11/30/01
5:41:53 PM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
N'YUK, N'YUK, N'YUCCA
All the effort by the feds to determine whether Nevada's Yucca Mountain would be a suitable place to permanently store the country's nuclear waste can be summed up as "a failed scientific process," according to a draft report by the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency. The report, which has been obtained by several newspapers, comes at a difficult time for the Bush administration, which was expected to throw its weight behind the Yucca proposal this winter and push for the storage space to be opened by 2010. The GAO report says the Energy Department "is unlikely to achieve its goal of opening a repository at Yucca Mountain by 2010 and has no reliable estimate of when, and at what cost, such a repository could be opened."
straight to the source: Las Vegas Review-Journal, Steve Tetreault, 30 Nov 2001 <http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Nov-30-Fri-2001/news/17565454.html>
straight to the source: Washington Post, Eric Pianin, 30 Nov 2001 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36269-2001Nov29.html>
THE SKIPPER TOO?
The niftily named Carson wandering skipper -- a butterfly that is no bigger than a thumbnail -- has been given emergency protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The feds took the step yesterday to help preserve the butterfly's habitat in two counties along the northern border of Nevada and California. Bob Williams of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said officials were concerned that if water export proposals in the region went forward, the insect would go the way of the dodo. The wandering skipper was once plentiful in the region, but development has destroyed most of the butterfly's habitat.
straight to the source: Reno Gazette-Journal, Jeff DeLong, 30 Nov 2001 <http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/news/1007184774.php>
PASS THE JOINT VENTURE
Ford and Toyota are considering whether to jointly produce a gas-electric hybrid in North America. No deal has been signed yet, but the two companies have already selected the kind of vehicle and the technology that would be used, says John Wallace, executive director of Ford's alternative-propulsion division. Both companies have incentives to seal the deal. Toyota executive Shin Kanada said collaborating with Ford would "expand economies of scale in hybrids," bringing big cost savings to Toyota. Ford, meanwhile, has pledged to improve the fuel-efficiency of its SUVs 25 percent by 2005; partnering with Toyota, which has a head start in hybrid technology, could help the American automaker meet that goal.
straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, Norihiko Shirouzu, 30 Nov 2001 (access ain't free) <http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB1007073188358101440.djm>
do good: Take action and pledge to buy an eco-friendly car <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/autos.asp?source=daily#pledge>
ESSO S.O.S.
Activists are targeting 300 Esso gas stations in the U.K. tomorrow for boycotts, urging drivers to fill up their tanks elsewhere because Esso's parent company, the oil giant ExxonMobil, opposes the Kyoto treaty on climate change. Groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are helping to lead the StopEsso campaign, which has the support of such high-profile celebs as Bianca Jagger and Annie Lennox The campaign's coordinator, Lorne Stockman, predicted that the Saturday boycotts would be the largest global warming protest ever held in the country. He added, "It will be a very fluffy, peaceful, family-oriented demonstration."
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Stenfano Ambrogi, 30 Nov 2001 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13507/story.htm>
11/30/01
5:37:14 PM
GREENPEACE HALTS OIL TANKER OFF THE COAST OF SYDNEY
On Monday November 26, 2001, Greenpeace Australia took action against an oil shipment from the controversial Stuart Oil Shale Project near Gladstone, Queensland. Activists locked onto the port and starboard sides of the oil tanker Bow de Jin off Sydney's Port Botany, to prevent it from docking. The Stuart project is an attempt by Australian companies, Southern Pacific Petroleum and Central Pacific Minerals (SPP/CPM), to extract oil from shale rock. Greenpeace has been campaigning against the development of a shale oil industry in Australia since 1998 because of its greenhouse gas emissions and the need to phase out fossil fuels to stop dangerous climate change.
For more information, go to:
http://www.greenpeace.org.au/media/press_details.php?site_id=8&news_id=477
11/30/01
5:31:37 PM
The Nation, America's oldest weekly magazine, helped pioneer what has become, for better or worse, art criticism as a cultural institution in the United States.
Since the magazine's founding in 1865, celebrated writers on art, including Bernard Berenson, Clement Greenberg, Lawrence Alloway, Hilton Kramer, Max Kozloff, John Berger and Arthur Danto gave readers first-hand accounts of the destruction of Diego Rivera's Rockefeller Center murals; the culture war battles waged over arts funding and free expression and the debuts of artists like John Singer Sargent, Jackson Pollock and Willem deKooning. A youthful Henry James even reported on the famous lawsuit pitting John Ruskin against James McNeill Whistler.
Now, for the first time ever, all this material and much, much more has been collected in one place:
"Brushes With History," edited by Peter G. Meyer with an introduction by Arthur Danto, is a 500-page plus anthology of the best writings on art and the politics of art in the 136-year history of The Nation.
The collection also includes P.T. Barnum on museums, Christopher Hitchens on "degenerate art," Heywood Broun on the Artists Congress of 1936, Katherine Anne Porter on children's art, Katha Pollitt on the Brooklyn Museum of Art's "Sensation" show and Frank Lloyd Wright on skyscrapers. All material drawn directly from the pages of The Nation.
"Brushes" makes a great holiday present, and it's a terrific bargain at only $19.95. So buy two (or ten) today. You can order online at a sharp discount now at:
http://www.nationbooks.org/brushes.shtml#buy
And, with the holidays fast approaching, consider these other recent Nation Books releases for all those literate types on your gift list:
CINEMA NATION: The Best Writing on Film from The Nation Edited by Carl Bromley . Intro by Stuart Klawans . Foreword by Peter Biskind
http://www.nationbooks.org/cinema.shtml#buy
THE BEST OF THE NATION: 1990-2000 Edited by Victor Navasky and Katrina vanden Heuvel
http://www.nationbooks.org/bestof.shtml#rev
THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICA: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President Vincent Bugliosi . Forewords by Molly Ivins and Gerry Spence
http://www.nationbooks.org/bug.shtml#buy
CHANGE THE WORLD! Local Ways to Transform the Global Economy Edited by Mike Prokosch and Lara Raymond . Introduction by Naomi Klein
http://www.nationbooks.org/activist.shtml#buy
THE ZAPATISTA READER: A Literary Anthology Edited and Introduced by Tom Hayden
http://www.nationbooks.org/zap.shtml#buy
You can find further info on all of the above titles and more at the NationBooks website, directly accessible at:
And don't forget to check The Nation's site for regularly updated coverage of Afghanistan, the Beltway, the domestic front, and much, much more. All available currently at:
11/30/01
5:29:27 PM
Global Cease-Fire Day 21st September 2002
Dear Friend,
I am writing to thank you for signing the petition on the website http://www.peaceoneday.org in support of the creation of the first ever Global Cease-Fire Day. Your support fuelled the vision.
I am delighted to let you know that the Day has now been established. On 7th September 2001, a resolution put forward by the UK and Costa Rican governments, was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly establishing the United Nations International Day of Peace as an annual Global Cease-Fire Day with a fixed calendar date - 21st September - for people of all nations and faiths to know and observe.
Since the day has been formally established, our commitment now is to raise global awareness, and to initiate and support the coordination of life-saving activities on the Day. We have already received commitments from all over the world, indicating the involvement of hundreds of thousands of people on the Day (please website for details).
Respectfully, therefore, I would also like to ask if you would be willing to mark the Global Cease-Fire Day on 21st September 2002 in some way and communicate your commitment to us at mailto:info@peaceoneday.org Would you also be willing to contact 7 individuals (or organisations) with whom you are familiar, asking them to mark the Day and contact us with the details? All commitments will be placed on the website to inspire others to act similarly. Its not so much about the scale of the planned activity, its really about a commitment to act together as a global community.
Peace One Day continues to document this entire campaign on film, the full-length version of which will be distributed as widely as possible throughout the world contributing significantly to our global awareness campaign.
Please do not hesitate to contact us on the details below should you require any further information. Thank you for being a part of this undertaking. Your contribution is making a difference.
Yours sincerely, In peace
Jeremy Gilley Founder, Peace One Day
Peace One Day
Tel: +44 (0) 207 456 9180
Fax: +44 (0) 207 375 2007
11/30/01
5:25:08 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
PAYDAY PROFITEERS: PAYDAY LENDERS TARGET THE WORKING POOR
by Kari Lydersen, Multinational Monitor
-- Only a decade ago payday lenders were relatively rare, now the industry records a profit of more than $9 billion each year. How do they make so much money? Over a year-long period a borrower may pay as much as $4,000 on a $200 loan.
NERVE.COM'S FAVORITE MOVIE SEX SCENES
Web site review by Kate Garsombke
-- A list of favorite movie sex scenes from the sensual Nerve.com proves the best scenes need not involve sex nor animate objects.
CAPITOL EXHAUSTS ITS FLAG SUPPLY
by Ethan Wallison, Roll Call
-- A surge in the demand for American flags has faced Congress with filling 30,000 flag requests and a six-month backlog.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
11/30/01
5:21:16 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
INFLATED CHINESE FISHERIES DATA MASKS GLOBAL FISH DECLINE
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, November 29, 2001 (ENS) - Contrary tostatistics published by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which indicate that the global fisheries catch is stable, Canadian fisheries scientists have documented evidence that catches have been declining for over a decade.
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2001/2001L-11-29-02.html
EUROPE SETS BINDING LIMITS ON DIOXIN IN FOODS
BRUSSELS, Belgium, November 29, 2001 (ENS) - European Union Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne today welcomed the adoption by the European Council of a rule setting legally binding limits on the presence of dioxin and other contaminants in food.
