7/28/02
9:37:39 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Senator blocks US 'triple subsidy' for ethanol - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17054/story.htm
FEATURE - West Nile virus spreads across United States - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17065/story.htm
FEATURE - Much-transformed Alaska marks pipeline's 25th year - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17064/story.htm
Science panel urges review of Army Corps projects - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17059/story.htm
Republicans back sham trade ban in US energy bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17057/story.htm
Bush admin backs bill for offshore energy projects - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17055/story.htm
Pregnant women should limit tuna intake - US panel - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17044/story.htm
Shell establishes "green growth" study center - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17047/story.htm
US senate bill would protect 60 mln forest acres - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17045/story.htm
Woman makes court appearance in California wildfire - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17049/story.htm
California wildfire spreads, but bypasses giant sequoias - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17056/story.htm
European trade in ultra-clean diesel takes off - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17063/story.htm
Greenpeace fails in British mahogany appeal - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17060/story.htm
Death toll more than 40 in Turkish floods - TURKEY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17062/story.htm
Starving Africa should accept GMO food, US says - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17051/story.htm
NZ's Infratil buys 10 pct of renewable energy firm - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17048/story.htm
Toyota to double hybrid vehicle lineup by 03 - paper - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17050/story.htm
Rome debates mystery of dead fish in mighty Tiber - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17061/story.htm
FEATURE - Drought-hit Sicily is running out of hope - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17052/story.htm
Beijing plans crackdown on car fumes before Olympics - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17053/story.htm
Canada giving tax breaks to boost renewable energy - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17046/story.htm
Thailand's tuktuks take to Bangladesh streets - BANGLADESH http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17066/story.htm
FEATURE - "Eco-tourists" attracted by Argentina's weak economy - ARGENTINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17058/story.htm
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS PICTURES:
SOUTH KOREA: Sand Tiger Shark Devours Leopard Shark in Seoul Aquarium http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17069
USA: Thousands of Jumbo Squid Wash up on La Jolla Beach Near San Diego http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17067
SINGAPORE: Singapore Fishmonger Displays a Snakehead Fish http://www.planetark.org/envpicstory.cfm/newsid/17068
7/28/02
9:27:50 PM
t r u t h o u t | 07.29
Bush and Blair Agree Terms for Iraq Attack
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.29A.blair.bush.htm
Jennifer Van Bergen | Seven Points
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.29B.jvb.7pts.htm
Senators Grill Ashcroft on Tactics of War on Terrorism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.29C.sena.ashcroft.htm
Rash of Wife Killings Stuns Ft. Bragg
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.29D.kill.bragg.htm
Bipartisan Action in Senate Would Protect America's Wild Forests
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.29E.sierra.sena.htm
Tom Piazza | Bob Dylan's Unswerving Road Back to Newport
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.29F.piazza.dylan.htm
7/28/02
9:22:50 PM
Fort Bragg killings Raise Alarm About Stress
No connection established to assailants' Afghanistan duty
by Barbara Starr, CNN Washington Bureau, July 27, 2002
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The killings of four military wives in the past six weeks -- allegedly by their husbands who are based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina -- have led commanders to take a new look at whether combat deployments may be causing undue stress.
Sources at Fort Bragg, home to the Army Special Operations Command, say there's no common thread among the cases, and suggest it may simply be an "anomaly" that so many incidents have occurred so close together.
Officials acknowledge that three of the men had recently served in Afghanistan, and at least one of them had been brought home early to deal with unspecified family problems. But authorities have not established any connection between their service in Afghanistan and the incidents.
Military and local authorities say two of the Special Operations soldiers committed suicide after their wives were killed.
Two of the women were fatally shot, one was strangled, and one was stabbed to death. All four killings took place off the base.
In one incident, the man is suspected of setting the couple's house afire after his wife was killed.
The Fort Bragg garrison commander, Army Col. Tad Davis, is reviewing counseling and stress-management programs available at the base.
A spokesman said the Army wants to see if there is something it could do better. But one military official who had previously served at Fort Bragg pointed out that Special Operations soldiers may be reluctant to seek help.
Benjamin Abel, an Army Special Operations Command spokesmen, gave these details on the four incidents:
On June 11, Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves, 32, and his wife, Teresa, were found shot to death at their residence in a suspected murder-suicide. Nieves was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group. He was deployed to Afghanistan in early January and returned in mid-March.
On June 29, Jennifer Wright, the wife of Master Sgt. William Wright, 36, was found strangled. Wright was charged with first degree murder. He was assigned to the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion. He was deployed to Afghanistan in mid-March and returned in mid-May.
On July 9, Marilyn Griffin, wife of Sgt. Cedric Griffin, 28, was stabbed to death. Griffin is charged with first degree murder. He was assigned to the 37th Engineer Battalion, 20th Engineer Brigade. He had not been deployed to Afghanistan and no such deployment was planned.
On July 19, Sgt. 1st Class Brandon S. Floyd, 30, and his wife, Andrea, were shot at their home in an apparent murder-suicide. Floyd was assigned to Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Special Operations Command. He was deployed to Afghanistan in November and returned in January.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/26/army.wives/index.html
7/28/02
9:14:20 PM
F-16s Pursue Unknown Craft Over Region
by Steve Vogel, The Washington Post, July 27, 2002; Page B02
For Renny Rogers, it was strange enough that military jets were flying low over his home in Waldorf in the middle of the night. It was what he thinks he saw when he headed outside to look early yesterday that floored him.
"It was this object, this light-blue object, traveling at a phenomenal rate of speed," Rogers said. "This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust. I told my neighbor, 'I think those jets are chasing a UFO.' "
Military officials confirm that two F-16 jets from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled early yesterday after radar detected an unknown aircraft in area airspace. But they scoff at the idea that the jets were chasing a strange and speedy, blue unidentified flying object.
"We had a track of interest, so we sent up some aircraft," said Maj. Douglas Martin, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado, which has responsibility for defending U.S. airspace. "Everything was fine in the sky, so they returned home."
At the same time, military officials say they do not know just what the jets were chasing, because whatever it was disappeared. "There are any number of scenarios, but we don't know what it was," said Maj. Barry Venable, another spokesman for NORAD.
Radar detected a low, slow-flying aircraft about 1 a.m. yesterday, according to a military official. Controllers were unable to establish radio communication with the unidentified aircraft, and NORAD was notified. When the F-16s carrying air-to-air missiles were launched from Andrews, the unidentified aircraft's track faded from the radar, the military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Pilots with the D.C. Air National Guard's 113th Air Wing, which flew the F-16s from Andrews, reported nothing out of the ordinary, NORAD officials said.
"It was a routine launch," said Lt. Col. Steve Chase, a senior officer with the wing, which keeps pilots and armed jets on 24-hour alert at Andrews to respond to incidents as part of an air defense system protecting Washington after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Rogers remains convinced that what he saw was not routine. "It looked like a shooting star with no trailing mist," he said. "I've never seen anything like it."
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8131-2002Jul26.html
7/28/02
9:09:25 PM
Army Wives' Slayings Spurs Review
by Estes Thompson, Associated Press Writer, July 27, 2002
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - The slayings of four Army wives at fort Bragg in the past six weeks, all allegedly by their husbands, has prompted the Army to re-evaluate the base's family counseling program.
"We're going to evaluate everything we do," Col. Jerome Haberek, chaplain for the Special Operations units at Fort Bragg, said Friday.
Three of the men were special operations soldiers who had just returned from Afghanistan; the fourth was from an airborne unit and had not been sent into action. The slayings included two apparent murder-suicides.
"It's mind-boggling," said Henry Berry, manager of family advocacy programs at Fort Bragg. "To be absolutely honest, I was completely caught off guard. We're going to look at these cases to prevent them from happening in the future."
Counselors are available in the field for Special Operations troops, and soldiers are counseled before they leave on assignment and before they return home, Haberek said.
Until the recent murders, base officials said no domestic abuse deaths involving base personnel had occurred in the past two years.
The string of family deaths, which all occurred off the base, started June 11 when Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves fatally shot his wife, Teresa, and himself in their Fayetteville bedroom. Nieves, who had been back from Afghanistan ( news - web sites) just two days, had recently requested leave to resolve personal problems, officials said.
Sheriff's investigators said Jennifer Wright was strangled June 29. Her husband, Master Sgt. William Wright, reported her missing two days later. On July 19, he led investigators to her body, buried in a shallow grave in a field near Fayetteville, and was charged with murder.
Wright, who had been back from Afghanistan for about a month, had recently moved out of the family's house and was living in the barracks.
"He was like my own child," Jennifer Wright's mother, Wilma Watson, said from her home in Mason, Ohio. "Until he came back from Afghanistan, I didn't worry about violence. He was getting these attacks of rage. She was afraid of him. I begged her to come home. She still loved him."
On the same day that Wright was arrested, Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Floyd shot his wife, Andrea, then killed himself in their Stedman home.
The Fayetteville Observer reported that Floyd was a member of Delta Force, the secretive anti-terrorism unit based at Fort Bragg. He returned from Afghanistan in January.
"I truly in my heart believe that his training was such that if you can't control it, you kill it," Penny Flitcraft, Andrea Floyd's mother, told The Review of Alliance, Ohio.
In the fourth case, Sgt. Cedric Ramon Griffin was charged with stabbing his estranged wife, Marilyn, at least 50 times and setting her home on fire July 9. Griffin was in an engineering battalion.
Fort Bragg is the Army's headquarters for Special Forces and Special Operations soldiers. It has sent hundreds of soldiers into the fight against terrorism, though Haberek said he does not believe Special Operations troops are under any more stress than anyone else.
Maj. Gary Kolb, a spokesman for the Army Special Operations Command, said it would be a reach to link the family killings to Afghanistan.
Yvonne Qualantone, president of the 3rd Special Forces Group's Family Readiness Group, said more families than usual have called the counseling group since the killings.
