4/14/02
7:53:21 PM
ENVIROVIDEO TV PROGRAMS WITH HARVEY WASSERMAN ON NUCLEAR POWER AVAILABLE FOR MEDIA ACTIVISTS AND GROUP SCREENINGS
EnviroVideo, the New York-based TV production company, is making two just-completed TV programs featuring long-time opponent of atomic power, Harvey Wasserman, available for free to media activists to bring to their cable TV station to be aired on their public access channel and to associations for group showings.
In "Harvey Wasserman: Challenging Nuclear Power," Wasserman is interviewed by Karl Grossman, an investigative reporter who himself has long chronicled the dangers of atomic power, on the plan by the Bush Cheney administration to "revive" nuclear power. Wasserman is a senior advisor to both Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. He is the author of such books as "Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience With Atomic Radiation" and " The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation
Grossman is the author of books including "Power Crazy" and "Cover Up: What You ARE NOT Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power" and the host, writer and narrator of numerous EnviroVideo programs on atomic energy.
In "Harvey Wasserman: Challenging Nuclear Power," Wasserman declares that "the idea of reviving nuclear power as put forward by George Bush and Dick Cheney could only be termed patently insane." Wasserman declares: "We have had a half century of experience with atomic energy. It is a blatant failure. It is actually the most expensive failure in technological history." And Wasserman, in the 29-minute interview program, stresses not only the dangers of nuclear power but details the availability of safe, clean, renewable energy technologies wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal among many others here today which, with energy efficiency, could provide for energy needs without the awesome threat of atomic energy.
The second new EnviroVideo program also available for free is "300,000 Reasons to Close Indian Point," a one-hour presentation by Wasserman made in Garrison, New York, near the Indian Point reactors. In the presentation, Wasserman emphasizes that one of the jets that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11 passed just moments before over the Indian Point nuclear plant complex and if that plane had crashed into Indian Point, a nuclear catastrophe would have resulted. Some 300,000 people, at least, would have died right away and millions would have lost their lives from the spread of radioactive poisons in the most populated area of the United States.
The continuing threat of terrorist attack is one of the main reasons, declares Wasserman, that atomic power plants must be shut down and safe energy technologies now "on the shelf" and widely available be must be implemented.
"Harvey Wasserman: Challenging Nuclear Power" is among 150 episodes of Enviro Close-Up hosted by Grossman who is also a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York. Through informative discussion Enviro Close-Up explores issues such as global warming; safe, clean, renewable energy; nuclear weapons proliferation; environmental and social justice; environmental pollution and its effect on human health; and biodiversity.
Enviro Close-Up programs include in-depth interviews with leading authors, activists, experts and scientists such as Ross Gelbspan, author of "The Heat is On," Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Nobel Laureate Dr. George Wald; Nobel Laureate Dr. Henry Kendall, former Chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists; Dr. Victor Sidel, founder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; Peggy Shepard, director of West Harlem Environmental Action, and physicists and authors Michio Kaku, Fritjof Capra, and Vandana Shiva.
EnviroVideo programs are produced by Joan Flynn and directed by Emmy Award-winner Steve Jambeck. Enviro Close-Up is designed to empower people and motivate them to action by providing crucial information that is not found anywhere else on television.
To get a free copy of "Harvey Wasserman: Challenging Nuclear Power" and/or "300,000 Reasons to Close Indian Point" for your association for a group showing, email envirovideo@earthlink.net or call Joan Flynn at 1-800-ECO-TV46. Review copies for press representatives are also available.
To order EnviroVideo programs, visit http://www.envirovideo.com or call 1-800-ECO-TV46.
4/14/02
7:49:50 PM
Follow-up Update on Lieutenant Michael Vreeland
Editors's Note:
The following information came from Chuck, a subscriber. He did some special follow-up work on the April 5th Flyby News issue "Proof of 9/11 Foreknowledge - by Michael C. Ruppert." It is our hope that more of us will continue to follow Vreeland's case. He asked Lt. Vreeland to post the Court information, so any doubters could verify that his case is actual and ongoing. This is the information he provided:
The Superior Court of Justice 361 University Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Chuck mentioned that the Lieutenant has a message forum being run at his website. He is on the message board daily. Anyone can participate by accessing the Website, then click on "FORUM." Then click on one of the message strings. At the left side of any posted message you can click on "Reply". When you do so, a username and password are called for. Simply enter the Username "mike25gta" and the password "greens", then place your message in the text block and click on the "Add" button. [My computer couldn't access the FORUM page, but I did get this following message on the focus and purpose of Lt. Vreeland's webpage:
USA Spy Forsaken by US Government
Lt Delmart Vreeland has been imprisoned for 16 months in Ontario, Canada. He allegedly is a US spy forsaken by his own government. He wrote a letter to warn of impending terrorist attacks of September 11th, in August of 2001. The letter he wrote has been entered into court documents. He is fighting extradition to the US for fear of assassination. He has sold everything he owns for his defense. This website is dedicated to raising money for Lt Vreeland's Defense Fund.
4/14/02
7:47:56 PM
Related Links:
Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot Washington Post {4-12-02}
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34565-2002Apr11.html
9-11 Overview by Vision TV, Bush / CIA Complicity in 9-11, Real Player Video Stream at http://clients.loudeye.com/imc/mayday/mediafile.ram
BBC TELEVISION INDICTS BUSH / CIA IN 9-11 TERROR COMPLICITY
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/progs/newsnight/attack22.ram
Reasonable Doubts About September 11th, 53 minute Real Player Video stream at
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/03/118760.php
AUSTRALIAN MAINSTREAM PRESS BREAKS 9-11 FRAUD STORY
http://smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/08/1017206313833.html
FULL STORY AT INDYMEDIA -- 9.11 - What did the U.S. know, and when did it know it?
http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8824&group=webcast
Flyby News: The Bush Conspiracy & 9/11 Investigative Updated Reports
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1014738186,11057,
4/14/02
7:44:17 PM
Chavez And Venezuela Still Free
By the will of the people Venezuela president back in power
April 14, 2002 Posted: 2:21 PM EDT (1821 GMT)
CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) - President Hugo Chavez has reclaimed power in Venezuela, just two days after being forced from office.
In a televised address he promised to unite the country and denied an announcement made by the military on Friday that he had resigned.
Chavez was forced from office after he ordered the army to quell anti-government protests and 12 demonstrators were killed.
Initially Chavez was replaced by Pedro Carmona, a businessman and economist, only for him to be replaced by Chavez's vice president Diosdado Cabello, when he tried to dissolve the National Assembly.
Cabello was sworn in as the head of government but he now appears to have stepped aside for Chavez's return.
Cabello has told national radio he would remain as president until Chavez can be reinstated.
Three-thousand members of the National Honor Guard -- which protects the presidential palace and has remained loyal to Chavez -- regained control of the presidential residence hours before Carmona's resignation became official.
Chavez returned to the palace on Sunday on helicopter and was seen surrounded by bodyguards.
Jubilant pro-Chavez supporters gathered outside the palace, Miraflores, ahead of his return waving flags and singing the national anthem.
In a televised address he said: "There are a lot of urgent things to take care of now. We must fix that light that has been broken. I call for peace. I call for strength within all Venezuelans."
And despite its role in his temporary removal from office Chavez praised the military saying: "Our military forces ... have a heart. I was never mistreated.
"I have learned a lot from our military forces. By listening to them I felt like a soldier once again."
The Bush administration said it hopes Chavez listened to his countrymen.
In an interview Sunday with "Meet the Press," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said, "I hope that Hugo Chavez takes the message that his people sent him: that his own policies are not working for the Venezuelan people, that he's dealt with them in a high-handed fashion.
"And I hope that ... he understands this is the time for him to reflect on how Venezuela got to where it is," she said. "He needs to respect constitutional processes. This is no time for a witch hunt. This is time for national reconciliation in Venezuela."
Chavez, who led a bloody 1992 failed coup attempt, now enjoys wide support from Venezuela's poor, many of whom believe he has addressed issues facing them.
He took office in 1999 after a sweeping to election victory in December 1998 promising constitutional reform, an end to corruption and the redistribution of oil wealth.
Venezuela is the world's No. 4 oil exporter and the second biggest source of oil to the United States.
Washington blamed Chavez for provoking the crisis, while several Latin American leaders, including the heads of Peru and Mexico, said during the crisis they would not recognize the new government until elections were held.
The leaders of Argentina, Mexico and Paraguay -- meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica -- said Saturday they would not recognize any new leaders in Venezuela until elections are held there.
"There are a lot of urgent things to take care of now," Chavez said. "We must fix that light that has been broken. I call for peace. I call for strength within all Venezuelans."
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/04/14/venezuela/index.html
4/14/02
7:39:51 PM
Alternative Medicine Is Finding Its Niche In Nation's Hospitals
by Reed Abelson with Patricia Leigh Brown, NY Times, April 13, 2002
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Memorial Health University Medical Center has ambitious goals for itself, and executives here hope Deepak Chopra can help achieve them. In a bid to become a regional leader in health care by combining traditional and alternative medicine, the hospital has joined with Dr. Chopra, the best-selling author and holistic health guru, to create a center where patients and Savannah residents can come for yoga, meditation or a treatment called Shirodhara in which warm herbalized sesame oil is dripped languorously onto their foreheads.
The embrace of mantras and massage is not limited to Memorial. In March of last year, St. Joseph's/Candler, Memorial's only rival in Savannah, opened a Center for Wellbeing, where people can take yoga classes and learn about aromatherapy. And in May, St. Joseph's will introduce a program affiliated with the Mind/Body Medical Institute, founded by Herbert Benson, the Harvard physician who has been at the forefront of advocating the health benefits of reducing stress.
Hospitals in search of paying patients and a competitive edge are increasingly offering their patients some form of alternative medicine. The number of hospitals offering alternative therapies nearly doubled from 1998 to 2000, according to a survey by the American Hospital Association, to 15.5 percent of all hospitals, and the association says hospitals of all sizes are continuing to open alternative or complementary medicine centers where patients or local residents can drop in for a few hours for treatments.
With a market that has been estimated at around $27 billion and affluent customers who generally pay full price for these services up front, hospitals are eager to try alternative medicine. Many see their forays as an extension of their mission, but "it is the money that has drawn the interest," said John Weeks, who helped start a foundation to foster integration between conventional and complementary medicine.
The programs are offered by community hospitals as well as academic medical centers like Beth Israel Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Duke and Stanford, and they range from relaxation therapies and acupuncture, often given to patients with serious illness, to treatments more commonly found in spas.
At First Health Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, N.C., patients can take advantage of polarity therapy, an hourlong session of hands being placed on the body to unblock energy. In Grand Rapids, Mich., St. Mary's Mercy Medical Center offers everything from biofeedback to Chinese face-lifting, a technique that uses acupressure to help get rid of wrinkles and ease headaches.
Many hospitals, however, resist describing what they do as alternative. "The Mind/Body Medical Institute offers a very strong mainstream program," said Steven Klein, chief operating officer of Boca Raton Community Hospital in Florida, one of nine that have affiliated themselves with Dr. Benson's program. The hospital is participating in a Medicare research program to evaluate its lifestyle-modification therapy in helping treat cardiovascular disease.
Still, some experts question whether hospitals should be in such a rush to embrace yoga and massage therapies. Dr. Joseph J. Fins, a medical ethicist at the New York Weill Cornell Center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, argues that while hospitals should have more of a healing persona, they need to avoid lending an imprimatur of clinical effectiveness to practices that are more in the spiritual realm.
"Every effort should be made to make the hospital more hospitable," he said. "But this kind of marketing raises questions. It's what Enron Field did to the Astrodome."
So far, contrary to expectations, many hospitals have discovered that breaking even, let alone profiting, from alternative treatment centers can be difficult. "The assumption of lots of the hospitals getting into this that there would be easy money has proved false," said Mr. Weeks, who surveyed 27 centers last year and found many struggling. Some, like a Phoenix center created by Catholic Healthcare West, have closed.
Still, Memorial has high hopes for its center. Like Savannah itself, Memorial aims to be a destination on the Eastern Seaboard, drawing tourists and affluent retirees from the region.
Much of what Dr. Chopra, an endocrinologist by training and a former chief of staff at Boston Regional Medical Center, advocates, including meditation and stress reduction, massage, exercise and a healthy diet, has become relatively mainstream. And he boasts followers from the late George Harrison to Demi Moore and Mikhail S. Gorbachev. But some practices he has explored, including one he calls remote healing, the sending of therapeutic prayers to someone far away, are considered "far out" even by Dr. Chopra's own admission.
"It's a leap of faith," said Robert Colvin, Memorial's chief executive. "Yes, the Chopra name is a little sensational. But I think health care needs improvement in terms of the way we treat people."
By affiliating with Dr. Chopra, the center is also capitalizing on perhaps the best-known name in alternative medicine. "What Dr. Chopra gives us is immediate brand," said Scott Regan, senior vice president for marketing and strategic planning. But, he said, "the Chopra name brings instant credibility or lack thereof, depending on which side you're on."
Memorial expects to invest about $250,000 in the center for the first three years, including licensing Dr. Chopra's name and training about a dozen staff members in his methods. "We're not anticipating it being a large revenue source," Mr. Colvin said.
The new center, a suite of rooms furnished with dark draperies, greenery and scented candles in the hospital's new rehabilitation institute, is modeled on the Chopra Center for Well-Being in La Jolla, Calif. Most of the clients there are middle-aged women seeking what the center's literature calls "healing and transformation."
Mr. Colvin is unapologetic about the fact that at least some of Memorial's patients will not be able to afford the services, since most treatments will not be covered by insurance. "Can we give everything to everyone?" he asked, pointing out that Memorial provides $20 million to $30 million annually in charity care.
Mr. Colvin said the hospital would not embrace all of Dr. Chopra's teachings. "We're trying to temper it a bit," he said. "We would not make claims to hospital patients that massage releases toxins. What it is is something that makes people feel better. We don't make claims we have trouble scientifically validating."
But the hospital's own marketing materials suggest otherwise. In a handout for prospective clients, one massage is described as something that loosens and mobilizes toxins and enhances immunity. When asked about the discrepancy, Mr. Colvin said massage therapy "is a gray area."
For their part, officials at the Chopra Center in La Jolla view the decision to be a partner with Memorial as a natural extension of their work. "Hospitals want more well-being and spas want to deal with health enhancement," said Dr. David Simon, the center's medical director. "We're very well-positioned to cover the whole spectrum."
In fact, Dr. Chopra's empire is expanding in other directions at the same time. He is completing the terms of a deal to move the center he founded in 1996 to La Costa Resort and Spa, the storied watering hole of Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon and a home of world championship golf. The offerings at La Costa will include Golf for Enlightenment -- a course in which breathing techniques, yoga and golf-specific meditation are used to help unblock participants' inner Tiger.
Dr. Chopra may even alight in Manhattan: the Chopra Center recently signed a partnership agreement with Hampshire Hotels and Resorts to bring a Chopra Center to the Lamb's Club, a $35 million hotel being developed on West 44th Street. A Chopra center at Bush Hall, Beatrix Potter's former summer residence in Hertfordshire, England, is also under consideration, potentially giving guests the opportunity to meditate before running off to shoot partridge and pheasant.
"For 10 years, people have been saying that I must exploit the Chopra brand, that I'm a brand," Dr. Chopra said. "I don't like that, so I've resisted it. But the fact is, yes, I'm a brand."
Whatever the medical merits of hospitals' alternative treatment centers, hospital executives believe that they meet a real need -- at least for something that makes patients feel better. According to J. P. Saleeby, a holistic physician who practices here, "Whether this type of medicine will be accepted in this town on such a large scale remains to be seen, but it boils down to competition and marketing strategies."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/13/business/13HOSP.html?todaysheadlines
4/14/02
7:31:28 PM
Gore Vidal's War On War
by Franklin Harris
We are, as George the Younger tells us, "at war," and having unpopular opinions during times of war is likely to get one shouted down, or worse.
Fortunately, the War on Terror isn't a real war; it is a "new kind of war," otherwise its critics might find themselves in jail, as did critics of Lincoln's and Wilson's wars, never mind that pesky First Amendment.
Yet the chilling effect is real, so real that when Gore Vidal, America's greatest living man of letters, weighed in on the War on Terror, not even his friends at The Nation would publish him.
Vidal holds a view that is beyond the pale, or so the Conventional Wisdom would have us believe. He believes that the United States may actually have done something to provoke the hatred of the Islamic world.
He explores that possibility in fine detail in his new book, "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated," a slim but substantial collection of essays, including the one that The Nation wouldn't touch.
His central (and reasonable) thesis is that, contrary to what President Bush told a joint session of Congress, the Islamic world doesn't hate us because of our freedoms. Rather, it hates us for exactly the reasons Osama bin Laden himself claimed: our military presence in Saudi Arabia, our continuing war of sanctions against Iraq and our "unconditional" support of Israel.
Vidal writes, "Since V-J Day 1945..., we have been engaged in what historian Charles A. Beard called 'perpetual war for perpetual peace.' I have occasionally referred to our 'enemy of the month club': each month we are confronted with a new horrendous enemy at whom we must strike before he destroys us."
Saddam Hussein's longevity has made him the "enemy of the month" for a decade, replaced only temporarily by the Serbs.
Ironically, we bombed the Serbs into submission, in part, for their war against the very same Islamic terrorists we now face.
Our friend today is our enemy tomorrow and vice versa, and both are our enemies the day after that. Saddam was our ally against Iran. Then, briefly, Iran was our ally against Saddam. Now, both are two-thirds of the Axis of Evil, and the North Koreans are as perplexed as anyone.
Vidal also provides a "scoreboard" of American military adventures, many of which are ongoing "even though many of us have forgotten about them."
Of course, our leaders tell us that these military engagements are all justified. However, those bearing the brunt of our bombs don't necessarily see it that way. Nor should the American taxpayer, who is paying to a vast arsenal and getting even less security in exchange.
Ultimately, it is hard to imagine that Islamic terrorists spend much time worrying about the freedom Americans enjoy to eat at McDonald's or watch MTV. As it is, Americans are losing their freedoms, Vidal writes.
Following 9-11, Congress passed and the president signed so-called anti-terrorist legislation that gives the federal government sweeping new police powers.
The perception that the United States is becoming a police state breeds hatred on the home front, too. So, Vidal moves on to the case of our indigenous terrorist, Timothy McVeigh, who was forged in the fires of the Gulf War, where so many of our recent troubles began.
McVeigh, a decorated veteran, became a mass murderer in order to retaliate against what he saw as the federal government's own acts of murder, directed at the Branch Davidians and others.
Vidal maintains that McVeigh's concerns were justified, although his actions were not.
But those who approve of America's current foreign and domestic policies like to wave bin Laden and McVeigh like bloody shirts, implying, and sometimes saying flat out, that to criticize American policies is to take the side of the terrorists. This guilt by association is meant to keep critics silent.
But just because bin Laden is evil doesn't mean that the United States' policies toward the Arab world are justified, nor does McVeigh's evil mean that America should become the police state he feared.
Hopefully, Vidal's little book will prompt more of us to reflect upon our country's role in the world.
It was, after all, no less than George Washington who warned us of the dangers of overseas entanglements.
Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/harris/harris9.html
4/14/02
7:28:57 PM
t r u t h o u t | 04.14
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Arafat Condemns Terror Attacks; Powell Meeting Is On
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Gore Denounces Administration | Full Text
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.14A.Al.Gore.htm
Text of Arafat's Statement on Terrorism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.14B.Arafat.Text.htm
Congresswoman; 9-11 Probe Must Extend to White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13A.Extend.Probe.htm
Hugo Chavez: a Firebrand President
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.14C.Hugo.Chavez.htm
Frank Rich | The Bush Doctrine, R.I.P.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.14E.FR.R.I.P.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
4/14/02
7:26:54 PM
An Open Letter To General Ariel Sharon 'You Won't Break Them'
by Breyten Breytenbach, April 13, 2002 in the Guardian of London
Sir,
You don't know me. There's no reason why you should and little cause for you to listen to what somebody like myself may have to say. Should it interest you, I'm a writer born in South Africa, now living and working abroad. As a writer, I'm deeply apprised of the need to keep words uncluttered of any urge to rouse easy emotions. This is what facile comparisons do - they nullify the understanding of complexity by a rush of outrage, heating the throat and staining the adversary with vicarious condemnation. Apartheid was not nazism, though to say so was a striking slogan. And the policies now perpetrated by Israeli forces on the Palestinian people should not be equated with apartheid. Each one of these processes and systems is evil enough to merit a thorough description of its own historical singularity.
And yet, it is all only too familiar. The underlying assumptions informing your actions are racist. As was the case with the South African regime, the methods by which you hope to subjugate the enemy consist of force and bloodshed and humiliation. Cynically you think you can get away with this as long as you play up to the supposed vital interests of the United States. I don't think you really care a fig for America's interests. Your doppelgänger, Netanyahu, employs this crude propaganda more openly. But you too, by echoing the American president, who describes every "other" as a terrorist, have shown that you take the rest of the world for fools. Surely, not all of us agree that the highest good in the world is America's greed for cheap oil, and that we are hence expected to adhere to the inviolability of corrupt regimes in the region.
It is blatantly averred, again and again, that any criticism of Israel's policies is an expression of anti-semitism. With that assertion the argument is supposed to be closed. Of course, I reject this attempt at censorship by thus disqualifying the grounds for debate. No amount of suffering - be it of the Tutsis, Kurds, Armenians, Vietnamese, Bosnians or Palestinians - can confer immunity from criticism. No reference to some ostensibly sacrosanct Greater Israel can camouflage the fact that your settlements are armed colonies built on land shamelessly stolen from the Palestinians, festering there as shards in their flesh, or snipers' nests, intended to thwart and annul any possibility of Palestinian statehood. There can be no way to peace through the annihilation of the other, just as there is no paradise for the "martyr".
Why should we look the other way when it is Israel committing crimes? A viable state cannot be built on the expulsion of another people who have as much claim to that territory as you have. In the long run, your immoral and short-sighted policies will furthermore weaken Israel's legitimacy as a state. As provocateur, cold-blooded and cruel, you stand out among your peers. In your dogged attempts to subvert previous agreements and scupper the possibility of peace - except for the peace of the graveyard and of exile, premised on the "total transfer" or disappearance of the Palestinian entity - you are bringing turmoil to the region. It remains to be seen whether the growling of your principals in Washington will inflect your campaign of calculated terror and wanton destruction - or whether it is but a smokescreen behind which to better align the "free world's" war on "terrorism" - and for the domination of resources and a global control of markets, cheap oil and "democracy".
I recently visited the occupied territories for the first time. And yes, I'm afraid they can reasonably be described as resembling Bantustans - reminiscent of the ghettoes and controlled camps of misery one knew in South Africa. The few days I spent there left me with strong but conflicting impressions. How inextricably linked your peoples are. The stones everywhere. The topography of names familiar from the Bible. The beautiful light. The attempts to make the place look like Switzerland by planting out-of-place conifers. The inhospitality of the land, except for lush coastal plains. How abysmally sad the villages are. The green lights in the mosques and all the unfinished habitations. The ugliness of the architecture. The inanity of your occupation - all those lit-up detour roads built for the exclusive use of settlers and Israeli citizens. The surly pettiness of your controls at checkpoints, having little to do with security and everything with the primitive urge to humiliate, harass and drive to insane rage an occupied population.
The extreme youth of your soldiers. The ruthlessness with which you destroy the Palestinian economy. The ancient revenge: bulldozing houses, destroying olive groves. The Berlin walls around your settlements in Gaza (and behind them university extensions, research institutes, American-linked hotels, golf courses), and then the rubble of destroyed Palestinian quarters looking now like Ground Zero.
The ebullience of the intellectuals and artists under siege in Ramallah - arguing, laughing at their own plight. How they all say : "We don't want to be heroes, we don't want to be victims, we just want to lead normal lives". Their wry despair. The visit to Yasser Arafat, a holed fox, his waxed yellow hands clinging to the empty clichés of "a peace of the brave" and "the conscience of the international community". And a human rights lawyer claiming : "We are grateful to Sharon for two things: he united all the Palestinian factions and he took away every option except to resist". Later on, the same haunted man, chain-smoking and with the sweat of death already on him, remarked bitterly that repression has penetrated the skin of the people, and that now they have nothing else to defend themselves with except their skins. Hence the human bombs.
You have not broken the spirit of the Palestinian people. They are now more resolute than ever to build a state. They saw the renewed onslaught coming, they knew you were but playing footsie with General Zinni. They also know that, since you have now made them stronger, you must strike harder and deeper, because you are caught in a conundrum of your own making. Like Bush in his crusade against the infidel and the disobedient, you have to accelerate your distension of international public ethics. They know that nothing they can do will appease you, short of turning turtle. They fear you will have to compound this crime against humanity which you are committing at present, that you may indeed break their hopes for a secular, modern and democratic state responsible to its population, and bring forth the devil among them. They also know that this will profoundly divide and weaken Israel.
But you don't care, do you?
This is the pity and the horror.
Breyten Breytenbach was recently part of an International Parliament of Writers' delegation to the occupied Palestinian territories . Breyten Breytenbach was born in 1939 in Bonnievale in the Le Cap province of South Africa. He is a painter, and writes poetry and novels in Afrikaans. He was an indignant opponent of the racial policy of his country and totally rejected the concept of apartheid, as seen in Gangrene, written in 1969. He was imprisoned between 1975 and 1982, and related his experience in poems (A Season in Paradise, written in jail from 1977-1980), in short-stories and in novels (Mouroir: Mirror Notes of a Novel, 1983; End Papers, 1985; Memory of Snow and of Dust, 1987). After living in exile in France for a period he returned to South Africa and published Return to Paradise: An African journal in 1992.
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0413-08.htm
4/14/02
7:22:45 PM
Blocking Humanitarian Aid
A week of protests and attempts to bring humanitarian aid to besieged cities in the West Bank led to violent Arab-Israeli clashes. Jonathan Cook reports from Jerusalem
Israel's Palestinian citizens, enraged by the military assault on their ethnic kin in the occupied territories, risked the first mass confrontations last week with Israeli security forces since the police killed 13 of them at the start of the Intifada, in October 2000.
The clashes occurred at several locations as the Arab minority tried to bring food and medical aid to the "closed military zones" declared around besieged West Bank cities by the Israeli army.
Arab towns and villages in Israel have amassed huge stockpiles of supplies over the last few weeks but have struggled to secure permission to get the aid through.
During protests in support of a convoy of trucks hoping to reach Jenin on Tuesday, two Arabs were wounded when a soldier passing in a civilian car fired live bullets at a small group of demonstrators.
Some 30 Jews from the nearby Magen Sha'ul settlement had set up an informal roadblock several kilometres before the Jalame checkpoint, the entrance to the army's military zone. Watched by Israeli police, the settlers waved Israeli flags and burned tyres and, when the demonstrators tried to pass them, threw stones.
According to eyewitnesses, as the protesters threw stones back, a passing soldier drove over to the settlers and then fired at the crowd. A young woman, Valentina Abu Oksa, and an unidentified young man were injured.
A police spokesman said the soldier had been arrested.
Another group of Jews from the same settlement advanced on the larger group of demonstrators being held with the aid trucks at a police roadblock close to Jalame.
When the settlers grabbed an Arab youth and started to beat him, armed border police on horseback drove the settlers back. They then confronted the demonstrators, who eventually agreed to leave after the army agreed to allow the supplies through.
However, yesterday it was unclear how close the supplies were to Jenin.
A similar confrontation at the normally quiet A-Ram checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, turned ugly when peace activists demanded that an aid convoy be allowed to reach Ramallah. They were met by a wall of heavily armed soldiers supported by armoured vehicles.
As the demonstrators, drawn from the Palestinian minority and radical leftwing Jewish groups, massed at the barriers, organisers tried to negotiate with the army over allowing four supply trucks through to Qalandiya, the checkpoint marking the entrance to the temporary Palestinian capital.
After a standoff lasting two hours, army commanders agreed to let one truck approach. But as the vehicle remained stuck at the barriers, and other demonstrators formed a human chain to pass bags of rice from another truck towards the checkpoint, troops fired a volley of tear gas canisters and stun grenades.
As clouds of gas exploded from all directions, sending the crowd scattering in confusion, soldiers ran at the demonstrators, hitting the nearest with batons.
The injured included women who had been at the front of the demonstration to highlight its peaceful nature. Iris Bar, from Haifa, was one of those who had a cut to the head from the falling canisters. "There were tear gas canisters raining down on us," she said.
A photograph published in the Israeli press confirmed her story that she had also been hit with a baton from behind by a soldier as she tried to run away.
Juliano Merr, 45, an Israeli film star who is half Arab and half Jewish, had a bloody gash over his left eye which he and other witnesses said had been caused when police kicked him as he was held on the ground. He was also one of several protesters saying they had been hit by rubber bullets.
"Five or six policemen were on top of me at once," he said. "There seemed to be no reason for the attack on us. It happened just as everyone thought the truck was going to be let through and was cheering."
Auni Khalil, an Israeli Arab doctor representing Physicians for Human Rights, who had cuts to his arm and leg, said he had been set on by police even though he was wearing a doctor's coat bearing the group's insignia.
About 30 people needed medical treatment.
There were other worrying signs of a backlash against the Arab minority asserting its rights to free speech.
Three demonstrators were arrested at a protest outside the American Embassy in Tel Aviv last Thursday after Palestinian flags were raised in front of the building. Police charged into the crowd with batons, injuring some 25 people, including six who needed treatment at the scene.
Police officials told Israeli television afterwards that officers had acted to prevent the waving of the flags, which they called an illegal act.
It was a worrying development for the Arab minority. The legality of Palestinian flag-waving has been unclear since April 2000 when 13 students were arrested at a demonstration at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. Afterwards the attorney- general ruled that local police commanders had discretion to detain demonstrators who raised the flag if it was likely to promote hostility to Israel.
The decision has yet to be tested in the courts, largely because police have kept away from Arab areas since the clashes of October 2000. But if Arab protesters continue to take their campaigns into Jewish areas, there are likely to be more violent clashes and arrests.
At the weekend, large demonstrations were staged in many Arab towns. In Nazareth 10,000 demonstrators chanted "Sharon is a murderer" as they marched down the main street.
At Umm Al-Fahm, in the central Triangle region, the main Wadi Ara road was closed for an hour by youths throwing stones at cars before police moved in to arrest seven of them. It was an event heavy with symbolism for both sides: the last time the road was shut, at the start of the Intifada, police shot dead three protesters after they were ordered to reopen it.
Police have been taking a particularly harsh line against the Bedouin in the Negev.
Leaders at the town of Rahat were not allowed to deliver to the Palestinians $3,500 in cash and 100 tons of rice, sugar and flour they had collected.
And this week there was a spate of belated arrests following 30 March Land Day demonstration. Five days after a rally near Beersheva, two community leaders, Youssef Al-Atawneh and Abdel-Karim Atika, were detained, accused of expressing support for a terror organisation.
By Tuesday five more demonstrators, including Ibrahim Baransi, the leader of the Arab student union at Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, had been taken into custody. It was unclear whether the organisation referred to in the police indictments was Hizbullah or the Palestinian Authority.
Morad Al-Sana, a Beersheva lawyer for the Adalah Legal Centre for Arab minority rights, said: "We have been warned to expect many more arrests in the next few days."
According to the Web site of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, the police used undercover agents at the Land Day demonstration and filmed the demonstrators. It is the first time the event had been held in the Negev.
Dr Rawda Atallah, head of the Arab Cultural Centre in Nazareth, the parent organisation of the Arab Youth Centre in Rahat run by Atika, said: "A political decision has been taken to victimise the community leaders among the Bedouin to nip their protests in the bud. The Negev has traditionally been quiet and I suspect the authorities have been unnerved by the strength of feeling shown on Land Day and the fact that they can no longer rely on the support of the Bedouin."
Source: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/581/inv42.htm
4/14/02
6:59:11 PM
Check But Not Mate
For Azmi Bishara* , it is too late to turn back the clock
The ferocious, tightly coordinated assault on Palestinian cities in the West Bank was not a spontaneous act geared to satiating popular outrage in Israel over the Netanya suicide bombing. The plan for this assault, which certainly contains alternative scenarios, existed well in advance, as did the political resolve to put it into effect, even if the decision to attack was only taken in a recent emergency cabinet session.
This plan and the decision to act on it were the product of a cumulative process of trial, error and compromise guided by the Sharon compass, which is set to three coordinates: 1) his opposition to the Camp David solutions, 2) US-Israeli relations and their effect on political actions, and 3) preserving the Likud-Labour alliance in the "national unity" government. While the last two factors may have worked to defer the decision and Palestinian suicide operations may have brought it forward, a massive military offensive into the West Bank had been on the Israeli government agenda for some time.
The Israeli military operation launched on 29 March is barbaric, but it is important to consider it within its political context if we are to transcend the emotions being expressed in the streets of Arab capitals, on the Internet through messages voicing the (undoubtedly sincere) desire to become martyrs for the cause, and in the astonishing reaction of some Arab leaders, who are calling upon others to open their borders and allow the would-be martyrs to march on Palestine. To hear such cries, one would be forgiven for imagining that Israel's Arab neighbours are the obstacles to victory because they refuse to let the Arab masses through (of course, the enthusiastic leaders would form the vanguard, with their children and staff following devotedly) so that they can throw themselves in front of Israel's tanks and missiles. How very reminiscent of 1948 and 1967. This clamouring for the impossible is just the other face of impotence -- another way of avoiding what is possible.
The political context we must bear in mind is defined by the Palestinians' rejection of Israeli and US dictates regarding the conditions for a settlement, from the Camp David II formula to the Israeli interpretations of the Mitchell and Tenet proposals. This Palestinian refusal poses an obstacle not only to the stability of state and society in Israel, but also to Washington's plans for the region, and specifically Iraq and the Gulf.
Under the foreign occupation that is reality in Palestine, any rejection of the occupying power's dictates is inevitably a form of confrontation. As against the situation with Syria or other sovereign Arab states, a Palestinian rejection of Israeli stipulations means that the conflict must continue. Neither Arafat nor the PA can control the course or conditions of this confrontation, simply because the Palestinian resistance has no united leadership to formulate and shape its tactics in achieving its political objectives effectively. Indeed, that is putting it mildly; rivalry and antagonism are the factors ruling relations within and between the PA and the opposition.
Palestinian society inside Palestine and in the Diaspora shall continue to refuse Israel's dictates. That stance is a rallying cry; but it must be backed by a resistance strategy that makes the occupation too costly for the Israelis to sustain and, simultaneously, enables the Palestinians to sustain their struggle over the long term. To regulate its means and resources, the resistance must serve a unified political strategy. It must also be well-timed and clearly thought out, even inside the territories occupied in 1967, if it is to avoid drawing the occupying power into a comprehensive "bone- smashing" operation. Resistance movements, by definition, do not work like armies, which mobilise for decisive, face-to-face engagements. On the contrary, resistance movements must seek to survive in order to cause the occupying power greater damage, in the long term, than it can possibly inflict upon the occupied population.
Unfortunately, this discussion has come too late to be of use under the current all-out attack, but perhaps it will serve a purpose in the future. The reoccupation of Palestinian cities will require another united resistance strategy, and therefore the organisational structures capable of promoting the necessary political alternative to Israel's decrees. Structures capable of perpetuating resistance under a unified strategy will ensure that the recent Israeli assault is the last round in the tyranny of occupation and a prelude to ending the battle. It is impossible to return to partial negotiations, because it is clear what the Palestinians will and will not accept and because the recent assault demonstrates that even the most extreme brutality cannot break Palestinian determination to survive.
The plan for defeating the Palestinian national movement, prepared by the Israeli Ministry of Security, divides Palestinian cities into quadrants, each of which is to be combed in search of weapons and to eliminate anyone capable, even potentially, of bearing arms. Many will be imprisoned and others executed, in accordance with arbitrary lists. Intimidation through terror is the purpose of this campaign. Sharon believes blindly that "force works" and "terror can break the will." Hence his campaign to terrorise Palestinian society systematically; an entire generation of young people is one specific target, to be divested of weapons, hope and faith in the value of resistance.
Israel has also targeted organised Palestinian political forces, including PA elements, who share an ability to say no to Israeli and American orders. The Israeli government believes that after it eliminates these forces, the Palestinian negotiators will be able to say yes. This is what Sharon means when he says it will be possible to reach a settlement once terrorism has been uprooted. The Palestinian strategy for resistance should be equally clear.
As Israel's crimes continue to devastate major Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, the besieged compound of the elected Palestinian president is still the main focus of attention. Why did Israel target Arafat as well?
In recent years, he has been the primary obstacle within the PA to the acceptance of Israeli dictates. Those who were unsure of this before Camp David realised it afterwards. Thus, following the collapse of Camp David, Israel zeroed in on Arafat personally, with the press endlessly hinting that those in his "inner circle" were fed up with his perpetual prevarication. Evasion is the weapon of the weak who want to say no, but cannot say it openly without risk of an all-out confrontation. Arafat, however, could not control the Intifada that led to the current confrontation -- a confrontation he did not want and for which he was not prepared.
Israel has isolated Arafat from the outside world to prove his irrelevancy to the negotiating process. This policy aims to drive him out of Palestine and bulldoze the Oslo accords and their results. It is unlikely that the Israelis will succeed here either. The Palestinian president is not about to submit willingly, which means that Israel will have to reassess its premises. This appears to be one of those moments in history when the personal resolve of a leader determines subsequent political developments.
The siege on Arafat is also deliberately intended to humiliate and break the Palestinians, which is why it has triggered such outrage in the Arab world. This is the first time since the conflict between Zionism and the Arabs began that Israel has hand-picked an Arab leader for imprisonment and personal degradation. It is worth noting in this regard that Sharon wanted to expel Arafat, and decided to isolate him in deference to the Labour Party. Now, Israeli politicians are showing less and less concern for his fate; Ran Cohen, one of the warmongering Meretz leaders who take every opportunity to express their loathing for the Palestinian president, said that Arafat's fate is as important to him as "garlic peelings."
The Israeli offensive took place in Zinni's presence, as though he kept visiting the region to monitor the assault and its political consequences. Washington not only gave the green light to the current military operations, it assisted in the propaganda buildup and offered the advice of its security and intelligence services as well. Given the intimacy of US-Israeli relations, the scale of the current offensive and its regional ramifications, it is impossible to assume otherwise.
At the same time, however, Washington, eager to implement its plans for "stability in the Gulf," is keeping close tabs on reactions to the offensive, and is urging Israel to wrap it up as soon as possible. In this regard, grass-roots action in the Arab world is of utmost importance. So too is an official Arab response. Yet for the time being, bilateral communications are the only step Arab governments have been willing to take.
The attack on Palestine is not just a military operation that will pave the way for diplomacy. The Sharon government has declared war, in its fullest sense, on the PA; this war is its endgame. The Palestinians and the Arabs must face this reality and its results. Above all, they should not allow this war to end when Israel decides it should, because that will hand Israel victory on a plate. The Palestinian resistance must continue after Israel has announced the end of its military operation, for Israel's failure resides in the continuation of resistance alone. To this end, the Palestinians must create frameworks for sustaining resistance and political strategy. They must have a cohesive political platform to present to Israel and the international community.
