3/31/02
2:39:19 PM
Major 911 Oddities Revealed In NY Firehouse Documentary
From Top View, mailto:top_viewer@yahoo.com
On March 11, 6 months after the September 11 destruction of the World Trade Center, CBS aired a film consisting largely of documentary footage on the firefighters of the FDNY's Engine 7, Ladder 1. Engine 7's firehouse is just several blocks from the WTC.
The footage was taken by a team of two French brothers, Jules and Gedeon Naudet, who'd begun their documentary on the life and times of these particular firemen some days before.
The firefighters of Engine 7 -- all of whom ended up at ground zero on September 11 -- by incredible grace, and maybe luck, all survived and lived to see another day... And many of their days since September 11 have been spent searching for the bodies of their lost comrades and the many, many other victims at ground zero.
Truly significant -- indeed crucial -- oddities, anomalies and flagrantly irreconcilable contradictions with the "official" "version" of the staggering WTC devastation are brought forth in this film, which serve to further prove the UTTER FALSITY of the federal government/Bush administration/mass media's threadbare official lies on nearly every single important aspect of this tremendous, horrific tragedy.
** First and foremost
Right off the bat, we smell something fishy in the fact that on September 11 at 8:30 AM Engine 7 -- the fire station closest to the World Trade Center -- received what turned out to be a spurious report of an "odor of gas" about a half-mile AWAY from the WTC to the north. This potentially serious but false report served to take the 7th Battalion's chief Joe Pfeiffer and a crew TRAINED in dealing with explosive/incendiary conditions AWAY from the Trade Center location... at the EXACT TIME the first plane impacted the tower.
However: nearly every member of this crew including filmmaker Jules Naudet, who filmed it, watched from the street with horrifying clarity at 8:46 as the first plane made a dead-on beeline for WTC tower one and smacked right into it.
** Second
Ranking NYC fire official Chief Pfeiffer notified higher authorities WITHIN MOMENTS of the plane's impact that the incident was CLEARLY a deliberate attack; an intentional act of mass death and devastation. As the small crew that had eye-witnessed the first plane hit the WTC was racing to the location, Chief Pfeiffer sounded red alerts over the radio and phone; specifically stating that what they witnessed was a "DIRECT ATTACK," that the plane was clearly being directed straight at the building and the incident was definitely NOT any kind of accident.
THUS: If, by some unimaginable combination of sheer stupidity, criminal incompetence, negligence, ineptitude and apparent MASSIVE concurrent near-unilateral failure of a number of (semi-)automatic air defense warning and alert systems, US government/military authorities charged with defending and patrolling the nation's airspace had somehow FAILED to have become aware of a SERIOUSLY suspicious and threatening ongoing situation occurring over the skies of the eastern US with a number of large, fully-fueled passenger jets OBVIOUSLY being in serious trouble and/or under hostile control and TOTALLY out of communication with aviation authorities, then they had a DEFINITE official report that this WAS the case once Chief Pfeiffer radioed in his red alert. The intervening TWENTY MINUTES that elapsed before the second plane hit the south WTC tower was MORE than enough time for interceptors to have reached ground zero from Air Guard bases barely TEN minutes away at LESS than maximum speed.
Now we have solid proof that a NYC fire official who EYE-WITNESSED the first plane hit the WTC DID inform higher authorities that the incident was CLEARLY A HOSTILE ATTACK!!
WHY, THEN, WAS OUR MULTI-TRILLION DOLLAR AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM NOT AT SUCH TIME IMMEDIATELY ACTIVATED, if it had somehow NOT been activated SOONER?!
What's also worth noting is that even as Pfeiffer and the others were speeding downtown, the main fireball from the exploding jet fuel had almost completely dissipated and the flames had subsided significantly, as is visible in the footage taken then by Jules Naudet.
** Third
When the above-noted fire crew and cameraman Jules Naudet arrived at WTC's tower one along with other fire crews and entered the building's ground floor lobby, they were to a one completely puzzled -- actually astonished -- to find SIGNIFICANT and widespread damage to the entire lobby area; although NOT of a deep, structural kind. Moreover, NOWHERE was there ANY indication whatsoever of an incendiary-type explosion or ANY kind of fire in this area.
Yet the incredible number of blown-out windows and other extensive though rather superficial damage throughout the lobby area was profoundly perplexing to these EXPERIENCED professional firefighters in relation to the impact of the plane eighty stories above. As one put it: "The lobby looked like the plane hit the lobby!"
But it DIDN'T: it hit EIGHTY STORIES ABOVE. There is NO WAY the impact of the jet caused such widespread damage eighty stories below. In a building which by design had easily withstood an amazing amount of flexing and swaying from high winds, the ground-floor damage witnessed by these men and recorded on camera could not POSSIBLY have been caused by that plane crash. Over and over, these professional firefighters expressed their complete puzzlement over the damage in this area. However, this glaringly anomalous factor was spin-doctored by the narrator, who said fire officials were later informed (OBVIOUSLY by "certain" federal officials) that the lobby damage occurred because "burning jet fuel" had poured eighty stories down the elevator shafts and then exploded in the lobby. Interesting fable -- but in fact there was not one SINGLE visible indication of ANY kind of burning, fire or incendiary-type explosion in the lobby area. The Feds' complete and utter fabrication about jet fuel having "exploded" in the lobby is thoroughly nullified by the clear visual evidence on the footage of the fire-crews in the tower one lobby.
According to this visual evidence, it is OBVIOUS and irrefutable that OTHER EXPLOSIVES (apparently of a non-incendiary kind such as concussion bombs) HAD ALREADY BEEN DETONATED in the lower levels of tower one at the same time as the plane crash -- before ANY fire crews and rescue workers arrived at the scene!
** Fourth
ALL the hundreds of professional firefighters massing at tower one AND their chiefs and superiors -- a number of whom had eye-witnessed the plane's actual impact -- along with other emergency services personnel familiar with and trained to deal with such disasters, were VERY surprised to find that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the north tower's elevators was OUT OF COMMISSION. Despite the obvious severity of the impact and the ensuing explosion and fire in parts of the building eighty stories above, these professional firefighters and rescue workers were at a loss to explain how EVERY SINGLE elevator could have been knocked out. Clearly, SOMETHING ELSE besides the plane crash was responsible for this truly dangerous state of affairs, which was a big factor in the large number of fatalities which ensued.
** Fifth
After the attack on the first tower, which had been reported by Chief Pfeiffer and other officials to higher authorities as a DELIBERATE AND HOSTILE ATTACK, the occupants of tower two were in the process of being evacuated. But THEN, obviously issuing from some diabolical source, word was spread throughout tower two's communications system that there was NO FURTHER DANGER and that ALL OCCUPANTS should return to their offices! Thus: Although clearly and SUSPICIOUSLY there was a VERY low attendance rate in both WTC towers that day, SOME agency or other took very deliberate steps to ensure that whoever WAS there that day was almost certain to die.
** Sixth
Clearly heard on the soundtrack of the CBS presentation of the Naudets' footage is the sound of a TV or radio announcer stating that there were reports of a FIRE and possible explosion having occurred at the Pentagon. Absolutely NOTHING was said about any PLANE having hit the Pentagon in these initial reports!
** Seventh
Explosions of varying loudness can be heard going off repeatedly throughout tower one during the time fire crews had set up their command post there after the first attack. WHAT WAS CAUSING THESE EXPLOSIONS? This is never even commented upon: but what else is there to SAY about this other than OTHER EXPLOSIVE DEVICES were DEFINITELY being detonated throughout the building after the plane had hit?!
** Eighth
ALL firefighters and rescue workers and their superiors and chiefs were FULLY CONFIDENT at ALL TIMES -- even after the attack on the south tower but before its unimaginable and unprecedented collapse -- that the dwindling conflagrations on the upper levels of the twin towers WOULD be fully contained, and that the majority of those people still up there WOULD be brought to safety. These trained and experienced professionals were FULLY aware of the extent and severity of the damage and destruction; yet not ONE of them even remotely envisioned something as catastrophic as the TOTAL, UTTER COLLAPSE of these two behemoth, tremendously solid structures. They knew they had a tough job to do -- and they KNEW -- every one of them -- that they COULD do it.
But then something they could never, ever have imagined DID happen. The buildings -- beginning strangely enough with the far less damaged and last to be struck south tower -- crumbled and sank from the Manhattan skyline in a vast and truly apocalyptic cloud of dust and rubble.
** Ninth
The south tower, which suffered far less damage than tower one, somehow or other crumpled to the ground. Professional fire and rescue workers on-site were in a state of near-total disbelief. THIS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY THE PLANE CRASH!
And THEN the same thing happened to the north tower.
And even MORE unbelievable: other than 3-4 inch thick steel beams jutting out everywhere which showed NO sign at all of having become softened, melted or anything similar, there was literally NOTHING LEFT of these gargantuan structures but DUST.
Moreover: EACH of the Trade Center's twin towers had a TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND+ GALLON water tank atop it. That's nearly a HALF-MILE gallons of water atop those two buildings. And not a single drop of it reached the ground.
In the words of Engine 7's Joe Casaliggi: "You have two 110-story office buildings. You don't find a desk; you don't find a chair; you don't find a telephone or a computer... . The biggest piece of a telephone was half of a keypad.
"There was nothing left of those buildings BUT DUST."
And we're supposed to believe that was caused by burning jet fuel -- THAT'S BASICALLY KEROSENE, folks -- which had LONG SINCE burned off in the initial fireballs.
We don't believe it. And neither do MANY, MANY other people, including a large number of New York City firefighters -- may God bless them for their selfless, honorable and heartfelt efforts to save others; all tragically sacrificed to further the demonic and hellish agendas of the mass-murdering within the US government so DEEPLY, deeply complicit in the carnage of 9.11.
THE TRAITORS IN OUR GOVERNMENT WILL PAY FOR THEIR VICIOUS AND INHUMAN TREACHERY ON 9.11.
3/31/02
2:09:30 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.31
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Weak Leaders Hinder Middle East Peace
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31A.Weak.Leaders.htm
Enron and Bush: the Mystery Deepens, Energy Papers Yield More Questions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31B.Bush.Enron.htm
Scott Galindez | Dear George, New Nuclear Weapons Will Not Make the World a Safer Place
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31C.SG.George.htm
Bush Hard - Liners See End of N.Korea Accord
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31D.Bush.End.htm
Fund Raising: How Bush Plays the Game
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31E.Bush.Game.htm
Donna E. Shalala | Loss to Medical Privacy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31F.DS.Loss.htm
Pentagon Seeks Exemption From Environmental Laws
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31G.Exemption.htm
Protesters Help Refugees Escape
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31H.Help.Escape.htm
Bush Vows to Seek Conservative Judges
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31I.Bush.Vows.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
3/30/02
3:46:47 PM
Nuclear Terror Near Toledo
Atomic Apocalypse Barely Averted at the Davis-Besse Reactor
by Harvey Wasserman
Ohio is looking down the barrel of a nuclear apocalypse. Its name is Davis-Besse. Reopening it---as its owner wants to do---can be viewed as nothing more than an act of terrorism.
The 900-megawatt atomic reactor near Toledo has shocked even the industry's staunchest supporters. An unexpected leak of boric acid has eaten through nearly six full inches of solid high-grade metal in a critical internal component. Only 3/8 of an inch of carbon steel protection was left in tact when the hole was discovered in February. Soon thereafter a second hole was discovered, raising widespread fears that the reactor could be riddled with untold other seriously deriorated sites.
Boric acid is laced throughout the water that circulates through all Pressurized Water Reactors. Similar structural problems have long been known in the much-vaunted French nuclear industry, whose 55-plus PWRs suffer from a syndrome known as Vessel Head Penetration Cracking, which threatens the entire industry.
As it always does, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is supposed to protect the public, says there is no real danger. But in the same releases it pointed out that the acid has compromised an extremely important safety feature common to all pressurized water reactors, the world's most widespread model. There are 68 other reactors with similar designs in the US alone.
The NRC gets its funding from the industry it regulates, and has long been viewed as little more than a lapdog giving public relations cover to a corrupt, decayed plutocracy. Critics generally refer to it as "No Real Chance" and "Nobody Really Cares." Its chairman, Richard Meserve, recently launched a vicious personal attack against one critic who dared point out that America's reactors are still vulnerable to a terrorist attack from the air.
In the wake of September 11, a global debate led the industry itself to concede that no reactor containment on any commercial nuclear plant could withstand the crash of a jet the size of the ones that brought down the World Trade Center. But while ground security has been increased at most reactor sites, there has been no significant upgrade in the ability of any commercial reactor to survive an attack from the air. When Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute, among others, pointed this out, Meserve went over the deep end.
Which is where all of Lake Erie and northern Ohio would go in the event of an attack or an accident at Davis-Besse. FirstEnergy's aging atomic clunker has been likened to a radioactive jalopy, patched together with twine, hurtling down a steep hill. At the bottom is the prospect of a literal apocalypse, whose radioactive releases could permanently destroy all of northern Ohio and the Great Lakes, the world's largest single reserve of fresh water. A melt-down or terrorist-prompted explosion could kill millions, including much of the populations of Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit.
Davis-Besse is a deteriorating Three Mile Island-style relic which in the 1980s ate millions in funky patches just to keep it on line. Its latest safety shutdown has caused no blackouts or other noticeable strains on the grid that supplies northern Ohio with electricity. FirstEnergy is now buying power from other sources, which are readily available.
The company is also demanding the right to slap in still more cheap fixes and throw Davis-Besse back on line as fast as possible. FirstEnergy has its financial reasons. But even the NRC has started to balk at the profound irresponsiblity of pasting on a few bandaids and then re-firing such an infernal machine. There is talk of replacing some large internal components altogether. But that would take FirstEnergy until 2004, by which time much of the public will have figured out there's no need for this radioactive Rube Goldberg contraption.
Last year nearly 1700 megawatts of windpower were installed in the US alone, more than twice as much capacity as is theoretically provided by Davis-Besse. By 2004 far more capacity could be provided cheaply, cleanly and safely by natural gas or Great Lakes wind machines than by a reopened nuke.
Safety experts have now called for a thorough x-ray examination of every component of Davis-Besse and the scores of other reactors with similar designs. But the attitude of the Bush Administration and the NRC has been that if this might cost FirstEnergy and other reactor owners a few extra dollars, then they won't do it, even if it endangers the future of the planet.
This is a profoundly important moment in this nation's history. This kind grotesque risk being taken with the public safety cannot be tolerated. Davis-Besse must stay shut and the alternatives put in place. To do otherwise would be an unparalleled act of terrorism, pure and simple.
Source: http://www.ColumbusAlive.com
3/30/02
3:34:46 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.30
Sharon Declares Arafat an 'Enemy' And Troops Enter His Compound
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30A.Troops.Enter.htm
Senator Lieberman Seeks Enron Contacts from White House, Energy Task Force
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30B.Lieberman.Seeks.htm
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) | Peace And Nuclear Disarmamant: A Call To Action
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30C.Kucinich.Peace.htm
G.O.P. Lawmakers and White House Cite a Growing Rift
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30D.GOP.Rift.htm
Andersen Plans a Split, as U.S. Signals Continued Prosecution
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30E.Split.Prosecution.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 35
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30F.Stonewall.htm
John W. Dean | Campaign Finance Reform Goes To Court
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30G.JWD.Court.htm
Bush Diplomacy Yields Few Promising Signs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30H.Bush.Few.htm
Army Sec. White Under Investigation at Pentagon
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30I.White.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
3/30/02
3:32:21 PM
EASTER AND PLANET EARTH
Easter provides a great opportunity. Get attention for the following, and help lead the world into a better future.
EARTH'S RESURRECTION: We know America and the world are facing terrible problems. Easter provides the solution!
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." and embodied the meaning of truth. The understanding of the importance of truth and its connection with God has led to the wise policies and actions that have fostered past periods of peaceful progress -- in America and abroad.
But in recent years secularism (trying to do good without any belief in God) has corrupted society -- teaching that there is no absolute truth. Everything is relative and no need for a belief in God. Cynicism and corruption are the result.
We need a miracle. Let us join in heartfelt repentance and prayer -- with a new commitment to peace, justice and the care of Earth. On Easter we can deepen our commitment to think and act as Earth Trustees as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, "Agree with your enemy." The Earth Trustee agenda appeals to people of every creed and culture and provides the way. With this common cause we can work together and leave room for our differences.
God will hear our prayer and aid our efforts. We will see a miraculous change for the better in America and all over the world.
God is love, not hate. God is life, not death. God is good, not evil.
Anyone who thinks God guides to do harm is gravely deluded.
God is love.
Carmen Columbo 2002 http://www.wowzone.com
The first view of Earth from Space inspired the idea of Earth Day. "We set out to explore Space and discovered Earth." From this came the idea we should all think and act as Trustees of Earth.
In a prelude that pointed the way to a better future, on March 20, 1998, outriders of Planet Earth celebrated the annual Earth Day in Space. At the Mir Space Station there was a brief ceremony that included the special moment when the Peace Bell at the United Nations was rung as Spring began. Astronauts, Cosmonauts and people on Earth joined at that time in a brief dedication to be responsible trustees of Earth.
The Earth Trustee idea of Earth Day appeals to people of every creed and culture. It is very simple and powerful. All that is needed is for every individual and institution to think and act as a trustee of Earth, seeking in their own way to:
"Make choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, awaken the wonder of life and nurture people and planet."
We can now halt the awful record of history with its injustice, wars and violence. Napoleon once said, "Imagination rules the world." Internet opens new opportunities to capture the imagination of the world with a solution that can appeal to all. Projects and efforts that are achieving Earth Trustee goals can be posted and verified by experts on the web. Here is a chance for people of religious faith to prove their faith by their works.
Let every person who receives this message deepen their commitment and take action – personally and with any group you belong to. Forward this to a few friends and suggest they do the same. Let's circle the world now with a positive Earth Trustee vision
Sincerely,
John McConnell Earth Day Founder http://www.earthsite.org
To one and all. Spread the word. Let's demonstrate the faith that works by love. Help get global attention for the opportunity to make this Easter a Resurrection Day for the whole world. Let's come together to reanimate our planet. This can appeal to people of all religions.
3/30/02
3:29:52 PM
Pentagon Seeks Exemption From Environmental Laws
by Katharine Q. Seelye,March 30, 2002
WASHINGTON, March 29 — Concerned that several environmental laws are interfering with the military's ability to train soldiers and develop weapons, the Pentagon is seeking a Congressional exemption from an array of measures that have protected endangered species and their habitats for years.
A draft of the exemption bill, circulating in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, seeks exemptions on national security grounds for bombing ranges, air bases and training grounds from sections of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Noise Control Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act.
The Defense Department controls about 25 million acres for training grounds, about 90 percent of which is undeveloped buffer. It spends about $4 billion a year to comply with environmental laws, money that Pentagon officials say could be better spent preparing the military for combat, especially in light of the Sept. 11 attacks.
For example, the Navy spends $2.4 million per year to protect a bird called the loggerhead shrike, an endangered species on San Clemente Island, off California. It also closes its bombing range there four days a week during the shrike's breeding season, and since the Navy has been doing that, the shrike population has grown to 160 birds, from 13.
"This environmental success has necessitated reducing one of the two firing ranges in size by 90 percent and the other by 50 percent" at certain times, Representative Joel Hefley, a Colorado Republican who is chairman of the subcommittee on military readiness, said recently at hearings on the subject.
But, Mr. Hefley wondered, where will it end? "How many shrikes must be reintroduced into the wild and maintained on San Clemente Island before we can say that the Navy can once again devote its complete attention and dollars to its primary mission of preparing our military forces to ensure national security?" he asked.
The legislation that the Pentagon is preparing, which would be introduced as part of the defense spending bill after the Easter recess, would protect the military from lawsuits for violating rules like the ones protecting the shrike, officials said.
A draft of the bill says, "Federal departments and agencies shall not place the conservation of public lands, or the preservation or recovery of endangered, threatened or other protected species found on military lands, above the need to ensure that soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines receive the greatest possible preparation for, and protection from, the hazards and rigor of combat through realistic training on military lands and in military airspace."
Environmental organizations are beginning to rally in opposition.
"The forces are gathering," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit group representing civil servants who work on military bases and in environmental agencies. "This is seen as a major threat, and there's a growing cast of thousands meeting next week to plan to counter it."
If the environmental laws are breached, Mr. Ruch said, the military will be free to contaminate public drinking water with munitions, discharge air pollutants in bombings and exceed noise limits as well as test weapons that could harm whales and other marine life.
He said that few members of Congress were aware of the proposal, but he noted Congress's overwhelming support for the administration's efforts to respond to terrorism.
"Sept. 11 has given them a lot more political currency to do a broad-brush kind of thing," he said.
In his hearings two weeks ago, Mr. Hefley highlighted protections that some people might easily consider extreme and trivial when weighed against military needs.
He said that at Fort Hood, Tex., one of the Army's top training installations, 84 percent of the 200,000 acres devoted to training were subject to limits to protect two endangered species and cultural artifacts.
At Camp Pendleton, Calif., protections of tidal estuaries and rare plants and of mud puddles housing two species of microscopic shrimp produce what he called "an impossibly truncated mishmash of the land available for combat training."
Paul W. Mayberry, deputy under secretary of defense, told the subcommittee, "Both the room to maneuver and the ability to fire live ordnance are essential."
In Kosovo, it was evident that soldiers without live ordnance training were less effective than those with such training, Mr. Mayberry said.
Environmental laws prohibit or restrict flights over certain public lands and restrict the landing of amphibious craft on beaches. Simulated exercises are no substitute, he said, adding, "Our troops' first exposure to live fire cannot come as they land on a hostile beach in combat."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has authority to invoke exemptions from environmental laws, but he has not done so.
A spokeswoman for the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin, would not comment on any aspect of the proposed legislation, except to say that discussion with other agencies on how to respond to the environmental limitations were under way.
In a statement, Colonel Colin said, "We are always concerned by anything that might adversely impact the training needed to protect our military people, our nation and our way of life."
Sourve: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/politics/30ENVI.html
3/29/02
7:06:27 PM
Bush Tapped Solar Energy Funds To Print Energy Plan
by Tom Doggett, March 29, 2002
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While environmentalists have slammed the White House national energy plan for not doing enough to promote renewable energy, the Bush administration found those government research programs useful in paying the bill for printing copies of the 170-page plan.
The administration took money from the Energy Department's solar and renewable energy and energy conservation budgets to pay for the cost of printing its national energy plan.
Documents released under court order by the Energy Department this week revealed that $135,615 was spent from the DOE's solar, renewables and energy conservation budget to produce 10,000 copies of the White House energy plan released last May.
Another $1,317.39 was spent for producing 16 "briefing boards" used by administration officials to illustrate and explain the White House energy plan.
The newly released documents also show that $176.40 was taken from the energy conservation program to pay for an Alaska trip by Andrew Lundquist, the White House energy task force's staff director, to promote the energy plan.
The administration's energy policy called for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a proposal strongly opposed by environmentalists.
At the same time the White House tapped the renewable budget for funds to print the energy plan, administration was urging Congress to cut the renewable and energy efficiency research budgets by more than 50 percent.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who headed the White House energy task force, criticized environmentalists for relying too much on renewables and conservation to solve the nation's energy problems. "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy," Cheney said two weeks before the energy plan was released last May.
The administration did try to spread around the cost of producing the energy plan.
It dipped into the DOE's fossil energy program, which covers primarily oil research, to pay $100.92 for a hotel room near the Government Printing Office where the policy publication was being produced.
The documents did not name the official or if the hotel offered a government rate.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20020329_150.html
3/29/02
7:02:06 PM
Businesses are called to account: CORPORATE DISCLOSURE: A new initiative should make it possible to compare companies' impact on society and the environment
by Alison Maitland: Financial Times; Mar 28, 2002
Next week in New York an extraordinary coalition of companies, governments and pressure groups will launch an ambitious attempt to harmonise the way businesses report their impact on society and the environment.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) hopes to break through the fog surrounding "green" and ethical accounting and bring transparency and comparability to this fledgling form of corporate disclosure. If it works, it could become the international standard for non-financial reporting.
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, who led Royal Dutch/Shell's pioneering efforts to rebuild stakeholder trust following the Brent Spar and Nigeria disasters, believes that the GRI's reporting guidelines stand a good chance of being accepted as the global standard by governments. They will also make life easier for companies, he maintains, rather than adding to existing reporting burdens.
"All sorts of people - ethical investors, NGOs and governments - are asking companies for information and they all want it in their own format," says the former Shell chairman, now one of the GRI's 14 directors. "If companies can say: 'We'll give you the information but in the GRI's standard format', hopefully everyone will accept (that)."
Following the voluntary guidelines is not, however, a simple matter. They cover more than 90 indicators of environmental, social and economic performance, which include greenhouse gas emissions and waste management, human rights and child labour, corruption and political contributions, customer data protection and supplier contracts. Companies are asked to report on their progress at least annually.
Next Thursday's inauguration of the GRI as a global institution follows five years of collaboration by companies, pressure groups, unions, accountants, academics and governments in drawing up the guidelines. Already they are being tested by more than 100 companies worldwide, including multinationals such as General Motors, Nokia, Procter & Gamble and South African Breweries.
In the case of Siemens, which is following the guidelines for its first "sustainability" report, the process involves collecting data from several hundred sites in 190 countries employing nearly half a million people. Ralph Thurm, chairman of Siemens' sustainability strategy council and a GRI working group member, says it will be early next year before the results come in. Time and effort notwithstanding, the guidelines are "a remarkable milestone", he says.
Set up in 1997 by the US-based Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (Ceres), the GRI's aim was to pool best practice from scores of competing schemes for social and environmental reporting. "There was a lot of noise out there, a lot of chaos," says Allen White, GRI secretariat director.
The pressure on companies to report on these issues cannot be ignored, says Mr White. It comes not just from activists but also from investors, accounting bodies and governments. The Japanese government has published environmental reporting guidelines; and France requires public companies to provide social and environmental information in their financial reports.
He says the GRI should avoid the inconsistencies between national jurisdictions that have hampered agreement on international financial accounting standards.
Post-Enron, this new approach to disclosure may even gain greater credibility than traditional financial reporting, argues Robert Massie, a GRI board member and executive director of Ceres.
