeed.
Not everyone was pleased with the Jordanian-Israeli treaty.
Peretz Kadron in Jerusalem reports there was a mortar bomb attack on northern Israel from Lebanon.
No casualties were reported, but the message was clear.
Hezbollah was seizing on world attention to register objections to Israel's continued occupation
of its self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon.
Threats of violence came from leaders of another Islamic group, the Palestinian Hamas,
in an open letter vowing to continue the fight against Israel, quote, all over the world, unquote.
And when Clinton addressed the Jordanian parliament,
its Islamic opposition deputies recorded their protest by staying away.
The broadest demonstration was in the Israeli-occupied territories,
where Palestinians shut down schools and businesses
in protest against Israel's pledge granting Jordan special privileges
at the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem.
PLO chairman Yasser Arafat wasn't invited to the signing ceremony,
but Clinton condescended to meet him briefly in Cairo
to demand and reportedly get his pledge to combat terrorism by Hamas.
For Pacifica Network News, this is Peretz Kadron in Jerusalem.
Over $550 million in aid is needed for the first year alone
to help Haiti build its economy, its government, and take care of its people.
That's from Mark Schneider of the Agency for International Development
at today's State Department briefing.
Schneider says the U.S. will be helping the Aristide government
with plans to privatize some Haitian concerns that were inefficient and corrupt.
They called for taking companies like the flour company,
which has been a parastatal institution,
the cement company, and privatizing them,
taking them out of the hands of government
and providing an opportunity for them to become more efficient
and fundamentally to become less corrupt as well.
The aid official says it's expected Haiti's local and parliamentary elections
will be held before the second week of January.
A South African judge today sentenced three black youth to 18 years each
for the murder of American Amy Beale.
They could have faced the death penalty.
In the words of the judge, Beale was killed for one reason only,
namely because she had white skin.
The judge said that was an aggravating factor
and that racially motivated crimes can never be tolerated.
The defense has asked the judge to suspend most of the 18-year sentence
because, as one attorney put it,
prison conditions are vicious and not for the young.
Women 45 years old and younger who've had an abortion when in their teens
are 50% more likely to develop breast cancer than other women,
that's from a study to be published next week
in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The researchers warn, however, that more research is needed
before there's a proven link between breast cancer and abortion.
The first woman to qualify as a Navy fighter pilot
has apparently died in a plane crash.
Lieutenant Kara Hultgreen was lost at sea during a training mission
late yesterday off the coast of Southern California.
The 29-year-old was a native of San Antonio, Texas.
And those are the stories topping the news.
♪♪
In another historic moment for the Middle East,
Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.
Thousands were on hand for the ceremony
marking the official end of the hostilities between the two countries.
And President Bill Clinton hailed the moment
as one that broke the chains of suffering and strife.
But beyond the fanfare, the Middle East peace process
seemed almost as intractable as it has been in the past.
Pacifica's Don Rush reports.
It was a moment many savored in the Middle East.
President Bill Clinton declared that peace between Jordan and Israel
is no longer a mirage.
Jordan's King Hussein expressed his hope
that this would end the suffering and suspicion.
And Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
hoped that the agreement would ensure there would be no more war.
Craig Sundberg, with the American Jewish Congress,
echoed such optimism.
This is another peace signing in the region,
another peace treaty between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
I mean, we think this is evidence of the benefits
of the peace policies of the Rabin government.
But the agreement was greeted with a general strike and street protests
by the Palestinians.
They had the sanction of Palestine Liberation Organization
Chief Yasser Arafat.
In Lebanon, Islamic guerrillas launched a mortar attack
just before the signing of the agreement.
Clovis Maqsood is the former ambassador of the Arab League.
What I think is happening is that there is such a rush
for these separate pieces
that I have doubt about their durability
as we have seen how the peace between Israel and the PLO
is unraveling into some situation of chaos.
Arafat's main objection was giving Jordan jurisdiction
to the Holy Sites in East Jerusalem
under the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Discussion of the status of Jerusalem is postponed to a later date.
But the dispute over the Holy Sites also highlights
a growing support for the Islamic group Hamas.
Rashid Khalidi with the University of Chicago.
It puts the Muslim holy places on the front burner, as it were.
And that's an issue which Hamas can use, I think,
with some legitimacy.
I think the PLO will do the same thing
to raise issues about what the Palestinians are getting out of this.
Hamas has been responsible for a series of attacks
against Israelis in recent weeks.
The last major incident took over 20 lives.