Such a platform should not undermine the Arab initiative adopted in Beirut. Proposals such as this are not like disposable tissues. The Arab initiative put Sharon in a corner and the timing of his assault on the West Bank took into account not only the Netanya suicide bombing and the Easter holidays in Europe and the US, but also the dilemma in which the Arab peace initiative placed him. Israel's predicament, however, will not end when this war does. The Arab initiative will still force it to consider some very crucial questions, especially because Palestinian blood will prevent anyone from accepting conditions they paid so dearly to refuse.
Washington asked the Arabs to adopt the Saudi initiative without committing itself and without asking Israel for a commitment. Washington considered the initiative a "positive step forward," implying that further steps had to be taken. The US already used the tactic of encouraging the Arabs to lower their negotiating ceiling before asking them to make further concessions, in Camp David. The Arabs must insist that the peace initiative represents a minimum demand, not a maximum. They must remind the world that Israeli society, currently mobilised to support savagery, would have accepted this initiative had the Israeli government agreed to it or the Labour Party adopted it as a platform for withdrawal from the coalition. They must also remind the world that the Labour Party, instead, chose to be Sharon's accomplice in a crime initiated by Barak, and which Sharon is driving to its ultimate conclusion.
In response to this crime, the Arab people have poured into the streets to voice their anger. That is a healthy response. Arab societies are seething and through the Palestinian cause they are venting innumerable frustrations. But at the beginning of the Intifada, such outpourings did not translate into concrete political action, largely because Arab opposition parties are just as impotent as Arab governments, and have failed to generate a united democratic force. If the rhetoric of Arab governments is desperate and confused, that of Arab opposition parties is a litany of histrionics and imprecations against Israel just as effective as casting spells. If magic worked, we could have turned Sharon into a monkey long ago, without having to draw a picture and post it on the Web. Casting spells on-line is not very different from laying amulets upon the tombs of holy men.
The media make events, and Arab television audiences seem to be flipping from one channel to the next in search of the highest casualty estimates and the most footage of the appalling events taking place in Palestine. The prevalent attitude is that the highest figures are the most accurate. Should a journalist suggest that there were no casualties at all in the assault on the Preventive Security headquarters, contrary to the claims of one of the satellite networks, then that journalist must be playing up to Israel. However well intentioned, laments and anguish are not helping the inhabitants of Palestinian cities; nor are discussions of human shields and somber references to transfer. The Palestinian rumour machine, in its day, transformed the massacre of Deir Yassin, an atrocity in its own right that needed no exaggeration, into one of Israel's most successful vehicles for driving the Palestinians off their land. There is no need to overstate the extent of Israel's crime. It is quite monstrous enough.
A war is in progress. Wars are won by the party that knows how to rally its forces, has better strategies, can channel its energy to outlast the adversary and address public opinion more persuasively and convincingly. Wars are not won by those who can scream the loudest or by those who can turn on popular sentiment and channel it to their camp.
*The writer is a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship and a member of the Knesset.
Source: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/581/op2.htm
4/14/02
6:39:31 PM
Unlimited Forced Drugging OK'd By Court
AAPS: Unlimited Forced Drugging OK'd By Court Physician Group Calls Ruling 'Shocking & Inhumane'
WASHINGTON, March 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Defendants can be forcibly drugged even though they haven't been convicted of any charges and pose no danger to themselves or others. That's the ruling issued yesterday by the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in the case of United States vs. Charles Thomas Sell. (see http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/02/03/011862P.pdf) The 2-1 split decision establishes government power to forcibly medicate a person with mind-altering drugs even before trial.
"It's a shocking, inhumane decision. Now, all the government needs are allegations and a cooperative psychiatrist to forcibly drug any citizen," said Andrew Schlafly, general counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). That group filed an amicus brief opposing the government drugging.
"It's unprecedented to allow prosecutors to drug peaceful defendants presumed to be innocent. Government cannot force citizens to pledge allegiance to the flag, but now can forcibly medicate them with mind-altering drugs," said Schlafly.
Dr. Sell, a St. Louis dentist, has been imprisoned for more than 4 years, including 1-1/2-half years in solitary confinement after being charged with Medicaid fraud. He has never been brought to trial.
While acknowledging that "the evidence does not support a finding that Sell posed a danger to himself or others" the majority opinion still found that "charges of fraud" alone are "serious" enough to justify forced medication. Further, the Court held that there are no limits on the quantity or type of drugs.
"There's no good reason why Dr. Sell has been held so long without trial, and this decision will most likely prolong his imprisonment with no end in sight," said Schlafly. The dissenting judge pointed out that even if Dr. Sell were to be found guilty, his sentence would be no more than 41 months -- one year less than he's already served.
A similar case is pending before the same court to allow the state to forcibly medicate a convicted murderer for execution.
"It's appalling that the court will drug a man presumed to be innocent, even if it's illegal to do the same thing to a convicted killer," Schlafly said. He said that AAPS will seek to overturn the ruling.
AAPS is a non-partisan, dues-supported professional association of physicians in all practices and specialties, dedicated since 1943 to protecting the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship from third-party interference.
Contact: Kathryn Serkes, 202-333-3855, for AAPS
mailto:kaserkes@worldnet.att.net
or Andrew Schlafly, Esq. mailto:aschlafly@aol.com
For more information on Dr. Sell's case, see
and click on "Court Okays Forced Drugging"
Source: http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/temp/0308-140.html
4/14/02
6:32:50 PM
Dear All,
Please be advised that April 2002 letters have been posted on our website,
http://www.earthactionnetwork.org
One of the most recent features of the site is Tell a Friend About this Site page.
Thanks for your support and for continuing to tell your friends about EAN. And, as always, feel free to contact us (by mail, email, fax or phone) with any feedback and suggestions!
James Shvarts webmaster, Earth Action Network
4/14/02
6:28:04 PM
Treesitter Falls To Her Death In Mt. Hood National Forest
PORTLAND, Oregon, April 13, 2002 (ENS) - A treesitter with the Cascadia Forest Alliance has died in a fall from a tree she was attempting to protect from logging.
Last night, Beth O'Brien, 22, was using a rope to climb to a platform in an old growth tree in the Mt. Hood National Forest when she fell to the ground from 150 feet.
Tim Ream, a volunteer with the Cascadia Forest Alliance, told ENS that O'Brien was still alive when she hit the ground and a cell call was immediately made for help.
Officials took more than two hours to arrive at the scene, Ream explained, because they could not reach the remote location by four wheel drive truck and had to go back and get more help. Volunteers on snowmobiles finally made it to the scene, but they arrived too late to save O'Brien's life.
Treesitters' platform in the Eagle Creek Timber Sale similar to the one O'Brien was trying to reach. (Photos courtesy Cascadia Forest Alliance)
O'Brien had hiked in on showshoes for two hours loaded with supplies for the treesit on the Eagle Creek Timber Sale. Two other people, both men, were on the scene. One was on a platform in the tree and the other on the rope behind O'Brien when she fell. Ream said they told authorities that a safety device was available to O'Brien which she chose not to use.
O'Brien was the kind of person who was, "Dedicated to life, to joy and to the living of life," Ream said.
She was the founder of an organization that fed the homeless in Santa Rosa, where her mother lives. She had been to a number of the tree sits in Oregon and had been on the Eagle Creek Timber Sale treesit on and off for about a year.
Four days before O'Brien's death, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden announced the cancellation of the Eagle Creek timber sales on Mt. Hood National Forest.
The Eagle sales are located in roadless forests of the Clackamas watershed, drinking source for 185,000 residents of West Linn, Lake Oswego and Oregon City and several smaller Portland suburbs.
Most of the logging would have occurred on steep slopes in the "transient snow zone," raising concerns about landslides and water quality. Forests more heavily logged in the Clackamas basin suffered hundreds of landslides during rain-on-snow events in 1996 while unlogged and unroaded areas fared well.
While logging of the Eagle forest generated broad public opposition, blowdown of trees adjacent to previously logged forest also drew the attention of independent scientists. They found that the U.S. Forest Service did not adequately analyze the risk of blowdown that was associated with logging units.
Regna Merritt of the Oregon Natural Resources Council said, "Our roadless forests are our very best sources of clean water and a legacy we must pass on to our children."
Old growth tree in the Eagle Creek timber sale
"Logging proposed for the forest adjacent to the historic Old Baldy Trail and the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness has now been cancelled. Because of its importance as a drinking watershed and a popular hiking destination, the Eagle Creek roadless area is proposed by the Oregon Wilderness Coalition as an addition to the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness Area in the Oregon Wild 2002 wilderness proposal." said Susan Ash, Director of the Oregon Wild Campaign.
The contractor who originally purchased the right to cut the area, Oregon based Vanport Manufacturing Industries, was willing to let the sale be cancelled and has repeatedly stated that the company has no need for a replacement volume of wood.
"They have been supportive of cancelling the timber sale," Ream said. "Even the logging company didn't want the sale to go through."
"This is something that could have been handled years ago if the Forest Service had listened to the public, but they didn't," said Ream, "so now this has dragged on and now a young woman has given her life."
The Cascadia Forest Alliance is holding a memorial candlelight vigil for Beth O'Brien Sunday evening at sunset in Mount Tabor Park in Portland.
Related Links:
Cascadia Forest Alliance:
http://www.spiritone.com/~cfa/
History of Eagle Creek Timber Sale protests at the Oregon Natural Resources Council:
http://www.onrc.org/alerts/082.eagle.html
4/14/02
6:21:02 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
TREESITTER FALLS TO HER DEATH IN MT. HOOD NATIONAL FOREST
PORTLAND, Oregon, April 13, 2002 (ENS) - A treesitter with the Cascadia Forest Alliance has died in a fall from a tree she was attempting to protect from logging.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-13-01.html
ENVIRONMENTALISTS GIVEN 48 HOURS TO COMMENT ON ENERGY PLAN
WASHINGTON, DC, April 12, 2002 (ENS) - A new set of documents released Wednesday by the Department of Energy show that the Bush administration gave 11 conservation groups a mere 48 hours to submit their comments on a national energy policy. An email sent in March shows the agency seeking proposals "that are consistent with the Administration's energy statements to date."
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-12-06.html
DOE COULD SHIP PLUTONIUIM OVER SOUTH CAROLINA OBJECTIONS
COLUMBIA, South Carolina, April 12, 2002 (ENS) - The Department of Energy intends to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium by the end of 2019, through the conversion of the material to a mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) for use in commercial nuclear power reactors. But these plans have hit a snag in the office of South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-12-01.html
G-8 ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT
BANFF, Alberta, April 12, 2002 - Canada's Environment Minister David Anderson welcomed his counterparts from the world's largest industrialized countries to Banff today for the annual meeting of the G8 environment ministers. The ministers are meeting in advance of this year's G-8 heads of government meeting in Alberta in June.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-12-02.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 12, 2002
Nevada Sues Over Yucca Mountain - Again
Invasive Water Species Target of Educational Campaign
U.S. Could Soon Feel Impacts of El Niño
Imported Sheep Had "Mad" Disease
Greenpeace Boards Shipment of Brazilian Mahogany
Central Ohio Added to Clean Cities Program
Hickory Pass Ranch Protected for the Birds
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-12-09.html
4/14/02
6:06:03 PM
Ariel Sharon
Israel's newly elected Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, knows a thing or two about power. The white-haired old warrior had been languishing on the political margins and was widely assumed to be drifting into welcome retirement on his 400-hectare ranch, said to be the largest private agricultural land-holding in the country. But then Benjamin Netanyahu was trounced at the polls by Labour's Ehud Barak in 1999. When Netanyahu resigned, the wily former general was appointed transitional leader of the right-wing Likud Party and quickly saw a chance to make his mark.
The peace talks between Israel and the PLO had stalled and the question of who would control Jerusalem was one of the big stumbling blocks. What better time for the pugnacious brawler to announce a visit to Islam's third-holiest site, the Haram al-Sharif in old Jerusalem? - a site which is also one of Judaism's most sacred spots, the Temple Mount.
The move was deliberate and well orchestrated - and Sharon got exactly what he wanted. Palestinian anger exploded at the deliberate provocation and the intifada was reborn: hundreds died as Arab demonstrators clashed with Israeli soldiers in the months that followed. Then, in the subsequent elections the Israeli electorate, confused and frightened by the Palestinian protests, returned the 72-year-old Sharon to power in a sweeping victory.
For the bellicose Prime Minister this was further proof of his fundamental credo: when in doubt, escalate. Sharon has always been a firm believer in upping the ante. 'In the muddle resulting from an increase in violence, he will always come out the winner,' writes Israeli political scientist Avishai Margalit. He knows 'how to create a situation in which people turn to him because he is self-confident and he knows what he wants'.
The short, husky Sharon has been a presence in Israeli politics since he joined the Haganah, a Jewish self-defence force, at the age of 14. From there he moved to the armed forces, eventually leading an Israeli commando attack on the West Bank village of Qibya, just east of Tel Aviv, in October 1953. Sharon's unit blew up 45 homes and massacred 69 people, more than half of them women and children according to a later UN Security Council report. Undaunted, the plucky Sharon then went for broke in the 1956 Sinai War - ignoring direct orders, he sent his paratroopers into an Egyptian ambush, resulting in the death of 38 Israeli soldiers.
That temporarily derailed his military career until the 1967 Six Day War against Egypt when he engineered a stunning victory in the Sinai and became an instant war hero. After that, as leader of Israel's Southern Command in the early 1970s, he systematically wiped out Palestinian guerrilla cells in the Gaza Strip, bulldozing hundreds of homes in the process. That was followed by further military success in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and then another spate of Arab home-wrecking in the late 1970s. As Minister of Agriculture in the Likud Government from 1977 to 81 the ebullient Sharon zealously promoted Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza, building so many roads to encourage settlers that he was nicknamed the 'bulldozer'.
But the blackest stain on Sharon's record and the one that confirms his status as a war criminal in the eyes of the Arab world and beyond is the mass murder of Palestinian refugees outside Beirut in 1982. As Defence Minister in Menachem Begin's Government Sharon was determined to wipe out the PLO in neighbouring Lebanon. The solution? Provoke a border conflict, then bomb the place and send in troops.
The Israeli army was assisted by the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia which had been armed by Israel since the beginning of Lebanon's civil war in 1975. Israeli soldiers surrounded the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps outside the city. Sharon then personally sent in the Phalange to flush out suspected PLO fighters. A three-day massacre followed in which 2,000 refugees were murdered, including women, children, the elderly and hundreds of men in their twenties and thirties. Sharon would henceforth be known by Arabs and Palestinians as 'the butcher'.
An official Israeli commission of inquiry found the defence minister guilty of 'blunders' and held him and others directly responsible for the slaughter. Sharon was forced to resign his defence brief but continued to serve as a minister in all the Likud governments of the 1980s and 1990s.
IndictSharonNow@aol.com
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/sharon.html
http://www.oneworld.org/ni/issue334/worldbeaters.htm
4/14/02
6:03:33 PM
World finally gets glimpse of refugee camp devastation
The world finally got to see what Israel has done in the Jenin refugee camp yesterday. Piles of rubble where homes once stood. Gaping holes rent in the sides of buildings. Electricity wires torn down and strewn amid the wreckage. Water flooding out of broken mains and running down the broken streets.(...) This is the wreckage where hundreds of terrified civilians were trapped inside their homes as Israeli helicopters poured rockets all around them, ambulances not allowed to treat the wounded as they bled, where Palestinians captured by the Israelis say they were forces to strip in front of their families, where Palestinian fighters armed only with rifles resisted the Israeli attack for nine days.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=284108
Israel buries the bodies, but cannot hide the evidence (13 April)
Israel was trying to bury the evidence in Jenin refugee camp yesterday, but it cannot bury the terrible crime it has committed: a slaughter in which Palestinian civilians were cut down alongside the armed defenders of the camp. Israeli tanks circled journalists menacingly as foreign reporters tried to get into the camp, cutting off their approach. But a man who had just fled the camp said he had seen Israeli soldiers burying the bodies of the dead in a mass grave. "I saw it all with my own eyes," said the man. "I saw people bleeding to death in the streets. I saw a 10-year-old child lying dead. There was a big hole in his side and his arm had been blown away. "I saw them burying the bodies. They started work on the grave a few days ago. I recognised some of the bodies in it. I can give you the names." (...) the Israeli army will have done that to keep the devastating sight of the carnage away from the eyes of the waiting world. Yesterday, though, they were unable to stifle the evil smell. The reek of putrefying bodies wafted out of the narrow, rubble-strewn alleys which were barred for a fifth day to international aid agencies trying to send ambulances and doctors to evacuate the many wounded, and recover the dead. One after another, international officials, angered by Israel's rampant violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the human misery that has resulted, confided to The Independent yesterday that they had reached the inevitable conclusion: a crime has been committed which Israel is trying to cover up. (...) "People who got to the edge of the camp found it incredibly smelly," one UN official said. How much of the camp still stands is unclear; reports say that bulldozers have cut a swath through homes near the entrance - a tactic which the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, used against the refugees of Gaza 30 years ago, when he was an army commander trying to subdue the same forces that have now reared up against him anew. Some accounts say that a third of the camp has been flattened.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=284436
Jenin: 'My mother ran for help. A soldier shot her in the head' (11 April)
Abdullah Washai had to watch his 17-year-old brother, Munir, slowly bleed to death. He took several hours to die. A hole had been ripped in his shoulder by a round from an Israeli helicopter. When the boy's mother, Mariam, ran into the street screaming for help, Mr Washai says, Israeli soldiers shot her dead. These are typical of the claims of those who have managed to escape the carnage of Jenin refugee camp, the scene of the worst fighting of Israel's onslaught in the West Bank. The question that was facing Israel yesterday was: what will happen when the full story of what Israel has wreaked in the Jenin camp is revealed? (...) "The soldiers made four of us walk in front of their tank as it advanced. There were two of my cousins and another man. Then they took us to a house where the soldiers were inside. They put us outside the front door so if anyone shot we would be shot first." Ariel Sharon toured an army base near Jenin refugee camp yesterday. "Our wonderful soldiers have to be able to continue this struggle," he said.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283752
International force must be deployed, says Annan (13 April 2002)
Mr Annan, speaking in Geneva, warned that "the situation is so dangerous and the humanitarian and human rights situation so appalling, the proposition that a force should be sent in ... can no longer be deferred." The killings on both sides were "an affront to the conscience of mankind".
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=284434
ISRAEL, PALESTINE AND JUSTICE
When Israelis and Palestinians demonize each other, it is the people who suffer. Both sides need to accept responsibility and find a non-violent path to a just peace.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12811
Israel arrests thousands as Powell flies in (12 April 2002)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=284110
Witnesses tell how elderly were used as human shields for tank forces
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283026
MANY MORE such articles on the Middle East at
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/
A petition calling for the cancelation of Shimon Peres's Nobel Prize
4669. Anthony Nahas: I hope that the Norwegian Parliament will have the courage to revoke Shimon Peres' Nobel Peace Prize. Rather than stand up heroically and fearlessly AGAINST Sharon and the Israeli government's overseeing of the destruction of Palestinian society and the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians after 35 years of ILLEGAL occupation and oppression, Peres has chosen to acquiesce to Israel's gruesome, and cruel devastation of Palestinian civil society. This is morally repugnant and unacceptable given the spirit and letter of the Nobel Peace Prize. 4646. Fadi Daher: Peres' participation in war crimes is incompatible with the Nobel Peace Prize.
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/semsem/
David Horovitz: This is why the Israelis support Mr Sharon's tactics
(...) Israelis are deeply troubled about the impact on Palestinian civilians of the current military offensive - natural empathy, combined with the realisation that the bitterness this assault is causing will rebound to their detriment. But they feel strongly that at the root of the Intifada is not "the occupation", which Mr Barak tried to end, but an Arafat-engineered, suicide-bomber-backed effort to destroy all of Israel. They believe that Mr Arafat failed to tell his people the truth about what was offered at Camp David, that he used his media to whip them up into a state of despair and hatred.
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=283686
Vatican outrage over church siege [8 April, 2002)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1916000/1916580.stm
4/14/02
5:58:20 PM
t r u t h o u t | 04.13
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Powell Calls Off Arafat Meeting
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Congresswoman; 9-11 Probe Must Extend to White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13A.Extend.Probe.htm
Venezuelan Military Overthrows Government
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13B.Military.htm
Bush Moves to Radically Overhaul Military Top Ranks
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13C.Top.Ranks.htm
Xerox Charged with Enron-Type Accounting Scheme Fraud: to Pay $10M
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13D.Enron.Type.htm
Senate GOP Wins Time on Arctic Drilling Plan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13E.Arctic.Plan.htm
Ashcroft Urged To Drop New Rule On Gun Sales
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13F.Gun.Sales.htm
State Tells how Enron's 'Sham' Raised Prices
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13G.Enron.Sham.htm
Pelosi and 200 House Members Sign Discharge Petition To Force Vote on Health Care for the Unemployed
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13H.Health.Care.htm
Paul Krugman | The White Stuff
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13I.PK.White.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
4/14/02
5:56:48 PM
FAIR
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
ACTION ALERT: Palestinian Deaths Aren't Headline Material at New York Times
April 12, 2002
How many Palestinian lives equal one Israeli life, according to the editors of the New York Times?
The main headline on the front page of the New York Times' April 10 final edition was "At Least 8 Killed In Suicide Bombing On A Bus In Israel." The late edition, which is available to more readers, had "13 Israeli Troops Killed in Ambush; Bus Bomb Kills 10," in the 36-point headline size that the paper reserves for what it considers major events.
Six paragraphs into the story, the paper provided this additional information: "More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin, the Palestinian town that has brought the stiffest resistance to the broad Israeli sweep through the West Bank. Many of the Palestinian dead still lie where they fell."
By its headline choice, the Times suggested that the deaths of 23 Israelis (or eight, in the final edition) are more important than the deaths of 100 Palestinians.
But even those ratios may understate the greater weight that the editors place on Israeli casualties. Beneath the main headline in the late edition were two subheads: "Worst Army Toll" and "A 14th Soldier Is Killed in Separate Attack at a Refugee Camp." The Times might have used one of the subheads to acknowledge the deaths of more than a hundred Palestinians, but evidently noting the death of a single additional Israeli soldier was considered more newsworthy.
One might suggest, in the New York Times' defense, that large numbers of Palestinian deaths have been a constant since Israel's military invasion of the West Bank began on April 1, whereas the deaths on April 9 were the first time since the offensive began that Israelis-- civilians or combatants-- had seen casualties on that scale.
But when were the hundreds of Palestinians killed considered to be major, front-page news by the New York Times? A review of the page A1 headlines used by the Times since the March 29 start of the invasion reveals a striking lack of references to the Palestinians killed in the Israeli operations. Generally the headlines were antiseptic: "Israelis Broaden West Bank Raids as Arabs Protest" (4/2/02); "U.S. Envoy Meets Arafat as Israel Steps Up Its Sweep" (4/6/02).
When an April 5 headline used the word "carnage," it was not a reference to the scores of Palestinians dying in the ongoing Israeli attack, but to a suicide bombing that had killed three (including the bomber) a week earlier.
One April 4 front-page subhead, "Bleeding to Death," did allude to Israeli killing of Palestinians-- under the "balanced" headline, "Arabs' Grief in Bethlehem, Bombers' Gloating in Gaza"-- but this was an exception to the general trend.
There's more to news than front-page headlines, of course, and the Times has done some valuable reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on its inside pages. Front-page headlines are, however, a clear indicator of what a paper's editors consider to be the most important events of the day. In the case of the powerful and prestigious New York Times, these headlines can set news agendas around the world. The Times should not use its front page to send the message that some lives matter more than others.
ACTION: Please tell the New York Times not to suggest through its headline choices that the lives of Palestinians and Israelis should be valued differently.
CONTACT:
New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036-3959
Toll free comment line: 1-888-NYT-NEWS
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone.
Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
Source: http://www.FAIR.org
4/14/02
5:49:44 PM
War Tax Resistance: An Idea Whose Time Has Come . . . Again?
by Michelle Kinnucan
If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. --Henry David Thoreau, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"
Let them march all they want, so long as they continue to pay their taxes. --Attributed to Alexander Haig, US Secretary of State (1981- 1989), commenting on demonstrations by anti-nuclear weapons protestors
The past seven months have been especially trying for Americans who long for justice and peace and find that US government policy often has little to do with either. First came the heinous carnage of September 11th. Then came war--more heinous carnage--in Afghanistan and rumors of war in the Philippines, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Colombia and so on. Then, last December, the US withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. More recently, the Bush administration suggested its intention to end a decade-long nuclear weapons testing moratorium, in part, to develop "mini-nukes" for possible use against non-nuclear enemies. Finally, the smoldering embers of hatred in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel have burst into a (lopsided) conflagration of heart-wrenching death and destruction.
As we honor the lives of all victims of violence; as we contend with a "patriotic correctness" that sometimes seems pervasive; as we confront the political realities of American militarism and its hold on the government and the minds of our brothers and sisters; as we write, protest, and engage in other forms of activism, war tax resisters offer us another tool to work for peace, support justice, channel anger, and challenge hopelessness. They suggest: "If you work for peace, stop paying for war."
According to the War Resisters League (WRL), $776 billion--46% of the total discretionary funding--in the proposed 2003 federal budget is allocated to military spending. The WRL points out, paraphrasing radical pacifist A.J. Muste, "in order to conduct a war or build a military, the government requires two chief resources: soldiers and money. People are drafted through the Selective Service System, and money is drafted through the Internal Revenue Service." Tax resistance in this view is the financial counterpart of conscientious objection to military conscription.
One method of war tax resistance is refusing to pay federal income taxes. Both the WRL and the National War Tax Resisters Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) can provide detailed information for persons contemplating this type of non-violent civil disobedience. The WRL publishes War Tax Resistance: A Guide To Withholding Your Support From The Military, which explains the rationale and long history of war tax resistance along with in-depth information concerning the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to full-blown income tax resistance, activists have developed other lower stakes strategies such as telephone tax resistance and the "1040 Club."
The federal telephone excise tax began with long distance calls under the Spanish War Act of 1898; it was applied to local calls shortly before the US entered World War II. The WRL estimates that in 1972, perhaps one-half million people resisted the US war in Southeast Asia by refusing to pay the federal telephone tax. In 1990, the tax was set permanently at 3%; the IRS administers the funds, which like the income tax revenues are allocated for general expenditures including military spending. According to the Congressional Research Service, from 1980 through 1999, the tax brought in over $57 billion to the US Treasury, including a record $5.2 billion in 1999.
The NWRTCC says telephone tax resistance is "a strong, positive way to protest increasingly militaristic U.S. policies and actions." Resisters deduct the itemized 3% federal excise tax from their telephone payment(s) and include an explanatory note to the phone company with the payment(s). The WRL and NWRTCC both claim that it is unusual and generally illegal for a phone company to discontinue service for non-payment of the federal excise tax.
Earlier this year, Sonoma County Taxes for Peace a local, California affiliate of the NWTRCC launched its One Million Taxpayers for Peace the War campaign. Their goal is to get one million taxpayers to join the "1040 Club" by subtracting $10.40 from any payment due to the IRS when filing their federal income taxes. Taxpayers who are owed a refund by the IRS enclose a note with their return requesting an additional $10.40 from the IRS.
War tax resisters stress that they are different from run-of-the-mill tax evaders because they act for reasons of conscience and do not attempt to conceal their defiance of the law. In fact, advocates encourage resisters to write letters to the IRS, members of Congress, and local newspapers explaining their objections to paying their taxes. Additionally, resisters often redirect unpaid tax money to non-profit groups that provide services more consistent with their philosophy of non-violence or to escrow funds such as the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign Escrow Account or the New York City People's Life Fund.
This April 15th, NWTRCC members and friends will leaflet, parade, show films, and stage "Pentagon Porkbusters Penny Polls" in communities in every section of the country. For more information, you may call the NWTRCC at (800) 269-7464 or the WRL at (800) 975-9688.
Michelle Kinnucan is a freelance writer. Her work has previously been published in PS: Political Science and Politics, Commondreams.org, and The Record.
She may be contacted by email at: mailto:mjkinnuc@juno.com
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0412-01.htm
4/14/02
5:44:26 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
LIES, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE
A picture is worth a thousand words: So reasoned Interior Secretary Gale Norton when she mailed copies of a videotape of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to major television stations and encouraged news producers to use the footage in their coverage of the debate over drilling. (In contrast to videos of the Arctic Refuge produced by conservation organizations, which generally feature wildlife and breathtaking views, the video shows a desolate-looking winterscape.) According to Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Norton committed a major no-no. The video was developed by Arctic Power, a pro-drilling lobbying group, and Markey says Norton illegally used her office -- and by extension taxpayer money -- to distribute propaganda from a special-interest group. An Interior spokesperson denied any wrongdoing on Norton's part. Meanwhile, Republicans bought extra time to prepare for the showdown over the Arctic Refuge when the Senate agreed to postpone introduction of the GOP drilling proposal until next Tuesday.
straight to the source: Anchorage Daily News, Associated Press, H. Josef Hebert, 12 Apr 2002 <http://www.adn.com/business/story/925061p-1025584c.html>
straight to the source: Washington Post, Helen Dewar, 12 Apr 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34555-2002Apr11.html>
do good: Take action to save the Arctic Refuge <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/mining.asp?source=daily#arctic>
A GOOD SEED
Some environmental activists do their best work while sitting in a tree, others while sitting at a desk. As the king of conference calls, Peter Altman falls into the latter category. Altman is the national coordinator of Campaign ExxonMobil and executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition. (All that, and this week's diarist for Grist, too!) Campaign ExxonMobil is a nationwide coalition founded to convince the eponymous company to take a responsible position on global warming, while the SEED Coalition advocates for clean energy in oil-happy Texas. Needless to say, Altman's got his work cut out for him. Check out what he's up to, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Dueling with the Darth Vader of the environment -- a day in the life of Peter Altman, Campaign ExxonMobil <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/altman040802.asp?source=daily>
SUPREMELY BAD JUDGEMENT
The Florida Supreme Court dealt a blow to environmentalists and landowners yesterday by ruling that property owners in the state must continue to foot most of the bill for Everglades restoration, despite overwhelming support for a 1996 amendment to the state constitution that would have made polluters pay instead. The court determined that the amendment, which was approved by two-thirds of state voters as part of a plan to restore the Everglades, was too vague for the state legislature to be able to act on. Environmentalists contend that state lawmakers purposely failed to implement the amendment because they are beholden to the sugar industry, which helped engineer the defeat of a second part of the plan that would have imposed a tax on sugar growers. The ruling means that, under a 1994 law, funds for an $800 million water-treatment system will continue to come from everyday tax-paying property owners.
straight to the source: Miami Herald, Lesley Clark, 12 Apr 2002 <http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/3046311.htm>
do good: Take action to stick up for the Everglades <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/forests.asp?source=daily#everglades>
BOXER TAKES OFF HER GLOVES
Senate Democrats accused the Bush administration yesterday of slowing the pace of toxic waste cleanups under the Superfund program as a favor to industry, which historically has picked up most of the tab for the costly cleanups. A Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee asked Superfund officials to explain why the administration dropped 25 sites from the cleanup list this year and shifted much of the cost from industry to taxpayers. The Bush administration explained the reduced number of cleanups by saying it had chosen to focus on a handful of "megasites," but Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Superfund oversight subcommittee, said, "The most important parts of the program -- the pace of the cleanup and the principle that the polluter must pay -- are now under attack by this administration." The tax on industry that funds the cleanups expired in 1995, and the White House has declined to ask Congress to reinstate it. However, as Superfund coffers run low, administration officials said they might reconsider that position in 2004.
straight to the source: Washington Post, Eric Pianin, 11 Apr 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28927-2002Apr10.html>
do good: Take action to stand up for Superfund <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/toxic.asp?source=daily#superfund>
LOGAN'S HEROES
Here's a stellar example of your tax dollars at work: Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published an Anna Karenina-sized draft study of a proposal by Arch Coal to strip mine 3,100 acres of West Virginia. The strip mine would be the largest ever in the state, and the company has been seeking a permit since 1997. The environmental impact study, a necessary step on the way to approval, provided an exhaustive discussion of the potential economic benefits of the mine to Boone County. Trouble is, the strip mine is planned for Logan County; it even says so on the cover of the study. Oops. The Corps blamed the error on Michael Baker, Jr., the consulting firm it hired, which claimed it could "lawsuit-proof" the study; the Corps also contends that the blooper does not cast doubt on the credibility of the rest of the report. Environmentalists aren't buying it: "Unfortunately, this is the kind of carelessness we've come to expect from the Corps," said Nathan Fetty of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.
straight to the source: Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward, Jr., 11 Apr 2002 <http://www.wvgazette.com/news/News/200204115/>
do good: Take action to reform the Army Corps <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/rivers.asp?source=daily#corps>
4/14/02
5:16:16 PM
Thai Villagers Making The Shift To Solar
Greenpeace helped villagers install solar power on two public buildings of Bo Nok and Ban Krut, in the Prachuap Khiri Khan province of Thailand, to stress that the villagers are doing something about achieving clean, sustainable energy. The installation was a follow-up to last week's action at Edison Mission Energy's headquarters in Irvine, CA, Greenpeace and the people of Prachuap Khiri Khan are opposing unjust dumping of old, dirty energy technology by energy giants onto poorer communities -rather than implementing clean renewable energy that would not destroy the climate or the subsistence of local livelihoods. For the past eight years, communities in the Prachuap Khiri Khan province have opposed plans by Edison and Gulf Power to build two coal-fired power plants in the area. In February 2000, Finnish power company, Fortom, divested from the controversial plans after pressure from Greenpeace.
Check out the Greenpeace report "Edison Out: The Struggle to Stop Coal Fired Power Plants in Bo Nok and Ban Krut, Thailand" at:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/pdfdocs/edison_out.pdf
You can also find out more about the current environmental struggles in Thailand by visiting:
http://www.greenpeacesoutheastasia.org
4/14/02
5:11:24 PM
Latest Solar Technologies
Less Expensive? More Flexible? More Jobs?
After nearly six years in development, company officials from Global Solar Energy, Inc. announced they are close to supplying commercial markets with their high-tech, thin-film lightweight solar devices. Expecting that there will be a strong interest in these solar cells, which are less expensive and more flexible than current commercial solar technology, the company is expected to double its work force in order to reach manufacture productivity that is competitive with today's silicon technology by next year.
A report on Global Solar Energy can be read on:
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/wed/20410GLOBALSOLAR.html
Painting Solar Power onto Electronics?
Chemists in UC, Berkeley have found a way to produce cheap plastic solar cells (using nanotechnology) that are flexible enough to paint onto any surface. Although still early in its development, researchers predict that this technology will be used to provide electricity for wearable and portable electronics. They hope to overcome efficiency limitations faced by other plastic semiconductors by their use of hybrid plastic solar cells that incorporates nanorods with a plastic semiconductor.
Read the report on plastic solar cell technology at:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/item.asp?ch=e4_home&type=News&id=45149
4/14/02
5:06:39 PM
IN THE NAME OF GOD, SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT
The destruction of lives and communities and human dignity now happening in the Middle East besmirches the very Name of God and endangers the peace of the world.
We condemn the deliberate targeting of civilians through suicide bombings.
We condemn the totally foreseeable and inevitable deaths of civilians through the shelling and bombing of their neighborhoods.
We condemn the use of violence to pursue political ends.
Whether these various acts of violence are "morally equivalent" or not means little to the dead, the maimed, and their suffering survivors. What matters is to end this violence.
The Israeli and Palestinian peoples seem unable to do so because they are caught up in the fear and rage that has spiraled out of control. For the sake of human decency and for the sake of the peace of the world as a whole, we call on the United States to act.
The immediate present and the future are intertwined so tightly that action by the United States must address both: On the one hand, the immediate violence cannot be ended without swift motion to achieve a solution in which a secure State of Israel and a viable State of Palestine live side by side in peace. On the other hand, that goal cannot be achieved without ending the present violence. Both hands are necessary.
We therefore call on the United States to take two actions at once, and simultaneously:
1. Bring about the creation of an international force to protect both Israelis and Palestinians from violence.
2. Call a regional peace conference including Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and all the Arab states, and peace- committed religious leaders and leaders of civil society in the region, to take up at once the Saudi proposals for regional peace endorsed by the Beirut Conference and the peace proposals that came close to agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at Taba late in 2000.
The United States should bend every effort to secure agreement on the emergence of a viable Palestine and a secure Israel, based on the 1967 boundaries with adjustments that the two parties mutually agree on, and on commitments to meet the moral and material needs of the region's refugees while preserving Israel's character as an expression of Jewish peoplehood and Palestine's ability to meet the deep needs of the Palestinian people wherever they live.
Today all the holy places in the Middle East are being desecrated by violence, whether they are under direct attack or not. Only in such a settlement can the holiness of those places be affirmed. Today the Image of God in every human being is being desecrated. Only through such a settlement can the greatness of God be affirmed.
In the Name of God Who is compassionate and just, in the Name of God Who suffers in the suffering of human beings, in the Name of God Who demands that we pursue justice through just means and seek peace by actively pursuing it, we call on the United States to act at once.
Rabbi Rebecca Alpert *Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies, Temple University
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak * Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem
Rabbi Lewis Bogage * DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
Rabbi Stephen Booth, Denver, CO
Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein * B'nai Jeshurun, NYC
Cherie Brown Break the Silence
Rabbi Michael M. Cohen Rabbi Emeritus, Israel Congregation, Manchester Center, VT
Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener West Hartford, CT
Rabbi Hillel Cohn San Bernardino, CA
Jeffrey Dekro * The Shefa Fund
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb * Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Cong., Bethesda, MD
Rabbi Amy Eilberg Palo Alto, CA
Rabbi Sue Fendrick
Rabbi Everett Gendler Massachusetts
Rabbi Jonathan H. Gerard * Temple Covenant of Peace, Easton, PA
Rabbi Dan Goldblatt * Beth Chaim Congregation, Danville, CA
Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz * Temple Isaiah, Lafayette, CA
Professor Susannah Heschel * Dartmouth College
Rabbi Margaret Holub * Mendocino Coast Jewish Community
Rabbi Shaya Isenberg, Chair, *Department of Religion, University of Florida
Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs * Kol Tikvah, CA
Rabbi Douglas E. Krantz * Congregation B'nai Yisrael, Armonk, NY
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling Break the Silence
Rabbi Rebecca Lillian Jewish Peace Forum Brit Tzedek V'Shalom
Rabbi Jeffrey Marker * St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, NYC
Rabbi Rolando Matalon *B'nai Jeshurun, NYC
Rabbi David Mivasair (US citizen resident in Vancouver, BC)
Marge Piercy, poet, novelist, memoirist
Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz Cherry Hill, NJ
Rabbi Sid Schwarz Rockville, MD
Mark Seal Break the Silence
Rabbi Gerry Serotta Chevy Chase, MD
Rabbi Judy Shanks * Temple Isaiah, Lafayette, CA
Rabbi David Shneyer * Am Kolel Social Action Committee.
