26
Mai
2005

Is the U. S. guilty of Crimes against Peace?

To many Americans, the idea that U. S. leaders could be prosecuted for war crimes comes right out of left field.

http://www.warcrimestrial.us/


From Information Clearing House

US Terror Laws 'Creating a New Generation of the Disappeared'

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0526-02.htm

The Problem with Laboratory EMF Experiments

http://www.tetrawatch.net/science/research_models.pdf

Andy

From Mast Network

GM WEEKLY WATCH 125

http://tinyurl.com/8mwtt

Oppose New Nuclear Weapons

Oppose New Nuclear Weapons Today

The Bush administration has asked for $8.5 million in the 2006 budget for research on a "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator" (RNEP). This new nuclear weapon, also known as the nuclear "bunker buster," is being promoted as a useful tool in attacking deeply buried command centers or underground stores of chemical and biological weapons. But numerous scientific critiques, including one by the National Academy of Science, find that in many cases such a weapon would be ineffective. In addition, the nuclear blast and radioactive fall-out could kill millions of innocent people in surrounding areas. In the coming weeks, both the House and Senate will consider funding for this new nuclear weapon. Please tell your Representative and Senators to reject all funding for the dangerous nuclear "bunker buster".

Read the Letter:

I am greatly opposed to the Administration's proposal to budget $8.5 Million for research on a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP). I am deeply disturbed by this proposal. This nuclear weapon is not needed, appears to set the U.S. on a new course of developing nuclear war fighting weapons, and sends a counterproductive message to the international community at a time when we are trying to discourage other nations from developing nuclear weapons. I hope that you will deny all funds for the RNEP or nuclear "bunker buster" program.

As you know, the Administration's FY06 budget requests $8.5 million for RNEP, which is intended to destroy deeply buried bunkers and/or underground stores of chemical or biological weapons. However, a recent National Academy of Sciences study http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11282.html?onpi_newsdoc04272005 concludes that the weapon would be of limited use in destroying deep bunkers or underground stores of biological or chemical weapons, and that its use could kill millions of people.

To illustrate the technical realities of the RNEP weapon, the Union of Concerned Scientists has produced an animation that shows both the weapon's technical shortcomings and the consequences of its use. I strongly recommend that you and your staff consider and use this important resource--it can be found at: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/nuclear_weapons/page.cfm?pageID=1781

Finally, I believe that Congress needs to match their words with their actions when addressing the cause of nuclear proliferation. If we are calling on other nations to refrain from building nuclear weapons, we should refrain as well. Our focus should be on decreasing our already bloated and unnecessary nuclear stockpile. The international community is currently meeting at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference at the UN. This is an excellent time for the Congress to defund this program and send a strong nonproliferation message.

I look forward to hearing your position on this important issue and hope that you deny all funding for the RNEP program. Thank you.

How many generations of this kind of study to show that phone radiation damages people?

I agree, the funding of these studies is huge compared with the potential outcome. Same is true for the MTHR study at King's College. But both are short exposure studies, therefore looking for quite acute and fast responses. I have told them that long term studies in people's home environments, measuring the right things in the right locations, might yield more telling results. I agree with them that measuring biological electrical activity in an electrically isolated environment is not easy, but EEGs, body magnetic field changes, NO levels in the breath or changes in the blood etc., all can and should be done.

I asked James Rubin and Simon Wessely at King's what they would do if their study of phones and EHS yielded a positive response. The answer of course is to do it again. And then, what would it show? The answer is that it would show the people who say their phones hurt them are not lying. How many generations of this kind of study to show that phone radiation damages people? And then, what if you sufficiently prove phone radiation presents a rik to health? The answer is to start negotiating with the industry -- the "low tar" argument, while you do the cost-benefit equation with people's lives. How many years, nay, decades, does that represent?

Andy


The Problem with Laboratory EMF Experiments
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/721570/

Missile & remote control systems added to small jets before 9-11

http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=110&mode=&order=0&thold=0


Informant: Debi Clark

Update from the Field 5/25/05

http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/media/update0405/052505.html

World Bank: 50 Years Is Enough - Letter to Wolfowitz

SIGN-ON TO LETTER TO WOLFOWITZ TO MARK HIS FIRST DAY AS PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK

Please support this action as soon as possible by:

1) signing-on to the letter below. Sign-ons should be sent to wolfowitzday@yahoo.com (deadline is 30 May 6 PM EST),
2) circulating the letter and request widely, and
3) posting the letter on your website.

The greater the number of organizational endorsers, the louder our voices.

Peace,
Gael Murphy
Code Pink


Dear Friends,

On June 1, Paul Wolfowitz, the man best-known for planning the invasion and occupation of Iraq and promoting them as U.S. policy, will officially become president of the World Bank Group. Civil society organizations from around the world have been meeting via conference call to plan a response for June 1st. In Washington, activists will gather outside the World Bank headquarters (18th and Pennsylvania) at 9:30 am on June 1. Actions are also being planned in the Philippines, France, and elsewhere. If you are planning or interested in organizing an action/protest, please contact Hope Chu hope@50years.org .

Below is a letter to Wolfowitz which we are circulating it broadly for sign-ons. PLEASE get your organization to sign-on, if they have not already done so. Also, please disseminate and encourage organizations within your networks to sign-on to the letter. The DEADLINE for signatures is Monday, May 30, 6pm Eastern time North America.

We are primarily seeking *organizational* endorsements. Please include the full name of your organization and its location -- city, state (if applicable), and country. SEND YOUR SIGN-ON to wolfowitzday@yahoo.com . The letter, with signers collated, will be made available for use in media work and response by Noon on May 31st.

Thank you

50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice


June 1, 2005

Dear Mr. Wolfowitz:

As you know, civil society organizations around the world reacted to your nomination and confirmation as president of the World Bank Group with alarm. Now, on the occasion of your formal accession to the office, we write you to make clear what we perceive as the major challenges facing the World Bank and the governments that control it. We are writing in the hope that you will address these issues in a satisfactory way.

The process itself that led to your appointment itself demonstrates the first challenge: of democracy and accountability. The 60-year-old unwritten agreement allowing only the president of the United States to choose the head of the World Bank Group is archaic and out of step with standard norms of democratic practice. The World Bank may be multilateral in name, but in practice it has become a tool for imposing a development and economic model that serves the interests of a few governments and corporations while rendering borrowing countries, the majority of its members, all but powerless to shift the Bank, or themselves, away from that model, or even to explore alternatives.

We anticipate that in the next five years the World Bank will set up a committee to examine its voting structure and presidential selection process, and that it may even make reasonable-sounding suggestions. But, given past experiences with such processes at the World Bank, we expect little real change. The secretive and undemocratic day-to-day decision-making processes at the international financial institutions weaken the credibility of the IMF and World Bank even as they profess transparency and accountability, and demand those qualities of borrowing countries.

We anticipate that early in your presidency you will announce your intention to engage in consultation and dialogue with civil society. But given the record of the World Bank over the last 10 years, it is likely that millions of dollars in public funds will be spent on processes, reports, and recommendations that will ultimately be ignored by the World Bank, as was the case with, among others, the World Commission on Dams, the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative (SAPRI), and the Extractive Industries Review (EIR). The Bank largely disavowed the results of these processes which made explicit recommendations to improve bank procedures, and to make it more transparent and democratic. The Bank’s recent controversial Joint Facilitation Committee neither improved relations with civil society nor made the Bank more responsive to its demands. Instead, it ignored the “voice of the peoples” affected by Bank policies and practices.

We anticipate that the World Bank will continue to devote millions of dollars to its public relations efforts. These efforts have deftly distanced the bank from its most unpopular policies and programs while maintaining the status quo. Over the past decade, the Bank has manipulated the meaning of terms like "poverty reduction," its new name for structural adjustment programs; "good governance," its new rationale for imposing conditions on borrowing governments; and "debt relief", its deceitful euphemism for insuring that governments continue to maintain their place on the borrow-repay-reschedule debt treadmill.

The World Bank’s public relations staff now faces the challenge of convincing people that the new president is independent of the Bush Administration and its controversial policies. We fear that "democracy" will be among the new buzz-words at the Bank, and the basis for a new set of conditionalities, particularly in the Middle East. We fear it will be used not to help create space for people to choose their own economic systems and development models, but as a cover to impose rules prioritizing foreign investment and market liberalization above all else, and to disempower and discredit governments that choose to prioritize the priorities of their citizens over corporate interests.

Nowhere will the public relations staff be more challenged than in dealing with the World Bank's role in Iraq. We anticipate a renewed politicization of the Bank, in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, in order to increase corporate access to oil and other resources and assets as well as markets and cheap labor. You will be asked to recuse yourself from the World Bank/UN investigation into the U.S. government's distribution of Iraqi development funds to Halliburton, a contract with which you were personally involved; we hope you will do so. Ethical questions on that issue could well be compounded by the World Bank’s determination that Iraq's food subsidies should be eliminated -- in a country where acute malnutrition rates for children have nearly doubled since the invasion of April 2003. You could confound your critics by immediately announcing that the Bank will withdraw its conclusions about Iraqi subsidies.

We anticipate that you will talk about the need for more debt relief in the poorest countries, and perhaps even publicly advocate that President Bush co-operate with other wealthy countries to offer more relief. We believe that such calls would be greatly strengthened if you were to employ the logic you used in advocating for France, Russia, and Germany to cancel the debts they claim of Iraq -- namely that loans contracted by undemocratic regimes which worked to the detriment of the population should be annulled. Many of our organizations have used the same logic with regard to the equally odious debts contracted by the apartheid regime in South Africa, Mobutu in Zaire, Marcos in the Philippines, the military junta in Argentina, and many more. We have never received a sympathetic hearing from the World Bank.

You have announced that you will travel to Africa shortly after taking office. We anticipate that while there you will meet with presidents and prime ministers, and declare the urgency of helping the continent. We fear that access to Africa's oil will take precedence over poverty eradication and sustainable development and that, once again, there will be no material improvement in Africa's outlook resulting from World Bank programs during your tenure. Despite an endless series of Bank anti-poverty initiatives in the region during the last 30 years, African per capita incomes are below their 1975 level. Only by demonstrating respect for the people of Africa, their knowledge and their own particular national priorities will you gain credibility on that continent.

We note that at this historical moment, Latin American countries are disavowing and resisting the imposition of the so-called Washington Consensus, and many Asian nations are increasing their financial independence so as to free themselves from the dictates of the IMF and the Bank.

Whatever stand you ultimately take on these issues, we commit ourselves to monitoring the performance of the World Bank, examining its rhetoric and exposing its deceptions and manipulations. We will invite others to do the same -- governments; NGOs; and the media which have too often paid more attention to words than actions and evidence. The stakes for the Bank are high: its reputation is at an all-time low and its policies continue to be a major source of poverty, violence and injustice. It is in your hands to start the process of reversing this persistent trend. The world is watching.


Signed: (As of May 23, 2005)

Angola
Jubileu 2000 Angola (Luanda)

Bangladesh
Lokoj Institute
CDL (Dhaka)
Organization for Social Development of Unemployed Youth (Dhaka)
BanglaPraxis (Dhaka)
VOICE (Dhaka)
Advancing Public Interest Trust (Dhaka)
Angikar Bangladesh

Basque Country
ESK Trade Union

Belgium
Committee for the Aboliton of Third World Debt (CADTM Belgium)

Cameroon
FOCARFE (Yaoundé)

Canada
MiningWatch (Ottawa, ON)
Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation (Victoria, BC)
Alberta Council for Global Cooperation (Edmonton, AB)
Democracy Watch
One Sky – The Canadian Institute of Sustainable Living (Smithers, BC)
Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation (CIIAN)
Falls Brook Centre

Côte d’Ivoire
ASBL Mieux Vivre Ensemble

East Timor
La'o Hamutuk - East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis (Dili)

France
Agir ici (Paris)
Friends of the Earth France (Paris)
Committee for the Aboliton of Third World Debt (CADTM France)

Greece
Stop the War Coalition Greece
Campaign Genoa 2001-Greece (Athens)

Haiti
PAPDA

India
INSAF (New Delhi)
PEACE (New Delhi)
Delhi Forum (New Delhi)

Indonesia
Yayasan HIMBA Lubuklinggau (Sumatra Selatan)

Nepal
South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)

Netherlands
ASEED Europe (Amsterdam)

Norway
IGNIS Foundation

Pakistan
Centre for Alternative Media (Islamabad)
WTO Watch Group (Islamabad)

Peru
Ecovida (Cajamarca)
Federación de Trabajadores del Agua Potable del Peru

Philippines
Freedom from Debt Coalition (Quezon City)
Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (Quezon City)
Peace Camp (Quezon City)
Bantay ICT (Quezon City)
Integrated Rural Development Foundation of the Philippines (Quezon City)
Philippine Peasant Institute (Quezon City)

