http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=535566


Informant: m macleod

29.06.04

AktivistInnen der Umweltschutzorganisation Robin Wood protestierten am Dienstag in zahlreichen Städten vor Filialen von Galeria Kaufhof und Real gegen den Verkauf von Papier, für das Regenwälder zerstört wurden und verteilten Flugblätter an die KundInnen. Robin Wood fordert von der Metro, der Muttergesellschaft der beiden Kaufhäuser, auf den Handel mit Papier aus Urwaldzerstörung zu verzichten und alle Geschäftsbeziehungen mit Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), dem Lieferanten des Tropenwald-Papiers, sofort abzubrechen. Außerdem soll die Metro die Herkunft ihres gesamten Papiersortiments überprüfen, um sicherzustellen, dass dafür keine Urwälder zerstört werden und mehr Produkte aus Recyclingpapier anbieten...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=8787

29.06.04

Der deutsch-schweizerische Holzkonzern Danzer soll Schmiergelder an Beamte in Zentralafrika und in Kamerun gezahlt haben. Das berichtet die Umweltorganisation Greenpeace. Darüber hinaus kaufe die Danzer Tochterfirma Interholco wissentlich Holz von der kamerunischen Firma MMG, die Holz unerlaubt einschlage. Greenpeace beruft sich dabei auf einen firmeninternen Bericht über eine Dienstreise zu den Partnerfirmen in Afrika, der von einem der beiden Interholco Geschäftsführer, René Giger, geschrieben sei und Greenpeace vorliege...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=8777

Datenschutzbeauftragte fordern Einschränkung

29.06.04

Die Zahl der Telefonüberwachungen hat auch 2003 erneut zugenommen. Waren es im Jahr 2002 noch 21.874, belief sich die Zahl der Überwachungsmaßnahmen zur Strafverfolgung im letzten Jahr auf insgesamt 24.441 Anordnungen. Im Vergleich dazu wurden im Jahr 1995 lediglich 4.674 Überwachungsanordnungen gezählt. Dies ist eine Steigerung von mehr als 400 Prozent in weniger als einem Jahrzehnt. Seit Einführung der Jahresstatistik über die gesetzlich vorgesehenen Maßnahmen zur Überwachung der Telekommunikation ist dieser Trend ungebrochen. Der Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz Peter Schaar zeigte sich über die neuesten Zahlen der Regulierungsbehörde für Telekommunikation und Post besorgt...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=8784

Der Oberste Gerichtshof in Washington hat den Gefangenen von Guantánamo Klagerechte in den USA zugestanden - ein Dämpfer für die Bush-Regierung...

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/17765/1.html

http://www.foundationforthelawoftime.org/vision/archive/PAN/LetterforReform.html


Informant: Jacy

Presseerklärung des Barnimer Aktionsbündnis gegen Gentechnik vom
26.06.04

Bernau: Seit 2002 betreibt der Bayer-Konzern ein Versuchsfeld mit genmanipulierten Kartoffeln in Lentzke, einem kleinen Dorf bei Neuruppin. Bereits vor Beginn der Aussaat protestierte das Barnimer Aktionsbündnis gegen die Freisetzung der Gen-Kartoffeln. Über 160 Einwendungen wurden gesammelt, doch das hatte keinen Einfluss auf das Genehmigungsverfahren. Für dieses Jahr waren nun mehrere Aktionen am Genversuchsfeld angekündigt, die wohl zur Aufgabe des Feldes geführt haben, denn eigentlich waren die Versuche bis 2005 geplant und genehmigt.

"Die Erfahrung zeigt, dass die Betreiber von Gentechnikfeldern sehr empfindlich auf Öffentlichlichkeit und Proteste reagieren" sagt Thomas Janoschka vom Barnimer Aktionsbündnis. "In Brandenburg haben die Betreiber deswegen schon an mehreren Orten ihre Versuche frühzeitig abgebrochen. Wir werden mit unseren Aktionen so lange fortfahren, bis wir endlich von einer gentechnikfreien Region Berlin-Brandenburg sprechen können."