"We used to say we hoped that sustainability reporting would one day reach the level of rigour of financial reporting. Now I can say that many parts of sustainability reporting are more rigorous. For example, the world will not tolerate the dumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for ever. There will be a cost assigned to it. Knowing which companies produce more is directly relevant to the likely burden on their future revenue stream."
Will the new guidelines live up to their ambitions? To do so, they must attract enough of a following to enable meaningful comparison between companies and sectors.
Above all, they must demonstrate measurable improvements in performance and not be mere window-dressing. Environmental and social reporting generates scepticism.
The GRI has already made strides in gaining adherents. "I have never seen such a fast take-up of awareness of any standard anywhere," says Simon Zadek, chief executive of AccountAbility, a UK-based professional institute specialising in social and ethical accounting.
"I am amazed at how deeply GRI has already nested itself into parts of the business community, whether in Australia, South Africa, the US or Brazil."
Some large companies have misgivings, viewing the approach as too prescriptive. Others, such as BP, argue that aggregating data from across the company, as proposed by the GRI, can miss important impacts at regional or local level. BP is therefore not using the guidelines. But it recognises the importance of comparability and has mapped its own report against the GRI indicators on its website.
Mr Massie stresses the evolutionary nature of the GRI. "We're in year five of a 30-year process," he says. The guidelines will be regularly revised. There will be sector-specific versions, starting with financial services, mining and the car industry. There may also be slimmed-down guidelines suitable for small companies. "The GRI is most useful for the companies that are not leaders in the field and have not done this sort of thing before," says Mr Zadek, who has worked closely with the GRI.
But there is a risk that the stakeholders at whom the reports are aimed will not bother to read them. "Once the information is released, many NGOs turn away and take very little notice," he says. "One reason is that they don't believe it."
This is why reports need independent checking, he argues. Verification is also pretty new territory, so in June his organisation plans to publish AA1000, a guide to external auditing designed to complement the GRI. "We all recognise that you need both," he says.
The voluntary nature of the GRI guidelines is also a problem for some campaigners. "It doesn't pick up those companies unwilling or unable to measure up (to the guidelines)," says Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International. "We think there need to be minimum standards."
Oxfam has decided to support the guidelines because it saw other organisations such as Amnesty International taking part and found the GRI open to the idea that governments might use the framework as a basis for legislation. "We have come in on the proviso that we'll bang the table pretty hard about our concerns. If we don't like it, we will pull out."
The consensus achieved by the GRI is bound to come under pressure as the guidelines move off the drawing board and into the world's boardrooms. But there is no doubting the institution's determination to preserve its "multi-stakeholder" consensus.
Next week's ceremony at United Nations headquarters will be its first and last big public event in the US. It will soon move to Europe, probably the Netherlands, having concluded that the US is not the right country to site a "globally inclusive" organisation, says Mr Massie.
"The US . . . right now doesn't seem to be showing any particular awareness of the rest of the world," he says. Although there are only two US members of the GRI board, "people were associating our actions with the actions of other Americans whose policies we may not necessarily agree with. Being in a place where it was routine to speak many languages and to take other people's views into account was (thought to be) useful."
http://www.globalreporting.org
3/29/02
6:59:11 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
RIGHT IN THE SOLAR PLEXUS
From the believe-it-or-not department: To cover the costs of printing its 170-page energy plan last May, the Bush administration tapped into the Department of Energy's solar and renewable energy and energy conservation budgets. Documents released under court order by the DOE on Monday night indicate that $135,615 of the renewables and conservation budget was spent to print 10,000 copies of the drill-mine-burn plan, which, needless to say, is much reviled by enviros. Another $1,317.39 went toward printing "briefing boards" used by administration officials to explain the plan, and $176.40 helped send one lucky member of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force to Alaska to promote the plan. At the same time that it was spending the renewables budget and keeping the copiers humming, the administration was busy lobbying Congress to cut funding for renewables and energy-efficiency research by more than 50 percent. Somehow, it's cold comfort that the administration also took $100.92 from the DOE's fossil energy program to pay for a hotel room near the Government Printing Office.
straight to the source: ABCNews.com, Reuters, Tom Doggett, 29 Mar 2002 <http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20020329_150.html>
MUSTARD GREENS
In a hard-won triumph for environmentalists, the Pentagon announced yesterday that it will use a water-neutralization process, rather than incineration, to destroy 2,600 tons of mustard gas stored at Colorado's Pueblo Chemical Depot and other sites. The Chemical Weapons Working Group, a watchdog organization, applauded the decision, calling neutralization safe and effective. But in Oregon, Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) expressed concerns yesterday about the proposed neutralization of 2,440 tons of mustard gas stockpiled at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, questioning whether arid eastern Oregon could afford to divert so much water. Kitzhaber also noted that the neutralization process would yield 27 million gallons of contaminated water, and questioned the "eleventh hour" nature of the plan. Defense Undersecretary E.C. Aldridge said the Army is working quickly to destroy chemical weapons so they do not become terrorist targets. The U.S. is also hustling to dispose of some 30,000 tons of such weapons by 2007, as mandated by international treaty, although the Pentagon has said it will miss that deadline.
straight to the source: Denver Post, Theo Stein, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%7E490906,00.html>
straight to the source: Salem Statesman Journal, Associated Press, Brad Cain, 29 Mar 2002 <http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=39516>
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Robert Gehrke, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/03/28/state1222EST7586.DTL>
WORLD CERES
Could this be the end of greenwashing? After five years of work, an innovative coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, unions, accountants, academics, and government representatives is preparing to unveil standardized guidelines for how businesses report their impact on society and the environment. The Global Reporting Initiative standards, which are the brainchild of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, include more than 90 indicators of environmental, social, and economic performance -- from greenhouse gas emissions and waste management to human rights and child labor records. The GRI standards could meet the growing demand from investors, activists, accounting bodies, and governments for thorough information about business practices, while streamlining the reporting process for companies.
only in Grist: A week in the life of Bob Massie, Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies <http://www.gristmagazine.com/week/massie091800.stm?source=daily>
do good: Take action to crush capitalism with your pen <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/consumption.asp?source=daily#capitalism>
FOOT-IN-MOUTH DISEASE?
Dealing a blow to advocates of natural resource extraction in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, biologists working for the U.S. Geological Survey have produced a report finding that oil and gas drilling in the refuge could substantially threaten caribou, musk oxen, polar bears, migrating birds, and other wildlife. Although the report acknowledges that the risk could be mitigated by careful management, it nonetheless belies the repeated assertions of Interior Secretary Gale Norton that drilling would not pose any threat to wildlife in the refuge. "Once again the administration has released a report undermining its own case," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). To prepare the 78-page report, the biologists examined 12 years of research into the ecology of the area targeted for development, the Arctic Refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 29 Mar 2002 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/731219.asp>
do good: Take action to save the Arctic Refuge <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/mining.asp?source=daily#arctic>
DUNE BUGGING
Almost 50,000 acres of dunes in California's Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area would be re-opened to off-road vehicles (ORVs) under a Bureau of Land Management proposal. The area has been off-limits to the vehicles since November of 2000, when the BLM, ORV groups, and environmentalists negotiated a settlement that closed the area to protect endangered species. The BLM now appears prepared to retract that agreement, saying the area could provide a "world-class recreation opportunity." But Terry Weiner, coordinator of the Desert Protective Council, said, "You cannot appreciate the dunes if you're raging across them at 40 miles an hour with smoke in your face and deafening noise." The new plan calls for regulated use and careful policing -- as much for the human inhabitants as for wildlife. Up to 200,000 people flock to the dunes on the weekends, and last Thanksgiving alone, there was one homicide, two stabbings, two fatal accidents, and innumerable brawls.
straight to the source: New York Times, Nick Madigan, 29 Mar 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/national/29DUNE.html>
DEEP DU DU
Three years after NATO's 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia, depleted uranium (DU) has been found at five of six sites investigated by scientists from the U.N. Environment Programme. The sites, in Serbia and Montenegro, had "widespread but low-level" contamination. Although the scientists did not report any current direct threat to humans or the environment, they expressed concern about the possibility of future groundwater contamination from corroding munitions. UNEP also cautioned civilians to avoid touching any remaining pieces of DU and warned against disturbing the sites, thereby releasing DU particles into the air. The agency has begun work to decontaminate the areas.
straight to the source: BBC News, 27 Mar 2002 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1896000/1896898.stm>
3/29/02
6:44:27 PM
Greenpeace's CLEAN ENERGY NOW! Campaign weekly update.
GREENEST SCHOOL . . . IN SCOTLAND!
Lunnasting Primary in Scotland was named as the winner of the WWF Our World Schools Challenger.
After winning this environmental care contest, Lunnasting Primary in Shetland, Scotland, will become the greenest school in Scotland. With solar panels already in place, the prize from the contest will provide funding to install a wind generator enabling the school to produce 90% of its electricity needs through sustainable energy. The wind turbine and solar panels will be connected to the local grid, enabling the school to sell electricity to the generating company outside school hours. Linda Cracknell, WWF education officer stated, "winning ideas like wind generator at Lunnasting Primary show us how schools can play an essential part in shaping a better world through a fresh approach to education . . . pupils at Lunnasting are learning about their roles as citizens. . . " If they can do it in Scotland imagine what we can do here!!?
You can learn more about WWF's education for sustainable development at:
http://www.wwflearning.co.uk/welcome
SEC FORCES EXXONMOBILE BOARD TO OVERSEE COMPANY'S POSITION ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
There was a victory for shareholders this week, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued letters supporting the inclusion of two environmental shareholder resolutions in the company's 2002 proxy statement. One of which aims to push the company to take global warming more seriously. ExxonMobil tried to challenge the resolutions, which call for a report on its efforts to develop clean energy and ask for executive compensation to be linked to environmental and social performance, but the SEC refused their request to cut off the debate and omit them from the annual proxy. The primary filer of a resolution on executive compensation is a nun, Sister Patricia A. Daly of the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell New Jersey. She stated, "Just as Enron's board members failed to properly oversee their company's financial dealings, ExxonMobil's board is failing to oversee their company's position on vital environmental issues. These issues must be examined." We will be bring you more news about ExxonMobil over coming months.
For more information contact Peter Altman (512) 479-0335 or Sister Patricia Daly (973) 579-1732.
SOLAR-CELL TECHNOLOGY GETS A BOOST IN JAPAN
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. announced that it has developed a way to manufacture solar cells with an energy conversion efficiency of more than 20%, the highest-ever ratio achieved for a production line. Although efficiency rates of 30% and higher has been reached in laboratory settings, most production solar cell works with efficiency around 15%. With better cost-performance, Mitsubishi Electric intends to take this opportunity to double its production of solar cells in fiscal 2002. This is the kind of production we want to see in the United States or else we will get left behind in the next energy revolution. For more on the US' performanace to date see Greenpeace USA's report "Losing the Race" at
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/climate/
Finally please don't forget to send a fax to Edison Mission Energy's CEO Willy Heller to ask him to divest from the proposed coal-fired power plant in Thailand that the company could not build here.
To send a fax, just go to:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/bin/actioncenter.pl
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.
3/29/02
6:38:05 PM
Europe's Fury
By David S. Broder, The Washington Post, Wednesday, March 27, 2002
ROME -- The United States has been fighting a war in Afghanistan. It has troops in the field in the Philippines and in Colombia. It is trying to mediate the bloody Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. The last thing it needs is a quarrel with Europe.
But that is exactly what has developed, as I was repeatedly reminded during a brief stay here for an international conference last week.
The immediate irritant is steel. The looming and larger point of conflict is Iraq. And the underlying complaint is that the Bush administration, whose leadership has gained significantly in standing since my last transatlantic visit 11 months ago, has reverted to an earlier and unsettling pattern of behavior. From the European perspective, Washington looks unpredictable, erratic and impulsive -- all the things that jar the allies' nerves.
It is easy to dismiss their mutterings as the nattering of nervous Nellies. But when the questioning comes not only from chronic critics such as the French but also from such friends as Germany and even Britain, it may behoove Washington to take heed.
The Europeans are not without power, as they demonstrated last week with their response to President Bush's surprise decision this month to impose tariffs as high as 30 percent on steel imports from Europe and Asia. Americans living here or visiting Rome for the conference I attended were hard-pressed to explain the glaring contradiction between Bush's professed support for free trade and his action to protect declining steelmakers in such political swing states as Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Many did not even try.
It does not matter, because the Europeans are not interested in excuses. They are furious. And they are ready to fight back. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the European Union is planning to target Florida orange juice and Wisconsin-made motorcycles -- hitting two states that were virtual ties in the last presidential election. Their target list also includes steel exports from Pennsylvania and West Virginia and textiles from the Republican political strongholds of North and South Carolina.
By hitting electoral college battlegrounds and states with key Senate and House races in November, the Journal said, the EU will strike Bush "where it could hurt the worst at the ballot box."
The steel tariff decision -- denounced by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in candid private comments that quickly became public -- looks more and more like one of the worst of the Bush presidency. Another Wall Street Journal article last week reported that the Commerce Department has been inundated by more than 1,000 requests for tariff exemptions from U.S. manufacturers who claim they cannot get the specialty steel they need from domestic steelmakers. Government officials are struggling to determine the merits of each case -- exactly the kind of heavy-handed bureaucratic interference with the marketplace that Republicans and conservatives are supposed to find abhorrent.
But all this is minor compared to European angst about Iraq.
The "axis of evil" section of the State of the Union Address came as a shock to countries that had offered Washington strong support for the first phase of the post-Sept. 11 war on terrorism.
The linkage of Iraq, Iran and North Korea made no sense to them, and subsequent assurances that Bush had no immediate intention to take military action against the last two simply heightened fears that he planned to bomb or invade Iraq.
Americans are being asked: What has happened in the past few months that makes it so imperative to remove Saddam Hussein? Is there any evidence that Iraq was implicated in the 9-11 attacks? With whom do you plan to replace Saddam? And what will a war with Iraq mean for Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia? If removing Saddam is vital to America's national interest, how are the interests of the neighboring countries to be protected?
There may be answers to all these questions, but the Europeans would like to hear them. And they would like to believe that Washington is interested in hearing from them. The lack of consultation is a chronic complaint, but rarely has it reached this level of anxiety.
Some Europeans believe Bush is on a mission of personal revenge against Saddam, determined to finish the work his father left incomplete at the end of the Gulf War. That trivializes his purpose. But the mere fact that such suspicions are being voiced is a warning that the slide in Euro-American relations needs to be addressed.
3/29/02
6:34:37 PM
Mother Of All Lies About 9/11
Barbara Olson's "Phone Call" From Flight 77
by Joe Vialls, 27 March 2002
This is a story about a little white lie that bred dozens of other little white lies, then hundreds of bigger white lies and so on, to the point where the first little white lie must be credited as the “Mother of All Lies” about events on 11 September 2001. For this was the little white lie that first activated the American psyche, generated mass loathing, and enabled media manipulation of the global population.
Without this little white lie there would have been no Arab Hijackers, no Osama Bin Laden directing operations from afar, and no “War on Terror” in Afghanistan and occupied Palestine. Clearly the lie was so clever and diabolical in nature, it must have been generated by the “Power Elite” in one of its more earthly manifestations. Perhaps it was the work of the Council on Foreign Relations, or the Trilateral Commission?
No, it was not. Though at the time the little white lie was flagged with a powerful political name, there was and remains no evidence to support the connection. Just like the corrupt and premature Lee Harvey Oswald story in 1963, there are verifiable fatal errors which ultimately prove the little white lie was solely the work of members of the media. Only they had access, and only they had the methods and means.
The little white lie was about Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator for CNN and wife of US Solicitor General Ted Olson. Now deceased, Mrs Olson is alleged to have twice called her husband from an American Airlines Flight 77 seat-telephone, before the aircraft slammed into the Pentagon. This unsubstantiated claim, reported by CNN remarkably quickly at 2.06 am EDT [0606 GMT] on September 12, was the solitary foundation on which the spurious “Hijacker” story was built.
Without the “eminent” Barbara Olson and her alleged emotional telephone calls, there would never be any proof that humans played a role in the hijack and destruction of the four aircraft that day. Lookalike claims surfaced several days later on September 16 about passenger Todd Beamer and others, but it is critically important to remember here that the Barbara Olson story was the only one on September 11 and. 12. It was beyond question the artificial “seed” that started the media snowball rolling down the hill.
And once the snowball started rolling down the hill, it artfully picked up Osama Bin Laden and a host of other “terrorists” on the way. By noon on September 12, every paid glassy-eyed media commentator in America was either spilling his guts about those “Terrible Muslim hijackers”, or liberating hitherto classified information about Osama Bin Laden. “Oh sure, it was Bin Laden,” they said blithely, oblivious to anything apart from their television appearance fees.
The deliberate little white lie was essential. Ask yourself: What would most Americans have been thinking about on September 12, if CNN had not provided this timely fiction? Would anyone anywhere have really believed the insane government story about failed Cessna pilots with box cutters taking over heavy jets, then hurling them expertly around the sky like polished Top Guns from the film of the same name? Of course not! As previously stated there would have been no Osama Bin Laden, and no “War on Terror” in Afghanistan and occupied Palestine.
This report is designed to examine the sequence of the Olson events and lay them bare for public examination. Dates and times are of crucial importance here, so if this report seems tedious try to bear with me. Before moving on to discuss the impossibility of the alleged calls, we first need to examine how CNN managed to “find out” about them, reported here in the September 12 CNN story at 2.06 am EDT:
“Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and attorney, alerted her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, that the plane she was on was being hijacked Tuesday morning, Ted Olson told CNN. Shortly afterwards Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon” … “Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers. The only weapons she mentioned were knives and cardboard cutters. She felt nobody was in charge and asked her husband to tell the pilot what to do.”
At no point in the above report does CNN quote Ted Olson directly. If the report was authentic and 100% attributable, it would have been phrased quite differently. Instead of “Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel…”, the passage would read approximately:- Mr Olson told CNN, “My wife said all passengers and flight personnel…” Whoever wrote this story was certainly not in direct contact with US Solicitor General Ted Olson.
Think about it, people! If you knew or suspected your spouse’s aircraft had just fireballed inside the Pentagon building, how would you spend the rest of the day? Initially you would certainly be in deep shock and unwilling to believe the reports. Then you would start to gather your wits together, a slow process in itself. After that and depending on individual personality, you might drive over to the Pentagon on the off chance your spouse survived the horrific crash, or you might go home and wait for emergency services to bring you the inevitable bad news. As a matter of record, Ted Olson did not return to work until six days later.
About the last thing on your mind [especially if you happened to be the US Solicitor General], would be to pick up a telephone and call the CNN Atlanta news desk in order to give them a “scoop”. As a seasoned politician you would already know that all matters involving national security must first be vetted by the National Security Council. Under the extraordinary circumstances and security overkill existing on September 11, this vetting process would have taken a minimum of two days, and more likely three.
The timing of the CNN news release about Barbara Olson, is therefore as impossible as the New Zealand press release back in 1963 about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As reported independently by Colonel Fletcher Prouty USAF (Retired), whoever set Kennedy up, accidentally launched a full international newswire biography on obscure “killer” Lee Harvey Oswald, without first taking the trouble to check his world clock.
It was still “yesterday” in New Zealand on the other side of the International Date Line when the biography was wired from New York, enabling the Christchurch Star newspaper was able to print a story about Oswald as the prime suspect in its morning edition, several hours before he was first accused of the crime by Dallas police.
If the CNN story about Ted Olson had been correct, and he really had called them about Barbara on September 11, then he would most surely have followed the telephone call up a few days later with a tasteful “one-on-one” television interview, telling the hushed and respectful interviewer about how badly he missed his wife, and about the sheer horror of it all.
There is no record of any such interview in the CNN or other archives. Indeed, if you key “Barbara Olson” into the CNN search engine, it returns only two related articles. The first is the creative invention on September 12 at 2.06 am EDT [0606 GMT], and the second is on December 12, about President Bush, who led a White House memorial that began at 8:46 a.m. EST, the moment the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center three months before. CNN includes this comment about Ted Olson:
“In a poignant remembrance at the Justice Department, U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson referred to "the sufferings we have all experienced." He made no direct reference to the death of his wife, Barbara Olson, who was a passenger aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon…”
Regarding the same event, Fox News reports that, extraordinarily, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson then said Barbara Olson's call, made "in the midst of terrible danger and turmoil swirling around her," was a "clarion call that awakened our nation's leaders to the true nature of the events of Sept. 11."
So Ted Olson avoided making any direct personal reference to the death of his wife. Clearly this was not good enough for someone somewhere. By the sixth month anniversary of the attack, Ted Olson was allegedly interviewed by London Telegraph reporter Toby Harnden, with his exclusive story “She Asked Me How To Stop The Plane” appearing in that London newspaper on March 5, thereafter renamed and syndicated around dozens of western countries as “Revenge Of The Spitfire”, finally appearing in the West Australian newspaper on Saturday March 23, 2002.
I have diligently tried to find a copy of this story in an American newspaper but have so far failed. The reasons for this rather perverse “external” publication of Ted Olson’s story are not yet clear, but it seems fair to observe that if he is ever challenged by a Senate Select Committee about the veracity of his claims, the story could not be used against him because it was published outside American sovereign territory.
Regardless of the real reason or reasons for its publication, the story seems to have matured a lot since the first decoy news release by CNN early on September 12, 2001. Here we have considerably more detail, some of which is frankly impossible. In the alleged words of US Solicitor General Theodore Olson:
“She [Barbara] had trouble getting through, because she wasn’t using her cell phone – she was using the phone in the passengers’ seats,” said Mr Olson. “I guess she didn’t have her purse, because she was calling collect, and she was trying to get through to the Department of Justice, which is never very easy.” … “She wanted to know ‘What can I tell the pilot? What can I do? How can I stop this?’”
"What Can I tell the pilot?" Yes indeed! The forged Barbara Olson telephone call claims that the flight deck crew were with her at the back of the aircraft, presumably politely ushered down there by the box cutter-wielding Muslim maniacs, who for some bizarre reason decided not to cut their throats on the flight deck. Have you ever heard anything quite so ridiculous?
But it is at this juncture that we finally have the terminal error. Though the American Airlines Boeing 757 is fitted with individual telephones at each seat position, they are not of the variety where you can simply pick up the handset and ask for an operator. On many aircraft you can talk from one seat to another in the aircraft free of charge, but if you wish to access the outside world you must first swipe your credit card through the telephone. By Ted Olson’s own admission, Barbara did not have a credit card with her.
It gets worse. On American Airlines there is a telephone "setup" charge of US$2.50 which can only be paid by credit card, then a US$2.50 (sometimes US$5.00) charge per minute of speech thereafter. The setup charge is the crucial element. Without paying it in advance by swiping your credit card you cannot access the external telephone network. Under these circumstances the passengers’ seat phone on a Boeing 757 is a much use as a plastic toy.
Perhaps Ted Olson made a mistake and Barbara managed to borrow a credit card from a fellow passenger? Not a chance. If Barbara had done so, once swiped through the phone, the credit card would have enabled her to call whoever she wanted to for as long as she liked, negating any requirement to call collect.
Sadly perhaps, the Olson telephone call claim is proved untrue. Any American official wishing to challenge this has only to subpoena the telephone company and Justice Department records. There will be no charge originating from American Airlines 77 to the US Solicitor General.
Even without this hard proof, the chances of meaningfully using a seat-telephone on Flight 77 were nil. We know from the intermittent glimpses of the aircraft the air traffic controllers had on the radar scopes, that Flight 77 was travelling at extreme speed at very low level, pulling high “G’ turns in the process.
Under these circumstances it would be difficult even reaching a phone, much less using it. Finally, the phones on the Boeing 757 rely on either ground cell phone towers or satellite bounce in order to maintain a stable connection. At very low altitude and extreme speed, the violent changes in aircraft attitude would render the normal telephone links completely unusable.
Exactly the same applies with United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed before reaching any targets. The aircraft was all over the place at extreme speed on radar, but as with Flight 77 we are asked to believe that the “hijackers” allowed a passenger called Todd Beamer to place a thirteen minute telephone call. Very considerate of them. The Pittsburg Channel put it this way in a story first posted at 1.38 pm EDT on September 16, 2001:
“Todd Beamer placed a call on one of the Boeing 757's on-board telephones and spoke for 13 minutes with GTE operator Lisa D. Jefferson, Beamer's wife said. He provided detailed information about the hijacking and -- after the operator told him about the morning's World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks - said he and others on the plane were planning to act against the terrorists aboard.” Note here that Mrs Lisa Beamer did not receive a telephone call from Todd personally, but was later “told” by an operator that her husband had allegedly called. Just another unfortunate media con job for the trash can.
As previously stated it is the Barbara Olson story that really counts, a view reinforced by the recent antics of the London print media. The photo at the top of this page is a copy of that printed in the West Australian newspaper. You only have to study it closely for a second to realize its full subliminal potential.
Here is a studious and obviously very honest man. The US Solicitor General sits in front of a wall lined with leather-bound volumes of Supreme Court Arguments, with a photo of his dead wife displayed prominently in front of him. Does anyone out there seriously believe that this man, a bastion of US law, would tell even a minor lie on a matter as grave as national security?
Theodore Olson’s own words indicate that he would be prepared to do rather more than that On March 21, 2002 on its page A35, the Washington Post newspaper printed an article titled “The Limits of Lying” by Jim Hoagland, who writes that a statement by Solicitor General Theodore Olson in the Supreme Court has the ring of perverse honesty.
Addressing the Supreme Court of the United States of America, US Solicitor General Theodore Olson said it is "easy to imagine an infinite number of situations . . . where government officials might quite legitimately have reasons to give false information out."
Source: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steveseymour/lies911/lies.htm
3/29/02
6:34:11 PM
TomPaine.com
"Independent, commercial-free public affairs reporting and commentary."