Portugal
Ana Isabel Lopes – University of Lisbon*

South Africa
Alternative Information & Development Centre (Cape Town)
Anti-Privatisation Forum

Sri Lanka
Fr. Tissa Balasuriya OMI*

Switzerland
Nord-Sud XXI (Geneva)

Thailand
Focus on the Global South (with offices in Philippines & India as well)

Tunisia
RAID Attac Tunisie (Slimene)

United Kingdom
New Economics Foundation (London)

United States
Sustainable Energy & Economy Network (SEEN)/IPS (Washington, DC)
Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy & Environment Program (Washington, DC)
Africa Action (Washington, DC)
Sisters of the Holy Cross (Notre Dame, IN)
Feminist Aid to Central America and the Caribbean
Gender Action (Washington, DC)
Crude Accountability (Alexandria, VA)
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (Washington, DC)
50 Years Is Enough Network (Washington, DC)
Code Pink:Women for Peace (USA)
Clergy & Laity Concerned About Iraq (New York, NY)
Oakland Institute (Oakland, CA)
Jubilee USA Network (Washington, DC)
Amazon Watch (Washington, DC)
Center for Economic Justice (Albuquerque, NM)
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) (Washington, DC)
Nicaragua Network (Washington, DC)
Nicaragua Center for Community Action (Berkeley, CA)
Chicago Media Watch (Evanston, IL)
Global Exchange (San Francisco, CA)
Global Justice Ecology Project (Hinesburg, VT)
Global Response (Boulder, CO)
Bend-Condega Friendship Project (Bend, OR)
United for Peace and Justice (USA)

Venezuela
Red Venezolana contra la Deuda

Zambia
Kelly Inambao*

Zimbabwe
MDC Action Support Group

Help Stop the Needless Slaughter of Millions of Sharks

Each year 100 million sharks are killed, largely as a result of shark finning. Shark finning is a cruel and remarkably wasteful practice that involves cutting off the dorsal, pectoral and tail fins and dumping the rest of the shark back into the water. Often the mutilated sharks are thrown overboard while still alive, only to die a slow and painful death. This practice has become the method of choice to feed the global demand for shark fin soup, a popular delicacy in Asian cuisine.

Widespread shark finning is decimating the world's shark populations, resulting in declines of 90 percent or more in vast regions of the oceans. Much of this massive shark mortality could be avoided with an international ban on shark finning.

WHAT'S AT STAKE:

Last year, the international community banned shark finning in the Atlantic Ocean, but the practice is still rampant in the Pacific Ocean. Now is the time to ban shark finning in the Pacific as well. This June, governments will vote on a proposal to ban finning in the Pacific at an international fisheries meeting. The U.S. government's position on this issue could help sway the outcome of the meeting and the fate of these remarkable creatures.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Your support is urgently needed to stop the needless slaughter of millions of sharks for their fins. Please visit http://www.savesharks.org and send an e-mail urging the U.S. government to actively promote a ban on shark finning in the Pacific Ocean. With your support, we can secure a brighter future for the lords of the sea.

Defenders of Wildlife is a leading national conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and habitat and known for its effective leadership on saving endangered species such as brown bears and gray wolves. Defenders advocates new approaches to wildlife conservation that protect species before they become endangered. Founded in 1947, Defenders is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with more than 475,000 members and supporters.

Save America's Redrock Wilderness

http://www.savebiogems.org/redrock/takeaction.asp

Save America's Redrock Wilderness
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/1602486/

Neues Krankheitsbild bei erhöhter Belastung durch Hochfrequenzfelder

Zur Information und weiteren Verwendung:

Der Brief an Bundeskanzler Schröder wurde in ähnlicher Form auch an Umweltminister Trittin und Gesundheitsministerin Schmidt verschickt.

Es geht um die Erkenntnisse der Bamberger Ärzteinitiative, dass es ein neues Krankheitsbild gibt, an dem hochgerechnet auf Deutschland mehrere Hunderttausend Menschen leiden. Damit wird die Diskussion, ob die Schädlichkeit von Mobilfunkstrahlung "wissenschaftlich bewiesen" ist, überflüssig - die Menschen werden krank.

Die gesamte Dokumentation wurde an folgende Redaktionen geschickt:

SZ Chefredaktion und Wissenschaftsredaktion
FAZ, Spiegel, Focus, Zeit, Bunte und Stern-Chefredaktionen

Gruß,

Hans Schmidt
Sprecher der Bürgerinitiative Wolfratshausen-Stadtgebiet gegen Elektrosmog


Dr.-Ing. Hans Schmidt
Gebhardtstr. 2d
82515 Wolfratshausen
Tel: 08171/29751
Wolfratshausen, den 25.05.05
Fax: 08171/911035


An die Chefredaktion der ZEIT
20079 Hamburg


Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

ich möchte Sie auf eine neue Entwicklung in der Diskussion um die Gesundheitsgefährdung durch Mobilfunk aufmerksam machen, die der bisher unersprießlichen öffentlichen Debatte eine völlig neue Richtung gibt: Die Ärzte, die bisher von der Diskussion praktisch ausgeschlossen waren (die Grenzwerte orientieren sich nur an der Erwärmung von Körpergewebe, aber nicht an der Gesundheit), haben nun ein neues Krankheitsbild bei erhöhter Belastung durch Hochfrequenzfelder gefunden. Damit wird die ganze Diskussion, ob es nun „wissenschaftlich bewiesen“ ist oder nicht, zweitrangig, denn die Menschen werden krank. Die Wissenschaftler sollen weiter forschen, um die Ursache für dieses Krankheitsbild zu finden, aber die Politik muss nun handeln.

Und Sie, sehr geehrte Chefredaktion, sind als „vierte Gewalt“ in Deutschland aufgefordert, diesem Thema als wichtige Instanz der öffentlichen Meinung und Information Raum zu geben. Die massiven finanziellen Interessen der Mobilfunkindustrie dürfen eine objektive und engagierte Berichterstattung nicht verhindern.

Als Anlage schicke ich Ihnen

§ Das Vorwort zur Broschüre der Bamberger Ärzteinitiative über 356 Krankenfälle im Zusammenhang mit diesem neuen Krankheitsbild, die in einem kleinen Gebiet in Oberfranken gefunden wurden – hochgerechnet auf Deutschland ergeben sich mehrere Hunderttausend Kranke http://tinyurl.com/7umo5

§ Die Broschüre der Bamberger Ärzteinitiative

§ Zur Ergänzung die statistische Auswertung der Krankenfälle durch die Ärzteinitiative http://tinyurl.com/ey6kf

§ Meinen offenen Brief an den Bundeskanzler zu diesem Thema, der in ähnlicher Form auch an den Bundes-Umweltminister, Herrn Trittin, und an die Bundes-Gesundheitsministerin, Frau Schmidt ging http://tinyurl.com/cuo6g

Ich bitte Sie, sich dieses Themas anzunehmen, das wegen der flächendeckenden Mobilfunkbestrahlung alle Menschen in unserem Land betrifft, und darüber zu berichten.


Vielen Dank im Voraus für Ihre Unterstützung,
mit freundlichen Grüßen

Cell phones damage organic tissue

Are you aware of this research?
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~topiolli/ptk/3rdgen/radiation.pdf

--------

WARNING on supposed Finland 3G study

Could you please distribute this to make sure Mast Sanity does not quote it. It may be a trap to discredit!

Regards

Don



To All

The below message, and link, came in this morning and will probably be doing the rounds on Internet as further evidence that cell phones and 3G in particular, are a health hazard.

However the whole paper, supposedly "published" in Nov. of 2002, looks +VERY+ suspect to me for quite a few reasons. Note in the photo how the phone is placed and the test tissue still has a supermarket shrink rap and scanner price sticker attached! It looks more like a joke! From the looks of their test chamber their conclusions seem a bit over rated. I'm thinking this whole thing is either someone's idea of a joke or an after-hours school science project conducted in a tree house. It looks like they essentially just made a crude home-built microwave oven.

Have a look but pleeeease don't quote it as science!

Don Maisch

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=58

--------

I looked at this study, but it is rubbish as it stands: all they did was to show a temperature rise when a 3G phone is left on inside an aluminium lined box, and reported no biological effects at all.

Roger Coghill
MA (Cantab) C Biol MI Biol MA (Environ Mgt)
Coghill Research Laboratories

--------

Could be fake, check
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~topiolli/index.php?section=personal
and
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~topiolli/images/virne.jpg
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~topiolli/images/virne2.jpg

--------

May 27, 2005

The research paper about the 3G mobile phones at

http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~topiolli/ptk/3rdgen/radiation.pdf

is fake. I have explained to him that it is not funny to make a joke like this. It may even be damaging to people suffering from electrohypersensitivity c.q. microwave sickness. He does not understand. Here are his data:

Topi Mäenpää
Information Processing Lab
Dept. of Electrical and Information Engineering
University of Oulu, Finland
phone ++358 40 7747749
phone ++358 8 5532796
email topiolli@ee.oulu.fi

--------

From Don Maisch - I really hope Dr Tech uses his mobile 6 hours a day ...

Best Yasmin Skelt


'A very Finnish sense of humour'

As for the that Finnish paper on 3G (last message) it turns out to be a Uni prank. The person who earlier sent it to me has since spoken with Topi Menp the "author" (alias Dr. Tech) at Oulu University.

Dr. Tech has left his photo at
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~topiolli/images/virne.jpg which illustrates who has the last laugh on this one!

Topi's details are at: http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~topiolli/index.php?section=personal

Don Maisch
http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=59

Microwave Ovens or using cell phones causes permanent brain damage

Microwave Ovens or using cell phones, causes permanent brain damage by shorting out electrical impulses in the brain.

http://tuberose.com/Microwave_Ovens.html


http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=+microwave+ovens

Ein Nein zur EU-Verfassung ist in Frankreich wahrscheinlich

Der Ausgang des Volksentscheids am Sonntag könnte einen Dominoeffekt auslösen, auch die Holländer sind überwiegend gegen die Verfassung.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/20/20175/1.html

And Now, It's Time For "Media Jeopardy"

by Norman Solomon

The endless show that seems to fill America's every waking moment -- and many of its nightmares -- could be called "Media Jeopardy!" Before proceeding, here's a reminder of the rules: Listen to the answer and then try to come up with the question. Let's get started....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May05/Solomon0526.htm

Protecting the Plutocrats

by Mike Whitney

The United States military is a fully owned subsidiary of the corporate and financial establishment. It plays no role in defending the American people. The function of today's military is to seize the world's dwindling resources through force of arms and provide a taxpayer-funded security apparatus for multinationals and energy giants. The notion that the $500 billion per year Goliath is designed to protect the American people is sheer lunacy. Its real purpose is to win wars of aggression, siphon off the wealth of foreign nations, and crush the subsequent resistance movements. Anything else is purely public relations pabulum....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May05/Whitney0526.htm

The False God of Patriotism

Rumsfeld Visits Ft. Bragg

by Lou Plummer

Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Ft. Bragg gives the local politicos a chance to bring out their banner proclaiming Bragg's sister community, Fayetteville, as America's Most Patriotic City. Were I a card carrying member of the press rather than just a grass roots activist, I'd like to ask those smarmy small town officials to reflect on patriotism. I know what patriotism means to me and the other military families in this community who are tired of empty slogans and photo ops. It doesn't mean anything any more. I was born in a brick hospital. What if I told you I believe brick hospitals are superior to all other types of hospitals? Would you feel nervous if I told you people born in brick hospitals are unique and special? Would you be uncomfortable if you saw me pray publicly and often for God Almighty to especially bless people born in brick hospitals? Patriotic Americans have that attitude about their birthplace. Through the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune they believe they are lucky enough to have been born into the greatest country ever. These patriots are prepared to defend their country against all detractors. It just doesn't make sense....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May05/Plummer0526.htm

Illegally Financing the WMD Hoax

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May05/Amr0526.htm

Free People Do Bad Things

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May05/Bageant0526.htm

Aufruf zur Zusammenarbeit

In der Anlage überlasse ich Euch einen Aufruf von drei ehemaligen Bundestagsabgeordneten der SPD (Manfred Coppik, Karl-Heinz Hansen und Erich Meinicke), der am letzten Sonntag nach dem Bekanntwerdenden des Wahlausgaqnges in NRW veröffentlicht wurde.

