Earths.net

A voice from the left has joined the call to break up the media monopoly controlling what Americans know-and don't know. Exclusive to American Free Press

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=30429

7/15/02
1:46:01 PM

A Tale of Two Coups

http://www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=169

The big business-led coup in Venezuela failed, where international finance's coup in Argentina has succeeded. Greg Palast gives us the inside track on two very different power-grabs.

Also available at http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.07A.palast.2.coups.htm

Citing Israel's Need for Security, Bush Accepts Occupation The president's comment appeared supportive of Israel, whose officials had said recently that they had no intention of withdrawing from Palestinian areas soon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/09/international/middleeast/09PREX.html

Bush Received Company Loans He Now Wants Banned

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12C.bush.loans.htm

Amnesty Condemns Palestinian Attacks

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12F.amnesty.pa.htm

Form Of Teleportation Achieved By Oz Scientists In a dramatic technological breakthrough, an Australian-based research team has teleported a message-encoded laser beam - bringing the science fiction fantasy of "beaming" humans from one place to another a step closer. (...) "What we have demonstrated here is that we can take billions of photons, destroy them simultaneously, and then recreate them in another place," Dr Lam told The Australian. CLIP

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5

Did Pterosaurs Survive Extinction?

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa061702a.htm

7/15/02
1:37:36 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MAY BE SACRIFICED FOR HOMELAND SECURITY

WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2002 (ENS) - The Bush administration's proposed new Department of Homeland Security could cause a variety of harmful environmental side effects, ranging from increases in invasive species to restricting the types of information available to the public. Conservation groups warned this week that the drive to boost the nation's security could overrun efforts to protect the nation's natural resources.

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-12-07.asp

COLORADO HAZWASTE DUMPING BRINGS RECORD SENTENCE

DENVER, Colorado, July 12, 2002 (ENS) - A California business man has been handed the longest jail sentence in Colorado history for an environmental crime. Hormoz Pourat was sentenced to spend 17 years in jail and pay a $100,000 fine for violating Colorado's Organized Crime Control Act by illegally disposing of hazardous wastes from a dry cleaning business.

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-12-06.asp

U.S., AUSTRALIA CLIMATE PLAN CUTS NO EMISSIONS

WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2002 (ENS) - The governments of the United States and Australia have announced an initial work program under the U.S.-Australia Climate Action Partnership. This bilateral agreement announced in February takes the place of the Kyoto climate protocol, an international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions that neither country will ratify.

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-12-02.asp

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 12, 2002

ENERGY TASK FORCE LAWSUITS TO PROCEED

ARIZONA PLANTS TREES, SAVES WILDLIFE AFTER FIRE

AGENCY ASKED TO PROTECT WHITE-TAILED PRAIRIE DOGS

WORLD TRADE CENTER DEBRIS SCREENING CLOSES

CONGRESS HEARS TESTIMONY ON BUSHMEAT HUNTING

EAGLE SHOOTERS FINED IN TEXAS

VIRGINIA RESEARCHERS EXPLORE CORRODING PIPES

BRUSH-TAILED POSSUM BANNED FROM U.S.

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-12-09.asp

7/15/02
1:36:00 PM

A Look At The Powerful Jewish Lobby In America

by Mark Weber, July 12, 2002

"It makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power and prominence in popular culture." -- Michael Medved, well-known Jewish author and respected film critic.

For decades Israel has violated well established precepts of international law and defied numerous United Nations resolutions in its occupation of conquered lands, in extra-judicial killings, and in its repeated acts of military aggression.

Most of the world regards Israel's policies, and especially its oppression of Palestinians, as outrageous and criminal. This international consensus is reflected, for example, in numerous UN resolutions condemning Israel, which have been approved with overwhelming majorities.

"The whole world," United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan recently said, "is demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian territories]. I don't think the whole world ... can be wrong." [note 1]

Only in the United States do politicians and the media still fervently support Israel and its policies. For decades the US has provided Israel with crucial military, diplomatic and financial backing, including more than $3 billion each year in aid.

Why is the U.S. the only remaining bastion of support for Israel?

Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, has candidly identified the reason: "The Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic," he said. "People are scared in this country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful -- very powerful." [note 2]

Bishop Tutu spoke the truth. Although Jews make up only about three percent of the US population, they wield immense power and influence -- vastly more than any other ethnic or religious group.

As Jewish author and political science professor, Benjamin Ginsberg, has pointed out: [note 3]

"Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual and political life. Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and they were among the chief beneficiaries of that decade's corporate mergers and reorganizations."

Today, though barely two percent of the nation's population is Jewish, close to half its billionaires are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation's largest newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper, the New York Times ... The role and influence of Jews in American politics is equally marked.

Jews are only two percent of the nation's population yet comprise eleven percent of what this study defines as the nation's elite. However, Jews constitute more than 25 percent of the elite journalists and publishers, more than 17 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the top ranking civil servants.

Stephen Steinlight, former Director of National Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, similarly notes the "disproportionate political power" of Jews, which is "pound for pound the greatest of any ethnic/cultural group in America." He goes on to explain that "Jewish economic influence and power are disproportionately concentrated in Hollywood, television, and in the news industry." [note 4]

Two well-known Jewish writers, Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab, pointed out in their 1995 book, Jews and the New American Scene: [note 5]

"During the last three decades Jews [in the United States] have made up 50 percent of the top two hundred intellectuals ... 20 percent of professors at the leading universities ... 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington ... 59 percent of the directors, writers, and producers of the 50 top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series."

The influence of American Jewry in Washington, notes the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, is "far disproportionate to the size of the community, Jewish leaders and U.S. official acknowledge. But so is the amount of money they contribute to [election] campaigns." One member of the influential Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations "estimated Jews alone had contributed 50 percent of the funds for [President Bill] Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign." [note 6]

"It makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power and prominence in popular culture," acknowledges Michael Medved, a well-known Jewish author and film critic. "Any list of the most influential production executives at each of the major movie studios will produce a heavy majority of recognizably Jewish names." [note 7]

One person who has carefully studied this subject is Jonathan J. Goldberg, now editor of the influential Jewish community weekly 'Forward.' In his 1996 book, Jewish Power, he wrote: [note 8]

"In a few key sectors of the media, notably among Hollywood studio executives, Jews are so numerically dominant that calling these businesses Jewish-controlled is little more than a statistical observation ... Hollywood at the end of the twentieth century is still an industry with a pronounced ethnic tinge. Virtually all the senior executives at the major studios are Jews. Writers, producers, and to a lesser degree directors are disproportionately Jewish -- one recent study showed the figure as high as 59 percent among top-grossing films."

The combined weight of so many Jews in one of America's most lucrative and important industries gives the Jews of Hollywood a great deal of political power. They are a major source of money for Democratic candidates.

Reflecting their role in the American media, Jews are routinely portrayed as high-minded, altruistic, trustworthy, compassionate, and deserving of sympathy and support. While millions of Americans readily accept such stereotyped imagery, not everyone is impressed.

"I am very angry with some of the Jews," complained actor Marlon Brando during a 1996 interview. "They know perfectly well what their responsibilities are ... Hollywood is run by Jews. It's owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of people who are suffering." [note 9]

A Well-Entrenched Factor

The intimidating power of the "Jewish lobby" is not a new phenomenon, but has long been an important factor in American life.

In 1941 Charles Lindbergh spoke about the danger of Jewish power in the media and government. The shy 39-year-old -- known around the world for his epic 1927 New York to Paris flight, the first solo trans-Atlantic crossing -- was addressing 7,000 people in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11, 1941, about the dangers of US involvement in the war then raging in Europe. The three most important groups pressing America into war, he explained, were the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt administration.

Of the Jews, he said: "Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government." Lindbergh went on:

"For reasons which are understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, [they] wish to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we must also look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction."

In 1978, Jewish American scholar Alfred M. Lilienthal wrote in his detailed study, The Zionist Connection: [note 10]

"How has the Zionist will been imposed on the American people?... It is the Jewish connection, the tribal solidarity among themselves and the amazing pull on non-Jews, that has molded this unprecedented power ... In the larger metropolitan areas, the Jewish-Zionist connection thoroughly pervades affluent financial, commercial, social, entertainment, and art circles."

As a result of the Jewish grip on the media, wrote Lilienthal, news coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict in American television, newspapers and magazines is relentlessly sympathetic to Israel. This is manifest, for example, in the misleading portrayal of Palestinian "terrorism." As Lilienthal put it: "One-sided reportage on terrorism, in which cause is never related to effect, was assured because the most effective component of the Jewish connection is probably that of media control."

One-Sided 'Holocaust' History

The Jewish hold on cultural and academic life has had a profound impact on how Americans look at the past. Nowhere is the well-entrenched Judeocentric view of history more obvious than in the "Holocaust" media campaign, which focuses on the fate of Jews in Europe during World War II.

Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has remarked: [note 11]

"Whether presented authentically or inauthentically, in accordance with the historical facts or in contradiction to them, with empathy and understanding or as monumental kitsch, the Holocaust has become a ruling symbol of our culture ... Hardly a month goes by without a new TV production, a new film, a new drama, new books, prose or poetry, dealing with the subject, and the flood is increasing rather than abating."

Non-Jewish suffering simply does not merit comparable attention. Overshadowed in the focus on Jewish victimization are, for example, the tens of millions of victims of America's World War II ally, Stalinist Russia, along with the tens of millions of victims of China's Maoist regime, as well as the 12 to 14 million Germans, victims of the flight and expulsion of 1944-1949, of whom some two million lost their lives.