AN OIL COMPANY PROVES BUSH WRONG ON CLIMATE CHANGE
CEO John Browne Demands Government Help
by Seth Dunn
BP has exceeded its emissions reduction target eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost. That undermines Bush's claim that the Kyoto Protocol would be too expensive.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5334
SCENES FROM CHILDHOOD
My Favorite Jesuit Is Among The Accused
by Michael Ryan
My Jesuit heroes... taught that there is a sanctity inherent in being an agent for social change; I admired them. I learned a lot from them. That's why the newspaper photograph took my breath away.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5351
Book Excerpt
SPOILING FOR A FIGHT:
HARBINGERS OF CHANGE
Is The Moment Ripe For A Third-Party Challenge?
by Micah L. Sifry
"The political duopoly -- two parties tacitly agreeing to divide the market up and not seriously challenge each other 90 percent of the time -- is producing a special kind of civic paralysis. In order to move in a different direction, we need to be able to see an alternative path."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5357
WHAT DO FINANCIAL ADVISORS REALLY KNOW?
A General Lack Of Respect For Logic And Arithmetic
by Mark Weisbrot
So few of the professionals seem to care whether their advice is consistent with what they know about the economy.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5355
Book Excerpt
FLUSHING THE COASTS
Pollution Endangers Our Seas
by David Helvarg
Every day, 32 billion gallons of runoff washes into waterways, suffocating bays and estuaries, and causing 7,000 beach closures a year. Yet lessons from the 1992 Clean Water Act show that there's hope.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/4122
3/29/02
6:26:43 PM
PEACE AND NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT: A CALL TO ACTION
by U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich
". . . Come my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world,"
Alfred Lord Tennyson
If you believe that humanity has a higher destiny, if you believe we can evolve, and become better than we are; if you believe we can overcome the scourge of war and someday fulfill the dream of harmony and peace earth, let us begin the conversation today. Let us exchange our ideas. Let us plan together, act together and create peace together. This is a call for common sense, for peaceful, non-violent citizen action to protect our precious world from widening war and from stumbling into a nuclear catastrophe.
The climate for conflict has intensified, with the struggle between Pakistan and India, the China-Taiwan tug of war, and the increased bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians. United States' troop deployments in the Philippines, Yemen, Georgia, Columbia and Indonesia create new possibilities for expanded war. An invasion of Iraq is planned. The recent disclosure that Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Libya are considered by the United States as possible targets for nuclear attack catalyzes potential conflicts everywhere.
These crucial political decisions promoting increased military actions, plus a new nuclear first-use policy, are occurring without the consent of the American people, without public debate, without public hearings, without public votes. The President is taking Congress's approval of responding to the Sept. 11 terrorists as a license to flirt with nuclear war.
"Politics ought to stay out of fighting a war," the President has been quoted as saying on March 13th 2002. Yet Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution explicitly requires that Congress take responsibility when it comes to declaring war. This President is very popular, according to the polls. But polls are not a substitute for democratic process. Attributing a negative connotation here to politics or dismissing constitutionally mandated congressional oversight belies reality: Spending $400 billion a year for defense is a political decision. Committing troops abroad is a political decision. War is a political decision. When men and women die on the battlefield that is the result of a political decision. The use of nuclear weapons, which can end the lives of millions, is a profound political decision. In a monarchy there need be no political decisions. In a democracy, all decisions are political, in that the derive from the consent of the governed.
In a democracy, budgetary, military and national objectives must be subordinate to the political process. Before we celebrate an imperial presidency, let it be said that the lack of free and open political process, the lack of free and open political debate, and the lack of free and open political dissent can be fatal in a democracy.
We have reached a moment in our country's history where it is urgent that people everywhere speak out as president of his or her own life, to protect the peace of the nation and world within and without. We should speak out and caution leaders who generate fear through talk of the endless war or the final conflict. We should appeal to our leaders to consider that their own bellicose thoughts, words and deeds are reshaping consciousness and can have an adverse effect on our nation. Because when one person thinks: fight! he or she finds a fight. One faction thinks: war! and starts a war. One nation thinks: nuclear! and approaches the abyss. And what of one nation which thinks peace, and seeks peace?
Neither individuals nor nations exist in a vacuum, which is why we have a serious responsibility for each other in this world. It is also urgent that we find those places of war in our own lives, and begin healing the world through healing ourselves. Each of us is a citizen of a common planet, bound to a common destiny. So connected are we, that each of us has the power to be the eyes of the world, the voice of the world, the conscience of the world, or the end of the world. And as each one of us chooses, so becomes the world.
Each of us is architect of this world. Our thoughts, the concepts. Our words, the designs. Our deeds, the bricks and mortar of our daily lives. Which is why we should always take care to regard the power of our thoughts and words, and the commands they send into action through time and space.
Some of our leaders have been thinking and talking about nuclear war. In the past week there has been much news about a planning document which describes how and when America might wage nuclear war. The Nuclear Posture Review recently released to the media by the government:
1. Assumes that the United States has the right to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
2. Equates nuclear weapons with conventional weapons.
3. Attempts to minimize the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.
4. Promotes nuclear response to a chemical or biological attack.
Some dismiss this review as routine government planning. But it becomes ominous when taken in the context of a war on terrorism which keeps expanding its boundaries, rhetorically and literally. The President equates the "war on terrorism" with World War II. He expresses a desire to have the nuclear option "on the table." He unilaterally withdraws from the ABM treaty. He seeks $8.9 billion to fund deployment of a missile shield. He institutes, without congressional knowledge, a shadow government in a bunker outside our nation's Capitol. He tries to pass off as arms reduction, the storage of, instead of the elimination of, nuclear weapons.
Two generations ago we lived with nuclear nightmares. We feared and hated the Russians who feared and hated us. We feared and hated the "godless, atheistic" communists. In our schools, we dutifully put our head between our legs and practiced duck-and-cover drills. In our nightmares, we saw the long, slow arc of a Soviet missile flash into our very neighborhood. We got down on our knees and prayed for peace. We surveyed, wide eyed, pictures of the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We supported the elimination of all nuclear weapons. We knew that if you "nuked" others you "nuked" yourself.
The splitting of the atom for destructive purposes admits a split consciousness, the compartmentalized thinking of Us vs. Them, the dichotomized thinking, which spawns polarity and leads to war. The proposed use of nuclear weapons, pollutes the psyche with the arrogance of infinite power. It creates delusions of domination of matter and space. It is dehumanizing through its calculations of mass casualties. We must overcome doomthinkers and sayers who invite a world descending, disintegrating into a nuclear disaster. With a world at risk, we must find the bombs in our own lives and disarm them. We must listen to that quiet inner voice which counsels that the survival of all is achieved through the unity of all.
We must overcome our fear of each other, by seeking out the humanity within each of us. The human heart contains every possibility of race, creed, language, religion, and politics. We are one in our commonalities. Must we always fear our differences? We can overcome our fears by not feeding our fears with more war and nuclear confrontations. We must ask our leaders to unify us in courage.
We need to create a new, clear vision of a world as one. A new, clear vision of people working out their differences peacefully. A new, clear vision with the teaching of nonviolence, nonviolent intervention, and mediation. A new, clear vision where people can live in harmony within their families, their communities and within themselves. A new clear vision of peaceful coexistence in a world of tolerance.
At this moment peril we must move away from fear's paralysis. This is a call to action: to replace expanded war with expanded peace. This is a call for action to place the very survival of this planet on the agenda of all people, everywhere. As citizens of a common planet, we have an obligation to ourselves and our posterity. We must demand that our nation and all nations put down the nuclear sword. We must demand that our nation and all nations:
Abide by the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Stop the development of new nuclear weapons.
Take all nuclear weapons systems off alert.
Persist towards total, worldwide elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Our nation must:
Revive the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty.
Sign and enforce the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Abandon plans to build a so-called missile shield.
Prohibit the introduction of weapons into outer space.
We are in a climate where people expect debate within our two party system to produce policy alternatives. However both major political parties have fallen short. People who ask "Where is the Democratic Party?" and expect to hear debate may be disappointed. When peace is not on the agenda of our political parties or our governments then it must be the work and the duty of each citizen of the world. This is the time to organize for peace. This is the time for new thinking. This is the time to conceive of peace as not simply being the absence of violence, but the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness. This is the time to concieve of peace as respect, trust, and integrity. This is the time to tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness which compels violence at a personal, group, national or international levels. This is the time to develop a new compassion for others and ourselves.
When terrorists threaten our security, we must enforce the law and bring terrorists to justice within our system of constitutional justice, without undermining the very civil liberties which permits our democracy to breathe. Our own instinct for life, which inspires our breath and informs our pulse, excites our capacity to reason. Which is why we must pay attention when we sense a threat to survival.
That is why we must speak out now to protect this nation, all nations, and the entire planet and:
Challenge those who believe that war is inevitable.
Challenge those who believe in a nuclear right.
Challenge those who would build new nuclear weapons.
Challenge those who seek nuclear re-armament.
Challenge those who seek nuclear escalation.
Challenge those who would make of any nation a nuclear target.
Challenge those who would threaten to use nuclear weapons against civilian populations.
Challenge those who would break nuclear treaties.
Challenge those who think and think about nuclear weapons, to think about peace.
It is practical to work for peace. I speak of peace and diplomacy not just for the sake of peace itself. But, for practical reasons, we must work for peace as a means of achieving permanent security. It is similarly practical to work for total nuclear disarmament, particularly when nuclear arms do not even come close to addressing the real security problems which confront our nation, witness the events of September 11, 2001.
We can make war archaic. Skeptics may dismiss the possibility that a nation which spends $400 billion a year for military purposes can somehow convert swords into plowshares. Yet the very founding and the history of this country demonstrates the creative possibilities of America. We are a nation which is known for realizing impossible dreams. Ours is a nation which in its second century abolished slavery, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation where women won the right to vote, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation which institutionalized the civil rights movement, which many at the time considered impossible. If we have the courage to claim peace, with the passion, the emotion and the integrity with which we have claimed independence, freedom and, equality we can become that nation which makes non-violence an organizing principle in our society, and in doing so change the world.
That is the purpose of HR 2459. It is a bill to create a Department of Peace. It envisions new structures to help create peace in our homes, in our families, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, and in our nation. It aspires to create conditions for peace within and to create conditions for peace worldwide. It considers the conditions which cause people to become the terrorists of the future, issues of poverty, scarcity and exploitation. It is practical to make outer space safe from weapons, so that humanity can continue to pursue a destiny among the stars. HR 3616 seeks to ban weapons in space, to keep the stars a place of dreams, of new possibilities, of transcendence.
We can achieve this practical vision of peace, if we are ready to work for it. People worldwide need to be meet with likeminded people, about peace and nuclear disarmament, now. People worldwide need to gather in peace, now. People worldwide need to march and to pray for peace, now. People worldwide need to be connecting with each other on the web, for peace, now. We are in a new era of electronic democracy, where the world wide web, numerous web sites and bulletin boards enable new organizations, exercising freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, to spring into being instantly. Thespiritoffreedom.com is such a web site. It is dedicated to becoming an electronic forum for peace, for sustainability, for renewal and for revitalization. It is a forum which strives for the restoration of a sense of community through the empowerment of self, through commitment of self to the lives of others, to the life of the community, to the life of the nation, to the life of the world.
Where war making is profoundly uncreative in its destruction, peacemaking can be deeply creative. We need to communicate with each other the ways in which we work in our communities to make this a more peaceful world. I welcome your ideas at dkucinich@aol.com or at www.thespiritoffreedom.com. We can share our thoughts and discuss ways in which we have brought or will bring them into action.
Now is the time to think, to take action and use our talents and abilities to create peace:
in our families.
in our block clubs.
in our neighborhoods.
in our places of worship.
in our schools and universities.
in our labor halls.
in our parent-teacher organizations.
Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize and take action to create peace as a social imperative, as an economic imperative, and as a political imperative. Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize, march, rally, hold vigils and take other nonviolent action to create peace in our cities, in our nation and in the world. And as the hymn says, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."
This is the work of the human family, of people all over the world demanding that governments and non-governmental actors alike put down their nuclear weapons. This is the work of the human family, responding in this moment of crisis to protect our nation, this planet and all life within it. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. As we understand that all people of the world are interconnected, we can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. We can accomplish this through upholding an holistic vision where the claims of all living beings to the right of survival are recognized. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace through being a living testament to a Human Rights Covenant where each person on this planet is entitled to a life where he or she may consciously evolve in mind, body and spirit.
Nuclear disarmament and peace are the signposts toward the uplit path of an even brighter human condition wherein we can through our conscious efforts evolve and reestablish the context of our existence from peril to peace, from revolution to evolution. Think peace. Speak peace. Act peace. Peace.
email: mailto:info@thespiritoffreedom.com or mailto:Dkucinich@aol.com
"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again."
Dag Hammarskjold
3/29/02
6:25:42 PM
AlterNet Headlines
Calling All Young Writers!!
Have you ever been censored, silenced or told that your opinion doesn't count? Do you have a statement to make about freedom of expression? If so, and you're 23 or under, you should enter the "Say What?" contest. Your work will seen by celebrity judges and you could win $300 and other cool prizes. More details at:
http://www.wiretapmag.org/contest.html
THE REBIRTH OF MARVIN GAYE
Tai Moses, AlterNet
With the anniversary of his birth (April 2) and death (April 1) upon us, Marvin Gaye is suddenly everywhere, with tribute albums popping up and A-list stars honoring his influence.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12613
ANOTHER BLOODY PASSOVER
Joel Beinin, AlterNet
As Jews around the world celebrate Passover, they should remember that the holiday's universal message of liberation applies to all -- even Palestinians.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12711
IF MURDEROUS MOMS SHOCK US, WHY IGNORE HOMICIDAL DADS?
Julie Ostrowski, Women's Enews
While the case of Andrea Yates became a media feeding frenzy, similar cases of dads murdering their children almost never garner national media attention.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12708
BUSH FINDS HIS VIETNAM
Marc Cooper, LA Weekly
With the Bush White House asking Congress to remove all restrictions on aid to Colombia, the United States is poised on the brink of a decisive slide into endless war.
* In Global Affairs: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=31
AN EASTER PLAGUED BY SCANDAL
Laura Flanders, WorkingForChange.com
There's another shoe about to drop in the Catholic priest molestation scandals, as politicians and taxpayers awaken to their own piece in this ugly picture.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12729
--> Letters: In Defense of Starbucks <--
The president of a fair trade group and a Starbucks spokesperson defend the company's socially responsible record in our Letters to the Editor section.
http://www.alternet.org/letters_ed.html?BulletinID=19
RACIAL PROFILING OR RECKLESS DRIVING?
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet
Some New Jersey state troopers were gleeful at the results of a study that purports to show that blacks are twice as likely as whites to speed down their state's highways.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12712
MAXIM OVERDRIVE
Dan Rubinstein, Vue Weekly
The April issue of ultra-popular men's magazine Maxim pulled off a marketing coup that is so simple it's brilliant, and shows how easily the mainstream media can be manipulated.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12707
--> From DC to Davey D <--
with Host Laura Flanders
Is Louis Rukeyser too old? Is the Pope Catholic? Is Bush "president"? Media types on the stories of the week on Working Assets Radio's Friday media roundtable.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com/alternet/
SOLOMON: 37 REPORTERS KILLED, AND COUNTING
Norman Solomon, AlterNet
Despite serious, even deadly hazards in many parts of the world, a lot of journalists keep setting aside fear to do their jobs with integrity.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12731
FRAMING THE FLAG
Michael Scherer, Columbia Journalism Review
The Media Research Center, a right-wing media thinktank, is rating the patriotic credentials of top broadcast news reporters. And getting a lot of press for it.
* In MediaCulture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
POETS MAY LEAD THE PUBLISHING REVOLUTION
Dennis Loy Johnson, MobyLives
The mega-corporations atop the book industry are learning that bigger isn't always better. Small publishing houses are finding unexpected success, with poetry leading the pack.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12710
FOOD OF THE FUTURE
Jim Slama, Conscious Choice
When regional, fair-trade organic farms can rake in hundreds of millions of dollars for their products, it's obvious that the future of food is sustainable and organic.
* In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18
HUFFINGTON: HOLLYWOOD TO BUSH -- SIGN THE LANDMINE BAN
Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
This week, Tinsel Town has turned the spotlight on the importance of banning landmines, a move that would win foreign friends and save countless lives.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12713
3/29/02
6:25:11 PM
Bush Wants Navajo Ruling Reversed
The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a landmark $600 million trust fund claim won by the Navajo Nation for fear other tribes will file similar challenges.
Charging that "significant" resources are at stake, the Department of Justice this month called on the nation's highest court to throw out an August 2001 ruling made in the tribe's favor. Unless the lower decision is reversed, the Bush administration says the government could face "adverse consequences."
"The decision below will encourage the filing of damages claims against the United States for breach of trust," Solicitor General Ted Olson writes in his March 15 brief. "At a minimum, such a development will subject the United States to costly litigation."
At issue are Navajo tribal leases with Peabody Coal, which has mined Navajo and Hopi lands since the 1960s. All sides in the dispute, including the Department of Interior, agree a 12.5 percent royalty rate contained in the agreements is far below accepted market value for the coal.
But the Bush administration disputes the notion that it has a trust responsibility to ensure better returns. The Navajo Nation cannot point to any specific law which imposes such a higher duty, Olson claims.
In arguing the case in the lower courts, the tribe has countered that underhanded dealings of the Reagan administration show the government has violated its obligations. Specifically, the tribe points out then-Secretary Paul Hodel in 1985 held secret meetings with a Peabody lobbyist, Stanley Hulett, who happened to be a personal friend.
Without knowledge of the discussions, the tribe was subsequently encouraged to work with the company to come to a resolution. Additionally, it was never disclosed that the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved more favorable 37.5 percent rate after a standard internal appeals process.
As a result of the "suppressing and concealing" by government officials, the tribe was forced to accept the lower rate "facing economic pressure," wrote the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision. The appeals panel said a lower court must determine exactly how much the tribe is owed.
A dissenting voice, however, said the tribe could only be awarded limited damages. Unlike Olson, all three judges agreed a trust relationship existed but U.S. District Judge Lawrence M. Baskir said it doesn't "mandate monetary relief."
Coupled with a case involving the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the request for the Supreme Court's intervention represents the Bush administration's attempt clarify what it considers the federal circuit's departure from trust law. The appeals court has issued decisions which could force payouts in addition to the Cobell class action affecting individual Indians.
For the Navajo Nation, the case has represented victory after nearly a decade of litigation, including an initial negative decision by a federal judge. With the presence of former Reagan appointees, including Ross Swimmer and Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, in the current administration, the dispute has gained added fire among tribal officials who have vehemently opposed Secretary Gale Norton's proposal to reorganize Indian trust duties.
The Navajo Nation's attorney will be filing a response, due April 18, to the government's petition for writ of certiorari.
Relevant Documents:
DOJ Brief (March 15, 2002) | NAVAJO NATION v. US, No 00-5086 (Fed Cir. August 10, 2001)
Relevant Links:
The Navajo Nation
Peabody Energy
Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28F.Anti.Navajo.htm
3/29/02
6:24:47 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.29
David Broder | Europe's Anger at U.S. Reaches Boiling Point
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29A.Boiling.Point.htm
Andersen CEO Got Warning On Enron
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29B.Enron.Warning.htm
Arab Delegates Endorse Saudi's Mideast Peace Plan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29C.Peace.Plan.htm
Passover Seder a Scene of Horror
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29D.Horror.Scene.htm
Energy Industry's Recommendations to Bush Became National Policy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29E.Energy.Bush.htm
Federal Government vs The Last American Wild Buffalo Herd | Update 03.28.2002
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29F.BFC.Update.htm
Congresswoman Cynthia A. McKinney | Thoughts On Our War Against Terrorism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29G.McKinney.War.htm
Bush's Crony Capitalism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29H.Bush.Crony.htm
How IBM Helped Automate the Nazi Death Machine in Poland Final Solutions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29I.IBM.Nazi.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
3/29/02
6:24:25 PM
The Nation
"If left-labor-liberal progressives had the cohesion and muscle of their right-wing opposites, they would be articulating a simple-to-understand litmus test for the Democratic Party--no "Enron Democrats" on the presidential ticket in 2004. That precondition would eliminate a number of presidential wannabes now mentioned by the Washington media's Great Mentioner. Scratch Senator Joe Lieberman. Forget the happy talk about Senate majority leader Tom Daschle's running for the White House. And Senator Joe Biden can stop daydreaming. These men--and perhaps some other would-be candidates--do not pass the Enron smell test."
For the rest of William Greider's excoriation of "Enron Democrats," from the April 8, 2002 issue of The Nation, go to:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020408&s=greider
3/29/02
6:23:48 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
NUKE SECURITY: BAR NONE?
Two hours after planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, guards at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania were still struggling to close a gate designed to stop terrorists from entering. Security problems don't stop at the front gate at nuclear plants -- but the evidence suggests that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't have safety foremost on its mind. The commission is considering a measure, backed by industry, that would allow utilities to design, administer, and grade their own security tests. Moreover, it has consistently thwarted efforts by citizens groups to mandate additional security measures, such as reinforced barriers around radioactive materials and contingency plans for attacks by land and air. In the second part of a two-part series on nuclear security, Shelley Smithson takes a look at the NRC's relationship with citizens groups and the nuclear lobby, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Safety dance -- is the U.S. nuclear industry writing its own ticket on security? -- Part II of two-part series, in our Main Dish Section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/smithson032802.asp?source=daily>
FORD: TIGHT TURNING RADIUS
Henry Ford might be proud, but enviros are disappointed: William Clay Ford, Jr., great-grandson of the automobile pioneer, used to be known as the greenest person in the auto industry. But since taking the reins of Ford Motor Company last October, Ford has muted -- and sometimes changed -- his tune. The man who once jokingly called his company's 19-foot-long Excursion the "Ford Valdez" has promoted sport utility vehicles and lobbied against increased fuel-efficiency standards. Still, the company says it will stand by pledges to improve SUV fuel economy, sell hybrid versions of the oversized vehicles, and redesign one of its plants to be more eco-friendly. Environmentalists, however, fear Ford is showing his true stripes and say that so far, the company's record under his leadership is indistinguishable from those of other major automakers.
straight to the source: New York Times, Danny Hakim, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/business/28FORD.html>
only in Grist: Putt-putting green -- the comic adventures of Zed, last of his species <http://www.gristmagazine.com/zed/zed113001.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action and pledge to buy an eco-friendly car <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/autos.asp?source=daily#pledge>
WARM AIR GIVES US COLD HANDS
Relatively minor increases in global temperatures are already dramatically affecting plants and animals, according to an article appearing in the current issue of Nature. The Earth has warmed by just 0.6 degrees in the past century (mostly in the last 30 years), but scientists from Europe, the U.S., and Australia have found serious consequences -- from massive coral deaths to expanded malarial regions. Biologist Eric Post said the team was surprised by "not only the magnitude of response to the slight increase in temperatures ... but also by the incredibly wide diversity of species" affected. In the most comprehensive report to date, the team reviewed almost 100 recent studies and found that nearly ever major habitat zone from the tropics to the polar regions was undergoing systemic changes due to warmer temperatures. Climate change models predict that if greenhouse gas emissions continue apace, average global temperatures will rise anywhere from 1.4 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century.
only in Grist: This just in -- the latest climate change news -- in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/heatbeat/thisjustin030802.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action on climate issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily>
PARROTY, NOT PARODY
In the latest disheartening news about the energy task force, documents released Monday night by the Energy Department show that an executive order on energy policy released by President Bush last May was copied nearly verbatim from the energy policy proposed to the administration by oil lobbyists. On March 20, representatives from the American Petroleum Institute sent the Energy Department an email containing "a suggested executive order" requiring agencies to examine whether environmental regulations would lead to "inordinate complications in energy production and supply." As the May 19 order shows, their wish was Bush's command. Sharon Buccino, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (which identified the similarity between the memo and the order), said, "The oil companies seem to be putting words in our president's mouth."
straight to the source: Washington Post, Dana Milbank, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28281-2002Mar27.html>
YOU GOT TO KNOW WHEN TO HOLD 'EM
Betting comes naturally to Nevadans, but the stakes are high and the odds are poor for a last-ditch effort to keep 77,000 tons of nuclear waste out of a proposed high-level radioactive waste facility in Yucca Mountain. The state's U.S. senators are about to unveil a multi-million dollar media blitz aimed at swaying the votes of key Republican lawmakers -- largely by showing them the potentially uncomfortable consequences to their job security when constituents find out that the nuclear waste will be shipped through their states en route to Nevada. The senators are throwing their weight behind a state-funded campaign to spend up to $10 million to air anti-Yucca television and radio ads, especially in New England states. Some Nevada lawmakers, however, are skeptical that the ads will be enough to stop the Yucca juggernaut.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Miguel Llanos, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/729225.asp>
straight to the source: Las Vegas Sun, Erin Neff and Cy Ryan, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2002/mar/27/513230631.html>
only in Grist: Yucky Mountain -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha030402.asp?source=daily>
3/28/02
5:22:52 PM
Thoughts On Our War Against Terrorism
by Congresswoman Cynthia A. McKinney
Authorities tell us that the world changed on September 11. As a result, university professors must watch what they say in class or be turned in to the "speech" police. Elected officials must censor themselves or be
censured by the media. Citizens now report behavior of suspicious-looking people to the police. Laws now exist that erode our civil liberties. Americans now accept these infringements as necessary to win America's New War.
America, the world's only superpower, is stifled in its ability to defend human rights and democracy abroad because it has failed the fundamental test at home. Our combination of money and military might, and our willingness to use them, did not make us a superpower. We are the most powerful nation on the face of the planet because we have combined raw power with American ideals such as dignity, freedom, justice, and peace. These ideas and ideals are admired around the world and are more important, in my view, to our position of global strength than our ability to shoot a missile down a chimney. We might be feared because of our military, but we are loved because of our ideals.
Sadly, we have put American goodwill at risk around the world because of an imbalance in our foreign policy that is palpable to even the most disinterested observer. In 1994, after an act of terrorism killed two sitting presidents, the Clinton Administration purposely failed to prevent the genocide of one million Rwandans in order to install favorable regimes in the region. In 1999 Madeleine Albright OK'd a Sierra Leone peace plan that positioned Foday Sankoh as Chairman of the Commission for the Management of Strategic Resources, a position that placed him answerable only to the President despite the fact that his terrorist organization raped little girls and chopped off their hands as it financed its way to power with illegal diamond sales. Jonas Savimbi, recently killed on the battlefield, helped the US protect the minority rule of racists in South Africa and his organization continues to rampage across southern Africa in Angola, Namibia, parts of Congo-Kinshasha, and Rwanda without restriction, financed by illegal diamond sales. The continued plunder of Africa's rich resources without penalty and sadly with the knowledge and support of powerful people in the US, serves as the foundation of the particular terrorism that victimizes Africans.