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2001/2001L-11-29-01.html
KENYA SEEKS ENERGY SOURCES AS POWER FIRM POSTS RECORD LOSS
By Tom Osanjo
NAIROBI, Kenya, November 29, 2001 (ENS)- The government of Kenya has signed an exploration treaty with a British firm in a move that will see the world's deepest oil wells drilled off the East African coast. The deal is an attempt to expand the country's fuel supply as Kenya's dominant power firm announced the biggest loss in its history.
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2001/2001L-11-29-03.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: NOVEMBER 29, 2001
EPA's Citizen Complaint Office Paired with Inspector General
Anglers Recycle Fishing Line Before It Strangles Wildlife
Budget Shortfall Leaves Salmon Exposed
Bush Administration to Generate Green Power on Public Lands
Lawsuit Filed to Safeguard California State Fish
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/nov2001/2001L-11-29-09.html
11/30/01
5:18:46 PM
MOJOURNAL
NEW ON MOTHERJONES.COM
* Far-Right Recruiting Drive * - Web Exclusive: A range of racist and anti-immigrant groups are trying to turn the Sept. 11 terror attacks into a marketing tool.
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/rightrecruit.html
* Olympic Windfall * - Magazine: With help from his allies in Congress, a Utah businessman cashes in on the Winter Games.
http://www.motherjones.com/magazine/ND01/saltlake.html
* The All-Purpose Excuse * - Web Exclusive: Cartoon: Whatever your pet program is, war means we need it.
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/humor/excuse.html
* Beyond the Blasts * - Web Exclusive: Could North Korea be next?; military action misses the point; the Northern Alliance's dirty work; anti-terror appliances; Afghanistan's nervous neighbors; troop buildups in Turkey and Iraq; and the economic winner is ... China?; more ... http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/blast12.html#112001
* Bush Files * - Web Exclusive: Bush sued over presidential records; DOJ out of the loop on tribunals; administration OK's human pesticide testing; Congress demanding to be consulted; feminism of convenience?; creeping theocracy; more ...
http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/bushfiles41.html#112001
* Discuss * - Economists have called on Congress to pass a stimulus package that can kick-start the nation's economy, which is now in recession. The plan pushed through by House Republicans and quietly supported by the White House features a broad array of open-ended tax breaks. Can such an approach provide the short-term economic boost called for?
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/WebX?50@@.ee9a016
11/30/01
5:16:11 PM
Why US, rest of world differ on threat posed by Iraq
By Abraham McLaughlin | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein, at least to many in America, is a nefarious terrorist-harboring leader itching to use weapons of mass destruction against the US and Israel. Elsewhere in the world, including much of Europe, the Iraqi leader is viewed as an oil-rich dictator who has far more bluster than bite - and a knack for losing wars.
Which view is closer to the truth will help determine whether the United States - now contemplating the shape of Phase 2 of the war on terrorism - begins a major push to topple Mr. Hussein's regime.
At the least, Bush administration officials -from the president on down - are letting it be known that they've been thinking hard about Hussein since Sept. 11. That dark day made all realize the ruthlessness of unbridled terrorism - and that it's no longer enough simply to try to contain Hussein under the current UN sanctions, which are likely to be extended today. Just crossing one's fingers in the hope that the Iraqi leader won't use chemical or biological weapons has become an inadequate response, some argue.
Then, too, defense "hawks" within the administration - longtime advocates of ousting Hussein - are eager to use the momentum of the Afghanistan campaign to make a move to bring him down, perhaps in a sort of "Desert Storm 2."
"There's momentum building, and people are saying, 'Let's take on the entire beast' " of terrorism, including Iraq - "even if it means some extra expenditure of blood and treasure," says Michael Hudson, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University here.
The costs of confronting Saddam - either militarily or via diplomacy -could be huge for the US. In deciding whether a fight is worth the price, two things matter greatly: what weapons he has or could have in the near future, and under what circumstances he might use them.
Although United Nations inspectors have not been in Iraq for three years, some things are known about Saddam's weapons-building capability and history:
• Iraq acknowledged in 1995 that it had produced 29,526 liters (about 6,500 gallons) of biological agents, including anthrax and botulism toxins. UN inspectors also discovered sprayer nozzles and several coffin-shaped boxes that can be used to "aerosolize," or "weaponize," anthrax and other bacteria. Iraq insisted, plausibly, that the equipment made pesticides. The inspectors also say Iraq's major biological-weapons facility, al Hakum, was destroyed during their watch.
• A CIA report to Congress in early September disclosed that Iraq is working on an unmanned drone airplane, the L-29, that could deliver toxic weapons.
• Iraq has used profits from oil sales to develop a vast equipment-buying network in "at least 20 different countries," according to a sensitive UN report published in July's Commentary magazine. On Iraq's shopping list were "full-sized production lines, industrial know-how, high-tech spare parts, and raw materials" - all aimed at building weapons of mass destruction, according to the report.
• UN inspectors discovered that at one point Iraq had loaded biological and chemical weapons into missile warheads, although missiles it fired during the Gulf War did not contain such toxic weapons.
• The consensus among experts is that Iraq doesn't have atomic weapons yet - but not for lack of trying. A 1996 memo discovered by UN weapons inspector Tim McCarthy denied any members of Iraq's nuclear-weapons team the ability to "to retire, move, transfer, change housing, etc." without official permission. It's evidence, Mr. McCarthy says, that Saddam intends to keep his atomic-weapons team together. German intelligence predicted in February that Iraq will have nuclear weapons within three years.
• Two recent Iraqi defectors reportedly say they worked at a terrorist camp, which teaches assassination, hijacking, and kidnapping. They say non-Iraqi Arabs were frequently at the Baghdad camp. Iraqi intelligence officials are also reported to have met at least once with Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta.
Iraq has been trying to build weapons of mass destruction since the late 1970s. It had made great strides by 1991. But after the Gulf War, UN inspectors did slow it down.
"They have a relatively small existing capability and a very lethal 'breakout' capability" - meaning they can "really crank up production," says McCarthy, who works at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. He says Iraq is now much more self-sufficient in producing such weapons than in the past.
All this raises the question of whether Iraq would use these weapons - and against whom. Saddam used chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq war and against Iraqi Kurds in 1988. But he did not employ them in the Gulf War - perhaps because then-US Secretary of State James Baker warned of dire consequences.
Observers differ on what this history means today. Some say Iraq's decision not to use toxic weapons in the Gulf War proves Saddam is ultimately rational - and more concerned about his own survival than any crusade to wreak havoc on America or Israel. If true, then the threat of massive retaliation could continue to hold Saddam in check.
Supporters of this view include Iraqi neighbors such as Jordan, Syria, and even Russia, whose businesses have profited from selling goods and services to the embargo-encircled nation. This support is one of the great obstacles the US would face if it confronts Saddam.
"The international community essentially disagrees with the US on the nature of the threat," says Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland in College Park.
In America, though, the view is increasingly that Iraq's history of using toxic weapons - and supporting terrorists - hints at a willingness to at least supply these weapons for terrorist strikes. This prospect is probably what worries US officials most.
It's perhaps why President Bush recently called Saddam "evil" - a word previously reserved for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists.
Yet to date, Bush has demanded only that Saddam allow UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq. This appears to leave open the possibilities for whether and how to confront Saddam - especially as Phase 1 of the war continues in Afghanistan.
Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1130/p1s2-wogi.html
11/30/01
5:00:48 PM
t r u t h o u t | 11.30
SENATOR JOHN F. KERRY | A Better Definition of Patriotism
http://www.truthout.com/11.30A.Kerry.Patriot.htm
SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER | Questioning the President's Authority
http://www.truthout.com/11.30B.Specter.Authority.htm
WILLIAM SAFIRE | Enemy of My Enemy
http://www.truthout.com/11.30C.Safire.Enemy.htm
Russian Soldiers Set Up Camp In Center Of Kabul
http://www.truthout.com/11.30D.Russian.Camp.htm
Ex-FBI Officials Criticize Tactics On Terrorism Detention of Suspects Not Effective, They Say
http://www.truthout.com/11.30E.Ex.FBI.htm
Bush, House GOP Leadership Aim to Scuddle New Farmbill
http://www.truthout.com/11.30F.Farm.Bill.htm
*NEW* t r u t h o u t / Zogby Bush-O-Meter | Tracking Mr. Bush Daily
http://www.truthout.com/zogby.htm
11/30/01
4:57:01 PM
A Better Definition Of Patriotism Senator
John F. Kerry
Op-Ed, Bangor Daily News, November 29, 2001
In the days following the attacks of September 11 consumers reported cases of price gouging when they drove in to fill up their car. Some consumers even reported the price of gasoline soaring to five dollars a gallon. Even as millions of Americans pulled together, a few cynics hoped to profit from a shocked and apprehensive public. Today there's a different kind of opportunism at work in our nation's capitol. Under the guise of national security and economic stimulus, some want to scare Americans into drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Destroying a wildlife refuge won't make America any safer. There must be a better definition of patriotism than tapping public anxiety to pass bad public policy. Now is a time to summon our nation's hopes and strengths; not a time to play on it fears.
What's needed in a debate too often characterized by an instinct for the symbolic, is truth. America does face serious energy challenges. Our dependence on oil makes us susceptible to price spikes, entangles us in distant disputes and puts our military in harm's way. And oil money surely funds terrorism. But drilling in the Arctic Refuge won't change any of this.
Those who insist on portraying drilling in the Arctic Refuge as an urgent matter of national security do a disservice to the American public. Arguing that the wildlife refuge may produce as much oil as we import from Saudi Arabia- home to patrons of terrorism and a potentially unreliable exporter - is simply false. Under even the most optimistic scenarios in which the Refuge produces 1 million barrels per day starting in 2020, we and the world will continue to buy billions of dollars of oil from Saudi Arabia.
