8
Mrz
2005

International Women's Day help stop violence against women

March 08, 2005

Take Action to Defend Women from Violence

Today, during International Women's Day, we invite you to join our efforts to help stop violence against women. Your support can change the lives of the women featured in the following cases. Please take action to protect them.

ACT NOW

Mexico: Lydia Cacho Ribeiro and Other Human Rights Defenders Under Threat
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12172

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, president of the Women's Assistance Center (CIAM), and staff at three CIAM shelters around Mexico, have received multiple death threats as a result of their work to protect the rights of women and girls. The threats are reportedly from men whose wives and/or children found refuge from domestic violence at the shelter and want them to return home.

Iraq: Disappearance of Huda Hafez Ahmad al-'Azawi's, Businesswoman

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12173

At 4 a.m. on February 17, US soldiers and members of the Iraqi National Guard forced their way into the house of Huda Hafez Ahmad al-'Azawi, a businesswoman in Baghdad. They handcuffed and blindfolded her, and beat, handcuffed and blindfolded her two daughters, Nura aged 15 and Sarah aged 20. Her whereabouts are unknown and Amnesty International is concerned for her safety.

India: Women Facing Violence in Gujarat

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12174
During the large-scale violence in Gujarat in 2002, some medical professionals were reported to have participated in violence against members of the Muslim minority and disregarded reports and obvious signs of sexual assaults of women in their care. Victims could not count on receiving medical assistance and cannot rely upon medical/forensic evidence when pursuing justice for the crimes perpetrated against them.

Sudan: Violence Against Women By The Janjawid Militia

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12175
Urge the Government of Sudan to protect the women of Darfur from violence by the Janjawid militia. Ask that the Government to halt to attacks on women, bring perpetrators of sexual violence -- in particular members of the Janjawid militia -- to justice, and ratify international laws that protect women from sexual violence in conflict and publicly condemn all forms of gender-based violence in Darfur.

Kosovo: Rights of Trafficked Girls
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12176
Since the July 1999 deployment of an international peacekeeping force to Kosovo and the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK), Kosovo has become a major destination country for women and girls trafficked into forced prostitution. It has been estimated that many hundreds of women and girls have been trafficked, including some as young as 12 years old.

HOW VIOLENCE AFFECTS WOMEN?

From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family. Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, security officials and soldiers. Women are the overwhelming majority of victims from violence inflicted in the home. During armed conflicts, violence against women is often used as a weapon of war, in order to dehumanize the women themselves, or to persecute the community to which they belong.

However, violence against women is never normal, legal or acceptable and should never be tolerated or justified. It's time to recognize that violence against women is a global human rights scandal that affects us all. Across the world, Amnesty International activists are working to work towards making women's human rights a reality.

Find out what you can do:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12177


Rosa Del Angel
Amnesty International USA
Online Action Center
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=677776&l=12163

Is US losing moral authority on human rights?

Experts say prisoner abuses, war in Iraq undermine effectiveness of State Department human rights report.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0307/dailyUpdate.html

Do you believe things are "getting better" in Iraq?

Are you one of the millions of delusional Americans who believe things are "getting better" in Iraq? You can hardly be blamed.

http://207.44.245.159/article8216.htm

The Way Tyranny Works

http://207.44.245.159/article8213.htm


From Information Clearing House

The Resort to Torture

There's no justification for kicking an enemy [POW] when he’s wounded on the ground in front of you and about to die”.

by Ghali Hassan

A recently released army documents detail ongoing sadistic abuse, torture and murder of Iraqi Prisoners of War (POW) and Iraqi detainees by US and British forces in occupied Iraq.

http://207.44.245.159/article8215.htm
http://207.44.245.159/article3943.htm

Twisting the Minds of the American People

http://207.44.245.159/article8214.htm
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=77301;show_parent=1

Retired general critiques U.S. policy in Iraq

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=109653&z=179


Informant: Martin Greenhut

No more Funds for Iraq War

This Thursday, March 10, 2005, the House Appropriations Committee will vote on President Bush’s proposed supplemental increaseof eighty billion dollars ($80,000,000,000.00) for the Iraq war. This is in addition to the 160 billion ($160,000,000,000.00) already misspent and wasted.

Please ask your friends, family, co-workers, and allies to write their Congress members immediatelyurging them to vote AGAINST the Bush plan:

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=7157066&type=TA

It is easy to do, free, and very effective!! Demand that any new funds approved be allocated solely for troop withdrawal and interim troop protection.

Just click here
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=7157066&type=TA.

In addition, please ask your Congresspeople to support amendments to the appropriations bill that call for an end to the occupation and support for Iraqi sovereignty, such as Representative Lynn Woolsey's (D-CA) House Resolution (H.Con.Res.35) to End the US Occupation of Iraq:

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7071606

Also, Thursday will be a National Call-in Day for this issue. Please contact your Congress members at their local district offices. Our Representatives and Senators need to hear from the grassroots NOW !

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/callalert/index.tt?alertid=7162346&type=CO

National Call-in Day
March 10th, 2004
No more Funds for Iraq War!
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/callalert/index.tt?alertid=7162346&type=CO


In peace and solidarity,

Mimi Kennedy, Chair PDA Board
mimi@pdamerica.org


Informant: Roy Ulrich

The latest Iraq horror

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=31225&ntpid=0


Informant: Charles Bremer

Wie verträglich ist Titan?

http://tinyurl.com/57apc


Nachricht von Ruth Gill

U.S. Must Address Global Warming

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/030705EA.shtml

US sent hundreds of terror suspects to foreign prisons

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=617568


Informant: Charles Bremer

Is the pen mightier than the sword?

http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0312.html


Informant: Charles Bremer

Canada may simply become a client state of the Pentagon

http://www.macleans.ca/switchboard/columnists/article.jsp?content=20050314_101968_101968


Informant: kevcross5

Say no to Big Brother plan for Internet

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1110150624459&call_pageid=970599119419


Informant: Andy

Earth Magnetic Pole Reversal Imminent - Rebooting Memory?

PLANET EARTH ALERT
http://pesn.com/2005/02/27/6900064_Magnet_Pole_Shift/

"The weakening of earth's magnetism is one of the factors believed to be predictive of a pole reversal. That magnetic field reversals have occurred in the past is confirmed in the geological record. What is unclear is how precisely thetransition occurs, and what happens to life forms extant at the time of this pole flip."


PureEnergySystems.com

Feb. 27, 2005

Earth Magnetic Field Reversal

Possible energy ramifications of diminishing magnetic field. How long will it linger at zero before reversing?

by Mary-Sue Haliburton
Pure Energy Systems News

Seeing the powerful earthquakes such as the December 26th, 2004 event that triggered the tsunami disaster, people are looking for possible causes for the apparent instability of earth's crust. "End-times" alarmists and backyard researchers believe that the predicted imminent reversal of the earth's magnetic field may be a significant clue to these eschatological-scale events.

Scientists have been observing changes in the direction of earth's magnetic field which took place recently as well as in the distant past. NASA's website features a map showing the gradual northward migration of the north magnetic pole in the past century and a half. Since more than double the time interval has elapsed since the last reversal, compared to the time lapse between the previous two pole reversals, some believe we may be overdue for the next north-south flip. (1,2) However, though the interval between reversals of the Earth's magnetic field can be as short as 5,000 years, it can also be as long as 50 million years. There does not seem to be any logic or rule governing the planet's behavior. [Oh really? Obviously this author is not aware of Planet X and the plasma discharge model of comets and the universe. -CR]

It is not only the direction but also the strength of this magnetic field that is a concern. In the time of dinosaurs, at an estimated 2.5 gauss, it was eighty percent stronger than it is now. This may have been one of the reasons such gigantic life forms thrived. It is now accepted that a catastrophic event ended the reign of giant reptiles. However, they did not re-evolve to equivalent dimensions. And the disappearance of mammalian "mega-fauna" in more recent times is still considered to be a mystery. The mastodons and mammoths would have towered over modern elephants. Why are there so few large terrestrial animals today?

The smaller average size of modern animals may be due to the gradual decline of Earth's "steady state" (as opposed to "pulsed") magnetism. Thousands of years ago the Chinese, with their astute discovery of bio-electrical energy flows known as "meridians", learned that magnetism promotes vigor in biological life. They used magnetic rocks in medical treatment.

In the past century there has been a further decline of earth's magnetic field by another five percent down to only 0.5 gauss. This has led Dr. Dean Bonlie to identify a "magnetic deficiency syndrome" resulting from the biological stress caused by the weakening of this "energy base" for life. (3)

The weakening of earth's magnetism is one of the factors believed to be predictive of a pole reversal. That magnetic field reversals have occurred in the past is confirmed in the geological record. What is unclear is how precisely the transition occurs, and what happens to life forms extant at the time of this pole flip.

Does the magnetic field drop to zero gauss? Dire predictions follow upon the heels of this theory. Electronic devices would all be at risk: there may be damage to, or complete loss of, all near-earth-orbiting satellites and possibly the space station itself.

Effects on life forms could range from migrating birds losing their sense of direction to immune system decline and even widespread die-off from radiation-induced cancers.

Losing its protective magnetic envelope, the atmosphere would expand and become thinner, possibly leading to altitude sickness near sea level. No longer filtered out, deadly cosmic rays would kill most if, not all, living creatures on the surface. Only those living in deep caves would be safe.

This scenario has prompted some to build underground bunkers in hopes of surviving.

Countering this frightening vision, NASA predicts that, rather than declining to zero gauss, the magnetic field would become disordered. Thus we might for short time have more than one north and south pole on the planet. This official scientific stance says that the magnetosphere which shields us from cosmic radiation would not entirely disappear either. Thus, while communications would be erratic and perhaps at times completely inactivated, humans would find ways to survive. However, there are dissenters in the ranks, pointing to the vast South Atlantic magnetic anomaly and radiation damage to satellites over that region attributed to weakening of the protective magnetosphere. (4)

The disorderly-flip theory is supported by evidence from geology that in past reversals the decline was not total. Lava flows that solidified at Steen's Mountain during a lengthy reversal process show that the magnetic poles wandered across the equator three times. Though strength of the field was reduced to about 20% of maximum, there is no record that it fell to zero gauss during that transitional period. (5)

The theory that activity in the turbulent molten outer iron core of the planet generates its magnetic field currently dominates scientific thinking. Stormy activity deep in the earth's outer core, believed to be filled with roiling convection flows of molten iron, is understood to generate the planet's magnetic field. Such violent seething could affect the mantle as well, possibly disturbing the earth's crust and causing the quakes.