Derzeit finden in Brandenburg noch an drei Standorten Versuche mit genmanipulierten Pflanzen statt, in Dahnsdorf bei Belzig, in Golm bei Potsdam und in Berge bei Putlitz. Ausserdem gibt es vier Felder mit genmanipulierten Mais im sogenannten Erprobungsbau. Die Standorte dieser Felder werden weiterhin geheim gehalten.

Die bereits angekündigte Fahrraddemonstration von Neuruppin nach Lentzke am 24. Juli fällt natürlich aus. Das Barnimer Aktionsbündnis ruft aber weiterhin zur Teilnahme an den Sommeraktionstagen der FREIe HEIDe auf und beteiligt sich mit eigenen Workshops und Aktionen zum Thema Gentechnik.

Barnimer Aktionsbündnis gegen Gentechnik
Tel.: 03338-459407
Fax: 03338-459407
gengruppe@dosto.de, www.dosto.de/gengruppe
weitergeleitet von:
Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren
CBGnetwork@aol.com
http://www.CBGnetwork.de
Tel: 0211-333 911
Fax 040 – 3603 741835

Beirat
Dr. Sigrid Müller, Pharmakologin, Bremen
Dr. Erika Abczynski, Kinderärztin, Dormagen
Eva Bulling-Schröter, ehem. MdB, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rochlitz, Chemiker, ehem. MdB, Burgwald
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, Historiker, Berlin
Wolfram Esche, Rechtsanwalt, Köln
Dorothee Sölle,Theologin, Hamburg (U 2003)
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, Baubiologe, Neubeuern
Prof. Jürgen Junginger, Designer, Krefeld

June 29, 2004

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Glen Barry, Ph.D., Forests.org

Australia is experiencing ecological collapse on a continental scale. The same environmental catastrophes are playing themselves out around the world. But in Australia we see the western culture's cavalier attitude towards the environment juxtaposed upon an arid region with relatively few lush, fertile areas. In Australia's land one can seen the future, and it is not pretty. Ancient forests continue to be felled to make paper, soils are made barren by salt deposition, the Great Barrier reef is silted, and water and energy are wasted despite their scarcity. In Australia we are witnessing the effects of deforestation, climate change and water mismanagement earlier and more clearly. Horrendously wasteful over-use of land, water and the atmosphere's waste holding capacity are laying waste to a continent.

As the magnitude of the crisis unfolds, slowly the country's politicians are realizing the seriousness of the situation. But tinkering around the edges of environmental policy will not sustain Australia. Radical plans to conserve Australia (and the world's) water, forests and atmosphere are our only hope. This will include an end to industrial logging in most natural forests, abandoning marginal farmland, and making water and air use more efficient, or barring this, stopping activities that impact them.

More fundamentally, the lies of perpetual economic growth and petroleum dependent societies must be shattered. Less ambitious programs of environmental conservation are window-dressing.

Below you will find a startling overview of Australia's ecological condition, and two modest efforts to address the situation - barring development adjacent to the Daintree rainforest and a new water management system. Perhaps the Australian public and body politic are waking up?
g.b.


ITEM #1
Nothing to show but a wasteland
http://www.smh.com.au/handheld/articles/2004/06/27/1088274624705.html

ITEM #2
Drought-Hit Australia Plans to Save Ailing Rivers
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD273959.htm

June 29, 2004

Candidate George W. Bush made two promises on the environment when he ran for President in 2000: he would regulate carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, and he would close the $5 billion maintenance backlog for our national parks. It took President George W. Bush a mere 53 days to break his promise on reducing greenhouse gases. [1] And to the dismay of environmentalists and career park officials alike, America's national parks have been steadily deteriorating since the President took office.

To deter public awareness of his national parks reversal, it appears the President has imposed a gag rule on park managers to prevent them from disclosing just how underfunded the parks have become. Since 1998 the Park Service has been collaborating with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) http://www.npca.org , a nonprofit advocacy group, to create business plans for the country's parks. With federal funding, NPCA and the Park Service recruited graduate students from the country's top business schools to identify funding problems and develop management solutions for the parks. The 64 reports produced so far portray a Park Service woefully short of money, with most parks showing annual budget shortfalls of around 30 percent.

