Anxiety in Einstein school on mount Carmel: 4 teachers got cancer, 25 children left.

The parents say, that no one can calm them down, and that is why they don't intend risking their children. According to the parents, the data they received are contradictory. The parents national organization acts in order to evacuate the antennas, due to the concern for the teachers' health. In the Education Ministry they say that they have a contract by which permanent monitoring stations will be erected.

By Doron Solomon Yediot Haifa p. 30
http://www.yedhaifa.co.il/new/details.asp?cat=14

Many parents in Einstein school decided not to wait for the results of the different monitoring teams, who check the radiation levels emitted from the antennas site near the school, and they took their children out of school. Since the beginning of this year, 25 pupils left school, and in the school they hope that this trend will not continue. The parents claim that there is no authority that can calm them down, and they don't intend to take unnecessary risk on their childrens' back.

"It is the most convenient thing for us to bury our head in the sand, and to wait until the details about the danger of the radiation from the antennas will be clarified, the parents say. "We decided that for our peace of mind and for our children, that we have to transfer the children to another educational institute until the full details will be clarified." The parents are furious that they received contradictory data about the radiation levels, and they intend to do everything so that their children will have health and longevity.

"One side says that there is no radiation and that everything is ok, and the other side claims that the radiation levels are 400% higher than the standard, and we just didn't know what to do. What will we tell to our children when they grow up? Will we be able to convince them that we did everything we could to ensure their health? The situation didn't leave us a choice but to take these measures, and we really hope that it is an exaggerated step and that the radiation levels are standard. Nevertheless, we chose to be on the safe side than to be sorry later".

In the municipality and in the Education Ministry, they had difficulties to evaluate the data, because children left for private schools that don't need the Ministry approval. "We cannot limit children from transfering to different registration areas, if the parents decided to transfer them to private schools. We certailnly won't enable them transfer to a national school, if there won't be a justified reason for that, for example moving to a new residential area".

The teachers' concern continues, since 4 teachers got cancer. The national teachers organization started acting for the antennas' evacuation because of the concern for the teachers' health. "Factually, there are teachers who have cancer in Einstein school, said Uri Groman, chairman of the teachers organization. "We haven't the tools to prove the association between the radiation and the cancer, but in the current situation, the teachers worry, and that makes us act".

The general secretary of the teacher organization, Yossi Vaserman, met with the teachers and together they integrated a demand from the district manager, Ahron Zvida, and from the Education Ministry, to commit themselves to check the radiation periodically. "We will continue to investigate the association between the cancer, that 10% of the teachers in the school have, and the radiation they suffered though the years", says Groman. "Meanwhile, we see that rich parents simply take the children out of school to private schools, while the other parents wait for and worry about the results of the radiation monitoring."

The Einstein school committee intends to sue the minicipality and the Defense Ministry.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the whole world could weigh in on the upcoming US election? Check out this informal poll:

http://www.betavote.com/


Informant: Jacy

by Forests.org
September 29, 2004

TAKE ACTION
http://forests.org/action/indonesia/

Illegal logging of ramin, a giant tree that lives in the tropical rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, is decimating Indonesia's rainforests and destroying the habitat of the highly endangered orangutan, threatening Asia's largest primate with extinction. While the orangutan (“person of the forest” in Malay) is a protected species, ramin, its habitat, is not. Even though some rainforest areas containing ramin are formally protected, they are subject to extensive illegal logging and overexploitation. Ramin is smuggled from Indonesia to Malaysia and then to manufacturers, eventually becoming baby cribs, as well as pool cues, venetian blinds and picture frames. In order to stop the tide of illegal logging, Indonesia has proposed to have ramin placed on Appendix II of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Fauna and Flora Species (CITES) this October. By placing ramin on Appendix II, Indonesia would be strengthening international efforts to stop the trade in illegal ramin products. It is critical that CITES members, including the U.S., which imports ramin wood products, vote in favor of this proposal. U.S. officials have not yet indicated whether they will support Indonesia's proposal. You can help them make up their minds at http://forests.org/action/indonesia/ .

Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org

Thought-provoking documentary about the way the media is covering the war in Iraq, concentrating on the work done by the Arab network...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1001.htm

60 years is more than enough of the IMF and the World Bank

October 1 to October 12, 2004

The rich get more power and wealth.
The poor get fewer jobs, crumbling schools, and closing hospitals.

The rich get tax cuts. The poor get budget cuts for badly needed services.

It's the same story all over the world.

Two key institutions forcing this global agenda are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
They trap poor countries in a cycle of unpayable debt.
They use this debt as leverage to impose destructive "free-market" policies that

* privatize water, education, and health care;
* open markets for corporate agribusiness and food imports,
* which threaten farmers' livelihoods and cause even more hunger;
* weaken workers' rights; and
* weaken regulation of mining and other environmentally destructive projects.

In response, more corporations are moving their operations from the United States to countries with lower wages, leaving millions in North America jobless. Workers in these countries benefit little, and local industries are destroyed.

This is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the IMF and World Bank. It's also the year when we, the peoples of the world, must unite to say - ENOUGH!!!

VIGIL AT THE WORLD BANK AND IMF MEETINGS

Friday, Oct. 1, 2:30 pm through Saturday, Oct. 2, 6:00 pm
Location: Outside the World Bank and IMF, 18th and H Streets, NW

If you can't come to Washington, we encourage you to organize speak-outs, demonstrations, street theater in your own communities: cities and towns, union locals, religious congregations, and universities.

Visit http://www.foodfirst.org for background on these and other food and human rights issues.

http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1096472877254800.xml

State biologists are mystified by a mass squirrel die-off that has left more than a hundred dead squirrels washed up on West Michigan beaches.

Among the questions: Why are the expired tree dwellers ending up in the water?

The first possibilities to be checked are disease or parasites. The odd circumstance will remain a mystery for several more weeks as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources conduct tests on tissue samples.

Nik Kalejs, a DNR biologist with the Muskegon Game Area, said samples from squirrel carcasses have been sent to laboratories at Michigan State University for analysis. Officials believe it is likely the squirrels are dying from natural causes. Lab technicians will be looking at a variety of causes, include squirrel pox or possibly West Nile disease.

"We cannot rule anything out," he said. "What we do know is the number of dead squirrels found seems to go beyond normal."

For the past three weeks, West Michigan residents have been noticing a large number of dead squirrels along Lake Michigan, fueling speculation that the animals are being ravaged by a disease or are being poisoned. DNR officials say deliberate poisoning is highly unlikely because of the number of squirrels being affected and the wide area where squirrel bodies are being found.

There is a possibility of food contamination. They said there have been reports of dead squirrels along much of the Lake Michigan shoreline in Michigan.

"All of these will be explored," Kalejs said.

Russ Bleich, who was a DNR conservation officer for Muskegon and Ottawa counties for 30 years, recalled a similar situation years ago where construction work along the U.S. 31 drawbridge in Grand Haven caused a number of squirrels to die and fall into the Grand River. The incident caused a large number of squirrel bodies to wash up on Lake Michigan beaches around Grand Haven, he said.

Just as Lake Michigan beaches are littered with garbage carried by the Grand River from communities upriver, Bleich suspects most of the dead squirrels are being carried to Lake Michigan beaches by area rivers. He said these beaches are likely the final resting spots for the squirrels and the animals are not dying in Lake Michigan or on its beaches.

"It's just like seeing a bunch of spend shotgun shell casings on the beach; they were carried to the lake by the rivers," he said. "The same goes for the squirrels. My gut feeling is this is a natural occurrence and that the squirrels are being carried downstream by the river.

"When all of this settles, I believe it is going to be some natural occurrence or some parasite."

Some of the tissue samples were collected by DNR officers at P.J. Hoffmaster State Park's Gillette Nature Center. Nature center workers said the squirrels first were noticed on the beach about three weeks ago, but have no reports of a large number of bodies found in the woods.

The number of bodies found on the beach has been steadily declining, they said. Most of those affected are fox squirrels.

The squirrel deaths have been a hot topic with area high school biology classes. Grand Haven High School Biology teacher Roger Glass said his students have been buzzing over a recent phenomenon of dead squirrels, in alarming numbers, along the lakeshore.

"I've never heard of anything like this before. There's something very strange going on," Glass said.

Glass said if it was just one species it might be a certain disease or disorder. Otherwise, there would be various species involved. Student reports indicate fox and red squirrels have been sited swimming or dead along the shoreline.