Some women who have had problems with their husbands have called, asking about someone to talk to before things get worse, she said.
7/28/02
9:03:03 PM
For Immediate Release Jul 26, 2002 Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172
BUSH-CHENEY WHITE HOUSE OBSTRUCTS HALLIBURTON LAWSUIT
Process Server Threatened With Jail By White House Security
White House Refuses to Allow Complaint to be Lawfully Served On Vice President Cheney
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes public corruption, today reported that security staff at The White House threatened a process server with arrest over his attempt to serve Vice President Cheney with a complaint filed against him by Judicial Watch on behalf of shareholders of Halliburton. It is a crime to interfere with service of process.
According to an affidavit of due diligence filed in the case, the process server attempted to serve the complaint on the Vice President at The White House and was told by a security officer that he would not accept the “papers” for the Vice President. According to the process server’s sworn statement, the security officer said that “if I dropped them [the federal court summons and complaint], he would arrest me.” The attempted service was made on July 22, 2002.
No lawyer for Vice President Cheney has contacted Judicial Watch to accept service on the Vice President’s behalf.
“We have served many a lawsuit on Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton when they were in The White House. The Clinton White House accepted the papers. Never before have our process servers been threatened with arrest. If this Bush-Cheney White House is serious about corporate corruption and responsibility, it would not allow the Vice President to improperly hide behind White House security to evade service of process in the Halliburton securities fraud litigation, and it would not threaten the process server with arrest,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
Judicial Watch will continue to attempt service on the Vice President and will move for appropriate sanctions if Vice President Cheney continues to obstruct court process. Mr. Cheney is not above the law.
View the Affidavit of Due Diligence:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/cases/92/service.gif
http://www.judicialwatch.org/2221.shtml
7/28/02
8:57:44 PM
t r u t h o u t | 07.28
Florida: Bush Outspent Gore 4 to 1 on Recount
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.28A.bush.gore.4.2.1.htm
House, Much Divided, Approves Homeland Security Agency
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.28B.hs.house.vote.htm
Bush Wins Victory as House Passes Trade Legislation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.28C.house.trade.htm
Paul Krugman | The Private Interest
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.28D.krug.private.htm
Bush's Niece Among Targets of Alleged Snooping by Princeton, Newspaper Reports
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.28E.prince.yale.htm
7/27/02
9:48:01 PM
Greetings. I'm Mike Ellis. Some other people and I are about to conviene an online conference for the creation of a unitedearth constitution. Anyone who reads this and anyone whom they know are invited. The date for this conference has not been set but should be soon. Email me at uniderth@hotmail.com if you are interested. If you email me I can keep you updated.
7/27/02
4:46:15 PM
Foundations Are In Place For Martial Law In The United States
by Ritt Goldstein, July 27 2002
Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States.
When president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he issued a series of executive orders that provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in the event of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a US military invasion abroad". They were never used.
But with the looming possibility of a US invasion of Iraq, recent pronouncements by President George Bush's domestic security chief, Tom Ridge, and an official with the US Civil Rights Commission should fire concerns that these powers could be employed or a de facto drift into their deployment could occur.
On July 20 the Detroit Free Press ran a story entitled "Arabs in US could be held, official warns". The story referred to a member of the US Civil Rights Commission who foresaw the possibility of internment camps for Arab Americans. FEMA has practised for such an occasion.
FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible for handling US domestic unrest.
From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defence preparations. Details of these plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal.
They included executive orders providing for suspension of the constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the president and FEMA.
A Miami Herald article on July 5, 1987, reported that the former FEMA director Louis Guiffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled the martial law portion of the planning. The plan was said to be similar to one Mr Giuffrida had developed earlier to combat "a national uprising by black militants". It provided for the detention "of at least 21million American Negroes"' in "assembly centres or relocation camps".
Today Mr Brinkerhoff is with the highly influential Anser Institute for Homeland Security. Following a request by the Pentagon in January that the US military be allowed the option of deploying troops on American streets, the institute in February published a paper by Mr Brinkerhoff arguing the legality of this.
He alleged that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which has long been accepted as prohibiting such deployments, had simply been misunderstood and misapplied.
The preface to the article also provided the revelation that the national plan he had worked on, under Mr Giuffrida, was "approved by Reagan, and actions were taken to implement it".
By April, the US military had created a Northern Command to aid Homeland defence. Reuters reported that the command is "mainly expected to play a supporting role to local authorities".
However, Mr Ridge, the Director of Homeland Security, has just advocated a review of US law regarding the use of the military for law enforcement duties.
Disturbingly, the full facts and final contents of Mr Reagan's national plan remain uncertain. This is in part because President Bush took the unusual step of sealing the Reagan presidential papers last November. However, many of the key figures of the Reagan era are part of the present administration, including John Poindexter, to whom Oliver North later reported.
At the time of the Reagan initiatives, the then attorney-general, William French Smith, wrote to the national security adviser, Robert McFarlane: "I believe that the role assigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the revised Executive Order exceeds its proper function as a co-ordinating agency for emergency preparedness ... this department and others have repeatedly raised serious policy and legal objections to an 'emergency czar' role for FEMA."
Criticism of the Bush Administration's response to September11 echoes Mr Smith's warning. On June 7 the former presidential counsel John Dean spoke of America's sliding into a "constitutional dictatorship" and martial law.
Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He revealed exclusively in the Herald last week the Bush Administration's plans for a domestic spying system more pervasive than the Stasi network in East Germany.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html
7/27/02
4:34:55 PM
As Ex-Security Chief Testifies He Was Tortured To Lie
Milosevic Trial Blows Up In Hague Prosecutor's Face
by Jared Israel and Nico Varkevisser at The Hague
Today, as we prepared to post an article about the utter hypocrisy of The Hague "tribunal's" concern for Slobodan Milosevic's health, this "trial of the century" exploded and died.
Now the question is, will it linger in death?
The "tribunal" passed away during the testimony of Rade Markovic, former head of the Department of State Security of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior (the Serbian Secret Service). Markovic (pronounced MARK-oh-vich) was cross-examined today, 26 July, by Slobodan Milosevic.
Mind you, the prosecution called Mr. Markovic to testify. He was "their" witness. That is, for some reason they expected him to testify in their favor. And yet, he testified against them...
1) Mr. Markovic testified that the Milosevic government did *not* try to drive ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo during the NATO bombing. Quite the contrary:
"'I told (local officials) that presidential orders are that the flow of refugees must be stopped,' Markovic said during cross-examination by Milosevic..." (AP, 26 July 2002)
2) Mr. Markovic testified that Milosevic came down hard on anti-Albanian hate crime:
"'More than 200 criminal charges were filed against members of the police, and I think a similar figure stands for the army,' said Markovic..." (AP, Ibid)
Some news wire services reported the above points while trying to downplay their significance.
Earlier, Mr. Markovic had testified that starting in 1997 Mr. Milosevic did not exercise direct, daily control of security police. This testimony was misreported in the press. We shall clarify that when we publish the transcripts of Mr. Markovic's testimony, which will be soon.
But no wire service reported the most shocking revelation.
Prior to being brought to The Hague, Rade Markovic was held in a Belgrade jail for the past 17 months.
Today at The Hague, Mr. Markovic testified that he was tortured in that jail to force him to agree to give false testimony against Slobodan Milosevic.
He also testified that the current Belgrade security police, who work in closest cooperation with "tribunal" prosecutors, offered him and his family a change of identity and a comfortable new life in a foreign land if he would lie against Slobodan Milosevic.
Mr. Markovic said that, at one point, pro-NATO Serbian Interior Minister Mihailovic and his Secret Police chief, Goran Petrovic, showed up at the jail with a squad of secret police. Mr. Markovic said they removed him from the facility - itself a violation of Serbian law - and took him to a private dinner where they made him the offer of a new identity with a luxury life -and no more torture - in exchange for false testimony.
The torture and the bribes would explain why the Prosecution had reason to believe Mr. Markovic was "their" witness.
Stunned to see Markovic defy him, Prosecutor Jeffrey Nice (sic!) asked so-called judge Richard May to do something to stop it. And May did try, interrupting the cross-examination to argue that since "We are talking about Kosovo," the issue of Markovic being tortured to give false testimony (about Milosevic's role in Kosovo) was irrelevant.
As of this writing, not one English-language wire service has reported Markovic's shattering accusations or the amazing response of "judge" May.
Why not?
Could it be because there is no way for them to spin these charges in favor of the "tribunal" ...And thus the charges can't be mentioned.
Doesn't this support our own charge, that the Western media has been the agent of a massive anti-Yugoslav disinformation campaign? Is there any other way to explain their not mentioning that the head of Milosevic's secret service was called to testify against Milosevic and instead testified that he had been tortured to lie?
WHO IS CREDIBLE AND WHO IS NOT
What we find in the wire services is negative spin about Markovic, a blackout regarding his torture, and lies.
Dick Dicker from Human Rights Watch - which, from our direct observation at The Hague, virtually runs the "tribunal" - told Agence France Presse that Markovic's testimony "lacked credibility."
Ahh, is that so, Mr. Dicker?
If Rade Markovic so lacks credibility, why did your "tribunal" call him as a prosecution witness? Indeed, why did they call him as the last prosecution witness before the summer break?
Didn't your side call him because they thought he was theirs? Now, why would they think such a thing, Mr. Dicker?
Rade Markovic was never Slobodan Milosevic's political opponent.
So why was your "tribunal" so confident? Why was Mr. Nice so surprised?
Doesn't it make sense that the "court" expected Rade Markovic to cooperate because, "It is understood that he has had certain experiences in jail and he knows what is in store for him - for the rest of his life - if he defies us." Perhaps the flunkies in Belgrade exaggerated the extent of their success persuading Markovic to cooperate. Flunkies will do that to impress the home office.