Drilling in the Refuge is also incorrectly characterized as a matter of economic security. Proponents cite a 10-year old report funded by the American Petroleum Institute predict that drilling will create more than 700,000 jobs. This claim is based largely on that has been contradicted by independent assessments, including from the Congressional Research Service. More likely, drilling will create a tiny fraction of the jobs predicted by the oil industry. And most importantly, it won't help lift the economy outof recession.
Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge won't make Americans safer, and it won't make our economy stronger. We can't drill our way to national or economic security. But neither can we stand by and merely condemn short-sighted policy proposals. Americans deserve - and our national security and economic needs demand - an energy policy for the future.
Our only long term answer, however, is to promote true energy independence - and to do so requires innovation. In World War II America printed a poster with the banner "INVENT FOR VICTORY." The nation must once again be challenged to make innovation a weapon in our national defense -- investing in a Manhattan Project that accelerates the development of breakthrough technologies like hydrogen fuel cells which hold the greatest promise to revolutionize our energy system. Fuel cell technology to power cars, trucks, buses, ships and trains exists today. The challenge is making them affordable and deploying them throughout the economy.
Making this mission a success will make America safer -- it will also make us more prosperous. America can create more jobs investing in efficient and renewable energy technologies than investing in oil. The Tellus Institute estimates that 900,000 jobs can be created from investments in efficient transportation. The Energy and Resources Group at the University of California estimates that generating 10 percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources will create more than 2 million jobs - good jobs designing, machining, manufacturing, distributing, building and maintaining a domestic energy system.
Honesty must drive a comprehensive energy plan for the nation: neither drilling nor conservation, efficiency and renewable energy will bring immediate national or economic security. There are no easy answers. The country needs to increase domestic oil production, but given its limited benefits we should expand production in an environmentally sound manner -protecting the Wildlife Refuge but exploring the more than 25 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico open for drilling today but not developed. We can also reduce our dependence on oil and susceptibility to price spikes through efficiency: making our transportation system more efficient by investing in fuel efficient cars, rail and public transit and diversifying our fuel base, particularly in the transportation sector by relying more on natural gas, especially in commercial and government vehicles; pressing ahead aggressively with domestic renewable fuels like biomass ethanol. But just as the war on terrorism tests American resolve, so too must we be prepared for a long and sustained effort in changing our energy policy.
It's time to call on America's strength, ingenuity, creativity and invention, to open a new front in the war on terrorism - and to support it with a national effort that rivals President Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon. Rather than put false hopes in largely symbolic acts like drilling in the Arctic Refuge, a real marketplace for renewable energy must be created to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and prepare us for a different - and far less predictable -geopolitical landscape.
Source: http://www.bangornews.com
11/30/01
4:35:52 PM
World Trade Center: Did the government know before the attack?
Did the government have knowledge before the attack?
"How nothing could have been picked up [by U.S. intelligence agencies regarding the coming attack] is beyond me."
- Kenneth Katzman, Terrorism Expert, Congressional Research Service
According to the information provided by the mainstream media the attack upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon caught the U.S. government by complete surprise. There were no efforts to prevent the attack before it was launched and no steps taken to stop it after it was underway. But a surprising amount of information has come to light since September 11 that supports the conclusion that the government knew quite a bit about the attack beforehand. Was it a massive failure of our intelligence capability or was the failure to act intentional?
Pertinent Items
1.. David Schippers, The Democrat from Chicago, who served as Counsel to the House Managers during the Clinton impeachment proceedings, was interviewed on October 10, 2001. He represents a group of FBI agents in Chicago and Minnesota who state that they are not being permitted to arrest certain terrorists. They warned that there was going to be an attack on lower Manhattan. They were willing to testify under oath about the information that they had uncovered. Schippers called top government officials in Washington before September 11. All said they would get back to him but he heard nothing from any of them. The transcript of the interview is at:
http://www.infowars.com/transcript_schippers.html
1.. Although the media has said little about it, there is abundant and clear evidence that forewarned investors profited handsomely from their knowledge of the WTC attack by large purchases of options. "Put options" provide the holder a highly leveraged profit potential where stocks drop in price. There were heavy purchases of put options on stocks that were particularly harmed by the WTC attack on the days just before the attack. Morgan Stanley's main office was in the WTC and heavy purchases of put options were made just a few days before the attack. The two airlines, American and United, which had planes destroyed in the attack were the subject of heavy option purchases just before the attack.
"Shares in Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Co. which occupied 22 floors of the 110 story Two World Trade Center, experienced pre-attack option trading of more than 25 times the usual volume in put options, according to Bloomberg data."
"One day before two American Airlines jets were hijacked and crashed, 1,535 contracts [each contract is for 100 options] changed hands on options that let investors profit if AMR stock falls below $30.00 per share before Oct. 20. That was almost five times the total number of those put options traded before Sept. 10. AMR shares fell $11.70 [on the first day of trading after the attack] to $18."
The connection with the CIA and Deutsche Bank's Alex Brown unit that handled at least one of the trades - which has been left unclaimed with a profit of $2.5 million - is reported by Michael C. Ruppert. See his report at:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/illegaltrades.html
11/30/01
4:31:53 PM
Bush Administration Quietly Overturning Environmental Rules in Name of Security
In the last two months, the Bush administration has proceeded with several regulations, legal settlements and legislative measures intended to reverse Clinton-era environmental policies.
http://www.truthout.com/11.25D.Bush.Env.Sec.htm
America's Oil Habit Helped Turn U.S. Citizens Into Targets
http://www.truthout.com/11.26B.Cost.of.Oil.htm
Connecting the Dots | A Hard Look at the Road to 9-11
http://www.truthout.com/11.26C.Connect.Dots.htm
FBI Is Building a 'Magic Lantern'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3371-2001Nov22
Software Would Allow Agency to Monitor Computer Use
LOTS of info on 8,500 companies and their 14,000 brands
http://www.transnationale.org/anglais/default.htm
11/30/01
4:28:21 PM
Journal Axes Gene Research On Jews And Palestinians
by Robin McKie
A keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal.
Academics who have already received copies of Human Immunology have been urged to rip out the offending pages and throw them away.
Such a drastic act of self-censorship is unprecedented in research publishing and has created widespread disquiet, generating fears that it may involve the suppression of scientific work that questions Biblical dogma.
'I have authored several hundred scientific papers, some for Nature and Science, and this has never happened to me before,' said the article's lead author, Spanish geneticist Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, of Complutense University in Madrid. 'I am stunned.'
British geneticist Sir Walter Bodmer added: 'If the journal didn't like the paper, they shouldn't have published it in the first place. Why wait until it has appeared before acting like this?'
The journal's editor, Nicole Sucio-Foca, of Columbia University, New York, claims the article provoked such a welter of complaints over its extreme political writing that she was forced to repudiate it. The article has been removed from Human Immunology's website, while letters have been written to libraries and universities throughout the world asking them to ignore or 'preferably to physically remove the relevant pages'. Arnaiz-Villena has been sacked from the journal's editorial board.
Dolly Tyan, president of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, which runs the journal, told subscribers that the society is 'offended and embarrassed'.
The paper, 'The Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations', involved studying genetic variations in immune system genes among people in the Middle East.
In common with earlier studies, the team found no data to support the idea that Jewish people were genetically distinct from other people in the region. In doing so, the team's research challenges claims that Jews are a special, chosen people and that Judaism can only be inherited.
Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East share a very similar gene pool and must be considered closely related and not genetically separate, the authors state. Rivalry between the two races is therefore based 'in cultural and religious, but not in genetic differences', they conclude.
But the journal, having accepted the paper earlier this year, now claims the article was politically biased and was written using 'inappropriate' remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its editor told the journal Nature last week that she was threatened by mass resignations from members if she did not retract the article.
Arnaiz-Villena says he has not seen a single one of the accusations made against him, despite being promised the opportunity to look at the letters sent to the journal.
He accepts he used terms in the article that laid him open to criticism. There is one reference to Jewish 'colonists' living in the Gaza strip, and another that refers to Palestinian people living in 'concentration' camps.
'Perhaps I should have used the words settlers instead of colonists, but really, what is the difference?' he said.
'And clearly, I should have said refugee, not concentration, camps, but given that I was referring to settlements outside of Israel - in Syria and Lebanon - that scarcely makes me anti-Jewish. References to the history of the region, the ones that are supposed to be politically offensive, were taken from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and other text books.'
In the wake of the journal's actions, and claims of mass protests about the article, several scientists have now written to the society to support Arnaiz-Villena and to protest about their heavy-handedness.
One of them said: 'If Arnaiz-Villena had found evidence that Jewish people were genetically very special, instead of ordinary, you can be sure no one would have objected to the phrases he used in his article. This is a very sad business.'