And now, as Africans grapple with the fundamental right to control their own resources and despite United Nations reports making no such links, Bush Administration experts seem prepared to link African diamonds with anti-US terrorism, thus "necessitating" tightened US control over Africa's resources.
And so, with no concern at all for the effects on others of US-supported terrorism, the US, with its bombs and military, embarks on a worldwide crusade against terrorism that Bush says likely will last as many as twenty years. The list of target countries is long with Afghanistan, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, the Philippines, and Iraq offering the starters. But what of the fact that Henry Kissinger and the current new US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, both once lobbied Washington, DC on behalf of a US oil company, Unocal, and a softer policy toward the Taliban?
Whose war is this really?
In November 2000, Republicans stole from America our most precious right of all: the right to free and fair elections. In an organized manner, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State Katherine Harris created a list of convicted felons--57, 700 to be exact--to "scrub" from the state's voter rolls. The names were created from Florida records and from lists provided by 11 other states, the largest list coming from Texas. We now know that most of the people on that list were innocent of crimes. The list was a phony. And worse, the majority of these rightful voters were people of color and likely Democratic voters. Of the thousands who ultimately lost their vote through this scrub of voters, 80% are African-American. Had they voted, the course of history would have changed: Harris declared Bush the victor by only 537 votes. President Carter has said that the Carter Center would not certify the US 2000 Presidential elections had they had been asked to do so.
Consequently, an Administration of questionable legitimacy has been given unprecedented power to fight America's new war against terrorism.
Before September 11, two million Americans found themselves behind bars: 80% of them people of color. Millions of Americans are sleeping on the streets of American cities. All over America, unarmed black men are targeted by rogue police officers, who shoot first and ask questions later. While 52% of all black men feel they have been victims of racial profiling, the Supreme Court declines to hear an important case on racial profiling. The Bush Administration totally "disses" the World Conference Against Racism and the people around the world who care about eliminating racism. In February 2001, The United States Commission on National Security, including Newt Gingrich, recommended that the National Homeland Security Agency be established with a hefty price tag. Most people chuckled at the suggestion.
After September 11, we have OK'd the targeting and profiling of certain groups of people in America while not arresting in any way the racial profiling and discrimination that existed prior to September 11. Mass arrests, detention without charge, military tribunals, and infringements on due process rights are now realities in America. Even more alarming are the calls in some circles to allow the use of torture and other brutal methods in pursuit of "justice." Sadly, US administration of justice will be conducted by an Administration incapable of it. Interestingly, prominent officials explain to us that September 11 happened because we are free. And "they" hate us because we are free.
Moreover, persons close to this Administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war. Former President Bush sits on the board of the Carlyle Group. The Los Angeles Times reports that on a single day last month, Carlyle earned $237 million selling shares in United Defense Industries, the Army's fifth-largest contractor. The stock offering was well timed: Carlyle officials say they decided to take the company public only after the Sept. 11 attacks. The stock sale cashed in on increased congressional support for hefty defense spending, including one of United Defense's cornerstone weapon programs.
Now is the time for our elected officials to be held accountable. Now is the time for the media to be held accountable. Why aren't the hard questions being asked. We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, delivered one such warning. Those engaged in unusual stock trades immediately before September 11 knew enough to make millions of dollars from United and American airlines, certain insurance and brokerage firms' stocks. What did this Administration know, and when did it know it about the events of September 11? Who else knew and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?
September 11 erased the line between "over there" and "over here." The American people can longer afford to be detached from the world, as our actions abroad will have a direct impact on our lives at home. In Washington, DC, decisions affecting home and abroad are made and too many of us leave the responsibility of protecting our freedoms to other people whose interests are not our own. From Durban to Kabul to Atlanta to Washington, what our government does in our name is important. It is now also clear that our future, our security, and our rights depend on our vigilance.
U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney PO Box 371125 DeCatur, GA 30037 USA
124 Cannon Building Washington, DC 20515 USA ph 202 225 1605 fax 202 226 0691
Listen to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney reads her essay/commentary on the "war against terrorism" in an interview with Dennis Bernstein broadcast on Flashpoints on March 25, 2002 -- Go To Minute 30:00
http://www.flashpoints.net/realaudio/fp20020325.ram
3/28/02
2:25:03 PM
We have a hero in the demand for inquiry into 9-11 !!
A Congresswoman from Georgia has begun DEMANDING that the Bush/Bin Laden connection and the bizarre fabrications making up the official story around the 9-11, WTC attacks, be FULLY INVESTIGATED.
She has suffered much hate mail from this, and SHE NEEDS OUR SUPPORT !!
As you all know the vast resources of the Activist Kit have been provided freely. I have personally donated months of hard labor on making this information available to you all, and have expected no return for my efforts, just as you are all volunteering your efforts.
However, now I urge you (no matter what country you are from) to follow my lead in donating to (US)Rep. McKinney TODAY! I ask that everyone who has helped distribute the Activist Kits NO MATTER WHAT COUNTRY, to send a donation to Rep. McKinney. If each of you donated $20 (US) she would have over a $600,000.00 (US) donation (I AM DONATING $150 DOLLARS). However, I am urging all of you to also network this request out to all of your networks, and to post this appeal on all the progressive and activist list serves, discussion groups, indymedia.org, etc. etc. as well. IMAGINE the media attention we can bring to the 9-11 inquiry issue if Rep. McKinney suddenly got a few MILLION in donations because of our gratitude for her courage on DEMANDING INQUIRY into 9-11. Imagine the courage it would give other congresspersons to follow her lead. (if you all donated $20 and sent this appeal out to 20 people, and half of them sent $20, she would receive a donation of $12 million US dollars.)
God bless all of you for your work. The New York Times reported this week the Senate committee voted unanimously to dramatically widen the 9-11 inquiries. This doesn't mean it's a done deal, it could still be glossed over. HOWEVER, with committed people of conscience like Rep. McKinney pushing and pushing behind the committees, WE COULD HAVE A REAL INQUIRY THAT COULD CHANGE THE ENTIRE WORLD FOR THE BETTER.
This is a miracle. Thank you all in advance for opening your hearts to this miracle and working tirelessly to spread this appeal to as many as you can "after" you mail off your own donation.
Here's a courageous person in government who deserves our support for standing up and speaking out: PLEASE SEND DONATIONS AND CARDS OF THANKS TO:
U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney
PO Box 371125
DeCatur, GA 30037 USA
You can contact her Washington D.C. office if you want to verify the above address, or send a thank you note, HOWEVER, DO NOT SEND DONATIONS to her D.C. office. Send donations to the above address of her campaign office.
124 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515 USA
ph 202 225 1605
fax 202 226 0691
Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney reads her essay/commentary on the "war against terrorism" in an interview with Dennis Bernstein broadcast on Flashpoints on 3/25/02 -- http://www.flashpoints.net
[audio at:] http://www.flashpoints.net/realaudio/fp20020325.ram
[go to minute 30:00 ]
Complete text of her (excellent) commentary can be found at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portside/message/2198
3/28/02
2:08:02 PM
Public Citizen
March 28, 2002
Arthritis Drug Should Be Removed From Market
Arava Linked to Liver Complications and Deaths, Public Citizen Tells FDA
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A prescription arthritis drug has been linked to an alarmingly high number of severe liver problems, including deaths, since it came to the market in 1998 and should be taken off the market immediately, the consumer group Public Citizen said today in a petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Arava, also known as leflunomide and produced by Aventis, was first marketed in the United States in September 1998 to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Over the next three years, it was associated with at least 130 cases of severe liver toxicity, including 56 hospitalizations and 12 deaths, according to FDA data. Two of those who died were in their 20s.
"To have this many deaths and severe reactions over such a short time is truly disturbing." said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, which submitted the petition. "When there are other treatments that are more effective and don't endanger patients as much as this drug, there is absolutely no reason for the FDA to keep Arava on the market."
In a comparison between Arava and methotrexate, which is an equally or more effective drug for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Public Citizen found that over the three-year period it has been on the market, Arava was linked to six times more cases of fatal liver toxicity and 13 times more reports of hypertension than methotrexate, although there were 6.8 million (5.5 times) more prescriptions filled for methotrexate than Arava during that time. Additionally, Arava has been associated with 12 cases of the life-threatening autoimmune disease Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, and methotrexate with none.
Another danger of the drug is that it remains in body tissues for an extremely long time. Warnings already on its packaging suggest that byproducts could remain in the body for months, so that even if patients stopped the drug after an adverse reaction started, the damage could continue to affect patients for months.
Public Citizen's petition is supported by Dr. David E. Yocum, director of the Arizona Arthritis Center at Arizona Health Sciences Center, who recently ended a tenure as chair of the FDA's Arthritis Drugs Advisory Committee. Yocum said he agrees that the drug should be withdrawn from the market.
"I do not believe that the general rheumatologist understands or has any knowledge about these serious and potentially life-threatening complications," Yocum said in a letter to Wolfe. "I also agree that providing a black box warning concerning these issues may not be effective since no one can predict who will suffer from these complications."
Yocum has recently reported to the FDA the death of one of his patients from acute liver failure after using Arava.
After similar serious reactions to leflunomide in Europe, the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products issued an urgent warning last year to patients and doctors about the drug's toxicity.
"Before it was approved by the FDA, there was evidence that leflunomide led to liver complications, and now the dangers are even clearer," Wolfe said. "No more patients should be subjected to these risks."
A copy of the petition can be viewed on the Web at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/1614.pdf.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
Fore more information, visit http://www.citizen.org
3/28/02
1:55:42 PM
May 24 is International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament. Get involved by acting for peace on that day.
http://www.ipb.org/women/may24i.htm
3/28/02
1:54:30 PM
Can a fungus out-muscle meat?
by David MacFarlane
America is getting its first taste of Quorn, a meat alternative made from a fungus that uncannily mimics the physical and nutritional properties of the real thing - but with virtually none of the drawbacks.
"In some ways, it's going to be the next soy," says nutritionist and author Susan Mitchell, M.D. "It's an attractive alternative to people who want to eat less meat. And, yes, it tastes good." Quorn is high in protein and fiber, low in cholesterol and saturated fats, and high in mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. According to Marlow Foods, which markets Quorn, a typical serving has two-thirds the fat of a skinless chicken breast, the protein of an egg and the same amount of fiber as a baked potato. Quorn has been a hit in Europe since it was introduced 17 years ago. Marlow, a division of AstraZeneca, says one in five English households eats the products, powering sales of more than $150 million in 2001.
Will it play in the States?
Americans have had to wait until now to try Quorn, because it first had to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. FDA approval, which was granted in December 2001, was required because Quorn is made from mycoprotein, a fungus grown in large vats that is processed and flavored to produce a variety of products. Marlow describes mycoprotein as "an all-natural vegetable protein from the mushroom family," but at least one consumer advocate has taken issue with the description. "Quorn's mycoprotein has nothing to do with mushrooms," says Mark Jacobson, the executive director of Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit watchdog group. "Quorn is a fungus and should be labeled as such." Mitchell says there is merit to Jacobson's assertion, "All mushrooms are funguses but not all funguses are mushrooms," she says. The nomenclature issue does not detract from the evidence to date that the product is nutritious and safe, says Mitchell. "If it's successful it wouldn't surprise me," she says. But most people aren't likely to try it, she says, until "they hear from a friend -- or a friend of a friend -- that this is something they should eat." Marlow hopes to build $50 million in sales by selling Quorn next to such familiar frozen meat-alternatives such as Gardenburger and Boca Burger. By comparison, Americans spent more than $2.7 billion on soy food in 2000, according to Soyatec.
The first line of Quorn products includes ready-to-eat chicken-style nuggets, patties, and cutlets, plus a variety of entrees such as lasagna and fettuccine Alfredo. Quorn also will be available in ingredient form as frozen beef-style grounds and frozen chicken-style tenders. Additional products are planned.
Ferment, spin and separate
Fusarium venenatum, the fungus that produces mycoprotein (literally "fungus protein"), was discovered in the soil west of London in the 1960. European pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca developed mycoprotein into a product, and began selling it through Marlow Foods in 1985 in England. Quorn debuted in Western Europe six years later.
The fungus that produces mycoprotein is grown in large temperature-controlled towers, continuously fermented and fed a steady stream of oxygen, nitrogen, glucose, minerals and vitamins. After harvesting, it is treated to reduce its ribonucleic acid content to World Health Organization recommended levels. It's then placed in a centrifuge, which extracts water from the mixture. The resulting mass is mixed with binders, flavorings and other ingredients. Afterwards, it can be shaped and sized into burgers, sausages and cutlets.
Like soy, Quorn is tasteless before it is flavored, which makes it an enormously versatile ingredient in foods. Where it may surpass soy, say those who have tried Quorn, is in its semblance to real meats. Quorn has a fibrousness that makes the sensory experience of chewing a Quorn chicken cutlet seem remarkably like the real thing.
Source: From: http://www.welljournal.com/n3/a1.htm
3/28/02
1:42:08 PM
Compliant Press Preparing Ground For Attack On Iraq
A compliant press is preparing the ground for an all-out attack on Iraq. It never mentions the victims: the young, the old and the vulnerable.
by John Pilger
The promised attack on Iraq will test free journalism as never before. The prevailing media orthodoxy is that the attack is only a matter of time. "The arguments may already be over," says the Observer, "Bush and Blair have made it clear . . ." The beating of war drums is so familiar that the echo of the last round of media tom-toms is still heard, together with its self-serving "vindication" for having done the dirty work of great power, yet again.
I have been a reporter in too many places where public lies have disguised the culpability for great suffering, from Indochina to southern Africa, East Timor to Iraq, merely to turn the page or switch off the news-as-sermon, and accept that journalism has to be like this -- "waiting outside closed doors to be lied to", as Russell Baker of the New York Times once put it. The honourable exceptions lift the spirits. One piece by Robert Fisk will do that, regardless of his subject. An eyewitness report from Palestine by Peter Beaumont in the Observer remains in the memory, as singular truth, along with Suzanne Goldenberg's brave work for the Guardian.
The pretenders, the voices of Murdochism and especially the liberal ciphers of rampant western power can rightly say that Pravda never published a Fisk. "How do you do it?" asked a Pravda editor, touring the US with other Soviet journalists at the height of the cold war. Having read all the papers and watched the TV, they were astonished to find that all the foreign news and opinions were more or less the same. "In our country, we put people in prison, we tear out their fingernails to achieve this result? What's your secret?"
The secret is the acceptance, often unconscious, of an imperial legacy: the unspoken rule of reporting whole societies in terms of their usefulness to western "interests" and of minimising and obfuscating the culpability of "our" crimes. "What are 'we' to do?" is the unerring media cry when it is rarely asked who "we" are and what "our" true agenda is, based on a history of conquest and violence. Liberal sensibilities may be offended, even shocked by modern imperial double standards, embodied in Blair; but the invisible boundaries of how they are reported are not in dispute. The trail of blood is seldom followed; the connections are not made; "our" criminals, who kill and collude in killing large numbers of human beings at a safe distance, are not named, apart from an occasional token, like Kissinger.
A long series of criminal operations by the American secret state, identified and documented, such as the conspiracy that oversaw the "forgotten" slaughter of up to a million people in Indonesia in 1965-66, amount to more deaths of innocent people than died in the Holocaust. But this is irrelevant to present-day reporting. The tutelage of hundreds of tyrants, murderers and torturers by "our" closest ally, including the training of Islamic jihad fanatics in CIA camps in Virginia and Pakistan, is of no consequence. The harbouring in the United States of more terrorists than probably anywhere on earth, including hijackers of aircraft and boats from Cuba, controllers of El Salvadorean death squads and politicians named by the United Nations as complicit in genocide, is clearly of no interest to those standing in front of the White House and reporting, with a straight face, "America's war on terrorism".
That George Bush Sr, former head of the CIA and president, is by any measure of international law one of the modern era's greatest prima facie war criminals, and his son's illegitimate administration a product of this dynastic mafia, is unmentionable.
The rest of the answer to the incredulous question raised by the Pravda editors in America is censorship by omission. Once vital information illuminates the true aims of the "national security state", the euphemism for the mafia state, it loses media "credibility" and is consigned to the margins, or oblivion. Thus, fake debates can be carried on in the British Sunday newspapers about whether "we" should attack Iraq. The debaters, often proud liberals with an equally proud record of supporting Washington's other invasions, guard the limits.
These "debates" are framed in such a way that Iraq is neither a country nor a community of 22 million human beings, but one man, Saddam Hussein. A picture of the fiendish tyrant almost always dominates the page. ("Should we go to war against this man?" asked last Sunday's Observer). To appreciate the power of this, replace the picture with a photograph of stricken Iraqi infants, and the headline with: "Should we go to war against these children?" Propaganda then becomes truth. Any attack on Iraq will be executed, we can rest assured, in the American way, with saturation cluster bombing and depleted uranium, and the victims will be the young, the old, the vulnerable, like the 5,000 civilians who are now reliably estimated to have been bombed to death in Afghanistan. As for the murderous Saddam Hussein, former friend of Bush Sr and Thatcher, his escape route is almost certainly assured.
The column inches now devoted to Iraq, often featuring unnamed manipulators and liars of the intelligence services, almost always omit one truth. This is the truth of the American - and British-driven embargo on Iraq, now in its 13th year. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly children, have died as a consequence of this medieval siege. The worst, most tendentious journalism has sought to denigrate the scale of this crime, even calling the death of Iraqi infants a mere "statistical construct". The facts are documented in international study after study, from the United Nations to Harvard University. ( For a digest of the facts, see Dr Eric Herring's Bristol University paper "Power, Propaganda and Indifference: an explanation of the continued imposition of economic sanctions on Iraq despite their human cost", available from mailto:eric.herring@bristol.ac.uk )
Among those now debating whether the Iraqi people should be cluster-bombed or not, incinerated or not, you are unlikely to find the names of Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, who have done the most to break through the propaganda. No one knows the potential human cost better than they. As assistant secretary general of the UN, Halliday started the oil-for-food programme in Iraq. Von Sponeck was his successor. Eminent in their field of caring for other human beings, they resigned their long UN careers, calling the embargo "genocide".
Their last appearance in the press was in the Guardian last November, when they wrote: "The most recent report of the UN secretary general, in October 2001, says that the US and UK governments' blocking of $4 billionn of humanitarian supplies is by far the greatest constraint on the implementation of the oil-for-food programme. The report says that, in contrast, the Iraqi government's distribution of humanitarian supplies is fully satisfactory...The death of some 5-6,000 children a month is mostly due to contaminated water, lack of medicines and malnutrition. The US and UK governments' delayed clearance of equipment and materials is responsible for this tragedy, not Baghdad."
They are in no doubt that if Saddam Hussein saw advantage in deliberately denying his people humanitarian supplies, he would do so; but the UN, from the secretary general himself down, says that, while the regime could do more, it has not withheld supplies. Indeed, without Iraq's own rationing and distribution system, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, there would have been famine. Halliday and von Sponeck point out that the US and Britain are able to fend off criticism of sanctions with unsubstantiated stories that the regime is "punishing" its own people. If these stories are true, they say, why does America and Britain further punish them by deliberately withholding humanitarian supplies, such as vaccines, painkillers and cancer diagnostic equipment? This wanton blocking of UN-approved shipments is rarely reported in the British press. The figure is now almost $5bn in humanitarian-related supplies. Once again, the UN executive director of the oil-for-food programme has broken diplomatic silence to express "grave concern at the unprecedented surge in volume of holds placed on contracts [by the US]".
By ignoring or suppressing these facts, together with the scale of a four-year bombing campaign by American and British aircraft (in 1999/2000, according to the Pentagon, the US flew 24,000 "combat missions" over Iraq), journalists have prepared the ground for an all-out attack on Iraq. The official premise for this -- that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction -- has not been questioned. In fact, in 1998, the UN reported that Iraq had complied with 90 per cent of its inspectors' demands. That the UN inspectors were not "expelled", but pulled out after American spies were found among them in preparation for an attack on Iraq, is almost never reported. Since then, the world's most sophisticated surveillance equipment has produced no real evidence that the regime has renewed its capacity to build weapons of mass destruction. "The real goal of attacking Iraq now," says Eric Herring, "is to replace Saddam Hussein with another compliant thug."
The attempts by journalists in the US and Britain, acting as channels for American intelligence, to connect Iraq to 11 September have also failed. The "Iraq connection" with anthrax has been shown to be rubbish; the culprit is almost certainly American. The rumour that an Iraqi intelligence official met Mohammed Atta, the 11 September hijacker, in Prague was exposed by Czech police as false. Yet press "investigations" that hint, beckon, erect a straw man or two, then draw back, while giving the reader the overall impression that Iraq requires a pasting, have become a kind of currency. One reporter added his "personal view" that "the use of force is both right and sensible". Will he be there when the clusters spray their bomblets?
Those who dare speak against this propaganda are abused as apologists for the tyrant. Two years ago, on a now infamous Newsnight, the precocious apostate Peter Hain was allowed to smear Denis Halliday, a man whose integrity is internationally renowned. Although dissent has broken through recently, especially in the Guardian, to its credit, that low point in British broadcasting set the tone. If the media pages did their job, they would set aside promoting the careers of media managers and challenge the orthodoxy of reporting a fraudulent "war on terrorism"; they owe that, at least, to aspiring young journalists. I recommend a new website edited by the writer David Edwards, whose factual, inquiring analysis of the reporting of Iraq, Afghanistan and other issues has already drawn the kind of defensive spleen that shows how unused to challenge and accountability much of journalism, especially that calling itself liberal, has become.
The webaddress is http://www.medialens.org
It is time that three urgent issues became front-page news. The first is restraining Bush and his collaborator Blair from killing large numbers of people in Iraq. The second is an arms and military technology embargo applied throughout the Gulf and the Middle East; an embargo on both Iraq and Israel. The third is the ending of "our" siege of a people held hostage to cynical events over which they have no control.
Source: http://pilger.carlton.com/print/100275
3/28/02
1:29:03 PM
Disclosure Project Update - Message from the Director - March 26th 2002
Dear Friend and Supporter of the Disclosure Project,
Since 9/11, much has been said and written about US National Security and world peace, and the various threats to both.
Missing from this analysis is a frank discussion about illegal, so - called 'black' projects that escape constitutionally required oversight of the Congress and the President.
As the senior counsel for the Senate Appropriations Committee told me in 1994, the varsity team of illegal black projects - projects that he could not penetrate with a subpoena or a top-secret clearance- deal with the UFO subject.
The reasons such operations are a threat to the national security are not obvious at first glance. Indeed, the entire subject is generally brushed aside as irrelevant, silly and fringe. Or so those controlling such projects would like our policy-makers to believe. The reality is quite different: Tens of billions of dollars are siphoned off illegally into black projects and corporate special programs that impoverish conventional military and intelligence operations. Operational readiness, as it is called, has been eroded for years by the extravagant and wasteful spending in unsupervised and illegal black projects dealing with UFOs, Extraterrestrial - connected projects and advanced energy and propulsion research related thereto.
Back in 1994, this senior official with the Senate Appropriations Committee admitted that, conservatively, such black, illegal projects were in the $40 billion to $80 billion range annually! God only knows what they are today - maybe double that.
This means that conventional reconnaissance, interception, security screening, intelligence analysis, border security, etc, have been robbed for years by such large sums being illegally shunted into these illegal operations. As we discovered on 9/11, the cost has been unacceptably high.
But all of this is the least of the problem. The real threat of such projects arises from the unseen consequences of illegal secrecy: The ruthless suppression of energy, propulsion and other technologies that could have replaced fossil fuels, oil, coal, public utilities and the like many decades ago. The result is the world we have: environmentally ravaged, increasing poverty that destabilizes societies and breeds resentment and an avoidable, tragic growing hatred of the West.
We can and must do better.
The Disclosure Project is dedicated to bringing forward the information, government insider testimony, government documents and related evidence that will focus world attention on this overlooked matter.
We have also formed a company to identify, test, prove and build so-called over-unity energy generation systems and disclose these to the public so that the people can choose to move away from global destruction and embrace a sustainable future. This company, Space Energy Access Systems, Inc., or SEAS http://www.SEASPower.com is already working to practically solve these problems. (If you or someone you know has such a technology and wants help in bringing it quickly to the public, please contact us at the above website address.)
We, the people, should not wait another moment for the government to solve these problems. Big Brother is too slow and hidebound on these issues for us to passively wait for action from those quarters. It is clear that we must act to bring clarity to the real threats facing the world and to promulgate the solutions.
Will you join us?
Steven M. Greer MD
Director, The Disclosure Project
3/28/02
1:24:27 PM
Lead Company Agrees To Buy Homes
March 22, 2002
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The owner of the nation's largest lead smelter will offer buyouts to about 160 homeowners in the small town of Herculaneum, where tests show many children have elevated levels of lead in their blood.
The agreement with the Doe Run Co., reached Thursday with state officials, adds to the government-mandated cleanup already under way in the town south of St. Louis, where the company's smelter is the major employer.
It's the largest home buyout in the state forced by environmental contamination since the Environmental Protection Agency closed down the nearby town of Times Beach in 1982 because of dioxin contamination.
"There is still a long way to go in Herculaneum," Gov. Bob Holden said Friday. "However, yesterday we took a huge step forward."
The agreement requires Doe Run to immediately offer to buy the homes of residents with children under age 6 who live nearest the smelter and slag pile. The company, over the next 2 1/2 years, also will offer buyouts to all residents within a slightly wider area.
The state Department of Health and Senior Services released a study last month that found elevated lead levels in the blood of 28 percent of all Herculaneum children.
A follow-up report released Tuesday showed that more than half the children living within a half-mile of the smelter have elevated levels of lead in their blood, which can affect intelligence and cause other health problems.
The company will meet with residents to discuss the buyout; a date for the meeting has not been set.
"I'm glad they thought enough of the children to get them out of this mess," said Dennis Shore, who lives about two blocks from the smelter, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A recent blood test showed his 3-year-old granddaughter, Madison, had lead levels nearly twice the federal standard for lead poisoning.