Rabbi Toba Spitzer * Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Newton, MA
Rabbi Brian Walt * Mishkan Shalom, Philadelphia, PA
Rabbi Arthur Waskow Break the Silence
Rabbi Sheila Weinberg * Jewish Community of Amherst
4/14/02
4:49:40 PM
Sea Level Rise Caused By Greenhouse Warming Threatens Marshes In Chesapeake And Delaware Bays
WASHINGTON, April 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, the two largest estuaries on the east coast of the United States, are losing marshland to rising sea levels caused by greenhouse warming. Research by University of Maryland scientists suggests that virtually all coastal marshes along these bays could disappear before 2100, if the sea level continues to rise at present rates or higher rates predicted by climate models.
Loss of these marshes would be devastating, the researchers say, due to its effect on the food chain, water quality, and the amount of carbon that would be released into the oceans and atmosphere. Marshes act as carbon sinks, holding it in solid form, so it does not emerge as carbon dioxide gas. The study, by Prof. Michael S. Kearney and colleagues, is reported in the April 16 issue of Eos, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
Kearney describes a new technique he and his colleagues developed, based on 1993 images from the Thematic Mapper instrument on the Landsat satellite, updated with more recent aerial photography and field surveys. The model measures reflectance from the marsh's soil or sediment layer, its vegetation, and the water, in order to determine its Marsh Surface Condition Index (MSCI), which tracks the overall health of the marsh. A key benefit of the MSCI is that it helps scientists focus on the role of long term sea level rise, without regard to annual variations caused by heavy storms and other transitory phenomena.
In Chesapeake Bay, the greatest degradation of marshes has occurred in the middle portion of its eastern shore at Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. The upper reaches of both Chesapeake and Delaware Bays are less degraded than the middle and lower reaches. This, the researchers say, is due to the smaller amount of river sediment, which helps the upward growth of the marsh, reaching the lower parts of the bays.
In addition, impoundments, which limit stream flows into Delaware Bay from New Jersey, have resulted in greater degradation of marshes on that shore than on the Delaware shore opposite. From 1984 to 1993, the area of degraded marshes in Delaware Bay increased from 25 percent to 54 percent of total marshland, especially on the New Jersey shore. Currently, in both estuaries, about 70 percent of marshland has been affected, according to the researchers.
Kearney notes that the processes affecting Chesapeake and Delaware Bays could also be at work in other parts of the Atlantic coast. Georgia and South Carolina alone have 300,000 hectares (1,000 square miles) of coastal marshes. Widespread disappearance of these marshes during the 21st century could severely affect coastal ecosystems, particularly food sources at the bottom of the chain. In addition, the sediments now held by the marshes would erode into coastal waters, seriously affecting their quality. Part of this sediment consists of long sequestered carbon, and the potential collapse of hundreds of thousands of hectares (thousands of square miles) of coastal marshes in the coming decades could have a significant effect on the overall North American carbon budget, the researchers say.
The study was supported by grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Public Service Electric & Gas, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The article, Michael S. Kearney, Andrew S. Rogers, John R.G. Townshend, Eric Rizzo, David Stutzer, J. Court Stevenson, and Karen Sundborg, "Landsat Imagery Shows Decline of Coastal Marshes in Chesapeake and Delaware Bays," will appear in Eos, Volume 83, number 16, 16 April 2002, page 173.
AScribe - The Public Interest Newswire 510 653.9400
4/14/02
4:44:28 PM
Earth's Recent Warming Trend Is Truly Global, University of Michigan Researchers Conclude
ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- A team of Michigan and Canadian researchers has found that over the past half-century, the rocks of Earth's continental crust have warmed significantly, similar to the warming of the oceans, atmosphere and ice reported by other investigators last year. Showing that the continents have warmed along with the other principal components of Earth's climate system indicates that the warming of our planet has been truly global, the researchers say.
"Our findings remove any last doubt that this is anything other than a global phenomenon," says Henry Pollack, University of Michigan professor of geological sciences, who collaborated on the work with U-M assistant research scientist Shaopeng Huang, U-M graduate student Jason Smerdon, and Hugo Beltrami of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. The researchers report their work in the April 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a leading geology journal.
"Until recently, the story of global warming has been built up primarily on the basis of temperature measurements at the surface of the land and oceans," says Pollack. "These measurements have been painstakingly acquired and put together, and there has been enough information to reconstruct a temperature history for the Earth's surface for the past 140 years. But it's all based on surface measurements." That approach was augmented about a year ago when another group of researchers determined how much heat had been gained during the last half of the 20th century throughout the atmosphere, the depths of the oceans, and the cryosphere (the portion of Earth's surface where water is in solid form such as sea ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps and permafrost). However, their analysis left out one major component of the climate system: continental rock, which covers almost 30 percent of the planet's surface.
Now, Pollack, Beltrami and colleagues have completed the picture by determining how much the continental rock has warmed in recent centuries. The scientists based their analysis on temperature readings taken by lowering sensitive thermometers into holes drilled from Earth's surface into rock formations on six continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia). These readings can reveal how temperatures have changed in the past, because the heat that surface rocks absorb from the atmosphere travels slowly downward into subsurface rocks, leaving a distinct signature in the rocks. Signals from short-term daily or seasonal variations penetrate only a few meters, and Earth quickly "forgets" them, but temperature changes that take place over hundreds of years are preserved in deeper rock.
The researchers' calculations, based on data from 616 bore holes, found evidence of an increase in the heat content of the continents over the past 500 years, with more than half of that heat gain occurring during the 20th century and nearly one-third of it since 1950.
"The magnitude of the warming we estimate is very similar to that which has come from the studies of the ocean, atmosphere and ice," says Pollack. "We believe it makes a persuasive case that the warming has been truly global."
Media Contact: Nancy Ross-Flanigan, U-M News Service, 734 647.1853
AScribe - The Public Interest Newswire 510 653.9400
4/14/02
4:25:59 PM
Coup In Venezuela: An Eyewitness Account
by Gregory Wilpert, April 12, 2002
The orchestration of the coup was impeccable and, in all likelihood, planned a long time ago. Hugo Chavez, the fascist communist dictator of Venezuela could not stand the truth and thus censored the media relentlessly. For his own personal gain and that of his henchmen (and henchwomen, since his cabinet had more women than any previous Venezuelan government's), he drove the country to the brink of economic ruin. In the end he proceeded to murder those who opposed him. So as to reestablish democracy, liberty, justice, and prosperity in Venezuela and so as to avoid more bloodshed, the chamber of commerce, the union federation, the church, the media, and the management of Venezuela's oil company, in short: civil society and the military decided that enough is enough-that Chavez had his chance and that his experiment of a "peaceful democratic Bolivarian revolution" had to come to an immediate end.
This is, of course, the version of events that the officials now in charge and thus also of the media, would like everyone to believe. So what really happened? Of course I don't know, but I'll try to represent the facts as I witnessed them.
First of all, the military is saying that the main reason for the coup is what happened today, April 11. "Civil society," as the opposition here refers to itself, organized a massive demonstration of perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 people to march to the headquarters of Venezuela's oil company, PDVSA, in defense of its fired management. The day leading up to the march all private television stations broadcast advertisements for the demonstration, approximately once every ten minutes. It was a successful march, peaceful, and without government interference of any kind, even though the march illegally blocked the entire freeway, which is Caracas' main artery of transportation, for several hours.
Supposedly at the spur of the moment, the organizers decided to re-route the march to Miraflores, the president's office building, so as to confront the pro-government demonstration, which was called in the last minute. About 5,000 Chavez-supporters had gathered there by the time the anti-government demonstrators got there. In-between the two demonstrations were the city police, under the control of the oppositional mayor of Caracas, and the National Guard, under control of the president. All sides claim that they were there peacefully and did not want to provoke anyone. I got there just when the opposition demonstration and the National Guard began fighting each other. Who started the fight, which involved mostly stones and tear gas, is, as is so often the case in such situations, nearly impossible to tell. A little later, shots were fired into the crowds and I clearly saw that there were three parties involved in the shooting, the city police, Chavez supporters, and snipers from buildings above. Again, who shot first has become a moot and probably impossible to resolve question. At least ten people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in this gun battle-almost all of them demonstrators.
One of the Television stations managed to film one of the three sides in this battle and broadcast the footage over and over again, making it look like the only ones shooting were Chavez supporters from within the demonstration at people beyond the view of the camera. The media over and over again showed the footage of the Chavez supporters and implied that they were shooting at an unarmed crowd. As it turns out, and as will probably never be reported by the media, most of the dead are Chavez supporters. Also, as will probably never be told, the snipers were members of an extreme opposition party, known as Bandera Roja.
These last two facts, crucial as they are, will not be known because they do not fit with the new mythology, which is that Chavez armed and then ordered his supporters to shoot at the opposition demonstration. Perhaps my information is incorrect, but what is certain is that the local media here will never bother to investigate this information. And the international media will probably simply ape what the local media reports (which they are already doing).
Chavez' biggest and perhaps only mistake of the day, which provided the last remaining proof his opposition needed for his anti-democratic credentials, was to order the black-out of the private television stations. They had been broadcasting the confrontations all afternoon and Chavez argued that these broadcasts were exacerbating the situation and should, in the name of public safety, be temporarily shut-down.
Now, all of "civil society," the media, and the military are saying that Chavez has to go because he turned against his own people. Aside from the lie this is, what is conveniently forgotten are all of the achievements of the Chavez administration: a new democratic constitution which broke the power monopoly of the two hopelessly corrupt and discredited main parties and put Venezuela at the forefront in terms of progressive constitutions; introduced fundamental land reform; financed numerous progressive ecological community development projects; cracked-down on corruption; promoted educational reform which schooled over 1 million children for the first time and doubled investment in education; regulated the informal economy so as to reduce the insecurity of the poor; achieved a fairer price for oil through OPEC and which significantly increased government income; internationally campaigned tirelessly against neo-liberalism; reduced official unemployment from 18% to 13%; introduced a large-scale micro-credit program for the poor and for women; reformed the tax system which dramatically reduced tax evasion and increased government revenue; lowered infant mortality from 21% to 17%; tripled literacy courses; modernized the legal system, etc., etc.
Chavez' opposition, which primarily consisted of Venezuela's old guard in the media, the union federation, the business sector, the church, and the traditionally conservative military, never cared about any of these achievements. Instead, they took advantage of their media monopoly to turn public opinion against him and managed to turn his biggest liability, his autocratic and inflammatory style, against him. Progressive civil society had either been silenced or demonized as violent Chavez fanatics.
At this point, it is impossible to know what will happen to Chavez' "Bolivarian Revolution"-whether it will be completely abandoned and whether things will return to Venezuela's 40-year tradition of patronage, corruption, and rentierism for the rich. What one can say without a doubt, is that by abandoning constitutional democracy, no matter how unpopular and supposedly inept the elected president, Venezuela's ruling class and its military show just how politically immature they are and deal a tremendous blow to political culture throughout Latin America, just as the coup against Salvador Allende did in 1973. This coup shows once again that democracy in Latin America is a matter of ruling class preference, not a matter of law.
If the United States and the democratic international community have the courage to practice what they preach, then they should not recognize this new government. Democrats around the world should pressure their governments to deny recognition to Venezuela's new military junta or any president they happen to choose. According to the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), this would mean expelling Venezuela from the OAS, as a U.S. state department official recently threatened to do. Please call the U.S. state department or your foreign ministry and tell them to withdraw their ambassadors from Venezuela.
Source: http://www.ZMag.org
xoxox
An Imminent Coup In Venezuela?
by Gregory Wilpert, April 10, 2002
It appears that the strategy of President Chavez' opposition is to create as much chaos and disorder in Venezuela as possible, so that Chavez is left with no other choice than to call a state of emergency. This, in turn could either lead to a military coup or U.S. military intervention.
Given that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere; it is distinctly possible that the U.S. government is going to intervene overtly, if it is not already doing so covertly. This means that the current crisis in Venezuela is probably a planned conspiracy to topple the Chavez government with the support of the U.S.
As I write this, on April 9, Venezuela's largest union federation, the Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CTV) has called for a two-day general strike. Venezuela's chamber of commerce, FEDECAMERAS, has joined the strike and called on all of its affiliated businesses to close for 48 hours.
This was the second time in four months that the two federations, of labor unions and of business owners, decided to join forces and strike against the leftist government of President Hugo Chavez. What is happening in Venezuela? Why are these and many other forces uniting against Chavez?
Chavez took power in late 1998 in a landslide electoral victory, calling for a "Bolivarian Revolution," in reference to Latin America's hero of independence and Venezuela's favorite son, Simon Bolivar. Since then, Chavez has tried to root out the entrenched powers of Venezuelan society, represented by a political and economic elite, which had governed Venezuela for over 40 years in a pseudo-democratic form by alternating power between two entrenched political parties.
Chavez first reformed Venezuela's constitution, through a constitutional assembly and a referendum, making it one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. The old elite were nearly completely driven from political power in the course of seven elections, which took place between 1998 and 2000. However, the old elite of the labor unions, the business sector, the church, and the media are still in power and have recently begun making life as difficult as possible for Chavez.
Although Chavez originally had popularity a rating of around 80%, his popularity has steadily declined in the past year, supposedly reaching the low 30's now. Whether the reason for this decline was the slow pace of his promised reforms, the lack of significant progress in reducing corruption and poverty, or if it was because of the incessant media assault on his government, is not clear - most likely it is because of a combination of these factors.
The conflict between Chavez and the old elite has recently come to a head. First, when Chavez passed a slew of 49 laws, which, among many other measures, were supposed to increase the government's oil income and redistribute land. The chamber of commerce vehemently opposed these laws and decided to call for a general business strike on December 10.
Venezuela's labor union federation, the CTV, decided to join the strike, supposedly out of concern for the harm the laws did to the business sector and thus to employment in Venezuela.
More likely, though, the CTV's support of a general strike was in retaliation for Chavez having forced the unions to carry out new elections of the CTV's leadership and for not recognizing its leadership, due to charges of fraud, when the old guard union leadership declared itself the winner of the election and refused to submit the official results and ballots to the government.
The second major issue, which has resulted in a serious challenge to Chavez, occurred when Chavez appointed five new members loyal to him to the board of directors of the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, the largest oil company in the world and the third largest supplier of oil to the U.S.
Also, he appointed a prominent leftist economist and long-time critic of PDVSA as its president. The management of PDVSA cried out in protest, arguing that the appointments were purely political and not based on merit and thus threatened to undermine the company's independence and its meritocracy.
Chavez has since countered that board members and president have always been political appointments and that the state needed to regain control over PDVSA because it has become increasingly inefficient, a state within a state, whose top management is living a life of extreme luxury.
Furthermore, and less explicitly, Chavez wants to assure that PDVSA adheres to OPEC's production quotas, so that the oil price remains at a stable and profitable level. PDVSA, however, has a history of undermining OPEC quotas because its management places a higher premium on market share than on a good oil price.
Following a two weeks of protest and of labor slowdowns within PDVSA, mostly on the part of management, the labor federation leadership of the CTV, who all belong to the discredited old elite, decided to join the conflict in support of PDVSA's management, arguing that it was acting in solidarity with PDVSA workers in its call for a day-long general strike.
The chamber of commerce rapidly followed suit, seeing this as another opportunity to humiliate and perhaps topple Chavez, and supported the strike as well. Considering the first day a complete success, the CTV and the chamber of commerce have decided to extend the general strike another 24 hours. However, as PROVEA, Venezuela's human rights agency has noted, even though Venezuela's constitution guarantees the right to strike, the strike is completely illegal because it bypassed the legal requirements for democratic legitimation of such a strike.
Given that a large majority of private businesses are members of the chamber of commerce and oppose Chavez, the strike has appeared to be quite successful. Whether workers actually believe in the strike and intentionally stay away from work in protest to the government, is almost impossible to tell, since most businesses were closed by management.
Many businesses were open and most of the informal sector was actively selling its wares on the streets as usual. Of course, all government offices and all banks, whose hours are regulated by the government, were open. Together, these sectors account for about 40% of Venezuela's workforce.
The conflict in Venezuela has come to take on epic proportions, if one listens to the rhetoric of the two sides of the conflict. Both sides make extensive use of hyperbole, alternately calling the strike either a complete and total failure or a complete and total success.
Other examples of how passionate and heated the debates have become are reflected in the opposition's repeated references to Chavez as a "totalitarian fascist dictator" who wants to "cubanize" Venezuela. Chavez and his supporters, for their part, refer to the opposition as a squalid ("escualido") corrupt oligarchy.
Both sets of labels are caricatures of the truth. Certainly, Venezuela's oligarchical elite opposes Chavez, but the opposition to Chavez has become quite strong and has grown far beyond the oligarchy, to include many of his former friends and supporters. On the other hand, even though Chavez uses a lot of inflammatory rhetoric, the opposition has yet to find a single instance in which he has violated Venezuela's very democratic constitution in any way.
Chavez' greatest failure, from a progressive point of view, probably lies in his relatively autocratic style, which is why many of his former supporters have become alienated from his government. Whenever someone opposed his policies he has tended to reject them and cast them out of his government circle.
The result has been a consistent loss of a relatively broad political spectrum of government leadership and a significant turn-over in his cabinet, making stable and consistent policy implementation quite difficult.
This loss of broad-based support has made itself felt particularly strongly during the recent crises, making Chavez look more isolated than he might otherwise be. Other than his party supporters, who are quite significant in number and come mostly from the poor "barrios," the progressive sectors of civil society have been neglected by Chavez and have thus not been active. Instead, the conservative sectors of civil society, such as the chamber of commerce and the old guard union leadership are among the main mobilizers of civil society.
Still, Chavez' policies have been almost without exception progressive in that they have supported land redistribution for poor farmers, title to the self-built homes of the barrios, steady increases in the minimum wage and of public sector salaries, and the enrollment of over 1 million students in school who were previously excluded, to name just a few accomplishments.
In terms of international issues, Chavez has been on the forefront in working for greater intra-Third World solidarity, in opposing neo-liberalism, and in supporting Cuba.
Figuring out what this epic conflict is about has been somewhat difficult for an outsider. Passions are so inflamed that it is practically impossible to find calm and reasoned analyses about what is going on. Are the chamber of commerce, the labor federation leadership, the upper class, and significant sectors of the middle class really primarily concerned about the "politicization" of PDVSA and the appointment of a pro-government board of directors?
Perhaps. But does opposition to these appointments justify a general strike? Definitely not. More likely these sectors are concerned that politicization of PDVSA means a loss of access to Venezuela's cash-cow: oil. Not only that, the most common complaints one hears about Chavez have more to do with his style than with any concrete policies he has implemented. There often is a racist undertone to such complaints, implying that Chavez, because of his folksy and populist style and his Indio appearance, is sub-human, a "negro."
It does not help that almost all of the media, except the one government-run TV network, out of about five major TV networks, and one out of approximately ten major newspapers is completely opposed to Chavez.
The media regularly cover nearly every single opposition pronouncement and rarely cover government declarations. Chavez, out of frustration with the media has relentlessly attacked the media for belonging to the old guard oligarchy and for printing nothing but lies, occasionally threatening them with legal action for slander.
The media has, of course, responded in kind, by accusing Chavez of intimidating journalists with his pronouncements and of sending gangs to threaten journalists with physical violence. The media has tried to embarrass Chavez internationally by taking its case to the Organization of American States and to the U.S., which have responded favorably to their complaints and have criticized Chavez for his supposed lack of respect for human rights.
The other thing Chavez has done to combat the media is to exploit a law which permits the government to take over all of the airwaves for important government announcements. All TV and radio stations are required to broadcast these announcements.
During the general strike Chavez decided to go all-out and interrupted all TV and radio broadcasts numerous times during the strike. The government's use of the airwaves has now provided additional ammunition to the opposition and constituted an important factor in their deciding to extend the strike from one day to two.
Chavez' greatest error has been his truly fundamental neglect for cultivating a culture which would support his "Bolivarian Revolution," one which progressive sectors of civil society would support and promote amongst the population and internationally, even against a strongly oppositional media.
Despite this grave fault of his presidency, Chavez continues to deserve the support of progressives because the only alternative that has presented itself until now is a return to the status quo ante, where the upper class, together with selected sectors of the labor movement and the government bureaucracy share Venezuela's oil pie amongst themselves, leaving the poor, who constitute three quarters of Venezuela's population, to fend for themselves.
Currently, however, the most immediate and most likely alternative to Chavez is either a military coup or U.S. intervention, since Chavez definitely won't resign and since he is legally in office at least until the 2004, when a recall vote can be called. This means that progressives around the world should act in solidarity with Chavez' government and support him, if another Chile-style coup is to be avoided.
Gregory Wilpert lives in Caracas, is a former U.S. Fulbright scholar in Venezuela, and is currently doing independent research on the sociology of development.
Source: http://www.ZMag.org
4/14/02
4:09:58 PM
Greenpeace USA April 2002 Newsletter:
What's new and noteworthy at www.greenpeaceusa.org
New Flash Movie: Conserving Energy for a Secure Future
Get Edison's Dirty Coal Out of Thailand
Deadline April 15th, Greenpeace Campaigner Program
Online Store Open for Business
Conserving Energy to Secure our Future
Can you believe our government actually used to send out propaganda about the importance of energy conservation?
How times have changed!
Check out a new flash movie comparing then and now.
http://www.greenribbonpledge.org/gp_flash.html
Get Edison's Dirty Coal Out of Thailand!
In protest of Edison's plans to build a coal-fired power plant along the coast of Bo Nok, Thailand, activists from Greenpeace gathered at Edison Mission Energy headquarters, dumped coal inside the main offices, and locked down outside.
The struggle over the proposed power plant is one of the most controversial political issues in Thailand. For the past eight years, the local villagers of Bo Nok have held a stream of protests to convince Edison to pull out of the project, but to no avail.
View photos and video of the protest, find out more about Edison's dirty energy practices, and take action online.
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/
Greenpeace Campaigner: Be a Part of the Next Wave Deadline April 15th!
You can be part of one of the most innovative ways Greenpeace is now fighting to save our planet - the Campaigner Program.
The Campaigner Program is an intensive 18 month, Greenpeace campaign training program rooted in the history, mission and vision of Greenpeace to nonviolent direct action.
Find out more and apply online at:
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/inside/jobs/gpapplication_intro.htm
Online Store Open for Business
Wondering how to get your hands on Greenpeace T-shirts, hats or bags? Visit our newly-opened online store.
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/store/
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace Member today!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join
4/13/02
6:38:21 PM
World Bank To West Bank
The movement written off after September 11 is demonstrating its worth in Palestine
George Monbiot Tuesday, The Guardian, April 9, 2002
Two sets of human shields are in use in the West Bank. The first is less than willing. The Israeli army, like some of the terrorist groups it has fought, has been taking hostages. Its soldiers have been propelling Palestinian civilians through the doors of suspect buildings, so that the gunmen they might harbour have to kill them first if they want to fight back.
The second set of human shields has deliberately placed itself in the line of fire. Since the army's offensive in the West Bank began, hundreds of Israeli peace campaigners and foreign activists have been seeking to put themselves in its way. At great personal risk, members of the International Solidarity Movement have sought to protect civilians by making hostages of themselves. It is a display of extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice. It is also the latest incarnation of a movement which just months ago was left for dead.
The movement to which many of the peace activists risking their lives in Ramallah and Bethlehem belong has no name. Some people have called it an anti-globalisation or anti-corporate or anti-capitalist campaign. Others prefer to emphasise its positive agenda, calling it a democracy or internationalist movement. But, because they have always put practice first and theory second, its members have proved impossible to categorise. Whenever it appears to have assumed an identity outsiders believe they can grasp, it morphs into something else. It is driven by a new, responsive politics, informed not by ideology but by need.
After September 11, this nameless thing appeared to vanish as swiftly as it had emerged. The huge demonstrations planned for the end of September against the World Bank and IMF in Washington became a small and rather timorous march for peace. Most US activists, cowed by the new McCarthyism which has dominated American discourse since the attack on New York, kept their heads down. Commentators dismissed the movement as a passing fad which had rippled through the world's youth, as widespread and as insubstantial as Diet Coke or the Nike swoosh.
But those who dismissed it had failed to grasp either the seriousness of its intent or the breadth of its support. The television cameras always focused on a few hundred young men dressed in black and running riot, intercut occasionally with the wider carnival of protest. But they seldom permitted its participants to explain the sense of purpose which propelled them. So most outsiders failed to see that the commitment of many of the people involved in these protests is non-negotiable. The movement is no more likely to go away than the governments and corporations it confronts. Its survival is assured by its ability to become whatever it needs to be.
Last month 250,000 protesters travelled to Barcelona to contest the assault on employment laws and the public sector being led by Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi and Jose Maria Aznar. This month some of them moved to Palestine. Among those in the British contingent are people who have helped to run campaigns against corporate power, genetic engineering and climate change. They were joined this week by members of the Italian organisation Ya Basta, which helped to coordinate the protests in Genoa. For the movement which came of age in Seattle, the World Bank and the West Bank belong to the same political territory.
If the protesters simply shifted as a mob from one location to another, their efforts would be worse than useless. But one of the key lessons this rapidly maturing movement has learned is that protest is effective only if it builds on the efforts of specialists. Like most of the Earth's people, the foreigners on the West Bank became visible when they began to bleed (five British campaigners were injured last week by the Israeli army's illegal fragmentation bullets), but some outsiders have been working there for decades. New arrivals join long-established networks and do what they are told. Among the bullets and the bulldozers, the movement is discovering a courage long suspected but seldom tried.
Protesters have moved into the homes of people threatened with bombardment by the Israeli army, ensuring that the soldiers cannot attack Palestinians without attacking foreigners too. They have been sitting in the ambulances taking sick or injured people to hospital, in the hope of speeding their passage through Israeli checkpoints and preventing the soldiers from beating up the occupants. They have been trying to run convoys of food and medicine into neighbourhoods deprived of supplies; and seeking to encourage both sides to lay down their arms in favour of non-violent solutions. They are becoming, in other words, a sort of grassroots United Nations, trying with their puny resources to keep the promises their governments have broken.
Perhaps most importantly, the peace campaigners are the only foreign witnesses in some places to the atrocities being committed. Using alternative news networks such as Indymedia and Allsorts, they have been able to draw attention to events most journalists have missed.
They have seen how Palestinians, told by the Israeli army that the curfew had been lifted, have been either shot dead when they stepped outside or seized and used as human shields. They have witnessed the sacking of homes and the deliberate destruction of people's food supplies. They have seen ambulances and aid trucks being stopped and crushed. On March 28 one peace protester watched Israeli soldiers in jeeps hunting women and children who were fleeing across the fields on the outskirts of Ramallah, trying to shoot them down in cold blood. And, by becoming the story themselves, as they are beaten and shot, the foreigners have brought it home to people who were dismissive of the murder and maiming of indigenous civilians.
The movement's arrival on the West Bank is an organic development of its activities elsewhere. For years it has been contesting the destructive foreign policies of the world's most powerful governments, and the corresponding failures of the multilateral institutions to contain them. Rather than echo the thunderous but effete demand of commentators on both sides of the Atlantic that Yasser Arafat (a man currently unable to use a flushing toilet) should stamp out the terror in the Middle East, the campaigners are, as ever, addressing those who wield real power: Israel and the governments who supply the money and weaponry which permit it to occupy the West Bank. The movement has always been a pragmatic one, as ready to protest against Burma's treatment of its tribal people or China's dispossession of the Tibetans as the IMF's handling of Argentina. In Palestine, as elsewhere, it is seeking to place itself between power and those whom power afflicts.
Everyone else is demanding that somebody should do something about the conflict in the Middle East. The peace campaigners are doing it.
Special reports
Globalisation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/0,7368,408592,00.html
GM food debate: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/0,2759,178400,00.html
Debt relief: http://www.guardian.co.uk/debt/0,2759,178197,00.html
Useful links
Critical Mass: http://www.critical-mass.org/
Indymedia: http://www.indymedia.org/
Oneworld: http://www.oneworld.net/
Abolish the Bank: http://www.abolishthebank.org/wef2002.html
4/13/02
6:36:30 PM
The Cost To You? Eventually, Everything!
From: http://www.bbcoa.com/articles/debt_money.shtml
The Real Story of the Money-Control Over America
In 1910 the U.S. Federal debt was only $1 billion, or $12.40 per citizen. State and local debts were practically non-existent.
By 1920, after only 6 years of Federal Reserve shenanigans, the Federal debt had jumped to $24 billion, or $228 per person.
In 1960 the Federal debt reached $284 billion, or $1,575 per citizen and State and local debts were mushrooming.
By 1981 the Federal debt passed $1 trillion and was growing exponentially as the Banker's tripled the interest rates. State and local debts are now MORE than the Federal, and with business and personal debts totalled over $6 trillion, 3 times the value of all land and buildings in America.
lf we signed over to the money-lenders all of America we would still owe them 2 more Americas (plus their usury, of course!)
However, they are too cunning to take title to everything. They will instead leave you with some "illusion of ownership" so you and your children will continue to work and pay the Bankers more of your earnings in ever-increasiag debts. The "establishment" has captured our people with their ungodly system of usury and debt as certainly as if they had marched in with a uniformed army.
CONSIDERABLY LOTS MORE ON THIS AT
http://www.bbcoa.com/articles/debt_money.shtml
4/13/02
6:34:21 PM
From Rainforest Action
Momentum Builds in Citi Campaign
Citigroup shareholders call for board to preserve old growth forests and address climate change.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently rejected a request by Citigroup (Citi) to omit from its proxy statement a shareholders resolution proposing that Citigroup's Board of Directors issue a report that reflects its economic and environmental commitment to confronting climate change. This is the first time shareholders of a financial company have filed a resolution addressing climate change.
The resolution expresses shareholders' concern that Citigroup's (Citi) continued funding of environmentally and socially destructive fossil fuel projects around the world poses a risk to the company's business and reputation. Citigroup has come under increasingly intense criticism for failing to join European Bank ABN/AMRO in instituting a policy that prohibits investments that degrade primary forests.
Citi is currently one of the world's top funders of fossil fuel and logging industries, both of which play central roles in the global warming crisis. According to Bloomberg Analytics, Citi's loans and corporate bond underwriting secured its position as the number one financier of both the coal industry and the fossil fuel industry in the year 2001. Citi's investments in fossil fuels require financial relationships in politically unstable and biodiverse forest regions including Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chad and Indonesia. Fearing loss of their lives and livelihoods, local and indigenous groups are resisting many of the projects, such as the Camisea Gas Project in Peru and the Chad-Cameroon pipeline. Specifically, the resolution requests that the report include: A publicly available audit of the carbon liability of Citi's projects.
A feasibility study and timeline for replacing projects that endanger ecosystems and negatively impact resident indigenous people with projects that advance renewable energy and sustainable development. An itemization of the replacement projects
In its request to the SEC, Citi claims that the proposal should be omitted based on Rule 14a-8(I)(7) - that it falls within the description of ordinary business and, "aims to micro-manage" the financial giant's risk evaluation process. Citi maintains that the proposal allows shareholders to probe too deeply into complex matters about which they are not in a position to make an informed judgement.
Citi has recommended the board reject the proposal, claiming that the process would be burdensome and would add little benefit to existing practices. According to Citi a carbon audit would be complex and prohibitively expensive. Citi also denies that it has the power to stop or replace environmentally and socially destructive projects it funds.
European banks have already begun to put policies in place to address the global warming crisis. Dutch bank ABN/AMRO instituted a policy last October that prohibits the financing of extractive industries and projects that clear or degrade old growth forests. This is a major first step toward shifting the world's financial sector toward ecological sustainability. The policy addresses all industries that clear or degrade old growth forests, helping to prevent large-scale forest fires and the devastation of local communities. Citi is the target of an ongoing international campaign to transform the funding practices of the corporate financial system. Through lending, underwriting, mutual funds and funding government polities, Citi profits from projects that destroy fragile ecosystems, violate human rights and displace communities.
The campaign is calling on Citi to join Europe's top banks in instituting policies that protect the world's remaining old growth forests. The campaign has included hundreds of demonstrations, a boycott of Citibank credit cards and non-violent direct actions.
Global warming is one of the most significant environmental problems facing the planet. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations panel of 2,000 of the world's top climate scientists, agree that human activities are changing the climate. In 1998 alone, the hottest year in the last 1,200 years, "extreme weather" events killed an estimated 32,000 people, displaced 300 million people, and caused $89 billion in damages.
The world's forests, which act as giant reservoirs of carbon, are the planet's only natural line of defense against global warming. Only 22 percent of the Earth's original great forests remain intact. These old growth forests are home to over 50 percent of the planet's plant and animal species and three-quarters of the world's traditional indigenous peoples. As the world's forests are destroyed, vast amounts of carbon are released into the air and the planet's ability to absorb carbon disappears.
Send an email through our action center at the link below.
http://action.ran.org/action_center.jsp
If you are a Citi stockholder, write your fund manager or send us your proxy.
Contact Michael Brune <mbrune@ran.org> or
Ilyse Hogue <ihogue@ran.org> or
call 415-398-4404.
4/13/02
6:31:49 PM
Writer Deplores Scary Science
by Mia Stainsby,Calgary Herald, March 28, 2002
"It could have ended all plant life on this continent," geneticist David Suzuki says in the book. "The implications of this case are nothing short of terrifying."
A few years ago, a German biotech company genetically modified a common soil bacterium, Klebsiella planticula, to enable it to break down vegetative waste and produce ethanol.
It seemed like a huge accomplishment -- ethanol could be used as a gasoline alternative and the rest of the biomass as compost for farming. Hopes were high and it was field-tested at Oregon State University.
When the genetically modified bacterium was added to living soil, though, the seeds planted in the soil (to produce the vegetable matter to be broken down) sprouted, but then died. The genetically modified Klebsiella was a feisty little guy, knocking out a fungus that plants need to extract nutrients from the soil. Without it, plants can't survive.
More frightening, the genetically modified bacteria persisted in the soil. Had it been released, it could have become virtually impossible to eradicate, says author John Robbins in his newest book, The Food Revolution (Conari Press, $28.95). "It could have ended all plant life on this continent," geneticist David Suzuki says in the book. "The implications of this case are nothing short of terrifying."
"That's how close we came," Robbins says during a phone interview from his home in Santa Cruz, Calif. To him, genetic engineering in the food industry spells potential disaster to our health and environment.
His first book, Diet for a New America, made us aware of animal cruelty in factory farm and awakened us to the environmental and health impacts of eating meat and dairy products.
The Food Revolution addresses his concerns about food production. He writes about the problems of fish farming, declining wild fisheries, and the political, corporate, health and environmental intrigues of large-scale meat production in North America.
But his biggest worry is genetically modified food and its potential to alter our food supply and health.
"It's utterly in the hands of corporations seeking private profit," he says.
Globally, about 40 million hectares are planted with genetically modified crops: 72 per cent in the U.S.; 17 per cent in Argentina; 10 per cent in Canada.
"Basically, the rest of the world is saying they don't want to be guinea pigs. They're actively, specifically, directly, rejecting it." says Robbins.
According to Health Canada, 48 GM crops so far have been approved in Canada. One-third of the corn and two-thirds of the soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically modified.
Seventy per cent of modifications involve the Bacillus thuringiensis gene (Bt), which is spliced into the plant so it can withstand specific herbicides and resist insects.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture tripled the allowable residues of active ingredients in the herbicide Roundup to make the GM technique commercially viable with soy crops, says Robbins. It allows farmers to kill weeds with Roundup without killing the Roundup-resistant crop. "But people are eating weedkiller," he says.
The Vancouver office of Earthsave Canada says it's difficult to pin down how many GM foods end up on supermarket shelves. "Soy, canola and corn are widely genetically modified," says spokesman Dom Repta.
Robbins says Monsanto, which produces Roundup, has done tests that prove Roundup Ready soybeans have lower nutritional values.
Another problem is Monsanto's "terminator technology," in which seeds are rendered sterile after one planting. Eighty per cent of crops in developing countries use saved seeds, but with this technology, seeds must be purchased each year.
Robbins says another company has patented a genetic process that makes seed germination and growth dependent upon repeated doses of the company's own chemicals.
Experiments in the biotech food industry have included inserting flounder genes into tomatoes, human genes into salmon, and rat and bacteria genes into broccoli. Labs around the world are researching splicing genes into fish from chickens, humans, cattle and rats.
When genes shuttle between a wide variety of species, they can take with them genetic parasites such as viruses, usually kept in check by species barriers, Robbins says.
Many countries are saying no to GM foods. Europe, Robbins says, has been leading the charge in rejecting GM foods and embracing organic farming. By 2010, a third of farmed area in the European Union will be organic. Canada is lagging behind with 1.3 per cent (1999). The U.S. has 0.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, Brazil's largest soybean-growing state declared itself a GM-free zone. India has banned the testing of GM crops. The governments of France, Italy, Denmark, Greece and Luxembourg have moved to block new varieties of GM crops in the European Union. The union's seven largest grocery chains have made a public commitment to go GM-free.
Unlike Canada and the U.S., the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Mexico require mandatory labelling of GM foods. In October, a required mandatory labelling bill was defeated 126 to 91 in Canada.
"To me," says Robbins, "the measure of a great civilization is the quality of lives it leaves to future generations."
4/13/02
6:23:23 PM
Special Message From Pierce Brosnan To Help Save The Whales
Dear IFAW Supporter,
I am urgently trying to reach as many concerned people as I can to seek your help in the campaign to save the great whales. Over the past several weeks, government officials in two countries have announced plans to hunt endangered whales and reopen the banned trade in whale meat.
I need your help to stop this madness before it's too late. Please forward this message to as many friends and contacts as you can. Then go to www.ifaw.org/actionforwhales to learn what else you can do to help.
Three decades ago, horrific images of industrial whaling operations first inspired a global movement to protect these magnificent creatures. Men and women of conscience across the planet joined together to end this cruel and outmoded practice and rescue threatened whale species from the brink of extinction. This global grass-roots effort achieved an important victory when, in 1986, a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect.
Since that time, millions of people around the world -- from schoolchildren to senior citizens -- have come to learn more about our neighbors from the deep. We've learned that whales are intelligent animals with close-knit family groups, that many are highly migratory, regularly traversing the depth and breadth of our ocean planet, that whales are social creatures, communicating across great distances with unique songs, clicks and calls, and that new threats such as pollution, ship strikes, entanglement in fishing nets, acoustic disturbance and loss of vital ocean habitat threaten their very survival.
Incredibly, at the dawn of the 21st century, government bureaucrats in two countries, Japan and Norway, want to return to full-scale commercial whaling. They are finalizing plans to kill more than 1,200 whales this year. Norway, which has long objected to the IWC moratorium, will kill more than 600 minke whales in the North Atlantic. Japan, which uses a scientific loophole to claim its whaling is for scientific research, will this year kill hundreds of endangered Pacific minke, sei, Bryde's and sperm whales. Once they are butchered and boxed up for shipment, these whales will make their way to market where choice cuts will be sold as delicacies.