"I have no idea what's going on," Glass said. "The DNR was talking about somebody poisoning them and they go for water. But ... it can't be just somebody poisoning them because they're all up and down the lakeshore."

DNR investigators have collected squirrel carcasses as evidence to determine a cause for the problem. Samples have been sent to a lab to determine whether a disease may be to blame for outbreak of dead squirrels.

Grand Haven Senior Ashleigh Urbanik, 17, has noticed dead squirrels floating along the boardwalk and pier as well as others swimming.

"Someone built a stick bridge from a pile of branches to the shore so they could cross. We rescued three of them. They were fox squirrels," she said. "Once we got them out they just sat there because they were so tired. They looked normal except for they were sopping wet and really tired."

Grand Haven Township resident John Stuparits said he walked along the boardwalk recently and saw dozens of squirrels in the river. Some of the squirrels were still alive and fishermen scooped them up with nets to save them.

Stuparits, who is the manager of Grand Haven's wastewater plant, said at first glance he thought maybe high waters from rain around Labor Day might have caused the problem. But as Stuparits saw more floating carcasses, he realized it was a bigger problem than that.

"At first, you think maybe one or two of them fell in," he said. "But after several consecutive times going down there and seeing the same thing, you have to think there's more behind it."

Peace - Anna


Omega: may be here a connection?:

Effects of the electromagnetic fields of phone masts on a population of White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/effects_of_emf_on_white_stork.pdf

EMF Exposure - Animal Studies
http://members.aol.com/gotemf/emf/animals.htm

Micro Waves Effects on Wildlife Animals
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/micro_waves_effects_on_wildlife_animals.pdf

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10mar04.htm


Informant: P. Dalton

Trittin kündigt Gesetz an: Verkaufs-Verbot für illegal geschlagenes Holz geplant

01.10.04

Bundesumweltminister Jürgen Trittin (Grüne) hat am Donnerstag ein Gesetz zum Urwaldschutz angekündigt. Es soll die Vermarktung und den Besitz von illegal geschlagenem Holz und daraus gefertigten Produkten verbieten. Das Naturerbe Urwald dürfe nicht verspielt werden. "Raubbau und illegaler Holzeinschlag müssen beendet werden", sagte Trittin im Bundestag in Berlin.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=9426

Großdemonstration: Hartz IV-Demonstration ohne DGB

01.10.04

Unter dem Motto "Soziale Gerechtigkeit anstatt Hartz IV - wir haben Alternativen" finden am Samstag in Berlin Kundgebungen und Vorträge gegen die Sozialkürzungen der Bundesregierung statt. "Alternativen" wollen die Gruppen am Sonntag vorstellen. Erstmals treffen sich am Samstag die Sozialbündnisse und Montagsbündnisse aus ganz Deutschland, um ihren Unmut über die Beschlüsse kund zu tun. Beteiligt sind Gewerkschaften wie IG Metall, Ver.di und GEW, Parteien wie PDS und DKP, das globalisierungskritische Netzwerk wie attac und Sozialbündnisse. Der Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) nimmt an der Kundgebung nicht teil.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=9429

I received a scan from today's Daily telegraph newspaper (England) which reports about radiation burns from a new system the army uses.

Iris Atzmon


BY MICHAEL SMITH DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT

THE Army's new Bowman radios are giving the soldiers carrying them radiation burns, according to troops involved in trials of the £1-9 billion system. The radios are also much larger and heavier than the "old technology" Clansman sets they are designed to replace, the journal Defence Analysis reports today.

The platoon-level radio, which is carried on the back of a signaller, has given Royal Anglian Regiment soldiers radiation burns on certain power settings, says the report. The Anglians were the first to be equipped with the system, which was introduced in July, and have been testing it alongside its manufacturers, General Dynamics. They also complain that the 15lb radio is more than three times heavier than the equivalent Clansman, a problem common to all Bowman.

Further details about this system I found in:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=110006&TICK=IIN&STORY=/www/story/01-25-2002/0001655602&EDATE=Jan+25%2C+2002


ITT Industries Delivers First Bowman Radios for Testing

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ITT Industries, Inc.

(NYSE: ITT) announced the start of testing on its Advanced Digital Radio Plus (ADR+), part of Britain's Bowman radio program. ITT delivered the first developmental models to General Dynamics UK, Ltd. earlier this month. General Dynamics UK is the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) prime contractor for the 1.8 billion pounds sterling (US$2.6 billion) Bowman Program to provide secure voice and data communications within a Tactical Internet system to the British
armed forces.

ITT Industries is a principal partner to General Dynamics UK Ltd. for provisioning wireless networking systems to Bowman. This includes design and manufacture of VHF vehicular, airborne, and portable radios along with their associated software. The first ADRs, along with support devices, will undergo rigorous integration testing at General Dynamics UK Ltd.'s Calgary, Canada, test facility to determine how well they will work during complex voice and data network operations.

"We are very proud to partner with General Dynamics on the Bowman Program," said Lou Dolive, President of ITT Industries Aerospace/Communications Division. "ITT is committed to delivering the British armed forces a top-notch communications system."

General Dynamics UK Ltd.'s Managing Director Larry Johnson said, "Delivery of these radios to our Integration and Test Facility is a significant step toward delivery of the Bowman system starting in 2003, because it is a demonstration of the Bowman team's commitment to meet the MoD's schedule."

The Bowman ADRs are based on the Advanced SINCGARS radio, which has undergone field testing and simulated combat operations as part of the U.S. Army's Tactical Internet. The British ADR+ family of radios builds on this technology and adds embedded networking, integrated GPS geolocation capability, improved performance in noisy environments and increased transmission power. The Bowman system will serve as the principal enabling technology for future digitization of the British armed forces. Elements will be used by individual soldiers and in vehicles, ships, and aircraft. These elements will then be linked in a tactical network. The radio chosen for this job is from the family of Mercury Wideband Networking Radios from ITT Industries. ITT Industries, Inc. http://www.itt.com supplies advanced technology products and services in key markets including: electronic interconnects and switches; defense communications, opto-electronics, information technology and services; fluid and water management and other specialty products. Headquartered in White Plains, New York, the company generated $4.7 billion in 2001 sales. In addition to the New York Stock Exchange, ITT Industries stock is traded on the Midwest, Pacific, London, Paris and Frankfurt exchanges.

Der im US-Repräsentantenhaus eingebrachte Gesetzesentwurf für die Geheimdienste will auch die bereits geübte Praxis legitimieren, Nicht-US-Bürger zur Befragung in Folterländer zu schicken: eine Verletzung des UN-Abkommens gegen Folter...

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/18457/1.html

Pharmaceutical companies and the FDA continue to suppress negative information about antidepressant drugs and violent behavior...

http://www.NewsTarget.com/001810.html

--------

Support Health related Raio station by clickining on their site


YOU CAN SUPPORT THIS RADIO STATION BY SIMPLY CLICKING ON THEIR SITE AND, AT LEAST ONE LINK CONTAINED THEREIN.

http://www.worldtalkradio.com/show.asp?sid=97

Below, are the first two stunning links that will raise your awareness to this vital effort:

1. In case you are not familiar with this antidepressants and suicides connection and what is at stake, please view the following short ABC News video clip to learn of just one tragic outcome that happened to a 12 year old girl.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0904/171639.html

2. Pharmaceutical companies and the FDA continue to suppress negative information about antidepressant drugs and violent behavior
http://www.newstarget.com/001810.html

Annie Armen, J.D.
T.V./Radio Talk Show Host, Producer
ANNIE ARMEN LIVE - "Let's Talk"
P.O. Box 4399
Glendale, CA 91222-0399
(818) 731-0577Â Â Phone
info@anniearmenlive.org --> Email


Informant: Jack Topel

http://travel.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,7445,1315957,00.html


Informant: m.e. onullder

THE DAWN OF GENOCIDE from the Oread Daily

American Indians protesting an ongoing reenactment of the Lewis and Clark expedition say they will continue their protest and they deny allegations that they have used any threats of violence or physical intimidation. Protestors say the expedition is nothing to celebrate. "It did nothing good for us. They are saying how great it is and we know that is not true," Alex White Plume, a Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation said. Last weekend's protest was at Fort Pierre, South Dakota. The mouth of the Bad River at Fort Pierre is where the voyagers first met the Lakota in 1804. The new "expedition" was met there by several dozen American Indians mostly from the Pine Ridge Reservation. The peaceful protest was met by a heavy police presence.