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0%2C6903%2C605798%2C00.html
11/30/01
3:37:39 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
WTO pact seen boosting Bush trade bill prospects - VENEZUELA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13516/story.htm
US socially-screened investments grow despite market slump - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13523/story.htm
Alaska oil-search plans favor western North Slope - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13520/story.htm
EPA gives refiner relief in making low-sulfur fuel - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13515/story.htm
US group joins push to identify key bird habitats - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13509/story.htm
UPDATE - UK to set up national nuclear liabilities body - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13513/story.htm
'Slash and burn' key to growing mahogany trees - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13510/story.htm
Greens to protest at 300 Exxon UK filling stations - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13507/story.htm
Scientists find GM material in native Mexican corn - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13522/story.htm
World zoos to help beastly Kabul menagerie - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13524/story.htm
Earth Summit in S.Africa hit by Sept 11 events - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13514/story.htm
Ukraine's Kuchma dismisses EBRD nuclear loan terms - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13512/story.htm
Kyoto pact could see weak NZ economic growth - NBNZ - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13519/story.htm
Mexico City's foul air damages young lungs - study - MEXICO http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13506/story.htm
Lithuanian officials investigating Butinge oil leak - LITHUANIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13508/story.htm
German CHP law misses parliamentary vote deadline - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13517/story.htm
UPDATE - Belgium presses for radical reform of EU - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13518/story.htm
Austria, Czechs reach accord on Temelin plant - EU - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13511/story.htm
Manatees, sloths fly from Guyana to Billund Airport - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13525/story.htm
Western Canadian beetle epidemic spreading rapidly - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13521/story.htm
11/30/01
3:35:37 PM
AlterNet Headlines
Save the Date! AlterNet's first live Web Cast, a discussion of "Visions for a Safer World," will air on Thursday, Dec. 6, 4:30 PST.
http://www.alternet.org/visions
ALTERNET READERS CREATE ONLINE TOOL FOR PEACE A group of activists and programmers, who met through AlterNet's message boards, have created a tool that allows users to send "E-Cards for Peace." If you want to help spread a message of progressive patriotism -- or just want to read the inspiring story of how the project was born -- visit:
Or check out the message boards where it all began:
CONFOUNDING CARNIVORE: HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ONLINE PRIVACY
Omar J. Pahati, AlterNet
Recent anti-terrorism legislation has given Carnivore -- the FBI's online snooping tool -- increased powers. But privacy-minded citizens can foil the Feds with a few simple tools.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11986
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION EASIER TO GET THAN EVER
Tamara Straus, AlterNet
The end of the Cold War was supposed to mark the end of the arms race. Instead, weapons of mass destruction are proliferating. After 9-11, this reality is getting harder to ignore.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11989
LATTE LIBERALS DROPPING THEIR SUVS AFTER 9/11
Michelle Chihara, AlterNet
In an act of guilty patriotism, liberal SUV owners are finally swapping their gas-guzzling behemoths to help reduce America's unsustainable dependence on foreign oil.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11984
AFGHANISTAN SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF AN AID WORKER
Bob Geary, Independent Weekly
The Rev. Ray Buchanan was in Northern Afghanistan last month at a time when American B-52 bombers were still trying to dislodge Taliban troops from the hills near the Northern Alliance headquarters at Khojja Boddin.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11985
MEDIA MASH: THE DILDO BANDITO; HOME DEPOT CENSORSHIP?
Don Hazen, AlterNet
This week from the Masher: The Dildo Bandito strikes Boulder ... The timely film "Focus" ... Mark Green, media victim ... Arsenic ads censored due to Home Depot ties?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11992
HOW THE MILITARY TRIBUNALS WILL REALLY WORK
David Turnley, AlterNet
A list of shocking rules for Bush's military tribunals, including "If a lawyer cannot be found for the defendant a suitable chimpanzee will serve as counsel."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11983
ALTERNATE REALITIES
Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman blasted TV coverage of economic issues for ignoring "the whole picture," a reminder of what U.S. business reporting often overlooks.
* In Media Culture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
WHAT WERE THEY SMOKING?
Daniel Forbes, Salon
A Texas Clear Channel radio station agreed to host a show on marijuana decriminalization. It has never made it on the air.
* In Drug Reporter: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17
FAR-RIGHT RECRUITING DRIVE
Yigal Schleifer, MotherJones.com
A range of racist and anti-immigrant groups are trying to turn the Sept. 11 terror attacks into a marketing tool.
*In Human Rights USA: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=22
11/30/01
3:30:34 PM
EMS Update - Nov. 29, 2001
New Labeling System Aims to Protect Coral Reefs
A new certification system unveiled by the Marine Aquarium Council enables aquarium hobbyists to more easily shop for fish and other organisms that were collected in a sustainable way and handled to ensure optimal health.
Press release:
http://www.ems.org/marine_aquarium_trade/zz.fenton.01.11.28.html
Fact sheets and resources:
http://www.ems.org/marine_aquarium_trade/facts.html
House Passes Price-Anderson Act
Public interest groups reacted angrily when the House passed the Price-Anderson Act this week by voice vote with few members actually present. The act, which still faces a Senate vote, limits the liability of nuclear plants in the event of an accident by transferring costs to taxpayers.
Safe Energy Communication Council press release:
http://www.safeenergy.org/pr112801.htm
Taxpayers for Common Sense statement:
http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/Press%20Releases/11-27-01price-anderson.htm
11/29/01
6:56:47 PM
SojoNet News Daily Headlines
U.N. Deadlocked on Anti-Terrorism Treaty
The key sticking points in the draft treaty revolve round several politically sensitive issues: How to define terrorism, distinguish terrorist organisations from liberation movements, and handle activities of national armed forces perceived as acts of terrorism.
http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/oct01/01_13_005.html
U.S. Food Sale Is Hailed by Cuban Minister
Though emergency U.S. food sales have been approved to aid Cuban victims of Hurricane Michelle, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo by a vote of 167 to 3, with only the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands opposed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31600-2001Nov28.html
U.S., Allies at Odds Over Aid Strategy
A rift has opened between the United States and its key allies over the Bush administration's reluctance to deploy allied troops in Afghanistan to help safeguard the delivery of humanitarian aid.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000095000nov29.story
Al Qaeda Link Seen in Only a Handful of 1,200 Detainees
"Initially, it was a huge sweep, and it seemed like there was some basis for thinking these people might have some information on the terrorists. But as things have gone on, it has come to seem very broad and overreaching, a fishing expedition instead of a targeted law enforcement effort."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/29/national/29DETA.html
New technology could make for more fuel efficient cars--and soldiers
New technology unveiled this week could pave the way for a new generation of significantly more fuel efficient and quieter automobiles, generators and power plants. The Pentagon is also particularly interested because, as it produces almost no detectable noise or electrical pollution, the device would aid covert operations.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13486/story.htm
House OKs 'Conflict Diamonds' Bill
The House approved a bill Wednesday that seeks to stem the sale of "conflict diamonds" used to fund civil wars in Africa.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011128/pl/conflict_diamonds_5.html
The hostage nation
The most recent report of the UN secretary-general, in October 2001, says that the US and UK governments' blocking of $4 billion of humanitarian supplies is by far the greatest constraint on the implementation of the oil-for-food program.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,608639,00.html
Economic Stimulus Package: Pork in Sheep's Clothing
The 'Economic Stimulus Package' talk making its way around Washington is just old-style pork hiding out with the flock of campaign-contribution-concubines (Congress). It's not capitalist economics, it's corporate socialism.
http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/11/19/2.html
11/29/01
6:51:28 PM
Public Citizen
Don't Be Fooled: Dynegy Still Wins, Consumers Lose With "Collapse" of Dynegy/Enron Merger
Dynegy Seeks Control of Enron's Pipelines, Guaranteeing Monopolistic Control
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen warned today that unless government regulators block Dynegy's acquisition of Enron's Northern Natural Gas Co., millions of consumers will be vulnerable to noncompetitive pricing in electricity and natural gas. The acquisition would make Dynegy America's newest and largest vertically integrated energy company.
Although Dynegy's acquisition of Enron was called off, Dynegy still is trying to acquire Enron's most lucrative asset. Comprising two-thirds of Enron's 25,000 thousand miles of domestic natural gas pipelines, the Northern Natural Gas line runs from fields in Texas' Permian Basin to 14 states throughout the Midwest, Southwest and West.
According to news reports, Dynegy used $1.5 billion from its part owner, ChevronTexaco, to provide liquidity to Enron after the merger was announced. Now, Dynegy says it plans to claim 100 percent of the equity in Northern Natural Gas, which was used as collateral for the transaction. BusinessWeek recently estimated the pipeline is worth $2.25 billion.
Although the pipeline subsidiary is saddled with debt and recent flat profits, the 16,500 miles of Northern's pipeline will connect ChevronTexaco's domestic natural gas production (ChevronTexaco controlled 15 percent of the nation's natural gas production in 2000) and Dynegy's electricity generation and power marketing capacity, providing unlimited profiteering opportunities.
"The Dynegy/Enron merger has not collapsed, because Dynegy has gotten the only thing it wanted all along: Enron's natural gas pipelines," said Tyson Slocum, research director for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy & Environment Program. "Now ChevronTexaco can connect the dots between its nearly three billion cubic feet of daily domestic natural gas production and Dynegy's 23,500 megawatts of electricity generation, since two-thirds of its electricity is generated by natural gas. This synergy of collusion will create America's largest vertically integrated energy company, enabling Dynegy to charge its customers higher prices for natural gas and electricity, and force its power generation competitors to pay monopolistic prices for natural gas."
Public Citizen is a consumer advocacy organization with 150,000 members. For more information on energy and other consumer issues, please visit;
11/29/01
6:46:48 PM
China, U.N. challenged Over fish
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Nov. 28 — Challenging China as well as a United Nations agency, scientists writing in the journal Nature calculated that a numbers game is misrepresenting fish stocks worldwide. “Misreporting by countries with large fisheries” is creating a false sense that oceans are still abundant, they wrote.
