8/16/02
4:15:31 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Have you ever tromped up the stairs to your apartment wishing you knew those neighbors who were cooking the yummy-smelling plantains? Or gazed at the empty lot on the corner of your street and fantasized about a community garden? Plenty of people yearn to develop closer relationships with the land and the people around them -- and some of them actually do something about it. In this month's Global Citizen, columnist Elizabeth Sawin describes the six years of planning and dreaming that culminated in her moving, earlier this summer, into Cobb Hill Co-Housing, an intentional community in Vermont. Live communally, vicariously, or be inspired to follow your own dreams, on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Do your home work -- creating a green community in the Green Mountain State, by Elizabeth Sawin -- in our Global Citizen column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/citizen/citizen081602.asp?source=daily>
NO ISLAND IS AN ISLAND
Climate change was the leading concern at the annual Pacific Island Forum this week, where leaders of small island nations chastised the United States for abandoning the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The islands have an unusually vested interest in the protocol because they face a high risk of being swallowed up by seas swollen from melting ice caps and thermal expansion of ocean waters. The leaders of the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu released a statement at the forum noting their "profound disappointment at the decision of the U.S." The consortium stopped short of chiding Australia, which has also rejected Kyoto on the basis that it would be fatally flawed without U.S. participation. Australia is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the South Pacific, but it is also one of the largest aid donors to Pacific islands.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Paul Tait, 16 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=372>
do good: Take action to tell Bush to tackle global warming <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily#kyoto>
A DRINKING PROBLEM
Preventable water-related illnesses could kill as many as 76 million people by the year 2020 unless nations take action to improve their water-delivery systems, according to a report by a California environmental research institute. Most of the affected people would likely be children in developing countries, who are highly susceptible to such water-borne diseases as diarrhea, worms, dysentery, and cholera. Experts estimate that currently, 2 to 5 million people die every year from water-related illnesses; the new study blames those deaths largely on development efforts that have focused on big, centralized water-delivery systems rather than accessible, affordable, localized methods of providing clean water to impoverished people. Peter Gleick, lead author of the study, called the issue "a hidden tragedy" and "one of the greatest development failures of the 20th century."
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Christopher Heredia, 16 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=373>
PUTTING THE GOLF CART BEFORE THE HORSEPOWER
Seeking to comply with California regulations requiring automakers to reduce their emissions, General Motors has announced plans to give away thousands of electric vehicles over the next three years. The vehicles in question are literally modified golf carts (they have had seat belts, windshield wipers, and other parts added), and are only for use in low-traffic areas; the electric carts will be donated to businesses and charitable organizations, and will help GM earn low-emissions-vehicles credits under the California law. While most of the vehicles will go to California, some are destined for New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts, which have traditionally followed California's environmental lead when it comes to tightening automotive standards. Some environmentalists expressed skepticism at what seemed like a half-measure by GM: "I don't think anyone's clamoring for more golf carts," said Kate Simmons, a member of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program. "There are real technologies that exist today that GM could put in their vehicles."
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Michael Ellis, 16 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=374>
WALK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG COMPUTER MODEL
Unless you live there, you probably haven't been following the brouhaha in North Dakota. So here's the skinny: The U.S. EPA insists that the state is in violation of air quality standards because of the high concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air at the otherwise-pristine Theodore Roosevelt National Park and a national wildlife refuge. The state, meanwhile, conducted its own computer air quality models and says it is not in violation of the standards. The EPA was unconvinced, and used the same model but different data to prove its point. If the EPA maintains its position, some North Dakota power producers could be required to clean up their act, scrubbing sulfur from unscrubbed power plants. Moreover, the EPA has threatened to take over the state's pollution program.
straight to the source: Bismarck Tribune, Lauren Donovan, 16 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=375>
Also in GRIST MAGAZINE today:
Say what? -- baring their chests for environmental justice -- wacky quotes on the environment <http://www.gristmagazine.com/saywhat/saywhat2002.asp?source=daily#chests>
Different shades of green -- a week in the life of Paul Sabin, Environmental Leadership Program <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/sabin081502.asp?source=daily>
Are diesel engines less polluting than gasoline engines? -- astute advice on all things environmental -- in our Ask Umbra column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ask/ask081502.asp?source=daily#diesel>
8/16/02
3:40:25 PM
US Considers Summary Execution Assassination Squads
Pentagon Said To Be Discussing Use Of Units To Work Abroad
by Oliver Burkeman in New York The Guardian - London, August 14, 2002
The US government is considering plans to send elite military units on missions to assassinate al-Qaida leaders in countries around the world, without necessarily informing the governments involved, it was reported yesterday.
The Pentagon is discussing proposals which could see special operations units dispatched to capture or kill terrorists wherever they are be lieved to be hiding, despite a long-standing presidential order forbidding US personnel from carrying out assassinations abroad, the New York Times reported.
Senior army advisers believe they could justify the practice on the grounds that it would constitute "preparation of the battlefield" in a war against terrorism that has no boundaries, because the September 11 terrorist attacks in effect initiated a worldwide state of armed conflict, the newspaper said.
"We're at war with al-Qaida. If we find an enemy combatant, then we should be able to use military force to take military action against them," a senior adviser to the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was quoted as saying.
The plan was said to be caus ing concerns in other parts of the US government because it might blur the line between army activity and missions usually handled, under strict legal guidelines, by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The president and Congress monitor CIA activities to ensure compliance with a presidential executive order first signed by President Gerald Ford, but regularly renewed since, forbidding government-sponsored assassinations.
The order followed revelations of CIA plans to murder foreign leaders including Fidel Castro and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo.
But Mr Rumsfeld is said to be frustrated by the CIA's activities in Afghanistan, especially when the activities of special forces working with local war lords were slowed down because the Afghans were still waiting for cash payments they were promised for cooperating against the Taliban.
The CIA's director, George Tenet, was understood not to oppose the proposals Mr Rumsfeld is considering, and discussions were under way to negotiate a new relationship between the agency and the army, an official said.
The soldiers who would be used in any such plan are the army's secretive Delta Force and the navy's Seal unit.
"The people in these units are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere around the world. They are very highly trained, with specialised skills for dealing with close-quarters combat and unique situations posed by weapons of mass destruction," a military officer said.
A senior official in the Bush administration told the New York Times that the US had to adapt its methods to match al-Qaida's for speed and stealth.
"If we find a high-value target somewhere, anywhere in the world, and if we have the forces to get there and get to them, we should get there and get to them," the official said.
"Right now, there are 18 food chains, 20 levels of paperwork and 22 hoops we have to jump through before we can take action. Our enemy moves faster than that."
Shortly after last September's attacks, Dick Cheney, the vice-president, indicated that the administration might review the ban on assassinations, because "to be able to penetrate organisations you need to have on the payroll some very unsavoury characters... It is a mean, nasty, dangerous, dirty business out there, and we have to operate in that arena."
Asked directly if there was a law which would outlaw assassinating Osama bin Laden, he said he did not think so, "but I'd have to check with the lawyers on that".
Presidents since Mr Ford have often been accused of sidestepping the executive order by launching targeted military attacks primarily to kill leaders, such as the 1986 attack on Libya authorised by Ronald Reagan, of which he later commented that he would not have shed tears if it had happened to kill the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,773574,00.html
The Summary Execution Issue
From Robert Anderson top_view@planetmail.com Top View News 8-15-2
On Monday morning (August 12) I found a Reuters story on ABC News online news-wire, which stated that the White House had quietly announced summary executions of certain persons designated as "terrorists" by Bush or other high-ranking Bush Cartel members HAD BEEN given the OK. So: ONLY the SAY-SO of Bush gang, in other words, is sufficient to incur the MURDER of whomever is so designated, by OFFICIAL US government policy. No evidence whatsoever need ever be presented to ANYONE, that the person so designated IS in fact a "terrorist" at all. This Reuters article indicated that the directive applied both abroad AND at home in the U.S.
We forwarded the article to our recipient list with the url, but soon began receiving emails saying the link was not working. And true enough, the story WAS gone, and could not be found at the Reuters site either.
We had several people we know (some in the journalism business) contact White House information sources, and we received to clear replies to the effect that the article must have been either in error or a hoax.
THEN, on Tuesday evening associate Mark Jahnsky found an item on the Washington Post website which reported that a CIA spokesperson said the agency HAD been given the "green light" (the Post's words) to carry out summary executions or assassinations of certain persons whom the Bush Mob claimed were "terrorists."
Although THIS article gave no indication that the new directive applied WITHIN the United States as the CIA is specifically FORBIDDEN from conducting operations within the US, apparently by the time the Post article was published, either the Presidential directive had been amended or else the full extent of its intended scope had been COVERED UP.
Nevertheless, and regardless: ONLY the SAY-SO of Bush-Mobsters is sufficient to incur the MURDER of whomever is so designated, by OFFICIAL US government policy! No evidence whatsoever need ever be presented to ANYONE, that the person so designated IS in fact a "terrorist" at all!
And then a funny thing happened. The Washington Post article ALSO disappeared from the face of the Earth. Gone -- zip -- nada.
Nobody know nuttin'.
THEN, by Wednesday evening, a series of communications to TOP_VIEW on the subject from Jeff Rense were massively interfered with, our computer was repeatedly hacked into via our Internet hookup resulting in several crashes, and the Reuters article --which Rense had posted and then removed when it couldn't be confirmed -- mysteriously reappeared at Rense.com attached to an unrelated link, and then disappeared again forever.
Anyway, by Wednesday evening Jeff Rense had discovered an article by The London Guardian, which stated that the Bush Mob was about to give the green light to assassinations or summary executions of certain persons designated as terrorists by top Bush Cartel members!
The Guardian article, however, like the Washington Post article, gave no specific indication that the now-"PLANNED" policy directive would also pertain domestically.
But nevertheless and regardless, ONLY the SAY-SO of the Bush Cartel is sufficient to incur the MURDER of whomever is so designated, by OFFICIAL US government policy. No evidence whatsoever need ever be presented to ANYONE, that the person so designated IS in fact a "terrorist."
So: what IS the real story about the approval of summary executions for certain persons whom Bush and his gang CLAIM are "terrorists?" Exactly what is the scope of this HORRIFIC, newly-implemented or soon-to-be-implemented official US "policy?" Apparently, the truth of the directive's scope is being COVERED UP.
However, no matter whether this deranged, sickening, brutish and MASSIVELY illegal/unconstitutional/unconscionable "policy" is to be applied only outside the United States or whether the United States and its people are to be INCLUDED, the "policy" itself is an absolute and totally intolerable outrage to the civilized world and a profound violation of international AND national law in the highest degree. The mightily perverted, grotesque G. Dubya Shrubya Bush and his band, who've usurped control of this nation and are turning it into a CommuNazi 4th Reich totalitarian NIGHTMARE, are a MASSIVE menace and threat to the entire planet.
The nations, the PEOPLES of the world MUST STAND TOGETHER and shut the Bush-Mob DOWN.
http://www.rense.com/general28/exe.htm
8/16/02
3:31:42 PM
The Nation
For all of you in and around the Seattle-Tacoma, Washington area, next Saturday, August 24, Seattle will host the fourth stop on the nationwide Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour, a traveling extravaganza of grassroots political activism, music, speechs, workshops, exhibitions and food.
The daylong event will be held in Petrovitsky Park in Renton with featured speakers including Jim Hightower, Tom Hayden, Granny D and Lori Wallach. There'll also be musical performances from Holly Near, Zap Mama and Fishbone, among many others.
The RT Tour is sponsored by scores of worthy groups, organizations and publications, including The Nation, Greenpeace, ACORN and United Students Against Sweatshops, many of which will be on hand exhibiting their wares.
ROLLING THUNDER DOWN-HOME DEMOCRACY TOUR
Saturday, August 24, 10:00am to 10:00pm
Petrovitsky Park
Renton, WA (20 miles from downtown Seattle)
Tickets: $5 in advance, $10 at the door
http://www.rollingthundertour.org
A brainchild of Texas populist and Nation writer Jim Hightower, the Rolling Thunder Tour is intended as a series of local gatherings with pizzazz and festivity, as well as seriousness of purpose - a sort of travelling democracy festival.
Check out the RT website for more about Seattle:
http://www.rollingthundertour.org
And be sure to check out Jim Hightower's Nation magazine feature --Going Down The Road -- which seeks to chronicle the same activist energy that's fueling the RT Tour.
His most recent installment, from the September 2/9, 2002 issue of The Nation, takes on the water profiteers and celebrates "the ordinary folks" who are demonstating great courage and cunning in opposing the Great Corporate Water Rush.
Read this piece in its entirety currently at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=hightower
As Hightower writes in the preface to his March 4 debut, there's a "phenomenal energy and rebellious spirit that is steadily spreading across our land, albeit mostly beneath the radar of the cognoscenti holed up in the power centers...These people are lighting prairie fires of rebellion against the way things are."
The animating idea behind the Rolling Thunder Tour is to foster connection among these myriad progressive initiatives mobilized across the US every day.
Hope to see you in Seattle.
Best Regards,
Peter Rothberg
Associate Publisher, The Nation
8/16/02
3:29:11 PM
SciTech Daily Review
What happens if you put a nuclear waste repository on top of a bunch of volcanoes? If you live near Yucca Mountain, you may get the chance to find out
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020812/yucca.html
How do you study a nomadic people when they leave little behind them? A set of slender granite monoliths may hold clues to the lives of the medieval Mongols
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/134512886_nomads13.html
Colombia's unique forests and endangered birds are falling victim to the ongoing conflict over the country's thriving drugs trade
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020729/020729-11.html
The cyborg known as you: Chips under the skin. Wireless sensors in the brain. It's not science fiction: it's your destiny
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,42091,FF.html
The search for Genghis Khan's tomb is sputtering amidst accusations of desecration
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/14/mongolia.genghiskhan.ap/index.html
The killer algae Pfiesteria may kill fish by nibbling them to death. (Oh good, say the fish. That's so much nicer than being poisoned.)
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020805/020805-2.html
Scattered around our planet are hundreds of creatures that have been to the Moon and back again -- and one man is searching high and low for these lost Moon Trees
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/13aug_moontrees.htm
Japanese citizens are opting out in droves from their new national computerized ID system
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2002/08/11/idsystem/index.html
You want to grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals? Try reading about Charlotte Uhlenbroek's exploits in Talking with Animals, more than just a companion volume to the BBC series
http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opbooks.jsp?id=ns23563
The bot who loved me: Are those secret-admirer e-mails real -- or just the latest excrescence of an Internet marketing machine grown unfathomably sleazy?
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/07/crushmaster/index.html?x
Physicists should humble themselves and turn to biology as the new frontier! Talk about a seismic cultural shift in science
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/225/science/Bio_envy+.shtml
Smokey the Bear got it wrong -- preventing forest fires can cause more harm than good
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6131
8/16/02
3:26:17 PM
Israeli Army accused of using human shields
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31978
By Ross Dunn, Herald Correspondent in Jerusalem and agencies August 16, 2002
A Palestinian teenager died in a hail of bullets after being used as a human shield in an Israeli Army operation to prevent what it described as a "mega" terrorist attack.
The death came despite army assurances that it would stop the controversial practice, condemned by human rights groups, of using residents to protect soldiers carrying out raids inside Palestinian civilian areas.
The soldiers were targeting a senior Hamas militant, Nasr Jarrar, 44, who, the army said, had recruited suicide bombers and was planning to demolish a skyscraper in central Israel. The army said Mr Jarrar was still active despite losing both legs and an arm while trying to plant a bomb last year.
After discovering his hideout in the West Bank town of Tubas, Israeli soldiers surrounded the building and ordered Nidal Abu Muhsein, 19, to knock on the door.
A gunfight followed, during which Mr Muhsein was killed by shots from inside the house, the military said. Mr Jarrar was decapitated when the army demolished the house with a bulldozer.
The Israeli human rights group B'tselem accused the army of using Mr Muhsein as a human shield. The army denied the claim, saying it was trying to prevent civilian deaths by warning anyone in the house with Mr Jarrar to surrender.
---> But the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv yesterday said the practice was aimed at protecting the lives of the Israeli soldiers, not Palestinian civilians.
"The Israel Defence Forces uses the procedure when there is concern that a wanted man, hiding in his house, will open fire on soldiers ...
Over the past two years, use of this procedure has increased, and innocent neighbours have been hurt on more than one occasion," the paper said.
Israeli human rights groups appealed to the Supreme Court to halt the practice and were assured by the Attorney-General that the army would no longer endanger the lives of innocent Palestinian civilians.
The groups are expected to lodge a new legal challenge.
Ma'ariv spoke to several senior Israeli officers who also voiced their opposition. One officer was quoted as saying: "It would be better to endanger soldiers rather than innocent civilians who are caught in combat through no deed of their own and could pay with their lives."
A cabinet minister, Ephraim Sneh, a former military commander, said yesterday that although he was unsure the action would stand up to the test of law, "there is the consideration that we have to prevent a large terror attack, and it's clear which consideration wins in this situation".
In another move the Palestinian Finance Minister, Salam Fayyad, said a holding company had been established to consolidate Palestinian Authority assets under a single umbrella, a reform that meets a key US demand to overhaul Palestinian finances.
Mr Fayyad, a former senior World Bank official, said that the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, had given formal approval on Wednesday to the creation of the Palestinian Investment Fund, which would be under the finance minister's direct control.
Mr Fayyad said the new holding company would ensure transparency and accountability in Palestinian financial dealings.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/15/1029113984644.html
"Bin Laden, the forbidden truth"
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31967
9/11 Conspiracy: A Summary
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31971
This should be required reading for Congress,
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31968
Condoleezza Rice "This is an evil man..."
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31963
US Government Refuses to Certify Accuracy of Its Financials
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31960
Electronic Mind Control - The Facts, The Proof
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31958
US considers assassination squads;
The US government is considering plans to send elite military units on missions to assassinate al-Qaida leaders in countries around the world, without necessarily informing the governments involved, it was reported yesterday.
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31943
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace.
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31934
Terrorists are street-killers writ large. Does assuring domestic security mean sacrificing civil liberty? Is that America's hard choice in the War on Terror?
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31945
L I B E R T Y - THE STUDY OF; Study and Learn
" ...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ... That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men" Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson
http://darren.lib.utah.edu/index.htm
Without Justice, there is JUST_US!
American Patriot Friends Network (APFN)
http://www.apfn.org/vardon/contributions.htm
8/16/02
3:23:25 PM
"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."
Robert Louis Stevenson
8/16/02
3:19:58 PM
Forbidden Truth -- Transcript of Donahue Show
Jean-Charles Brisard, Co-Author of "The Forbidden Truth,"
Interviewed by Donahue on MSNBC Tuesday, August 13, 2002
DONAHUE: Welcome back. In his book, "Forbidden Truth"-"U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for bin Laden" its subtitle-author Jean Charles Brisard makes some disturbing allegations regarding a connection between oil, Saudi Arabia, the Clinton and Bush administrations and al Qaeda.
Well, Mr. Brisard, sir, your book is the talk of Europe. It's a best-seller. Obviously, Europe has grabbed this with both hands. Not so here. We're paying-it's not that you're being ignored, but...
JEAN CHARLES BRISARD, FRENCH INTELLIGENCE INVESTIGATOR: It just arrived.
DONAHUE: Huh?
BRISARD: Just arrived in the U.S.
DONAHUE: It just got here. OK. Well, we'll see what happens. In this book, you make the point that-you seem to say that all the dots connect to Saudi Arabia.
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: And those dots include George Bush, Sr.-Bush 1 - as well as al Qaeda and the United States government itself. Make your case for us here, sir.
BRISARD: I don't want to talk about politics tonight, OK? So-but the fact is, on the one hand, you have Saudi Arabia, a known-a well-known country for business with the Western countries, and is doing-this country is doing business with the United States and with others.
DONAHUE: Right.
BRISARD: And in that part of the business, you have probably corporate interests, and probably you find in some years George Bush, Sr., and probably George Bush, the actual president. And on the other hand, Saudi Arabia is funding fundamentalism-radical fundamentalism-around the world.
DONAHUE: Yes.
BRISARD: And...
DONAHUE: Right.
BRISARD: ... especially al Qaeda.
DONAHUE: Right.
BRISARD: That's two different points.
DONAHUE: OK. But you are-you are suggesting that because of oil-rich Saudi Arabia and our connection to them, we were less than enthusiastic in pursuing al Qaeda before 9/11. Do I understand that?
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: The reason we didn't want to pursue al Qaeda and go after these people in Afghanistan-now, this is before 9/11, before the worst attack in our history. The reason we didn't want to do that is because it would roil Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's got to be careful. It is certainly a center of-a significant number of fundamental Islamicists live there. And we didn't want to mess up this relationship with oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Do I understand it?
BRISARD: Yes. Yes, because you cannot at the same time do business with that country, say every day it's an ally of the United States, of the Western countries generally, and at the same time point out the role of that country in the financing and the funding and sponsoring...
DONAHUE: Of terrorism.
BRISARD: ... of terrorism.
DONAHUE: But I don't see how you-you know, Saudi Arabia exiled, expelled Usama bin Laden.
BRISARD: Yes, I know. That's the official story about it.
DONAHUE: Yes.
BRISARD: Yes. "The Forbidden Truth," that's the title of our book, the truth we don't want to see.
DONAHUE: OK. You're-you're not suggesting that it was a ruse to expel him? They didn't-he scared them, didn't he?
BRISARD: Yes, because he was in Saudi Arabia. Yes, in fact. But for years after he was expelled, he was able to do business with companies in Saudi Arabia...
DONAHUE: Right.
BRISARD: ... involving companies based in Saudi Arabia, involving individuals based in Saudi Arabia. So yes, he was expelled. That's all.
DONAHUE: Yeah. Are you suggesting that this interest in not roiling Saudi Arabia or not making trouble in this area was because we wanted to build a pipeline?
BRISARD: No. What happened is that, in fact, we wanted-everybody wanted, especially U.S. corporate oil wanted, a stable regime in Afghanistan...
DONAHUE: Stable?
BRISARD: ... a stable regime, to be able to build that pipeline, a regime that was able to control the entire Afghanistan.
DONAHUE: Right. But we wanted the pipeline, did we not?
BRISARD: Yes. Yes.
DONAHUE: And we wanted to control it.
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: And we wanted to build it.
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: And so this interest-you-here's you're suggesting, and I don't know if you're...
BRISARD: OK.
DONAHUE: You're suggesting that the Bush family, with ties to oil and Texas, had an interest in seeing that the construction of this pipeline through Afghanistan continued or moved forward, and that, you're suggesting, slowed us up and reduced our enthusiasm for going after al Qaeda and terrorism.
BRISARD: Again, I'm not going on the book about a specific link with, with...
DONAHUE: OK, but...
BRISARD: ... any of these families...
DONAHUE: You'll agree that this is a suggestion. This is an implication in your book. You may...
BRISARD: What we say in our book is that the-several big U.S. corporations, including Unocal, for instance, wanted to built that pipeline since 1996. And since that date, U.S. governments, whether under Clinton or under Bush, have helped them go through that project. That means negotiate with the Taliban. That means be accommodating with the Taliban. And it's only finally after September 11th that the U.S. government discovered the real nature of the regime.
DONAHUE: OK. I just want to just take these folks to school here. Here's Afghanistan. This is the pipeline we would like to build. This is the Caspian area, very rich oil reserves here.
BRISARD: Yeah.
DONAHUE: Lots and lots of-maybe more than anyplace else on earth. So you go through Afghanistan. No such pipeline exists now. Here are the alternatives. Go through Iran. "No," says the United States. "We don't want to go through Iran. It's too dangerous." Go through Russia? Certainly not. We want to be able to control this. Do I have it here?
BRISARD: Yes. That's it. Yes. Yes. Basically, that's it. That's the cheapest way and the shortest way to go through...
DONAHUE: But you're not here to say that it is in the-it was-it was the enthusiasm for building the pipeline that made the administration be less than aggressive in its-in its treatment of al Qaeda and Usama bin Laden before 9/11.
BRISARD: I'm speaking about the treatment of the Taliban regime. Yes, we were soft with the Taliban regime probably because of that pipeline, that big pipeline. It's an $8 billion project, so...
DONAHUE: OK.
BRISARD: ... it's important.
DONAHUE: What is the nature of the lawsuit to which you will attach your own name, as an attorney at law, that is to be filed in this country this week?
BRISARD: I'm simply part of that effort to bring to justice those who sponsored, financed or give any facility to al Qaeda and to Usama bin Laden during those years for him to be able to carry out such a tragedy as the September 11th attacks.
DONAHUE: This will be filed under the terms what we call tort law.
BRISARD: That's right. That's right.
DONAHUE: Tort law says-tort law is asbestos...
BRISARD: Yeah.
DONAHUE: ... Firestone tires-that if you're responsible...
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: ... for the injury or the death...
BRISARD: You have to pay for that. You have to pay for that.
DONAHUE: Assuming it could be proved in court that you were negligent...
BRISARD: Yes. Of course. Of course.
DONAHUE: ... and so on.
BRISARD: Of course. Of course. That's the basic principle of the lawsuit, yes. And it's done, of course, on the behalf of the families of the victims because that's the essential. I was meeting last week with a French mother who lost her son. She told me, "The only thing they recovered from my son was a bone." When you hear a mother say that, you say someone has to pay for that. Someone has to be accountable for that. And that's the purpose of the lawsuit.
DONAHUE: You must be somewhat distracted by the fact there has been no real independent investigation of all these events here...
BRISARD: The investigation, at least on the financial side, is under way, is being carried out...
DONAHUE: Yes.
BRISARD: ... to identify those individuals or entities that...
DONAHUE: Right.
BRISARD: ... participated in the financing of al Qaeda.
BRISARD: In fact, it was-you were asked to conduct an investigation regarding the finances of Usama bin Laden.
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: So you-this is about banks and who's giving the money...
BRISARD: Yeah. Yeah.
DONAHUE: ... and how it gets in, and so on. And this, obviously, would be evidence at the trial. So?
BRISARD: Probably, yes. Yes.
DONAHUE: So in your effort, then, to trace the-to follow the money trail of al Qaeda, you came up with this. You're not saying President Bush 1, the president's father, went to-with the Carlyle group to the Middle East, or to that region, for the purpose of promoting the pipeline?
BRISARD: OK, so let's assume, if we're speaking again about Saudi Arabia, that the U.S. government, whoever it is, has probably a real problem to address the issue of the responsibility of Saudi Arabia in the tragedy of September 11th, OK, for obvious reasons-economic and strategic interests, whether personal or not. But that's precisely the purpose of the lawsuit, what the government cannot do...
DONAHUE: Right.
BRISARD: ... justice can do it.
BRISARD: But you're honest enough to tell us that, as compelling as this book is, absorbing and-you don't have a smoking gun, do you. Do you?
BRISARD: Well, the fact is, again,...
DONAHUE: This is all implication.
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: It's circumstance...
BRISARD: Yes. That has to be proven, of course.
DONAHUE: So oil interests trumped...
BRISARD: Yes. Yes.
DONAHUE: - going after the terrorists prior to 9/11.
BRISARD: That's what at least told me the former anti-terrorism director of the FBI, John O'Neill, yes.
DONAHUE: Well, let me say that...
(CROSSTALK)
BRISARD: ... don't want to-to run after the Saudis.
DONAHUE: John O'Neill, the former FBI counter-terrorist-head of counterrorism...
BRISARD: Right.
DONAHUE: ... who quit, was the security man for the World Trade Center...
BRISARD: Yes.
DONAHUE: ... when the planes hit, died in the rubble.
BRISARD: Right.
DONAHUE: How ironic is that? And you talked to him.
DONAHUE: Yes.
BRISARD: And he's the one that sent you on this trail in the first place.
BRISARD: Yeah. Right.
DONAHUE: So-wow. Well, Jean Charles Brisard, we'll watch with interest your lawsuit to be filed this week on behalf of loved ones of the victims of 9/11. And I thank you very much for sharing this intriguing story with us.
Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/08.16B.donahue.brisard.htm
8/16/02
3:14:12 PM
AlterNet Headlines
ONE ELECTION THAT'S NOT A FRAUD
Each year, Working Assets Long Distance customers vote to allocate donations to their favorite nonprofit organizations. This year, AlterNet is thrilled to be on the ballot! Your vote can make a huge difference in the amount we receive (from $30,000 to $150,000!). We aren't afraid to beg either: please consider allocating 100 percent of your votes to AlterNet, so we can continue to provide you with great content. Look for us in the Education and Freedom of Expression category of the ballot. If you're a current WALD customer, take a moment to vote online at
http://www.workingassets.com/voting/.