This information has apparently not been sitting comfortably with the administration. The business plan for Olympic National Park in Washington, for example, was kept from the public after it found that funding shortages were crippling the park. The report found that Olympic, which had 3.2 million visitors last year, receives only about half the money it needs. The Washington Post last week quoted a Park Service official, who spoke anonymously out of fear of retaliation, as saying that the report was withheld because the Bush administration "...doesn't like bad news. They don't like to see or hear about it or fix it. And they punish the messenger."

Ron Tipton, senior vice president for programs at NPCA, told BushGreenwatch http://www.bushgreenwatch.org , "It's really regrettable that the Department of Interior appears to be uncomfortable with full public disclosure of the results of these business plans. The public and key decision-makers need this information to assure the parks are adequately funded and staffed so their visitors have a high quality experience."

The superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park was forced to cancel a scheduled press conference to announce that park's business plan, which showed budget shortfalls. The plan was later made public on the park's web site. The press conference was canceled, according to a Park Service spokesman, not to hide the plan but because NPCA "might go out there and say a lot of things that our superintendents aren't comfortable saying."

Apparently, however, it appears to be the Park Service's political appointees who are uncomfortable. To solve the problem of reports informing the public of chronic underfunding, the Park Service has canceled its partnership with NPCA. As NPCA's Tipton explained to the Post: "We were not seen as a friendly voice."


SOURCES:
[1] "Environmental Reversal," Online Newshour, PBS, Mar. 14, 2001.

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000146.php

by Matthew Holmes

Liberty For All

06/29/04

There has been much talk lately about the possibility of the draft being renewed to force young men (and women?) to enter the military and engage in combat in the Middle East. Most Libertarians and Liberal Democrats are adamantly against the draft, and with good reason. Freedom to dissent from our government's actions and policies is absolutely fundamental to the proper workings of a free Republic. Without this basic and essential freedom the idea that we are a free country is a farce...

http://www.libertyforall.net/2004/july4/Conscription.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Navakatikian MA, Tomashevskaya LA,
In "Biological Effects of Electric and Magnetic Fields, Volume 1" D.O. Carpenter (ed) Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1994, pp. 333-342.

Microwaves at nonthermal levels are able to induce behavioral and endocrine changes at low power densities (0.01-0.1 mW/cm2).

Our studies have demonstrated several phases of inhibition and activation. We suggest that inhibition of behavior by microwaves has many mechanisms depending on the strength and duration of exposure, and most inhibitory effects from direct actions on the nervous system.

Activation, on the other hand, is correlated well with decreases in serum concentrations of testosterone and insulin. CW microwaves, however, have no influence on the secretion of insulin.

Source: http://www.electric-words.com/cell/abstracts/na124914.html


Non thermal effects of exposure to EMF
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/538361/

A Break-through in Understanding Non-Thermal Electromagnetic Field Effects
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/522713/

Thermal and Nonthermal Mechanisms of the Biological Interaction of Microwaves
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/507958/

Non Thermal Studies
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/659124/

Prof. Sianette Kwee: The effects of radiofrequency fields on cell proliferation are non-thermal
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/205735/

KRITIK AUS KARLSRUHE

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,306314,00.html


Die geplante Zusammenlegung von Arbeitslosen- und Sozialhilfe ist nach Ansicht von Siegfried Broß mit dem Grundgesetz nicht vereinbar. Dem Verfassungsrichter zufolge wird mit der Reform ein zentrales Prinzip der Verfassung verletzt.

Frankfurt am Main - Es sei immer wahrscheinlicher, dass die Hartz-IV-Reform beim Bundesverfassungsgericht lande, sagte Broß dem "Tagesspiegel". "Das Grundgesetz stellt einen ganz engen Zusammenhang zwischen der Menschenwürde und dem Sozialstaat her", so der Verfassungsrichter. "Dieser Zusammenhang wird verletzt, wenn mindestens eine Million Arbeitslose auf einmal massiv schlechter gestellt werden, ohne dass ihnen der Staat adäquate Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten in Aussicht stellen kann."