Bitte verbreitet diesen Aufruf und unterstützt ihn, damit die Chancen für eine linke Opposition nicht vertan werden und sie nur außerparlamentarisch hörbar wird: http://tinyurl.com/c52od

Mit solidarischen Grüßen

Willi van Ooyen

Bitte senden an: Friedens- und Zukunftswerkstatt e. V., c/o Frankfurter Gewerkschaftshaus, Wilhelm-Leuschner-Str. 69, 60329 Frankfurt am Main, Tel.: 069 - 242499.50, Fax: 069 – 242499.51; E-Mail: Frieden-und-Zukunft@t-online.de

Texas Court Rules Against DeLay's PAC

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052605X.shtml

NABU und Vodafone kooperieren

http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=NABU

.... und austreten müssten alle Mitglieder aus dem NABU, der als angeblicher Naturschutzverband mit Vodafone kooperiert.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen vom Uhlenhof
Hans-Udo Weiland


Wer hätte gedacht, dass der NABU so simpel gestrickt ist und ausgerechnet Vodafone auf den Leim geht. Für ein paar lächerliche Silberlinge lässt sich der NABU ein kritisches Eintreten für eine lebenswerte intakte Umwelt abkaufen. Hat denn keiner der Verantwortlichen in dieser angeblichen Umweltschutzorganisation wenn schon nicht an die Menschen, so wenigstens an die betroffenen Tiere gedacht? Wie hoch ist wohl der Beitrag des Elektrosmogs am Artensterben in Deutschland und in der ganzen Welt?! Ist der Schaden, den Vodafone und Co in der Natur anrichten nicht ein Vielfaches größer als der geplante finanzielle Beitrag für den Naturschutz?!

Diese Kooperation mit Vodafone erlaubt dem NABU keine negativen Stellungnahmen oder gar Klagen gegen geplante neue Mobilfunkantennen. Etwas besseres konnte Vodafone beim Ausbau des UMTS-Netzes gar nicht passieren. Jetzt kann Vodafone sogar vor Gericht behaupten, dass der zweitgrößte Umweltverband in Deutschland gegen diese fragwürdige Technologie nichts mehr einzuwenden hat.

Eine solche Organisation, die gegen ihre eigenen satzungsmäßigen Ziele in derart eklatanter Weise vorsätzlich verstößt, hat damit die Gemeinnützigkeit verspielt und verdient keine Unterstützung mehr durch Mitglieder und Spender. Hoffentlich zeigen viele Mitglieder, dass sie mit dieser profitorientierten, die Belange des Umwelt- und Naturschutzes verratenden Vereinspolitik nicht einverstanden sind und treten aus dem NABU aus.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
vom Uhlenhof

Hans-Udo Weiland


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Holger Kirchmaier
Gesendet: Dienstag, 10. Mai 2005 23:18
An: elektrosmog
Betreff: Nabu und Vodafone kooperieren

Ich kann mich da Ihrer Meinung nur anschließen!

Als nächstes fehlt jetzt nur noch eine Kooperation mit den Ärzten. Auch eine solche Kooperation ließe sich sehr gut darstellen, da beide Seiten hervorragend von einander profitieren könnten.

Viele Grüße
Holger Kirchmaier

-------Originalmeldung-------
Joachim Weise
Datum: 05/10/05 21:56:24
Betreff: Nabu und Vodafone kooperieren

Die ist ein gewaltiger Tiefschlag für Naturschutzfreunde! NABU, der neben dem Bund Naturschutz größte Verband in Deutschland verbündet sich ausgerechnet mit dem aggressivsten Mobilfunkanbieter. Da bleibt mir die Spucke weg.

Lesen Sie selbst den folgenden Artikel:

Berlin/Düsseldorf - (Om) - Heute wurde in der Berliner Konzernrepräsentanz von Vodafone der Kooperationsvertrag zwischen dem Naturschutzbund NABU und Vodafone unterzeichnet. Mit ihrer auf vier Jahre angelegten Partnerschaft wollen sich NABU und Vodafone gemeinsam in konkreten Projekten für die Ziele des Naturschutzes und der nachhaltigen Entwicklung engagieren. Die Einrichtung einer mobilen Natur-Plattform auf dem VodafoneLive! Portal gehört zu den ersten gemeinsamen Projekten. Pünktlich zum Aktionswochenende der "Stunde der Gartenvögel" am 20. Mai wird das Portal live geschaltet.

Neue Techniken helfen, die Natur besser zu schützen. Die Kooperation mit Vodafone öffnet dem NABU den Weg zu rund 27 Millionen Mobilfunkkunden in Deutschland. Dem NABU eröffnet sich die einmalige Chance, seine Ziele im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit und Naturschutz per Handy zeitgemäß zu kommunizieren", sagte NABU-Präsident Olaf Tschimpke. Über die VodafoneLive!-Plattform können ab Juni per Handy Informationen zu weiteren Aktionen des NABU oder auch Standorte von Schutzzentren in der Nähe abgerufen werden. Vodafone wird bundesweite Projekte wie die Stunde der Gartenvögel, die BatNights zur Beobachtung von Fledermäusen und den jährlichen BirdWatch im Oktober unterstützen. Informationen zu diesen Highlights stehen Vodafone Kunden dann aktuell zur Verfügung.

Neben dem langjährigen gesellschaftlichen Engagement von Vodafone soll nun auch der Umweltschutz intensiver bearbeitet werden. "Wir haben mit dem NABU einen Partner gefunden, der mit seinen jahrzehntelangen Erfahrungen auf vielen Gebieten des Umweltschutzes dazu beitragen wird, unser Umweltengagement zu verbessern und unser Unternehmen für die wichtigen Fragen in diesem Bereich zu sensibilisieren", erklärte Maximilian Schoeberl, Vodafone-Direktor für Unternehmenskommunikation und Politik. Expertenworkshops werden die Grundlagen schaffen, um in Bereichen wie Energieeffizienz, Abfallwirtschaft und Recycling ebenso wie bei der Kommunikation zum Thema Mobilfunk und Gesundheit Verbesserungen zu erreichen.


Quelle:
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/elektrosmog-liste/message/5321

--------

Lobbyarbeit von Vodafone geht weiter

Vor kurzem habe ich hier berichtet, dass der NABU mit Vodafone kooperiert. Hier ist nun ein weiterer Fall, wo Vodafone Einfluss auf Multiplikatoren unserer Gesellschaft nimmt. Dieses Mal wurde eine Fachhochschule mit Geschenken beglückt.

Gruss Joachim Weise


--------- Beginn der Pressemeldung:

Vodafone spendet fünf Messgeräte für die praxisnahe Ausbildung der Studierenden im Fachbereich für Informationstechnik der Fachhochschule Esslingen - Hochschule für Technik

Tektronix Protocol-Analyzer nennen Experten die Spezialmessgeräte, die zur Analyse des so genannten Signalisierungsverkehrs in Telekommunikationsnetzen eingesetzt werden. Die Signalisierung in Mobilfunknetzen überträgt z.B. die Wählinformation der Teilnehmer und reicht die sich bewegenden Teilnehmer von Empfänger zu Empfänger weiter. Die Messgeräte werden den Studierenden helfen, derartige komplexe technische Abläufe innerhalb eines Mobilfunknetzes zu verstehen und zu kennen.

"Die Messgeräte sind sehr willkommen", sagt Professor Dr. Harald Melcher, der Dekan des Fachbereichs Informationstechnik. "Die in der Praxis erworbenen Erfahrungen sind ein elementarer Bestandteil unserer Ausbildung und ergänzen die theoretischen Betrachtungen, die man im weiten Feld der Kommunikationstechnik anstellen kann."

Dank der tatkräftigen Unterstützung der Abteilung Technik von Vodafone Stuttgart kann der Fachbereich die Attraktivität seiner Laborplätze weiter ausbauen und weiterhin höchst aktuelle Themen lehren.

"Wir freuen uns, wenn wir als Unternehmen in der Region etwas für die Ausbildung junger Menschen und die Förderung des technischen Verständnisses komplizierter Abläufe tun können", erklärt Jürgen Hornberger von Vodafone.

Der Fachbereich Informationstechnik wird die Messgeräte bereits im
nächsten Semester zur Ausbildung der Informationstechnik-Studierenden einsetzen.

http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news?print=1&id=115083

---------

Eine Information für alle, die bislang noch den NABU unterstützt haben....

Hier eine Antwort auf meine Anfrage beim NABU "Naturschutz"bund zum Thema Vodafone, der - ach so uneigennützig und umweltfreundlich - Energie sparen hilft bei seinen Mobilfunkantennen......

Sehr geehrter Herr Rengel,

vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage bezüglich der NABU-Kooperation mit Vodafone.

Der NABU sieht in der Kooperation mit den ökologischen und sozialen Branchenführern eine große Chance, für seine Natur- und Umweltschutzziele zu werben. Vodafone ist weltweit ein solcher Branchenführer. Das Unternehmen arbeitet seit Jahren daran, den Energieverbrauch für den Betrieb von Mobilfunkeinrichtungen zu verringern und beteiligt sich an Forschungsprojekten zum Thema Mobilfunk und Gesundheit.

Für den NABU sind gegenwärtig weder Gründe für die pauschale Verteufelung noch für die Verharmlosung der Mobilfunk-Technologie erkennbar. Bei Handies hält es der NABU für wichtig, Geräte mit einem niedrigen SAR-Wert auszuwählen. Der NABU sieht in der Mobilfunknutzung keine gefährliche Technologie. Insofern gibt es für pauschale Klagen über Mobilfunkmasten oder Handies keinen Anlass. Für den Bereich der Masten setzt sich der NABU für eine Einbeziehung der Kommunen in die Planung ein, um vernünftige Standorte festzulegen. Das vom Bundesumweltministerium gestartete Programm zum Thema Mobilfunk/Gesundheit spielt eine wichtige Rolle bei der Lösung vorhandener Probleme.

Selbstverständlich spart die Koopeation auch kritische Themen nicht aus. So wird es gemeinsame Workshops zu Mobilfunk und Gesundheit sowie Umweltschutz im Unternehmen geben.

Des Weiteren werden Teilbeträge der Kooperation zur Co-Finanzierung der NABU-Aktionen Stunde der Gartenvögel, Batnight und Birdwatch verwendet.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Bettina Lange
Fachassistenz
Naturschutz und Umweltpolitik
Bettina.Lange@nabu.de

NABU Bundesgeschäftsstelle Bonn
53223 Bonn
Telefon: 0228.4036-173
Telefax: 0228.4036-203
NABU@NABU.de

Quelle: elektrosmogliste.baubiologie-regional.de

--------

Wer jetzt noch den NABU unterstützt, fördert damit die menschenverachtende Mobilfunktechnik und verhindert, dass die Netzbetreiber in gesundheitsverträgliche Lösungen investieren. Die Antwort des NABU beweist dessen Unwillen und Unfähigkeit, umweltrelevante Fakten zu erkennen und zu beurteilen. Damit verstößt er gegen §2 seiner eigenen Satzung und verliert die Legitimation als Anwalt für Natur und Umwelt einzutreten.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Hans-Udo Weiland

Quelle:
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/elektrosmog-liste/message/5376

--------

Guten Tag Herr Breunig,

die e-mail Adresse ist Bettina.Lange@nabu.de .

Meine Anfrage war wie folgt:

Guten Tag,

ich würde gerne wissen, ob die Information stimmt, daß der Nabu mit dem Mobilfunkbetreiber Vodafone zusammenarbeitet, insbesondere ob er von ihm finanziert wird.

Wenn ja, würde mich weiter interessieren, ob der Nabu sich des Gefährdungspotentials durch den Mobilfunk bewußt ist, für den Menschen und für die Vögel, die ihnen ja wohl besonders am Herzen liegen. Weiter würde ich gerne wissen, ob sie zwischen dem Zurückgehen der Vogelarten und dem Mobilfunk einen Zusammenhang sehen, wie es häufig schon beschrieben worden ist.

Wenn die finanzielle Abhängigkeit des Nabu von Vodafone bzw. irgendeine Zusammenarbeit der Tatsache entspricht, kann ich den Nabu nicht mehr länger ignorieren, sondern nur noch als Gegner betrachten und alles in meiner Kraft stehende unternehmen, um in meinem Bekanntenkreis davon abzuraten ihn finanziell oder sonstwie zu unterstützen. Die Problematik und Gefährdung des Mobilfunks müßte eigentlich auch schon bis zum Nabu vorgedrungen sein.

Mit noch freundlichen Grüßen

Reinhard Rengel


Quelle: elektrosmogliste.baubiologie-regional.de

--------

Omega dagegen hebt sich wohltuend der Bund Naturschutz ab:
Mobilfunknetz mehr als ausreichend: Bund Naturschutz gegen weiteren Ausbau des Mobilfunknetzes http://omega.twoday.net/stories/719445/

--------

Invisible Poisons
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/756341/

Full Scale of WTO Challenge to Health and Environment Revealed

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0524-04.htm


Informant: Scott Munson

Congressman Joins Fight To Help Soldiers Contaminated With Radiation In Iraq

http://208.198.20.182/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=12&aid=51080


Informant: Davey Garland

Voinovich Letter Rips Bolton

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052505I.shtml

Sometimes You Are Just Screwed

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052505H.shtml

Republicans Face Backlash after Senate Deal over Bush's Judges

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052505D.shtml

Bolton Threat to Intel Community

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052505A.shtml

Poverty is a major obstacle to indigenous rights

http://tinyurl.com/9ua8v

Limbaugh v. Moyers

by John Nichols, The Nation

Bill Moyers' principled journalism is a threat to the White House and the conservative movement. Time to stand firm.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=2711

Source: http://www.tompaine.com/

Bush's War Comes Home

by Sidney Blumenthal, The Guardian

Bogged down in Baghdad, Bush laid seige to the Congress but was met with mutiny. Now he's plotting revenge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1492198,00.html

Source: http://www.tompaine.com/

UzBushistan

by David Corn, TomPaine.com

While the Bush administration has been busy castigating Newsweek, it's turned a blind eye to torture and terror in Uzbekistan.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050525/uzbushistan.php

America Seeks Bold Progressive Leadership

According to a new poll just completed by the Democracy Corps with the Campaign for America's Future, the American people feel overwhelmingly that in the Washington of Bush, Frist and DeLay, the right wing that is in control is out of control. [1] Poll results highlight that the right wing is peddling an agenda that the American people just aren't buying. Mugged by reality, Americans are alarmed by the current course and are looking for bold progressive solutions to real problems.