A FEW GOOD CANDIDATES
John Nichols, In These Times
In upcoming midterm elections, candidates have the potential to shift the discourse dramatically. From likely winners to long shots, here are 10 to watch in 2002.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13857
ALL THE FACTS ABOUT IRAQ
Phyllis Bennis, AlterNet
The author, an esteemed foreign policy expert, wasn't allowed to testify as an expert witness for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- so she submitted this written testimony instead.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13859
Monday on Donahue
On Aug. 19, Phil Donahue devotes his entire show to an interview with Studs Terkel, America's premiere oral historian and 90-year-old self-styled "guerilla journalist." Don't miss it. On MSNBC, 8pm and 11pm EST.
KILL THE CORPORATION
Dennis Fox, AlterNet
Good news! A movement exists to transform corporate culture so completely that the kind of tinkering Washington politicos now debate pales in comparison.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13830
PORTRAIT OF THE ASSIMILARTIST
Chisun Lee, ColorLines
Nikki S. Lee has transformed herself into a black hip-hop groupie, a Latina and a white midwesterner -- but she insists it's not about race.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13858
UNDERWEAR LINKED TO DEATH!
Mark Elliot, Red Flags Weekly
Overwhelming evidence that people who die wear underwear. In other words, it pays to be skeptical when you listen to news reports about the latest threat to your life and your health.
*In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18
AROUND THE WORLD IN A HEADY DAZE
Dan Rubinstein, Vue Weekly
More than a light-hearted and light-headed dope-themed travelogue, Brian Preston's new book is a real look into the science behind marijuana and the politics behind America's War on Drugs.
*In DrugReporter: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17
BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON WEST NILE
Lynn Landes, AlterNet
Chemical spraying is usually the least effective yet most toxic way to control mosquitoes that may carry the West Nile virus. It's a case of the "cure" being much worse than the disease.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13835
THE SUMMER OF STOLEN CHILDREN
John Powers, LA Weekly
What made the Samantha Runnion case a media event was how neatly its storyline filled the needs of cable-TV news.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13843
CANDIDATE GIVES THUMBS UP FOR GAY MARRIAGE
Mubarak Dahir, AlterNet
Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Robert Reich could upend the status quo and set a new standard for political candidates across the country.
*In Rights & Liberties: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=33
Media Roundtable
Talk with Wall Street Journal's Boomtown columnist Lee Gomes and Oakland Tribune columnist Brenda Payton about the best and worst of the week's coverage on Friday's Working Assets Radio with Laura Flanders. Listen online from 10-11amPT/1-2pmET, or call in: 866-798-TALK.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com
8/16/02
3:11:08 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
GM to give away thousands of electric vehicles - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17318/story.htm
FEATURE - Ten years on, the Rio "circus" heads for South Africa - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17327/story.htm
Drought-hit Sri Lanka looks from hydro to wind power - SRI LANKA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17321/story.htm
Greenpeace ship arrives for Earth Summit campaign - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17323/story.htm
Scientists search for famed antelope in Angola - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17332/story.htm
Slovak capital expects to withstand Danube floods - SLOVAKIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17324/story.htm
Vines spread, choke trees in deepest Amazon jungle - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17319/story.htm
Malaysian state calls for army to kill tigers - MALAYSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17317/story.htm
Sumatra haze over Malaysia, visibility low - MALAYSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17328/story.htm
India to raise ethanol content in blended petrol - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17334/story.htm
Sinking Pacific states slam US over sea levels - FIJI http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17316/story.htm
US wind power demand forecast cut for 2002 - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17322/story.htm
New evacuations in Prague as flood waters rise - CZECH REPUBLIC http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17333/story.htm
Three seals find freedom in Czech flooding - CZECH REPUBLIC http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17331/story.htm
Famished Australian emus invade drought - hit farms - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17330/story.htm
FEATURE - Where's Dean been? Australians turn turtle watchers - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17329/story.htm
Australia says on track to meet Kyoto target - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17325/story.htm
Pacific Hydro shares jump on wind approval - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17320/story.htm
Australian firm develops biopesticide for cotton - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17326/story.htm
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS PICTURES:
UK: A Seal Suffering From Phocine Distemper Receives Treatment in the Norfolk Rspca Wildlife Hospital http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17337
MALAYSIA: Malaysia's Landmark Putra Mosque Shrouded in Smog in Putrajaya http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17335
CHINA: Female Dog Sits With Adopted Three-Month Old Lion Cub in Dog House in Beijing http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17336
8/16/02
3:09:48 PM
NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
CONTENTS
1. Live chat on mining and the environment, August 16, 12:00 EDT
2. Molly Sheehan to speak at National Building Museum, August 20
3. Chat on international environmental crime, August 23
1. Live: Payal Sampat on mining--August 16th, 12:00 EDT
Join us Friday, August 16th to talk with Worldwatch Research Associate Payal Sampat about her research on the need for dramatic changes to reduce the environmental impact of mining. Sampat will be online live on Friday, August 16 from 12:00-13:00 EDT (16:00-17:00 GMT). Mining is one of the planet's leading polluters, and is threatening some of the world's most ecologically fragile regions.
Payal will be online live on Friday, August 16th from 12:00-13:00 EDT (16:00-17:00 GMT). You can post questions in advance, starting at 11:00 EDT. To join the chat, go to
http://www.worldwatch.org/live/
and click on the "Discussion on climate change..." line.
2. Molly Sheehan lecture on sprawl at the National Building Museum
Worldwatch Research Associate Molly Sheehan will be giving a special guest lecture at the National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington, DC on Tuesday, August 20, from 6:30-8:00 pm EDT.
The lecture is entitled, "The Global Dimensions of Sprawl." The NBM describes the talk as follows:
"Cars have stretched cities to unprecedented dimensions, as highways require far more space than other forms of transportation. One light rail corridor, for example, can move eight times more people per hour than a single highway lane. While there is no official measure of car-dependent development, or "sprawl," census and satellite data reveal both its physical magnitude and its threat to the world's health and sustainability. Molly O'Meara Sheehan, research associate at the Worldwatch Institute, will discuss both the national and global impact of sprawl. She will also consider current efforts around the world to rebuild cities to accommodate other transportation modes to combat the automobile's negative impact. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition On Track: Transit and the American City, which will be open for viewing."
If you want to attend, please note that there is a fee, and that registration is required. For more information, please go to:
http://www.nbm.org/Events/Calendar/Lectures_Symposia.html#Global
3. International Environmental Crime chat on August 23rd
Next week, join us on Friday, August 23rd at 12:00 EDT (14:00 GMT) to talk with Worldwatch Research Associate Lisa Mastny about combating international environmental crime. Environmental crimes, from the illegal wildlife trade to CFC smuggling, threaten to undermine international efforts to stem biodiversity loss and protect the planet.
To participate in next week's chat, go to http://www.worldwatch.org/live/ and click on the "Discussion on climate change..." line.
Lisa's previous work on international environmental crime has appeared in: State of the World 2001. Chapter 9: Combating International Environmental Crime.
You can download this chapter as a PDF file (along with 3 other chapters) for $7.00 from the Worldwatch bookstore at:
http://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/BSW01P?V3FY7rjs;;45
8/16/02
2:58:38 PM
Vines Tangle Up Amazon Environment
Researchers Concerned About Greenhouse-Gas Impact
LONDON, Aug. 14 — Jungle vines are spreading faster in South America’s Amazon rainforest than before, choking trees and potentially slowing the forests’ ability to soak up damaging greenhouse gases, scientists say.
THE SPREAD of woody vines — like the ones Tarzan swings from in the movies— is the first change in plant composition that scientists have recorded in the deepest virgin jungle, and suggests human activity is having more impact on delicate ecosystems than previously shown. A team of researchers from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States, led by Oliver Phillips of Leeds University in Britain, counted and measured the vines, called lianas, in the primary rainforests of the Amazon. They found that the “dominance” of lianas over trees had increased by between 1.7 and 4.6 percent per year over the last two decades of the twentieth century. “It’s the first time that a changing composition has been observed in mature forests,” Phillips told Reuters in a telephone interview. His team’s findings were published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
GREENHOUSE GAS EFFECT He said the growth in vines appeared to have been caused by greater concentrations of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that most scientists believe is causing global temperatures to rise as a result of human activity. Plants absorb carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, and scientists have predicted that as humans produce more of the gas, forests would grow to soak some of it up, a phenomenon called “carbon sink,” which could help ease global warming. But Phillips said the additional carbon appears to benefit resource-hungry vines more than slower-growing trees, throwing off the balance in jungle forests. “What we think we were finding is the ecosystem responding, not just in growth but in a change in its composition. If you change an environmental driver like carbon dioxide concentration, some plants will do better than others,” he said. Advertisement
As the vines weigh down trees and kill them, they can reduce the ability of the forest to soak up more carbon, making the problem of global warming even worse.
OTHER EFFECTS Other plant and animal species are also likely to have been affected by the increase in vines relative to trees. Different insects may pollinate vines rather than trees, different birds may eat the insects, and so on. “The ecosystem’s connected. You change one part and other parts are likely to change too,” Phillips said. “It’s a kind of example of how we can’t predict how the world is going to respond to the changes we’re causing.”
Source: http://www.msnbc.com/news/794092.asp?cp1=1
8/16/02
2:54:57 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
DON'T HAVE A CAR, MAN
Think the Car Talk guys are great? In her current column, Umbra Fisk, Grist environmental advisor extraordinaire, beats Click and Clack at their own game by tackling thorny questions about eco-friendly car ownership. If you're cruising down the highway, is it more fuel efficient to turn on the air conditioning or open the windows and create all that drag? Should you buy a diesel engine, which is more fuel-efficient and emits less carbon dioxide, or a gas engine, which spews far fewer nasty particles into the air? Umbra's got the answers -- plus, she takes a reluctant minivan mom car shopping. Get taken for a ride, only on the Grist Magazine website. (Also, some good news for the environmentally eager: The response to Umbra has been so overwhelming that, as of August, Our Lady of the Stacks will appear in the pages of Grist twice monthly.)
only in Grist: Auto pilot -- sage advice on car air conditioners, gas versus diesel, and more -- in Ask Umbra <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ask/ask081502.asp?source=daily>
YOU'VE GOT MALE
Saving endangered species is usually a matter of preserving habitat, fending off threats, and hoping for the best. Now, though, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have found a way to incubate sperm from other animals inside laboratory mice, a process they hope could aid species whose survival is threatened by the lack of sexually mature males. The technique could also be used to produce sperm from valuable farm animals before waiting for them to reach puberty; to help men with testicular problems have children; and to study reproductive cells. Philip Damiani of the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species said the development was an exciting one for species conservationists: "With endangered species, you lose some of the animals before they even reach puberty. Many pandas die right after birth. And if we can get testes material from them that's going to be thrown in the garbage anyway, why not get the material to work with?"
straight to the source: Washington Post, Rick Weiss, 15 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=368>
BURNED
In addition to scorching millions of acres of habitat and killing wildlife, the fires that have raged throughout the western U.S. this summer have taken another toll on the environment -- a financial one. The federal government expects to spend more than $1.5 billion battling wildfires this year, and millions of those dollars will come from sources that would otherwise be used to pay for environmental activities on public lands. Already, field offices of the U.S. Forest Service are suspending road and trail maintenance projects, land purchases, fish and wildlife habitat work, replanting of logged and burned areas, and other projects. Traditionally, Congress has picked up some of the tab for wildfire-fighting, but the Bush administration is opposed to footing the bill for this year's particularly extensive and expensive burns. Earlier this week, President Bush nixed an extra $50 million for firefighting, leaving the USFS to transfer money from other programs to cover fire-related expenses. A new cost projection suggests that this year, the USFS will spend more than a quarter of its entire budget on fighting fires.
straight to the source: Portland Oregonian, Michael Milstein, 15 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=369>
ABSENCE MAKES SOME HEARTS GROW FONDER
By all appearance, President Bush will not be attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the end of the month -- much to the delight of his conservative allies. "We applaud your decision not to attend the summit," read a letter signed by more than 30 conservative activists and sent to the president this week. The letter went on to warn that, "Your presence would only help to publicize and make more credible [attendees'] various anti-freedom, anti-people, anti-globalization, and anti-Western agendas." The signers of the letter also called for the president to resist signing new international environmental treaties or creating global environmental organizations at the summit. Ten years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the first President Bush agreed to tackle problems in forestry, biodiversity, and climate change, moves conservatives view as terrible mistakes his son is wise to avoid.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, John Heilprin, 15 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=370>
do good: Take action to send your leader to the World Summit <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/politics.asp?source=daily#summit>
JUNGLE FEVER
Vines are the hallmark of any self-respecting jungle -- picture Tarzan swinging in from offstage -- but the situation is getting a bit out of control in the Amazon rainforest, where vines are growing so quickly they are choking trees and possibly interfering with the ability of forests to soak up greenhouse gases, according to a study published in today's issue of Nature. An international team of scientists found that the dominance of woody vines over trees increased by between 1.7 and 4.6 percent per year in the 1980s and 1990s. The rapid spread of vines, which is the first observed change in plant composition in virgin jungle, might itself stem from the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Amazon basin. The jungle has been hailed as an efficient absorber of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, but vines soak up the gas far more quickly than trees, speeding their growth and throwing the jungle eco-system off balance.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Reuters, 15 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=371>
8/16/02
2:42:01 PM
US Adviser Warns Of Armageddon
Julian Borger and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, August 16, 2002
One of the Republican party's most respected foreign policy gurus yesterday appealed for President Bush to halt his plans to invade Iraq, warning of "an Armageddon in the Middle East".
The outspoken remarks from Brent Scowcroft, who advised a string of Republican presidents, including Mr Bush's father, represented an embarrassment for the administration on a day it was attempting to rally British public support for an eventual war.
The US national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, yesterday spelled out what she called the "very powerful moral case" for toppling Saddam Hussein. "We certainly do not have the luxury of doing nothing," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. She said the Iraqi leader was "an evil man who, left to his own devices, will wreak havoc again on his own population, his neighbours and, if he gets weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, all of us".
But while Ms Rice was making the case for a pre-emptive strike, the rumble of anxiety in the US was growing louder. A string of leading Republicans have expressed unease at the administration's determination to take on President Saddam, but the most damning critique of Mr Bush's plans to date came yesterday from Mr Scowcroft.
The retired general, who also advised Presidents Nixon and Ford, predicted that an attack on Iraq could lead to catastrophe.
"Israel would have to expect to be the first casualty, as in 1991 when Saddam sought to bring Israel into the Gulf conflict. This time, using weapons of mass destruction, he might succeed, provoking Israel to respond, perhaps with nuclear weapons, unleashing an Armageddon in the Middle East," Mr Scowcroft wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
The Israeli government has vowed it would not stand by in the face of attacks as it did in 1991, when Iraqi Scud missiles landed on Israeli cities. It claims it has Washington's backing for retaliation.
Mr Scowcroft is the elder statesman of the Republican foreign policy establishment, and his views are widely regarded as reflecting those of the first President Bush. The fierceness of his attack on current administration policy illustrates the gulf between the elder Bush and his son, who has surrounded himself with far more radical ideologues on domestic and foreign policy.
In yesterday's article, Mr Scowcroft argued that by alienating much of the Arab world, an assault on Baghdad, would halt much of the cooperation Washington is receiving in its current battle against the al-Qaida organisation.
"An attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardise, if not destroy, the global counterterrorist campaign we have undertaken," Mr Scowcroft wrote.
Both the American and British governments are expected to time a public relations effort to rebuff the critics and build public support in the immediate run-up to an invasion.
Senior Whitehall figures say that crucial in that effort will be evidence that President Saddam is building up Iraq's chemical biological warfare capability and planning to develop nuclear weapons.
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, confirmed yesterday that the Pentagon was considering a change in the status of a navy pilot shot down over Iraq 11 years ago. He is currently classified as "missing in action".
There have been reports that Lieutenant-Commander Michael Speicher was still being held by Iraq.
If he was reclassified as a prisoner of war, it would represent an additional source of conflict between Washington and Baghdad.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,775532,00.html
8/16/02
1:19:30 PM
Donahue Senses Something Sinister In Afghan War
by Jennifer Harper, The Washington Post, August 15, 2002
The thrum of conspiracy buzz has surrounded MSNBC's Phil Donahue.
Whether it proves beneficial buzz remains to be seen, however.
On his talk show Tuesday night, Mr. Donahue featured an interview with Jean Charles Brisard, author of "Forbidden Truth," a contentious book published in France in November and released in the United States two weeks ago.
It promotes the idea that the Bush administration protected its "big oil" interests at all cost, maintaining secret diplomatic links with both Saudi Arabia and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which ultimately caused the September 11 attacks.
"All the dots connect to Saudi Arabia," Mr. Donahue told the author. "And those dots include George Bush, senior Bush, as well as al Qaeda and the U.S. government itself." The Bush family, Mr. Donahue continued, "had an interest in seeing the construction of this pipeline through Afghanistan continued or moved forward, and that, you're suggesting, slowed us up and reduced our enthusiasm for going after al Qaeda and terrorism."
Mr. Donahue's next guest was a September 11 widow who wants an independent investigation of the terrorist attacks. "To have the right to be answered, we have to beg," she said. "And it's disgusting."
The show riled one specific audience yesterday after Rumor Mill News, a California-based alternative news site, urged its readers to support Mr. Donahue and demand the news media "tell the truth" about September 11. The site supplied a sample letter and hundreds of e-mail addresses for print and broadcast journalists, executives and analysts — and even MSNBC brass themselves.
"Thank you, Donahue I can already see a number of prominent news people tinkering with the biggest news story to ever not happen in the history of mankind — and the media wants to expose the truth, but the truth is often the first casualty in war," read one missive.
"From the beginning, Phil Donahue said he wanted to give a voice to those who have not been heard," said MSNBC spokeswoman Cheryl Daly. "That must be what happened last night."
The sudden alliance between Mr. Donahue and the alternative news media may be unpredictable, though. "This idea did not originate with my Web site. And the big media e-mail list didn't start here either," said Michael Rivero of Whatreallyhappened.com, a Web site that featured the Rumor Mill directives.
"I only urge my readers to contact their elected officials, not the media," Mr. Rivero said. "And while I think the intentions behind the e-mail campaign were honorable, this buzz may actually cause more harm than good for MSNBC. Reporters don't like getting bombarded with messages, particularly from alternative sources. This may actually alienate Donahue from the rest of the media."
But buzz is buzz, and Mr. Donahue could use some. When MSNBC debuted its new prime-time lineup July 15, the veteran host had 660,000 nightly viewers. The number fell to 393,000 last week, with CNN rival Connie Chung beating Mr. Donahue by 44 percent. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly gets 1 million viewers a night.
"The mood at MSNBC has turned from hopeful to grim," the New York Daily News observed yesterday, though the network's prime-time chief Phil Griffin dismissed the impact of short-term ratings.
"We're not worried," Mr. Griffin said. "If [Fox News chief] Roger Ailes judged O'Reilly after four weeks, O'Reilly would be selling hot dogs in Times Square."
Source: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020815-16007337.htm
8/15/02
3:08:53 PM
New at TomPaine.com
SPECIAL NOTICE
GIVE US YOUR BEST 300 WORDS
TP.c Wants YOUR Essay About 9/11 And The Aftermath We're rounding up noted writers and thinkers to contribute -- here's your chance to join them. We'll publish the best essays and use them as inspiration for our New York Times op ads on Sept. 4 and Sept. 11.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6173
HOME ECONOMICS
Summit Spin Aside, Working Families Are Losing Ground
by John J. Sweeney
President Bush convened a "summit" to reassure the country that the fundamentals of our economy are sound. But did it focus on the fundamentals that working families live with every day?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6181
LAND OF MILK AND HONEY
How Americans Consume Happiness
by M. W. Guzy
No matter how deprived, constipated or depressed the protagonist of a 30-second spot may be at its outset, by ad's end he or she is a happy customer displaying faultless teeth through a contented smile. Life should be perfect and, if yours isn't, just buy something. http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6192
Dispatch: Chicago
Cooling the City with Green Rooftops
by Lester Graham
"Last summer in 2001 on the hottest day, while it was about a hundred degrees on the City Hall side, it was 165 on the opposite end of the building where's there's a blacktop roof."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5811
Dispatch: Rhinelander, Wisconsin
FORESTS IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL WARMING
Testing The Effects Of Climate Change
by Bob Kelleher
More than 50 studies are underway in the USA and Canada to determine the effects of global warming on trees and, by extension, on world food production.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6171
PUBLIC OPINION WATCH
July 29 - August 9, 2002
A Weekly Compendium And Commentary
by Ruy Teixeira
Democratic Leadership Council Roundup: So What's So Bad about Populism Anyway? ... Return of the Office Park Dads! ... Meanwhile, Back in the Real World.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6194
Satire in Song
George Dubya Won't Get Re-Elected
by Peter Kastner
"Son, you won't get re-elected/Unless you kick some a**/That'll make you a true scion of The U.S. ruling class!"
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6170
8/15/02
3:05:51 PM
Conservatives praise Bush for opting out of U.N. Earth Summit
8/15/02
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Conservative activists are praising President Bush's apparent decision to send Secretary of State Colin Powell to a U.N. conference on global ecology rather than attending the once-a-decade summit himself as his father did in 1992.
With the summit little more than two weeks away, there are no plans for Bush to go the conference, which conservatives have taken as a sign he will not attend.
``We applaud your decision not to attend the summit in person,'' said an Aug. 2 letter to Bush from Fred L. Smith Jr., president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and 30 other conservative activists who support Bush.
The letter warns of likely widespread anti-U.S. sentiment among the participants at the World Summit on Sustainable Development being held Aug. 26 through Sept. 4 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Other signers include Paul M. Weyrich of Coalitions for America, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and David A. Keene of the American Conservative Union.
``Your presence would only help to publicize and make more credible their various anti-freedom, anti-people, anti-globalization and anti-Western agendas,'' they wrote Bush. ``We also strongly support your opposition to signing new international environmental treaties or creating new international environmental organizations at the Johannesburg summit.''
The White House has been silent so far about who will lead the U.S. delegation to the summit. Administration officials say an announcement will come soon, but Powell is expected to attend.
This is the fourth summit in four decades where world leaders and environmentalists have gathered to address the environmental costs of feeding, clothing and housing the Earth's growing population.
For environmentalists, the series of talks reached a height in 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, then the president, was among 110 world leaders who agreed to tackle problems in forestry, biodiversity and climate change.
The conservatives say those talks were a mistake for the elder Bush, one that his son is now wise to avoid.
``Why would you go to a party when they want to throw pies at you?'' Smith said in an interview. ``The fortunate thing is when 40,000 goofies get together, not much happens.''
In 1972 at Stockholm and in 1982 at Nairobi, each of the U.S. delegations was led by the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
The current chairman, James Connaughton, has not said whether he will attend. More than 100 world leaders _ either the head of state or a minister-level representative _ have announced they will be at the summit.
Many among them share a deep concern about the state of the world's ecological systems, and some have said they also worry about a lack of leadership and lackluster U.S. support for global approaches.
Summit leaders say they will try to solidify commitments made over the past year to open markets to developing countries and increase financing to them. They also cite challenges such as 2 billion people living on $2 or less a day, more burning of fossil fuels blamed for climate change and damage to a quarter of the world's coral reefs.
Connaughton said whoever represents the United States will emphasize both the U.S. commitment to creating lasting partnerships and also the idea that each nation bears responsibility for its own development.
``It doesn't mean they go it alone. But each nation has to take that task onto itself to look at sustainability,'' he said recently.
Some environmental leaders view this year's summit as a last, best chance to convert high hopes into deeds.
``There is a real sense of urgency,'' U.N. Undersecretary-General Nitin Desai, who will chair the summit, told reporters this week. ``In many cases we are talking about slipping back.''
In the weeks leading up to the summit, Desai has campaigned to sow seeds of hope while also warning that disappointment will only confirm widespread pessimism about the world's ability to deal with what he says is a growing crisis.
``We will be endangering all of the things we have achieved and we will not have another chance,'' he told summit leaders at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington earlier this month. ``There is no major global event planned beyond Johannesburg which allow us to retrieve lost ground. This is it.''
Gus Speth, dean of Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, said world leaders are running out of time because the world economy is projected to double in size every 25 years.
``We have squandered more than 20 years on these global-scale issues and this period we're in is truly our last chance to get it right,'' Speth said.
The uncertainty about U.S. participation reflects deeper questions in the environmental community about Bush's approach to global challenges in the wake of his rejection last year of the Kyoto climate treaty.
``People around the world are seriously concerned that the Bush administration is undermining the World Summit instead of working with other countries to benefit everyone,'' Sierra Club director Michael Dorsey said.
Source: http://www.planetsave.com/ViewStory.asp?ID=2915
8/15/02
3:03:00 PM
Ground Zero Research
by Steven Milloy, August 09, 2002
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced this week an $11.4 million contract with the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine to determine whether World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers are experiencing related illnesses or injuries.
"We at Mount Sinai are grateful to President Bush, Secretary Thompson and Congress whose efforts have made this possible," said Mt. Sinai Medical Center CEO Dr. Kenneth Berns.
The rest of us should be far less sanguine. This is a waste of money.
Taxpayers will be paying for free clinical examinations of workers in order to identify health problems most likely to occur as a result of work at or near Ground Zero.
A database of findings will be compiled that will allow "researchers to assess potential occupational illness and injury patterns among the workers, and provide data for future studies…" -- i.e., wasteful spending to come.
The collapse of the World Trade Center towers certainly was a unique event in many respects -- but not in terms of the health of rescue and recovery workers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in May that worker exposures to air contaminants at Ground Zero generally did not exceed safety standards.
That study evaluated "general area" and "personal breathing zone" air samples for numerous potential air contaminants, including: asbestos (from insulation and fireproofing materials), crystalline silica (from concrete), carbon monoxide (from fires and engine exhaust), diesel exhaust, mercury (from fluorescent lights), Freon, heavy metals, hydrogen sulfide (from decomposing bodies and food), inorganic acids, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, from fires and engine exhaust).
More than 1,000 air samples were collected from Sept. 18-Oct. 4 and focused on search-and-rescue personnel, heavy equipment operators, workers cutting metal beams and other occupations.
The CDC reported that virtually all sampled exposures, including exposure to asbestos, did not exceed permissible exposure limits set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, whose limits are far more stringent than actual "safe" exposure levels.
Of the 45 air samples analyzed for various metals, one from a personal breathing zone of a torch cutter exceeded the permissible exposure limit for cadmium. One worker was definitely overexposed, and two others were potentially overexposed to carbon monoxide.
While the study doesn't include data about exposures occurring before Sept. 18, this is hardly a reason to spend $11.4 million. The WTC, after all, is not the first fire or building collapse involving rescue workers.
Firefighters are frequently exposed to a variety of "toxic" dusts and chemical fumes. But the largest-ever study of firefighters published in May 2001 by National Cancer Institute researchers indicates firefighters do not have more cancer or worse health than non-firefighters.
The only possible justification for the contract would be if it somehow helped short-circuit personal injury lawyers intent on suing New York City.
Hundreds of firefighters, police and other rescue workers filed notice in February that they may sue New York City for $7.18 billion for failing to provide adequate respiratory protection equipment at Ground Zero. The notices allege fear of cancer and other ailments caused by the smoldering ruins.
One firefighter filed notice of a $10 million claim because he gets winded running up flights of stairs. "What if, five years down the road, we develop lung cancer or something like that?" he told The Associated Press.
It’s possible -- and we can only hope -- that data developed by Mt. Sinai researchers will enable the City to defend itself against such silly claims.
On the other hand, there’s some reason to be skeptical that Mt. Sinai will be an effective tool against the lawyers.
Mt. Sinai's Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine will be leading the examinations.
Irving Selikoff, now deceased, and his fearmongering minions at Mt. Sinai were the researchers who opened the floodgates of the junk science-fueled multi-billion dollar asbestos litigation that plagues us today.
Unfortunately, as every headache and cough is logged into the Mt. Sinai database for researchers-on-the-dole to tally and ponder, the Mt. Sinai contract will make the non-issue of Ground Zero worker health an issue for years to come.
Steven Milloy is the publisher of JunkScience.com , an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and the author of Junk Science Judo: Self-defense Against Health Scares and Scams (Cato Institute, 2001).
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59967,00.html
8/15/02
2:58:11 PM
SciTech Daily Review
The search for Genghis Khan's tomb is sputtering amidst accusations of desecration
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/14/mongolia.genghiskhan.ap/index.html
The killer algae Pfiesteria may kill fish by nibbling them to death. (Oh good, say the fish. That's so much nicer than being poisoned.)
