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Global Environment Problems - The fate of life on the Planet Pollution - Food - Water - Fauna and Flora

SOURCE - BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4326666.stm


Millions 'will flee degradation'


One of the biggest sources of refugees is land degradation and desertification

Janos Bogardi There will be as many as 50 million environmental refugees in the world in five years' time. That is the conclusion of experts at the United Nations University, who say that a new definition of "environmental refugee" is urgently needed.

They believe that already environmental degradation forces as many people away from their homes as political and social unrest.

The UNU issued its statement to mark UN Day for Disaster Reduction.

"There are many different environmental issues involved and there can be interactions between them," said Janos Bogardi, director of the United Nations University's Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn, Germany.

"In poorer rural areas especially, one of the biggest sources of refugees is land degradation and desertification, which may be caused by unsustainable land use interacting with climate change, amplified by population growth," he told the BBC News website.

"A second issue is flooding, caused I would say by increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere super-imposed with probably some natural fluctuations."

Worse than wars

The projected figure of 50 million is derived from a number of previous reports, including the 1999 World Disasters Report from the International Red Cross.

This calculated that natural disasters in the previous year had created more refugees than wars or other armed conflicts.

It said that falling soil fertility, drought, flooding and deforestation drove 25 million people from their homes, with many of these environmental refugees joining already fragile urban squatter communities.

Environmental refugees need better protection, says the UNU

The UNU believes that environmental refugees need better protection than they have now, and in order for that to happen, there needs to be an accepted definition of their situation.

The 1951 Convention relating to the State of Refugees defines refugees as people having a "...well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion..."

"We need to define what we mean by political, economic and environmental refugees," said the UNU's Rector Hans van Ginkel.

"If we define the problem better, we can prepare for the level of need to be catered for," he told the BBC News website.

Another issue is that historically, people are considered refugees only when they go to another country, whereas as Hurricane Katrina has graphically shown, those displaced by environmental damage often remain within their native country.



Can the planet feed us?

By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent

As part of Planet Under Pressure, a BBC News series looking at some of the biggest environmental problems facing humanity, Alex Kirby explores the challenge of feeding the world without destroying the planet.

The proportion of hungry people is coming down

More of us are eating more and better than ever before.

World cereal consumption has more than doubled since 1970, and meat consumption has tripled since 1961.

The global fish catch grew more than six times from 1950 to 1997.

None of this happened by magic, though, but only by giving Nature a massive helping hand.

The World Resources Institute said in 1999 that half of all the commercial fertiliser ever produced had been applied since 1984.

So one question is whether the world can go on increasing its harvests at this rate - or even faster, to cater as well for the extra 75 million people born annually.

Crop increases

Our recent achievements are impressive - while global population doubled to 6 billion people in the 40 years from 1960, global food production more than kept up.

Facts and figures on the challenge of feeding the world

At-a-glance

The proportion of malnourished people fell in the three decades to the mid-1990s from 37% to 18%. But we may not be able to go on at this rate.

For a start, much of the world's best cropland is already in use, and farmers are having to turn to increasingly marginal land. And the good land is often taking a battering - soil degradation has already reduced global agricultural productivity by 13% in the last half-century.

Many of the pesticides on which the crop increases have depended are losing their effectiveness, as the pests acquire more resistance.

A key constraint is water. The 17% of cropland that is irrigated produces an estimated 30-40% of all crops, but in many countries there will be progressively less water available for agriculture.

Many of these are poor countries, where irrigation can boost crop yields by up to 400%. There are ways to improve irrigation and to use water more effectively, but it's not clear these can bridge the gap.

Some say meat-heavy diets are environmentally unsustainable

Biotechnology, in principle, may offer the world a second Green Revolution, for example by producing drought-resistant plants or varieties that withstand pest attacks.

But it arouses deep unease, not least because of fears it may erode the genetic resources in thousands of traditional varieties grown in small communities across the world.

Nobody knows what the probable impacts of climate change will be on food supplies.