The poll results completely counter the President and right wing's post-election claim of a "mandate" to impose their radical agenda on the American people. In fact, the three signature policies of the so-called conservative revolution -- the war in Iraq, Social Security privatization and economic prosperity through tax cuts for the wealthy -- were all rejected by a majority of Americans.

- 56% oppose Bush's Social Security privatization scheme.

- 57% feel that the Iraq war has not been worth the cost of U.S. lives and dollars.

- 62% feel that our economy is not good for middle and working class people.

Get the complete poll results here:

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=94649

Beyond merely opposing the right wing's agenda, this poll shows that Americans strongly embrace progressive solutions for the future, and want an active government to work to solve the problems facing our country.

- 83% support a national commitment to energy independence -- such as that outlined by our very own Apollo Initiative -- with investments in alternative energy and energy efficiency.

- 86% agree that the government should "guarantee that every child receives the basics" in education -- a healthy start, good nutrition, quality preschool, small classes and well trained teachers.

- 76% support guaranteeing health care to all through a program similar to Medicare.

- 76% want action to end tax breaks to companies that move jobs abroad and to provide incentives for those who create jobs here and allow unions to organize.

This poll shows that the American people are hungry for bold, progressive leadership. A majority of Americans (55%) would rather see Congressional Democrats stand strong against President Bush and the Republicans to prevent them from pushing their agenda too far -- than work in a bipartisan way to help pass the President's radical agenda. The message to the Democratic and progressive leadership in Congress is clear: Don't cower before the Republicans -- stand up, speak out and fight for progressive values!

In less than one week, over 1000 progressive Americans will gather in Washington, DC at our Take Back America 2005 conference. The failure of the right and the remarkable public rejection of the policies -- and increasingly the philosophy -- of Bush, Frist and DeLay opens the door for a progressive challenge. At Take Back America 2005, progressive leaders thinkers and activists will come together to highlight the new ideas that progressives are putting forth to challenge the right and forge a new progressive majority.

We hope that you'll be able to join us in Washington next week, and we look forward to continuing our work together to build the emerging progressive majority, and take our country back.

All the best,


Robert L. Borosage, Co-Director
Campaign for America's Future

P.S. You can get more information about our Take Back America 2005 conference -- including our latest agenda here:

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=94644

P.P.S. Please spread the word about our latest poll results and Take Back America 2005. Forward this email to friends. Discuss it on your favorite blog. Let's make sure that more people know about America's emerging progressive majority and add themselves to our growing ranks.

If This Isn't Evil

Thursday, May 26, 2005

If This Isn't Evil

By Anwaar Hussain

Bagram is a historic city 60 kilometers northwest of Kabul, in Afghanistan. Located at the crossroads between East and West of the yore, it has witnessed intense cultural exchanges in the past. Before being sacked by the Sassanian emperor in year 241, Bagram was once the summer capital of the great Kushan Empire of India. In the ruins of the central palace building in Bagram, a treasure trove of rich antiques was found. These ranged from ivory-plated stools of Indian origin, lacquered boxes from Han dynasty era, Greco-Roman glasses from Egypt and Syria, Hellenistic statues in the Pompean style to moldings and silverware of Mediterranean origin.

Today Bagram boasts of only one unique feature. It serves as a torture center for the occupying American forces. Innocent Afghans are tormented here to find out the perpetrators of 9/11 crime…some to death. Their bones are the only antiques that can now be dug out from the graves around Bagram, all other relics having long been looted.

Here in December 2002, life was choked out of a frail, shy, young Afghan through brutal tortures amid his cries of Allah, Allah.
http://malakandsky.blogspot.com/2005/05/allah-allah-allah-allah.html

By the time of his last session of pain, Dilawar’s tormentors were convinced of his innocence. They went ahead nevertheless. Major Elizabeth Rouse, the coroner at that time, said: "I've seen similar injuries in an individual run over by a bus.”

Just months afterward, in March 2003, when the spring flower had not yet bloomed on Dilawar’s grave, the supreme commander of the torturers addressed his nation in a State of the Union address. President Bush spoke about the gruesome tortures Saddam Hussein meted out to prisoners in Iraq. He described the use of electric shock, burning with hot irons, acid, and rape. The President concluded: "If this isn't evil, then evil has no meaning."

When the Abu Ghuraib, Guantanamo and Bagram prisoners’ abuse stories exploded in the world media, the President of United States in one of his Global Message radio addresses said;

“The actions depicted in those photographs show the wrongdoing of a few, and do not reflect the character of the more than 200,000 military personnel who have served in Iraq since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

And the First Lady, Mrs. Bush, echoed her illustrious husband’s thoughts in an interview in Egypt by ABC, "Good Morning America" on May 23;

“All of us, everyone -- Americans, Afghanis, Iraqis -- deplore the photographs that we've seen, the reports that we've heard of prisoner abuse. But that is not really what happens all the time and that's not what our troops really do. This is a handful of people, and I think and I believe that many people here understand that.”

That being the official line, General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said;

"Torture is not one of the methods that we're allowed to use and that we use. I mean, it's just not permitted by international law, and we don't use it…..That is not how the American military acts or should act. It's really a shame that just a handful can besmirch maybe the reputations of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers and sailors, airmen and Marines who've been over there."

Rudolf Hoess, the SS commandant and the death-dealer of Auschwitz, too had said;

"This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed, were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees."

Hoess was executed in 1947 for doing what he did despite his assertions to the contrary. Is it that the tally of dead Dilawars has not yet reached Hoess’s score that the Americans keep ignoring the crimes of their leaders?

In 1975 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly unanimously approved the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Member nations agreed to eliminate torture. Article 3 made clear: "No State may permit or tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

The states assumed active responsibility to eliminate torture. Exceptional events, situations, or factors would not provide an exception to the prohibition against torture. Article 3 continued: "Exceptional circumstances such as a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Furthermore, a key provision in Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states:

"Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honor, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity. "

The authoritative commentary to the Fourth Geneva Convention published by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) points out that this article "proclaims the principle of respect for the human person and the inviolable character of the basic rights of individual men and women." It continues:

"The right of respect for the person must be understood in its widest sense: it covers all the rights of the individual, that is, the rights and qualities which are inseparable from the human being by the very fact of his existence and his mental and physical powers; it includes, in particular, the right to physical, moral and intellectual integrity - an essential attribute of the human person."

The law is absolutely clear, categorical and unambiguous.

Enter the American administration’s translation of the law.

Anthony Lewis has a long, devastating article called, "Making Torture Legal”. A passage from it reads;
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17230

“Reading through the memoranda written by Bush administration lawyers on how prisoners of the "war on terror" can be treated is a strange experience. The memos read like the advice of a mob lawyer to a mafia don on how to skirt the law and stay out of prison. Avoiding prosecution is literally a theme of the memoranda. Americans who put physical pressure on captives can escape punishment if they can show that they did not have an "intent" to cause "severe physical or mental pain or suffering." And "a defendant could negate a showing of specific intent...by showing that he had acted in good faith that his conduct would not amount to the acts prohibited by the statute."

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, filed a request on Oct. 7, 2003 under the Freedom of Information Act demanding the release of information about detainees held overseas by the United States.

Released after many delaying tactics, below are documents the government did not want the general public to read, including an FBI memo, stating that Defense Department interrogators impersonated FBI agents and used "torture techniques" against a detainee at Guantanamo. Read on;
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI_3977.pdf

- FBI documents e-mails of FBI agents witnessing the use of "torture techniques" in Guantanamo (12/20/04);

http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/122004.html

- E-mails of McCraw inquiry into detainee abuse in Guantanamo (1/5/05);

http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/010505.html

A careful reading of these documents makes it abundantly clear that these acts of torture and abuse are not just some off the wall case of rogue or poorly trained soldiers who were going against the rules. These acts are part of a pattern of behavior fully condoned by the Bush administration.

The abuse of POWs in Baghdad and Afghanistan, the no man’s land constructed for the Guantanamo “enemy combatants” is nothing new. American warfare has a history of abuse.

The “Winter Soldier Investigation” conducted by the “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” in Detroit in 1971 suggested that the atrocities committed in My Lai were not the only ones of its kind but part of larger history of atrocities committed by American forces in Vietnam. Among the findings read into the Congressional Record were that “we were murdering prisoners, we were turning prisoners over to somebody else to be tortured.” Moreover, “every law of Land Warfare has been violated.”

Not very long back, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation was carried out by the Toledo Blade into the atrocities committed by the “Tiger Force” of the 101st Airborne division in 1967. It has confirmed this general picture of some U.S. armed forces routinely breaking the rules of civilized warfare.

The real lesson of the current American onslaught on a defenseless, but oil rich, people then is that there is no limit to the horrors that the ruling American class will inflict to stay in power and gobble up the fast dwindling world resources. As long as the American nation continues to tolerate these leaders, who make lies seem true and slaughter respectable, mass carnage will continue to be committed in their name.

Last year, when Bush hastily declared mission accomplished, he stated that "Saddam's torture chambers are closed." He did not tell the world that he had already opened his own…the first one at Bagram.

"If this isn't evil, then evil has no meaning." Tell that to Dilawar’s daughter.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain
Email : eagleeye@emirates.net.ae

posted by Anwaar Hussain at 12:01 PM

http://malakandsky.blogspot.com/


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Final push needed to save the dugongs

Thanks for your support for the "Save the Dugong in Okinawa" campaign, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has indicated in the Japanese Diet (parliament) that the construction needed to be stopped for a while!

However, the construction is still continuing at the site ignoring the words from the Prime Minister. It has been successfully blocked by the local activists who have been sitting on the scaffolds for 24 hours long every day for more than a month.

The cancellation of the plan is almost there, but local activists are exhausted--cold and windy on the scaffolds. We need your final push to Japanese government to make their decision now. Even if you have participated in the action, please do so one more time!

Take action!
Save the dugongs
http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/7273.1599071.5409

Defender of the Huai River

Pacific Currents On-Line
Vol. III, No. 8 - May 2005

Published by Pacific Environment, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the living environment of the Pacific Rim.