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020805/020805-2.html
Scattered around our planet are hundreds of creatures that have been to the Moon and back again -- and one man is searching high and low for these lost Moon Trees
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/13aug_moontrees.htm
Chesley Bonestell was an artist who boldly painted what no man had painted before, and convinced a generation that they could see the future
http://www.americanheritage.com/it/2002/01/spaceart.shtml
The Chinese Columbine: How one tragedy ignited the Chinese government's simmering fears of youth culture and the Internet
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_jenkins080202.asp
A firefighter has filed a $10 million claim against New York City because he gets winded running up flights of stairs, blaming contamination from the World Trade Center. It looks like the non-issue of Ground Zero worker health will be an issue for years to come
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59967,00.html
8/15/02
2:55:47 PM
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY PRO-LOGGING SENATORS USING FIRES TO GUT ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS - YOUR HELP NEEDED August 13, 2002
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
HOUSE INTRODUCES BILLS TO BAN CITIZEN APPEAL OF LOGGING
SCIENTISTS' REFUTE BOSWORTH'S ATTACK ON POST-FIRE FOREST MANAGEMENT SCIENCE REPORT
NEW FIRE AND LOGGING REPORTS AVAILABLE FROM THE CENTER
PRO-LOGGING SENATORS USING FIRES TO GUT ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS - YOUR HELP NEEDED
In a cynical political move, western pro-timber lawmakers including Senators John Kyl, Pete Domenici, Larry Craig and a few turncoat Democrats including Diane Feinstein and Ron Wyden propose to exempt logging from environmental laws behind a smokescreen of fire protection. They claim this will overcome challenges from environmental groups that stop fire protection for communities. The truth of the matter is that environmentalists don't oppose legitimate fire protection and that these exemptions are really about getting into the backcountry to log the last of our big old trees.
We need to pull out all the stops to head off this attempt to gut our environmental laws. The fire issue is the last credible sounding excuse these pro-timber senators and the Forest Service have to justify more logging. Key lawmakers like Senator Jeff Bingaman (Chairman of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee) need to hear our support for their efforts to maintain and even strengthen our forest laws. Senator's Domenici, Kyl, Craig, Feinstein, and Wyden have earned our outrage over this end run around forest protection. It will be important for these Senators to hear from you at their instate offices while they are on August recess.
Contact Senator Bingaman to thank him for his leadership on forest protection and urge him to defend our forest protection laws.
For more information about the upcoming rider and other fire issues,
contact Todd Schulke, Forest Policy Director, at (505)388-8799 or
tschulke@biologicaldiversity.org
8/15/02
2:42:04 PM
Camps For Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision Attorney general Shows Himself As A Menace To Liberty.
by Jonathan Turley, August 14, 2002
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace.
Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants.
The proposed camp plan should trigger immediate congressional hearings and reconsideration of Ashcroft's fitness for this important office. Whereas Al Qaeda is a threat to the lives of our citizens, Ashcroft has become a clear and present threat to our liberties.
The camp plan was forged at an optimistic time for Ashcroft's small inner circle, which has been carefully watching two test cases to see whether this vision could become a reality. The cases of Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi will determine whether U.S. citizens can be held without charges and subject to the arbitrary and unchecked authority of the government.
Hamdi has been held without charge even though the facts of his case are virtually identical to those in the case of John Walker Lindh. Both Hamdi and Lindh were captured in Afghanistan as foot soldiers in Taliban units. Yet Lindh was given a lawyer and a trial, while Hamdi rots in a floating Navy brig in Norfolk, Va.
This week, the government refused to comply with a federal judge who ordered that he be given the underlying evidence justifying Hamdi's treatment. The Justice Department has insisted that the judge must simply accept its declaration and cannot interfere with the president's absolute authority in "a time of war."
In Padilla's case, Ashcroft initially claimed that the arrest stopped a plan to detonate a radioactive bomb in New York or Washington, D.C. The administration later issued an embarrassing correction that there was no evidence Padilla was on such a mission. What is clear is that Padilla is an American citizen and was arrested in the United States--two facts that should trigger the full application of constitutional rights.
Ashcroft hopes to use his self-made "enemy combatant" stamp for any citizen whom he deems to be part of a wider terrorist conspiracy.
Perhaps because of his discredited claims of preventing radiological terrorism, aides have indicated that a "high-level committee" will recommend which citizens are to be stripped of their constitutional rights and sent to Ashcroft's new camps.
Few would have imagined any attorney general seeking to reestablish such camps for citizens. Of course, Ashcroft is not considering camps on the order of the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese American citizens in World War II. But he can be credited only with thinking smaller; we have learned from painful experience that unchecked authority, once tasted, easily becomes insatiable.
We are only now getting a full vision of Ashcroft's America. Some of his predecessors dreamed of creating a great society or a nation unfettered by racism. Ashcroft seems to dream of a country secured from itself, neatly contained and controlled by his judgment of loyalty.
For more than 200 years, security and liberty have been viewed as coexistent values. Ashcroft and his aides appear to view this relationship as lineal, where security must precede liberty.
Since the nation will never be entirely safe from terrorism, liberty has become a mere rhetorical justification for increased security.
Ashcroft is a catalyst for constitutional devolution, encouraging citizens to accept autocratic rule as their only way of avoiding massive terrorist attacks.
His greatest problem has been preserving a level of panic and fear that would induce a free people to surrender the rights so dearly won by their ancestors.
In "A Man for All Seasons," Sir Thomas More was confronted by a young lawyer, Will Roper, who sought his daughter's hand. Roper proclaimed that he would cut down every law in England to get after the devil.
More's response seems almost tailored for Ashcroft: "And when the last law was down and the devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? ... This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast ... and if you cut them down--and you are just the man to do it--do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"
Every generation has had Ropers and Ashcrofts who view our laws and traditions as mere obstructions rather than protections in times of peril. But before we allow Ashcroft to denude our own constitutional landscape, we must take a stand and have the courage to say, "Enough."
Every generation has its test of principle in which people of good faith can no longer remain silent in the face of authoritarian ambition. If we cannot join together to fight the abomination of American camps, we have already lost what we are defending.
by Jonathan Turley Jonathan Turley is a professor of constitutional law at George Washington University. Los Angeles Times
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
http://www.latimes.com/archives
Source: http://www.LATimes.com
8/15/02
2:37:21 PM
STOP PRESS
Boldest Piece of 911 Mainstream Media Reporting So Far in the US Yesterday's Phil Donahue Show
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31937
There is now evidence that even the mood in the US itself is changing and that people want answers to serious questions concerning 911. Here is an excerpt from a trailer to Tuesday night' s Phil Donahue programme on MSNBC:
"In the second half [of the programme], French intelligence analyst Jean Charles Brisard shares his theory of the real story behind 9/11. Brisard's book,
'Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth,'
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/FightSmart18-11-2001.htm</A>
made headlines in France, alleging that the Bush and Clinton administrations put oil and politics before security in the months preceding the attacks. Now, in a candid interview, he breaks it down for Phil.
Then, a grieving 9/11 widow demands answers. Kristen Breitweiser lost her husband when the second plane hit the Twin Towers. She spends her private time grieving alone with her 3-year-old daughter and her public time demanding an investigation not only of the CIA and FBI's failure to connect the dots, but also the FAA, INS, and the military's failure on September 11th." Donahue Daily Update Tuesday, August 13th, 2002
Read the complete transcript to Donahue's Tuesday's show including interviews with Brisard, Breitweiser and this year's top selling US author Michael Moore Click Here
<A HREF="http://www.msnbc.com/news/794011.asp?cp1=1"
Donahue BREAKS 9-11 CONSPIRACY STORY!!!
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31921
MSNBC Censoring What Is Seen! Is another boycott
http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html
Don't Take the Bait - Fight Smart ANIMATED PHOTO ESSAY - CLICK HERE Who is the enemy?
http://homepage.mac.com/jschoneb/wtc.html
ATTACK ON AMERICA 9/11/2001 - INFO AND LINKS: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC.htm
8/15/02
2:35:53 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
LIPA urges energy conservation during heat wave - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17304/story.htm
Large US cattle lots threaten water, food - Sierra Club - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17307/story.htm
Entergy plans 2005 upgrade at Arkansas nuke - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17309/story.htm
UK can be proud of green record - Deputy PM - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17300/story.htm
FEATURE - In a world of plenty, how do we fight hunger? - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17311/story.htm
Poachers said pushing Asian rhinos to extinction - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17306/story.htm
Oman plans new facilities in oil dumping crackdown - OMAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17302/story.htm
Indian activists save snakes on Hindu festival day - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17303/story.htm
Floods spill into German election campaign - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17301/story.htm
Brazil nuclear plant decision seen in September - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17308/story.htm
Australian state declares war on mutant seaweed - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17305/story.htm
Australia cotton seen fully GM soon - scientists - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17310/story.htm
FEATURE - Man's environmental mistakes may fuel squid boom - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17312/story.htm
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS PICTURES:
SPAIN: A Marineland Worker Tags a Loggerhead Turtle on the Mediterrannean Island of Cabrera http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17315
GERMANY: A Resident Takes a Closer Look at a Street Destroyed by Floods in Glashuette
http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17313
SRI LANKA: Endangered Spot-Billed Pelicans on Beira Lake in Colombo http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17314
8/15/02
2:31:28 PM
BioDemocracy News #40: The Death of Frankenfoods (August 2002)
By: Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
http://www.OrganicConsumers.org
8/15/02
2:29:59 PM
Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising"
by Mark Taylor
There could hardly be a more interesting moment for a new music release from Bruce Springsteen. His long awaited 15-song album "The Rising" was released July 30 and will be followed by a 46-city barnstorming tour through the U.S. and Europe. Touring will continue into 2003, culminating in multiple-date concerts at select U.S. cities next summer.
Springsteen already served as a kind of priest to grieving citizens when he offered his short song "City of Ruins" as a prayer-like invocation to begin a two-hour televised tribute to the dead that appeared just days after the Sept. 11 attacks. The CD's title track, "The Rising," is narrated by a now-departed rescuer who sings from somewhere beyond death to invite all the living to "come on up for the rising." Another song, "Lonesome Day," has him singing with a soulful chorus "It's alright, it's alright."
Springsteen acknowledges that many of the new songs were born amid America's post-9/11 trauma. Long sheltered from war trauma on their own land, U.S. residents may need this troubadour of song to assuage their grief, fear, and rage. They may need, too, his cautionary wisdom. "Lonesome Day" seems to understand his people's temptation to a "little vengeance," but it also says "You better look before you shoot."
Springsteen has always walked a difficult line between celebrating U.S. nationalism and questioning its excesses. He went with - maybe was co-opted by - the nationalist fervor of the Reagan years, as evident in his unfurling of the U.S. flag from stage during the "Born in the USA" tour, and in the many flag-waving fans at those 1980s shows. Yet, as soon as he saw the hasty patriotism attaching to this tour, he stripped down the centerpiece song "Born in the USA" to a stark acoustic format, making more obvious his critique of a U.S. that can send its citizens off to kill abroad and then abandon them when they return.
It may be truer to say that Springsteen's songs push the whole notion of "America" into a more comprehensive frame of human aspiration and global interdependence, invoking a popular spirit in community that transcends anything containable in a national power like the U.S. In a sense, this more global popular spirit rises from Springsteen's rootedness in a tradition that is broader and more tangled than that signaled by Whitman, Emerson, and Steinbeck. It comes from his belonging to a musical tradition that includes many of America's most excluded groups - groups who brought to prominence jazz, blues, funk, and early rock and roll. All these elements were especially present in the Springsteen band's early years.
When Springsteen barnstorms the country, will only the U.S. flag be waving? It may be more necessary, now, to ride his songs into dealing with U.S. grief, rage, and fear. After Sept. 11, citizen pain was quickly transposed into nationalist fervor and "war on terrorism." Did we miss a chance to enter collectively into the more intricate textures of our grief, rage, and fear? Maybe "The Rising" will be one resource for regaining that chance. In so doing, we might also glimpse the more global popular spirit that Springsteen's art seems to envision. People lifted to that kind of vision in post-9/11 U.S. would be a "rising" worth waiting for, indeed.
Mark Taylor is professor of theology and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.
Source: http://www.SoJo.net
8/15/02
2:28:37 PM
Smile, you're on in-store camera
by Erik Baard
Thanks to advances in various types of recognition software, you're not even safe from prying eyes - and greedy retailers -when you wander around a department store. To read why, go to:
http://go.hotwired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,54078,00.html/wn_ascii
8/15/02
2:26:24 PM
No Tolerance For Nonviolence In Colombia?
by Janna Bowman
On the evening of Colombian Independence Day, more than 80 people organized by Justapaz and the Conscientious Objection Collective gathered near La Plaza de Bolivar, the seat of the national government in Bogotá. Sympathetic passersby, curious street people, and expressionless armed police peppered the crowd.
With glowing candles, we sang of peace and read litanies until a congressional event concluded and the senators and representatives began to leave. We cleared from the street to allow armored SUVs, filled with soldiers and members of congress, to pass. Some of us continued to sing while others stood in silence, positioning the banners to ensure their view was unobstructed.
However, the police and army were growing weary of our presence. More troops arrived, with heavier armament. About this time I read a greeting from Boston Mennonite Fellowship, the first of the solidarity messages sent to us for this event:
On this Colombian Independence Day, we stand with you in spirit as you remind each other and all who will listen that peace comes through peacemaking, not warmaking. We long with you for the day when you, we, and all people everywhere live together in peace instead of war, with joyful anticipation instead of fear, with bellies satisfied instead of hungry or overstuffed, and nurturing instead of plundering the earth. May you be richly blessed for your creative and courageous efforts toward this peace.
This message was not well received by the state security forces. Not only were we organized and public with our peace stance, we had international support. As the tension mounted, we returned to our song sheet. Then, to my disbelief, I heard the unmistakable roar of a riot tank approaching. We were told they were ready to hose us down. For what - singing prayers of peace? I turned to my friend, who read my question on my face. "This," she said with tears flooding her eyes, "is war, Janna."
With the riot tank came additional reinforcements. One Mennonite pastor called on the riot police not to use their weapons against the peaceful group. Another urged them, and all armed groups, to lay down their guns and relinquish faith in violence, and allow the Prince of Peace to intervene in the Colombian conflict. The microphone was then passed to Peter Stucky, president of the Colombian Mennonite Church, and he began to speak. As he did so, another riot tank arrived, and then another. As this gentle pastor, deeply committed to nonviolence, prayed for food for the hungry, 10 or more police in riot gear marched up to him and created a blockade between him and most of the vigil participants.
Peter looked out at the scene unfolding in front of him and addressed the gathered assembly, including the riot police standing at his chest. Except for the occasional revving of the riot tank engine and subtle street noise, it was quiet as we listened...and waited. He called for justice where injustice reigns, freedom for the oppressed, regard for life over lust for money and power, return of land to landless peasants, safety for Colombia's poor -those most often robbed of life in this senseless violence, wisdom for legislators who have not done justice, loved mercy, or walked humbly. He exhorted the new administration and congress to govern in obedience to Jesus' teachings of reconciliation, nonviolence, and love.
A fourth and final riot tank rolled up the hill and stopped just short of the outermost ring of participants.
We sang another song, (what more could we do?) "Make me an instrument of your peace..." and then Peter invited us to close in prayer. Defying all instructions ever given at nonviolent direct action trainings in the U.S., Leticia, Peter's wife, reached out and placed her hand on the nearest riot policeman as he stood poised. He returned her gesture, whispering, "May God bless you."
We once more plead for an end to the bloodshed, an end to the fear, an end to this war that threatens the freedom and lives of all who stood and shed tears in longing for peace that night.
Janna Bowman is the coordinator for International Solidarity Relationships and Political Advocacy for Justapaz: Christian Center of Justice, Peace, and Nonviolent Action, a Mennonite Peace and Justice organization based in Bogotá. She has worked with Justapaz for one and a half years through a term of service with Mennonite Central Committee. The Conscientious Objection Collective is an organization born of the Mennonite Church that has grown into ecumenical and secular circles.
Source: http://www.SoJo.net
8/15/02
2:20:30 PM
The Nation
Why is the Bush Administration--in a radical break with past practice--not releasing the names of members of an important presidential advisory board that keeps tabs on the intelligence community?
For the full breaking story, check out the latest edition of David Corn's Capital Games, available now at:
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=96
And check out Corn's recent Capital Games articles for a look at an interesting leak from the Defense Policy Board re Saudi Arabia; a review of Bruce Springsteen's new 9/11-oriented album and the story of how musician Steve Earle ran into trouble for a song he wrote about John Walker Lindh.
All this and more at:
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/
Finally, please remember that you can email any article on The Nation website to friends, family and foes using the Email-To-A-Friend feature found by clicking on the "email" link in the box adjoining each published article.
Best Regards, Peter Rothberg, Associate Publisher
Source: http://www.TheNation.net
8/14/02
7:33:38 PM
FAA Offers Insight On September 11
Controllers recall events of the day
by Mac Daniel, Boston Globe Staff, August 13, 2002; Page B1
or 11 terrifying minutes last Sept. 11, New York and Boston air traffic controllers knew the grim future - that United Airlines Flight 175, with 65 passengers and loaded with fuel, had settled into a fast low-altitude approach as it zeroed in on the World Trade Center.
There was little they could do. Just minutes earlier an American Airlines flight out of Boston had crashed into the Trade Center's north tower. The United flight was still in the air and far off course. Other planes spotted it heading for New York, its green radar blip having gone dead, the connection suddenly severed by the actions of someone in the cockpit.
It was an event recalled for the first time yesterday by air traffic managers and controllers with the Federal Aviation Administration. They described their feelings as an intense sense of helplessness.
''Probably one of the most difficult moments in my life was the 11 minutes from the point I watched that aircraft when we first lost communication to the point that aircraft hit the World Trade Center,'' Michael McCormick, the FAA's New York air traffic manager, said in a press conference in which air traffic controllers in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., made their first extensive public comments since the attacks.
''For those 11 minutes, I knew - we knew - what was going to happen, and that was difficult,'' McCormick said.
Boston air traffic controllers, working out of FAA regional headquarters
in Nashua said they first detected something was amiss when the American flight disappeared from their screens, apparently because of action in the cockpit. In fact, as they soon discovered, it had taken a left turn for New York.
The American flight had left Logan Airport bound for Los Angeles at 8 a.m. and was given permission to climb to 35,000 feet when communications with the Boeing 767 went silent and it disappeared from the radar screen.
When air traffic controllers asked pilots in the area to visually locate the flight, it was United Airlines Flight 175, which had taken off from Boston 14 minutes after the American flight, that radioed a reply. The United crew reported that Flight 11 was still in the air at about 29,000 feet, despite a curious radio silence, they said.
Therefore, ''we considered it at that time to be a possible hijacking,'' air traffic manager Glenn Michael recalled yesterday at Logan.
At 8:40, six minutes before the American flight crashed, the FAA notified the military's Northeast Air Defense Sector that they suspected the flight had been hijacked. Three minutes later, the military was told that FAA controllers believed the United flight had been hijacked as well.
Three minutes after that, the American flight crashed into the north tower.
''Once it became obvious what was actually transpiring, air traffic controllers reacted much like Americans reacted across the entire nation, with shock, with disbelief, with just stunned surprise that such acts could occur,'' said Joseph Davies, air traffic manager at Logan.
From that point on, in an effort to thwart any other possible hijackings, air traffic controllers shut down the nation's airspace in a mere 4 hours and 15 minutes, starting minutes after the second plane smashed into the south tower at 9:03 a.m.
It was an amazing feat, officials said. The FAA yesterday showed a nationwide radar image taken at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 11 that showed the skies over most of America, especially the Eastern Seaboard, filled with approximately 4,500 airplanes.
By approximately 12:15 p.m. airspace over the lower 48 states was cleared of all commercial and private flights, with no accidents or mishaps reported during the mammouth operation, the nation's first unplanned shutdown of US airspace.
In New York, McCormick and Frank Hatfield, the FAA's Eastern Region Air Traffic Division manager, praised controllers for remaining calm. Hatfield described the desperate search to find the hijacked planes like ''looking for a needle in a haystack.'' After radar contact was lost with several of the planes, airborne pilots and crews were asked by controllers to provide visual sightings. Those who saw the American flight after the hijacking described it as going ''low and fast.''
Although yesterday's FAA press conferences offered some new insight into the workings of air traffic controllers that day, questions about detailed communications from the hijacked planes was avoided, with FAA officials saying that information remains under investigation.
Contact with agencies outside of the FAA was crucial on Sept. 11. Since then, the FAA has implemented improved communications between their regional control centers and key government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, North American Aerospace Defense Command, and the Office of Homeland Security, officials said.
''We have shaved that communications process from a period of minutes to a period of seconds,'' Hatfield said.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/225/metro/FAA_offers_insight_on_Sept_11+.shtml
8/14/02
6:14:36 PM
http://www.koteka.net/Indomilchildrapists.htm
BIG TENSION IN RANSIKI - ICRA INTERNATIONAL WITNESS OF INTIMIDATION
Survey of Icra International - International Commission for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples based in Paris
BRIMOB raping children in West Papua
We just come back from Ransiki. The situation is very very bad there.
We went there one week ago to make a enquiry about the conflict in Wasior. At mid day we went to the beach to discuss with people. We came back on the main road to take a taxi and we saw one Papua being beaten by two Brimob. We hide directly in a house. The Brimob beat him very strongly with his foot. He threat the Papuan with his automatic gun. He beats him on his testicles many times after he used his butt to beat him after the Papuan crawled on the soil. It was horrible.
Many times since we are working on Papua struggle we heared this story but when you see it, you realize the amazing struggle of Papuan People and the atrocities of Indonesian soldiers. We hide in the house during one hour. We left by the back door but one javanese saw us. He tries to follow us by taxi but we disappeared throught the forest and cacao plantation thank to clever Papua.
We came back several days after. The familly told us that one man called Awon has been catched by the police three hours after we left Ransiki. He is in big trouble. His wife and his 5 children are exhausted.
In Ransiki, the situation is untenable since wednesday. They used intimidation every day like we saw. Brimob check every house to see if there are no people without identity card otherwise they put them in jail and beat them.
Brimob raped two children several times. When the parents take them back they beat them also. One man of 20 year has been beaten seriously with the butt.
Please help Papua People there. Brimob from Mollucu (Maluku) are very dangerous people.
More information will follow but we can't say now.
Lauxon Warloya Icra International
From International Action for West Papua http://www.koteka.net
8/14/02
6:02:00 PM
[There is a petition out on the internet addressed to Kofi Annan regarding a call for a genuine act of self-determination for Papua and its people. It can be found at the URL address below. I've included what the site "says". - Editor Irian News Service]
http://www.petitiononline.com/westpap/
To: Kofi Anan, Secretary General, United Nations JUSTICE AND SELF-DETERMINATION FOR WEST PAPUA (IRIAN JAYA)
A CALL FOR A GENUINE ACT OF SELF-DETERMINATION FOR PAPUANS
BACKGROUND In November 2001, two senior UN officials, including the head of the UN mission to oversee the handing-over of West Papua to Indonesia, admitted that the Act of Free Choice was a sham - 'a whitewash, designed to appease the Americans and the Indonesians'.
West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea. The independent nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) makes up the eastern half.
In 1949, when the Dutch East Indies became Indonesia, the Dutch colonial power excluded West New Guinea as it was then called, and started to prepare it for independence. WNG was predominately Melanesian, unlike the rest of the East Indies. Australia, at the time, supported independence for West Papua.
In 1961 Indonesia invaded West Papua. In 1962 the United States, fearing that Indonesia was leaning toward communism, forced Holland to sign the New York Agreement, which handed West Papua over to Indonesia for a period of six years, to be followed by an act of self-determination.
In 1969 Indonesia conducted the sham Act of Free Choice, in which only 1025 Papuans from the population of 800,000, voted, under threat of having their tongues cut-out, to remain a part of Indonesia. Shamefully the UN sanctioned this vote, and West Papua became the province of Irian Jaya.
Church groups estimate that since 1961, 400,000 people have been killed or disappeared under the brutal Indonesian military occupation. Murder, torture, rape, summary detentions and destruction of entire villages, continues to this day.
Since 1988 Papuans have carried on a non-violent struggle for justice in West Papua, despite the horrific acts of violence and intimidation by Indonesian security forces. On November 10 Chief Theys Eluay, an important Papuan leader, was assassinated by the Indonesian military in yet another attempt to destroy the Papuan's inspirational struggle for a peaceful solution.
AFTER 40 YEARS IT'S TIME FOR A GENUINE ACT OF SELF-DETERMINATION FOR WEST PAPUA.
We the undersigned call on the United Nations to immediately institute a timeline for a referendum for the people of West Papua.
Sincerely, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8/14/02
5:55:40 PM
Fertile Imaginations
The Real Story Of Those Mysterious Circles Runs Rings Around the Movie
by Peter Carlson, The Washington Post, August 10, 2002; Page C01
Suddenly, crop circles are hot. They're hip. They're not just for New Age neo-Druid saucer freaks anymore.
"Signs," the new Mel Gibson movie, has caused a stampede of media interest in the mysterious markings that have appeared in farm fields all over the world. But Colin Andrews, the crop circle researcher who served as a consultant to the filmmakers, isn't too thrilled with the flick.
"I was personally just a wee bit disappointed," he says.
"Signs" is entertaining, Andrews admits, but it's not nearly as interesting as the real story of crop circles.
He may be right. The movie has Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix and a couple of cute kids and some aliens. But the real story has hoaxers, hustlers, mystics, scientists, pseudo-scientists, avant-garde artists, Stonehenge, UFOs and mysterious energy balls, as well as the eccentric nonagenarian philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller.
It also has Andrews, 56, a British electrical engineer who has written two books on crop circles and whose dogged research methods include using Rockefeller's money to hire private detectives to chase conceptual artists across the British countryside by the light of the silvery moon.
A movie that told the real story of crop circles would be a zany farce. Mel Gibson wouldn't be right for it. He's far too serious.
Mike Myers, call your agent.
It all began in the late 1970s, when strange circles began appearing in fields of grain in the countryside of southern England, not far from Stonehenge.
Inside the circles, crops -- usually wheat or barley or oats -- were flattened to the ground by some mysterious force that bent but did not kill the plants. At first, nobody paid much attention. But by the early 1980s, the circles were getting larger -- 20, 50, 100 feet across -- and sometimes clusters of a half-dozen or more would appear in the same field overnight.
The media took notice, and the resulting publicity attracted scads of mystics and scientists. The mystics claimed the circles were caused by UFOs or by cosmic energy or by Gaea, the goddess of Mother Earth. The scientists claimed they were caused by freak weather conditions or, believe it or not, by the mating dance of sex-crazed hedgehogs running in frenzied circles.
Both groups agreed on one thing: The circles couldn't have been created by humans working under cover of darkness during a short British night.
In the late 1980s, Terrence Meaden, a physics professor and amateur meteorologist, advanced a theory that seemed to explain the phenomenon. The circles were caused, Meaden said, by plasma vortexes --electrified whirlwinds that formed high in the atmosphere, then swooped down to the ground, spinning the grain into flattened circles.
Meaden's theory seemed plausible for a while. But then crop circles changed. The newer ones were far more complex. Farmers arose to find their fields decorated with squares, stars, peace symbols and elaborate designs that looked like keys or IUDs or that weird glyph that rock singer Prince adopted as his new, unpronounceable name.
Meaden insisted that even these ornate "agriglyphs" could have been caused by his plasma whirlwinds. But that seemed so implausible that he found himself viciously mocked by the British media.
"He was so ridiculed," Andrews says. "I did feel a certain sympathy for him as a human being. But his theory was not a credible solution to the mystery."
As the crop circles grew more elaborate, they became tourist attractions. Travelers visiting Stonehenge detoured for helicopter rides over the mysterious glyphs. Farmers began charging admission to the circles, and tourists with a mystical bent would sit cross-legged in them, meditating.
Some people reported that they heard weird "trilling" sounds and saw saucers or balls of light while sitting in the glyphs at night. Other folks reported that proximity to the circles caused their cameras to malfunction and their dogs to panic and vomit.
As the mystery deepened, crop circles were discussed in Parliament and debated on television. They were the subject of dozens of books and countless magazine articles. And they began appearing outside England -- in Holland, Germany, Japan, Canada. A few appeared in the United States, too, but not many, especially when you consider our fabled stretches of amber waves of grain. Even today, more than 90 percent of the 10,000 reported crop circles have appeared within 50 miles of Stonehenge.