Is that why your associates trusted him to cooperate? And is that why you and they were stunned when he didn't, so now you must sputter about Markovic not being credible - and him your own witness!
Speaking of credibility, why wasn't Rade Markovic's stunning charge broadcast on TV in the West?
Why doesn't the media report that Rade Markovic named the two US/West European agents - Mihailovic and Petrovic - who oversaw his torture?
Why doesn't the media broadcast the news - the scoop! - that instead of ordering an immediate investigation and putting Mr. Markovic under protection, instead of taking these minimal steps in accord with most basic justice, instead "judge" May told Markovic to stop wasting time with irrelevancies?
Doesn't "judge" May's reaction testify eloquently to the credibility of what Rade Markovic said?
And as for your own credibility, Mr. Dicker, why don't you demand an investigation of this charge of torture in this "trial of the century"? Aren't you Human *Rights* Watch? And if you don't demand an investigation because you *know* he's lying, why don't you share with the rest of us how it is that you know?
In the same dispatch as Dicker's "non-credible" remark, Agence France Presse reported that:
"Markovic has been temporarily released from prison in Serbia in order to testify at the trial." (AFP, 16 July 2002)
This is called lying by half-truth. AFP left out the fact that Mr. Markovic is now being held in Scheveningen, where the Nazis tortured leading members of the Dutch Resistance during World War Two.
So tonight Rade Markovic is at the mercy of those whom he defied.
As we shall document in a forthcoming article about the unbelievable "suicide" of Slavko Dokmanovic, Serbian leaders have died under suspicious circumstances while incarcerated at The Hague. In giving this testimony, Rade Markovic has risked torture and death.
And what did he gain? A nice job with Milosevic? Good treatment for his family in a Belgrade now controlled by NATO and the Western secret services? Rade Markovic had nothing whatsoever to gain in making these charges and he had everything to lose.
His action today went beyond mere credibility. It was magnificent.
GANGSTERISM
But what of the New World Order?
On 28 June 2001, Slobodan Milosevic was kidnapped from Belgrade.
The Yugoslav Constitutional Court had forbidden his extradition: it would violate the Yugoslav constitution. Nevertheless the "tribunal" and its Belgrade stooges kidnapped him. National constitutions don't count under the New Order. (1)
Mr. Milosevic has been abused in the former Nazi jail at Scheveningen. At times he has been tortured with lights on him, 24 hours a day. He has been denied the basic right to meet advisers of his choice.
One of the authors of this article, Nico Varkevisser, was denied permission to see President Milosevic just this month, despite being the Dutch coordinator for Mr. Milosevic's defense.
Chris Black, head of Milosevic's legal defense group, was banned from visiting Mr. Milosevic by the "tribunal", one of whose officials suggested at a press conference last year that the criterion for deciding whether a lawyer could see Mr. Milosevic was whether the "tribunal" believed he or she would have a "good effect" on the prisoner.
President Milosevic is forbidden access to the Internet or a library. His research tool is a pay telephone near his cell.
For five months we have seen an endless parade of blatantly disreputable "witnesses." Some are officials of NATO governments or organizations associated with NATO. It was NATO that bombed Yugoslavia including Kosovo. And NATO spokesperson, Jamie Shea, once boasted that NATO runs the "tribunal." (2)
Other "witnesses" have been Kosovo Liberation Army terrorists, or members of their front groups. That's whom the Milosevic government was fighting on the ground while NATO bombed from the air...
And now we have this case, the abuse of Rade Markovic.
Really, is there a greater disgrace, morally or professionally, than to be part of this "tribunal" or to defend it in the media or through some phony human rights group that fawns and scurries to serve the gangster bullies?
Slobodan Milosevic and Rade Markovic are imprisoned in Scheveningen. On a stone in that former Nazi prison a member of the Dutch Resistance engraved the following words:
"In deze bajes zit geen gajes, maar Hollands glorie, potjandorie."
which means:
"In this prison there are no criminals, but only the glory of Holland."
Let the NATO masters be careful how they treat Slobodan Milosevic and Rade Markovic.
- Jared Israel & Nico Varkevisser are Vice Chairpersons, International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic (ICDSM)
More Reading:
1) The kidnapping of Mr. Milosevic: http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/treas.htm
2) For the press conference in which Jamie Shea indicated that NATO controls the "tribunal," see "Official Statements Prove Hague 'Tribunal' Belongs to NATO" at:
http://www.icdsm.org/more/belongs.htm
Source: http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/rade.htm
7/27/02
4:28:09 PM
Dear All,
Please be advised that August 2002 letters have been posted on our website,
http://www.earthactionnetwork.org
We appreciate each and every one of you for your participation and your dedication to making our world a better place. Although sometimes the effort may seem daunting, we owe it to ourselves, our children, and to all those whose voices may not be heard, to keep at it!
It is important for your U.S. elected representatives to hear from you...otherwise they would mostly be listening to the corporate media and their large campaign contributors!
James Shvarts
webmaster, Earth Action Network
7/27/02
4:26:29 PM
Trouble Tree
I hired a plumber to help me restore an old farmhouse. He had a rough first day on the job: a flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit, and his ancient one-ton truck refused to start.
While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.
When he opened his door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles, and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward, he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, those troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and our children."
"So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home, and I ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning, I pick them up again.
"Funny thing is," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before."
7/27/02
4:22:14 PM
Information Resilience And Homeland Security
Freedom of information may be a double-edged sword, but restricting information has only one edge - and it cuts off the lifeblood of a healthy democracy.
by Richard Forno, May 09, 2002
In the current security-conscious environment, many people seem willing to sacrifice their most fundamental democratic rights to support anything that is promoted as good for homeland security. In many cases, an unwillingness to do so is perceived as being ‘unpatriotic’. However, as has been pointed out in this column many times since September 11, we must make sure that we are not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. More to the point, while fulfilling reasonable patriotic duty, we must be sure that we continue to hold our government and corporations accountable for their actions, despite the fact that current challenges may appear to demand unflappable unity in the face of external attack.
Post September 11, there has been a strong push by government security and law enforcement agencies to restrict or withhold any sort of information that could possibly used to engage in or further terrorist activities. Of course, in a society whose primary political and legal principle is supposed to be freedom of speech, this can quickly become problematic.
Particularly problematic is the fact that much of the contentious information is available on the Web sites of some of the large corporations that operate America’s critical infrastructures. Why is this a concern? Because the government is currently proposing laws that will give such companies exemption from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for certain information. In other words, the government is proposing protecting certain corporate information from prying eyes, including yours and mine. The public has a right to know information that may directly affect their lives. Sound far-fetched? Remember the weeks after 9/11 when news reports surfaced that the US government was asking libraries to destroy CDs and databases that contained information about various critical infrastructures in America. How about when the Bush Administration asked federal agencies to review and remove potentially damaging information from their Web sites? Or when the government asked watchdog groups like the Federation of American Scientists to remove sensitive information from their sites.
For example, chemical plants and nuclear power facilities removed ‘sensitive’ reports and documentation about public health, environmental safety, and facility security from their websites, allegedly to preclude a terrorist from obtaining information for malicious purposes. Absent many such reports, how will the public, watchdog groups, or regulatory or enforcement agencies be able to monitor for potential problems that affect the public? The fear here is that, under the guise of ‘national security’ the government is actually allowing corporations to avoid scrutiny by and accountability to the taxpaying public that is, in effect, paying for the critical infrastructures. Come to think of it, perhaps Enron was getting a head start by shredding documents in the name of homeland security to avoid anyone discovering how it really operated large parts of America’s critical energy infrastructures?
The attempt to provide national security by obscuring corporate information has resonance in the information security world. It brings to mind the full disclosure debate, which pits the security community’s need to know about problems as quickly as possible against corporations’ interests in maintaining positive public perception and market share. Without the real-time information-sharing ventures that full disclosure enables, system administrators are placed in a ‘holding pattern’, and are kept in the dark until (umm, errr, if…) a vendor decides to acknowledge and address a reported problem.
Both the attempt to circumvent the FOIA and to muzzle full disclosure sound very effective at thwarting evil, but in reality neither effectively enhances public security. The community in general – be it computer users or society at large – must be able to obtain raw information about issues that potentially affect their well-being, whether that means chemical spills or the latest Windows exploits. The general public cannot be solely dependent on any one entity for information. Going down that path creates an environment of security through ignorance.
Despite the sensational management hype calling for this approach, it rarely works in reality. People quickly forget that anything that a person can use (from a knife to airplanes to automobiles and knowledge) can be used to endanger others, provided malicious intent is present. However, dealing with the tiny number of people capable of such malice should not mean forcing the remaining majority into a society in which information of public interest is withheld out of fear. Law abiding citizens in a healthy democracy should not be destined to live in ignorance that is encouraged by corporations and enforced by governments.
In the United States, and elsewhere in the world, the public has a right to know information that may directly affect their lives. If a GAO report says airport security is bad, travelers should know about it. If a safety report says that it’s too easy for someone to break into a chemical plant and cause an accident, the local residents should know about it. If a dangerous vulnerability is discovered in a widely utilized operating system, systems administrators should know about it. The list goes on. The right to self-protection is fundamental to the right to self-determination. By allowing corporations to withhold crucial infrastructure information, the government may be complicitous in depriving its citizenry of its most fundamental right. Indeed, as Paul McMasters wrote in a Freedom Forum article, denial of access shushes the democratic dialogue that is part of what makes America so attractive to its citizens and those wishing to come here.
Terrorism, by its very definition, is unconventional. Contrary to popular belief, there’s no way to guard against every single form of attack. Nor is it possible, or desirable, to withhold from public view all knowledge that could be used for malfeasance. Information - like knowledge - is a double-edged sword. The vast majority of those interested in information regarding America’s critical infrastructures are not terrorists. They should not be branded as potential terrorists or evildoers by government actions that restrict their ability to access such materials. It may be trite to say it at this point in time, nearly eight months after the September attacks, but it is true nevertheless: if we use the events of September 11 to deny the basics rights and freedoms of a healthy democracy, the terrorists will have won.