Defender of the Huai River:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16905996&url_num=1&url=http://www.pacificenvironment.org/articles/huo_taishan.htm
Huo Taishan wants to change the course of a river. Only ten years ago, China's Huai River had enough clean, fresh water for dozens of villages along its route to thrive, with plenty of fish to support the economies and appetites along its path. However, industrial pollution has turned the river into a black, sudsy, and lethal flow. Alarmed by the rapid degradation of the Huai, Mr. Huo recently quit his job and formed the Huai River Defenders. Read the story of one of China's biggest environmental disasters, and the difference that one person can make, by clicking here.
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16905996&url_num=1&url=http://www.pacificenvironment.org/articles/huo_taishan.htm

Another Push Against Bush's New Nukes

Peace Action

posted 05/19/05

Help make it clear to Congress that we should be getting rid of nuclear weapons, not building new ones.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16911448&url_num=74&url=http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/Peaceact/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=740

Background information on Bush's worst judicial nominees

People For the American Way

Bush Nominee Resource Center: The Most Troubling Nominees

posted 05/24/05

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16911448&url_num=11&url=http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=14172

The Energy Bill: Pro-Industry, Anti-Environment

updated 05/23/05

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is marking up their draft version of the energy bill. The House voted 249-183 on April 21, 2005 to pass the the House version, the 2005 Energy Policy Act (H.R. 6). Learn more and take action today!
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16911448&url_num=10&url=http://www.movingideas.org/content/en/on_the_hill/energy_bill_update.htm

Failing Congressional Ethics

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16911448&url_num=8&url=http://www.movingideas.org/chat/Ethics/Ethics.php
May 25

Panelists from Public Citizen, Public Campaign, Common Cause, and The American Prospect discussed the ethics crisis in Congress, why it matters and what you can do about it. Read the transcript!
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16911448&url_num=9&url=http://www.movingideas.org/chat/Ethics/Ethics.php

N.C. church stands by sign saying Quran "should be flushed"

The pastor of a small Baptist church has refused calls to take down a sign posted in front of his church reading "The Koran needs to be flushed," saying Tuesday he has nothing to apologize for.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8944.htm

The Great Power Grab and All for the “Good” of the American People

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” James Madison, Federalist Paper 47

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8945.htm

Youths Take On Homeland Security

Can the government detain an American citizen for six hours without an explanation? 20-year-old Asmaa Elshinawy and other plaintiffs are suing the Department of Homeland Security to find out.

http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/22077/


From Information Clearing House

Peak Oil - A Turning Point for mankind

Video

C.J. Campell C.J. Campell explains it in detail.
http://novakeo.com/?p=154


From Information Clearing House

Shame on the Army: Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer Silent

Mary Tillman said, ''Pat had high ideals about the country. That's why he did what he did. The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting."

http://snipurl.com/f5bj


From Information Clearing House

--------

Iraq war: Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer Silent
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2005/05/246349.shtml


http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Pat+Tillman

Voinovich continues campaign against Bolton nomination

The Republican senator who snubbed the White House by opposing John Bolton's nomination for US ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday took the unusual move of asking his colleagues to vote against Mr Bolton.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=FT&Date=20050524&ID=4841897


From Information Clearing House

AIPAC Wants You to Die in Iran

So here’s what Richard Perle and AIPAC are not telling you: if Iran is invaded (or simply bombed) it will respond in kind and this will necessitate a more robust military response by the United States, i.e., more bullet-stoppers will need to be thrown into the mix.

http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/index.php?p=676


From Information Clearing House

If Iran is on the verge of a nuclear weapon, I think we will have no choice but to take decisive action

Perle provoked cheers from the crowd when he favored a military raid on Iran, saying that "if Iran is on the verge of a nuclear weapon, I think we will have no choice but to take decisive action."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8943.htm

Amnesty accuses US over 'torture'

In Iraq some of the violence could be blamed on armed groups but the report also blamed US-led coalition forces for "unlawful killings, torture and other violations". "Torture and ill-treatment by US-led forces were widely reported," it added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4578627.stm


From Information Clearing House

CIA man saw detainee abuse

A CIA official testified he witnessed the "pummelling" of a detainee at a Navy Seal base in Baghdad in 2003, but a former Seal who beat the prisoner said he was acting on instructions from the CIA.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8946.htm

An Iraqi's Last Words: "USA Good"

An unarmed Iraqi cooperated with American troops searching his house and said "USA good" minutes before he was shot to death, a former U.S. soldier testified Wednesday at his one-time squad leader's murder trial.

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050525/APA/505250942&cachetime=5


From Information Clearing House

House panel backs $45 bln for Iraq

A House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday approved another $45 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which would bring the costs of the U.S. military operations there to more than $300 billion.

http://snipurl.com/f4t4


From Information Clearing House

Blowing up an assumption

The presumed connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism is misleading, and it may spur American policies that are likely to worsen the situation.

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/05/18/opinion/edpape.php


From Information Clearing House

Abu Ghraib as Normalcy

The message Bush is sending to his shock troops in the gulag is clear: If by some freak chance your torture duties are uncovered, you will be gently removed from the scene with only nominal punishment ­ as long as you don't rat out your superiors, of course.

By Chris Floyd

The young soldier thought she'd been sent to fight for democracy and freedom, but it was a lie. Instead she found herself in Hell, committing crimes, violating her own nature, her sense of duty perverted by leaders who twisted it into a weapon to serve aggressive war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8947.htm

Why did the German people not act?

Congress will soon be asked to renew the Patriot Act with the inclusion of further restrictions on our liberty, restrictions which were originally to be introduced as Patriot Act II.

"Why did the German people not act ?"

Patriot Act vs, German Enabling Act:

The Decrees of 1933

(a) The February 28 Decree. One of the most repressive acts of the new Nazi government, this one allowed for the suspension of civil liberties ....The president was persuaded that the state was in danger and, hence, that the emergency measures embodied in the decree were necessary. Even though under Art. 48 of the constitution, the decree would have been withdrawn once the so-called emergency had passed, any hope of this happening was prevented by the establishment of Hitler's dictatorship following the Enabling Act (see below). It was in fact never withdrawn and remained until the end as an instrument of Nazi terror against ordinary citizens who ran foul of the regime.

ARTICLE 1. In virtue of paragraph 2, article 48,* of the German Constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against communist acts of violence , endangering the state:

Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty [114], on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press [118], on the right of assembly and the right of association [124], and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications [117], and warrants for house-searches [115], orders for confiscation as well as restrictions on property [153], are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

*Article 48 of the German Constitution of August 11, 1919: If public safety and order in Germany are materially disturbed or endangered, the President may take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, and, if necessary, to intervene with the help of the armed forces. To this end he may temporarily suspend, in whole or in part, the fundamental rights established in

Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 ...........

Patriot Act:

3.. Section 218 which amends the "probable cause" requirement before conducting secret searches or surveillance to obtain evidence of a crime;

4.. Sections 215, 218, 358, and 508 which permit law enforcement authorities to have broad access to sensitive mental health, library, business, financial, and educational records despite the existence of previously adopted state and federal laws which were intended to strengthen the protection of these types of records;

5.. Sections 411 and 412 which give the Secretary of State broad powers to designate domestic groups as "terrorist organizations" and the Attorney General power to subject immigrants to indefinite detention or deportation even if no crime has been committed; and

6.. Sections 507 and 508 which impose a mandate on state and local public universities who must collect information on students that may be of interest to the Attorney General.

Please call your Senator and Representative, voice your opposition. For years I have been asked "Why did the German people not act?"

Are you acting ? Please do!


From Information Clearing House

Lynn Woolsey: WITHDRAWAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM IRAQ

May 25, 2005

CODEPINK seeks the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and the restoration of full Iraqi sovereignty. However, we also believe that supporting efforts such as Representative Lynn Woolsey's amendment (below) moves us closer to the reality of immediate withdrawl.

Woolsey's Amendment:
SEC. 1223. WITHDRAWAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM IRAQ. It is the sense of Congress that the President should -

(1) develop a plan as soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this Act to provide for the withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq; and

(2) transmit to the congressional defense committees a report that contains the plan described in11 paragraph (1).

WE HAVE A DEADLINE...MOVE INTO ACTION NOW!! According to Woolsey's office, the amendment will be voted on the House floor this evening during debate of the Defense Authorization Bill. If the Woolsey amendment is adopted, it will open the debate about Iraq and how to move towards total Iraqi sovereignty and U.S. withdrawal. It is urgent that you help move this debate forward by contacting your representative TODAY and urging him or her to vote "YES" on the Woolsey amendment.

Click here to send an e-mail to your representative
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16952869&url_num=1&url=http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/codepink/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=535
or to find contact info for your representative go to: http://visi.com/juan/congress/

Thank you for taking action TODAY to bring the troops home.
Dana, Gael, Farida, Jodie, Medea, Nancy, Tiffany and Rae

P.S. For your daily dose of reality click here to check out the latest on bushflash.com from Eric B.
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=16952869&url_num=3&url=http://www.ericblumrich.com/14.html

German/Russian Report on Electrosensitivity

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=57

Next Dem Battlefront: Iraq

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/arianna-huffington/next-dem-battlefront-ira_1554.html

Koran Desecrated at Guantanamo

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052605Z.shtml

Amnesty Takes Aim at 'Gulag' in Guantanamo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052500367_pf.html


Informant: NHNE

So mobile phones are not marketed at kids?

So mobile phones are not marketed at kids? Anyone who has had ITV on recently will have been plagued by the crazy frog ad fro ringtones from jamster. So it says sales only to over 16s? Since when was a phone tagged with the age of its user? And who is it buying all the CDs, so that it runs to the top of the pop charts above real music -- on ringtones?!

Now parents are discovering massive bills on their kids' phones. In some cases the kids innocently download a ringtone, unknowingly "subscribing" to a new ringtone every week, which they don't realise until they see their bill (if they look at it) and do not know how to stop it. One mother said her child learned they had to text "STOP" in capitals back to the vendor, and didn't know how to do capitals, so could not immediately respond anyway. And now the kids are getting porn ads sent to them, because the phone companies "don't know" the age of their subscribers.

This is the truly cynical and manipulative side of the mobiles market, and there should be a massive outcry against this kind of unregulated and unrestricted selling.

Andy

Against Discouragement

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052505M.shtml


Informant: Russ Ferriday

Capitulation to the Nuclear Lobby Is a Politics of Despair

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/052505EB.shtml

Call on Congress to Eliminate Federal Timber Sale Program Subsidies

Date: May 25, 2004

Let's Keep the Momentum Alive

Call on Congress to Eliminate Federal Timber Sale Program Subsidies

Last week the House of Representatives was about to vote on a bipartisan amendment on this year's Interior Appropriations bill that would have prohibited the Forest Service from spending tax dollars to build new logging roads on Alaska's Tongass National Forest. If the vote would have been allowed to take place, the bipartisan coalition of fiscal conservative and environmentally conscious Members of Congress could have passed this amendment to end these wasteful subsidies for the second year in a row.

But there is another way that this House coalition can stand up against taxpayer waste! They can become an original co-sponsor of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA) led by Representatives Jim Leach (R-IA) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY).

The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act would protect and restore national forests by redirecting federal spending of over $1 billion in yearly timber sale subsidies to put rural communities to work restoring the damage to forests. It will save taxpayers money, reduce the deficit, cut corporate welfare and help communities adapt to wildland fire.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Call your Representative at 202-224-3121 and email them and ask that help end taxpayer waste and sign up to be an original cosponsor of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act today.

To find your Representative go to: http://www.house.gov/

To find out your Representative's email go to:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml
OR http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Background

Over 130 members of Congress have endorsed the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act in the past, as well as over 220 Ph.D. scientists, including Pulitzer Prize winning author Dr. Edward O. Wilson, 200 conservation organizations, religious groups, businesses, and, according to numerous polls, the majority of the American public. Even large Fortune 500 companies such as Staples Office Supply, Inc. and Lowe's Hardware made specific commitments in support of ending federal subsidies for public lands
logging.

http://www.forestadvocate.org/campaigns/protect&restore/about.htm

For more information go to:
http://www.forestadvocate.org/campaigns/protect&restore/about.htm>http://www.forestadvocate.org/campaigns/protect&restore/about.htm

Talking Points

Preserves America's national forest heritage, protecting and restoring the ecological values of our federal public forests by ending the federal government's timber sale program on National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, BLM Lands, and National Parks.

Saves taxpayers over $300 million annually.

Redirects logging subsidies towards scientifically-based ecological restoration of native biological diversity.

Protects communities by reducing the incidence of severe fire using prescribed burning and manual hazardous fuels treatments.

Immediately protects all roadless areas and old growth forests by canceling logging projects in those areas.

Provides funding for worker retraining; and gives preference to displaced timber workers for jobs in the woods doing ecological restoration.

Provides permanent funding to Counties for schools and roads.

Provides funding for environmentally sensitive non-wood alternative paper and construction materials.


Lisa Dix
National Forest Program Director
American Lands Alliance
ldix@americanlands.org
Ph: 202-547-9105; Fax: 202-547-9213
American Lands Alliance http://americanlands.org


Informant: STRIDER

STOP THE WAR IN IRAQ: Sept 24 Mass Mobilization - Call for a United Mass Antiwar Action

CALL FOR UNITED MASS ACTION

Issued May 12, 2005

* Please Post Widely * Mark Your Calendar *

Thousands will march on Saturday, September 24 in Washington DC. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition urges the antiwar movement to come together for a united demonstration.

Since the call for United Mass Action on September 24 in Washington DC - with coordinated actions in San Francisco and Los Angeles - was issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition on May 12, 2005, over 2,000 endorsers have signed on! Fill out the Endorsement Form (see below) to add your organization/name to this important Call to Action (endorsements from individuals and organizations are welcome).

Mass March on
Saturday, September 24
in Washington D.C.

* STOP THE WAR IN IRAQ
* END COLONIAL OCCUPATION FROM IRAQ TO PALESTINE TO HAITI
* Support the Palestinian People's Right of Return
* Stop the Threats Against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran & North Korea
* U.S. out of the Philippines
* Bring all the troops home now
* Stop the Racist, anti-Immigrant and anti-Labor Offensive at Home, Defend Civil Rights

SEPTEMBER 24 CALL TO ACTION

The anti-war movement must make a precise estimate of the direction of the White House, the Pentagon and Congress as it charts its next steps for mass mobilization.

The people of the United States must mobilize against the global War for Empire that masks itself as the so-called "war on terrorism" and falsely promotes itself as the "march for democracy."

