4/21/02
2:06:32 PM
What Is The Real Story Around The Church Of Nativity?
by Ghassan Andoni, a Christian who lives 100 meters from the Church of Nativity, April 20, 2002
It is amazing how Israeli propaganda can twist facts. Even more amazing is how much people can be influenced by twisted facts. Regarding the Church of Nativity, there are two versions of the story.
The Israeli version: A large group of armed “terrorists” entered the Church of Nativity. They took dozens of civilians including Christian priests and monks as hostages and are using them as human shields to launch attacks on the Israeli army, which is surrounding the place. Therefore, Israel is attempting to rescue the hostages and capture the “terrorists.”
The Palestinian version: As the Israeli army invaded Bethlehem and Israeli tanks approached Manger Square, around 240 Palestinians, including some armed Palestinians, entered the Church seeking a safe shelter. Armed Palestinians laid down their light weapons and are seeking the protection of the Christian clergy inside the church.
Who are the people inside the church?
All sources from inside the church including Father Ibrahim Faltas, Christian Lawyer Tony Salman, and the governor of Bethlehem Mohammad Almadani confirmed repeatedly that the vast majority of the people inside are innocent civilians who ran into the church to save their lives. The armed Palestinians who entered the church were mostly members of Palestinian Authority Tourism Police, policemen from the adjacent Palestinian police station, and some Palestinians who decided to defend their city from the Israeli invasion.
The Vatican has repeatedly announced that all people inside the church are non-engaged and only seeking a shelter that the church is willing to provide. The Vatican repeatedly affirmed that there is NO hostage-taking situation.
As the siege of the church continued, Israel employed a continued pressure to force the people inside the church to surrender. The methods being used by the Israeli army include:
- Preventing any supplies of food. Currently people inside the church are starving.
- Preventing evacuation of dead bodies from inside the church. (Two corpses are still inside)
- Preventing any medical help for scores of injured people (nuns are dealing with the situation with primitive first aid means).
- Positioning snipers all over the place and shooting at any moving target. So far two people were killed inside the church and two more wounded, including an Armenian Priest.
- Shooting randomly inside the church. This random shooting resulted in a fire that destroyed three rooms inside the church. A Palestinian was shot dead by a sniper while attempting to extinguish the fire.
- Throwing rounds of sound grenades into and around the church, and transmitting through loudspeakers into the church, sounds that are beyond the threshold of pain. This is going on all day and especially at night, and is resulting in the bleeding of ears.
- Attempted twice to burst into the church from its eastern entrance. In one attempt they destroyed one of the church gates using explosives.
So far, and aside from the suffering of people inside the church, considerable damage has been done to the church itself. With the little protest and concern from the side of the Christians all over the world and from the side of the international community, it is likely that Israel will escalate its assault, inevitably resulting in more damage.
All attempts to negotiate a settlement to this situation have failed. Israel insists on either complete surrender without conditions or a deportation outside the country. They are refusing the involvement of any third party in mediation efforts.
It is extremely worrying that with the increased pressure on Israel to leave the PA areas, Israel might attack the church in an attempt to kill or arrest people inside.
THIS COULD RESULT IN A MASSACRE IN THE CHURCH, AND MAY DESTROY THE CHURCH.
SOMETHING URGENT MUST BE DONE TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING!!
Kindly contact your government officials ASAP and demand that they do what they can to intervene in this dangerous situation! It is EXTREMELY URGENT.
If you are in the US, to find your representatives go to
The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People
4/21/02
1:48:46 PM
TWO GENETIC ENGINEERING ACTION ALERTS
(1) BIO GOES TO WASHINGTON: TAKE ACTION TODAY
The Biotech Industry Organization (BIO), composed of Monsanto, Aventis, Dupont, and other biotech corporations, will meet with House and Senate representatives next week in Washington, D.C., to press an agenda of
more genetically engineered crops, no mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food, and government support for opening up foreign markets to these genetic experiments Please urge your Senators and Representative to resist these initiatives. Tell them that you don't want to eat genetically engineered food!
Please take action now. To send an email directly to all your representatives, just visit
http://www.truefoodnow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=121
and follow the instructions there. Please be sure to provide your address and zip code so that you can receive a written response to your concerns.
Thank you for your support.
(2) CONTACT KRAFT FOODS TODAY!
Kraft Foods is holding its annual shareholders meeting on Earth Day, Monday, April 22. In concert with that event, thousands of concerned Americans are contacting Kraft Foods to ask the company to remove genetically engineered ingredients from its product line.
Please contact Kraft Foods immediately by telephone or email to support this initiative.
BY PHONE: You can call Kraft at
1-888-560-4625
Simply tell the staff that you would like Kraft Foods to remove genetically engineered ingredients from its product line.
BY EMAIL: You can email Kraft Foods directly by visiting
http://www.thecampaign.org/kraft-earthday.htm
and following the instructions there.
Even if you have previously telephoned or sent an email message to Kraft Foods, please telephone again and/or send another email now. Kraft Foods needs to hear from concerned citizens more than once until the company agrees to remove genetically engineered ingredients from its product line.
Thanks for your timely action.
4/21/02
1:45:00 PM
t r u t h o u t | 04.21
Al Gore | The Selling of an Energy Policy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21AA.Al.Gore.htm
Israel Welcomes UN Security Council Fact-Finding Mission to Jenin
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21A.Israel.UN.htm
Edward Kennedy on Administration's Attempts to Rescind Medical Privacy Protections
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21B.Medical.Privacy.htm
Palestinian Fighters Were Not Unexpected at Nativity Church
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21C.Nativity.Church.htm
Kucinich Is the One
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21D.The.One.htm
Illinois Governor: "Innocent Are on Death Row"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21E.Innocent.Row.htm
An Assisted-Suicide Verdict
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21F.Verdict.htm
Posturing on Abortion
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21G.Posturing.htm
Italian Non-Jewish Survivors Recall Nazi Massacre
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.21H.Survivors.Recall.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
4/20/02
2:37:13 PM
Families Hear Flight 93's Final Moments
Most Say Cockpit Recording Lifted Their Spirits and Confirmed Victims' Bravery
by David Snyder, Washington Post Staff Writer, April 19, 2002
PRINCETON, N.J., April 18 -- Family members of those who died at the hands of terrorists aboard a hijacked aircraft on Sept. 11 listened to a chilling recording of their loved ones' final 30 minutes today, leaving, for the most part, less devastated than before and in some cases with their spirits lifted.
"These were clearly people who were unafraid of the unthinkable," said Hamilton Peterson, whose father, Donald A. Peterson, died when the plane crashed in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. "They digested it and acted upon it in no time at all."
Some said the cockpit voice recording of United Airlines Flight 93 confirmed their beliefs that many passengers had attacked their hijackers with great force, in an attempt to retake control of the plane.
"A lot of [the tape] was unintelligible, and a lot of it we couldn't follow very easily, so I don't think it gives us resolution," said Tom Burnett, 72. His son, Tom Jr., had intimated in a series of cell phone calls to his wife during the flight that he and fellow passengers were organizing a revolt. "I'm content with what happened [on the plane]. I felt that I learned something, another piece of the puzzle."
The FBI played the cockpit recordings for family members of the crew this morning and separately revealed them to passenger families this afternoon. It was the first time such tapes had been played for families of victims of a U.S. airplane crash.
The decision to play the tape for persons other than investigators prompted some criticism from pilots and aviation experts, who said it could set a dangerous precedent in the use of future recordings.
Flight 93 was headed from Newark to San Francisco when it crashed, killing 40 passengers and crew and four presumed hijackers on board. The passengers and crew have been heralded as heroes ever since for preventing what is believed to have been a fourth suicide terror attack, possibly on Washington.
Only family members and FBI officials were allowed in the Marriott hotel conference room where the tape was played, and no printed transcripts of the tape were distributed. Members of the media were prohibited from entering the hotel.
Four family members per victim were allowed to listen to the tape twice and ask questions of FBI agents who are familiar with its contents. Grief counselors were on hand to help family members.
They listened to the tape on headphones as transcripts were projected onto a screen. They described the room as "somber" and "intense." A few people who came to hear the recording left before they could do so.
The FBI asked the people who listened not to discuss details with the media. As a result, many of the lingering questions, including whether the passengers intent on storming the cockpit retook control of the aircraft, will remain unanswered for now.
Relatives said much of the tape is chaotic, with shouting and clear indications of violence.
"Listening to the last 30 minutes of your loved one's life is emotional," said Mary Jurgens, Tom Burnett Jr.'s sister. "It took a lot of time listening to those 30 minutes. It felt like hours."
For Deena Burnett, the recording offered a chance to hear for herself the final moments of her husband's life. For Kimi Beaven, it was an opportunity to sort fact from conjecture. For others, it was emotional closure, a way both to experience their loved ones' terror and to begin leaving the awful events of Sept. 11 behind.
"It's too important to rely on someone else's translation of what they think happened," Burnett, 38, said before listening to the recording. "This is the only tangible information that we as family members have."
FBI officials initially said they would not permit family members to listen to the tape, but FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III granted them access in March.
Several relatives had been lobbying to hear the tape since shortly after Sept. 11, and in some cases threatened lawsuits. The strong likelihood that the tape will be played publicly during the government's prosecution of alleged hijacking conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui influenced the FBI's changed position, sources said.
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said today that the Princeton meetings were part of "an unprecedented effort to reach out to and work with the families of victims and surviving victims of September 11 and include them in the process of justice."
In addition to listening to the audiotape, family members in Princeton participated in interviews with federal prosecutors and FBI agents to document the suffering caused by the Sept. 11 attacks.
The U.S. government plans to use family testimonials to argue in favor of the death penalty if Moussaoui is convicted.
Burnett, 38, the mother of three daughters, said she wanted to understand better how the plane went down.
