6/7/02
8:42:06 PM
RECYCLING PLUTONIUM IS NOT THE SOLUTION
Concerned Citizens,
Moving plutonium from Colorado to South Carolina to be reprocessed into MOX fuel is another very dangerous way to keep the nuke industry rolling.
Nuclear power was pushed on the utility companies, heavily subsidized and with limited liability under the Price Anderson Act, as a way to make electric rate payers, pay for the high cost of plutonium production. It was sold to the public as free electric power "too cheap to meter".
We now have more than enough plutonium for our nuclear arsenal. We don't need nuclear power plants for making atom bomb elements which has become an international security risk.
The late Dr. Roy foresaw this looming problem and released his Roy Process to the press in 1979. http://members.cox.net/theroyprocess
Instead of recycling plutonium into MOX fuel which still produces high level nuclear waste. Why not transmute it, on site, into non-radioactive lead via the Roy Process? Nuclear power plants can be retooled to use transmutation as a heat source via the Roy Process instead of the typical nuclear rod pile design. Dr. Roy estimated cost at $80 million dollars for the pilot facilities in 1979 and should take about three years to complete. There remains about a years work calculating engineering parameters.
Nevertheless, geologic isolation remains federal policy as per the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. Surprisingly the so-called envrio groups would not even interview Dr. Roy about his important discovery to eliminate nuclear waste. They want to "say" {there is no solution for nuclear waste... therefore stop making it} as if Three Mile Island and Chernobyl melted down because of waste storage problems!
Dr. Roy was outspokenly 'against' nuclear power for health and scientific reasons....and he suffered for that. Those who criticize the Roy Process, photon transmutation method as power & cost prohibitive have no knowledge of it.
Last month 60 Minutes did a segment about high level nuclear waste leaking out of 'accessible' temporary storage into 100 square miles of precious ground water at Hanford, Washington. It will end up contaminating the U.S. western coast line. And Yucca Mt is supposed to contain nuclear waste for 10,000 years! They could not do it for 50 years!
Dennis F. Nester
6/7/02
7:03:07 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.08
Marc Ash | Will Bush Build an East German Stasi?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08A.ash.stasi.htm
Conyers Criticizes President's Homeland Security Proposal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08B.Conyers.home.htm
Leahy Opens Hearing on Events Leading to 9-11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08C.leahy.open.911.htm
75 Members of Congress in a Letter to Hastert Demand end to Enron Coverup
http://www.truthout.org/mm_01/4.Hastert_Energy.pdf
Full Text of Lt. Col. Steve Butlers Comments About Bush
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08D.butler.txt.htm
Judge Fines Tobacco Firm $20 Million
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08E.rj.20M.htm
Both Israelis and Palestinians Oppose Saudi Peace Plan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08F.Il.pa.Opp.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 105
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08G.stone.105.htm
Paul Krugman | Evils of Access
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.08H.krug.evils.htm
6/7/02
7:01:26 PM
Greenpeace's Positive Energy
Inside this edition:
- Taking Action! California On the Verge of Making History in an Effort to Stop Global Warming
- Clean Energy Saves Lives
AB 1058: California's Chance to Make History in an Effort to Stop Global Warming
California is on the verge of passing the first bill in the country to regulate global warming pollution from one of the largest and least addressed sources-passenger cars and trucks. Once passed, this bill would set a precedent for other states to follow. In addition to reducing our contribution to global warming, AB 1058 will also clean up our air making it easier for children and senior citizens to breathe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and save consumers money in fuel-savings. We are only a few votes away from making environmental history!
Some assembly members are still undecided, and need to hear from members of their district before they cast their vote. A list of these "swing" voters can be found at:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/features/ab_1058.html
and on the online action at:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=131
If your Representative is not listed, we still encourage you to call or fax your representative and urge them to support Assembly Bill 1058.
To send your assembly member a fax, just go to:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=132
You will need to enter in your zip code
Clean Energy Saves Lives!
Researchers have conclusively linked exposure to air pollution released by coal-fired power plants to an increased risk of dying from lung cancer. According to a study published in the March 6, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, exposure to tiny particles of industrial emissions in the most heavily polluted U.S. cities is comparable to inhaling second-hand smoke. The most recent findings further the case for the need to begin a transition to a clean energy economy that is based primarily on renewable energy and energy efficient technologies.
To learn more about clean energy technologies, go to:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/cleanenergy/
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our website,
will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our web site,
will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join2/cen.htm
6/7/02
6:59:16 PM
Public Citizen
June 7, 2002
Allowing Lotronex Back on the Market Will Endanger Patients
Drug Reintroduction Program Weak; Offers Little Protection or Oversight
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Reintroducing Lotronex onto the market as announced today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will endanger patients, Public Citizen said today. Not only is the new marketing program too lax to prevent harm, but it is to be overseen by the company that makes the drug - a poor idea because the company has a financial incentive to downplay problems with the drug. Also, the recommended dose has not been shown to be effective.
Lotronex, approved in February 2000 to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) for women with diarrhea as the predominant symptom, was withdrawn from the market in November 2000 because of dangerous adverse effects experienced by some patients taking it. Public Citizen in August 2000 petitioned the FDA to remove the drug because of evidence that it caused ischemic colitis, a life-threatening condition in which bowel tissue dies as a result of a lack of blood flow to the colon. Many patients were hospitalized and suffered permanent injuries.
Today, the FDA announced plans to reintroduce Lotronex at a recommended dose of 1 milligram (mg) per day. However, studies conducted prior to the original approval showed no evidence that the 1 mg daily dose is significantly better than a placebo. Further, the trials showed an increased risk of adverse effects at the 1 mg dose - a four-fold increase in constipation severe enough to cause the patients to withdraw from the study - compared with placebo. Thus, the newly approved starting dose of 1 mg per day lacks the proper evidence of efficacy required by the 1962 FDA Drug Efficacy Amendments but causes a significantly greater incidence of severe constipation. In addition, in 12 percent of the first 70 cases of ischemic colitis reported to the FDA, the patient was using the 1 mg per day dose approved for the new marketing plan.
Under the guidelines announced today, physicians who want to prescribe the drug must state that they are qualified to diagnose IBS and manage ischemic colitis and that they understand the risks associated with Lotronex. The doctors also must promise to educate patients about the risks and obtain their signatures on a patient-physician agreement.
However, no one is required to verify the doctors' qualifications or check to ensure patients have been informed of the drug's risks. Further, there will be no mandatory tracking of patients to see if they develop adverse effects. Finally, the entity administering the program will be GlaxoSmithKline, the drug's manufacturer.
"This is a classic case of the fox guarding the hen house," said Larry Sasich, a pharmacist and research analyst with Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "GlaxoSmithKline has a huge stake in this drug and wants it to succeed. The company should not be overseeing the patient safety program."
Instead, the FDA should have limited the drug to research status, which requires tight controls on who receives a drug and documentation of the effectiveness and safety of a drug. Under that status, the FDA should have limited the drug to women who had previously used it and experienced no adverse effects, Sasich said.
Also, at a minimum, the risk management program should be restricted to registered gastroenterologists, Sasich said. There should be a patient registry, and the pharmacies that dispense the drug also should be registered with the FDA.
"We are quite fearful for patients," Sasich said. "Unfortunately, the FDA's action will almost surely lead to more injuries and possibly deaths associated with this drug."
For more information about Lotronex, see
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=614
(a press release about Public Citizen's recent letter to the FDA regarding Lotronex) and
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=6734
(Public Citizen's petition to have Lotronex removed from the market).
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org
6/7/02
6:57:22 PM
The Nation
Nearly twenty years after one million people gathered in Central Park in New York City on June 12 to demand a freeze of the nuclear arms race, many believe that the time has come again for the public to make its voice heard in protest against the direction of nuclear policies, and are therefore issuing an Urgent Call for Ending Threats of Mass Destruction.
The Nation is proud to feature the full text of this Urgent Call in the most recent issue of the magazine. You can also read the Call in its entirety at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020624&s=schell2
There are numerous ways you can help pull the world back from the brink of nuclear insanity: Sign the Call, make a tax-deductible donation to help disseminate the Call, present the Call in your local community, email this note to everyone you know, and join up with one of the many terrific groups working toward the goal of complete nuclear abolition.
To sign the Call, and for much more info, go to:
And check out The Nation's compilation of some of the major and not-so-major groups working in the field, including who they are, what they're doing, and how you can help. All available at:
http://www.thenation.com/special/20020606call.mhtml
As one of its chief signatories and author of the seminal antinuclear text The Fate of the Earth, Nation Institute Fellow Jonathan Schell explains the Call's necessity in an accompanying Nation essay detailing the growing nuclear perils of our age. Read this essay now at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020624&s=schell2
As Schell explains, the cloud of nuclear danger is blacker at this moment than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. Along the Line of Control in Kashmir, one million soldiers confront one another across the Indian/Pakistan border in the world's greatest military mobilization since World War II.
Writing from New Delhi, author Praful Bidwai offers possible ways out of this potential conflgration in a new Nation editorial, available now at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020624&s=pbidwai
And in a special web report, famed Indian writer Arundhati Roy issues a rare statement of the most basic sanity and humanity in a world in which mad has come to mean not individual anger or craziness but mutually assured destruction.
Read this powerful essay now at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=roy20020604
And after reading that, get involved in one of the upcoming nationwide antinuclear marches, protests and events.