The well-financed Holocaust media and "educational" campaign is crucially important to the interests of Israel. Paula Hyman, a professor of modern Jewish history at Yale University, has observed: "With regard to Israel, the Holocaust may be used to forestall political criticism and suppress debate; it reinforces the sense of Jews as an eternally beleaguered people who can rely for their defense only upon themselves. The invocation of the suffering endured by the Jews under the Nazis often takes the place of rational argument, and is expected to convince doubters of the legitimacy of current Israeli government policy." [note 12]

Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish scholar who has taught political science at City University of New York (Hunter College), says in his book, 'The Holocaust Industry,' that "invoking The Holocaust" is "a ploy to delegitimize all criticism of Jews."[note 13] "By conferring total blamelessness on Jews, the Holocaust dogma immunizes Israel and American Jewry from legitimate censure. ... Organized Jewry has exploited the Nazi holocaust to deflect criticism of Israel's and its own morally indefensible policies." He writes of the brazen "shakedown" of Germany, Switzerland and other countries by Israel and organized Jewry "to extort billions of dollars." "The Holocaust," Finkelstein predicts, "may yet turn out to be the 'greatest robbery in the history of mankind'."

Jews in Israel feel free to act brutally against Arabs, writes Israeli journalist Ari Shavit, "believing with absolute certitude that now, with the White House, the Senate and much of the American media in our hands, the lives of others do not count as much as our own." [note 14]

Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has spoken with blunt exasperation about the Jewish-Israeli hold on the United States: [note 15]

"I've never seen a President -- I don't care who he is -- stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don't have any idea what goes on."

Today, the danger is greater than ever. Israel and Jewish organizations, in collaboration with this country's pro-Zionist Christian fundamentalist "amen corner," are prodding the United States -- the world's foremost military and economic power -- into new wars against Israel's enemies.

As the French ambassador in London recently acknowledged, Israel -- which he called (a quote which shocked millions -ed) "that shitty little country" -- is a threat to world peace. "Why should the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?," he said. [note 16]

In summation:

Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States.

The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel.

Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict.

As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish-Zionist distortion of current affairs and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the U.S. political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.

Notes

1. Quoted in Forward (New York City), April 19, 2002, p. 11. 2. D. Tutu, "Apartheid in the Holy Land," The Guardian (Britain), April 29, 2002. 3. Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State (University of Chicago, 1993), pp. 1, 103. 4. S. Steinlight, "The Jewish Stake in America's Changing Demography: Reconsidering a Misguided Immigration Policy," Center for Immigration Studies , Nov. 2001. http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back1301.html 5. Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, Jews and the New American Scene (Harvard Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 26-27. 6. Janine Zacharia, "The Unofficial Ambassadors of the Jewish State," The Jerusalem Post (Israel), April 2, 2000. Reprinted in "Other Voices," June 2000, p. OV-4, a supplement to The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. 7. M. Medved, "Is Hollywood Too Jewish?," Moment, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1996), p. 37. 8. Jonathan Jeremy Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment (Addison-Wesley, 1996), pp. 280, 287-288. See also pp. 39-40, 290-291. 9. Interview with Larry King, CNN network, April 5, 1996. "Brando Remarks," Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1996, p. F4 (OC). A short time later, Brando was obliged to apologize for his remarks. 10. A. Lilienthal, The Zionist Connection (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978), pp. 206, 218, 219, 229. 11. From a 1992 lecture, published in: David Cesarani, ed., The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation (London and New York: Routledge, 1994), pp. 305, 306. 12. Paula E. Hyman, "New Debate on the Holocaust," The New York Times Magazine , Sept. 14, 1980, p. 79. 13. Norman G. Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry (London, New York: Verso, 2000), pp. 130, 138, 139, 149. 14. The New York Times, May 27, 1996. Shavit is identified as a columnist for Ha'aretz, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily newspaper, "from which this article is adapted." 15. Interview with Moorer, Aug. 24, 1983. Quoted in: Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby (Lawrence Hill, 1984 and 1985), p. 161. 16. D. Davis, "French Envoy to UK: Israel Threatens World Peace," Jerusalem Post, Dec. 20, 2001. The French ambassador is Daniel Bernard.6/02

About the author

Mark Weber is director of the Institute for Historical Review. He studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich, Portland State University and Indiana University (M.A., 1977). For nine years he served as editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review.

Source: http://www.ihr.org

7/15/02
1:31:08 PM

The Insider Game

by Paul Krugman, July 12, 2002

The current crisis in American capitalism isn't just about the specific details — about tricky accounting, stock options, loans to executives, and so on. It's about the way the game has been rigged on behalf of insiders.

And the Bush administration is full of such insiders. That's why President Bush cannot get away with merely rhetorical opposition to executive wrongdoers. To give the most extreme example (so far), how can we take his moralizing seriously when Thomas White — whose division of Enron generated $500 million in phony profits, and who sold $12 million in stock just before the company collapsed — is still secretary of the Army?

Yet everything Mr. Bush has said and done lately shows that he doesn't get it. Asked about the Aloha Petroleum deal at his former company Harken Energy — in which big profits were recorded on a sale that was paid for by the company itself, a transaction that obviously had no meaning except as a way to inflate reported earnings — he responded, "There was an honest difference of opinion. . . . sometimes things aren't exactly black-and-white when it comes to accounting procedures."

And he still opposes both reforms that would reduce the incentives for corporate scams, such as requiring companies to count executive stock options against profits, and reforms that would make it harder to carry out such scams, such as not allowing accountants to take consulting fees from the same firms they audit.

The closest thing to a substantive proposal in Mr. Bush's tough-talking, nearly content-free speech on Tuesday was his call for extra punishment for executives convicted of fraud. But that's an empty threat. In reality, top executives rarely get charged with crimes; not a single indictment has yet been brought in the Enron affair, and even "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap, a serial book-cooker, faces only a civil suit. And they almost never get convicted. Accounting issues are technical enough to confuse many juries; expensive lawyers make the most of that confusion; and if all else fails, big-name executives have friends in high places who protect them.

In this as in so much of the corporate governance issue, the current wave of scandal is prefigured by President Bush's own history.

An aside: Some pundits have tried to dismiss questions about Mr. Bush's business career as unfair — it was long ago, and hence irrelevant. Yet many of these same pundits thought it was perfectly appropriate to spend seven years and $70 million investigating a failed land deal that was even further in Bill Clinton's past. And if they want something more recent, how about reporting on the story of Mr. Bush's extraordinarily lucrative investment in the Texas Rangers, which became so profitable because of a highly incestuous web of public policy and private deals? As in the case of Harken, no hard work is necessary; Joe Conason laid it all out in Harper's almost two years ago.

But the Harken story still has more to teach us, because the S.E.C. investigation into Mr. Bush's stock sale is a perfect illustration of why his tough talk won't scare well-connected malefactors.

Mr. Bush claims that he was "vetted" by the S.E.C. In fact, the agency's investigation was peculiarly perfunctory. It somehow decided that Mr. Bush's perfectly timed stock sale did not reflect inside information without interviewing him, or any other members of Harken's board. Maybe top officials at the S.E.C. felt they already knew enough about Mr. Bush: his father, the president, had appointed a good friend as S.E.C. chairman. And the general counsel, who would normally make decisions about legal action, had previously been George W. Bush's personal lawyer — he negotiated the purchase of the Texas Rangers. I am not making this up.

Most corporate wrongdoers won't be quite as well connected as the young Mr. Bush; but like him, they will expect, and probably receive, kid-glove treatment. In an interesting parallel, today's S.E.C., which claims to be investigating the highly questionable accounting at Halliburton that turned a loss into a reported profit, has yet to interview the C.E.O. at the time — Dick Cheney.

The bottom line is that in the last week any hopes you might have had that Mr. Bush would make a break from his past and champion desperately needed corporate reform have been dashed. Mr. Bush is not a real reformer; he just plays one on TV.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com

7/15/02
1:24:23 PM

Controlling Technologies--Part 1

THE IMPORTANCE OF SURPRISES

The scientists who first split the atom, in 1942, were no doubt some of the smartest people in the world: Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Hans Bethe, Neils Bohr, Glenn Seaborg, and dozens of others. For the next 50 years, nuclear technology served as a magnet for brainy people, attracting graduate students who were excited to work at the cutting edge of technology where research funds were nearly limitless. In the field of nuclear weapons, nuclear power or nuclear medicine, if you had a bright idea, you could probably find the funds to explore it, so smart people flocked into nuclear technology.

Despite all this brain power, in 60 short years nuclear technology has created an array of problems that now rank among the most difficult, dangerous and long-lived that the world has ever faced, and which grow larger each passing year. What went wrong?

This is an important question because -- despite all the problems it has already created -- the nuclear industry is redoubling its efforts to expand. [NY TIMES May 7, 2001, pg. A17] Furthermore, nuclear is not the most complex technology humans have set out to master: biotechnology and the now-emerging nanotechnology[1] are intrinsically much more complex. (Nanotechnology is the attempt to create molecule-sized machines, some of which can themselves create more molecule-sized machines.) If we are having trouble controlling nuclear technology, shouldn't we think twice before deploying new technologies that are far more complicated, much less understandable and therefore far less predictable?

What went wrong with nuclear? The people who gave us nuclear technology evidently didn't notice that our ability to control complex systems is limited by surprises that arise from three sources: (1) technical misunderstanding of the underlying chemistry, physics, or biology; (2) an astonishing range of management lapses (including simple errors, unwillingness to confront the troublesome parts of a problem, a tendency to doze off on the job after a few uneventful years, and the human desire to hide and deny embarrassing mistakes); and (3) the shifting sands of politics and economic dislocations, including commercial competition.