However, there is an alternate theory of how the magnetic field is generated. In his article, "Origin of the Earth's Magnetic Field", Ernest McFarlane outlines gaps in the molten-iron convection theory. He proposes a system of electronic cells in a crystalline metal core with hot spots of heavy metals releasing alpha and beta particles. Due to the high heat the alpha particles are unable to combine with the free electrons. "Consequently an electron current flow is produced and conditions are set up for the generation of current loops throughout the inner and outer core. ... magnetic fields are produced as a consequence, in accordance with the right hand rule of electromagnetic theory." (5)

Which theory is right? We may find out from experience sooner than we can come to amicable agreement, given the conflicting theories and computer models. The actual dynamics may include aspects of both, or new insights not yet fully developed.

The sun reverses its magnetic field like clockwork every eleven years at the peak of the sunspot cycle. The next solar flip is due in 2012. South-pointing magnetic flux moves from sunspots, which are intense magnetic loops near the equator of the sun, along "meridional flows" to the north magnetic pole, and vice versa. As the oppositely-directed charge accumulates at the poles the field declines, until eventually the reverse charge predominates.

Scientists point out that the heliosphere does not wink out of existence during this reversal. The sunspots are intense magnetic knots, much stronger than the star's main field, which continue to spiral outward even when the main dipole field vanishes briefly. Though the solar magnetic reversal is not completely understood, the Ulysses space probe has sent back detailed data which has supplied answers to many questions. (6)

The mechanism that controls earth's field reversals may not be based on similar principles. For one thing, a planet does not seem to have any equivalent to the powerful sunspots. McFarlane refers to there being more than one north-south pole system and about 10% of the total field being involved in smaller extra fields. If these subordinate minor magnetic fields take up more of the magnetic activity during the main field's decline, they might become active enough to sustain a minimal protective layer shielding the biosphere, even if the main dipole field declines to zero gauss. This could be important for our survival, as the Steen's mountain lava flows indicate that the reversal took 4,500 years to be completed! (5)

IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMANITY'S ENERGY NEEDS

Whether the magnetic field is primarily molten-metal flow dynamics or electron current loops, or a combination of those and other factors, a magnetic pole reversal may be of significance to the search for clean energy generation and transportation. If earth magnetic anomalies become more frequent or are concentrated in certain areas, we could see disruption of existing electrical grids, even without the dramatic atmosphere expansion and radiation damaging to life and computers.

PES Network Inc. wants to encourage people in all geographical regions to participate in magnetic-pole data collection and reporting. A community-editable directory page at PESWiki.com has been created for this purpose. It is recommended that you first establish a "base line" by determining the accurate magnetic north reading for your location, and report the number of degrees and direction of any deviation from this norm. If you are able to access equipment to determine field strength as well, this additional data would be of interest too.

This data may be useful in helping inventors and researchers test the tolerance of Zero-point technologies, magnetic motors and other new generation systems in adverse situations. As we may have to live through ongoing magnetic disturbance for a long time, we will need to know whether the new systems will be robust under conditions of planetary pole reversal.

Ordinary citizens do not usually have access to instrumentation that would allow them to examine the deeper layers of the planet, nor the high atmosphere, nor the magnetospheres in space. However, if many people collect observations on magnetic field direction from different locations across the continent of North America, and indeed around the world, this data may become relevant in more ways than feeding "end-time" theorizing.

The subject is complex, and whichever scenario may be about to occur, some individuals have been taking note of unusually large fluctuations in the apparent position of the magnetic north pole. Using a large, stationary, home-built compass, one individual in western Canada noticed a ten-degree variation within a few days. This was so unusual that, concerned about a sudden pole shift, he described and published his observations, and asked for input.
No one else was seeing this rapid "pole shift".

On borrowing a very sensitive water-filled portable compass and quartering the area, he discovered that this was indeed a highly localized anomaly in which his domicile happened to be situated dead center. See his recorded readings at the link below. (8) He is now theorizing that the phenomenon may be a vortex related to the nearby extinct volcano Mount Ida. (9) Vortices have been known to occur in volcanic mountain areas, and in the past some have become tourist attractions.

Individual observations are of value, but need to be balanced by additional data from a much wider geographical area. Thus alarms about sudden general "pole shift" may be put to rest, and anomalies studied for what they are.


Ted Twietmeyer is one of those calling for volunteers to join in a non-profit effort (10) to track the magnetic pole shift -- or apparent pole shift. Summaries and links to this data would be appropriate for the above-mentioned PESWiki directory.


Informant: Be Kind Whenever Possible

Women, Peace And Security - International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day. But in many parts of the world, women have little to celebrate. Use this interactive map from UNIFEM to expore current conflicts and security operations around the world and their effect on women: http://womenwarpeace.org/


From Tom Paine

National Budget Call-In Day

by A Coalition of Progressive Groups

March 8 is national budget call-in day. Tell your senators not to accept cuts to programs helping our neediest citizens.

http://www.tompaine.com/action/#003984

Bankruptcy: The New Women's Issue

by Elizabeth Warren, Demos

The Harvard professor on how women will suffer most if Congress passes the bankruptcy bill.

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/#004009

Women Of The World v. Bush

by Mary-Ann Stephenson, The Guardian

Under George W. Bush, America is waging a global battle to turn back the clock on women's rights.

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/#004014

Information warfare and perception management

Conclusion: ALL World Governments Under Hostile Attack from United States

The current US government is working with a hostile attitude to divert democractic governments and institutions around the world. The means include, but not limited to:

1) Control of media, publication of facts, claims and stories suited to the purpose of promoting or destroying persons or issues from the target public's attention. Controlling the attention of "puppets".

Either destroy the facts from being available to them, distract them from the facts, or get them to ignore the facts or get them to not trust them.

This Information warfare and perception management is being used on a very very wide scale in the whole United States as well.

2) Bribery/Influence of key individuals via financial means or threats, blackmail or if not possible, destroying their credibility, fame, image, etc. Like the UN weapons inspector Hans Blix's treatment before the Iraq war.

3) Arranging financial support for people the US government sees favoring them.

4) Military intervention, sabotage, assassinations and other dirty tricks.

I include URLs to articles giving some clues. PNAC report, Air Force 2025 Information Warfare and Puppet Master doctrines provide additional information.

Europe would do well to formulate a defence of their democracy against information warfare puppet master attacks unless it wants to live under the now US-servient puppet Commission. Deviation from the democratic procedures in favor of major US companies is a clear sign of the fact that SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG.

- C.B.



US Secretly Targetting France, Canada, EU countries for "Regime Change" to more US Friendly Puppets:
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1354.htm

US Control of Countries by Information Warfare, Media Control and Bribing of Key Individuals (Poland, Aznar, Berlusconi, Blair, ):
http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0312.html

Destroying EU Democracy from Within by US Money, PR, Lobbying and Bribing
http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons050307En

US Paying Money to Student Groups to Criticize Governments, Arrange Coops, US/CIA Lobbygroups Targetting European Commission to Divert EU Democracy:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CLA410A.html

How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Rip Others:
http://207.44.245.159/article8171.htm

Extrapolate True Intentions of America from This:
http://www.americaheldhostile.com/ed122401.shtml

Arranging for motivation, what will they do:
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:ruMnHnl98cAJ:www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf+project+for+new+american+century+new+pearl+harbor&hl=en

The Strings of the Puppet Master
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2025/

Military Courts

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=77179;show_parent=1

The dreadful Baghdad airport road

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2394/


Informant: jensenmk

There is no way to 'do checkpoints right' in Iraq

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2395/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Video Shows U.S. Soldiers in 'Ramadi Madness' Abuse

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030805Z.shtml

March of the phone masts

by Neil Elkes, Evening Mail

Mar 7 2005

Birmingham could be flooded with almost 200 new phone masts by the end of the year according to figures revealed today.

The first 15 years of mobile phone use saw almost 500 mast sites established in Birmingham, but that number could swell by 40 per cent in 2005.

About 100 sites or localities have been earmarked by the five mobile phone companies for the third generation of mobile video, music and internet communications.

T-mobile and 3 have told the city council planning department they are looking for a further 91 unspecified locations.

The proposals for the roll-out of mobile phone communications in 2005 were sent to the planning department at the end of last year.

The Evening Mail can today reveal them under information gathered under the Freedom of Information Act.

Today, because the issue is such a contentious one in Birmingham, we list the streets being targeted.

Some earmarked sites may already have other companies' masts, others may be well on their way to going live, but in many cases residents will not be aware a mast is on the way.

The companies may also alter plans as market conditions and planning regulations permit and they will submit a further round of proposals next autumn.

Leading campaigner Eileen O'Connor, of Sutton Coldfield Residents Against Masts was shocked that so many are being planned despite a growing calls for caution from scientists.

She said: "The industry is out of control when they carry on without any regard for the public.

"It seems crazy. We only have a single BT landline, one set of water pipes and electricity supply lines so why do we need five mobile phone networks?

"There are already more than enough masts, now they are trying to squeeze even more in. It will be interesting to see if there is a corresponding increase in illnesses," she added.

Industry and Government investigations into the health fears have so far found no evidence of ill effects from masts. However some independent scientists claim there is a link between masts and a range of illnesses from sleep disorders to cancer.

Omega read under:
http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html

The phone companies have paid the Government a total of £22 billion for the licences to operate third generation phones - those with video, music and computer applications --and is now part way through a massive upgrading of the network.

Not included in these plans are upgrades to existing masts which could see power outputs massively increased.

The industry insists that the technology is not a danger to public health and that with more than 50 million UK mobile phone users it is reacting to immense consumer demand for their services.

Stuart Eke, of the Mobile Phone Operators Association, said that the roll out plans are an important part of the development of third generation services in a major market like Birmingham.

"By giving the information to the planning authority each year then any problems can be ironed out.

"Operators can also look for opportunities to share sites to reduce the total number of sites in the city."