She said her husband, chief operating officer for a medical device company, called her on his cell phone four times during the flight. Each call was progressively more urgent, she said, as she relayed details of other hijackings to him and he intimated to her that he and several other passengers were planning to "do something" to stop the hijackers.
"I know that he was capable of handling the situation," she said. "When that plane crashed, I knew that something had gone wrong" with his plan.
Tom Burnett Jr. and three other passengers -- Todd Beamer, Honor Elizabeth Wainio and Jeremy Glick -- along with two flight attendants, reported in cell phone calls that passengers advanced down the plane's aisle toward the cockpit. In news accounts of the cockpit voice recording and conversations with air traffic controllers, it has remained unclear whether the passengers entered the cockpit.
Other family members said they simply needed to know what the cockpit voice recorder had picked up.
"We didn't want to hear it in the media," said Carole O'Hare, 49, whose mother, Hilda Marcin, died in the crash. "That's how we found out Mom's plane crashed, and I didn't want to hear it that way again."
Beaven, 34, whose husband, Alan, was on the flight, said she came to hear the tapes to "experience just a glimpse of what he went through."
"Every hard time I ever went through, he was with me, so somehow it makes me feel that I can be with him for a short time," she said.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12262-2002Apr18.html
4/20/02
2:33:19 PM
The Coming Of The Blogs
by Baron Lowery, April 19, 2002
As a marketer I am always looking for ways to better understand consumers and to understand their feelings about a product. What do they love about it? What do they hate about it? Do they find it to be superior to the competition? I want to observe the grassroots-level customer talking in a natural setting--not in a contrived or staged test.
Chat rooms and newsgroups have traditionally been a good tool in this search. While the decline in newsgroup popularity has decreased their usefulness, the recent growth in Web logs provides a way to capture the same kind of analysis, along with some new ways to observe consumer opinions.
There are now hundreds of thousands of Web logs, or blogs, and there are probably just as many definitions of the term "blog." A general definition that most would agree upon would be: a frequently updated Web page or pages with a chronological publication of thoughts and links.
Blogs can be a personal journal or diary, or a group blog maintained by many people with a common interest. Either of these may be interactive, allowing readers to post comments and respond to polls.
The different styles of blogs give different views of consumers. Thousands of personal blogs can be accessed from Blogger.com, while Memepool.com and GameSpot.com provide examples of group blogs that provide content targeted to a specialized community. (CNET Networks, publisher of News.com, also publishes GameSpot.)
Personally-maintained blogs are a good source of attitudinal information from the individual consumer perspective. Group blogs tend to have a theme and provide insight into community perspective of a product. This is a good place to examine a product's reputation, how it is viewed in relation to other products, and how the product is being used. Frequent readers of these group blogs have strong opinions, making them a good place to analyze when developing advocacy-marketing initiatives.
A good place to start your investigation of blogs is with a blog search engine. Blogger.com and Portal.eatonweb.com are two popular choices. Begin by making a list of keywords related to your product or service. As you visit the blogs that your keyword searches link to, keep an eye out for cross-links as the better and more popular blogs are pointed to from many other sites. Most blogs will contain only occasional tidbits of interest; when you find blogs focused on issues of interest, be sure to bookmark them.
Interactive blogs allow the readership to participate by providing content and comment. The usual format of an interactive blog is an excerpt with a link to the full article, followed by reader comments. The readers suggest links to news of interest on external Web sites. These links are published with a brief explanation, and reader comments are gathered and displayed in threaded discussions reminiscent of newsgroups. Slashdot is one of the first and most popular examples of this style.
The discourse that takes place in the threads can provide the marketer with an excellent source of information that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a product. In addition, a surprising amount of inside information is discussed that can offer a peek at what is going on at the competition.
When participating in an interactive blog, it is unwise to attempt to directly market a product. This will almost certainly result in a very negative response from the readers. On the other hand, acknowledging your connection to the product and making comments that are honest and topical will elicit more favorable treatment. Many readers will appreciate a representative of the company listening to their comments.
After you locate the blogs whose readers you want to market to, there are many ways to present your message. You can allow blog readers to participate in private test groups, provide them with samples for testing, and allow more direct communications. This can drive discussions in blogs and is particularly suited to new products and capturing early adopters.
You should consider encouraging employees to read and participate in blogs by submitting links and comments. Sponsoring and advertising on a blog assures that the offerings are visible to the readership even when the discussion focuses on the competition. Purchasing keywords on blog search engines is another possibility.
Blogs offer the insightful marketer a potent new tool for gathering intelligence. Public awareness of blogs is rapidly growing, making the investment in time needed to get familiar with them well worth the effort.
Baron Lowery is director of technology at RappDigital, the online arm of Rapp Collins Worldwide.
Source: http://news.com.com/2010-1076-886773.html
4/20/02
2:25:43 PM
Jenin Camp 'Horrific Beyond Belief'
by BBC, April 18, 2002
A United Nations envoy has said that the devastation left by Israeli forces in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank is "horrific beyond belief".
Terje Roed-Larsen, who toured the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, said it was "morally repugnant" that Israel had not allowed emergency workers in for 11 days to provide humanitarian relief.
The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has asked the Security Council to consider sending an armed multinational force to the region, under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter which authorises military force to impose council decisions.
US President George W Bush said on Thursday that he believed an Israeli withdrawal was under way and that it was going to schedule.
Desribing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "a man of peace", Mr Bush said Mr Sharon had begun his promised withdrawal and it was being done "quickly".
"He gave me a timetable and he's met the timetable," Mr Bush said.
Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat called Mr Bush's comments "a gift, a reward for Sharon's policy of state terrorism and war crimes".
Israel pulled its forces out of Jenin town and part of the refugee camp before dawn on Thursday.
Officials said they were also withdrawing from Nablus and that over the next three days troops would leave most West Bank areas apart from Ramallah and Bethlehem.
Search and rescue
The BBC's correspondent said Mr Roed-Larsen was highly regarded in the region and his criticism would put more pressure on the Israelis to fully withdraw.
Palestinians claim hundreds of bodies are buried beneath the rubble, but Israel says the numbers of dead are far fewer. An independent forensic expert says evidence suggests that a massacre has taken place.
Mr Roed-Larsen said the top priority was to bring in search-and-rescue teams. The only rescue efforts currently under way are residents digging though the ruins looking for survivors.
"It is totally destroyed, it looks like an earthquake has hit it," he said.
Aid agencies now have access to Jenin
"I am watching two brothers pull their father from the ruins, the stench of death is horrible. We are seeing a 12-year-old boy being dug out, totally burned," he said.
"We have expert people here who have been in war zones and earthquakes and they say they have never seen anything like it," he added.
Mr Roed-Larsen, who is the UN's Special Co-ordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, was visiting the camp with Red Cross and UN workers.
He added: "It is totally unacceptable that the government of Israel for 11 days did not allow search and rescue teams to come."
Kofi Annan made his appeal for armed intervention at a closed session of the Security Council. Israeli spokesmen swiftly rejected it while Mr Erekat said it was the "right way to start fighting Israeli aggression"
Mr Annan said there was a need for a force large enough to take "decisive action" to end the deadly cycle of attacks.
The multinational force should be assembled by countries willing to supply troops and should have "a robust mandate," he said, adding later, "I expect the United States to play an important role."
Israel 'concerned'
Israel invaded the Jenin camp on 3 April, saying it was a hotbed of Palestinian militancy and declaring it a closed military zone.
Palestinian claims of an Israeli massacre in the camp have been denied, although British forensic expert Prof Derrick Pounder has said that the evidence points to large numbers of civilian dead.
Prof Pounder is part of an Amnesty International team granted access to Jenin.
The Israeli forces are pulling back "according to the timetable"
Danny Ayalon, the chief foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said that Israel shared the humanitarian concerns and was already allowing some aid teams to operate.
The partial pull-out by Israel came a day after the departure of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who left the region without achieving a ceasefire or a full withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Israel says troops will continue to surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where a group of armed Palestinians are among more than 200 people who have been holed up for more than two weeks.
Israel launched its assault on Palestinian towns on 29 March after a suicide bomber killed 28 people celebrating the Jewish Passover.
Israel says it will also continue to surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1937000/1937387.stm
4/20/02
2:16:53 PM
Outrage In Canada Over Friendly Fire Deaths
by David Ljunggren, April 18, 2002
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian leaders vowed on Thursday to find out why four of the country's soldiers perished on the ground in Afghanistan from U.S. "friendly fire" as a nation more known for its peacekeeping operations reeled in disbelief.
With flags at half staff across the country, Canadian soldiers, politicians and the public expressed grief over the soldiers who died early on Thursday when a U.S. jet let loose a 500-pound, or 225 kilogram, laser-guided bomb on the men performing in a training exercise.
Parliament held a minute's formal silence for the dead soldiers, who were Canada's first casualties in an offensive operation since the 1950-53 Korean War.
All that is know is that a U.S. F-16 warplane dropped its deadly cargo after believing it was being fired upon, leaving four dead and eight wounded, with two of them in serious but stable condition.
Stressing that reports were "very, very preliminary," one of the officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that at least one pilot in a flight of U.S. Air Force F-16s thought the planes had been shot at near Kandahar.
But Canada's top military officer said in Ottawa the troops were in a designated training area conducting live-fire exercises.
"We have so many questions this morning," a visibly shaken Prime Minister Jean Chretien told Parliament. "Extensive training for combat is meant to save lives."
"In this awful case it took so many lives. And I want to assure the families and the people of Canada that these questions will be answered," he said, referring to the attack as "a horrible accident."
With flags flying low amid swirling snow, bunches of tulips and roses were placed at the entrance of the soldiers' garrison in Edmonton, Alberta, the base for the Third Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
"Sure, I was surprised and I was shocked. We all are," said Brig. Gen. Ivan Fenton, his voice sometimes choked with emotion. "But high-tech gives great advantages and it opens some vulnerabilities as well... These things have happened for centuries, things like this, so the technology can't prevent things like this."