The history of nuclear power tells us that these three kinds of surprises (technical, managerial, and political) set pretty narrow limits on the human capacity to control complex technologies. Nuclear technology has clearly exceeded our human capacity for control, while biotech and nanotech make nuclear seem simple and easy by comparison.

Where is the evidence that nuclear is uncontrollably complex? It's in the newspapers almost every week. Let's take a look.

** Because it operates 51 nuclear power plants to generate electricity, Japan justifiably ranks high among the high-tech nations. However, on Sept. 30, 1999, an atomic fuel plant in the town of Tokaimura, 87 miles northwest of Tokyo, spewed radioactivity into the air. At least 35 workers were exposed and 300,000 nearby residents were told to shut their windows and stay indoors. [NY TIMES October 1, 1999, pgs. A1, A10.] When the accident occurred, the Tokaimura plant was in its 17th year of commercial operation.

The accident began when workers poured 35 pounds of uranium --instead of the usual 5 pounds -- into a tank containing nitric acid. (Management surprise.) The tank happened to be surrounded by a shell filled with water, which reflected neutrons back toward the uranium, thus promoting a chain reaction. (Technical surprise.) There was an ominous blue flash of light as the 35 pounds of uranium "went critical," meaning a nuclear chain reaction had begun spewing deadly gamma rays and neutrons into the surrounding area.

Japanese nuclear safety officials had previously scrutinized the plant and concluded that an accidental chain reaction was impossible, so the plant had no emergency plan. (Management surprise.) [NY TIMES Oct. 23, 1999, pg. A4.]

It took Japanese authorities 17 hours to bring the atomic reaction under control. The Tokyo Electric Power Company rushed 880 pounds of sodium borate to the plant to absorb radiation and quench the nuclear reaction, but they discovered they had no way of getting close enough to the chain reaction to dump the powder onto it. (Management surprise).

Japanese authorities requested help from the U.S. military stationed in Japan but were told those troops were not equipped to deal with nuclear accidents. (Management surprise.) [NY TIMES October 1, 1999, pgs. A1, A10.]

Workers finally brought the chain reaction under control by smashing a pipe connected to the water shell, letting the water drain out. [NY TIMES Oct. 23, 1999, pg. A4.]

The Japanese Government Nuclear Safety Commission immediately blamed the workers involved. One member of the Commission said, "If they had done their job as they were supposed to, there is no way something like this could have happened." [NY TIMES Oct. 1, 1999, pg. A10.]

However, a few days later it became apparent that the Government Nuclear Safety Commission had misunderstood the situation. (Management surprise.) The NEW YORK TIMES reported that, for years, the plant's managers had been pressuring workers to skip important safety steps, to increase productivity and improve competitiveness. One of the injured workers said he had routinely used procedural shortcuts following directions given in an illegally-drafted plant manual that allowed workers to speed up production. [NY TIMES Oct. 4, 1999, pg. A8.] For their part, plant managers continued to blame the workers' "lack of sufficient expertise," as if employee training were not a management responsibility. (Management surprise.) Plant managers refused to acknowledge that they had urged workers to speed up production, "But company officials have acknowledged that the plant had recently faced intense foreign competition," the NEW YORK TIMES reported. (Management surprise, political surprise.)

The most highly-irradiated worker in the September accident, Hisashi Ouchi, 35, died of his injuries December 22. The Japanese government had made heroic efforts to keep him alive, transfusing 10 pints of fresh blood into his body each day for several months before his death. Just as the government feared, his death catalyzed a citizen movement to oppose the expansion of nuclear power in Japan, and especially to stop the use of MOX, or "mixed oxide fuel." (Political surprise.) [NY TIMES Jan. 13, 2000, pg. A1.] MOX fuel combines plutonium with uranium into fuel for nuclear power plants, as a way of (1) avoiding the need for new uranium fuel; and (2) in some cases, reducing the world's supply of pure plutonium, 18 pounds of which can be used to make a crude but effective A-bomb. [NY TIMES November 12, 2001, pg. B1.]

Japan had been planning to purchase mixed oxide fuels (MOX) from a British plant known as Sellafield, an industrial complex on the edge of the Irish Sea employing 10,000 workers. Sellafield had begun operating a nuclear power plant in 1956, but the plant caught fire Oct. 10, 1957, exposing workers and nearby residents to excessive radioactivity. (Technical surprise.) In 1957, the British government denied anyone had been harmed but in 1983 the British National Radiological Protection Board estimated that the doses received by the public during the 1957 fire could cause hundreds of thyroid cancers.[2] (Technical surprise, management surprise.) The British government released its health report in 1988, 31 years after the fire, and some of the health data remain secret to this day. (Management surprise.)

Sellafield survived the disaster of 1957 and went on to expand its operation to include nuclear fuel reprocessing and nuclear waste management. In anticipation of a growing market for MOX fuels, Sellafield invested $480 million in a new fuel fabrication facility in 1999. Japan agreed to buy 1/3 of the plant's output.

Unfortunately, shortly after Sellafield shipped its first batch of MOX fuel to Japan, British authorities discovered that Sellafield workers had falsified inspection documents related to the fuel rods sent to Japan. (Management surprise.) A union representative blamed commercial competition: "Clearly there was commercial pressure to meet customers' demands," he said. (Political surprise.) [NY TIMES Apr. 20, 2000, pg. C4.]

In Japan, news of the falsified inspection documents created such an uproar that the fuel was rejected and shipped back to Sellafield. [NY TIMES Jan. 13, 2000, pg. A1.] Switzerland and Sweden then suspended shipments of spent fuel to Sellafield. (Political surprise.)

Germany, too, said it had received MOX fuels from Sellafield accompanied by falsified documents. Subsequently Germany raised concerns about "irregularities" in MOX fuel manufactured at La Hague in France, engulfing the entire MOX fuel industry in scandal and controversy. (Management surprise, political surprise.) [NY TIMES April 20, 2000, pg. C1.] Two months later, Germany announced that it would phase out and shut down all 19 of its nuclear power plants. (Political surprise.) [NY TIMES June 16, 2000, pg. A6.]

But Sellafield's troubles did not stop there. Two months after the revelation of falsified documents, British government inspectors reported "systematic management failures" at the Sellafield complex and found fault with Sellafield's entire "safety culture." (Management surprise.) [NY TIMES April 20, 2000, pg. C4.] Shortly after this embarrassing revelation, British authorities announced that "a saboteur had severed cables controlling robotic operations in a radioactive area of the installation." (Management surprise.) [NY TIMES March 27, 2000, pg. A8.] Ireland and Denmark then began an international campaign to have the Sellafield plant closed for good. (Political surprise.)

With its MOX fuel investment in serious trouble and its reputation in tatters, Sellafield announced that recent events had forced it to increase the price for cleaning up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, USA, one of the most contaminated places on Earth, where DuPont, Westinghouse and other private firms made plutonium for weapons between 1943 and 1987. In October 1998, Sellafield has offered to solidify -- for a fee of $6.6 billion\- -- 54 million gallons of DuPont's and Westinghouse's discarded radioactive liquids, sludges and salts held in 177 tanks at Hanford. But 18 months later, in late April 2000, Sellafield management said the Hanford cleanup would now cost U.S. taxpayers $15.2 billion. The U.S. Department of Energy balked, canceled the contract with Sellafield and declared its attempt to "privatize" the Hanford cleanup a failure. Evidently, the private sector can affordably create one of the world's largest radioactive stews but cannot affordably clean it up. (Management surprise, political surprise.) [NY TIMES April 27, 2000, pg. C4; NY TIMES May 9, 2000, pg. C4.]

The Hanford cleanup is itself a technical frontier. Of the 177 waste tanks at Hanford, 149 are made of a single shell of steel. So far, 68 tanks have leaked and "all the single-shell tanks are expected to leak eventually," the NY TIMES reported March 23, 1998, pg. A10. (Technical surprise.)

For 50 years, private-sector and governmental managers at the Hanford Reservation steadfastly maintained that leaks of radioactive liquids were inconsequential because the soil would bind the radioactive particles tightly, preventing them from moving into the Columbia River. However, in 1997 officials announced that they had been wrong and that leaked wastes had already entered the river. (Technical surprise.) [NY TIMES Oct. 11, 1997, pg. A7.]

Of the 54 million gallons of wastes abandoned by DuPont and Westinghouse at Hanford, so far at least 900,000 gallons have escaped into the soil on their way to the river. No one has any idea how to retrieve them. (Technical surprise.) [NY TIMES Mar. 23, 1998, pg. A10.]

To be continued.

Peter Montague, Editor

[1] http://www.foresight.org/NanoRev/FIFAQ1.html#FAQ1 and

http://www.nanozine.com/WHATNANO.HTM#whatsa

[2] Jean McSorley, LIVING IN THE SHADOW (London: Pan Books, 1990; ISBN 0330313312).