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1248323,00.html


Informant: vinski2004

The Zanesville Signal, Zanesville, Oh

Thursday, July 31, 1941

http://tinyurl.com/2ugrc


Informant: Our bill of rights

To All

A bit of political reality.........

The WHO is now negotiating with the Bush Administration over requirements that senior US administration officials approve participants in scientific meetings. The Bush administration, not content with corrupting science in the USA now wants to extend its anti-scientific agenda into the WHO with HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson reviewing US scientists who are appointed to scientific panels. See next message (Part2) on the scientific qualifications of "Tobacco Tommy".

Don Maisch

Access this story and related links online:
http://cme.kff.org/Key=3376.Sh.J.D.DVgDrP

The Junk Science of George W. Bush
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/252509/


(Part2)

To All

AS mentioned in the last message Bush administration is pushing requirements that Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson approve US participants in international scientific panels so that in the future US scientists "serve as representatives of the U.S. government at all times and advocate U.S. government policies."

So what is Tommy Thompson's track record in appointing scientists to expert advisory panels? For just one example of many we can look at what "Tommy Tobacco" has done to the US Lead Advisory Committee: (Exerpt from my thesis)

Stacking the Lead Advisory Committee at the CDC

Since the early 1990's the CDC's Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention has been providing information aimed to protect American children against exposure to toxic levels of lead in their environment.

According to advice given to the CDC by this advisory committee, approximately 890,000 U.S. children age 1-5 have elevated blood lead levels, and more than one-fifth of African-American children living in housing built before 1946 have elevated blood lead levels. The major sources of lead exposure are deteriorated paint in older housing, and dust and soil that are contaminated with lead from old paint and from past emissions of leaded gasoline. The CDC web site states that:

*"Lead poisoning affects virtually every system in the body, and often occurs with no distinctive symptoms.

*Lead can damage a child's central nervous system, kidneys, and reproductive system and, at higher levels, can cause coma, convulsions, and death.

*Even low levels of lead are harmful and are associated with decreased intelligence, impaired neurobehavioral development, decreased stature and growth, and impaired hearing acuity."

The CDC Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention is charged with assessing the scientific data and recommending changes to CDC policy to prevent lead poisoning, including assessing whether the blood lead level limits are adequate. These blood lead levels are then used to determine which children are at risk for adverse health effects, and how much remediation must be done to ensure that a lead-contaminated site is safe. The Committee has guided major changes in lead poisoning policy for more than a decade. For example, in 1991, the acceptable blood lead level limits were revised from 25 µg/dL (micrograms per deciliter, the unit used to measure blood lead levels) down to 10 µg/dL in a report released by CDC and developed in part by the Advisory Committee.

In March 2002, the Advisory Committee issued Recommendations entitled "Managing Elevated Blood Lead Levels Among Young Children" which provides health care case managers guidance on how to assess and treat children with elevated blood lead levels.

In a major reshuffle in the makeup of the Lead Advisory Committee, nominations of very high qualified scientists with extensive experience on the health effects of lead exposures to children were rejected by The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Tommy Thompson and instead replaced with individuals who have ties with the lead industry.

Susan Cummins, chair of the lead advisory committee from 1995 to 2000 stated that "no previous HHS secretary has ever rejected nominations by the committee or the CDC staff.

Tommy Thompson and Big Tobacco

Tommy Thompson, Secretary of HHS under the G.W. Bush Administration, was approved by the Senate in Jan 2001. Former Republician governor of Wisconsin for several terms Thompson has had a long association with Phillip Morris, the tobacco corporation. Philip Morris executives have been the leading contributers to Thompson's campaign funds. While governor of Wisconsin Thompson was on the legal advisory board of the Philip-Morris funded Washington Legal Foundation and was described in Philip Morris documents as "a close ally of Philip Morris for many years". Both as governor of Wisconsin, and as minority leader, Thompson has worked at opposing the Clean Indoor Act, proposed amendments to exempt most businesses from smoking bans, opposed increases in excise taxes on cigarettes, opposed bans on businesses selling cigarettes to minors and passed legislation making it illegial for communities to pass stricter tobacco laws, such as banning the use of cigarette vending machines.