President Bush called Prime Minister Jean Chretien to express his condolences and to promise Canada's giant neighbor and ally would do all it could to find out what happened and why.
"Canada's fallen heroes and their families are in our hearts and prayers," Bush said in a written statement.
"We will draw every possible lesson from what happened and do everything we can do protect coalition forces engaged in this vitally important mission."
Canadian defense officials said they were mystified by the attack since the troops were in a recognized training zone near Kandahar and had not been firing into the air.
It was one of the worst "friendly fire" accidents of the war in which U.S. and allied troops are hunting al Qaeda guerrillas and fighters of Afghanistan's deposed Taliban leadership.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke called the incident a "terrible tragedy" and said the Canadian troops had been "fabulous in their support in the war on terrorism."
The troops were part of an 800-strong contingent serving in southern Afghanistan under U.S. command.
General Ray Henault, the Canadian armed forces' chief of staff, said the nation remained committed to the Afghan mission.
NO QUESTION OF CANADIAN OUTRAGE Three U.S. troops and five Afghan fighters were killed and nearly 40 U.S. and Afghan troops injured on Dec. 5, when B-52 bombers accidentally bombed American special forces and supporting Afghan troops north of Kandahar.
Canadian Defense Minister Art Eggleton -- who was called by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- expressed deep shock at the incident and said Canada and the United States would carry out probes into the attack.
"There is no question of outrage on our behalf, it was an accident, but we need to know what happened," he told Reuters.
"We all want to have it done just as quickly as possible. Everybody wants the answers. The government wants the answers, the families want the answers. We want to know soon."
Eggleton spokesman Randy Mylyk said the United States and Canada had each initiated military police investigations and were each also setting up separate boards of inquiry.
"My understanding is that there was no hostile activity in the area that would have created this incident," Henault said. "How this sort of thing could happen is a mystery to us."
Speaking at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, U.S. military spokesman Major Bryan Hilferty said the pilots were very experienced. "We do risk assessment before any mission, we try to make sure we have all sorts of procedures, tactics and techniques in place to mitigate risk but unfortunately, this is inherently dangerous," he said.
Canadian Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson -- commander in chief and representative of Canada's head of state, Queen Elizabeth -- flew on Thursday from London to the U.S. Ramstein airbase in Germany to salute the fallen and to greet the six injured who are to be treated there.
The six arrived in Ramstein late on Thursday, at least two carried off on stretchers to waiting ambulances. Henault said the remains of the dead would leave Afghanistan on Friday and arrive in Ramstein early Saturday morning.
Two who were slightly injured remained in Kandahar, where the Canadian troops are based.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20020418_692.html
4/20/02
2:13:42 PM
Israel, Opium, & JFK
by Carol A. Valentine
April 18, 2002 -- So what if "they" own our TV stations, our newspapers, our publishing companies, our Congress, our President, our Joint Chiefs of Staff?
We have:
"Opium Lords -- Israel, the Golden Triangle, and the Kennedy Assassination," by Salvador Astucia. It has been published on: http://www.jfkmontreal.com/
Yes, "Opium Lords" is well researched -- but it is more than simply a well-researched book. This book changes your viewpoint, gives you a new perspective from which to view recent history and current events, including the present War of Jewish Supremacy.
For example, there is a high probability that President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird were Jewish in background. It seems to me that a Jewish background would have made Lyndon sympathetic to Israel, and may have inspired him to commit treason during the USS Liberty episode. A Jewish background would also have made him sympathetic to plans to assassinate JFK, for JFK stood in the way of Israel's expansion.
This book aligns much information that has been "out there" but never aligned before. Read it, or buy a copy.
Here is the author's synopsis:
* After President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963, America became deeply involved in the Vietnam War. Within a few short years, heroin addiction in America reached epidemic proportions. In the background, Israel expanded its borders by force and became a colonial empire ruling a nation of hostile Palestinian subjects. This book reveals how Israel exploited the Western powers' long history of opium trafficking as a means of toppling the young American president. The following points summarize the information presented:
* Opium was the glue that held together the rivaling factions that conspired to kill JFK.
* The main factions in the conspiracy were Zionist instigators, the American Mafia (headed by Jewish mobster Meyer Lansky and his lieutenant, Santo Trafficante), French-Corsican crime syndicates in Marseilles, France and Southeast Asia, and the US military.
* Heroin smuggling was first introduced in the United States in the 1920s by Jewish gangsters such as Meyer Lansky, "Legs" Diamond, and "Dutch" Schultz.
* One of the reasons President Johnson escalated US involvement in Southeast Asia was because the American Mafia and French-Corsican heroin traffickers needed a new source of opium for their heroin factories. Turkey had been the main source, but its government was about to eradicate opium production.
* Joseph Kennedy, Sr's three sons were viewed as a new American dynasty that threatened Israel's plans to expand its borders. The Kennedy Dynasty would last until 1985 if each son served two terms in the White House. It is widely known that Joseph Kennedy Sr. developed a strong loathing of Jews from his business dealings with them in finance, Hollywood, and politics.
*A decree was issued to kill JFK by Nahum Goldmann, founder of the World Jewish Congress and its president in 1963.
* Louis Bloomfield of Montreal was assigned to set up the coup d'état. He was an influential international lawyer with an extensive espionage background (e.g., British intelligence, Haganah, OSS, CIA).
* Martin Agronsky and other Jewish journalists and media moguls collaborated in the plot by pushing a false cover story that Lee Harvey Oswald alone killed JFK.
* Right-wing extremists joined the coup initially but broke ranks and declared a holy war against Jews immediately after JFK was killed.
* The assassins were the lieutenants of French-Corsican heroin trafficker and convicted Nazi collaborator, Auguste Joseph Ricord. He was living in Argentina at the time of the assassination. Later he moved to Paraguay which became a major hub for smuggling heroin into the United States.
* The assassins were Lucien Sarti, François Chiappe, and Jean-Paul Angeletti-all French-Corsicans.
* Nixon was driven from office because he destroyed Ricord's heroin cartel, established détente with the Soviet Union, withdrew forces from Vietnam, and ended the draft.
* Under Nixon's orders, police in Mexico City tried to arrest Lucien Sarti-the man who fatally shot JFK in the head. When Sarti fled, Mexican police opened fire. He died in a hail of bullets on April 27, 1972.
* JFK made enemies within the military establishment and Israel when he attempted to establish détente with the Soviet Union in the summer of 1963. He also wanted to prevent Israel from acquiring the Bomb.
* JFK was viewed as a threat to Israel because of pro-Hitler statements he wrote in his 1945 diary (later published) and two books: "Why England Slept" and "Profiles in Courage."
* President Johnson aggressively supported Israel because he and his wife were secretly Jewish.
* Texas-a former Spanish colony-became a haven for Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. Jewish migration continued from other countries in the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Make sure you read Chapter 13.
Carol A. Valentine
President, Public Action, Inc.
4/20/02
1:57:48 PM
Water Rights War Rages On Faltering Rio Grande
By Jim Yardley
BOCA CHICA, Tex., April 17 — On a desolate stretch of beach on the border with Mexico, Randy Blankinship steps along what should be the edge of the Rio Grande. Except there is only sand. The river that for thousands of years flowed into the Gulf of Mexico now falls almost a hundred yards short.
"That's the mouth of the mighty Rio Grande," said Mr. Blankinship, a state wildlife biologist, with a touch of sarcasm. He knows the joke that the sandbar is the newest international bridge into Mexico. Apparently the Border Patrol is not laughing — an agent is parked nearby.
That the Rio Grande is no longer strong enough to reach the sea is just another example of the crisis that threatens the river and the international region that depends on it. Years of drought have left the area parched. A water war between farmers on both sides of the border has escalated into an international standoff.
Demand for water is increasing in an area that has historically ranked among the poorest in the nation but is now trying to capitalize on growing trade with Mexico. Population is exploding on both sides of the border as new industries have been established in the past decade.
"For the longest period of time, the Rio Grande Valley has had a water policy in which we hope and pray for a moderate-sized hurricane every 8 to 10 years that would bypass the Valley, land in the watershed and dump in the reservoir," said Judge Gilberto Hinojosa of Cameron County, the highest elected official in the county, which includes Brownsville. "That isn't a water policy."
If water shortages are familiar throughout the nation, the problem here is compounded by the complicated codependence of Mexico and the United States. The primary tributary of the Rio Grande is the Rio Conchos, which flows out of the high desert of Mexico and fills the reservoirs that provide water for American farmers. Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is supposed to send about 350,000 acre-feet water annually into the Rio Grande, or billions of gallons. The United States, in turn, releases 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to Mexico. (An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.)
But since 1992, Mexico has fallen more than 1.5 million acre-feet of water in arrears, infuriating Rio Grande Valley farmers. Last month, farmers hoped for a breakthrough when President Bush and President Vicente Fox of Mexico met in Monterrey. American farmers, joined by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, had held a rally to attract attention to their plight. But the summit came and went without even a news release on the issue.
"Getting Mexico to come to the table to meet is almost impossible," said Tudor Uhlhorn, a third-generation farmer with six farms in Cameron County, voicing a frustration held by many American farmers. "They just delay, delay, delay."
On the American side of the river, farmers have just finished spring planting and, in many cases, either have had to reduce the acreage planted or are simply hoping for rain. In one of Mr. Uhlhorn's sorghum fields, he bent over and dug in the dirt until he found a tiny red seed. Usually, he would irrigate this field and the seed would have already grown into a small plant. But with the local reservoirs at about 30 percent of capacity, there is not enough water for him to fully irrigate.