Source: http://www.Rachel.org

7/15/02
1:19:41 PM

DAILY GRIST

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

EV-ING CAN'T WAIT

Some people reuse old yogurt containers. Ken Norwick reuses old cars. A year ago, Norwick rescued a weather-beaten 1996 Saturn four-door sedan, gutted it, and reinvented it as an electric vehicle (EV). That makes him one of a growing group of EV enthusiasts around the world who could not or would not wait for the auto industry to mass-produce cars that emit no pollution and so took matters into their own hands. In this week's diary, Norwick recounts the joys (and occasional hassles) of living and commuting with an electric vehicle, only on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: Try this at home -- a day in the life of Ken Norwick, electric vehicle advocate <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/norwick070802.asp?source=daily>

BALKAN DEATH GRIP

Fleeing extreme poverty, thousands of Albanians are squatting in and near the abandoned Porto Romano chemical plant -- one of the most severely contaminated sites in the Balkans, with soil and groundwater pollutants at 4,000 times the levels considered acceptable by the European Union. Despite admonitions from United Nations experts, the Albanian government has failed to put up fences or warning signs around the plant, which produced pesticides and leather-tanning chemicals until its closure in 1990. It's not clear that such signs would deter the squatters, currently numbering about 6,000, given widespread distrust of the government and the lack of options. "We know it's bad for us here, but we have nowhere else to go. The authorities don't do anything to help us," said Flutorime Jani, whose family lives in a former pesticide warehouse within the plant.

straight to the source: Christian Science Monitor, Colin Woodward, 12 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=250>

THE BOYS, A BUMMER, ARE GONE

Boys exposed to certain pollutants during adolescence are far less likely to have sons in adulthood, according to a study published in today's edition of the British scientific journal the Lancet. The study looked at thousands of people in the Taiwanese city of Yucheng who used cooking oil containing high concentrations of PCBs. It found that young men exposed to PCBs before the age of 20 were 35 percent less likely to have sons than those who did not come into contact with the toxic compounds. The results mirrored those of an earlier study of men in Italy who were exposed to extremely high levels of dioxin and were also far more likely to father daughters than sons. The study supports long-held fears that environmental toxins can have dramatic effects on the human reproductive system.

straight to the source: Toronto Globe and Mail, Andre Picard, 12 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=251>

TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS

A plan by the Bush administration to speed cleanups of highly radioactive military waste is provoking the ire of some powerful foes. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said the plan -- which offers an extra $800 million in cleanup funds for the next fiscal year to states that can decide by Aug. 1 how to spend the money -- could give states an incentive to lower their environmental standards. Cantwell and Washington state Attorney General Christine Gregoire aired their concerns yesterday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, whose chair, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), agreed that the money could be seen as encouraging laxer cleanup standards. The Washington state officials suggested that the plan might be a way for the feds to back out of a longstanding agreement to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. In 1989, the Energy Department promised to clean up at least 99 percent of the more than 53 million gallons of radioactive waste at Hanford, but has already altered the terms of the cleanup deal considerably.

straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Charles Pope, 12 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=252>

straight to the source: New York Times, Matthew L. Wald, 12 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=253>

ALWAYS A BRIBE'S MADE

Apparently inspired by the 2000 Gore-Nader brouhaha, the head of New Mexico's GOP tried to bribe Green Party leaders to field candidates in upcoming elections in order to drain votes away from Democrats. The state's Republican Party chair, John Dendahl, spoke with Green leaders about the possibility of making a six-figure contribution to their party in exchange for running candidates in two New Mexico congressional districts. Dendahl said the contribution offer came not from himself but from a Republican in Washington, D.C., whom he refused to identify, saying only that the person was not an elected official or party officer. The Green Party refused the money, and New Mexico's Democratic Party chair, Jamie Koch, called on Dendahl to resign and said he planned to alert the Federal Elections Commission. Tuesday was the filing deadline for minor-party candidates, and, unlike in past years, no Green filed for a congressional seat in New Mexico.

straight to the source: Santa Fe New Mexican, Steve Terrell, 12 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=254>

7/15/02
1:14:50 PM

t r u t h o u t

Man Who Taped Police Beating Arrested in L.A.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13A.crooks.arrest.htm

Video: Cheney Sings the Praises of Anderson

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13B.cheney.ander.vid.htm

Secrecy Surrounds Bush Stock Deal

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13C.bush.stock.htm

Paul Krugman | The Insider Game

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13D.krug.insider.htm

Nicholas D. Kristof | The Anthrax Files

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13E.kris.anthrax.htm

Arianna Huffington | Undercover Brothers: The Anti-Reformers Blend In

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13F.arianna.blend.htm

Colin Powell: 'Bastards Won't Drive Me Out'

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.13G.powell.bastards.htm

7/15/02
1:10:02 PM

Trumpeter Swans Rebound In Wisconsin

MADISON, Wisconsin, July 11, 2002 (ENS) - Fifty-one pairs of endangered trumpeter swans nested in Wisconsin this year, more than double the state's initial recovery goal of having 20 pairs nesting in the state by the year 2000.

"The trumpeter swan reintroduction effort is making great strides," said Sumner Matteson, an avian ecologist who coordinates the trumpeter swan recovery program for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Bureau of Endangered Resources. "The nesting population and productivity are increasing, and they're becoming abundant enough that it is difficult for us to track all the nests with our own staff and volunteers."

Last year there were 45 known nests in the state and 44 in 2000, Matteson said. Biologists estimate that the entire statewide population of trumpeter swans - including adult and juvenile birds - is about 300, and nest numbers should increase as more juvenile birds reach breading age, which begins at age two.

While the number of nests is more than double the preliminary recovery goal of 20 pairs, Matteson says that goal was established in 1986, when biologists had much less information about reestablishing the species. Biologists are hoping to have a new population model complete this year that will use actual data gathered from birds in the wild in Wisconsin to determine the number of nesting pairs and young needed to sustain a viable population in the state.

Trumpeter swans can be distinguished from the non-native mute swan by the way they hold their necks: straight up expect when feeding or grooming.

Trumpeter swans - named for their resonant, trumpet like call - are the largest native waterfowl species in North America. Adults have white plumage and can stand up to four feet tall and weigh between 20 and 30 pounds. Trumpeter swans were found in Wisconsin until the 1880s, when market hunting and feather collecting almost drove the species extinct.

Beginning in 1989, Wisconsin biologists flew to Alaska for nine consecutive years to collect surplus trumpeter swan eggs that were then hatched in incubators at the Milwaukee County Zoo. After they hatched, the young swans were either placed in a captive rearing program or decoy rearing program until they were released to the wild.

With so many pairs now nesting in the state, biologists are asking for help from the public in reporting any observations of the large white birds nesting in wetland areas around the state, particularly in central Wisconsin where the number of reported nesting pairs has declined in recent years.

People who think they may have seen a swan nest should contact DNR swan program field coordinator Pat Manthey in La Crosse at: 608-789-5651 or: Sumner Matteson at: 608-266-1571.

Source: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-11-09.asp

7/15/02
1:05:22 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

CONFLICTING REPORTS SHADE FOREST FIRE DEBATE

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, July 11, 2002 (ENS) - The U.S. Forest Service released a report this week charging that lawsuits from environmentalists are preventing the agency from effectively managing forests to reduce wildfire risk. Environmentalists counter that the agency report ignores a number of fire management tools that the conservation community supports, and warn that the Forest Service is misspending funds provided for forest management.

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-11-06.asp

LIQUID CO2 DUMP IN NORWEGIAN SEA CALLED ILLEGAL

OSLO, Norway, July 11, 2002 (ENS) - The world's first attempt to demonstrate sequestration of carbon in the oceans by injecting liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Norwegian Sea is set to begin this summer. Environmentalists are campaigning to stop the experiment and claim it is illegal.

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-11-02.asp

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 11, 2002

El Niño is Back in Town

EPA Must Reexamine Birmingham Air Quality

By Ship, By Plane, Researchers Study Air Pollution

Hot Temperatures Drive Smelly Algae Blooms

New Climate Simulations Offer Sharper Focus

Hazwaste Cleanups Need Community Advisors

Lake Champlain Anglers Collect Tagged Sea Lamprey

Trumpeter Swans Rebound in Wisconsin

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-11-09.asp

7/15/02
1:02:09 PM

SciTech Daily Review

http://SciTechDaily.com

Scientists in northern Chad have unearthed the skull of a previously unknown hominid that lived six to seven million years ago -- making it the oldest known ancestor of humans

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0710_020710_chadskull.html

Caesarean deliveries can affect women's future fertility, though doctors are not sure why

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=311127

When white rhinos go off to explore new territory, they like to take along a buddy

http://www.nature.com/nsu/020701/020701-11.html

The physics of sandcastles: An upcoming shuttle mission will carry small columns of sand into space -- and will return with valuable lessons for earthquake engineers, farmers and physicists

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/11jul_mgm.htm

Feeling our way: How do we think? Psychologist Peter Hobson, author of The Cradle of Thought [review], says the key is the way we relate to each other as babies

http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23515

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/09/mmorpg/index.html Showdown in cyberspace: If online role-playing games are ever going to break out of the hardcore gamer ghetto, they'll have to do more than please the geeks

Is the greenhouse effect "green"? Tiny pollutant particles thrust into the atmosphere may slow plant growth but they also enhance the ability of the earth to act as a sink for carbon

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20020509225827data_trunc_sys.shtml

Avoiding the impact: After a recent near miss with an asteroid 100 meters in diameter, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart discusses what to do about the danger to Earth from huge space rocks

http://sciam.rsc03.net/servlet/cc?lJpDUAUEsHkhNJoLFpoNnDJhDgSE0EX

League tables listing the success rates of IVF clinics are encouraging bad practices such as implanting too many embryos

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992523

7/15/02
12:59:35 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

The Best of the Alternative Web

THE NEW ECONOMY OF NATURE

by Gretchen C. Daily and Katherine Ellison, Orion

-- Stamping a price sticker on nature may be the ticket to protecting our future.