How can you help? Go to http://www.ifaw.org/actionforwhales
Unfortunately a minority of government officials in Japan tries to cast the whaling issue in nationalist terms, claiming that those who would protect the whales are somehow "anti-Japan." These pro-whaling bureaucrats are clearly out of step with the majority of the Japanese people. Polls in Japan show support for whaling is dwindling among the mainstream public. Whaling is vocally opposed by leading Japanese environmental groups, and scientists have issued repeated warnings that whale meat is contaminated with high levels of marine pollutants and unsafe for human consumption. Much of Japan's whale hunting is conducted around Antarctica in the waters of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Japan, the lone nation to vote against this internationally recognized sanctuary when it was established, will this year again sail its whaling ships into the sanctuary and kill hundreds of protected whales. Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Fisheries Agency bureaucrats are working diligently to revive the international trade in whale meat. Just last month, they announced Japan would defy an 11-year-old global ban and begin importing whale meat -- 100 tons of it per year -- from . . . you guessed it: Norway.
It is time for our generation to do its part. These audacious moves by Japanese and Norwegian bureaucrats threaten more than thirty years of hard won protections for whales. They must be stopped.
Here's what you can do: Go to http://www.ifaw.org/actionforwhales
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), one of the leading global conservation groups fighting to protect marine mammals and their habitats, has established this website to help people like you and me take immediate action to save the whales and learn more about what we all can do to help. I have worked very closely with IFAW for the past several years. Together we have spoken out and achieved important victories for whales around the world. And I am proud to join IFAW once again in this critical effort to protect these majestic creatures.
The Governments of Japan and Norway need to hear our voices now. It's time to save the whales again! Please help protect these endangered animals for future generations.
Thank you for your kind attention and support. If we all stand together we can turn the tide.
Sincerely,
Pierce Brosnan
Source: http://www.ifaw.org/email/email_pierce.html
4/13/02
6:20:14 PM
ECO QUOTES
http://www.ecomall.com/ecoquote.htm
Greenpeace Action Alert Urge U.S. Furniture Makers to Spare the Rainforests
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/bin/actionframe.pl?action_id=117
Dear George, Are you an Eco-Terrorist? (April 9, 2002) There are several issues this week that make me wonder if you are more dangerous to the future of our planet than Osama Bin Laden ever could be.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11D.SG.George.htm
In Mexico, Greed Kills Fish by the Seaful (April 10, 2002) (...) Greed and corruption are draining the gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortés. It is not dead yet, but it is exhausted. American and Japanese ships were the first to exploit it. Now fleets of Mexican fishermen, mostly unlicensed and ungoverned, are taking whatever they can, as fast as they can, for American and Asian markets. Every important species of fish in the sea is in sharp decline, fishermen and marine scientists say. Overfishing is a global problem. People are taking marine life faster than it can reproduce. The world's catch peaked at 86 million tons in 1989, up fourfold in 50 years. But many governments, including the United States, Mexico, the European Union, Japan and China, kept on pouring subsidies into commercial fishing fleets to keep them afloat. Crucial fisheries have collapsed worldwide.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/10/international/americas/10MEXI.html
4/13/02
6:17:33 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
AMERICA'S GREEN-LABOR ALLIANCE
by David Moberg, In These Times
-- Labor unions and environmental groups have traditionally been pitted against each other, but destructive Bush administration policies are leading them to find a common ground.
POETS MAY LEAD THE PUBLISHING REVOLUTION
by Dennis Loy Johnson, MobyLives
-- In this age of conglomeration, independent publishing presses are surprisingly giving major chains some serious competition, especially since they have poetry as their weapon.
IS IT THE REAL THING?
by Dennis Rodkin, Conscious Choice
-- Coca-Cola's recent purchase of Odwalla earns it a seat at the juice bar, but at what cost for the consumer?
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
4/13/02
6:16:37 PM
TomPaine.com
"Independent, commercial-free public affairs reporting and commentary."
THE LEGAL FLEECING OF POOR MINORITIES
Do Corporations Like Beneficial And Ameriquest Prey On The Poor And Elderly?
by Michael May
The fees and interest on Daisy Thompson's $37,000 mortgage add up to more than $100,000. Why do low income minorities pay so much more for credit?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5445
WHAT KIND OF LEADER IS GEORGE W. BUSH?
September 11 Was Easy Compared To The Issues Now Facing The President
by Richard Blow
The true test of George W. Bush's leadership comes not after September 11, but in the challenges now facing the White House and in the months ahead.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5430
Dispatch: Pennsylvania
ECONOMICAL, SUSTAINABLE GREEN BUILDING DESIGNS
by Brad Linder
Principles of sustainable design, or "green building" reduce energy use, create comfortable working environments, and have low construction and maintenance costs. Yet they are often inaccurately dismissed as costly, impractical, and experimental.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5440
Book Excerpt
SPOILING FOR A FIGHT: OUT IN LEFT FIELD
Can The Greens Tap The Popular Appeal Of Progressive Ideals?
by Micah L. Sifry
Most progressive principles speak to the majority of Americans when they are framed as appeals to fairness, justice, and democratic empowerment. But the Greens must take seriously the need to speak to Americans where they are.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5431
GALILEO ON THE TURNPIKE
Heretical Science On Racial Profiling
by M. W. Guzy
Activists and politicians of every stripe invested heavily in the debate over racial profiling, and were none too happy to see their dividends threatened by uncomfortable science that challenged the original premise.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5451
THE BUCK STOPS HERE: CAMPAIGN REFORM AND THE SUPREME COURT
Why The Legal Challenges To McCain-Feingold Won't Hold by Tom Campbell
A Stanford University law professor and former congressman explains why the Supreme Court will likely uphold the McCain-Feingold campaign reforms.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5439
4/13/02
6:14:25 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
BUSH SUPPORTS LAW TO BAN ALL HUMAN CLONING
WASHINGTON, DC, April 11, 2002 (ENS) - Whether the cloning of human beings is done for reproduction or for research, it is still unethical, President George W. Bush said Wednesday. He endorsed a bill now pending in Congress to completely ban the procedure in the United States.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-11-01.html
GENERAL ELECTRIC OFFERS HUDSON RIVER SETTLEMENT
ALBANY, New York, April 11, 2002 (ENS) - General Electric (GE) has offered to devise and execute a cleanup plan for the upper Hudson River, hoping to avoid additional lawsuits over the polluted sediments for which the company is blamed.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-11-07.html
ENVIRONMENT CANADA POLICE HANDED EVIDENCE OF TOXICS IN MONTREAL
MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, April 11, 2002 (ENS) - Montreal's Technoparc Saint-Laurent near Dorval Airport site is spewing toxic chemicals into the St. Lawrence River, including PCB in concentrations that exceed government guidelines by more than 8.5 million times, according to a private, nonprofit investigative organization.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-11-04.html
POPs TREATY GOES TO U.S. SENATE FOR RATIFICATION
WASHINGTON, DC, April 11, 2002 (ENS) - The Bush administration is on the road to ratification of a treaty banning the use of 12 toxic chemicals that persist in the environment for long periods of time, travel great distances and accumulate in the food chain.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-11-02.html
OIL PRICES BECOME POLITICAL BARGAINING CHIP
WASHINGTON, DC, April 11, 2002 (ENS) - Rising oil prices are lending ammunition to the Bush administration's campaign to boost domestic oil supplies by drilling on public lands. The chief White House spokesperson said Wednesday that recent threats by Iraq's leadership to cut of oil shipments to the U.S. lend urgency to White House proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other natural areas.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-11-06.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 11, 2002
Rising Seas Threaten Chesapeake Bay Marshes
Tropical Forests Release Carbon Dioxide
Agriculture, Interior Form Joint Fire Council
Alcoa Grant Supports Forest Protection
Not All Forest Clearings are Created Equal
Compost Center Emissions Targeted for Cleanup
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Could Clean Hazardous Wastes Ultrasound Scrubs Water Filters
Industry: U.S. Could Tap Vast Geothermal Energy Sources
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-11-09.html
4/13/02
6:06:48 PM
AlterNet Headlines
ISRAEL, PALESTINE AND JUSTICE
Dan Brook, AlterNet
When Israelis and Palestinians demonize each other, it is the people who suffer. Both sides need to accept responsibility and find a non-violent path to a just peace.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12811
Also on our War in the Middle East page:
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28
- Israel's Women in Black
- Peres Calls Jenin Operation a 'Massacre'
- Emails from Palestine
SEXING UP THE BOY BANDS
Omar J. Pahati, AlterNet
In their own short online stories, fans are re-inventing the personal lives of music icons like N'SYNC and Backstreet Boys with explicit detail, drawing readers and igniting controversy.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12823
OPERATION MISCUE
Ben Ehrenreich, LA Weekly
How legal problems, cultural shifts and internal turmoil muffled America's radical anti-abortion movement, and why the battle isn't over.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12845
WHITE MEN CAN'T PASS
Daniel Greenstone, PopPolitics.com
With remarkable consistency, basketball analysts compare white players only to other white players and black players only to other black players, even when the comparison is wrong.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12849
TO BE GAY AND MUSLIM
Heidi Dietrich, AlterNet
While many gay Muslims remain closeted, fearful of shaming their family, their mosque and their peers, some are finding inspiring -- and unconventional -- ways to cope.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12817
GEORGE W. BUSH: STATESMAN OR DOG TRAINER?
David Turnley, AlterNet
When addressing Middle Eastern leaders, Bush employs the irritable but impotent language that people use when talking to their dogs. If only diplomacy was as simple as "Sit!"
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12844
HUTCHINSON: BREAKING THE SILENCE ON BLACK SUICIDE
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet
Black leaders and parents still operate under the notion that black youths just don't commit suicide. But new data show that isn't true, and the sooner black communities overcome their denial, the better.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12837
DRUG HOUSING LAW HURTS BATTERED WOMEN
Tom Schram, Women's Enews
Under the recently affirmed Anti-Drug Abuse Act, if battered women in housing projects ask for protection from their abusers, they risk losing their homes.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12812
I AM NOT A CIA AGENT
Joe Davidson, TomPaine.com
Reporters who are mistaken for agents sometimes end up dead -- like Daniel Pearl. It is time the agency issued a no-exception rule that journalists will not be used as spies.
* In Media Culture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
BUSH COOL TO WARMING REPORT
Jim Washburn, OC Weekly
Why did Bush bother requesting a global warming report from the National Academy of Science if he was just going to ignore their ominous scientific predictions?
* In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18
YOUNG ACTIVISTS BATTLE THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Nathan Cullerton, WireTap
Young people are using humor, music, and culture to fight the prison industrial complex.
* In WireTap, our sister publication for youth:
http://www.alternet.org/wiretapmag/
HUFFINGTON: WILL SADDAM'S OILY SCHEME SAVE BUSH'S ANWR DREAM?
Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
The president is using the growing crisis in the Middle East to justify his renewed call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12842
4/13/02
6:03:42 PM
t r u t h o u t | 04.12
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Powell Arrives in Israel | Israeli Forces Withdraw From 24 Towns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Ashcroft Charges NY Attorney With Aiding Terrorism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12A.Ashcroft.htm
Energy Department Still Stonewalling Over Task Force Records
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12B.Task.Force.htm
CBS News | The Mysterious Death Of An Enron Exec
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12C.Enron.Death.htm
Signs Enron Bet on Price Increase Before California Power Shortage
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12D.Enron.Bet.htm
Voting Rights Bill Passes | Conyers Reacts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12E.Conyers.Reacts.htm
Palestinians Call Jenin Refugee Camp a Disaster, With Many Killed
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12F.Many.Killed.htm
AFL-CIO, Statements; Immigration Reform / Workforce Protections
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12G.AFL-CIO.htm
Federal Government vs The Last American Wild Buffalo Herd
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12H.BFC.Update.htm
In Mexico, Greed Kills Fish by the Seaful
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.12I.Kills.Fish.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
4/13/02
5:59:57 PM
Military Explores Space Planes
Vehicle could drop bombs, fix satellites, general says
by John Diedrich, The Gazette, April 10, 2002
Michael Limcango, left, representing Analytical Graphics Inc., and Adam Pederson of Lockheed Martin talk Tuesday at The Broadmoor against a backdrop of a screen depicting space technology. The Space Symposium at The Broadmoor continues through Thursday.] The military is looking into building a spacecraft that could drop bombs from space, fix orbiting satellites and give better pictures of the battlefield, the top space officer said Tuesday. If a military space plane becomes a reality, it would be the first time the United States has put weapons in space.
The Pentagon has military satellites that provide navigation, communication, weather, reconnaissance and missile warning information, all considered key to how the United States fights war. But none of them has weapons. Gen. Ed Eberhart, head of U.S. Space Command, Air Force Space Command and NORAD - all based in Colorado Springs - says the military needs a space plane.
"A reusable launch vehicle will be the key to operating and conquering the space frontier," Eberhart said at the 18th annual National Space Symposium at The Broadmoor hotel, an annual exposition of commercial, military and civilian space issues. About 3,800 people attended.
NASA scrapped plans to build a spacecraft called the X-33 a year ago, in part, because of cost overruns. Eberhart said the military is interested in that spacecraft, but its version would be different. It might be designed to run without humans on board and to land in the oceans, he said.
A military space plane quickly could provide surveillance in areas of the world that become important to the Pentagon, he said. Moving satellites for better surveillance now can take days. It could fix or refuel satellites in orbit, which isn't a current option for the military. The plane also could bomb a target in a matter of hours, instead of the 17 hours it takes for a conventional bomber to travel halfway around the world. "(A space plane) has a lot of possibilities, a lot of applications in every one of our missions," Eberhart said. The space plane is only an idea and studying it doesn't mean the United States has decided to put weapons in space, said Army Maj. Barry Venable, spokesman for U.S. Space Command.
"We aren't doing our job if we don't look at things like this and think about it," he said. Some critics of Space Command have said a space plane that drops bombs would be in violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which says "space will be used for peaceful purposes." But Venable said "peaceful purposes" has been interpreted to mean nonaggressive acts.
In other words, weapons can be put in space to defend a nation and its assets, he said. Also Tuesday, Eberhart said information from military satellites may be useful for local police and other first responders in the war on terrorism.
"Over time we can leverage our space assets to support homeland security and law enforcement," Eberhart said, noting there is no such proposal yet. "A lot of it hinges on cooperation."
The general didn't give examples, but Venable said later satellite information could help fire departments track the spread of chemical or biological agents released by terrorists, provide police with more accurate city maps or give emergency workers better communications. "We need to look for ways to make this information available for the local guys as well," Venable said.
Copyright 2002, The Gazette, a Freedom Communications, Inc. Company. All rights reserved. For the original posting with photos and links, see:
http://www.gazette.com/stories/0410loc1-2.php?section=3D1
Related Story links:
Military High Ground Key To America's Security
http://www.space.com/news/nss_spacebomber_020409.html
Military, Civilian Spacecraft Respond To Homeland Defense Needs
http://www.space.com/news/nss_homeland_020409.html
4/13/02
5:55:51 PM
Jewish Manifesto: Sharon Is Israel's Worst Enemy
Many of us who have initiated and signed this manifesto lost family members during the Second World War. They died in concentration camps or perished in the mass graves of Eastern Europe. Often they had to dig their own graves before being catapulted into them. Others of us are survivors of Nazi persecution.
We totally repudiate Ariel Sharon's claim to speak in the name of world Jewry. He certainly does not speak in ours. Israel's declaration of war on the Palestinians could easily escalate into a major regional conflict. Israel has nuclear weapons, and there is little doubt that Sharon is fully prepared to use them. In our view, he and his policies have almost single- handedly brought the Middle East to the point where disaster could strike at any moment. Sharon is the biggest threat to the Israeli people and to Jews around the world.
The Saudi proposal adopted by the Arab League handed Sharon a unique historic opportunity to make peace. His only response was ruthless violence. Sharon is incapable of concluding agreements or forging compromises. A peaceful solution is impossible as long as he remains in power. He has never in his career done anything but resort to the toughest conceivable military measures. The Israeli resistance and peace movements deserve all the support we can give them.
As far back as 1952, Sharon commanded the infamous special operation Unit 101, whose task was to carry out reprisals on the Palestinian and Arab side of the armistice lines. During the next couple of years, he was responsible for two attacks on Palestinian villages that left almost 100 civilians dead. Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett condemned the atrocities.
In 1982, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon fashioned "Operation Peace in Galilee" - otherwise known as Israel's invasion of Lebanon. This time the toll was 20,000 killed and more than 100,000 homeless. Better than 80% of the victims were civilians, and at least 6,000 children were orphaned.
An International Commission of Inquiry set up by Nobel Peace Prizewinner SeÃ-¡n MacBride determined that the Israelis had been in violation of international law during the Lebanese war. An Israeli government commission headed by Supreme Court President Yitzhak Kahan concluded that Sharon had not done enough to stop the massacre of 800 unarmed civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
In less than two years, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has managed to torpedo the agreements that took Israel and the Palestinians many years of patient accommodation to achieve. Sharon contends that Israel is above the Geneva Conventions and international law. That puts him in the company of the world's cruelest and most despicable dictators. On Sharon's orders, ambulances and hospitals are ambushed, doctors are shot, and pregnant women are left to die or give birth at Israeli checkpoints.
Our alternative to Sharon is the Jewish tradition of humanism and faith in the future. When challenged by a stranger to sum up the Jewish religion while he hopped on one foot, the great Rabbi Hillel replied simply, "That which you find hateful to yourself, do not do unto others. That is all of the law. The rest is merely commentary."
We demand that Israel immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the Occupied Territories, that an international peacekeeping force be sent to the region, that Israel comply with international law, and that Israel declare at once its willingness to negotiate peace on the basis of all U.N. resolutions.
(initial signers;) Henry Ascher, physician (Sweden) Channa Bankier, artist (Sweden) Adrienne Levy Berg, physiotherapist (Sweden) Nina Bergman, district medical officer (Sweden) Set Bornstein (Sweden) Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics (United States) Ilan Cohen, certified engineer (Sweden) Anja Emsheimer, teacher (Sweden) Peter Emsheimer, PhD (Sweden) Dror Feiler, musician (Sweden) Lennart Grosin, associate professor of education (Sweden) Hertha Fischer, county commissioner (Sweden) David Gutman, sociologist (Sweden) David Henley, senior physician, associate professor (Sweden) Dan Israel, publisher (Sweden) Erland Josephson, actor (Sweden) Anja Karlsson, student (Sweden) Katarina Katz, economist (Sweden) Olle Katz, teacher (Sweden) Ronit Koerner, Waldorf school teacher (Sweden) John Lapidus, freelance author (Sweden) Judit LukÃ-¡cs, journalist (Sweden) Joanna Dubinska Malmberg, occupational therapist (Sweden) Rafael Najdorf, male nurse (Norway) Mitchell Plitnick, writer, activist (United States) Georg Riedel, musician (Sweden) Cynthia Roth, poet (United States) Ken Schubert, authorized public translator (Sweden and the United States) Jakub Srebro, certified engineer (Sweden) Julianna Srebro, psychologist (Sweden) Annika Thor, author (Sweden) GÃ-¡bor Tiroler, public health expert (Sweden) Zoltan Tiroler, research engineer (Sweden) Maj Wechselman, filmmaker (Sweden)
4/13/02
5:44:37 PM
Review of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation
The Prisonization of America as a Shameful Social Problem: A Review of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation
By Elaine Cassel, Friday, April 5, 2002
Sasha Abramsky, Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation (St. Martin's Press, 2002)
Prisons were first conceived in the United States a little more than 200 years ago. Maybe it makes sense that we created them as an institution, for we have become the leading prison country among civilized nations.
The statistics are staggering. The United States incarcerates more people for more offenses than any other country in the free world--five to eight times more citizens per capita than Western European countries. The American prison population increased 500 percent between 1970 and 2000, doubling in the last decade of the century. More than 2 million men and women are locked up in the U.S. today.
What accounts for this unique and shameful social problem? The answer is partly explained by Sasha Abramsky in Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation - a well-researched and reported narrative of the recent history that lengthened sentences, built prisons, and resulted in mass incarceration.
The Politics of Prisonization: California's "Three Strikes" Law Is Passed
Abramsky frames the story in the context of the life of one non-violent repeat offender, Billy Ochoa. Ochoa is a veteran of the California corrections system who got caught in the net of that state's notorious "Three Strikes" law. It is no exaggeration to say that politics created California's Three Strikes law, and Abramsky details the machinations that exploited public fears and personal grief.
Abramsky's story begins with the Fresno District Attorney, a Republican named Mike Reynolds, grieving over the senseless death of his daughter, Kimber, at the hand of some thugs in a robbery. Reynolds meets up with the father of Polly Klass - the young girl who in 1993 was kidnaped and murdered by a diagnosed psychopath recently released from prison for another kidnaping and robbery.
Together, they sold the idea of "Three Strikes" to Governor Pete Wilson -who sold it to the legislature which, in turn, agreed to put it on the ballot as Proposition 184. The voters approved it overwhelmingly. Indeed, the California legislative session of 1994 was a virtually one-issue session, with get-tough-on-crime laws abounding. The voters obviously liked the message, for they reelected Wilson in 1994.
Under the California "Three Strikes" law, prison sentences for a second felony conviction are doubled, while a third felony conviction requires a 25-years-to-life sentence. The law's injustice stems partially from the fact that the offenses need not be crimes of violence - the defendant may only have stolen food or groceries, or written a bad check.
The law is also unjust in that it keeps juries in the dark, and ties judges' hands. After a jury finds the defendant guilty of a second or third offense (without being informed of the dire sentencing consequences), the court hands down the sentence. If a prosecutor demands sentencing under Three Strikes, the judge must impose it.
The Rest of the Country Gets on California's "Tough on Crime" Bandwagon
As Abramsky details, Wilson's success inspired politicians of both parties across the country to jump on the harsh sentencing bandwagon. Democrats in the Congress felt the pressure to join the movement. So did the President himself.
During the 1992 presidential race, then-Governor Bill Clinton - a strong proponent of the death penalty - made a highly publicized trip back to Arkansas to sign the death warrant for a brain-damaged murderer. The Clinton-Gore campaign emphasized its strong anti-crime strategy - the mantra of which was, "More police on the streets and more criminals behind bars."
Then, in 1994, Congressional Democrats stole the Republicans' agenda by putting forth an enormous piece of legislation known as the Violent Crime Control Law Enforcement Act. This sweeping body of laws sent money to states for all kinds of anti-crime initiatives, including prison construction. It also created a federal Three Strikes law and expanded the federal death penalty.
During this session, Congress also amended the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, adding harsher penalties for drug use and dealing. The amendment reflected the Clinton Administration's "One Strike" policy toward public housing tenants. As articulated by the statute, HUD was directed to promulgate provisions in leases that subjected tenants to eviction if any members of their households used drugs--on or off the public housing premises.
And just last week, in a unanimous opinion in the case of Dep't. of Housing and Urban Dev. v. Rucker, the Supreme Court upheld these public housing provisions, as interpreted by HUD, despite a challenge by innocent public housing tenants facing eviction. The regulations provide for no second, even third chances; thus the "One Strike" moniker. It is conceivable under the regulations that a public housing tenant in New York could be evicted because a daughter in California used drugs. Similar laws enacted in the 1990s forbid any person convicted of drug possession from obtaining food stamps or a federally guaranteed student loan.
The Democrats, Abramsky explains, had co-opted one of the issues nearest and dearest to Republicans: the need for tough crime control and harsh punishment. Across the country, candidates and elected officials were trying to outdo each other in their meanness. Many states enacted their own version of Three Strikes laws, though none was quite as vicious as California's.
The War on Drugs: Getting Tough on Drug Users
Hard Times reports, however, that New York's Draconian drug laws, enacted under Nelson Rockefeller, are just as harsh as Three Strikes laws. They impose sentences of 25 (or even 40) years to life for selling cocaine.
Neither are federal drug sentences known for their leniency. Parole has been abolished and mandatory minimum federal sentences for drug charges lock people up for life for dealing. Unsurprisingly, more than half of federal prisoners and a third of state prisoners are serving time for drug offenses.
Nevertheless, in March of this year, the Federal Sentencing Commission reiterated its support for mandatory minimum sentences for federal drug offenses, and for the disparity in sentences for power and crack cocaine. (Sentences for possession and distribution of crack are many times greater than those for powder cocaine - leading to a predictable racial disparity in sentencing, in which often-white cocaine users serve far less time than crack users, who are more often members of minority groups.) Since addiction is a lifelong, relapsing disease, the sentencing laws insure the continued prisonization of a large population.
What's Wrong With Tough Justice?
Billy Ochoa's Story Illustrates the Problem
In Hard Times, Abramsky juxtaposes the origin of Three Strikes laws with the case of Billy Ochoa - thus adeptly illustrating how the application of the law fails to produce the results suggested by the hard sell. For while the tough sentencing laws were designed for violent killers such as those who took the lives of Polly Klass and Kimber Reynolds, they are more likely to be imposed on men like Billy Ochoa, a career criminal who made a life of burglary, robbery, and welfare fraud.
This fact comes as no surprise to criminologists and statisticians. Only 10 percent of crimes are violent offenses against persons. The remaining 90 percent consists of property and drug offenses. People like Ochoa, a heroin addict who burgled and defrauded to support his habit, not psychopathic rapists and killers, fill the supermax prisons built in California, Texas, and Virginia to prepare for the age of incarceration.
Abramsky traces Ochoa's pitiful story up to and including his ultimate Three Strikes sentence. Ochoa was never convicted of a violent crime as an adult. (He was convicted of kidnaping as a juvenile, but the offense, though potentially frightening for the victim, was not as serious as the charge implies. Rather than taking a girl home from a party directly, Ochoa took her on a joy ride on the freeways instead).
Nevertheless, Ochoa was sentenced, at the age of 53, to 326 years in prison for committing $2,100 of welfare fraud to support his drug habit. He will spend the rest of his life in a supermax prison - where prisoners are confined to tiny cells for 23 hours a day, and never have any human contact unless chained and shackled - at a cost to taxpayers of over $20,000 a year. The Alice-in-Wonderland logic that makes petty theft a felony also turns someone sentenced under Three Strikes into an escape risk deserving of the harshest deprivations penal experts can devise. (The head of Virginia's Department of Corrections, Ronald Angelone, has boasted that the goal of a supermax is to "make life hell" for the inmate.)
Is There Any End In Sight To Harsh Sentencing Laws? Perhaps.
There may be a more humane movement afoot in the birthplace of Three Strikes. In July 2001, California voters implemented Proposition 36, which mandates probation and treatment, rather than jail time, for first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders. Whether this is a fluke, or a trend toward a more realistic and compassionate response to drug addiction, remains to be seen in the years ahead.
Another hopeful sign for an amelioration or reversal of Three Strikes comes from two federal appeals court decisions in recent months that rejected California's Three Strikes Law as unconstitutional. In Andrade v. Attorney General of the State of California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a Three Strikes 50-year-to-life sentence for two petty theft convictions violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, because the punishment was grossly disproportionate to the crime.
Moreover, on February 7 of this year, the same court reaffirmed Andrade in Brown v. Mayle and Bray v. Ylst (two cases that were consolidated for appeal). The court held that the appellants' life sentences -without any possibility of parole for the first 25 years - violated the Eighth Amendment. Again, the Court employed a proportionality analysis, holding that these sentences were grossly disproportionate to the defendants' petty theft convictions (Brown had tried to steal a steering wheel alarm; Bray, to steal three videotapes).
On April 1 of this year, the Supreme Court announced that it had granted certiorari in Andrade and an earlier Three Strikes sentence case, Ewing v. California (in which the defendant was sentenced to 25-to-life for attempting to steal three golf clubs). Opponents of the law would be foolhardy to think that this Supreme Court will agree with the Ninth Circuit that it is cruel, unusual, or disproportionate to spend 50 years in prison for stealing nine videotapes valued, in total, at $153.54 from two stores on two occasions two weeks apart (as Andrade did).
Rather, the majority of these Justices are likely to conclude that this sentence is not cruel or unusual since several states have such laws. This is the type of reasoning they have used earlier to support capital punishment in general and the execution of mentally retarded persons and teenagers over the age of 17 years in particular.
Given the politics of the current Supreme Court, Abramsky's heartfelt chronicle and criticism of an unjust justice system is in no danger of becoming irrelevant or obsolete. Three Strikes -- and One Strike --legacies of 20th century politics, will no doubt be with well into the new millennium. Hard times indeed--and no end in sight.
About the author of this review -- Elaine Cassel -- practices law in Virginia and teaches law and psychology. Her textbook, Criminal Behavior (Allyn & Bacon, 2001), explores crime and violence from a developmental perspective. She writes and lectures for continuing legal education courses in election law, Internet law, surveillance and civil liberties, genetics, and health law. She is Vice-Chair of the Behavioral Science Committee of the ABA Science and Technology Law Section and a member of the Section's Privacy and Computer Crime Committees.
This review is online, with a link for posting messages, at
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20020405_cassel.html
About the author of Hard Time Blues: How Politics Built a Prison Nation -Sasha Abramsky -- a freelance journalist. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, New York magazine, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. Originally from England and a graduate of Oxford University, he has since adopted his mother's homeland of America and now lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife. He has a master's degree from Columbia University School of Journalism and in 2000 he was awarded a Soros Society, Crime, and Communities Media Fellowship. This is his first book.
4/13/02
5:36:53 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Russia aims to build Vietnam nuclear power plant - VIETNAM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15451/story.htm
Shark expert seriously injured by shark in Bahamas - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15457/story.htm
Energy Dept releases more documents on energy plan - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15456/story.htm
Bacteria, fungi could bug termites to death - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15454/story.htm
UPDATE - Bush energy task force consulted environmentalists - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15452/story.htm
Report cites $54 bln in wasteful US gov't projects - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15450/story.htm
UPDATE - Democrats vow to filibuster Alaska oil drilling - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15445/story.htm
UK races to meet EU car recycling deadline - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15458/story.htm
Greece sees future as Balkan energy hub - GREECE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15449/story.htm
Costa Rica has launched a "sustainable" coffee seal - COSTA RICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15446/story.htm
Greenpeace protests Chile native forest destruction - CHILE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15447/story.htm
UPDATE - US to take more heat on global warming at G8 - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15453/story.htm
FEATURE - Cambodia museum evicts world's biggest bat colony - CAMBODIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15455/story.htm
Bulgaria joins race to become Balkan energy hub - BULGARIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15448/story.htm
EU says eight countries failing waste dump rules - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15444/story.htm
Mass sea snail death baffles Bangladesh - BANGLADESH http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15443/story.htm
4/13/02
5:35:42 PM
World court now a reality
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23498
Sneak preview of world court
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23495
"LET JUSTICE FINALLY BE DONE" CRIMINAL PROSECUTION for commission of crimes presented herein AND A REQUEST TO APPEAR BEFORE THE GRAND JURY TO PRESENT THE FOLLOWING FACTS AND POINTS OF LAW Pursuant to Title 18 USC, Fed. Rules of Crim. Procedure, Section 1504 or in the alternative, for prosecution for War Crimes before an:
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23497
ATF Begins Groundbreaking on New Headquarters - 422,000 square feet, Washington, DC - On April 10, 2002, at 10:00 a.m., Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Director Bradley A. Buckles, Under Secretary of Treasury Jimmy Gurulé, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO.), Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Under Secretary for Transportation Security Administration John W. Magaw, GSA Regional Administrator Donald C. Williams, District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams, and other dignitaries will take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new ATF headquarters. Read entire text.
The Grand Jury: The Cornerstone of the Constitution
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23508
PREPARING FOR TOMORROW: "HOW EVERY AMERICAN CAN HELP"
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23502
4/13/02
5:34:16 PM
Greenpeace True Food Network Newsletter April 2002
Join Greenpeace in the National Supermarket Campaign by meeting with your supermarket manager. Read on for more information on how you can change the food supply!
4/12/02
2:23:11 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
HOP ON POPS
The good news: President Bush will ask Congress to support a global treaty to phase out 12 highly toxic chemicals. The bad news: He will not back a provision of the treaty that would make it easier to eliminate other toxics as well. If ratified by at least 50 nations, the treaty on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) will ban the "dirty dozen" -- PCBs, dioxins, furans, DDT, and other toxics that cause health problems such as cancer and developmental defects. Bush vowed to support the treaty almost a year ago, and today, U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Acting Assistant Secretary of State Anthony Rock unveiled the ratification bill that will be submitted to Congress. Environmentalists criticized the bill as insufficient, because most of the 12 pollutants slated for phase-out are no longer in use in industrialized countries anyway.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, John Heilprin, 10 Apr 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/04/10/national2134EDT0864.DTL>
do good: Take action to ratify the treaty to phase out POPs <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/toxic.asp?source=daily#pops>
COMMENT TALLY VOODOO
Environmental organizations had just 48 hours to submit policy proposals for consideration by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, according to the latest batch of documents released by the Energy Department. Shortly after midday on Wednesday, March 21, 2001, Margot Anderson, a senior department official, sent an email message to a colleague instructing him to contact 11 national environmental groups and compile their energy policy proposals. "Need by Friday noon," Anderson wrote. Energy Department officials say the groups had opportunities other than the two-day period to offer their opinions, but environmental leaders say the email is emblematic of a skewed and unfair process that prioritized input from the energy industry at the expense of other points of view.
straight to the source: New York Times, Don Van Natta, Jr., and Neela Banerjee, 11 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/politics/11CHEN.html>
do good: Take action on clean energy issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily>
BASIN IS NO SINK
The network of waterways in the Amazon River Basin emits three times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as previously thought, according to a study appearing in the current edition of Nature. The finding suggests that tropical forest regions are not carbon "sinks" that help cleanse the world of excess CO2 emissions. Rather, the Amazon region produces about 2 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide every year -- or about one-fifth as much as is generated annually by deforestation, burning fossil fuels, and other human activities. About 20 percent of the Amazon emissions is released from aquatic processes in the waterways, while the rest comes from soil and other organic matter swept into the river by rains and floods. The study is the second in recent months to challenge the received wisdom about carbon absorption in forested areas.
straight to the source: CNN.com, Associated Press, 10 Apr 2002 <http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/04/10/river.breath.ap/index.html>
BUSH SPANKS BOTTOM LINE
In a speech made last month, President Bush called on business leaders to answer not just to the demands of the bottom line but also to long-term environmental and social concerns. That's a nice idea, but can hortatory appeals to conscience really do the trick in an era when businesses are struggling simply to survive? Writing in this month's Global Citizen, columnist Elizabeth Sawin says that too often, the answer is no. Asking people to be saints isn't enough; easing the conflict between the short-term goals of the bottom line and our long-term responsibility to the future by redefining basic economics just might be. Take a crash course in eco-nomics, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Economics for four-year-olds -- thinking beyond the bottom line -- by Elizabeth Sawin <http://www.gristmagazine.com/citizen/citizen041102.asp?source=daily>
DUNE MESSIAH
It's a rare moment when ranchers and environmentalists see eye-to-eye -- and yet a collaboration between the two parties is leading to the creation of the nation's 57th national park. The unlikely relationship began when enviros and ranchers realized they had something in common: a need to protect the water resources in Colorado's San Luis Valley. Although it receives very little rainfall, the valley traps runoff from neighboring mountain ranges, replenishing its aquifer and making the region rich in H20, one of the state's most prized resources. The water is a lifeline for thousands of ranchers in the area -- and it is also the golden goose for investors who would like to export the water for profit. To prevent that from happening, ranchers and environmentalists helped dream up the Great Sand Dunes National Park, combining a sand dunes national monument, marshes, mountains, and the 97,000-acre Baca Ranch recently purchased by the Nature Conservancy. The park, which will be one of the most diverse in the nation, has already been approved by Congress and could become a reality as early as 2005.
straight to the source: Christian Science Monitor, Amanda Paulson, 11 Apr 2002 <http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0411/p11s01-sten.html>
4/12/02
2:12:54 PM
Green Scissors Exposes $54 billion In Wasteful Federal Spending That Harms The Environment
Taxpayer And Environmental Groups Target 78 Pork-Barrel Programs
Press Releases April 11, 2002
Washington, D.C. - With the return of budget deficits and the annual political war over the budget bills set to start today, a coalition of taxpayer, environmental and consumer groups identified 78 cuts which Congress and the administration could make to protect the environment, and save our nation more than $54 billion.
"Taxpayers are underwriting billions of dollars in environmental destruction," said Erich Pica, Director of the Green Scissors Campaign at Friends of the Earth. "Congress and the administration should take Green Scissors to the federal budget and eliminate $54 billion in wasteful and environmentally harmful spending."
The Green Scissors 2002 report reveals 78 common sense recommendations to cut environmentally harmful programs that benefit narrow special interests at considerable taxpayer expense. Many of the projects highlighted are products of pork barrel spending for parochial interests.
"As lawmakers fiddle, special interests are burning billion dollar holes in the federal budget," said Cena Swisher, Senior Program Director at Taxpayers for Common Sense. "If Congress gets serious about cutting spending, a balanced budget will become a reality."
Budget battles are almost guaranteed for the months to come, and the administration and Congress will have to make common sense choices when it comes to federal spending. The $5.6 trillion federal surplus that was forecast at the start of 2001 has nearly evaporated, and rather than continuing down the path of no return, the groups urged lawmakers to exercise fiscal discipline.
"Washington politicians keep wasting our tax dollars to reward corporate polluters," said Pierre Sadik, a staff attorney for U.S. PIRG. "Polluter subsidies must end -- because Americans are paying with their tax dollars and their health."
The Green Scissors 2002 report targets 10 "Choice Cuts" and highlights six issues that are new to the report. The report's "Choice Cuts" are programs that Congress will probably act upon in the coming year or that are most in need of reform. Green Scissors 2002's "Choice Cuts" include:
· 1872 Mining Law Reform-Requiring hard-rock mining companies to pay an 8 percent royalty and to post adequate bonds for mining reclamation would raise $519 million over five years.
· Beach Renourishment-Increasing the local cost-share for communities benefiting from the Army Corps of Engineers sand pumping activities would save $3 billion over the lifetime of the projects.
· Bonneville Power Administration Borrowing Authority-Congress should reject Bonneville Power's request to increase its federal borrowing authority by $700 million.
· "Clean Coal" Programs-Expediting the termination of the existing "Clean Coal" Technology Program and stopping new programs from beginning would save taxpayers $253 million.
· Indianapolis-to-Evansville (I-69) Highway-Blocking federal funding for this road could save taxpayers $910 million.
· Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency-Eliminating government subsidies for environmentally destructive projects overseas would save taxpayers $11 million.
· Nuclear Energy Research and Development-Eliminating research and development subsidies for the nuclear power industry would save taxpayers $252 million over five years.
· Petroleum Research and Development- Eliminating the petroleum and coal research programs, which benefit large, profitable fossil fuel companies, would save almost $1.3 billion over five years and reduce subsidies that encourage global warming.
· Timber Roads Construction- Cutting funding for construction, planning and design on new logging roads, saving taxpayers $311.5 million.
· Yucca Mountain High-Level Waste Facility-Shelving the Yucca Mountain Project would relieve taxpayers from subsidizing this $56 billion program.
Recommendations that are new to the Green Scissors 2002 report this year include:
· Dallas Floodway Extension-Denying funding for this project, which will fail to improve flood protection for Dallas, would save taxpayers $76 million.
· Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project- Deauthorizing this outdated irrigation project would save taxpayers $319 million.
· Individual Fishing Quotas-Adopting national standards on new quota programs could prevent the give-away of $15 billion worth of fisheries as well as protect against over-fishing.
· Savannah Harbor Expansion-Denying funding for this redundant and environmentally destructive harbor deepening project would save taxpayers $230 million.
· Superfund Reauthorization-Reauthorizing the Superfund tax would eliminate a $4 million-per-day tax break and ensure that toxic waste sites are cleaned up at the expense of the polluters-not taxpayers.
· Wildfire Management-- Each year, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal land management agencies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to extinguish wildfires. Better management of the programs would ensure that taxpayer expenditures on wildfire management are maximized.
Local Green Scissors coalition members are releasing the report in more than 20 states. These groups provide support for the Green Scissors Campaign throughout the year. For a copy of the report, contact Erich Pica at 202 783.7400 x229.
Friends of the Earth is a national environmental advocacy organization with member groups in 66 countries. Contact: Mark Helm, FoE 202 783.7400 x102
U.S. PIRG is the national lobby office for the State Public Interest Research Groups. State PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy groups. Liz Hitchcock, U.S. PIRG 202 546.9707 x316
Taxpayers for Common Sense is a non-partisan advocate for American taxpayers. TCS is dedicated to cutting wasteful spending and subsidies in order to achieve a responsible and efficient government that lives within its means. Keith Ashdown, TCS 202 546.8500 x108
Source: http://www.greenscissors.org/news/gs2002pr.html
4/12/02
2:01:16 PM
MOJOURNAL
From the Editor:
As the blood-letting in the Middle East continues, Todd Gitlin uses his monthly column to suggest that Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat are hardly alone in their destructive and futile dance. Gitlin argues out that the Bush White House has allowed its obsession with a 'regime change' in Iraq to undermine its already meager efforts at promoting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Now that President Bush has stepped into the fray, will the combatants be in any mood to listen?
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/opinion/
Will Tacy
Editor, MotherJones.com
NEW ON MOTHERJONES.COM
* Winning Elections ... and T-Shirts * - How the Republican Party is harnessing the Internet to energize its activists -- and reward them with nifty prizes!
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/goppoints.html
* Behind Congress' Back * - Opinion: While Capitol Hill was empty, Bush slipped a foe of affirmative action and the Americans With Disabilities Act into an important civil-rights post.
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/opinion/reynolds.html
* Taking a Beating * Cartoon: Pity poor Globe Boy. He's got the world on his shoulders, and his problems just keep growing.
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/humor/globe.html
* Masters of Mean * - From the Magazine: Goodbye to Phil Gramm and Dick Armey, the last of a bitter breed of Texas politician.
http://www.motherjones.com/magazine/MA02/mean.html
* News Beat * - A Role for Arab Leaders?; Voting on Musharraf; Put It on My Card; more...
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/news_beat.html
* Capitol Beat * - Iraq and the Arctic; Texas 'Dream Ticket' Hits a Snag; A Gay Mayor for Long Beach?
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/capitol_beat.html
* Updates * - A Glimmer of Hope in Libby; Spared From Stoning; Human Rights and Aid in Colombia; Coral Reef Crisis; more ...
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/updates.html
Fed up with Rush Limbaugh? Mother Jones offers radio interviews with writers from both our online and print versions. Sign up for our e-mail list here:
http://www.motherjones.com/about_us/pressroom/newsbriefs.html
4/12/02
1:58:28 PM
EMS Update - April 11, 2002
Nuclear Safety Concerns
New pages at EMS.org profile some of the country's most controversial nuclear plants, providing basic information about the reactors, affected populations and why scientists at watchdog groups are particularly concerned about safety at these plants: Indian Point (New York), Davis-Besse (Ohio), Catawba (South Carolina) and McGuire (North Carolina). Additional materials provide background and web links about proposed Yucca Mountain waste storage and transport and Price-Anderson legislation that shields nuclear plants from liability for major accidents.
More: http://www.ems.org
Annual Report Touts Green Budget Cuts
The annual Green Scissors report, released Thursday by public interest groups, identifies 78 budget cuts that Congress and the administration could make to protect the environment and save taxpayers more than $54 billion.
Press release: http://www.greenscissors.org/news/gs2002pr.html
4/11/02
1:30:51 PM
Why We Blow Ourselves Up
A Palestinian doctor explains why so many of his people want to be martyrs
by Eyad Sarraj, April 8, 2002
A few weeks ago, my sister, a professional and a mother of four, was visibly shaken as she watched, on television, Israeli tanks torturing the streets of a refugee camp and soldiers raping its homes. She shocked us all when she declared that she would like to become a martyr. A few hours later, a young Palestinian woman stunned the world when she turned herself into a human bomb and exploded in Jerusalem, killing one Israeli and wounding 150 others. In the weeks after, more women joined the queue of suicide bombers as the world stood alarmed and bewildered.
To understand why Palestinian men, and now women, are blowing themselves up in Israeli restaurants and buses is to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict. Ours is a nation of anger and defiance. The struggle today is how not to become a suicide bomber. We are told that there are long queues of people willing to join the road to heaven, and I believe it.
What propels people into such action is a long history of humiliation and a desire for revenge that every Arab harbors. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the resultant uprooting of Palestinians, a deep-seated feeling of shame has taken root in the Arab psyche. Shame is the most painful emotion in the Arab culture, producing the feeling that one is unworthy to live. The honorable Arab is the one who refuses to suffer shame and dies in dignity.
CLIP
In every case of martyrdom, there is a personal story of tragedy and trauma. A curious journalist once asked me to introduce him to a potential martyr. When the journalist asked, "Why would you do it?" he was told, "Would you fight for your country or not? Of course you would. You would be respected in your country as a brave man, and I would be remembered as a martyr."
This is the influence of the teaching of the Koran, the most potent and powerful book in Arabia for the past 14 centuries. In the holy book, God promised Muslims who sacrificed themselves for the sake of Islam that they would not die. They would live on in paradise. Muslims, men and women, even secularists, hold to the promise literally. Heaven is then the ultimate reward of the devout who have the courage to take the ultimate test of faith.
What the young man did not say was that he was burning with a desire for revenge. He was a tearful witness, at the age of six, to his father's beating by Israeli soldiers. He would never forget seeing his father taken away, bleeding from the nose.
As Sharon was taking Arafat hostage and grinding the salt of humiliation into the sour wounds, he was taking us into a new horrific level of madness. Another Palestinian girl blew herself up in Jerusalem last week, killing two Israelis and wounding more. She will not be the last.
Source: http://timecanada.com/story.adp?storyid=3&area=_toc
4/11/02
1:24:11 PM
An international team of astronomers said it's discovered the most distant and oldest group of galaxies ever seen.
Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope or VLT Array, the astronomers viewed a cluster of galaxies estimated to be 13.5 billion light-years away. The cluster is so distant it has taken nearly the entire age of the universe for its light to reach Earth.
The discovery of the galactic cluster is important, the astronomers said, because it offers a glimpse of the universe at a relatively young age. The VLT image portrays the cluster when the universe was only about 1.5 billion years old or 10 percent of its current estimated age of 15 billion years.
Scientists still don't completely understand what happened during the "Big Bang" that created the cosmos some 15 billion years ago.
4/11/02
1:21:41 PM
Venezuela Strikes Oil
by June Thomas, April 10, 2002
The biggest threat to the world oil supply is not the volatile situation in the Middle East or Iraq's unilateral suspension of exports, but the deteriorating crisis in Venezuela, where an unusual coalition of trade unionists and business owners extended Tuesday's general strike for at least another 24 hours. Venezuela is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, and according to Spain's ABC, Tuesday's strike "paralyzed" the industry—refineries were virtually shut down and striking dockworkers delayed shipments of crude by refusing to load tankers. Organizers told Venezuela's El Nacional that 80 percent of the country's workforce obeyed the strike call Tuesday; they also declared Wednesday's extension a "success." President Hugo Chávez and his government contradicted the organizers, claiming that the oil sector was "working at 100 percent capacity," and constantly interrupting TV and radio news transmissions throughout Tuesday to broadcast anti-strike messages. On Wednesday, the government decreed a "state of military alert," an army general accused Chávez of protecting Colombian guerrillas who crossed the border into Venezuela, and the strike organizers threatened to maintain the work stoppage "indefinitely."
The general strike was called in solidarity with managers at Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil monopoly, who stepped up a six-week industrial action this weekend after President Chávez fired seven of the company's executives and announced the "retirement" of 12 others. The Financial Times (which has compiled an excellent special report on Chávez's Venezuela) reported that the PDVSA managers "say the directors named by Mr Chávez are political loyalists with no interest in the financial well-being of the company and that meritocracy was ignored in the selection process." The PDVSA managers also object to the deep oil-price subsidies Chávez gave to Cuba.
Britain's Guardian summarized the underlying tensions in Venezuela: "Three years after he won elections with widespread support, Mr Chavez is confronting a storm of criticism from political foes, business and trade union chiefs, dissident military officers, and the opposition-dominated media. While the president defends his self-proclaimed 'revolution' as a noble campaign to help the poor, his critics accuse him of trying to introduce a Cuban-style regime." In an attempt to win back popular support ahead of the strikes, on Sunday Chávez announced a 20 percent increase in the minimum wage. Spain's El Mundo noted that the wage raise "contradicts the austerity policy that [Chávez] decreed. It's the politics of the carrot and the stick in its purest form."
El Nacional encouraged its readers to "take back the streets." It said:
Today we have to take to the streets to show that scoundrel [Chávez] the power of Venezuelans: We are a decent and worthy people, we want to move toward a new democracy that is not full of hatred nor motivated by revenge or resentment. The president has surrounded himself with killers, who in the past did not scruple to shoot defenseless people. That same group today walks in silent partnership with Cuban agents and Colombian guerrilla groups, united to act violently against Venezuelans.
Source: http://www.Slate.com
4/11/02
1:18:30 PM
Congress Nearly United Behind Israel Few Speak Out Against West Bank Attacks
by Edward Epstein, April 10, 2002
Washington - Rep. Mike Pence, a conservative freshman Republican from east-central Indiana, comes from a district with no more than a handful of Jews.
But he took to the House floor yesterday and delivered emphatic remarks supporting Israel's current offensive in the occupied territories, comments indicative of the strong sentiment coursing through both houses of Congress.
"Believing Christians and Jews and even many Muslims across Indiana say let us stand with Israel," Pence said. "I pray for the peace of Jerusalem almost every day.
"And the overwhelming majority of this Congress says let the United States stand with Israel," he added.
It is hard to find a negative word on Capitol Hill about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon or his current offensive on the West Bank, and it is just as hard to find anyone with anything good to say about Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. For President Bush, the heavy pro-Israel bent in Congress provides support for his diplomatic initiatives to end the current fighting, but it could spell trouble if he presses Israel too far for concessions in the face of Palestinian suicide bombings or other terrorist attacks.
A coalescing of factors provides impetus for the pro-Israel sentiment. The traditional strength of Jewish lobbying groups has combined with widespread revulsion against Palestinian suicide bomb attacks, mistrust of Arafat after he rejected U.S.-backed peace plans and a feeling that Israel, like the United States, is fighting terrorism.
Also, some fundamentalist Christians in Congress, backed by groups such as the Christian Coalition, believe that God promised Israel to the Jews and that the state of Israel is part of the apocalyptic scenario leading to the second coming of Jesus Christ.
'UNDENIABLE OBLIGATION'
One of the most influential GOP members of Congress, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas, also was emphatic in his support for Israel at a recent speech --despite Sharon's military offensive in the West Bank.
"The state of Israel has been targeted by groups committed to her complete elimination. And on the basis of our shared principles and democratic values, America has an undeniable obligation to stand squarely with our democratic ally," DeLay said.
"The time has come to drop the empty pretense that we can serve the region as a mere broker. Israel is resisting a campaign of death. . . . It is time for us to stand squarely against the terrorist organizations which systematically attack Israel," DeLay said.
Congress is working to turn these pro-Israel sentiments into action.
Just yesterday, Republican senators pushing for energy legislation that would open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling announced support from several Jewish groups, including B'nai B'rith and the American Jewish Congress. The groups jumped in after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein called for a 30-day halt in oil production to protest Sharon's offensive.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is drafting a bill with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. that would deny Arafat a visa to visit the United States, curb operations of the Palestinian office in Washington and seize any assets held by Arafat in this country.
Feinstein said in the Senate yesterday that Sharon's offensive should continue until terrorists are captured in West Bank towns.
"Israel cannot be expected to place a limit on its own self-defense or end her effort to capture terrorists so long as fanatics on the Palestinian side continue to plot and carry out these horrific attacks," she said.
On the House side, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, is working on a resolution expressing "strong solidarity" with Israel, while not interfering with Bush's efforts to calm the situation.
PALESTINIAN SUPPORT
Among the few members who have spoken up for the Palestinians are Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who yesterday called for Israel to end its offensive and urged an end to suicide bombings and the start of a new peace talks.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Oceanside, who is of Arab descent, has introduced a resolution embodying similar sentiments.
One analyst who is close to many Republicans in Congress said they feel Israel is only doing what the United States is doing in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. "They feel that Sharon is involved in trying to eliminate terrorism. Shouldn't he be allowed to do that?" said Cliff May, the former spokesman for the Republican National Committee who now runs the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Hussein Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee conceded that any support for the Palestinian cause is all but silent on Capitol Hill.
"When an elected official looks at the arrayed power on one side and my friends and me on the other side, it's a no-brainer for them," Ibish said.
Ibish said Israel, however, is making a mistake by courting support from fundamentalist Christian groups.
"Here are people (fundamentalists) who really have an incompatible vision of the future from the Israelis, yet they have this tactical alliance," Ibish said.
He also said Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell will have to confront the pro-Israel forces in Congress to make a new peace push.
"The situation means that it will take a great deal of courage and patriotism for an elected official, even the president, to put pressure on Israel," he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/10/MN163005.DTL
4/11/02
1:15:57 PM
Israel, Palestine And You
by Bakari R. Akil II
Commentary
As the Palestinian president remains blockaded by Israeli Defense Forces, the United States demands that Arafat reign in terror. While death and destruction rages in Palestine, US Secretary of State Colin Powell travels throughout the "Mid-East" stating he is trying to galvanize Arab support for a cease fire. This is claimed on the heels of an Arab summit, which proposed and offered a peace plan to normalize relations with Israel and recognized its existence and "right" to exist in peace.
Further, as Israel suffers from another bombing attack, they claim this is proof positive why they should continue to place over 1.5 million Palestinians on house arrest, destroy their homes, schools and businesses and imprison or detain all Palestinian men between the ages of 15 to 60. Palestinian settlements are bombed to oblivion and places of worship have been disrespected and destroyed, both Christian and Muslim. To add final injury medical personnel and grieving family and friends are not permitted to recover their dead and wounded.
Mainstream news stations such as CNN, NBC, FOX and newspapers publicize the exact numbers of Israeli Defense Soldiers killed with slight mention of the scores of Palestinians civilians or foreign citizens (including US citizens) who have been killed or injured. Mere mention is given about journalists who have been shot at or had stun grenades thrown in their direction. This unfair coverage would not be an issue if alternative or more balanced views were provided by stations or networks with as much exposure that the media conglomerates have. However this is not the case.
Such an imbalanced portrayal and disregard for life by Israelis determined to destroy Palestine, Palestinians who bomb indiscriminately and world leaders and other individuals who have the ability to influence this situation is unacceptable. To believe that suicide bombings will cease by heaping massive destruction upon other innocent populations only increases the chance for violence and sets the stage for more destruction. Attaching a label of "terror" on any group or organization that opposes your view in order to ride the wave of "911" is inexcusable and is transparent to all.
The issue between Israel and Palestine will and does affect us all. If an army with tanks, jets, helicopters, artillery and well-equipped soldiers against groups of men with outdated machine guns, rifles and rocks can be characterized as a war, then all countries and groups that lack power to resist are in danger. Media using terms like raging battle and stiff resistance when Israel took control of almost all cities in less than 12 days is ridiculous. It is grandstanding and it does not allow objectivity by recipients of such information.
More specifically, all groups who oppose colonialism, racism, oppression and double speak are in danger. Arab countries as well as Muslim countries within the region are simmering at the constant disrespect and disregard they receive from Western countries and at this time the focal point is Israel. If atrocities continue unabated, chaos will result.
Since western nations are gravely dependent upon "middle eastern" oil and the US is doing all it can to engage in a war with Iraq, (which is leading the call to stop all oil production and the sale to western countries until they "reign" in Israel) the world may soon find itself into a downward spiral of war and catastrophic ruin.
However, all of this could be averted if there were more action and not acting by the US and countries in the European Union who exercise influence with Israel and if major power brokers in western society who have a vice grip on what people see in their daily newspapers or TV screens present a more balanced view.
This is true because no matter how much a government ignores the people it governs when the populace is ignorant or not paying attention, it always pays attention when the populace is upset or demands action and change. The world needs truth, not sanitized agenda based version of events. The issue of Israel and Palestine is not for the world's entertainment; it is more of a wake up call. Either we can rise up and face the day or roll over and go back to sleep. ___
Bakari Akil is an editor for Global Black News.com and can be reached at mailto:globalblacknews@hotmail.com
Source: http://www.rense.com/general23/op.htm
4/11/02
1:14:56 PM
Netanyahu insists military action must go on
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283749
4/11/02
1:07:22 PM
Jenin: 'My mother ran for help. A soldier shot her in the head'
by Justin Huggler, April 11, 2002, in the West Bank
Abdullah Washai had to watch his 17-year-old brother, Munir, slowly bleed to death. He took several hours to die. A hole had been ripped in his shoulder by a round from an Israeli helicopter.
When the boy's mother, Mariam, ran into the street screaming for help, Mr Washai says, Israeli soldiers shot her dead.
These are typical of the claims of those who have managed to escape the carnage of Jenin refugee camp, the scene of the worst fighting of Israel's onslaught in the West Bank.
The question that was facing Israel yesterday was: what will happen when the full story of what Israel has wreaked in the Jenin camp is revealed?
As the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv said in an editorial: "We can begin thinking today about the war after the war: the public relations war in the media in which Israel can be expected to be placed in the international defendant's seat, when the television screens around the world become filled with the spectacle of bodies lined up, destroyed houses and crying, distraught relatives."
The Israeli army was claiming last night it had finally taken control of all but a tiny section of Jenin camp. But the stories that have been coming out of Jenin for several days have been horrifying, although it is impossible to verify them because of censorship by the Israeli authorities, who have denied journalists access to the camp.
To reach Mr Washai and his grieving brothers, we had to scramble down a steep, wooded hillside, with the Israeli helicopters clattering overhead. As friends shuffled past to pay their respects, Mr Washai told his story, which cannot be confirmed, in the home of a friend who had taken the family in.
"My brother was shot on Saturday afternoon," he said. "A helicopter round came through the wall. It went into his chest and out through the back of his shoulder. We called for an ambulance, but when it came outside the Israeli soldiers shot at it. It had to go."
The International Red Cross has said Israeli authorities have been refusing to allow ambulances to treat the wounded all over the West Bank, which is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
"Munir bled until 10 o'clock that night," Mr Washai continued. "My mother went out into the street screaming for help for him. An Israeli soldier shot her in the head."
At one point he buried his head in his hands and appeared to have difficulty going on. He spent two days in the house with the bodies.
"Then we heard people gathering outside. We went out to try to get an ambulance, and the soldiers took us. They separated my brothers and me from my father. We haven't seen him since. As far as we know, the bodies of my brother and mother are still lying in the camp."
The soldiers held them for some days at a military camp and interrogated them. When they released them, they ordered them to go to Ramani, a Palestinian village near Jenin.
Yesterday afternoon, an ugly rumour was going around the village, where Mr Washai and others who have left the camp were told to go. There is no evidence but the Palestinians were saying bodies were being taken out of Jenin refugee camp in trucks.
Nahum Barnea, a well-known Israeli commentator, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth yesterday: "A number of discussions were held on this disturbing issue by military officials. The general conclusion was that some way has to be found to move the bodies into Israel. If Israel does not find some way to give them a dignified burial, the bodies will bury Israel."
There were other disturbing claims from those in Ramani. Mohammed al-Sadi told us he was used as a human shield by Israeli soldiers as they advanced through the camp.
"The soldiers smashed their way in through my door and started smashing a hole in the wall of my house so they could get from house to house without going in the street," Mr al-Sadi told us in the mosque, filled with refugees.
"The soldiers made four of us walk in front of their tank as it advanced. There were two of my cousins and another man. Then they took us to a house where the soldiers were inside. They put us outside the front door so if anyone shot we would be shot first."
Ariel Sharon toured an army base near Jenin refugee camp yesterday. "Our wonderful soldiers have to be able to continue this struggle," he said.
However, his Defence Ministry announced late yesterday that troops have pulled out of the West Bank villages of Yatta and Samua, near Jenin, and Qabatya, near Hebron.
*A United Nations agency said yesterday it had protested to Israel about the arrest of a member of staff and 104 students at a technical training centre it runs in Ramallah. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said: "Incursions into UNRWA installations by Israeli forces and detention of UNRWA trainees and staff is completely unacceptable and contrary to Israel's obligations to guarantee the security of UN staff."
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283752
4/11/02
1:01:27 PM
"Beware of the words 'internal security,' for they are the eternal cry of the oppressor." Voltaire
Ashcroft Has Ordered Secrecy In The Bush Administration
by Timothy W. Maier, April 8, 2002, Insight Magazine
Four weeks after terrorists attacked New York City and Washington, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft fired off a memo to federal agencies that set the tone for how the Bush administration now would honor the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The memorandum created a level of secrecy unsurpassed since FOIA became law in 1966.
The Oct. 12, 2001, directive instructed federal agencies to stall on releasing documents until a "full and deliberate consideration" of the implications of the disclosure of any such information was conducted. It superseded former attorney general Janet Reno's 1993 FOIA policy that put the burden on the federal agencies to justify any withholding of "FOIAed" documents.
"It's an indication to agencies to be more aggressive in denying FOIA requests and not be concerned about going to court," says American University Washington College of Law Professor Robert Vaughn. "It's not a very cost-effective policy," he says, although often requesters drop the issue if they are forced to fight in court.
The Ashcroft memo was only the beginning. In November, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13233 (EO13233), "Further Implementation of the Presidential Records Act," to restrict access to historical presidential papers. He even considered secret tribunals for terrorists but backed away under sharp criticism. "The Bush administration is mounting the most sustained assault on open government since the early Reagan administration or perhaps even since President Gerald Ford vetoed the FOIA amendments in 1974," argues Tom Blanton, director of the nonpartisan National Security Archives at George Washington University.
The FBI even has begun making visits to reporters. It subpoenaed Associated Press reporter John Sullivan's notes concerning a criminal case and recently visited Insight, warning that if certain FOIAed records were released to this magazine someone might break into a reporter's home and steal the documents.
Intimidation? Perhaps. But more likely the Bush administration simply is testing the waters, something most administrations have done in their first months, says Jim Wilson, chief counsel for the House Government Reform Committee. "There is a desire for fewer documents out of the door because they are withholding on principle" to protect the executive decision-making process, says Wilson. "This is not well-founded in law. It's hard to roll back the clock to before the 1920 Teapot Dome scandal."
With Bush enjoying a 75 percent approval rating, and a weary public nursing an intense suspicion of the media, few objected when the president ordered government libraries to destroy records concerning dams and water reservoirs or instructed federal agencies to scrub Websites of sensitive data < including those of 10 nuclear facilities with weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium. Never mind that many of those records easily could have been downloaded by terrorists at any time during the last decade < and, in some cases, still can be found through Google and other Internet search engines.
Eight months later, media complaints are at last being heard. "It's like the burning of books," says Michael Ravnitzky, a reporter with American Lawyer Media who has requested thousands of records. "It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has responded to press complaints about the growing secrecy by saying that the media are not on the same page as the public. "The press is asking a lot of questions that I suspect the American people would prefer not to be asked or answered," he said.
While that may be true, the Bush team is taking a hard hit in this fight as it finds itself embroiled in lawsuits from the left and the right. Larry Klayman, chairman of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, has filed three lawsuits to obtain energy records. The liberal Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Energy Department to expose details of Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force. And Public Citizen, a Naderite group, has filed a lawsuit to overturn EO13233 concerning presidential papers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to evaluate how Ashcroft's memorandum has affected FOIA implementation. And the GAO filed a lawsuit to obtain energy records, while the House Government Reform Committee is holding hearings later this month on FOIA problems.
But, as often before, it is Klayman who has taken the lead (see "The Watchdog of Washington," April 22). After seeing him dog Bill Clinton for eight years, few on the left expected Klayman would do the same with Bush. But he has. Asked how Bush compared with Clinton, Klayman responded, "Bush is more 'in your face' and 'we will see you in the courts,' whereas Clinton had this technique where they said they gave you everything, but later we would find they destroyed records."
Klayman won round one, as Cheney was forced to release thousands of records from the White House Energy Task Force. However, the Judicial Watch chairman says, "The records are heavily redacted." More disturbing, there appear to be at least 25,000 pages missing. That means more litigation, says Klayman.
Then there is Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, who is irate that even his oversight panel is being denied records. Angered by the president's reluctance to stand and deliver, Burton threatened to hold Bush in contempt if he didn't produce a series of subpoenaed documents, including the FBI files on a Boston murder case in which the FBI knowingly let an innocent man sit in jail for 30 years. The committee also wanted campaign-finance records and documents from the Drug Enforcement Administration concerning allegations that political pressure may have been applied to shut down a Houston drug probe.
The Bush administration compromised and released the FBI file in the Boston case, although those records have not been made available to the public. As for the campaign-finance records, a high-level government source tells Insight, Bush never will authorize their release.
Burton's frustration also extended to the administration's reluctance to produce records concerning last-minute Clinton pardons < materials that even Clinton had authorized for release. When the Bush team finally provided the documents, it asked Burton to return them, claiming they were released by mistake. Burton refused. The committee was so furious it issued a report called Justice Undone: Clemency Decision in the Clinton White House. "It is disappointing that the Bush administration would attempt to withhold key documents from the committee in an investigation like this, where the committee is looking into allegations of malfeasance at the highest levels of government," the report stated.
Blanton says Bush's reluctance to release records may reflect Cheney's ideas and experience as chief of staff at the White House under President Ford. It was Ford who vetoed H.R. 12471, a bill to strengthen the FOIA, calling it "unconstitutional and unworkable." Congress overrode Ford's veto. And it was Cheney who sought to punish gadfly journalist Seymour Hersh for his investigative reporting on the U.S. intelligence community, pushing for an FBI probe of Hersh and the New York Times.
Indeed Cheney has defended his recent efforts to keep secret his energy records by saying it is time to restore presidential powers eroded by "unwise compromises that have been made over the last 30 or 35 years."
Bush sides with the Cheney argument. "First, I am not going to let Congress erode the power of the executive branch," the president said during the fight for energy records. "I have a duty to protect the executive branch from legislative encroachment. I mean, for example, when the [congressional] GAO demands documents from us, we're not going to give them to them. These were privileged conversations. These were conversations when people come into our offices and brief us. Can you imagine having to give up every single transcript of what is advised me or the vice president? Our advice [from others] wouldn't be good and honest and open."
Meanwhile, reporters are finding that even résumés of senior government officials are being censored in some agencies. Educational profiles and awards provided to senior officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for instance, are off-limits. When reporter Todd Carter obtained resumes of EPA political appointees to post on the Natural Resources News Service Website (www.publicedcenter.org), the EPA directed him not to post them because of privacy concerns. The EPA then sent another batch of résumés that blacked out education levels, awards, affiliations and even job experience. When asked for the return of the unredacted résumés, Carter refused and posted résumés on the news-service Website showing that EPA had brought in former Enron employees.
Reporter Ravnitzky also has had a series of run-ins with FOIA officers. The Justice Department refused to release records from its Office of Legislative Affairs because he had "failed to address how American Lawyer Media intends to use the records subject to the request," according to the Justice Department.
For a 2001 story, Ravnitzky asked for a series of Security Summary Synopses concerning airports. In the aftermath of 9/11, he urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to expedite the request in order to inform the public which airports were not secure. The FAA has responded twice, arguing that "there is no identifiable urgency to inform the public." However, the FAA claimed, the records will be made available when someone there gets to it.
Source: http://www.insightmag.com/news/229694.html
4/11/02
12:53:33 PM
A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida for a long weekend to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. Because both had jobs, they had difficulty coordinating their travel schedules. It was decided that the husband would fly to Florida on a Thursday, and his wife would follow him the next day. Upon arriving as planned, the husband checked into the hotel. There he decided to open his laptop and send his wife an e-mail back in Minneapolis. However, he accidentally left off one letter in her address, and sent the e-mail without realizing his error.
In Houston, a widow had just returned from her husband's funeral. He was a minister of many years who had been 'called home to glory' following a heart attack. The widow checked her e-mail, expecting messages from relatives and friends. Upon reading the first message, she fainted and fell to the floor. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read:
To: My Loving Wife
From: Your Departed Husband
Subject: I've Arrived!
I've just arrived and have checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.
P.S. Sure is hot down here
4/11/02
12:47:41 PM
"The Miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate peace and beauty that are available now.... it is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of practice. We need only to find ways to bring our body and mind back to the present moment so we can touch that which is refreshing, healing, and wonderous."
Thich Nhat Hanh
4/11/02
12:41:38 PM
Fight Global Warming For $1 A Day
By Mike Tidwell
It's a lovely, breezy, early spring day, temperature in the forties, not a cloud in the sky. Inside my house, the temperature is a toasty 70 degrees as I reach for a cold beer from the refrigerator while turning the television to a spring training game. Later I'll unwind with a hot, steaming bath while listening to classical music CDs.
Just another glorious day of modern Western life -- and profligate energy use -- leading inexorably to runaway global warming, right?
Wrong. All but a small fraction of my household energy comes from renewable, CO2-neutral sources. The electricity arrives from photovoltaic panels on the roof, the heating from a pot-bellied stove that burns corn kernels, and the hot water from a separate rooftop panel that converts sunlight to infrared heat.
I must be rich to afford such hi-tech extravagances, right?
Wrong again. In my case, I'm a hopelessly middle-class, self-employed writer with a four-year-old son. My wife and I are spending the handsome sum of -- get this -- $30 per month to pay for them. That's all. For the cost of a cup of coffee a day we've gotten off the planet's back almost entirely. And here's the best part: Most of these planet-saving technologies are available and affordable right now for millions of American homeowners.
Last year's bombshell findings of the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change motivated us to plot a home energy revolution. Disastrous planetary warming of up to 10.4 degrees by 2100 is doubly horrifying each time you look out at your innocent son playing whiffle ball in the backyard with playmates destined to live 'til 2070. In the wake of our government's failure to implement even the modest reductions of the Kyoto Protocol, we decided to take matters into our own hands. If our leaders won't lead, we Americans owe it to the rest of the world to get the job done on our own, house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood.
So we developed a $7500 budget, and borrowed the money in the form of a home equity loan. Our first step was to eliminate unnecessary energy consumption and to use more efficiently the energy you can't live without. We switched to compact fluorescent light bulbs, bought an extremely high efficiency refrigerator and we began drying our clothes on a line. With these and other painless changes, including never *ever* illuminating an unoccupied room, we cut our electricity use a remarkable 52 percent.
It now became plausible to meet much of our electricity demand with our own solar generation. We found that we could go solar on a very tight budget. Our home state of Maryland offers grants of up to $3600 toward solar photovoltaic systems plus a generous tax deduction. With a hefty grant in hand, we went shopping for solar panels and got a big surprise: A solar advocacy group -- the Virginia Alliance for Solar Electricity --was heavily discounting the price of panels thanks to a subsidy from the U.S. Department of Energy. Taking advantage of these programs and installing much of the system ourselves, we were able to put 36 solar panels on our southeast-facing back roof, generating 70 percent our electricity.
Amazingly, having tackled the big hurdle of electricity, we had almost half of our original budget still in hand to apply to our next big challenge: heating our house. A typical American household spends 44 percent of its total energy budget heating and cooling the home. As for cooling, our sturdy old house has high ceilings, partial shading from trees, and a nice sleeping porch, so we get by with ceiling fans. But in winter we spend up to $200 a month heating with natural gas. Given that our house was already reasonably well insulated, there could be no new savings through conservation. So we had to find a new source of heat.
But what? Thankfully, a small company in Hutchinson, Minnesota answered the question. American Energy Systems engineered the first ever corn-burning stove designed to heat modern homes. This relatively small and easy-to-install stove easily heats a two thousand square foot home (ours is 1600 square feet).
Burning corn contributes almost nothing to global warming. Like all plant material, corn absorbs CO2 as it grows, and, with this stove, the corn burns so efficiently that the net CO2 released is negligible. Moreover, corn is cheaper than natural gas -- we'll save $200-$300 per winter -- and it's easily purchased even by big-city dwellers at outlying feed stores. Corn is an almost endless energy source, it's good for farmers, good for the climate, easy to use, saves money. No brainer.
Even after all of these purchases -- fridge, bulbs, photovoltaic panels, stove -- we still had enough money to tackle our last major source of greenhouse gas emission: heating our water. And here we got lucky. Our heroic local solar contractor stumbled across a used but perfectly good 5-year-old solar hot-water system and sold it to us installed for $1000, thus closing out our expenditures at just over $7500. The solar system "pre-heats" the water for our natural gas heater, so we're guaranteed hot water year round no matter what the weather.
The bottom line: Except for a little natural gas to cook our food and heat our water on really cloudy days, plus the small portion of our electricity that still comes from our local utility, we now contribute nothing to global warming through home energy use. In the process, we've reduced our estimated CO2 contribution from 19,488 pounds per year to just under 2010 pounds, a drop of almost 90 percent!!
We also do well by doing good. By conserving energy and switching to renewables we save an estimated $578 each year. That's $48.17 per month. Our monthly payment for the $7500 loan is $78.50. The difference is a little more than a dollar a day, a minuscule price to help preserve the planet. And that sum will quickly diminish as energy prices continue to rise. In ten years, when our loan is repaid, savings probably close to $1000 per year will go straight into our pockets.
Where's the catch? Actually, there is none. Other than occasionally loading and cleaning the corn stove, our lives of modern comfort are essentially unchanged. Except for one thing: We now live with greater hope for our son's future and that of the whole planet. If we can make such big changes so quickly and for so little money, the rest of the world, when it finally makes up its mind, can do the same.
Mike Tidwell is a writer and global warming activist in Takoma Park, MD. He can be reached at:
mailto:mwtidwell@aol.com 301 270.3722
This article is distributed courtesy of the Center for a New American Dream.
For more information: http://www.newdream.org
4/11/02
12:39:21 PM
"All truth passes through three stages.
First it is ridiculed.
Second it is violently opposed.
Third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer
4/11/02
12:35:02 PM
What's happening to our reactors?
(And why aren't we reacting to it logically and urgently?)
by Russell D. Hoffman and friends, April 10th, 2002
Contents:
1) Executive Summary/Layman's description of the problem
2) Allegations
3) Related current events and news items
On March 12th, 2002 it was discovered that the entire six-inch Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor (Ohio) had been CORRODED THROUGH by boric acid which dripped onto it from "circular cracks" in reactor nozzles (flanges) which stick out from the top of the RPV. All that held back the 2200 PSI hot water on the other side was the 3/16's inch Inner Stainless Steel liner (originally reported as 3/8ths of an inch thick, then as 1/2 inch thick, but they seem to have finally agreed on a number and it's only 3/16ths of an inch). The liner had already bulged about 1/8th of an inch. We were very near a LOSS OF COOLANT ACCIDENT possibly leading to a CORE MELTDOWN. Why did this happen (and why aren't you hearing about it on your nightly news show)?
Here's the problem: Many metal components in our nuclear reactors are made of alloys, which are made from mixtures of elements (for example, zinc and copper are used to make the alloy brass). Other elements used in alloys include iron, nickle, carbon, manganese, tungsten, titanium, molybdenum, chromium, manganese, etc.. A major reason for using alloys is that the combination of elements has properties that none of the individual elements has. For example, the alloy might be stronger, or less vulnerable to corrosion, or easier to weld than any of its components.
A major goal of alloy development is to make ductile, not brittle, materials. Consider two non-alloy materials, diamond and gold. Diamond, on the one hand (or finger), is very brittle (at room temperature) and fractures (or "cleaves") into pieces when struck with another very hard object. Gold, on the other hand, is very "ductile" at room temperature, meaning when it is struck with something, there is a small amount of "give" within the metal itself, which spreads the force of the blow out into the object being struck, and doesn't break apart the atomic structure of the metal (by, say, cleaving). (With each blow, some damage will be done by striking the object, and striking even a very ductile (malleable, soft, tractable) metal repeatedly with a hard object will, usually, eventually fracture all but the softest metals (gold, for instance, can be hammered very thin without fracturing)).
Vibration, heat, and radiation all tend to de-compose and destroy alloys. Harsh chemicals also destroy alloys. Understanding the vulnerabilities of alloys is part of the science of metallurgy and a key to understanding what recently happened at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor near Toledo, Ohio (as in, "HOLY TOLEDO, WE ALMOST HAD A MELTDOWN!), and what is potentially happening at nuclear power plants around the country (also jet engines, submarines, spacecraft, pipelines, chemical plants, elevators,etc.).
Alloys are complex, both mathematically and physically. When you mix .5% of one element, 99.4% of another, and .1% of a third, where does each atom actually go? Is there an ideal state that these atoms will stay in, and how can we get the mixture in that ideal state and keep it that way?
The answer is, we can't get any mixture in an ideal configuration of atoms, and even if we could, we can't keep it that way. Why not?
Because everything around us is moving with time. At an atomic level the elements -- the individual atoms within an alloy -- are each jiggling around, even in a solid steel alloy REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL. Heat makes the atoms move around more, and radiation also sends them traveling around. These effects (and vibration as well) usually combine (or occasionally they may cancel) with each other, producing localized areas where there are less atoms of one type and more atoms of another type, instead of the properly balanced mixture that was originally intended. As the metal ages, little microscopic pockets of various elements start to appear in the alloy; localized deviations from the ideal alloy mixture occur within the structure. When this happens, the material is no longer really an alloy. It's now just a non-homogeneous mixture of elements. This can be very weak compared to the strength of an alloy metal. These pockets can coalesce into sheets and/or chains, which are lines or sheets of weakness in the alloy which can lead to delamination, fracture, and catastrophic failure -- like the holes in a sheet of postage stamps.
There are some alloys which the alloy-making industry has self-called "SUPER"-alloys. Companies like General Electric, ABB, CE, B&W and Westinghouse (and the utilities that buy the components from them) used -- and use -- these alloys for welding such things as jet engines and nuclear reactor pressure vessels.
But it turns out that these so-self-called "SUPER" alloys aren't so super.
The "super" alloys are subject to embrittlement. Other names for "embrittlement" include Wigner's Disease, Ostwald-Ripening, Hardening, Spinodal Decomposition, Overageing (also spelled "overaging"), and "Sensitization" / Osteoporosis (cute; as in "sensitive to fracture").