The previous weekend near Chamberlain, South Dakota Lakota, Ponca and Kiowa Indians told the re-enactors to turn back downriver.

The Lewis and Clark re-enactors offered a tomahawk pipe to the group of resisters who refused to smoke it. Strong statements were made by tribal leaders Alex White Plume, Floyd Hand, Carter Camp, Alfred Bone Shirt, Russell Means and Vic Camp who advised the Lewis and Clark re-enactors that they were perpetuating the lies of American history. "What they wrote down was a blueprint for the genocide of my people. You are re-enacting something ugly, evil and hateful," Carter Camp, Ponca, told the Discovery Expedition camped on the Missouri River.

An Indian delegation of elders, supported by young warriors, gave the expedition three days to go home and a stern warning. If they did not turn around, they would call on all Indians who are not assimilated, colonized and conquered to join them and stop the expedition. "You are re-enacting the coming of death to our people," Camp told the expedition, while seated in a circle with Indian elders and Lewis.

Camp warned the expedition to halt or they would be stopped. He said the expedition has been told lies and are spreading lies. "Lewis and Clark are a part of the American lie. They had no honor. They came with the American lie. They murdered six million people."

Camp said Lewis and Clark said they came in peace. He said Lewis and Clark knew what happened to Indians in the eastern part of the country and they knew that the missionaries followed the soldiers. And it was the missionaries who left his people as remnants, homeless in the streets.

Responding to comments by re-enactors who defended the expedition as a means of education, Camp asked, "Would it be all right if these guys were dressed in sheets like the Ku Klux Klan?"

A few months after the original "Voyage of Discovery", Clark wrote of the Lakota, "These are the vilest miscreants of the savage race, and must ever remain the pirates of the Missouri, until such measures are pursued, by our government, as will make them feel a dependence on its will for their supply of merchandise."

Ahmbaska, among the Native youths, spoke of the tribes who had become extinct, their languages and cultures lost forever, and the women and babies murdered by the U.S. military. "They stomped their heads to save bullets." Speaking directly to the re-enactors, he said, "This is not a show, this is our hearts." His people, the Missouri, were exiled to Oklahoma. "My people have never seen this Missouri River which was named after us." Now, he said, on Rosebud, people are dying from the whopping cough. Lewis and Clark were the beginning of the end in the West. "They came and they took and they conquered. That is what you are re-enacting," he said.

Deb White Plume of Pine Ridge gave the expedition a symbolic blanket of small pox.

Jon Ruybalid, a member of the expedition who doubles as its legal counsel, said the group gave serious consideration to the Indians' request. However, they continued on despite that request.

While the Expedition contends that it has support from tribal leadership along the route, the resistors believe that, just as the original crew had done, this organization merely dangled some shiny coins before the elected leaders to get them on board for this money-making adventure. The "resisters" say the genocide of the native nations continues and they call upon all Indians to oppose this re-enactment of the "Dawn of Genocide of Lewis and Clark."

Sources:
Renegade, UN Observer and International Report, Dakota/Lakota/Nakota
Human Rights Advocacy, Native American Times, KOTA (South Dakota), Columbia Daily Tribune

To view the Oread Daily go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OreadDaily/


Informant: reg

Bringing the Troops Home from Iraq is NOT debateable -- Nor was is part of the debates last night

That's way we must be in Washington DC on October 17

Whatever your view of the debates last night, this much was clear-- althought the big topic of debate was supposed to be the war and continued occupation of Iraq -- Nobody in the debate called for bringing the troops home now. This is the reason why those of us who are demanding that the troops come home now must do everything we can to keep the debate in the street. The street is the only place where the anti-war position is being forcefully made. Oct 17 is the next big chance for the anti-war movement to join the debate and WE MUST NOT FAIL TO SHOW UP FOR IT.

We need our own voice in the debates!

Working people will speak for themselves, in their own voice on October 17 at the Million Worker March.

Who will speak for working people on the issues that affect us most? Issues like health care, jobs, education, and the war?

It is becoming clear that we must speak for ourselves and raise the issues that are affecting us.

We need real jobs and a living wage.
We need our loved ones brought home from Iraq--end the occupation now!
We need universal healthcare.

On October 17, we will have the opportunity to enter the debate, on our terms, in our name, as we march on Washington, DC.

This is a march and a movement intiated by working people--starting with ILWU Local 10 in San Francisco. The leadership of the movement is drawn from working people. And the issues we will raise are issues that effect working people.

Anti-war 4 the Million Worker March is helping to organize buses from all over the country, so that working people can flood the city to call for Jobs. Helathcare, and a Living Wage, Not War.

We need your help in getting as many buses as possible to DC.

Momentum is building for the Million Worker March---new organizing centers are springing up all over the country, see
http://antiwar4themillionworkermarch.org/organizingcenters.htm and new endorsers are being added to the list daily
http://antiwar4themillionworkermarch.org/endorsers.htm

It is more important than ever that we turn out by the thousands to say "Jobs, Healthcare, and a Living Wage, Not War!" on October 17. We need your help in these last two weeks to make this happen.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

**Get the Word out!

1) download leaflets from
http://antiwar4themillionworkermarch.org/pdfdownload.htm and take them to your school, workplace, house of worship, union, and community organization.

2) Link to the Anti-war for the Million Worker March Website: http://antiwar4themillionworkermarch.org/index.htm

3) Forward this email to your email lists


**Organize transportation from your area!
We need hundreds of local organizers. Contact us about becoming a local organizer: http://antiwar4themillionworkermarch.org/signupantiwarorganizer.htm

http://antiwar4themillionworkermarch.org

October 17 Washington DC

Analysis: Bush sovereignty pledge welcome but follows Western Shoshone dispossession

Posted: September 27, 2004 - 10:25am EST
by: Jerry Reynolds / Washington D.C. correspondent / Indian Country Today

WASHINGTON - President George W. and First Lady Laura Bush welcomed tribal leaders and U.S. congressional members to the White House Sept. 23, recognizing the unprecedented Indian presence in the nation’s capital for opening week of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Speaking from the East Room, where more than 30 years ago President Richard M. Nixon delivered the "Special Message" to Congress that ended tribal termination as policy and recognized a new era of self-determination, Bush announced an executive memorandum ordering federal agencies to respect tribal sovereignty and self-determination in their decision making. "My government will continue to honor this government-to-government relationship."

The words brought the second ovation of the morning, exceeding even the first at mention of "Indian members of our U.S. military."

Executive orders and memoranda have been standing features of presidential power since the founding of the republic. They lack the force of law and can be canceled or ignored by later officeholders; though in this case Bush continued an order already in place from the Clinton years. Every president has issued executive orders. Only Bush has issued an Indian-specific one within six weeks of a presidential election; but then only Bush has had an occasion like the NMAI opening, with more Native people gathered in the capital city at one time than ever before.

The other theme of the morning was sovereignty. The president repeatedly emphasized tribal sovereignty. Later, in a day filled with Indian meetings around town, a woman would remark that maybe he was trying to make up for a blunder some months ago, when he told a Native audience that America had "given" sovereignty to tribes (as Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., regularly notes around Washington - the U.S. Constitution does not grant, but recognizes and guarantees, the prior sovereignty of tribes). Tex Hall, elected leader of Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota and of the National Congress of American Indians, minimized the oversight as a matter of inadequate briefing from the president’s staff.

If so, the staff had briefed him fully this time around, and the president had gotten the message. He said in several ways that he understands it and embraces it, and enforces it to the extent of issuing an executive memorandum on the government-to-government relationship to federal agency executives.

Whether or nor he’ll defend it was another question in some minds that morning. This is the president, after all, whose signature was added to legislation intended to dispossess millions of acres and billions of dollars of mineral-rich Western Shoshone treaty lands in four western states. At least one of them, Nevada, is among the so-called "battleground states" in the presidential election, raising speculation as to what Indian resources a second-term president, with no need to position himself for re-election, might find it in his power to sign away. Notable in this regard is that the U.S. Congress encouraged and validated the activities of a "shadow" Western Shoshone tribal government, as against the constitutional ones, that provided Congress with a tissue of legitimacy for resource piracy, in the opinion of many Indian people. In Iraq, Bush made it earthshakingly obvious that he’ll exercise U.S. national sovereignty without too many questions beforehand and without apology after. In the Western Shoshone case, he may have made it a little too clear for tribal comfort that he’ll exercise it domestically too, though with the discretion befitting domestic dependent nations whose only transgression is their inconvenience.