KNOCK, KNOCK--LET US IN, BANGING ON THE CELLULOID CLOSET

by Justine Barda, Seattle Weekly

-- Despite the success of several recent films, queer movies have a long way to go to achieve respect from the establishment.

MEETUP.COM

-- Ready to return to actual conversation instead of postings in chatrooms? Meetup.com makes the transition easy.

Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch

7/15/02
12:57:14 PM

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins

are reported to have learned English --

up to fifty words used in correct context --

no human being has been reported

to have learned dolphinese."

Carl Sagan, 1934 - 1996 - Astronomer and Writer

7/15/02
12:50:51 PM

Don't Gut The Clean Air Act

New York's Attorney General Speaks Out

Eliot Spitzer Attorney General of New York.

Listen to the Audio:

http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=realimpact/tompaine/spitzer20020710.rm

Sharon Basco produced this piece, July 11, 2002

President Bush has proposed gutting a key provision of the federal Clean Air Act. If he is successful, it will mean dirtier air for all Americans.

Coal-burning power plants are major sources of air pollution that contribute to summertime smog, acid rain, respiratory distress and cardiovascular disease. To combat these environmental and public health threats, I and other state Attorneys General sued a number of utilities in 1998 and 1999 to require their compliance with a key section of the Clean Air Act known as New Source Review. New Source Review requires that when old power plants undergo major modifications or upgrades they must also install state-of-the-art air pollution controls. The power plants we are suing did not do that.

These are strong lawsuits. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined them and brought additional cases. But soon after President Bush took office, lobbyists for the coal and oil industries began work to undermine the lawsuits. They know the law is strong, so they are attempting to change it, by urging EPA to administratively gut the program and by asking Congress to repeal this section of the law. Unfortunately, they found a willing ally in the Bush administration.

President Bush has now proposed gutting New Source Review in exchange for a weaker, badly flawed approach. Under his proposal, power plants could replace multi-million dollar boilers, effectively rebuilding the facility, without installing pollution controls -- readily available equipment that will reduce air pollution by over 90 percent. Congress clearly wanted to move the country to cleaner air either by having dirty old plants replaced by cleaner new ones or by requiring that if the old plants are refurbished, they install modern air pollution controls.

It is troubling that EPA -- the very agency with a legal mandate to protect public health and the environment -- wants to open large loopholes in the Clean Air Act.

To provide cover as he attempts to dismantle the Clean Air Act, President Bush has also proposed a new program called "Clear Skies." This would allow dirty power plants and other sources of pollution to buy pollution credits from cleaner plants, rather than install pollution controls on their own smokestacks. This approach would damage the northeast and communities near coal-burning power plants and would achieve little real improvements for a generation. Despite much fanfare when it was announced in April, "Clear Skies" still has not been introduced in the Congress.

The overall Bush plan would leave the skies cloudy for another generation. I will challenge these illegal changes in Court to maintain the health and environmental protections intended by the law.

This is New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for TomPaine.com.

Source: http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5975

7/15/02
12:42:45 PM

TomPaine.com

http://www.TomPaine.com

Independent, Commercial-free

A MAJOR NEWS STORY THE AMERICAN MEDIA MISSED

Didn't Think Arthur Andersen Could Be Involved In The Scandal At The Catholic Church? Think Again.

by Michael Ryan

Here's an incident that neatly unites the two most outrageous news stories of the year in one tidy package: the moral bankruptcy of Arthur Andersen, and the corruption of the Catholic Church.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5968

DON'T GUT THE CLEAN AIR ACT

New York's Attorney General Speaks Out

by Eliot Spitzer

The EPA -- the very agency with a legal mandate to protect public health and the environment -- wants to open large loopholes in the Clean Air Act.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5975

ONE (CONSTITUTIONALLY ILLITERATE) NATION UNDER GOD

The Constitution Can't Protect Our Rights If We Don't Understand Them

by Jamin B. Raskin

America's "conservatives" are prepared to push constitutional amendments to deal with a host of symbolic or even supernatural problems ... We need constitutional literacy as a basic tool of intellectual self-defense.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5966

THE PRESIDENT AND THE STREET

An Interview With Mary Zepernick Of The Program On Corporations, Law And Democracy

by Steven Rosenfeld

President Bush's promises to clean up corporate accounting scandals are a ruse. The name of the game is damage control for his political patrons, not real reform for the public.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5969

THE SECOND CASUALITY OF WAR: ACCOUNTABILITY

Why Won't The U.S. Acknowledge Mistakes In Kakrak?

by David Corn

Bush asserted there were "ample indications" the assault in Kakrak was mounted in response to anti-aircraft fire. Maybe so, but there were also "ample indications" that the wrong target -- and people -- were struck.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5972

And from out CHECK IT OUT! department...

FACT-CHECKING COULTER

Glaring out from nearly every bookstore window in Washington, DC nowadays is the face of outspoken right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. The author of the bestselling anti-Clinton tome High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Coulter is the neo-con postergirl, a shock-jock commentator who doesn't seem to mind trading in accuracy for invective. Her newest book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, includes more of the Democrat-bashing and conservative jargon we all know and have grown accustomed to.

But fear not! One of our favorite online weblogs, Tapped, has been running a series of "fact checks" debunking the conservative myths running rampant through Slander. The lists of pseudo-facts and outright distortions keep pouring in from astute readers, and some are listed below in this recent posting.

From crediting Ronald Reagan for ending the Cold War to misrepresenting Jim Jeffords' voting record, Tapped quips, "if Ann Coulter had a movie made about her, it would have to be titled "Say Anything.""

CHECK IT OUT! http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/

7/15/02
12:37:42 PM

AlterNet Headlines

http://www.alternet.org

AN ALTERNET EDITORIAL: GIVE IT BACK, MR. PRESIDENT If Bush hopes to lead by example and practice what he preaches, then shouldn't he give back any gains he made through that questionable loan?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13582

SPECIAL REPORT: ARE YOUR BEAUTY PRODUCTS KILLING YOU?

Matt Wheeland, AlterNet

A new report linking birth defects and health risks with a chemical used in trendy cosmetics, gives a long overdue wake-up call to the FDA, consumers and the beauty industry.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13530

OSAMA BIN LADEN: NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON'T

Tai Moses, AlterNet

Dead or alive, missing or found, bin Laden is the unwitting author of Bush's global war on terrorism -- a drama with an ever-changing script.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13581

GEORGE W. BUSH: CORPORATE CONFIDENCE MAN

Lee Drutman and Charlie Cray, AlterNet

The President's long-awaited "New Ethic of Corporate Responsibility" falls far short of the fundamental corporate reforms needed to protect workers, the environment, consumers and shareholders.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13565

WHY I DOWNLOAD: CONFESSIONS OF A MUSIC JUNKIE

Mike Prevatt, Las Vegas CityLife

The major labels' sorry attempt to push their own music downloading services leaves the true music addict little choice but to stick with free MP3 applications like Gnutella and Kazaa.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13577

RENOUNCING SINS AGAINST THE CORPORATE FAITH

Norman Solomon, AlterNet

Bush blames corporate scandals on a few bad apples. But he should be wondering if the barrels of capitalism are rotten.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13569

YOU GO, GIRL

Michelle Goldberg, Salon

Backpacker fiction like "The Beach" explores the authenticity-grubbing subculture of the dreadlocked, ganja-scented travelers, but women have been left out -- until now.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13538

BUSH THREATENS FUTURE OF PEACEKEEPING

Jim Lobe, AlterNet

European allies fear the White House's threat to withdraw from international peacekeeping operations is evidence of an agenda to put the U.S. beyond the reach of international law.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13554

MICHAEL'S NEW RACIAL MAKEOVER -- PHONY OR FOR REAL?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Pacific News Service

Is Michael Jackson's diatribe against "devilish" Sony executives just the bitterness of an artist whose time has come and gone or is it true racial consciousness?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13558

Dubya Trouble

From Dallas to Barcelona, it's been a lousy week for the Bush Administration. Laura Flanders and a roundtable of journalists size up the week's coverage on Friday's Working Assets Radio. Listen online from 10-11amPT/1-2pmET, or call in: 866-798-TALK.

http://www.workingassetsradio.com

7/15/02
12:22:12 PM

Bush Smells Like Old Money

In Which Dubya and Dick Snicker at Corruption Charges, and the War Excuse Weakens

by Mark Morford

Of course we're at war. Just look at those horrible lines at the airport.

Just look at that man having his scruffy topsiders screened four times, that woman's lovely underwire bra setting off the metal detector, that huge pile of confiscated nail files. Don't we all feel safer now.

Of course we're at war. Just look at all those flags stuck in all those manicured lawns, the ominous United We Stand billboards, the all-new 2003 Ford Excursion now with room for 13 and a full 10mpg Highway/7mpg City, all the cheap plastic stars-and-stripes kitsch at the Hallmark store, Made in Malaysia.

And look at all the billions being unquestioningly appropriated for more military action and more "homeland security" and more mysterious attacks and more clandestine operations, random budget-busting expenditures you will never fully know about.

Simply because this is one of the most secretive and blatantly unreported wars in American history and if you think all the cover-up is merely in the name of security, I've got a fabulous time-share on a Saudi oil field to sell you, cheap.

And look, just look how the Bush administration has no intention of telling anyone anything about anything except ooh that evil evil Saddam we're gonna get him and oooh that evil evil bin Laden we're gonna get him too, maybe, doubtful but maybe, someday, but probably not, and never you mind all those eerie Bush/bin Laden family connections. Hush now.