Embrittlement causes -- or perhaps it is best to say enables -- "brittle fracture" and /or other opportunistic metal failure including fatigue and corrosion (possibly all at once). Embrittled metals are more easily destroyed when shocked by thermal or vibrational stress, over-pressure, etc. (as in, a terrorist crashing an airplane into a nuclear reactor). Also, chemicals can take hold within the microscopic fractures that start to form, and can even run down the chains and sheets, causing further corrosion and/or fatigue and/or brittle fracture etc..
Things start to get very additive when you have leaky, embrittled pipes dripping chemicals on embrittled components which are seldom if ever inspected. It's a bad combination. It nearly cost us the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor in Ohio, which could EASILY have led to a meltdown, and the loss of millions of American lives. There are 69 other Pressurized Water Reactors operating in America that need to be shut down forever. Our Boiling Water Reactors are also over-aged. All the alloys in the reactors are becoming embrittled as we speak, they are creating mountains of dangerous radioactive waste AS WE SPEAK (which Nevada has sworn never to take), and they are liable to catastrophically melt down at any moment. America can do better. America can turn to renewable energy solutions.
The pipes, pumps, valves and vessels that make up our nation's nuclear reactors are liable to completely break apart when something small happens which over-stresses them. For example, due to embrittlement, critical components could fail catastrophically as an "unexpected" result of an earthquake or a terrorist attack.
The reactors are, in effect "developing osteoporosis" and this is a very, very bad thing.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the whole nuclear industry only expect a small problem to ever occur at their reactors, like a pinhole leak which they can fix. That's wishful and dangerous thinking.
The real question isn't even WHEN will this alloy or that alloy become embrittled? Today? Tomorrow? 20 years from now? Because embrittlement starts immediately, so the only question is, how embrittled are the metals? The answers are hard to find, but the indicators are absolutely terrifying.
A reactor meltdown of the fuel, one of the most serious of all possible nuclear power plant accidents, can easily occur as a result of a cascading sequence of problems which, if the initiating event had happened at a younger, less EMBRITTLED reactor, would not have cascaded into catastrophe.
The NRC pretends to not understand the whole concept of embrittlement-leading-to-exponentially-cascading-failures (also known as chaos), nor of embrittlement or any other age-related "force-multipliers" for terrorists and earthquakes (rust never sleeps, either). The nuclear industry pretends to not understand all this as well. That is why I am writing this document. In the hope that you, dear reader, will want to understand it, and tell your Congresspeople what a mess we are in. We have to stop the juggernaut before the terrible risk the citizens are taking because of corporate and government blindness catches up with us.
In the rest of this document, I will attempt to show to you that, unequivocally, the apparent ignorance within the nuclear industry regarding problems with thermally-induced embrittlement of so-called "super" alloys is in fact long-term FRAUD over many decades, perpetrated upon the ratepayers, taxpayers, and citizens of the United States and other countries by the: Alloy suppliers, nuclear core designers and fabricators, and regulatory agencies (DOE and NRC). That it is a willful ignorance which the public allows to continue only at the greatest risk to our personal safety, our environmental safety, and or country's security in these troubled times.
In this effort, I am indebted to Dr. Siegel, who studied the matter thoroughly for many decades, who worked in the heart of the nuclear industry and who was fired three times -- from Westinghouse, from PSE&G, and from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- in each case, for refusing to be silent about what he had discovered about EMBRITTLEMENT and the fears he had about the threat to safety and security from these embrittled alloys' generic and endemic use in nuclear reactors/jet engines/space shuttles/ and even nuclear weapons. The IAEA, the NRC, DOE, EPRI, EEI, INPO, and the Nuclear Industry may not want to listen, and definitely doesn't want YOU -- the reader -- to listen, but it's time we all listen anyway.
Very quietly, starting around 1988, DOE and NRC have funded a huge program at the national laboratories (esp. ORNL, Argonne, Brookhaven, and possibly LLNL and LANL), Siegel guestimates that by the time he saw a long list of titles (by 1996, approximately, in other words 8 or 10 years later) the amount of money spent in DOE/NRC contracts could have topped 10 to 40 billions dollars of your tax dollars -- thousands of reports. And yet they still act as though they have no idea...
Russell Hoffman
A Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
xoxox
What follows includes a number of names and dates, with some followed by question-marks, indicating the exact reference has proven hard to find in the time available. Nevertheless we feel this document provides ample proof of FRAUD in the so-called SUPER-ALLOYS business. They knew these reactors would fall apart. They expected us to run out and buy replacement RPVs and so on. Instead we're letting the nuclear power companies run the reactors even as they fall apart!
[Note: The rest of this document has been clipped to fit in most email systems, but it is available in its entirety online:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/besse/davisbe7.htm
4/11/02
12:31:53 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS PROPOSE GRAZING LEASE BUYOUT
WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2002 (ENS) - A coalition of conservation groups has adopted an unusual strategy for reducing the impact of livestock grazing on public lands. In a letter sent this week to 25,000 public lands ranchers, the coalition is seeking support for a proposed buyout of public lands leases that would pay ranchers to keep their animals off of national forests and grasslands.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-10-07.html
RUSSIA MAY IMPORT BRITISH NUCLEAR WASTE
MOSCOW, Russia, April 10, 2002 (ENS) - Moves by Russia to import nuclear waste from the United Kingdom and United States were clarified in the first meeting of environmentalists with the chief of the Russian Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) Alexander Rumyantsev since he assumed the post last year.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-10-01.html
EU LAWMAKERS MAKE PRODUCERS RESPONSIBLE FOR ELECTROSCRAP
STRASBOURG, France, April 10, 2002 (ENS) - The European Parliament is determined to ban consumers from throwing old computers, hairdryers, cookers, toasters and other such appliances in the bin with unsorted waste and to make individual producers finance the recycling or safe disposal of electroscrap.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-10-02.html
HUNTERS DRIVING ASIAN SPECIES TO EXTINCTION
KHAO YAI NATIONAL PARK, Thailand, April 10, 2002 (ENS) - Uncontrolled hunting and trade form the greatest threats to wildlife and wild lands in Asia, charges a group of experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The group, which held a workshop in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park last week, said long term studies show that current patterns of hunting and wildlife trade are not sustainable, and could drive wildlife to extinction.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-10-06.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 10, 2002
New York's Acid Rain Rule Struck Down
Researchers Look to Mop Carbon Dioxide from Air
Oil Spill Flows Into Detroit River
Bush Asked to Oppose Japan Whaling
Resources Bills Pass House
EPA Research Administrator Sworn In
Solar Cells Improved by Nanotechnology
Virginia Proposes Toll on Trash
Tennessee Celebrates State Natural Areas
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-10-09.html
4/11/02
12:12:03 PM
The Brilliant Offer Israel Never Made
To get peace talks started again means confronting a few myths
by David Clark, April 10, 2002, The Guardian of London
Yesterday's carnage in the West Bank provided a bloody illustration of the limits of Ariel Sharon's military strategy. Armed force cannot provide his people with the security they crave because the terrorist infrastructure he has set out to destroy consists of little more than the willingness of ordinary Palestinians to kill themselves while taking as many Israelis with them as possible. This week, the hatred on which it is built burns deeper than ever. In the absence of a meaningful peace process, further atrocities are inevitable, and when they happen, the consequences may be far worse than anything we have so far seen.
Israeli leaders are trapped in a mindset in which further military escalation appears to be their only option. Yet it is difficult to see how much further they can go without triggering a wider regional conflagration that might threaten the state of Israel itself. The "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians from large tracts of the occupied territories? The murder of Arafat? The consequences are unthinkable. Left to his own devices, Ariel Sharon may yet turn out to be the ultimate suicide bomber.
Into the maelstrom steps Colin Powell on a mission that could represent the best hope of avoiding such a catastrophe. His task is clear: to secure a ceasefire and persuade both parties to return to the negotiating table. To succeed, however, he will need to do more than indulge in hand-wringing. He will need to come armed with some harsh truths and some even harsher consequences.
With Israel, it will be necessary to challenge some deeply held illusions about the peace process and why it broke down. Chief among these is the assertion that the Palestinians rejected a "generous" Israeli offer at Camp David two years ago. It is a view that spans the Israeli political spectrum, uniting the hard right with born-again rejectionists like Ehud Barak, confirming all in their belief that political dialogue has been exhausted and that Arafat is an inveterate terrorist. It is time for some constructive revisionism.
Barak's proposal for a Palestinian state based on 91% of the West Bank sounded substantive, but even the most cursory glance at the map revealed the bad faith inherent in it. It showed the West Bank carved into three chunks, surrounded by Israeli troops and settlers, without direct access to its own international borders.
The land-swap that was supposed to compensate the Palestinians for the loss of prime agricultural land in the West Bank merely added insult to injury. The only territory offered to Palestinian negotiators consisted of stretches of desert adjacent to the Gaza Strip that Israel currently uses for toxic waste dumping. The proposals on East Jerusalem were no better, permitting the Palestinians control of a few scattered fragments of what had been theirs before 1967.
Barak offered the trappings of Palestinian sovereignty while perpetuating the subjugation of the Palestinians. It is not difficult to see why they felt unable to accept. The only surprise is how widely the myth of the "generous offer" is now accepted.
For this, Bill Clinton must accept responsibility. With the end of his presidency in sight, Clinton saw time running out along with the hope that he might be remembered in history for something more dignified than blow jobs in the Oval Office. He needed a quick deal rather than a just deal and chose to attempt to bounce Arafat into accepting Israel's terms. When this failed, Clinton vented his wrath at the Palestinian leader.
Maladroit diplomacy played its part, but the failure at Camp David was the product of a deeper problem for which the Palestinians must also accept their share of blame. With the benefit of hindsight, the 1993 Oslo agreement that embodied the land-for-peace compromise was a mirage. Although both sides signed up to a two-state solution, neither was completely sincere in accepting its implications. The Palestinians clung to maximalist demands on refugee returns in the hope that demographics would allow them to rewrite the past. The Israelis insisted on territorial demands that made a mockery of the idea of a viable Palestinian state.
It is here that the Saudi peace initiative has come to play such a critical role in getting the peace process back on track. In calling for Israel's withdrawal from all of the occupied territories and holding out the prospect of a compromise on the refugees that would meet Israeli concerns, it forces both sides finally to come to terms with each other's existence.
Tony Blair's call for the Saudi plan to be enshrined in a new UN resolution is a tacit acceptance that Camp David was a botched job. Progress will now depend on Colin Powell's willingness to spell that out to Sharon and Arafat this week.
David Clark was a special adviser at the Foreign Office until May 2001.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian
4/11/02
11:38:49 AM
t r u t h o u t | 04.11
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Suicide Bombing Stiffens Israel's Resolve | Sharon Rejects U.S. Demands for Withdrawal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Enron Taught Other Corporations How to Cook the Books
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11A.Cook.Books.htm
Pelosi | Democrats Prevent GOP Attempt to Undermine Campaign Finance Reform
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11B.GOP.Attempt.htm
A Guilty Plea From Andersen's Enron Auditor
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11C.Auditor.Guilty.htm
Scott Galindez | Dear George, Are you an Eco-Terrorist?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11D.SG.George.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 47
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11E.Stonewall.htm
A Battle is Brewing in Congress Over GOP Welfare Plans
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11F.Welfare.Battle.htm
California to Take Inmates DNA by Force
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11G.DNA.Force.htm
Afghan Poppy Eradication Plan Begins
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.11H.Afghan.Poppy.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
4/10/02
7:20:32 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
UN agency offers Zambian poachers food for guns - ZAMBIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15422/story.htm
Still no restart date for BP's LOOP-La. oil pipeline - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15434/story.htm
NRC to review safety issue at Wis. Energy nuke - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15419/story.htm
UPDATE - Senators to push for Alaska oil drilling this week - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15418/story.htm
UPDATE - Olympic agrees to $75 mln pipeline blast settlement - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15436/story.htm
US review finds no widespread corrosion at nuke plants - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15415/story.htm
California battles to avoid future water crisis - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15423/story.htm
BP makes first spot greenhouse gas emission trades - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15414/story.htm
Climate change will unbalance ecosystems - study - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15433/story.htm
European MTBE drops faster than gasoline - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15438/story.htm
Britain cracks down on abandoned vehicles - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15440/story.htm
Greenpeace protesters invade Whitehall - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15429/story.htm
Freak winds, rain dump Sahara sand on Switzerland - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15437/story.htm
Henderson bullish on Asia as it rides global pick-up - SINGAPORE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15420/story.htm
Dutch timber yard workers clash with Greenpeace - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15426/story.htm
Japanese politician defends nuclear remarks - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15417/story.htm
INTERVIEW - China grain imports to surge as water dries up - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15430/story.htm
Tenor appeals for Korea's dogs - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15424/story.htm
India's National Aluminium in nickel project - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15439/story.htm
German SolarWorld says sales up 60 pct in 2001 - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15421/story.htm
EU greenhouse gas trading scheme seen facing delay - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15435/story.htm
French union plans nuclear power cuts on April 16 - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15416/story.htm
UPDATE - EU law to make firms pay for appliance recycling - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15425/story.htm
EU earmarks 215 mln euros for smart energy plans - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15431/story.htm
China Grains-No swift farm imports seen as trade awaits GMO - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15427/story.htm
Quebec inks treaty with Inuit, sees hydro potential - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15432/story.htm
Crazy ants wiping out famed island crabs - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15428/story.htm
4/10/02
7:19:11 PM
Startling new scientific discovery
A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. This new element has been tentatively named "Administratium." Administratium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 111 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Administratium has no electrons, it is inert.
However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Administratium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second.
Administratium has a normal half-life of three years; it does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization. In fact, Administratium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization causes some morons to become neutrons forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Administratium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass."
You will know it when you see it...
4/10/02
7:17:49 PM
Unbelievable Destruction
by Jim Wallis
I spent this evening with two dear friends whose lives are committed to peace and justice, and whose hearts are breaking over the horrific violence in the Middle East. Jean Zaru is a Palestinian Quaker whose daughter just told her on the telephone, "Mother, if you came back to Ramallah, you wouldn't recognize it. The Ramallah you knew is not here anymore." Jean left there on March 1 for a speaking tour in Europe and America, and is now trapped outside her own country. Emotional conversations with family members tell of "unbelievable destruction." Her daughter's family has had no food, water, or electricity for days. Jean's relatives, like most Palestinians in Israeli-occupied West Bank cities, can't leave their homes, except when ordered to by Israeli soldiers going house to house - like two of her elderly sisters-in-law who were forced to stand in the cold rain until 1:30 in the morning while their home was ransacked. "I don't mean to just tell my personal stories," apologizes Jean Zaru, "but unfortunately these are cases of what everyone is experiencing now."
Then Michael and Deborah Lerner came to our home for dinner. They are in Washington to protest what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinians. Michael is the editor of Tikkun magazine and a rabbi who condemns the Palestinian suicide bombings in the strongest terms, loves Israel, but hates what its government is doing on the West Bank. "When such a slaughter is going on, one has to cry out!" anguishes Michael. Both believe the daily carnage and pain in the Middle East again reveals the futility and tragedy of the cycle of violence.
Attacks by the Israeli army on the cities and refugee camps of the West Bank have entered a second week. Reports from the international media, human rights organizations, and both Palestinians and Israelis grow in daily horror. Israeli tanks roll through the streets of occupied cities, stopping food shipments, disrupting water lines, shelling and rocketing the civilian infrastructure, raiding hospitals, and even preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded and dying. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, traditional site of the birth of Jesus, remains under siege. Reports suggest that hundreds may have been already killed, thousands injured, and thousands more arrested, detained, and interrogated.
Prime Minister Sharon claims to be uprooting those responsible for a horrible wave of terrorist suicide bombings in Israel, which killed more than 100 people in the last month. And those who committed the bombings claim to be resisting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
"Terrorism!" shouts one side. "Occupation!" shouts back the other side. Each side seems to have only one message, never hearing the other. "Occupation! Terrorism!" The competing claims fly through the air while innocent civilians die. Both realities are true. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal and immoral, and it must end. Palestinians are entitled to live in peace and security without blockades, closures, and the daily harassment of their entire population. But bombing innocent Israeli civilians is not the way to end the occupation. The moral truth that condemns both is that there is nothing - no cause, no ideology, no true religion -that can ever justify the deliberate killing of civilians. That is the definition of terrorism.
Whether it is a Palestinian with an explosive belt blowing up a Seder celebration or an Israeli pilot in an Apache gunship firing rockets into a refugee camp - it is terrorism. Elderly people and children, women and men, deliberately killed for political objectives is terrorism.
The Israelis have the superior firepower, and, in these past 18 months of bloody conflict, Palestinian deaths (1,381) outnumber Israeli deaths (434). But the mothers and fathers of dead children take no interest in talk of relative political power or symmetry. Dead children simply rend the souls of their parents and cause the God who created those children to weep.
The immediate question is how to stop the current violence. It will take immediate action by the U.S. and the world community to achieve a situation in which a secure State of Israel and a viable State of Palestine live side by side in peace. The United States should immediately work to bring about the creation of an international protection force to shield both Israelis and Palestinians from further violence, and call a regional peace conference including Israel, the Arab states, along with religious leaders and civil society organizations.
There has been enough killing - it's time for peace.
We're working with another courageous rabbi, Arthur Waskow, on expressing this in a statement. We'll send it out in a day or so for you to read, respond, and pass along to others.
Source: http://www.SoJo.net
4/10/02
7:15:26 PM
Dear Editors:
I reached out to you a few weeks ago regarding National Geographic's online assessment of the state of the planet. Pinpoint Earth's richest and most endangered natural regions with Nationalgeographic.com's WildWorld at:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld
Monitor the Earth's "vital signs" through status reports, news items and interactive features with Nationalgeographic.com's Earthpulse at:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse .
Please provide a link, list these sites as a resource, write a feature article or highlight these sites in your web guide. And if you do please drop us a quick note.
Best,
Katherine Foster
On Behalf of National Geographic
Connors Communications
212-807-7500 x6846
4/10/02
7:12:54 PM
We The People Fights on...
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23357
Please take 17 minutes and watch the latest attempt by "We The People" to get the government to respond to charges of unlawful application of tax laws and intimidation against citizens.
http://www.connectlive.com/events/wethepeople/wethepeople-040802-archive.ram
IRS: Certificate of Non-Existence. Here is confirmed Proof researched for you.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/irstax.htm
U.S. law both pre-Patriot and post-Patriot
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23368
THE PORK (PIG) BOOK
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23370
WE ARE LOSING IT FOLKS!
Senate approves police searches and seizures without warrants.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/search&seize.htm
While we were sleeping somebody stole America.
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23263
4/10/02
6:58:45 PM
What's happening to our reactors?
(And why aren't we reacting to it logically and urgently?)
by Russell D. Hoffman and friends
April 10th, 2002
Contents:
1) Executive Summary/Layman's description of the problem
2) Allegations
3) Related current events and news items
On March 12th, 2002 it was discovered that the entire six-inch Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor (Ohio) had been CORRODED THROUGH by boric acid which dripped onto it from "circular cracks" in reactor nozzles (flanges) which stick out from the top of the RPV. All that held back the 2200 PSI hot water on the other side was the 3/16's inch Inner Stainless Steel liner (originally reported as 3/8ths of an inch thick, then as 1/2 inch thick, but they seem to have finally agreed on a number and it's only 3/16ths of an inch). The liner had already bulged about 1/8th of an inch. We were very near a LOSS OF COOLANT ACCIDENT possibly leading to a CORE MELTDOWN. Why did this happen (and why aren't you hearing about it on your nightly news show)?
Here's the problem: Many metal components in our nuclear reactors are made of alloys, which are made from mixtures of elements (for example, zinc and copper are used to make the alloy brass). Other elements used in alloys include iron, nickle, carbon, manganese, tungsten, titanium, molybdenum, chromium, manganese, etc.. A major reason for using alloys is that the combination of elements has properties that none of the individual elements has. For example, the alloy might be stronger, or less vulnerable to corrosion, or easier to weld than any of its components.
A major goal of alloy development is to make ductile, not brittle, materials. Consider two non-alloy materials, diamond and gold. Diamond, on the one hand (or finger), is very brittle (at room temperature) and fractures (or "cleaves") into pieces when struck with another very hard object. Gold, on the other hand, is very "ductile" at room temperature, meaning when it is struck with something, there is a small amount of "give" within the metal itself, which spreads the force of the blow out into the object being struck, and doesn't break apart the atomic structure of the metal (by, say, cleaving). (With each blow, some damage will be done by striking the object, and striking even a very ductile (malleable, soft, tractable) metal repeatedly with a hard object will, usually, eventually fracture all but the softest metals (gold, for instance, can be hammered very thin without fracturing)).
Vibration, heat, and radiation all tend to de-compose and destroy alloys. Harsh chemicals also destroy alloys. Understanding the vulnerabilities of alloys is part of the science of metallurgy and a key to understanding what recently happened at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Reactor near Toledo, Ohio (as in, "HOLY TOLEDO, WE ALMOST HAD A MELTDOWN!), and what is potentially happening at nuclear power plants around the country (also jet engines, submarines, spacecraft, pipelines, chemical plants, elevators,etc.).
Alloys are complex, both mathematically and physically. When you mix .5% of one element, 99.4% of another, and .1% of a third, where does each atom actually go? Is there an ideal state that these atoms will stay in, and how can we get the mixture in that ideal state and keep it that way?
The answer is, we can't get any mixture in an ideal configuration of atoms, and even if we could, we can't keep it that way. Why not?
Because everything around us is moving with time. At an atomic level the elements -- the individual atoms within an alloy -- are each jiggling around, even in a solid steel alloy REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL. Heat makes the atoms move around more, and radiation also sends them traveling around. These effects (and vibration as well) usually combine (or occasionally they may cancel) with each other, producing localized areas where there are less atoms of one type and more atoms of another type, instead of the properly balanced mixture that was originally intended. As the metal ages, little microscopic pockets of various elements start to appear in the alloy; localized deviations from the ideal alloy mixture occur within the structure. When this happens, the material is no longer really an alloy. It's now just a non-homogeneous mixture of elements. This can be very weak compared to the strength of an alloy metal. These pockets can coalesce into sheets and/or chains, which are lines or sheets of weakness in the alloy which can lead to delamination, fracture, and catastrophic failure -- like the holes in a sheet of postage stamps.
There are some alloys which the alloy-making industry has self-called "SUPER"-alloys. Companies like General Electric, ABB, CE, B&W and Westinghouse (and the utilities that buy the components from them) used -- and use -- these alloys for welding such things as jet engines and nuclear reactor pressure vessels.
But it turns out that these so-self-called "SUPER" alloys aren't so super.
The "super" alloys are subject to embrittlement. Other names for "embrittlement" include Wigner's Disease, Ostwald-Ripening, Hardening, Spinodal Decomposition, Overageing (also spelled "overaging"), and "Sensitization" / Osteoporosis (cute; as in "sensitive to fracture").
Embrittlement causes -- or perhaps it is best to say enables -- "brittle fracture" and /or other opportunistic metal failure including fatigue and corrosion (possibly all at once). Embrittled metals are more easily destroyed when shocked by thermal or vibrational stress, over-pressure, etc. (as in, a terrorist crashing an airplane into a nuclear reactor). Also, chemicals can take hold within the microscopic fractures that start to form, and can even run down the chains and sheets, causing further corrosion and/or fatigue and/or brittle fracture etc..
Things start to get very additive when you have leaky, embrittled pipes dripping chemicals on embrittled components which are seldom if ever inspected. It's a bad combination. It nearly cost us the Davis-Besse nuclear reactor in Ohio, which could EASILY have led to a meltdown, and the loss of millions of American lives. There are 69 other Pressurized Water Reactors operating in America that need to be shut down forever. Our Boiling Water Reactors are also over-aged. All the alloys in the reactors are becoming embrittled as we speak, they are creating mountains of dangerous radioactive waste AS WE SPEAK (which Nevada has sworn never to take), and they are liable to catastrophically melt down at any moment. America can do better. America can turn to renewable energy solutions.
The pipes, pumps, valves and vessels that make up our nation's nuclear reactors are liable to completely break apart when something small happens which over-stresses them. For example, due to embrittlement, critical components could fail catastrophically as an "unexpected" result of an earthquake or a terrorist attack.
The reactors are, in effect "developing osteoporosis" and this is a very, very bad thing.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the whole nuclear industry only expect a small problem to ever occur at their reactors, like a pinhole leak which they can fix. That's wishful and dangerous thinking.
The real question isn't even WHEN will this alloy or that alloy become embrittled? Today? Tomorrow? 20 years from now? Because embrittlement starts immediately, so the only question is, how embrittled are the metals? The answers are hard to find, but the indicators are absolutely terrifying.
A reactor meltdown of the fuel, one of the most serious of all possible nuclear power plant accidents, can easily occur as a result of a cascading sequence of problems which, if the initiating event had happened at a younger, less EMBRITTLED reactor, would not have cascaded into catastrophe.
The NRC pretends to not understand the whole concept of embrittlement-leading-to-exponentially-cascading-failures (also known as chaos), nor of embrittlement or any other age-related "force-multipliers" for terrorists and earthquakes (rust never sleeps, either). The nuclear industry pretends to not understand all this as well. That is why I am writing this document. In the hope that you, dear reader, will want to understand it, and tell your Congresspeople what a mess we are in. We have to stop the juggernaut before the terrible risk the citizens are taking because of corporate and government blindness catches up with us.
In the rest of this document, I will attempt to show to you that, unequivocally, the apparent ignorance within the nuclear industry regarding problems with thermally-induced embrittlement of so-called "super" alloys is in fact long-term FRAUD over many decades, perpetrated upon the ratepayers, taxpayers, and citizens of the United States and other countries by the: Alloy suppliers, nuclear core designers and fabricators, and regulatory agencies (DOE and NRC). That it is a willful ignorance which the public allows to continue only at the greatest risk to our personal safety, our environmental safety, and or country's security in these troubled times.
In this effort, I am indebted to Dr. Siegel, who studied the matter thoroughly for many decades, who worked in the heart of the nuclear industry and who was fired three times -- from Westinghouse, from PSE&G, and from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- in each case, for refusing to be silent about what he had discovered about EMBRITTLEMENT and the fears he had about the threat to safety and security from these embrittled alloys' generic and endemic use in nuclear reactors/jet engines/space shuttles/ and even nuclear weapons. The IAEA, the NRC, DOE, EPRI, EEI, INPO, and the Nuclear Industry may not want to listen, and definitely doesn't want YOU -- the reader -- to listen, but it's time we all listen anyway.
Very quietly, starting around 1988, DOE and NRC have funded a huge program at the national laboratories (esp. ORNL, Argonne, Brookhaven, and possibly LLNL and LANL), Siegel guestimates that by the time he saw a long list of titles (by 1996, approximately, in other words 8 or 10 years later) the amount of money spent in DOE/NRC contracts could have topped 10 to 40 billions dollars of your tax dollars -- thousands of reports. And yet they still act as though they have no idea...
Russell Hoffman
A Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
4/10/02
6:57:08 PM
Dear Folks,
We are writing to you because you are listed as a contact person for an organization endorsing the upcoming march on Washington.
We are longtime social justice and environmental filmmakers with many shows broadcast on PBS. We have just completed "ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE: Impressions of the World Social Forum" which offers our impressions of this terrific festival of global action for justice and the environment that was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil last February. Seattle AFSC just bought 20 copies to send around the country.
We have also recently completed "NOT FOR SALE" about the global issue of patents on living creatures - seeds, genes, human cell lines, plants, and animals - and what that means for farmers, indigenous people, and the sacredness of life. NOT FOR SALE is our 3rd in a series of short films about the implications of genetic engineering, preceded by RISKY BUSINESS: BIO-TECHNOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE and GENE BLUES: DILEMMAS OF DNA TESTING.
It is too late to get these films to you to use in the runup to the March on Washington, but both would be very useful for your educational work afterward. We have been showing them in the Seattle region and we are showing these films in Corvallis, Oregon on April 18 and in Portland, Oregon on the evening of the 19th.
Are you interested? You can find out more about us and about RISKY BUSINESS and GENE BLUES by checking out our website – http://www.movingimages.org
Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young
PS - more info
Not for Sale [2002] 32 min.
Global trade agreements expand what corporations can own and control - from things like machines to knowledge and even living creatures. What does this mean for the environment, our food supply, and human rights?
In this new documentary, farmers, indigenous people, and anti-globalization activists advocate for a world where life is not a commodity but something to be treasured and protected.
With beautiful footage from the head waters of the Amazon, farms in Washington and Iowa, as well as India and Peru, plus glimpses of the Seattle WTO protests, NOT FOR SALE brings this global issue into focus with stories of everyday people. Commentary provided by Vandana Shiva, Andrew Kimbrell, Elizabeth Bravo, Steve Jones, Anuradha Mittal [Food first], Debra Harry [Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism] and others.
Credits:
Producer: Melissa Young Co-directors: Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young Photographer/editor: Mark Dworkin Additional photography: Manuel Pallares, Diana Wilmar, Marianne Kaplan, National Park Service
Music: Original music by Jim Alexander. Additional music from Tiempo Meneado, Rumillajta, Shashank, Shivkumar Sharma,Herman Edward, Hell Bent and Heaven Bound, Linda Allen
Screenings: Preview screening, Harvard University conference, Nov. 2001; Seattle Independent Media Center, Jan. 2002, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival and Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival, April 2002, Irvine Human Rights Film Festival, May, 2002, university classes
Some initial review comments: "A brilliant documentary that finally demonstrates the connection between biodiversity and cultural diversity, between resistance to globalization and social and environmental justice." Devon Pena, University of Washington
"Not for Sale tackles the serious issue of genetic patenting - a practice which threatens entire cultures - in a straight forward and sometimes playful way that makes this fundamental threat to the world's food easy to digest." Matt Parish, Boston Independent Media Center
"Disturbing but liberating." Francis Boyle, attorney, University of Illinois
"The future of food and medicine are in jeopardy. This film explains why." Linda Setchell, Safe Foods Campaign
"An important contribution to the discussion of genetics and society." Paul Billings, MD, GeneSage Inc., CRG board
"Not for Sale is a clear, comprehensive and honest look at the consequences of genetic engineering and patents on life - on lives around the world." Jill Rubin, Food Safety Advocate, MASSPIRG
"I was very grateful for the variety of voices and faces. It was also intriguing and useful (and a little horrifying) to have the point framed with the national park story. It helps to highlight the way we think "life" belongs to no one." Susan Youmans, Executive Council of Episcopal Church of US.
NOT FOR SALE is available from Bullfrog Films (1-800-543-FROG)
as are RISKY BUSINESS and GENE BLUES. Be sure to mention how you will be using these films in order to get the activist discount which makes them quite affordable]
Another World is Possible
Impressions of the 2002 World Social Forum
[2002] 24 minutes
What if 51,000 people from 131 countries put their heads together to discuss what is wrong with the world and how to work together to change it? In early 2002, public officials, representatives of non-governmental organizations, indigenous nations, farmers, and labor, including 11,000 young people, gathered in Porto Alegre, Brazil for the World Social Forum. Called in response to the elite gathering of the World Economic Forum, this week of workshops, panel discussions and high-spirited demonstrations was an inspiration for those attending.
This international event, covered extensively in other parts of the world, was virtually ignored by the U.S. press. Another World is Possible presents a sampling of the issues and events at this enormous and creative gathering. Includes a sampling of the spirit and pageantry of the World Social Forum and extended comments from Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein, and many others from throughout the world. Produced by Seattle Area independent TV journalists, Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young.
Copies: Limited time offer - $30 including shipping in the U.S.; $35 including shipping outside of the U.S.
Moving Images
2408 East Valley Street
Seattle, WA 98112
4/10/02
6:51:23 PM
Ban On Pollution Credit Swaps Voided
Ruling deals a blow to state's efforts to reduce acid rain in Adirondacks
by Dina Cappiello, April 10, 2002
A state law that penalized New York power plants for trading pollution credits to 14 other states was voided by a federal judge on Tuesday, removing a key part of the state's strategy to reduce acid rain in the Adirondacks.
U.S. District Court Judge David N. Hurd in Utica ruled that the 2000 Air Pollution Mitigation Law was unconstitutional and conflicted with the federal Clean Air Act by restructuring the nationwide trading system whereby tons of sulfur dioxide emissions, or credits, are swapped freely between states.
New York's law placed a 100 percent penalty on utilities that traded credits of the acid rain-forming gas to Midwestern and Southern states, which are responsible for roughly 70 percent of the pollution that falls as acid rain over New York.
In his decision, Hurd sided with the Clean Air Markets Group, a consortium of electricity generators and emissions traders, including NRG Energy Inc., a company that owns five power plants in the state. The parties claimed that the restrictions on trading by New York utilities decreased the market value of credits from the state.
The group filed the suit against the state in November 2000, six months after Gov. George Pataki signed the law. The judge's ruling makes the law null and void and bars the state from enforcing it.
"This clears the way for in-state power plants to sell their pollution credits to any power plant who cares to buy them,'' said Marc Violette, a spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who represented the governor in the litigation. "There is a multi-pronged effort that we are engaged in to stop the flow of out-of-state pollution into New York state. This law was one of the prongs.''
For the Adirondacks, a region where federal reductions in air pollution have yet to result in improvements in lakes and soils, the decision is an unwelcome blow, especially with the Bush administration considering unraveling another part of the state's acid rain arsenal, the lawsuits New York has waged against Midwestern plants that have upgraded their facilities without coming into compliance with the Clean Air Act.
Tuesday's decision could also limit the effectiveness of a 50 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide required by in-state power plants announced by the governor in February because the cuts were based in part on the partial ban on trading pollution credits.
A Pataki spokeswoman said that the administration would be reviewing its legal options.
"Obviously we are very disappointed with the decision. It has been part of the governor's acid rain strategy,'' said spokeswoman Jennifer Farina.
The emissions-credit system was designed to offer utilities flexibility in complying with federal air pollution regulations. It sets a cap on the number of tons of sulfur dioxide that can be released into the environment by the nation's power plants but allows the utilities to trade the credits among them.
A plant that emits less than it is allotted can hold onto or sell unused pollution credits to other plants. Plants buying credits can then use them to exceed the limits on pollution set by the government.
New York has been one of the biggest exporters of sulfur dioxide credits, something that state legislators predicted when they pressured Congress in the early 1990s to make trading regulations more regional.
A 2000 General Accounting Office report that analyzed the emissions trading system nationwide between 1993 and 1998 found that New York utilities traded more than 200,000 of the 866,000 tons of sulfur dioxide they were allotted under the federal acid rain program.
But nearly 10 percent of what was traded -- or 70,000 tons -- was sold to upwind states whose power plant emissions generate acid rain over New York.
The Air Pollution Mitigation Law was seen as a way to renew pressure on the federal government. The law attempted to steer the sale of credits from New York utilities away from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Wisconsin.
"The root of our enthusiasm for the law was to send a message to Washington that the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, while a good start, were insufficient to stop acid rain,'' said John Sheehan, a spokesman for the Adirondack Council. "New York was essentially prepared to interfere with the program if the federal government wasn't going to protect us.''
The companies that brought the suit argued that the solution to New York's acid rain problem should be left up to Congress.
Judge Hurd went further in his decision, by challenging the law's effectiveness at the intent of rerouting the pollution.
He pointed out that out-of-state plants polluted less in 2000 than they were allotted and that the law does not prohibit trading between New York utilities, which are responsible for between 13 and 38 percent of the pollution generating acid rain within the state.
Thirdly, Hurd stated that most of the credits -- equal to a ton of sulfur dioxide, and sold for roughly $150 each -- imported by upwind states are from states other than New York.
"I don't think the judge left much room for the state to enforce the law,'' said Norman Fichthorn, the attorney for the Clean Air Markets Group. "As a result of this decision, the law has no legal effect anymore.''
Source: http://www.timesunion.com
4/10/02
6:48:36 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
MADE IN CHINA
China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, has already come under fire from environmental and social activists for the massive ecological and demographic changes it will cause. Now there's a new reason to be concerned: A government meteorologist predicted today that the reservoir created by the dam would raise local temperatures, thereby changing the face of agriculture in the Chongqing and Hubei regions of the Yangtze River Valley. Zhu Changhan, a researcher at the China Meteorological Administration, said the huge reservoir would change the terrain sufficiently to alter wind patterns, increase humidity, and reflect more sunlight, resulting in an average temperature increase of 0.3 degrees Celsius in areas as far as 62 miles from the reservoir. Although the predicted temperature change is small, it would be sufficient to force farmers to abandon some crops currently grown in the area. Critics of the dam, which is slated to be completed by 2009, also note that it will dislocate more than 1.1 million people and cause significant pollution and other ecological damage.
straight to the source: South Africa Independent, 10 Apr 2002 <http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=143&art_id=qw1018424881960B253&set_id=1>
do good: Take action to boycott Discover Card for its involvement with the Three Gorges Dam <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/rivers.asp?source=daily#discover>
ON THE RAILROAD TO NOWHERE?
Europe has long set the standard for rail travel, with a system whose efficiency, extent, and affordability has been the envy of rail advocates in the United States. But now it seems that European transportation trends are in danger of imitating those in the U.S: In the last decade, the highway network in the European Union grew by about 25 percent, to over 31,000 miles, while the rail network shrank by 4 percent, to around 95,700 miles. Those figures represent a challenge for the 15-country bloc, which hopes to reduce pollution and traffic congestion by boosting rail travel for both passengers and goods. Without such steps, the European Commission predicts that truck traffic alone will increase by 50 percent in the next 10 years.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 10 Apr 2002 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15403/story.htm>
SLUDGE HAMMER
After highway infrastructure, the U.S. water and sewage system is the single biggest public works network in the country -- and it is in trouble. Annual spending on the system falls tens of billions of dollars short of what is needed to maintain and expand it enough to keep up with population growth and stricter health and pollution standards, according to a draft report by the U.S. EPA. By 2019, the report says, the gap between actual and necessary investments in the water system is likely to exceed $650 billion. Despite the size of that figure and the vastness of the water network, the problem remains largely hidden from view, primarily because it is often manifested as thousands of separate local crises -- from beach closings to boil-water alerts. The report predicts that the rate of such mini-crises will escalate, along with pipeline leaks and coastal sewage pollution. The report comes as Congress is working on bills that would significantly increase federal financing for water projects for the first time in many years.
straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 10 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/10/national/10POLL.html>
RUSSIAN TO THE BRINK
Russian environmentalists announced yesterday that they would take their government to court over its decision to accept spent nuclear waste from foreign countries for storage and reprocessing. The law allowing the country to import such waste was signed by President Vladimir Putin last summer. Proponents say it could generate up to $20 billion over 10 years for Russia -- money that could be used in part to clean up existing nuclear pollution. Environmentalists fear the law could turn Russia into an international nuclear waste dump. They claim to have collected 2.5 million signatures in support of a referendum on the issue, but the government rejected the initiative, arguing that some of the signatures had been falsified. In response, Greenpeace Russia has sued the government in the European Court of Human Rights for the right to hold the referendum. A decision is expected in about a year.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Judith Ingram, 09 Apr 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/04/09/international2151EDT0856.DTL>
ON ACID
Dealing a major setback to New York's efforts to reduce acid rain in the Adirondacks, a federal judge yesterday overturned a law penalizing power plants in the state for trading pollution credits to plants in 14 other states. According to U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd, the state's 2000 Air Pollution Mitigation Law conflicted with the federal Clean Air Act, which allows pollution credits to be freely traded between states. Under the New York law, utilities trading credits of acid-rain forming gases to companies in Midwestern and Southern states would be charged a 100-percent penalty, because such states account for about 70 percent of the acid rain that falls in New York. The ruling was a triumph for the consortium of electricity generators and emissions traders that filed the suit, but a blow to environmental groups and Gov. George Pataki (R), who signed the law.
straight to the source: Albany Times Union, Dina Cappiello, 10 Apr 2002
do good: Take action to pass the Clean Power Act <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/air.asp?source=daily#power>
BY THE HAIR OF OUR CHINNY CHIN CHIN
As building materials go, straw generally gets a bad rap: A straw man is something that can be knocked over easily, and, as everyone knows, any decent wolf can blow down a straw house. But people have been building homes in the U.S. from straw bales encased in plaster or drywall since at least the 1890s, and the practice is experiencing something of a boom as more and more people recognize that it is an energy-efficient and eco-friendly way to build. Straw bales insulate so effectively that they can reduce energy costs by as much as 75 percent. Moreover, straw is a cheap, abundant waste product: As much as 200 million tons of straw are wasted or underused every year in the U.S. alone -- enough to build about 4 million 2,000-square-foot buildings.
straight to the source: Christian Science Monitor, Sara Terry, 10 Apr 2002 <http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0410/p15s02-lihc.html>
4/10/02
6:37:13 PM
Dear All,
We hope this note finds you well.