The people of Iraq are insisting that the United States leave their country immediately. As in Vietnam, the people of the United States must demand the immediate end to this war of conquest. As we fight to end the war in Iraq, we recognize that it is not enough to focus on a single front in this War for Empire. We must unite on a principled basis that recognizes the reality of our epoch. How can this war drive come to an end? People in Iraq, in Palestine, in Haiti, in Venezuela, in Cuba are resisting but the people of the United States must become their allies. Their resistance is part of the universal aspiration to live free from foreign domination or threats of a military or economic character.

The war and occupation of Iraq cannot be seen in isolation. The U.S. is actively attempting to destroy every government that resists the Empire. The Iraq war is not an aberration nor is it a "mistake" of conservative politicians. The war in Iraq is a necessary component in the political program and the institutions of global conquest and exploitation. This is what we must be fighting. We don't want the troops to be brought home from Iraq only so that they can be deployed in the next front of imperialism. The people of the United States have every interest in renouncing the War for Empire that is directed by the U.S. plutocracy. The plutocrats have the wealth but the plutocracy is in inherent conflict with genuine democracy and with the needs of the people.

This is not just Bush's war. It is not only a Republican or a neo-conservative campaign. Congress again just rubber-stamped the next $82 billion appropriation to finance the criminal occupation of Iraq. The vote in the Senate was 99-0! The amount spent on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is now over $350 billion. The occupation of Haiti, carried out by proxy forces, is nonetheless a project of U.S. and French imperialism. The U.S. establishment is preparing to overthrow the government of Venezuela, just as every successive administration has sought, unsuccessfully, to overthrow the Cuban revolution since 1959. While the Pentagon possesses the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet, the White House and Congress and both parties join together with the Corporate-owned media to paint Iran and North Korea as looming nuclear threats. For more than 100 years the people of the Philippines have struggled, and are struggling today, to reclaim authentic sovereign control over their own country, free from endless U.S. interference.

It is time to take to the streets again today, as we have throughout the last few years, to demonstrate the growing opposition inside this country to the War for Empire. Every working person in the United States must know that the corporate, political and military establishment is using our tax dollars, and the lives of our sons and daughters, to wage their global war. It is a war for domination. It is a war for the benefit of U.S. banks, oil monopolies, and transnational corporations. These are the very same corporate entities that are slashing wages, health care coverage, pensions and outsourcing millions of jobs to make super-profits from the super-exploitation of low-wage labor.

The Bush administration cries poverty when it comes to meeting Social Security's obligations as well as the funding for education, health care and housing. There is no poverty claim, however, for the Pentagon and its corporate contractors: the real military spending level for the next year will be over $600 billion.

Instead of paying for endless war, we demand that the resources be used to meet human needs here and around the world. Instead of acting as shock troops for Empire, we demand that the soldiers and sailors in the U.S. military be provided decent paying jobs at union wages, the right to go to college, and an immediate increase in veterans benefits.

On September 24 we will march and rally starting at the White House in Washington D.C. There will be coordinated actions that day in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The U.S. government says it is promoting the march for democracy and freedom abroad. What a sham. They pretend to promote freedom abroad but at the same time fan the flames of racism, anti-immigrant discrimination, sexism, homophobia and bigotry of all forms at home.

There is nothing more urgent than to construct unity in the face of Empire. Real unity cannot be built by sacrificing the rights of some but rather it will be forged by embracing everyone's rights and just struggles for liberation. United we are the majority. United we can fight and win.

HERE'S HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED:

*Endorse:
http://www.pephost.org/SeptEndorse

*Spread the word by forwarding this email or by handing out flyers (see below).

*Download flyers:
http://www.pephost.org/downloads

*List transportation from your city:
http://www.pephost.org/S24TransportationForm

Funds are urgently needed to help build the September 24 mass action. We can't do it without your help. You can make a contribution through a secure server, where you can also find information on how to contribute by check, by clicking here:
http://www.pephost.org/ANSWERdonate

The Call to Action can be accessed directly at:
http://www.pephost.org/Sept24CalltoAction


A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389


Informant: idthomp

Opportunity to break 9/11 Story further into Mainstream Media

http://www.wanttoknow.info/050525opportunity911

Albanian Swaps Rare, 800 Kg Turtle for Mercedes

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30984/story.htm

OECD: Danger ahead for the world economy

http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GE26Dj01.html


Informant: Our bill of rights

Big Earth, Little Us

http://www.lewrockwell.com/wanniski/wanniski82.html

Empires, Mortgages, and Cable TV

http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner103.html

Foreign Policy Threatens Our Freedom

http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger42.html

I Used To Be a Neocon Now I'm Recovering

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/oneill1.html

May the Force be with us All

Why Star Wars Always Beats G.I. Joe
http://www.lewrockwell.com/khan/khan9.html

Of Cabbages and Kings

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind66.html

Entscheidung zu Bombodrom vor Wahlen gefordert

http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/brandenburg/451558.html

Help stop the Nuclear Nightmare

Pressure Point: Stop the nuclear waste mountain growing

May 26th 2005

Dear Pressure Point activist

The Government must adopt safe measures to deal with nuclear waste and commit to ending UK nuclear power and weapons programmes to stop the mountain of dangerous radioactive waste from growing.

Now is the time to make sure the right decisions are taken. We need your help today to respond to a consultation on the options for managing radioactive wastes.

There is currently no agreed long-term solution as to how to deal with the waste. Please take 2 minutes to respond.

Take action now
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wcstcibab.0.oc6qlhbab.jzkme7n6.1145&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foe-scotland.org.uk%2Fcyberaction%2Fcyberaction_200503.html

Spread the word
http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?m=1011335179049&a=1100856543318

Once you have taken action, please forward this email on to as many of your friends and colleagues as possible and encourage them to take action too.

Thank you for your support

Sincerely,

Michelle Lowe
Friends of the Earth Scotland
email: pressure@foe-scotland.org.uk
web: http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk

Desecrating the Koran

05/25/05

When I was an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University, a couple of born-again Christians passed out pocket-sized Bibles near the entrance of the student center. I took one, and so did a friend of mine, a Christian who apparently had some unresolved issues. He walked over to a nearby garbage can and spiked the Bible into the bin. I didn't like what he did. So I reached into the trash, took out the Bible, cleaned it off, and decided to keep it in my care. It was the first Bible I ever had. To this day, more than 25 years later, I've kept a Bible on my bookshelf. It is both logical and natural for the desecration of scripture to rouse strong reactions, whether it involves the Bible or the Koran, the scripture of my own faith. ... Contempt shown to the Koran, for example, may be viewed as an insult to Islam and Muslims worldwide...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0525/p09s01-coop.html

from Christian Science Monitor, by Ibrahim N. Abusharif


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

FBI's powers may become fearsome

05/24/05

Some really scary things are happening around Washington these days. Congress has become a place of great incivility and rancor, which threaten to undermine any hope of legislative remedy to a myriad of problems, from Social Security to soaring health-care costs to immigration to a steadily crumbling manufacturing base once the envy of the world. But perhaps the most frightening prospect for Americans is an unfettered national police force with the sole discretion to determine who can be investigated as a potential terrorist. That's the impact of little-known proposals to greatly expand the powers of the FBI, permitting its agents to seize business records without a warrant and to track the mail of those in terrorist inquiries without regard to Postal Service concerns...

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/editorial/11721829.htm

from South Mississippi Sun Herald, by Dan K. Thomasson -- Hat Tip to Prison Planet


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Tattoo nation

05/25/05

The young soldier thought she'd been sent to fight for democracy and freedom, the relative told Hersh, but it was a lie. Instead she found herself in Hell, committing crimes, violating her own nature, her sense of duty perverted by leaders who twisted it into a weapon to serve aggressive war. Since her return, said the relative, the young soldier keeps getting black tattoos, more and more of them, slowly covering her entire body trying literally to change her skin. The fate of this soul-broken, tormented daughter of America embodies the nation itself under the malevolent reign of George W. Bush. The whole country is changing its skin, trying to cloak its shame and complicity by a wilful disfigurement...

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd05252005.html

from CounterPunch, by Chris Floyd


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Democracy is a three card monte

05/25/05

'Lord lady ... you are so far left, you're off the dial,' said a recent email from a person who identified himself only as 'Mattei.' 'Bemoaning the president, day after day,' he wrote. 'Just stand in the corner and stomp your feet, crybaby ... 2008 is going to put you over the edge.' That's what I'm afraid of. We're living in a time of smoke and funhouse mirrors, of prestidigitation, of democracy as three-card monte. Watch the middle card, folks, keep your eyes glued to the middle card. And when they turn it over, it's never really the Queen, is it? Keep your eye on the horrors of gay marriage and you don't see the billion-dollar no-bid contracts going to Halliburton. Be terribly afraid of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and don't notice that the convicted con man who misled the war-hungry administration now controls all the oil in Iraq...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0525-29.htm

from Common Dreams, by Joyce Marcel


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Exploit the rift

05/25/05

Members of the Republican Party's political action corps pride themselves on discipline and adherence to the line. Most of the time they are very good at this, which explains to a degree their ascendancy of late. All of a sudden, however, that discipline has started to crack, and the outlines of a full-fledged civil war within the ranks of the GOP are beginning to become manifestly clear. ... The lingering election beef. Schiavo. The filibuster deal, which earned the following reaction from the president of the Iowa Christian Coalition: 'We'll educate people in the caucuses, and this is not going to do them a lot of good in terms of their presidential aspirations.' The stem cell fight, the 50 Republican defectors in the House, and the threatened veto. Bolton. The looming brawl over Social Security reform. The once-mighty GOP coalition is fragmenting before our very eyes...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052505X.shtml

from Truthout, by William Rivers Pitt


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Scottie goes ballistic on Newsweek

05/25/05

McClellan, George W's mouthpiece to the media, piled up a mountain of ironies when he lashed out at Newsweek recently for its piece about the desecration of the Quran by US guards at Guantanamo Bay prison. Scottie was outraged, he said, because Newsweek editors initially refused to retract the story after finding a factual flaw in it. Filled with righteous indignation, McClellan lectured reporters about standards of truth, about relying on only one source, and about credibility. Hoo-boy ...where to start? How about with the entire pack of lies that the Bushites used to plunge American troops into the war and ongoing occupation of Iraq? Even though the White House has now been forced to admit that it couldn't find any Weapons of Mass Destruction or a link between Al Qaeda and Saddam -- we still have received no retraction of their story or apology for damaging US credibility all around the world...

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/22096/

from AlterNet, by Jim Hightower


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Bush the despot

05/26/05

President Bush's drive for absolute power has momentarily stalled. In a single coup, he planned to take over all the institutions of government. By crushing the traditions of the Senate he would pack the courts, especially the Supreme Court, with lock-step ideologues. Sheer force would prevail. But just as his blitzkrieg reached the outskirts of his objective he was struck by a mutiny. Within a span of 24 hours he lost control not only of the Senate but, temporarily, of the House of Representatives, which was supposed to be regimented by unquestioned loyalty. Now he prepares to launch a counterattack -- against the dissident elements of his own party... [subscription or ad view required]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/05/26/absolute_power/

from Salon, by Sidney Blumenthal


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Amnesty chief: Give Rumsfeld the Pinochet treatment

05/26/05

If the administration of President George W. Bush fails to conduct a truly independent investigation of U.S. abuses against detainees in Iraq and elsewhere, foreign governments should investigate and prosecute those senior officials who bear responsibility for them, the head of the U.S. chapter of Amnesty International said Wednesday. Speaking at the release of Amnesty's annual report, William Schulz charged that Washington has become 'a leading purveyor and practitioner' of torture and ill-treatment and that senior officials should face prosecution by other governments for violations of the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention Against Torture. Among those officials, Schulz named Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director George Tenet, and senior officers at U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Abu Ghraib, Iraq...

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=6078

from AntiWar.Com, by Jim Lobe


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Don't expect court to care for liberty

05/25/05

The US Supreme Court ruled, on Monday, May 23rd, 2005, that to compel people to support its propaganda with which they disagree does not violate the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the one about everyone having the right to freedom of speech. Yes, the court acknowledge, no one may be coerced into funding some private party’s advertisements or related speech. But when the government or some part of it decides it will proselytize for something, it can make us all fund it...

http://www.freemarketnews.com/pview/5834/1624/html/index.php

from Free Market News Network, by Tibor R. Machan


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

What is the Dark Side?

05/25/05

There are people in this world -- and in galaxies far, far away -- who kill because they want to kill, or because they simply can. But all things considered, those people aren't likely to convince many others to join them in their hobby. The far greater threat comes from people who rationalize murder -- as with war, abortion, capital punishment, or when Darth Vader murders a room full of children training to be Jedis someday. The Dark Side of the Force is not evil for evil's sake. It's evil because it believes the ends always justify the means. ... in the big picture, the Dark Side is a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Not a clinically diagnosed form, mind you. (And before I get emails from OCD readers: Please, I'm just trying to make a point here.) But rather, it represents 'order.' It represents the undying allegiance some leaders have to their vision of how things 'should be...