Modest temperature increases may actually benefit rich temperate countries, but make harvests even more precarious across much of the tropics.

Too little space

Another question concerns the huge cost to other forms of life of all the progress we've made in securing our own food supply.

Enlarge Image

The amount of nitrogen available for uptake by plants is much higher than the natural level, and has more than doubled since the 1940s.

The excess comes from fertilisers running off farmland, from livestock manure, and from other human activities. It is changing the composition of species in ecosystems, reducing soil fertility, depleting the ozone layer, intensifying climate change, and creating dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other near-coastal seas.

The sheer amount of the Earth we need to produce our food is having an enormous impact.

Globally, we have taken over about 26% of the planet's land area (roughly 3.3 billion hectares) for cropland and pasture, replacing a third of temperate and tropical forests and a quarter of natural grasslands.

Another 0.5 billion ha has gone for urban and built-up areas. Habitat loss from the conversion of natural ecosystems is the main reason why other species are being pushed closer to the brink of extinction.

Food security comes at a high price. In any case, it is a security many can only envy.

Increasing hunger

At the moment we are not on course to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving world hunger by 2015.

Although the proportion of hungry people is coming down, population increase means the actual number continues to rise.

In the 1990s global poverty fell by 20%, but the number of hungry people rose by 18 million. In 2003, 842 million people did not have enough to eat, a third of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Food production has more than kept up with population growth

Hunger and malnutrition killed 10 million people a year, 25,000 a day - one life extinguished every five seconds.

The world does produce enough to feed everyone. But the food is often in the wrong place, or unaffordable, or can't be stored long enough. So making sure everyone has enough to eat is more about politics than science.

But whether we can go on eating the sort of diet we've grown used to in developed countries is far from clear.

Much of it travels a long way to reach us, with the transport costs adding hugely to the "embodied energy" it contains. There's a lot to be said for eating local, seasonal food where we can.

And meat usually demands far more than grain - water, land, grain itself (34% of world grain supplies are fed to livestock reared for meat). Yet, worldwide, the richer we grow the more we turn to meat.

Something's got to give - and not only our waistbands



Pollution: A life and death issue

By Alex Kirby BBC News website environment correspondent

As part of Planet Under Pressure, a BBC News website series looking at some of the biggest environmental issues facing humanity, Alex Kirby considers the Earth's growing pollution problem.


WHO says 3m people a year are killed by outdoor air pollution

One of the main themes of Planet Under Pressure is the way many of the Earth's environmental crises reinforce one another.

Pollution is an obvious example - we do not have the option of growing food, or finding enough water, on a squeaky-clean planet, but on one increasingly tarnished and trashed by the way we have used it so far.

Cutting waste and clearing up pollution costs money. Yet time and again it is the quest for wealth that generates much of the mess in the first place.

Living in a way that is less damaging to the Earth is not easy, but it is vital, because pollution is pervasive and often life-threatening.

a.. Air: The World Health Organization (WHO) says 3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually from vehicles and industrial emissions, and 1.6 million indoors through using solid fuel. Most are in poor countries.

a.. Water: Diseases carried in water are responsible for 80% of illnesses and deaths in developing countries, killing a child every eight seconds. Each year 2.1 million people die from diarrhoeal diseases associated with poor water.

a.. Soil: Contaminated land is a problem in industrialised countries, where former factories and power stations can leave waste like heavy metals in the soil. It can also occur in developing countries, sometimes used for dumping pesticides. Agriculture can pollute land with pesticides, nitrate-rich fertilisers and slurry from livestock. And when the contamination reaches rivers it damages life there, and can even create dead zones off the coast, as in the Gulf of Mexico. Chronic problem

Chemicals are a frequent pollutant. When we think of chemical contamination it is often images of events like Bhopal that come to mind.

But the problem is widespread. One study says 7-20% of cancers are attributable to poor air and pollution in homes and workplaces.

The WHO, concerned about chemicals that persist and build up in the body, especially in the young, says we may "be conducting a large-scale experiment with children's health".