Bush’s role in all this hasn’t been an open book, but a Republican administration is not without power in a Republican-controlled Congress. In any case, a presidential veto of the controversial Western Shoshone dispossession bill could not have been overcome. So at the end of an exuberant week for Indians in Washington, the question of what pirate flags the U.S. ship of state may raise next in Indian waters still fluttered over the East Room.

But for the happy companionship within, the president’s words were tonic, appealing and timely. They not only encouraged the tribal leaders present; they also disassociated the president and the presidency from the right-wing groups that continue to insist tribal sovereignty is a contestable issue. With the strains of a Native-language national anthem from the Cherokee National Youth Choir still rich in memory, the president made it plain that tribes and their sovereignty are central:

"Native American cultures survive and flourish when tribes retain control over their own affairs and their own future. … Long before others came to the land called America, the story of this land was yours, alone. Indians on this continent had their own languages and customs, just as you have today. They had jurisdiction over their lands and territories, just as you have today. And these sovereign tribal nations had their own systems of self-governance, just as you have today."

The national museum is appropriately located on the National Mall, he added, "because the American Indian experience is central to the American story."

He closed to a third ovation: "The National Museum of the American Indian affirms that this young country is home to an ancient, noble and enduring Native culture. And all Americans are proud of that culture. Like many Indian dwellings, the new museum building faces east, toward the rising sun. And as we celebrate this new museum and we look to the future, we can say that the sun is rising on Indian country."

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the Colorado Republican who retires after the current Congress as the Senate’s only Indian member, introduced the president with an assurance that Bush "wasn’t going to be about hollow promises."

Campbell said he met with the president about Indian country during the 2000 presidential campaign. He marked his promises of Indian school construction funds for future reference because he considers it a crucial issue - kids can’t study amid leaky ceilings and peeling walls. Four years later, Campbell said, Bush has spent three times as much on Indian school construction as any previous administration.

"Quite simply, he kept his promise to us."

Later in the day though, at another of those Indian meetings in a week full of them, Hall said he missed a rollout of future promises in the form of an Indian agenda for a second term if Bush is re-elected. Otherwise, Hall considered it a great morning at the White House.

This article can be found at http://www.indiancountry.com/?1096295890



Esperanza Luján
Indian Law Resource Center
601 E Street SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
202-547-2800
http://www.indianlaw.org


Informant: Carrie Dann

In last night's presidential debate, we finally got a glimpse of the truth about George Bush's disastrous foreign policy, free from attack ads and character assassination. John Kerry exposed the grim reality: the president misled us into a debacle in Iraq, has left the US more isolated and less safe, and has neither the plan nor the world credibility to correct deteriorating security conditions in the world.

And we saw first hand how George Bush could not respond to that truth. Grimacing and smirking, returning to memorized pat phrases, the president continued to deny the reality that must be faced to get us out of the mess in Iraq. Similarly, he offered no compelling strategy to defend America against growing terrorist threats elsewhere in the world.

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=60164

Despite what happened last night, we know that too often it is the spin -- not the substance -- of debates that count. Most Americans did not watch the debate. And now, the right-wing chorus is gearing up another round of personal attacks on Kerry and echoing a line that distorts the truth revealed last night.

Let's beat them to the punch. Let's take them on before they cement their next set of distractions and distortions. Visit Straight Talk right now to see and spread the REAL stories that will neutralize the spin:

http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=60164

Using your zip code on Straight Talk, you can find and directly email local and national news media about the real news you expect them to report. Challenge your local newspapers, TV and radio stations to stay focused on the REAL headlines impacting our country today:

*"Iraq war draining US resources"
*"US Involvement in Iraq Raises Terror Risk"
*"Iraq war lifts Al Qaeda recruitment"

Straight Talk will give you the hard facts and real-world stories needed to back up your case. Use it to hold the media accountable to report the truth about Iraq and the debate last night. Use it to cut through impending right-wing distortions, and ensure the media and public stay clear about what's real and what's just distracting spin.

At this moment, the right wing is gearing up to transform Bush's exposed weakness last night into an attack on John Kerry's character. Go to Straight Talk now to prevent them from shifting the focus away from the truth - the truth of the president's failing national security strategy, and the truth that Senator Kerry offers a clear and compelling alternative.

Let's keep the facts in front of the American public:
http://action.ourfuture.org/ctt.asp?u=1742757&l=60164

Thank you in advance for continuing to tell it straight!

Sincerely,

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

An interview with Sibel Edmonds
http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/sperry/


From Information Clearing House

We must emphasize that pointing out why were attacked is not a means of justifying the attack, it is a means of learning how to prevent attacks in the future.

http://www.counterpunch.com/alam09292004.html


From Information Clearing House

Daughter of Soldier Contaminated with Depleted Uranium in Iraq Born with Deformities:

Specialist Gerard Darren Matthew tested positive for uranium contamination after he returned from Iraq. Shortly after he returned home, his wife became pregnant.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/30/1411222


From Information Clearing House

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1315844,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The survey, found that 76 percent of the general public reject the notion that Washington should play the role of world policeman and 80 percent believe that the U.S. is currently playing that role "more than it should be."

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/20030


From Information Clearing House

"I think a lot of the violence in Iraq now is directly attributable to the fact that U.S. forces are there, and there is no clear concept at any early stage of when they will be withdrawn."

http://www.kuna.net.kw/English/Story.asp?DSNO=668175


From Information Clearing House

Election News: Please Register and Vote Early

The Presidential elections are only a few weeks away, and in most states, the deadline to register to vote is October 4. As a core responsibility of citizenship, Veterans for Common Sense encourages our members to register to vote. If you have not registered, you can download a voter registration form from our homepage (click on "Register to Vote"). Consider personally delivering your application to your local registrar of voters to avoid problems.

The first of three Presidential debates occurs tonight, and we expect foreign policy and national security to play a very large part in tonight's debate.

We won a small victory this week, thanks in part to pressure brought to bear by members of VCS. The New York Times reported this morning that Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, issued a new memorandum to election officials reversing a previous decision that resulted in the rejection of thousands of voter registrations because they were printed on the wrong weight paper. Blackwell says the state will now accept registrations on normal paper. However, voters who show up at the wrong precinct will still not be allowed to cast provisional ballots.

Do you live in a state with early voting?

Over the last couple of years, major concerns have been raised regarding the integrity of electronic voting systems. Computer security experts have criticized the security of the machines and Executives of the companies which manufacture electronic voting machines have, in some cases, endorsed and raised money for political parties.

Please make sure your vote is counted. If you live in a state where you can vote early or via absentee ballot, we encourage you to do so, to make sure that your ballot is actually recorded on paper.

You can find out more information about the integrity of electronic voting machines at http://blackboxvoting.com

Which Candidate Does Veterans for Common Sense support?

In recent weeks, we've received a lot of questions from members and others, asking whether Veterans for Common Sense supports John Kerry or George Bush.

As a non-partisan, non-profit organization, Veterans for Common Sense does not endorse any candidate for political office, or any political party. IRS regulations forbid us from attempting to sway the results of any election.

Regardless of who wins the Presidential election, issues of national security, veterans benefits, civil liberties, and energy policy will remain as pressing issues facing our country. Too often policy decisions in Washington are made on the basis of ideology and academic theory, in the absence of any understanding of how those decisions affect real people, real lives. This is all the more serious when our country makes the most serious decision it can ever make, to commit the lives of young men and women to war.

Our work will be required no matter which party controls the White House, and we hope you will continue to work with us well beyond the November elections and into the future.

Our guiding principles (see http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/about.cfm) lay out the four key areas which VCS is concerned with. A poll addressing the candidates' positions on some of those issues, and voters' perceptions of them, was recently conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. You can see the results at http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2111

We ask you to consider these principles when you go to the polls to cast your vote:

Common Sense Principles for Positive Security

Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) was formed in 2002 by war veterans who believe that we, the people of the United States of America, are most secure when our country is strong and responsibly engaged with the world.

Based on the pragmatic ideals of the American patriot Thomas Paine, VCS advocates a series of common sense principles to accomplish this vision for America:

1) US leadership in the global community

VCS advocates for a national security policy that reflects the union of our values and national interests, using diplomatic, economic, and – as a last resort – military power to secure our homeland and respond to clear and present danger. VCS believes that we must work pro-actively with our allies to defeat terrorism, end the threat of weapons of mass destruction, promote free and open societies, reduce conflict, increase prosperity, and strengthen international law.