One of the largest is expected in NYC next Wednesday. On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the historic June 12, 1982 demonstration in Central Park, long-time disarmament activists Randall Forsberg, David Cortright and Cora Weiss join other former SANE/Freeze organizers to spark a new movement to abolish nuclear weapons. Speakers include Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Grace Paley, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Jonathan Schell, among many others.
Society for Ethical Culture 64th Street and Central Park West June 12, 7:00pm FREE For info, call 212-870-2304, or go to: http://www.urgentcall.org/php/new_june12pr.php
And for info on other related events, check out The Nation's special antinuclear events calendar at:
http://www.thenation.com/special/2002june12.mhtml
Finally, please check out The Nation's special antinuclear archive of articles, essays, editorials and columns featuring material all originally published in the pages of The Nation.
Featured pieces include Albert Einstein's 1931 plea for disarmament at a time when the destructive power of the atom had yet to be unleashed, then-Nation editor Freda Kirchwey's 1945 meditation on the bomb and the Cold War, The Nation editors' comments on the 1982 peace march, E.L. Doctorow's 1995 essay on mythologizing the bomb and Schell's classic 1998 call The Gift of Time, among many other selections.
All this and much more currently available at:
http://www.thenation.com/special/nukearchive.mhtml
The goal of nuclear abolition is ambitious. Many say that it's unrealistic. But a nuclear revival is clearly under way. And without a revival of nuclear protest in turn, all of our days may literally be numbered. So, please try to get involved today.
6/7/02
6:54:35 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
YOU'VE GOT TO HAND IT TO US
Ah, Friday: You're nearly done with your work, the weekend is looming, and there's just one thing left on your list of things to do -- helping to keep your favorite online environmental magazine alive and thriving. With a shoestring budget and a staff of just four people, we bring you breaking international environmental news five days a week, 48 weeks per year -- plus investigative and feature stories by some of the world's best enviro writers, as well as books reviews, cartoons, and the world's finest environmental advice column. We can't do it without your support, but this is the last time we'll nag you for it; that's right, today is the very last day of our first-ever fundraising campaign. Don't go into the weekend with a guilty conscience; if you haven't yet given it up for Grist, please do so right away. If you have given already, have a great weekend. You deserve it.
support Grist: Give it up for a good cause by making a tax-deductible donation to your favorite online magazine <http://www.gristmagazine.com/about/support.asp?source=daily>
A QUEST CALLED TRIBE
U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman acknowledged this week that it was "all too apparent that EPA needs to do more" to help tackle environmental problems on tribal lands. Whitman's announcement came during the Sixth National Tribal Conference on Environmental Management, held this week in Sparks, Nev. The conference focuses on mining, water and air quality, and environmental justice issues, and attracts as many as 1,000 Native American leaders from around the country. Both Whitman and tribal leaders agreed that progress is being made on Native American environmental issues, but the consensus was that there is still a long way to go. Only about one in 10 tribes have solid waste management programs, and 83 tribes live in areas plagued by air pollution. Also during the conference, Whitman presented Washington state's Swinomish Indian Tribal Community with a $1.2 million research grant -- the biggest one ever given to a tribe -- for studying the effects of exposure to toxins in shellfish. Overall, the EPA has earmarked $232 million for tribal programs.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Scott Sonner, 05 June 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=182>
SUNBATHING WITH THE ENEMY
Not only is the Grist fundraising campaign ending today -- so is a two-week conference on the resort island of Bali, where delegates are hammering out the agenda for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in August in Johannesburg, South Africa. Although thousands of people are in attendance, some of them -- namely many representatives from public interest groups -- are wondering if they should be participating at all. As big environmental summits become increasingly indistinguishable from, say, World Trade Organization meetings, nonprofit organizations wonder if they're sleeping with the enemy -- and if their presence makes any difference. Our correspondent David Case investigates the situation, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Much Bali-hoo about nothing -- public interest groups fight for elbow room in Indonesia, by David Case -- in our Main Dish section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/case060702.asp?source=daily>
FORESIGHT IS 20/20
California state regulators unanimously approved a measure yesterday that will allow Golden State residents to save up to 20 percent on their electric bills by conserving power. Beginning in July, households that use 15 to 20 percent less electricity than they used in 2000 (before the energy crisis) will receive an additional, proportional deduction from their electricity bill, under the state's "20/20" rebate program. The program is expensive, but regulators hope it will prevent rolling blackouts, which disrupt service and ultimately cost the state far more money. After the state's massive energy crisis, regulators approved a more expansive version of the program that included business customers and doled out about $290 million in 20/20 rebates. Noting that the energy crisis is not over, Gov. Gray Davis (D) urged regulators to revive the program this year. Advocates say it encourages consumers to conserve energy, but some California municipalities prefer to support longer-term conservation measures, such as investing in efficient appliances.
straight to the source: Sacramento Bee, Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, 07 Jun 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=183>
do good: Take action to do a home energy audit <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily#audit>
AUTO-AH!
The Canadian government has proposed levying a tax on motorists to help pay for implementing the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The Canadian Automobile Association, which represents some 4 million vehicle owners, calculated that the tax would be roughly $1,200 per year, based on 15 cents per mile of urban driving and three cents per mile of out-of-city driving. The CAA excoriated the proposed fee, as well as other possibilities on the table that would directly affect drivers, including higher parking fees and levies on less-efficient vehicles. CAA Vice President Elly Meister said the $1,200 fee was "aimed at reducing travel, but there are no linking studies showing it will influence people's behavior." The various vehicle fees being considered are part of four broad options for implementing Kyoto, which has been the subject of significant and persistent tension between Ottawa and the provincial governments. The federal government expects to settle on one national plan by the fall.
straight to the source: Toronto National Post, Alan Toulin, 07 Jun 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=184>
do good: Take action to call for clean energy in Canada <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily#canada>
6/7/02
3:12:29 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
AUSTRALIA BACKS OUT OF CLIMATE PROTOCOL
CANBERRA, Australia, June 6, 2002 (ENS) - "It is not in Australia's interests to ratify the Kyoto Protocol." With those words to Parliament Wednesday, on World Environment Day, Australian Prime Minister John Howard put the world on notice that Australia will not join other industrialized countries in the international treaty to limit global warming.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-06-02.asp
ACTIVISTS ATTACK INDUSTRY FRIENDLY FOREST POLICIES
WASHINGTON, DC, June 6, 2002 (ENS) - Environmental groups launched protests in Washington DC and Montana today to draw attention to the impacts of President George W. Bush's energy and environmental policies on national forest lands. The groups have targeted former timber industry lobbyist Mark Rey, the Department of Agriculture's under secretary for natural resources and environment.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-06-07.asp
OIL SPILL DECIMATES GLAPAGOS IGUANAS
PRINCETON, New Jersey, June 6, 2002 (ENS) - Thousands of marine iguanas died within a year after a grounded tanker spilled almost 800,000 gallons of oil near their island home in the Galapagos. A new study shows that the iguanas, representing about 62 percent of the island's population, may have starved after the oil killed beneficial bacteria in their guts.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-06-06.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 6, 2002
Studies of Soot Pollution Were Flawed
Greenpeace Maps Potential Chemical Catastrophes
Gulf Sturgeon Could Get Huge Critical Habitat
Diverse Plant Communities Resist Invasion
Exotic Insect Prefers Native Plants
Turtles Could Move From Threatened to Endangered
Snowmobiles Stress Out Elk, Wolves
Oceana Nets Comments Favoring Ocean Protection
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-06-09.asp
6/7/02
3:05:19 PM
First Comprehensive "real-time" Way To Observe State Of World's Oceans
UN Oceans Atlas launched on World Environment Day
Paris/Nairobi, 5 June 2002 - Amid mounting concern over continuing deterioration of marine and coastal ecosystems, several of the world's foremost ocean agencies, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), have created an Internet-based Oceans Atlas with the goal to help reverse the decline and promote the sustainable development of oceans.
The pioneering Atlas, that provides users with continuously updated strategic data on the state of the world's oceans, maps, development trends and threats to human health from the deteriorating marine environment is being launched here in Paris on 5 June, World Environment Day. The Atlas can be accessed online at www.oceansatlas.org
"The Atlas is the first comprehensive real-time way to observe the state of the world's oceans," said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director. Paying tribute to the other partners in the Atlas project and in particular the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) that led the initiative, Toepfer said, "The atlas is the result of extensive cooperation in the UN and with leading scientific agencies. It is state of the art and an important source of information that will make a significant contribution to events like the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa."
The need for the Oceans Atlas was identified during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit in response to a call to identify and address the greatest environmental challenges facing the planet. The launch of the Atlas at a meeting of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in Paris on
5 June, comes less than 12 weeks before the Johannesburg Summit.
Making reference to UNEP's recently published third Global Environment Outlook report
(GEO-3), Mr. Toepfer said GEO-3 clearly shows the worsening state of the coastal and marine environment, and the urgent need to take necessary actions.
Highlighting the impact on fisheries, Toepfer said, "Just under a third of the world's fish stocks are now ranked as depleted, overexploited or recovering as a result of over-fishing that is fueled by subsidies estimated at up to US$20 billion annually. GEO-3 shows that marine harvests have risen to over 80 million tonnes a year, but many fisheries are in a state of collapse," he said.