In 1999 his staff worked with Philip Morris and other lobbysts to eliminate enforcement of the law that makes it illegial to sell cigarettes to minors. Two non-profit groups bankrolled by Philip Morris paid for overseas visits by Thompson to Africa (1995), England (1992) and Australia in 1996.

The CDC Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention

Reappointment rejected by Thompson:

Dr. Michael Weitzman, Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester, and Pediatrician in Chief, Rochester General Hospital, Dr. Weitzman has been an Advisory Committee member since 1997, and is author of numerous peer-reviewed publications on lead poisoning. Dr. Weitzman was chair of the EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Workshop to Review Evidence of Health Effects of Blood Lead Levels over 10 micrograms per deciliter.

Nominations rejected:

Dr. Bruce Lanphear, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, currently the Sloan Professor of Children's Environmental Health. Dr. Lanphear is author of numerous peer-reviewed publications on lead poisoning. Dr. Lanphear was principle investigator on the primary study used by the EPA to establish federal standards for lead in residential buildings.

Dr. Susan Klitzman, Associate Professor of Urban Public Health at the Hunter College School of Health Sciences, and author of numerous peer-reviewed publications on lead poisoning.

Nominated approved:

Dr. William Banner, Jr., MD, PhD- Expert Witness for the Lead Industry.

* Dr. Banner, who is currently an attending physician in the pediatric intensive care unit, Children's Hospital at St. Francis Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, is also currently retained by the Lead Industries Association as an expert witness, in an ongoing legal case wherein the State of Rhode Island is holding the lead paint industry responsible for childhood lead poisoning in Rhode Island. Banner has testified in court that blood levels of lead below 70 µg/dL do not pose a threat to children's health even though the current CDC position" is that blood lead levels of 10 µg/dL or greater are high enough to be a health concern. Dr Banner has also stated that he rejects the evidence in the epidemiological literature that found that there are cognitive, IQ, and other kinds of learning deficits that have been associated with ingestion of lead levels above the CDC recommendation of 10 µg/dL.

*Dr. Joyce Tsuji, principal scientist for Exponent, and King and Spalding, a DC law firm representing several large lead firms, and who has testified as an expert witness for the lead industry.

Exponent's clients 17 include corporations such as ASARCO (which is currently disputing EPA's assumptions that ASARCO is the source of elevated arsenic and lead in residential soils in El Paso and fighting Superfund designation, Dow Chemical, and Dupont (named as a defendant in the Rhode Island lead lawsuit), large insurance companies such as Allstate and USAA, trade associations such as the American Chemistry Council, the National Mining Association and the American Petroleum Institute, and law firms such as Winston and Strawn and King and Spalding (which represents several large lead companies. 31 % of Exponent's 51 corporate clients have a financial interest in the deliberations of the CDC Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. 20 One of these companies, FMC Corporation, has a lead-contaminated Superfund site. 15 Exponent clients reported releases of lead or lead compounds to air, land or surface waters in EPA's 2000 Toxic Release Inventory.

Dr. Tsuji provided testimony in a class action lawsuit regarding the "alleged" need for medical monitoring for all residents in the vicinity of a smelter living on soil with arsenic and lead levels above background levels. "Key issues included the lack of sensitivity of tests at these low exposure levels and the negligible risk of adverse effects."

*Dr. Kimberly Thompson, Assistant Professor of Risk Analysis and Decision Science, Harvard School of Public Health, affiliated with the John Graham's Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. HCRA has 22 corporate funders with a financial interest in the deliberations of the CDC Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention and less stringent regulation of lead. Three of these funders have Superfund sites with lead contamination - Ciba-Geigy Corporation, FMC Corporation, and Monsanto.

Dr. Sergio Piomelli, Professor, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, researcher who reportedly disagrees with the current blood lead standard set by the CDC Advisory Committee in 1991. In arguing against lowering the acceptable limit of lead in the blood, Piomelli stated: "there is no epidemic of lead poisoning...but some people are trying to create an epidemic by decree."