7/27/02
4:16:45 PM
Bush Would Allow Businesses To Withhold Health, Safety Data
by Paul McMasters
At a time when the public and elected officials alike are clamoring for more disclosure and accountability in the corporate world, a little-noted provision in legislation establishing a Department of Homeland Security could make corporate dealings even more obscure and less accountable.
Despite criticism from members of Congress and public-interest and press groups, the administration is insisting on "information-sharing" language for the legislation that would allow the new department to exempt businesses from the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act when voluntarily submitting "critical infrastructure information" to the department.
The FOIA exemption, pushed by the technology industry, utilities, financial services firms, manufacturers and others, also would free businesses from the disclosure requirements of local and state laws — and grant them immunity from civil liability for violations of securities, tax, civil rights, environmental, labor, consumer protection, health and safety laws that might be revealed in the information they provide.
More importantly, it would deny to the public crucial information about hazardous materials, chemical releases, toxic spills and other threats to health and safety — as well as vulnerabilities to terrorism and sabotage. There would be a real risk that critical infrastructure vulnerabilities would be worse if the public can't access information about how private businesses are running nuclear and chemical plants, refineries, water systems and other facilities located in thousands of neighborhoods across the land.
In other words, this exemption would not be your ordinary loophole but rather a standing invitation for companies with something to hide to label incriminating material as "critical infrastructure information" and put it beyond the reach of the public, the press, the Congress and the courts.
In a letter to members of Congress, 10 press organizations warned that such an exemption "is ripe for misuse and abuse" and that "the public's interest is hardly served by such secrecy."
There is a long list of reasons why writing this exemption into the homeland security legislation is no way for the government to do business.
First among them is the fact that such an exemption is unnecessary, as administration officials have conceded. The FOIA already exempts from disclosure real national security information as well as trade secrets and confidential business information. Further, the courts are consistently deferential to such claims.
Massive amounts of government information already have been withdrawn from the public and press in the last few months. Proposals for even more denial of access, especially if the rationale advanced is for national security, should be looked at closely. For example, the current proposal is very similar to legislation to exempt critical infrastructure information introduced in Congress long before Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism.
The federal government has been granted expanded authority to wiretap telephones, eavesdrop on e-mail traffic, monitor Web site visits, mine private databases and check up on the reading habits of American citizens. In addition, the Justice Department has proposed a citizen informant project in which a million letter carriers, meter readers, cable installers and others who routinely enter our homes would be trained to spot and report "suspicious" activity.
Ironically, while private citizens are being told to be content with less privacy and access, private businesses are being offered greater privacy and less accountability. This generous gesture toward the private sector comes in the wake of a series of unsettling revelations about corporate abuses that have cost the economy and millions of Americans dearly. Granting private businesses more secrecy and immunity could cost our security dearly.
Certainly, there are secrets that must be kept — information that would indeed harm the U.S. and help its enemies if disclosed. But truly dangerous information already is protected from disclosure.
Without access to the kind of information that would be exempted in this proposal, there is no accountability for mistakes and misdeeds, no public pressure to address critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, and no informed discourse on policies that impact dramatically on public life.
That means that critical vulnerabilities would not be identified, the solutions proposed would not be known, and any efforts to fix them would go unchecked.
If Congress approves this exemption, it will have abdicated its oversight responsibilities and embraced the idea that the private sector must be given a pass on compliance with access laws to encourage it do its part in the war on terrorism. More importantly, it will have diminished the role of American citizens as full partners in the democratic process.
Paul McMasters is the First Amendment Ombudsman at the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center
Source: http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/opinion/3698314.htm
7/27/02
4:04:19 PM
"People talk peace. But men give their life's work to war. It won't stop 'til there is as much brains and scientific study put to aid peace as there is to promote war."
Will Rogers
7/27/02
4:02:26 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
CANADA CLAIMS SOFTWOOD LUMBER WIN
OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, July 26, 2002 (ENS) - The United States effort to put import duties on Canadian softwood lumber appears to have been dealt a blow today by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-26-02.asp
REPORT: CORPS PROJECTS NEED EXTERNAL REVIEW
WASHINGTON, DC, July 26, 2002 (ENS) - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should seek external scientific reviews of its most costly, complex and controversial planning studies, concludes a new report from the National Research Council. The reviews should be made public, and the Corps should respond in writing to each key element, added the committee that wrote the report.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-26-06.asp
FLOODS DISPLACE THOUSANDS OF VENEZUELANS
CARACAS, Venezuela, July 26, 2002 (ENS) - More than 20,000 additional residents have been displaced from continued flooding in southwest Venezuela, bringing the total to 50,000 people affected by the floods. The hardest hit region remains Apure State, where five people have been killed.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-26-03.asp
VOLCANO ERUPTS ON GOMA'S DOORSTEP AGAIN
NAIROBI, Kenya, July 26, 2002 (ENS) - United Nations officials are monitoring an active volcano that began erupting Thursday night near the eastern Congolese city of Goma, which was largely destroyed by another volcano earlier this year.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-26-04.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 26, 2002
CHEMICAL, NUCLEAR SECURITY BILLS PASS COMMITTEE
SPIKED PLUTONIUM MIMICS AGING WEAPONS
FEDS CALL MANATEE SETTLEMENT ILLEGAL
NATION'S OLDEST CATTLE RANCH PROTECTS FORESTS
PANEL URGES PUBLIC WARNINGS ABOUT MERCURY IN TUNA
RADIOS LEAD RESEARCHERS TO MURRELET NESTS
ILLEGAL FISH IMPORTS BRING INDICTMENT
FISH IN LEWIS AND CLAR'S FOOTSTEPS
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-26-09.asp
7/27/02
4:00:32 PM
Dr. Helen Caldicott and the Nuclear Policy Research Institute continue to work hard to get the word about the nuclear weapons and nuclear energy industries into the mainstream media.
Although there is so much more to do, we're especially excited to announce that Dr. Caldicott has made headway into the mass media. The response has already been overwhelming and gratifying, even though even bigger appearances are yet to come. Dr. Caldicott's speech before a rapt audience at the University of Vermont has already been played twice by C-Span, and we've been flooded with emails from people wanting to help or donate following those broadcasts.
In the following few weeks, Dr. Caldicott will be making two major national media appearances to talk about NPRI and the state of nuclear issues:
*LARRY KING LIVE: On Saturday, July 27, Dr. Caldicott will be Larry King's guest. You can tune in to CNN at 6:00 and 9:00 pm, and 12:00 a.m PST to see her talk with Larry about NPRI, her new book "The New Nuclear Danger." Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy will share this time with Dr. Caldicott as an opposing view.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/larry.king.live/
*DONAHUE: On Tuesday, August 6, Dr. Caldicott will tape the Donahue show. After a hiatus from television, Donahue is back and enabling the world to hear from voices too often ignored by conservative media outlets. His show airs weeknights at 8pm on MSNBC. We're pleased that Dr. Caldicott will be on his show when it is only a month old. As of this mailing the airning date is not known please, check the website for the airing time.
We invite you to tune into these and tell us and the broadcast stations what you think! These appearances will be great opportunities for the general public to become reacquainted with Dr. Caldicott, but they are only a start. She, and others, need to make many more appearances before the major media so that forgotten nuclear dangers once again become part of the public consciousness. To that end, NPRI is still in a fundraising stage, and we invite you to make a tax-deductible donation of whatever amount you can afford to NPRI at www.nuclearpolicy.org. Just as importantly, tell your friends about Dr. Caldicott's mission and NPRI's work, and ask them to tune in to shows like Larry King Live and Donahue.
Mark your calendar for Sept. 11, 2002. - Leadership & Hope in the Age of Terrorism: An Evening with Dr. Helen Caldicott. Dr. Caldicott will be speaking at the Herbst Theater, San Francisco, CA, 7:30pm. Call 415-392-4400 for tickets.
7/27/02
3:56:22 PM
Investment Espionage And The White House
Bush Administration Links To Pre-9/11 Insider Trading
by Tom Flocco, July 16, 2002
There is growing evidence that the FBI and other government intelligence entities are more closely linked to the documented accumulation of pre-9/11 insider trading profits than was originally thought. But thus far the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee has not publicly referred to prior knowledge of the attacks as it relates to stock transaction profits, while also failing after nine months to publicize the critical Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “control list” report tracing what in effect were stock trading profits of death.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spokesman Tom Crispell denied that the CIA was monitoring “real-time,” pre-September 11 stock trading activity within U.S. borders using such software as the Prosecutor’s Management Information System (PROMIS) or the Echelon satellite monitoring system. However, when asked whether the CIA had been scrutinizing world financial markets for national security purposes, Crispell replied, “I have no way of knowing what operations are [being affected by our assets] outside the country.” Given 3,000 deaths, victim family lawyers may want to know.
CIA AND 9/11 INVESTMENT ESPIONAGE?
A January 23, 2002 Houston Chronicle report revealed that Enron Corporation’s top security team, including four former CIA officers and an ex-FBI agent left the company to form a private firm, Secure Solutions International (SSI), while continuing with Enron via a consulting contract. John W. Presley, the FBI agent now heading SSI could not be reached for comment. But the team probed a “variety of allegations of fraud and other kinds of rule-breaking by Enron workers,” according to the Chronicle.
Team member and former CIA agent David M. Cromley’s business biography at Enron listed him as Enron’s director of business analysis, the Chronicle reported, adding that Cromley gave Enron executives “detailed and unique information” allowing them to make “investments, sales of assets, joint ventures and [financial] products.”