A Vodafone spokesman said: "The roll-out schedule gives a good indication of what we have planned, but this may change according to market and planning conditions."

See tonight's Evening Mail for more mast stories and details of the proposed areas.


From Mast Network

So much for illusions

by Haifa Zangana

Guardian [UK]

03/07/05

Behind the facade of post-election political process, despite Tony Blair's desire to move on and George Bush's attempt to mend fences with Europe, in Iraq the atrocities continue to mount. Some, like the Hilla attack, are Zarqawi-style, with hundreds dead and wounded. Others are more mundane and sustained, like US warplanes bombing suspect houses in Ramadi, Hit, or Mosul, roadblock killings in Najaff, or post-curfew hunting by snipers in Sammara. Despite all the rhetoric about 'building a new democracy,' daily life for most Iraqis is still a struggle for survival, with human rights abuses engulfing them. A typical Iraqi day begins with the struggle to get the basics: petrol, a cylinder of gas, fresh water, food and medication. It ends with a sigh of relief: Alhamdu ilah (thanks, God), for surviving death threats, violent attacks, kidnappings and killings...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1431793,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Ending the death penalty for juveniles is not enough

by Ivan Eland

Independent Institute

03/07/05

Since 1990, the United States has been in the deplorable company of the few remaining nations -- Iran, China, Congo, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia -- that still put young people to death for crimes. America, famous for the extent of its individual freedoms, should not be on any list with such despotic third world abusers of human rights. In fact, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion for the court, noted the 'stark reality that the United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty.' Yet why stop at ending the death penalty only for juveniles? The United States is also one of a small group of countries, many of which are severe abusers of human rights, that allow the death penalty to be used at all. The United States needs to exit this nefarious club, too...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1472


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Wrong approach on asbestos

by Dick Armey

FreedomWorks

03/07/05

Asbestos litigation is a continuing crisis. Thousands of truly impaired asbestos victims are deprived of just compensation through the courts because their legitimate claims must compete with those of the unimpaired. At the same time, hundreds of firms face the imminent threat of bankruptcy at the hands of a predatory trial bar with all the economic calamities that inevitably result -- lost jobs, a depleted source of settlements and destruction of the retirement pensions of ten of thousands of employees...

http://tinyurl.com/6ourk


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

"Rich" conspiracy taxes logic

by Donald Lambro

Washington Times

03/07/05

Tax time fast approaches and, with it, the need for an honest re-evaluation of who is in the middle class and who pays most of the income taxes. Perhaps no other public policy area is more clouded by 'myth conceptions' than our federal tax system. That's why last week's latest 'Tax Watch' study from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation is a timely breath of fresh air, and should be required reading on Capitol Hill and in every news bureau. For example, did you know, this year, a record 44 million Americans will file tax returns but not have to pay any income taxes (because of growing deductions and credits that have effectively removed them from the tax base)? Did you know, as a result, the richest 20 percent of taxpayers -- those making more than $68,000 a year -- will pay 82 percent of all federal income tax revenue, also a record?

http://tinyurl.com/5xpuf


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

War tax resistance grows

by John Tiffany

American Free Press

03/07/05

Increasing numbers of Americans say the U.S. government is involved in immoral and illegal wars around the world and are refusing to support this with their tax money. The invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, for example, are outlawed by international law. 'Of every tax dollar paid, more than 50 cents goes to pay for past, present and future military expenses. The military budget for the Department of Defense alone for 2005 will be close to $500 billion. Our payment of federal taxes enables the government to carry on a continuing program of illegal military activities,' wrote Glen Milner, a member of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, WA. 'International laws and agreements support and encourage citizens to resist their government when it is engaged in illegal acts,' Milner added...

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/war_tax_resistance.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp


50¢ of Every Tax Dollar Goes to Pay for Wars

Scott Munson

The Armageddon nominee

by Jim Lobe

Tom Paine

03/07/05

In a breathtaking victory for right-wing hawks, President George W. Bush has nominated John Bolton -- current undersecretary of state -- to become his next ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton, widely considered the most unilateralist and least diplomatic of senior U.S. officials during Bush's first term, will have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, where some Democrats ... are expected to put up a fight. One aide called the nomination 'incredible,' particularly in light of recent indications ... that Bush and his new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, intended to pursue a more multilateralist policy in his second term and was determined to smooth the rougher diplomatic edges of his foreign-policy team...

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_armageddon_nominee.php


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Is Social Security constitutional?

by Robert Greenslade

Sierra Times

03/07/05

After President Bush put forth his proposal to 'partially privatize' Social Security, newspapers across the country inundated the American people with editorials and articles defending the present system. The Chicago Sun-Times called Social Security 'the most successful government program ever to be invented.' Since most Americans, including the staff at the Sun-Times, blindly assume that the federal government was granted the constitutional authority to establish this so-called retirement/insurance program, the origin of Social Security is rarely discussed. In the author's opinion, if the media was functioning as government watchdogs, as opposed to government lapdogs, it would be asking a question that goes beyond any proposal to partially privatize Social Security. Was the federal government granted the constitutional authority to establish Social Security or is it just another usurpation of power?

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/03/06/greenslade.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Emissions Tester: The harm is probably in the frequencies not in the power

It is important because if all you measure are carrier frequencies, all you get is average power at each mast. You can get that off Sitefinder and it's all ICNIRP compliant by an order of thousands.

The harmful stuff disappears when averaged out. If I shoot a gun next to your ear you will be deafened, perhaps permanently by a sound lasting a fraction of a second! But averaged out over all sound frequencies in say ten minutes, there was no loud sound at all. A transient spike is the same.

Find the spikes and measure them and you know what's hitting you. Similarly, since the harm is probably in the frequencies not the power, it is essential to identify every frequency from ELF to RF. Spikes may have their own frequency that is quite significant.

Changes in the frequency patterns (not the carrier frequencies) will be far more significant than power levels. Similarly, interference frequencies as numbers of masts or carriers or types change, will matter.

Since 3G is WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) two effects are important: (a) the increased signal when masts are passive, and (b) the number of frequencies employed by each mast. The difference between a mature 3G network and GSM may be that GSM was pulsed waves on the shore, 3G is the Tsunami.

Andy

From Mast Network

Phone masts a risk to ‘millions of lives’

Prof Olle Johansson of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden (one of the top research institutes in the world on EMF health effects) speaking to a Scottish newspaper yesterday, after recently speaking at meetings and briefing the Scottish Parliament about mast health hazards.

Dr Grahame Blackwell


Phone masts a risk to ‘millions of lives’

by Michael Alexander

A WORLD-RENOWNED expert on the impact of electromagnetic fields and microwave radiation has warned that western governments are putting millions of lives at risk by allowing the continued and unlimited use of mobile phones.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier from Stockholm yesterday, Professor Olle Johansson said the Scottish Executive should suspend construction of all masts and launch an immediate investigation into the long-term health effects.

While he claimed the whole population was at risk through constant exposure to mast emissions—regardless of mobile phone ownership—Professor Johansson said the latest research suggested children in particular were more vulnerable to early nerve cell damage.

Professor Johansson made the comment after being made aware of the latest campaign against mobile phone masts at St Andrews. Lending his support to north-east Fife campaigners who had “every right” to be concerned, he said, “The basic scientific issue is not primarily about the exact siting of base stations, it is about whether it is all right to irradiate the whole population with microwaves, and likewise. This is, of course, a full-scale human experiment, with you and me and the St Andrews kids in it.”

Professor Johansson, a neuroscientist from the government-funded Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has more than 20 years’ experience. He was the first to study human sensitivity to mobiles, when adverse reactions were reported in the mid-1990s.

Last week he visited Scotland to brief MSPs on the potential risks associated with exposure to mobile phones and masts. He also appeared as an expert witness before the Parliament’s public petitions committee and at meetings in Aberdeenshire and Perth.

Professor Johansson said yesterday it was “worrying” that so many observations are made all over the world connecting health problems with telecom base station systems. If these proved wrong then many observations and scientific studies would have to be wrong.

“One of the latter is a recent paper by me and my co-worker demonstrating that 1997 was a very curious year in Sweden in that a large number of health- related measures suddenly started to indicate a fast degradation in the health of the Swedish population. Several health characteristics and diseases seem to correlate with the Swedish introduction of the GSM 1800 MHz system both in time and place.

“A new paper, just published a few days ago, also shows acute effects of pulsed microwaves. Nerve cell damage was seen after 30 minutes of six W/kg microwave exposure consisting of 1.25 GHz radiation delivered as 5.9 microsecond pulses with a repetition frequency of 10 Hz. The authors concluded that the microwave exposure used changed neuronal ultrastructure in ways that depended on microwave frequency and neuron metabolic status.

“The area chosen for study is of great importance for movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and others. Naturally, the results could have an enormous impact on the health of children, since they could be much more vulnerable to early nerve cell damage.”

Professor Johansson said governments should face up to their responsibilities and fund independent research.

He said the profit-making phone companies were not responsible for the problem as they only followed “flawed” government guidelines. In his view, the only safe level both biologically and medically was zero.

As reported by The Courier last week, the latest protest against mobile phone technology has seen the chairman of a north-east Fife community council warn that thousands of pupils and hundreds of residents could have their health put at increased risk if an application for a third generation (3G) mobile phone mast to be built off Grange Road on the outskirts of St Andrews were approved.

Gordon Ball, chairman of Cameron Community Council, has written to the head teachers of Madras College and Langlands Primary in St Andrews, advising them of plans for a “potentially dangerous” 12.5-metre 3G mobile phone mast in a field several hundred yards to the rear of Madras’s Kilrymont Road building.

The concerns come as debate continues nationwide about the possible health effects of TETRA police communication masts and mobile phone masts. Both technologies have been linked with alterations in the brain, increased blood pressure, nausea, dizziness, headaches, infertility and accelerated tumour growths. With reports sporadic and technology still in its infancy, however, scientific opinion has been divided.

The Scottish Executive has said that evidence suggests exposure to radiation below international guidelines “does not cause adverse health effects to the general population.”

It says it will continue monitoring research in this area, but has also said, “The National Radiological Protection Board’s 2004 report on mobile phones and health notes that there is no scientific basis for establishing minimal distances between base stations and areas of public occupancy.”