BASED AT THE University of British Columbia at Vancouver, the scientists found that global catches, which were thought to be increasing during the 1990s by 700 million pounds of fish per year, actually have been decreasing by nearly 800 million pounds annually. Just one group, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, compiles global fisheries statistics, but it relies on voluntary reporting of catches from countries to estimate the amount of fish the oceans hold. The new studies being announced Thursday call into question the veracity of FAO figures and its reporting system. “FAO must generally rely on the statistics provided by member countries, even if it is doubtful that these correspond to reality,” authors Reg Watson and Daniel Pauly said. Moreover, by subtracting just one fish from the equation, the abundant Peruvian anchoveta, which is used only for fish meal and whose population fluctuates due to El Nino, an even more striking decrease was apparent: 1.5 billion pounds a year less seafood available for human consumption. “Misreporting by countries with large fisheries, combined with the large and widely fluctuating catch of species such as the Peruvian anchoveta, can cause globally spurious trends,” Watson and Pauly wrote.
TRACKING A DECLINE Since 1988, when the world’s seafood supply peaked at 34 pounds a person each year, the combined effects of overfishing and increasing human populations have reduced the amount of fish and shellfish available on Earth to only about 25 pounds a person each year, according to the findings. And this trend is projected to continue rapidly downward to less than 17 pounds a person each year by 2020. Using statistics gathered by the FAO since 1950, the scientists created maps of world fisheries catches and then built a computer model to predict catch size in different ocean regions. The model showed China’s reported catches were unrealistically high when compared with catches from other ocean areas that have similar characteristics such as depth, temperature and biological productivity. “The greatest impact of inlated global catch statistics is the complacency that it engenders,” the scientists concluded. “There seems little need for public concern, or intervention by international agencies, if the world’s fisheries are keeping pace with people’s needs. If, however, as the adjusted figures demonstrate, the catches of world fisheries are in general decline, then there is a clear need to act.”
STANDING UP TO CHINA The findings came as little surprise to Lee Alverson, a global fisheries consultant in Seattle who headed research for the National Marine Fisheries Service in the Northwest and Alaska from 1970 to 1980. “It takes a lot of nerve to make the sort of accusation they did about China, but there were a lot of scientists who felt nervous about those numbers,” Alverson said. “If any of the nations are putting bogus numbers into the accounting process, then our ability to assess if overfishing is going on is in jeopardy.” Pauly said the world community must end overfishing if it is to meet future food demands. The new studies, he said, are “dashing hopes that the sea can continue to meet our growing demand for fish.”
BILL BEFORE CONGRESS A U.S.-based conservation group urged officials and lawmakers to take notice of the study. “This is a wake-up call to all fisheries managers especially those in the U.S. you can’t make good management decisions based on poor data and that’s exactly what wešve been doing here,” Gerald Leape, director of the Marine Conservation Program, said in a statement. “Right now, we don’t even know the status of two-thirds of all the fish stocks in U.S. waters.” “There is currently legislation, The Fisheries Recovery Act of 2001, before Congress that would eliminate this problem,” he added. “This crisis deserves the immediate and full attention of Congress.” And a study being published Friday in the journal Science found that protecting marine reserves offers a realistic way of enhancing fish stocks. “The study provides new evidence that marine reserves really can enhance nearby fisheries,” said study co-author Callum Roberts, a professor at Britain’s University of York. “It provides critically needed data that shows marine reserves can deliver the gains to fisheries that have long been predicted by theory,” he told MSNBC.com.
The Associated Press and MSNBC.com’s Miguel Llanos contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.com/news/664237.asp?cp1=1
11/29/01
6:38:25 PM
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE <http://www.gristmagazine.com>
FEELING HOT, HOT, HOT
Unless you live in Greenland, you've probably already figured out that it's been an unusually warm couple of months here on Planet Earth. How warm? Well, September and October were hotter this year than ever before, and so far, 2001 is the second-warmest year overall, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. What's it all mean? Climate expert Leonie Haimson takes the earth's temperature, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: How's the weather? -- in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/weather112801.asp>
HELP, AQUAMAN!
Global fish stocks are dramatically lower than reported by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, scientists at the University of British Columbia announced today in an article in the journal Nature. The scientists' findings -- that global catches are decreasing by nearly 800 million pounds per year -- directly contradict those of the FAO, the body responsible for determining fish stocks, which concluded that catches were increasing by 700 million pounds per year. The Nature article accuses China of dramatically inflating its catch numbers, thereby distorting global figures. The truth, the authors say, is that overfishing and population expansion have led to a decrease in total available seafood from 34 pounds per person per year in 1988 to only about 25 pounds per person per year today. They predict a drop to less than 17 pounds by 2020.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 28 Nov 2001 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/664237.asp>
do good: Take action to help the oceans <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/oceans.asp?source=daily>
RIGHT TURNABOUT
The outlook is grim for the Northern right whale, one of the most endangered animals in the world, but simple measures could bring the species back from the brink of extinction, according to a report released today. The authors of the report, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, concluded that if just two female right whales escaped needless death per year, the species -- which currently boasts just 300 members -- could survive. The whales migrate from the eastern seaboard of the U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico, through some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. As a result, they are susceptible to death by collision or entanglement in fishing nets. The scientists said that modest steps such as designing nets from which the whales could break free could help save the species.
straight to the source: BBC News, 28 Nov 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1681000/1681532.stm>
11/29/01
6:32:25 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
NATTERING NETWORKS: HOW MASS MEDIA FAILS DEMOCRACY
by Jessica Clark, LiP Magazine
-- Media companies' competing interests have affected the coverage of the war in Afghanistan and the meaning of democracy in the United States.
EXPANDED CONSERVATION ASSISTANCE FOR FAMILY FARMERS?
by Environmental Working Group
-- Proposed farm legislation may open up subsidies to smaller farmers, paving the way for increased conservation practices in agriculture.
FORGET THE JOKES, FRUITCAKE IS SERIOUS BUSINESS
by Jason Zasky, Failure Magazine
-- Failure magazine writer, Jason Zasky travels to the Fruitcake Capital of America, Claxton, Georgia, to get the scoop on fruitcake.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
11/29/01
6:27:21 PM
Public Citizen
FDA Ignoring Evidence That New Chemicals Created in Irradiated Food Could Be Harmful
Groups Urge FDA to Halt Irradiated Food Approvals Until New Chemicals Are Tested for Safety
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ignored growing evidence that a new class of chemicals formed when food is irradiated could be harmful, according to a report released today by Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety. The groups are urging the FDA to refrain from legalizing irradiation for any additional types of food until the new chemicals are tested for safety.
The chemicals, called cyclobutanones, do not occur naturally anywhere on Earth. They recently were found to cause genetic damage in rats, and genetic and cellular damage in human and rat cells. The groups' report, Hidden Harm, details how the FDA has ignored this unique class of chemicals, which are created in many irradiated foods that the agency has legalized for sale in this country - including beef, pork, chicken, lamb, eggs, mangoes and papayas. It is expected that cyclobutanones also would be formed in many other foods the FDA is currently considering to legalize for irradiation.
The organizations today also released a sworn affidavit of toxicologist William Au, who was retained by the groups to independently review the risks posed by cyclobutanones and other chemicals formed by irradiation that could cause genetic damage.
Along with a letter outlining numerous health concerns caused by food irradiation, the groups filed Hidden Harm and Au's affidavit with the FDA to oppose pending petitions to legalize irradiation for processed foods, which comprise 37 percent of the typical American's diet; molluscan shellfish, such as clams and oysters; crustacean shellfish, such as lobsters and shrimp; and meat products. A fifth petition seeks to double the maximum dose of radiation to which poultry can legally be exposed.
"The risk that the FDA is taking with the health of the American people cannot be overstated," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "If government officials knowingly allow people to eat food that contains these chemicals, they are courting a major public health disaster."
Though federal regulations require the FDA to determine whether food additives proposed for human consumption are likely to cause cancer, birth defects or other health problems, the agency has not done so for cyclobutanones, nor have agency officials explained why they have failed to do so. Under federal law, irradiation is considered a food additive.
Americans likely are unwittingly eating irradiated foods containing cyclobutanones. Though most irradiated food sold in stores must be labeled, there is no such requirement for restaurants, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other institutional settings. And there is no labeling requirement for foods with irradiated ingredients, except those containing irradiated meat. Moreover, due to a lack of reporting requirements for food companies, it is unknown how much irradiated food is sold in the U.S., or where.
"Children are likely to be especially vulnerable to the risks of these untested chemicals in their food," said Peter T. Jenkins, policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety. "It is beyond me why the FDA would take a chance by exposing American children in this way. The science is against it."
Au, an environmental toxicology professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, is internationally recognized for his work on the toxicological mechanisms that induce human disease. For more than 20 years he has taught, published peer-reviewed research and served on expert committees. He has received numerous awards, and has published or co-published more than 100 articles.
"An emphasis should be placed on the products that are unique to the irradiation process and that are potentially mutagenic, e.g. 2-DCB [2-dodecylcyclobutanone]," Dr. Au wrote in the affidavit. "Without conclusive evidence regarding the safety of these products, the safety of irradiated food cannot be assured." Au urged the FDA to "seriously and explicitly" consider "repeated observations" of genetic damage and reproductive toxicity in feeding experiments.
Though cyclobutanones were first identified in irradiated food in 1971, it was not until 1998 that German government scientists discovered that one type of cyclobutanone, 2-DCB, caused genetic damage in rats, and genetic and cellular damage in human and rat cells. Subsequently, the scientists found that two other types of cyclobutanones - 2-TCB and 2-TDCB - caused genetic and cellular damage in human cells. Rat feeding studies of these two chemicals are expected to be completed soon.