But no public information has been forthcoming as to whether such “detailed and unique information” or sensitive CIA software was used in conjunction with Enron’s controversial off-shore investment products, or whether their missing assets may have been employed in what former German Minister of Technology, Andreas von Bulow, estimated at $15 billion in insider trading profits. (Tagesspiegel, Berlin, 1-13-2002) Von Bulow then buttressed his astounding charges: “26 intelligence services in the U.S. with a budget of $30 billion....For 60 decisive minutes, the military and intelligence let fighter jets stay on the ground....48 hours later, however, the FBI presented a list of suicide hijackers. But within ten days, it emerged that seven of them were still alive.”
An examination of SSI’s website reveals that its corporate members have “managed cutting-edge counterterrorism and counterproliferation operations for the CIA, implemented advanced technical information and security programs for the CIA, and conducted a wide range of investigations for the FBI,” while also “overseeing all security arrangements for several large gas pipeline companies.”
It is yet to be determined if Congress will publicly question CIA Director George Tenent as to whether CIA and FBI employees were "loaned" to Enron's corporate espionage program, involved in personal pre-9/11 insider trading, or merely relaying sensitive insider political information to others involved in prior knowledge of the attacks. However, victim family lawyers will likely be forced to subpoena government documents and officials to effectively prosecute any negligence claims against government entities.
The fraud-racked Enron Corporation has had at least 20 CIA agents on the payroll in the last eight years. But while the Houston Chronicle reported the operatives as “former” CIA, a February 26, 2002 National Enquirer story quoted a top Washington insider familiar with several secret investigations into Enron, as reporting that they were given “leaves of absence without pay and put on the Enron payroll.”
The source added that Enron’s CIA members used “info gleaned from a satellite project called ‘Echelon,’ which intercepted emails, phone calls and faxes with detailed business information,” adding that “pure and simple, [taxpayer-funded] U.S. intelligence agents were involved in corporate espionage.” Another Enquirer source with ties to the CIA revealed that "the cozy deal between Enron and the CIA allowed the 'on-loan' undercover operatives to return to the Agency's payroll before Enron's collapse."
Known CIA links traverse a curious variety of unexamined threads in the U.S. financial community. Online Journal’s Larry Chin (2-1-2002), reminded that [mega-money conglomerate] “Citigroup has repeatedly been charged with money laundering. This, as it’s Board of Directors includes John Deutch, former CIA Director, Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary and intimate friend of Enron’s Ken Lay, but also former CIA Executive Director Nora Slatkin.”
Even Congress has a close CIA link. Senate Joint Intelligence Co-Chairman Bob Graham and his House Intelligence Co-Chairman and former CIA operative Porter Goss were meeting with the Chief of the Pakistani Intelligence Service on the morning of the Sept.11 attacks, according to published reports. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room.
SENATE AND HOUSE LINKS TO TERRORISTS
Worrisome reports link two intelligence leaders in the Senate and House directly to the leader of Pakistan's intelligence arm, The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and indirectly to the leader of the 9/11 Hijackers.
A Times of India (10-12-2001) story by Manoj Joshi revealed that Pakistani ISA Director-General Lt. General Mahmud Ahmad sought retirement after the U.S. attacks -- confirmed by top sources in India, because of evidence produced by India showing his links to Mohammed Atta, the terrorist hijacking leader.
The Times said that "U.S. authorities sought his [Ahmad's] removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 was wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh on the instructions of ISI Lt. General Ahmad." Senior [U.S.] government sources "have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief."
The Times added that "while they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh's mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link."
Serious questions remain, however, as Senate Joint Intelligence Co-Chairman Bob Graham (D-FL) and his House Intelligence Co-Chairman and former CIA operative Porter Goss (R-FL) were meeting with ISI Chief, Lt. General Mahmud Ahmad, on the very morning of the September 11 attacks, according to published reports. (New York Times, 2-17-2002 & MSNBC-TV, 10-7-2001).
Since Graham and Goss are Co-Chairmen of the Joint-Intelligence Committee investigating the 9/11 attacks, difficulties could arise when the Congressional Open Intelligence Hearings commence in mid-September, and whether other Members will have the courage to seek testimony from the Chairmen of their own Committee, regarding their questionable links to the U.S. terrorism.
Thus far, Graham and Goss will have been able to postpone open hearings for over one year, as they are currently scheduled to start near the end of September. Moreover, devastated and grieving 9/11 victim families have been unable to hold Congress accountable to seek justice, while hearings have continued behind closed doors in a sound-proof room at the Capitol.
Other members of the Joint Intelligence Committee could be placed in the uncomfortable position of having to call Graham and Goss to testify as to why they were meeting -- on the morning of the attacks -- with the Pakistani ISI Chief, who was having money wired into the United States to support the efforts of the leader of the terrorist hijackers while the attacks were in progress!
Other Committee Members would likely be interested in what was said at the meeting with Lt. Gen. Ahmad, and more about his relationship with Graham and Goss, given Ahmad's links to Mohammed Atta.
These and other growing connections indicating prior knowledge of the attacks also make a case for how the profits of death were accumulated by insider trading via the United States Stock Market. This, while the SEC will not release its "Control List" of suspicious stock trades involving companies and airlines directly related to the attacks.
FBI AGENTS INDICTED IN 9/11-LINKED STOCK SCHEME
On the heels of alleged CIA involvement in public stock trading and use of sensitive prior knowledge of last fall’s attacks, 13 days ago on May 22, FBI agents Jeffrey A. Royer and Lynn Wingate were charged with racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. Royer was also charged with extortion, according to an examination of an unsealed federal indictment: United States vs. Elgindy, Royer, Wingate, Cleveland, and Peters, filed in New York District Court by Alan Vinegard, United States Attorney -- all of which clouds either open or secret congressional probes of pre-attack insider trading profits.
Vinegard’s news release said “the allegations reveal a shocking partnership between an experienced stock manipulator and law enforcement agents, undertaken for their illicit personal financial gain.” Moreover, Royer and Wingate allegedly used the FBI’s Automated Case Support database to actually monitor the investigation, passing confidential information about the investigations of companies to participants in a stock manipulation scheme, according to the Washington Post. (5-23-2002)
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Breen said stock advisor Amr Ibrahim Elgindy, charged in the indictment, called his Salomon Smith Barney broker, trying to sell $300,000 in stock from his children’s trust funds on the afternoon of Sept.10. During the conversation, Elgindy “predicted that the Dow Jones industrial average, which at the time stood at about 9,600, would soon crash to below 3,000,” according to the New York Times, (5-25-2002), thus begging the question whether Congress will publicly disclose other indications of alleged CIA or FBI complicity in prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.
NSA DESTROYING 9/11 DATA ON AMERICANS AND U.S. COMPANIES
Two individuals with close intelligence ties told the Boston Globe (10-27-2001) that since September 11, the super secret National Security Agency (NSA), acting on the advice of their lawyers, have been destroying data collected on American citizens and corporations, angering other intelligence agencies seeking leads in the anti-terrorist probe. Two calls by American Free Press to Joint-Congressional Intelligence Committee Ranking Member, Senator Richard Shelby, to confirm details revealed by the sources were unreturned.
Since the October Globe report, no other media outlet has examined the heated discussions with the CIA and intelligence committee staff members, as NSA lawyers turned down requests to preserve the intelligence because regulations prohibit data collecting on Americans, inviting lawsuits, according to the two former senior U.S. officials. However, Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA Director of Counter-terrorism, told Scoop Media that “the law allows [intelligence officials] exceptions in certain circumstances.” Both the CIA and FBI had declined comment.
Cannistraro added that “If American citizens are believed to be involved in some way in a foreign intelligence operation that could lead to terrorism against this country, I believe the NSA is required to save or maintain the information.” When asked about the NSA and the 9/11 attacks, the former CIA official told Scoop. “In this case, I believe they should have saved the surveillance data.” Congress has been tight-lipped, and government investigators are extremely frustrated that many possible leads stemming from the Sept.11 attack were not being followed because of the NSA position.
RELEASING THE SEC "CONTROL" LIST
According to the San Francisco Chronicle (10-19-01), the SEC privately asked North American securities firms to participate in an information-sharing system to trace “large numbers of trades in securities of companies [directly] affected by the attacks. Curiously, however, the SEC asked companies “to designate senior personnel who appreciate ‘the sensitive nature’ of the case [pre-attack insider trading], and can be relied upon to ‘exercise appropriate discretion,’ as ‘point’ people linking government investigators and the [securities] industry.” Then the SEC asked for the names, titles, phone numbers and e-mail of the designated senior personnel, according to reporter Scott Winokur.
On October 2, 2001, Canadian securities officials confirmed that the SEC had asked firms to review records for 38 companies, suggesting that some buyers and sellers might have had advance knowledge of the attacks, according to Winokur. A Scoop examination of the Center for Public Integrity’s financial records of the top 100 Bush Administration officials reveals ownership of millions of dollars in these 38 stocks which would not be different from any other wealthy American.
However, Congress has thus far refused to make public what the Chronicle reported as an SEC “control list” containing confidential information about transactions, individuals, relationships, and entities identified by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the probe. The existence of the SEC list would still be a secret if not for an accidental leak via the Canadian securities officials.
There is as yet no reporting regarding whether the “entities” were SPE’s linked to Enron. The SEC added, “Because the control list contains confidential information, we ask that you disseminate it within your institution only on a need-to-know basis.” But Congress or the Courts may ultimately decide whether the families of Sept.11 also need to know the identities of individuals with prior knowledge -- allegedly involved in the profits of death.
The Wall Street Journal (10-2-2002) reported that the Secret Service was also probing an unusually high volume of five-year U.S. Treasury note purchases made prior to the attacks -- one purchase included a single $5 billion trade. The Journal called Treasury notes among the best investments in the event of a world crisis, with their value having risen substantially since September 11. Moreover, the Associated Press reported that a German Central Bank study strongly pointed to “terrorism insider trading” not only in airline and insurance companies but also in gold and oil futures. Will Congress chalk it up to coincidence?