Phone companies have also said they take health and safety very seriously but say there is overwhelming evidence that there is no cause for concern—although they say research continues to be monitored.

Last week Fife Council planning officials said it was guided by the Scottish Executive and its own development plan policies when it came to the siting and design of mobile phone masts. While the decision would rest with councillors, in the St Andrews Grange case, there appeared to be no health and safety reason why the mast should not be allowed.

© All copyright D C Thomson & Co Ltd., 2004


Article in today's paper
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2005/03/08/newsstory6887018t0.asp

Wer nicht arbeitet, soll auch essen

http://tinyurl.com/5br9n

Phobia to electricity

22 August 2004

EL PERIODICO DE CATALUNYA

Phobia to the electricity

• a judicial sentence recognizes that a Barcelonian suffers electromagnetic hypersensitivity
• the disease causes intolerancia to the light sources or to TV

ALBERT OLLÉS BARCELONA

The history of Josep Oriol Badell seems removed from comic of Marvel, but is real. And specially it lasts. He is 55 years old and has been suffering a disease very little well-known, denominated electromagnetic hypersensitivity, that has taken him to undertake one crossed in solitaire after defending its rights.

In the 2003 he presented/displayed a demand of labor incapacitacion that the Court of Social number 2 of Barcelona misestimated May past year. The sentence, nevertheless, recognizes the existence of his disease: "The judge affirms that I suffer electrosensibility, but in a moderate degree that, according to the failure, allows me to work. Considering which I began of zero, convincing almost my family, it is a very significant advance ", explains Badell, that has resorted to the Superior Court of Catalunya. An unbearable life, simple exhibition during minutes to the electromagnetic fields, that create the mobile televisions, household-electric or telephones causes from tremors and states of tachycardia, hypertension and insomnia to him. "There are moments that in my life which are unbearable", he affirms. The daily actions can become, in his case, a hell: "I have to speak on the telephone to half meter of distance of the earpiece. I cannot lead and in the bus I have to request that they extinguish the conditioned air and the fluorescent". But still there is more: "I do not hold to walk at night under the lampposts and when I arrive at house I have to extinguish all the electrical apparatuses and to hope to that the neighbor lets see his tele to be able to sleep". When he undergoes a crisis few alternatives have left to the margin to hope or "to go to the next beach and to bury the hands and the feet in the sand. I feel as if it was unloading to me ", he indicates. Since the problems began he has changed six times the house -- now he lives in Barceloneta -- and not even finds lightening in the field: "I have a house in a town on a hill, but it is surrounded by antennas of mobile telephony and I only can conciliate the dream within the warehouse". This last point is, he assures, the cause of his nightmare: "Everything began when they installed antennas that were located to the same height of my room. Other neighbors, and even my woman, suffer since then different diseases ", he assures.

His disease is recognized by the World-wide Organization of Health (WHO), but in Spain only exist two or three credited cases. He condemned his way of the cross of visits without success to doctors and specialists until knowing doctor Fernandez Solà, resident of the Clínic Hospital of Barcelona. The treatment past diagnosed the disease month to him of April and it applied a treatment that allows him to live a little better: "I continue having problems, but from day to day it is more bearable. Even so nobody has been able to still assure if it is or not a chronic ailment ". Sweden is the only country of the world where sentences in favor of the labor incapacitacion by electrosensibility has been dictated. Badell wants to lay way in Spain and to create jurisprudence. "I look for more affected, since some people suffer the same but, before the ignorance of the doctors, they do not know it. When we are more, more force we will do ".

http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=5&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=142618&idseccio_PK=11&h=040822


Informant: Sylvie

Wind of Change

It's definitely in the air, a wind of change is felt here. I hope I will be able to make you feel the wind wherever you are. There is a wave of Israeli public awareness to the issue of the microwave radiation, the antennas, the not-so-safe-as-thought cell phone, following non-usual strong media activity in the last two weeks, a chain of reactions happened as a result of my new book which exposed new data to one reporter who decided this was a good reason for him to investigate this issue and bring it to the TV prime time, and shook the 3 national newspapers as well. (Yediot Ahronot, Maariv, Haaretz).

1. Last Friday night on prime time was part 2 of a show inside the weekly news, a show that focused on the cellular technology and gave a non-"balanced" view but a public health point of view. THIS IS RARE! The commercial channel, which gets most of its funding from the cellular industry, exposed:

- How they Israeli law had been prepared two years ago, a law which gives total freedom to the companies to erect antennas everywhere. The communication minister then, Reuven Rivlin, is the one who cooperated with the companies to delete one clause from the law: a clause which said that the public had the right to oppose to antennas. A technion professor, Rachel Alterman, was kicked out of the committee on the subject because she was the only one to insist that the public would have the right to resist.

- Sorek and Refael, two state bodies which are supposed to be independent on the issue of the radiation safety, receive money from the cellular industry for their work. The problem: they publish biased information to the public about the safely of the radiation, and this information says that there are no known negative effects, no known a-thermal effects, cancer is "probably not" a possibility from the radiation [cited from Sorek's brochure]. In addition they are involved in preparing the antennas and they support the view that we need maximum antennas in the country. In addition they mamage the whole issue of radiation measurements to the public, (and their equipement is found to be calibrated in a strage way), so how can these bodies be taken as real "independent" bodies? !!

Refael expert who is responsible for the radiation safety in the country, and is a state worker, is also a paid consultant to three cellular companies, the power company and the wired phone company. He said in the show that he doesn't see any problem here.

- The companies erect the antennas in the eyes height of people, under their nose, for example it showed antenna which looks like a big box and is located about 1 meter from a desk in a store, behind the desk the workers stand and the box is behind them without them knowing it's cellular antenna, and it's not above them, it's just near their bodies.

- Stelian Galberg, responsible for antennas in the country, in the Environmental ministry, who usually is very supportive for the companies view, says to the camera that what's going on with the antennas is "rape".

- A worker of the Env. Ministry says that he is responsible for 2000 antennas and can follow only about 3% of them.

- the former responsible for antennas in the Env. ministry says that he wouldn't allow his children to live near antenna like he wouldn't allow them to live in front of a smoking power station.

- My message as shown on screen was that
1. People are flooded with disinformation about the radiation, they are told that it is a matter of opinions rather than facts, they are told that the matter is "not proven and not refuted" and other sentences which sound beautiful, but they are actually not provided with INFORMATION in hands. I also said in reaction to the exposure about Sorek and Refae"l that they are perceived as neutral bodies and the public believes their distributed information about the radiation ["there's is no problem"], and rely on them, without being aware that there are vested interests here. I hope I raised the doubt in people's minds. I did get good reactions from people saying I said brave things they hadn't think about before.

2. Before the show and during the week, the 3 newspapers were full of the antennas issue, telling of some of the things the show would expose, and published a map with hidden antennas in the country.

3. PM Ofir Pines is leading a very important move - he wants to change the law, so that people and municipalities will have the right to resist. According to the law municipalities don't have the basic right to say "no" to antennas and two municipalities in Israel filed a suit to change that. Herzelia is one of them. The mayor of Herzelia wants to prevent antennas being placed near sensitive places but she cannot do it because of the law.

4. The show "Popolitics" on cellular antennas last Tuesday was very hot, I think the peak moment was when the mayor of Herzelia, Yael German told of how she was threatened by the Cellular Forum [PR office of 3 Israeli cellular companies]. Tal Zilberstein, the Cellular Forum executive threatened the Mayor of Herzelia that he would consider to turn off all Herzelia from cellular communication if she continues to lead her public activity to against cellular antennas inside cities. Yael German brought the letter to the TV and read it, she also reported it to the person in charge of preventing cartels in the country, with the request to close down the Cellular Forum because the Forum aim was supposed to be to raise public awareness and not threaten mayors.

Roman Bronfman, the PM who leads a move to prevent erecting 18,000 for the 3G, who was attacked by the cellular companies [they complained to the ethics committee of the parliament saying he was lying about the 18,000 number which had been their own report !...] said on screen that the Cellular Forum would be closed down.

5. The part 1 Friday TV programme about the cellular phones showed the DNA breaks found by Prof. Franz Adlkofer in the REFLEX project. He told that the industry's reaction was to totally ignore his finding, and that the DNA breaks contradict the common knowledge which held the opinion that the non-ionizing radiation is too weak to damage big molecules.

Dr. Elihu Richter said that the dizziness and headaches the phone-users feel is evidence for internal damage inside the brain. Dr. Sigal Sadezki, who leads the Israeli arm of the Interphone study was vague in her message but did say that she was worried about children, that their use of phones should be limited, and that Ahlbom's study caused her a "switch" because if something can cause benign tumors, it can also cause malignant tumors. The fact the reporter caused her say these things, raised many eyebrows. People who know her position as it has been for many year, were surprised, including people who work with her. Her position has been to ignore research and evidence (epidemiologic and labratory) on DNA damage and cancer in her lectures to the public, and not warning the public nor children. She says that only the Interphone study would bring the answers, and that "it is not proven nor refuted". She has a serious problem giving legitimation to Hardell's studies, she prefers to ignore his findings. Don't think for a sec that I buy her "new" face: I am not deaf and she said on the same programme that "it is not known whether a-thermal effects exist". HA!

The general public didn't notice this but I don't need another proof to see that she didn't really do a switch, and that is why I was disturbed by the fact that the programme focused on her and presented her as the main actor in the scientific field in Israel: "The most senior researcher in Israel". I think that if the most senior researcher in Israel doubts non-thermal effects, we have a serious problem in Israel in catching up with the last 40 years of scientific research !!

Also in that part 1 programme I presented Dr. Alasdair Philips COM device near a cell phone showing that cell phone irradiates to distance, saying to the reporter that if he speaks on the phone and his wife is near him, then he is not the only one to absorb the radiation but his wife as well, and it can also be the baby, the dog. The COM device showed red color even at 1 meter distance. It was a strong illustration and first time the public learnt of the passive exposure from the phones.