Unlike at Times Beach, which was erased from the map during a 15-year effort to eradicate dioxin pollution, the state did not want to shut down the smelter, or close down Herculaneum and force all of its 2,800 residents to move.
"Movement of the children immediately and some sort of structure to move people away from the smelter was our intention," said Mike Hartmann, the governor's chief of staff.
Located a few miles from Herculaneum along the Mississippi River, Times Beach was contaminated in the 1970s from dioxin-laced waste oil sprayed on the town's dirt streets to keep dust down.
The government eventually spent $118 million to buy out the town's 2,300 residents and clean dioxin-contaminated soil and debris from Times Beach and 26 other eastern Missouri sites.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Herculaneum-Lead.html?todaysheadlines
3/28/02
1:22:09 PM
"What we need now to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war; something heroic that will speak to man as universally as war does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved to be incompatible."
William James from "The Variety of Religious Experience", 1902
3/28/02
1:12:56 PM
Jet Could Wreck TMI, NRC Admits
Designers didn't anticipate size, speed of today's planes
by Brett Lieberman, Of Our Washington Bureau, Thursday, March 28, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Government regulators have acknowledged for the first time that neither Three Mile Island nor any of the nation's other 102 operating nuclear reactors could withstand the impact of an airliner the size of those that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Industry representatives and federal government officials downplayed the threat in days after the Sept. 11 attacks, insisting that nuclear containment buildings are "robust" and capable of withstanding explosions and natural disasters.
In newly released documents, however, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission concedes that even an accidental airplane crash was not factored into the designs of 96 percent of U.S. nuclear plants. At those plants where the threat was considered, design changes were aimed at smaller airplanes traveling at slower speeds.
"When the plants were designed, large aircrafts that are presently used were not in use," NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner said.
The agency also acknowledged that critical systems that provide cooling, electricity and storage of spent fuel are mostly in nonhardened buildings that could not withstand an aircraft or missile attack.
The revelations were included in a report made available by U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., based on responses to his queries from NRC Chairman Richard A. Meserve. Markey, a frequent critic of the NRC, said the agency's acknowledgment shows additional steps must be taken to improve nuclear plant safety.
The "NRC has admitted that even an aircraft impact at the auxiliary electrical or cooling facilities could trigger a core meltdown at a nuclear reactor, and yet the NRC refuses to upgrade security, refuses to install anti-aircraft weaponry, refuses to ensure that security at decommissioned reactors is maintained, and refuses to ensure that foreign nationals employed at the reactors undergo security background checks," he said.
Yesterday, the agency maintained that reactors remain difficult targets although it has not evaluated the effects of a plane crash.
"Even though they were not designed to withstand aircraft crashes, they are extremely rugged structures," Gagner said.
While many nuclear plants, including those in Pennsylvania, have had additional protection from National Guard troops and state police since Sept. 11, the NRC has rejected the idea of deploying anti-aircraft weapons.
When most plants were built in the 1960s and 1970s, the NRC and plant owners never contemplated that a large airliner would intentionally be crashed into a nuclear plant. Consideration of an airplane crash was limited to accidents.
Fifty-five of the nation's 60 nuclear plants lie within 15 miles of public airports. Most are small airports, carrying fewer than 100,000 departing passengers a year, according to NRC and FAA data.
Nine operating plants, including TMI, are near airports that serve more than 100,000 passengers. Other airports near nuclear plants include international airports in Charlotte, N.C., and near Pittsburgh.
Three Mile Island in Londonderry Twp., three miles from Harrisburg International Airport, is the only nuclear power plant "constructed with special design features to protect vital areas from crash impact and fire effects," the new documents state.
However, those features -- reinforcement of outer walls, thickening of concrete sections, special fire protection and ventilation -- would likely be inadequate, according to the NRC.
TMI -- which was hit by the nation's worst nuclear accident 23 years ago today, on March 28, 1979 -- was designed to withstand the impact of 200,000 pounds at 230 mph. A Boeing 757 or 767 such as those used in the New York and Washington attacks on Sept. 11 weighs 272,500 to 450,000 pounds. The planes used in those attacks traveled at speeds of 350 mph to 537 mph when they struck. TMI was not built to withstand the impact of a larger airplane because "the probability of an on-site crash was sufficiently low," the NRC stated.
Two other plants -- the Limerick nuclear plant near Pottstown and Seabrook plant in Portsmouth, N.H., -- incorporated more modest features to help them withstand the impact of an airplane weighing up to 12,500 pounds.
"With respect to the remaining sites, the probability of an aircraft impact was either estimated or judged by inspection to be sufficiently low such that the event need not be considered in the design basis," NRC documents state.
David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said it would be difficult to retrofit existing plants, but new safety features should be incorporated in the next generation of plants.
"The plants are what they are," said Lochbaum. "It's too late to go back and install 6 more feet of concrete."
Brett Lieberman may be reached at 202 383.7833
mailto:blieberman@patriot-news.com
3/28/02
1:03:16 PM
"Governments arise either out of the people or over the people."
Thomas Paine, "The Rights of Man", 1791
Ridge Offers Compromise on Testimony Before Congress
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, March 25 -- Seeking to defuse a growing confrontation with Congress, Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, has softened his refusal to testify before senators about domestic security efforts, offering to take questions from lawmakers informally but in public.
The proposal by Mr. Ridge, made in a letter hand-delivered today to Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, stopped just short of offering formal testimony, a Congressional official said.
"I believe it will meet your needs," the letter said of the proposal, "and avoid the setting of a precedent that could undermine the constitutional separation of powers and the longstanding traditions and practices of both Congress and the executive branch."
The offer would give lawmakers the opportunity to question Mr. Ridge but still allow the White House to argue that it was maintaining the separation of powers and that an adviser to the president is not subject to Congressional oversight.
The Bush administration and lawmakers have sparred over Mr. Ridge's role and his relationship to Congress for almost a month, ever since the administration said he would not appear before Mr. Byrd's committee or others because he was an adviser to the president, not a cabinet officer. Mr. Byrd and the ranking Republican on the committee, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, had jointly asked Mr. Ridge to testify on the president's request for $38 billion for security as the committee begins work on the annual spending bills needed to run the government.
The confrontation escalated a few days later when Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the majority leader, called Mr. Ridge's refusal to appear "untenable and inexcusable," and raised the possibility that the Senate would subpoena him.
Mr. Ridge is responsible for coordinating the government response to domestic security in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mr. Daschle said this role was too important to the nation for him not to appear before Congress.
President Bush, however, insisted that Mr. Ridge did not have to testify.
"He's a part of my staff," the president said at a news conference. "And that's part of the prerogative of the executive branch of government, and we hold that very dear."
In a search for compromise, Mr. Ridge at first offered to brief lawmakers in private, but Democrats said that would not suffice.
Under his new offer, he would appear informally before House and Senate members next month along with other members of the executive branch.
It was not clear today whether this offer would prove acceptable. Mr. Byrd was noncommittal, noting that after being rebuffed in the effort to obtain the testimony, he and Mr. Stevens had asked to meet with the president about Mr. Ridge. They are still waiting, Mr. Byrd said, to hear from Mr. Bush personally.
"I remain hopeful that the president will respond favorably and directly to Senator Stevens and me," he said.
Tom Gavin, the senator's spokesman, said that Mr. Byrd wanted time to consider Mr. Ridge's offer and its implications for the balance of powers between the institutions, and that the senator could still have some concerns.
Ranit Schmelzer, a spokeswoman for Mr. Daschle, said the majority leader would wait for Mr. Byrd's response.
The dispute stems in part from Mr. Bush's decision to create an Office of Homeland Security inside the White House rather than as a separate cabinet agency run by an official confirmed by the Senate. The president and Mr. Ridge have repeatedly said that because Mr. Ridge is close to Mr. Bush, he will have enough power to be effective and does not need a separate agency or his own budget powers.
The question of public testimony aside, Mr. Ridge has often met privately with lawmakers to discuss his domestic security initiatives. Just last week he visited several Congressional offices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/26/politics/26RIDG.html?todaysheadlines
3/28/02
1:00:01 PM
Memorial Trees Honor Terrorism Victims
NEW YORK, New York, March 26, 2002 (ENS) - A row of trees will be planted in New York's Calvary Cemetery will help memorialize the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
With lifespans measured in centuries, trees serve as a fitting tribute to the victims, says the National Tree Trust. The Trust will partner with Calvary Cemetery, located in Queens, and the Champion Tree Project to establish the Memorial Treeway of Champion Trees. Eleven of the people killed in the attack on the World Trade Center - seven of whom were firefighters - were buried at Calvary.
"Trees are a fitting tribute to the men and women, fathers and mothers, heroes and friends who died last fall," said National Tree Trust president Richard Keefe. "Nature provides a constant life cycle that reassures us and offers a sense of peace."
One dozen clones of the nation's champion trees will be planted on a hill overlooking the New York City skyline. Champion trees are the largest, and often the oldest living individual examples of their species.
The Champion Tree Project, with support from the National Tree Trust, is propagating clones - genetic duplicates - of these old growth forest giants. The trees planted at Calvary Cemetery are the duplicates of America's champion red and green ash trees, which are more than 300 years old.
"This Memorial Treeway continues a tree planting initiative we began last year at this historic cemetery," explained David Milarch, a Michigan tree farmer, who, along with his son, Jared, created the Champion Tree Project. "We hope the spirit of those taken from us September 11 will thrive for ages to come in the living legacy of these champion trees."
Families of the World Trade Center victims interred at Calvary Cemetery, along with New York City firefighters, local, state and national officials, will attend a ceremony on April 1 to establish the Memorial Treeway.
Source: http://www.nationaltreetrust.org/about/memorialtreeway.htm
3/27/02
8:32:58 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.28
Suicide Bombing | 15 Die in Israel on Passover
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28A.15.Killed.htm
Saudi, in Emotional Plea to Israel, Offers 'Land for Peace' Proposal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28B.Saudi.Plea.htm
Bush Quietly Signs CFR | NRA Mounts Immediate Assault
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28C.NRA.Assault.htm
Army Secretary White in Letter to Waxman Admits More Extensive Enron Contact than Previously Stated
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28D.White.Waxman.htm
Bush Administration Orders New Generation Nuclear Weapons
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28E.Nuclear.Weapons.htm
Bush Wants Navajo Ruling Reversed
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28F.Anti.Navajo.htm
U.S. Court Upholds Pollution Standards
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28G.Court.Upholds.htm
Fleet, 2 Other Firms Sued Over Slavery
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28H.Firms.Sued.htm
TO Feature | Full Video Presentation - Dennis Kucinich's "Prayer for America"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28I.Kucinich.Prayer.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
3/27/02
7:56:59 PM
The Nation
David Corn's Nation web feature, Capital Games, takes on the day-by-day political and policy battles under way in the Capitol, the White House, the think tanks, and the television studios.
Don't miss the last four installments:
CAPITAL | A Not-So-Bad Bush Doctrine?
by DAVID CORN - If hope is "one answer to terror," the US must work to expand hope in faraway lands. Bush has assumed a greater burden than trouncing Al Qaeda.
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=39
CAPITAL | Is Enron Over?
by DAVID CORN - Is Enron a live political scandal? It's largely up to Joe Lieberman to decide that question.
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=34
CAPITAL | W.'s Corporate-Improvement Plan
by DAVID CORN - When Bush was in the private sector, he violated principles he now champions as part of his Enron-inoculation campaign.
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=30
CAPITAL | Bush's New Nuclear Plan
by DAVID CORN - The White House has once again shaken the international community, this time with its new Nuclear Posture Review.
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=27
And check out The Nation's site for new reporting on Enron Democrats, ethics, the Middle East and much more. All available at:
Finally, don't miss a special Nation forum from last year featuring five African-American filmakers. Sunday's historic Oscar wins by Halle Berry and Denzel Washington suggest a fertile moment for blacks in film. These filmakers explore the idea of "progress" in contemporary Black cinema in a free-wheeling discussion moderated by critic Gene Seymour.
Currently available at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010402&s=forum
3/27/02
7:55:20 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
US FERC OKs Duke Energy unit's natgas pipeline - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15240/story.htm
UPDATE - Duke wins initial OK for natgas pipeline in Virginia - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15234/story.htm
Illinois, Oklahoma get US biomass energy trials - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15237/story.htm
Corn lobbyist to lead USDA land, water stewardship - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15238/story.htm
Shell to build LNG terminal in Mexico by 2006 - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15239/story.htm
After hormone-fueled play, US pandas stay apart - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15247/story.htm
UPDATE - Bush threatened with court fight on energy report - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15245/story.htm
Reward offered to catch Colorado wild horse killer - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15246/story.htm
Elephant grass seen as a UK fuel of the future - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15235/story.htm
UPDATE - UK nuke watchdog weighs implications of US find - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15236/story.htm
Global warming hits species all over world - study - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15233/story.htm
UN scientists say El Nino return more likely - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15248/story.htm
Uranium toxins found in Serbia - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15250/story.htm
Japan gets gift of horny heavyweights - NEPAL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15243/story.htm
UPDATE - India allows sowing of three gene cotton hybrids - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15241/story.htm
China briefing on GMO rules perplexes traders - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15242/story.htm
Australia produces cloned, GM dairy calves - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15244/story.htm
Anti-shark units for swimmers launched - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15249/story.htm
3/27/02
6:47:41 PM
FAIR
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
THE APRIL 2002 ISSUE OF EXTRA! IS NOW AVAILABLE
Featured articles include:
FEAR & FAVOR 2001 FAIR's second annual report on how power shapes the news
http://www.fair.org/reports/ff2001.html
and
THINK TANKS IN A TIME OF CRISIS FAIR's 2001 survey of the media's institutional experts
http://www.fair.org/extra/0203/think_tanks.html
Also in the current issue, available only to subscribers:
*NOAM CHOMSKY: The Journalist From Mars: How the "war on terror" should be reported
*Minimizing the Enron Fallout: It's an apolitical, bipartisan scandal that no one understands
*The Return of Recession "Happy Talk" Interview with Left Business Observer's Doug Henwood
*Take No Prisoners: U.S. reporters failed to probe Pentagon's "unlawful combatants" label
*Bias Short on Substance: Former CBS reporter claims TV has "leftward" slant
Every Extra! also includes cartoons by Tom Tomorrow and others, and much more.
Extra!, FAIR's bimonthly magazine of hard-hitting, well-documented media criticism, tackles the same type of issues as this email list, but in greater depth and detail. With every new issue, we make two featured articles available online free of charge. But because subscriptions to Extra! are a big part of what keeps FAIR going-- helping us provide free services like the action alerts on this list-- the only way we can give you access to the full magazine is if you subscribe.
$21 per year gets you six issues of Extra!, plus 6 issues of our newsletter, Extra! Update. Sign up online:
http://www.fair.org/extra/subscribe.html
This email list has a lot of new members-- 3,000 people have signed up since the beginning of the year, for a total of nearly 26,000-- so we want to make sure that you're aware the wide range of work that an Extra! subscription supports.
FAIR is a non-profit media watch group; we've been monitoring national news for bias and inaccuracy since 1986. Central to our work are ongoing campaigns to raise awareness of how consolidated corporate control of the press damages democracy. This entails a lot of behind-the-scenes work, including outreach to both mainstream journalists and fellow-activists. In the last few months alone, we've gotten our message into mainstream outlets like NBC Nightly News, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Associated Press.
FAIR also produces CounterSpin, a weekly radio show on more than 130 stations around the country-- and now in Sweden, too! (Find the station nearest you or listen online at:
http://www.fair.org/counterspin/index.html
And, of course, there's Extra! itself. Please subscribe today. For just $21, you'll get a year's worth of first rate media criticism delivered to your door, and help sustain FAIR:
http://www.fair.org/extra/subscribe.html
You can also subscribe via phone-- just call (800) 847-3993.
From everyone here at FAIR,
Thank you.
P.S. Also available-- "Don't Trust the Corporate Media" t-shirts:
http://www.merchantamerica.com/fair/index.php?ba=view_category&category=535
3/27/02
6:43:54 PM
More PBS: Church-state battle over the homeless in New York City
On Easter Sunday, PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly will feature a special segment on Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Fifth Avenue Church filed suit in federal court last fall after the City of New York ruled that the church could not continue allowing homeless people to sleep on its steps. A judge sided with the church, but the city appealed, and the case is pending before the Circuit Court of Appeals. For air times in your area, check your local TV listings for Religion and Ethics Newsweekly or go to:
http://www.pbs.org/whatson/index.html
3/27/02
6:42:09 PM
PBS to air documentary on the nonviolent overthrow of Milosevic
From the folks who brought us "A Force More Powerful" - the brilliant history of nonviolence in the 20th century - comes "Bringing Down A Dictator," premiering March 31 on PBS. This one-hour film documents the spectacular defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, not by force of arms as many had predicted, but by an ingenious nonviolent strategy of honest elections and massive civil disobedience. Milosevic was strengthened by patriotic fervor when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in early 1999, but a few months later, a student movement named Otpor! ("Resistance" in Serbian) launched a surprising offensive. Audaciously demanding the removal of Milosevic, they recruited where discontent was strongest, in the Serbian heartland. Their weapons were rock concerts and ridicule, e-mail, spray- painted slogans, and a willingness to be arrested.
To read about Otpor's nonviolent revolution, go to:
http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/index.htm
To find out when the documentary will be shown on your local PBS channel, go to:
http://www.pbs.org/whatson/index.html
3/27/02
6:37:29 PM
Antidote to the Oscars
For the worst of last year's cinema, check out The Stinkers site. Make sure you also check out "100 Years, 100 Stinkers: The Worst Films of the 20th Century."
3/27/02
6:33:44 PM
Bush and Sharon: America's morality has been distorted
by Robert Fisk
Maybe the Bush administration actually believes that the man held "personally responsible" by an Israeli commission of inquiry for the murder of 1,700 Palestinian civilians in Beirut in 1982 really is fighting America's "war on terror." Maybe America's moral compass has become so skewed by the crimes against humanity on 11 September that President Bush simply no longer cares what Mr. Sharon does.
To read more, go to:
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=271647
3/27/02
6:32:36 PM
Sensationalizing worldwide Muslim hatred for the U.S.
Finally, or so the world thought, a definitive answer to the question that has haunted Americans since Sept. 11: How much do Muslims abroad really hate the U.S.?
Quite a bit, according to surveys in nine predominantly Muslim countries by the Gallup Organization, whose findings were first reported last month by CNN and USA Today and subsequently by news organization around the world.
The polling watchdogs were most critical of the numbers purporting to represent the overall opinion of Muslims surveyed, such as the finding that 53 percent of all Muslims had an unfavorable view of the United States.
While too few countries were sampled, too many interviews came from just two countries. A total of 9,924 adults were interviewed, but "two-thirds of the Muslims in the nine countries Gallup studied live in Indonesia and Pakistan," according to the National Council on Public Polls.
None of this should suggest that the conclusions would have been dramatically different if only the country-by- country figures had been used. But read on to find out how CNN, USA Today, and other major news organizations sensationalize questionable numbers. Go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5708-2002Mar22.html
3/27/02
6:31:06 PM
The hill is alive, with the sound of Ashcroft
You thought that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was only good at generating controversy by restricting civil rights and promoting the death penalty. Turns out he can also sing. Sort of. Lately he's been writing and performing patriotic songs to lift the spirits of a traumatized nation. It is unclear whether his performances will give us something we can all have a good laugh about, or merely add to our trauma. Experience the magic at:
http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html
3/27/02
6:29:39 PM
Is the country ready for a new debate on poverty?
by Jim Wallis
Call to Renewal had a very bipartisan conversation this week. A strong delegation of faith-based organization leaders spent Tuesday at the White House and on Capitol Hill, talking with Republicans and Democrats about poverty. Our immediate discussion was about the crucial political debate shaping up on the re-authorization of welfare reform, which will greatly impact millions of low-income children and families. The deadline is October 1 for Congress to pass legislation renewing TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the program that replaced the decades-old welfare programs swept away in the historic 1996 welfare reform legislation. The debate is just beginning but it promises to be hot and heavy.
What's clear is that there are Republicans who really do care about the poor, Democrats who really don't and, of course, vice versa. What's also clear is that the political debate over poverty in Washington is still stuck in old language, historical baggage, and partisan warfare. What's "liberal" or "conservative," or what might tip the upcoming mid-term elections one way or the other weighs very heavily in the political decision-making that will affect the lives of our poorest citizens. One key senate staff member expressed a longing for new criteria in the debate on poverty - perhaps "what's right and what works."
An ideological cleavage still separates those who see policy and funding issues at the heart of reducing poverty from others who point to the deep cultural roots in family breakdown, sexual behavior, or personal responsibility. I'm always amazed at how politicians can make such false choices between these very real causalities, while practitioners who actually live and work with poor people just shake their heads as they hear such an impoverished and futile debate. For example, in the upcoming welfare debate we face a battle between those who are "pro-funding" in welfare re-authorization and those who are "pro-family." Of course, Call to Renewal and all the faith-based leaders around our table on Tuesday are decidedly both.
When debates are framed wrongly, they almost inevitably turn out badly. That happens all the time on Capitol Hill. In the welfare debate, focusing on simply reducing welfare rolls instead of reducing poverty is still the major problem. Most people involved in anti-poverty efforts would agree now that helping low-income people find "self-sufficiency" is far preferable to a system of endless subsidy. But what are the best ways to support people in moving from subsidy to sustenance? And if work is the best way out of poverty (as most of us now agree), how do we make work really work in America? What do people need in support for child care, in real education and training, in securing health care or affordable housing?
The TANF re-authorization debate could become a national discussion about how to overcome poverty in America. In fact, the debate doesn't make any sense apart from the goal of poverty reduction. Let's state our goal clearly and unanimously - welfare reform should be judged by how much we are actually reducing poverty. Then let's have the most honest debate we've ever had about how to do that.
As I travel around the country and listen to people across the political spectrum, I often sense that the country may be ready for a new debate on poverty that puts the old liberal and conservative labels aside. But I also live in Washington, where the political elites in both parties are clearly not ready for a new discussion. Maybe it's time to help them.
You can start by coming to Washington on May 20-22 for Call to Renewal's Pentecost Mobilization for the poor. We'll help you tell your political representatives how you think we ought to change the debate.
Check out the program and details on the Call Web site:
Then come and help change the debate on poverty in America.
3/27/02
6:29:35 PM
Is the country ready for a new debate on poverty?
by Jim Wallis
Call to Renewal had a very bipartisan conversation this week. A strong delegation of faith-based organization leaders spent Tuesday at the White House and on Capitol Hill, talking with Republicans and Democrats about poverty. Our immediate discussion was about the crucial political debate shaping up on the re-authorization of welfare reform, which will greatly impact millions of low-income children and families. The deadline is October 1 for Congress to pass legislation renewing TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the program that replaced the decades-old welfare programs swept away in the historic 1996 welfare reform legislation. The debate is just beginning but it promises to be hot and heavy.
What's clear is that there are Republicans who really do care about the poor, Democrats who really don't and, of course, vice versa. What's also clear is that the political debate over poverty in Washington is still stuck in old language, historical baggage, and partisan warfare. What's "liberal" or "conservative," or what might tip the upcoming mid-term elections one way or the other weighs very heavily in the political decision-making that will affect the lives of our poorest citizens. One key senate staff member expressed a longing for new criteria in the debate on poverty - perhaps "what's right and what works."
An ideological cleavage still separates those who see policy and funding issues at the heart of reducing poverty from others who point to the deep cultural roots in family breakdown, sexual behavior, or personal responsibility. I'm always amazed at how politicians can make such false choices between these very real causalities, while practitioners who actually live and work with poor people just shake their heads as they hear such an impoverished and futile debate. For example, in the upcoming welfare debate we face a battle between those who are "pro-funding" in welfare re-authorization and those who are "pro-family." Of course, Call to Renewal and all the faith-based leaders around our table on Tuesday are decidedly both.
When debates are framed wrongly, they almost inevitably turn out badly. That happens all the time on Capitol Hill. In the welfare debate, focusing on simply reducing welfare rolls instead of reducing poverty is still the major problem. Most people involved in anti-poverty efforts would agree now that helping low-income people find "self-sufficiency" is far preferable to a system of endless subsidy. But what are the best ways to support people in moving from subsidy to sustenance? And if work is the best way out of poverty (as most of us now agree), how do we make work really work in America? What do people need in support for child care, in real education and training, in securing health care or affordable housing?
The TANF re-authorization debate could become a national discussion about how to overcome poverty in America. In fact, the debate doesn't make any sense apart from the goal of poverty reduction. Let's state our goal clearly and unanimously - welfare reform should be judged by how much we are actually reducing poverty. Then let's have the most honest debate we've ever had about how to do that.
As I travel around the country and listen to people across the political spectrum, I often sense that the country may be ready for a new debate on poverty that puts the old liberal and conservative labels aside. But I also live in Washington, where the political elites in both parties are clearly not ready for a new discussion. Maybe it's time to help them.
You can start by coming to Washington on May 20-22 for Call to Renewal's Pentecost Mobilization for the poor. We'll help you tell your political representatives how you think we ought to change the debate.
Check out the program and details on the Call Web site:
Then come and help change the debate on poverty in America.
3/27/02
6:27:16 PM
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
3/27/02
6:05:02 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
COTTON BAWLS
In a blow to opponents of genetically modified crops worldwide, India approved commercial production of some GM versions of cotton yesterday. Up till now, the country, the world's third largest producer of cotton, allowed only a few field trials of genetically engineered crops. But times are changing. In recent years, Monsanto bought several of the country's largest seed companies and lobbied the Indian government to okay commercial use of GM crops. Proponents of GM cotton say it cuts in half the amount of insecticides needed to control pests and increases yields by up to 30 percent. Environmentalists, advocates for small farmers, and many academics, however, discouraged the country from approving the technology, arguing that not enough was known about its environmental implications. Opponents also fear that purchasing GM seeds could push family farmers even deeper into debt and eventually off the land.
straight to the source: London Guardian, John Vidal, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,674661,00.html>
straight to the source: Times of India, 26 Mar 2002 <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=4972134&sType=1>
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Naveen Thukral, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15221/story.htm>
do good: Take action on GM food issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/food.asp?source=daily>
SLIM VICTORY FOR WHITMAN
The U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the Clinton administration's clean air standards for ozone and particulate pollution, ending a five-year campaign by industry groups to have the standards overturned. To the chagrin of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Trucking Associations, and others, the court ruled that the U.S. EPA did not exceed its authority in setting the standards and that the standards were neither arbitrary nor unreasonable. The Bush administration said it would develop a proposal by this summer to implement the standards. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, seemingly alluding to occasions when the administration has been, shall we say, less supportive of tough environmental protections, said, "This was one we vigorously defended." The EPA says the standards will prevent 15,000 premature deaths, 350,000 cases of asthma, and 1 million cases of decreased lung function in children.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Eric Lichtblau, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000022143mar27.story>
straight to the source: Washington Post, Neely Tucker and Michael Grunwald, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21938-2002Mar26.html>
do good: Take action to preserve the Clean Air Act <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/air.asp?source=daily#grandfather>
HOLY TOLEDO!