DEUTSCHEBANK & MAYER, BROWN & PLATT
The evidence linking Deutschebank to the terrorists and insider trading is clearly quite extraordinary: 1) The lead hijacker pilot and two accomplices had bank accounts at its Hamburg branch, 2) One of its unnamed private investors never claimed $2.5 million in United Airlines put option contract profits following the attacks, 3) Its global “private banking” chief Mayo Shattuck III, resigned the day following the attacks in the middle of a three-year $40 million contract, 4) It hired away SEC enforcement and investigation chief Richard Walker just 20 days after the attacks, 5) Its recent senior investment banker Kevin Ingram pled guilty to money laundering involving Stinger missiles and multiple varieties of arms sales to Pakistani and Egyptian citizens just 14 days prior to Sept.11, and 6) Deutschebank was heavily involved in the 9/11 insider trading but Congress has not questioned former Alex (A.B.) Brown division head A. B. “Buzzy” Krongard -- appointed by George Bush as Executive Director (number three) of the CIA -- regarding intelligence and “real-time” stock trade monitoring. [note: all evidence in the above paragraph is sourced in the "Profits of Death" series on pre-9/11 criminal insider trading, Parts I, II, III, at www.copvcia.com -- Sept. 11 Section]
European reporters found that most of the suspicious pre-attack trades passed through Deutschebank and especially via CIA Executive Director A.B. Krongard’s former Alex Brown investment division by means of a procedure called portage, which assures the anonymity of individuals making the transactions. But Congress has not publicly revealed whether they will call Krongard and other Alex Brown traders to testify in open hearings, or whether they will subpoena the pre-attack documents in question.
CFO.com, an online site for corporate executives, revealed on 1-28-2002 that Deutschebank was a limited partner in either the controversial Enron special purpose entities (SPEs), LJM or Chewco -- those off balance sheets and off-shore products heavily involved in Enron’s demise, and run by Enron CFO Andrew Fastow. This begs the question as to whether Congress or the Courts will determine whether missing funds from Enron were possibly part of a scheme to develop funds to profit from the air attacks -- given the many interwoven ties between Enron and Deutschebank.
CFO.com also revealed that a former Enron employee prepared an SEC filing, having deleted Deutschebank’s name from LJM version sent to the SEC. But curiously, “that deletion was made at the behest of William McLucas, former SEC enforcement director, hired by Enron after the attacks on October 31. The former employee also claims to have received instructions to destroy the draft of the SEC filing. But not a public word from Congress.
IS JOHN P. SCHMITZ A KEY PLAYER?
John P. Schmitz, George H.W. Bush’s former Deputy Counsel during the Elder’s Vice-Presidency and Presidency, will likely be a key player if Americans force Congress to become serious about its 9/11 probe. Some may remember Schmitz from the Iran/contra investigation, when the Office of the Independent Counsel (OIC) reported that each witness interviewed regarding document production complied except for Schmitz, who asserted that his documents were privileged work product.
Schmitz, fluent in German and a Partner in global-law firm Mayer, Brown & Platt, has clients that include Bayer AG (German maker of the antibiotic Cipro which fights Anthrax, about which Larry Klayman and Judicial Watch (JW) will have keen interest. Recently, JW filed suit seeking the Administration’s anthrax documents to ascertain why the White House starting taking heavy doses of Cipro the day of the attacks -- nearly a month before anthrax was even discovered on Capitol Hill, and while postal workers continued to sort mail in contaminated offices -- some dying in the process.
But John Schmitz’s Mayer-Brown profile also reveals that he represents Enron, adding that “we were active in Germany [with Enron] until the end....It [bankruptcy] surprised me as well as anyone else,” according to Reuters (1-4-2002). Moreover, Mayer-Brown also represents Deutschebank on a regular basis regarding its electronic commerce activities; and curiously, Schmitz’s law firm maintains an office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan along with Enron -- if only to make sure oil is well in the Caspian Sea basin.
Even many 9/11 victim families will even come to recognize Mayer-Brown; for conveniently, the firm also happens to represent United Airlines against 9/11 family lawyers Mary Schiavo and Donald Nolan. And given partner John P. Schmitz’s close former relationships with the Bush family, Mayer-Brown’s many water coolers may become intriguing conduits when Miss Schiavo and Mr. Nolan begin their respective legal discovery initiatives regarding who will be subpoenaed or deposed and what evidence is or is not revealed.
SOFT OR AGGRESSIVE INVESTIGATION?
In an interview with Scoop Media, former Washington, DC United States Attorney Joseph de Genova took a hard line, saying “If the Congress does not want to get answers to these critical questions regarding who profited [from prior knowledge of the attacks], then it needs to be litigated.” And asked whether Americans have a right to know who sold large blocks of stock shares in companies and airlines directly affected by the attacks or purchased billions in ultra-safe Treasury notes directly prior to 9/11, de Genova added, “I believe someone will litigate the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) issue related to the Ashcroft memo, if government agencies keep obstructing the media -- the sooner, the better.”
While thousands of American families, victimized by terrorism, still remain numb with grief, information is being advanced daily regarding what could be described by some as casual, if not negligent, long-term slipshod governmental responsiveness to fundamental internal national security and safety questions -- or worse. But even if they come out of their secret, sound-proof Capitol bunker into the light of open hearings, questions still remain as to whether they have the courage to forcefully seek answers to the real unanswered questions.
Yes, we’ve come a long way from those pre-attack United and American Airline put and call ratio arguments about “lucky bets”-- for the evidence regarding profits of death is intriguing. This is real serious stuff. But curiously, both the President and Vice-President have lobbied mightily for only one joint investigative committee instead of multiple and bicameral, Enron-style hearings. Maybe we’ll get a stacked-deck, wink-and-a-nod, “blue ribbon” panel. Only time will tell. But as the First Lady always reminds us: “Don’t worry. Just tell your children they’re safe.”
Tom Flocco is an independent investigative journalist.
Contact him via email at: mailto:TomFlocco@cs.com
Kyle F. Hence contributed additional research.
Unanswered Questions: http://www.unansweredquestions.org
7/27/02
3:49:17 PM
TomPaine.com
Check out the new design in the interior pages! Like it? Hate it? Let us know at editor@tompaine.com!
CONGRESS, CAMPAIGN CASH, AND CORPORATE REFORM
Can Congress Serve Two Masters?
by Steven Rosenfeld
Just when the public might expect Congress to protect their retirement savings and shore up the economy, top lawmakers are privately raising money from the very business interests they're denouncing in public.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6067
A DEMOCRATIC SWEEP IN NOVEMBER? FORGET IT
Not Even FDR Would Recognize Today's Democrats
by Richard Blow
Democratic leaders say they'll win big this fall. Here's why the party's candidates lack credibility on key populist issues.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6065
IT'S TIME TO FEDERALIZE CORPORATE CHARTERS
Delaware And Other States Aren't Tough Enough
by Kent Greenfield
If Bush and Congress are serious about reforming corporate behavior and protecting the public interest, they cannot leave corporate chartering in state hands.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6081
BUSH ADOPTS HYPOCRISY
If Adoption Is So Important, Why Not Invite A Foster Child To The White House?
by David Corn
Bush recently garnered warm and fuzzy PR by hyping his pro-adoption Web site. But if he truly cared about the plight of orphans and foster children, he'd send the $34 million we owe to the United Nations Population Fund.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6087
WHY UNILATERALISM WILL ERODE AMERICA'S INFLUENCE
What Happens When The Big Cheese Stands Alone?
by Jim Lobe
The more Washington indulges its unilateralist and military instincts, the faster its hyperpower status will erode.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6071
CAPITALISM WITHOUT CONSCIENCE
It's Time For American Business To Clean Up Its Act by Arianna Huffington
There has got to be a very special place in hell for corporations willing to sacrifice the health of their customers on the altar of increased profits.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6062
WHOOPS! HOW THE NEW YORK MEDIA GOT THE STORY WRONG
In Defense Of Rich White Kids
by Michael Ryan
"He fit the profile: fancy home, expensive boat, nice clothes. The fact that he was guilty of none of the things he was accused of did not stop the media from blackening his name, perhaps forever."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6063
REDISCOVERY OF THE COMMONS
by David Bollier
The commons movement is about re-conceptualizing what should be public and shared and what limits should constrain the expansion of markets.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6016
7/27/02
3:45:03 PM
Warmest Seas On Record Stress Great Barrier Reef
Australia researching if reef can survive ‘bleaching’
MSNBC Staff And Wire Reports, July 25, 2002
Sydney, Australia — Sea temperatures around Australia’s Great Barrier Reef early this year were the warmest on record, scientists reported Thursday, and a developing El Nino weather system poses a further threat to the reef’s temperature-sensitive coral. Government scientists said warmer temperatures stressed 60 percent of the coral on the reef, the world’s largest living organism at 133,300 square miles.
The coral becomes stressed, or bleached, when warmer temperatures break down the symbiotic relationship between coral and algae living inside. During bleaching, the algae leaves the coral, disrupting the growth as well as color of the coral, leaving it white. In severe cases the coral will die. The report comes from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, which just completed an atlas of sea temperatures over the past decade and amalgamated it with historical data to show 2002 was the warmest year for water temperatures off northeast Australia since 1870. “Unless the corals can adapt and become acclimatized, then obviously the long-term future for the coral is at risk,” said Craig Steinberg, an oceanographer at AIMS, an Australian government agency. “The outlook isn’t good. If coral can’t adapt then they’re going to bleach and you get mass mortality.” The sea temperature over the last century has risen by just half a degree Celsius. But corals tend to live within 1 to 2 degrees of their maximum temperature threshold, and a tiny increase is therefore enough to ensure a major impact.
WORSE THAN 1998?