Part 1 (phones) was rather weak and vague and full of technical effects, but still showed things that had not been shown in the mainsteam ever. Even the findings on Ahlbom, which had not been published in the main newspapers until this day, were presented on the screen in front of 20% rating rate, which is enourmous. In spite of my efforts to make the TV present Hardell's findings as well, I encountered huge power of interests who caused these findings to be shut up. Anyway they are presented in the book. The efforts to shut them up only tells me how much they threaten on the industry. In contrast, part two (antennas) was very strong, and was presented in a serious, clear way.

I know of parliament departments which changed their wireless phones to wired phones, and citizens who did that as well. I know that several municipalities were flooded with phone calls from worried citizens, and the TV was flooded as well with hundreds of calls. I know of people who now have a problem when they pick up the cell phone. They don't look at it as an innocent device anymore. No, these are not all people, but these are enough people for a good start !

Iris Atzmon.

--------

I must say there is a real groundswell of anti mast activism now isn't there? The anti mast demo outside Brighton Town Hall (outside a planning meeting) on Thursday is a first in this area and I'm amaxed at the extent to which other people have taken the initiative and advertised it extensively via flyers and door to door leafletting. A lot of people have had enough of those spineless gits on the planning committee just waving applications through - about time we put the wind (of change) up them!!!!!!!

Gary


From Mast Network

Mast rays cause alarming trouble

by Staff Reporter, Birmingham Post

Mar 7 2005

Customers at two Birmingham garages are being forced to freewheel their cars off the forecourt - because of interference from nearby phone masts.

Visitors trying to leave National Tyres and Car Spares on the Stratford Road are being forced to push their cars nearly 100 yards out of range of the masts on the roof of the Centre Court office block.

It is believed the mast's rays are interfering with car's immobilizers and alarms.

Clive Carter, from National Tyres garage, and Keith Murphy, from Car Spares, which are both near the mast on Stratford Road, said many customers could not start their vehicles in their forecourts.

Mr Carter said: "This has happened at least 20 times in the last year. The strange thing is that when a car is pushed down the road it starts easily. The mobile phone masts seem to be the only explanation for it."

Dr Gerald Hyland, a phone mast expert and former senior physics lecturer at Warwick University, said the rays were likely to be interfering with the cars' ignition systems.

And he said radiation from the masts could also be damaging our health.

He said: "If these rays are strong enough to cause interference with car alarms, then we should be concerned about what they are doing to our bodies."

"We are much more sensitive to radiation than cars are."

"People want to use mobile phones and you can't use them without a mast, but masts are often placed in insensitive areas and can be stronger than they need to be. They should never be near a workplace or near people."

It is thought that rays from phone masts can also interfere with a car's locking system and unexpectedly activate a vehicle's alarm.

More than 40,000 mobile phone masts have been installed in the UK, and a further 10,000 are needed for the increasingly popular third-generation videophones.

http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/post/news/tm_objectid=15266453%26method=full%26siteid=50002%26headline=mast%2drays%2dcause%2dalarming%2dtrouble-name_page.html


Informant: Sylvie

Der Verbraucher hat die Macht in dieser Marktwirtschaft

Re: 050304 - R - Mobilfunk – Newsletter

http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_newsletter_40305.html zu dem sehr nahe gehenden Artikel von Rudolf M. Streif, Römerstraße 4, 94060 Pocking, möchte ich folgende Überlegung anfügen:

Leider ist das geschilderte Verhalten die Regel, aber was denken Sie, wie wichtig einen die Mobilfunkkonzerne nehmen, wenn z.B. innerhalb von 2 Wochen 70% (am besten 100%) einer Ortschaft/Stadt ihre Handys kündigen?

Dazu möchte ich an das Beispiel der Brent Spart-Bohrinsel von Shell erinnern. Damals haben die Leute über Wochen einfach nicht mehr bei Shell getankt und auf einmal war das möglich was vorher vollkommen ausgeschlossen wurde. Die Bohrinsel wurde verschrottet und nicht versenkt. Ja, der Verbraucher hat die Macht in dieser Marktwirtschaft, nur sind sich dessen leider zu wenig bewusst. Es zählt wirklich nur das Geld und nichts anderes. Das ist auch gleichzeitig die Schwachstelle und der Ansatzpunkt für einen effektiven Widerstand.

An uns ist es, unsere Mitmenschen aufzuklären und sie an ihre Verantwortung gegenüber Gott und Ihrem Nächsten zu erinnern. Jedes Handy verstößt gegen das Gebot: "Du sollst Deinen Nächsten lieben wie Dich selbst" Es ist wenigen bewusst, aber jedes angemeldete Handy zieht einen Mobilfunksender hinter sich her. Derjenige, bzw. diejenigen die ihn in die Nähe bekommen, werden früher oder später dadurch erkranken. Wenn jemand ein angemeldetes Handy besitzt nimmt er in Kauf, dass andere Menschen geschädigt werden. Wie Herr Streif richtig erkannt hat, werde sich die Konzerne hinter den momentan gültigen Grenzwerte verstecken und alle Verantwortung, auch später, von sich weisen. Die Verantwortung gegenüber Gott und den Mitmenschen aber bleibt bei jedem Handynutzer.

Auch stehen hinter jedem Konzern Menschen, die mit Ihrer Arbeit eine entsprechende Verantwortung tragen, auch wenn es den Konzern mal nicht mehr geben sollte. Darum kann ich nur dazu aufrufen, merken Sie sich die Namen derer, die heute so vehement für den Mobilfunk sind. Von dem abgesehen kann jeder an dem Ort wo er ist, seine Nachbarn, Verwandte, Freunde, Bekannte, Kollegen etc. aufklären, sie warnen und ihnen dabei helfen die bestehenden Handyverträge zu kündigen. Was diese dann machen ist nicht in unserer Verantwortung, aber es kann keiner kommen und sagen, warum hast Du/Haben Sie mir nicht gesagt, wie gefährlich diese Technologie ist?

Kündigungsformulare für alle Netzbetreiber und Servicebetreiber können bei mir angefordert oder auf der Seite der Bürgerwelle herunter geladen werden:

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/kuendigung_muster.doc

Deutschland das am besten ausgebaute Notrufsäulennetz. Eine weitere gute Nachricht ist, dass die Telekom in diesem Jahr 10.000 neue Telefonzellen bauen muss.


Nachricht von Ulrich Weiner (Auszug)

SWPAT: Rat winkt US-Harmonisierung unter dubiosen Umständen durch

Unter, für die Richtlinie schon üblichen, dubiosen Umständen wurde die Softwarepatent-Richtlinie, durch den Rat gedrückt. Der Dänische Minister hielt sich nicht an den Auftrag seines Parlaments und ermöglichte so der Präsidentschaft das Durchdrücken der Direktive, welche die Ausweitung der Patentierung von Software nach US-Muster in der EU bestätigt.


Kommission und Rat machen bei dieser Direktive keine gute Figur.

Regierungen ignorieren eindeutige Aufträge aus ihren Parlamenten, der Rat hat gezeigt, wie anfällig diese Institution gegenüber Fehlinformation aus der Bürokratie ist und die Kommission beharrt darauf, eine Regelung durchzupeitschen, für welche die EU eigentlich gar nicht zuständig ist.

Denn der Sinn der "Lügendirektive" ist lediglich die Streichung der Ausnahme für Software in der europäischen Patentübereinkunft vorweg zu nehmen. Die dafür notwendige Änderung wurde vom europäischen Patentamt - das keine Institution der EU ist, aber massiv mit EU-Geldern von der Kommission versorgt wird - ohne Legitimierung durchgeführt.

Die nachträgliche Legitimierung durch die diplomatische Konferenz im Jahr 2000 schlug fehl, und so versucht die Patentlobby nun, über den Umweg der leichter manipulierbaren EU-Minister, diese Legitimierung herbeizuführen um für reine Softwareprodukte Patentschutz in Europa zu bekommen.

http://wiki.ffii.org/Cons050307En


relayed by Bernhard Mayer


Aus: quintessenz-list Digest, Vol 24, Issue 5



EU-Rat beschließt umstrittene Richtlinie zu Software-Patenten
http://www.tecchannel.de/news/software/19813/

Milch von RFID-Kühen

http://www.netzwelt.de/news/70315-nutztierhaltung-gesunde-milch-von-rfidkuehen.html

Australian Category 5 Cyclone

http://tinyurl.com/4ye6z


Informant: treseamnr


http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200503/r42303_108289.jpg

Last Update: Tuesday, March 8, 2005. 8:34pm (AEDT)

Cyclone Ingrid, captured in this satellite image at 2:30pm AEST on March 8. (Bureau of Meteorology)

Emergency services prepare for Cyclone Ingrid

Counter-disaster planning is well under way in far north Queensland as Cyclone Ingrid continues to edge towards the coast.

The powerful category 5 system is about 240 kilometres north-east of Cooktown and is moving slowly west at 10 kilometres-per-hour.

The cyclone, with winds of up to 300 kph, is likely to make landfall late tomorrow.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a cyclone warning for coastal and island communities between Lockhart River and Port Douglas.

A cyclone watch extends from Cape York Peninsula to Kowanyama, however, a watch from Port Douglas to Innisfail has been cancelled.

The bureau says gales are expected to develop between Lockhart River and Port Douglas early tomorrow morning.

Between Cape Melville and Cape Tribulation there is likely to be destructive winds and significantly higher tides as the cyclone approaches.

The bureau also says heavy rain can be expected on the coast and ranges north of Port Douglas from tomorrow.

Cairns Acting Police Superintendent Michael Keating says emergency authorities are co-operating across the region.

"We've already established communications networks through to our local areas in the north of the state," he said.

"We'll be working with the state counter-disaster organisation in Brisbane so the whole mechanism of disaster management and disaster planning is under way."

Historic threat

If Cyclone Ingrid does cross the coast it will be the first category 5 cyclone to make landfall in Queensland in almost 90 years.

Manfred Greitschus, from the Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre, says there have been only three severe tropical cyclones approaching the intensity of Ingrid.

They include category 4 Althea, which devastated parts of Townsville in 1971, and Cyclone Aivu, which crossed the coast in the Burdekin.

"We get very few category 5 cyclones in the Coral Sea," Mr Greitschus said.

"In fact, the last category 5 cyclone was had was Aivu in 1989.

"It crossed the coast as a category 3 but it was a category 5 out in the Coral Sea.