Although pre-empting a direct threat to our national security may at times be necessary, VCS believes making pre-emption the foundation of our national security doctrine endangers the world and betrays the founding principles of our nation.

2) Supporting U.S. service members, veterans, and their families

VCS seeks a U.S. veterans’ policy that provides immediate, comprehensive healthcare, disability benefits, and readjustment services to all service-members, veterans and their families. Our government has a duty and a responsibility to address both the traditional and non-traditional effects of war, including battlefield injuries, post-traumatic stress, and diseases resulting from vaccines and toxic exposures.

3) Liberty and Justice for All

VCS seeks to preserve American civil liberties as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments. As Thomas Paine wrote in the "Rights of Man," our freedoms of expression, speech, press, assembly, religion, privacy, due process, voting, and equal protection under the law, must not be traded for any real or imagined claim of urgency or security.

4) Energy independence

VCS advocates a U.S. energy policy that relies on American innovation to ensure greater independence from foreign sources of energy. This is best accomplished through increased use of renewable, environmentally sound energy sources, and energy conservation efforts.


Upcoming Events


October 4, 2004

Deadline to register to vote in most states.

November 2, 2004

Election Day

November 11, 2004:

The Portland, Maine Veterans for Peace Chapter is seeking individuals from VCS to March with them in the annual Veterans Day parade. Interested in participating? Contact Jack Russell at jafabussell@gwi.net or 207-772-1442.

Texas Chapters of Veterans for Peace are seeking individuals from VCS to join them in a special 02 October Rally in Austin, a 16 October rally in College Station and an 11 November Veterans Day parade in Austin. Interested in participating? Contact Dick Underhill at underhill@att.net or 512-238-1491.

Take the Oceans Alive Pledge

Where once our oceans were thought to be an inexhaustible resource, habitat destruction, pollution, overfishing and more have put our oceans at risk. But our Oceans Alive campaign seeks a Teddy Roosevelt of the Oceans to reverse this crisis. Teddy Roosevelt left an enduring legacy in protecting our nation's last great places on land. We need a champion to commit that same level of action to our oceans.

Sign the Oceans Alive pledge and send a message to President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry urging them to become the Teddy Roosevelt of the oceans and to restore the health of our seas.

Take action: http://actionnetwork.org/ct/vdaYwHs1jBom/



Update: U.S. Ocean Commission Delivers Final Report to President
Bush

On September 20th, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy finalized its report on threats facing our oceans, sending it along to the President and Congress. Created in 2000, the commission includes scientists and oceans experts charged with studying the decline of the world's oceans and issuing recommendations on new policies to revive our oceans. President Bush has 90 days to respond to the report or submit to Congress his proposals to implement its recommendations.

"President Bush has a historic opportunity to show leadership and commit federal resources to restructure our ocean management system and invest in ocean science, exploration and education," said Environmental Defense oceans program director David Festa.

Read the release.

Learn more about our oceans in trouble:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/t1aYwHs1jBoi/

Read the Ocean Commission's report:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/vpaYwHs1jBoU//


Be Your Own Teddy Roosevelt of the Oceans.

Concerned about the health of our oceans? You can help locally. We're calling for hundreds of Teddy Roosevelts of the Oceans -- local volunteers like you willing to help protect oceans where you live. Collect signatures for the Oceans Alive Pledge, post flyers, write letters to editor, or simply spread the word about the Seafood Selector. Sign up, and then visit the Oceans Alive Activist Center for downloadable petitions, flyers and more:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/v1aYwHs1jBoj/

U.S. Is Retreating From International Legal System, Study Finds
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0930-23.htm


Informant: Friends

If you didn't vote since the last Presidential election (2000) then you may have to re-register to vote this year. I know how alot of you feel about voting - that it doesn't matter - and I respect your views.

BUT IF you DO wish to vote then MAKE SURE it counts. I heard on the radio today in my area, that if you haven't voted since the last Presidential election in 2000 - you have to re-register to vote in November.

I had read a year or so ago that a law was going to be passed that would "drop" registered voters if they didn't vote in EVERY election....but didn't realize it took was passed. Apparently so - CALL your local Board of Elections and make certain you are registered. The deadline is Monday - October 4th.

Peace - Anna

Brazilian Amazon Threatened by Myth of "Sustainable Forestry"
http://tinyurl.com/4gkjy

The development and consequences of genetically engineered trees are moving faster than anticipated. If you're opposed to the use of genetically engineered tress, I urge you to please sign our petition to the United Nations:

http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/index.php?page=getrees&articleID=159#articletop

DISTURBING NEWS:

* CHINA--Two years ago, China's State Forestry Administration approved genetically modified (GM) poplar trees for commercial planting. Well over one million insect resistant GM poplars have now been planted in China. (This info was uncovered by Chris Lang and published by the World Rainforest Movement in August, 2004.)

* MILAN, ITALY--With pressure from the U.S., the U.N.sponsored Ninth Conference of the Parties held in Milan, Italy last December (2003), agreed to allow the use of genetically engineered trees in plantations developed for carbon sequestration as part of the Clean Development Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol, despite the fact that the U.S. has rejected the Protocol. This agreement, reached over the objections of the European Union, opens the door for World Bank funding for development of genetically engineered trees in carbon offset plantations in the Global South through the Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund.

HILO, HAWAII -- Independent laboratory testing results released earlier this month (September, 2004) reveal widespread contamination from the world's first commercially planted genetically engineered tree, the papaya, on Oahu, the Big Island, and Kauai. Contamination was also found in the stock of non-genetically engineered seeds being sold commercially by the University of Hawaii.

SOME OF WHAT GLOBAL JUSTICE ECOLOGY PROJECT DOING TO STOP FRANKEN-TREES:

* Global Justice Ecology Project is working nationally and internationally to stop the commercial development of gentetically engineered trees. In early October (2004) GJEP Co-director, Anne Petermann, will be in Durban, South Africa for important meetings on carbon trading and timber plantation carbon sinks. Some of the groups involved in these meetings are The Corner House (UK), World Rainforest Movement (Uraguay), Carbon Trade Watch Transnational Institute (Netherlands), CDM Watch (Australia), Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (Sweden), Indigenous Environmental Network (Americas), Sinks Watch (UK), Timberwatch Coalition (South Africa) and more. To read more on these meetings go to our October Events website:

http://globaljusticeecology.org/index.php?page=home#events

* On Earth Day last April (2004) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Dennis Brutus, a South African activist, Ricardo Navarro from El Salvador, Chair of Friends of the Earth International) and Anne Petermann from GJEP demanded that the United Nations and World Bank stop any plans for forestry plantations developed to offset carbon emissions from the Industrial North.

* In May, 2004, GJEP's Anne Petermann went to Geneva, Switzerland with organizations including The Union of Ecoforestry (Finland), Friends of the Earth International and World Rainforest Movement (Uruguay), to pressure the United Nations to oppose the use of genetically engineered trees in carbon offset forestry plantations developed under the Kyoto Protocol, and to ban their commercial development. On 11 May petitions signed by renowned scientists such as Dr. David Suzuki, more than 160 organizations including The Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth International as well as over 1,500 individuals were presented to the U.N. in Geneva backing these demands.

* It's still not too late to sign the petition to the U.N.
http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/index.php?page=getrees&articleID=159#articletop as we will be presenting more to the U.N. Tenth Conference of the Parties to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in December (2004).

* Additionally, Global Justice Ecology Project is one of the founders of the Stop GE Trees Campaign
http://www.stopgetrees.org/ The Campaign includes GJEP, the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, Dogwood Alliance, Polaris Institute, WildLaw, Institute for Social Ecology Biotechnology Project, ForestEthics, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Forest Stewards Guild and Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering. Anne Petermann is Chair of the Steering Committee.