In Jordan, President Clinton denounced the violence
and in a meeting with Arafat got assurances
that the PLO would attempt to combat the Hamas attacks.
Ghassan al-Khatib was a Palestinian negotiator
at the peace talks in Madrid and Washington.
He warns any attempt by the PLO or others
to start a war of attrition against Hamas
could lead to civil war.
Probably for people outside,
it's a matter of fighting Islamic fundamentalists and extremists.
For the Palestinian public here, it's a different matter.
Hamas is perceived as part of the Palestinian resistance
to the Israeli occupation.
So one of the key questions in the peace process
is how the Israeli government will deal with Hamas.
Jeffrey Aronson with the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
We'll see in the near coming future
whether or not the Israelis, number one,
will permit Palestinian elections to go forward
with the participation of elements
who are in fact opposed to the Oslo Accords.
I think that will be one of the litmus tests
of Rabin's commitment to seeing
a democratic and political resolution
of the issue of Palestinian opposition.
The other key player is Syria,
and President Clinton is to meet with Syrian leader
Abbas al-Assad on this trip.
The Israeli elections in 1996 have become pivotal to this process.
Again, Jeffrey Aronson.
I know that there are certain people in Israel,
particularly in the foreign ministry,
which is run by Shimon Peres,
who are arguing that Assad needs to make a decision,
needs to make an agreement,
sooner rather than later,
in order to come in under the wire
of the 1996 elections in Israel.
Damascus wants a complete Israeli withdrawal
from the Golan Heights before the election,
just in case the Labour Party loses.
But some believe that Rabin wants the withdrawal
to be completed after the elections,
to give him some leverage with the Israeli electorate.
Don Rush, Pacifica Network News, Washington.
The Middle East peace is in peril.
Pacifica News analyst Sol Landau.
Islamic or Hamas rebels kidnapped an Israeli soldier.
In the raid to free him,
Israeli forces killed Hamas guerrillas
who killed the soldier.
Then Hamas bombed the bus in Tel Aviv.
A climate of terror ensued
as Israel signed a treaty with Jordan
and other authoritarian Arab governments
dropped formal hostilities with Israel.
Israeli and Syrian negotiators are near an agreement.
The Israeli PLO accord made this possible,
but that accord is perilously close to dissolving.
It won't necessarily undo the treaties
with governments who never gave a fig
about the Palestinians,
but there's something wicked afoot.
Beneath the dour scowl on Yitzhak Rabin's face,
a calculated policy might be emerging.
Israel's prime minister demands that Arafat
guarantee Israeli security from terrorist attacks.
Peace with Israel, Rabin insists,
demands the PLO's destroying
the religious resistance movement
whose very birth was fostered by Israeli policies.
Israel's army couldn't defeat Hamas
through years of the Intifada.
How's the primitive PLO police force supposed to do it?
Arafat knows that confrontation with Hamas means disaster,
at least for short-term hopes for a Palestinian state.
During the Intifada, Israel would jail a Hamas leader
and a dozen more arose.
Politically, Hamas says Arafat's nothing more
than Israel's underpaid cop.
There's no new jobs, no serious political momentum
to regain the other occupied territories.
More important, the peace accord
does not ban new Israeli settlements
on Palestinian land.
Hamas also points to continued theft of Palestinian water.
Well, Bill Clinton gets good press for foreign policy,
so why not push Rabin to unparallelize the peace process
when he and Arafat appear together
to accept the Nobel Prize,
suggest that Rabin amend the peace treaty
to include no more taking Palestinian land for settlements
or stealing their water.
To Arafat, no more autocratic rule.
The Israelis want limited Palestinian elections
and they demand all candidates support the peace accord
while Israeli troops occupy the territory,
a poor inducement for Palestinians to hold free elections.
Broad-based elections for a legislative body
could induce Hamas to compete.
Inside a parliamentary framework,
Hamas and PLO forces could debate
and thus diffuse their conflict.
At the ceremony at the White House last year,
Rabin said enough hatred, enough blood, enough tears,
but Israeli troops still occupy the territories,
as do religious goon squads.
Does Rabin want to help Hamas
and thus nourish the flames of conflict rather than peace?
There's a more sinister possibility.
It harkens back to South Africa's Bantustan solution
to proletarianize the blacks, or in this case Palestinians,
in separate and divided jurisdictions,
each policing itself.
It didn't work in South Africa
and only the most cynical Israelis think it can operate
in the tiny territory that they share with the Palestinians.