"We have to go back to 1918 where we had a very significant category 5 crossing the coast at Mackay, which did a lot of damage."

Australian Category 5 Cyclone
http://tinyurl.com/4d9c5

More on Australian Category 5 Cyclone
http://tinyurl.com/5m7gp


Informant: DrRevLynn

Report by House Democrats Alleges GOP Abuse of Power

News Update from Citizens for Legitimate Government

March 8, 2005

http://www.legitgov.org/
http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

Report by House Democrats Alleges GOP Abuse of Power --House Minority Leader

Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) plans to lash out at the chamber's Republican leaders today with a report accusing them of abusing their power through parliamentary tactics designed to suppress dissent.

The 147-page report, by the Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee, is called "Broken Promises: The Death of Deliberative Democracy" and is described on the cover as "A Congressional Report on the Unprecedented Erosion of the Democratic Process in the 108th Congress," which ended at noon on Jan. 3.

"In the 108th Congress, House Republicans became the most arrogant, unethical and corrupt majority in modern Congressional history," the report begins.


Informant: ranger116

No Trust Left In America Or In The World For The Bush Administration

http://www.rense.com/general63/admin.htm


Informant: ranger116

Guard video shows harsh war scenes

Caution: The article below contains a link to graphic war footage taken in Iraq. "A soldier-shot video that triggered an Army investigation of a West Palm Beach-based National Guard unit captures the disturbing reality of the Iraq war, but little evidence of the sort of abuse documented at the Abu Ghraib prison."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2947

Iraq veterans need support for PTSD

The harsh reality of a failed war hits veterans: "With a subsequent decline in VA services and benefits, as indicated in President Bush's budget proposal, one wonders if the VA is prepared for the potential onslaught of veterans with PTSD. One government therapist recently confided that part of the problem is that there is no federal money to pay disability claims for veterans emotionally crippled with PTSD -- therefore, a reluctance to make such a diagnosis, let alone treat it."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2946

Many Missteps Tied to Delay in Armor for Troops in Iraq

Read the article below for an example of the poor planning and management of the Iraq War. Even though more than 1,500 are dead and more than 11,000 are wounded in action, no one is held accountable.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2944

Women at war

Two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and for the first time in its 229-year existence as an independent nation, America is fighting a war with a military machine that is dependent on women.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2943

Volcano experts warn about unrest at Mount Spurr

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=104608


Informant: Anna Webb

NPR hypes blind musher

http://tinyurl.com/6yklr

Targeting the Media the American Way

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030605A.shtml

Bush's Plan To Stack The Courts

http://tinyurl.com/6qn4g

Bankruptcy Bill is Congress' Shame

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0307-25.htm

The Business of Executing Our Children

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0307-26.htm

Women Worldwide Face Effects of Bush's Gag Rule

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0307-27.htm

Bush Accused of 'Fiddling While World Burns' by Ignoring Climate Change

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0307-03.htm

Cell Phone Issue Highlighted - Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age

http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Invisible+Hazards+in+the+Wireless+Age

The University of Washington Alumni Magazine interviews Dr. Henry Lai on cell phones -- excellent material on the research and concerns around them. (Dr. Lai's research is also mentioned in the book "Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age" by Dr. George Carlo:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/04/01/RV139992.DTL&type=printable

Wake-Up Call:
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march05/wakeupcall01.html
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march05/wakeupcall02.html
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march05/wakeupcall03.html
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march05/wakeupcall04.html
http://tinyurl.com/3wne3

The University of Washington Alumni Magazine summarizes European cell phone studies: http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march05/prelude.html

Slashdot discussion around it -- good to grab Q&A from -- some ppl are giving the same old "reasons" cell phones can't be harmful and others are chiming in with "not so fast, now" responses: http://tinyurl.com/6kzgf


Beau



This is a must-read article. Its all about Henry Lai's and colleagues research and how it ran up against politics generated by the cell phone industry.

Don Maisch

http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/march05/wakeupcall01.html

HENRY LAI HAS A VIVID RECOLLECTION OF HIS INTRODUCTION to the politics of big science. It was 1994, and he had just received a message from the National Institutes of Health, which was funding work he was doing on the effects of microwave radiation, similar to that emitted by cellular phones, on the brain. He and UW colleague Narendra "N.P." Singh had results indicating that the radiation could cause DNA damage in brain cells.

The news was apparently unwelcome in some quarters.

Someone had called the NIH to report that Lai was misusing his research funding by doing work not specified in the grant (the grant didn't mention DNA). And the agency wanted to know what was going on.

"It really scared the hell out of me," says Lai, a research professor in the UW's Department of Bioengineering who earned his Ph.D. from the UW in 1977. "I was awake all night, worrying about it, wondering what to do."

In the morning, he sent a fax to the agency, explaining how the research fell within the parameters of the grant. The NIH accepted his explanation and assured him that all was well. "They are usually fairly liberal in that regard," Lai says. "To do otherwise would stifle the scientific process."

The incident, he says, was only the beginning in a David-and-Goliath conflict pitting him-and other researchers-against an emerging technology that would rapidly become one of the most lucrative and powerful businesses on the planet: the cell phone industry.

The controversy goes back to a study by Lai and Singh published in a 1995 issue of Bioelectromagnetics. They found an increase in damaged DNA in the brain cells of rats after a single two-hour exposure to microwave radiation at levels considered "safe" by government standards.

The idea behind that study was relatively simple: expose rats to microwave radiation similar to that emitted by cell phones, then examine their brain cells to see if any DNA damage resulted. Such damage is worrisome because DNA carries the body's genetic code and breaks, if not repaired properly, could lead to mutations and even cancer.

When the study was first published, a spokesperson from the cell phone industry said it was "not very relevant because they didn't use the [same] cellular frequency or cellular power."

True, responds Lai. But effects at one frequency could also happen at another frequency, and the exposure level in the experiment was actually lower than one can get from a cell phone. What it indicated was potential problems with the type of radiation the devices emit.

To this day, the cell phone industry continues to dispute Lai and Singh's findings.

"I don't believe any of those studies have ever been replicated," says Joe Farren, director of public affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, a Washington, D.C.-based industry consortium that provides $1 million a year in funding for cell phone research. "We believe you should follow the science. The science to date shows there is not a health risk associated with the use of any wireless device."

Technically, Farren may be correct about Lai's study, but that's because no one has tried to replicate Lai and Singh's exact experiment. And a 1998 experiment that used common cell phone frequencies did find biological damage in some cases. More recently, a European research effort by 12 groups in seven countries also documented DNA damage from cell phone radiation.

While Lai is the first to say there are "no solid answers" to the controversy over cell phones and DNA damage, there is "cause for concern" and more work needs to be done. Instead, Lai says, he and his colleague have been the focus of a campaign to discredit their research. Consider:

* Internal documents from Motorola in the 1990s point to an organized plan to "war-game" Lai's work.

* When a scientist in California published results that seemed to support Lai's findings, he lost research funding and eventually left the field.

* At one point, the director of a group created to manage $25 million in industry-donated research money sent a memo to then-UW President Richard McCormick saying that Lai and Singh should be fired.

* Federal money for scientific investigation in the field has dried up, supplanted by funding from the industry-funding that Lai and others say can come with restrictions so oppressive they hamper scientific inquiry.

The stakes, both in terms of potential ramifications and profits, are high. According to consulting firm Deloitte & Touche, the global wireless market is expected to grow to two billion subscribers by the end of this year. An overall dollar figure for the industry would easily be in the hundreds of billions, according to Louis Slesin, who as editor of Microwave News has followed the ins and outs of research in the field of bioelectromagnetics for more than 20 years. "It's all about science, politics and money, and not necessarily in that order," Slesin says. "Henry and N.P. had the courage to buck the system, and they have paid dearly for that."

In preparing this article, some industry officials didn't return phone calls asking about Lai's work and the controversy surrounding it. Others said they didn't have specific knowledge of the original study and the events it set into motion-it was more than 10 years ago-but they characterized such research as outside mainstream findings, which they say show that wireless technology is safe.

In January, a deputy editor for Consumer Reports told the Wall Street Journal that possible hazards from some recent studies could be discounted because they focus on older analog phones, which send out a steady wave of radiation. Newer digital phones operate at a lower intensity, sending out a pulsed stream.

UW Research Professor Henry Lai with a few of his laboratory rats. Photo by Kathy Sauber.

"Analog phones use considerably more power and the emission patterns are different," David Heim said in the article.

The problem with that view, according to Slesin, is that pulsed radiation is more likely than continuous wave radiation to have an effect on living things.

"There is a lot of work out there showing that digital signals are more biologically active," Slesin says. "At this point, no one knows whether the enhanced biological activity might compensate for the weaker signals."

Lai, a soft-spoken bespectacled man with an understated sense of humor-he once deadpanned to a national television reporter that the most difficult part of his research involved getting the rats to use tiny cell phones-still expresses surprise at being at the center of the ongoing, swirling debate.

"I'm just a simple scientist trying to do my research," he says. He sees the path that led to controversy as marked by chance and serendipity.

A Hong Kong native, Lai earned his bachelor's degree in physiology from McGill University in Montreal and came to the UW in 1972 to do graduate work. He earned his doctoral degree in psychology and did post-doc work in pharmacology with Akira Horita. His initial research involved the effects of alcohol on the brain. He also worked on a new compound to treat schizophrenia.

A shift came in 1979. Bill Guy, UW emeritus professor and a pioneer in the field of radio wave physics, offered Lai a chance to do research on microwaves through a grant from the Office of Naval Research.

The pair first examined whether microwaves can affect drug interactions (they can), then if there appears to be an effect on learning (there does). Then, in the early '90s, Singh arrived in Seattle. He approached Lai about joining his lab. "He was an expert on DNA damage," Lai recalls. "I said, 'Well, why not?'"

Top: A comet assay of a normal cell shows little DNA damage. Bottom: The same assay of cells exposed to microwave radiation shows "tails" of damaged DNA. Images courtesy of Henry Lai.

Singh is one of the world's foremost experts on a DNA analysis called the "comet assay." The assay gets its name from the appearance of a damaged cell. First, the cell is set in a gel and "lysed" or punctured. Then an electric current is run across the cell. When strands of DNA break, the broken pieces are charged. The electric current causes those pieces to migrate through the gel. As a result, a damaged cell takes on the appearance of a comet, with the bits of damaged DNA forming the tail. The longer the tail, the more damage has resulted.