Then, in 1991, two elderly chaps told the British newspaper Today that they were responsible for the crop circles. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley claimed they'd started making the circles as a prank one Friday night in 1978 after downing a few pints at a pub in Wiltshire, near Stonehenge. Over 13 years, they'd created more than 1,000 glyphs, they said, and copycats had done the rest.
To prove their point, they created a crop circle while a reporter watched. It was a simple process. They set up a pole with a string attached to the top. They pulled the string taut and walked in a circle. That created the perimeter. Then they flattened the grain inside the circle by pushing wooden planks around.
When they finished, the newspaper summoned Patrick Delgado, a prominent crop circle researcher. Delgado inspected the circle and issued his learned opinion:
"No human being could have done this," he said. "These crops are laid down in these sensational patterns by an energy that remains unexplained and is of a high level of intelligence."
Delgado, like Meaden before him, became a laughingstock. And "Doug and Dave" -- as the pranksters are invariably called -- became national folk heroes.
But many people -- including Andrews -- didn't believe the mystery was solved.
"Doug and Dave certainly did make some of them," Andrews says. "But we know they didn't make them all. Many farmers tell you they had circles in the '60s. An elderly man told me he had circles in his field in 1923 and 1924 -- as noted in his diary."
So the circles kept their hold on the public imagination. Mystics and scientists continued to visit them. Artists got into the act. So did Laurance Rockefeller.
Enter the Artists
"Unlike UFOs, crop circles are tactile," says John Lundberg. "You can go stand in them. You can touch them. You can't touch a UFO."
Lundberg, 33, is a London-based conceptual artist who specializes in crop circles. His group, Circlemakers, has made dozens of elaborate agriglyphs in southern England over the last 11 years, he says, most of them created secretly, under cover of darkness.
First, the artists create elaborate patterns on a computer -- "like architectural drawings" -- then, working in teams of as many as 10 people, they re-create them on some unsuspecting farmer's field. Their biggest was more than 500 feet long, Lundberg says. He won't say where it was. The Circlemakers refuse to identify any individual crop circle as their creation.
"That," he says, "would drain it of all its mystery."
He prefers that people who see the circle dream up their own stories of how it was made. That way, he says, they are collaborating in the project.
"It's a mass-participation artwork," he explains. "It's not just the pattern-making, it's the whole reaction to it. We collaborate with the media and the public. . . . The circles have become huge Rorschach tests writ large on the fields of England."
Lundberg and the Circlemakers are eager to take crop circles into pop culture. They maintain an elaborate Web site (www.circlemakers.org), and they've created crop circles for use in ads for Weetabix crackers and Mountain Dew. They also sell crop circle postcards, T-shirts and how-to manuals.
This activity is regarded as blasphemy by mystics who see crop circles as religious objects. Consequently, Lundberg says, he has received hundreds of nasty e-mails.
"I'm a heretic," he says. "I'm attacking their belief system."
The mystics aren't the only folks who dislike Lundberg's shtick. Andrews sees the Circlemakers as hoaxers who trivialize crop circles by making people believe that they are all human creations.
"I wish John and his band of merry men would just disappear," Andrews says.
Four years ago, Andrews received a grant from Rockefeller to fund his research on crop circles. The grant was in the "five-figure range," says Rockefeller spokesman Fraser Seitel. Andrews promptly spent a chunk of it to hire private detectives to tail Lundberg's group.
Andrews wanted to find out if the Circlemakers were really making circles. The detectives put the artists under surveillance, followed them into a farmer's field in the dead of night and filmed them as they went about their work.
"These individuals were monitored," Andrews says, "and there is no doubt that they created some extremely complex and beautiful designs."
Back to the Vortex
"Think of a great big plastic beach ball," Nancy Talbott says. "Now picture a bunch of tennis balls inside it."
Talbott is explaining her theory about crop circles. She used to be a country music promoter, but now she's the president of BLT Research Team Inc., a Massachusetts-based group that studies crop circles. BLT has collected plant and soil samples from around the world, she says, and its scientists concluded that the circles were caused by some mysterious heat source -- possibly "an energy that's completely unknown to science now."
Talbott, 63, touts a theory that's close to Meaden's much-mocked plasma whirlwind hypothesis. If you ask how whirlwinds can create complex glyph shapes, she talks about the beach ball with the tennis balls inside.
The beach ball is a swirling vortex of electrified air. The tennis balls are smaller swirling vortexes inside the bigger one. As they all spin around atop a field of grain, she postulates, you get those glorious glyphs.
In 1999, BLT received a grant from Rockefeller. BLT's grant -- like the one given to Andrews -- was in the "five-figure range," says Seitel, Rockefeller's spokesman. Now 92, Rockefeller declined to discuss the grants, but Seitel explains that they are part of the philanthropist's "eclectic" interests.
"He's interested in spiritual matters like this," Seitel says. "He funded a study of UFOs that was done by a group led by the wife of a former ambassador to England from the Reagan administration -- or maybe it was the Ford administration."
Meanwhile, Talbott says that BLT has studied 300 crop circles and concluded that 92 percent of them were created not by humans but by the mysterious energy force.
That's balderdash, says Joe Nickell, 57, a researcher for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
"Approximately 100 percent of crop circles are man-made," Nickell says. "Note that I said approximately. I haven't inspected every one, and we have to allow for dogs chasing their tails and other phenomena."
When dueling crop circle theorists start talking numbers, Colin Andrews comes down in the middle. He estimates that about 80 percent of the circles are created by humans.
"Eighty percent are complete nonsense," he says. "But there's still 20 percent, in my estimation, that we haven't been able to determine. Those 20 percent are almost always simple designs, and there are no footprints and no damage to the plants. . . . In some of these, there was a mind involved, a thought process involved."
Does that mean aliens?
"I can't say that it's extraterrestrials," he says. "I don't know who the being is."
When it comes to extraterrestrials, Andrews gets some support from an unexpected source -- his old nemesis, John Lundberg, the Circlemaker artist.
"I'm just as much a believer as the next man," Lundberg writes in an e-mail. "In fact, we did see a classic UFO -- a dark, silent, cigar-shaped craft with tiny strobe lights at each end -- whilst out making circles in Wiltshire a couple of years ago. Four of us witnessed it as it slowly arced across a clear star-lit sky."
So the controversy continues. Now, with "Signs" packing movie theaters across the country, we can expect to find more circles dotting the U.S. landscape.
If you absolutely must make a glyph in your neighbor's grain, Lundberg has some advice: "Don't get too complex. Do something simple. Take your time. Do it right so it's not just a mess."
And one other thing: No drinking. "You have to be stone-cold sober to create a crop circle," he says. "Otherwise you get wonky lines."
Researcher Karl Evanzz contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1177-2002Aug9.html
8/14/02
4:20:33 PM
Four Forest Activists Indicted In Firebombing Of Log Trucks
Bryan Denson, August 14, 2002
Federal authorities arrested two Portland State University students Tuesday and sought two other logging protesters -- one of them the well-known forest activist Tre Arrow -- in connection with the firebombing of log trucks during last year's protests of the Eagle Creek timber sale.
A four-count indictment was filed Tuesday in Portland's U.S. District Court against Jacob D.B. Sherman, 20; Angela M. Cesario, 23; Jeremy D. Rosenbloom, 25; and Michael J. Scarpitti, 28, better known as Tre Arrow. They were accused of burning three trucks belonging to Ray A. Schoppert Logging Inc. near Estacada.
"I think this is a major first step in investigating eco-terrorism," said Mike Mosman, the U.S. attorney for Oregon.
Mosman said investigators found similarities between the Schoppert arson and the Easter 2001 firebombing of three cement trucks at Portland's Ross Island Sand & Gravel. The Earth Liberation Front, an underground group linked to 36 major eco-terrorist crimes in the United States since 1996 -- including a $12 million arson at the Vail, Colo., ski resort -- claimed responsibility for the Ross Island blaze.
But Mosman did not link those named in Tuesday's indictment with the Earth Liberation Front, which targets enterprises it accuses of harming the natural world. He and other officials called on the public's help in solving the Ross Island arson and at least 11 other unsolved eco-terrorist crimes in Oregon.
"We certainly hope that, in part due to today's event, that people will step forward," Mosman said.
The FBI took Portland State students Sherman and Rosenbloom into custody at their Portland homes early Tuesday and asked for the public's help in locating Cesario and Scarpitti.
"They should surrender themselves," said Charles Mathews, special agent in charge of the FBI for Oregon.
The four activists were opponents of the Eagle Creek timber sale, a logging project in the Mount Hood National Forest, authorities said. Activists spent years protesting the sale, sometimes sitting in elaborate tree platforms and taking part in other civil disobedience.
But in the first hours of June 1, 2001, a firebomb ignited under a truck parked at Schoppert Logging along Oregon 224, destroying that vehicle and damaging two others. Five other crude incendiaries -- made of gallon milk jugs and gasoline -- failed to ignite. No one was injured, but damages reached $50,000.
An official with the Cascadia Forest Alliance, which organized protests at Eagle Creek, declared at the time that the group was not involved. Since then, some in the organization have said the arson seemed to be the work of someone trying to discredit their peaceful activism.
"CFA does not engage in these tactics," volunteer Sarah Wald said Tuesday. "We have a long history of peaceful, nonviolent civil disobedience to protect our public lands."
Wald and fellow activist Jessica White said that Sherman, Cesario and Rosenbloom were student forest activists. Wald and White were stunned to learn their friend Tre Arrow had been indicted.
Arrow became a public curiosity in July 2000 when he spent 11 days perched on a ledge outside the U.S. Forest Service headquarters in downtown Portland to call attention to the Eagle Creek cause.
The following November, Arrow captured 15,763 votes in an unsuccessful run against U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore. Last October, he drew headlines again when he suffered multiple fractures after falling out of a towering hemlock during logging protests near Nehalem.
Arrow's acquaintances said they have not seen him in recent months and did not know his whereabouts. They remained skeptical about the indictment.
"We'd like to see a public airing of any evidence," White said.
The Portland FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force gathered evidence in the case for more than a year. But Mosman declined Tuesday to comment on the government's evidence against the four.
The federal government canceled the Eagle Creek timber sale last April.
News research director Gail Hulden contributed to this report.
Bryan Denson: 503 294.7614 or mailto:bryandenson@news.oregonian.com
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com
8/14/02
4:00:29 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
TO SUMMIT UP
A global report card issued by the United Nations just two weeks before an international environmental summit has given low marks to the world's ecological condition. Among the report's more shocking findings: Three million people die annually from air pollution, while more than 1 billion people -- a sixth of the world's population -- lack access to safe drinking water. The report also found that the world's forested areas shrank by 2.4 percent in the 1990s, with Africa taking the hardest hit, losing 7 percent of its forests. The world's environment is also threatened by growing energy consumption; in the last decade, energy use declined in Eastern Europe, stayed steady in Western Europe, and increased in North America. The World Summit on Sustainable Development, the conference designed to address these issues, will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, later this month, but U.S. President Bush is expected to be notably absent.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Elizabeth Shogren, 14 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=363>
do good: Take action to send your leader to the World Summit <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/politics.asp?source=daily#summit>
CURSE D' ALENE
In a precedent-setting move, U.S. federal officials signed an agreement yesterday ceding control of the cleanup of Idaho's highly polluted Coeur d'Alene Basin to state, local, and tribal officials. For more than a century, mining waste from the Silver Valley washed down the Coeur d'Alene River into Lake Coeur d'Alene and the Spokane River, and from there into Lake Roosevelt, where fish have shown elevated levels of mercury and other toxins. The cleanup of the area, one of the nation's largest Superfund sites, has long been a contentious issue, with locals fearing that extensive U.S. EPA involvement would create negative publicity and harm the local economy. The transfer of authority could mitigate that problem, but environmentalists view the move with suspicion because the same state officials who downplayed the need for a cleanup in the past will now decide how to proceed. Many residents of Washington state, which is also affected by the pollution, have criticized the transfer of authority as well.
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 14 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=364>
EVERYBODY MUST GET ESTONIA-ED
Like the rest of the former Soviet Union, the Baltic states were once ecological disasters. But while Russia continues to be an environmental nightmare, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are investing serious resources into cleaning up their environments -- in the interest, government officials say, of gaining entry into the European Union. To do so, they must modernize aging refineries, reduce air pollution, meet E.U. standards for drinking water and forest management, and generally bring their laws into line with those of other member states. The E.U. might withhold invitations for full membership for a while, but the bloc is already helping to finance environmental improvements in the Baltics, such as closing a landfill in Lithuania, renovating water and sewage facilities in Latvia to reduce pollution in the Baltic Sea, and beginning to clean up more than 1,500 former Soviet military facilities in Estonia.
straight to the source: Toronto Globe and Mail, Mark MacKinnon, 14 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=365>
ARRESTING DEVELOPMENT
U.S. federal authorities arrested two Portland State University students yesterday and are seeking two others in conjunction with the firebombing of logging trucks during last year's protest of the Eagle Creek timber sale in Oregon. Environmentalists spent years protesting the timber sale, and some resorted to tree-sitting and other forms of civil disobedience. The sale was finally cancelled last April -- but before that, in the early hours of June 1, 2001, a firebomb exploded under a logging truck belonging to Ray A. Schoppert Logging, destroying the vehicle and mangling two others. No one was injured, but damages reached $50,000. Of the two people still being sought by authorities, one is Michael Scarpitti, better known as Tre Arrow, who became locally famous two years ago when he spent 11 days perched on a ledge of the U.S. Forest Service's headquarters in downtown Portland to protest the Eagle Creek sale. Arrow's friends expressed skepticism about his alleged involvement in the firebombing, and so far, the Portland FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has declined to discuss its evidence.
straight to the source: Portland Oregonian, Bryan Denson, 14 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=366>
NO ROOM AT THE INN
Banff National Park is the jewel of the Canadian Rockies -- and its most sparkly facet is Lake Louise, famous for emerald waters, dense forests, and glittering reflections of Victoria Glacier. But the peaceful-looking spot is actually a battleground between a large Canadian hotel chain and environmentalists who want to put a stop to a proposed $45 million, six-story addition to the already-giant Chateau Lake Louise hotel. The battle has raged for nearly a decade, with developers arguing that parks must provide the kind of services that will keep tourism a vital part of the national economy, and environmentalists countering that such development threatens the natural wonders the parks were designed to protect. With 5 million visitors every year -- and as many as 20,000 per day around Lake Louise -- Banff is already North America's most developed park. Enviros say the hotel expansion will place undue stress on the fragile lake region and its grizzly bears, lynx, wolverines, and other wildlife; they also see it as a symbolic battle for the soul of Canada's national parks.
straight to the source: New York Times, Clifford Krauss, 14 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=367>
do good: Take action to keep development away from Banff <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/forests.asp?source=daily#banff>
8/14/02
3:29:13 PM
U.S. Backs Oil Giant On Lawsuit In Indonesia
by Jane Perlez
JAKARTA, Indonesia, Aug. 7 — The State Department is urging a United States court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a human rights group against Exxon Mobil over its operations in a war-torn province of Indonesia. In response to a request by the corporation for an opinion, the department declared that pursuit of the case would harm Washington's campaign against terrorism.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, is a focus of the Bush administration's effort to fight terrorists, and any action by the United States that could interrupt the country's revenues would be perceived by the Indonesian government as interference in its internal affairs, the department said.
And in a twist, the letter by the department's legal adviser, William H. Taft IV, cited business competition from China in Indonesia as another factor in the case.
The International Labor Rights Fund, a nonprofit group based in Washington, represents 11 Indonesian villagers who accuse Exxon Mobil of doing nothing to halt the Indonesian military's killing, torture and rape of residents near the company's plant in Aceh Province.
The army is charged under Indonesian law with protecting national security assets, including natural gas fields like the one in Aceh, where it is fighting separatists.
Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest energy company, sought the opinion, arguing that the suit would set back efforts to fight terrorism.
Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer of the U.S. District Court in Washington agreed to request a nonbinding opinion. The judge's decision on whether to proceed to trial is pending.
The State Department, which had the option of rendering a neutral opinion, sent its reply to the court last week. Copies of Mr. Taft's letter to the judge were released today by the United States Embassy here.
Mr. Taft's letter suggested that Chinese oil companies, which have made significant purchases in Indonesia in the past six months, might try to replace the American energy giant if it were forced to leave. The Bush administration has shown growing concern about China's increasing economic and political interests in Southeast Asia.
The lawsuit is one of a series in which human rights groups have sued multinational companies in American courts in an attempt to hold the corporations more accountable for the repercussions of foreign investment on local populations.
Human rights groups denounced the State Department opinion. "Corporate responsibility shouldn't stop at the water's edge," Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said. He said the Bush administration "shouldn't be trying to stop this court case."
At the same time, Mr. Roth said that Human Rights Watch "takes no position" on claims regarding Exxon Mobil's operations in Indonesia.
At a news conference today at the American Embassy here, Ambassador Ralph Boyce said that the State Department's opinion "expressly reaffirms our human rights concerns in Indonesia."
The letter, which was a matter of contention within the department between those who favored a strong stance protecting human rights in Indonesia and those who wanted a strong commitment to efforts against terrorism, roused considerable interest because of its timing.
The State Department opinion was delivered in the same week as the visit here by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. He told Indonesians last Friday that the United States was prepared to renew military ties, though on a measured basis.
The letter to the judge mentioned the poor human rights record of the Indonesian Army.
"We would like to reiterate that a lasting, peaceful solution to the Aceh conflict that maintains Indonesian sovereignty can only be achieved if the military and police end human rights abuses," Mr. Taft wrote.
In presenting the department's argument that the case should not proceed, Mr. Taft said Indonesia "serves as a focal point U.S. initiatives in the ongoing war against Al Qaeda and other dangerous terrorist organizations." Those efforts, he said, could be "imperiled in numerous ways if Indonesia and its officials curtailed cooperation in response to perceived disrespect for its sovereign interests."
Moreover, because the investment climate was deteriorating in Indonesia, the suit against Exxon Mobil would further scare Western investors, the State Department said. It suggested that Chinese companies were waiting in the wings, saying, "We would expect that foreign companies, such as from the People's Republic of China" would be "far less concerned about human rights abuses, or about upholding best business practices."
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/08/international/asia/08INDO.html
8/14/02
3:27:50 PM
11 Top Talking Points & Questions
In examining these talking points, we ask the reader for an open mind, patience, and healthy skepticism. We ask that your embrace your responsibility to think for yourself, because no one else should do it for you. Some of what follows may be hard to accept or difficult to believe so we suggest that you revisit, check and double check difficult points via the web (see point #11 below) or otherwise.
Unanswered Questions (UQ) offers these Top 11 Talking Points & Questions as a starting point for thinking about responsibility for the tragedy of September 11th and as offering direct lines for further, more formal, inquiry by a Citizens' Investigative Commission on 9/11; a project now initiated and being facilitated by UQ.
:: Whistleblowers ::
FBI agents Colleen Rowley (Minneapolis), Kenneth Williams (Phoenix), and Robert Wright (Chicago), amongst others, have courageously come forward with evidence that their superiors derailed promising investigations that might have foiled the 9/11 attacks. While on the trail of terrorists, why were capable field agents blocked, thwarted, intimidated and undermined by their superiors at FBI headquarters? Surely claims of incompetance and inefficient beauracracy is missing the point. At a recent press conference, Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch has even suggested possible treason. How does the FBI hope to explain this pattern of blocking of legitimate investigations by capable field agents? Or will they explain?
Memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller by Coleen Rowley [edited version of 13 pp. memo]
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ROW205A.html
"Agent: FBI Rewrote Moussaoui Request," John J. Lumkin; Associated Press, May 25, 2002
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/LUM205A.html
Agent Wright encountered stonewalling, negligence, indifference and outright opposition by his superiors and FBI HQ
http://www.judicialwatch.org/2005.shtml
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:: Insider trading ::
After 9/11, investigations were launched around the world into suspicious pre-9/11 trading that clearly indicated detailed foreknowledge of the attacks. Bloomberg News documented massive spikes in put options (a bet the stock will fall) in specific companies whose stock did in fact fall precipitously once trading opened. Put option expert Phil Erlanger estimated that profits would have been in the billions of dollars. In a recent indictment, federal prosecutors accused Amr Ibrahim Elgindy of bribing an F.B.I. agent to gain prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks.
So, where does this money trail lead? Why have we learned nothing from the SEC about who placed these trades? Do we not have a right to know ?
"Massive pre-attack 'insider trading' offer authorities hottest trail to accomplices"; Kyle F. Hence; www.globalresearch.ca; posted April 23, 2002
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/HEN204B.html
Index of stories on insider trading posted at From the Wilderness
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/index.html#inside
"Stock Advisor Knew About Attack", US Suggests; Alex Berenson, May 25, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/25/business/25FRAU.html
Complete indictment of FBI linked insider trading circle (33pp)
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/fbi/uselgindy502ind.pdf
:: Links to terrorists ::
According to published and confirmed mainstream reports Mohammed Atta was wired $100,000 by the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, just prior to the attacks. The man who approved this wire, General Mahmud was meeting with top officials of the US government, including Intelligence Committee Chairmen Representative Porter Goss (R-FL) and Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) on the morning of the attacks.
The FBI confirmed on ABC News (This Week, September 30, 2001) that the payment had come from banks in Pakistan. A short time later, former ISI director-general Lt-Gen Mahmud Ahmad retired amidst the scandal that linked him to the payment. This was published in The Times of India, Delhi, 9 October 2001 and AFP (Agence France Press), 10 October 2001
One might be forgiven for asking - is this the only case of ties between US organisations and those allied or connected to terrorists ? What of the Bush family's close ties to the Bin Laden family through their shared business concerns in the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest US defense contractor ? Are we in fact with the terrorists or against them ?
http://www.reuters.co.uk/news_article.jhtml?type=worldnews&StoryID=591591
http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1454238160
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001298
http://www.indiareacts.com/nati2.asp?recno=518
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html
ISI ties to Taliban
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/misc/janes011001_1_n.shtml
Who is Osama Bin laden ?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html
Manipulation of CNN and White House transcripts of Dr. Condoleezza Rice's May 16th Press Conference. (listen to original audio-video file), June 29, 2002
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/RIC206A.html
:: Do warnings imply foreknowledge ? ::
In the aftermath of the attack, the administration stated that they had had no warnings of an attack. Nine months later they conceded that they had received general warnings of possible 'traditional' hijackings by Al-Qaeda. In actual fact, numerous detailed reports were recieved from foreign intelligence groups and leaders in terrorist attacks. The Bush administration received specific warnings from Israel, Germany, Egypt, UK, and Russia, amongst others; some very specific. In light of detailed terrorist threat assessments, foiled plots or discovered plans involving planes as missiles, and G-8 air defense measures last summer, all well before 9-11, is it not preposterous and deceptive for the administration and the President to suggest that no one could have imagined that planes might be used as weapons?
Is it not reasonable to ask who specifically received these warnings and what specifically was done in response? Why, in fact did the warnings not lead to a heightened state of readiness and an aggressive response by US Air Defenses on September 11th (as opposed to the opposite - see next talking point below) ?
"CIA Admits Foreknowledge of 9/11", Larry Chin, Online Journal, May 6, 2002
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHI205A.html
"Air Force officer disciplined for saying Bush allowed September 11 attacks: Hijacker attended US military school;" Jerry Isaacs; World Socialist Website, Monterey County Herald; June 21, 2002
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ISA206A.html
"Specificity of Method" Warnings, Kyle F. Hence [UQ Co-founder]; 5/18/02
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/HEN205A.html
"Echelon Gave Authorities Warning Of Attacks"; Ned Stafford; Newsbytes, May '02
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/STA205B.html
:: Air Defenses ::
The first hijacking was known by Boston ATC at 8:28, (Village Voice, amongst others). The Pentagon admits to being aware of one hijacking at 8:40, (Boston Globe) and two hijackings by 8:50 (General Myers). General Myers told the Senate on Sept. 13th that "we did scramble fighter aircraft... after the Pentagon was struck". That is, fighters were scrambled at 9:40, a full hour later. A story that fighters were launched from Otis AFB and Langley AFB appeared in the press on Sept. 14th. Why the delayed report ? Rough calculations of the time and distance traveled show they would have been flying at less than half their top speed. Surely this was a situation requiring emergency measures?
Flight 93 was in the air, with the hijacking confirmed, for more than half an hour before it crashed, but no interceptors launched from Andrews AFB, only 10 miles and mere minutes flight time away - even after a second (hijacked-confirmed) plane had struck the WTC (according to "official" government military sources). All this flies in the face of standard procedure. Why was the air response so inadequate?
Sept 11: Unanswered Questions (140pp. deep analysis)
http://www.communitycurrency.org/IndexMX.html
Szamuely, George, ‘Nothing Urgent,’ New York Press, Vol. 15, No. 2,
http://www.nypress.com/15/2/taki/bunker.cfm
Zwicker, Barry, ‘The Great Deception: What Really Happened on Sept. 11th Part 2,’ MediaFile, Vision TV Insight, 28 January 2002,
http://www.visiontv.ca/programs/insight/mediafile_Jan28.htm
McMurtry, John, ‘Decoding 9-11’
http://www.snowshoefilms.com/mcmurtryDecoding.html
:: An 9/11 Investigation ? ::
According to Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General for the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (1990-1996), 682 hijackings have occurred worldwide since 1972. All were thoroughly investigated. Nearly a year has passed and the four hijackings of 9-11 have neither been investigated by the FAA nor the subject of pubic hearings. A congressional investigation by a special joint House/Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has met behind closed doors, repeatedly delayed open hearings (most recently until September, 2002) and had their chief investigator resign.
Precedent for convening immediate Investigative Commissions on issues of national security has been clearly established in the case of the Pearl Harbor and the JFK assassination. Why is this so vehemently blocked and resisted by the Administration and others? Why, according to Senator Daschle, did both the President and the Vice-president lobby him for no investigation whatsoever? Why did 8 committees investigate Enron and only a single one, behind closed doors so far, undertake an in-depth investigation of 9/11?
"Inquiry of Intelligence Failures Hits Obstacles"; Greg Miller; Los Angeles Times; May 4, 2002
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MIL205A.html
Congresswoman McKinney Presses for Investigation of Bush Administration Links to 9-11; April 12, 2002
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13A.Extend.Probe.htm
:: Legal Action ::
Increasingly victims' family members are taking the lead in asking questions of their government and insisting on an independent commision. Julie Sweeney, a past guest on Oprah who has refused what she refers to as 'government hush money' to instead pursue legal action, said that it is "patriotic to ask questions." Recently, members of three victims' families groups were present and posed questions at a national press conference (where Sweeney was a presenter) organized by UnansweredQuestions.org. Class-action lawsuits against government agencies and airlines suggests that enough evidence may exist to move on a legal front to find accountability and the truth. Why are Bush administration lawyers seeking to limit the victims' families access to global evidence in their suits against the airlines? Why have they sought torte reform to limit damages?
"S.F. attorney: Bush allowed 9/11"; David Kiefer, San Francisco Examiner, 6/11/02
http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.lawyer.0611w
Mary Schiavo's speech before the National Air Disaster Alliance and Foundation 2001 Autumn Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., September 29, 2001 (Updated December 7, 2001 to reflect the changes in the law as signed by the President on November 19, 2001)
UQ Wire: "DOJ To Attempt Shut Down of 9/11 Evidence", by Tom Flocco
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0207/S00087.htm
:: Rewarding Failure and Incompetance ::
Outside of airport security screeners, UQ knows of no instances of firings or reprimands issued as a result of 9/11 events. This despite the obvious failure of intelligence and air defenses, which, given the warnings received implies at the very least gross incompetence, egregious negligence if not worse. Rather than holding responsible individuals directly accountable, and insisting upon answers, we are instead rushing ahead and rewarding them with rich financial bonuses and budget increases.
This comes on the heels of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld pre-9/11 confirmation in Congressional testimony that the Department of Defense had undocumentable 'adjustments' (ie. money unaccounted for) of $2.3 trillion. For comparison, the total federal outlay in the 2002 budget comes to just over $2 trillion. This staggering figure demands that we seek full disclosure of what's happened to taxpayer funds. Why are we throwing good money after bad without holding any one accountable for the worst breach of national security in history?
"The Real Deal on 9:11: Rewarding Failure"; Catherine Austin Fitts, Issue #2, Global Outlook magazine, published by www.globalresearch.ca.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0205/S00173.htm
"Not Important? Think Again!;" Chris Sanders, Sander Research, London, UK
http://www.scoop.co.nz/archive/scoop/stories/b1/f4/200206051049.3c032210.html
Budget figures
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2003/bud34.html
:: Anthrax ::
Suspicions continue to swirl around an FBI investigation going nowhere after eight months of investigation. Despite early attempts to blame Iraq, it is now an established fact that all the Anthrax came from a US Army facility at Ft. Detrick, Maryland. Furthermore, respected scientist Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, has suggested that the FBI is dragging its feet even though it has a clear prime suspect within the US defense establishment. Recently it has surfaced that the White House was put on Cipro on the very morning of September 11th, more than a month before the attacks. Are we being subjected to a campaign of fear (ie 'terrorism') by people within our own government ?