To help and get involved in the national and international campaigns against ge trees, please contact Global Justice Ecology Project info@globaljusticeecology.org . To become a member of Global Justice Ecology Project and support our work to stop ge trees:
http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/index.php?page=member

More info on ge trees from GJEP
http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/index.php?page=getrees


Orin Langelle
Co-Director
Global Justice Ecology Project
P.O. Box 412
Hinesburg, VT 05461
+1-802-482-2689 ph/fax
langelle@sover.net
http://www.globaljusticeecology.org


Informant: STRIDER

by Sami Ramadani

Guardian [UK]

09/30/04

There are now two Iraq wars: the first is being fought with helicopter gunships and cluster bombs along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates; the second is being fought here in Britain and in the pre-election US. This is a propaganda war in which the hundreds of Iraqis killed every week by US bombardment fail to make the headlines, while the horrifying images provided by a Jordanian kidnapper and killer of British and US contractors is portrayed as the true face of Iraqi resistance. Thus the real human suffering, and the reality of the widespread resistance to occupation, is hidden from view, while bombing what US generals call Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's 'supporters' hideouts' is portrayed as a necessity. And so Falluja, a besieged city of 300,000 people, is under daily aerial attack, and parts of Sadr City, the poorest neighbourhood of Baghdad, are being reduced to rubble. Many towns and villages across Iraq are encircled, and thousands of people arrested to crush popular resistance to occupation...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1316000,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Iraq: Sanatized Slaughter

Where are the mainstream media accounts of these atrocities?
http://207.44.245.159/article6983.htm



What a Top Reporter in Baghdad Really Thinks About the War :

Readers of any nailbiting story from Iraq in a major mainstream newspaper must often wonder what the dispassionate reporter really thinks about the chaotic situation there, and what he or she might be saying in private letters or in conversations with friends back home.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000650551

http://snipurl.com/9gc9


From Information Clearing House

A million children face acute illness or death within weeks, UN agencies warn, after double flooding washed away harvest...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,7369,1315141,00.html

Source: Greenpeace News-headlines Digest, Vol 18, Issue 1

US: Notstandsgesetz PATRIOT Act bröckelt

Langsam beginnt der PATRIOT ACT, von dem der grassierende Biometrie-Wahnsinn ausgelöst wurde, zu bröckeln. Justizminister Ashcroft erklärte seinen europäischen Ministerkollegen derweil, dass Fingerabdrücke dasselbe wie Passfotos seien.

Die Erfassung persönlicher Daten von Internet-Nutzern und Telefonkunden in den USA verstößt nach einem neuen Urteil gegen die Verfassung.

Ein Bezirksrichter untersagte dem FBI, weitere Anträge auf die Überlassung derartiger Daten zu stellen.

Die im Patriot Act erlaubte Datensammlung verstößt nach dem Urteil gegen das Recht auf freie Rede, wie es der erste US-Verfassungszusatz garantiert.

Auch der vierte Verfassungszusatz werde verletzt, weil die Betroffenen von dem Vorgehen der Polizeibehörde nicht in Kenntnis gesetzt werden und somit auch nicht dagegen vorgehen können.

[...]

Er habe das Urteil zwar noch nicht gelesen, erklärte US-Justizminister Ashcroft am Rande eines Treffens mit den EU-Ressortchefs im niederländischen Scheveningen.

"Die Regierung ist aber sicher, dass das Gesetz mit der US-Verfassung in Einklang steht", sagte Ashcroft. Eine Berufung sei "so gut wie sicher".

Mehr davon:
http://futurezone.orf.at/futurezone.orf?read=detail&id=252467

Die USA haben ihre systematische Erhebung der Fingerabdrücke von Reisenden in die USA verteidigt.

Justizminister John Ashcroft sagte nach einem Treffen mit seinen EU-Amtskollegen am Donnerstag im niederländischen Scheveningen, ein Fingerabdruck sei ein biometrisches Merkmal wie ein Passfoto. Solche Daten würden weltweit erhoben.

"Den USA ist es sehr wichtig, wie sie von den Europäern gesehen werden", meinte Ashcroft. Er glaube an einen Konsens der Staaten beiderseits des Atlantiks in Fragen der Terrorbekämpfung.

Mehr davon:
http://futurezone.orf.at/futurezone.orf?read=detail&id=252388

relayed by Harkank

Quelle: quintessenz-list Digest, Vol 19, Issue 1

http://www.ashlandwi.com/placed/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=182869


Informant: Don Maisch

Oliver Weiss 1|10|2004

Saudi-Arabiens höchste religiöse Autorität, Adullah bin Adul Azis, hat ein Edikt erlassen, das Handys mit integrierter Kamera verbietet. Die Handys verbreiten angeblich Obszönitäten, berichtet die Detroit News. Laut Edikt sollen alle Bürger auf Kamerahandys verzichten, da sie jedem schaden können.

Handys mit Kamera haben sich in Asien, Europa und im Nahen Osten sehr schnell verbreitet. Vor allem in ölreichen Ländern am persischen Golf, wo es nun Beschwerden über die Verletzung der Privatsphäre in Umkleidekabinen wie auch über das unerlaubte Lesen von Material in Bücherfilialen und Zeitungsständen und über Firmenspionage von Angestellten gibt. Weiters beklagen einige konservative muslimische Gesellschaften, dass Kamerahandys missbraucht werden um Frauen ohne Einverständnis zu fotografieren.

US-GESETZESENTWURF GEGEN KAMERAHANDYS

Deshalb sind Handys mit integrierter Kamera in Fitnesscentern, bei Händlern oder Unternehmen in vielen Nationen verboten. Sogar in den USA, wo die Kamerahandys immer mehr Popularität gewinnen, liegt im Kongress ein Gesetzesentwurf vor, der das illegale Fotografieren von persönlichem Eigentum als ein Verbrechen behandelt, das mit einem Jahr Gefängnis und Geldstrafen bestraft wird.

Saudi-Arabien ist das einzige Land mit einem derart drastischen Verbot, indem es den Verkauf und den Import von Kamerahandys gänzlich verbietet und sie religiös für verboten erklärt hat. Kürzlich endete eine Hochzeit in Saudi-Arabien mit einer Prügelei, da die Frauen ungefragt fotografiert wurden. Die Polizei warnt junge Männer keine heimlichen Fotos von weiblichen Einkäufern in Einkaufszentren der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate zu machen. Hobbyfotografen riskieren dort die Beschlagnahmung ihres Handys, das Zahlen hoher Geldstrafen oder ein Jahr Gefängnisaufenthalt. (pte)

http://www.computerwelt.at/detailArticle.asp?a=85859&n=1


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

Ein großer Erfolg für den IFAW - ein Tag der Freude - die Zukunft braucht Ihre Hilfe!

Endlich - die Hetzjagd in Großbritannien hat ein Ende!

In einer Grundsatzentscheidung hat das britische Parlament in diesen Tagen für ein Verbot der grausamen Hetzjagd mit Hunden gestimmt. In Schottland ist die Hetzjagd bereits seit zwei Jahren verboten. Nun gilt dies auch für England und Wales.

Bei der traditionellen englischen Jagd würden bislang zahllose Füchse, Rehe, Nerze und Hasen bis zur Erschöpfung gehetzt und dann bei lebendigem Leibe von Hunden zerrissen. Diese neue Entscheidung wird nun viele Tiere vor dem grausamen Tod bewahren.

Bereits seit 1989 hat der IFAW sich für ein totales Verbot der Hetzjagd mit Hunden auf wilde Tiere eingesetzt. Die jetzige Abstimmung des britischen Parlaments bereitet nun ein Ende einer Jahrhunderte alten Tradition von Grausamkeiten gegen Tiere. Großbritannien stellt damit weltweit die Weichen, dass Sport und Tradition keine Rechtfertigung ist, für das Leid und die Grausamkeiten, die Tiere hierdurch erfahren müssen.

Die Verabschiedung dieses historischen Gesetzes ist ein Sieg für Mitgefühl und Gerechtigkeit.

Gewählte Mitglieder des britischen Unterhauses (House of Commons) haben wiederholt mit großer Mehrheit für ein Ende dieser Barbarei gestimmt. Das nicht gewählte Oberhaus (House of Lords) hat regelmäßig das Gesetz blockiert. Doch der erneut gestellt Antrag in diesen Tagen hat nun den Weg geebnet, um das Gesetz für ein Verbot der Hetzjagd zu ratifizieren. Denn nach britischem Gesetz gibt es den so genannten „Parliament Act“, nach dem eine Gesetzesvorlage, die bereits in zwei Legislaturperioden nacheinander eingebracht worden ist, nicht erneut durch das Oberhaus blockiert werden.

Das Verbot der Hetzjagd wird nun bald in Kraft treten.

Teilen Sie unsere Freude – ein Siegestag für die Tiere

Über 10 Jahre dokumentierten Jagdüberwacher des IFAW brutale Szenen bei der traditionellen Hetzjagd. Sie waren jedes Mal Drohungen und Beschimpfungen ausgesetzt wenn sie die Teilnehmer dieser Jagd verfolgt haben und die Grausamkeiten dieser barbarischen Praxis in Videos festgehalten haben. Die Hoffnung, dass diese Dokumentationen eines Tages ein Verbot bewirken wird, haben uns in diesem langwierigen Kampf immer angetrieben und nicht aufhören lassen.