Bleaching in early 2002 covered 60 percent of the reef, even more than the 1998 event that made headlines worldwide. “Until now, the coral bleaching episode in 1998 was the worst on record,” researcher Ray Berkelmans, who headed an aerial survey of the reef, reported in May. “But the 2002 event was probably worse because more reef area was affected. The most severe bleaching occurred on reefs close to shore in both bleaching events, but the 2002 event has affected a greater area of reefs further offshore.” On the positive side, it appeared likely that most reefs would recover with only a minor number of coral deaths. The 1998 bleaching was tied to an El Nino, which warms the waters of the Pacific. The onset of another El Nino this year, albeit one that U.S. experts say is likely to be mild, has increased the chances of another southern hemisphere summer of high sea water temperatures at the start of 2003.
GLOBAL WARMING
The bleaching in early 2002 was not during an El Nino year, making the high temperatures even more unusual. AIMS climate expert Janice Lough said that points to another possible culprit: global warming. “Reef managers can do all they can to reduce all the other threats to coral reefs but they can’t solve individually the global problem (of climate change),” said Lough. Whether warming is part of a natural climate shift, or due to human emissions of certain gases like carbon dioxide, is still being debated. “We still do not know the relationship between global warming and natural variability,” said Penehuro Lefale, a researcher with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. “So it’s a bit too early to look at that.” Speaking to reporters at a conference hosted by SeaWeb, a marine science advocacy group, Lefale appealed to South Pacific governments to resist financial pressure to remove long-standing weather stations, arguing that they will provide the historical data needed to study the climate change connection.
ADAPTABILITY RESEARCH
Coral can recover after mild bleaching but researchers fear that its ability to overcome heat stress may be weakened if high temperatures become more common. This image taken last February shows Great Barrier Reef coral that has bleached due to warmer temperatures. AIMS researchers are trying to establish whether coral has the ability to adapt quickly to changing temperatures. There is evidence that they can over long periods of time, but so far no indication of any short-term ability to acclimatize. Long-term adaptation could see some types of coral die-off and be replaced by more resilient coral. “It’s not so much that the reef will die, it’s that the reef will change,” Lough said. “If you sort of knock out certain of the corals then other organisms might take their place.” Terry Done, AIMS’ lead researcher on bleaching, called for more research but wasn’t hopeful about the reef’s future. “We may be witnessing the beginning of a slow-motion degradation of the reef system that will only get worse in coming decades,” he said last May.
REEFS ELSEWHERE
Straddling the equator, reefs are found around the globe and what’s happened at the Great Barrier Reef has happened elsewhere as well. One approach to protecting reefs is to find out which ones have proven resilient to bleaching and then ensure that they get protection against other threats, such as the trade in coral for aquariums and fishing that destroys reef to get to the fish. “If we find an area with resistant corals they should get protection,” Andrew Smith, a scientist with The Nature Conservancy, told the SeaWeb conference. “We can’t stop coral bleaching but hopefully we can maximize corals’ ability to recover.” The Nature Conservancy is funding a pilot project in Palau, a South Pacific island nation, where some protected marine reserves will be redrawn to incorporate resilient reefs. The group and others are also drafting guidelines to present to the World Parks Congress in 2003. Additional information about bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as AIMS’ new atlas, are online at http://www.aims.gov.au.
MSNBC.com’s Miguel Llanos as well as Reuters contributed to this story.
Source: http://www.msnbc.com/news/785357.asp
7/27/02
3:37:44 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
GREAT BURIAL REEF
It's not a great time to be the Great Barrier Reef. When sea temperatures around the famed Australian landmark hit record highs early this year, 60 percent of the coral on the reef suffered from heat-related bleaching, according to marine scientists. Warm water temperatures caused the algae that live on the reef to leave, disrupting the symbiotic relationship between coral and algae and sometimes resulting in the death of the coral. Janice Lough of the Australian Institute of Marine Science pointed to global warming as a possible cause of the bleaching. Meanwhile, the reef is facing another threat: shipping accidents. In November 2000, a 21,000-ton freighter loaded with fuel and other hazardous cargo ran aground on part of the reef; three coral areas had to be destroyed to free it. Now the Australian government is planning to implement 41 measures to protect the reef from shipping disasters, including using local pilots in the more difficult passages. Such measures could go a ways toward protecting the reef, but, as Lough said, "Reef managers can do all they can to reduce all the other threats to coral reefs, but they can't solve individually the global problem [of climate change]."
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 25 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=300>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 26 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=301>
only in Grist: Coral-ations -- fun facts about coral reefs -- in our Counter Culture section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/counter/counter061802.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action to save the Great Barrier Reef <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/oceans.asp?source=daily#reef>
RADAR STRANGE
Ever since Sept. 11, sophisticated surveillance systems have been the talk of the town, and fans have proposed installing them in all sorts of places -- airports, subway systems, sports stadiums. But rainforests? Yep. Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso flew to the jungle city of Manaus yesterday to inaugurate the Amazon Surveillance System, a $1.4 billion network of radar stations and high-tech equipment. The system, built by U.S. defense contractor Raytheon, will track everything from aircraft to climate conditions to soil composition. Its primary mission: to protect the Amazon from illegal miners, loggers, and drug runners, while unlocking the jungle's economic potential. Environmentalists question whether those goals can go hand in hand, and say the main focus of the surveillance system is national security, not environmental protection.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Michael Astor, 25 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=302>
only in Grist: Take the mahogany and run -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha052802.asp?source=daily>
PUT A TIBER IN YOUR TANK
In the last two weeks, tons of dead fish have floated to the surface of the Tiber, the famed Italian river that was once one of the lifelines of the Roman Empire. According to environmentalists, two-thirds of the fauna in a three-mile stretch of the river have been wiped out since July 15; even eels, the hardiest residents of the Tiber, have leapt onto the river's banks to escape the water. City magistrates in Rome investigating the problem say it was caused by heavy rains earlier this month that flushed sewage, nitrates, and other pollutants down the Tiber. These pollutants led to a sudden boom in the algae population, which, the theory goes, sap oxygen from the water and cause the fish to choke to death. The magistrates claim there are no poisons, pesticides, or other toxic substances present in the river, but other city officials and environmentalists disagree and believe that the source of the problem is the Aniene, a badly polluted tributary of the Tiber.
straight to the source: ABC News.com, Reuters, Luke Baker, 25 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=303>
I'M A MODELER, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN
Ah, the life of a model. What could be more glamorous? Stand around all day being admired, help determine environmental policy for years to come ... Yeah, that's right, we're talking about environmental models, and this week, Grist's diary features one of the people behind them: Jonathan Clough, Environmental Modeler Extraordinaire. A consultant to the U.S. EPA, Clough works with people from all over the country and Canada (from the comfort of his Vermont home, accompanied by two loyal office dogs) to synthesize scientific studies into the kind of information that public policymakers can use. Technology, the natural world, politics, power, high-stakes lawsuits -- we told you, glamour all over the place. Come bask in the glow, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Model citizen -- a week in the life of Jonathan Clough, environmental modeler <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/clough072202.asp?source=daily>
FOOL STANDARDS
Automakers are gearing up to take California's landmark new vehicle-emissions law to court, even though they could face a public opinion backlash by doing so. Industry reps say they are "very confident" that the courts will agree with their argument that California is encroaching on federal jurisdiction by trying to set its own fuel-economy standards. The law, signed by Gov. Gray Davis (D) on Monday, does not specifically call for better fuel efficiency -- just for reduced carbon dioxide emissions -- but automakers say it would leave them no other choice than to boost the efficiency of vehicles. "The only way to produce less carbon dioxide is to combust less fuel," said Eron Shosteck, spokesperson for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the main industry trade group. Honda, which just won preliminary state and federal approval to sell fuel-cell vehicles in California, is the only major manufacturer not in the alliance and has not yet decided whether to join the lawsuit.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Terril Yue Jones, 26 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=304>
do good: Take action to pledge to buy an eco-friendly car <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/autos.asp?source=daily#pledge>
7/27/02
3:32:14 PM
Genetically Modified Genes Found In Human Gut
by John Vidal Wednesday, The Guardian, July 17, 2002
British scientific researchers have demonstrated for the first time that genetically modified DNA material from crops is finding its way into human gut bacteria, raising potentially serious health questions.
Although the genetically modified material in most GM foods poses no health problems, many of the controversial crops have antibiotic-resistant marker genes inserted into them at an early stage in development.
If genetic material from these marker genes can also find its way into the human stomach, as experiments at Newcastle university suggest is likely, then people's resistance to widely used antibiotics could be compromised.
The research, commissioned by the food standards agency, is the world's first known trial of GM foods on human volunteers. It was last night described as "insignificant" by the agency but as "dynamite" by Friends of the Earth.
The scientists took seven human volunteers who had their lower intestine removed in the past and now use colostomy bags. After being fed a meal of a burger containing GM soya and a milkshake, the researchers compared their stools with 12 people with normal stomachs. They found "to their surprise" that "a relatively large proportion of genetically modified DNA survived the passage through the small bowel". None was found in people who had complete stomachs.
But to see if GM DNA might be transferred via bacteria to the intestine, they also took bacteria from stools in the colostomy bags and cultivated them. In three of the seven samples they found bacteria had taken up the herbicide-resistant gene from the GM food at a very low level.
The report added "that transgenes, although surviving passage through the small intestine, appear to be completely degraded in the human colon".
Michael Antonio, a senior lecturer in molecular genetics at King's College Medical School, London, last night said that the work was significant. "To my knowledge they have demonstrated clearly that you can get GM plant DNA in the gut bacteria. Everyone used to deny that this was possible."
He said there were "lots of inadequacies" in the research but that did not take away the importance of the main findings. "It suggests that you can get antibiotic marker genes spreading around the stomach which would compromise antibiotic resistance. They have shown that this can happen even at very low levels after just one meal."