Report: Iraq Behind Anthrax Attacks. Oct. 15, 2001 (sources The Gaurdian, including quotes from a CIA official)
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/10/14/131100.shtml
Capitol Hill Anthrax Matches Army's Stocks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A49502-2001Dec15
Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks
http://www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm
Whitehouse on CIPRO
http://www.judicialwatch.org/1967.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A15269-2002Jun7
:: Sleeping at the wheel ? ::
Shortly after taking office, Ashcroft sent a memo to department heads outlining his seven top priorities. Counter-terrorism was not one of them. Two Star General Donald Kerrick commented "Clinton's advisors met nearly weekly on how to stop bin Laden... I didn't detect that kind of focus from the Bush administration." A June 29th 2002 AP story states "President Bush's national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions, officials say." In light of all the warnings described above and increased 'noise' or 'chatter' they now report receiving during the spring and summer of '01, why did they not give this matter the attention it deserved? How does this reconcile with Ashcroft's personal decision to heed an FBI threat assessment and not fly commercially in the weeks leading up to the attack?
"Before 9-11, Terrorism was low priority for the Bush Administration"; AP/NYTimes; June 29, 2002
"Avoiding the real questions"; Jane's Intelligence Digest; May 28, 2002
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/JAN205A.html
:: 20 web sites sources::
The following are 20 websites, in no particular order, selected from the hundred or more web sites that examine this subject.
http://www.questionsquestions.net
http://www.copvcia.com / www.fromthewilderness.com
http://www.emperors-clothes.com
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH
http://www.geocities.com/anitaalittle/archiveprior_knowledge.html
http://www.awitness.org/news/november_2001/insider_trading_september_11th_long_list.html
http://www.makethemaccountable.com
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATEnronSept11.htm
http://www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/archiveprior_knowledge.html
http://forums.delphiforums.com/ground_zero2001/
http://www.democraticunderground.com (911-section)
http://democrats.com/display.cfm?id=278
8/14/02
2:52:20 PM
EPA to discipline biotech companies over crop experiments
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Two biotechnology companies growing genetically modified corn on experimental plots in Hawaii have failed to properly protect against ``gene pollution,'' federal regulators alleged for the first time.
The allegations are sure to add to the growing criticism of how genetically modified crops are grown and regulated in the United States.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused Pioneer Hi-Bred International of planting genetically modified corn too close to other crops and at an unapproved location.
Mycogen Seeds, a unit of Dow AgroSciences LLC, is accused of failing to plant trees around its experimental plot to create a ``windbreak'' to inhibit pollen spread. The EPA also asserts that the company planted the wrong kind of unmodified corn as a ``buffer zone'' around the experimental crop.
Both companies are experimenting with corn engineered with a bacterium's genetic material. The corn is designed to be resistant to the rootworm pest and the genetic modification allows the corn to produce its own pesticide, reducing reliance on traditional chemical sprays.
Neither company's corn modified for rootworm has been approved for human consumption. Each had to agree to rigorous pollen containment regulations before getting government approval to plant outdoors.
Biotech foes fear the genetic tinkering will destroy naturally occurring crops by cross-pollinating and that the human health effects of the modified foods are unknown.
``Containment is a critical issue,'' said Kimberly Wilson of Greenpeace USA. ``Once genetically modified crops are released into the environment, there's no getting them back.''
The EPA said in letters dated Aug. 5 that it plans to issue ``civil administrative complaints'' against the companies by Aug. 30. Until then, the agency said it will review any evidence presented by the companies in their defense. It's unclear what action the EPA will ultimately take. Each company faces a maximum fine of $11,000.
``These letters simply reflect EPA's ongoing oversight role,'' agency spokesman David Deegan said.
Biotechnology companies developing pesticide-resistant crops must obtain permits from the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Deegan said he was unsure how many such permits the EPA has issued to biotechnology companies.
``We take these concerns very seriously and are aggressively investigating the matter,'' Dow's Pete Siggelko said in a press release. ``At no time was there any risk to human health and safety and the environment.''
Siggelko said since Dow ``just received the notice we have not yet discussed this matter with the EPA, and we will work closely with EPA to resolve these concerns.''
Pioneer spokesman Doyle Karr said ``we believe that we followed the EPA regulations. We believe we planted in the right place.''
Karr also said the EPA's letter to Pioneer ``once again demonstrates how thoroughly these products are regulated.''
The EPA letters were made public by the Washington D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit food safety advocate.
The center is one of the few nonprofit advocacy groups that supports biotechnology efforts to reduce pesticide use and believes that genetically modified foods currently on the market are safe.
Still, the group is concerned with the EPA's allegations against the companies.
``These regulations are necessary to protect the environment,'' said the center's Gregory Jaffe. ``These companies have been doing these experiments for years, and I have to wonder how closely they've been monitored.''
The center called on EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman to inspect all experimental field trials and randomly check engineered crops approved for human consumption.
Biotech companies are required to get EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture approval to plant experimental crops outdoors. The USDA approved 1,117 outdoor experiments on 57,000 acres in 2001, up from 593 field tests on 7,000 acres in 1994.
Some 88 million acres of engineered crops approved for human consumption were planted in the United States last year. Industry and environmental groups estimate that 70 percent of processed foods on U.S. supermarket shelves contains some genetically engineered components.
A groundswell of opposition to the technology is brewing in the United States.
A measure on the November ballot in Oregon would require labeling of all modified food and food additives sold in stores and restaurants, and any such food produced in the state. Others are working on getting similar legislation introduced in Congress, while organic food purchases in the United States are on the rise.
Source: http://www.planetsave.com/ViewStory.asp?ID=2907
8/14/02
2:49:36 PM
EMS Update - August 13, 2002
World Summit Preview
Doubts persist about whether President Bush will join the more than 100 heads of state headed to South Africa for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, but dozens of grassroots organizations from across the United States will make the trip in the hope of raising global awareness of their issues, from environmental racism to the need for greater local control.
An EMS Press Teleconference this Thursday, August 15, will feature representatives from national environmental groups and local grassroots organizations who will attend the Summit.
Media advisory: http://www.ems.org/world_summit/index.html
8/14/02
2:48:06 PM
Kindness
Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the buss will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.
Naomi Shihab Nye, Words Under The Words
8/14/02
2:42:25 PM
Bush The Idiot Or Bush The Fiend
by William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t, August 11, 2002
This is the paradox of Bush leadership.
As the Clinton administration departed the White House, several of its anti-terrorism experts repeatedly briefed Condoleeza Rice and others within the incoming Bush cabal of the dangerous nature of the terrorism threat represented by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Further, the Bush people were handed an effective battle plan to address that threat.
Nothing was done about it until the Towers fell.
Warnings came to American intelligence agencies and the Bush administration from all corners in the months before the attack. Egypt, Germany, Israel and Russia gave pointed descriptions of terrorist threats involving commercial airplanes and landmark buildings.
Nothing was done about it until the Towers fell.
Once the attacks came, of course, the Bush administration implemented the Clinton-era attack plans against Afghanistan and Al Qaeda, and then some. Great voice was given to increasing our security abilities, to the point that no public investigations into why 9/11 happened in the first place could be allowed, because they would purportedly detract from the war effort.
Now, as has been heard time and again, we must pre-emptively attack Iraq to make sure they don't attack us. Virtually no proof of any threat to America presented by Iraq has been offered by the Bush administration. The war talk is based solely upon speculation and rhetoric about Saddam Hussein's massive stockpile of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Herein lies the paradox: As reported threats and warnings came in from everywhere in the months leading up to 9/11, threats and warnings of such a dire nature that any self-respecting officeholder would be kept up nights after hearing of them, absolutely nothing was done to address them...until the Towers fell.
Meanwhile, virtually no evidence exists to support a cause for war against Iraq. It stands to reason that if Hussein had these terrible weapons, and we knew it, we would have gone in there months ago and paved Iraq like a parking lot. No warnings, no threats, no basis for war exists in credible form, and yet we rattle our saber and draw it ever farther from the scabbard.
When Bush had the warnings, he did nothing, and America lost thousands of civilians. Now, with no warnings nor threats, he prepares for a battle that will slaughter tens of thousands more civilians. This is the paradox.
There are two possibilities. Either George W. Bush is the dumbest, most incompetent, most utterly harebrained human ever to sit in the Oval Office, or he is some dazzling breed of Uberman fiend bent upon dominion over the earth. Either he's a total dimwitted dunderhead who cannot understand a threat when it is wagged in his face, or he is an evil genius who allowed the 9/11 attacks to take place so as to enhance his political power, and now plans to attack Iraq to further entrench that power.
We crossed that bridge to the 21st century and found a troll living beneath it. It is named George W. Bush, and it is either dumber than a bag of doorknobs, or more fiendishly clever than any comic book supervillain. Neither option is terribly palatable.
William Rivers Pitt is a teacher from Boston, MA. His new book, 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence,' will be published soon by Pluto Press.
Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/08.12A.wrp.idiot.htm
8/14/02
2:40:41 PM
Authoritative Voice on the Economy Still Lacking in Bush Administration
By ELISABETH BUMILLER, NY Times, August 12, 200
CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 11 -- Throughout the business scandals of this tempestuous summer, President Bush has angrily denounced corporate criminals and cheerily declared that the economy is heading in the right direction. But his words have often had the opposite effect than he intended, sometimes seeming to send the financial markets diving. Advertisement
"He opens his mouth, and the market goes down," said Stephen Moore, the president of the Club for Growth, a political action committee that supports conservative Republican candidates. "I'm not saying he's responsible for the market crash. But he hasn't inspired a rush for investors to get back in."
The problem, Republicans, economists and the president's supporters say, is that the weakness of the White House economic team has forced Mr. Bush to become his own economic spokesman. That is a role, they say, that a president should avoid.
Mr. Bush, they add, is not at his best when talking about the economy. Sometimes he has made odd off-the-cuff remarks, such as suggesting that Americans might look for stock bargains when the Dow is down. Sometimes he has been seen as cheerleading in the face of bad economic news. At other times his threats to throw corporate criminals in jail have seemed to agitate rather than quiet investors.
"He obviously has not been very effective," said Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, recalling that President Bill Clinton had a forceful, calming presence in his treasury secretary, Robert E. Rubin.
"People knew when they listened to Clinton that there was something behind him," Mr. Hagel said. "There was Bob Rubin, there was an economic team. I don't think the markets see anything behind this president's words."
In part to address that problem, the White House is creating a stage to showcase Mr. Bush as the commander of the economy. On Tuesday, more than 200 mostly Republican guests -- a number are major party donors -- are to attend an economic forum at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., about a half-hour's drive from the president's 1,600-acre ranch, where Mr. Bush is spending most of this month.
At Mr. Bush's side will be Vice President Dick Cheney, who until recently has been largely invisible to the public while the Securities and Exchange Commission investigates accounting practices at the Halliburton Company, the oil services giant where Mr. Cheney was chief executive.
Although the White House initially said that Mr. Cheney would not attend the conference, the vice president will now descend from his summer aerie in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming to the prairie of central Texas, adding what Republicans say is much-needed heft to the administration's economic voice. Mr. Cheney's presence, they say, is a clear sign of how worried the White House is about the effects of the economy on Mr. Bush's political future.
"The Halliburton thing is not helpful at this time," Mr. Hagel said. "But he was a chief executive of a respected company, so he does bring some real-world experience. And they essentially need all hands on deck right now."
Some Republicans nonetheless praise Mr. Bush for his efforts, and say there is often little a president can do to change the markets. "Wall Street is not an accurate reflection of the economy," said Representative Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri. "It's a reflection of how investors feel about the economy. My guess is that by the end of the year, we'll see that the president was an effective spokesman for the economy."
Many of Mr. Bush's supporters trace his problems to Paul H. O'Neill, the quirky and much criticized treasury secretary, whose habit of popping off has not been reassuring to the markets.
"There are a lot of people who would like to see him gone in the next half hour," one influential Republican businessman said. Many Republicans say it is essential that Mr. O'Neill be replaced after the November midterm elections, when Mr. Bush will begin to turn his attention to his re-election campaign in 2004.
Otherwise, they warn, Mr. Bush may face the same fate as his father, who was enormously popular after the Persian Gulf war but lost the 1992 election in large part because of voters' perceptions that he had lost control of the economy.
"Bush needs to reassign Paul O'Neill to some other job in the administration and get a more effective spokesman for economic policy," Mr. Moore said.
Many Republicans say that none of the leading economic officials in Mr. Bush's administration can adequately fill the role. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., the White House budget director, has alienated many in Congress. Lawrence B. Lindsey, the president's chief economic adviser, is not thought to have the presence or political skills for the job. Donald L. Evans, the secretary of commerce, is personally close to the president, but business leaders say that he does not have the stature or the portfolio to be the economic voice of the administration.
So speaking out on the economy is left to Mr. Bush, with sometimes embarrassing results. After the president delivered a major address on July 9 on Wall Street that was meant to reassure the markets, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 178.81 points, and was down nearly 700 points by the end of the week. On July 22, a day when Mr. Bush forcefully defended Mr. O'Neill and current stock prices, saying "there is value in the market now," the Dow ended down 234.68, or 2.9 percent.
On July 30, the day Mr. Bush signed a major corporate antifraud bill in a grand White House ceremony, analysts said investors were reassured by the news -- but stocks still seesawed and the markets ended that day almost where they began.
Former Clinton administration officials say the markets' response to Mr. Bush's words shows that presidents should talk about the broad fundamentals of the economy, not the ups and downs of Wall Street. Mr. Clinton, for example, was always eager to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, but Mr. Rubin told him no, saying that if the market went down that day, the president would be blamed.
Other economists agree that presidents are generalists, not specialists, and that their role is to speak on a broad range of foreign and domestic policy. The intricacies of the market, they say, should be left to the treasury secretary. "I think very few presidents either can or should attempt to do this sort of thing themselves," said Benjamin M. Friedman, an economics professor at Harvard University. "They don't have the uniformity of focus that is required to make the message effective."
Sometimes Mr. Bush has tried to restore consumer confidence in the face of unwelcome statistics with an unusually sunny interpretation of the numbers, like on July 31, when he announced that "we're heading in the right direction" That was the day the Commerce Department reported that the nation's gross domestic product grew by 1.1 percent from April through June, down from 5 percent in the first three months of the year.
"People won't be reassured by a pep rally," said Robert D. Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. "They will be assured by candid discussions and a frank assessment of the strengths and challenges the economy faces."
For that, the White House says it is offering the economic forum this week, which many Republicans acknowledge is as much about crucial public relations as collecting expertise. "It's a move in the right direction," Mr. Hagel said. "But I think the president knows he's going to have to do more to address these problems than putting on a show in Texas."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/12/politics/12BUSH.html?todaysheadlines
8/14/02
2:39:01 PM
It's Not the Economy, Stupid
by Marc Ash, t r u t h o u t | Opinion
Monday, 12 August, 2002
Conformist pundit wisdom would have us believe the GOP's greatest concern as the midterm elections approach is that the economy has tanked. I'd like to call their attention to few other small problems that may be on the minds of Americans as they consider what course to take in November.
The rise of American Fascism is one that seams to be causing quite a stir across the land: Although no major news media source in country will dare discuss it, millions of Americans are deeply concerned about the rise of what they see as Fascist ideology and tactics. The scripted path to war for profit is clearly visible behind the thin Vanier of Patriotic Fervor and it's not setting well.
The shredding of the U.S. Constitution has caught the attention of social and political groups in every state in union: Folks are scratching their heads wondering what John Ashcroft will come up with next. For a man who got his behind kicked by a feisty widow in Missouri, he seams bound and determined to change the course of this country, with an electoral mandate -- or without. Most troubling to many Americans are his proposals that smack of McCarthyism, or worse, former East Bloc Secret Police tactics.
3000 dead in New York and no straight answers coming from the White House, does in fact matter to the nation: Although the hard-sell is on to ignore what the White House knew and when they knew it, one thing all Americans have in common is that they do want to know.
The survival of democracy itself keeps folks up at night: What was at stake in Florida was not who would win, Al Gore or George W. Bush. At stake in Florida, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently put it, was; "...that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." William Hubbs Rehnquist be damned.
The danger to the earth itself is not lost on it's inhabitants: Right now what we have to work with coming out of Washington is, essentially; 'Yes the earth is warming, it's too bad, deal with it...' Every voter going to the polls in November breaths air, drinks water and has nowhere else to go. So that's a slam dunk topic right there.
Our place in the world community: At this point about the only supporter the US has left is Great Britain' and they don't feel like going to war with Iraq. Some Americans don't care -- many do. Many wonder if we will be paying for the actions of today's Oval Office occupant for a long, long time to come.
Why don't you pundits have a go at these issues? They are the ones we are thinking about.
email Marc Ash: mailto:ma@truthout.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/08.13A.ma.its.not.htm
8/14/02
2:29:47 PM
Triple Filter Test
In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.
One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
Triple filter?"
That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test.
The first filter is TRUTH. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"
No, on the contrary..."
So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
No, not really."
Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & held in such high esteem. Use this triple filter each time you hear loose talk about any one you know.
8/14/02
2:18:50 PM
Turn Yourself In and Get It Over With
by Diane Harvey, mailto:merak@sedona.net 8-13-2
Official Notice
From: The U.S. Department of Permanent Investigation To: Selected U.S. Citizens
Our governmental vigilance against hidden sources of potential terrorism is, as you know, expanding rapidly. It quite naturally includes the deepest suspicion directed toward those of you so dangerously misguided as to foolishly disagree with any of our activities. The thought of the United States of America continuing to tolerate so-called normal citizens who insist on harboring hurtful, negative attitudes toward those holding the reins of power is clearly unacceptable. Such disagreement is shockingly counterproductive to a beleaguered government trying to rid itself of a few dangerous enemies while simultaneously taking over as much of the world's resources as possible. Because if you think this is easy to pull off without too many people noticing, you can think again.
Government policy encouraging citizen-on-citizen spying has been sadly misunderstood by those of you who have not yet willingly embraced the idea of reforming yourselves the easy way, before someone else does it for you. You have to understand: we can't be too careful about these things because we really, seriously, need to get our own way here. Uncritical, whole-hearted acceptance of authority, and support for our every little overt and covert aim, is not that much to ask. Furthermore, divisiveness among the populace on this issue of self-spying is turning out to be a pointlessly time-consuming drain on our dwindling national resources.
For instance: are you one of those who have been frivolously wasting time, waiting around for the dreaded midnight pounding on your door? Have you been experiencing nonproductive periods at work, fretting over job security due to a few too many carelessly expressed opinions at that last office party? Have you said anything at all, at any moment, which could possibly be construed as less than fully complimentary to those morally and intellectually superior individuals who were (possibly) elected to run your country in your behalf? If so, then you are shamelessly squandering your nation's human resources, since other people are going to have to be keeping an eye on you for the rest of your life. Do you really think that is being fair to them?
Or perhaps you have already had the good sense to be terrified, and have therefore swallowed your highly-unpopular opinions all along. Maybe you are idly wondering how long it will be before our technology can pick your real thoughts straight from your congenitally insubordinate brain. (It won't be long.) In any case, you know who you are. You are the ones who nag, nitpick and think you can find fault with the strategies of your worthy leaders in Washington. You loathe us and all our works, national difficulties notwithstanding, and you are wondering if we know it too. Well, we do.
You have not thought this problem through with sufficient thoroughness. Because human nature will very likely, sooner or later, turn against you in ways even your feverish imagination cannot predict. Remember, you once lodged an official complaint with animal control about that incessantly barking neighbor's dog. Or maybe you fired a crooked, inefficient, or superfluous employee. What about that romantic attachment that ended so acrimoniously? Perhaps you simply know something unpleasant about someone, who really would rather you didn't run around loose knowing what you know, just because. In any case, what with being a human being and all, you are certain to have mortally offended someone else's ego- sometime, somewhere, somehow. And now you have to wonder if there will be highly unpleasant consequences.
Well, yes, there will be. We realize that even ordinary decent government-loving folk occasionally must succumb to urges for petty revenge. We understand that even proper citizens, ferociously dedicated to our administration, will now and again swell with uncontrollable self-importance, when handed irresistibly juicy power over others. Therefore this business of your hanging around endlessly worrying about being fingered by the evil eye is utterly useless. Of course you must be carefully watched over by imperfect human beings: what did you think? You are recklessly wasting your country's time and energy by forcing your fellow citizens to try to assess exactly how serious those rude jokes you made about the current administration really were. Surely you can see that it is a terrible drain on the economy to be forced to have two thirds of the country awkwardly skulking around spying on the other third?
You ought to know by now if your inner thoughts meet the standards of our updated and expanded guidelines for possible enemies of the state. We've certainly planted enough hints out there. But you may well have been remiss in the necessarily stern and uncompromising requirements for self-examination along these lines. Therefore, in order to facilitate your efforts, we include here a brief but hopefully evocative excerpt from our larger work-in-progress, The Encyclopedia of Internal Enemies, Volume 23.
Please get your pencils, download this paper, and check the applicable choices. Be sure to return your answers promptly to our Department.
1. You are an enemy of the state if you have deliberately failed to applaud enthusiastically at the end of each and every official public utterance during these difficult times. And don't think no one noticed.
2. You are an enemy of the state if you persist in believing, contrary to all government issue press releases, that there are real live human beings out there in other countries. We have very firmly made it clear that that is hardly the point.
3. You are an enemy of the state if you have ever thought that the sudden disappearance of every last one of the powerful leaders and authorities on this planet would result in a giddy celebration lasting for centuries. Such fantasies are not only very cruel, but actionable under current slander laws, and constitute grounds for permanent incarceration in solitary confinement.
4. You are an enemy of the state if you ever try to stick your nose where it is not wanted, in relation to the very tricky matters regarding the United States Constitution versus Homeland Security, which are none of your business. And if you still don't believe it is none of your business, just ask your expensively elected representatives.
5. You are an enemy of the state if you resist in any way the dictates, stated or implied, of the official government, military and corporate establishments who know what's best for you. The fact that they have more money than you do is all the proof you need of their suitability for making your important decisions. The food you eat, the water you drink, the medical advice you take, the entertainment you consume, and the education of your children are by now completely handled and none of your concern. We know what we are doing here, and we have already told you that more than once.
6. You are an enemy of the state if you annoyingly question government and military secrecy when this is so clearly stated now to be a veritable cornerstone of the democratic process. Keep in mind that when it comes to matters of national security, you could be in a whole lot of trouble for practically anything whatsoever. And you probably are, so don't push it.
7. You are an enemy of the state if you question the idea that multinational corporations and the perfectly natural excesses of capitalism are somehow or other protected by the Constitution of the United States of America. This is so fundamental we don't really even need to say it. So don't make us say it again.
8. You are an enemy of the state if you have anywhere, at any time, so much as breathed the word "environmentalism"- even alone in a locked room. The use of the word "green" is permitted, if you happen to be working on a full-page advertisement for a large energy conglomerate.
The above list, as you can see for yourself, represents a woefully incomplete compendium of your innate potential for grievous offences against your country. Basically, what it all boils down to is that you are an enemy of the state if you don't freely and spontaneously agree with the thoughts of those of us in positions of authority, anywhere and everywhere. Any fool could see that, one would think. Frankly, we don't like being disagreed with. Why would we?
We welcome your individual contributions in response to this Official Notice, just as soon as you have examined your conscience and made a full and frank confession. You will then be free to shorten your sentence somewhat by offering additions we haven't thought of yet to this list. We hope, with your help, to compile the definitive version of all conceivable infractions of any local, state or federal rules, laws, customs, or sincere authoritarian whims, which you or anyone else might have been, are now, or may be guilty of in the future.
The main thing is not really even what you have specifically done, or will do. There's bound to be something, and you know it. The point is to shortcut all this uncomfortable uncertainty you are living in as an amateur or even, heaven help you, a certified professional troublemaker. Therefore we have instituted what we believe is a highly effective new plan for speeding up this entire process. We are asking each and every one of you who has ever had any sort of wicked thought whatsoever about The Establishment to give yourselves up and turn yourselves in to the authorities immediately. This will save everyone concerned a considerable amount of troublesome waiting, not to mention your tax dollars. What with one thing and another, present estimates of the number of in-house enemies-of-the-state run to the millions at the very least. For this reason we ask for your patience in regard to the expected long lines and waiting times.
Kindly observe the following steps for turning yourself in:
If you don't know the location or even the identity of your local authorities, just ask and we will forward you the names, and directions for finding them. They aren't always who you think they are.
Please do not try to turn yourselves in to the media, as they are not yet set up for handling crowds.
Consider bringing at least a box lunch, as this is going to take some time. Sanitary arrangements will be provided, but don't expect anything fancy. Outside food vendors will be permitted between the hours of 11am - 1 pm, and 4 pm - 6 pm, for the first week, in most states.
For your entertainment while you are waiting, we have arranged for continual closed-circuit preview presentations of the upcoming reality-based Fox television series, "The Noble, Highly Paid and Exciting Lives of Citizen-Spies."
No radios, cell phones, wrist watches, writing implements, or reading material will be allowed beyond the first stage of processing. And don't bother bringing your belts, extra clothing, or personal grooming materials.
We ask that you place all children under six with politically correct relatives before you leave the house. Be sure to fill out all necessary adoption papers.
Thank you. In conclusion, we wish to express our deepest appreciation ahead of time for your patience and cooperation. We want you all to know we are sincerely look forward to working with you and getting to know you much much better.
Yours truly,
The Department of Permanent Investigation
Source: http://www.rense.com/general28/turn.htm
8/14/02
1:59:33 PM
THE WEEKLY SPIN, Wednesday, August 14, 2002
sponsored by PR WATCH http://www.prwatch.org
The Weekly Spin features selected news summaries with links to further information about current public relations campaigns. It is emailed free each Wednesday to subscribers. Feel free to forward this message to others.
THIS WEEK'S NEWS
1. PR Watch Launches New Discussion Forum
2. Researching People on the Internet
3. Challenges Facing Arab-American Journalism
4. J.Walter Thompson Recruits Hill & Knowlton For Marine Corps Contract
5. 'Mendacity' 'Obfuscation' 'Spin' Not Good For Corporate Ethics PR Work
6. Now Showing! Toxic Sludge - The Video Documentary
7. Hollywood's Responsibility for Smoking Deaths
8. Saudi Arabia Shells Out For "PR Drivel"
9. What's Good for Exxon Is Bad for Terrorism?
10. Journalism and Patriotism
11. Focus Groups Are For Selling Peanut Butter
12. Congress Hits White House Secrecy
13. Come See The Nuclear Waste Bike Trail
14. Inking Out the Government Printing Office
1. PR WATCH LAUNCHES NEW DISCUSSION FORUM
Effective today, we have added a new feature to the PR Watch web site: a message board where visitors can post their own comments and questions about public relations manipulations of the news and public opinion. The PR Watch forum is linked to Spin of the Day, so by clicking on the link at the bottom of each item you can join a thread that discusses that particular story. Use this forum to talk back about flacks!
2. RESEARCHING PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1027538596.php
The Online Journalism Review recently posted a couple of articles on researching people using the internet. Part I shows how to use online databases to do background checks on someone's property ownership, business ties, professional licenses. Part II covers affiliations with businesses and other organizations, with links to sources of information on state corporate filings, non-profit Form 990 filings, campaign contributions, etc.
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2002.html#1029184564
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1029184564
3. CHALLENGES FACING ARAB-AMERICAN JOURNALISM
http://www.hanania.com/caajc/journchal.htm
Ray Hanania, a Palestinian Arab-American activist and former journalist who now works in public relations for KemperLesnik Communication, has written an essay urgin Arab Americans to "pursue journalism as a career choice rather than as an option in a political battle." Coverage of the Arab community is biased, he says, in part due to an "anti-Arab American media," but also because of a scarcity of professional Arab journalists. "The biggest challenge we face is the fact that the Arab community comes from a society where, historically, journalism does not exist. Despite some recent (past 20 years) exceptions, free speech is prohibited in the Middle East. Inexperienced in this fundamental essential to the profession and craft of journalism, Arabs who come from this scenario are burdened by restrictions and distortions in what journalism really is." (Hanania himself straddles the gap between journalism and advocacy, calling for objectivity and professionalism while also advising the Arab-American community in PR techniques.)