GEO-3, online at http://www.unep.org/GEO/index.htm, also highlights marine pollution as a major concern, one that seriously threatens human health. And, it says the oxygen depletion of coastal waters due to excess nitrogen is becoming more frequent and widespread with major impacts on fisheries, aquaculture and tourism.
"Ocean-related issues will almost certainly dominate the international agenda later this century, if, as predicted, the Earth's continued warming accelerates sea level rise and adds up to 1 metre to the height of our oceans," Toepfer continued.
Low-lying regions of the world are frequently fertile, densely populated and invested with expensive infrastructure. The human and material costs of a 1 metre sea-level rise would be huge, affecting over 70 million people in coastal China, 10% of the population of Egypt and 60% of the people in Bangladesh. Among wealthier nations, over 60% of The Netherlands' population could be affected and 15% of the people and 50% of the industry of Japan would be threatened. In the US, 17,000 square kilometres of wetlands, and the same amount of dry land, could be lost - an area the size of Connecticut and New Jersey combined. In low-lying countries like the Maldives or the Marshall Islands, the entire population is at risk.
More than 2½ years in development after a decade of planning, the UN Oceans Atlas represents the most ambitious global scientific information collaboration ever online and an international consensus-building tool expected to assist negotiations of future marine-related agreements.
UNEP has been a founding UN agency partner of the Atlas project and one of the largest contributors to the uses of the oceans section, covering topics such as disposal of waste from land, human settlements on the coast, recreation and tourism. The organization's input has been coordinated by the Hague-based UNEP secretariat of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (UNEP/GPA) with Kenneth Korporal acting as the UNEP focal point and representative to the inter-agency UN Atlas Technical Committee.
"The compilation and development of appropriate content for the UN Oceans Atlas has been a large undertaking involving a number of experts in various UNEP offices and divisions scattered throughout the world," said Veerle Vandeweerd, Coordinator of UNEP/GPA. "The resulting information will ultimately feed into other UNEP initiatives," she said.
Salif Diop, Senior Environmental Affairs Officer with UNEP's Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA) said the Atlas will serve as an important resource for a possible future global assessment of the state of the marine environment. A team from the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre helped write a large part of the UNEP input. According to Mark Collins, UNEP-WCMC's director, the Atlas should be the "first port of call for someone who wants to get an overview of oceans issues."
The Oceans Atlas is designed to be an encyclopedic resource but also the world's foremost information clearinghouse and online forum for experts in ocean issues.
To reach broader audiences and regions where Internet access is difficult the website will be supplemented by a CD-ROM and other media. More than 900 topics are currently covered with 17 founding editors. Further issues and several hundred designated topic editors will be added over time.
The Atlas contains an initial 14 global maps and links to hundreds of others, including 264 maps showing the distribution of fishery resources. A further 100 maps showing global ice cover, navigation routes, earthquake and volcanic activity, temperature gradients, bottom contours, salinity and other ocean characteristics are being contributed by the Russian Head Department of Navigation and Oceanography.
The National Geographic Society will likewise make a major contribution to the Atlas, including access to its map machine and marine-related information from its extensive portfolio of books and magazines. The Census of Marine Life, a global Washington-based organization working to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine organisms, will also make its resources fully available through the Atlas.
The UN Atlas of the Oceans is funded by the United Nations Foundation. In addition, six UN agencies (the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Maritime Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, UNEP and UNESCO/IOC) have committed financial resources to the project. Other partners in the project include the UN's Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, the Secretariat of the UN Convention on Biodiversity and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Background
The UN Atlas of the Oceans organizes information according to general subject areas:
· Uses - disposal of waste from land, energy, fisheries and aquaculture, human coastal settlements, marine biotechnology, non-consumptive uses, ocean dumping and ship wastes, offshore oil, gas and mining, recreation and tourism, and transportation and telecommunications.
· Issues - climate variability and climate change, economics, emergencies, food security, governance, human health, pollution and degradation, safety and sustainable development.
· Background - including biology and ecology, how oceans were formed and how they are changing, monitoring and observing systems, and maps, statistics and online databases
· Geographical - categorizes information according to geographic region.
Among the issues addressed:
· Fishing: all 17 of the world's major fishing areas have either reached or exceeded their natural limits and nine are in serious decline, according to the FAO.
· Piracy: the number of reported piracy attacks worldwide for 1999 rose nearly 40 percent compared with the previous year and almost tripled compared with 1991 according to the International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce.
· Algal blooms: The number of poisonous algal species identified by scientists has nearly tripled since 1984, increasing fish kills, beach closures, and economic losses. Large parts of the Gulf of Mexico are now considered biological dead zones due to algal blooms.
· Coral reefs: Although distributed in 101 countries and territories, where they are vital for fisheries, coastal protection, tourism and wildlife, they occupy less than one tenth of one percent of the oceans, according to the UNEP-WCMC World Atlas of Coral Reefs
· Invasive species: Marine bio-invasions have been identified as a major global environmental and economic problem with several thousand species estimated to be in the ballast tanks of the world's shipping at any one time. The Atlantic box jelly, believed to have been released in a ship's ballast water, helped wipe out life in the Black Sea. In San Francisco Bay, a new foreign species takes hold every 14 weeks, scientists warn.
For more information please contact: Robert Bisset, UNEP Press Officer and Europe Spokesperson on mobile +33-6-2272-5842, email: robert.bisset@unep.fr,
Kenneth Korporal, (UNEP focal point and representative to the inter-agency UN Atlas Technical Committee), UNEP/GPA, The Hague, tel +31-170-3114467, email: k.korporal@unep.nl, www.gpa.unep.org
Note to Editors: World Environment Day is an annual event celebrated on and around 5 June. This year's host city is Shenzhen in China. It will be celebrated in over 100 countries this year.
http://www.unep.org/wed/2002/WED2002/Default.asp
http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?DocumentID=253&ArticleID=3081
6/7/02
2:59:23 PM
It's Not So Slick When Oil Ends Up In The Sea
About 29 million gallons of petroleum enters the oceans off North America each year, shows a new study by the National Research Council. The report finds that about 85 percent of that pollution can be blamed not on massive oil spills, but on the lesser amounts released by airplanes, swept into polluted rivers and from the largest culprits: recreational boats and runoff from the land.
The amount of petroleum released into North American and global waters is less than previously thought, the committee found. At the same time, however, new studies show that the environmental effects of a major oil spill are longer lasting than once thought and that even small amounts of petroleum can seriously damage marine life and ecosystems.
"Oil spills can have long lasting and devastating effects on the ocean environment, but we need to know more about damage caused by petroleum from land based sources and small watercraft since they represent most of the oil leaked by human activities," said James Coleman, chair of the committee that wrote the report.
"This doesn't mean we can ignore hazards from drilling and shipping, however," Coleman cautioned. "Although new safety standards and advances in technology reduced the amount of oil that spilled during extraction and transport in the last two decades, the potential is still there for a large spill, especially in regions with lax safety controls."
About 47 million gallons seep naturally from the seafloor into the North American oceans, more than all human sources of petroleum pollution combined. That puts North America in a better position than the world as a whole: worldwide, about 210 million gallons of petroleum enter the sea each year from human caused petroleum sources, with an additional 180 million gallons coming from natural seepage, the report says.
Of the human caused petroleum pollution entering the oceans around North America, less than eight percent comes from oil tanker or pipeline spills, says the report by the National Academies' National Research Council (NRC), titled "Oil in the Sea: Inputs, Fates, and Effects."
The report, which relies on data from a variety of sources, is said to be far more accurate than the NRC's last such assessment in 1985.
Oily Waters
Oil slicks visible from the air and birds painted black by oil get the most public attention, but it is consumers of oil -- not the ships that transport it -- who are responsible for most of what finds its way into the ocean, the NRC says.
Oil exploration and extraction are responsible for only three percent of the petroleum that enters the sea, with their effects concentrated where oil drilling rigs are at work in the Gulf of Mexico and in waters off southern California, northern Alaska, and eastern Canada.
The bulk of the 29 million gallons from humanmade sources comes from individually small source that, combined, account for about 25 million gallons of ocean petroleum pollution.
For example, oil runoff from cars and trucks is increasing in coastal areas where the population is growing and roads and parking lots are expanding. More than one half of the land based oil contamination along the North American coastline occurs between Maine and Virginia, where there are dense seaside populations, many cities, several refineries, and high energy use, the report notes.
Rivers polluted by oil in wastewater or the improper disposal of petroleum products are also a major source of oil entering the sea.
Older two stroke engines still found on many recreational boats and jet skis were purposely designed to discharge gasoline and oil. Land runoff and recreational boating account for nearly three-quarters of the petroleum released into the sea each year through human consumption.
Other sources of oil from human activities include military and commercial jets that occasionally jettison excess fuel over the ocean and ships that release oil from their engines while in port or at sea.
The impact of an oil spill on marine life is not directly related to the size of the spill, since even a small spill in an ecologically sensitive area can have long term impacts, the NRC found. A spill's influence also depends on the type and amount of toxics present in the petroleum product being released.
The riskiest toxics are a class of organic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. Growing evidence suggests that PAHs and other toxic compounds can have adverse effects on marine species even at very low concentrations. This means chronic releases from runoff and recreational boating may inflict more damage than previously thought, and that the effects of large spills may last as long as residual oil persists in the area.
Gulf of Mexico Impacted
The Gulf of Mexico is the most heavily impacted of North America's ocean waters, the NRC learned. About 20 percent of the land based petroleum entering North American coastal waters ends up in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf also receives most of the oil and gas that is emitted by recreational boats and jet skis, and oil drilling rigs concentrated in the Gulf spill thousands of gallons each year.