Some man-made chemicals, endocrine disruptors like phthalates and nonylphenol - a breakdown product of spermicides, cosmetics and detergents - are blamed for causing changes in the genitals of some animals.

Affected species include polar bears - so not even the Arctic is immune. And the chemicals climb the food chain, from fish to mammals - and to us.

About 70,000 chemicals are on the market, with around 1,500 new ones appearing annually. At least 30,000 are thought never to have been comprehensively tested for their possible risks to people.

Trade-off

But the snag is that modern society demands many of them, and some are essential for survival.

So while we invoke the precautionary principle, which always recommends erring on the side of caution, we have to recognise there will be trade-offs to be made.

Chemical pollution was blamed for killing fish in Kankaria Lake in Ahmadabad, India

The pesticide DDT does great damage to wildlife and can affect the human nervous system, but can also be effective against malaria. Where does the priority lie?

The industrialised world has not yet cleaned up the mess it created, but it is reaping the benefits of the pollution it has caused. It can hardly tell the developing countries that they have no right to follow suit.

Another complication in tackling pollution is that it does not respect political frontiers. There is a UN convention on transboundary air pollution, but that cannot cover every problem that can arise between neighbours, or between states which do not share a border.

Perhaps the best example is climate change - the countries of the world share one atmosphere, and what one does can affect everyone.

For one and all

One of the principles that is supposed to apply here is simple - the polluter pays.

A recent study detailed the plastic litter that pollutes the marine environment

Sometimes it is obvious who is to blame and who must pay the price. But it is not always straightforward to work out just who is the polluter, or whether the rest of us would be happy to pay the price of stopping the pollution.

One way of cleaning up after ourselves would be to throw less away, designing products to be recycled or even just to last longer.

Previous generations worked on the assumption that discarding our waste was a proper way to be rid of it, so we used to dump nuclear materials and other potential hazards at sea, confident they would be dispersed in the depths.

We now think that is too risky because, as one author wrote, "there's no such place as 'away' - and there's no such person as the 'other'".

Ask not for whom the bell tolls - it tolls for thee, and for me.



Water scarcity: A looming crisis?

As part of Planet Under Pressure, a BBC News Online series looking at some of the biggest environmental problems facing humanity, Alex Kirby explores fears of an impending global water crisis.

By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent

The world's water is finite, but the number of us is growing fast

The world's water crisis is simple to understand, if not to solve. The amount of water in the world is finite. The number of us is growing fast and our water use is growing even faster.

A third of the world's population lives in water-stressed countries now. By 2025, this is expected to rise to two-thirds.

There is more than enough water available, in total, for everyone's basic needs.

The UN recommends that people need a minimum of 50 litres of water a day for drinking, washing, cooking and sanitation.

In 1990, over a billion people did not have even that.

Providing universal access to that basic minimum worldwide by 2015 would take less than 1% of the amount of water we use today. But we're a long way from achieving that.

Pollution and disease

Global water consumption rose sixfold between 1900 and 1995 - more than double the rate of population growth - and goes on growing as farming, industry and domestic demand all increase.

As important as quantity is quality - with pollution increasing in some areas, the amount of useable water declines.

More than five million people die from waterborne diseases each year - 10 times the number killed in wars around the globe.

And the wider effects of water shortages are just as chilling as the prospect of having too little to drink.

Seventy percent of the water used worldwide is used for agriculture.

Much more will be needed if we are to feed the world's growing population - predicted to rise from about six billion today to 8.9 billion by 2050.

And consumption will soar further as more people expect Western-style lifestyles and diets - one kilogram of grain-fed beef needs at least 15 cubic metres of water, while a kilo of cereals needs only up to three cubic metres.

Poverty and water

The poor are the ones who suffer most. Water shortages can mean long walks to fetch water, high prices to buy it, food insecurity and disease from drinking dirty water.

Millions of poor people spend hours every day carrying water

But the very thing needed to raise funds to tackle water problems in poor countries - economic development - requires yet more water to supply the agriculture and industries which drive it.