Palestine is on the frontlines. The outcome of that struggle is crucial not only to the Palestinians and Israelis, but to the future course of Bush's "war on terrorism." On our Website you can download a two-page (or back-to-back) leaftlet on Palestine and distribute it either by email or in hard copy as widely as you wish. It is located at
http://www.war-times.org/palestine020405.pdf
That leaftlet consists of the Palestine coverage that appears in the new issue of War Times, which will be off the press on April 12. If you wish to distribute 25 or more copies, please email us IMMEDIATELY at
distribution@war-times.org.
The issue also covers: Bush's dangerous new nuclear policies, a powerful anti-war statement by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, excerpts from an interview with a senior UN arms inspector in Iraq, an update on secret detentions and the case of Rabbih Haddad, an article about Youth Facing War in East Los Angeles, and a piece about anti-war activity in the labor movement.
We are also still in great need of funds to keep going. Tax-deductible donations can be made to War Times at our website,
or by writing a check to
EBC/War Times 1230 Market Street, PMB 409, San Francisco, CA 94102.
We thank you for all of your efforts for peace and justice, and for your ongoing support of War Times.
Sincerely,
The War Times Staff
4/10/02
6:33:54 PM
Sarasota County Green Party
If you are interested in taking a bus to the Democracy Rising event this Saturday, call Zack asap at 359-8453 and let him know. It will cost ten dollars per person. Meet at Sudakoff Center, New College parking lot at 3:00 pm. Bus will leave promptly at 3:15pm.
If you are interested in attending the Green Party fundraiser to welcome Ralph Nader to Tampa, there are still a few tickets left. Minimum donations are fifty dollars per person which will include a catered vegetarian meal, VIP parking at the Sundome and reserved floor seating for the Democracy Rising super rally. The Green Party fundraiser will be from 5pm to 7pm in the Green and Gold Room at the Sundome. Call Julia for reservations -366-5008.
The Democracy Rising event features Ralph Nader, Michael Moore, Medea Benjamin, Patty Smith, Iris Dement, Jello Biafra, plus more than 100 progressive organizations from all over Florida. Doors open at 5pm, main event begins at 7pm. Call Democracy Rising for more info 813-232-5300
Don\'t miss it!
Thanks for reading, please stop by the site at http://sarasotagreenparty.org
4/10/02
6:31:31 PM
MediaChannel.org
THE JOURNALISM OF ATTACHMENT"
Competent, diverse and independent reporting on victims and causes may help societies to resolve their wars. (From Radio Netherlands, The Paper)
THE MIDEAST: ARE WE ALL BLINDED BY BIAS?
*News Dissector: The personal side of journalism.
*What the children learn: comparing Israeli and Palestinian textbooks.
*FAIR Alert: Who decides what is "terrorism"?
(From MediaChannel, AMIN, FAIR)
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#mideast
MEDIA READER
MediaChannel's international, biweekly, multimedia magazine
New features include:
* The Impact Of the Net In Africa
* The Cinema Of The Indian Diaspora
* Girl Teens Get A Voice, Boy Teens . And much, much more...
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/mediareader
MEDIACHANNEL POLL
The International Criminal Court is being ratified this week. Have you seen any coverage of this global initiative in the news?
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#poll
DON'T JUST CRITICIZE, EDUCATE!
Lack of training is the Number 1 source of job dissatisfaction for U.S. journalists; two-thirds get no on-the-job training at all, finds a new study. (From The Poynter Institute)
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#train
SILENCING WEB CRITICS
A potentially landmark case is among many examples of libel and trademark law being used to challenge free speech online. (From Salon, GILC, EFF)
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#fish
AFRICAN VOICES: A DISCUSSION FORUM
Recent posts include:
* Punitive laws, constricted media space and poor pay prevent effective coverage in Kenya...
* "[Zimbabwe's] new Information Act...appears to be a private media onslaught by the state."
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#africa
MEDIACULTURE
A collaboration between MediaChannel and Alternet exploring the currents, crises and cultures of American media.
Featured this week:
* The Ugly Appeal of TV's Dating Shows
* U.S. Media Ignore the World's Refugees
* Fighting the Big Bookstore Chains .And much more...
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#mediaculture
WHAT YOU'RE SAYING: VOICES FROM OUR FORUM
* "Mexican TV is just how most middle and upper class Mexicans would like to think of their home country...."
* "The mainstream press seems to take it as a given that the Iraqi people do not matter..."
.....JOIN THE DISCUSSION!
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#voices
4/10/02
6:19:48 PM
EMS Update - April 10, 2002
Green Groups Urge Ford to Stop Threat to Czech Farmland
Environmental groups in the Czech Republic sent a letter to Ford today urging the car company to stop its subsidiary from siting a manufacturing plant on unspoiled farmland in the Czech Republic. Czech green groups say alternative brownfield sites are available and dioxins emitted by the planned facility are likely to contaminate some of the area's last good farmland.
http://www.i-eps.cz/eng/index.html
Solar Screens Cut Summer Cooling Bills
A new program in California offers rebates to encourage homeowners and businesses to order energy-saving solar screens for windows. An effective low-tech solution for saving energy, solar screens cut summer cooling bills by reducing heat gain from the sun by 70 to 90 percent, according to the rebate program's website. Solar screens replace normal insect screens in windows and provide excellent outward visibility, the website says.
http://www.ewire-news.com/wires/E9779D64-D7CF-4105-993BA46D579B2F31.htm
Photos, project website: http://www.solarscreenrebate.com/photos.html
4/10/02
6:16:49 PM
THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA - A Must visit!
http://www.electronicintifada.com/diaries/index.html
Children raised with the sounds of bullets
http://electronicIntifada.net/diaries/archives/00000084.shtml
Mistaken assertions that Arafat has not condemned terror "in Arabic"
http://www.electronicintifada.com/coveragetrends/condemnation.shtml
4/10/02
6:11:43 PM
The Enforcers The Hague Convention and the Threat to Internet Freedoms and Consumer Protection
by Charlie Cray
The integrity of the Internet, and an array of consumer, civil and other kinds of legal protections and even national sovereignty may be undermined by an obscure treaty, now under negotiation, designed to strengthen the global enforcement of court decisions related to business, observers say.
The agreement, known as the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (the “Hague Convention”) is being negotiated by more than 50 countries, including the United States. It is designed to give parties assurance that if they win a lawsuit in one country, it will be enforced in another.
Even critics of the treaty acknowledge that international enforcement of court decisions would have some benefits. For instance, business scofflaws or foreigners who leave a country to evade a civil judgment could be forced to surrender their assets in any country that signs the treaty.
This kind of extension of the reach of national laws seemed an attractive proposition when negotiations on the draft treaty began in 1992. Back then, “the driving factor was the U.S. perception that U.S. courts typically enforce foreign judgments, while foreign courts often do not enforce U.S. judgments,” says Barbara Wellberry, a former chief counselor for e-commerce to the Commerce Department’s undersecretary for international trade.
Although the drafting of the Hague Convention began in 1992, formal negotiations didn’t begin until 1999. The last time the parties convened in a two-week session in June 2001, the negotiations broke off with little achieved besides an agreement to resume discussions by 2003.
Virtually everyone involved attributes the slow progress to complications brought on by the introduction of e-commerce, which has exploded from virtually nothing as late as 1995 to an estimated $330 billion last year, and is projected to reach $2 trillion to $3 trillion by 2005.
One reason for concern is that the treaty might subject both consumers and businesses to virtually any jurisdiction where the Internet is available — giving plaintiffs the ability to shop around for a legal forum where they might have an advantage.
“Allowing plaintiffs to sue wherever the harm has arisen in the electronic commerce context subjects an alleged tortfeasor to jurisdiction in any country of the world, regardless of whether there have been meaningful contacts with the particular jurisdiction,” says Wellberry. Wellberry is now a partner at Morrison and Foerster in Washington, D.C., representing a coalition of corporate interests known as the Internet Coalition on Jurisdiction.
Worse, according to consumer rights advocates, the ability of multinationals with subsidiaries in numerous countries to comparison shop among different national laws gives them the ability to use the treaty to drag civil rights such as free speech protections and public rights to privately held intellectual property (such as “fair use” of copyrighted material), down to the level of the country with the weakest levels of protection.
As drafted, “the treaty will shrink the public’s rights to only those that exist in every country, which of course is smaller than what exists in any country — a frightening outcome,” says James Love of the Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Project on Technology. Love argues that countries should not adopt a jurisdictional treaty covering e-commerce unless they have first harmonized the applicable commercial and civil laws.
Caught in the Internet The potential ability of plaintiffs to shop around for the most receptive forum is particularly striking when it comes to speech torts such as defamation and libel.
Critics say that unless it explicitly exempts speech torts, the Hague Convention could expose writers, publishers and even people who post opinions on the Internet to defamation and libel suits in countries where free speech protections are weaker than those in countries such as the United States.
“There are a lot of countries that have laws that are far less protective of free speech than the United States,” Chris Chiu, an Internet policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union points out. “What has prevented a lot of foreign judgments from being enforced on U.S. soil is that courts in the United States have refused to enforce those decisions based on the First Amendment and other public policies. The concern is that the Hague Convention will shift the balance of power, and create some sort of bias towards enforcement of foreign judgments. It opens up the possibility that American publishers will face potential lawsuits from places like mainland China, Singapore and other countries where there are strong restrictions on what people can say about the government.”
Even without the treaty, observers have noted a growing incidence of cross-border defamation and libel lawsuits, where plaintiffs have used the ubiquity of the Internet to seek out jurisdictions where libel and defamation laws are stricter than where the plaintiff would normally be expected to sue.
In one case last August, the Supreme Court of the Australian state of Victoria ruled that Melbourne businessman Joseph Gutnick could sue Dow Jones for defamation in an Australian court over an article published in the United States, but posted on an online version of Barron’s magazine. Barron’s is not sold in Australia.
Gutnick, a mining magnate, claimed the article wrongly portrayed him as a schemer given to stock scams, money laundering and fraud.
Although Australia’s highest court ruled in December that New York-based Dow Jones & Co. can appeal the decision, Dow Jones attorney Geoffrey Roberson points out that if it sticks, the Victoria Supreme Court ruling would set a precedent that anything published on the Internet could be subject to litigation in any country, and would therefore have a significant impact on freedom of speech in cyberspace.
Supporters of the Hague Convention say the treaty will not necessarily exacerbate the situation, since countries including the United States with stronger free speech laws could block enforcement of such decisions by exercising a public policy exemption built into the treaty. The exemption allows signatory countries to preserve unique constitutional protections, such as the U.S. First Amendment.
However, observers say U.S. judges may be reluctant to continuously exercise public policy exemptions in order to protect free speech, knowing that foreign judges might in turn refuse to enforce U.S. decisions.
“Right now U.S. courts have a fair amount of latitude in terms of whether they want to enforce judgments from other countries,” says the ACLU’s Chris Chiu. “The public policy exemption [in the Hague Convention] is not well defined. It doesn’t explicitly mention free speech. The people who have drafted and pushed the treaty along have so far made it so that the exemptions should be interpreted strictly and not expansively. In that sense, there’s a genuine concern, especially in the realm of free speech.”
Plaintiffs could also threaten companies with deeper pockets such as Internet service providers (ISPs) like AOL Time Warner and Yahoo!, which host the sites where controversial material is posted.
The result of such a chain of interlinked responsibility could force ISPs to police their own sites, a monumental task that they say is virtually impossible, given the amount of traffic.
A case brought against Yahoo! in 2000 illustrates what observers say might become epidemic under the Hague Convention.
Yahoo! was threatened by a French court with stiff fines for hosting a U.S.-based web page where Nazi memorabilia was being sold. French hate-speech laws disallow the trading of Nazi items within France. Although the listing is constitutionally protected under U.S. law, since the website was accessible within France, the court claimed Yahoo! was violating the law.
A U.S. federal judge ruled in November 2000 that Yahoo! was not obligated to comply with the French ruling as it applied to sites hosted in the United States. In February 2002, the French criminal court said it would seek to hold Yahoo! liable, with a former company CEO facing a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Under the proposed treaty, France would have more leverage to enforce the French court’s decision against Yahoo!
“While surely U.S. courts would refuse to enforce such judgments on First Amendment grounds, the Hague Convention would nonetheless compound the problem,” says Wellberry, whose clients include Yahoo! “By requiring that those judgments be enforced in other countries where U.S. companies have assets, U.S. First Amendment principles could more easily be avoided. The result could be that the Internet is reduced to the lowest common denominator, where web sites avoid any but the safest content for fear of offending someone and being hauled into court.”
The Boosters Not everyone is unhappy with the Hague Convention. Copyright holders — including software companies and the recording and motion picture industries — like the treaty for its potential to extend their ability to enforce intellectual property laws and go after software copiers and the Napsters of the world.
“In general, our view remains that a convention could provide an effective framework,” says Mark Bohannon of the Software & Information Industry Association, the principal trade association of the software and information content industry. “Such a convention should not exclude nor carve out intellectual property, but would have to be consistent with U.S. and international norms for the enforcement of judgments in this and other areas.”
Intellectual property laws are not consistent internationally, however. Critics say the Hague treaty would allow the owners of intellectual property to forum-shop for the most restrictive intellectual property laws and trample on “fair use” and other public rights established in countries like the United States.
The range of activities common to Internet users that may come under threat include the liberal use of quotations from authors, linking to articles originating in commercial publications, the sampling of copyrighted video and recording materials, and the use of reverse engineering techniques to find out how to make software programs work together (be interoperable). Even activities not on the Internet, such as the distribution of copyrighted materials in classrooms, are potentially threatened.
“We are concerned that the draft Convention, with its current rules regarding forum selection, could subject Internet users in the United States to intellectual property infringement in other countries for activities that are lawful in the U.S. For example, users could be sued for engaging in conduct falling within the fair use doctrine,” states the American Library Association in a letter to the U.S. delegation to the Hague Convention.
“It makes no sense at all to lock in the whole world to a system that extends every nation’s intellectual property rights regime to everyone. The fact that intellectual property right regimes are so different now, and undergoing so much change, is a good reason to exclude intellectual property issues from the Hague, as has been done for maritime law and other areas where there is not agreement upon jurisdiction issues,” says James Love.
Some large multinationals, such as Internet-based businesses, agree. Most concerned are Internet service providers, who are worried about being held liable for activities of their users.
“The Hague Convention would allow copyright owners to avoid the limitations on liability that were negotiated with U.S. service providers under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, by bringing suit against the service provider for copyright infringement in countries that have no laws limiting service provider liability,” says Wellberry. “In addition, where the service provider had no assets in the country in which suit was originally brought, under the Hague Convention copyright owners would be entitled to enforcement in the U.S. or any other signatory country to the Hague Convention where the service provider has assets.”
“Although there are various global treaties and conventions dealing with intellectual property laws, there is no one international global copyright, patent or trademark law,” adds Sarah Deutsch of Verizon. “Intellectual property laws generally are still created nationally and such laws are enforced locally by their respective national courts. These national intellectual property laws may differ on what may constitute a registerable trademark, what may be copyrightable subject matter or the subject of patent protection. In the trademark area, many countries, including the United States, generally avoid enforcing judgments or adjudicating disputes outside their jurisdiction. In the U.S., courts have defined the rule succinctly: ‘[When] trademark rights within the United States are being litigated … in an American court, the decisions of foreign courts concerning the trademark rights of the parties are irrelevant and inadmissible.’”
Buyer Beware Although various stakeholders who have advised the U.S. and other delegations have different takes on the treaty, everyone agrees that much is at stake, since the current intent is to have the treaty cover a variety of issues including torts (among them libel and slander), copyright, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and numerous other issues.
But as the negotiations drag on and pressure to complete an agreement rises, delegates are likely to agree that reducing the treaty to a limited set of issues may be necessary for any agreement to be reached. And most of the stakeholders who have provided input to the U.S. delegation agree that one area where there is little agreement is business-to-consumer contracts. In part, that is due to large differences between U.S. and European consumer laws.
“I don’t see European courts changing their consumer protection laws and I don’t see the U.S. Congress changing U.S. consumer protection laws. We have to figure out a way to finesse that as some language has done, or leave that argument for another day,” says Marc Pearl, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Shaw Pittman, who coordinates an ad hoc working group of companies and trade association with e-commerce interests.
But disagreements run deep between different stakeholder groups within each country as well.
“Consumers could be at a considerable disadvantage if they are subjected to the jurisdiction of distant courts when disputes arise,” the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) suggested in a group resolution. TACD is a loose federation of consumer groups in the United States, Canada and Europe. “Depriving consumers of access to their own courts in the case of cross-border disputes is effectively denying them their right to redress via the public justice system.” Meanwhile, “businesses can limit the jurisdictions in which they transact with consumers to those jurisdictions in which they are comfortable being subject to litigation.”
On the other hand, corporate representatives claim the treaty offers excessive rights to potentially litigious consumers.
“Allowing consumers to bring actions in the courts where they live, as proposed in the Convention, merely because a web site is available may cripple the development of electronic commerce,” says Wellberry. “Such allowance means that even the smallest merchant may be subject to jurisdiction and the expensive burden of defending lawsuits around the world. And because of the close relationship between choice of forum and choice of law, worldwide jurisdiction may also mean that merchants will have to go to the expense of being compliant with laws around the world.”
“In many instances it will be impossible for a seller to determine where the buyer or user of a digitized product (even if such buyer or user is a business or commercial entity) is located at the time of the sale or use or where performance of the electronic contract took place,” agrees Mark Bohannon of the Software Information & Industry Alliance. “In an Internet-based transaction, in particular, application of this standard would potentially subject a company to jurisdiction in unexpected countries.”
Eroding Support Given the many objections to including business-to-consumer contracts, and recognizing that the vast majority of e-commerce occurs between businesses, the permanent bureau at the Hague and members of U.S. industry and government have begun to propose scaling the treaty back to business-to-business contracts when negotiations resume in 2003, leaving the more complicated business-to-consumer disputes for later.
But this still does not resolve some issues. For example, it leaves open the question of how “business” is defined. Should that definition include small non-profit groups who are incapable of defending themselves in foreign countries?
While raising such objections, James Love continues to advocate for the removal altogether from the treaty of intellectual property, speech-related torts, contracts of adhesion and rules that could undermine the free software movement.
Software companies object to these specific carve-outs, which would limit the circumstances under which the treaty would cover e-commerce. “You can’t draw a bright line between what is commerce and what is e-commerce,” says Marc Pearl. “If crafted successfully, [the treaty] could create greater predictability and reliability.”
Without removing e-commerce, however, the issue of forum-shopping will remain a sticking point.
Several firms, including Quova, Digital Envoy and NetGeo, have proposed a technical fix to this jurisdictional conundrum by developing technologies that would allow businesses to target their on-line presence to particular geographic areas. At the same time, governments and policy makers are determining how technologies used to restrict online advertising to specific geographical audiences might be used to play a role in Internet lawmaking.
But the Internet community has had little chance to discuss the benefits, challenges and consequences of creating e-borders — or “zoning” the Net — with these technologies. Many say the technical “solutions” threaten to destroy the fundamentally open nature of the Internet. While many Hague Convention negotiators are aware of the quandaries posed by the Internet in a world where nations have not harmonized their laws, most are nevertheless pushing ahead with a quixotic sense of optimism.
But even Bohannon cautions that “it is important that U.S. government and other delegates understand that the ultimate merits of the proposal are based entirely on prospective benefits, not retrospective experience. Inevitably, this requires a complex and detailed assessment of the costs and benefits emerging from the changes required by the proposal which, to date, has been absent.”
The treaty negotiations are being carried forward by a political momentum born before the advent of e-commerce and the recent realization by many Internet-based firms that the Hague Convention might subject them to an unwanted host of liabilities.
But with business and consumer opposition growing, and business proponents offering only the tepid support voiced by Bohannon and others, the Hague Convention’s future is very much in doubt. Perhaps the lingering momentum will be sufficient for finalization of a treaty that excludes e-commerce or at least contains severe restrictions on coverage of e-commerce.
For now, it appears that consumer and civil liberties advocates may have intervened early and strategically enough — including working successfully to cultivate business allies — that their worst fears about the Hague Convention will not be realized. With complex international treaty negotiations, however, the final result is never clear until the process is completely finished.
The Clickwrap Trap
The confounding jurisdictional problems highlighted by the Hague Convention have long been apparent to software companies, as have the opportunities to use creative contract provisions to unilaterally determine forum in case of dispute between a software seller and buyer.
For years, software companies have made use of “shrinkwrap” and “clickwrap” contractual provisions to impose jurisdictional choices on consumers. Shrinkwrap licenses are notices to consumers that by removing the shrinkwrap packaging on a product, they agree to form contract provisions drafted by the seller (sometimes these provisions are not even visible until the consumer has opened the package). Clickwrap licenses involve clicking on an "I agree" button that binds the consumer to form contract provisions before they can begin using software or accessing a website.
Among the crucial provisions in these licenses are clauses related to choice of law, choice of forum and arbitration. These contractual terms purport to determine which jurisdiction’s laws will apply in case of dispute between the company and consumer (potentially evading consumer protection laws applicable in the buyer’s state or country); the jurisdiction where disputes will be heard; and whether consumers are required to resort to arbitration instead of full-fledged courts in case of dispute.
The validity of these provisions is not settled in U.S. law. Opponents say they should be found to be invalid because they are contracts of adhesion (unilateral contracts not subject to negotiation between parties) which contain terms that are onerous, unconscionable, unreasonable (and sometimes unknowable, in the case of shrinkwrap contractual provisions only visible after opening a box). Defenders say consumers are free not to buy products if they do not like the terms of licenses to use the products, and that the terms properly eliminate uncertainty about how buyer-seller disputes will be handled.
A controversial proposed model state law for the United States, known as UCITA (the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act), would facilitate enforcement of many clickwrap and shrinkwrap terms. UCITA is issued by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, the organization responsible for the Uniform Commercial Code, which provides the basis for most U.S. states’ law on commercial transactions. So far, Virginia and Maryland have enacted UCITA as state law.
Clickwrap provisions that limit the consumer to a particular forum, irrespective of its convenience and the viability of using it for what may be relatively small disputes, are common. Microsoft’s terms of use for its .NET Messenger Service, for example, specify that, “This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Washington, U.S.A. You hereby irrevocably consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in King County, Washington, U.S.A. in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of the.NET Messenger Service.”
Some of the more aggressive clickwrap provisions limit the consumer to a particular forum, but permit the seller to forum shop. Consider the following license terms for the Financial Times website:
These Terms shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, English law.
The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England shall (subject to the paragraph below) have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute which may arise out of, under, or in connection with these Terms or the legal relationship established by them, and for those purposes irrevocably submit all disputes to the jurisdiction of the English courts.
For the exclusive benefit of FT, FT shall retain the right to bring proceedings as to the substance of the matter in the courts of the country of your residence or, where these Terms are entered into in the course of your trade or profession, the country of your principal place of business.
Clickwrap and shrinkwrap contractual provisions typically cover much more than jurisdictional issues. Among the more controversial provisions are extremely broad statements disclaiming liability, limits on hyperlinking sites and barring criticism of the seller. Microsoft, for example, in its licensing terms of Agent, a software program that enables the use of animated characters on web pages, requires users to agree to: “not use the Character Animation Data and Image Files to disparage Microsoft, its products or services or for promotional goods or for products which, in Microsoft’s sole judgment, may diminish or otherwise damage Microsoft’s goodwill.”
Source: http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2002/02march/march02corp1.html
4/10/02
6:06:39 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
THE SEX-OBSESSED CHURCH SHOULD FOCUS ON JUSTICE INSTEAD
by David Morris, AlterNet
-- Publicity surrounding the Catholic Church's recent troubles just might have an upside: it could spark debate over the Church's mission and open a promising new path.
THE ENFORCERS: THE HAGUE CONVENTION AND THE THREAT TO INTERNET FREEDOMS AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
by Charlie Cray, Multinational Monitor
-- Internet users may soon lose the shield of First Amendment rights.
THIS IS NOT MY DESK
Web site review by Sara Buckwitz, NotMyDesk.com
-- For anyone who does temp work, here's a site to make the experience a little less drab.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
4/10/02
6:05:25 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
FIERY INFERNO ENGULFS VIETNAMESE NATIONAL PARK
HANOI, Vietnam, April 9, 2002 (ENS) - Thousands of policemen, military personnel, forest rangers and local residents have joined forces to fight a fire eating its way through U Minh Thuong National Park in the southernmost province of Kien Giang.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-09-02.html
LOCALS REHABILITATE ROADS AND RIVERS IN KABUL
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 9, 2002 (ENS) - Now armed with a spade, a former Northern Alliance commander, Amir Mohammad, from central Parvan Province, found employment a few months after returning to the Afghan capital, Kabul. "I am happy to be working here and proud to be involved in the rebuilding of my country," he told a reporter from the United Nations information agency IRIN.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-09-03.html
EUROPEAN HUNTING OFFERS FEW FINANCIAL BENEFITS
FRANKFURT, Germany, April 9, 2002 (ENS) - Increasing numbers of European hunters are pursuing their sport in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, spending millions of EUROS on supplies and travel. Yet only a third of those funds end up in the countries whose wildlife attracts the hunters, generating little income for the struggling nations, concludes a new report by TRAFFIC Europe.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-09-06.html
RENEWABLES THE CORE OF "INTELLIGENT ENERGY FOR EUROPE"
BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 9, 2002 (ENS) - Europe is betting its energy future on renewable energy sources and energy saving. Today, the European Commission proposed a new four year energy program "Intelligent Energy for Europe" covering the period 2003 to 2006. It will follow the current energy framework program, which is due to end on December 31.
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-09-01.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 9, 2002
Clear Skies Initiative Divides Environmental Community
Population Growth Called Forgotten Earth Day Issue
Climate Monitoring Goes Mobile
Pesticide Training Program Protects Mexican Workers
Asarco Must Clean Up Everett Smelter
Atlanta Greenspace Target of New Environmental Initiative
Anti-Bioterrorism Research Funded by EPA
California to Boost Water Recycling
Chocolate Laced Cattle Feed Can Kill Birds
Endangered Rabbits Bred in Captivity
http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-09-09.html
4/10/02
6:03:13 PM
TomPaine.com
"Independent, commercial-free public affairs reporting and commentary."
IT IS BETTER TO MARRY THAN TO BURN
Examining My Knee-Jerk Reaction
by James Dunn
"Maybe it is time for the missionary challenge of [the Roman Catholic Church] to be matched by moral responsibility for that institution. Something definitely is stirring."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5424
CALIFORNIA'S GREEN POWER BLACK OUT
The 2001 Energy Crisis Legacy
by Ann Hancock
By acting in haste to cut spiraling energy prices last year, California regulators may have undermined renewables for a generation.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5384
Missouri:
REFLECTIONS OF THE LOW PLAINS DRIFTER
The Mood Of The Southwest
by Ken Midkiff
"What has happened in the past, and is happening now, is that outsiders come in, take the money and run. As Ross Perot (remember him?) phrased it, their departure is accompanied by a 'giant sucking sound.'"
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5395
4/10/02
6:01:24 PM
Things I've learned
I've learned.... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I've learned.... That the Lord didn't do it all in one day. What makes me think I can?
I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.
I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.
I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.
I've learned.... That there's nothing sweeter than sleeping with your babies and feeling their breath on your cheeks.
I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I've learned.... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.
I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.
I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.
I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.
I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
I've learned.... That I can't choose how I feel, but I can choose what I do about it.
I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.
I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
I've learned ... That it is best to give advice in only two circumstances; when it is requested and when it is a life threatening situation.
I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.
4/10/02
6:00:24 PM
"The earth provides for every man's need but not for every man's greed."
Mahatma Gandhi
4/10/02
5:59:02 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
New York to hold meetings on several NYC power plants - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15396/story.htm
UPDATE - Nevada triggers nuclear waste battle in Congress - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15397/story.htm
'New' pesticides affect immune system, study finds - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15398/story.htm
Virginia gov. proposes plan to add solid waste fee - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15399/story.htm
Alaska drilling plan seen helped by Iraq embargo - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15410/story.htm
US nuclear regulators accused of bowing to industry - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15411/story.htm
Unocal sees Q1 environmental cleanup charge of $30 mln - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15407/story.htm
UK firm hopes for tax boost for its 'green' gas - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15395/story.htm
UPDATE - Thailand may alter Malaysia gas pipe route - paper - THAILAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15405/story.htm
INTERVIEW - South Africa sees US on side at UN Summit - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15404/story.htm
Moscow angry at US arms destruction funds freeze - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15400/story.htm
Malaysia tin tracks LME losses, cool on Indonesia - MALAYSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15406/story.htm
UPDATE - Leak mars Japan report of fewer nuclear accidents - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15409/story.htm
EU greenhouse gas trading scheme seen facing delay - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15402/story.htm
EU set to make electronics firms pay for recycling - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15401/story.htm
EU earmarks 215 mln euros for smart energy plans - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15394/story.htm
EU motorways grow 25 pct in 10 years, rail shrinks - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15403/story.htm
Ottawa slams provincial vote on Indian treaties - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15408/story.htm
4/10/02
5:57:16 PM
t r u t h o u t | 04.10
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict 13 Israeli Soldiers Die in Jenin Ambush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Moroccan King to Powell : "You Should Have Gone to Jerusalem First"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10A.Powell.Morocco.htm
Lead Enron Auditor to Plead Guilty
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10B.Duncan.Guilty.htm
Palestinians' Plight in Battered Refugee Camp Brings Warning
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10C.Jenin.Plight.htm
Bush Quietly Cuts Sharon Some Slack Gradual Pullback OKd, Officials Say
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10D.Slow.Pull.OK.htm
Bernard Weiner | The "Alice Documents": Inside the Mideast Negotiating Room
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10E.Bernie.Alice.htm
Nevada Governor Vetoes Yucca Mtn. | Train Wreck Illustrates Dangers of Hazardous Transport
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10F.Yucca.Veto.htm
Arctic Drilling in Trouble in Senate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10G.ANWR.Dodge.htm
Frida Berrigan | Action Speaks Against Words
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.10H.Action.Words.htm
4/10/02
5:55:05 PM
THE CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL Charleston, West Virginia Monday, April 8, 2002
Ready for new cash crop State prepares for commercial growth of industrial hemp
By Sam Tranum
CHARLESTON, West Virginia - Agriculture Commissioner Gus Douglass used to oversee the state workers who slashed and burned wild marijuana in an effort to eradicate it from the hills of the Potomac Valley.
But that was more than two decades ago. Now Douglass is the man in charge of growing hemp in West Virginia.
"I sit here and whatever the laws demand, we in the Department of Agriculture will attempt to move in that direction," Douglass said this week.
Gov. Bob Wise recently signed the Industrial Hemp Act, kicking into motion a plan for West Virginians to cultivate the marijuana-like plant for use in clothing, bath products, car dashboards and other products.
Skeptics say hemp is marijuana by another name. But Sen. Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson, who sponsored the Hemp Act, said there is a big difference -- industrial hemp won't get anyone high.
Proponents hope West Virginia can take advantage of an untapped market. No other state is producing hemp for the commercial uses at this point, though Hawaii is growing a test crop.
There is still at least one major hurdle between West Virginia and hemp wealth - - the federal government isn't sure whether it's going to allow commercial cultivation of hemp.
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman has said industrial hemp cultivation is stuck in legal limbo. When asked whether it was legal to grow industrial hemp, Bill Steffick of the federal drug agency said he couldn't answer that question.
"You have some questions there that I basically can't answer because this is just an area that there's going to have to be some more discussion on this," he said.
Douglass said step one for the state's industrial hemp project is going to be navigating the federal rules. He said he hopes to work with West Virginia University's Davis College of Agriculture to do some experimentation on growing industrial hemp.
Bill Vinson, associate director for the agriculture school's experiment station, said the school stood ready to help.
"I don't know the specifics. I do know that we are ready to support West Virginia Department of Agriculture in their research programs in whatever way we can," he said.
Facemyer said she hoped the ambiguities in the laws regarding industrial hemp would be resolved by the time the university's research was done and the state was ready to move into commercial production.
She said advocates of industrial hemp have been pushing hard for its legalization. U.S. Rep. Nick Joe Rahall, D-W.Va., has said he'll support that effort.
"Illegal drugs have no place in American society," he said in a statement.
"But industrial hemp is not a drug. Thirty nations -- including Canada and Japan -- harvest industrial hemp that we import into our country. Our farmers could become a part of this global industry."
This will not be the first time that West Virginia University has helped the state with research for cannabis. Or the first time state residents grew a hemp crop.
During World War II, the Japanese interrupted American's Philippine hemp supply. The federal government asked states to pitch in and grow hemp so the Navy could have all the rope it needed to fight the war.
Douglass said the hemp he was in charge of eradicating years ago spread from an old rope factory in Petersburg.
Besides making rope from it, West Virginia has toyed with using hemp as a legal drug.
The Legislature legalized marijuana use for medical purposes in the late 1970s. At the time West Virginia University was involved in research on how effective the drug was in treating glaucoma and the side effects of cancer treatment.
Writer Sam Tranum can be reached at 348-4872.
4/10/02
5:51:19 PM
Kazakh fishing port haunted by ghost of dying sea
by Tara FitzGerald
ARALSK - Aralsk is the town that time forgot. Dilapidated factories stand silent and crumbling. Rusty cranes loom over a bleak landscape, which is littered with fragments of broken and abandoned machinery.
Its port, once the pride and joy of its residents, is dry and empty. No fish, cargoes or boats come through here anymore. Fishermen are an endangered species.
It is only the eerie, rusting hulks of ships and the salt-encrusted earth that are testament to a sea that once lapped at the very edges of the town.
People in Aralsk say it has been more than 25 years since they could see the Aral Sea, and now the once-thriving port resembles nothing more than a huge, rubbish-strewn sand pit.
Enquiries as to the whereabouts of the water are treated like a bad joke.
"The sea? What sea? We don't have a sea here anymore," said a man disembarking at Aralsk's train station. Behind him a huge mural shows how the people of Aralsk provided fish for a hungry nation on Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin's request.
The Aral Sea, which straddles the former Soviet Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is dying. And the former fishing port of Aralsk is fading along with it.
The water-thirsty region has two great rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, which used to feed the Aral Sea. But in the 1960s Soviet planners built a network of irrigation canals to divert their waters into cotton fields in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, starving the sea of its life blood.
Now a mere trickle reaches the sea, and the water that does is contaminated by the residues of pesticides, fertilisers and defoliants used on the cotton fields.
DYING SEA BLEEDS TOWN DRY
Once the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral has shrunk so much that it has now split into two separate bodies of water - the northern or 'little Aral Sea' and a larger southern body.
"We didn't realise what was happening at first," said local resident Gulzhikhan Abdulgaziyeva.
As a clanging metallic noise echoed across the port-turned-dust bowl, she sighed and said: "That used to be a repair shop for barges and boats. Now they only fix cars."
It is not only the fishing and shipping industries that have suffered from the sea's disappearance. Textile and electronics factories lie empty and the town mill does not work any more.
Desertification and high salt levels are damaging agriculture.
The town of Aralsk is home to around 39,000 people and the Aralsk region around 68,000. It has one of the highest unemployment levels in Kazakhstan.
"We have lots and lots of unemployment here. I myself sat for three years without work," Gulzhikhan said. She now does some work at the town's tiny, private guest house.
"But we have very few entrepreneurs like (the hotel boss). If we had more maybe we would have less unemployment."
HEALTH PROBLEMS
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been running an Aral Sea Prgramme since 1995. It focuses mainly on water resources management, small business development, humanitarian assistance and a social and health programme.
For the ecological disaster of the dying sea has brought climate change - colder winters and hotter summers - to the region and a host of associated health problems.
UNDP says anaemia in women, tuberculosis and high infant mortality are among the major health issues. Incidences of cancer and respiratory diseases have also risen.
"We have lots of health problems now because of the ecological situation...deformed kids are born," Gulzhikhan said.
And everyone you meet in Aralsk warns of rising crime blamed on unemployment.
Aralsk's museum is like an obituary to the town's former livelihood. Curator Rysbek Akimov proudly shows off the seashell fossils and fish teeth stacked in glass cases and enormous pickled fish stare out of jars.
"Once upon a time people all over the Soviet Union bought our fish. They were very tasty fish even though it was a small sea," he said wistfully.
Sergei Sokolov, UNDP national project manager in Aralsk, says it is now around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Aralsk to the sea.
GRAVEYARD OF SHIPS
Searching for what remains of the sea requires a bumpy ride in a four-wheel drive vehicle across a barren landscape reminiscent of a scene out of a science-fiction film.
Camels and horses wander along what used to be the seabed, picking occasionally at scrub. Mounds rise up in the distance giving the impression that the sea will be just behind the next one. But it never comes.
At the "ship graveyard", near a tiny former fishing village, ships of the desert mingle freely and uninterestedly among the rotting remains of their seagoing cousins.
Except during the summer months, it is impossible to reach the edge of the sea by car as the ground becomes boggy. But in the summer some Aralsk residents, particularly the older ones, make special trips "to see the sea for one last time".
Several projects to build a dike to channel some water back into the Little Aral Sea have been only partially successful, but despite the desolate air of the town, hope remains.
"Children are our future" reads the sign above the main school door.