Of course we're at war. Witness all the angry puffed-up deflections, every reproach of the president and every suspicious glance in the direction of his corporatized administration instantly retorted with a nice "how dare you don't you know we're at war" or maybe "the president has a great deal on his very compact little mind right now and he can't be bothered with the details of, you know, rampant favoritism and hypocrisy."

And meanwhile isn't that Bush appointee and former conniving, pro-accounting industry, anti-SEC lawyer, current SEC chairman Harvey Pitt investigating malfeasance at WorldCom? Cherish the irony.

You just know we're at war because clearly there is just no room for accusations of Bush's former corporate wrongdoings or economic bilking, or of Cheney's simply astonishing connection to the oleaginous Halliburton corporation, which signed a cool $73 mil worth of oil deals with Iraq while Dickie was still CEO just a handful of years ago. Whoops, shhh. War.

And who knew everyone's favorite inviolate meta-doyenne Martha Stewart would have so much in common with Geedubya? Cashing in on a cool $230K worth of ImClone stock just before the company tanks, Martha?

Not bad, but try nearly a cool $1 mil for Bush back in '90, cashing in on Harken Energy stock just prior to the company reporting a huge loss, and then accidentally whoops gosh "forgetting" to disclose the sale to the SEC for oh, eight months, give or take. Aw, shucks. "Clerical error," they say.

And it's becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone but the truest I-believe-everything-Ari-Fleischer-says jingoists who actually believes this "war" has become anything but a grand excuse, a marvelously leveragable plaything which the Bush cadre can point to as their very own personal holy shroud, some sort of sacrosanct shield to protect them from criticism and claims of blatant impropriety and selling the nation's soul for pennies on the barrel.

The more pleasant idea is that the war excuse is becoming thinner and thinner, the populace increasingly fatigued and wary of false terrorist warnings, fearmongering, lopsided Us-versus-Them posturing, the sucking dry of the budget in the name of accidentally bombing Afghan weddings.

Wary, in addition, of the idea that simply sending in troops and bombing caves and infuriating Middle Eastern countries even further will somehow solve the problem, stem the tide of terrorism, eradicate the numinous, germinating terrorist cells, make everyone look away as Bush Sr.'s sinister investment company the Carlyle Group rakes in millions from War on Terror defense contracts. Shhh.

Maybe it won't last much longer. Maybe the day will come very soon when the scales will tip in the other direction, the fearmongering and the falsely hyped patriotism will no longer outweigh the increasing piles of proof that we are being misled, that all is not what it seems.

Maybe we will realize that what was, very briefly, a necessary and urgent need to defend our pride and our national identity in the wake of brutish hatred and an unspeakably barbaric attack, has become a cheap political pawn, a bureaucratic commodity, the national soul bought and sold like so many artillery shells for the Carlyle Group's $11 billion Crusader tank.

Of course that day will come. Of course you hope the populace cannot and will not be lied to for very long, the karmic tide cannot help but begin to change, and maybe we will finally realize the need for a different, long-term tack to defend our nation, change our oil-desperate foreign policy, commit fewer corporate atrocities and political puppeteering in foreign lands that tend to spawn all that hate in the first place.

Yes, that will be the day. Unless that's the day Bush declares war on Iraq. Whoops, shhh.

Source: http://www.SFGate.com

7/15/02
12:18:22 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Crocodile Hunter takes wildlife pitch to Hollywood - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16821/story.htm

Californian man faces life in prison for beheading dog - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16827/story.htm

Grisly animal abuse cases puzzle Colorado police - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16826/story.htm

Colorado group fights coalbed methane wells - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16824/story.htm

UPDATE - Cosmetics full of suspect chemicals, group says - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16822/story.htm

Green groups sue Alaska regulators over oil-spill plans - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16819/story.htm

UPDATE - California sweats through new energy crunch - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16818/story.htm

Utilities to press for Utah nuclear waste dump - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16812/story.htm

Organic bread targeted to show absurd health scares - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16823/story.htm

South Africa, UN press for Earth Summit blueprint - UNITED NATIONS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16829/story.htm

UK CHP power investment falls, threatens green goals - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16813/story.htm

Sixty mln southern Africans face hunger, disease - UN - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16832/story.htm

Singapore seizes tonnes of ivory bound for Japan - SINGAPORE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16830/story.htm

INTERVIEW - Earth summit collapse better than toothless pact - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16811/story.htm

Dutch launch criminal probe into hormone - laced feed - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16833/story.htm

Weakening typhoon brings heavy rains to Japan - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16817/story.htm

Fiat to cut output by another 40,000 cars - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16825/story.htm

Italy lacks irrigation plan as droughts worsen - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16815/story.htm

Storms sweep Germany leaving at least four dead - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16820/story.htm

Storm lashes Berlin leaving seven dead - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16816/story.htm

Germany wants to double renewable power - minister - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16814/story.htm

EU wants Dutch action in hormone feed scare - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16828/story.htmv

New power station to be built in West Australia - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16831/story.htm

7/15/02
12:15:21 PM

t r u t h o u t

Julian Bond | Freedom Under Fire

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12A.bond.freedom.htm

Jennifer Van Bergen | Patriotism and Religion

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12B.jvb.pledge.htm

Bush Received Company Loans He Now Wants Banned

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12C.bush.loans.htm

Stocks Scrape Out Lows on Accounting Woes

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12D.stock.lows.htm

Senate Backs Tough Measures to Punish Corporate Misdeeds

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12E.senate.corps.htm

Amnesty Condemns Palestinian Attacks

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12F.amnesty.pa.htm

Whole World Responsible for AIDS, Says Clinton

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.12G.clinton.aids.htm

7/11/02
4:31:12 PM

Can Or Bottle, Bill Wants Makers To Pay For Recycling

by Greg Winter

The first Congressional hearings on recycling in at least a decade begin today as environmental advocates in the Senate push to hold the beverage industry, not states, cities or consumers, responsible for salvaging the billions of bottles and cans thrown away every year.

Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent who became chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works when he broke with the Republican Party last year, called the hearings to build momentum behind a national bottle bill. It is an issue Mr. Jeffords has raised in Washington for nearly 30 years but has never had the power to force until now.

Under the Senate bill, much as in legislation that is expected to be introduced in the House as early as this week, beverage companies would be required to ensure that 80 percent of bottles and cans are recycled within two years. Now, less than half of aluminum cans, the most valuable of beverage containers, are recycled.

Despite the proliferation of curbside pick-up programs, recycling rates have dropped over the last decade, in part because Americans consume so many beverages outside the home.

Sixty-five percent of aluminum cans were recycled in 1992, for example, but only 49 percent were salvaged in 2001, the lowest rate in 15 years, according to a study released this week by the Container Recycling Institute. As a consequence, the report concluded, more than 760,000 tons of aluminum cans were thrown away last year.

That is the equivalent of about two Empire State Buildings, 3,800 Boeing 747's or nearly half a million Ford Mustangs.

"There is no good reason why this nation is not doing a better job of recycling its cans and bottles," Mr. Jeffords said.

That Mr. Jeffords even succeeded in reviving the recycling debate, which has virtually lain dormant in the Capitol for the last decade, is a symbolic victory, prompting environmental groups nationwide to rally in support of his bill.

Nevertheless, the legislative effort to shift the burden onto industry has elicited fierce opposition from soft drink and beer makers, who depict it as a tax on consumers, not to mention themselves.

Under the bill, Americans would have to pay an upfront deposit of at least 10 cents on virtually all cans and bottles, which could be redeemed upon recycling, essentially superseding the 11 states that already have bottle laws.

Until beverage companies reached the 80 percent recycling rate, they would have to surrender much of the deposits they amass from wasted containers to the states, an amount that could easily reach into the billions of dollars.

"We have a fundamental problem understanding why there's always this focus on beverage containers," said Drew Davis, vice president for federal affairs at the National Soft Drink Association, arguing that bottles and cans account for less than 4 percent of the garbage generated by most cities. "Why not focus on paper or yard waste?"

Beyond that, the industry contends, it would have to spend up to $10 billion to get a national recycling system operating. Warehouses and trucks would have to make room for empty bottles. Drivers would have to make more trips, requiring more fuel. Much of the cost, the industry warns, would be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/politics/11RECY.html

7/11/02
4:22:05 PM

DAILY GRIST

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

STUPID IS WHERE STUPID LIVES

Maybe you live in a city. Maybe you live in the suburbs. Or maybe, like writer Michelle Nijhuis, you live in the Stupid Zone -- at the bottom of an avalanche chute, on top of an earthquake fault, or in the middle of a floodplain, for example. Nijhuis lives on a hot, dry mesa in Colorado, which, with fires raging out of control throughout the West this summer, is the most newsworthy Stupid Zone of them all. When you live in the line of fire, she writes, you have to make some adjustments -- say, less attachment to your personal effects (especially the more flammable of them) and closer relations to your neighbors, not to mention a crash-course in fire-fighting. Read about life in the Stupid Zone, on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: In the Line of Fire -- life in the Stupid Zone -- in our Soapbox section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/soapbox/nijhuis071102.asp?source=daily>

COCA IS IT!