Heute ist nun dieser Siegestag gekommen. Und es ist auch ein Tag für alle Tiere auf der ganzen Welt. Siege – wie diese sind nur möglich, weil IFAW Förderer wie Sie uns vertrauen und uns über Jahre bei diesem Kampf unterstützt haben. Tiere in Not brauchen Menschen wie Sie!

Bitte leiten Sie diese gute Nachricht an andere Tierfreunde weiter! Es ist uns wichtig, dass möglichst viele Menschen von diesem tollen Erfolg erfahren. Er ist ein Zeichen dafür, dass sich langjähriger Einsatz und der Kampf lohnt. Veränderungen wie diese sind möglich, die die Welt für Tiere und Menschen besser machen.

Dr. Ralf Sonntag
IFAW-Deutschland

WHAT THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW DEPARTMENT -

mcwraction


Report: Cyber-Freedom Under Threat

The freedom of individuals around the world to surf the net is under threat from the policies of democracies, as well as authoritarian regimes and dictatorships, according to a new report.

The report, by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, said there had been a raft of restrictions on Internet freedom set in place in 2004 and called for "vigilance."

In the Internet under surveillance report, the authors distinguished between dictatorships like China that "gag the Internet," and democracies, which they said threatened freedom of expression in the name of fighting pornography, racism or global terrorism.

"The report should not be seen as a kind of ranking of regimes by their repression of the Internet, but more an appeal for vigilance in countries where, as in democracies, it's still possible to expose abuses and flaws," the report said.

The authors put China top of the list of the most repressive countries for Internet users.

"With a total of 61 Internet users in detention at the start of May 2004, China is the world's biggest prison for cyber-dissidents," the report said.

"It is also the country where the technology for email interception and Internet censorship is the most developed."

Vietnam was also targeted by the report, which said seven cyber-dissidents were currently serving prison sentences there for Internet-related offenses.

The report also singled out the Maldives, where it said three cyber-dissidents had been behind bars since January 2002 for producing a newsletter about human rights.

The report described the Maldives as "an island paradise for tourists but an all-out hell for cyber-dissidents."

Another culprit, said the report, was Tunisia, which practices "a disguised but effective censorship," and where "nine young Internet users were sentenced in April 2003 to sentences of up to 26 years in prison for downloading files deemed by the authorities to be dangerous."

Western democracies are no less likely to be tempted into abuses, according to the report.

After the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, "U.S. legislation has increasingly trampled on the civil liberties of Internet users," the report said.

"And U.S. senators, while launching a program to combat Internet censorship worldwide, refuse to rein in U.S. companies that help equip dictatorships with online surveillance and filtering equipment."

A recent law passed by France to try to keep extremist material off the net also came in for criticism. The Law on the Digital Economy passed in May 2004 says Internet service providers (ISPs) can be prosecuted unless they block material known to break the law.

But critics say this simply encourages ISPs to block access to any supplier they consider might represent a risk for them.

The Council of Europe and the European Union also attracted the report's criticism. Both organizations "seem less and less concerned about ensuring individual freedom" against a backdrop of the fight against global terrorism and crime on the web.

Reporters Without Borders' secretary general Robert Menard recognized in the report, however, that it was this "fight against terrorism that governments say justifies repressive controls and laws."

He said this was understandable "as long as parliaments approve all such measures, which does not always happen, and police always act only at the request of judges, which sometimes is not done."

Source: Discovery Channel
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040621/cyberfreedom.html

01.10.2004 05:00

Zwei Masten, 1600 Gegner

Murauer Gemeinderat beschloss "Handymastenresolution". Bürgerinitiative gegen Errichtung von Masten veranstaltet Informationsabend.

MICHAELA FRÖHLICH

Der Ortsbildschützer der Gemeinde lehnt einen Mobilfunk-Sendemasten ab", so der Murauer Bürgermeister Herbert Bacher. Dies heißt zwar nicht, dass die beiden auf einer Murauer Bäckerei geplanten Masten nicht errichtet werden, aber ein Schritt in diese Richtung ist getan.

Wie berichtet, gründeten Fürstin Therese Schwarzenberg, Schlagerstar Jogl Brunner und der Augenarzt Hans Georg Frieß eine Bürgerinitiative gegen diese Errichtung. 1600 Unterschriften wurden im Sommer innerhalb von zehn Tagen eingeholt.

Nun organisiert diese Bürgerinitiative einen Informationsabend mit Gerd Oberfeld. Der Umweltmediziner der Salzburger Landessanitätsdirektion wird am 12. Oktober im Brauhaus Murau über "Mobilfunk und Gesundheit" sprechen. Beginn ist um 19 Uhr.

Gesundheit

Den Vertretern der Bürgerinitiative ist es wichtig, auf mögliche gesundheitliche Gefahren durch die Strahlen hinzuweisen: "Mittlerweile gibt es zunehmend Beweise, dass Mikrowellenstrahlung, die von Handys und Sendestationen ausgeht, Abläufe im Gehirn stören. Die Beschwerden reichen von Schlafstörungen, aggressivem Verhalten, Gedächtnisverlust, Konzentrationsstörungen bis hin zu Alzheimer und Krebs", ist Fürstin Schwarzenberg überzeugt.

In der jüngsten Sitzung des Gemeinderates haben sich auch die Murauer Politiker gegen weitere Errichtungen von Mobilfunk-Masten ausgesprochen. Eine so genannte "Handymastenresolution" wurde einstimmig beschlossen.

Diese besagt unter anderem, dass auf öffentlichen Gebäuden und Liegenschaften keine Masten mehr installiert werden sollen.

Außerdem werden die Bürger gebeten, diesen Schritt auch auf ihrem Hab und Gut zu beherzigen - beziehungsweise vor einer möglichen Installierung eines neuen Mobilfunk-Sendemastens den Kontakt mit der Gemeinde zu suchen.

http://www.kleine.at/nachrichten/regionen/steiermark/murtal/artikel/_640714/index.jsp


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim


Handy-Masten Resolution
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/351725/

Children's use of Mobile Phones needed urgent Attention
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349736/

RFID tags hidden in clothing labels
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349221/

Big boss is watching
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349271/

Electromagnetic Fields, Leukaemia and DNA Damage
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347747/

Chemtrail MegaSprayer Over Maine
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347278/

More leukemia deaths found in regions near AM radio towers
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347231/

Air ion effects on human performance
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349203/

Mercury on the Mind
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347418/

Wildlife Trade? It's a Jungle Out There
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349199/

The war's littlest victim
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347438/

"Children, Ardent for Some Desperate Glory"
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/348049/

H.R. 3799 Constitution Restoration Act of 2004
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/346979/

Gaps In Bush's Service As President
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347411/

Bush's Toxic Campaign Mix: God, Country And Perpetual Fear
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/348039/

Power Plant Pollution, Bush Administration Policies, Causing Health Problems for Latinos
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349230/

Energy Efficiency Delays by Bush Administration Costing Consumers Billions
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/348107/

Bush Misled Nation in Last Debates
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349182/

Marine Declares War on Bush
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349207/

Mr. Bush, Thank you!
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347027/

Take Action for Voting Rights
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347244/

Voter Registration Deadline Quickly Approaching
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347486/

Movement to get women voters to vote
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347055/

The Stealing of America
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/348084/

Back Door Draft
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347253/

I didn't know I was un-American
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349279/

Iraq War Veterans Face Long-lasting Mental Health Issues
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/348074/

Iraq War Takes Toll on GIs' Mental Health
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349721/

White House allegedly wrote Allawi speech
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349646/

Congresswoman Seeks Re-Enlistment Probe
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/348095/

Senate Report 93-549: Emergency Powers Statutes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347451/

Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, National Security, and Human Rights in the United States
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/346756/

Plan Would Let U.S. Deport Suspects To Nations That Might Torture Them
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349757/

For ignoring constitutional war powers we reap the whirlwind
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349255/

Zbigniew Brzezinski's Pens Books On Police State
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349266/

Oppose Repressive Measures Promoted as “Reform”
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/346778/

Provision of Patriot Act Is Ruled Unconstitutional
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/349232/

Press has let the Country down
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/347301/

The Guardian Responds To Blair’s Speech
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/348104/

The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House leadership's intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture the United States signed 20 years ago.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2110

22 Millionen Hektar Regenwald und andere wertvolle Naturräume sind in den nächsten Jahren durch Soja-Anbau in Südamerika bedroht. Das muss nicht sein! Es gibt Alternativen.