Mr. Uhlhorn's anger and frustration are pointed directly at Mexico's failure to release the water required by treaty. Suspicions are so great on the American side that officials talk of infrared satellite images showing water in Mexican reservoirs. Other officials who have visited Mexico believe the country is simply hoarding water as it develops its own irrigated farmland in the Rio Conchos valley.
"The drought that we're in, that is causing a shortage of water for irrigated farmers, is an act of man, not an act of God," Mr. Uhlhorn said.
One study by a Texas A&M University agricultural economist placed the economic losses in the Rio Grande Valley at nearly $1 billion since 1992, when Mexico first began failing to deliver the allotted water.
But Alberto Szekely, the Mexican government official handling the water issue, said that Mexico was not releasing water because there was none to release.
"The truth of the matter is that our dams are practically empty," Mr. Szekely said. "We have lost 81 percent of our storage capacity."
Mr. Szekely said that the treaty granted leniency during "extraordinary drought," and that the Mexican government was already moving to modernize and improve infrastructure in the Rio Conchos basin to reduce waste. "No water treaty can demand a country to deliver water that doesn't exist," he said.
Mary Kelly, an environmentalist with the Texas Center for Policy Studies, a group heavily involved in state water issues, has angered many American farmers by agreeing that Mexico is not currently able to repay its debt. The biggest reservoir on the Rio Conchos is only 25 percent full, Ms. Kelly said, while another is at 10 percent.
"There is just no way that they are able to release 1.5 million acre-feet of water," Ms. Kelly said, adding, "The larger issue is that this drought has shown us that we do not have a plan to manage the river in times of drought."
Currently, municipalities in the Rio Grande Valley are not threatened with shortages because their needs are met before those of the farmers. Judge Hinojosa also noted that the area's irrigation system of dirt and concrete canals was wasteful and outdated but that farmers could not afford to update to more modern methods.
"The problem here is money," he said. "You need to have the federal government and the state government step in."
Here at the beach where the Rio Grande once spilled into the sea, Mr. Blankinship said environmental problems were already emerging. By blocking the river from the sea, the sandbar has choked off the estuary that is the breeding grounds for innumerable species. He said early studies showed that populations of white shrimp and striped mullet have been severely affected.
The reduced water flow has also allowed vegetation like water hyacinth and hydrilla to grow exponentially along the Rio Grande. Usually, the current would flush such vegetation away, but now it is clogging some sections of the river.
"This is a big deal, the loss of an estuary like this," Mr. Blankinship said, pointing to the shallow end of the river. "And it is a bad omen for the future of the Rio Grande to see international water policy result in this."
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/national/19RIVE.html
4/20/02
12:25:36 PM
DAILY GRIST <http://www.gristmagazine.com>
SAY WHAT? What's the most outrageous, intriguing, inspiring, or simply off-the-wall thing that was said about the environment in the last week? Check out Grist's quote-of-the-week section -- and send us your ideas for future quotes <http://www.gristmagazine.com/saywhat/default.asp?source=daily>
I SCREAM!
What do ice cream and global climate change have in common? Why do Beltway politicians love Earth Day but do nothing for the environment? What does the true majority of American citizens really want for the future? And finally, how does the average ice-cream-eating citizen make her voice heard on Capitol Hill? Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerry's, tackles these questions and more, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: I'll stop the world from melting with you -- it's time for the U.S. government to get serious about climate change -- by Ben Cohen <http://www.gristmagazine.com/soapbox/cohen041902.asp?source=daily>
MARCH MADNESS
The stats are out on global temperatures for March -- and both the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agree that the month was a scorcher. How hot? The hottest March on the historical record and the 71st month in a row that global temperatures exceeded the 1971-2000 mean. Whew. If the trend continues, 2002 will top 1998 as the hottest year on record; so far, the heat has contributed to severe dust storms in Asia and widespread coral bleaching in the South Pacific. For the grim details, check out How's the Weather?, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: How's the Weather? -- taking the Earth's temperature -- by Leonie Haimson in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/heatbeat/weather041902.asp?source=daily>
JEANNE GENIE
In the absence of federal leadership on climate change issues, New Hampshire yesterday passed a precedent-setting bill to curb global warming. The measure, which was approved 21-2 by the state Senate, was supported by a broad bipartisan coalition, the state's largest environmental groups, and its largest utility, Public Service Company of New Hampshire. It would require Public Service to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels (about a 3 percent reduction) by 2007, as well as cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 75 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 70 percent. If the utility failed to meet those targets, it could buy credits from out-of-state utilities that had cleaned up their acts. The company estimates that compliance would cost about $5 million per year and add about 40 cents per month to customers' electric bills. Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) promised to sign the bill and urged other states -- especially those upwind of New Hampshire -- to pass similar measures.
straight to the source: Concord Monitor, Jim Graham, 19 Apr 2002 <http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/local2002/clean_air_law7466_2002.shtml>
RIO PEQUENO
The Rio Grande no longer reaches the sea. In fact, it falls almost a hundred yards short, a telling illustration of the water crisis that threatens the river and the cross-border region that depends on it for survival. Years of drought and a population explosion on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have strained limited water supplies, and the region has no real water policy, short of praying for regular hurricanes. Theoretically, Mexico is supposed to send about 350,000 acre-feet of water every year into the Rio Grande from its major tributary, the Rio Conchos, while the U.S. is supposed to release 1.5 million acre-feet of water annually from the Colorado River into the Rio Grande. But Mexico is more than 1.5 million acre-feet in arrears, much to the dismay of U.S. farmers. Some believe Mexico is hoarding the water for its own agriculture industry, but Mexico claims there's simply no leftover water to be had.
straight to the source: New York Times, Jim Yardley, 19 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/national/19RIVE.html>
PESTS ASIDE
For the first time in a decade, the U.S. EPA will assess the impact of 18 common pesticides on endangered salmon and forest plants, as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by three California environmental groups. The pesticides -- several million pounds of them -- are used every year in the state's fields, forests, and orchards, and along highways and irrigations canals. The EPA agreed to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to study how exposure to the pesticides carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, and diazinon affects seven salmon species and 33 endangered woodland plants. "These species are close to extinction and pesticides continue to pollute their habitat, but the EPA hasn't even begun to take action," said Patty Clary of Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, one of the three groups that sued.
straight to the source: Contra Costa Times, Associated Press, Don Thompson, 19 Apr 2002 <http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/weather/environment/3096027.htm
4/20/02
12:11:44 PM
( Dear Kathleen, perhaps you should read http://www.MyCountryRightOrWrong.net )
Idiotic, Absurd Comments About 9-11
by Kathleen Parker, April 17, 2002
Every time I hear of another Palestinian "suicide bomber," I think: Darwin Awards. You know, the evolutionary awards bestowed each year on those who purify the gene pool by removing themselves from it. Darwin winners are, in the words of awards manager Wendy Northcutt, "too stupid to live."
Likewise, every time I hear Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., speak, I think: There ought to be an award. We could call it The McKinney Award -- for people "too stupid to serve in public office."
For McKinney is hands-down winner for stupidest thing ever said while in public office for her recent assertion that President George W. Bush knew about the 9-11 attacks in advance and did nothing to prevent them. Why? So that all his cronies could get rich on the subsequent military buildup. (Audience, all together now: Ah-haaaa!!!)
"We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th," said McKinney during a recent interview with a Berkeley, Calif., radio station. "What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? What do they have to hide?"
Not only is McKinney's comment idiotic, absurd and -- under other circumstances, hilarious, if you like slapstick -- it's dangerous. Would that we could ignore such ignoramuses, but we can't because "they" won't. "They" being terrorists, Islamic extremists, or others on the growing list of crazy people who can't get to those 72 virgins supposedly waiting for them in heaven fast enough. (I'm still confused about what compels young women to blow themselves up. Maybe they promise the ladies an eternity free of Arafat's decaying visage. One could be tempted.)
You have to wonder, is McKinney really that, um, misguided?
Since making her radio comments, McKinney has backtracked a few steps. "I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11," she said. "A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case."
"Might" is a mighty big word when you're accusing the president of the United States of being a mass murderer and of otherwise helping kindle World War III. A complete investigation also might prove that McKinney has been dropping acid and living with cross-dressing dental hygienists under the Brooklyn Bridge (not that there's anything wrong with that), but then again, it might not.
McKinney's conspiracy theory apparently evolved from her sense that (follow closely) because former President George H.W. Bush, father of the current president, is an adviser to a Washington-based investment firm, the Carlyle Group -- and because Carlyle Group investors have been enriched by the war on terrorism owing to their partial ownership of a military contractor -- Bingo! Dubya obviously permitted suicidal Islamic fanatics to bring down the World Trade Center towers and part of the Pentagon.
By McKinney's theory, Bush would have to have been disappointed that hijacked Flight 93 went down in a Pennsylvania field instead of hitting its presumed target, the White House. Hey, and Bush was in Florida that day. Hmmmmm.
In reporting McKinney's insatiable appetite for her own boots, The Washington Post noted that McKinney has often "given voice to radical critiques of U.S. policy, especially in the Middle East." Given voice? Radical critiques? Let's call a farm implement a farm implement and translate that for the nice folks back home: "McKinney has made yet another over-the-top publicity grab, not yet grasping that most Americans consider her an imbecile."
Of course, news reporters have to be objective and respectful, even toward loonies like McKinney, which is why God created columnists. Here's the real deal: McKinney is a dangerous fool whose voice needs to be stifled. Not forcefully, of course. But couldn't we get this woman a job at Wal-Mart, greeting the public she so desperately courts? Wishfully thinking, couldn't we just impeach her?
I realize you can't impeach a public official for dragging down the national I.Q., but you can impeach for treason. Once McKinney's hysterical rant is translated into Arabic for a vulnerable, gullible and homicidal public, she's on their team, not ours. As Sen. Zell Miller, another Georgia Democrat, has noted, her statement is "very dangerous and irresponsible."