The amount of petroleum released during oil drilling has dropped in recent years, but the threat of a spill cannot be ignored, the NRC warns. The report recommends that the U.S. Minerals Management Service promote extraction techniques that minimize accidental or intentional releases of petroleum.
Other federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should also continue to work with state environmental agencies and industry to minimize the potential for spills from pipelines and other coastal petroleum facilities.
While new shipping standards have helped reduce oil spills and deliberate discharges from tankers and other ocean going vessels, about 2.7 million gallons of petroleum still spill into North American waters while being transported to market. The report cautions that large tanker spills are still possible, particularly in areas without stringent safety procedures and inspections.
To better monitor how much oil consumers and industry are depositing in the ocean, the NRC recommends that federal agencies work with state and local environmental bureaus to develop a system for documenting sources of runoff. The report also calls on the EPA to continue efforts to phase out older, inefficient two stroke engines, which power many jet skis and other small watercraft.
The report also says federal ocean management agencies should try to develop more accurate techniques for estimating the amount of oil that seeps into the ocean from geologic formations beneath the seafloor. This would help researchers distinguish the effects of petroleum released by natural processes versus human activities, and study how marine life responds to the introduction of oil.
Altered Ecosystems
Where oil seeps naturally into the ocean, local marine ecosystems have been altered, the report says. For example, in seepage areas in the Santa Barbara Channel off California, there is little biodiversity, with just bacteria and a few invertebrate species surviving in the petroleum slurry.
Research conducted in the wake of the EXXON Valdez spill in 1989 shows that large oil spills can be devastating to the marine environment. They kill fish, mammals, birds and their offspring, destroy plant life, and reduce the food supply for organisms that survive.
Spills also disrupt the structure and function of marine communities and ecosystems, although more research is needed to better understand how spills affect overall populations, the NRC says.
Less is known about how chronic releases from sources such as land runoff and inefficient two stroke engines on boats and jet skis affect marine ecology. The report calls for the federal government, in cooperation with academia and industry, to launch a major research effort aimed at better understanding how chronic releases of petroleum affect the marine environment, particularly when organisms in already polluted waters are exposed to the multiple toxics found in oil.
Source: http://www.nap.edu
6/7/02
2:56:16 PM
The following items which match your interests have just been posted to SciTech Daily Review
Regions devastated by natural disasters still have one thing in abundance: dirt. And dirt domes could provide emergency housing for millions of people worldwide http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0403_020403_TVdirtdomes.html
A new drug appears to stop diabetes in its tracks, allowing some diabetics to live shot-free without any serious side effects
http://www.scientificamerican.com/news/053002/2.html
A key hypothetical benefit of therapeutic cloning has been shown in practice for the first time: the technology can prevent immune rejection of transplanted tissue
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992356
Oil pollutants from airplanes, recreational boating and runoff from the land are doing just as much damage to North American oceans as massive oil spills, says a new study
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13228
Gunslinger science: Fifty years ago, it took a Nobel Prize to get the press to pay attention to crank theories. Now all it takes is a degree in some field related to science and an idea off-the-wall enough to make a good headline
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0222/news-downey.shtml
Dreaming is not that different from other altered states of consciousness, claims J Allan Hobson in The Dream Drugstore. If we understand the neurochemistry of one, the others will follow
http://mentalhelp.net/books/books.php?type=de&id=926
Even NASA thinks there may well be intelligent life in space -- but just how smart will it be?
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/shostak_intelligent_020530.html
What a difference a few house calls can make. Sometimes even the doctors feel better (registration required)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/04/health/policy/04HOUS.html
6/7/02
2:48:47 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
SMOKE A JOINT AND YOUR FUTURE IS MCDONALD'S
by Janelle Brown, Salon.com
-- Students seeking financial aid have just begun to feel the negative impact of the Drug-Free Student Aid Provision.
BIG FUN COOL THINGS
by Steven Heller, Metropolis
-- Design radical Edwin Schlossberg's creations demand more than just admiration--they require your interaction.
WILDERNESS AND THE HYPERREAL
by Peter Warshall, Whole Earth magazine
-- "Faking nature? So what? Isn't human intervention the best path to the sacred and preservation?"
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
6/7/02
2:46:31 PM
TomPaine.com...
Independent, Commercial-free
MOMS AND KIDS VS. CREDIT CARD COMPANIES
An Interview With Elizabeth Warren
by Sharon Basco
"Congress now stands ready to dismantle protection for families under the nation's bankruptcy code."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5742
PUBLIC OPINION WATCH:
May 27 - May 31, 2002 An Ongoing Look At The State Of Public Opinion
by Ruy Teixeira
Confidence in Government Declines, but Still above Pre-September 11 Levels ... Could Education Decide the 2002 Elections ... Optimism on the Economy
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5749
Dispatch: Mount Mitchell, N.C.
DEATH HANGS IN THE AIR
The Mountains -- And Our Health -- Hang In The Balance
by Michael Gordon
The N.C. mountains are sick; poisoned by polluted air and water. A growing chorus of scientists and physicians say that the destruction visible in the high woods is happening in people's lungs, too.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5726
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS HAS EARNED HIS STRIPES
The Sniping About His New Talk Show Is About Style, Not Substance
by Richard Blow
Ignore the jealousies of Stephanopoulos' media rivals, who instinctively resent a newcomer from outside the profession. He's a logical choice to host "This Week."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5746
LAISSEZ FAIRE AND THE LEFT
The Case For Dialogue Between Libertarians And Progressives
by David Kirby
"What's keeping libertarians and progressives from prancing hand-in-hand across the political meadow, violins serenading, to embrace our commonalities?"
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5728
UNIONS SHOW WALL STREET HOW IT'S DONE
Pension Fund Managers Spotted Auditing Conflicts Early On
by Carter Dougherty
"Unions have been accused of being communists, socialists or worse, but give them their due: this time, they understood capitalism better than most capitalists."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5732
And from out CHECK IT OUT! department...
RANK AIR IN HOUSTON
Self-policing and voluntary compliance by industry are the cornerstones of George W. Bush's approach to environmental policy. He used them in Texas when he was governor and has now applied the concepts to national policy.
But it looks like self-policing is failing to protect public health -- Bill Dawson of the Center for Public Integrity reports that a $20 million study of Houston's air quality has found the petrochemical industry there has been "significantly underestimating emissions of key air pollutants in required reports to regulators."
http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/
6/7/02
2:36:31 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Democrat seeks to limit US mountaintop coal mining - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16316/story.htm
Democrats ask Bush to clarify global warming views - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16319/story.htm
US lawmakers want Mexico power plants to cut pollution - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16317/story.htm
Lawmakers offer bipartisan bill to protect US forests - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16311/story.htm
Low-level oil spill kills Galapagos iguanas - study - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16312/story.htm
Scottish Power says Scotland windfarm gets go-ahead - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16313/story.htm
Global warming blamed for melting Everest glacier - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16308/story.htm
Donors, aid groups in talks on Africa food crisis - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16321/story.htm
Canada firm says disputed Peru mine could help poor - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16324/story.htm
Mexico must crack down on diesel trucks - scientist - MEXICO http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16325/story.htm
US to seek reversal of IWC whale hunt decision - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16326/story.htm
EU signs treaty to save crop variety - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16318/story.htm
US, poor nations face off at Earth Summit talks - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16309/story.htm
FACTBOX - What's on table at talks for "Earth Summit 2" - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16322/story.htm
Global water "crisis" high on Earth Summit agenda - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16323/story.htm
Germany signals dramatic widening in food scare - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16307/story.htm
Costa Rica bans open pit mining - COSTA RICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16310/story.htm
Antofagasta's Chile copper mine shut by rains - CHILE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16315/story.htm
Wind power set for greater Australian role - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16314/story.htm
6/7/02
2:34:06 PM
THE FUTURE IS NOW! WEATHER WARS!
BY JIM WILSON
It is 2025. An enemy unknown to 20th-century Americans has massed its army at the border of a friendly country in a remote part of the world. High above them flies a single, unmanned stealth aircraft. A faint wisp of black dust sprays from its tail, spurring the creation of the only weapon capable of stopping the threatening horde.
The weapon the dust engenders is mud--old-fashioned, sink-up-to-your-knees, spin-your-tires mud. There's nothing unusual about this slippery mixture of soil and water. It's the same sloppy goo that forced the Roman legions to build Britain's first real roads. What is different, in this futuristic scenario, is the way it's delivered. Like a meal at a fancy Japanese restaurant, it is being created on the spot and to order. The "chef" is an isolated downpour that swirls only above the heads of the aggressors.
In much the same way that infrared and low-light viewing equipment has made it possible for 20th-century soldiers to own the night, U.S. Air Force planners hope to give 21st-century warriors advanced technologies that will enable them to own the weather. A declassified version of a 2-year study prepared by the Air War College and obtained by PM reveals that this is no dreamland scenario. The Pentagon's top meteorologists believe the United States will be ready to fight--and win--a weather war early in the next century.