The UN-backed World Commission on Water estimated in 2000 that an additional $100bn a year would be needed to tackle water scarcity worldwide.

This dwarfs the $20bn which will be needed annually by 2007 to tackle HIV and Aids, and, according to the Commission, it is so much it could only be raised from the private sector.

Even if the money can be found, spending it wisely is a further challenge. Dams and other large-scale projects now affect 60% of the world's largest rivers and provide millions with water.

But in many cases the costs in terms of population displacement and irreversible changes in the nearby ecosystems have been considerable.

Using underground supplies is another widely used solution, but it means living on capital accumulated over millennia, and depleting it faster than the interest can top it up.

As groundwater is exploited, water tables in parts of China, India, West Asia, the former Soviet Union and the western United States are dropping - in India by as much as 3m a year in 1999.

Technical solutions

New technology can help, however, especially by cleaning up pollution and so making more water useable, and in agriculture, where water use can be made far more efficient. Drought-resistant plants can also help.

Drip irrigation drastically cuts the amount of water needed, low-pressure sprinklers are an improvement, and even building simple earth walls to trap rainfall is helpful.

One kilo of grain-fed beef needs at least 15 cubic metres of water

Some countries are now treating waste water so that it can be used - and drunk - several times over.

Desalinisation makes sea water available, but takes huge quantities of energy and leaves vast amounts of brine.

The optimists say "virtual water" may save the day - the water contained in crops which can be exported from water-rich countries to arid ones.

But the amounts involved would be immense, and the energy needed to transport them gargantuan. And affordable, useable energy will probably soon be a bigger problem than water itself.

Climate change

In any case, it is not just us who need water, but every other species that shares the planet with us - as well all the ecosystems on which we, and they, rely.

Climate change will also have an impact. Some areas will probably benefit from increased rainfall, but others are likely to be losers.

We have to rethink how much water we really need if we are to learn how to share the Earth's supply.

While dams and other large-scale schemes play a big role worldwide, there is also a growing recognition of the value of using the water we already have more efficiently rather than harvesting ever more from our rivers and aquifers.

For millions of people around the world, getting it right is a matter of life and death



Biodiversity: The sixth great wave

As part of Planet Under Pressure, a BBC News Online series looking at some of the biggest environmental problems humanity faces, Alex Kirby considers the current increase in extinction rates.

By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent

A quarter of all mammals face some extinction risk

All the creatures we share the Earth with are important in some way, however unprepossessing or insignificant they may appear. They and we are all part of the web of life.

From the dawn of time, extinction has usually progressed at what scientists call a natural or background rate. Today the tempo is far faster.

Many scientists believe this is the sixth great wave - the sixth mass extinction to affect life on Earth.

We were not here for any of the previous mass extinctions, but this time our sheer preponderance is driving the slide to oblivion.

LIVING PLANET INDEX

The index tracks the size of specific populations of selected species It shows them as a percentage of the 1970 populations It shows falling population levels in all three ecosystem types studied

We have more than doubled our numbers in half a century, and that is the most obvious reason why there is less room for any other species.

We are taking their living room to grow our food, their food to feed ourselves. We are exploiting them, trading in them, squeezing them to the margins of existence - and beyond.

Often the choice is hard: conserve a species or feed a community, tourists' dollars or turtles' nests.

In 2003 the World Conservation Union's Red List said more than 12,000 species (out of 40,000 assessed) faced some extinction risk, including:

a.. one bird in eight b.. 13% of the world's flowering plants c.. a quarter of all mammals. That gives you a ballpark figure. Science has described 1.75 million species, some experts estimate that there may be 13 or 14 million in the world in total - but until they are catalogued, nobody knows. FIVE MASS EXTINCTIONS Cretaceous (About 65 million years ago) Triassic (About 208 million years ago) Permian (About 245 million years ago) Devonian (About 360 million years ago) Ordovician (About 438 million years ago)

Our pillage of the natural world has been likened to burning down the medieval libraries of Europe, before we had even bothered to catalogue their contents.