Rabin and Arafat need to do some serious peace work
to merit their prizes.
Pacifica news analyst Sol Landau.
For the third year in a row,
the United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly,
this time 101 to 2, to end the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
The two nations that voted against the non-binding resolution
were the U.S. and Israel.
Forty-eight other nations abstained.
This was the most recent in a series of developments
concerning U.S. and Cuba relations.
Pacifica's Mark Bevis provides this update.
Cuba's margin of victory today increased over last year's vote,
which was 88 in favor of ending the 30-year embargo.
Last year, four voted against and 57 abstained.
Cuba caused the embargo interference in its internal affairs.
The Clinton administration, following the lead of its predecessors,
arguing the goal of U.S. policy is to pressure Cuba
to promote a peaceful transition to democracy.
Eduardo Duran believes the U.S. must reevaluate this policy.
The president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy
says the embargo hasn't worked after 30 years.
Why not try something else to bring about change in Cuba?
The U.S. policy towards Cuba must be looked at
with a different view, a different sight.
We must have a more innovative policy.
And among that is that I think that the embargo
should be lifted in totality or in part,
immediately and even unilaterally,
especially those things that relate to food and medicine.
Havana did announce some changes in Cuban economic policy today.
The Castro government took a step toward more liberal market reform
by lifting somewhat the state monopoly on consumer prices.
State industries that make surplus products and individual craftspeople
will be able to sell their wares through new retail shops and fairs,
and the prices for the products would be determined through market forces.
This move comes less than a month after Cuba lifted the state monopoly
on agricultural trade, allowing produce to be sold
at unregulated prices in farm markets.
Meanwhile, immigration talks have continued in Havana
between the U.S. and Cuba.
These negotiations are the outcome of a U.S. policy change last month
allowing more Cubans to enter this country legally.
The talks reportedly include the technicalities
of allowing a minimum of 20,000 Cubans entry visas each year.
But Havana has continued unsuccessfully to raise the issue
of the tightened sanctions imposed by President Clinton last August,
sanctions that added to the month-long rush of some 35,000 boat people.
And the Castro government has also expressed its disapproval
of a U.S. judge's move to block the repatriation of 23 Cubans
who have been living at Guantanamo Naval Base.
Cubans on Guantanamo are living in limbo.
The Clinton administration refuses to allow them entry into the United States
unless they go back to Cuba and reapply for a visa.
Those 23 had reportedly expressed an interest to go back to Cuba,
but a group of lawyers has charged the U.S. is in essence
forcing the Cubans to repatriate by keeping conditions on Guantanamo unbearable.
Marshall Garcia with the Cuban-American Committee for Peace
finds this whole situation ironic.
We have been enticing Cubans at the cost of literally billions of dollars
for 30 years to come to this country and saying that, you know,
the propaganda is that all the Cubans want to leave Cuba
and here's some Cubans who want to go back
and they're being forcibly kept from going back by a federal judge in Miami.
That's a ludicrous policy.
Currently there are some 32,000 Cuban refugees being held on Guantanamo
and in camps in Panama.
Some are economic refugees being starved out by the Titan sanctions
against the island nation, but others are political.
In a report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch,
observers say the Castro government continues its repression.
Kenneth Roth is the organization's executive director.
We found continuing imprisonment of upwards of 100 dissidents
on various charges ranging from clandestine printing
to contempt for the Cuban government or for Fidel Castro himself.
Various crimes which are overt and obvious restrictions
on what should be the right of all Cubans to speak out freely
about all sorts of political matters and to associate with whomever they want.
Some of the tools, says Roth, include government-sponsored violent demonstrations
against dissidents, beatings by government thugs and illegal imprisonment.
Human Rights Watch also had some harsh words for U.S. policy toward Cuba.
Charging the Clinton administration is complicit in keeping Cubans
from enjoying their international right to leave their own country.
Mark Bevis, Pacifica Network News, Washington.
And you are listening to the WBAI Evening News.
I'm Jose Santiago in New York.
In local news, the families of victims and survivors
of the Long Island Railroad shooting have filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit
against the companies that manufacture the weaponry
allegedly used in that shooting spree.
Named in the $345 million suit are Sturm Ruger & Company,
which makes the gun allegedly used in the shooting,
the Olin Corporation, which makes hollow-point bullets,
and Ramline, Inc., maker of ammunition magazines capable of holding 15 rounds.
Six people were killed and 19 wounded during the December 7, 1993 shooting spree.