The study, titled "Weather As A Force Multiplier: Owning The Weather In 2025," envisions future generals having at their disposal an impressive weather-control arsenal for tactical operations. These weapons would include unmanned stealth aircraft that could seed clouds above massing troops with fine particles of heat-absorbing carbon. This next-generation cloud-seeding technique would, in turn, produce localized flooding and create mud, which has been the bane of all of history's armies. Airborne lasers would cause lightning to discharge over the airframes of attack and surveillance aircraft. Other lasers would fire at fog banks, clearing a temporary flight path to high-value targets, such as command posts. In addition, still more powerful microwave transmitters would heat the ionosphere, altering its reflective properties in ways that would disrupt communications among enemy field commanders.
To reach this future battlefield, the military is planning to piggyback on weather-prediction and weather-modification technologies being developed by the private sector. They estimate that by 2015 supercomputer and atmosphere-monitoring technologies will have advanced to the point where military planners will know exactly what sort of weather to expect over an operations area throughout the course of a campaign lasting several weeks.
The great leap forward, however, is expected to occur between 2015 and 2025, spurred on largely by a growing global population that will put increasing pressure on the worldwide food and drinkable water supplies. "These pressures [will] prompt governments and/or other organizations who are able to capitalize on the technological advances of the previous 20 years to pursue a highly accurate and reasonably precise weather-modification capability," the report states. "Our vision is that by 2025 the military could influence the weather on a mesoscale [theater-wide] or microscale [immediate local area] to achieve operational capabilities."
The report makes the limitations of the military's current weather-predicting abilities disturbingly clear: "During Operation Desert Storm, Gen. Buster C. Glosson asked his weather officer to tell him which targets would be clear in 48 hours for inclusion in the air tasking order (ATO). But current forecasting capability is only 85% accurate for no more than 24 hours, which doesn't adequately meet the needs of the ATO planning cycle. Over 50% of the F-117 sorties weather aborted over their targets and A-10s only flew 75 of 200 scheduled close air support missions due to low cloud cover during the first two days of the campaign."
If weather modification can actually turn the tide of battle remains an open question. The American military's only acknowledged recent experience in using weather as a weapon occurred with Project Popeye, which began in 1966. The experiment's objective was to extend the monsoon season, thereby increasing the amount of mud that formed on the Ho Chi Minh trail, a supply route that wound from what was then North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam. To produce the rain, a silver iodide rainmaking agent--dubbed "Olive Oil"--was dispersed from WC-130, F4 and A-1E aircraft into the clouds over the trail.
Positive results during the initial program led to its continued operation until 1972. But to this day, analysts remain divided over whether the rain created enough extra mud to significantly reduce the delivery of supplies. When you're slogging through ankle-deep mud, another inch of it probably doesn't make that much of a difference. Some storms release the energy equivalent of several nuclear weapons. The Air Force believes it will eventually have the ability to create sudden localized storms that can thwart military operations.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/military/1997/2/weather_wars/
Chemtrails & Weather Mod - 7-17-00 >From Mitch Robinson - techstuff@webcombo.net
http://www.rense.com/general2/chemmod.htm
Contrails or Chemtrails? It is said that we are being "sprayed" from above, by what appear to be contrails from jets. Ordinary contrails though, have disappearing tails which fade away, they don't spread out, linger, and form clouds around them like these do, nor are they associated with reports of respiratory problems. We have included relevant links, and presented divergent thoughts on the subject, to assist the reader in forming their own conclusions.
http://www.navarrone.com/contrails/chemtrails.html
Contrails (Chemtrails) - APFN INFO AND LINKS:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/contrails.htm
REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE ON APFN MESSAGE BOARD AT:
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=28203
6/7/02
2:29:57 PM
AlterNet Headlines
SPYING AND LYING: THE FBI'S DIRTY SECRETS
Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet
There has never been an accounting of how much of the FBI's resources are devoted to policing the constitutionally protected activities of our citizens. The time is now.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13316
UNDER THE NUCLEAR CLOUD
Arundhati Roy, AlterNet
People on both sides of the Indo-Pak border live on hairtrigger alert as their leaders callously play a radioactive game of chicken.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13304
-- Also on our Global Affairs page: The Thinkable Nuclear War Lighting the Nuclear Fire
http://www.alternet.org/issues/index.html?IssueAreaID=31
FROM SWEATSHOP TO HIP-HOP
Ryan Pintado-Vertner, ColorLines
Once ignored by the fashion industry, youth of color may be the last hope for struggling clothing companies like Gap and Levi's.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13284
WALL STREET GIVES INVESTORS THE FINGER
Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
It turns out that the Merrill Lynch financial scandal was just the appetizer to a smorgasbord of greed, corruption and insider dealing.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13307
WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK STUDENTS EXPELLED?
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Pacific News Service
The latest report from the U.S. Dept. of Education reveals that nearly one out of three students kicked out of the nation's public schools are African American.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13317
ANARCHY.COM
Ted Rall, AlterNet
Spam and online identity theft are all too common on the wild, wild Web. And upcoming legislation won't do much to stop the madness.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13300
THE MAN SHOW
John Powers, LA Weekly
The recent "Is Mike Piazza Gay?" debacle threatened fans and sportswriters' attitudes toward masculinity and their sense of sports as a refuge from the messy emotional stuff of life.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13315
BABY PANIC? Liz Langley, Orlando Weekly
You always hear people urging childless women to have kids, but you will never find anyone asking a mother of three, "Was that last one necessary?"
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13301
POWER TO THE PEER
Judith Lewis, LA Weekly
Peer-to-peer file sharing has proved to be a lawsuit-resistant Hydra. You can lead consumers to music, but can you make them pay?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13242
ORIENTALIST KITSCH
Mimi Nguyen, AlterNet
The offensive caricatures on Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts are part of a broader marketing trend that repackages decades-old racist images as trendy kitsch.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13294
SNOBBY SUMMER BOOK ROUND-UP
Dennis Loy Johnson, MobyLives
Perhaps it's just wishful thinking on the part of your faithful book snob, but it does seem as if there are some books of quality more visible in the mix this year.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13295
6/7/02
2:20:18 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.07
Gephardt to GOP Leadership: 'End the Enron Coverup'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.07A.gephardt.70.htm
Chart of Bush Crony Profits From Estate Tax Revamp
http://www.truthout.org/mm_01/4.estatetax.pdf
Conyers Blasts Ashcroft's Registration Regulations For Middle Easterners
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.07B.conyers.ashcroft.htm
100,000 Foreign Visitors to Face Fingerprinting
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.07C.fingerprint.100K.htm
BBC | Israeli Driver Survives Fourth Attack
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.07D.mickey.harel.htm
Anita F. Hill | Insider Women With Outsider Values
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.07E.a.hill.rowley.htm
Arianna Huffington | Analyze This: Wall Street Gives Investors the Finger
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.07F.arianna.analyze.htm
Bob Herbert | Ignoring a Growing Peril
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.07G.herbert.peril.htm
6/7/02
2:18:25 PM
Greenpeace True Food Network Newsletter
June 2002
This Saturday, June 8th, consumers and activists will gather in front of supermarkets in over 100 communities in the U.S. to demand our right to foods free of genetically engineered ingredients!
This is an exciting time in the U.S. Never before have so many people gathered at the place where we have the power to change the U.S. food supply-the supermarket.
Read on for how you can let your voice be heard this Saturday, June 8th.
Inside this Edition:
- National Day of Action: Find out more about events in your area!
- Labeling Legislation Introduced: If the biotech foes have their way you won't have your right-to-know.
- International Round-up: EU Report Finds GE Agriculture is a Bad Deal for Farmers.
National Day of Action Saturday, June 8th
In over 100 communities, consumers and activists will gather in front of supermarkets to spread the word to other customers and store managers letting them know we do not want genetically engineered ingredients in our food.
What can you do:
1. Find out if there is an event planned in your area. Go to our new online Community Center:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/communitycenter/
Scroll down to find your region, click on it and you will see a listing of events. The towns are not listed alphabetically, so be sure to read through the entire regional listing.
2. If there isn't an event planned in your area, call your local supermarket. It's important that supermarkets hear from you.
Safeway's toll-free number: 1-877-723-3929 Shaw's/Star Market's toll-free number: 1-888-431-7429 (Monday-Friday only)
Don't have a Safeway or Shaw's/Star Market in your area? Get local information at:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/take_action/supermarket2002.html
3. GET YOUR EVENT PHOTOS ON TRUE FOOD NOW!
We will post photos from events all over the country. Please take pictures of your event and send them via e-mail to:
denise.mcdermott@wdc.greenpeace.org
Please include your name, the name of the supermarket, what town you were in and any comments you have about the day.
Labeling Legislation Introduced to Congress!
Dennis Kucinich, a Representative from Ohio, introduced legislation last month that would require labeling of food products which contain genetically engineered ingredients.
In over 30 countries, consumers have the right to know if their foods contain genetically engineered ingredients . . . but the U.S. isn't one of those countries!
It will be an uphill fight to get this labeling legislation passed. The biotech industry, including Monsanto, is lobbying hard against your right-to-know.
You can send an e-mail and fax a letter to your Representative from our web site. Just click or cut and paste this URL into your web browser:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=128
Or you can send your Representative a personal note. These letters are particularly effective because you took the time to write.
You can find your Representative's name and address in the front section of the Yellow Pages or from:
http://www.thecampaign.org/congressletters.htm
Please let us know what kind of response you get from your representatives. You can send us an e-mail at:
truefood.webmaster@wdc.greenpeace.org
European Union Publishes Study Showing Genetically Engineered Crops Add High Costs for Farmers and Threatens Organic
An EU study states that all farmers would face high, and in some cases unsustainable, costs of production if genetically engineered (GE) crops were commercially grown in a large scale in Europe.