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered the operators of nearly 70 nuclear power plants to report back by Friday on whether the reactors at their facilities are safe to keep in operation. The order came after regulators discovered that acid in cooling water had almost burned through a six-inch lid on a reactor in Ohio. At the Davis-Besse nuclear power station, a 25-year-old plant near Toledo, only a 3/8-inch-thick stainless-steel liner was left to hold back cooling water that was under more than 2,200 pounds of pressure per square inch. If the liner had given way, thousands of gallons of slightly radioactive water would have been released. The NRC says safety systems would have kicked in and cooled the reactor. But anti-nuclear activists say the problem could have escalated into a core meltdown. Of the country's 104 nuclear reactors, 68 others are of the same design as the one outside Toledo. Corrosion "was never considered a credible type of concern" prior to the latest development, according to the NRC's Brian Sheron.
straight to the source: New York Times, Matthew L. Wald, 26 Mar 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/26/national/26NUKE.html>
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 26 Mar 2002 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/729694.asp>
do good: Take action to stop the use of nuclear power in the U.S. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/toxic.asp?source=daily#nuclear>
ODD JOBS
Could the Sept. 11 hijackers have gotten jobs at nuclear power plants? Under the current rules governing nuclear safety, at least some of them could have easily gone to work as janitors, carpenters, computer programmers, or other plant employees, according to Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer who works for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Shelley Smithson reports in Grist that before last fall's terrorist attacks, utilities submitted fingerprints of job applicants to the FBI for criminal background checks -- but the FBI didn't cross-reference the names with its list of known terrorists. Now, "everybody working at plants or who has ever worked at the plants," has been checked against the FBI list, said Alan Madison, chief of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's safeguards section. But utilities still are granting temporary clearances to new employees while the FBI completes background checks. Read more about nuclear facility hiring practices, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: A look at the hiring practices at U.S. nuclear power plants -- by Shelley Smithson, in our Main Dish section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/smithson_sidebar.asp?source=daily>
FAVOR DIS-SPENCER
The word is out that U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met only with energy industry executives and no environmental or consumer groups as he helped to write the Bush administration's energy policy last year. But only now is the extent of that exclusive access becoming clear. On Monday night, after a court-ordered release of 11,000 pages of documents relating to the drafting of the energy policy, the Department of Energy announced that Abraham met with 36 industry representatives -- a figure that was picked up in most press accounts. But the secretary actually met with 109 industry representatives from late January to May 17, 2001, when the energy policy was unveiled, reports the New York Times. Eighteen of the individuals or groups that met with Abraham contributed a total of $16.6 million to the GOP Party since 1999, nearly three times what they gave to the Dems, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A coalition of enviro groups asked to meet with Abraham in February 2001, but DOE officials turned down the request, citing Abraham's "busy schedule." White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer's response to all this: "News flash: No surprise to anybody, the secretary of energy meets with energy-related groups."
straight to the source: New York Times, Don Van Natta, Jr., and Neela Banerjee, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/business/27ENER.html>
only in Grist: Confessions of an Energy Task Force member -- diary of Dick Cheney's secretive group discovered! -- satire in our opinions section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/imho/imho062901.asp?source=daily>
3/27/02
5:59:34 PM
Sarasota County Green Party
DEMOCRACY RISING RALLY
SATURDAY - APRIL 13 - TAMPA - USF SUN DOME - DOORS OPEN 5:00PM
Join Ralph Nader, Michael Moore, Medea Benjamin, Jello Biafra, Patti Smith & her band, Iris DeMent and more great speakers, performers, and many organizations from around the state in a little \"fresh squeezed democracy\"!!
Tickets are advance/ at door. Call 813-232-5300 to order tickets or get info on a ticket location near you. Buses are being organized from Gainesville, Melbourne/Orlando and Sarasota.
If you are driving and wish to stayover night, we have a great rate at the Days Inn - up to 4 persons, shuttle to event(1 1/2 miles), breakfast. Call 813-977-1550, ask for Virginia and let them know you are with Democracy Rising group for special rate. address: 701 E. Fletcher, exit 35 off I275 N.
Need more info? email: mailto:jaires4@netscape.net
Thanks for reading, please stop by the site at http://sarasotagreenparty.org
3/27/02
5:57:57 PM
I thought you might be interested in these items.
They are the 5 latest additions to the IEER web site.
Securing the Energy Future of the United States
Science for Democratic Action, volume 10 number 2, February 2002
http://www.ieer.org/sdafiles/vol_10/10-2/index.html
Nuclear Dangers and the State of Security Treaties
April 9, 2002 conference hosted by IEER at the United Nations in New York
http://www.ieer.org/latest/npt02ag.html
A Complex, Ill-Defined War on Terrorism
by Arjun Makhijani
In Medicine and Global Survival, February 2002
http://www.ippnw.org/MGS/V7N2Aftermath.html#Makhijani
About 80,000 Cancers in the United States, More Than 15,000 of Them Fatal, Attributable to Fallout from Worldwide Atmospheric Nuclear Testing, Government Study Shows
Press release, fact sheet, official maps, and Progress Report, February 28, 2002
http://www.ieer.org/comments/fallout/pr0202.html
Danger of Nuclear Exchange in South Asia Greater Than Ever Before, Says Former Chief of the Indian Navy
Press release, plus the statement of Admiral Ramdas, February 26, 2002
http://www.ieer.org/latest/ramdaspr.html
3/27/02
5:55:37 PM
DAILY GLOBAL MEDIA NEWS
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/
EXCLUSIVE: Worldwide coverage from Globalvision News Network's 150 international news providers
EXCLUSIVE: News Dissector's Daily Weblog Danny Schechter critiques what's reported - and what's not featuring reader input.
http://www.mediachannel.org/weblog
ROUNDTABLE: MONITORING DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA
Reacting to contested elections and accusations of media bias, African democracy advocates have set up local media monitoring groups. Four African media experts discuss the challenges and visions.
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/roundtables/africa_one.shtml
CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS STAY SILENT ON MEDIA
Reports say media ownership affects diversity, from the boardroom to the newsroom, from the faces in sit-coms to the issues in the paper. Why aren't U.S. civil rights groups paying attention to media policy?
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/oped/diversity.shtml
MEDIA READER
The best media about the media. MediaChannel's international, biweekly, multimedia magazine * Bulgaria, Online
* Did Mickey Mouse Influence Murdoch's News?
* Sick Ads, Sick Culture . And much, much more...
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/mediareader
ASYLUM SEEKERS AND OPINION POLLS
Some critics say coverage of Australian's asylum seekers shows that journalists are out of touch with the public. But isn't the press's function to explain and challenge? (From The Walkley Foundation)
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#asylum
IRAQ, WAR AND PROPAGANDA
"The promised attack on Iraq will test free journalism as never before," warns John Pilger, long a harsh critic of U.S. policy against Iraq. (From JohnPilger.com; World Assoc. for Christian Comm; OJR)
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#iraq
REPORT: MIGHT MAKES NEWS
Recent politics have inflamed the usual controlling pressures that owners, advertisers, the government and other powerful folks exert on U.S. journalists. (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting)
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#fair
THE IMPACT OF BERLUSCONI
When the prime minister of a country is also its most powerful media owner, can its democracy be healthy?
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#italy
3/27/02
5:53:23 PM
~ Mark Your Calendar ~
* "The Future of Campaign Reform" is the topic of two upcoming events featuring TP.c Editor John Moyers. In San Francisco on Tuesday, April 9 at 6pm, he'll give a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California. Check the following link for details:
http://www.commonwealthclub.org/featured.html
On Wednesday April 17, at Cornell University in Ithica, N.Y., Moyers will share a stage with the Cato Institute's John Samples in a debate moderated by Professor Theodore Lowi.
...and now for the main event...
TomPaine.com!
THE FANNIE LOU HAMER STANDARD
Measuring "Campaign Finance Reform"
So were finally going to get some campaign reform. Congress passed it (kicking and screaming). The President will sign it (after flipping and flopping). Wondering how the "McCain-Feingold" reform measures up?
Use the "Fannie Lou Hamer Standard" as your guide: Will it help someone like voting-rights hero Fannie Lou Hamer -- a poor woman, a person of color, a stranger in the halls of power; someone with a passion for justice and the will to organize, but little else?
READ OUR OP AD IN TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES or CLICK BELOW TO READ IT ON LINE:
http://www.tompaine.com/op_ads/opad.cfm/ID/5343
AND READ THESE OP-AD FEATURES:
MEASURING THE FIRST STEP
Campaign Finance Reform And The 'Fannie Lou Hamer Standard'
by John Moyers
"If McCain-Feingold is reform, we better re-think the meaning of the word. If it's a first step, we need a guide for deciding if what comes next constitutes legitimate 'reform' or if it's just a sham."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5342
BEYOND BANNING SOFT MONEY
The Fight For Clean Elections Marches On
by Micah L. Sifry, from MotherJones.com
The lesson of Shays-Meehan/McCain-Feingold ought to be to aim higher; to fundamentally alter how candidates run for office. Power and equality, not just ethics in government, are at stake.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5326
PLUGGING UP LOOPHOLES
Was McCain-Feingold Really A Victory?
by Jennifer Bauduy
We ask campaign reform experts and activists for their reaction to McCain-Feingold.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5330
NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM?
A Passover Meditation on Peace
by Marty Jezer
"For some, Jerusalem is a symbol of a spiritual place that exists in the heart. For the ultra-nationalists it will mean ridding the Holy City of its non-Jewish inhabitants. For myself it will mean a peaceful future for the people of both Israel and Palestine."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5316
THE PRICE OF PROPAGANDA
Democracy Lessons From The Middle East
by Frank Smyth
Bush's callous disregard for journalism, truth and transparency has undermined the American public debate and our credibility overseas.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5294
BUSH'S FOREIGN POLICY BLUEPRINT
A Grand Global Plan
by Jim Lobe
Is George W. Bush's foreign policy guided by a controversial plan devised by his father's administration?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5345
CATHOLICISM AT A CROSSROADS
Sexual Obsession and Social Justice?
by David Morris
The Church must get its sexual proclivities under control. And it should redirect its energy away from a sex-based theology and toward a justice-oriented theology.
From Our CHECK IT OUT! Department:
KENNY'S KIDS
"Please consider the awful plight of the terribly needy men and women," says a new Web site, http://www.KennysKids.org
It lists politicians who filled their coffers with Enron cash -- Rep. Tom Delay, Sen. Phil Gramm, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson among them. Next to the President's picture it reads, "Before he got Enron money: a failed oilman. After: the most powerful man in the world. What will happen to him now?" Tom Delay "hasn't been able to run a negative campaign ad for months. Help this poor man!"
Check Out CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/
3/27/02
5:49:13 PM
ACTION ALERT!!
This message goes out to all and we highly encourage for you to share in your networks and circles ASAP.
this site is about you helping fellow humans in California accomplish a task that needs the help of many around the USA and world. Preserving the old growth, HOW? a ballot iniative is being petitioned for 600,000 signatures and we here are to inform you that outside help is welcome in obtaining or networking a donar of $1.6 million to have paid petitioned crews to obtain over the required amount by April 30th , 2002 to qualify the iniative onto the November 2002 ballot in California. We need help to promote to all those concern in the USA and world to pitch a collective effort to save a possible 7 + million old growth trees for the future generations and the ecology in general. do se the website
for details and contacts and how to help also or contact
if you are a donar or know of one to connect within next 48 hours. United we can make change in a very corrupt time, it all starts on a cooperative level to save the sacred wilderness levels. Once this process is achieved by April 30th, the next phase is critical mass education in California for the registered voters of California or future voters to help implement this in November and make it into reality as Prop 215 was for medical Marijuana and other future iniatives for HEMP and education. The big business has planty of $$ to stop us yet we have the mass consciousness to accomplish it and succeed. United we stand, this is a test of global common unity! IMAGINE what can happen after this is accomplished? Take a stand! and help the ancient ones to continue to stand! If an entertainer please stay tuned for future activities through a collective of events that will help bring the education for the November election as well as many other projects for humanity and earth.
A message brought to you with LOVE
One Love Vibrations Foundation
mailto:family@onelovefamily.org
1-800-242-0363 box 5563
3/27/02
5:46:45 PM
SINGLE BLACK FEMALE
The following ad is reported to have gotten numerous calls...
SINGLE BLACK FEMALE... Seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a svelte good looking girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping, and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. Rub me the right way and watch me respond.
I'll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Kiss me and I'm yours.
Call xxx-xxxx and ask for Daisy."
Callers found themselves talking to the local Humane Society about an eight-week-old black Labrador.
3/27/02
5:45:13 PM
Denver Officials, Citing Civil Rights, Decide to Bow Out of War on Terror
Tuesday, March 19, 2002 DENVER - The local government here officially threw its lot in with Portland, Ore. and a handful of other municipalities around the country, passing a resolution Monday night discouraging police from enforcing new anti-terror legislation if doing so would interfere with peoples' civil rights.
A non-binding resolution passed by the city council in response to the federal USA Patriot Act discourages Denver police from investigating groups or individuals based on their country of origin or immigration status. The resolution bars police from assisting in parts of the federal government's anti-terrorism campaign.
Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie, who co-sponsored the resolution, said the measure urges police not to go too far in the wake of Sept. 11.
"In this city, it's not a crime to have dark skin," she said. "It's not a crime to be from a different country. It's not a crime to express unpopular views."
The move comes a week after revelations that Denver police officials have been keeping secret files on protest groups like Amnesty International, anti-globalization protestors and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which revealed that the files were being kept, said the police department had some 3,200 files on individuals and 208 files on organizations dating to about 1999. Following the revelation, Mayor Wellington Webb reprimanded police officials and said they had interpreted city policy too broadly.
Targeting some citizens for surveillance and ignoring others because of their race or national origin didn't sit well with everyone on the council, however. The resolution passed by a 7-4 margin after nearly two hours of debate in front of a standing-room-only audience.
Among the opponents of the resolution was Councilman Ed Thomas, who said the new police powers are needed for public safety and that it would unnecessarily tie the hands of Denver police.
"If you think this is the last terrorist act in this country you are sadly mistaken," said Thomas, a former police officer. "I think it's inappropriate to not remember the people who died 9/11 and that's exactly what we are doing."
Councilwoman Cathy Reynolds called the measure "poppycock," and complained that people around the country would view Denver in a "bad light" if it passed.
A handful of other cities, including Portland, Ore., have questioned the scope of the USA Patriot law, which expands law enforcement's surveillance and investigative powers in order to combat domestic and international terrorism. Portland officials refused to help federal authorities interview people about the terrorist attacks.
Although Denver's resolution doesn't have the force of law, supporters on the council said Mayor Webb has indicated he likely will make it part of the police operations.
The resolution was proposed by the All Nations Alliance, a group that made a name for itself protesting the city's annual Columbus Day parade as a celebration of genocide against Native Americans.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=5774&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
(Also available from http://www.rense.com/general21/denverbowsout.htm)
3/27/02
5:43:51 PM
More Than 300,000 Protest Against EU Summit Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002
March 16, 2002
Agence France Presse
More Than 300,000 Protest Against EU Summit
More than 300,000 people marched through the streets of downtown Barcelona in one of the biggest demonstrations ever to coincide with a summit of European Union leaders.
Some 50 people were seen being detained as riot police fired tear gas at the end of the protest to disperse small gangs of anarchists who smashed bank windows with metal bars along the route of the early-evening march.
Several dozen people were slightly injured in the melee, including at least three press photographers.
But the bulk of the protest was orderly, in sharp contrast to the violence that has rocked past EU summits -- particularly in Gothenburg, Sweden last June when the city center was ravaged and a demonstrator shot and wounded.
Marching behind a banner that declared: "Against a Europe of capital -- another world is possible," the boisterous demonstrators trooped for almost three hours from Placa de Catalunya to the Mediterranean harborfront.
They represented a host of causes -- many of them opponents of free-market globalization, but also large numbers of Catalan and Basque nationalists -- as they moved forth under a forest of banners and flags.
Organizers estimated the crowd at 300,000 to 500,000 while municipal police said at least 150,000 had massed in the streets.
Shops along the two-kilometer (one-mile) route drew their shutters though some department stores and cafes opted to stay open, their doors guarded by police. Two police helicopters hovered noisily overhead.
Organizers, cheered by a week of largely trouble-free protests, had been hoping for 100,000 participants, even with a big soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid elsewhere in the city.
That match was interrupted by three protesters, two of whom managed to scramble onto the pitch and chain themselves to one of the goals.
Fans threw objects at them during the seven-minute delay, and all three were arrested.
About 100,000 people turned out Thursday for a boisterous but disciplined march along much the same route, organized by the mainstream European Trade Union Confederation.
On Friday, as the two-day summit of EU heads of state and government got under way at a heavily guarded convention center, 24 people were detained in skirmishes with baton-wielding police in various parts of the city.
"In terms of participation and reach of our message, the activities of the day by far exceeded our targets," said the Campaign Against the Europe of Capital, a coalition of 150-odd groups that has been coordinating protests.
Jose Bove, the mustachioed French activist best known for leading an assault on a McDonald's fast-food outlet in southwest France in August 1999, was in the city for the march.
"Europe's leaders are implementing policies and directives that only serve the interests of liberalization and attack the rights of workers," Bove told AFP earlier in the day.
Security was tight throughout the summit with 8,500 police officers -- many bused in from other parts of Spain -- in the bustling Catalan capital to guard against the double threat of street riots and Basque terrorist attacks.
Several hundred people also demonstrated Saturday in the streets of the French town of Perpignan, close to the Spanish border, and planned to join the protesters in Barcelona.
But for a third straight day, Spanish police at the border with France turned back cars and buses with people whom they suspected were planning to join Saturday's march.
"Some people think that they can do things that do not meet the approval of the vast majority of the population," said Spanish Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy. "Action had to be taken."
The EU leaders met at a convention center on the suburban northwest side of the city, surrounded by police armored cars and chain-link fences. Most if not all were expected to have left the city before Saturday's late-day march.
The last big antiglobalization protest in Barcelona, in June last year during a World Bank meeting, led to violent clashes on the streets and a political debate in Spain over police brutality at demonstrations.
3/27/02
5:42:22 PM
A Better World is Possible
By Fidel Castro
Editor's Note: On March 22, the United States delegates to the International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, following instructions from the Bush White House, left their seats at the beginning of this speech by Fidel Castro. Had they stayed, this is what they would have heard.
"Not everyone here will share my thoughts. Still, I will respectfully say what I think. The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. Thus, the peoples believe less and less in statements and promises. The prestige of the international financial institutions rates less than zero. The world economy is today a huge casino. Recent analyses indicate that for every dollar that goes into trade, over one hundred end up in speculative operations completely disconnected from the real economy. As a result of this economic order, over 75 percent of the world population lives in underdevelopment, and extreme poverty has already reached 1.2 billion people in the Third World. So, far from narrowing the gap is widening. The revenue of the richest nations that in 1960 was 37 times larger than that of the poorest is now 74 times larger. The situation has reached such extremes that the assets of the three wealthiest persons in the world amount to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries combined. The number of people actually starving was 826 million in the year 2001. There are at the moment 854 million illiterate adults while 325 million children do not attend school. There are 2 billion people who have no access to low cost medications and 2.4 billion lack the basic sanitation conditions. No less than 11 million children under the age of 5 perish!
Every year from preventable causes while half a million go blind for lack of vitamin A. The life span of the population in the developed world is 30 years higher than that of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa. A true genocide! The poor countries should not be blamed for this tragedy. They neither conquered nor plundered entire continents for centuries; they did not establish colonialism, or re-established slavery; and, modern imperialism is not of their making. Actually, they have been its victims. Therefore, the main responsibility for financing their development lies with those states that, for obvious historical reasons, enjoy today the benefits of those atrocities. The rich world should condone their foreign debt and grant them fresh soft credits to finance their development. The traditional offers of assistance, always scant and often ridiculous, are either inadequate or unfulfilled. For a true and sustainable economic and social development to take place much more is required than is usually admitted. Measures as those suggested by the late James Tobin to curtail the irrepressible flow of currency speculation --albeit it was not his idea to foster development-- would perhaps be the only ones capable of generating enough funds, which in the hands of the UN agencies and not of awful institutions like the IMF, could supply direct development assistance with a democratic participation of all countries and without the need to sacrifice the independence and sovereignty of the peoples. The Consensus draft, which the masters of the world are imposing on this conference, intends that we accept humiliating, conditioned and interfering alms.
Everything created since Bretton Woods until today should be reconsidered. A farsighted vision was then missing, thus, the privileges and interests of the most powerful prevailed. In the face of the deep present crisis, a still worse future is offered where the economic, social and ecological tragedy of an increasingly ungovernable world would never be resolved and where the number of the poor and the starving would grow higher, as if a large part of humanity were doomed. It is high time for statesmen and politicians to calmly reflect on this. The belief that a social and economic order that has proven to be unsustainable can be forcibly imposed is really senseless. As I have said before, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry but they cannot kill ignorance, illnesses, poverty or hunger. !
It should definitely be said: "Farewell to arms." Something must be done to save Humanity! A better world is possible! Thank you."
3/27/02
5:41:07 PM
CHENEY SAYS U.S. WILL ATTACK IRAQ "FOR ISRAEL'S SAKE"
[IAP News - 20 March 2002] - US vice-President Dick Cheney reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the U.S. was planning to attack Iraq 'first and foremost for Israel's sake.'
According to Israeli sources quoted by Israeli state-run radio Wednesday, Cheney asked Sharon to 'tone down' the confrontation with the Palestinians so as not to disrupt or disturb American plans vis-a-vis Iraq.
The sources quoted Cheney as saying that he expected President Bush to decide to attack Iraq in spite of widespread opposition in the Arab world.
Sharon said publicly Tuesday that Israel would bless wholeheartedly any American attack on Iraq, telling Cheney that the US 'can always count on us.'
Israeli press reported this week that Sharon was hoping that a decisive American onslaught against Iraq would demoralize the Palestinians and force them to concede defeat and put an end to the intifada.
However, Cheney and Sharon reportedly agreed to keep coordination and cooperation on Iraq behind the curtain in order not to embarrass pro-American puppet Arab regimes.
Cheney arrived in Ankara Tuesday on an 11-nation visit to the Middle East and Britain that many have said was aimed at drumming up support for a possible campaign to overthrow President Saddam.
Turkish leaders have repeatedly voiced opposition to any action against their southern neighbor.
'There is no question of any military action against Iraq in the foreseeable future,' Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told reporters after meeting with Cheney. Ankara, the Turkish capital, was the last stop on Cheney's tour.
Cheney said in occupied Jerusalem earlier Tuesday that no decision had yet been made on whether to attack Iraq.
3/27/02
5:40:14 PM
Missing the Point on Campaign Finance
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=21191
William Rivers Pitt | Bush Cornered by Campaign Finance Reform
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.22C.WRP.Cornered.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 27
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.22F.Stonewall.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 28
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.23F.Stonewall.htm
UK Warns Saddam of Nuclear Retaliation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.23D.Nuclear.Retaliation.htm
Aid for Poor Urged as a Tool to Fight Terror
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.23B.Aid.Tool.htm
2 Million Protest in Rome
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.25A.Rome.Protest.htm
U.S. Behind Secret Transfer of Terror Suspects
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.25C.Secret.Transfer.htm
BUSH TO AFGHANISTAN: WE MAKE WAR; KEEPING PEACE IS FOR OTHERS
Bush is maneuvering to limit peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan -- showing he doesn't care much if the country disintegrates into warlord-ravaged territory.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12689
3/27/02
5:37:35 PM
Orwellian
3/27/02
5:05:31 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
SELLING THE JITTERS: LEGAL SPEED OR HEALTHY ENERGY IN A CAN?
by Todd Morman, The Spectator
-- The market for energy drinks loaded with caffeine and other additives has exploded, leaving researchers worried about the potential health effects of the potent beverages.
COLOMBIA VOTERS REJECT U.S. WAR
by Al Giordano, The Narco News Bulletin
-- Conservative and liberal parties in Colombia have lost their majority to independent parties who reject the United States' plan to intervene in the country's war against rebel factions.
ARTS FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Web site reviw by Sara Buckwitz, Arts For Amnesty International
-- Painter Tom Block created "Prisoners and Heroes" a series of images, now on Amnesty International's Web site, that explores what happens when passionate people face an often-cruel reality. His work features labor organizers, political activists, and others, with each image annotated.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
3/27/02
5:05:04 PM
"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done."