At the very least, oh, lovely, smart people of Georgia, vote this bad actress out of business. Do it for your country. Do it soon.
Kathleen Parker can be reached at mailto:kparker@orlandosentinel.com
Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/orl-edpparker17041702apr17.column
4/20/02
11:52:52 AM
911- ROAD TO TYRANNY - THE MOVIE - ALEX JONES - http://www.infowars.com 2 HRS AND 21 MINUTES - TAKES A WHILE TO LOAD
http://sf.indymedia.org/uploads/the_road_to_tyranny__34kbps_.rm
Iraq link to OKC, Sept. 11 attacks? - Jon E. Dougherty
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=24112
NO Statutes of Limitations on the Crimes of Genocide!
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=24116
Re: Orlando Sentinel hits McKinney hard (Kathleen Parker) - Kathleen Parker
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=24092
4/20/02
11:50:03 AM
Carole King will perform in "Earth to LA", on May 10th at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, a benefit for the Natural Resources Defense Council. This special evening of comedy, music, short films and more will also include Louise Goffin, Steve Martin, Larry David, Cameron Diaz, Dustin Hoffman, Martin Short, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Rob Reiner and Debbie Allen's Dance Academy. For more information on the Natural Resources Defense Council go to
4/20/02
11:45:33 AM
EMS Update - April 19, 2002
Great Ways to Protect the Environment on Earth Day and Beyond
Journalists seeking ideas about how their readers can honor the planet on Earth Day 2002 will find tips at EMS.org.
Go to: http://www.ems.org/advisories/earth_day.html
Bonnie Raitt to Join Environmental Leaders at Press Conference
Leaders of the nation's top environmental groups and musician Bonnie Raitt will gather at a press conference on Earth Day, April 22, in Washington, D.C., to call on the Bush administration to halt its campaign against the nation's environmental protections. Bonnie Raitt will discuss her opposition to proposed nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
Media advisory: http://www.ems.org/advisories/april_22_event.html
4/20/02
11:43:03 AM
Brazen Oil Giants To Secretly Remove Top Global Warming Scientist
Greenpeace's Positive Energy Newsletter April 15-21, 2002
April 22, 2002 will mark the 32nd Earth Day. A time to reflect on life on Earth, Time magazine's 1988 Planet of the Year. Happy Earth Day to Everyone!!!
Inside this edition Celebrating Earth Day in California University of California Merced
Earth Day Celebrations
-- The Greenpeace Clean Energy Now! campaign will be in Southern California this weekend to join in on the celebration of our planet.
On Saturday, we will be at the Whole Earth Festival that will take place at Lake Balboa in Van Nuys.
On Sunday, we will be in San Diego for EarthFair that will take place at Balboa Park.
Visit the Greenpeace booth to learn more and to help promote clean energy. Hope to see you there!
For more information on the Whole Earth Festival visit:
Visit EarthFair's website at:
http://www.earthdayweb.org/SDEW_EarthFair.html
-- In San Francisco If you live in San Francisco, take an opportunity to take action on Earth Day. Come join Greenpeace in lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission to ensure that solar energy users don't pay for Governor Gray Davis' dirty and expensive long-term energy contracts with out-of-state natural gas providers. On April 22, PUC commissioners will be considering a ruling that will impose a fee on direct access customers, including residential solar power generators, to pay off the bad deals made by Gov. Davis last year.
To receive more information, please contact J.P. Ross via e-mail at:
mailto:jross@sfo.greenpeace.org or by phone at: (415) 255-9221 x 309.
University of California Merced
In the coming months we will be pushing UC Merced to become a chief exemplar for sustainable development. The UC system is planning to expand its presence with the creation of its 10th campus, the first American research university to be built in this century. UC officials claim that it will be created with the latest sustainable, environmentally sensitive techniques. Greenpeace will be working with students from the University California system to ensure that it becomes a model campus in incorporating solar energy. In addition to our demand that all new buildings generate at least 25% of their energy load through solar cells, we insist that all buildings on campus qualify for the highest "green" building standards - silver LEED standard or better!!!
If you would like to know more or get involved please contact Kristin Casper via e-mail at:
mailto:kristin.casper@sfo.greenpece.org
or by phone at: (415) 255-9221 x 321
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our web site,
will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace Member!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join2/cen.htm
WASHINGTON (April 3, 2002) -- The Bush administration this week moved to oust a top scientific official targeted by ExxonMobil in a confidential memo to the White House. Bold language in the ExxonMobil papers released today by NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council) reflects a brazen, behind-the-scenes effort by the oil company and other energy giants to disrupt the principal international science assessment program on global warming.
Dr. Robert Watson, a highly respected atmospheric scientist, has been chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1996. Operating under United Nations auspices, the 2500-member expert panel provides policymakers around the world with rigorous, consensus-based assessments generally regarded as the most authoritative word on global warming and its causes.
Without formal announcement, the administration has decided to oppose Watson's appointment to a second term as IPCC chair, seriously damaging his prospects when representatives of more than 100 governments meet in Geneva April 17-20 to elect a new IPCC head.
The memorandum, obtained by NRDC from the White House Council on Environmental Quality under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that ExxonMobil began a secret campaign for Dr. Watson's removal in the first weeks of the Bush administration, and reveals ExxonMobil's intention to replace Watson and other key scientists with contrarians known for disagreeing with the prevailing consensus that man-made pollution is causing global warming.
In meetings this week with State Department officials, lobbyists for the coal industry, electric utilities, and automakers joined ExxonMobil's call to replace Watson.
"It's bad enough that ExxonMobil controls White House energy and climate policies," said Daniel Lashof, science director of the NRDC Climate Center. "Now they want to control the science too."
Under Watson's tenure, the IPCC last year produced its third comprehensive assessment of the state of climate science, concluding that "[t]here is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities," and predicting that average global temperatures will rise between 3 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century -- conclusions reaffirmed last spring at White House request by the National Academy of Sciences.
In a letter yesterday to Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, NRDC's Lashof said: "The industry effort to block the reappointment of Dr. Watson is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine the effectiveness of the IPCC as a body that produces high quality, objective scientific assessments. I urge you to reject this campaign and to give Dr. Watson the United States' strongest possible support."
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, non-profit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 500,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
4/20/02
11:40:47 AM
Action Alert!
Tell Congress BIO Is Bad News! Take Action Now:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=121
BIO, the Biotech Industry Organization made up of Monsanto, Aventis, Dupont and other corporate polluters, is hosting their annual visit to Washington next week. They will meet with House and Senate representatives to press their agenda of:
- more genetically engineered crops,
- no mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food, and
- government support for opening up foreign markets to these genetic experiments.
Let *your* Senators and Representative know that you don't want to eat genetically engineered food!!!
Take Action Now:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=121
Check out the new True Food Now Community Center
http://www.truefoodnow.org/communitycenter/
Want to find out what is happening in your area to stop genetically engineered food?
Or better yet, want to organize a local event and reach like-minded people in your community?
The Greenpeace True Food Network has a new Community Center where you can get information on events near you, or where you can post your own event.
Check it out at:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/communitycenter/
4/20/02
11:38:36 AM
Study Sees 6,000 Deaths From Power Plants
by Katharine Q. Seeye, NY Times, April 18, 2002
WASHINGTON, April 17 -- A study prepared by a private contractor estimates that pollution from more than 80 power plants owned by eight electric utilities will cause nearly 6,000 premature deaths in the year 2007. The number is lower than the estimated number of deaths by pollution now because the air is getting cleaner, but the utility industry still cast doubt on the study's credibility.
The study was conducted by Abt Associates Inc., a technical consulting firm based in Cambridge, Mass. Abt often conducts studies for the Environmental Protection Agency, but this report was prepared for the Rockefeller Family Fund, which among other work supports environmental projects.
It uses epidemiological studies to project the number of pollution-related deaths in 2007, after some important new clean-air regulations will have taken effect and presumably reduced the level of emissions.
The study arrived at its premature death figures by determining the number of deaths among people 30 and older in excess of a region's expected mortality levels.
The analysis estimates that in addition to the 6,000 deaths, pollutants from the eight utilities will lead to 140,000 asthma attacks and 14,000 cases of acute bronchitis in 2007.
The study says that this pollution consists of fine particles of substances like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which can cause respiratory ailments, including lung cancer. The pollution drifts across the country with prevailing winds but falls relatively near home. Thus, plants in Ohio, Kentucky and Georgia, which have traditionally been blamed for acid rain and other pollutants in the Northeast, are also hurting residents in their own states.
"You don't have to go up to New England before you start to see the health damage," said Eric V. Schaeffer, the former chief enforcement officer for the Environmental Protection Agency and now an adviser to the Rockefeller fund.
Quinn Shea, executive director of environment for the Edison Electric Institute, an industry group, questioned the accuracy of the report.
"Regarding adverse health effects, we take that claim very seriously," Mr. Shea said. "But, given our experience with these authors, with their data base, with their modeling methodology, we have strong suspicions that this work is not credible."
The report is the latest piece of evidence to be introduced into the ongoing public debate over clean air regulations under review by the Bush administration. The administration wants to eliminate some programs and replace them with a strategy called Clear Skies, which, officials say, will reduce pollutants more than the current programs. Environmentalists strongly dispute this.
The eight companies in the study were: American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio; Cinergy, in Cincinnati; Duke Power in Charlotte, N.C.; Dynegy, based in Houston; First Energy in Akron, Ohio; Sigeco in Indiana; Southern Company in Atlanta, and the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, which operate a combined 83 power plants. They account for about 8 percent of the more than 9,350 power plants in the country. All eight companies have been cited by the Justice Department as being in violation of the Clean Air Act and are in various stages of legal action.