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/001082.html

from The Free Liberal, by Jonathan David Morris


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

FBI records cite Quran abuse allegations

05/25/05

Terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison told U.S. interrogators as early as April 2002, just three months after the first detainees arrived, that military guards abused them and desecrated the Quran, declassified FBI records say. 'Their behavior is bad,' one detainee is quoted as saying of his guards during an interrogation by an FBI special agent on July 22, 2002. 'About five months ago the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Quran in the toilet...

http://tinyurl.com/byq8a

from Las Vegas Review-Journal


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Supporting dissent is not enough

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=7935&sectionID=15


Informant: NHNE

Leitfaden zum ALG II / Sozialhilfe erschienen

http://www.tacheles-sozialhilfe.de/literatur/Leitfaden.html

Minds are being affected: Calling for a National Move to take the Phones off our Children

A newspaper report giving a comment from the company who market this brain-numbing drivel says that they will not reduce the amount of advertising as it is successful! This is despite hundreds of complaints to the ASA - some saying that people are turning their TV's off because they cannot bear to hear the sound of that ad. I think this is proof that minds are being affected and a folk tale springs to mind - The Pied Piper???? Where are our kids being lead?

We really should be calling for a national move to take the phones off our children in view of the chilling scenes recently shown on TV news regarding "happy slapping", and constant reports of muggings and violence surrounding mobile phones.

Sylvia


I have just e-mailed Sir W (copy to Beverley Hughes), calling for urgent action to address the problem of mobile phones and children. A failing in this duty will surely cause the health tsunami we have recently been warned of.

Sylvia

The Stench of Deceit

Something is rotten, yet the cowed press ignores it and will continue to do so in light of the thrashing given to Newsweek.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3332

Leaving the Army not an easy decision, but it's an increasingly common one

When he talks about it, he uses words like “scary” and “terrified.”
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3327

Pentagon faked heroic death for icon shot by fellow Rangers

The parents of a former American football star killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan yesterday accused the Pentagon of propagating a false account of his death to stir up patriotic fervour back home.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3326

Grenzenlos billig? Globalisierung und Diskountierung im Einzelhandel

So lautet der Titel einer Broschüre von Sarah Bormann, Christina Deckwirth und Saskia Teepe, herausgegeben von ver.di und Weed vom April 2005

Bestellung der 98 Seiten umfassenden Broschüre für 7 € bei WEED, Torstr. 154, 10115 Berlin, Fax: 030/27596928 oder
http://www.weed-online.org/publikationen/bestellung/artikel/u_grenzenlos_billig.html

Hieraus exklusiv im Labournet Germany neben dem Inhaltsverzeichnis und Einleitung:

Arbeitsbedingungen bei den Discountern Aldi, Lidl und Schlecker. Kap. 1.1.6 der Broschüre http://www.labournet.de/branchen/dienstleistung/eh/grenzenlosbillig.html


Aus: LabourNet Nachrichtensammlung, Band 25, Eintrag 15

IG BAU und Attac lehnen auch "Bolkestein light" ab

Attac Deutschland & IG BAU
Gemeinsame Pressemitteilung
Frankfurt, 26. Mai 2005

* Anhörung und Protest gegen EU-Dienstleistungsrichtlinie
* IG BAU und Attac lehnen auch "Bolkestein light" ab

Die Industriegewerkschaft Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt und das globalisierungskritische Netzwerk Attac haben wenige Tage vor einer Anhörung im Bundestagsausschuss für Wirtschaft und Arbeit am 30. Mai in Berlin ihre Kritik an der geplanten Dienstleistungsrichtlinie der EU bekräftigt. "Das generelle Herkunftslandprinzip und die Verlagerung wesentlicher Kontroll- und Sanktionsmöglichkeiten auf das Herkunftsland gehen an der Realität vorbei und schaffen einen rechtsfreien Raum, in dem dubiose Dienstleister und illegale Menschenhändler tätig werden", kritisierte IG BAU-Sprecher Michael Knoche. Das von der Bundesregierung entscheidend verbesserte Entsendegesetz würde nach der Richtlinie teilweise europarechtswidrig. Auch der gerade erst eingerichteten "Finanzkontrolle Schwarzarbeit" würden die Hände gebunden.

In dieser Woche sind zudem die Beratungen im federführenden Binnenmarktausschuss des EU-Parlaments in die entscheidende Phase getreten. Bis zum 11. Juni können dort noch Änderungsanträge eingereicht werden, für Anfang Juli wird die Abstimmung erwartet. Der Entwurf der Berichterstatterin Evelyne Gebhardt entschärfe die Richtlinie zwar an wichtigen Punkten, biete aber keinen Anlass zur Entwarnung, sagte Attac-Sprecher Malte Kreutzfeldt. "Auch dieser Vorschlag führt zur Absenkung von Standards statt zur Harmonisierung auf einem hohen Niveau." Zudem sei nicht zu erwarten, dass dieser Vorschlag angesichts der konservativen Mehrheit im Parlament Bestand habe.

Statt auf "Bolkestein light" zu setzen, solle die nach dem früheren Binnenmarktkommissar Fritz Bolkestein benannte Richtlinie komplett zurückgezogen oder im Parlament abgelehnt werden, forderten Attac und IG BAU. Für eine solche Ablehnung mobilisiert Attac derzeit mit einer Postkarten- und E-Mail-Kampagne. Unter
http://www.attac.de/bolkestein/mailomat können Mails direkt an die Mitglieder des Binnenmarktausschusses geschickt werden, Aufkleber und Postkarten gegen den "Bolkestein-Hammer" gibt es unter http://www.attac.de/bolkestein/material.

Hinweis:

Anhörung zur Dienstleistungsrichtlinie im Bundestagsausschuss für Wirtschaft und Arbeit, u.a. mit Thomas Fritz (Attac) und Frank Schmidt-Hullmann (IG BAU) am Montag, 30. Mai, 12 - 16 Uhr im Reichstagsgebäude, Sitzungssaal der SPD-Fraktion, 3 S 001.


Michael Knoche
Pressesprecher IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt
60423 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: 069-95 737 135
Mail: Presse@igbau.de, Fax: 069-95 737 138


Malte Kreutzfeldt
Pressesprecher Attac Deutschland
Post: Münchener Str. 48, 60329 Frankfurt/M
Tel.: 069/900 281-42, Mail: presse@attac.de, Fax: 069/900 281-99

San Francisco Library Committee Says 'No' to RFID

From Doug Loranger of SNAFU - San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union.

At 01:24 AM 5/26/05, you wrote:

After voting down a motion to recommend that the Board of Supervisors place the San Francisco Public Library's request for an initial $680,000 to fund RFID for the 2005-2006 fiscal year on reserve pending the Library's development of a plan for its implementation, at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25 the Library Citizens Advisory Committee (LCAC) unanimously passed a motion to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that no funding be allocated for RFID this year, an important victory for opponents of RFID at the SF Public Library.

Particular thanks should go out to Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Nancy Evans of the Breast Cancer Fund, a representative from the ACLU, and members of the public, some traveling from as far away as Berkeley, who spoke out forcefully against RFID funding at the meeting. Last but not least, we all owe a debt to Peter Warfield, a member of the LCAC who led the efforts toward this outcome, for his time and effort on this issue over the past 2 years.

We must now ensure that the Board of Supervisors itself follows this advice at its June 23 and June 30 budget hearings on the Library, and that will require the participation of everyone here in San Francisco who receives this message.

Stay tuned. . .


Janet Newton, President
The EMR Policy Institute, P.O. Box 117, Marshfield VT 05658
Tel: (802) 426-3035 FAX: (802) 426-3030
Web Site: http://www.emrpolicy.org

Klares Votum gegen Mobilfunkanlage

LOKALTEIL PASSAU vom 25.05.2005

BRIEF AN DIE REDAKTION

Klares Votum gegen Mobilfunkanlage

Zum Bericht „Mobilfunkantenne soll auf den Rathausturm“:

„Im Rathausturm soll nun also doch eine Mobilfunkanlage installiert werden. Es ist erwiesen, dass die Strahlen, die von diesen Anlagen ausgehen, für den Menschen schädlich sind. Dazu sagt Dr. med. Hildegard Schreiber, Ärztin für öffentliches Gesundheitswesen in München: ,Das elektromagnetische Feld wird vom elektrischen Strom erzeugt mit den dazu gehörenden schädigenden Wirkungen auf jegliches organisches Leben. Im Umfeld der Sendemasten für Handys ist die Wirkung des fließenden Stromes nahezu katastrophal.’

Wir sind deshalb um die Gesundheit der Bürger der Altstadt, vor allem aber um die der hier lebenden und zur Schule gehenden Kinder sehr besorgt. Betroffen von der Bestrahlung wäre aber nicht nur die Altstadt, sondern auch andere Stadtteile, wie z.B. die Innstadt und Teile des Stadtzentrums. Es besteht auch keine Notwendigkeit, hier in der Altstadt einen Mobilfunkmasten zu installieren, da der Handy-Empfang sowieso sehr gut ist.

Die von uns im Herbst 2003 durchgeführte Unterschriftenaktion gegen die Stationierung von Mobilfunkanlagen im Altstadtbereich war ein überwältigender Erfolg. 524 Bürger haben mit ihrer Unterschrift ein klares Votum gegen diese Mobilfunkanlage abgegeben. Erstaunlich ist, dass etwa die Hälfte davon selbst Handybesitzer sind. Am 31. März 2004 haben wir die Unterlagen der Unterschriftenaktion an Bürgermeisterin Dagmar Plenk übergeben. Oberbürgermeister und Stadträte sind von der Bürgerschaft der Stadt gewählt worden. Sie tragen daher eine besondere Verantwortung gegenüber den Bürgern. Alle ihre Entscheidungen sollten daher getragen sein von dem Bestreben, zum Wohle der Bürger zu wirken. Das kann also nur heißen, die Mobilfunkanlage im Rathausturm abzulehnen und die Altstadt als von Mobilfunkanlagen freies Stadtgebiet zu erhalten.“

Manfred Slama (Sprecher) und die Interessengemeinschaft der Altstadtbewohner

http://www.pnp.de/ngen/such.php?cid=29-8577947&Ressort=asta


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

Sturm auf die Antennen

Elektrosmog

Sturm auf die Antennen

Text: Thomas Grether, Christoph Schilling, Bild: Gerry Nitsch

Die Angst vor der Verstrahlung nimmt zu: Überall im Land versuchen Bürgerinnen und Bürger, neue Handyantennen zu verhindern. Meist sind sie machtlos.

Hotel Seedamm Plaza in Pfäffikon SZ, 7. April 2005, nach dem Mittagessen: Gemeinderäte zahlreicher Zürichseegemeinden nippen zusammen mit Swisscom-Vertretern zufrieden an ihrem Kaffee. Man ist unter sich. Swisscom Mobile hat die Gemeinderäte zu einer Informationsveranstaltung eingeladen, die Bevölkerung aber ausgesperrt. Der Mobilfunk-Leader will sich die Politiker vertraulich und ungestört vornehmen. «Wir legen Ihnen die Fakten auf den Tisch», verspricht Swisscom Mobile.

Der Mobilfunkbetreiber will rund um den Zürichsee zügig Handyantennen aufstellen. Die Gemeinderäte sollen dabei helfen. Bedenken, die Strahlung der Anlagen könnte die Gesundheit schädigen, werden bagatellisiert. Ein PR-Mann der Swisscom legt Folien auf, bezeichnet Elektrosensible als «selbstdeklariert» und als «Multiallergiker». Und sagt, Studien würden «eine starke psychische Komponente» belegen.

Jeden Tag zwei neue Handymasten

«Damit stempelt die Swisscom Elektrosensible zu psychisch Kranken, obwohl die Wissenschaft gesundheitliche Schäden längst nachgewiesen hat», empört sich Lothar Geppert vom Verein Diagnose Funk, der für einen strahlungsarmen Mobilfunk kämpft. Die Telekomindustrie veranstalte seit Jahren solche Einseif-Aktionen. «Sechs von acht Referenten sind von der Lobby. Oft reden selbst anwesende Vertreter der Behörden ganz im Sinn der Industrie.»

Ingenieur Geppert unterstützt besorgte Bürger an Einspracheverhandlungen gegen Antennen. Allein im Jahr 2004 wurden in der Schweiz jeden Tag zwei neue Handymasten hochgezogen. An 10000 Masten hängen Antennen der alten GSM-Generation, an weiteren 2100 neuste UMTS-Anlagen, die Fotos übertragen können. Weil ein Mast bis zu sechs Antennen trägt, sind zurzeit insgesamt etwa 35000 in Betrieb. Alle senden gepulste Mikrowellen. Für Geppert ist klar: «Weder Behörden noch Politiker, noch die Telekomindustrie nehmen unsere Sorgen ernst.»