Despite these findings, the FDA not only has failed to publicly acknowledge the potential risks posed by cyclobutanones, but the agency proceeded to legalize irradiation for three classes of food even after the first two German studies were made public. Last year, the FDA legalized the irradiation of eggs, juice and sprouting seeds despite the fact that several high-ranking agency officials four months earlier had attended an international conference in Beijing at which the 2-DCB toxicity findings were presented and discussed.
Ironically, cyclobutanones are so easily detectable and have been known to remain in food for such lengthy periods - more than a decade - that they are commonly used as "markers" to determine whether food has been exposed to ionizing radiation.
The groups are calling on the FDA to take several steps: refrain from legalizing irradiation for any additional foods until comprehensive, published, peer-reviewed research is conducted on cyclobutanones; conduct a comprehensive analysis of the cyclobutanone levels in foods covered by irradiation petitions already approved by or pending before the FDA; and convene public hearings to thoroughly explore the potential health effects of cyclobutanones.
Hidden Harm can be viewed at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/HiddenHarm_-_PDF.pdf
Au's affidavit is at
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/foodsafety/food_irrad/articles.cfm?ID=6516
For more information about Public Citizen, visit
For more information about the Center for Food Safety, visit
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
11/29/01
4:14:50 PM
No More Undeclared Wars
by Pat Buchanan
FDR "lied us into war because he did not have the political courage to lead us into it," Rep. Clare Luce blurted out in 1944.
The target of Luce's accusation was a president who by then had entered the pantheon alongside Lincoln and Washington. FDR's courtiers savaged the lady for maligning the Great Man, but few could credibly deny the truth of what she had said.
No matter the justice and nobility of America's cause in World War II, FDR had lied us into war. Even as he soothingly reassured the mothers and fathers of America ("I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars"), he was stoking war, and provoking Germany and Japan.
FDR lied about the secret war he had ordered U.S. warships to conduct against German U-boats. He lied about who fired the first shots when the U.S. destroyers Greer and Kearney were attacked. He lied about having discovered Hitler's plans for the conquest of South America and the Nazification of Christianity. No such plans existed except in the fertile and creative minds of British intelligence.
FDR sent picket ships out into the path of the Japanese fleet in the hope they would be sunk. He gave Lord Halifax secret, but unconstitutional, assurances America would defend His Majesty's colonies in the Pacific. He spurned a secret peace offer from Japan's Prince Konoye and issued a secret ultimatum to Tojo's regime on Nov. 26, 1941.
As Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote in his diary two weeks before Pearl Harbor, "We should maneuver them into ... firing the first shot." FDR was guilty of impeachable high crimes. But as Field Marshal Moltke told Admiral Tirpitz, as he ordered the German army to invade neutral Belgium in 1914, "Success alone justifies war."
And America succeeded absolutely. And with FDR's death on the eve of total victory in the "Good War" in 1945, people no longer cared how the war had begun. Yet, our politics were poisoned by Roosevelt's mendacity, as it would be by Truman's undeclared war in Korea ("a police action") and by Vietnam, when senators learned they had been deceived in the Tonkin Gulf incident.
Today, America is being stampeded into a new undeclared war, against Iraq. Thus it is a time for truth – a time for Congress to do its duty, and debate and decide on war or peace. We do not need to have our politics poisoned for yet another generation by the mutual recriminations of a War Party and a Peace Party in the aftermath of yet another undeclared war. Questions need answering.
Was Saddam involved in the massacres of Sept. 11? Was he behind the anthrax attacks? Is he harboring terrorist cells of al-Qaida? Is he preparing nuclear or bio-terror weapons to attack us? If the answer is "Yes," let Congress lay out the evidence before the nation and empower the president to take us to war.
Henry Hyde and Joe Biden, chairmen respectively of the House and Senate foreign relations committees, should assume their duty to the nation and history, and assert Congress' rightful role in the decision on war or peace. Both have said that they oppose a war on Iraq. But that is not enough.
On Sunday, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice seemed to assert that President Bush had the justification and right to take us to war against Saddam, should he so choose. But where did he get this authority? When did Congress cede it to him, or authorize U.S. attacks on the other Arab states on the War Party's enemies list?
While the United States could launch air strikes on Iraq at any moment, the ground troops needed for an invasion are not in place. And given the halving of U.S. forces since Desert Storm, it would take months before they are ready to march – time enough for reasoned debate.
Indeed, the semi-hysteria of the War Party suggests it does not have the evidence to convict Saddam of Sept. 11, and a war on Iraq is but the next move on the little chessboards of empire they carry about in their book bags. But a war on Iraq could ravage our relations with Britain, Russia and NATO; shatter the Afghan war coalition; inflame the Arab street; and destabilize our Arab allies, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Should the Saudi monarchy fall to a revolution as a result of an attack on Iraq, Bush would have lost the oil storehouse his father went to war to defend in 1991.
It's time for Congress to debate again Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Is it to be containment or war? If it is to be war, we have a right to know why, and to hold accountable those who take us into war. No more Munichs, no more Yaltas, Bush said. Right he is. But let us add:
No more undeclared wars. No more presidential wars.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/11/26/22011.html
11/29/01
4:03:32 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
Web site down due to malicious hacker
If you noticed in the last few days that you couldn't access Utne Online, you may have wondered what happened. Well, our site got hacked. On Sunday our entire site was erased, and we've spent the last few days working on getting it back online. We're sorry for the inconvenience.
Below you will find the Utne Web Watch from Monday. Stay tuned for Wednesday's Web Watch. You should find it in your inbox in the next few hours. Thank you for your patience.
-Sara Buckwitz, Utne Online Coordinator
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/archive.tpl?d=11/26/2001
BOMBS AWAY: PRO-MILITARY TIMES DAMPEN VIEQUES PROTESTS
by Marcelo Ballve, Pacific News Service
-- Before September 11, Puerto Rican activists had made progress in their efforts to stop the U.S. Navy bombing practice on the island of Vieques, but after the attacks, protests have died, and activists worry that Congress "may turn its back on the tiny island."
LIFE IN THE TRASH LANE
by Keith David Hamm, FrictionMagazine.com
-- In Cuernavaca, Mexico, entire families scavenge though the municipal landfill in search of anything to resell. For the online publication FrictionMagazine.com, writer Keith Hamm describes how they manage to survive.
ONE-STOP SHOPPING FOR GLOBAL PEACE ACTIVISM
Web site review by Rebecca McGee, Peace.Protest.net
-- A project of Protest.Net, the Web site peace.protest.net is a clearinghouse of information about pro-peace and anti-racism activities taking place around the globe.
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/archive.tpl?d=11/26/2001
11/29/01
3:58:44 PM
t r u t h o u t | 11.29
Germany-Egypt Warn Bush | Caution on Iraq
http://www.truthout.com/11.29A.Germany.Egypt.htm
Swiss Police | Anthrax Letter from NY
http://www.truthout.com/11.29B.Swiss.Anthrax.htm
KENNEDY | "Preserving Our Freedoms While Defending Against Terrorism"
http://www.truthout.com/11.29C.Kennedy.Free.htm
DASCHLE | Briefing, Afghanistan -- Stimulus Package
http://www.truthout.com/11.29D.Daschle.PC.htm
BBC Nightly Video | American CIA Agent Killed in Afghanistan
Consumer Confidence Hits 7 1/2 Year Low
http://www.truthout.com/11.29E.7.5Year.Low.htm
11/29/01
3:55:28 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
US working on proposals for 2002 Chile trade talks - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13475/story.htm
California conservation group hits PG&E reorganization - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13477/story.htm
NY sets hearing on proposed TransGas power plant - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13478/story.htm
Technology could make for more fuel efficient cars - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13486/story.htm
US sets another monthly record for ethanol output - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13487/story.htm
UPDATE - UK to set up national nuclear liabilities body - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13474/story.htm
Ethanol development in Mexico seen facing major snags - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13483/story.htm
SimsMetal UK to open refrigerator recycling plant - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13484/story.htm
Soccer-World Cup teams to get dog butchery pictures from Bardot - S KOREA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13482/story.htm
Bollywood star calls for end to elephant killings - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13473/story.htm
US expert believed behind anthrax attacks - report - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13479/story.htm
E.ON says CHP law not binding if changed - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13480/story.htm
UPDATE - EU to challenge Germany's eco-tax waivers - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13481/story.htm
EU approves UK pollution trading, may seek changes - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13485/story.htm
Pacific Hydro to select wind turbine maker - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13476/story.htm
11/29/01
3:49:36 PM
New at TomPaine.com
THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
Combating Terrorism vs. Exorcizing Demons
by M. W. Guzy
Bush's pledge to eradicate the evil that spawns terrorism rings about as true as the "actual" exorcism featured on "Dateline NBC." He'd do better to focus on terrorism's earthly roots, starting with Saudi-sponsored madrassas.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/11/20/index.html
ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE: A PIG IN FLEECE
The Corporate Captains Elbow into the Bread Line
by Geo Beach
"The 'Economic Stimulus Package' talk making its way around Washington is just old-style pork hiding out with the flock of campaign-contribution-concubines (Congress). It's not capitalist economics, it's corporate socialism."
http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/11/19/2.html
GREENING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
by Mike VanBuren
Republican Theodore Roosevelt called conservation "a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring safety and continuance of the nation." Today, of course, many in his party -- hello, Rush? -- would call him an "environmental whacko."