An attorney for the plaintiffs says the suit seeks to break new legal ground
by arguing that weapon manufacturers should be accountable
for the damage done once their products are marketed and sold.
Authorities say Colin Ferguson, the man charged in the shooting,
was able to fire off 30 shots in under two minutes using the high-tech weaponry.
So far, there have been no comments from the companies named in that lawsuit.
And as you may have heard in the Pacifica segment of tonight's newscast,
the FBI has been called in to investigate the shooting death
of a Lexington, Kentucky teenager at the hands of a police officer.
The young man who was shot in the head was black, the officer is white.
The shooting triggered what police are calling a riot,
with police and scores of young people clashing in the streets.
More on this story from WBAI's James P. Sherman.
For several hours yesterday, Lexington police battled waves of angry young people
who turned over cars in the streets and pelted officers with bottles and heavy rocks.
They were angered over the shooting death of 18-year-old Antonio Sullivan,
who was shot in the head by a Lexington police officer
as police were attempting to arrest the young man in one of Lexington's housing projects.
According to the police, the young man's death was accidental.
They said he died of a shot to the head when the police officer's weapon discharged accidentally.
But witnesses have told news organizations a different story.
They say Sullivan was attempting to turn himself in to police
when he was fired on without provocation.
Well, see, the police, they were responsible for my son.
And the police here, it shouldn't have happened.
Not with the police, you know, it wasn't right, what they did to my son.
Late this afternoon, we spoke with Mary Clark, mother of the young man who was killed.
They didn't handle it right when they went in there to my son.
Okay, my son surrendered.
He's an 18-year-old boy.
He wasn't a criminal.
He wasn't dangerous.
He hadn't did anything.
Except the warrant they had issued on him, they said they had, which they didn't have.
They came in the house with loaded guns.
And my son saw him, and he just, you know, he was in the closet.
He came on out.
And when he came out, they all had guns on him, and one just pulled the trigger.
See, that wasn't right.
Following yesterday's outburst of community anger, Lexington's Mayor Pam Miller
pledged that the shooting would be investigated by officials outside the police department.
The officer who did the shooting, Sergeant Phil Vogel, a 22-year veteran of the force,
has been suspended with pay pending an investigation.
But at least one local activist, the Reverend Donald Shanks,
has called for a grand jury to be impaneled,
a grand jury made up of jurors from outside the county.
Ron Berry is with Micro City Government,
a Lexington, Kentucky program that works with inner-city youth.
He says Lexington officials have said that they want to meet with community representatives.
However...
I don't know.
I haven't heard from the city officials who said they want to meet with us yet.
They have not called or contacted me at all or anyone else I know up here
or said they want to meet with us.
It's the same old thing as ever, you know, continue to do what you got to do.
And it's like, you know, who cares?
But Berry adds that despite the city's cold shoulder,
community leaders are coming together to push for an impartial investigation of the shooting.
There are meetings that have been set up all over this community,
and there is a plan for a march on City Hall, which was November the 6th.
I think that also that the youth are planning to meet back with the city officials
that they can get to meet with the concerns from the problems they have.
The FBI have come in and intervened in the case here
because of the civil rights of the young man might be violated.
So things are being actively involved here in Lexington.
Ironically, says Berry, local police have increased their presence at the housing project
at the request of residents who wanted help fighting the drug trade.
Mary Clark, mother of the young man killed,
blames the police for heavy-handed tactics and a negative attitude toward young blacks,
even the many who are not involved in criminal activities.
But an incident two weeks ago appears to show that yesterday's shooting
could be connected to a drug turf war in which other members of the victim's family have been killed.
Again, Mary Clark.
See, I lost four grandchildren too.
Just last two weeks ago, or three.
I lost them.
And it was gang, you know, gang-related stuff.
But they never tried to find out nothing.
They never did nothing about it.
Her four grandchildren were killed in an apparent firebombing,
a crime that remains unsolved.
Them was the ones that, if you heard, that got burned up.
In the Florida Clark family.
Sure was.
Then it turned, it didn't turn around.
That was my son killed by a cop, you know.
It's a hard blow.
Lexington authorities say the streets have remained calm on this day after the rioting.
Community residents continue with their plans for a November 6th protest march,
calling for justice in what is emerging as a case with much broader implications
than the death of just one young man.
For WBAI News, I'm James P. Sherman.
In 1928, after a bloody revolution in which tens of thousands died,
Mexico banned the death penalty.
Now the Mexican government is taking an active role against capital punishment in the United States.