Widerstand gegen den Antennenwildwuchs kommt längst nicht mehr nur aus dem Lager der Umweltfundis, die Handys am liebsten verbieten möchten. Mittlerweile unterschreiben Tausende besorgter Bürgerinnen und Bürger Einsprachen gegen neue Masten. Sie sind nicht gegen Handys, aber dagegen, dass die Sendeanlagen mitten in Wohnzonen gestellt werden. «Es gibt kaum ein Antennenbaugesuch im Kanton Zug, das nicht mit Einsprachen verzögert würde», bestätigt etwa Armin Rutishauser vom kantonalen Amt für Umweltschutz. Selbst in Wohlen AG, dem Wohnort von Swisscom-Chef Jens Alder, kamen 1700 Unterschriften gegen zwei neue Antennen zusammen – der Rechtsstreit dauert an.

Meist bleibt er ohne Erfolg, wie etwa im bernischen Schliern. Dort wehrte sich die Bevölkerung gegen den Aus- und Neubau zweier Antennen von Swisscom und Orange unmittelbar beim Schulhaus. Mitglieder des Umweltforums sammelten Unterschriften, bildeten sich juristisch weiter, lancierten Einsprachen und eine Petition. Sie ließen sogar auf eigene Kosten Expertisen durchführen. «Wir setzten dafür zahllose Wochenenden ein, arbeiteten nächtelang», erinnert sich Hans-Peter Roost, einer der Beteiligten. Um unliebsame Einsprachen wie diese abzuschmettern, beschäftigt allein Orange 30 Angestellte. Dem lokalen Umweltforum fehlte es letztlich – nach drei Jahren Kampf – an Geld, einen telekomfreundlichen Entscheid des Verwaltungsgerichts anzufechten. Swisscom und Orange erreichten ihr Ziel: Heute kreuzen sich in Schliern – genau über dem Blindenmoos-Schulhaus mit über 500 Kindern – die Strahlenkegel zweier Antennen.

«Die verantwortlichen Gemeindebehörden opferten alles den kommerziellen Interessen», ärgert sich Hans-Peter Roost.

Das letzte Mittel: Schlafen im Keller

Kritik an den Gemeindebehörden auch in Thalwil ZH: Dort steht eine Antenne auf dem Bergschulhaus. Die Gemeinde erhält dafür von Sunrise jährlich 2400 Franken. Einige Antennennachbarn schlafen nur noch im Keller. Sie hatten sich erfolglos gegen die Anlage gewehrt. «Die Gemeinderäte unterwarfen sich kampflos der Telekomindustrie», sagt die Zahnärztin Cécile Pajarola resigniert. Wegen schlafloser Nächte, schwerer Sehstörungen und unerträglicher Ohrenschmerzen musste sie die Leitung der Schulzahnklinik aufgeben. Gemeindeschreiber Martin Pallioppi weist die Kritik zurück, man habe sich für die Bevölkerung zu wenig eingesetzt. «Als wir den Vertrag mit Sunrise abschlossen, waren die Gefahren noch nicht so bekannt.» Die Gegenwehr der Bürger bewirkte immerhin, dass Thalwil den Vertrag aufs Jahr 2008 kündigte und künftig auf Gemeindegebiet keine Antennen mehr zulässt.

Andere Gemeindebehörden gehen bis vor Bundesgericht. Doch meist ist es ein Kampf gegen Windmühlen. «Bundesrat und Parlament haben es bei der Neuordnung des Fernmeldewesens 1997 verpasst, im Gesetz einander gegenüberstehende Interessen der Bevölkerung zu definieren und aufeinander abzustimmen», kritisiert Umweltrecht-Spezialist Alain Griffel, Privatdozent für Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht an der Universität Zürich. Auf der einen Seite geht es um den Schutz vor elektromagnetischer Strahlung, auf der andern um den Ausbau des Handynetzes. Griffel: «Der Gesetzgeber hat diese heiße Kartoffel stattdessen den Behörden und Gerichten zugeschoben.» Diesen seien mangels gesetzlicher Regelung die Hände gebunden, Antennen zu verhindern, die auf privatem Grund gebaut werden. Mit andern Worten: Halten Swisscom, Sunrise und Orange die gesetzlichen Grenzwerte ein, und das tun sie in der Regel, ist eine geplante Antenne praktisch nicht zu verhindern. Laut Griffel bleiben mehr als 95 Prozent der Einsprachen erfolglos. «Für die Bevölkerung und die Gemeinden ist das ein ohnmächtiger und teurer Kampf.»

Der Bund verdient am Mobilfunk mit

Für den Widerstand und die Bedenken der Bevölkerung habe man Verständnis, sagt Swisscom-Sprecherin Pia Colombo. «Jede neue Technologie löst eine gewisse Verunsicherung aus.» Deshalb auf Antennenstandorte verzichten? Nein, meint der Sunrise-Sprecher Michael Burkhardt. «Der Wunsch der Kunden nach einer qualitativ hoch stehenden Abdeckung zieht einen Ausbau der Netze nach sich.»


Wenn es um den Standort einer Antenne geht, haben die Gemeinden nichts zu sagen. Auf Privatgelände dürfen die Telekomfirmen bauen, wo sie wollen. Das Gesetz sagt bloß, dass Antennen grundsätzlich innerhalb der Bauzonen – also meist mitten im Siedlungsgebiet – zu erstellen sind. Fälle, bei denen die Bevölkerung mitreden konnte und ein anderer als der geplante Standort gewählt wurde, lassen sich laut Orange-Sprecher Tilman Eberle «an einer Hand abzählen».

Denn die Hürden sind meist hoch. So wollten über 1400 Einwohner von Wettingen AG der Gemeinde mehr Mitsprache bei der Standortwahl verschaffen. Sie forderten in einer Initiative, den Antennenbau in der kommunalen Bau- und Nutzungsordnung zu regeln. Der Einwohnerrat erklärte die Initiative jedoch für ungültig, da sie gegen Bundesrecht verstoße.

Erstaunlich: Keines der Bundesämter in Bern ist zuständig für den Ausgleich der Interessen zwischen der profitorientierten Mobilfunkindustrie und den besorgten Bürgern. Stattdessen fördert der Bund den liberalisierten und privatisierten Telekommarkt. Und verdient kräftig mit – als Mehrheitsaktionär der Swisscom, die allein letztes Jahr einen Reingewinn von 1,5 Milliarden Franken eingestrichen hat.

Wegen Befangenheit hat der Bundesrat die Aufsicht über den Mobilfunkmarkt daher an die außerparlamentarische Kommunikationskommission (ComCom) delegiert. Die ComCom ist die eigentliche Machtzentrale. Sie unterliegt in ihren Entscheiden keinen Weisungen von Bundesrat und Departement. Präsident ist seit Januar Marc Furrer, davor über zehn Jahre lang Direktor des Bundesamts für Kommunikation (Bakom). Er wäre der Mann, der ein Moratorium verhängen könnte (siehe Nebenartikel «Handy-Antennen: Ein Moratorium drängt sich nicht auf»). Doch die Ängste der Bevölkerung haben bei ihm nicht Priorität. Dies zeigt schon die Tatsache, dass im Jahresbericht des Bakom davon überhaupt nicht und im Bericht der ComCom auf über 30 Seiten nur gerade einmal kurz von «Antennenproblematik» die Rede ist.

Strahlung: «Meistens voll am Limit»

Auch juristisch hat die Telekombranche leichtes Spiel. Anwälte von Swisscom, Orange und Sunrise stützen sich seit Jahren genüsslich auf die Rechtsprechung der Bundesrichter. Diese haben mehrmals bekräftigt, dass die Verordnung über den Schutz vor nichtionisierender Strahlung (NISV), welche Grenzwerte festlegt, die Vorsorge abschließend regelt. Gemeinden können eine Antennenbewilligung nicht wegen gesundheitlicher Bedenken verweigern. Bereits vor fünf Jahren entschied das Bundesgericht: «Weitergehende Begrenzungen im Einzelfall sind nicht zulässig.» Swisscom-Sprecherin Pia Colombo sagt denn auch: «Blockiert ist keines unserer Projekte. Dies wäre nach bundesgerichtlicher Rechtsprechung nicht zulässig.»

So stehen bis heute die Grenzwerte der NIS-Verordnung über allem. «Das Bundesgericht hat sie quasi heilig gesprochen», sagt Elektrosmog-Spezialist Josef Peter aus Illnau, der seit Jahren die Strahlung von Mobilfunkantennen misst. Für ihn steht fest: «Das Bundesgericht widerspricht bei seinen Entscheiden dem Umweltschutzgesetz.» Denn dieses verlangt, dass Maßnahmen zur Verminderung von Mobilfunkstrahlung zu treffen sind, sofern dies technisch machbar ist. Die Netzbetreiber kümmere dies wenig. Sie orientierten sich am starren Grenzwert, sagt Peter: «Sie gehen meistens voll ans Limit.»

Swisscom, Sunrise und Orange lassen keine Gelegenheit aus, den Grenzwert als «den strengsten in Europa» zu bezeichnen. Tatsächlich ist er rund zehnmal tiefer als etwa jener in Deutschland. Doch auf fundierten Untersuchungen basiert er nicht. «Man hat ihn pauschal und über den Daumen gepeilt reduziert», kritisiert der Zürcher Umweltjurist Andreas Laki das damalige Vorgehen. Dass es keine wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse gab, habe man dabei nur scheinbar berücksichtigt.

Selbstmord wegen Elektrosmog?

Dies bestätigt Strahlenspezialist Josef Peter, der den Grenzwert heute als «willkürlich» bezeichnet. Er war einer der Experten, die Bundesrat Moritz Leuenberger bei der Festsetzung des Werts berieten. Leuenberger stand unter dem Druck der Industrie. Das Bundesamt für Umwelt, Wald und Landschaft stellte den Schutz der Bevölkerung in den Vordergrund, steckte aber eine Niederlage ein: Es hatte einen viermal strengeren Grenzwert als den heute geltenden vorgeschlagen.

Ginge es nach der Vereinigung der Ärztinnen und Ärzte für Umweltschutz, der 2000 FMH-Mediziner angehören, würden zurzeit keine neuen Antennen gebaut: Sie forderten letztes Jahr ein Moratorium. Eine holländische Studie stellte fest, dass selbst Menschen, die sonst nicht sensibel auf elektromagnetische Felder reagieren, an Schwindel und Kribbeln leiden, wenn sie UMTS-Strahlen ausgesetzt sind. Dies schon bei Belastungen, wie sie in der Schweiz üblich sind. Diese Studie «ist der erste direkte Hinweis, dass UMTS-Strahlung die Gesundheit beeinträchtigt», sagt Mirjana Moser, Strahlenschutzexpertin beim Bundesamt für Gesundheit. «Das kam für die Wissenschaftler unerwartet.»

«Die Wirkung der Antennenstrahlung auf die Gesundheit hätte besser untersucht werden müssen, bevor die Netze aufgebaut wurden», kritisiert Umweltjurist Andreas Laki. «Aufgrund der zahlreichen Hinweise auf negative Auswirkungen sollte man von den Betreibern den Nachweis der Unschädlichkeit verlangen, statt der Forschung den Nachweis der Schädlichkeit aufzubürden.»

An der ETH Zürich wird die Studie zurzeit wiederholt. Doch selbst bei gleichen Ergebnissen wie in Holland wird ComCom-Präsident Furrer keinen Antennenstopp verfügen, wie er im Interview mit dem Beobachter bestätigt.

Für Stefan Zimmermann kämen solche Maßnahmen ohnehin zu spät. Der 18-Jährige schoss sich im September 2002 bei Mellingen AG mit einer Pistole in den Kopf. «Ich habe es satt, sieben Tage in der Woche mit Kopfweh aufzuwachen», schrieb er in seinem Abschiedsbrief. 30 Meter von seinem Elternhaus entfernt steht eine Swisscom-Antenne, seit 1994. Damals begannen auch die Kopfschmerzen. «Wir haben keine Gewissheit, es besteht aber der Verdacht, dass unser Sohn elektrosensibel war», sagt seine Mutter Madlen Zimmermann. Die Einsprache von Stefans Eltern und mehr als 400 anderen Mellinger Einwohnern hatte nichts gebracht.

Das Unternehmen bedaure «die tragischen Umstände» in Mellingen, halte aber am UMTS-Ausbau der Antenne fest, sagt Swisscom-Sprecherin Pia Colombo. Man habe eine Kontrollmessung gemacht. «Dieses besondere Entgegenkommen ist und bleibt aber die Ausnahme.» Der Tod des 18-Jährigen hat immerhin das Aargauer Baudepartement aufgerüttelt. Es sieht sich veranlasst, den gesetzlich zulässigen Vorsorge-Grenzwert der Antenne zu halbieren. Dazu habe man sich «im Lichte des tragischen Vorfalls» entschlossen.

http://www.beobachter.ch/asset_8833.asp?session=DFD53965-1508-4BC5-B58C-BAC5AB2EAD66


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