The study said the companies that caused the most pollution were, not surprisingly, the biggest -- American Electric Power, with 1,400 projected deaths, and the Southern Company, with 1,200 deaths.
Mike Tyndall, a spokesman for Southern, said the report used selective data that did not provide a complete picture of the situation. "It ignores dozens of other peer-reviewed studies that find no association between sulfates from power plants and health effects," Mr. Tyndall said.
The most deaths, 550, are in Pennsylvania.
"The big loser is Pennsylvania, because they're in the wind path," Mr. Schaeffer said.
New York can expect 340 deaths the report said, New Jersey 180 and Connecticut 54.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/18/national/18POLL.html?todaysheadlines
4/20/02
11:37:42 AM
TomPaine.com!
"Independent, commercial-free, public affairs reporting."
TRADING UNDERSHIRTS FOR PIXELS
Cowboys on the Internet Frontier
by Debra Cash
If we can't own our ideas, who can? And if we can't profit from those ideas what else will we have to sell? And why do the multinational media bullies think that they get to make that decision unilaterally?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5469
UNDER THE RADAR: SHELVING WORKPLACE CHEMICAL SAFETY RULES The Administration Kills A Decade-Old Effort To Regulate 'Reactive' Toxics
by Steven Rosenfeld
A proposal to regulate some of the most dangerous workplace chemicals floundered under the Clinton administration and dies under Bush.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5466
PIANO TEACHER IN THE CHURCH BASEMENT
A Poem
by Gary Margolis
"...In Mr. Reissen's studio, God's basement, he made every sound soundproof."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5476
SPOILING FOR A FIGHT:
NUTS, NUISANCES AND NONPERSONS
When The Media Dismisses Third-Party Candidates, The Public Looses
by Micah L. Sifry
News sources from The New York Times to The Weekly Standard barely restrain their snickering about third-pary candidates and their everyday American supporters -- when they cover third parties at all.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5485
A DREAM DENIED
Israeli Offensive A Turning Point For Progressive Jews
by Laura Flanders
Not since Sept. 11 has there been such turmoil and soul-searching.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5472
ECCLESIASTICAL TRAGEDIES, MEDIA PREOCCUPATIONS, UGLY EXCESS
Why Bernard Cardinal Law Should Be Wearing An Orange Jumpsuit
by Michael Ryan
Newspapers and networks are devoting far too much time and space to an ecclesiastical scandal that could be solved if the predators and their patrons were simply dismissed, defrocked, and, where appropriate imprisoned.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5475
4/20/02
11:36:44 AM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
SENATE REJECTS ARCTIC DRILLING PROPOSAL
WASHINGTON, DC, April 18, 2002 (ENS) - With a 54-46 vote, the U.S. Senate voted today to reject a proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration. Senate Republicans needed 60 votes to break a Democrat led filibuster of an amendment, introduced by Alaska's senators, to the Senate energy bill.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-18-07.html
POWER PLANT EMISSIONS BLAMED FOR PREMATURE DEATHS
WASHINGTON, DC, April 18, 2002 (ENS) - Almost 6,000 premature deaths can be blamed each year on pollution from 80 power plants in the Midwest and Southeast, charges a report released by a consulting firm and a former enforcement officer from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The study looked at the emissions from plants run by eight utility companies cited by the Justice Department in 1999 and 2000 for violating the Clean Air Act.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-18-06.html
GLOBAL WARMING FILLS GLACIAL LAKES TO BURSTING
GENEVA, Switzerland, April 18, 2002 (ENS) - At least 44 glacial lakes high in the Himalayas are filling so rapidly they could burst their banks in as little as five years, an international team of scientists has found.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-18-01.html
OFFSHORE WIND FARM APPROVED FOR WINDIEST COUNTRY IN EUROPE
LONDON, United Kingdom, April 18, 2002 (ENS) - The single largest offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom won approval Wednesday from Minister for Energy, Brian Wilson.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-18-02.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 18, 2002
Coastal Development Threatens Ocean Health
Radioactive Particles Found on Nuclear Workers
Jury Labels MTBE Gasoline as Defective Product
Dozens of Wolves Killed for Preying on Livestock
Underground Cleanup Accelerated at INEEL
Hundreds of Sturgeon Returned to Tennessee River System
Effects of Forest Fragmentation on Birds Vary
DC Transit Adds Natural Gas Buses
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-18-09.html
4/20/02
11:34:40 AM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
FRESH FIELDS
by Patty Cantrell, Elm Street Writers Group
-- Consumers have indicated an interest in buying from small and organic farms. Now, a bill in Congress offers additional aid to these farmers.
LEAPING THE ABYSS
by Gregory Benford, Reason Online
-- The debilitating effects of Lou Gehrig's disease have done little to mute Stephen Hawking's passionate pursuit of the big questions over the past 20 years. Here is a wide-ranging conversation with the man who gave us A Brief History of Time.
HOPE TAKES FLIGHT IN KOSOVO
by Yael Sachs, Goodthings.com
-- This letter, posted by a transplant to Kosovo, proves the possibility of the region's recovery and a better future--thanks to the work of two of its youths.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
4/19/02
6:18:27 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
DOE's Abraham urges Congress to back Yucca waste site - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15552/story.htm
NRC probes particles from FirstEnergy Ohio reactor - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15553/story.htm
New York again asked to cut power use in heat wave - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15556/story.htm
Michigan unveils drive to lure fuel cell industry - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15551/story.htm
UPDATE - US Senate kills Bush plan for Alaska drilling - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15550/story.htm
US utility pollution kills 5,900 a year-study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15549/story.htm
California jury finds companies liable for MTBE pollution - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15548/story.htm
Scientists firm up global climate forecasts - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15546/story.htm
Green lobby loses eco-vote at BP meeting - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15544/story.htm
Singapore's last unique animals face extinction - SINGAPORE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15547/story.htm
Fungus threatens to croak New Zealand frogs - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15567/story.htm
Japan considers criminalising food mislabelling - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15566/story.htm
Japan coast guard braces for whaling meeting - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15559/story.htm
Worries grow over tankers' vulnerability to attack - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15564/story.htm
INTERVIEW - Indonesia seeks solution on open-pit mining ban - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15561/story.htm
Germans optimistic they can stamp out swine fever - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15545/story.htm
Finnish MPs lean towards more nuclear power - poll - FINLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15563/story.htm
Earth Summit 2 in danger from dithering - EU - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15557/story.htm
UPDATE - China issues temporary GMO permits, trade applauds - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15558/story.htm
Canada welcomes demise of Alaska drilling plan - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15555/story.htm
Britain's Prescott dampens environment meet hopes - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15565/story.htm
FEATURE - Famous Australian hatters mad about rabbits - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15562/story.htm
Any Jabiluka development long way off-Rio - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15560/story.htm
South Australia approves Tarong Energy wind farm - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15554/story.htm
4/19/02
6:15:34 PM
Making A Difference
As the old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up to the youth, he asked him why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish" said the old man. " How can your efforts make any difference?" The young man looked at the starfish and then threw it to safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to that one," he said.
4/19/02
6:14:21 PM
It's an Inch Long and Wingless, and a Surprise to Insect Experts
By CAROL KAESUK YOON, NY Times
April 18, 2002
In a finding sure to stun the world of entomology, scientists say they have discovered a major new group, or order, of insects, the first to be identified in 88 years.
Their assertion is based on the discovery of previously unrecorded inch-long wingless creatures. The insects, Mantophasmatodea, have features of praying mantises, walking sticks and other phasmids.
The discovery of insect species is not rare. But insect orders are huge groups. One, for example, includes all the butterflies and moths, another comprises all beetles. The last new insect order was discovered in 1914.
"Everybody had said that's it, we have them all, guys," said Dr. Joachim Adis, entomologist at the Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Germany and an author of a report on the find, which he said brought the total number of known insect orders up to 31.
Dr. Terry Erwin, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution who has no connection to the new work, said it was "definitely something big."
"It's an entirely new lineage of organisms that's gone undetected," Dr. Erwin said.
Dr. Adis and his colleagues describe the new order in tomorrow's online edition of the journal Science.
Though the insects appear to have been more widespread in the past, scientists have only verified that the creatures are living in the mountains of Namibia. Dr. Adis said that with international collectors eager to buy the newly minted order on the insect black market, the authorities in the area have already begun battling Mantophasmatodea poachers.
Topics Alerts Insects Evolution DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) Create Your Own | Manage Alerts Take a Tour Sign Up for Newsletters Science Times Book of Fossils &Evolution
Buy this book for $20 .
The idea that researchers could discover a new order of insects seemed so outlandish that some scientists who had heard about the discovery earlier this month suspected an April Fool's joke.
Oliver Zompro, a graduate student at the Max Planck institute, who uncovered the new group while studying with Dr. Adis, was similarly flummoxed when he first tried to identify the creature he found in a 45 million-year-old piece of Baltic amber.
"He couldn't place it anywhere," said Dr. Adis, Mr. Zompro's adviser.
By chance, Mr. Zompro was then asked to identify an insect that had been sitting in the British Museum for 16 years and that curators had been unable to place. He realized he had the same thing on his hands, and that because the specimen in the museum was relatively recent the group might still be alive.
The researchers sent e-mail messages to museums asking if anyone had seen similar insects. They received a single reply, from Namibia. Eventually after helicoptering themselves and equipment to remote mountaintops in the southwest African nation, they spent three days with precious live insects in hand, dodging leopards to make their way back down the mountains.
Dr. Adis said researchers were already out, with pictures of the Mantophasmatodea in hand and searching for new species of the group in Brazil.
"No order is restricted to one continent; why should they be?" he said of the newly discovered group.
Most insects cannot be properly identified until they are mature adults, usually the time when insects have developed wings. But since these insects never grow wings, researchers say, it was easy for them to be overlooked.