With Singh's expertise now at hand, Lai decided to look at how microwaves affect DNA. Lai and Singh compared rats exposed to a low dose of microwave radiation for two hours to a control group of rats that spent the same amount of time in the exposure device, but didn't receive any radiation. The exposed rats showed about a 30 percent increase in single -strand breaks in brain cell DNA compared to the control group.

As Lai and Singh sought funding to conduct follow-up studies, word of the research began to get out. According to internal documents that later came to light, Motorola started working behind the scenes to minimize any damage Lai's research might cause. In a memo and a draft position paper dated Dec. 13, 1994, officials talked about how they had "war-gamed the Lai-Singh issue" and were in the process of lining up experts who would be willing to point out weaknesses in Lai's study and reassure the public. This was before the study was published in 1995.

A couple of years later, Lai got money from Wireless Technology Research (WTR), a group organized by CTIA to administer $25 million in industry research funding, to do some follow-up studies. But the conditions that came with the funding were restrictive. So much so that Lai and Singh wrote an open letter to Microwave News recounting their experience. The letter, published in 1999, cited irregularities in processes and procedures that the two called "highly suspicious."

"In the 20 years or so that we have conducted experiments, for a variety of funding agencies, we have never encountered anything like this in the management of a scientific contract," the two wrote.

WTR leader George Carlo responded with a six-page letter to then-UW President Richard McCormick, complaining of the "libelous" letter to Microwave News and "a pattern of slanderous conduct by these men over the past several years." The letter closed with a threat of legal action and stated that Lai and Singh should be fired from the project. An answering letter from Vice Provost Steven Olswang stated that the University "encourages legitimate academic discourse" and would not intervene in the dispute.

While Lai and Singh were attempting to do their industry-funded follow-up study, the industry was looking for another opinion. Motorola approached Jerry Phillips, a researcher who worked in a lab at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif. He was investigating electromagnetic fields and their biological effects. The lab had done work with Motorola before, and Phillips was interested. He made a proposal and was funded.

He sent people to Seattle to learn how to do the comet assay. And he decided to expose the animals in his experiment to actual cell phone frequencies. What they found were increases in DNA damage at some levels of exposure and decreases at others.

"That's not unusual," Phillips says. "It happens with chemicals. One dose can do one thing, while a higher or lower dose does the opposite. In this case, if you produce a little bit of DNA damage, you are stimulating the repair mechanisms and you could actually see a net decrease because the repair will be done. However, if you overwhelm the repair mechanism, then you could see an increase.

"Based on the data, I told them that we need to start looking at repair mechanisms," Phillips recalls.

Motorola disagreed. Phillips says he was told the results were not ready for publication, was encouraged to do more work, and was offered additional money to continue the experiment.

"I said as much as I would like the money, this part of the study is done," he recalls. "I said it's time to move on." The study was published in Nov. 1998. Once the findings were released, Phillips' source of funding dried up.

Since then, another group, working out of Washington University in St. Louis with industry funding, has tried to replicate the experiment, but without success. According to Lai and Phillips, that group is doing the study differently, including using a different technique to gauge DNA damage.

"They haven't properly replicated the work that Henry did, or that I did," Phillips says.

In the meantime, recent findings from overseas, more than 10 years after Lai's work, seem to finally be providing support for a closer look at cell phone radiation.

Last fall, the journal Epidemiology published research results from a Swedish group that showed an increase in a rare type of non-cancerous brain tumor among cell phone users on the side of the head where the phone was most often held.

In December, a pan-European organization released results from an extensive four-year study carried out by 12 research groups in seven countries. Known as the REFLEX study, that research found significant increases in DNA damage in human and animal cells exposed to cell phone radiation in the laboratory. While not a cause for alarm, the results, which have yet to be published, underline the need for further study, scientists said (see "Making Waves," page 4).

A spokeswoman for the UK-based Mobile Operators Association called the results "preliminary," adding that, "It is not possible to draw conclusions from this preliminary data."

In 2000, Sir William Stewart, former chair of a British group that looked into the cell phone debate issued a report urging "a precautionary stance" while scientific data is gathered. This January he repeated that warning, adding that children should not use the devices for the time being.

Industry spokesman Farren says his organization sticks to its position. "Any official precautionary measures need to be based on the science," he says. "The majority of studies have shown there are no health effects."

It's a point well taken, Lai says. However, what the science seems to say depends on how you quantify it.

Lai says there have been about 200 studies on the biological effects of cell-phone-related radiation. If you put all the ones that say there is a biological effect on one side and those that say there is no effect on the other, you'd have two piles roughly equal in size. The research splits about 50-50.

"That, in and of itself, is alarming," Lai says. But it's not the whole story. If you divide up the same 200 studies by who sponsored the research, the numbers change.

"When you look at the non-industry sponsored research, it's about three to one-three out of every four papers shows an effect," Lai says. "Then, if you look at the industry-funded research, it's almost opposite-only one out of every four papers shows an effect."

The problem, he adds, is that there is no longer funding available in the United States that isn't attached to the industry. Lai, for one, refuses to take any more industry money.

"There are too many strings attached," he maintains. "Everyone uses the analogy of the tobacco industry and what happened there. It's like letting the fox watch the henhouse." While the FDA administers cell phone radiation studies, the money comes from the industry, he adds.

Microwave News Editor Slesin says he has pondered why government funding isn't available. His hypothesis is that it's a matter of attitude.

"There is a view out there among many scientists that this is just impossible-the radiation is too weak and there cannot be any effects," Slesin says. "We all know that ionizing radiation is bad. Ions are more reactive, there's no doubt it can lead to cancer, it's nasty stuff."

The people who work with ionizing radiation see EMF radiation-that from electromagnetic fields-as a 97-pound weakling, he continues. They believe it's not capable of doing anything.

"Yet, when you see effects like Henry reported, especially at the low power intensities, you have to ask what is going on to cause this?" he says. "As long as that attitude remains unchanged, you won't get more funding and you don't get anywhere."

As a result, many U.S. scientists have moved on, either focusing on other areas or leaving the research arena altogether, relying on the rest of the world to pick up the slack. In Lai's case, he is pursuing other research directions, where he can get funding. The most promising involves artemisinin, a derivative from the wormwood plant currently used to treat malaria. Lai's research shows it has promise as a powerful anti-cancer agent. Late last year, the UW licensed the technology to a Chinese pharmaceutical company that plans to take it to human trials and, if successful, to market.

After what happened in Loma Linda, Phillips and his wife left research altogether. They now live in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he works for a company that develops science curricula. "I do have a lot of regret for those lost opportunities," Phillips says. "We were really in a position to develop some good basic understandings of how radio frequency affects biological systems."

It's an issue that desperately needs to be explored, according to Slesin. Right now, a solid understanding doesn't exist. If anyone says they absolutely have the answer, he cautions, absolutely don't believe them. "We are swimming in uncertainty."

And the issue becomes increasingly relevant with each passing day.

"We are making some fundamental changes to the electromagnetic environment in which we live," Slesin continues. "Soon entire cities will be online so you can take your laptop anywhere and be on the Internet. What that means is we will all be exposed to electromagnetic radiation 24/7. I don't know if there's a problem, but I think we owe it to society to find out."

In the meantime, Lai prefers to err on the side of caution. He doesn't use a cell phone and requires that cell-savvy family members use headsets. He doesn't see the problem as intractable, just one that needs serious attention. We engineered the technology, he says, and he's confident that we can engineer our way out of any problems. But first, we need to take a close look at the data and admit that there may be a problem.

Either way, the answers will come, given time, Lai says. The question is will we get those answers in the way we want?

"We see effects, but we don't know what the consequences are," Lai says. "With so many people using cell phones, we will eventually know. The largest experiment in the history of the world is already under way. We will know, in about 10 or 15 years, maybe."

-Rob Harrill is the engineering writer in the UW's College of Engineering. Although his children are not allowed cell phones (despite repeated pleas), both he and his wife use one-sparingly.

Inside the Wave: Web exclusive on more cell phone radiation research Making Waves: Worrisome results from European cell phone studyOld Medicine, New Cure?: Henry Lai's cancer research shows promise

--------

You may add this to Lai's study: Neil Cherry showed me (2002) an unpublished study at Motorola US, reproducing Lai & Singh breaks in DNA by cellphone like emissions: They got breaks and presented results in a curve. Neil attached Lai's and Motorola's curves and held them together to the light , and said: Look Zamir, they are identical !! Then he asked me: What do you think Motorola researchers stated to the public ? : No breaks found...

Dr. Zamir Shalita

From Mast Network

--------

Roy: Thanks much for your important comments!!!! I can't say enough about Dr. Lai's work re sorting the literature and identifying funding sources!!!

Even before I read your words about litigation/the courts, what you wrote immediately brought legal action to mind. Dr. Lai's work, along with evidence of "minimization of results" that do confirm the link between chronic, prolonged exposures to EMF/EMR all combine to confirm industry/government cover-up in regard to this devastating situation.

Where are the civil rights'/public justice attornies now??? We are ready to fight to show that our rights are being denied because vital information is not being released to the public and is deliberately being manipulated so mainstream medical help re EHS is not available!!!!

Take care

Joanne C. Mueller
Guinea Pigs R Us
731 - 123rd Avenue N.W.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55448-2127 USA
Phone: 763-755-6114
Email: jcmpelican@aol.com

Italy Honors Slain Intelligence Officer

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030705B.shtml

Bush Reportedly to Nominate Hard-Liner as U.N. Ambassador

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030705A.shtml

Cell towers now hide in plain sight

by Lisa Black

Tribune staff reporter

Published March 4, 2005

As she drove by Winnetka Covenant Church on her way to work, Loretta Livingston noticed the new steeple under construction, never guessing what lay hidden beneath its soaring white exterior.

Topped with a tiny cross, the recently completed 120-foot steeple concealed an array of antennas that allow four wireless companies to transmit cellular phone signals.

"I thought it was taking them an awful long time to put it up," said Livingston, who works at a Wilmette day school.