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/11/26/index.html
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP
Fifty Nobel Laureates Sign in Support of AMB Treaty
by The Federation of American Scientists
"In the interest of national security, we urge you to deny funding for any program, project, or activity that is inconsistent with the Anti-Balistic Missile Treaty."
http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/11/19/4.html
BREAKING GRIDLOCK
Sprawling Out: Highways to Nowhere
by Jim Motavalli
Suburban sprawl ate up America's open spaces largely as a result of lobbying by powerful pro-automobile organizations. Fortunately, citizen groups across the country are now successfully supplanting sprawl with smart growth.
http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/11/20/index.html
REFLECTIONS ON A TROUBLED AUTUMN
by Gary Margolis
"Who would have thought/At the turn of the century/We would step back into/Another?"
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/11/07/index.html
COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN THE PESTICIDE WARS
The Troubling Story of Dr. Omar Shafey
by Karen Charman
What happens when a whistle-blower refuses to cover up pesticide poisonings?
http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/11/16/index.html
CHECK IT OUT!
Tips, Leads, and Links
by The TomPaine.com Staff
Private Business, Public Policy ... Save Harry from Coke ... Polling for Power ... Nominations for Corporations ... Let's Not Talk About Arsenic ... and more.
http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/11/27/index.html
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Our Readers React
Snipes and Dismay ... Humanizing Foreign Policy ... Angry Anyone? ... Jenga ... What is Just Cause? ... Get A Grip! ... Capitalizing On Terror ... and more!
http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/11/19/1.html
11/29/01
3:42:18 PM
Corporate Patriotism
by Ralph Nader
U. S. corporations aren't even subtle about it. Waving a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money in an unprecedented fashion while the public is preoccupied with the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan. Shamelessly, the Bush Administration and Congress have taken advantage of the patriotic outpouring to fulfill the wish lists of their most generous corporate campaign donors. Not only is the Treasury being raided, but regulations protecting everything from personal privacy to environmental safeguards are under attack by well-heeled lobbyists who want to stampede Congress to act while the media and citizens are distracted.
Only a handful in the Congress--members like Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Representatives Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Barbara Lee of California -- have shown the courage to question the giveaways and the quick wipeout of civil liberties and other citizen protections. In most cases, such as the $15 billion airline bailout and corporate tax breaks, legislation has been pushed to the forefront with little or no hearings and only fleeting consideration on the floor of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
One of the boldest grabs for cash has been by corporations seeking to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which was enacted during the Reagan Administration to prevent profitable corporations from escaping all tax liability through various loopholes. Not only do the corporations want relief from the current year's AMT taxes, but they are seeking a retroactive refund of all AMT taxes paid since 1986. This giveaway, as passed by the House of Representatives, would make corporations eligible for $25 billion in tax refunds. Just 14 corporations would receive $6.3 billion of the refund. IBM gets $1.4 billion; General Motors, $833 million; General Electric $671 million; Daimler-Chrysler $600 million; Chevron-Texaco $572 million. The 14 biggest beneficiaries of the minimum tax repeal gave $14,769,785 in "soft money" to the national committees of the Democratic and Republican parties in recent years.
Soon to join the bailout parade is the nation's insurance industry, which is lobbying the Congress to have the federal government pick up the tab for future losses like those stemming from the attack on the World Trade Center. Proposals are on the table for taxpayers to either pick up losses above certain levels or to provide loans or loan guarantees for reinsurance.
The insurance companies want federal bailouts, but they continue to insist on regulation only by underfunded, poorly staffed state insurance departments, most of which are dominated by the industry. Any bailout or loan program involving the insurance companies must include provisions which ensure that insurance companies cannot refuse to write policies and make investments in low, moderate and minority neighborhoods. Allegations about insurance company "redlining" or discrimination against citizens in these areas have been prevalent for many years. It would be a terrible injustice for citizens to be forced to pay taxes to help bail out insurance companies that discriminate against them. Congress needs to address this issue before it even considers public assistance for the industry.
People-concerns have been missing in all the bailouts. When the airline companies walked off with $15 billion plus in bailout money, the thousands of laid-off employees -- airline attendants, maintenance crews, baggage handlers and ticket counter employees --received not a dime. Attempts to include health benefits and other help for these employees were shouted down on the floor of the House of Representatives. Last month, more than 400,000 employees lost their jobs nationwide and the national unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent, the highest level since 1996. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said roughly a fourth of the lost jobs were the direct result of the terrorist attacks of September 11. Bailouts, benefits or other aid for these victims of the attacks? No, that's reserved just for the corporations under the policies of the Bush Administration and the present Congress.
Yet it is the workers in the low-wage jobs -- like those in restaurants, hotels, retailing and transportation -- who are bearing the brunt of the layoffs in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center, according to a report from the New York State Department of Labor. Almost 25,000 people told the department that they lost their jobs because of the trade center disaster. An analysis by the department of the first 22,000 of the claims found that 16 percent worked at bars, 14 percent worked at hotels, 5 percent worked in air transportation and 21 percent in a category termed "business services." Only 4 percent worked at Wall Street brokerage firms.
While more workers lose jobs, the Administration is pushing for authority to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under new "fast-track" authority. The Department of Commerce concedes that at least 360,000 jobs have been lost under NAFTA, and private research groups estimate the total may be twice that number. Now, with unemployment rising to alarming levels, the Administration decides to cave to pro-NAFTA corporate demands which will only make the labor picture worse. No bailout for laid off workers, just a hard crack across the knees.
As Bill Moyers, the author and national journalist, commented: "They (the corporations) are counting on your patriotism to distract you from their plunder. They're counting on you to stand at attention with your hand over your heart, pledging allegiance to the flag, while they pick your pocket."
The present crisis cries out for shared sacrifice -- not the opportunism so blatantly displayed by the nation's corporate interests. President Bush and the Congress must summon the courage to resist the self-serving demands --the kind of courage and shared sacrifice that guided the brave rescue workers on September 11.
Source: http://www.CitizenWorks.org
11/28/01
6:41:06 PM
U.S. Will Use Once-Banned Human Tests
Pesticides: EPA says it will accept industry data gathered by giving paid subjects chemical doses
by Elizabeth Shogren
WASHINGTON -- Three years ago, in response to mounting criticism from environmentalists and physicians, the Clinton administration stopped using information from industry studies conducted on humans to determine the amount of pesticides that could be applied to fruits, vegetables and other crops. Now the Bush administration, siding with manufacturers on whether such studies are ethical and scientifically valid, has told the pesticide industry it will use data from such tests, in which paid volunteers swallow small doses of the products.
The new policy, which the Environmental Protection Agency has not announced, also appears to disregard the recommendations of a scientific panel the agency assembled in late 1998. Two panel members called for a ban on human testing of pesticides, while the 16 others said such tests must be very limited. The panel of doctors, bioethicists and clinical scientists urged the EPA to adopt a clear policy on human testing, one that would require adherence to rigorous standards and pre-approval by an independent review board.
"The force of the report was, in general, that it shouldn't be done. There should be a very high threshold," said panel member Samuel Gorovitz, a professor of philosophy and public administration at Syracuse University.
The new policy could have a significant impact because it comes as the government is beginning to reassess about 9,000 pesticide safety levels to reflect their impact on children. In general, children can tolerate smaller amounts of pesticides, medicines and other substances than adults.
Federal regulators determine the amount of certain pesticides that people can tolerate on foods, in water and in agricultural jobs without harming their health. Too much exposure can result in neurological damage, cancer or other serious illnesses.
Though details of the new policy are unclear, industry officials welcome the shift. Without human tests, the government uses the results of animal testing and multiplies that exposure level by 10 to establish an exposure level considered safe for humans. The companies argue that human tests provide more accurate results, allowing pesticides to be applied to crops in larger quantities and closer to delivery to supermarkets.
Without human tests, regulations "end up being more conservative and more restrictive than they need to be," said Ray McAllister, vice president for science and regulatory affairs for the pesticide trade association.
If human subjects are not used, "you may be denying benefits not only to the grower producing the crop but also to society that needs the food at a reasonable price," he said. "There are secondary public health consequences if you don't have good crop protection."
Industry officials also noted that human volunteers are regularly used to test the effects of air pollution.
The administration first signaled the policy switch last month, when a top EPA official told the annual meeting of the American Crop Protection Assn. that the agency would consider the results of clinical tests on humans.
Assistant Administrator Stephen L. Johnson "indicated the agency would be looking at the human data that were submitted," McAllister said.
Also, documents on at least three pesticides submitted to the EPA in recent weeks for re-registration plainly state that the agency is considering data from tests on humans. The re-registration is mandated by the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, which requires the EPA to reassess 9,000 currently registered pesticides for their impact on children.
An EPA official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed Johnson's remarks to the trade group, and other EPA officials acknowledged that the administration is developing a new policy on human testing of pesticides. But officials said they did not have approval from top political appointees to talk about it.
In its 10-month tenure, the Bush administration has weakened an array of Clinton administration environmental regulations and proposals, agreeing with industry and angering environmentalists. The rollbacks range from loosening energy efficiency standards for air conditioners to erasing a provision that would have allowed federal land managers to reject certain types of mines if they would cause irreparable damage to public land.
The administration also halted the implementation of new, stricter standards for arsenic in drinking water. After conducting its own tests, and under pressure from Congress, the EPA announced last month that it would adopt the Clinton administration standard.
In the decade before 1996, when the law requiring retesting of pesticides was passed, the EPA received only a handful of human tests. In the three years that followed, the agency received 14 new, unsolicited human subject studies on 10 pesticides.
The controversy over human testing of pesticides erupted in 1998, when Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based investigative environmental organization, published a report on the plethora of human test results arriving at the EPA for pesticide evaluations.
Then-EPA Administrator Carol Browner harshly criticized the practice, launched the study and temporarily halted the use of such data. The moratorium deterred companies from sponsoring and submitting results from such tests. But because the Clinton administration never formalized the policy, Bush administration regulators could change their practices without a new formal policy.