Researchers at University of Leeds in England and Brigham Young University have already begun DNA studies to try to determine where the new group fits in the insect family tree.
But while most researchers were still trying to wrap their minds around insect order No. 31, Dr. Erwin suggested not getting too comfortable with the latest count.
"As we continue to explore and get back into more and more remote areas, we'll find more," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/18/science/18BUG.html?todaysheadlines
4/19/02
5:31:10 PM
I noted your address at the a20stopthewar web site and hope you find this note helpful. I feel you could find relevant and useful a web site dealing with a new book of mine being recommended by 3 Nobel Peace Prize-winning groups: If you agree your fellow members would be likely to find the site helpful, I hope you will let them know about it and the book.
http://www.rogerburkholder.com
Roger Burkholder
4/19/02
5:04:27 PM
Fact Sheet: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge And Oil Drilling
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Covering more than 20 million acres, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) includes the largest designated wilderness area (8 million acres) in the National Wildlife Refuge system. In dispute is permission to drill on the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, the biological heart of the Refuge.
Absent of roads, lodging and campsites, ANWR has been dubbed "America's finest example of an intact, naturally functioning community of Arctic/sub-Arctic ecosystems." Teeming with wildlife (more than 160 bird species, 36 kinds of land mammals, nine marine mammal species and 36 types of fish), the Refuge is a breeding ground and habitat for caribou, polar bears and other animals.
About one in four jobs in Alaska (some 55,000 jobs total, or twice the number of jobs in the petroleum, mining and construction industries) depend on a clean environment. These jobs are in the commercial and sport fishing, tourism and hunting sectors.
Drilling for oil in the Refuge
The United States holds less than 3 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, yet Americans consume 25 percent of the world's produced oil. Opening the Arctic National Refuge would increase world reserves by only 0.3 percent. Even opening all our refuges, parks and coastlines to drilling would not satisfy our current energy demands.
The amount of oil that could be recovered economically from the Arctic Refuge over a 50-year span -- approximately 5.3 billion barrels -- amounts to less than a nine month's supply for the United States.
Drilling in ANWR would provide consumers with little or no price relief, since the amount of oil involved provides no leverage against OPEC market control. For example, when Alaska's Prudhoe Bay increased production in the 1970s, OPEC was still able to double oil prices by curtailing their supply. Various estimates put the amount of economically recoverable oil -- that is, after production costs are balanced against the price of oil -- at less than what could be saved with just a 3 mpg increase in the average fuel economy of American cars and trucks.
Sources: Alaska Conservation Foundation, Energy Information Administration, Environmental Defense, Environmental Media Services, Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Wilderness Society
The work of Chief Looking Horse calls for Global Healing in many aspects that encompasses Peace with all Mitakuye Oyasin (all living beings, relations)
Source: http://www.wolakota.org
4/19/02
4:57:39 PM
Eric Schaeffer's resignation letter from EPA
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002
Here's the full text of EPA Enforcement Chief Schaeffer's resignation letter, delivered to:
Christine Whitman Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004
Dear Ms. Whitman
I resign today from the Environmental Protection Agency after twelve years of service, the last five as Director of the Office of Regulatory Enforcement. I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given, and leave with a deep admiration for the men and women of EPA who dedicate their lives to protecting the environment and the public health.
Their faith in the Agency's mission is an inspiring example to those who still believe that government should stand for the public interest.
But I cannot leave without sharing my frustration about the fate of our enforcement actions against power companies that have violated the Clean Air Act. Between November of 1999 and December of 2000, EPA filed lawsuits against 9 power companies for expanding their plants, without obtaining New Source Review permits and the up to date pollution controls required by law. The companies named in our lawsuits emit an incredible 5.0 million tons of sulfur dioxide every year (a quarter of the emissions in the entire country) as well as 2 million tons of nitrogen oxide.
As the scale of pollution from these coal-fired smokestacks is immense, so is the damage to public health. Data supplied to the Senate Environment Committee by EPA last year estimate the annual health bill from 7 million tons of SO2 and NO2: more than 10,800 premature deaths; at least 5,400 incidents of chronic bronchitis; more than 5,100 hospital emergency visits; and over 1.5 million lost work days. Add to that severe damage to our natural resources, as acid rain attacks soils and plants, and deposits nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay and other critical bodies of water.
Fifteen months ago, it looked as though our lawsuits were going to shrink these dismal statistics, when EPA publicly announced agreements with Cinergy and Vepco to reduce Sox and Nox emissions by a combined 750,000 tons per year. Settlements already lodged with two other companies - TECO and PSE&G - will eventually take another quarter million tons of Nox and Sox out of the air annually. If we get similar results from the 9 companies with filed complaints, we are on track to reduce both pollutants by a combined 4.8 million tons per year. And that does not count the hundreds of thousands of additional tons that can be obtained from other companies with whom we have been negotiating.
Yet today, we seem about the snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. We are in the 9th month of a "90 day review" to reexamine the law, and fighting a White House that seems determined to weaken the rules we are trying to enforce. It is hard to know which is worse, the endless delay or the repeated leaks by energy industry lobbyists of draft rule changes that would undermine lawsuits already filed. At their heart, these proposals would turn narrow exemptions into larger loopholes that would allow old "grandfathered" plants to be continually rebuilt (and emissions to increase) without modern pollution controls.
Our negotiating position is weakened further by the Administration's budget proposal to cut the civil enforcement program by more than 200 staff positions below the 2001 level. Already, we are unable to fill key staff positions, not only in air enforcement, but in other critical programs, and the proposed budget cuts would leave us desperately short of the resources needed to deal with the large, sophisticated corporate defendants we face.
And it is completely unrealistic to expect underfunded state environmental programs, facing their own budget cuts, to take up the slack.
It is no longer possible to pretend that the ongoing debate with the White House and Department of Energy is not effecting our ability to negotiate settlements. Cinergy and Vepco have refused to sign the consent decrees they agreed to 15 months ago, hedging their bets while waiting for the Administration's Clean Air Act reform proposals. Other companies with whom we were close to settlement have walked away from the table. The momentum we obtained with agreements announced earlier has stopped, and we have filed no new lawsuits against utility companies since this Administration took office. We obviously cannot settle cases with defendants who think we are still rewriting the law.
The arguments against sustaining our enforcement actions don't hold up to scrutiny.Were the complaints filed by the U.S. government based on conflicting or changing interpretations? The Justice Department doesn't think so. Its review of our enforcement actions found EPA's interpretation of the law to be reasonable and consistent. While the Justice Department has gamely insisted it will continue to prosecute existing cases, the confusion over where EPA is going with New Source Review has made settlement almost impossible, and protracted litigation inevitable.
What about the energy crisis? It stubbornly refuses to materialize, as experts predict a glut of power plants in some areas of the U.S. In any case, our settlements are flexible enough to provide for cleaner air while protecting consumers from rate shock. The relative costs and benefits?
EPA's regulatory impact analyses, reviewed by OMB, quantify health and environmental benefits of $7,300 per ton of SO2 reduced at a cost of less than $1,000 per ton. These cases should be supported by anyone who thinks cost-benefit analysis is a serious tool for decision-making, not a political game.
Is the law too complicated to understand? Most of the projects our cases targeted involved big expansion projects that pushed emission increases many times over the limits allowed by law. Should we try to fix the problem by passing a new law? Assuming the Administration's bill survives a legislative odyssey in today's evenly divided Congress, it will send us right back where we started with new rules to write, which will then be delayed by industry challenges, and with fewer emissions reductions than we can get by enforcing today's law.
I believe you share the concerns I have expressed, and wish you well in your efforts to persuade the Administration to put our enforcement actions back on course. Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican and our greatest environmental President, said, "Compliance with the law is demanded as a right, not asked as a favor." By showing that powerful utility interests are not exempt from that principle, you will prove to EPA's staff that their faith in the Agency's mission is not in vain. And you will leave the American public with an environmental victory that will be felt for generations to come.
Sincerely,
Eric V. Schaeffer, Director Office of Regulatory Enforcement
4/19/02
4:53:50 PM
EPA Official Quits in Frustration
by Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D., April 15, 2002
Hello,
We hear little these days in the mainstream media about the supposed energy crisis. Like their coverage of most issues, they spent a few weeks on the crisis and then moved on to other things. We were left with the assumption that energy is in short supply and that as a result, rates have to rise. This convenient perception is generating billions of dollars for the utility companies while people around the country can't afford to pay heating bills. Environmental rules around the nation have been suspended so that new dirty power plants could be built.
Earlier this year, Eric Schaeffer, the EPA's director of civil enforcement, resigned after 12 years at the agency. In his resignation letter, he complained that the White House "seems determined to weaken the rules we are trying to enforce." He also implied that the often feared energy crisis is a fabrication when he said, "What about the energy crisis? It stubbornly refuses to materialize, as experts predict a glut of power plants in some areas of the U.S."
If any of you had any doubts about the impact of the current presidential administration's environmental policy, Schaeffer's resignation letter will put them to rest. New power plants will fill the owner's pockets with our dollars at the expense of our ecosystems as utility rates continue to rise. Below is the text of that letter.
email your elected representatives and let them know that you won't tolerate this any longer. You can find out who they are at:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html.
You can review a summary of some energy issues in two Healing Our World commentaries from last year, "Energy Crisis or Greed Crisis," at:
http://www.ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-09g.html
and a special report,"Energy Crisis or Energy Hoax," at:
http://drjackie.freeservers.com/articles/jagfeb12-2001.html
Thank you for your efforts on behalf of our planet and our future.