SNIP

Don

by William Rivers Pitt

t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 29 June 2004

The American people are not comfortable dealing with words like "total failure" and "ruined credibility," but these are words that all of us are going to have to become accustomed to.

A process that began in September 2002 as a coordinated propaganda blitz to convince Americans they were on the verge of being gassed by an Osama-Saddam Axis of Doom, a process that was swathed in flags and a snarling, nationalistic patriotism, a process that has in the last 22 months delivered 855 dead American soldiers, thousands of gravely wounded American soldiers and over ten thousand dead Iraqi civilians to our collective doorstep, has now concluded with a farcical handover of 'sovereignty' in the dead of night.

One can almost imagine American proconsul Paul Bremer handing the keys to this rolling bomb over to former CIA pal and newly-minted Iraqi 'Prime Minister' Iyad Allawi with a snicker and a shrug. Thanks for the laughs, Iyad, but my helicopter is waiting on the roof.

In January 2003, less than 60 days before U.S. forces rained fire and steel upon Baghdad in the ' Shock and Awe' portion of this escapade, Mr. Bush stood before Congress and the American people to deliver his State of the Union address. In it, he solemnly informed us that Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons (i.e. 1,000,000 pounds) of sarin, mustard and VX gas, 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents, mobile biological weapons labs, a program to procure uranium from Niger to use in nuclear bombs, and connections to al Qaeda.

None of this - not one bit of it - was true. This didn't stop Bush' people from repeating these lies over and over again, even as all the evidence accounted against them. Pottymouth-in-Chief Dick Cheney continues to flap the Iraq-al Qaeda canard despite the fact that his best evidence to support the theory, a bin Laden insider named Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, has gone off the reservation. Once, al-Libi confirmed the existence of a connection, but now he has changed his story completely.

The going theory on this flip-flop is that al-Libi endured some of the "aggressive interrogation techniques" we have become famous for, and told his interrogators what they wanted to hear. If you had electrodes strapped to your testicles while you sat in one of those dark rooms with the swinging, bald light bulb, you'd probably do something similar. Once the electrodes came off, and once al-Libi was confronted with evidence that contradicted his gonad-inspired claim, he reversed course and delivered another blow to Mr. Cheney's theory.

This is, in the end, merely an accent in the symphony. In attending to the present, here is what we call sovereignty in Iraq:

* 97 legal orders have been enacted by Bremer which are "binding instructions or directives to the Iraqi people, "which will last for years, and which allocate positions controlling communications, public broadcasting, securities markets, investigations into public corruption, petroleum and virtually every area of government to people loyal to the occupation force. One elections law crafted by Bremer gives a seven-member commission the power to disqualify political parties and any of the candidates they support.

* The 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, appointed by the Bush administration to run Iraq in its name, supposedly dissolved itself on June 1st. A little-noticed decree from the Council, however, guarantees Council members power to veto laws, approve Iraq's 2005 budget, and gives them seats on an array of committees that will choose the remaining members of the National Council. In short, the puppets installed by the Americans after the invasion, all of whom were roundly rejected by the Iraqi people as illegitimate, are still very much in charge.

* 160,000 American troops will remain in Iraq, but the new government will have no command over them. In fact, a recent decision by Bush and Rumsfeld grants total immunity to the soldiers and their commanders for any illegal acts they might commit. This newly sovereign Iraq will continue to be swarmed by an occupying force over which Allawi and friends will have no control whatsoever.

* Oil revenues from Iraq, the money Bush has repeatedly claimed belongs to the Iraqi people, totals more than $20 billion to date. Almost none of that money has made its way to the Iraqi people, or to the rebuilding of infrastructure, but has instead been redirected to the U.S. and British corporations which basically control the Coalition Provisional Authority. The contracts diverting these funds to these corporations are binding, and cannot be changed even if the 'sovereign' Iraqi government decides the money could better be spent elsewhere. For the time being, despite the billions of dollars coming out of Iraq' s oil industry, the diversion of funds created by these CPA contracts means that most of the money for the rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructure will come from American taxpayers by way of the U.S. Congress. According to a report by the BBC, most of the $20 billion cannot be accounted for at this time. The party is not likely to end soon; since oil production began, only 2,300 wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared with about 1 million in Texas. A large part of the country remains virtually unexplored.