Many species keep us alive, purifying water, fixing nitrogen, recycling nutrients and waste, and pollinating crops.

Plants and bacteria carry out photosynthesis, which produces the oxygen we breathe. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas given off by human activities.

Pandas and microbes

Some years ago, when the global annual gross product was about $18 trillion, US researchers calculated the value of the goods and services provided by the Earth to the world economy: $33 trillion.

Tropical cone snails contain toxins which show promise for treating some forms of cancer and heart irregularities. One toxin may be a thousand times more potent than morphine for pain relief.

But millions of cone snails are now killed annually for their shells, and their habitats are under pressure.

That is the argument for utility. But the creatures we can see, and those we can use directly, are just the start of the story.

Lord May, president of the Royal Society (the UK's national academy of sciences), has said: "Most conservation effort goes into birds and mammals - creatures like the panda, a dim, dead-end animal that was probably on the way out anyway.

"Yet arguably it's the little things that run the world, things like soil microbes. They're the least-known species of all."

Complex network

And we continue to tug at the loose threads of the web of life, thinking we can split it into its separate parts.

71% of UK butterfly species are reported to be declining

Brazil nuts are a lucrative harvest in the Amazon. But an experiment to produce them in plantations failed, because the trees bear a good crop in the forest, but are barren in isolation.

We are not removing individual species from the Amazon: we are destroying the entire forest. US researchers estimate that by 2020 less than 5% of it will remain in pristine condition.

Within 15 years, about a fifth of central Africa's forests will have gone, by one estimate. And the forests of Indonesia are in headlong retreat.

Some species are bucking the trend towards extinction. In 1953 there were about 2.5bn people: today there are 6bn.

Ensuring other species keep their living space is not sentimental. It is the only way we shall survive.

Extinction, whatever Steven Spielberg says, really is for ever. The web is unravelling

Since almost the day he assumed power, George W. Bush has left a trail of broken careers in his wake. Nick Turse lists but a handful of the most familiar names on the rolls of the fallen.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101405P.shtml

Travis County prosecutors want to know how US Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, purchased a 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan, subpoenaing all records surrounding the transaction, as well as telephone records from DeLay, his campaign and his daughter.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101405O.shtml

A series of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House advisers.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101405N.shtml

Norman Solomon writes that by now, millions of TV viewers have seen the video numerous times on television: Two police officers are beating a man on the pavement. It's big news - because a camera was there.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101405M.shtml

Paul Krugman writes that right now, with the Bush administration in meltdown on multiple issues, we're hearing a lot about President Bush's personal failings. But what happened to the commanding figure of yore, the heroic leader in the war on terror? The answer, of course, is that the commanding figure never existed: Mr. Bush is the same man he always was.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101405K.shtml

http://michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4513


Informant: John Calvert

The following is a recap of my notes re cell phone comments on our local TV yesterday and early morning of 10-14-05:

" I was also still steaming about a Dr. Anderson (UofM) who appeared on WCCO News (Dennis Douda reporter) saying "there is absolutely no evidence that cell phones cause cancer (plus some other baloney about other so-called myths).

Much later, on the Craig Ferguson Show (Late Late Night Show) --- I like his Scottish accent -- he was interviewing Dr. Sanjay Gupta who spoke about Johnnie Cochran's doctor (Dr. Kelley -- sp?) and his belief that heavy cell phone use caused Johnnie's brain cancer. Dr. Gupta and Craig agreed the situation is much like that of the times when cigarettes were said to be o.k.and that the story will eventually come out. Dr. Gupta mentioned he now has "little earpieces everywhere around the house......" [EMR .....on TV....10-13-05 and10-14-05 Minneapolis, Minnesota USA ... comments for Publicity file jcmueller 10-14-05] Take care - Joanne

Joanne C. Mueller
731 - 123rd Avenue N.W. Minneapolis, Minnesota 55448-2127 USA Phone: 763-755-6114 Email: jcmpelican@aol.com (10-14-05)