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2002.html#1029167218
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1029167218
4. J.WALTER THOMPSON RECRUITS HILL & KNOWLTON FOR MARINE CORPS CONTRACT
"After more than five decades of relying on advertising for its recruitment efforts, the Marine Corps has decided to let PR pros take a shot at finding them a few good men," PR Week reports in a front page story. Longtime Marine advertising agency J. Walter Thompson recruited sister company Hill & Knowlton to join in on a bid for the five-year, $200 million contract. Having won the account in July, the campaign details are still being worked out. "Product placement, digital initiatives, and the use of former marines as third-party advocates are among those being discussed," PR Week writes.
SOURCE: PR Week, August 12, 2002
5. 'MENDACITY' 'OBFUSCATION' 'SPIN' NOT GOOD FOR CORPORATE ETHICS PR WORK
"Public relations firms giving advice on corporate ethics? That sounds like a plot line straight out of a movie by Woody Allen," Jeff Barge, president of Lucky Star Public Relations, wrote in a July 30 Wall St. Journal letter-to-the-editor. Quoting Barges remarks, Paul Holmes, editor of the Holmes Reports, reflects on PR's role in ethical corporate policy making. "The idea that public relations, a discipline largely associated in the public mind with mendacity and obfuscation and spin, might be able to provide corporate America with some sort of ethical compass is clearly laughable n even to public relations practitioners." Holmes challenges PR people to show leadership and work to convince "skeptical CEOs not only of the importance of real ethics, but of the role PR people can play in achieving ethical performance."
SOURCE: The Holmes Report, August 12, 2002
Web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2002.html#1029124800
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1029124800
6. NOW SHOWING! TOXIC SLUDGE - THE VIDEO DOCUMENTARY
http://www.mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismGlobalizationAndMedia/ToxicSludge
The Media Education Foundation has produced a new educational video inspired by the work of the Center and titled Toxic Sludge Is Good For You - The Public Relations Industry Unspun. You can view a short clip and order the video, narrated by Democracy Now's host Amy Goodman, from the MEF website which says "this video illuminates ... the way in which the management of the public mind' has become central to how our democracy is controlled by political and economic elites. ... Toxic Sludge Is Good For You tracks the development of the PR industry from early efforts to win popular American support for World War I to the role of crisis management in controlling the damage to corporate image. The video analyzes the tools public relations professionals use to shift our perceptions including a look at the coordinated PR campaign to slip genetically engineered produce past public scrutiny. PR critics [interviewed] include PR Watch founder John Stauber, cultural scholars Mark Crispin Miller and Stuart Ewen. Toxic Sludge Is Good For You urges viewers to question the experts and follow the money back to the public relations industry to challenge its hold on democracy."
7. HOLLYWOOD'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR SMOKING DEATHS
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/09/opinion/09ESZT.html
"I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings," writes Joe Eszterhas, the author of movie megahits such as Flashdance and Basic Instinct. "I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did." His crime? Making smoking look "cool and glamorous ... an integral part of many of my screenplays." Eszterhas says his moral awakening came after he was diagnosed with throat cancer, "the result of a lifetime of smoking. I am alive but maimed. Much of my larynx is gone. I have some difficulty speaking; others have some difficulty understanding me." After witnessing firsthand the suffering that goes on in cancer wards, Eszterhas now says that glamorizing smoking is "unconscionable" and calls Hollywood "the advertising agency and sales force for an industry that kills nearly 10,000 people daily. A cigarette in the hands of a Hollywood star onscreen is a gun aimed at a 12- or 14-year-old. ... The gun will go off when that kid is an adult. We in Hollywood know the gun will go off, yet we hide behind a smoke screen of phrases like 'creative freedom' and 'artistic expression.' ... I don't wish my fate upon anyone in Hollywood, but I beg that Hollywood stop imposing it upon millions of others."
SOURCE: New York Times, August 9, 2002
8. SAUDI ARABIA SHELLS OUT FOR "PR DRIVEL"
http://www.odwyerpr.com/0809saudi.htm
"Saudi Arabia should stop its 'PR drivel' in the U.S., and flat out explain to the American people that serious issues exist between the Kingdom and the U.S., according to Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, the Kingdom's English-language paper," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. "He urges Saudi Arabia to 'abandon those fancy public relations firms whose own executives look at us unfavorably, but are doing the job for the dollars.'" Saudi Arabia's PR firm, Qorvis Communications, receives $200,000 a month for its work. Saudi Arabia's Embassy paid PR giant Burson-Marsteller $2.7 million for advertisements and work done in the two months following the September 11 attacks.
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, August 9, 2002
9. WHAT'S GOOD FOR EXXON IS BAD FOR TERRORISM?
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/08/international/asia/08INDO.html
The U.S. State Department is seeking dismissal of a human rights lawsuit against Exxon Mobil's activities in Indonesia, where villagers say that they were victims of murder, torture, kidnapping and rape by the military unit guarding the company's gas field. "In response to a request by the corporation for an opinion, the department declared that pursuit of the case would harm Washington's campaign against terrorism," reports the New York Times. Last week Secretary of State Colin Powell promised $50 million in military aid to Indonesia, where human-rights groups blame the army for regular abuses against civilians. More than 12,000 people, mainly civilians, are estimated to have died in Aceh during a 26-year separatist war. Indonesia has also failed so far to convict any of the 18 military officers, militia and civilians alleged to be responsible for killings in East Timor.
SOURCE: New York Times, August 8, 2002
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2002.html#1028779202
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1028779202
10. JOURNALISM AND PATRIOTISM
http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=457&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
"I believe it is vital to the interest of the journalist and the public alike that we engage in an urgent, forceful and consistent campaign to educate the public with the knowledge that in a democratic society the journalist is, in fact, exercising the highest form of citizenship by monitoring events in the community and making the public aware of them and their import; by skeptically examining the behavior of people and institutions of power; by encouraging and informing forums for public debate," writes Bill Kovach, North American representative and chair of the International Consorium of Investigative Journalists Advisory Committee and chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. "We need to make it clear to the public that the journalist best expresses citizenship by functioning as a committed observer, especially when the community is under stress or undergoing rapid, disorienting change."
SOURCE: Public Eye, August 8, 2002
11. FOCUS GROUPS ARE FOR SELLING PEANUT BUTTER
http://www.odwyerpr.com/0808guestcomm_gaier.htm
"U.S. Public Diplomacy chief Charlotte Beers' approach to generating goodwill and understanding for America and Americans in the Muslim and Arab world is remarkably -- even astonishingly--naive and ignorant," writes David Gaier in a guest commentary for O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Gaier is a former U.S. Marine, ex-Special Agent with the U.S.Department of State, and PR veteran, who has spent much time in the Middle East. "Reaching out to Arab Muslims in such times is fraught with difficulty stemming from centuries of history, borders drawn arbitrarily by colonial powers, lack of democratic institutions in the Western sense, and traditions that are tribal in nature and virtually impossible for people from New York or Des Moines to comprehend. ... [T]he best course of action is for our government to articulate clear principles and goals, in support of which we will act using our economic, diplomatic and military capabilities. Keep the focus groups and silly outreach for selling peanut butter," Gaier writes.
SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily, August 8, 2002
12. CONGRESS HITS WHITE HOUSE SECRECY
http://www.thehill.com/080702/secrecy.shtm
"The Bush administration's refusal to cooperate with even the most routine and basic congressional requests for information is infuriating members of Congress and violating congressional rights and responsibilities," reports Alexander Bolton in The Hill, a newspaper for Washington insiders. Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress are complaining about the secrecy, which extends beyond issues like national defense and foreign policy and includes areas such as environmental, educational and science issues. "A number of lawmakers are threatening to subpoena the administration -- an extreme step reserved by lawmakers as a last resort to elicit cooperation on mundane inquiries," Bolton writes.
SOURCE: The Hill, August 7, 2002
13. COME SEE THE NUCLEAR WASTE BIKE TRAIL
The recently cleaned-up Weldon Spring site in St. Charles County, Missouri is now open to tourists. As part of its reclamation project for the hazardous waste site, the Department of Energy has opened an interpretive center at the base of "a seven-story high tomb of radioactive waste." The St. Louis Post Dispatch writes, "The mountainous site covers 45 acres and stores 1.5 million cubic yards of material. And it's there for you to explore." A new 6-mile-long hiking and biking trail is scheduled to open in the fall. The Weldon Springs site manufactured explosives during World War II. In the 50s, the site processed uranium for nuclear weapons. During the 60s, uranium and other radioactive materials were disposed on the site. In 1967, the US Army used the site to produce "dangerous herbicides." Some local residents blame the waste site for a "recent cluster of infant deaths and illnesses," the Post Dispatch reports. "I think it's fluff to make people feel safer than they are," the mother of one of the children who died said of the Department of Energy's public access plans.
SOURCE: St. Louis Post Dispatch, August 6, 2002
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/August_2002.html#1028606400
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1028606400
14. INKING OUT THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23968-2002Jul30.html
The Government Printing Office, which is responsible for printing the multitude of documents produced by the federal government, may be abolished according to an order by the White House Office of Management and the Budget. The OMB describes the order as a cost-saving measure, but critics say it may cost more money than the present system. Worse, it threatens public access to information. "Patrice McDermott, an associate director of the Washington office of government relations for the American Library Association, said that if the GPO were not in charge, fewer government documents would be publicly available," reports the Washington Post. According to OMB Watch, a nonprofit watchdog organization, "It is possible that the decentralization of printing and management of federal documents will make it even more difficult to trace government documents."
SOURCE: Washington Post, July 31, 2002
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/July_2002.html#1028088000
To discuss this story in the PR Watch Forum, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/forum/discuss.php?id=1028088000
8/14/02
1:24:56 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
FEATURE - Bush set to skip Earth Summit - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17285/story.htm
Toyota's Prius first to get $2,000 tax deduction OK - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17299/story.htm
Farmers to expand soy use with edible crayons - TURKEY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17295/story.htm
FEATURE - Sri Lankans hunt mines in sandals and shorts - SRI LANKA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17292/story.htm
Three people die in Romanian storm - ROMANIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17289/story.htm
CORRECTED - (OFFICIAL)-Rainforest loss slower than thought-study - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17294/story.htm
China needs to launch 30 satellites by '05 - Xinhua - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17284/story.htm
China landslide kills seven, many missing - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17288/story.htm
Australia sets sights on first Solar Tower - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17283/story.htm
Grape expectations could turn to dust in Australia - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17290/story.htm
Australia charges Japanese chemical ship over spill - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17291/story.htm
Pacific island summit to focus on climate, economy - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17296/story.htm
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS PICTURES:
INDIA: Smoke Pours From a Smokestack of a Power Plant Against the Backdrop of Monsoon Rain Clouds in Calcutta http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17298
PHILIPPINES: A Filipino Man Wades Through Floodwaters in Manila http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17286
AUSTRIA: Crane Lifts a Sunken Ferry During Floods in the City of Salzburg http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17287
CZECH REPUBLIC: Prague Zoo Workers Evacuate a Panther to a Safe Place http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17297
8/14/02
12:50:37 PM
Economic show and tell at Waco
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31900
Mishandling "The People's Money"
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31893
Remembering Waco.....
[APFN - FROM THE FILES]
DATED 09/19/93 COPY OF DOCUMENT WITH UNKNOWN SOURCE POSTMARKED AUSTIN TEXAS, JULY 9, 1993 REGION FIVE REPORT. VOL #5 ISSUE #5 PAGE 8 INTEL PAGE ABOUT APRIL 19TH...
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31900
UQ Wire 911 - They Let It Happen On Purpose!
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0208/S00068.htm
8/13/02 Are you sick of the lies and not knowing for sure in your heart of hearts what happened to these men? Today I interview Robert Gaylon Ross, Sr The Elite Serial Killers of Lincoln, JFK, RFK & MLK "THE MERIA HELLER SHOW" - meriaheller@aol.com
http://audio.netradiolive.com:8080/ramgen/meria/081302.rm
The Elite Serial Killers of Lincoln, JFK, RFK & MLK This is not a conspiracy theory site. This site contains only conspiracy facts.
TERROR IN AMERICA Sept. 11, 2001
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC.htm
1993 - Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, U.S. Military Generals, Knights Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath by H.M. Queen Elizabeth.
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31754
NETWORK / NETWORK / NETWORK / NETWORK / NETWORK / NETWORK / NETWORK
8/14/02
12:48:31 PM
Public Citizen
Aug. 13, 2002
$78 Million in Soft Money Flows to Top 527 Political Groups As They Gear Up For Congressional Elections
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Shadowy "527" political organizations gearing up to influence the November elections collected nearly $78 million in soft money contributions during the 2002 election cycle, according to a new report by Public Citizen.
Public Citizen compiled the study using second-quarter reports filed with the IRS on July 15. While only a handful of reports are available on the online IRS disclosure site, Public Citizen collected scores of reports directly from 527 groups. The reports reveal that the 25 largest groups active in federal elections made $13.5 million in contributions and spent $10 million from April 1 to June 30, 2002. Final figures for the election cycle and reporting period are likely to be higher, as totals are based on second-quarter reports obtained from only 60 of the most active 145 groups.
The Public Citizen report, Second Quarter Stockpile: 527 Groups Continue Soft Money Grab, is the fourth in a series of studies. The reports examine two types of 527 groups: those controlled by members of Congress - "politician 527s" - and organizations created to promote specific ideological causes, or "non-politician 527s." Named after the section of Internal Revenue Code that regulates them, 527 groups can accept unlimited soft money contributions from corporations, unions and individuals.
The second-quarter disclosure reports show a soft money race between several possible presidential contenders. The top non-politician 527s also displayed their fundraising prowess and used the money to finance voter mobilization efforts and begin running issue ads.
"The 527 groups continued their soft money grab and were busy during the second quarter collecting millions of dollars," said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch. "These special interest groups are gearing up for the November elections and are lining their coffers with soft money that will be used for issue ads and other activities aimed at influencing elections."
Findings from the report include:
§ One hundred forty-five groups have raised $77.9 million and spent $77.5 million since January 2001, according to available reports. There is no way to compare these figures to the last election cycle because 527 groups were not required to disclose their contributions and expenditures prior to July 2000.
§ Twenty-five of the top 527 groups during the 2002 election cycle have raised $57.1 million and spent $54.6 million. (Second-quarter reports are unavailable for six of these groups.) The list of the top 527 groups during the 2002 election includes 13 Democratic/liberal leaning and 12 Republican/ conservative leaning organizations.
§ Since disclosure of 527 groups' finances was first required two years ago, groups active in federal elections and identified by Public Citizen have taken in $156.7 million and spent $181.1 million.
§ Presidential aspirants' 527 groups were particularly active during the second quarter. Sen. John Edwards' (D-N.C.) New American Optimists took in $1.9 million from April to June, making it the most successful politician 527 group of the quarter. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's DASHPAC took in $1.1 million - 10 times the amount the 527 group collected in the first three months of the year and nearly the total raised in the first 21 months that disclosure was required.
§ Highly partisan "non-politician 527s" were active during the second quarter and collected $8.6 million. The largest, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a labor organization representing 1.3 million public service and health care workers, raised $3.4 million. Other top non-politician 527 groups include the League of Conservation Voters ($1.3 million in receipts), Impac 2000 ($955,822) and EMILY's List ($525,355).
§ The new disclosure reports show how 527 groups are working to influence the upcoming election. The Club for Growth, which files monthly disclosure reports, spent nearly $200,000 on issue ads in April and May 2002. (The Club's June report is not yet available.) These ads target congressional candidates and ran in Iowa, Indiana, Texas, California and New Jersey. And Pro-Choice Vote is taking to the streets in Arkansas, Georgia and Missouri. The group spent $89,324 to pay for field directors and field organizers in those states.
Problems with the IRS disclosure system persisted during the second quarter:
§ The IRS disclosure Web site indicates that second-quarter disclosure reports are available for several groups active in federal elections, but electronic links to the reports do not work. From August 5-12, links to the second-quarter reports took users only to an error page for groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Rep. Martin Frost's (D-Texas) Lone Star Fund, Rep. Charles Rangel's (D-N.Y.) National Leadership PAC and the National Tax Limitation Committee.
§ No information - not a statement of organization or periodic disclosure reports - is available on the IRS disclosure Web site for some groups that appear to be active in federal elections, such as The National Council for a Republican Congress and Citizens for Better Communities.
"Groups continue to skirt the law and it appears that the IRS is not minding the store," Clemente said. "The value of disclosure by 527 groups is greatly diminished when these organizations are not held accountable by the government and not open for scrutiny by the public."
A copy of the report is available at
http://www.citizen.org/congress/articles.cfm?ID=8167.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.Citizen.org
8/14/02
12:35:45 PM
By STEVE LeBLANC, The Associated Press
BOSTON (Aug. 12) - Regional air traffic controllers on Monday offered a detailed chronology of Sept. 11, when two planes were hijacked from Boston, but refused to say more about what actually happened on the planes.
American Flight 11 took off without incident at 8 a.m., and after it reached 11,000 feet was monitored by the Federal Aviation Administration's Boston Center, in Nashua, N.H., one of 20 FAA facilities nationally that monitor long-distance flights. United Flight 175 left 14 minutes later.
At first, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary, as the American pilot acknowledged he had clearance to take the plane to 29,000 feet.
But then, when given permission to climb to 35,000 feet, communications fell silent, and the ''blip'' on the radar screen that was Flight 11 went blank, because someone on the plane turned off the transponder that sends out signals to controllers.
''We considered it at that time to be a possible hijacking,'' air traffic manager Glenn Michael recalled.
FAA controllers held news conferences in Boston, New York and Washington on Monday, giving chronological accounts of the terrorist attacks and how they forced an unprecedented shutdown of the U.S. skies.
Representatives from Boston and the Boston Center in Nashua spoke at Logan Airport. They refused to answer questions about what happened on board - such as how the terrorists got control - citing the ongoing investigation.
They said there was nothing unusual about United Flight 175 while it was in this region's air space.
In fact, controllers in Nashua asked the pilot on Flight 175 if he could see Flight 11. He confirmed Flight 11 was still in the air, at about 29,000 feet.
Soon after, both flights were out of air space controlled by Nashua - and were crashed into the World Trade Center twin towers.
After the first crash, flights from the Boston area to New York were grounded. After the second, all air traffic from Boston was halted.
''Once it became obvious what was actually transpiring, air traffic controllers reacted much like Americans reacted across the entire nation, with shock, with disbelief, with just stunned surprise that such acts could occur,'' said Joseph Davies, air traffic manager at Logan.
8/14/02
12:28:02 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
TEMPURA'S RISING
Global warming has come to Tokyo with a vengeance: While the average global temperature has increased by 1 degree Fahrenheit in the last century, the average temperature in the Japanese capital has risen by more than five times that. Like most large cities, Tokyo is an island of heat. Concrete, cars, and rooftops absorb sunlight all day and discharge it at night, preventing the city from cooling; vertical buildings block breezes; and omnipresent air conditioners cool interior environments but further warm the outside air. The heat has brought with it increased smog and new, subtropical species, including dengue-fever-bearing mosquitoes. But the city has generated at least one plan for cooling off: Last year, it passed a law mandating that all new medium-sized buildings dedicate at least 20 percent of roof space to a garden. The city has also established a variety of tax incentives to encourage rooftop gardens, which lower temperatures and increase greenery to absorb carbon dioxide and cleanse the air.
straight to the source: New York Times, James Brooke, 13 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=359>
READ LETTER DAY
Tokyo's not the only place heating up; just as heated were responses from Grist readers to "Power Shift," our special issue on local initiatives to combat climate change in the absence of federal leadership. Ross Gelbspan's piece on the failure of big-name national environmental groups to take the lead on climate change drew impassioned praise from local activists -- and affronted criticism from some of the big-name groups in question. Read their comments, and Gelbspan's response, plus thoughts on corporate climate (ir)responsibility, college activism, and the general attitude of the American public toward environmental issues, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Not-so-jolly green giants -- Grist readers write letters to the editor <http://www.gristmagazine.com/letters/letters081302.asp?source=daily>
read the edition: Power Shift -- looking for leadership on climate change -- a special issue of Grist Magazine <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/powershift073102.asp?source=daily>
CANYON OF WORMS
The Bush administration announced yesterday that energy companies will be allowed to expand oil and gas exploration beyond the boundaries of their leases at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument near Durango, Colo. The announcement marks the first time exploration has been permitted outside leased areas at a monument. Already, about 85 percent of the 164,000-acre Canyons of the Ancients is leased for energy exploration; now, the Bureau of Land Management has approved a seismic exploration project that will begin Friday on nearly 1,900 acres of unleased monument land. Environmentalists say further exploration would damage sensitive biological and archeological areas and set a dangerous precedent of increased energy development on prized national lands. Heidi McIntosh, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the decision amounted to "giving public lands away to the energy companies." Environmental groups plan to appeal the BLM decision.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Julie Cart and Elizabeth Shogren, 13 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=360>
MORE THAN MEATS THE EYE
In the last two decades, there's been a national growth spurt in super-sized animal feedlots and slaughterhouses. That spurt has outpaced the ability of regulators to keep such places operating safely and cleanly -- and that has led to polluted water bodies, food safety scares, and on-the-job injuries, according to a report released yesterday by the Sierra Club. The report found that during the 1980s and '90s, corporate slaughterhouses produced 134 million pounds of tainted or possibly tainted meat; that millions of gallons of animal feces and urine seeped from waste pits into some 35,000 miles of rivers; that more than $48 million in fines were paid for health and environmental violations; and that worker-safety violations led to 13 deaths and more than $35 million in fines. The meat industry said the report rehashed old problems already addressed by local and federal regulators and failed to reflect improvements in recent years. But the Sierra Club called current environmental and safety standards inadequate, because they were devised to cover small family farms, not huge modern feedlots. The U.S. EPA is under court order to draft new feedlot regulations, which should be completed by the end of the year.
straight to the source: New York Times, Elizabeth Becker, 13 Aug 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/13/science/13FARM.html>
do good: Take action to stop dirty hog farming <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/food.asp?source=daily#hogs2>
CANADA DRIER
Global warming could spell big trouble for Canada's freshwater supply, according to a report from the government agency Natural Resources Canada. The predicted global surface-air temperature increase of between 2.5 and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century would sap some of the country's hydroelectric power potential, lower lake levels, and pave the way for severe drought on the Canadian prairies, the report warns. Parts of the prairies are already suffering their second and third consecutive summer droughts. Other problems could include stranded docks and harbors as water levels drop; decreased potable water supplies; reduced fish habitat and possible species loss; financial troubles for agriculture; and the complete disappearance of some Arctic and sub-Arctic lakes. The report comes out as the Canadian government continues to waver on whether to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
straight to the source: Toronto Globe and Mail, Steven Chase, 13 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=362>
Also in GRIST MAGAZINE today:
My fellow Americans -- a week in the life of Paul Sabin, Environmental Leadership Program <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/sabin081202.asp?source=daily>
Froggy went a-courtin' -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha081202.asp?source=daily>
Vegetarianism goes mainstream, kind of -- and other gems from assorted magazines in our Best of the Rest section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/best/best080902.asp?source=daily#veggie>
8/14/02
12:23:28 PM
EMS Update - August 13, 2002
World Summit Preview
Doubts persist about whether President Bush will join the more than 100 heads of state headed to South Africa for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, but dozens of grassroots organizations from across the United States will make the trip in the hope of raising global awareness of their issues, from environmental racism to the need for greater local control.
At an EMS Press Teleconference this Thursday, August 15, representatives from national environmental groups and local grassroots organizations headed for South Africa will discuss issues like environmental racism and the need for greater local control.
Media advisory: http://www.ems.org/world_summit/index.html
EPA E-Waste Proposal Assailed
Environmental groups on Tuesday expressed alarm over a U.S. EPA proposal that they say would perpetuate environmental injustice by making it easier for the United States to export toxic consumer electronics waste to foreign countries.
Basel Action Network press release:
http://www.ban.org/ban_news/toxic_trade_CRTs.html
Factory Farm "Rapsheets" Released
Just weeks after the second-largest beef recall in history, the Sierra Club released a report on Tuesday exposing hundreds of criminal and civil violations committed by America's largest animal factories along with "rapsheets" profiling 240 animal factories that have violated health and environmental protections.
Sierra Club press release:
EMS Updates provide news tips and resources for journalists from Environmental Media Services.
8/14/02
12:18:20 PM
BioDemocracy News #39
Exposing Biotech's Big Lies
By: Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
http://www.organicconsumers.org
8/13/02
1:49:56 PM
Investing in Environment Pays Off at 100-1
BURLINGTON, Vt., (AScribe Newswire) -- Shell shocked investors bouncing between stocks, bonds, and real estate are putting their money in all the wrong places, according to a paper published in Science magazine this week. The best deal going, by a wide margin, is the environment.
An annual investment of $45 billion in preserving large tracts of wild nature, say the paper's authors, would yield an annual return to society of between $44 and $52 trillion in "ecosystem services" like water filtration and climate regulation, a 100-1 ROI.
Greenbacks aren't rushing into green causes because the market-based economy doesn't tell the whole financial truth, according to Robert Costanza, director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont and one of the paper's co-authors.
"Converting ecosystems typically benefits only a few private individuals," he says. "Leaving wild nature wild produces benefits in the form of ecosystem services, but these services are public, rather than private goods. They serve society as a whole and aren't captured by the imperfect market."
The Science paper constructs a careful argument to recast the globe's balance sheet so it takes into account environmental research.
Costanza and his co-authors first wanted to determine the full economic impact of developing wild areas, adding environmental factors to the mix. They identified five studies that compared diverse "biomes," or massive ecosystems, before and after development took place - for instance, a tropical forest in Selangor, Malasia that converted to high impact logging and a mangrove system in Thailand that installed an aquaculture and shrimp farming economy.
Taking into account the erosion of non-marketed services like soil formation, flood protection, and carbon dioxide conversion and the compromise of low impact activities like tourism and the sustainable harvesting of plants and animals, the biomes lost about half their value after development took place, according to the combined results of the studies.
That net loss translates to about $250 billion a year, given current rates of global development of wild areas.
The authors performed several statistical analyses to reach the 100-1 ROI figure.
To establish the $45 billion annual cost of building and maintaining an adequate global reserve of wild nature, which they define as 15 percent of the terrestrial biosphere and 30 percent of the marine biosphere, the authors extrapolate from current studies, including their own earlier research. To preserve land areas, $20-28 billion per year is needed, say the authors, while $23 billion per year is needed for the seas.
To reach the $44 to $52 trillion annual return figure, the authors modified earlier estimates of the gross value of 17 ecosystems across 16 biomes. For the current study, they used the net benefit of conversion - the value of the intact system minus the value of the converted system.
While the reasoning sounds abstract, the financial analysis is all too real, Costanza says.
"In many cases, we're talking about replacing services that ecosystems provide, flood protection, for instance, or repairing damage once ecosystems have been compromised. It takes real money to do that." There are also lost opportunity costs, such as the loss of potential pharmaceutical products if rainforests are razed, and quality of life issues, which can also be assigned a monetary value.
According to Costanza, the current system of cost accounting is plainly out of whack. Harmful development policies go unchecked largely because of a lack of information: values aren't assigned to natural goods and services so markets are by definition imperfect. In addition, private developers don't realize social benefits -or pay social costs.
"A compensatory system is clearly needed," says Costanza. "Corporations need to know the true cost of doing business. If we assign a system of compensatory levies, for instance, individuals will make different, more environmentally and socially beneficial decisions."
Further muddying the water is a welter of perverse subsidies, widely in use around the globe, that promote ecologically damaging behaviors that don't make sense economically. For example, many governments subsidize logging by building logging roads and selling logging rights to public lands at well below market value.
"By reallocating the funds that are supporting perverse subsidies," says Costanza, "we can easily pay the annual costs of preserving the global reserve network."
The Gund Institute for Ecological Economics is a transdisciplinary research and teaching institute at the University of Vermont. The institute integrates natural and social science tools to address environmental research, policy, and management issues at multiples scales, from small watersheds to global systems.
http://www.planetsave.com/ViewStory.asp?ID=2900
8/13/02
11:21:28 AM
Genetically Modified Outcome Drifting Pollen May Settle Debate Over Transgenic Food
by Karen Charman
Just as Americans are becoming aware that much of the food on supermarket shelves is spliced with genes from foreign species, debate about whether our food should be manipulated in this manner is on its way to becoming a moot point.
The reason, as crudely put to me by a U.S. Department of Agriculture staffer more than five years ago, is this: "plants have sex."
