Sure, there's a lot of scary and creepy and outrageous stuff going on in the world, but in the spirit of patriotism and supporting the war effort, let's cut straight to the really important stuff: Have you done your holiday shopping yet? If not, or even if you have, you really ought to consider buying one, or several dozen, of the fabulous 2002 War Resisters League Peace Calendars. Along with direct actionist and long-time ETS! reader Tom Hastings, I helped write and edit this year's edition, which explores 52 weeks of nonviolent victories (actual activist-created changes in policy or history, as opposed to, say, symbolic witness or frustrated protest). It's hard to imagine that we could have picked a better year for the theme. The calendars are $12 each or 4/$44, and cuz I helped create it, WRL gave ETS! a special wholesale price, meaning that close to $5 from each sale goes directly into supporting ETS!. (And the rest to WRL, which is a good outfit, too.) Buy one for everyone you know, maybe two, and then start handing them out to strangers. It's how we'll end terrorism. You heard Dubya. Now get busy. (See ad, p. --, for details.)--Geov Parrish

By next issue, I hope to have a fairly long article on the litany of threats to the Constitution being noisily and quietly put into place in the name of fighting terrorism. Space doesn't permit a full review of even the last two weeks' horrors here, but alongside the continuing detainment of 1,200+ anonymous, presumably law-abiding people, and King John Ashcroft's "I have a list!" pronouncement of 5,000 more, tell your ACLU representative you'd like to find out more about: government plans to monitor communications between jailed detainees (whether they've been charged with terrorism-related crimes or not) and their lawyers; new restrictions on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests; and, most worrisomely, Dubya's plans to try terrorism-related charges (he alone decides how "related" they need be) in military, rather than civilian, courts. Forget the nonsense you're hearing about how military trials are better because they can be held overseas and protect sensitive sources, blah blah. Just last month the US concluded, successfully, its trials of the men responsible for Al-Qaeda's biggest proven operation, the 1998 African bombings of two US embassies. In civilian court in New York City. And it worked. Well. The biggest difference is that in military courts, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty is essentially reversed; the accused must show their innocence. And both the prosecutor and the judge report to the President. These are the tactics of a police state, and Bush and Ashcroft have not said that they are temporary measures. But then, neither Bush, Ashcroft, nor anyone else in this constitution-shredding crowd has explained how the war they've declared will or can end. Ever. --G.P.

The Bush/Putin summit is over, and the ABM Treaty has survived, barely, for now. Why? Cowboy Bush has suddenly discovered he needs Russia: in exchange for a release of Russian arms that helped the Northern Alliance take Mazar-i-Sharif, Bush not only postponed (completely unnecessary) NMD tests, but changed his tune on Chechnya, Russian desires to demilitarize NATO, and other pet Putin issues. But even as Duyba warns of Al-Qaeda's attempts to buy nukes, and Pakistan's weapons are eyed by Muslim extremists, the Dr. Spacelove crowd is still intent on ignoring the world's arms control structure. A UN conference this month on ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was boycotted by the US. And a conference opening Dec. 9 in Geneva, reviewing the world's six-year efforts to agree on a protocol for enforcing the ban on biological weapons, will wrestle primarily with US opposition to the draft protocol. We want to be able to inspect everyone else's weapons of mass destruction--that's why we kill 5,000 Iraqi children a month, remember?--but we don't want anyone inspecting ours. This while anthrax is still showing up in our mail. Fucking amazing.--GP

Aid convoys were ready to roll into Afghanistan last week as Northern Alliance troops took over the key city of Mazar-i-Sharif and opened a route from Uzbekistan for aid agencies to ship food and supplies. But then the looting began. 89 tons of food and supplies were stolen from a World Food Program warehouse in Mazar soon after the city was "liberated." Alliance troops seized a 10-truck UNICEF convoy and stole its cargo. A UN spokesperson said Alliance troops were driving around Mazar in stolen UN vehicles. Alliance troops also ransacked the UNICEF and UNHCR office in Mazar, stealing everything from computers to furniture to the window frames. Then a 22-truck World Food Program convoy was hit by shrapnel from US bombs, and 80% of the food it carried was destroyed. Lindsey Davis of the UN World Food Program reported that Mazar "remains volatile, with reports of looting, abduction of civilians from the city, uncontrolled freelance gunmen, and some street battles"--a hint at factional fighting. A UNHCR warehouse was looted in Kabul. So now aid agencies have been forced once again to halt shipment of aid into Afghanistan, this time in fear of our allies, the Northern Alliance. ["Relief organizations alarmed by looting," Boston Globe, 11/13/01; "UN Reports Mazar-e-Sharif Executions," AP, 11/12/01; "UN Says Warehouses Looted After Afghan City Fell," Reuters, 11/12/01; "UN Reports Looting in Kabul, AP, 11/14/01.]--Maria Tomchick

The Northern Alliance is executing its prisoners, in violation of the Geneva Convention. This is not rumor and lies, as Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has said. A New York Times reporter witnessed some of the killings. The Associated Press interviewed a Northern Alliance soldier who admitted executing prisoners. The London Independent reported that Northern Alliance soldiers admitted having killed 520 Taliban prisoners holed up in a Mazar-i-Sharif school. The Red Cross--the sane folks who collected money and aid for the World Trade Center victims--pulled the bodies out of the rubble in Mazar and buried them; they verified that the dead prisoners were "in the hundreds." ["Executions of POWs Cast Doubts on Alliance," David Rohde, NY Times, 11/13/01; "Alliance Soldier Details Executions," Steven Gutkin, AP, 11/16/01; "Opposition admits to massacre of 520 soldiers," Anne Penketh, London Independent, 11/16/01; "A hundred fighters killed as they hide in school," London Telegraph, 11/14/01.]--MT

Within hours of taking Mazar-i-Sharif, factional fighting began among the groups that make up the Northern Alliance. The Guardian of London reported: "In Mazar in particular, aid groups said they had been told of infighting between Northern Alliance factions, including Hazaras led by the commander Mohammed Mohaqiq and Uzbeks led by General Rashid Dostum." Even a UN security mission sent in to assess the situation had to turn back before reaching Mazar because it was too dangerous to proceed. The British press also reported the emergence of factional fighting in the south of Afghanistan. In the meantime, the Northern Alliance has said it wants no help from UN peacekeepers or foreign troops. ["100 Taliban massacred in Mazar, UN confirms," Guardian, 11/14/01; "Victorious Alliance says: We don't want your peacekeepers," Guardian, 11/15/01; "Feuds begin among southern warlords," London Telegraph, 11/15/01; "Warlords return as regime fails," Irish Times, 11/15/01.]--MT

If you'd like to add to your holiday social calendar or would just like to hang out with other people who also have officially designated Bad Attitudes, this month ETS! begins to supplement its monthly business/editorial meetings with a monthly social potluck to just sit around and plot whatever. It'll be the last Friday of each month; the first one is coming up Nov. 30, see the calendar for details.--GP