Efforts by the United States to combat cocaine production in Colombia by spraying coca crops with herbicides are coming up against a provision requiring the spraying to meet the same safety standards as those in the U.S. Translation: The U.S. EPA must certify that the spraying "does not pose unreasonable risks or adverse effects to humans or the environment." The herbicide in use in Colombia is a more toxic variant of a product known in the U.S. by the trade name Roundup. Moreover, watchdog organizations suspect the compound used in Colombia may be mixed with surfactants to cause it to adhere to coca plants, making it even more hazardous. Last year, the U.S.-funded program fumigated 207,000 acres of Colombian land, a number that may climb to 370,000 this year. Critics say the spraying has caused "gastrointestinal disorders (e.g., severe bleeding, nausea, and vomiting), testicular inflammation, high fevers, dizziness, respiratory ailments, skin rashes, and severe eye irritation."

straight to the source: New York Times, Christopher Marquis, 11 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=246>

only in Grist: A tale of two mayors -- the improbable story of how Bogota, Colombia, became somewhere you might actually want to live -- in our Main Dish section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/jones040402.asp?source=daily>

DESPERATELY SEEKING SNOOZIN'

Despite mounting evidence that global warming has already begun to exact steep tolls on the environment, the Bush administration told Congress yesterday that it needs up to five years of additional scientific research before it will be ready to formulate a plan to address climate change. Speaking in front of the House Science Committee, Commerce Assistant Secretary James Mahoney said the administration was ready to "move into a new time of differentiation and strategy evaluation" extending for the next two to five years. Some committee members responded by expressing frustration about the White House's lack of a coherent climate change policy; using somewhat clearer language than Mahoney's, Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said, "We really don't have a policy [on climate change]. There's a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of action."

straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Associated Press, John Heilprin, 10 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=247>

only in Grist: Pret-a-poor taste -- climate change is, like, inevitable, dude -- animation by Mark Fiore in our Soapbox section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/soapbox/fiore061002.asp?source=daily>

do good: Take action to tell Bush to tackle global warming <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily#kyoto>

SURVEY SAYS ...

It would seem the American public is far less equivocal about climate change than the Bush administration: Three-fourths of voters want the government to impose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions on industry, according to a poll released this week by the environmental group Union of Concerned Scientists. Seventy-six percent of survey respondents favored mandatory emissions standards for power plants, oil refineries, and other industries, and 16 percent supported voluntary standards, while 8 percent were undecided. Moreover, 78 percent of polltakers said they believe global warming is already a serious problem or will be in the future. The Bush administration supports only voluntary emissions cuts and has rejected any cap on carbon dioxide emissions, saying such a move would gravely harm the U.S. economy.

straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 11 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=248>

only in Grist: Lovey-dovey scientists -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha092099.stm?source=daily>

99 BOTTLES OF BEER IN A DUMPSTER

For the first time in at least a decade, Congress is considering a national bottle bill, thanks to the efforts of Sen. James Jeffords (I-Vt.), head of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Jeffords, who has battled for such a bottle bill for nearly 30 years, introduced a measure today that would shift the burden of recycling from states, cities, and consumers to the beverage industry, which would be responsible for recycling at least 80 percent of its containers within two years of passage of the bill. Under the terms of the bill, Americans would pay a deposit of at least 10 cents on cans and bottles, which could be redeemed upon recycling. Unsurprisingly, the measure has made industry reps grumpy: "We have a fundamental problem understanding why there's always this focus on beverage containers," said Drew Davis, vice president for federal affairs at the National Soft Drink Association. "Why not focus on paper or yard waste?"

straight to the source: New York Times, Greg Winter, 11 Jul 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=249>

only in Grist: Can you recycle a beer bottle with a lime wedge stuck in it? -- astute advice on all things environmental -- in our Ask Umbra column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ask/ask062102.asp?source=daily#lime>

7/11/02
4:15:48 PM

Justice Department To Attempt Shut Down of 9/11 Evidence Friday

by Tom Flocco, July 11th, 2002

On June 20, Bush Administration officials quietly informed a New York judge of their intention to commence legal actions likely to be far-reaching in their constitutional, political, and individual rights implications pertaining to current lawsuits and government secrecy related to the attacks on September 11, 2001. The moves were revealed in a letter obtained from a confidential source, with two other sources corroborating its existence, adding additional information.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Robert D. McCallum, Jr. and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York James B. Comey advised U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, also of the Southern District of New York, that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will intervene to control access to all evidence and documents related to all private litigation before Hellerstein’s court regarding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 -- citing “grave national security concerns” as their motivation.

The McCallum and Comey correspondence advised Judge Hellerstein of their intention to “seek [court] entry of a global discovery order [effectively controlling evidence obtained from any country],” requiring that 1) “Transportation Security Administration (TSA) be served with [have prior access to] all requests for party and non-party discovery,” 2) “defendants and non-parties submit all proposed discovery responses that may contain ‘sensitive security information’ (SSI) to the TSA prior to releasing such material to plaintiffs,” and 3) “TSA have the necessary opportunity to review such material and to withhold ‘sensitive security information’ ” [from victim-family attorneys].

One victim family plaintiff -- speaking off the record -- told Scoop Media that family members and their attorneys have not yet sought internal memos, electronic mail, facsimiles, and documents which would shed public light upon what had to be extraordinary legal maneuverings. However, added high stakes related to the publicly undisclosed contents of the controversial August 6, 2001 Presidential intelligence briefing prior to the attacks, and a secret July, 2001 FBI memo -- said to be "50 times more significant than the August 6 briefing," by a Congressional investigator (New York Times, 5-18-2002), will only serve to heighten the importance of the June 20 letter.

The victim family source complained to Scoop Media that "now the White House is trying to control or block the evidence we need to prove our negligence cases in court." The source then added that offices of United Airlines defense firm Mayer-Brown and lead attorney Michael Feagley, TSA, Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department, Judge Hellerstein’s District Court, and the White House Counsel’s office were all likely involved in the legal machinations.

The resumes of TSA Director, John McGaw, and his personnel security chief, David Holmes, are already controversial enough to draw probing questions on many fronts; but plaintiff attorneys for the victim families may find the Administration's TSA appointee attempts to exert government control over their clients' private cases to be the proverbial last straw.

The DOJ letter to Judge Hellerstein reveals that Bush Administration officials at TSA have also been contacting witnesses already subpoenaed by attorneys for the plaintiff families, telling them that they should send all Plaintiff-subpoenaed evidence and documents to the TSA for initial inspection, prior to directly cooperating with family plaintiff attorneys and Judge Hellerstein's Court in New York. Thus, constitutional questions arise as to why the New York District Court is permitting Bush Administration bureaucratic appointees to tamper with witnesses and evidence in the private civil actions of American citizens.

Some 33 families have already chosen to forego financial awards from the congressionally authorized victim compensation fund in favor of seeking justice and accountability. Their lawsuits are attempting to recover damages for negligence, ticket contract safeguards, and failure to prevent the attacks, even as more evidence regarding prior knowledge of the terrorism recently leaked out from Capitol Hill -- from congressmen and senators themselves.

The letter also disclosed that Ashcroft’s Office will push for “the appointment of lead counsel,” effectively exerting a consolidated supervisory role over all victim family attorneys, while seeking “adoption of uniform [similarly controlled] discovery requests to streamline litigation, reduce costs for all parties and conserve judicial resources.”

Informed sources close to the case told Scoop Media that actions brought by the Justice Department will dilute and trivialize the more clear-cut and important cases which seek answers to many of the questions related to security, negligence, and prior knowledge of the attacks.

Moreover, the legal moves will be seen by some to help Bush attorneys shut down and cut off victim family access to important government documents which would likely lead to the accountability and justice their attorneys have sought through litigation. This, while other victim families watch -- deciding whether or not to introduce their own civil actions against airline companies or other government entities.

RESPONSIBLE ACTIVISM

Some of the unknowing victim family members soon to be affected by imminent but discreet Justice Department legal action [which literally assumes total control over evidence gathering, depositions, testimony, and government reports] were at the Capitol just last month on June 10 and 11 to attend events related to calls for open September 11 probes.

Some family members attended a Monday National Press Club media conference sponsored by the 9/11 investigative organization UnansweredQuestions.org, an independent, non-partisan online community of concerned citizens, researchers, independent investigators, and journalists asking and exploring the unanswered questions of September 11. Believing in transparency, the group’s panel members told gathered TV, radio, and print media attendees that good questions lead to answers and solutions.

On Tuesday, busloads of 9/11 victim families descended on Capitol Hill to voice their concerns at a rally also attended by more media and some congressmen and senators. The families were pleading for open, aggressive, and complete investigations in Congress, but also for a truly independent, non-partisan investigative commission with lawyers and serious researchers totally in concert with the families’ goals of justice and accountability. Meanwhile, Bush attorneys were moving to take control over needed evidence for their civil actions against the airlines.

BUSH LAWYERS THREATEN VICTIM PLAINTIFFS

Curious indications of additional Administration political machinations linked to Special Master Kenneth Feinberg and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund were also revealed in Justice’s letter to Hellerstein’s court: “The Government has been advised that the Court is developing a procedure by which all Plaintiffs in the September 11 Tort Litigation must formally acknowledge the ramifications of pursuing a lawsuit rather than filing a claim with [the Fund].”

This action will permit Feinberg to force families to listen to his attempts to convince them to give up their lawsuits -- accepting his reduced financial offers, instead of taking their chances for fair compensation in court, but also for justice and accountability. However, Feinberg might be losing his battle, as only 10 families out of 3,200 have thus far completed applications permitting him to determine their financial futures, rather than a judge and jury, according to wide press reports.

DOJ lawyers McCallum and Comey further advised Judge Hellerstein that “In making their election, plaintiffs should be fully informed of the risks that accompany litigation.” However, the Administration added that the “TSA’s vigorous enforcement of the rules governing non-disclosure of sensitive security information may present significant litigation consequences for all plaintiffs, and the Government respectfully requests that the Court include a statement to this effect in any finalized protocol,”-- clearly the letter’s most controversial statement.