Read the complete story:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/inside_scoop/international/index.html
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace Member today!
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join/tfn.htm
6/6/02
5:32:58 PM
Public Citizen issued the following two press releases today:
1) No Divine Intervention Here; Falwell Loses Bid to Shut Down Parody Web Site World Intellectual Property Organization Rules in Favor of Illinois Resident
2) Arizona High School Student Visits Washington, D.C. to Urge Opposition to Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump
June 6, 2002
No Divine Intervention Here; Falwell Loses Bid to Shut Down Parody Web Site
World Intellectual Property Organization Rules in Favor of Illinois Resident
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell today lost his bid to silence a critic who created a Web site that uses Falwell's name in its address and parodies the reverend's statements.
At issue is a noncommercial Web site established by Illinois resident Gary Cohn that mocks Falwell for blaming the September 11 attacks on the supposed moral decline of America and parodies the way Falwell cites Bible verses to make moral judgments. The site can be found under the domain names jerryfalwell.com and jerryfallwell.com.
Falwell had claimed to hold a trademark on his name because of his fame and argued that the site wasn't parody. He had asked the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to strip the site of its domain names.
However, in a 2-1 vote, a WIPO mediation panel today ruled against Falwell, saying that Falwell had failed to show that his name - even though well-known - has been used as a trademark to label particular goods or services. Without trademark status, the use of a name in a Web site is considered a legitimate, noncommercial fair use. In fact, the panel noted, Falwell has been careful to avoid the suggestion that he has exploited his name for commercial reasons and had told the WIPO that he has used his name principally to advance his religious views.
Further, "[w]hether regarded as a parody, satire, or critical commentary, the majority [of the panel] believes that legitimate noncommercial fair use commentary is involved," the panel wrote. "Whether the commentary is in good taste, whether it is funny, whether it is effective, all is beside the point." A copy of the ruling is available at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/FalwellDecision.pdf.
"This is a victory for First Amendment rights on the Internet," said Paul Alan Levy, the Public Citizen attorney who represented Cohn in the case. "Without the domain name, the Web site would likely be much harder to find. We are pleased that the panel agreed that Mr. Cohn has a right to use Falwell's name when criticizing him, and has every right to do so on the Internet. Also, Public Citizen thanks Philadelphia lawyer John Berryhill for his assistance in defending this case."
- - - -
June 6, 2002
Arizona High School Student Visits Washington, D.C. to Urge Opposition to Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump
School Project on Nuclear Waste Transport Alerts Ninth-Grade Class to Dangers of Yucca Mountain Proposal
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Fifteen-year-old Arizona resident Alex Ozuna visited Washington, D.C., today to explain to senators and public interest and environmental organizations that an accident involving nuclear waste being trucked to Yucca Mountain could devastate the Colorado River, near his hometown.
The conclusion was the result of a school project by Ozuna's ninth-grade class at Mohave Accelerated Learning Center Public Charter School in Bullhead City, Ariz. Ozuna, who traveled to Washington on behalf of his class, delivered a letter to the office of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) urging him to oppose a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Ozuna also met with McCain's staff members to express his concerns over the risks involved in shipping high-level nuclear waste across the country to Nevada. Proposed transportation routes to Yucca Mountain would pass through his hometown.
"I think it's really dangerous to have trucks carrying this waste passing through our towns and cities because it affects so many people," Ozuna said. "I really hope Senator McCain considers all of us when he makes his decision on Yucca Mountain. People in my town are really scared about the Yucca Mountain dump. At first they didn't think about the transportation risks involved, but once we explained it them, they realized how dangerous it was for them, their children and the environment."
The students in Ozuna's class built a model depicting theoretical results of a tractor-trailer carrying nuclear waste crashing on the Laughlin Bridge over the Colorado River. The bridge links Ozuna's hometown of Bullhead City to Laughlin, Nev., a city through which waste also would pass en route to Yucca Mountain. The class concluded that if four tons of waste leaked into the river, it would contaminate a 42-mile radius of the river and surrounding land. The students also found that the town was ill-equipped to deal with such a disaster.
"We only have a small hazardous waste team in our town, so if a big disaster like this were to happen, we'd have to wait for crews from Las Vegas or Phoenix to arrive," Ozuna said.
Also on Thursday, Ozuna joined Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) for a breakfast meeting to share the findings of his project.
The controversial Yucca Mountain proposal calls for 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste from nuclear facilities throughout the country to be shipped through 44 states and the District of Columbia to Nevada. In addition to concerns about the dangers of transporting waste, problems exist with the site. For instance, it sits above a drinking water aquifer and lies in a zone prone to earthquakes.
On Wednesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved by a 13-10 vote a resolution in favor of the Yucca Mountain plan. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) voted in favor of the dump. The full Senate is expected to take up the issue in the coming weeks.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org
6/6/02
5:28:32 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
GIVE US A HAND
Pop Quiz For Daily Grist Readers: What's important about today? That's right -- it's the second-to-last day of the first-ever Grist fundraising drive. So far, it's been a resounding success, and we're hoping that those who haven't yet given will dig deep and help us sprint to the finish. We know, we know; you were thinking about it but forgot to grab your wallet, or the email got drowned in your inbox, or you got tied up in that conference call and it slipped your mind. So take this chance to give to Grist right away by clicking on the link below. We swear it takes less time than walking to the water cooler to chat about climate change -- and the universe will reward your generosity. Plus we'll be eternally grateful and able to keep providing you with the daily environment dish you know you love.
support Grist: Give it up for a good cause by making a tax-deductible donation to help keep your favorite online magazine alive and kicking <http://www.gristmagazine.com/about/support.asp?source=daily>
HAIDA HO
In an unusual move, unhappy employees of paper giant Weyerhaeuser are siding with native inhabitants of British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands, the Haida, in their legal battle against the company. Earlier this year, the Haida sued the company for control of the islands and their forests; on Monday, a reported 135 of 155 Weyerhaeuser employees on the island allied themselves with the Haida. The workers are fearful of losing their jobs because of poor economic conditions, and worry that the company's unsustainable logging practices will leave the islands denuded and financially ruined. To some extent, the alliance might also be a strategic move on the part of the workers, some of whom see an impending legal victory for the Haida: "We said heck, they're going to be our landlords, anyway. Let's do this thing right and start working with them right away," said Bernie Lepage, a Weyerhaeuser employee.
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Paul Shukovsky, 06 Jun 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=178>
DENTIST THE MENACE
Here's one more reason to dread your dentist: Many dental offices flush old fillings down the drain, washing the mercury inside them into the nation's waterways. That makes dentists the single largest discharger of the toxic metal, according to a national study entitled "Dentist the Menace?" and published by a collection of health and environmental groups. All told, dentists use about 40 tons of mercury per year to make silver fillings, a practice they've been engaged in for some 150 years. While the mercury might not do damage in people's mouths, it spends many more years in the natural environment, where it eventually breaks down and can cause nerve and brain damage if ingested. It is possible to use white plastic composites instead of mercury, but until recently, the dangers of washed-away mercury fillings had gone unremarked.
straight to the source: Boston Globe, Beth Daley, 05 Jun 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=179>
only in Grist: Mercury falling -- fun with stats in our Counter Culture column <http://www.gristmagazine.com/counter/counter021600.stm?source=daily>
only in Grist: Mercury rising -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha091399.stm?source=daily>
IGUANA BE ALONE!
Eighteen months ago, a grounded tanker spilled 150,000 gallons of diesel and bunker fuel into the waters around the famed Galapagos Islands. Luckily, shifting winds sent most of the fuel out to sea rather than into shore, so sea lion and bird deaths numbered in the dozens rather than the hundreds. At the time, biologists and conservationists breathed a sigh of relief, believing the islands and their inhabitants had been largely spared. Now, though, a long-term study of the unique Galapagos marine iguana has found that the small amount of oil that did reach the islands wrought a disproportionately large amount of havoc. On the island of Santa Fe, where the spill left about a quart of oil per each yard of the windward shore, the iguana population declined from 25,000 to 10,000. Scientists theorize that the oil killed the bacteria naturally present in iguanas' guts that allows them to digest seaweed; in the absence of the bacteria, the animals starved to death. The findings provide new evidence that even small spills can have subtle yet far-reaching environmental effects.
straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 06 Jun 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=180>
only in Grist: A week in the life of Roslyn Cameron, Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos <http://www.gristmagazine.com/week/cameron043001.stm?source=daily>
BOXER REBELLION
President Bush scored a victory yesterday when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved his plan to store highly radioactive nuclear waste beneath Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but he was challenged by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on other environmental issues. Reps. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced legislation supported by 172 other House members to bar logging and road construction on much of the country's national forest lands, backing the roadless rule that was drafted under Clinton but is opposed by the current administration. And today, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) will introduce legislation to reinstate an expired corporate tax that funneled more than $1 billion a year into the Superfund for environmental cleanups. Industry opposes the tax, and President Bush has so far declined to seek its reauthorization.
straight to the source: Washington Post, 06 Jun 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=181>
only in Grist: Yucky Mountain -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha030402.asp?source=daily>
6/6/02
5:20:16 PM
MoJournal
Free thinking, non-conforming investigative reporting, June 5, 2002
THE RENEWABLE ENERGY & SUSTAINABLE LIVING FAIR
June 21-23, 2002, Central Wisconsin.