Marker genes are inserted into GM plants to allow identification of GM cells or tissue during development. The House of Lords has called for them to be phased out as swiftly as possible.
Last night Friends of the Earth called for an immediate halt to the use of marker genes in GM crops. "Industry, science and government advisers have always played down the risk of this happening and here, at the very first attempt by scientists to look for it, they find it," said Adrian Bebb, GM foods campaigner.
The FSA said the research "showed in real-life conditions with human volunteers, no GM material survived the passage through the entire human digestive tract... the research concluded that the likelihood of functioning DNA being taken up by bacteria in the human or animal gut is extremely low".
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,756666,00.html
7/27/02
3:29:00 PM
Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset, Maine July 18, 2002:
Low Flying Aircraft Spotted at Maine Yankee
by Charlotte Boynton
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will not be looking into an incident that occurred at Maine Yankee July 11 when a low flying aircraft flew within 20 feet of the Maine Yankee dome, because it is not against FAA regulations to do so.
According to a report given by Katherine Ferdinand, a spokesperson for Maine Yankee, plant security officials spotted the plane, which flew over the dome twice and headed for the Wiscasset Airport.
Security officials called the Wiscasset Police Department with a description of the plane, asking them to see if it landed at the airport. According to a police report on the incident, it did not land.
However, according to Arlene Salac at the FAA office in Washington D.C., and Mike Muchmore, the airport's fixed based operator, the plane did, in fact, land at the airport.
According to Salac and Muchmore, the plane was going to land on runway seven but because of a tail wind during his first approach the pilot did not think he could make a safe landing. The pilot flew over the Maine Yankee dome and turned around, landing on runway 25.
Air space over the closed nuclear power plant is not restricted, according to the FAA, but regulations do restrict planes from "loitering" over nuclear power plants.
David Lackey of Senator Olympia Snowe's office, who was also checking out the incident, said that there is an Airman's Advisory that "strongly suggests avoiding air space over nuclear plants."
xoxox
Aircraft Flying Low Over Maine Yankee Raises Alarm
by Greg Foster,Lincoln County News, Damariscotta, Maine, July 26, 2002
A private plane flying low over Maine Yankee in Wiscasset on July 9 has prompted an investigation of safety procedures in place to track, communicate with and investigate aircraft that breach airspace over nuclear power facilities. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe is leading the charge for answers the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
"In order to provide effective security for small and rural communities, a comprehensive strategy much include the assessments of the threat to nuclear plants posed by light aircraft navigation," Snowe said this week following information about the incident.
A security guard spotted the low-flying plane and immediately reported it. The company immediately informed the FAA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Wiscasset police, company spokesman Eric Howes said. Air traffic controller at Brunswick Naval Air Station ultimately identified the plane by its tail number, according to Snowe.
After investigating the violation of an FAA advisory against low flights over nuclear plants, the FAA determined it was an inadvertent flight, Snowe said. The pilot of the plane was reportedly attempting to avoid a collision with another incoming small plane landing at Wiscasset Municipal Airport by circling once and twice coming in the vicinity of the plant.
Maine Yankee currently does not have a no-fly zone but does have the advisory for which the company has a particular security protocol, company spokesman Eric Howes said. The FAA's Notice to Airmen Advisory warns pilots that flights near nuclear facilities may be reported and investigated.
"Small and rural communities must have confidence that the Administration is working to safeguard the local airspace around these facilities," Snowe said.
To that end, Snowe announced this week that she has requested a thorough security briefing and feedback on way to prevent violations of airspace over nuclear facilities by light aircraft. She wants the FAA and TSA to provide information on the types of actions that need to be taken to quickly assess and respond to such potential threats to security.
"While the incursion into Maine Yankee airspace did not materialize into a threat, it highlights the need for continued security awareness," Snowe said.
Snowe, who serves on Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation whose task is to oversee aviation safety, considers it imperative that air traffic controllers, local police, and nuclear safety personnel have the ability to communicate and determine whether actions by aircraft present a security threat to a nuclear facility and surrounding community, including decommissioning plants like Maine Yankee.
"Importantly, these officials must be given clear procedural and safety guidelines to promptly respond to potential threats from non-commercial aircraft," Snowe said.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 during periods of the high threat to homeland security, the NRC and FAA have taken steps to close airspace over nuclear facilities, but currently that is not the case for Maine Yankee, which is no longer operating. With the present medium level of threat, the FAA has reopened airspace around nuclear facilities.
xoxox
Times Record
Brunswick, Maine - July 23, 2002
Plane's flight near Yankee spurs inquiry Bob_Kalish@TimesRecord.Com 07/23/2002 WISCASSET - Following a low-fly incident near the closed Maine Yankee nuclear power plant, U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, asked two federal agencies to review safety procedures designed to protect nuclear power facilities.
Snowe made the request to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration.
"In order to provide effective security for small and rural communities, a comprehensive strategy must include the assessments of the threat to nuclear plants posed by light aircraft navigation," Snowe said. "I am requesting that the FAA and TSA provide information on the types of actions that need to be taken to quickly assess and respond to these threats. Small and rural communities must have confidence that the administration is working to safeguard the local airspace around these facilities."
Snowe is a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees aviation safety.
According to Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes, the incident occurred on July 9 when a light plane was spotted by the plant's security at low altitude over the plant, which has been in the process of being decommissioned since 1997.
"Our security did just what it is supposed to do," Howes said. "It notified the FAA, the FBI, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Wiscasset Police."
Air traffic controllers at Brunswick Naval Air Station eventually identified the aircraft by its tail numbers and the FAA determined that the flyover was "inadvertent," caused when a plane approaching the Wiscasset Airport circled to avoid another approaching plane.
Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the FAA issued a "Notice to Airmen Advisory" warning pilots that flights near nuclear facilities may be reported and investigated. The Wiscasset Airport changed its procedure so that planes landing there approach the airport from the other side so they don't fly over Maine Yankee airspace.
"Since the FAA advisory last fall," Howes said, "we're seeing very few planes."
But Snowe, upon learning of the incident, requested a security briefing and feedback on ways to prevent violations of nuclear airspace by light aircraft. She also is seeking an explanation of safety procedures in place to track, communicate with and investigate aircraft that breach the airspace of the nation's active nuclear facilities as well as those being decommissioned, according to a statement released by her office.
Dave Lackey, Snowe's spokesman, this morning said the senator wanted to be sure the incident didn't highlight a problem.
"A light aircraft wouldn't pose a threat to Maine Yankee," Lackey said. "But the senator wanted to make sure authorities have the proper information to respond."
Lincoln County News, July 25, 2002 article by Greg Foster, Aircraft Flying Low Over Maine Yankee Raises Alarm, at:
http://www.mainelincolncountynews.com/index.cfm?ID=1384
7/27/02
3:25:11 PM
The Nation
Key members of Congress reached an agreement late last night to give President Bush Fast Track authority to secretly negotiate a sweeping Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement. The deal was necessary because, earlier this year, the House and Senate passed competing Fast Track resolutions. Last night, representatives of the two chambers cobbled together a "compromise" plan that now faces final votes in the House and Senate.
If the legislation passes, Fast Track authority will be granted to Bush and a new era of trade liberalization will open the door to a dramatic expansion of corporate power in the US and abroad.
For more, read the latest installment of John Nichols' Online Beat, exclusively at:
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=85
Corporate lobbyists are swarming Capitol Hill in anticipation of a quick Fast Track vote. Citizens can counter the corporate campaign with telephone calls to their House and Senate representatives. The AFL-CIO is providing a toll-free number for people to tell Congress to reject trade legislation that puts the interests of corporations ahead of those of workers, farmers, consumers and the environment.
The number is 1-877-611-0063.
You can also see the Public Citizen Global Trade Watch site for background info on Fast Track:
http://www.publiccitizen.org/trade/
And don't forget to check out these other new Nation web features:
Cultural Treason by David Corn, July 24, 2002
The latest victim of the red-white-and-blue lynch mob is musician Steve Earle, whose offense is writing and recording a song titled "John Walker's Blues."
http://www.thenation.com//capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=84
A 12-Step Program for Media Democracy by Jeffrey Chester and Gary O. Larson, July 23, 2002
These days, it's the media conglomerates who are drunk with power--demanding a larger share of the nation's airwaves and threatening to turn the World Wide Web into an electronic theme park--and we're the ones with a twelve-step program.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=olson20020722
Reproductive Freedom by Hillary Frey, July 24, 2002
Dr. James Scott Pendergraft is now back at work in his Florida abortion clinics after successfully appealing a trumped-up charge of attempted extortion.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=frey20020724
Also, if you haven't yet taken the EmailNation survey, this is your very
last chance: http://www.thenation.com/surv/emn_survey/
7/27/02
3:18:51 PM
t r u t h o u t | 07.27
A Nation of Spies?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.27A.nation.spies.htm
Letter | Leahy-Hatch Express Deep Concerns Over Homeland Security Plan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.27D.leahy-hatch.htm
White House Threatens Homeland Security Veto
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.27C.WH.HS.Veto.htm
Rumsfeld May Quit Pentagon to Take on Top Homeland Role
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.27B.rums.may.Q.htm
Bill Would Let Entertainment Industry Disrupt Internet Music Downloads
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.27E.hwd.hackers.htm
Bush Goes to Bat For the HMO's
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.27F.bush.hmos.htm
Arianna Huffington | How Can This Be Legal?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.27G.aria.legal.htm
7/27/02
3:16:21 PM
U.S. Plan Would Cut Farm Product Trade Barriers
Washington D.C., July 25, 2002 (ENS) - The United States is proposing to make global trade in agricultural goods freer by cutting tariffs and eliminating trade distorting subsidies, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said today. The plan is supposed to benefit U.S. farmers and consumers, the world's poorest nations and, eventually, the global economy. During a news briefing today in Washington, Zoellick said the U.S. proposal will be tabled at the World Trade