* The most important person in Iraq will not be Iyad Allawi or any other Iraqi. The most important person in Iraq will be John Negroponte, former American ambassador to the United Nations, who has been tapped to be ambassador to Iraq. The American embassy in Baghdad will be the largest American embassy anywhere in the world. As ambassador to Honduras during the Reagan administration, Negroponte was accused of playing a central role in the human rights violations and terror campaigns which were exposed during the Iran/Contra scandal.

* The handover of 'sovereignty' was done two days early and in the dead of night, purportedly, to forestall any attacks planned for the now-discarded June 30 handover date. Somehow, however, this handshake between pals does not seem likely to dissuade those Iraqis disposed to resisting the invasion and occupation of their country. In all probability, the dying will continue, which is why Mr. Bush made absolutely sure Iyad Allawi is prepared to declare martial law in his newly liberated country.

George W. Bush would have us believe this is a great day, a great victory for the United States. Here is what we call victory:

* 855 American soldiers dead.

* Thousands more American soldiers wounded, many gravely.

* Over ten thousand Iraqi civilians dead.

* No weapons of mass destruction, and no connections to al Qaeda.

* $151 billion of taxpayer money spent to enable this mess in this fiscal year alone, money which came out of the border patrol budget, the rail safety budget, the Port Security budget, law enforcement agency budgets, firefighter grants, the bioterrorism budget, the First Responders budget, and more. Do you feel safer?

* An Iraqi government as close to democracy as the Earth is to the Oort Cloud.

* An American government thoroughly discredited on an international stage still rife with dangers to American security. As Cliff Kupchan, vice president of the Nixon Center which specializes in foreign policy, said, "I don't think you can turn around three years of U.S. foreign policy with some midnight initiatives. The image of this president in the public's and the world's eyes is pretty much established."

"Total failure" and "ruined credibility" are the watchwords for the day. A process that never should have begun in the first place, a process which had nothing to do with defending the United States, has led us to a place where every 'goal' put forth by the Bush administration, no matter how stupid or simple, has turned to ash. This is the great gift Mr. Bush has delivered to us: A midnight deal, a washing of hands, and a quick exit out the back door. Honor and integrity indeed.

William Rivers Pitt william.pitt@mail.truthout.org is the senior editor and lead writer for t r u t h o u t. He is a New York Times and international bestselling author of two books:

'War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know'
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1893956385/qid=1055796595/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-8359763-1225605?v=glance&s=books

and 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence.'
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0745320104/qid=1055796595/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-8359763-1225605?v=glance&s=books



Informant: Laurel

by Mitch Battros (ECTV)

Just over two hours after the large 6.7 quake hit Alaska, a 3.5 magnitude quake hit Yellowstone Super Volcano. The Montana quake hit 30 miles ESE of Butte, which puts it just about at the doorstep of Yellowstone. It would suggest there is a cause-effect scenario between Alaska/Bering Sea quakes and Yellowstone.

The EMSC is measuring the Alaska quake at magnitude 7.1. Also, several large aftershocks not reported by the USGS at Vancouver Island, BC 90 miles north of Seattle. Some measuring at 6.4 magnitude.

Check out the seismograph at Norris Junction, which is the area that has been closed due to surface temperatures reaching over 200 degrees fahrenheit. So hot, your tennis shoes would literally melt.

Norris Junction Sesimograph

--------

Rare Earthquake Hits Illinois

A rude awakening early this morning as a brief earthquake centered in La Salle County struck the Heart of Illinois.

The magnitude 4.5 earthquake lasted only about three seconds. It was felt about ten after one this morning from Wisconsin south to Missouri and from Indiana west to Iowa.