Hosted by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. Including hundreds of workshops, exhibits, family entertainment, and a fun-festival atmosphere.
For info: http://www.the-mrea.org or call (715) 592-6595.
Mother Jones is gearing up to represent in Chicago at the second stop of the Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour! It's a county fair, music festival and grassroots political rally rolled into one, with good food, good folks, and good beer.
Come to see Jim Hightower, Michael Moore, Dolores Huerta, Erykah Badu, and dozens of your favorite political and musical firecrackers. Who says the fight for social justice can't be fun?
Join Mother Jones and Rock the Vote for free magazines, discount subscriptions, stickers, posters, t-Shirts and more! Plus, get a free scoop of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
** The Rolling Thunder Down-Home Democracy Tour!
** Saturday, June 15, 10AM - 8:30PM
** Union Park, Chicago, Illinois
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door
http://www.rollingthundertour.org
WEB EXCLUSIVES
News - Breaking Up the Bakassi Boys - Two human rights groups are calling on Nigeria to crack down on a vigilante group known both for its brutality and its close ties to powerful politicians.
http://click.topica.com/maaaofHaaSqdza4pkFbb/
Humor - Arms Control, Then and Now - Presidents Bush and Putin are painting an exciting new path for the modern arms reduction treaty -- particularly the 'reduction' part.
http://click.topica.com/maaaofHaaSqdAa4pkFbb/
Updates - Easing Access to Bush's Texas Records; 7-Up Bubbles Over Prison Rape
http://click.topica.com/maaaofHaaSqdza4pkFbb/
Daily Briefing - When Words Stifle Reform; No Big Melt?; Le Pen the Torturer; Blaming Church; Green Endangerment?; A Bolton Scarier Than Michael?
http://click.topica.com/maaaofHaaSqdBa4pkFbb/
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Class Activist - It's not easy being an activist when you're only 16, but Selemawit Tewelde isn't about to let her Philadelphia high school be privatized without a fight.
http://click.topica.com/maaaofHaaSqdCa4pkFbb/
6/6/02
5:16:14 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
PRESIDENT BUSH REJECTS CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT
By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, June 5, 2002 (ENS) - The White House is distancing itself from the Bush administration's first report to admit that humans are causing climate changes. The report from the Environmental Protection Agency, while acknowledging that human activities lead to global warming, argues that it is better to adapt to the changes than to try and stop them.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-05-06.asp
SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE APPROVES YUCCA MOUNTAIN
WASHINGTON, DC, June 5, 2002 (ENS) - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today narrowly approved the site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada for the development of a repository to entomb the nation's high-level nuclear radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-05-02.asp
WHITE RIVER FOREST PLAN A DELICATE BALANCING ACT
By Bob Berwyn
SILVERTHORNE, Colorado, June 5, 2002 (ENS) - A new White River National Forest management plan was presented by U.S. Forest Service officials in Colorado Tuesday as a compromise that enables the agency to protect ecosystems while meeting recreational demand from Colorado's exploding population. Judging by initial reactions from various sides, they have achieved that goal. Nobody seems completely happy, but no one feels shut out.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-05-03.asp
HOUSE BILL WOULD ENACT ROADLESS RULE
WASHINGTON, DC, June 5, 2002 (ENS) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill today that would enact the Clinton era Roadless Area Conservation Rule and protect almost 60 million acres of national forest lands from roadbuilding, logging and mining. The legislation would make an end run around Bush administration efforts to delay, weaken or eliminate the now suspended rule.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-05-07.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 5, 2002
Brownfields Legislation Passes the House
Olympic, Shell Fined for Pipeline Explosion
Climate Change Depletes Ozone Layer
Environmental Problems Linked to Political Instability
Coalition Aids Imperiled Butterflies
African Energy Training Gets U.S. Support
Texas Opens New Coastal Research Center
U.S. Sites Featured as Whale Watching Hotspots
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-05-09.asp
6/6/02
5:13:47 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Florida gov signs $50 bln budget after $110 mln vetoes - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16293/story.htm
Global warming to hit California water supply - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16292/story.htm
North Dakota steps up plans to block deer disease - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16297/story.htm
Alaska fines BP $300,000 over pipeline leak systems - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16284/story.htm
NRC assessing US nuclear plants' airstrike risk - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16285/story.htm
US Senate panel approves Yucca nuclear waste site - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16286/story.htm
Residents near NY nuke plant to get iodide pills - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16290/story.htm
Ecotourism could be harming wildlife - scientists - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16279/story.htm
FEATURE - Spain fights to save world's most endangered cat - SPAIN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16280/story.htm
IEA praises South Korea's reform of energy market- SOUTH KOREA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16287/story.htm
FEATURE - Project to save rare bear in land of Paddington - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16283/story.htm
UN urges govts to finish Earth Summit plan - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16282/story.htm
Big cities a headache UN summit wants to address - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16295/story.htm
Swiss impound German feed wheat for tests - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16300/story.htm
German carmakers plan joint hydrogen car tests - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16291/story.htm
Galapagos dolphins die tangled in fishing nets - ECUADOR http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16296/story.htm
Guangdong governor says pollution plan in place - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16281/story.htm
World's biggest coal exporter Australia dumps Kyoto - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16298/story.htm
Green air traffic system saves fuel, Australia says - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16299/story.htm
Australia joins ethanol rush with new plant - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16294/story.htm
Wind power set for greater Australian role - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16288/story.htm
Australian state to spend A$100 mln on greenhouse - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16289/story.htm
6/6/02
5:08:09 PM
Airlines Report Hearing Only Vague Caution
by Matthew L. Wald, NY Times
WASHINGTON, May 16 -- The two airlines whose planes were hijacked on Sept. 11 said today that they had received only general, vague warnings of terrorism last summer and nothing that would have prompted them to make major changes in their operations.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the information in the August briefing for President Bush was not new and would not have prompted it to make specific recommendations to the airlines.
"American Airlines received no specific information from the U.S. government advising the carrier of a potential terrorist hijacking in the United States in the months prior to Sept. 11, 2001," the company said. "American receives F.A.A. security information bulletins periodically, but the bulletins were extremely general in nature and did not identify a specific threat or recommend any specific security enhancements." [...snip...]
At United Airlines, ... Joe Hopkins, a spokesman, said: "Carriers like United receive security alerts and cautions from time to time in our daily interaction with government agencies, but they're typically very general in nature. Last year, in 2001, there were no alerts or cautions that indicated a Sept. 11 scenario was credible or possible."
The chief spokesman for the aviation agency, Scott Brenner, said today that the agency had issued several alerts last summer but that they were general in nature and urged the airlines to take precautions. Mr. Brenner said the agency did not take any action immediately after the president's August briefing because that session was based on "information that we were aware of already."
Another circular was then distributed on Aug. 16 warning of breakthroughs made in disguising weapons, Mr. Brenner said.
Norman Y. Mineta, the secretary of transportation, said today that there was "no specificity to the information" his agency passed on to airlines and airports last summer.
"There was no way we could have, let's say, connected the dots to point to what happened on the 11th of September," Mr. Mineta said.
The general idea that Osama bin Laden might attack American airlines had been public for months. The aviation agency publishes an annual report called Criminal Acts Against Aviation, and the 2000 edition, published on the agency's Web site in 2001, said that although Mr. bin Laden "is not known to have attacked civil aviation, he has both the motivation and the wherewithal to do so."
"Bin Laden's anti-Western and anti-American attitudes make him and his followers a significant threat to civil aviation, particularly to U.S. civil aviation," it said.
Delta, Southwest, Northwest, Continental and US Airways said they would not publicly discuss security. Several airports took the same position.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/politics/17AIRL.html?todaysheadlines
6/6/02
4:42:27 PM
Cryptic Tapes From 2000 Hinted At Air Attack in US
by John Tagliabue
PARIS, May 29 -- Italian and German investigators have disclosed fresh information suggesting that hints of an attack involving aircraft and the United States were more widespread among European law enforcement agencies before Sept. 11 than previously suspected.
The disclosures come after weeks in which the Bush administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which announced a shake-up today, have come under sharp criticism that they did not pay sufficient heed to signs of Al Qaeda plots in the United States that may have alerted them to the Sept. 11 attacks.
A Central Intelligence Agency spokesman said today that before Sept. 11 the F.B.I. had been given only a rough summary of the intercepts by Italian officials and that neither the C.I.A. nor the F.B.I. had been warned of specific threats mentioning the United States. Only after Sept. 11, he said, did Italian investigators listen to their tapes more carefully and realize the significance of the very cryptic conversations.
The intercepts, from the summer of 2000, nevertheless raise the question of whether Al Qaeda suspects in Italy knew in advance of plans for the Sept. 11 attacks and whether Al Qaeda cells elsewhere might also have known. They may also help investigators to draw links between Al Qaeda cells throughout Europe and elsewhere that remain active even today.
This week, senior German investigators said communications among Al Qaeda cells, which one official estimated as containing "several thousand" members worldwide, had recently picked up. Citing evidence that Al Qaeda is continuing to recruit in Europe and elsewhere, they said that attacks by the group were possible almost anywhere.
A senior Italian intelligence official, commenting on the intercepts, cautioned that the time of the conversations -- over a year before the attacks in New York and Washington -- and a tendency of Al Qaeda cells to communicate in wild imagery made interpretation difficult.