The majority of human studies considered by the EPA in the past were conducted in other countries. But in 1999, 60 volunteers in Nebraska participated in a test of a pesticide called chlorpyrifos, which is marketed as Lorsban or Dursban. It has been used for 30 years to keep insects off most major crops grown in the United States.
The volunteers were paid $460. Some of them swallowed chlorpyrifos-laced tablets, while others took placebos. Some members of both groups experienced headaches or vomiting. Garry Hamlin, spokesman for chlorpyrifos manufacturer Dow AgroSciences, said the results of his company's tests showed no signs of toxicity from the pesticide.
"The clinical test was a way of bridging the gap from a considerable amount of existing data that would help us understand how this product functioned in the human body, how the body metabolized it and how quickly it excreted it," he said.
But the EPA panel of scientists found that human testing is almost never needed for pesticides already in use because studies are already available of agriculture workers and fruit and vegetable eaters who have been exposed to the pesticides.
The panel suggested that at least some human subject tests used by the EPA in the past had not met the demands of good science, saying that "bad science is always unethical." Panel members were concerned, for example, that previous human tests were too small to assess the risks of pesticide exposure to the broader population or to more vulnerable individuals.
Human testing of pesticides cannot be justified "to facilitate the interests of industry or of agriculture," the panel concluded in its final report, delivered in February 2000. Such studies are acceptable only if they "promise reasonable health benefits to the individual or society at large," it said.
Human studies could be appropriate for new pesticides, the panel concluded, if there was no way to protect human health by testing on rats, dogs and other laboratory animals.
Panel members were concerned that human testing of pesticides could become widespread, especially because the 1996 law required the EPA to give closer scrutiny to pesticides originally registered before 1984.
Recent documents regarding the pesticides phosmet, azinphos-methyl and chlorpyrifos--insecticides used on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables--show that the EPA is evaluating data from human tests as well as a variety of tests on laboratory animals to determine exposure levels.
Pesticide manufacturers want to use human tests to reduce or eliminate regulators' current assessment method: determining safe exposure levels for laboratory animals and then multiplying that risk factor by 10 to ensure safety for humans.
In the midst of the dispute over federal policy, California's Department of Pesticide Regulation drafted its own policy on human testing. The state agency considers human test data if the tests were conducted under specific ethical and scientific guidelines.
The state agency has considered two or three human-subject tests over the last five years, according to Glenn Brank, spokesman for California's Department of Pesticide Regulation. One such test, for the azinphos-methyl, persuaded regulators that humans and animals respond in the same way to the toxins in the pesticide.
As a result, the agency allowed growers of apricots and other pitted fruits to apply the pesticide closer to harvest time, Brank said.
Lynn Goldman, who headed the pesticide program at EPA for five years during the Clinton administration, opposes the use of human subject tests and strongly believes that EPA can safely regulate pesticides with tests on animals.
She said she is "very troubled" by the use of human testing for pesticides, because there is no possible healthful effect from taking a pesticide-laced tablet, as there usually is for testing a pharmaceutical. The only justification for conducting the tests is to make more money for the pharmaceutical companies, she said.
"If they were doing something to benefit us you might look at it differently," said Goldman, now a professor of environmental sciences at Johns Hopkins University. "For industry, there is an enormous amount of money in the balance; one study could make the difference of tens of millions of dollars. That's one of the troubling ethical issues."
Goldman also finds it disturbing that test subjects are given money to take the pesticide tablets, saying that encourages students and low-income individuals to participate.
Goldman said she believed that pressure from the industry prevented the Clinton administration from finalizing a policy governing human testing.
"When it came to new regulations or new policies like this one--and especially around the Food Quality Protection Act that had such a major impact on the world--we had a whole lot of push-back through the White House from industry, and a lot of it would come at us from Congress," she said.
Source: http://www.LATimes.com
11/28/01
6:37:46 PM
SojoNet News Daily Headlines
Rights Report Holds Mexico Responsible for Torture
To the dismay of relatives who have sought justice for years, the report does not identify an estimated 74 former government officials who the right commission believes may have ordered or taken part in the disappearances.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/international/americas/28MEXI.html
IMF Mulls New Protection For Debt-Stricken Nations
The International Monetary Fund is moving toward adopting a dramatic new approach to financial crises: providing a form of "bankruptcy protection" to countries overburdened with debt, according to a top IMF official.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25335-2001Nov27.html
Afghan bandits force aid trucks to withdraw
Some relief groups say that lawlessness and banditry have so eroded their security in northern Afghanistan that they have been forced to curtail deliveries of badly needed food and housing supplies.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20011128-84992126.htm
Injustice seen as fertile soil for terrorists
As the immediate shock of the attacks on New York and Washington fades, some European leaders are beginning to look for the root causes of terrorism. And they are blaming poverty and injustice as much as anything else.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1128/p7s1-woeu.html
Ex-FBI Officials Criticize Tactics On Terrorism
The officials, including a former director, said the Ashcroft plan will inevitably force the bureau to close terrorism investigations prematurely, before agents can identify all members of a terrorist cell. They said the Justice Department is resurrecting tactics the government rejected in the late 1970s because they did not prevent terrorism and led to abuses of civil liberties.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24919-2001Nov27.html
A MORAL RESPONSE TO TERRORISM: CONSCIENCE IN A TIME OF WAR
A new study series by the editors of Sojourners magazine.
This study guide - designed for use in classrooms, Sunday school sessions, small groups, and study circles - will be available next week. For a table of contents and to pre-order your copy, go to:
http://www.sojo.net/feedtheAfghanpeople/index.cfm/action/study_guide.html
Many people saying bad things
Remember: You must not be skeptical. You must think the right thoughts. If you do not know the right thoughts, a list will be provided to you.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/11/27/DD24114.DTL
This war is not just
The crucial judgment about a war's "proportionality," central to any conclusion about its being "just," simply cannot be made on the basis of information available at present.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/331/oped/This_war_is_not_just+.shtml
Ramadan Hunger in Palestine
Most Palestinians are hungering during the day because they are observing a religious fast, hoping to grow closer to God, and remembering with compassion all those who are poor and hungry. Some Palestinians are hungering because they are unable to buy enough food to feed their families. All Palestinians are hungering, day and night, for justice.
http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/archives/2001/nov01/0028.html
My return to Ramadan
In my fasts, I find pockets of meditative silence from my body's protests for food. There, Ramadan provokes not only empathy and charity, as my teta said, but also frustration and thankfulness.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1128/p9s1-coop.html
11/28/01
6:32:24 PM
The Nation
There is little evidence to suggest that President Bush was ever particularly drawn to American constitutional history as a source of inspiration or insight.
But, if the president is unfamiliar with the work of the founders, they were not unfamiliar with him -- or, at least, with his ilk. America's framers spent considerable energy considering the dangers of a President who imagined himself all-powerful -- especially in times of war.
Such, now, are the times, and such is the executive.
Read John Nichols's special new Online Beat report for the full story. Exclusively available currently at:
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/
And don't miss other recent Nation web articles by Joel Rogers & Katrina vanden Heuvel, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., Doug Henwood, Robert Scheer, Steve Cobble, Gayle Foreman, Matt Bivens and Jordan Green & Chris Kromm.
All available now at:
http://www.thenation.com There is little evidence to suggest that President Bush was ever particularly drawn to American constitutional history as a source of inspiration or insight.
But, if the president is unfamiliar with the work of the founders, they were not unfamiliar with him -- or, at least, with his ilk. America's framers spent considerable energy considering the dangers of a President who imagined himself all-powerful -- especially in times of war.
Such, now, are the times, and such is the executive.
Read John Nichols's special new Online Beat report for the full story. Exclusively available currently at:
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/
And don't miss other recent Nation web articles by Joel Rogers & Katrina vanden Heuvel, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., Doug Henwood, Robert Scheer, Steve Cobble, Gayle Foreman, Matt Bivens and Jordan Green & Chris Kromm.
All available now at:
11/28/01
6:29:43 PM
No thumbprint, no rental car
by Julia Scheeres
Dollar Rent A Car is currently making customers give a thumbprint before they give them the keys, another example of biometrics being used for ID purposes. To read more, push your thumb on the mouse here:
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,48552,00.html?tw=wn20011121
11/28/01
6:27:49 PM
Plans for a wider war
by Jim Wallis
The war in Afghanistan rages on with growing numbers of U.S. ground troops entering the country and engaging in combat. If the Taliban retreat from the cities, back into their mountain caves, signaling a protracted guerrilla war, those troops will likely be on the ground for some time.
And it's becoming clearer that actions in Afghanistan will be followed by further military actions against other countries believed to have connections with terrorist networks. Last Wednesday at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, President Bush said: "Afghanistan is just the beginning on the war against terror. There are other terrorists who threaten America and our friends, and there are other nations willing to sponsor them. We will not be secure as a nation until all of these threats are defeated. Across the world and across the years, we will fight these evil ones, and we will win."
The London Sunday Times reported from "senior sources" in London and Washington that Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan -countries believed to contain al Qaeda bases or networks -are the next targets, and that military preparations are under way in all three places. The Times reports British sources as saying the new offensives could begin as early as January. In the U.S., attacking Iraq continues to be openly discussed. For weeks, conservative political voices have been making the case that Iraq must be the next stop in the war on terrorism.
But the risks and potential consequences of widening the campaign against terrorism into a war with other countries are serious. These would clearly be wars against nations and, inevitably, their people. Their goal would be to defeat and replace governments, not just to root out te