Corn wantonly tosses its gene-laden pollen to the wind in search of nearby mates. Soybeans and canola are somewhat more sexually bashful -- they depend on insects to spread their pollen. All this is nature's way of distributing genes and ensuring reproduction. We humans are powerless to limit such a primal and eternal process.
Humankind has, however, learned to change the genetic makeup of crops in ways that nature never would. Genetically modified ("GM" or "transgenic") strains of just four crops already account for nearly a third of the farm acreage under cultivation in this country. A multitude of other transgenic varieties not yet commercialized are also being grown in field trials in the open environment.
The problem is that the natural process of plant sex is taking over, spreading manipulated genes everywhere, beyond test plots, beyond the fields of farmers who have chosen to plant them. If we decide for whatever reason that GM crops are undesirable or discover that certain, or perhaps all, transgenic foods are dangerous, we will be stuck with them.
Consumers have a choice, right? If they don't like GM foods, they can buy food that meets strict organic food standards, which do not permit genetic engineering.
But Janet Jacobson, a North Dakota organic farmer and president of the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society, says that after just six years of commercial production of gene-spliced crops, organic food's non-GM safe haven is rapidly disappearing.
"Organic producers can no longer produce organic corn. I don't know any organic farmers that can grow canola, because there's so much GM canola around," she laments. "There are also organic farmers who have had soybeans rejected because they were contaminated with GMOs."
Besides drifting pollen, some of the genetic contamination has resulted from GM seeds getting mixed into the conventional seed stocks that farmers use to plant their next year's crops.
Many biotech food opponents have suspected for some time that genetic pollution is a deliberate strategy of the biotech industry and its minions in state and federal government.
In January 2001, Don Westfall, a food industry consultant formerly with Promar International, an American company that advises large food corporations on industry trends and marketing strategies, told the Toronto Star exactly that: "The hope of the industry is that over time the market is so flooded that there's nothing you can do about it. You just sort of surrender."
Westfall's remarks were made in the context of an interview about genetic contamination of the food supply in light of the StarLink debacle. In the fall of 2000, StarLink, a transgenic variety of corn that was not approved for human consumption, was discovered in Taco Bell taco shells and eventually hundreds of other foods that contain corn. More than 300 products were recalled from supermarket shelves, export markets were lost, and hundreds of farmers got stuck with their contaminated crop, leading to a quagmire of litigation that will take years to settle and may well cost a billion dollars before it's over.
In April 2002, Dale Adolphe, former head of the Canola Council of Canada and current executive director of the Canadian Seed Growers Association, told Canadian canola growers at their annual meeting that despite growing public opposition and new regulations intended to control GM crops, their increasing acreage may eventually end the debate.
The Western Producer, a Canadian agricultural paper, quoted Adolphe: "It's a hell of a thing to say that the way we win is don't give the consumer a choice, but that might be it."
If these views don't represent industry strategy, they might as well, considering that new biotech varieties continue their silent march out into the open environment with, in most cases, virtually no prior environmental assessment or monitoring once they are released.
Why should we care?
Biotech promoters like to say that opponents and critics rely on raw, scientifically unsubstantiated emotion to whip the public into a frenzy of fear. (Actually, some of the most emotional outbursts I've personally witnessed came from biotech supporters, whether it be Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack railing against the use of the precautionary principle, or the Hudson Institute's Dennis Avery thundering to a largely pro-biotech crowd that GM food is on its way out because the activists -- "organic frenzies" -- have won.)
However, a growing chorus of scientists is starting to question the wisdom and safety of this technology.
Biotech supporters claim that GM food is no different than food derived from conventional breeding techniques and that the technology of genetic engineering simply enables scientists to improve crops more quickly and with greater precision. Credible scientists question both claims.
Biotechnologists have no control over where the genes they are inserting end up in the modified species' genome, leading one geneticist to dub the technology "genetic randomeering." The location is important, because where the gene ends up -- actually it's a package of several genes, because several different genes are needed to make the technology work -- will determine whether toxic byproducts or allergens are created, or whether the nutritional value of the modified food is altered. The placement of foreign genes can also disrupt the normal functioning of the modified organism.
David Schubert, a cell biologist at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, says there is no way to predict these outcomes in advance. He points to one particularly tragic incident to illustrate what can go wrong with genetic engineering. In the late 1980s, Showa Denko, a Japanese chemical company, began producing the amino acid L-tryptophan with genetically engineered bacteria. Unfortunately the modified bacteria also produced a novel amino acid that turned out to be highly toxic, killing 37 people, permanently disabling 1,500 and making more than 5,000 sick.
Now GM plants that produce pharmaceutical and industrial compounds are spicing up the mix. According to the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the government agency with chief responsibility for regulating field trials of bioengineered crops, 30 sites totaling some 100 acres are now testing such crops in the open environment. But it is impossible to find out where or what is being tested, because the identity of the compounds is considered "confidential business information."
Todd Leake, a conventional wheat farmer from the Red River Valley in North Dakota who opposes GM crops, says corn and soybeans that produce veterinary vaccines or contain antibiotics have already been field tested. If they proceed to commercial production, he believes contamination will be impossible to prevent.
"So your kids will be eating, say, gastroenteritis vaccine with their cornflakes and cattle antibiotics in their bread," he said. Leake might have added that also applies to the rest of us.
Transgenic agriculture turns food into intellectual property, giving profit-driven business corporations the ability to manipulate the entire genetic heritage of civilization's cultivated crops to their advantage. Do we really want to give any corporation such power over us?
That's a question members of a democracy might like to debate while there is still a chance to influence the outcome of such an unprecedented experiment. But as long as the secret research trials continue and biotech acreage expands, our ability to make a choice -- whether it is based on informed debate or not -- diminishes by the day.
Karen Charman is an investigative journalist specializing in agriculture, health and the environment.
Source: http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6157
8/13/02
11:18:34 AM
SciTech Daily Review
Japanese citizens are opting out in droves from their new national computerized ID system
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2002/08/11/idsystem/index.html
Researchers are planning to mix mountains of sawdust with lakes of gooey coal sludge to create fuel for generating electricity
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08092002/ap_48102.asp
Restoring a blind man's vision is now a real possibility through stem-cell surgery. But even perfect eyes cannot see unless the brain has been taught to use them
http://www.discover.com/june_02/featsight.html
Maths genius Niels Henrik Abel died young and unappreciated. But the bicentenary of his birth has been marked fittingly, by the re-discovery of a seminal mathematical manuscript
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020805/020805-1.html
Geek activists who want to be heard should spend their time coding, not lobbying
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-949275.html?tag=politech
The debate over transgenic food may be on its way to becoming a moot point thanks to drifting pollen
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6157
8/13/02
11:02:49 AM
IRS reveals smoking gun - BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31879
NY TIMES: Saying Income Tax Is Illegal.... >From that perspective, the article is inflamatory rather than objective, and because it gives scant treatment to core issues, leaves readers under the long shadow cast by one of America's most feared Federal agencies. Other than IRS rhetoric bemoaning limited personnel and funding, the article makes no effort to delve into why IRS isn't pursuing aggressive prosecution to nip the exodus in the bud..... http://www.apfn.org/apfn/tax.htm
IRS: Certificate of Non-Existence Here is confirmed Proof researched for you.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/irs.pdf (33 pages .pdf file)
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/irstax.htm
Let's Dismantle IRS: This Racket is Busted - Paul Andrew Mitchell
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=31603
Following is a full list of how the 100 U.S. Senators voted on the two articles of impeachment against President Clinton! There are 45 Democrats (D) and 55 Republicans (R): PERJURY: OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cfr.htm
"In the economic-technological field, some international cooperation has already been achieved, but further progress will require greater American sacrifices. More intensive efforts to shape a new world monetary structure will have to be undertaken, with some consequent risk to the present relatively favorable American position." -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, CFR member and founding member of the Trilateral Commission, and National Security Advisor to five presidents
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cfr-members.htm
Council on Foreign Relations Membership List
http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/roundtable/CFRA-Elist.html
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society, but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion..."
Thomas Jefferson, 1821
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/money.htm
8/13/02
11:00:08 AM
Planet Ark World Environment News
ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe's Mugabe says govt will feed needy opponents http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17278/story.htm
USA: Security fears, cost at issue in storing nuclear waste http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17270/story.htm
USA: Toyota sets up recycling network in Europe - report http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17279/story.htm
UK: Asian smog cloud threatens millions, says UN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17269/story.htm
UK: Minister attacks UK government's green failures http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17271/story.htm
TURKEY: Developers of genetically modified crops forge on http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17275/story.htm
SOUTH AFRICA: Drug smugglers jump into endangered species trade http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17277/story.htm
Grupo Mexico says most of it safe from US court - MEXICO http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17276/story.htm
Asian smog impact needs 5 yrs study - UN body chief - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17274/story.htm
Czechs restart second reactor at Temelin plant - CZECH REPUBLIC http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17267/story.htm
China brings wildfires under control - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17268/story.htm
Study finds rainforest loss slower than thought - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17273/story.htm
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS PICTURES:
USA: Denver Became First Major Metropoitan Area to Fully Comply with Federal Air Quality Standards http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17282
JAPAN: Smoke Billows From Volcano on Japan's Torishima Island in Pacific Ocean http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17272
USA: Actress Bonnie Jill Laflin Poses for Peta Advertising Campaign http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17280
INDIA: Indian Commuters Make their Way Home in New Delhi http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17281
8/13/02
10:58:42 AM
AlterNet Headlines
Support Bhopal Hunger Strikers
Visit AlterNet's new Dow Action Diary to read daily updates from Seadrift, Texas, where activist Diane Wilson is staging a hunger strike in front of the gates of Dow Chemical/Union Carbide. Diane and others are planning a demonstration on Aug. 15 to force Dow to clean up its mess in Bhopal, India. To learn more, visit the Action Diary at AlterNet.org and read about Diane, Dow and Bhopal in The Dow of Corporate Irresponsibility,
by Jodie Evans: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13822
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND STEVE EARLE: TWO TROUBADOURS IN TURBULENT TIMES
Don Hazen, AlterNet
Springsteen's new album gets a hero's welcome, while Earle's latest is met with calls for a boycott. But we need both artists to help sort out the country's post-9/11 trauma.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13823
BUSH WANTS BIG BAD SADDAM
David Corn, AlterNet
Bush's approach to Iraq has been, threaten to shoot first, ask questions later.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13804
HUNT AND PECK
Wanda Coleman, LA Weekly
Coleman's critical rip of Maya Angelou's latest work caused an immediate furor in the black community. It's book reviewing, African-American style.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13806
AMERICA'S MOST FRIGHTENING
Geov Parrish, WorkingForChange.com
Ashcroft's vision for homeland security has tens of millions of patriotic Americans participating in a for-profit effort to root out the terrorists -- America's Most Wanted.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13824
THE ORIGINAL MEAN CEO?
J.A. Savage, AlterNet
Long before Kenneth Lay and Bernie Ebbers, Charles Hurwitz and his company Maxxam were raising the hackles of environmentalists and workers in the redwood forests of California.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13796
FAILING THE TEST OF FAIRNESS: INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND THE SAT
Tim Wise, AlterNet
Can giving a standardized test to profoundly unstandardized students from unstandardized schools ever be fair? And how can those test results be used to determine college placement?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13826
THE BOT WHO LOVED ME
Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon
Are those secret-admirer e-mails real -- or just the latest excrescence of an Internet marketing machine grown unfathomably sleazy?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13807
WHEN HIP HOP GOES RETRO
Kevin Weston, Pacific News Service
The thump and crack of 80s hardcore beats are back. That can only mean one thing -- conditions in the 'hood are getting worse.
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
Banks on the Run
Once again, the banks are defending their ability to trade your private financial information. Find out why this time, they might lose. On Tuesday's Working Assets Radio with Laura Flanders. Listen online from 10-11amPT/1-2pmET, or call in: 866-798-TALK.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com
8/12/02
7:09:51 PM
Nanoparticles Used In Solar Energy Conversion
MANHATTAN, KAN. -- An enormous source of clean energy is available to us. We see it almost every day. It's just a matter of harnessing it.
The problem with solar energy is that it has not been inexpensive enough in the past. David Kelley, professor of chemistry at Kansas State University, developed a new type of nanoparticle -- a tiny chemical compound far too small to be seen with the naked eye -- that may reap big dividends in solar power.
Kelley's team is studying the properties and technical problems of gallium selenide nanoparticles. The properties of the nanoparticle change as the size changes. One of those properties is the part of the light spectrum it absorbs.
"You can make dramatically different colors just by changing the size of the nanoparticles," Kelley said.
Kelley is developing nanoparticles that are just the right size for solar cells --they can absorb all visible light but nothing from the invisible light at the red end of the spectrum, which would reduce voltage.
"The correct-sized nanoparticles look dark red to black. There is an optimum size and that's what you want to shoot for," Kelley said.
Today's solar panels are made with silicon. The silicon usually has impurities, which limits its efficiency. Purifying a chemical is too expensive. For that reason, smaller is better. One can fit as many nanoparticles into a golf ball as one can fit beach balls into the earth.
Only a tiny percentage of a piece of material has impurities. If the entire chunk of material makes one crystal in a solar panel, the crystal will not work. But if that chunk is broken up into 100 tiny nanoparticles, then only the few unlucky nanoparticles with the impurities will not function. All the other nanoparticles will be pure and therefore will work.
Kelley said he is a long way from developing compounds that are comparable to today's silicon solar cells, because the physics of nanoparticles is so poorly understood. By using gallium selenide, Kelley is laying the groundwork for a similar, but more complex and potentially more effective nanoparticle called indium selenide. It is difficult to make silicon nanoparticles, but indium selenide has great potential for nanoparticle solar cells, Kelley said.
"The idea is to make large, high-output solar voltaic panels that are dirt cheap to produce. It's only then that the price starts to become competitive with burning fossil fuels," Kelley said.
He nearly had to start from scratch. His team invented gallium selenide nanoparticles. Kelley said he knew six years ago that many semiconductor materials had potential use in solar power, but were not being studied because there were no methods to make them into nanoparticles.
"All these really interesting materials were being ignored and I thought it just can't be allowed to stay that way," Kelley said.
The study on the methods to produce the nanoparticles was published in the journal "Nano Letters" this year. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Photochemistry Program in Basic Energy Sciences.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020809071535.htm
Source: Kansas State University http://www.ksu.edu
8/12/02
6:58:54 PM
Say It Ain't So Senator Daschle Or Shame On Environmentalists?
by John Borowski
Quislings, losers, quitters, and cowards: all these words have a despicable ring to them. And those who desecrate the natural world are now using those terms to label environmentalists. Americans have always relished those who stand behind their principles and fight to achieve them. Robert F. Kennedy told us, " Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
Despite having the best interest of children at hand, equipped with irrefutable science and the moral high ground, the big green team knowingly plays a game of pragmatic defeatism. Why are they afraid to ask for what they want, battle to the bitter end, and let the collective chips fall where they may? The collective silence from National Audubon, Sierra Club and other mighty greens on Senator Tom Daschle's frontal assault on the nation's forests will only embolden the despoilers of nature to take on these lightweights. And our grandchildren will not look fondly on us.
Daschle, the Senate Majority Leader, and proclaimed friend to the Sierra Club and other eco-groups, slipped "a special exemption" into a defense supplemental bill, that would allow cutting of forests to occur in the Black Hills, found in his home state, while disregarding current environmental law. A lapdog to the Democratic Party, the environmental community believes that any Republican who threatens the health of nature is to be scorned. Yet, a Democratic Judas is left with no rebuke or public demands to atone.
South Dakota's Black Hills' forests most imminent danger may not be fire, but the forest mismanagement dictated by those who see forests as nothing more than paper and pulp, using any excuse to achieve their conquest. Daschle's move will only open "Pandora's box" with republican leaders now suggesting that his model be used nationwide as well. Forests will fall, environmentalists will wring their hands, and our protective environmental laws will be left toothless.
Instead of addressing clear cut logging, the replacement of native forests with overcrowded rows of mono-cultured trees, the outright liquidation of the precious and small acreage of virgin forests left in this nation, Senator Daschle joined the Republican mantra: let's act like Medieval barbers and cut the forests back into health. Those who now run the bureaucratic eco group are silent, claiming that they are seeking consensus, the "middle ground" and Senator Daschle is usually a friend. Yet the "middle ground" position has left the national forests strewn with clear cuts, or as my wife Trish calls them, "stump graveyards." And if Daschle is supposedly a friend, I fear him more than the enemies of environmental laws.
Giving away the moral ground on forest issues is not a new phenomenon for environmentalists. Back in 1989, then Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon orchestrated the Section 318 rider or sufficiency language, where national environmental laws were neutered to help timber barons.
The Sierra Club and Audubon Society actually supported the decision in the name of political correctness, and the results were devastating. Over 8 billion board feet of timber were cut, the habitat of endangered species was sacrificed, and native forests, known for their ability to withstand wildfires because of their thick bark shields, were sheered into oblivion and replaced with sterile rows of trees. Keep in mind that less than 4% of our nations' forests are virgin and native. Add the policy of putting out all forest fires and the time was ripe for nature to try to recover balance in the woods.
The time is well past for timber companies to provide the nation's wood and paper supply from their privately managed tree farms, and let the national forests stand as untouched ecosystems fulfilling the nation's need for clean water, wildlife corridors and bastions of biological evolution.
Could you imagine "sufficiency language" enacted for one year to circumvent the First Amendment? Maybe that will come next under Mr. Bush's new world disorder, but whoever thought his co-conspirers tarnishing the environment would be liberal democrats?
Even with victories at hand, the inept green team fears asking for what is right. Early in the 1990's Judge William Dwyer (a Ronald Reagan appointee on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) found the Forest Service had violated national environmental laws and was ignoring the fate of hundreds of sensitive species. Millions of acres of public forests were put off limits by a scathing injunction: mind you, this occurred during a republican president's tenure: President George Bush (senior). When pseudo-friend of the environment took office, President Bill Clinton, he begged his green colleagues to back off some of the blocked timber sales. He was a new centrist democrat, and didn't want to rock the corporate boat. Clinton even threatened to use sufficiency language to overturn environmental laws, claiming the environmental community had to "give back a little" so that his administration could forge a "forest plan". And forge they did, a deal with the devil, and nature paid the price. Ancient forests began to fall, as much as 40% of the existing old growth forests in the nation were on the chopping block, and many in the environmental community claimed victory! Despite a call from many "grassroots greens" to fight and not give in, the Washington greens now claimed they were "FOBs" or "friends of Bill". Once again the once powerful protectors of the earth would grovel, and tough grassroots leaders were marginalized as radical. Clinton's dedication to forests only came to life in his waning days, and even then, environmentalists acted like an abused spouse in a troubled marriage.
When Muhammad Ali stated, "Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision" he obviously wasn't thinking about the green beltway boys. Sierra Club visionaries like John Muir and David Brower must be in heaven looking down sadly at the dismantling of nature with the aiding and abetting by its' own proclaimed stewards.
The current fires in our national forests have been the result of politics over science; common sense cashed in for profits and a total disregard for the "way" nature constructs a forest ecosystem. 400,000 miles of roads have invaded our national forests, fragmenting a once proud cloak of green into tatters of its' once proud self. Like so many acres of corn, native forests have been converted in fiber farms, where habitat, water storage and natural diversity have been forgotten.
Earlier this summer, republicans tried to blame environmentalists for appealing timber sales, stating that as many as 40% of these appeals targeted fire reduction plans. The actual number was less than 1%! Lies and prevarications from those who want to cut taxpayer owned ecosystems, yet no apologies, no national discussion on forest use and the public looked to the environmental organizations for leadership. And what they found was nothing more than a scare of the month envelope in the mail, as if the subscription to a glossy magazine will save nature from fools. Audubon will claim that they are centrists, but are there any birds to see in a forest minus the trees? Sierra Club members will say they don't want to alienate their "democratic friends" in the Senate. Yet, is there a single champion of the environment in the Senate, democratic or republican? Fighting republicans like Senators Orrin Hatch or Frank Murkowski is easy, they are cro-magnons on environmental issues. But the likes of Senator Daschle are supposedly friends to nature, not charlatans dropping out of a Trojan horse.
The last time this nation cut trees to help forest health was in 1995. Attached to a bill to appropriate money to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing victims, the "salvage rider" was intended to clear forests of their thick underbrush and density of trees. President Bill Clinton signed this "logging without laws" legislation, and the timber industry had an orgy. The only problem was that big, healthy money making trees were cut! The bill stated that "sick, diseased, dying and dead" trees could be surgically removed, and that "associated" trees were eligible also. In other words, more smoke and mirrors, because eventually all trees become dead or dying.
I have worked on environmental issues for the last 25 years and this approach of "cutting deals" with those who despoil the environment has shaken the public's confidence in environmental groups. How, can an organization know what is right, know the immediacy of addressing environmental problems, yet: is content with receiving half, of a half of a loaf? Compromise is often not possible when the consequences of inaction are so dire, for so many.
Senator Daschle should be ashamed and should face immense public criticism. Tossing environmental laws into the fires of forest mismanagement will solve nothing: in the long run. And politicians should have the foresight to think about the future.
No, Americans revile a team that "fixes" the score of a game, or shaves points. We like a straight match, with no excuses, no rationalization of losing. And if the environmental community wants to lead, they must have the decency and fortitude to go all the way. Win or lose, their opponents will pause and wonder and will take heed the next time a critical issue is on the national stage. Or as the best environmental president, Theodore Roosevelt stated, "the credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly.if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." If being an environmentalist means being a timid soul, afraid of winning and even more fearful of losing, don't call me an environmentalist.
John F. Borowski is a Teacher of environmental and marine science
email: mailto:jenjill@proaxis.com
8/12/02
6:52:09 PM
Public Citizen
August 12, 2002
Public Citizen Urges FEC to Investigate United Seniors Association (USA) Group Charges USA Is Acting as a "Corporate Conduit" to Influence Elections
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen today sent a letter urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate whether new "issue" ads being run by the United Seniors Association (USA) violate federal election law.
Virtually identical radio ads running in Minnesota, Missouri and South Dakota promote new tax cuts. Each ad tells listeners to call the U.S. senator in their state who is up for re-election and urge the lawmaker to prompt Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to pass "immediate and permanent tax cuts." The ads target Sens. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Jean Carnahan - all Democrats who are widely considered to be vulnerable.
In the letter, Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, wrote that "no such issue [tax cuts] is on the Senate's legislative agenda" and that the ads "appear to be thinly veiled attempts to influence the outcome of three high-profile Senate races." A copy of the letter is available at
http://www.citizen.org/congress/reform/articles.cfm?ID=8162.
Creative Media Partners, which produced the ads, also includes the Republican National Committee (RNC) as a client. "If USA is coordinating the ads with the RNC and/or the National Republican Senatorial Committee, then corporate donations to USA would be prohibited in-kind contributions," Clemente wrote. "If USA is using prohibited contributions from corporations, then such electioneering ads violate restrictions on corporate treasury funds being used to influence the outcome of elections."
A recent report by Public Citizen exposed USA as a hired gun for the drug industry. The report documented that USA spent an estimated $9.6 million over 12 months on ads promoting a drug industry-favored prescription drug plan for seniors. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry's trade association, admitted to having given $4.6 million to USA; neither group denied Public Citizen's allegation that virtually all of the ads were funded by PhRMA. The report is at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/UnitedSeniorsAssociation.pdf
"The fact that USA appeared to be a corporate conduit for PhRMA concerns us in that they may be doing the same with these tax ads, which may be funded by PhRMA or by other corporate interests that have an electoral agenda," Clemente wrote. "Because this appears to be a calculated and coordinated attempt to influence the outcome of this November's election on behalf of corporate sponsors, we strongly urge the FEC to quickly open an investigation."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit: http://www.Citizen.org
8/12/02
6:46:45 PM
ScienceDaily.com
GULF BUOY NETWORK TO AID IN RED TIDE EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS
Oceanographer Lisa Campbell thinks waiting until dead fish wash up on the beach is too late to identify the onset of toxic "red tides" in the Gulf of Mexico. What is needed is an early-warning system to detect the presence of the tiny toxic algae before they reach bloom proportions.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020805074922.htm
COGNITIVE HACKING WARNINGS: MORE INTERNET INFORMATION MEANS MORE DISINFORMATION,WARNS DARTMOUTH PROFESSOR
Sometimes what seems to be a respected source of reliable information is actually a clever scheme to manipulate people, suggests Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering Professor George Cybenko. This kind of "cognitive hacking" on the Internet could be contributing to the stock market's uncertainty, and it could shape our views in ways we don't even realize.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020805075441.htm
ATOMIC ANCHORS TO QUICKEN COMPUTER BOOT-UP; SIMPLE METHOD MAY IMPROVE CATALYSTS, NANODEVICES
A way to help next-generation computers boot up instantly, making entire memories immediately available for use, has been developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020806080248.htm
SATELLITES REVEAL MYSTERY OF LARGE CHANGE IN EARTH'S GRAVITY FIELD
Satellite data collected since 1998 from the U.S./French ocean-observing satellite Topex/Poseidon, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., indicate the bulge in Earth's gravity field at the equator is growing, and scientists think that the ocean may hold the answer to the mystery of how the changes in the trend of Earth's gravity are occurring.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807070247.htm
UCLA SCIENTISTS SHOW ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS CAN ERADICATE AIDS EPIDEMIC
UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have predicted that widespread use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can eventually stop the HIV epidemic in its tracks -- even in African nations where a high percentage of people are infected. The Lancet Infectious Diseases reports the findings in its August edition.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807065600.htm
NEW METHOD OF DNA TESTING PROMISES TO TRANSFORM MEDICAL DIAGNOSTICS
Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a new method for detecting DNA, which could transform medical diagnostics. Currently, tests for the presence of DNA--to identify, for instance, the presence of a bacterium such as anthrax, or a virus, or a specific gene--require that the DNA be amplified or grown. The UCSB researchers combine the use of a light-emitting polymer with peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes to make a test so sensitive that the costly DNA amplification can be reduced and perhaps eliminated.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807064838.htm
THE EFFECTS OF HUMAN-CAUSED ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES ON TROPICAL FORESTS For more than a century humans have been changing the composition of the world's atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture, and other activities. The resulting climate changes may already be having far-reaching impacts on tropical forests. A symposium at the 2002 meetings of the Association for Tropical Biology, hosted by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama, examined the evidence for these changes and their implications for the future.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807065359.htm
WITHOUT BLUE CRABS, SOUTHERN SALT MARSHES WASH AWAY, STUDY FINDS
Scale back the harvest of blue crabs now, say Brown University biologists. Their new study suggests that current over-harvesting of blue crabs may be triggering the colossal die-off of salt marshes across the southeastern United States and may one day cause nearby barrier islands to collapse as well.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807064731.htm
JET CONTRAILS ALTER AVERAGE DAILY TEMPERATURE RANGE
For three days after September 11, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded commercial aircraft in the U.S., stranding travelers, hindering mail delivery and interrupting courier service, but for scientists at Penn State and the University of WisconsinWhitewater, the three-day shutdown provided a rare glimpse of the climate effects of jet contrails.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020808075457.htm
COMPUTATIONAL GENETICISTS REVISIT A MYSTERY IN EVOLUTION Why, biologists first asked 60 years ago, do members of the same species have such similar traits, or phenotypes, despite the fact that they have such diverse genes, or genotypes? They couldn't fully explore that question until now - when, aided by computers, they can sift through mountains of experimental data. In the June 24 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, senior research scientist Aviv Bergman of Stanford's Center for Computational Genetics and Biological Modeling (CCGBM) and postdoctoral scholar Mark Siegal of the Department of Biological Sciences provide a surprisingly simple answer.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807065302.htm
NEW CLINICAL TRIALS EXPLORE TREATMENT TO RESTORE SEXUAL DESIRE
For millions of women, decreased sexual desire is often an unfortunate consequence of hysterectomy or menopause. Diminished sexual desire can lead to feelings of unhappiness, concern, frustration, and leave a lasting impact on a woman's relationship with her partner. An investigational hormone patch developed by Proctor & Gamble and now in clinical trials may offer hope to post-menopausal women who have experienced a decline in sexual desire.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807065733.htm
NASA LIGHTNING STUDY COMPLETES FIRST FLIGHT OF UNINHABITED AERIAL VEHICLE
A NASA team studying the causes of electrical storms and their effects on our home planet launched their first research flight Sunday, Aug. 4, using an uninhabited aerial vehicle to overfly the Florida Everglades.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020808075811.htm
RESEARCHERS AT UCLA CREATE BETTER MATERIALS BY EMULATING SPIDERS' TECHNIQUES tm Researchers at UCLA believe that the secret to creating stronger, better materials may be solved by studying an unlikely source: the common spider.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020808075628.htm
IN DISASTERS, PANIC IS RARE; ALTRUISM DOMINATES
Group panic and irrational behavior did not occur at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Instead the event created a sense of "we-ness" among those threatened, says Rutgers University sociology professor Lee Clarke. In his article, "Panic: Myth or Reality?", in the fall 2002 edition of Contexts magazine, he explains that 50 years of evidence on disasters and extreme situations shows that panic is rare, even when people feel "excessive fear."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020808075321.htm
MEDICATED ECOSYSTEMS: HUMAN DRUGS ALTER KEY AQUATIC ORGANISM The overuse of antibiotics not only leads to more resistant strains of infection, but, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, antibiotics also may be adversely affecting zooplankton, tiny organisms that underpin the health of all freshwater ecosystems.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807062942.htm
STARDUST SPACECRAFT REACHES FOR COSMIC DUST
NASA's Stardust spacecraft, on a mission to collect and return the first samples from a comet, began yesterday to collect tiny specks of solid matter, called interstellar dust grains, that permeate the galaxy.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807070048.htm
FIRST IMAGES FROM NASA'S "THERMOMETER IN THE SKY" SIZZLE
The old adage that everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it may soon fall by the wayside, thanks to the quality of data from NASA's new "thermometer in the sky" -- a suite of three advanced weather instruments aboard the Aqua spacecraft.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020807070155.htm
TREES ENCROACHING GRASSLANDS MAY LOCK UP LESS CARBON THAN PREDICTED
The woody trees and shrubs now "invading" former grassland in parts of the United States may be sequestering less human-caused atmospheric carbon emissions than predicted, concluded new research led by Duke University environmental scientist Robert Jackson.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020809071718.htm
NANOPARTICLES USED IN SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
An enormous source of clean energy is available to us. We see it almost every day. It's just a matter of harnessing it. The problem with solar energy is that it has not been inexpensive enough in the past. David Kelley, professor of chemistry at Kansas State University, developed a new type of nanoparticle -- a tiny chemical compound far too small to be seen with the naked eye -- that may reap big dividends in solar power.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020809071535.htm
"DRINK AT LEAST 8 GLASSES OF WATER A DAY" -- REALLY? It has become accepted wisdom: "Drink at least eight glasses of water a day!" Not necessarily, says a DMS physician Heinz Valtin, MD. The universal advice that has made guzzling water a national pastime is more urban myth than medical dogma and appears to lack scientific proof, he found.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020809071640.htm
8/12/02
6:31:48 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
HOW NOW, BROWN CLOUD
A dense blanket of pollution that is hovering over South Asia could cause millions of deaths in the region and pose a threat to the world at large, a group of 200 scientists announced today. Known as the "Asian Brown Cloud," the smog is an estimated two miles thick and covers the entire Indian subcontinent, from Sri Lanka to Afghanistan. The cloud is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths from respiratory disease every year, and is also altering the regional climate by trapping heat and blocking sunlight. The cloud is composed of aerosols, ash, soot, and other particles, and stems from forest fires, vegetation clearing, fossil fuels, and industrial pollution. A U.N. report found that the smog blanket could cut rainfall in the region by up to 40 percent and travel halfway around the world in just one week. If there's a silver lining to this particular cloud, it's that it could disappear relatively quickly with the use of more efficient technologies and cleaner energy sources, scientists said.