Nevertheless, he said, the intercepts demonstrate "clearly that they were organizing something," but that the exchanges gained intelligibility only after Sept. 11.
In the Italian police intercepts, a suspected Al Qaeda member from Yemen tells an Egyptian living in Italy that he is "studying airplanes," and adds: "God willing, I hope that I can bring you a window or piece of airplane the next time we meet."
According to the Italian translation of the Arabic, he goes on: "We must only strike them, and hold our heads on high. Remember well: the danger in the airports." Referring to the United States, he says, "We intermarry with Americans, and thus they study the Koran. They have the feeling they are lions, a world power; but we will do them this service, and then the fear will be seen."
These intercepted conversations and others similar to them are part of the court record of trials in Milan of Al Qaeda suspects arrested in a series of raids in northern Italy. Italian newspapers have quoted them at length in recent days. The prosecutor in the trials, Stefano Dambruoso, reached by phone, would not comment on them except to confirm their authenticity.
The conversations were recorded in August 2000 in a Citroen car that the police had bugged. The car was driven by Mahmoud es-Sayed Abdelkader, then 39, an Egyptian who was named in a Treasury Department order earlier this year blocking the assets of suspected terrorists.
In 1997, Mr. Sayed was convicted in absentia by an Egyptian court in connection with the massacre that year of foreign tourists at Luxor. Italian investigators suspect Mr. Sayed of being Al Qaeda's leading operative in Italy. The conversation was recorded after Mr. Sayed picked up the Yemeni, Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman, at Bologna airport.
The Italian official said that the intercepts showed "clearly that they were organizing something." But he added that, "to conclude at a distance of one year and one month before" Sept. 11 that the men were referring to the attacks in the United States "would be a bit strong."
Moreover, he said, interpretation is rendered difficult by a propensity in Al Qaeda to use flowery images. In one passage, for instance, Mr. Abdulrahman says, "There are big clouds in the sky, there in that country the fire has been lit, and awaits only the wind." The official said that such images can often mean the opposite of what they appear to mean, and "require translation."
In an intercept from January 2001, a Tunisian later convicted in Milan of terrorism, asks Mr. Sayed, apparently referring to false passports, "Will these work for the brothers who are going to the United States?" Mr. Sayed responded harshly, "Don't ever say those words again, not even joking." He added that, "this plan is very, very secret."
The Italian official said the intercepts offered evidence of ties between extremists in Italy and cells in Germany and the United States. The main figures in the Sept. 11 attacks, including Mohamed Atta, considered the coordinator of the suicide hijackers, lived in Hamburg, Germany, and trained at flight schools in the United States.
While the official said that "we have not found direct links with Hamburg," German officials said they are intensifying an investigation to flesh out the network of Al Qaeda cells in Europe before Sept. 11.
A spokeswoman for the federal police said the investigation focused on two apartments in Berlin that are believed to have been used by an Algerian extremist, Muhammad Bensakhria, who was later arrested in the northern Spanish city of Alicante and extradited to France. Searches in the apartments turned up equipment for making false passports and credit cards.
The spokeswoman, Birgit Heib, said the investigation "stemmed from an old lead that has taken on greater significance." She did not elaborate.
But the Berlin daily Tagespiegel says in an article to appear Thursday that the federal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, has ordered an investigation of Islamic fundamentalists who trained at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and later operated out of Berlin.
Mr. Bensakhria, the Algerian, was the leader of an Al Qaeda cell in Frankfurt called the Meliani Group, for his nom de guerre. Five members of the group are now on trial there accused of planning attacks on targets in the French city of Strasbourg. The group's breakup led to further arrests, including six in Britain, where the police found plans to produce Sarin nerve gas.
At a meeting Tuesday of European security officials in Bonn, Hans J. Beth, the director of international terrorism at Germany's domestic intelligence service, said his agency operates on the assumption that Mr. bin Laden and other leading Al Qaeda figures had not been killed or captured in Afghanistan and were still in a position to order or approve attacks.
Manfred Klink, the director of Germany's Federal Criminal Police, which has spearheaded the investigation of the Hamburg cell, told the meeting that a "network of several thousand fanatical Muslims" remains in place in Western Europe, North America, and the Arab countries. He added that the majority had been trained in camps in Afghanistan to carry out attacks and that a "significant number" remained in Germany awaiting orders.
German officials said they had also received threats in early January against German interests in the Middle East because of the trial that began on April 16 of the five Islamic radicals in Frankfurt.
In April, 14 German tourists were among 19 people left dead when a truck filled with gas exploded at a Jewish synagogue in Tunisia. German officials have said they have identified links between the suspected attacker, Nizar Ben Mohamed Nasr Nawar, a Tunisian, and a ring of militants linked to Mr. bin Laden's Al Qaeda network who worked out of Montreal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/international/europe/30ITAL.html?todayshe adlines
6/6/02
4:36:35 PM
'Scams Away: The Boom Is Falling'
Topic: The Bush Administration
by Al Martin
In an incredible display of arrogance, George Bush said that HE (not the White House, but HE) will no longer tolerate second-guessing on the subject of the growing questions of what did the Bush Administration know and when did it know it regarding threatened terrorist attacks against the United States prior to 9-11.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld then came out with a press release from the Department of Defense, stating that "those who ask questions could face government charges."
The Bush Administration publicly stated that there is one congressional investigation ongoing into this matter, and they will not allow any further congressional investigations to be formed. Nor will they answer any further questions by the media on this subject.
This all happened when Fox News and MSNBC began to leak out some FBI documents, which our inside source had told us about a long time ago. This source actually knew the people who had been dealing with the major media outlets. They were FBI documents including a memorandum, which indicated that the warnings the White House had prior to 9-11 were in fact more substantial than what the White House let on.
The White House has admitted that it did have vague and nebulous warnings of a potential terrorist attack, led by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group. But it had numerous such warnings, and as presidential press spokesman Ari Fleischer said, how many times can you cry wolf before people won't listen to you anymore? The White House also claimed that none of the information they had gotten from the FBI and the CIA was in substantive enough detail to put together any defensive plan of action.
As it turns out, there was a key FBI memorandum, which never went up the chain of command. It was written by an agent in Phoenix, in which he specifically mentioned that Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda group may use hijacked aircraft in a terrorist attack against a CIA building or other principal federal offices in Washington. The FBI also believed that potential commercial targets included the World Trade Center and the Sears Tower in Chicago. This document, for some reason, never went up the chain of command.
The Bush Administration is trying to claim that they weren't aware of it.
Their attitude is that they didn't know that terrorists were going to hijack aircraft and use them as missiles, and there is no real way to defend against that.
However, what has since come out of the Department of Defense is that they took the threats more seriously and did upgrade White House, Pentagon, CIA and Capital building anti-aircraft security capability.
But they did nothing to attempt to protect any commercial assets.
The FBI documents in question weren't actually leaked. Originally they were simply sold -- for cash money to a major news outlet.
This news outlet then simply sat on the documents apparently waiting until they believed the time was right. They tried to get other media outlets interested in it, and they couldn't. This goes back to August of 2001.
The problem was that they couldn't get the other networks interested in it, and the other networks were frankly frightened. They couldn't get any Democrats in Congress interested in it either because the Democrats were also frightened of raising the subject.
Fox then had to wait for others to catch up to them, a common game in the media. (I played it the same way before.) Sometimes one media outlet or one newspaper has to wait for the rest of the world to catch up to where it is. This is very common in the media particularly when it comes to exposing government misdeeds.
All the newspapers played this game after Iran-Contra. They'd get a hold of something hot. They'd spread it around a little bit. But other media outlets, investigative organization, and congressional committees were still too far behind the eight ball to want to get up to speed that quickly. There would be still too many missing gaps.
It's not uncommon in the media business to sit on documents for months or even, in some cases, years. It's often done by individual investigative reporters themselves. They'll sit on information they have -- just waiting because they don't want to stick their necks out too far.
John Crudele, a political investigative reporter for the NY Post, and Rodney Bowers, a political reporter for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, were probably the two best players of this game. They used to call it "Texas Hold-'em"-- like the poker game. They would talk to everyone they knew, all the other political investigative reporters. They would tell them this is what we've got, then everyone else would start looking into it, and gradually they would get caught up to the lead guy. Then they would actually collaborate on the story.
(By the way, John Crudele recently wrote a great story on the missing half a trillion dollars from the US Treasury called "$1/2 Trillion Federal Deficit for Fiscal 2000,")
The Bush Administration is now circling the wagons. Imagine the arrogance of Rumsfeld to say that those who ask any further questions may face government charges.
Rumsfeld said -- Look at the homeland security act, the so-called USA Patriot Act, which very few people have read all the way through to the fine print.
Bush further said that anyone who continues to ask questions is acting "unpatriotically," and that is a hell of a club to wield, particularly over congressional Democrats -- especially when you have 90% of the people supporting the "war on terrorism."
Rumsfeld said that anyone asking questions (referring specifically to congressional committees and the media) could be charged with giving aid and comfort to the enemy -- if they attempt to question the motives of the administration with regards to its war on terrorism.
Senator Lieberman and Senator Daschle are up in arms about it. The Senate Democrat Caucus released a statement saying that they had warned the American people about this problem before -- regarding the USA Patriot Act and all the ensuing legislation that has since been passed. We tried to warn t