Whether the Senate Judiciary Committee will oppose Miers remains an open question. Two Republican senators on the panel, Sam Brownback of Kansas and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, have been publicly skeptical about the nomination. The nomination also encountered hostility during a recent private meeting of Republican aides on the Senate panel, the New York Times reported this week, citing committee staffers.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101405Y.shtml

Teil I

Die sich selbst beschleunigende Katastrophe
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21071/1.html

Teil II

Wir haben den Heizungsregler gefunden
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21088/1.html


Teil III

Immer schneller, immer extremer
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21172/1.html

From: Barbara Boxer <info@pacforachange.com>
To: Martin Greenhut <martyg@bcn.net>
Subject: Last chance to deliver a message!


Next Wednesday, I'll personally be delivering our Iraq petition to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Bush Administration, demanding a concrete success strategy with a timetable and milestones that will bring our troops home.

Already, you and more than 93,000 other Americans have signed our Iraq petition -- and with your help, we can break 100,000 signatures. But to do it, I need you to take action now.

Invite your friends and family to join more than 93,000 Americans who are demanding a success strategy for Iraq from Condoleezza Rice and the Bush Administration!

http://ga4.org/campaign/sucessstrategy/forward/uww3w52h5wd3nd?

On Wednesday, Dr. Rice will be coming to Capitol Hill to testify about Iraq before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Through the delivery of our petition and questioning by Senators, this is our opportunity to demand the answers about Iraq that the American people deserve.

It's time for a credible plan and timetable to bring American troops home. It's time for details about how Iraqi troops will take our place. And it's time to honor our soldiers the right way -- by giving them the equipment they need while they are deployed, and the health care they deserve when they come home.

That's the message we're sending to Condoleezza Rice and the Bush Administration. And that's the message I hope you'll help me deliver next week. But you've only got a few days left to act.

Tell Dr. Rice and the Bush Administration that we can't just "stay the course" -- invite everyone you know to sign our Iraq petition now!

Thank you for standing with me on this. With 1,974 brave American troops killed and 14,362 others wounded, we can't stay silent.


In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer

Invite your friends and family to sign our Iraq petition now!

Oct 14 2005

By Brian Haran

THE future's far from bright, the future's Orange for a group of aggrieved Caterham residents.

They are furious they were not consulted over a 25-foot tall mobile phone mast which has been installed on Coulsdon Road in front of the Tesco store.

The Orange mast, which is opposite the irate complainants' homes, was put up last month much to locals' surprise and horror. It followed the previous rejection of five other mast schemes within yards of the site.

Story continues

But a top council officer insists that consultation letters had been sent out to about 20 homes - and that the mast could only have been rejected under "exceptional" circumstances.

Kelly Annetts, a 22-year-old call centre operator who lives in Coulsdon Road, has compiled a 34-name petition objecting to the mast.

She said: "We only found out when we asked a workman why he was digging up the road.

"None of those on the petition were informed about this and I feel angry that residents have been left helpless over something as important as this."

Miss Annetts has made a formal complaint to the council over its handling of the affair.

Near-neighbour Kay Rogers, a 60-year-old hairdresser, said her petition last year against another phone mast on a neighbouring site had culminated in the proposal being rejected.

She said: "This latest site is 20 yards away. If they can turn one down so close to here, how can they possibly allow this to go ahead? And how can they imagine no one would oppose this latest one?"

Heather Woods, 60, who lives around the corner in Wellington Road, said: "It's disgusting that our views have not been taken into account. Why does it have to be put up in such a built-up area with so many homes nearby?"

Bob Evans, Tandridge District Council's director of environmental protection, said the mast was "permitted development" which meant it could only have been turned down for extra-special reasons.

Some of the other mast schemes nearby which were rejected were for much taller structures.

Mr Evans said checks had been made to confirm that the consultation letters had been sent out, but accepted that a Royal Mail glitch would not be in the council's hands.