Bitte helfen Sie und senden Sie eine Email an den größten deutschen Importeuer unter:
http://www.regenwald.org/mailaktion/aktion.php?show=25

Mit freundlichen Grüßen und herzlichem Dank

Reinhard Behrend
Rettet den Regenwald e. V.

During most of September I was overseas attending two international conferences and several other meetings in the UK and Russia. If time permits I hope to be reporting on these conferences but my University studies will need to take "centre stage" with my time from now on. This information list will continue however, but perhaps with a lower volume of traffic!

The two conferences and some points of interest to me were:

1) "Children with Leukaemia, Scientific Conference-Incidence, causal mechanisms and prevention" Church House, Westminister, London, 6-10 Sept.

In his keynote address to the conference Sir William Stewart, chair of the IEGMP mobile phone report (2000) hit out at the mobile phone lobby for their (mis) reporting of his group's recommendations, with statements such as: "the Stewart report says there are no adverse health effect for mobile phones". He said there are biological effects below the current exposure guidelines, and people can vary in their susceptibility. He had warned that children may be more susceptible, and should limit their use of mobile phones - a recommendation that the UK government did not take up, possibly because of the $ billions the govt. is getting from the industry.

In his speech, Sir William also said, "Don't ignore non-peer reviewed findings." These have to be carefully independently confirmed, and have to be put to the public "simply and clearly". Not only the results reporting impacts of mobile phones on health need to be independently confirmed, but also negative findings of no impacts. At the moment, there is a bias towards accepting negative findings without question.

Now that Stewart is the new head of the NRPB perhaps we will see some positive changes there.

The poster papers (many dealing with EMF) that were presented at the, "Children with Leukaemia Scientific Conference, 6-10 September 2004, incidence, causal mechanisms and prevention" are now available for downloading on the web site.

First see the home page:
http://www.leukaemiaconference.org/main.asp

The Poster Papers are available at:
http://www.leukaemiaconference.org/programme/poster_list.asp

2) International conference: Mobile Communication and Health: medical, biological and social problems, Moscow, Sept 20-23.

One of the highlights of the this conference was the insistence of the Russian scientists, especially Yuri Grigoriev from the RNCNIRP and the Russian Academy of Science) that the issue of children's use of mobile phones was an urgent item that needed urgent attention. Many strong statements were made on the dangers faced by the unrestricted use of mobiles by young people. A vastly differing opinion was expressed however by Motorola's Mays Swicord with a poster presentation that in so many words expressed Motorola's corporate view that kids are no different than adults in regards to non-ionizing radiation so its okay to sell them cell phones (hopefully Motorola models I suppose). It reminded me of a classic quote:

"All scientists know of colleagues whose minds are so well equipped with the means of refutation that no new idea has the temerity to seek admittance. Their contribution to science is accordingly very small."

Peter Medawar, A Note on 'The Scientific Method' (1949), see: The Uniqueness of the Individual, New York, Dover, 1981

So, stay tuned!

Don Maisch

The article below claims more than 10,000 Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom veterans sought mental health services from the Department of Veterans Affairs "Vet Centers." With most war veterans still in the military, these numbers are expected to rise sharply as they return home. Our Nation must welcome the warriors home and provide them with the readjustment assistance they earned. Resource information is listed below for any war veteran who may need readjustment or mental health assistance.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2115

After several newspapers printed side-by-side comparisons of President George Bush's speech with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's speech, many nearly identical quotes were found. As a result, U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) wants to know who in the Bush Administration wrote the Iraqi dictator's speeches. Copies of both speeches are provided so you can reach your own conclusion...

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2113

http://www.sharedvoice.org/unamerican/


Informant: DitziSis

Cell phones are giving employers new ways to check up on employees in the field--and raising fresh workplace privacy concerns as a result. On the leading edge of the trend is Nextel Communications. The wireless provider began selling its Mobile Locator service last November, giving bosses an easy way to find employees who carry GPS-equipped cell phones.Earlier this month, mobile tracking firm Xora showed off the latest version of its Nextel GPS (global positioning system) phone software. The company says 1,600 corporate customers have signed up for its services, including "geofences" technology that sets off an alarm at the office when field workers go to preprogrammed off-limits sites, such as a bar or a park. "There's no electro shock--yet," Xora CEO Sanjay Shirole said.

Employee-tracking devices are gaining steam thanks to ever-more-accurate GPS technology and a U.S. mandate requiring wireless companies to develop ways for emergency workers to find the physical location of people who dial 911 on a cell phone.

http://news.com.com/Big+boss+is+watching/2100-1036_3-5379953.html?tag=nefd.lede


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - September 30th, 2004

Imagine a chip implanted in your body that carries all your pertinent information as well as your current body temperature and, of course, your exact location. Sounds harmless when applied in commerce to track shipments or in the livestock industry to monitor animals. But when the idea is broached of injecting the chip into political prisoners, as is rumored in China, or into convicted sex offenders, a proposal in this country, then the name of George Orwell quickly surfaces. Matthew Brzezinski explores this high-tech surveillance technology and other new and often frightening frontiers in a post-9/11 USA in his riveting Fortress America.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/september2004/280904pensbook.htm


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - September 30th, 2004

by Bruce S. Jenkins

Salt Lake Tribune

09/29/04

As a child I was taught to take the Constitution seriously. ... After all, the creators of that document were persons of experience, learning and wisdom who had thought deeply about how government should be structured and how power should be divided. ... In the allocation of governmental power, the founders placed the power to declare war in the legislative branch. ... They did this deliberately and with full appreciation of the hard lessons of history, particularly British, French, Roman and Greek history. The design was to limit the power of one man to take the nation into war...

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2417005


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Presseerklärung vom 30. September 2004

"Uralt-Pestizid Lindan sofort vom Markt nehmen"

US-Umweltverbände schreiben Offenen Brief an BAYER

Die amerikanischen Umweltverbände Pesticide Action Network, Natural Resources Defense Council und Physicians for Social Responsibility haben den BAYER-Konzern in einem Offenen Brief aufgefordert, das Insektizid Lindan umgehend vom Markt zu nehmen. BAYER hatte kürzlich die Firma GUSTAFSON übernommen, die Lindan als Saatgut-Behandlungsmittel für mehrere Getreidesorten anbietet. Anlass des Briefs ist das heutige Treffen der Regierungen Kanadas, Mexikos und der USA in Montreal, in dem über ein Verbot des Agrogifts beraten wird.

Das hochgiftige und karzinogene Lindan schädigt die Leber und das Nervensystem und reichert sich im Fettgewebe an. Lindan verbreitet sich über die Atmosphäre und die Ozeane weltweit und findet sich insbesondere in der Arktis - zu den am höchsten belasteten Personen gehören ausgerechnet Eskimos. In der EU ist das schwer abbaubare Pestizid, das bereits 1945 auf den Markt kam, seit Mitte 2001 nicht mehr zugelassen. Lindan gehört zudem zu den Chemikalien, deren internationaler Handel im Rahmen des Prior Informed Consent (PIC) stark eingeschränkt wurde.

Insgesamt 58 Organisationen aus ganz Amerika unterstützen die Forderung nach einem Lindan-Verbot. Kristin Schafer vom Pesticide Action Network aus San Francisco: "Der Einsatz von Lindan stellt eindeutig eine Gefahr für die menschliche Gesundheit und die Umwelt dar."

Philipp Mimkes von der Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren weist darauf hin, dass BAYER bis zum Verbot von Lindan zu den weltweit größten Produzenten des Ultragifts gehörte: "Es ist eine traurige Ironie, dass sich Lindan nun wieder im BAYER-Sortiment befindet. Jahrzehntelang haben lindanhaltige Holzschutzmittel wie XYLAMON und XYLADECOR die Gesundheit Tausender Menschen ruiniert. Wider besseren Wissens bezeichnete BAYER damals die Verwendung von Lindan als ungefährlich - sogar in Innenräumen." Mimkes fordert einen sofortigen Produktions-Stopp sowie eine Entschädigung aller Personen, die durch Lindan und PCP vergiftet wurden.

Gerne senden wir den Offenen Brief im Wortlaut sowie weitere Informationen zu

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