Theodore Roosevelt
3/27/02
5:04:44 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS)
International Daily Newswire
ENERGY TASK FORCE COURTED INDUSTRY, EXCLUDED GREEN GROUPS
WASHINGTON, DC, March 26, 2002 (ENS) - Thousands of documents released Monday by the Bush administration appear to support charges that environmental and citizen groups were given short shrift last year by the Bush administration's energy policy task force. Conservation groups and Congressional Democrats have charged that the energy industry exerted too much influence over the crafting of the nation's official energy policy.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-26-06.html
EARTHQUAKES RUMBLE ACROSS AFGHANISTAN, 1,800 DEAD
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 26, 2002 (ENS) - A series of earthquakes, the strongest measuring 6.0 on the Richter Scale, hit the Hindu Kush mountains in northeast Afghanistan starting last night and continuing this morning. The Afghanistan Interim Authority estimates the number of dead at 1,800 with 1,200 bodies counted so far.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-26-03.html
EMISSIONS CONTROL LIMITS AGREED FOR EUROPEAN MOTORCYCLES
BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 26, 2002 (ENS) - Pollutant emissions from new motorcycles will be reduced by 65 to 70 percent from today's levels across the European Union within four years, the European Commission announced today.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-26-04.html
GLOBAL YOUTH FORUM OPENS GATE TO JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT
ARHUS, Denmark, March 26, 2002 - Globalization and poverty, sustainable development and population pressure, clean air and water - these weighty but vital issues are the focus of attention for the 100 young people from 60 countries here at the Global Youth Forum.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-26-05.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: MARCH 26, 2002
Bush Administration Undermining Air Quality Protections
Security Gaps Found at Nuclear Plants
Court Reduces U.S. Control Over Shrimp Imports
Arsenic Linked to Arterial Diseases
Smart Growth Programs Fall Victim to Budget Cuts
Hazardous Wastes Could Become New Fuel
Sensitive Sensor Finds Missing Pollutant
2002 Sees Few Tornadoes - So Far
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-26-09.html
3/27/02
5:04:07 PM
Expatriation Anyone?
Forwarded letter by Bob Bauman, Sovereign Society
Dear Friend:
The question arises whether the U.S. Internal Revenue 'Service' is under the control of Pres. George W. Bush, or whether it is simply out of control. What claims to be a tax cutting administration, one would think, surely wouldn't allow the IRS to harass and smear tens of thousands of honest citizens based on a mere hunch.
But, as is the tradition as Income Tax Day, April 15th, approaches, the IRS yesterday launched yet another scare-the-taxpayer press barrage.
This time the IRS attacked all Americans with offshore bank, investment or other accounts that issue credit cards. Filled with half truths and distortions, the IRS statement smeared with the presumed guilt of tax evasion all offshore credit card holders. While it did concede offshore based credit cards are legal, the IRS insisted some people 'might' use offshore accounts and the cards to hide unreported income.
On that paper thin presumption, the IRS has gotten American Express and MasterCard to turn over all the records of 230,000 US persons with offshore credit cards issued by banks in The Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Antigua. On Monday it asked a US court to order VISA to turn over the records of hundreds of thousands of US persons with credit cards issued in any IRS-designated "tax haven" nations from Luxembourg to Singapore.
Tax evasion is a crime. But it is also an unconstitutional fishing expedition when a government agency grabs the private financial records of millions of law abiding citizens. Due process requires that unless and until probable cause can be shown of some illegal tax evasion in an individual case, no American's credit card records should be surrendered to the IRS.
What we see here is yet another giant step in the Nazification of the U.S. financial and tax system. This latest IRS outrage fits in with property forfeiture, money laundering as an all purpose indictment, bankers and lawyers forced to act as government spies, secret home and office invasions, clandestine Internet and phone wiretapping; or in other words, the Bush surveillance society.
Is it any wonder Americans are fleeing offshore? Expatriation anyone?
That's the way that it looks from here.
Faithfully Yours,
Bob Bauman, Editor
COMMENT LINKS:
* Tax Evasion Investigation Expands Into Offshore Bank Cards
LINK: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA9WY5V8ZC.html
* IRS Seeks Offshore Visa Records, AP. LINK:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Tax-Havens.html
* IRS Says Offshore Tax Evasion Is Widespread
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/26/business/26TAX.html
* Wall Street Journal (subscribers only):
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,
3/27/02
5:03:29 PM
Happy Spring.
Spring springs eternal, and so does our hope that we will deal with climate change. To keep you posted on progress to that end it is time now for "Positive Energy" -Greenpeace's CLEAN ENERGY NOW! update.
COLLAPSE OF ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF: ANOTHER WAKE UP CALL TO THE WORLD During a 5-week period, a piece of the Larsen Ice Shelf with a surface area of 1,250 square miles dramatically splintered into a plume of drifting icebergs. This enormous floating ice shelf, designated Larsen B-22, has existed since the last Ice Age but collapsed during on of the warmest summers recorded on the Antartic Peninsula. Although scientists stopped just short of straight out blaming this event on global warming caused by human activity, they noted that the ice shelf has persisted through 12,000 years of climate changes, well before civilization began altering the environment. Both the United States' and British agencies are attributing the collapse and the general trend of retreating shelves to warmer temperatures (+2.5 degrees C) over the past 50 years, supporting arguments that greenhouse gases emission is a critical issue that all nations must address alongside their energy concerns.
Check out the following links for pictures and related articles:
http://cybercentre.greenpeace.org//t/s/1016626265/index_html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1880000/1880566.stm
TELL EDISON NOT TO DUMP COAL IN THAILAND
Greenpeace in the United States and South East Asia are demanding that Edison Mission Energy, a sister company to Southern California Edison, stop its plans to build a huge coal-fired power plant in the rural village of Bo Nok, Thialand. Local people fromm this Thai fishing and farming community have been fighting the power plant proposal for eight years. In January, 10,000 people demonstrated against the Edison plant when the Prime Minister visited the area. Greenpeace is trying to bring the outrage of the community home to the company that is providing the cash to build the coal plant in Bo Nok. Edison has also been heavily involved in greenwashing the plant proposal in Thailand - placing ads in the national newspapers, claiming that they will burn "Clean Coal" and that this plant could be built in California. This statement is simply not true from an air quality standards point of view, and certainly a coal power plant would not be built on a beach in southern California but that is where they plan to build in Thailand.
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=116
INDIAN SCIENTIST WINS ASHDEN AWARD FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY
Dr. A. D. Karve, the head of India's Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), was announced as the 2002 winner of the prestigious Ashden Award for Renewable Energy. The Princess Royal of the United Kingdom presented the world's only award for renewable energy work during the Whitley Laing Foundation's annual awards ceremony held in London last Friday evening. Dr. Karve received international recognition for his role in the discovery and implementation of a unique technology that produces clean fuel from sugarcane waste that would otherwise have been burnt at site; thus converting a large scale environmental problem into an income-generating opportunity while providing desperately needed clean and cheap domestic fuel to rural families throughout the region. To find out more about Whitley Laing Foundation and the Award for Renewable Energy, just go to:
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our website, http://www.cleanenergynow.org, will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
3/27/02
5:03:00 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
SAFETY DANCE
Although fears -- and warnings -- that terrorists might attack nuclear facilities have increased since Sept. 11, nuclear power is enjoying enthusiastic support from the Bush administration, which touts it as a clean, safe energy source. But just how safe is it? Take a deep breath. To compete with the newly deregulated electricity sector, the nuclear industry has been cutting expenses, including security costs. There are no rules requiring atomic plants to be secured against large truck bombs or air attacks. And in the last decade, almost half of nuclear plants failed security drills, even when guards had at least six months to prepare and knew the day and time the mock terrorists were attacking. An attack on a nuclear facility could have consequences that would make the tragic acts of Sept. 11 pale in comparison -- so what's being done about it? In the first part of a two-part series, journalist Shelley Smithson takes a look at the state of nuclear security, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: How secure are U.S. nuclear plants? -- in our Main Dish section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/smithson032602.asp?source=daily>
only in Grist: Help wanted -- could the Sept. 11 terrorists have gotten jobs at U.S. nuclear power plants? -- in our Main Dish section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/smithson_sidebar.asp?source=daily>
THERE'S A PLACE IN FRANCE WHERE THE ANTI-NUKIES DANCE
Lionel Jospin, the socialist prime minister of France, could lose his neck-and-neck race for the nation's presidency to incumbent President Jacques Chirac if Jospin's environmental allies make good on their promise to pull their support should the prime minister refuse to back a phase-out of nuclear power. The Green Party accounts for about 10 percent of the left-wing vote in France -- enough, opinion polls suggest, to make its voice critical to the outcome of a May 5 runoff election for the presidency. Noel Mamere, the Green Party candidate in the first round of votes, said Jospin's refusal to consider ending nuclear power "will not encourage me to urge Greens to back him in the second round." France has one of the world's highest concentrations of nuclear power plants, which generate more than 75 percent of the nation's power.
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Robert Elliot, 26 Mar 2002 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15193/story.htm>
PAPER LATE
Last night, the U.S. Energy Department released 11,000 pages of documents pertaining to the drafting of the Bush administration's energy policy, just hours before a court-ordered deadline to turn over the papers. An initial review of the documents confirmed the suspicion of environmental organizations and Democrats that the Bush administration relied almost entirely on meetings with utilities and representatives of the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear sectors to draft the policy. All but a few of the corporations that met with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham contributed large amounts of unregulated soft money to the Republican Party during the 2000 elections. Spencer held no meetings with conservation or consumer groups, the documents show. Large portions of the documents released had been deleted, most attachments were missing, and in many cases documents included only the subject line; thousands of other documents were withheld entirely. The groups that filed suit in the first place, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, say they may return to court.
straight to the source: Washington Post, Dana Milbank and Mike Allen, 26 Mar 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16943-2002Mar25.html>
only in Grist: Confessions of an Energy Task Force member -- diary of Dick Cheney's secretive group discovered! -- satire in our opinions section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/imho/imho062901.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action on energy issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily>
BUREAU OF LAND MANGLEMENT
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management granted permission yesterday to the Marine Corps to conduct two weeks of military exercises in the Arizona desert in late April and early May. Environmentalists are worried that tortoises and rare desert plants might be casualties of the Marine exercises. Known as Desert Scimitar '02, the mission will test the ability of the Marines to deploy large numbers of troops and equipment (some 600 vehicles and 2,700 personnel) over terrain similar to that of the Middle East. The BLM said it was "proud" to provide the land to the Marines, who have promised not to run over reptiles and plants with their Humvees, armored personnel carriers, and five-ton trucks. The Marines also will not be allowed to work at night, engage in live or simulated firing, or stray from established roads and paths. Still, biologists worry that dust kicked up by the 600 vehicles could cause serious long-term harm to plants and animals.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Tony Perry, 26 Mar 2002 <http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-000021824mar26.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dpe%2Dcalifornia>
only in Grist: Sharps shooter -- Colorado man cleans up war-game carnage -- in our Out on a Limb section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/limb/limb072601.asp?source=daily>
EXCESS MARKS THE SPOT
Representatives of the Haida Nation, a 7,000-member native group living on the Queen Charlotte Islands off Canada's Northwest Coast, have sued to secure "exclusive right to make decisions about their land" and the surrounding waters. If the high court of British Columbia rules in their favor, the Haida will be able to prevent the government from issuing offshore drilling permits in the oil- and gas-rich region. The case may represent the first time a Canadian aboriginal group has claimed offshore resources in court, and it marks a shift toward heavier-hitting tactics, such as litigation, in government-aboriginal relations. Guujaaw, president of the Haida Nation, said that his people, who have lived on the islands for thousands of years, are paying the price for rampant materialism: "The measure of those excesses is seen in the forests and in the natural parts of the Earth. And the people who live there, as we do, are the ones who live with the consequence of supplying the raw material for those excesses."
straight to the source: Washington Post, DeNeen L. Brown, 26 Mar 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17230-2002Mar25.html>
straight to the source: Calgary Herald, Frank Dabbs, 14 Mar 2002 <http://www.canada.com/calgary/story.asp?id={B4DA0CCB-F2FC-4ACA-BF52-FC6E7BD93A46}>
3/27/02
5:02:16 PM
Don't Let the Bush Administration Gut Dolphin Protection!
Help Prevent Weakening of the "Dolphin Safe" Tuna Label!
Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans will be making a critical decision this year on whether or not to weaken the standards for the "Dolphin Safe" tuna label.
Tuna fishermen in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) target dolphins because tuna and dolphins form mixed schools. Since the late 1950's, the tuna fishery has killed more than 7 million dolphins. However, since 1990 and the advent of the "Dolphin Safe" tuna program, dolphin deaths have decreased by 97% in the ETP.
The "Dolphin Safe" tuna label has saved the lives of thousands of dolphins. The "Dolphin Safe" label now prohibits use of any tuna caught by chasing and netting of dolphins by fishermen (e.g. non-encirclement of dolphins).
However, politically connected tuna millionaires in Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela teamed up with free-trade advocates in the Bush Administration to undercut U.S. dolphin protection laws and open U.S. markets to dolphin-deadly tuna.
The Secretary's finding on the "Dolphin Safe" label is supposed to be based on science, but the politics of trade is winning out over the lives of dolphins.
YOU CAN HELP SAVE DOLPHINS! PLEASE IMMEDIATELY:
Write a letter to Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans:
. Tell him not to weaken the standards for the "Dolphin Safe" tuna label. Dolphins should not be chased and netted to catch tuna; there are alternative fishing methods that do no harm to dolphins.
. Tell him you will not buy tuna caught by chasing and netting dolphins. Tell him scientists have shown that chasing and netting dolphins causes significant adverse impacts on dolphin populations, including preventing their recovery from depletion and separating dependent calves from their mothers.
. Ask him to add your letter to the Official Decision Record.
Address:
The Hon. Donald Evans
Secretary of Commerce
US Department of Commerce
14th Street and Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20230
(No Deadline for Comments)
Send a copy to:
Regional Administrator, Southwest Region
National Marine Fisheries Service
501 Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200
Long Beach, CA 90802-4213
Fax: (562) 980-4027
(Deadline for Comments to Regional Administrator: 4/16/02)
For further information, contact Earth Island Institute, International Marine Mammal Project, 300 Broadway, Suite 28, San Francisco, CA 94133; Voice: (415) 788-3666; Fax: (415) 788-7324; marinemammal@earthisland.org
THANK YOU!
for your efforts on behalf of dolphins
Mark J. Palmer
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
3/27/02
5:01:45 PM
We Almost Losr Ohio -- And Your State Could Be Next:
By Russell D. Hoffman
Did you hear about what almost happened at Davis-Besse, a nuclear reactor in Ohio?
It would have been "10 times worse than Chernobyl" as one eminent scientist I've spoken to put it.
Most people have no idea how close we came to catastrophe. A mere half inch.
Here's the basic sequence, in lay-person's terms:
Davis-Besse is a 900 Megawatt PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) owned by FirstEnergy Corp.. It is located 21 miles ESE of Toledo, OH. It first went online in 1977. It's getting OLD.
Winds tend to go from the Northwest to the Southeast in that part of the country, but not always. Areas that are variously downwind from Davis-Besse include Sandusky, OH, Cleveland, OH, Pittsburgh, PA, Washington DC, Toronto, Canada, as well as Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey, NYC, Long Island, New England, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina...
On March 11th, 2002, while investigating other leaks in flanges (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls them "nozzles" but they're really flanges) above (and coming out of) the reactor vessel investigators discovered a hole all the way through the reactor pressure vessel's carbon-manganese six-inch thick steel outer layer. The hole was four inches by five inches wide on the surface when it was discovered. All that held back the 2500-PSI pressure inside the reactor was a half-inch thick stainless steel liner (variously reported as only 3/8ths of an inch thick) -- on the inside of the reactor pressure vessel head -- and the liner was BULGING!
If the liner had cracked, the accident would have been of Biblical proportions indeed. (Imagine a hole in a piece of cardboard, covered with a piece of plastic food wrap, and you push your finger through the hole. That's what was happening to the reactor pressure vessel. How much time was left? Days? Weeks? We'll never know -- luck (or God) saved us because the reactor head was checked just in time. You've heard of Just In Time Manufacturing? This was Just In Time Catastrophe Avoidance!
Had the situation progressed much further, and a crack develop in the liner, the extremely radioactive water explosively rushing out would have, in short order (seconds, or fractions of a second):
*1) Flashed over to steam.
*2) Expanded the hole in the reactor vessel.
*3) Cracked the reactor's fuel rods and thrown their contents towards and out the hole.
*4) Pulverized the fuel pellets as they flew through the hole at tremendous speed, further expanding the hole in the reactor vessel.
*5) Cut a hole in the containment dome like it was made of BUTTER. Yes, I know containment domes are up to about ten feet thick, but this stuff is at 2500 PSI, at well over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, possibly actually getting MUCH hotter as it's pulverized coming out the hole, and concrete itself pulverizes at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. And there is LOTS of coolant in the system which will virtually ALL get shot out the hole in the pressure vessel like it was coming out of a cannon, along with the fuel rod assemblies and everything else inside the reactor (that is, pieces of irradiated metal, some of which will flash-burn if they come in contact with oxygen). In the end, the containment dome would have a hole in it directly out from where the hole in the pressure vessel was. There would be pulverized radioactive particles spewing into the air and falling onto the ground for hundreds of miles around.
*6) Killed millions of Americans.
*7) Been blamed on terrorists, and we would have bombed another country into Depleted Uranium hell, in the vain belief that it would somehow alleviate our own misery and suffering. But the true culprit was our own technology!
The cost would be in the trillions, the suffering unspeakable, and we wouldn't even know what hit us. A "China Syndrome" would be better than this! Chernobyl would have been better than this! We dodged a bullet. Was it sabotage? Boron doesn't normally corrode carbon-manganese steel. Was something added to the borated water just so that something like this would happen? If so, what? And when? And by whom? Did a worker leave something in the works, which corroded and changed the chemical structure of the water (negligence), or was something placed in the water on purpose?
The above statement was written by Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
xox
Below is the CURRENT (March 25th, 2002) Department of Energy (DOE) description of the Davis-Besse reactor. Note the following sentence: "Safety-related problems in its early years tarnished its reputation, but its sale to new owners has brought about a recovery." How inappropriate can you get?!? I bet they'll change this wording very soon, if they haven't already.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/reactors/davisbesse.html
The Davis-Besse plant is a single unit reactor located east of Toledo in Oak Harbor, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie. The site covers 954 acres of which 733 acres is leased to the U.S. government for a National Wildlife Refuge. Safety-related problems in its early years tarnished its reputation, but its sale to new owners has brought about a recovery. The site is licensed for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel and had 3 casks as of March 2000. Operator: FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.
Owners: Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (51.4%), Toledo Edison Company (48.6%)
Reactor Supplier: Babcock & Wilcox
Capacity: 873 net MWe
Reactor Type: Pressurized water reactor
Date of Operation: April 1977
License Expiration date: 04/22/2017
Electricity Produced in 2000: 6.70 billion kWh
2000 Average Capacity Factor: 87.32%
For a list of all nuclear reactors in the United States: http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/nukelist.htm
THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
Russell D. Hoffman, Owner and Chief Programmer
P.O. Box 1936
Carlsbad CA 92018-1936
(800) 551-2726
(760) 720-7261
Fax: (760) 720-7394
Visit the world's most eclectic web site:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com
Sanitized view of Davis-Besse
U.S. Orders Checks For Corrosion At Nuclear Reactors
by Matthew L. Wald
WASHINGTON, March 25 - Nuclear reactor operators have been ordered to check their reactor vessels after the discovery that acid in cooling water had eaten a hole nearly all the way through the six-inch-thick lid of a reactor at a plant in Ohio. The corrosion left only a stainless-steel liner less than a half-inch thick to hold in cooling water under more than 2,200 pounds of pressure per square inch.
At the 25-year-old Ohio plant, Davis-Besse, near Toledo, the stainless steel was bent by the pressure and would have broken if corrosion had continued, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where officials were surprised by the discovery. They said they had never seen so much corrosion in a reactor vessel.
The commission, which has warned plants for years to watch for any corrosion, has ordered all 68 other plants of similar design -pressurized-water reactors - to check their lids. The commission is particularly worried about a dozen of the oldest plants and ordered them to report by early April whether they were safe enough to keep in service. The commission told these plants to demonstrate that technicians there would have noticed such corrosion in their normal inspections, had it occurred.
If the liner had given way in the Ohio reactor, experts say, there would have been an immediate release of thousands of gallons of slightly radioactive and extremely hot water inside the reactor's containment building.
The plants have pipe systems that are meant to pump water back into a leaking vessel, but some experts fear that if rushing steam and water damaged thermal insulation on top of the vessel, the pipes could clog. In that event, the reactor might have lost cooling water and suffered core damage - possibly a meltdown - and a larger release of radiation, at least inside the building.
Such extensive corrosion "was never considered a credible type of concern," said Brian W. Sheron, associate director for project licensing and technology assessment at the regulatory commission.
Small leaks of cooling water are common, Mr. Sheron said, but engineers always thought that if cooling water leaked from the piping above the vessel and accumulated on the vessel lid, the water would boil away in the heat of over 500 degrees, leaving the boric acid it contains in harmless boron powder form. At Davis-Besse, however, it appears that the water was held close to the metal vessel lid, or head, perhaps by insulation on top of the vessel.
Boric acid is used in cooling water to absorb surplus neutrons, the subatomic particles that are released when an atom is split and go on to split other atoms, sustaining the chain reaction.
Engineers are not yet certain why the corrosion occurred.
A nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit watchdog group that is often critical of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the discovery was troubling.
"This is really something that shouldn't happen," said the engineer, David Lochbaum. "You shouldn't get such a huge hole in a pressure-retaining vessel."
Edwin S. Lyman, the scientific director of the Nuclear Control Institute, an anti-proliferation group based here, said: "This is a pretty serious issue, and it has generic implications. And it was discovered by accident."
Workers stumbled on the problem in the process of fixing a leaking tube that connects to the vessel head, which is 17 feet in diameter and weighs 150 tons. The tube is part of the reactor control system; inside it there is a control rod, which operators can lower into the core to smother the flow of neutrons and stop the chain reaction, or raise to allow the reactor to run.
Technicians discovered that the metal that supports the tube had mostly disappeared.
The plant owner, FirstEnergy Corporation, is hoping to patch the hole, an irregular opening about 4 by 5 inches. But the commission is skeptical about whether this is possible.
No one in this country has replaced a reactor vessel head, although several plants have ordered parts to do so. FirstEnergy ordered a new head just before the extent of the problem became obvious. A company spokesman said the company hoped to install it in the spring of 2004.
That date reflects how the industry, with no new reactor orders in decades in this country, has limited production capacity for such parts.
The plant might also be able to use a vessel head from a reactor in Midland, Mich., that was never completed, or from a similar plant that was retired in 1989.
Davis-Besse, which began operating in 1977, was not designed with the idea that the head would be replaced; technicians would have to cut a bigger hole in the steel-reinforced concrete containment building to get the new head into it.
The company has not said what the job will cost, but Duke Power Company, which operates three reactors similar to Davis-Besse, plans to replace the heads of all three for about $20 million. FirstEnergy could spend nearly that much each month for electricity from alternative sources if it must wait for the replacement part.
Because of the discovery at Davis-Besse, the regulatory commission ordered a dozen other plants to report back within two weeks and prove that inspections they have done in the past would have found any corrosion.
The inspection cannot be done while the plant is running, and if the utilities cannot convince the commission, they presumably face shutdowns of perhaps several weeks just for the checks.
Such shutdowns occurred intermittently in the 1970's and 80's but have become extremely rare as reactors have improved their reliability.
The industry is hopeful, however, that inspections it began under commission orders several years ago, to look for leaks, would have found any similar cases. Those inspections began after the heads of French reactors showed signs of leaks and corrosion.
"It could be something unique to Davis-Besse," said Alexander Marion, director of engineering at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade association. A goal for the investigation at the plant, he said, would be to find out not only why the corrosion occurred but also why it was not noticed sooner.
"The plants are getting older and we're starting to see these kinds of problems," Mr. Marion said.
Source: http://www.NYTimes.com
3/27/02
5:00:56 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
International Daily Newswire
PERU TRADES DEBT FOR FOREST CONSERVATION
WASHINGTON, DC, March 25, 2002 (ENS) - A portion of Peru's debt to the United States will be cancelled in return for the Peruvian government's commitment to conserve and maintain wildlife reserves and other protected forest areas.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-25-04.html
TOP 10 U.S. ENDANGERED PARKS NOT TOP GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES
By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, March 25, 2002 (ENS) - Four new parks made their first appearance today on an annual list of the nation's 10 most endangered national parks. The list, which also includes six encore appearances by prominent U.S. parks, offers little overlap with another new parks list: the Department of Interior's inaugural slate of priority restoration projects in the nation's natural areas.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-25-06.html
EUROPEAN ANIMALS MAY SOON EAT ONLY NON-POLLUTING DIET
BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 25, 2002 (ENS) - Animal feed additive manufacturers will have to prove their products do not harm the environment before being allowed market access, the European Commission proposed today.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-25-02.html
NEW BIOSPHERE RESERVES CREATED IN POLAND AND UKRAINE
PARIS, France, March 25, 2002 (ENS) - Two new natural wetland areas on the borders of Poland and Ukraine were added by UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves on Friday, at the close of its biannual Council meeting in Paris.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-25-01.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: MARCH 25, 2002
Settlement Will Continue PCB Cleanup in Anniston
Lead Company to Buy Homes Near Smelter
Landlord Faces Jail Over Lead Paint Violations
Hurricanes Reduce Carbon Sequestration by Forests
Missouri Seeks Changes in River Management
Scientists Seek Climate Clues in Alaska
Memorial Trees Honor Terrorism Victims
Hotline Offers Wildlife Conflict Advice - Anytime
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-25-09.html
3/27/02
5:00:19 PM
Greetings from the Sarasota County Green Party
Ralph Nader will be bringing his Democracy Rising campaign to Tampa on April 13. With the desire to nurture grassroots democracy in Florida, progressive organizations around the state including WMNF radio, the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Green Party and many others have pooled their resources to support this groundshaking endeavor. The USF Sundome will be the site of this event, and Patti Smith, James Tokely, and a host of national and local talent will round out the evening\'s festivities. We anticipate the participation of more than 100 progressive organizations in the lobbies, halls, and main space of the arena.
Tickets cost 10 dollars in advance, and can be purchased several ways (kids under 12 get in free):
- online at http://www.democracyrising.org
- telephone 813-232-5300
- locally at Daddy Kool records
- locally at Peter\'s organic produce stand at the downtown Farmer\'s market
Come to Tampa on April 13: participate and get connected to a motivated and increasingly organized populist movement working steadfastly to reclaim our democratic ideals at the local, state, and national levels.