straight to the source: CNN.com, Marianne Bray, 12 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=353>
only in Grist: All we have is dust in the wind -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha061002.asp?source=daily>
WHEN PUSH COMES TO CHEVRON
In a classic David-and-Goliath battle, women in southern Nigeria are taking on oil giants ChevronTexaco and Royal Dutch/Shell to demand more responsible environmental and social policies. Last week, hundreds of women blocked access to company offices in the latest of a month of all-women protests. The unusual demonstrations are gaining a reputation as one of the most effective tools to force environmental and social concessions from U.S. multinational oil companies doing business in Africa. The strategy of choice at the protests is mass nudity, or at least the threat of it, which is generally sufficient to help persuade senior executives to negotiate. In both tactics and outcomes, the protests are far different from the generally futile and often violent demonstrations by young men. Oil companies are a source of considerable bitterness in southern Nigeria, where they are seen as polluting the landscape and disrupting communities, without giving back significant income or other benefits to locals. So far, the women's protests have resulted in Chevron agreeing to employ more area people, aid the regional infrastructure, and support the local economy.
straight to the source: Christian Science Monitor, Michael Peel, 12 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=354>
do good: Help Nigerian enviros battle Big Oil <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/politics.asp?source=daily#chevron>
THE BIG UNEASY
In Louisiana, the sea-level rises caused by global warming aren't the stuff of dry scientific reports; they're already a local reality. Up to 35 square miles of the state's wetlands get a little too wet every year -- they disappear into the Gulf of Mexico. To date, Louisiana has lost an area the size of Rhode Island. Low-lying areas that have suffered years of poor environmental management are so endangered that the Red Cross estimates that a major hurricane in New Orleans could claim from 25,000 to 100,000 lives. Virtually every other Atlantic and Gulf coast state also is likely to face significant land loss and weather-related damage by mid-century, with as much as 23,000 square miles of land disappearing in the worst-case scenario. "We're not going to be the only ones in the boat," says Al Naomi, a project manager in the New Orleans District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "We're just in the boat first."
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Matt Crenson, 11 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=355>
OUTWARD BOUNDARY
In a federal lawsuit over the legality of a new Navy sonar system said to harm marine animals, the Bush administration is challenging the scope of one of the most important pieces of U.S. environmental legislation, the National Environmental Policy Act. The act requires federal agencies to review the environmental implications of their projects, but the Justice Department claims the law should not apply to projects beyond the nation's territorial waters, which extend just three miles from shore. The Natural Resources Defense Council, which is arguing the other side of the lawsuit, contends that the act applies to the nation's exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 miles from shore. Environmentalists say the Bush administration's interpretation would leave the vast majority of waters under U.S. control open to military maneuvers, oil and gas pipelines, commercial fishing, ocean dumping, and other potentially destructive activities -- all without environmental review.
straight to the source: New York Times, Katherine Q. Seelye, 10 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=356>
straight to the source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, John McQuaid, 09 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=358>
SCRAMBLED EGGS
If you were looking for good news about endocrine disputers, you're out of luck. A global report by the World Health Organization has found extensive damage to wildlife from endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and could not rule out possible risks for humans as well. EDCs -- which lurk in pesticide residues on food, plastics, household products, and industrial chemicals, among other places --can mimic the natural hormones that control a variety of functions, including reproduction. Many scientists fear that exposure to EDCs can cause reproductive difficulties, cancer, endometriosis, early puberty, altered neural function, and immune system problems in humans, but the evidence remains inconclusive. In wildlife, however, EDCs have had clear health effects, such as eggshell thinning and altered gonad development in birds.
straight to the source: BBC News, 12 Aug 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=357>
8/12/02
6:28:09 PM
FAIR - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
ACTION ALERT: USA Today Repeats Myths on Iraq Inspectors
August 12, 2002
An August 8 USA Today article that described how Saddam Hussein is "complicating U.S. plans to topple his regime" repeated a common myth about the history of U.S./Iraq relations. Reporter John Diamond wrote that "Iraq expelled U.N. weapons inspectors four years ago and accused them of being spies."
But Iraq did not "expel" the UNSCOM weapons inspectors; in fact, they were withdrawn by Richard Butler, the head of the inspections team. The Washington Post, like numerous other media outlets, reported it accurately at the time (12/17/98): "Butler ordered his inspectors to evacuate Baghdad, in anticipation of a military attack, on Tuesday night."
USA Today wouldn't have to consult the archives of other media outlets to find out what happened: A timeline that appeared in the paper on December 17, 1998 included this entry for December 16: "U.N. weapons inspectors withdraw from Baghdad one day after reporting Iraq was still not cooperating." USA Today also reported (12/17/98) that "Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov criticized Butler for evacuating inspectors from Iraq Wednesday morning without seeking permission from the Security Council."
As for Iraq accusing weapons inspectors of being spies, Diamond might have mentioned that this accusation has proven to be correct. The Washington Post reported in 1999 (1/8/99) that "United Nations arms inspectors helped collect eavesdropping intelligence used in American efforts to undermine the Iraqi regime."
USA Today was clearly aware of the spy story, since the paper wrote an editorial excusing it. Headlined "Spying Flap Merely a Sideshow" (1/8/99), the paper argued that "spying on Saddam Hussein is nothing new and nothing needing an apology. But the Clinton administration suddenly is scrambling to explain why it did just that." The paper added that the information gathered "no doubt found uses other than just weapons detection. That may not be playing by the books, but it's understandable and probably inevitable."
ACTION: Contact USA Today and ask that the paper correct the errors in its August 8 report on Iraq, "Saddam Already Battling Invasion."
CONTACT:
USA Today - Elisa Tinsley, World Editor
Phone: 1-800-872-0001
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone.
Please cc mailto:fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
8/12/02
6:23:23 PM
TomPaine.com
A TRAITOR TO THEIR CLASS
Pundits Unnerved By Gore's New Populism
by Richard Blow
The interests of the lower and middle classes will never get a fair hearing in the pundit class. Populism - even as mild as Gore's - doesn't go over big with an insular clique of out-of-touch yuppies.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6158
REGIME CHANGE NEEDED FOR ONE ROGUE STATE
A View Of The U.S. From Across The Pond
by Adrian Hamilton
Its government has no majority. It refuses arms monitoring. Its opponents are locked up without trial. But given time, this rogue superstate might take its place once again among the family of peace-loving nations.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6156
GENETICALLY MODIFIED OUTCOME
Drifting Pollen May Settle Debate Over Transgenic Food
by Karen Charman
Debate about whether our food should be genetically manipulated is on its way to becoming a moot point thanks to uncontrolled genetic pollution.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6157
A MAJOR VICTORY FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
An Interview With Bob Stern, Center for Governmental Studies
by Steven Rosenfeld
A quarter-century after the Supreme Court ruled campaign spending was a form of free speech and could not be capped, a federal appeals court says otherwise.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6160
8/12/02
6:18:37 PM
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
8/12/02
6:16:36 PM
The September 11th Memorial Peace Pole
Your Prayers for Peace are Needed Now!
A special September 11th Memorial Peace Pole will be presented to Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City to honor the memory of this day in the spirit of peace. The 12-foot aluminum pole will carry the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in twelve languages of those who lost their lives. Prayers and messages from peace-loving people all over the world are being collected to be offered with the Peace Pole - a call to shift the energy from fear to love, from war to peace.
You can add your prayers on line at:
http://www.worldpeace.org/guest/adds11prayer.html.
8/12/02
6:15:03 PM
Postcard Campaign To Prevent A War In Iraq
President Bush wants to start a war by invading Iraq. Many of us do not believe that this the right thing to do. (An unknown numbers of lives, two hundred thousand American troops and sixty billion dollars.) Even our military leaders think it's unwise.
In an effort to make our point of view heard, we are encouraging as many citizens as possible to mail a post card to the White House asking him not to start another war. If we all mail our cards, or letters, on the same day it will have maximum impact. Hopefully, we may receive news coverage.
The important thing is to have as many people as possible engaged in the project. So I am asking you to forward this e-mail to as many people as you can. With luck, we can reach millions of people within the next two weeks. If we all mail our cards on or about August 15 we may be in time to influence the situation. If we all reach five people with eleven forwardings it will reach forty eight million people (the chain letter effect). Please spend twenty-three cents and ten minutes to help stop a war.
PLEASE forward this email today to at least five people. Time is running out.
Mail to:
George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20500
8/12/02
6:12:16 PM
Stop Bush's 'Wag the Dog' Invasion of Iraq!
A Quick Petition on the www
To: George W. Bush, Congress, and the Media:
We, the undersigned, oppose the Bush Administration's "wag the dog" plan to invade, conquer, and occupy Iraq.
Iraq will accept a resumption of UN weapons inspections if the US agrees not to invade. But George W. Bush refuses to accept new weapons inspections for reasons that are purely political:
1. Bush's poll ratings are falling quickly because of public outrage over corporate corruption scandals and the falling stock market, and so he needs another war to change the news headlines and boost his poll ratings. In other words, Bush is "wagging the dog."
2. Bush's Republican Party is likely to lose control of Congress and key Governorships in the November elections, and Bush desperately needs to engineer a Republican victory. In other words, the war in Iraq is also Bush's "October Surprise."
3. Bush's oil industry donors want to gain complete control of Iraq's large oil reserves - by stealing them. Their views were summed up by Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) on April 12, 2002, when he told a large group of Republicans: "Why don't we just take [Iraq's] oil? Why buy it? Take it!"
4. Bush's weapons industry donors want to profit from another war. This includes Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, and his Florida recount chairman, James Baker, who are investors in the Carlyle Group, one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the US.
5. Bush wants to avenge his father's failed Presidency by killing Saddam Hussein. During the Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush refused to invade Baghdad and overthrow Saddam Hussein because of the opposition of US allies and because the US was not prepared to occupy and rule Iraq.
6. Bush wants to demonstrate to the world that US power is supreme and unchallengeable. Bush views America as the modern-day Rome, which will rule the world through force. Bush does not believe in freedom and democracy, either around the world - or in the US.
The reasons for opposing a US invasion of Iraq are overwhelming:
1. 250,000 US troops could be deployed, risking tens of thousands of American deaths and widespread illness from toxic chemical releases. Tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans are still suffering from the unexplained Gulf War syndrome.
2. The Gulf War cost $61 billion ($80 billion in current dollars), of which $48 billion was paid by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Japan - but that still caused a US recession, even though the war ended in 3 days and we did not occupy Iraq. Since no other countries will pay for the US to conquer Iraq, US taxpayers will have to pay all of the costs, which will be much greater. That means all domestic programs will be even more deeply cut, the enormous Bush deficit will get much bigger, taxes will have to be raised to maintain reduced services, and the current recession will turn into a Depression.
3. US allies among Arab countries strongly oppose an invasion, and outrage among Arab citizens could result in the overthrow of several weak pro-US governments (especially Jordan, Saudia Arabia and Egypt), which would be replaced by Taliban-style anti-American and anti-Israeli extremists.
4. An invasion of Iraq could prompt reprisal attacks against oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, causing widespread environmental destruction and a large increase in oil prices. It could also lead to terrorist attacks against US, Britain, Israel, and other allies. Given these risks, British General Sir Michael Rose called a war with Iraq "madness."
5. The US imposed strict economic sanctions on Iraq after the Gulf War, which has resulted in the deaths of half a million innocent children. This is a massive violation of human rights, and it fosters the spread of anti-American hatred among Arabs.
6. Iraq has never attacked the U.S., and played no role in the September 11 attack. All propaganda efforts by right-wing officials like Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to link Iraq to 9-11 have failed.
7. The US does not have the capability to occupy Iraq and run a democratic government. Even in Afghanistan, the US-imposed government has no control outside of Kabul, despite large numbers of US and other allied troops. This undemocratic government has been paralyzed by assassinations by rival warlords. Moreover, the heroin industry - which is so devastating to the US - has resumed production.
8. Scott Ritter, the former Marine who led extensive UN weapons inspections of Iraq, is nearly certain that Iraq does not possess chemical or biological weapons. Moreover, Iraq does not possess long-range missiles to deliver such weapons, and the US (or Israel) could easily destroy any such missiles through precision bombing - as Israel did when it destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction in Iraq.
When challenged about these issues, the Bush administration and its supporters can only resort to the most absurd and outrageous justification for sending our children to their deaths.
1. James R. Schlesinger, a member of Bush's Defense Policy Board, says: "Given all we have said as a leading world power about the necessity of regime change in Iraq, means that our credibility would be badly damaged if that regime change did not take place." Let's be clear: only Bush demanded a "regime change" in Iraq, not the American people. We will not fight a war for Bush's credibility!
2. Larry Kudlow, a right-wing pundit, wrote: "The shock therapy of decisive war [on Iraq] will elevate the stock market by a couple-thousand points." We will not fight a war for the stock market!
Finally, George W. Bush has no authority under the Constitution to invade Iraq. The Constitution requires Congress to declare war, but Bush believes he can simply ignore the Constitution, in direct violation of his sworn oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." If Bush insists on starting a war without an Act of Congress, then Bush should be impeached.
We call upon all genuinely patriotic Americans to join us in declaring our opposition to a US conquest of Iraq.
http://democrats.com/elandslide/petition.cfm?campaign=iraq
8/12/02
6:10:22 PM
"To do evil, a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology -- that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
8/12/02
6:08:47 PM
"All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer
8/12/02
6:06:49 PM
U.S. Seeks to Limit Conservation Law
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, NY Times, August 10, 2002
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 -- The Bush administration is arguing that a major environmental law does not apply to the vast majority of oceans under United States control, a move that environmentalists say could allow military maneuvers, oil and gas pipelines, commercial fishing, ocean dumping and scores of other activities to escape public environmental review.
In a federal court case in Los Angeles that involves the testing of a new type of sonar system by the Navy, the Justice Department said that the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 -- landmark legislation that requires federal agencies to review the environmental implications of their projects -- did not apply beyond the nation's territorial waters, which traditionally extend three miles from shore.
That view is being challenged by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which asserts that in addition to the territorial waters, the act covers all activity within the nation's "exclusive economic zone," which extends 200 miles from shore.
A decision in the case is expected later in the summer.
Environmentalists say that barring application of the act in these zones would open up the oceans to unregulated activity that could damage them and destroy marine life.
In addition to the sonar project, which they say could disorient and kill whales and dolphins, they say other unregulated activity would include commercial fishing for depleted species, proposals for liquified natural gas plants and pipelines, and other energy projects.
Offshore oil and gas drilling would not be affected by the administration's position because another law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, specifically requires that the environmental law apply to such activity.
At issue is the National Environmental Policy Act, often referred to as the Magna Carta of environmental law. Signed by President Richard M. Nixon on Jan. 1, 1970, the act requires all federal governmental actions to be reviewed and analyzed for their effect on the environment.
In an indication of the importance of the matter, the White House Council on Environmental Quality convened with ranking officials from five agencies and departments to discuss the implications of the Justice Department's position both before the department filed its brief and then again this week, administration officials said. They plan to discuss it further in September.
Administration officials said there was little disagreement at the meeting, which was first reported today by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, about the administration's approach. And the Justice Department has argued in the sonar case that federal agencies should decide case by case whether to apply the National Environmental Policy Act in the oceans.
But e-mail messages written before the meeting suggested that officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disagreed with the Navy.
One message written by a Navy official hailed the "good news" that the Justice Department agreed with the Navy, "over NOAA objection," that the environmental law "does NOT extend beyond the limits of our territorial waters."
Administration officials said that the Justice Department position and the meeting did not represent a change of policy, but environmentalists disagreed.
"This is a major policy change," said Andrew Wetzler, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Los Angeles. "For the first time, the White House is considering stepping in and seeking to impose the Navy's restrictive view of the statute on the entire federal government."
The Navy has long believed that the act does not extend to activities conducted within the nation's "exclusive economic zone," which stretches 200 miles off all coastal waters and thus covers more than one million square miles off all American coasts, including those of Alaska and Hawaii. The Navy appears to be the driving force behind the Bush administration's discussion of whether to apply that concept to all federal activity in the zone.
Administration officials believe that the environmental act is too restrictive, that it spawns nettlesome lawsuits and that most ocean activity is already regulated by an executive order signed in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, according to administration officials and internal e-mail correspondence that was obtained by environmental groups opposing the administration's view.
Environmental groups assert that the Carter executive order is too weak to guarantee enforcement. They say it does not provide for lawsuits or public review, meaning that an array of damaging activities could take place far out at sea without public knowledge or recourse.
Michael Jasny, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Los Angeles, said that the National Environmental Policy Act "depends on public comment and public scrutiny and judicial review for its effectiveness, and if you do away with it, all of that would be lost -- we'd have no public accountability" about military and industrial activities in the oceans.
Tim Eichenberg, a lawyer with Oceana, a group in San Francisco dedicated to preserving the oceans, called the executive order "a very poor cousin" to the policy act.
"The executive order doesn't provide for public input or any analysis of alternatives and it doesn't allow for judicial review -- there is no recourse for the public," he argued.
Administration officials said that their position in the California case did not represent a change of policy. They said that the National Environmental Policy Act, signed into law before the United States established its exclusive economic zones, was never intended to apply to the ocean beyond the territorial waters and did not apply now.
But an internal Navy document contradicts that view, noting that the Justice Department and the Council on Environmental Quality in the Clinton administration "pressed to apply N.E.P.A. worldwide."
Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of a subcommittee on oceans and fisheries, issued a statement saying: "I am incredulous that the Bush administration may actually be considering rolling back central environmental protections of our oceans and marine environment. The National Environmental Policy Act is the cornerstone of protection for our citizens and natural resources -- and new limits on the law would have profound impacts on coastal issues from fisheries management to marine protection to ocean dumping."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/10/politics/10NAVY.html?todaysheadlines
8/12/02
6:01:50 PM
84 Reasons Why Bush Must Go
http://www.radioleft.com/article.php?sid=440
1. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
2. Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.
3. Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.
4. Cut by 50% funding for research into renewable energy sources.
5. Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water.
6. Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons. This, from a candidate who would readily fire-up his Spanish-speaking skills in front of would-be Hispanic voters.
7. Proposed to eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii (San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2001).
8. Cut funding by 28% for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks.
9. Suspended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental and other federal laws.
10. OK'd Interior Department appointee Gale Norton to send out letters to state officials soliciting suggestions for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and foresting.
11. Appointed John Negroponte - an un-indicted high-level Iran Contra figure to the post of United Nations Ambassador.
12. Abandoned a campaign pledge to invest $100 million for rain forest conservation.
13. Reduced by 86% the Community Access Program for public hospitals, clinics and providers of care for people without insurance.
14. Rescinded a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential consequences resulting from chemical plant accidents.
15. Suspended rules that would require hardrock miners to clean up sites on Western public lands.
16. Cut $60 million from a Boy's and Girl's Clubs of America program for public housing.
17. Proposed to eliminate a federal program, designed and successfully used in Seattle, to help communities prepare for natural disasters.
18. Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty global warming agreement.
19. Cut $200 million of work force training for dislocated workers.
20. Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat on their property.
21. Cut program to provide childcare to low-income families as they move from welfare to work.
22. Cut a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees (though it still pays for Viagra).
23. Cut $700 million in capital funds for repairs in public housing.
24. Appointed Otto Reich - an un-indicted high-level Iran Contra figure -to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.
25. Cut Environmental Protection Agency budget by $500 million.
26. Proposed to curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed on the Endangered Species List.
27. Rescinded the rule that mandated increased energy-saving efficiency regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps.
28. Repealed workplace ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety.
29. Abandoned campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, the waste gas that contributes to global warming.
30. Banned federal aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion counseling with other independent funds.
31. Closed White House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach.
32. Nominated David Lauriski - ex-mining company executive - to post of Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.
33. OK'd Interior Secretary Gale Norton to go forth with a controversial plan to auction oil and gas development tracts off the coast of eastern Florida.
34. Announced intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil and drilling.
35. Proposes to re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments.
36. Gutted White House AIDS Office.
37. Renegotiating free trade agreement with Jordan to eliminate workers's rights and safeguards for the environment.
38. Will no longer seek guidance from The American Bar Association in recommendations for the federal judiciary appointments.
39. Appointed recycling foe Lynn Scarlett as Undersecretary of the Interior.
40. Took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
41. Cut the Community Oriented Policing Services program.
42. Allowed Interior Secretary Gale Norton to shelve citizen-led grizzly bear re-introduction plan scheduled for Idaho and Montana wilderness.
43. Continues to hold up federal funding for stem cell research projects.
44. Makes sure convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college, though convicted murderers can.
45. Refused to fund continued cleanup of uranium-slag heap in Utah.
46. Refused to fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit.
47. Proposed a $2 trillion tax cut, of which 43% will go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.
48. Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.
49. Appointed a Vice President quoted as saying "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants." (Vice President %@!#$& Cheney on "Meet the Press.")
50. Appointed Diana "There is no gender gap in pay" Roth to the Council of Economic Advisers. (Boston Globe, March 28, 2001.)
51. Appointed Kay Cole James - an opponent of affirmative action - to direct the Office of Personnel Management.
52. Cut $15.7 million earmarked for states to investigate cases of child abuse and neglect.
53. Helped kill a law designed to make it tougher for teenagers to get credit cards.
54. Proposed elimination of the "Reading is Fundamental" program that gives free books to poor children.
55. Is pushing for development of small nuclear arm to attack deeply buried targets and weapons, which would violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
56. Proposes to nominate Jeffrey Sutton - attorney responsible for the recent case weakening the Americans with Disabilities Act - to federal appeals court judgeship.
57. Proposes to reverse regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building.
58. Eliminated funding for the "We the People" education program which taught School children about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and citizenship.
59. Appointed John Bolton - who opposes nonproliferation treaties and the U.N. - to Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
60. Nominated Linda Fisher - an executive with Monsanto - for the number-two job at the Environmental Protection Agency.
61. Nominated Michael McConnell - leading critic of the separation of church and state - to a federal judgeship.
62. Nominated Terrence Boyle - ardent opponent of civil rights - to a federal judgeship.
63. Canceled 2004 deadline for automakers to develop prototype high mileage cars.
64. Nominated Harvey Pitts - lawyer for teen sex video distributor - to head SEC.
65. Nominated John Walters - strong opponent of prison drug treatment programs - for Drug Czar. (Washington Post, May 16, 2001.)
66. Nominated J. Steven Giles - an oil and coal lobbyist - for Deputy Secretary of the Interior.
67. Nominated Bennett Raley - who advocates repealing the Endangered Species Act - for Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
68. Is seeking the dismissal of class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves during WWII.
69. Earmarked $4 million in new federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse prevention programs to go only to religious groups and not secular equivalents.
70. Reduced by 40% the Low Income Home Assistance Program for low-income individuals who need assistance paying energy bills.
71. Nominated Ted Olson - who has repeatedly lied about his involvement with the Scaiffe-funded "Arkansas Project" to bring down Bill Clinton -for Solicitor General.
72. Nominated Terrance Boyle - foe of civil rights - to a federal judgeship.
73. Proposes to ease permit process - including environmental considerations - for refinery, nuclear and hydroelectric dam construction. (Washington Post, May 18, 2001.)
74. Proposes to give government the authority to take private property through eminent domain for power lines.
75. Proposes that $1.2 billion in funding for alternative renewable energy come from selling oil and gas lease tracts in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve.
76. Appoints Army Secretary Thomas White who is being investigated for selling Enron stock just before Enron posted losses. White was a former Enron executive who is alleged to have dumped his stock after being contacted by an Enron official.
77. Took 3 months of vacation of first 9 months in office as President.
78. Had absolutely no concern about terrorism before 911.
79. Many of his big campaign supporters are crooks who doctored their books in order to scre investors.
80. Wants to fulfill a personal vendetta against hussein causing a huge and costly war with destabilization of the middle east and Russia and China siding with the arabs.
81. Wants to kill minimum wage and it's enforcement so that people work at slave wages for his corporate supporters.
82. Wants to take away benefits from the elderly and children in order to compensate for giant tax cuts for super rich.
83. Wave the taliban 38 million in may, 2001 so that they would allow pipelines for his buddies at Enron.
84. Wants to create the most polluted country on earth by eliminating anti pollution laws so that his super rich factory owner supporters can get richer.
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
Julius Caesar
"People can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. Tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism."
Herman Goering
"There ought to be limits to freedom."
GW Bush
8/12/02
5:55:40 PM
SciTech Daily Review
Restoring a blind man's vision is now a real possibility through stem-cell surgery. But even perfect eyes cannot see unless the brain has been taught to use them
http://www.discover.com/june_02/featsight.html
Taking on Armageddon: A space mission to knock a potential rogue asteroid off its orbit is being examined by European scientists http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2166598.stm
A method for improving spy photos can be put to more aesthetic use: repairing artworks
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020715/navyart.html
Celebrity pill pushers: Pharmaceutical companies are quietly paying stars to solicit new customers on TV talk shows with tales of personal suffering and blessed relief
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2002/07/11/celebrity_drugs/index.html
Jeremy Rifkin is a modern-day Bellerophon, riding forth to do battle with the creators of potential genetic monsters. But the chimeras he fears have already saved hundreds of thousands of lives
http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/00000006D9BF.htm
John Allen Paulos has put forward a couple of very modest proposals to decrease the number of auto fatalities and accidents
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/WhosCounting/whoscounting.html