With cell towers proliferating across the national landscape, resistance from communities has forced many towers to go undercover. Some are concealed within grain silos or attached to street lights and chimneys. Others are disguised as flag poles, large boulders, even palm trees.

The stealthy effort using church steeples has been especially pronounced, with one proposal in Northbrook dubbed the "bell tower cell tower."

Such concealment strategies, relatively common on the East and West Coasts, are on the rise across the Chicago area, as residents often reject the unsightly towers, which typically range in height from 30 to 200 feet.

In California and Florida, some cell towers are fashioned in the shape of palm trees, or on the East Coast, as pines.

"In the beginning, the trees were, to put it politely, not very realistic," said Steve Meyer, business development manager with Tucson-based Larson Camouflage, which has hidden two cell towers in fake grain silos in Gurnee.

"Now you have very realistic trees. If you have a picnic beneath one, you'll know it's fake. But if you're driving by, it tends to blend in," he said.

Industry experts say they find objections to new cell towers especially daunting within affluent areas, where residents demand good phone reception but decry the towers' effect on property values.

In suburbs such as Wilmette, where residents once fought the use of fake fiberglass rocks to hide cable equipment, the "not in my back yard" reaction is typical of most communities, officials said.

"People now are much more sensitive than in the early days of wireless," said James Estes, executive chairman of California-based VelociTel, which recently completed Winnetka Covenant's steeple-tower. "The demand to conceal antennas is increasing dramatically."

The number of cell towers has risen 18 percent every year since 1985, with nearly 175,000 of them peppering the country by 2004, according to an annual survey by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, based in Washington.

Churches, for one, have reaped benefits in helping the wireless industry. By welcoming the cell towers, they may earn up to $3,000 a month or more in lease agreements with telecommunications companies.

Winnetka Covenant, located in an annexed portion of Wilmette, couldn't afford a new steeple until VelociTel picked up the $225,000 tab. The monthly lease payments, too low to jeopardize the church's tax-exempt status, will help replace the roof, said John Breidenbach, a church member and architect who designed the project, completed about a month ago.

"I did approach the pastor about commemorating the steeple and cupola with the ringing of cell phones," Breidenbach said.

Resident Justin Zubrod, who lives across the street from the church, said he doesn't have a problem with the high-tech steeple.

"It raised a bunch of concerns, no doubt, but these things are popping up everywhere," he said. "When people put up towers, you don't know what will happen."

Yet the gussied-up cell towers fail to impress some residents. Wilmette village officials had planned to examine a Sprint proposal that requested placing a "stealth antenna" at St. Joseph Catholic Church. But anticipating a negative reaction, church officials pulled the request off the agenda, said Jim Liput, business manager for the church.

In Northbrook, Sprint recently withdrew an application to build a 90-foot cell tower at St. Peter United Church of Christ, which would have been hidden by a three-sided structure and faux carillon.

Neighbors complained that it would have looked unsightly, and the village's Plan Commission said the tower exceeded height limitations, said Thomas Poupard, Northbrook's director of community planning.

Poupard said he has found it equally difficult to identify new sites for water towers.

"Some communities paint them blue, to try to make them blend into the sky," he said, adding that many villages solve both problems by hanging cell phone antennas from water towers.

Concealing a cell tower does not come cheap, adding $100,000 or more to the project, according to a report by the cellular telecommunications association.

And critics complain that more research should be done on the health ramifications of cell towers, especially because they have become so pervasive. The Food and Drug Administration and the wireless industry maintain that the low levels of electromagnetic radiation have not been proved to be harmful to humans.

But Marne Glaser, an Evanston psychologist who has studied the research on cell phone radiation, said some studies have shown biological effects on human and animal tissue and organs.

"Of course the towers are tall, and so it's not the same dose as you'd get from a cell phone," said Glaser, a member of the EMR Network, a national non-profit organization concerned about electromagnetic radiation. "But it is chronic, and you can't hang up on a cell tower. They're 24/7."

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune


Informant: Don Maisch



Concern over church phone masts: Fury as vicar claims mast 'a gift from God'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/545252/

Shooting of Italian Journalist Sparks Outrage

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/6/114241/5457

Australian MP speaks out against Telcom insensitivity and greed

Concerned citizens, please encourage your own MPs, State and federal to get up in Parliament and speak like Paul Pearce. If they already have can you send me copies of their speeches please? Thanks.

I am convenor of a relatively new org Tower Sanity. In our short 9 months we have managed to get a commitment from our Federal Communications Minister of a forum between Tower Sanity, the industry, key government agencies such as ARPANSA and the ACA, and her office.


Anne Wagstaff
Convenor
Tower Sanity Alliance
http://www.towersanity.org



MOBILE PHONE TOWERS

Page: 56

Mr PAUL PEARCE (Coogee) [4.37 p.m.]: I inform the House of a major issue of corporate insensitivity and greed, combined with regulatory connivance, to achieve commercial outcomes rather than community protection. It is an issue that particularly affects suburbs in my electorate, but is impacting on communities broadly across Sydney. I refer to the proliferation of 3G masts being installed by Hutchison Communications, better known as Orange. Not only are these devices visually intrusive, but European studies have also concluded that they are potentially injurious to health. The failure of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency [ARPANSA], being the Federal agency responsible for the establishment of standards for emissions of electromagnetic radiation [EMR], to consider the adoption of the precautionary approach to the emission standards borders on the negligent. The standard adopted by ARPANSA is primarily designed to facilitate the introduction of 3G technology, and thus its commercial success, rather than being predicated on the objective of ensuring the protection of public health. ARPANSA's role in the facilitation of the introduction of the 3G network needs to be examined.

At a so-called community information session conducted by Hutchison, the community was shocked to see representatives of the standards-setting authority speaking on behalf of the carrier. At no point did any representative of Hutchison seek to address any of the substantive issues raised by the community. Indeed, the best way to describe the presentation by ARPANSA representatives was a snow job. They peddled the usual drivel that the emissions from a base station are comparable to that of a 60-watt light bulb and are, thus, equally harmless. Several researchers have comprehensively debunked that comparison. It is highly inappropriate that representatives of a Federal Government agency charged with a public responsibility to set standards to protect the general public from harm should treat questions from the community with contempt and provide answers more appropriate to a kindergarten class.

Hutchison Communications, a Hong Kong-based multinational company, bid for one of the 3G licences. It paid a significant amount of money for it. Indeed, it would seem that it paid too much and has recently been forced to deal with Telstra. In order to get a return on its investment it needs to get blanket coverage over the major metropolitan centres. This essentially means putting masts roughly every kilometre, depending on the topography. It also means installing them regardless of the development pattern of the area. In Bronte, it has callously installed a mast immediately adjacent to a children's playground, within 200 metres of Bronte Public School, within 300 metres of a child care centre and in the heart of a residential area. Hutchison ignored hundreds of objections, petitions and submissions from State and Federal members and public meetings. Indeed, Hutchison personally attacked me for questioning its proposal by way of a broadly distributed letter. Whilst I thank the company for promoting me, its hysterical reaction to a valid criticism came as a surprise. I could almost feel that I had touched a raw nerve.

I add that councillors from Waverley Council and members of the public who challenged Hutchison's actions also were attacked. The only acknowledgement of public sentiment was to "reconsider" its proposal for the duration of the Federal election campaign, thus defusing the issue during the Federal campaign and letting Malcolm Turnbull, who claimed that he had acted on the issue, off the hook. Within two weeks of the election, a curt letter was sent advising residents that it was proceeding with the original proposal. Hutchison is fully aware of the potential risks arising from the EMR emissions. In an earlier application, Waverley Council sought to impose a condition seeking a waiver for liability for any future health impacts arising from the consent. Hutchison refused to give such a waiver and successfully appealed to the Land and Environment Court.

It should be noted that under the Federal legislation telecommunications carriers can override local and State planning schemes. This provision was included to ensure the expansion of core public infrastructure for community benefit. It is now being used to ensure the expansion of networks for commercial benefit. I point out that the sole advantage-and I use that word advisedly-of the 3G technology is that video can be sent through mobile phones. It is hardly what I would consider a core need of the community and certainly not a need that warrants the potential health impacts. I refer to a study conducted by G. J. Hyland of the University of Warwick in which he identifies non-thermal influences on human physiology and a further study conducted on behalf of the Dutch Government. The latter study concluded that the test group was exposed to third generation base station signals. The exposure had a significant impact in that the test group felt tingling sensations, headaches and nauseous.

These findings replicate findings from eastern European studies, particularly Russian studies. Russia has set a standard requiring much lower levels of emissions than that set by ARPANSA. Germany has required the establishment of low or no emission zones around sensitive sites, such as schools. Regrettably, ARPANSA bases its standards on purely thermal guidelines. The British inquiry by the Stewart commission concluded that there was an undefined impact on persons of higher sensitivity, including prepubescent children. Yet Hutchison has placed its facility, for its commercial benefit, right next door to a children's playground. Corporate greed, corporate callousness!

This whole sorry episode demonstrates the essential flaw in allowing core infrastructure, such as telecommunications, to become the subject of commercial objectives. Core infrastructure should be for the greater public good, not private gain. There is an urgent need for the Federal Act that regulates communication carriers to be changed to ensure that local communities have a right to decide whether as a community the supposed benefits of the new technology outweigh the risks. There is also an urgent need for an inquiry into the rationale used by ARPANSA to determine the appropriate level of human exposure to EMR, whether the standard was set to facilitate industry needs, the reliance on industry-sourced data rather than independent research and whether it is appropriate for the agency charged with setting the standard for EMR emission to attend a public forum organised by a commercial licence holder to advance the commercial interests of that licence holder.

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20041111032


Informant: Don Maisch

Interview with an Iraki woman tortured at Abu Graib

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/420dc5a37ba4d.html


Informant: Charles Bremer

Bush Guilty of War Crimes in Afghanistan Says International Criminal Tribunal

http://afghan-tribunal.3005.net/english/


Informant: Gary Kohls
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Starmail - 8. Apr, 08:39
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Starmail - 15. Mär, 14:10
Dänische Studie findet...
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Starmail - 12. Mär, 22:48
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Effects of cellular phone...
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Starmail - 27. Nov, 11:08

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