Jackie
Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. Author of "Healing Our World" commentaries on the Environment News Service:
Check out Jackie's website with an archive of his over 180 commentaries at:
http://www.healingourworld.com
email; mailto:jackie@deepteaching.com
Jackie's new book, "Healing Our World, A Journey from the Darkness into the Light," is available from XLIBRIS at:
http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html
4/19/02
3:49:32 PM
The Wilderness Society
SENATE VOTES TO PROTECT ARCTIC REFUGE FROM OIL DRILLING By a vote of 54-46, the Senate today rejected an amendment from Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. ***THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR ACTION ON THIS. YOUR CALLS, LETTERS, AND FAXES MADE THE DIFFERENCE.***
DETAILS
Sen. Murkowski introduced his drilling amendment to the Senate Energy (S. 517) bill this past Tuesday. Debate ensued through this morning, and then a vote to limit debate ("invoke cloture") was held. Drilling proponents needed 60 votes to stop debate and proceed to a vote on the amendment. But they could only muster 46 votes, not even a majority of the Senate.
In an earlier vote, an effort by drilling proponents to couple Arctic drilling with relief for ailing steel-industry retirement funds was defeated by an even wider margin, 64-36.
WHAT'S NEXT
At the risk of sounding like Chicken Little, we cannot yet be assured that the Arctic Refuge is out of immediate danger, since the House-passed energy bill contains an Arctic Refuge oil drilling provision. The House and Senate energy bills will have to be "reconciled" in a conference committee (once the Senate passes a bill) and the issue could resurface there. We'll keep you apprised of the situation.
HOW THEY VOTED
A list is at the bottom of this message, or go to
http://www.wilderness.org/arctic/index.htm#arcticvote
ROADLESS AREAS -- NEW REPORT: Our Nation's Wild Forests at Risk
Spurred on by their friends in the timber and oil and gas industries, the Bush administration is currently pursuing controversial logging, road construction and oil and gas drilling projects that threaten environmentally sensitive wildlands on our National Forests from Alaska to Illinois. "Our Nation's Wild Forests at Risk," a report released today by The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and the Heritage Forests Campaign in collaboration with numerous conservation organizations nationwide, features 20 National Forest roadless areas facing impending risks that would not exist if the Roadless Area Conservation Rule were in place.
The Roadless Rule, put in place by the Clinton Administration, protects 58.5 million acres of roadless areas on National Forests and Grasslands from most logging and road construction. Exceptions are made to allow road construction to fight fire, protect property and allow access to state and private lands. The rule was overwhelmingly supported by the American people, with upwards of 95% of the 2.3 million comments supporting the strongest protections possible for these wild forest lands.
Since assuming office, the Bush administration has approached this historically significant, well-balanced, broadly popular yet still unimplemented policy with stall tactics, lack of adequate legal defense and empty promises. More recently they've undertaken a vigorous attack at the rule's basic tenets through an onslaught of obscure bureaucratic maneuvers.
Places at risk include
- Tongass rainforest in Alaska
- Clearwater National Forest in Idaho
- Kootenai National Forest in Montana
- Shawnee National Forest in Illinois
Learn more. Read our report:
http://www.wilderness.org/standbylands/roadless/wildforest/
BUSH CONTINUES TO BUILD RAPSHEET ON THE ENVIRONMENT
When it comes to environmental protection, the Bush administration has failed. On issue after issue, the president and his appointees have created new threats to our air, water, land, and wildlife, siding with those interests eager to make a quick profit. Because so many of the appointees have represented those interests throughout their careers, the prospects for a reversal of this record are slim. It will be up to the American people and their representatives in Congress to turn back the administration's efforts to undermine environmental protection.
- ENERGY -- The White House is championing an energy plan that is a half-century out of date and that bears the fingerprints of the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear power industries. Under this blueprint, our environment would be sacrificed in a host of ways.
- SCIENCE -- The Bush administration has ignored or misstated the findings of the scientific community, from the values of protecting 58.5 million acres of roadless areas within our national forests or wetlands, to the devastating effects of proposed oil development within the Arctic Refuge.
- PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT -- The administration has ignored the public's views, despite the insistence of Secretary Norton and others that paying more attention to these views is at the heart of their approach.
- LIP SERVICE TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION -- On occasion, this administration has acted to protect the environment. For example, at Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, the Interior Department so far has forcefully backed up the Park Service in its efforts to limit swamp buggy traffic that is degrading the area. A plan to restore and clean up the Great Lakes also has some promise. But most of what the Bush administration takes credit for amounts to nothing more than allowing rules and decisions to stand.
The clean air and water, biological diversity, and inspiration that our national parks, wilderness, and other natural reserves provide are of vital importance. The truly patriotic course of action is not to plunder the most stunning lands we have inherited, but to protect them. Each generation serves as trustee of these natural treasures, and this administration is breaching that trust.
http://www.wilderness.org/eyewash/bush/strikeout/
4/19/02
3:42:29 PM
For A Different Globalization
by Mikhail Gorbachev, New Perspectives Quarterly April 18, 2002
During, and just after, the Earth Summit on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, I could sense an overwhelming air of enthusiasm and hope for the future. It was a time of optimism and, in retrospect, innocence, as everyone celebrated the end of the Cold War.
Ten years later, we are surrounded by a different air -- one of cynicism and, for many, despair. This is hardly surprising, considering that the environment continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, poverty is deepening in developing and transition countries, human security is diminishing, and violent conflicts and attacks still scar our world.
And this does not even begin to take into account the new realities we face in 2002. Most of these recent developments are tied to the phenomenon of globalization; the fact that we now live in a highly interconnected world where trade, pollution, crime, disease and communication know no borders. Globalization has brought enormous benefits to some, disaster to others, and has completely bypassed many. It has generated even greater gaps between the haves and the have-nots: those who have access to information, technology and natural resources, and those who have no influence at all over the factors that affect their livelihoods.
Double standards and the increasingly unfettered power of large multinational companies have served to exacerbate this trend. Instead of the "sustainable development,'' which the world signed up for in Rio, we see unsustainable consumption gained largely on the backs of the world's poor and disenfranchised, and at the expense of the environment.
What has gone wrong? What is missing?
Even in 1992, many of us realized that all the good will and promises of the Rio Summit would amount to nothing unless accompanied by two things: a serious investigation into the universal values and codes of ethics, and a great deal of money.
With others, I have been part of a global dialogue to create an integrated ethical framework for sustainable development, which resulted in the Earth Charter first released in 2000. With this text, we sought to fill an important gap.
Since the very emergence of human civilization, communities everywhere have developed and put into practice moral codes of conduct to govern the way they treat one another. Violators of these codes are brought to justice and often required to compensate the victims of their actions. After the horrors of the world wars, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was formulated as a means of protecting the people of the world from harm. Now the planet itself is in danger, and many of the basic ethical principles that should protect it are not respected, even though millions of people suffer as a result and violators go unpunished.
Hence, the need for an Earth Charter on behalf of the environment, and for the rights of future generations.
One important area where the world has fallen most sadly short of the Rio promises is freshwater. So simple, so beautiful in its different natural forms and so essential, water is a symbol in many religions and cultures for purification and replenishment, and is regarded as something to rejoice over and cherish.
It should be regarded as a source of universal shame that 3 million children will die, and millions more become blind this year as a result of preventable water-borne diseases; that over 1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water; that almost 3 billion do not have the means for adequate sanitation; and that we thoughtlessly continue to pollute and exploit natural sources of freshwater throughout the world.
Water is the single most important ingredient for development and stability. Without access to basic water supplies, one is left with ill health, poverty, environmental degradation and even conflict -- all of which in turn lead to greater water stress.
Good governance, though essential, is not enough to cope with these issues. The United Nations has made a Millennium Pledge to reduce by half the number of people in the world without access to improved water and sanitation services by 2015; achieving this will take an estimated US$ 23 billion per year. Access to an adequate supply of good water for basic human needs is a universal human right, and it is the responsibility of everyone that this pledge be kept.
This will be difficult, considering that levels of Official Development Assistance (ODA), which helped finance infrastructure projects -- reached a 20-year low point of $53.1 billion last year.
At the Earth Summit, leaders of developed countries vowed to increase their ODA to 0.7 percent of their GNP. Only five nations have made good on that promise (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands and Luxembourg), while the others have either decreased or frozen their contributions. The OECD average is a pitiful 0.39 percent.
The countries of the North should insist that this trend be reversed, and that their nations live up to their global responsibilities. (It is, perhaps, a small but promising sign that U.S. President George Bush just decided, on March 15, to increase the American development aid budget by $5 billion.)
While insisting that developing nations pay their crippling overseas debts, rich nations should not forget the incalculable ecological debts that they are accruing through over-consumption, particularly the already evident climatic changes directly caused by irresponsible energy policies. The U.S. Senate, for example, voted down higher fuel efficiency standards of the gas-guzzling SUVs that clog the roads of American suburbs).
Surely, it is too much to ask that the developing countries not only honor their own debts but also bear the brunt of the over-consumption of the rich.
It would be naive to imagine that our prosperity can continue, or that we can achieve any degree of global security, without meeting these goals. One of the most important lessons of the terrorist attacks of September 11 is that we are all living in one world, and no one can afford to ignore the problems of others, no matter how far away.
Clearly, only globalization that is inclusive and rooted in sustainable development, will work. The current path will only breed resentment, despair and, no doubt, more violence.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the Cold War. He is currently president of Green Cross International, a worldwide environmental organization based in Geneva.
Green Cross International: http://www.gci.ch
Source: http://www.digitalnpq.org/home.html
4/19/02
3:33:21 PM
Feds Promote Prison Racial Disparities
by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, April 18, 2002
For decades federal prisons were repositories for a relatively small number of mostly white, white-collar embezzlers, tax cheats, racketeers, and swindlers. But that drastically changed in 1994 when then President Clinton shoved through Congress the most punitive crime bill in American history. The law created a parade of new federal offenses and lengthened prison sentences. This virtually assured a swell in the number of those jailed in federal prisons.
According to a recent Bureau of Justice report, the rate of incr