"We hope for a much better future - that there will once again be fish in the sea, cattle in the fields, and that people will live much better than they do now. This is what we are working towards," said UNDP's Sokolov.
Source: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15390/story.htm
4/10/02
5:46:54 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
GUINN-ESS RECORD
In the first-ever gubernatorial veto of a presidential decision, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) yesterday rejected George Bush's proposal to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Federal lawmakers granted the state veto power over any presidential decision related to Yucca Mountain in 1982; now, two decades later, Congress has 90 working days to override or sustain Guinn's veto via majority vote. The outcome will determine whether the Bush administration can proceed with a plan to transport 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain. Guinn and other opponents of the plan contend that the area is geologically unstable and that Nevada already stores more than its fair share of radioactive waste. But they are expected to have a tough go of it in Congress. It seems certain that the House will back the Bush plan, and the last time the Senate voted on a Yucca Mountain measure, only 32 Democrats sided with Nevada.
straight to the source: Las Vegas Review-Journal, Keith Rogers and Steve Tetreault, 08 Apr 2002 <http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/Apr-09-Tue-2002/news/18476447.html>
straight to the source: New York Times, Katharine Q. Seelye, 09 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/09/politics/09YUCC.html>
only in Grist: Yucky Mountain -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha030402.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action to stop the use of nuclear power in the U.S. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily#nuclear>
SKI BUMS
At anywhere from $40 to $70 a pop for lift tickets, downhill skiing is one of the country's priciest sports -- yet many ski resorts pay next to nothing for the federal land on which they operate. On average, resorts located on national forests fork over just 2 percent of their revenue to use the lands; that's like a person who earns $50,000 a year paying $40 per month in rent. Some people say the arrangement is as it should be, because ski resorts are a relatively benign use of public lands (far less harmful than mining, grazing, or logging) and profit margins are often slim. But others say the increasing popularity of luxury real estate developments at the base of ski runs is bad news for the environment and should not be subsidized by taxpayers. Since the 1970s, at least nine independent studies (including reports by the General Accounting Office and the Agriculture Department's Inspector General) have concluded that the public isn't receiving fair market value from ski resorts leasing lands.
straight to the source: San Jose Mercury News, Paul Rogers, 07 Apr 2002 <http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/nation/3016670.htm>
SEA YA!
Central Asia's Aral Sea, which used to be the world's fourth-largest lake, has shrunk so dramatically that it has split into two separate bodies of water. The two rivers that feed it were diverted in the 1960s to water cotton fields; now just a trickle reaches the sea, and much of that is contaminated by pesticides and fertilizers. As the sea has receded, villages and small cities that used to be bustling metropolises have become dusty ghost towns. One such town, the former port of Aralsk, Kazakhstan, now lies about 55 miles from the Aral Sea. Fishing and shipping industries in the town have disappeared, textiles and electronics factories have closed up shop, and agriculture is suffering from desertification and heavily salinized water. The sea's retreat has brought colder winters and hotter summers, and the incidences of anemia, tuberculosis, infant mortality, cancer, and respiratory disease are all on the rise.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Tara FitzGerald, 09 Apr 2002 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15390/story.htm>
MINI HEADROOM
Can a miniature car gain a foothold in America, land of the super-sized everything? That's what B.M.W. plans to find out: Last month, the company started selling the Mini Cooper, formerly the flagship vehicle of a British company, in large U.S. cities. So far, the car has done well -- you'd have to put your name on a waiting list if you wanted one -- but the jury's still out on whether it can compete against the ever-popular (and, it would seem, ever-growing) sport utility vehicle. The tiny car, which since the 1970s has been the vehicle of choice for celebrities ranging from John Lennon to Kate Moss, is just 12 feet long and 5.5 feet wide, and sells for about $17,000. In cities like New York, where crowding, competition for limited parking, and heavy gasoline taxes make a small car desirable, the Mini Cooper has a niche market. But the question remains: Will it play in Peoria?
straight to the source: New York Times, Danny Hakim, 07 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/07/weekinreview/07HAKI.html>
do good: Pledge to buy an eco-friendly car <http://gristmagazine.com/dogood/autos.asp?source=daily#pledge>
4/10/02
5:44:00 PM
Public Citizen
Outlawed Soft Money Likely to Flow to Shadowy "527 Groups" that Skirt Flawed Disclosure System
Lawmakers, Consumer Group Urge House Not to Weaken Disclosure System in Vote on Wednesday, April 10
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Shadowy "527" political organizations, which can accept unlimited contributions from unions, corporations and wealthy individuals, are likely to become conduits for soft money that political parties are now prohibited from collecting under a new campaign reform law, according to a new report released today by Public Citizen.
Public Citizen found that 527 groups - products of an exemption carved in Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code - are already big and important players in federal politics. The top 25 of these private groups not connected to politician PACs raised $67.3 million in 18 months. This amount could increase dramatically when the ban on soft money contributions takes effect in November.
At the same time, the activities of 527 groups are difficult to track under the current disclosure law. Today, the 527 disclosure system is so flawed that you can't search for a contributor such as Enron (without opening the IRS folders for more than 14,800 different 527 groups). Because of lax enforcement by the IRS, 527 groups also evade disclosure with regularity and often provide the IRS with vague or misleading information about their finances.
Yet the U.S. House is expected on Wednesday, April 10, to consider legislation - H.R. 3991, sponsored by Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) - that would actually further weaken disclosure requirements for 527 groups. Public Citizen urges House members to insist on a procedure that allows a fair vote on amendments that would prevent the opening of a huge loophole in the new campaign finance law.
Sens. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) praised the findings of Public Citizen's report and joined Public Citizen at a news conference today in opposing a provision of H.R. 3991 that would unnecessarily undercut disclosure requirements for 527 groups.
"There is a clear and present danger that 527 groups will become surrogates for outlawed soft money," said Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen president. "As long as 527s face limited disclosure and lax enforcement, they will continue to skirt the law with impunity and could become front groups for politicians and party officials who see little consequence for illegally steering their former soft money donors to these highly partisan vehicles. This is the next campaign finance scandal waiting to happen."
Senator McCain criticized a provision of H.R. 3991 that would let 527 groups that claim to operate at the state, but not the federal level, to report their financial activities only at the state level. McCain stressed that there was no compelling reason to exempt these 527 groups from disclosing their activities to the IRS, which is more accessible than many state disclosure systems. "It doesn't seem too difficult to photocopy a report, slap a stamp on it, and mail it to the IRS," McCain said.
"The Thomas bill threatens to open loopholes in the disclosure law just at the time when that law is about to become even more important," added Senator Feingold.
Rep. Doggett noted significant shortcomings of H.R. 3991 "It would be a step backward," Doggett said. "It would permit state group not to report some soft money. It would not require disclosure even if soft money were solicited by a federal candidate or officeholder. And it would eliminate the requirement for some groups to file '990' forms with the IRS [which detail some of the financial operations of non-profit groups]."
Public Citizen's new study, Deja Vu Soft Money, focuses on the 25 top "non-politician" 527 groups. On Feb. 26, 2002, Public Citizen released a report on "politician 527s," available at:
http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/legislation/section527/articles.cfm?ID=7188
Other findings of the latest report include:
§ Among the top 25 non-politician 527s the single biggest expenditure was for pre-election "issue ads" that focused on candidates and their positions on subjects such as abortion, the environment and taxes.
§ The IRS Web-based disclosure system for 527s is vastly inferior to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) system governing federal candidates and party committees. The current IRS system is equivalent to an electronic file cabinet with 14,800 different, unlinked folders in it.
§ 527 groups evade full disclosure in several ways. They fail to file entire reports, fail to disclose the occupation and employer of donors, and fail to reveal their relationships to politicians and national party committees.
§ The IRS has not yet taken a single enforcement action against a 527 group. In fact, the IRS still does not have a program in place to police 527s and compel them to comply with the law.
§ Non-politician 527s are highly partisan, making them potential vehicles for soft money that federal party committees can no longer receive under the McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan reform law.
§ Public Citizen made several recommendations for strengthening the weak IRS 527 disclosure and enforcement: Congress should require the IRS, by a date certain, to create a fully searchable database for 527 groups and mandate that 527 groups file electronic disclosure reports. Congress should require that the date of each contribution and expenditure be revealed and the purpose of each expenditure be stated. Also, the FEC should develop criteria for investigating 527s that may be surrogates for illegal soft money fundraising, or may be coordinating fundraising activities with federal politicians.
A copy of Public Citizen's report is available at:
http://www.citizen.org/congress/campaign/legislation/section527/articles.cfm?ID=7372
4/10/02
5:39:48 PM
BUSH & THE MEDIA COVER-UP THE JIHAD SCHOOLBOOK SCANDAL
(...) According to Washington Post investigators, over the past twenty years the US has spent millions of dollars producing fanatical schoolbooks, which were then distributed in Afghanistan. "The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then [i.e., since the violent destruction of the Afghan secular government in the early 1990s] as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books..." -- Washington Post, 23 March 2002 (...) The US government can't write, edit, print and ship millions of violent, Muslim fundamentalist primers into Afghanistan without somebody in high places (in the US government) approving those primers. (...) You may recall that George and Laura Bush have made passionate speeches denouncing Islamic fundamentalism.
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/jihad.htm
FURTHER READING ON THIS ABOVE: Congressman: U.S. Set Up Anti-Taliban to be Slaughtered
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/rohr.htm
Washington's Backing of Afghan Terrorists: Deliberate Policy
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/anatomy.htm
CIA worked with Pakistan to create Taliban
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/pak.htm
Gaping Holes in the 'CIA vs. bin Laden' Story
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/probestop-i.htm
World Bank to West Bank
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,681238,00.html
SEND PEACEKEEPING TROOPS TO PALESTINE
Now that Bush has finally recognized the need for U.S. involvement in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, he needs to take the next important step: commit peacekeeping forces to enforce the peace.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12799
War in The Middle East - All the latest Alternet articles
See "A Reason for Hope in the Middle East" there.
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28
Israel Promises Partial Pullout
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Briefing paper on 'A Never-Ending War? Consequences of September 11'
http://www.oxfrg.demon.co.uk/1publications-briefings-sept11+6.htm
Triple Threat To Peace -- Arafat, Sharon And Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09F.HS.Threat.htm
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN PROTEST OF US FAILURE TO INTERVENE in the Middle East
Demos are being organized in D.C., NYC, and SF on Thursday, April 11 –
More details at http://www.tikkun.org or contact Michael Lerner
<RabbiLerner@tikkun.org>
Here is the conclusion of his appeal...
"As we approach the commemoration of the Holocaust, it is all the more imperative that we not allow the memory of those who died be misused to justify current immoral policies which, while not at the level of Nazis or genocide, are nevertheless disgusting and likely to generate shame among Jews for generations to come. We who love the Jewish people must defend its interests by tryiing to change what Israel is doing. And this is not just an imperative for Jews--Christians also should be joining us and working for these same goals: because our bottom line is that everyone on the planet deserves to be treated as though created in the image of God."
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL COMES DOWN IN THE INS
Amnesty International is targeting the INS for its treatment of 9/11 detainees and apparent obstructions of justice. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12801
The Hopi Predicted the Chemtrails
http://www.trufax.org/welcomenet.html
"Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky" Some believe the "Purifier" mentioned by the Hopi, who comes in response to all of the signs of the endtime, is Pacal Votan. This prophecy is refered to as the Telektenon.
http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Messenger/pacal.html
4/10/02
5:26:39 PM
Public Citizen
Ranks Performance of State Medical Boards in 2001
Survey of State Board Web Sites Also Issued
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Using information released today by the Federation of State Medical Boards, Public Citizen's Health Research Group has ranked the performance of the 50 state medical boards and the District of Columbia based on the rate of serious disciplinary actions taken against doctors in 2001. Public Citizen is also releasing a rating of medical board Web sites based on their content of disciplinary actions and user-friendliness.
Nationally, state boards took 2,708 actions against doctors - including license revocations, surrenders, suspensions and probations/restrictions. Public Citizen calculated each state board's disciplinary rates per 1,000 physicians. The national rate was 3.36 actions per 1,000 physicians, compared to 3.49 in 2000.
State disciplinary rates varied widely. The 10 worst-performing boards were: the District of Columbia (the lowest rate), Hawaii, Delaware, South Dakota, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland, Rhode Island.
The 10 best-performing boards were: Arizona (the highest rate), Oklahoma, Alaska, Iowa, Kentucky, North Dakota, Idaho, Ohio, Utah and Georgia.
The top rate was 14.4 times higher than the bottom rate, although there is no basis for expecting disciplinary action rates to vary from state to state. Boards with adequate funding and staffing, independent leadership and the power to undertake significant investigations and follow through with discipline are most likely to be effective, the report said.
"The state boards should hold physicians to the highest standards, and if they're not, patients are vulnerable to doctors who are practicing bad medicine and endangering lives," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "Such wide differences in discipline rates mean that some states could be doing a whole lot more to protect patients."
Physicians are typically disciplined for offenses such as negligence, incompetence, sexual misconduct and breaking criminal laws.
Public Citizen also released today a survey of state boards' Web sites, which updates an earlier survey done by the group in 2000. This report concludes that although there has been modest improvement over the previous survey, only seven sites received a grade of "A" for content and only 20 earned an "A" for user-friendliness.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia maintain Web sites, and 49 of those name disciplined doctors on the site. Boards historically have been reluctant to publicize disciplinary actions.
Of the seven states earning an "A" for content - Arizona, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia - all but South Carolina also earned an "A" for user-friendliness. Thus, 45 states provided inadequate information compared to those receiving "A" in both categories. The content grades were based on whether the site named disciplined doctors and how complete the information on disciplinary actions was.
As consumers rely more heavily on the Internet to fill prescriptions, seek medical advice and research physicians, the completeness of these sites becomes even more important, the report said. It recommended that state medical boards adopt minimum uniform standards so that all sites have searchable databases on physicians that include information from the past 10 years and are kept up-to-date.
"These two reports go hand-in-hand: State boards need to evaluate whether they are effectively disciplining doctors and whether the public is able to get access to that information," Wolfe said. "A properly functioning board must do both well," Wolfe said.
However, there was no relationship between state disciplinary rates and the quality of the state's Web site.
A copy of the state medical board rankings is available on the Web at:
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7166.
A copy of the Web site survey is on the Web at
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7168.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org
4/10/02
5:24:18 PM
The Nation
More than six weeks ago, Robert Borosage called for Army Secretary Thomas White's resignation in a Nation editorial. Since then, new revelations have created a bill of particulars against former Enron exec White serious enough to warrant probes by a federal grand jury and the Defense Department's Inspector General.
For more info on George W. Bush's biggest Enron liability, read two recent articles by Borosage as well as David Corn's examination of the case against White. All currently available:
ROBERT BOROSAGE: White--It Gets Worse, April 22, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020422&s=borosage
ROBERT BOROSAGE: White Must Go, March 11, 2002
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020311&s=borosage
DAVID CORN: W's Largest Enron Liability, March 29, 2002 (Web only)
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=41
Incredibly, Enron and its corporate creditors are currently asking the bankruptcy court to approve up to $130 million in new bonuses and incentives for executives and "key employees." At the same time, key creditors who serve on an official Creditors Committee--which okayed these enormous bonuses--have decided to oppose any additional severance payments to thousands of Enron workers who lost their jobs, their pensions and their health care in the Enron collapse.
The E-Activist Network has created a special web-page that allows you to demand that Enron and its creditors -- Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and the Bank of New York -- support full severance pay for all laid-off Enron workers.
Click on the link below to send a fax or email:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/enrongreed/eisav6wm
While you're at it, don't miss your chance to tell the "forgotten victims" of Enron, Kenny's Kids, those members of Congress who took Enron's money and did its bidding and are now bereft of Ken Lay's largesse, what you think of their sacrifice. Check out:
And don't miss The Nation's special Enron page, where you can read numerous related Nation reports, articles, editorials and columns by Corn, Robert Scheer, William Greider, Michael Moore, John Nichols, Matt Bivens and Russ Baker, among others. All available at:
http://www.thenation.com/special/2002enron.mhtml
4/10/02
5:20:53 PM
EMS Update - April 9, 2002
Panel to Brief Press on Nuclear Security
A panel of experts will address the many questions surrounding the safety and security of America's nuclear facilities at an EMS Press Breakfast this Thursday, April 11, in Washington, D.C. Topics speakers will address include Yucca Mountain and the transportation of hazardous materials; safety problems at nuclear power plants such as Indian Point in New York and Davis-Besse in Ohio; and legislation that makes taxpayers liable for major accidents at nuclear plants.
Media advisory: http://www.ems.org/advisories/nuclear.html
4/10/02
5:19:39 PM
TomPaine.com!
"Independent, commercial-free, public affairs reporting."
YOUR HOMELAND: A 'NATIONAL SACRIFICE AREA'
An Interview With Environmental Scholar Robert Alvarez
by Sharon Basco
"If this policy is expanded, it means that the U.S. government is going to be able to write off large areas of land, bodies of water, and the people that are dependent on them, just as the Soviet Union has."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5390
WHAT WYATT EARP KNEW AND YOU SHOULD TOO
A Tutorial On Guns
by M. W. Guzy
Commentators from the right cite the Second Amendment (but) conveniently overlook the fact that citizens of the frontier town of Tombstone, Arizona, hired Wyatt Earp to keep firearms out of the city.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5387
FREEDOM FROM VEHICULAR BONDAGE
Help The Environment And Save Money
by David Case
"This is the automotive equivalent of being an uncle: you get all the good parts without the expenses, the hassles, and the parent-like responsibilities of car ownership"
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5383
ECONOMICS REPORTING REVIEW
April 1 - April 7
A Weekly Compendium And Commentary
by Dean Baker
Social Security... The Budget... Pensions... Japan... Copyrights... Housing Prices... and more.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5391
TomPaine.com...
A BOMB IS A BOMB IS A BOMB
However It Is Delivered, However It Is Described, The Violence Is Still Vile
by Elijah Wald
To suggest that one's opponents' tactics are uniquely vile is the most common, clichéd propaganda, used by virtually all combatants -- but especially those whose moral stance is threatened by the fact that they are doing most of the killing.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5385
The Loyal Opposition:
BUSH IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Learning War Isn't As Simple As Dead Or Alive; Good Or Evil
by David Corn
To apply the Bush Doctorine, on his terms, would entail branding Arafat a terrorist and blessing a Sharon rampage, and that could lead to an all-out war that spreads beyond the West Bank and eclipses Bush's own war on terrorism.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5388
New York City:
WITNESS TO THE ISRAELI MILITARY -- IS ADAM SHAPIRO A TRAITOR?
Press Attacks Message And The Messenger
by Laura Flanders
Adam Shapiro's eyewitness accounts from Ramallah are lambasted by New York City newspapers that have defamed and dehumanized Palestinians for years.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5389
From Our CHECK IT OUT! Department:
FOREST FULL OF HOLES
If you look at a map that illustrates deforestation, you'll find that our forests are in dire straits. Environmentalists are dismayed at our depleting forests, and the resulting global warming. Adding fuel to the flame, the BBC reports that so-called "intact forests" are now "riddled with roads, logging and mining activity."
Citing a report from the Washington-based World Resources Institute, the BBC says that much of it is from illegal logging. Many governments have sound environmental protection laws, but the WRI study found that enforcement is often lacking.
The United States' Environmental Protection Agency, for example, is riddled with former industry polluting executives -- maybe not quite so eager to chase down their old colleagues.
Check Out CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/
4/10/02
5:15:02 PM
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
Isaac Asimov
4/10/02
5:13:57 PM
Indigenous People
Cobell v. Norton
US Handling of Native American Trust Funds
Interior Under Siege
Employees fleeing case, buying personal liability insurance
by Deirdre Davidson, Legal Times, March 27, 2002
Forty and counting.
That is the number of former and current government employees facing possible contempt charges in the contentious case over the government's handling of Native American trust funds. The scope of the controversy is unprecedented. The Interior Department, home to a large portion of the accused employees, is an agency under siege.
Interior officials are saying that Cobell v. Norton is hampering their ability to fix the trust and is taking a toll on the work force. Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles recently told Congress that some employees have refused to work on the trust anymore -- and that those still working on the case have taken out insurance policies to protect against potential judicial sanctions. "Some of the most knowledgeable people we have are alleged to have been in contempt," Griles said in a House hearing March 14. "I have asked the judge to please release them."
So far, Interior has at least one friend in Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., who suggested at the hearing that the government pay the full cost of insurance for any government employee working on the trust. "To task [employees] to do this and then to make them financially liable is ridiculous," Rep. Dicks said. "The department should pay for complete liability insurance."
The list of those in jeopardy reaches to the top. Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb are waiting for U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia to rule on their contempt charges. The other 38 facing possible sanctions are current and former government lawyers, information officers, and deputy and assistant secretaries. Complaints about a rattled department and jittery employees generate no sympathy from the plaintiffs, who say that the federal government squandered millions of dollars that should have gone to Native Americans.
"If they hadn't destroyed documents or violated the law, they wouldn't have anything to worry about," says Dennis Gingold, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. "There isn't a single person given blanket immunity to violate the law. Government officials are public servants. They have a duty to follow the law."
The most important question is whether Interior's complaints will inspire scorn or sympathy from Judge Lamberth. The day after Griles testified about the agency's difficulties, Lamberth addressed the issue in a court hearing. "Mr. Griles indicated that progress was being thwarted because I had not acted on the 39 motions for individual contempt and that he had asked me to act on those and I had not yet acted," Judge Lamberth said at the March 15 hearing. He then told Gingold to start drafting memos laying out the specific charges and evidence against each of the 39 people their side wants him to hold in contempt. (The plaintiffs filed an additional contempt demand the week after the hearing.)
"I'll let each of those 39 respond," Lamberth said, "and I will address Mr. Griles' desire that I move quickly on that."
ONE OF A KIND CASE >From the very beginning, Cobell has been unique. The class action, now nearly six years old, alleges that the government mismanaged the trust money of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans. The fund, administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is supposed to pay as many as 500,000 Native Americans their share of the royalties for grazing, oil extraction, and other uses of their land. If successful, the lawsuit could result in a huge financial loss for the federal government. The plaintiffs estimate that the federal government owes more than $10 billion to trust holders. They are demanding that the government provide an accounting of the trust money.
But what has really distinguished Cobell has been the unusually personal nature of the litigation: The plaintiffs have not just attacked the government and its policies, but have gone after individual employees. Judge Lamberth found two Cabinet secretaries, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, in contempt in 1999. The government paid fines of more than $600,000 as a result.
The agencies say it is affecting work. Some of the government attorneys have recused themselves from working on Indian trust issues in the future, according to their lawyers. But to the Native Americans fighting the government over the case, complaints about contempt charges and employees avoiding working on trust reform don't carry much weight. "I think we have to pause for a moment -- if that is the way these individuals think about this matter, that if they are going to be held accountable then they don't want to work on it, fine, begone then, and let's get some other people in there," says Keith Harper, a lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund and co-counsel for the plaintiffs' side.
AVOIDING TROUBLE At the Justice Department, Cobell has had a rotating lineup of lawyers. The case was first handled by the Environment and Natural Resources Division, but was moved to the Civil Division in 2001. Now, a number of the attorneys who worked on the matter are facing contempt. At the Interior Department, some attorneys in the solicitor's office have taken themselves off the case, or have been taken off. Solicitor William Myers, himself facing a contempt citation, removed two of his office's lawyers from Cobell because they had been accused of wrongdoing in the case.
But higher-level appointees like Myers are forced to stay. If Myers recused himself, "he wouldn't be able to do the job he was brought in to do," says Myers' lawyer, E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. For a number of superiors, political appointees, and department heads, recusal is not possible.
When Rep. Dicks discussed the issue at the oversight hearing, he asked the lineup of more than half a dozen higher-level Interior Department employees how they were coping. Personal liability insurance was the answer. "Is that what you all did?" Dicks asked. "You bought your own? You are paying for it out of your own salary?" Every single head in the lineup of officials -- which included Interior Deputy Secretary Griles, Director of the Office of Indian Trust Transition Ross Swimmer, Special Trustee for American Indians Thomas Slonaker, and Director of the Office of Historical Trust Accounting Bert Edwards -- nodded emphatically. To be sure, these are not the only government officials buying private liability insurance. It's a common practice for many Justice Department lawyers and law enforcement agents. The insurance offers protections in two areas. The first is from private civil suits from citizens, such as cases against postal workers for an accident with a government vehicle or a suit against an FBI agent for a shooting. Such policies typically cover up to $500,000 or $1 million in liability. The insurance also may pay up to $100,000 for legal expenses of employees involved in disciplinary actions, criminal proceedings, or judicial sanctions.
In many cases, the Justice Department will defend a federal employee. But the department can also decline, finding that the alleged misdeeds were not part of the employee's official capacity. The insurance is meant to cover gaps left by the Justice Department's legal defense. Insurers will not cover legal costs after an individual has pleaded or been found guilty. And policies maintain the right to approve counsel, which means insurers are not obligated to pay for the lawyer the employee wants.
Policies cost about $300 a year, and the government reimburses managers and law enforcement personnel for half the cost. One local company that offers the policy, Wright & Co., insures about 26,000 federal employees. In Cobell, the Justice Department is defending employees charged in their official capacities and is paying for outside counsel to defend the employees in their individual capacities. Some of the accused employees have insurance, while others do not. But the insurance is not making much of an impact. The Justice Department is paying for everyone's private lawyer in this case, at the rate of $125 an hour. Most lawyers say the insurance policies are not paying for any legal coverage.
The case is far from over, and further contempt charges could loom. Secretary Norton, to fix problems in the trust management identified by the lawsuit, wants to create a new division at Interior. But officials fear they will have trouble attracting staff as long as the litigation is pending. "Some very good people have had contempt charges filed against them," Griles said at the House hearing.
And the Native Americans battling the government don't want to see employees facing contempt for alleged neglect or mismanagement working on the trusts. "I think they are correct [that] people are fearful," says Harper. "But people who are used to being able to break the rules, people who are transgressors, are often fearful of any authority that makes them accountable."
4/10/02
5:11:02 PM
AlterNet Headlines
SPLENDOR IN THE CRASS: FINDING SOUL MATES ON A TV SHOW
Genevieve Roja, AlterNet
Never has feminine ruthlessness been so exploited in the name of matrimonial ambition than in ABC's new reality dating show, The Bachelor.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12800
SEND PEACEKEEPING TROOPS TO PALESTINE
William O. Beeman, Pacific News Service
Now that Bush has finally recognized the need for U.S. involvement in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, he needs to take the next important step: commit peacekeeping forces to enforce the peace.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12799
Additional coverage on our War in the Middle East page:
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28
* Iraq May Offer a Reason for Hope in the Middle East
* Arianna Huffington slams Bush's Mideast Policy
* New Eyewitness Accounts from an American Student in Ramallah
THE LESSON OF OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB
Kevin Smokler, AlterNet
Now that the Big O is closing down her book club, who will fill the void? The answer, ironically, is anyone and everyone.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12806
TAX-REFUND LOANS BILK LOW-INCOME PEOPLE -- AND TAXPAYERS
Jeff Ignatius, River Cities Reader
Through "tax refund loans," the federal government is steering hundreds of millions of dollars away from the working poor and into the hands of corporate accountants.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12808
--> Keep Your Laws Off My Country <-- on Working Assets Radio with Laura Flanders The International Criminal Court is about to be ratified, but can it work without the U.S.? Listen online from 10-11amPT/1-2pmET, or call in: 866-798-TALK.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com
UNLIKELY BEDFELLOWS: MEDIA LITERACY AND ANTI-DRUG EDUCATION Maia Szalavitz, AlterNet Partnerships between government agencies and the media could have the unintended result of teaching kids a lot more than the feds want them to know about drugs.
* In DrugReporter: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17
U.S. PREPARES TO INVADE YOUR HARD DRIVE
Paul Boutin, Salon
A bill before Congress would mandate built-in copy-protection on all digital devices. Even technology experts who want to protect intellectual property think it's a lousy idea.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12795
LOSE THAT POOR CITIZEN GUILT: GET MARRIED!
Alana Kumbier, PopPolitics.com
Government support of marriage is another example of how one's private actions are indicative of one's status as a citizen.
* In Human Rights USA: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=22
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL COMES DOWN IN THE INS
Abby Scher, In These Times
Amnesty International is targeting the INS for its treatment of 9/11 detainees and apparent obstructions of justice.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12801
FIGHTING FOR AMERICA'S ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
Matt Bivens, The Nation
The wind production tax-credit may be evidence that renewable-power growth is coming on strong in the U.S. -- despite fat subsidies for coal and oil.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12804
LET'S ROLL!
Steve Perry, Rake Magazine
In recent months anyone who surfs the news programs has been subjected to Lisa Beamer's teary face on every outlet worth mentioning.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12791
4/10/02
4:17:17 PM
t r u t h o u t | 04.09
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Israel Promises Partial Pullout
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
U.S. Envoy Meets Sharon to Demand Pullout
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09A.Pullout.htm
Oil Soars on Halt by Iraq, Venezuela
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09B.Oil.Soars.htm
U.S. Warns Russia of Need to Verify Treaty Compliance
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09C.US.Warns.htm
Enron Investors Say Lenders Took Part in Fraud Scheme
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09D.Fraud.Scheme.htm
Nuclear Escape Route
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09E.Nuclear.htm
Harley Sorensen | Triple Threat To Peace -- Arafat, Sharon And Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09F.HS.Threat.htm
Statement from the AFL-CIO on the Middle East Conflict
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09G.AFL-CIO.htm
More Battles Loom Over Bush's Nominees for Judgeships
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09H.Bush.Battles.htm
A Recipe For Making Peace
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.09I.Making.Peace.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
4/10/02
4:11:12 PM
The Nation
Imagine you're buying a car. You ask: Does it have an air bag? The salesman hems and haws--and then offers to sell you a titanium crash helmet, a flame-retardant racing suit and a comprehensive health insurance plan.
Would you buy that car?
Would you buy it if George W. Bush and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham were doing the selling?
Welcome to Yucca Mountain, the site in Nevada that President Bush has recommended for permanent storage of the nation's radioactive nuclear waste despite a host of unresolved scientific and health concerns.
For the full story, check out recent installments of The Failsafe Point -- Matt Bivens' exclusive Nation Online feature.
Currently available at:
http://www.thenation.com/failsafe/
And, after you read the piece, you may want to think about joining opponents of Bush and Abraham's plan to ship nuclear waste to Nevada at a rally on Tuesday April 16 outside the Capitol in Washington, DC.
Or, if you want to help devise a better solution to dealing with the country's radioactive waste, you can sign up for the People's Nuclear Waste Summit, to be held April 12-14 in Middletown, Connecticut.
Check this site for details on both events:
And, if you want to tell Washington to rethink the Yucca Mountain project but can't make it to the April 16 rally, Public Citizen has made it possible for you to customize and send a free fax to your Senators. Go to Public Citizen's special page for details:
http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=42&source=3
4/10/02
4:09:31 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Bush administration frets over fuel-price spike - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15382/story.htm
FEATURE - Alaska oil search proceeds outside ANWR spotlight - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15381/story.htm
Crews work to clean up Louisiana oil spill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15387/story.htm
Chernobyl a "forgotten crisis", UN official says - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15376/story.htm
INTERVIEW - Tensions mount over gene rights, trade - UNEP - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15380/story.htm
Lithuania N-plant stops reactor for repairs - LITHUANIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15379/story.htm
FEATURE - Kazakh fishing port haunted by ghost of dying sea - KAZAKHSTAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15390/story.htm
Chaos as buses ordered off road by court in Delhi - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15391/story.htm
Global wind power market seen up 16 pct/yr to 2006 - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15378/story.htm
Group uses gore, blood to shock diners, save sharks - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15385/story.htm
China mulls first law to regulate biotech - media - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15384/story.htm
Despite strains, Ottawa denies it is split on Kyoto - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15388/story.htm
Bulgaria to restart building new nuclear plant - BULGARIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15377/story.htm
EU to cut fleets in overhaul of fishing policy - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15383/story.htm
Dwindling water supplies the world's biggest challenge - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15386/story.htm
4/10/02
4:07:09 PM
Just Say No to GMOs!
NEWS RELEASE
4 April 2002
Shareholders Encourage Whole Foods to Label GE and non-GE Ingredients Contact: Shelley Alpern, Trillium Investments, (617) 423-6655
Last October, a diverse group of shareholders filed a resolution asking Whole Foods Market to label products sold under the Whole Foods private labels with respect to genetically engineered (and non-genetically engineered) ingredients. The complete text of the resolution is available at:
http://www.iccr.org/products/proxy_book02/environment/label_gef2.htm
In a dialogue with senior management following the filing, shareholders were told that Whole Foods, Whole Kids and 365 Every Day Value private label products manufactured after October 1, 2001 no longer contained genetically engineered ingredients though they are not labeled as such. The company's reasons for not labeling these products include the current unavailability of a widely accepted, accurate testing protocol for the presence of genetically engineered ingredients and the economic risk of labeling products prior to an FDA ruling on acceptable language for labels.
Shareholders urged Whole Foods to consider interim labeling of product packages and advised management that labeling would allow Whole Foods to address not only the consumers desire and right to know about product content but also set an example for the industry. Moreover, labeling would be to Whole Foods' competitive advantage by enhancing the company's reputation.
In place of individual product labeling, Whole Foods agreed to shareholders' request to increase consumer access to consistent and clear information throughout their stores and on their website indicating which of their products do and do not contain genetically engineered ingredients. In addition shareholders asked that consumer education efforts regarding genetically engineered foods be strengthened in its GE brochure, in stores and on the website.
Whole Foods also informed shareholders about its on-going support for mandatory labeling legislation and for research to establish a reliable testing protocol to determine whether a product contains genetically engineered ingredients.
After careful consideration, shareholders withdrew the resolution upon management's agreement to:
- increase the visibility of its GE consumer education and lobbying information in its stores and on its web site;
- improve store-to-store consistency of its consumer education materials;
- address the issue of re-labeling Bakehouse and Commissary products (both of which may contain GE) with regard to GE ingredients;
- establish timelines for implementing the above;
- continue to update shareholders on progress regarding all the issues mentioned and;
- continue a dialogue with shareholders.
Shareholders anticipate that Whole Foods will honor its agreement as expeditiously as possible and continue to be responsive to shareholder concerns.
A summary of shareholders' dialogue with Whole Foods was applauded at the annual stockholders meeting held March 25, 2002 in Ft. Lauderdale.
Information on socially responsible investing and other shareholder actions is available through the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility at
4/10/02
4:04:44 PM
9-11 Inquiry - Ga. Rep. Cynthia McKinney
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23066
OPERATION 911 COUP AND COVERUP UPDATE
http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html
SHOCKER: "Mohamed Atta & the Venice Flying Circus" Says Waitress of Terror Pilots: "I Thought They Were Mafia"
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=23072
4/10/02
3:59:39 PM
Greenpeace Action Alert Urge U.S. Furniture Makers to Spare the Rainforests
Greenpeace is calling on Ethan Allen to stop buying timber that is illegally logged, to stop buying timber from endangered forests, and to commit to selling timber that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
With your help, we are going to radically change the U.S. furniture industry once and for all -- ending their massive use of illegal and destructive wood from ancient tropical forests.
Send an email to Ethan Allen today!
Take online action now at:
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/bin/actionframe.pl?action_id=117
Want to do more?
Join us for national days of action against the furniture industry April 14-16, 2002!
We're calling for a series of demonstrations targeting two U.S. companies, Stickley and Ethan Allen, April 14-16, 2002.
Stickley, a high-end furniture maker, is probably the largest single consumer, using about 4% of the U.S. import, of big-leaf mahogany from Brazil.
We're also targeting Ethan Allen. The mahogany they use, khaya, is mostly from Africa's ancient forests, much of which comes from illegal logging in Cote d'Ivoir and Ghana.
We are insisting that both of these companies to stop buying timber that is illegally logged, to stop buying timber from endangered forests, and to commit to selling timber that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
We need Greenpeace supporters out there targeting the U.S. furniture industry!
The first step would be to find Ethan Allen stores and/or Stickley dealers in your area.
Go to http://www.ethanallen.com where all stores are listed by zip code.
Stickley has two corporate-run showrooms, one in Manhattan and one in Westchester. They sell through another 150 dealers across the country, so there's probably one somewhere near you.
For Stickley dealers in your area go to the Stickley website http://www.stickley.com click on "contact Stickley", click on "locate a Stickley dealer" then type in your address and email. They will send you an e-mail with your nearest dealer.
We will have "Day of Action" packets available soon - send us e-mail to receive stickers, t-shirts, videos, flyers, sample press releases, and more.
If you want to organize a demonstration for the Day of Action, receive a Day of Action packet, or just get more information, please contact:
Meghan Conklin at: mailto:meghan.conklin@wdc.greenpeace.org
Be sure to check the website in the next few weeks to see photos from the demonstrations!
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member online!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join
4/10/02
3:56:39 PM
FAIR
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
MEDIA ADVISORY:
"Terrorism" Is a Term that Requires Consistency: Newspaper and its critics both show a double standard on "terror"
April 8, 2002
A group called Minnesotans Against Terrorism (MAT)-- which includes Gov. Jesse Ventura, Sen. Paul Wellstone and other prominent political figures--has condemned the Minneapolis Star Tribune for what it calls a "double standard" on the use of the word "terrorism." But in fact, neither the newspaper nor the organization applies the term "terrorism" in a consistent way-- a problem that is widespread throughout U.S. media.
The organization's grievance against the Star Tribune is that the paper says it avoids using the term "terrorist" in its reports on the Mideast conflict. As the paper's assistant managing editor, Roger Buoen, explained in a comment to the paper's ombudsman (2/3/02):
"Our practice is to stay away from characterizing the subjects of news articles but instead describe their actions, background and identity as fully as possible, allowing readers to come to their own judgments about individuals and organizations.
"In the case of the term 'terrorist,' other words-- 'gunman,' 'separatist' and 'rebel,' for example-- may be more precise and less likely to be viewed as judgmental. Because of that we often prefer these more specific words.
"We also take extra care to avoid the term 'terrorist' in articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of the emotional and heated nature of that dispute."
This policy of avoiding the term "terrorism" in favor of more specific descriptions is a defensible policy-- so long as it is applied consistently. But Buoen went on to acknowledge that the paper does make exceptions:
"However, in some circumstances in which non-governmental groups carry out attacks on civilians, the term is permitted. For example, Al Qaeda is frequently referred to by the Star Tribune and other news organizations as a 'terrorist network,' in part because its members have been convicted of terrorist acts and because it has been identified by the United States and other countries as a terrorist organization."
Here the paper is making distinctions that are not defensible. First, to limit "terrorism" to "nongovernmental groups" is an illogical restriction. Does a plane being blown up stop being terrorism if it turns out that some nation's intelligence agency secretly ordered its destruction? To make such an arbitrary distinction over the use of a word with such powerful connotations certainly doesn't sound like "allowing readers to come to their own judgments." (The Star Tribune's ombudsman noted that the Associated Press also reserves the word "terrorist" for non-governmental groups.)
Similarly, to decide that it is all right to label Al Qaeda as a "terrorist network," not because i