Thanks for reading, please stop by the site at:
3/27/02
4:57:46 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
PROBLEMS SWEPT UNDER THE AFGHAN
Soviet-era chemical agents; a pond full of sewage that children use as a play area; highly radioactive material -- these are just a few of the environmental and health hazards found so far in Kabul, Afghanistan, by U.N. peacekeepers and a team of U.N. scientists that began an environmental assessment of the country last week. The situation outside of the capital city is no better. About half of the nation's forests (which at their peak covered just 3 percent of the country) have been logged, leading to desertification. Water is in very short supply after a four-year drought, and what little remains is frequently contaminated; rates of water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrhea are high. Still, despite war, poverty, drought, and desperation, Henrik Slotte, who heads the U.N. Environment Programme's assessment unit, found room for optimism: "This is exactly the moment when you can turn the page and start over," he said.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Nicole Winfield, 25 Mar 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/03/25/international0315EST0473.DTL>
WHO'S THAT BREATHIN' THAT NASTRI AIR? NASTRI BOYS!
Ever since President Bush took office, the war against air pollution hasn't been going well -- but environmentalists do win the occasional battle. Case in point: The U.S. EPA's Pacific Southwest region chief, Wayne Hector Nastri, recently succeeded in convincing one of the biggest polluters in the Southwest to clean up its act. Tucson Electric Power Co. hoped to double production at its notoriously dirty coal-fired power plant in Springerville, Ariz., while keeping emissions levels the same (about 29,000 tons of sulfur and nitrogen oxides annually). Environmentalists and local regulators agreed that if the company wanted to expand the plant, it should install state-of-the-art emissions-control technology -- but in Washington, D.C., Jeffrey Holmstead, the Bush appointee who runs U.S. EPA air programs, urged Nastri to okay the expansion without mandating pollution controls. Nastri declined, and worked out a compromise whereby Tucson Electric will double its electricity output while reducing its emissions significantly over the next five years.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Gary Polakovic, 25 Mar 2002 <http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-000021564mar25.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dscience>
do good: Take action to preserve the Clean Air Act <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/air.asp?source=daily#grandfather>
GET ALONG LITTLE DOGIES
Yippee-ai-ay. After years of studies and legal actions, ranchers in California's Mojave Desert are being forced to remove cattle herds from almost half a million acres of federal land during the spring and fall, when threatened desert tortoises mate and forage in the area. Grazing cattle can crush tortoises or their burrows, eat their food, and trample the groundcover that protects them from predators. Federal land managers are building fences to keep cattle out, and ranchers face fines and penalties if their cattle are found in the restricted areas. Conservationists say the measures are entirely reasonable and necessary to protect the tortoises, but ranchers say the cattle round-ups are expensive and difficult; some see the protection measures as an attempt to bankrupt cattle-owners and drive them from the land.
straight to the source: Washington Post, Rene Sanchez, 24 Mar 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8513-2002Mar23.html>
PARK AND WRITHE
Air pollution, development, and funding cuts are just some of the problems facing the U.S. national parks system, according to the National Parks Conservation Association's annual report on the country's 10 most endangered parks. The diversion of water from the Rio Grande and air pollution from Mexico are threatening Big Bend National Park in Texas, the group says. Pollution from power plants is affecting air quality in the Great Smokies, and coastal development and a proposed oil-drilling project are threatening the Everglades. The report goes on to describe how motorized transportation in all of its manifold forms is putting other natural areas at risk. Consider, for example, highway construction in Georgia's Ocmulgee National Monument, increased cruise ship traffic in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Monument, and, of course, snowmobiles in Yellowstone. Other threatened areas cited by the NPCA include Montana's Glacier National Park and the Mojave National Preserve. (Sorry, tortoises).
straight to the source: CNN.com, 25 Mar 2002 <http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/03/25/endangered.parks/index.html>
read the report: National Parks Conservation Association <http://www.npca.org/across_the_nation/ten_most_endangered/>
only in Grist: A week in the life of Kevin Collins, National Parks Conservation Association <http://www.gristmagazine.com/week/collins073001.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action to increase funding to National Parks <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/forests.asp?source=daily#natlparks>
DIS SOLUTIA
The U.S. EPA and the Department of Justice plan to file a cleanup consent decree today with Solutia and Pharmacia (the company that owns Monsanto), in a move that could overrule any court-ordered cleanup of PCBs from a former Monsanto chemical plant in Anniston, Ala. Under the decree, the two companies would investigate the scope of contamination from the former plant and the resulting ecological and human health risks. The companies would also have to clean up the most contaminated areas, pay back the EPA for past investigative costs, and fund special education programs and a community advisory group in Anniston. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman defended the negotiated cleanup as better and faster than a Superfund listing, but critics said allowing the companies to perform the investigation was like letting the fox guard the henhouse.
straight to the source: Anniston Star, Elizabeth Bluemink, 23 Mar 2002 <http://www.annistonstar.com/news/2002/as-calhoun-0323-ebluemink-2c22x1330.htm>
3/27/02
4:57:18 PM
AlterNet Headlines
WITH THE PARTY BACK IN POLITICS, POPULISM IS REBORN
Lauri Apple, AlterNet
Jim Hightower's Rolling Thunder Down-home Democracy Tour kicked off to a thrilling start this weekend, potentially heralding a new surge of populist activism and politics.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12697
THE BLACK ANTI-HERO'S NEW HERO
Alex Kellogg, ColorLines
Denzel Washington recognized, at last weekend's Academy Awards, that he walked through a door opened by Sidney Poitier. With this Oscar, he also moves one step closer to burying a tired stereotype: the black anti-hero.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12695
MEDIA REFORMERS RALLY IN D.C.
Jordan Moss, AlterNet
A very small but spirited protest outside the FCC chastized Michael Powell's deregulation agenda and called for more public involvement in the media reform movement.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12696
BUSH TO AFGHANISTAN: WE MAKE WAR; KEEPING PEACE IS FOR OTHERS
David Corn, AlterNet
Bush is maneuvering to limit peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan -- showing he doesn't care much if the country disintegrates into warlord-ravaged territory.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12689
AMONG BELIEVERS AT A UFO CONVENTION
Joe Schoenmann, Las Vegas Weekly
The faithful gathered at Laughlin, Nev. to convene the annual International UFO Congress hoping to find confirmation that we are not alone in the infinite universe.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12693
YOUTH SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER
with Host Laura Flanders
The economic downturn has youth service providers facing fiscal crisis. Young activists speak out on Tuesday's Working Assets Radio. Tune in from 10-11am PT/1-2 ET; or call 866-798-TALK.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com
CHAINED MELODIES
Damien Cave, Salon
Copyright-holding corporations are pushing new laws and computer-crippling technologies in their war on piracy. But can anything keep geeks from copying the music and movies they crave?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12694
STARBUCKS BEANS NOT SO GREEN
Shireen Deen, Valley Advocate
Starbucks has been spinning themselves as a socially responsible company with environmentally beneficial business practices. A closer look reveals nothing of the sort.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12691
HUFFINGTON: POVERTY, THE PRESIDENT AND THE PEST
Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
Bush plans to significantly increase U.S. aid to poor nations over the next three years -- boosting the total foreign aid package 50 percent from $10 billion to $15 billion a year by 2006.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12692
NEXT STOP, LONDONISTAN
Patricia Zengerle, TomPaine.com
Experts say the real heartland of violent Islamic extremism is nowhere near President Bush's "axis of evil" -- it's in Western Europe, mainly Britain.
* In Global Affairs: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=31
SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION
Karen Charman, In These Times
The discovery of genetically engineered maize growing in Mexico, a country which has outlawed it, has raised the stakes on GMO's.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12682
A VERY STRANGE TIME CAPSULE
Josie Appleton, Spiked Online
Museums are gathering everything to do with 9/11 -- bits of rubble, dust masks, and even aspirins sent to relief workers. What explains this unprecedented rush to collect?
*In After 9/11: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=25
3/27/02
4:56:41 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.26
White House Tied To Alleged Terrorist Group Raided by FB I http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26A.FBI.Raids.htm
William Rivers Pitt | Enron: The Slow Burn
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26B.WRP.Enron.htm
Antonio Villaraigosa Rips Bush for "Pandering" to Hispanics
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26C.Bush.Pandering.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 31
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26D.Stonewall.htm
Backlash Grows Against White House Secrecy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26E.Against.Secrecy.htm
New Legislation Heavily Favors Polluters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26F.Favors.Polluters.htm
Labor Dissent Grows Over Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26G.Dissent.Grows.htm
Trapped Like Slaves on Brazilian Ranches
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26H.Like.Slaves.htm
Senate Still In Standoff Over Lost Nominee
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.26I.Senate.Standoff.htm
3/27/02
4:56:23 PM
"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts."
Henry David Thoreau
3/27/02
4:55:49 PM
FAIR
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
ACTION ALERT:
NPR's One-Sided "Liberal Media" Debate
March 25, 2002
National Public Radio's Morning Edition recently devoted two segments (3/20/02, 3/21/02) to allegations of media bias. Morning Edition host Bob Edwards explained that "one of the most common complaints about major news media, including NPR, is that they're not objective-- that they either lean too far to the right or too far to the left." Though the program cited a poll suggesting that both complaints are believed by substantial numbers of Americans (36 percent see a rightward slant, vs. 46 percent who see a tilt to the left), only one of those points of view got a full hearing on NPR.
In the first installment, NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams interviewed conservative authors Bernard Goldberg and William McGowan, former journalists who argue that media tilt to the left. For the second part of the series, rather than featuring progressive media critics with an opposing view, NPR instead chose to interview two media veterans-- former Time magazine editor and columnist Jack White and former CBS News producer and executive Ed Fouhy-- who were introduced with the observation that "most journalists reject the idea that their reporting is biased in any direction."
Goldberg and McGowan offered examples from their books (Goldberg's "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News" and McGowan's "Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism"). McGowan argues that efforts to increase diversity in the newsroom have led "to racial and ethnic and gender hypersensitivity and to a kind of narrow political orthodoxy," while Goldberg offered his claim that mainstream media tend to label conservatives more often than liberals.
The following day, White and Fouhy were asked to respond to Goldberg and McGowan's charges. But Fouhy's first statements suggested that he believed there was some truth to the conservative critique, offering his recollection of a staffer at CBS News who referred to gun owners as "right-wing nuts." While the experience and insight of long-time journalists is valuable, neither guest presented what would be described as a progressive alternative to the previous day's conservative voices.
White explained that public opinion about affirmative action was much more complicated than simple "pro" and "con" labels often assigned by the media, while Fouhy recalled that over the last 30 years, "the most controversial issue was abortion, and it was generally seen as either a pro-choice or a pro-life point of view. The fact is, of course, that many Americans are profoundly troubled by either point of view, but I never heard that expressed in the newsroom."
These recollections do little to answer the claims of liberal media bias offered by McGowan and Goldberg. At one point, White did offer the beginnings of a progressive media critique when he explained that the main media bias "is toward the status quo. It tends to downplay the complaints made by people who are seen as being on the fringe of the political spectrum, especially those on the left." Unfortunately, National Public Radio's truncated debate over media bias was a good example of that problem.
ACTION: Please contact National Public Radio and ask them to balance conservative critics of media with progressive critics of media.
CONTACT
Morning Edition
National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: (202) 513-2000
Fax: (202) 513-3329
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone.
Please cc mailto:fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
Source: http://www.FAIR.org
3/27/02
4:54:52 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
US reaches cleanup deal at Alabama PCBs site - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15187/story.htm
Black hole in US nuclear security - lawmaker - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15192/story.htm
FACTBOX - What is the Kyoto protocol? - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15186/story.htm
ANALYSIS - British companies warm to greenhouse gas trading - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15189/story.htm
NATO left lethal legacy in Kosovo - report - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15191/story.htm
Scottish fox hunters vow to fight ban at last hunt - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15196/story.htm
Russian refiners eye Euro-spec diesel market - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15199/story.htm
Ugandan officials slaughter man-eating crocodiles - UGANDA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15198/story.htm
Panama Guaymi Indians to sell humanely grown coffee - PANAMA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15195/story.htm
German Greens want petrol tax "developed further" - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15194/story.htm
German brewers file suit against recycling law - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15200/story.htm
French Communists attack Blair tendency in Jospin - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15190/story.htm
Greens support for France's Jospin under threat - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15193/story.htm
Stuart Energy stock jumps on a fuel-cell agreement - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15188/story.htm
Toadbusters wage war on warty foe - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15197/story.htm
3/27/02
4:51:11 PM
Speech by Fidel Castro at the International Conference on Financing for Development
Monterrey, March 21, 2002
Excellencies:
Not everyone here will share my thoughts. Still, I will respectfully say what I think. The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. Thus, the peoples believe less and less in statements and promises. The prestige of the international financial institutions rates less than zero. The world economy is today a huge casino. Recent analyses indicate that for every dollar that goes into trade, over one hundred end up in speculative operations completely disconnected from the real economy.
As a result of this economic order, over 75 percent of the world population lives in underdevelopment, and extreme poverty has already reached 1.2 billion people in the Third World. So, far from narrowing the gap is widening. The revenue of the richest nations that in 1960 was 37 times larger than that of the poorest is now 74 times larger. The situation has reached such extremes that the assets of the three wealthiest persons in the world amount to the GDP of the 48 poorest countries combined. The number of people actually starving was 826 million in the year 2001. There are at the moment 854 million illiterate adults while 325 million children do not attend school. There are 2 billion people who have no access to low cost medications and 2.4 billion lack the basic sanitation conditions. No less than 11 million children under the age of 5 perish every year from preventable causes while half a million go blind for lack of vitamin A.
The life span of the population in the developed world is 30 years higher than that of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa. A true genocide! The poor countries should not be blamed for this tragedy. They neither conquered nor plundered entire continents for centuries; they did not establish colonialism, or re-established slavery; and, modern imperialism is not of their making. Actually, they have been its victims. Therefore, the main responsibility for financing their development lies with those states that, for obvious historical reasons, enjoy today the benefits of those atrocities.
The rich world should condone their foreign debt and grant them fresh soft credits to finance their development. The traditional offers of assistance, always scant and often ridiculous, are either inadequate or unfulfilled. For a true and sustainable economic and social development to take place much more is required than is usually admitted. Measures as those suggested by the late James Tobin to curtail the irrepressible flow of currency speculation --albeit it was not his idea to foster development-- would perhaps be the only ones capable of generating enough funds, which in the hands of the UN agencies and not of awful institutions like the IMF, could supply direct development assistance with a democratic participation of all countries and without the need to sacrifice the independence and sovereignty of the peoples.
The Consensus draft, which the masters of the world are imposing on this conference, intends that we accept humiliating, conditioned and interfering alms. Everything created since Bretton Woods until today should be reconsidered. A farsighted vision was then missing, thus, the privileges and interests of the most powerful prevailed. In the face of the deep present crisis, a still worse future is offered where the economic, social and ecologic tragedy of an increasingly ungovernable world would never be resolved and where the number of the poor and the starving would grow higher, as if a large part of humanity were doomed. It is high time for statesmen and politicians to calmly reflect on this. The belief that a social and economic order that has proven to be unsustainable can be forcibly imposed is really senseless.
As I have said before, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry but they cannot kill ignorance, illnesses, poverty or hunger. It should definitely be said: "Farewell to arms!"
Something must be done to save Humanity!
A better world is possible!
Thank you.
Source: The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba to the United Nations 315 Lexington Avenue New York, N.Y. 10016
3/27/02
4:50:22 PM
Congressman Pete Stark: "It does smack of fascism"
Comments during debate on Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, Fiscal Year 2003
(House of Representatives - March 20, 2002)
Mr. Chairman, there are some of us who remember this world in the 1930s, when Hitler suspended the Bundestag to promulgate conservative ideology and not let people speak. It is a shame that the Republicans in the House, Mr. Chairman, have taken up that same ideology and are denying a chance for debate and open discussion of a budget. It does smack of fascism; and it is too bad, because the American people will recognize that and understand that in a free economy, and in a free country that created programs like Social Security and Medicare and special education and aid for dependent children and aid for people who are unable to care for themselves, for the disabled, that to deny them care is obscene.
I think it will be quite clear that, for whatever reason, whether it is deficits or anything else, that the overwhelming desire of the Republican Party is to destroy programs in the Federal Government, except those few intended for the very wealthy. Most of the colleagues who are screaming about the war never wore a uniform other than the Boy Scout uniform. And I would like to suggest, as I said before, none of them have worked in free enterprise, which they tout so loudly. And yet, because that is where the campaign contributions come from, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, that is where their allegiance is. They are forsaking the seniors who need health care and who need an economic safety net. They are forsaking our children by denying them the chance to come along and get an education.
I am sure the American public is going to recognize this, and I am sure they are going to recognize it when they see wasteful money spent on things like Star Wars, which will not work, and programs which do nothing except to pay for large defense contractors, who are related to former Republican Presidents, and I think they are going to see that this is an obscene, corrupt, and undemocratic attempt to harm those people who are most fragile in this country only to benefit the 1 or 2 percent of the very wealthiest. And I hope my colleagues will vote down this budget.
3/27/02
4:49:01 PM
Collapsing the doubts on warming
By Derrick Z. Jackson
IF RHODE ISLAND really did cleave off and disintegrate beneath the sea, that might make the evening news. Brown University, Newport, the Pawtucket Red Sox, and cheap flights on Southwest would suddenly be artifacts in Atlantis. The next great collapse would take out Harvard University, Cape Cod, Fenway Park, and turn the Big Dig's billions into the world's biggest pothole. Maybe you folks elsewhere in the country could do without some of our snooty institutions, but it would be easy to lay an equivalent template somewhere over your state and wipe out several places precious to you, like Broadway, Chinatown, and Yankee Stadium or Coke, UPS, and Delta in Atlanta or Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks in Seattle.
We have no idea how lucky we are that global warming has not yet come to that, washing away our coffee shops, stadiums, and property values. Whether we act before our luck runs out is another story. Down in Antarctica, a giant ice shelf that was at least 12,000 years old and 70 stories thick fractured into ice cubes in the space of five weeks. That is shocking by geological standards. While no one could say for sure if the particular collapse of the shelf known as Larsen B was directly due to global warming, there is little doubt that this is the kind of thing that would happen on a warmer planet.
''What we're seeing is pretty profound,'' said Ted Scambos, glaciologist for the National Snow and Ice Data Center. ''The polar regions have a way in which they amplify change. We're a water planet, and when you have an area that is at the freezing point, you can get some pretty strong feedback when snow or ice forms or melts. It is another message from the world's cold regions that profound things are happening.''
Scambos was quick to say over the telephone that not all of Antarctica is melting as fast as the wicked witch of the west. Some parts of the frozen continent show signs of thickening. Global warming theories include conflicting patterns of heat and cold across the planet. The inescapable overall fact is that the temperature at the earth's poles has risen 4.5 degrees in the last half-century, five times faster than the temperature of the rest of the planet.
Eighty percent of the world's ice is located in Antarctica. If it all melted, the world's sea level would rise more than 200 feet, destroying the coastal homes of the rich and famous and endangering hundreds of millions of the world's poor who have nowhere to move their shacks.
Many nations understand the facts. British Environment Minister Michael Meacher reacted to the collapse of Larsen B by calling it a ''wake-up call to the whole world.'' Meacher said, ''It's an indication of global warming which is extremely stark.''
The nation that produces the most greenhouse gases, the United States, is still sleeping behind the wheel of sport utility vehicles and frets more about anthrax from Osama than asthma from air-polluting companies. A stark example of how the United States stands stupidly apart from the rest of the world came last month when Eric Schaeffer resigned as director of the Environmental Protection Agency's office of regulatory enforcement. Schaeffer, a 12-year veteran who started at the EPA when President Bush's father was president, was in charge of monitoring power companies for pollution that he said kills 10,000 people a year, more than double the death toll in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Schaeffer said he could no longer do his job when the White House and industry lobbyists were ''working furiously to weaken the laws we are trying to enforce.'' Schaeffer said his agency's momentum in settling pollution cases ''has effectively stopped.'' In recent days, by the White House's own admission and inside documents leaked to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group critical of the Bush administration, the EPA is doing its best to let companies delay or avoid modernizing pollution controls and self-regulate their pollution levels.
Schaeffer said, ''We need to choose between children with asthma and influence peddlers who don't seem to care.''
The choice is also between a planet and a president who does not care. With Bush so invested in oil drilling, coal burning, and gaz guzzling, it will take a chunk of ice much bigger than the size of Rhode Island to fall off Antarctica. Bush's native Texas comes readily to mind, but then again, it did not matter to him that Houston had the worst air quality in the nation. Maybe when that city is drowned by the rising sea and the waters rush to the doorstep of Bush's ranch in Crawford, our president might look up to the sky and say, ''Houston, we have a problem.''
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/081/oped/Collapsing_the_doubts_on_warming+.shtml
3/27/02
4:46:38 PM
Collapsing the doubts on warming
By Derrick Z. Jackson
IF RHODE ISLAND really did cleave off and disintegrate beneath the sea, that might make the evening news. Brown University, Newport, the Pawtucket Red Sox, and cheap flights on Southwest would suddenly be artifacts in Atlantis. The next great collapse would take out Harvard University, Cape Cod, Fenway Park, and turn the Big Dig's billions into the world's biggest pothole. Maybe you folks elsewhere in the country could do without some of our snooty institutions, but it would be easy to lay an equivalent template somewhere over your state and wipe out several places precious to you, like Broadway, Chinatown, and Yankee Stadium or Coke, UPS, and Delta in Atlanta or Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks in Seattle.
We have no idea how lucky we are that global warming has not yet come to that, washing away our coffee shops, stadiums, and property values. Whether we act before our luck runs out is another story. Down in Antarctica, a giant ice shelf that was at least 12,000 years old and 70 stories thick fractured into ice cubes in the space of five weeks. That is shocking by geological standards. While no one could say for sure if the particular collapse of the shelf known as Larsen B was directly due to global warming, there is little doubt that this is the kind of thing that would happen on a warmer planet.
''What we're seeing is pretty profound,'' said Ted Scambos, glaciologist for the National Snow and Ice Data Center. ''The polar regions have a way in which they amplify change. We're a water planet, and when you have an area that is at the freezing point, you can get some pretty strong feedback when snow or ice forms or melts. It is another message from the world's cold regions that profound things are happening.''
Scambos was quick to say over the telephone that not all of Antarctica is melting as fast as the wicked witch of the west. Some parts of the frozen continent show signs of thickening. Global warming theories include conflicting patterns of heat and cold across the planet. The inescapable overall fact is that the temperature at the earth's poles has risen 4.5 degrees in the last half-century, five times faster than the temperature of the rest of the planet.
Eighty percent of the world's ice is located in Antarctica. If it all melted, the world's sea level would rise more than 200 feet, destroying the coastal homes of the rich and famous and endangering hundreds of millions of the world's poor who have nowhere to move their shacks.
Many nations understand the facts. British Environment Minister Michael Meacher reacted to the collapse of Larsen B by calling it a ''wake-up call to the whole world.'' Meacher said, ''It's an indication of global warming which is extremely stark.''
The nation that produces the most greenhouse gases, the United States, is still sleeping behind the wheel of sport utility vehicles and frets more about anthrax from Osama than asthma from air-polluting companies. A stark example of how the United States stands stupidly apart from the rest of the world came last month when Eric Schaeffer resigned as director of the Environmental Protection Agency's office of regulatory enforcement. Schaeffer, a 12-year veteran who started at the EPA when President Bush's father was president, was in charge of monitoring power companies for pollution that he said kills 10,000 people a year, more than double the death toll in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Schaeffer said he could no longer do his job when the White House and industry lobbyists were ''working furiously to weaken the laws we are trying to enforce.'' Schaeffer said his agency's momentum in settling pollution cases ''has effectively stopped.'' In recent days, by the White House's own admission and inside documents leaked to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group critical of the Bush administration, the EPA is doing its best to let companies delay or avoid modernizing pollution controls and self-regulate their pollution levels.
Schaeffer said, ''We need to choose between children with asthma and influence peddlers who don't seem to care.''
The choice is also between a planet and a president who does not care. With Bush so invested in oil drilling, coal burning, and gaz guzzling, it will take a chunk of ice much bigger than the size of Rhode Island to fall off Antarctica. Bush's native Texas comes readily to mind, but then again, it did not matter to him that Houston had the worst air quality in the nation. Maybe when that city is drowned by the rising sea and the waters rush to the doorstep of Bush's ranch in Crawford, our president might look up to the sky and say, ''Houston, we have a problem.''
Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/081/oped/Collapsing_the_doubts_on_warming+.shtml
3/27/02
4:46:21 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
MORE THAN 300,000 PROTEST AGAINST EU SUMMIT
From Common Dreams via the Agence France Presse
Protesters against a summit of the European Union gather in Barcelona for one of the largest and most peaceful marches against globalization.
THE LAST WORDS
by Christopher Orlet, The Vocabula Review
"With few exceptions, the last words of history's great players have been about as interesting and uplifting as a phone book," Christopher Orlet writes in his survey of swan songs.
WRONG TURN
by G.R. Anderson Jr., Minneapolis-St. Paul City Pages
-- Writer G.R. Anderson Jr. learns about the complexities of drunk driving law after he is arrested and charged with a DWI.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
3/27/02
4:45:43 PM
TomPaine.com
"Independent, commercial-free public affairs reporting and commentary."
DUBAI: MARKETING OASIS
The Evolution Of Consumer Culture
by Laocoön
"What will the United States look like when the marketeers finally manage to turn absolutely everything into a sales pitch? I fear it will look like Dubai."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5298
The Loyal Opposition
BUSH TO AFGHANISTAN: WE MAKE WAR
Keeping Peace Is For Others
by David Corn
Bush's minions are maneuvering to limit peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan. Does his administration care if the country disintegrates into warlord-ravaged territory?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5314
BREWING POVERTY AND VIOLENCE IN EL SALVADOR
by Mark Engler
While President Bush has emphasized U.S. aid to developing countries, experience in El Salvador shows how the economic policies he's promoting work to deepen poverty and impede progress toward human rights.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5313
Satire
BILLIONAIRES, PUBLIC INTEREST ANGELS AND THE FCC
Ignore Those Public-Interest Types, Warns Media Heiress
by Mya Cash
It's easy to poke fun at Federal Communication Commission Chairman Michael Powell's allegiance to the 'free' market -- but it's no joke.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5296
Book Excerpt
PERFECT STORM
Coming To A Coast Near You
by David Helvarg
From BLUE FRONTIER: Severe coastal storms are on the rise, and more homes than ever are in jeopardy. Will $520 billion in taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance become an unmanageable liability?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/4068