The quake's epicenter was about eight miles northwest of Ottawa. There have been no reports of any significant damage caused by the seismic surge. No injuries were reported. People in various areas say their windows rattled and pictures fell off the wall.


Informant: M Jenny

http://www.rense.com/politics5/stoppres.htm


Informant: ROSE KING

Websites With Evidence 9-11:

http://www.911inplanesite.com/
http://www.fearorlove.com/catalog-911video.htm
http://www.erichufschmid.net/PainfulQuestions.html
http://joevialls.altermedia.info/wtc/radiocontrol.html
http://www.letsroll911.org/
http://WWW.JACKBLOOD.COM
http://www.911forthetruth.com
http://www.wanttoknow.info/
http://911index.batcave.net/911.html
http://www.911pi.com
http://911research.wtc7.net
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/pentagon
http://www.911review.org
http://www.911review.org/Sept11Wiki/911Encyclopedia.shtml
http://911skeptics.blogspot.com
http://www.911-strike.com
http://www.911truth.org
http://www.911truth.org/community.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/09_03_02/NEW_SEISMIC_/new_seismic_.html
http://www.americanstateterrorism.com
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/wtc.htm
http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/pentagone/erreurs_en.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~skydrifter/exp.htm
http://www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html
http://www.conniescomments.blogspot.com
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org
http://www.cosmicpenguin.com/911
http://home.debitel.net/user/andreas.bunkahle/defaulte.htm
http://www.deceptiondollar.com
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/indict/911page.htm
http://www.falloutshelternews.com/9_11_ODDITIES.html
http://www.feralnews.com
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/
http://www.gaianxaos.com/SpecialReports.htm
http://new.globalfreepress.com/index.pl?section=911
http://www.globalresearch.ca
http://www.gnn.tv
http://www.grandconspiracy.com
http://www.guerrillanews.com
http://www.gunsandbutter.net
http://www.hermes-press.com
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
http://www.infowars.com
http://www.johnbuchanan.org
http://www.johnbuchanan.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1217
http://www.johnkaminski.com
http://www.leftgatekeepers.com
http://www.legitgov.org/9_1_1_oddities.html
http://www.lihop.net
http://www.madcowprod.com
http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq37.html
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2002/How-To-Start-A-WarMay02.htm
http://www.nancho.net/911CW/MUinfo1.html
http://www.nerdcities.com/guardian/
http://www.newsmakingnews.com
http://www.ny911truth.org
http://www.oilempire.us
http://www.onlinejournal.com
http://www.osamaskidneys.com
http://home.pacbell.net/skeptica/9-11bulletpoints.html
http://home.pacbell.net/skeptica/9-11list.html
http://www.peaceproject.com/stickers/questionstickers.htm
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ericbart
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jpdesm/pentagon/english.html
http://www.physics911.org
http://www.prisonplanet.com
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/archiveprior_knowledge.html
http://www.public-action.com
http://www.questionsquestions.net
http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/bugle/bugle1.html
http://www.radio4houston.org/takingaim
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH
http://www.rense.com
http://www.rise4news.net
http://www.septembereleventh.org
http://serendipity.cia.com.au/wtc.html
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/aa11.htm
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/best_911_sites.htm
http://www.serendipity.li/wtc.htm
http://serendipity.ptpi.net/wtc.html
http://www.911sharethetruth.com
http://www.sigacanada.com
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q.html
http://www.standdown.net
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=36354
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/bushnonazi.html
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/flash.html
http://www.takingaim.info
http://www.tenc.net/indict/911page.htm
http://www.thelawparty.com
http://www.thepowerhour.com/wagwtc.htm
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911
http://www.thewaronfreedom.com
http://www.thewebfairy.com/killtown
http://www.truth-now.com
http://www.truthout.com
http://www.unansweredquestions.org
http://www.visiontv.ca/Archive/Archives_fr.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/northwoods.html
http://www.wtc7.net
http://xymphora.blogspot.com


Informant: ROSE KING

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1247902,00.html


Informant: Friends

http://educate-yourself.org/BBB/index.shtml


Informant: Laurel