Some might consider the Administration’s statement a veiled threat, warning that any victim family continuing with or thinking about suing either the airlines, security firms, or other government entities would likely lose any civil action because the Government is going to take complete control of their access to the very evidence needed to prove their cases in court.

Moreover, these and other statements in the Justice Department’s correspondence to Hellerstein could well test the legal ire of many of the families -- given the staggering individual, legal, and constitutional implications.

“CONSOLIDATING” THE CONTROL

Constitutional separation of powers notwithstanding, the Executive Branch is also attempting additional circumnavigation of treacherous legal waters that some might consider blatant usurpation of judicial branch authority in order to control access to evidence in legitimate private lawsuits.

The Assistant Attorney General and U.S. Attorney advised that “the Government will seek to intervene in these cases, and will move to implement a consolidated litigation plan that would enable TSA to enforce both statutory and regulatory aviation safety measures effectively and efficiently.”

On the heels of its strict enforcement intentions, Ashcroft’s Office requested “that the Court -- on its own motion [acting by itself] -- stay [suspend] all discovery in the September 11 Tort Litigation pending the July conference.” McCallum and Comey then asked the Judge to “permit the Government to address these and other issues at the upcoming July status conference,” -- taking the unprecedented action of halting legal evidence discovery in all September 11 tort litigation. The undisclosed victim litigant told Scoop Media that the conference will be held on Friday.

DOJ USING SSI TO CLOAK TSA AND FAA NEGLIGENCE IN USA

Bush Administration lawyers at Attorney General Ashcroft’s Department of Justice (DOJ) may be employing legerdemain in their efforts to suppress useful court evidence, adding that “Congress charged TSA with prohibiting the disclosure of SSI, an entire category of information relating to transportation security.”

They also said that [the Under Secretary of Transportation for Security] “shall prescribe regulations prohibiting disclosure of information obtained or developed in carrying out security or research and development activities” the release of which would “be detrimental to the safety of passengers in transportation.” Justice lawyers then said that “SSI includes, but is not limited to, any approved, accepted, or standard security program; Security Directives and Information Circulars; any selection criteria used in any security screening process; and any security contingency plan.”

Brian Sullivan, former Special Agent for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) New England Region, pointed out to Scoop Media in an interview that “the purpose of protecting information should be in the interests of defending national security. SSI should not be used as a shield to hide FAA and TSA negligence and incompetence.”

Sullivan added that “the intent of the SSI designation was not to hide the ineptitude of the failed FAA civil aviation security apparatus; nor was it intended to preclude legitimate legal inquiry, as government lawyers carry out White House orders to cloak bureaucratic incompetence in a blanket of ‘sensitive security.’ ”

THE PRESIDENT'S PROTECTORS OF AIRPORT INSECURITY

Victim families will be relieved to know that the recent Bush-appointed protector of the nation’s airport security, TSA Director John McGaw, is a 26-year Secret Service veteran. What the families won’t want to know is that wide reports cite McGaw as spearheading the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) investigations into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and the national church-arson task force -- packing enough controversy into a couple years to last a couple lifetimes.

McGaw was also criticized by Senator Arlen Specter at a recent Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing for defending the actions of BATF agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, where the government paid Randy Weaver $3.5 million because the agents killed his wife and son in the altercation.

And notwithstanding Bush appointee McGaw’s controversial and questionable new power to “prescribe regulations prohibiting disclosure of information” [controlling evidence] and “security or research and development activities” at the nation’s airports, his newly-recruited TSA personnel security chief David Holmes may be America’s worst security nightmare.

Former Commerce Department colleagues charge that, as favors for politicians and friends, “David Holmes signed off on Commerce applicants with criminal or other derogatory information in their background files. One felon even got Top Secret clearance,” according to WorldNetDaily.com. (4-24-2002)

WorldNetDaily added that a senior Commerce official said “TSA is under enormous pressure to meet that Nov.19 deadline [for hiring 30,000 new baggage screeners].” He then added: “And then you have a guy, who’s already predisposed to looking the other way, making critical decisions on the people who are essentially our last line of defense against armed hijackers. You do the math.”

SEE YOU IN NOVEMBER

At this point, not knowing whether to laugh or cry over such bumbling incompetence -- or worse, victim families and their attorneys will now watch Bush Administration lawyers madly shuffling legal paperwork over to the Southern District of New York, using every desperate and unprecedented creative legal theory available in an attempt to steal their constitutionally-given right to a fair civil trial in front of a jury of American citizens.

The Ashcroft lawyers will try to pull it off by smothering access to critical evidence required to win victim family cases, even as some are forced to listen to their Special Master Kenneth Feinberg reiterate the Justice Department’s coming threats to their previously filed litigation.

The letter Americans were not supposed to know about tells it all. And implications for the U.S. rule of law will be seen by many as truly astonishing. However, Fall elections will reveal whether Americans will tolerate what one 9/11 victim plaintiff told Scoop Media is nothing more than “slick government shenanigans."

Grieving families, on the whole, are still emotionally unable to demand that Judge Hellerstein allow their attorneys the right of legitimate legal inquiry and discovery of evidence. It will likely take righteous outrage and responsible citizen activism to halt taxpayer-funded DOJ lawyers attempting to innovatively cloak what many will describe as inside-the-beltway negligence, ineptitude, and abuse of power by Bush Administration appointees at TSA.

Moreover, the anguished victim litigants, their first-rate attorneys, and other potential 9/11 plaintiff families closely watching the lawsuits already filed, may now have to rethink their strategy: It just might take a coterie of constitutional attorneys to prevent the Administration’s impending assaults upon the Constitution’s separation of powers.

This, while having waited nine months for sequestered congressional hearings to commence behind closed doors in a sound-proof room at the Capitol -- to all intents and purposes, placing a 9/11 evidence blackout via a) the Legislative Branch’s secret, soft, and un-aggressive “hearings,” and b) the Executive Branch’s legal lapdogs snapping at the heels of justice, fairness, and God-given rights. How sad for the country that such are the “leaders” placed in power by the citizenry -- corrupt and unresponsive. But Americans get to vote again in November.

Tom Flocco is an independent American investigative journalist, having previously written for Scoop.co.nz, AmericanFreePress.net, WorldNetDaily.com, FromTheWilderness.com, NewsMax.com, NarcoNews.com, and JudicialWatch.org.

Contact: mailto:TomFlocco@cs.com

Source: http://www.UnansweredQuestions.org

7/11/02
3:29:52 PM

The Nation

When Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the hearing on her nomination to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, she will face an unprecedented level of criticism from individuals and organizations familiar with her record of extreme right-wing judicial activism.

For the full story on Owen, read John Nichols's cover-story from the July 22/29, 2002 issue of The Nation.

Currently available at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020722&s=nichols

And for background info on Owen and other upcoming judicial appointments, see a special report issued by NOW at:

http://www.now.org/issues/legislat/nominees/index.html

Also check out IndependentJudiciary.com, a special site sponsored by the Alliance for Justice at:

http://www.independentjudiciary.com/

And don't miss these other editorials, columns and articles from the July 22/29, 2002 double-issue of The Nation:

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Tinkering With the Death Machine

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020722&s=hitchens

BRUCE SHAPIRO: Rethinking the Death Penalty

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020722&s=shapiro

JIM HIGHTOWER: POP-ing the Bankers

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020722&s=hightower

EDWARD HOAGLAND: 1776 and All That

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020722&s=hoagland

HERMAN SCHWARTZ: The Court's Terrible Two

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020722&s=schwartz

7/11/02
3:26:49 PM

MoJournal

http://www.motherjones.com/

Free thinking, non-conforming, investigative reporting

In the July/August issue of Mother Jones, available on news stands now, Bob Burtman explains how the Bush administration, in making energy production a sweeping priority, has touched off a new gold rush across the West.

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtoa4pkFbb/

The effects of the White House initiative are being seen from the high alpine wilderness of Montana to the pristine grasslands of New Mexico. We at MotherJones.com take a look at ten wild areas that face new threats as a result of the push for more drilling.

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtpa4pkFbb/

Been Grocery Shopping Lately?

Here is your chance to help build a nation-wide, non-profit labeling system for everyday items in your local grocery store. A public-interest group is interested in knowing if consumers want this type of label.

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtra4pkFbb/

WEB EXCLUSIVES

News - A Coup in the Hague - Is Washington's unilateralist bent a threat to multinational organizations? Jose Bustani, ousted as director of the world's largest chemical weapons control group, certainly thinks so.

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtsa4pkFbb/

Cartoon - For God We Sue - It's the Atheist Attorney, savior to a complacent nation facing a slide into Godlessness --and politicians facing a campaign season without empty, hot-button issues.

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtta4pkFbb/

Updates - 7UP No Longer Laughing, Breaking Up the Bakassi Boys, Easing Access to Bush's Texas Records

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtua4pkFbb/

Daily Briefing - Charting the Court's Course; The WorldCom Blame Game; Backlash in Barcelona; Life After Watts; Dumping on Nevada; Dissecting the Surgeon General Nominee

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtva4pkFbb/

Radioactive Recycling - If the Department of Energy has its way, the nation's nuclear garbage could end up in everyday items like bicycles, frying pans, and baby strollers.

http://click.topica.com/maaaq7HaaSLtwa4pkFbb/

7/11/02
2:16:41 PM

SciTech Daily Review

http://SciTechDaily.com

Doctors in Australia are to use a revolutionary technique to try to treat spinal paralysis -- using cells from inside the patient's nose