And the council's chief executive, Stephen Weigel, said its complaints officer was compiling a report on Miss Annetts' grievance.

He said that sending out letters in batches could conceivably mean that they could all go missing.

In future, he added, the council would try to stagger mail-outs so that even if some residents did not receive the letters, their neighbours would.

http://iccroydon.icnetwork.co.uk/news/croydon/tm_objectid=16248791&method=full&siteid=53340&headline=residents-go-bananas-over-orange-mast-name_page.html

14 October 2005

Yet another rejected proposal for a mobile phone mast in Dundee is being appealed to the Scottish Executive and, if its predecessors are anything to go by, city councillors could well see their decision overturned once again.

Vodafone is seeking permission to erect a 12-metre mast and three antennae on a footpath next to the westbound carriageway of Arbroath Road near the Mayfield sports ground.

The case has not yet been allocated to a Reporter at the Executive’s planning inquiry unit, but the decision will be made based on a site visit and written submissions by the company and the council.

Members of the development quality committee voted 18 to five to reject the application in June, even though it had been recommended for approval by officials.

Mobile phone companies have already won five cases for sites around the city — at the Clatto water treatment works, next to the bowling green in Victoria Park, on a chimney at Baltic Works in Annfield Street, on a site in Strathmartine Road near Cox Street and on the telephone exchange at Queen Street, Broughty Ferry.

No ruling on telecoms applications has gone the council’s way.

© All copyright D C Thomson & Co Ltd., 2005

http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/2005/10/14/story7639585t0.shtm

Pass It On: Can You Repeat The Question?

by PoliticalBriefs.com

The Senate Judiciary Committee's questionnaire for Harriet Miers includes a pointed inquiry into her close relationship with the president.

http://tompaine.com/#passiton

"Specifically, explain how you will handle any conflicts that may arise by virtue of your service in the Bush administration, as George W. Bush's personal lawyer, or as the lawyer for George W. Bush's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns."

—Question 22 on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' personalized questionnaire from the Senate Judiciary Committee:

http://politicalbriefs.com/?p=2475

by Raj Purohit and Sam Stein, TomPaine.com

With the U.S. image at its all-time low, it's hard to fathom why Bush continues to undermine the International Criminal Court.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051014/criminal_arrogance.php

by Nick Turse, TomPaine.com

The civil servants who resigned in the past four years are also casualties of the Bush administration.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051014/the_fallen_legion.php

by Michael K. Fauntroy, TomPaine.com

Many Republicans came to Congress pledging to fight corruption. How quickly they forget.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051014/beginning_of_the_end_for_the_gop.php

Center For Individual Freedom
by staff

10/13/05

Specifically, the President suggested that the active-duty military should have a more central and direct roll in responding to future disasters. At present, active-duty troops are barred under federal law from serving in law enforcement roles with certain limited exceptions. And federal officials can't take charge of disaster relief efforts without permission from the governor of the affected state. ... But changing the law and ordering the military to take charge in future disasters is not a panacea. It's a mistake...

http://tinyurl.com/dd6yt


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe
by Scot Lehigh

10/13/05

The bills are piling up at home, and I have to admit, it's having an effect on my political philosophy. I'm thinking of becoming a conservative. If you're one of that vanishing breed of traditional conservatives, perhaps you think you can guess my motivation: If I could help bring about a leaner, more limited government, I might ultimately see less of my paycheck disappear in federal taxes. Oh, you poor naif. Sorry, but that thinking is so pre-supply side as to be positively antediluvian. Why, it's as ancient and outmoded as the hoary notion of sober, Main Street, balanced-budget Republicanism. Actually, my thinking is much more basic: These days, being a conservative means you don't have to pay your bills at all. You just pass them on to the next generation...

http://tinyurl.com/csex8


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Sierra Times
by Paul Gordon

10/13/05

Harriet Miers has become the new Hurricane Katrina; exposing the unpleasant underbelly of division between the three basic conservative factions: fiscal, social and broad spectrum. Some of the broad spectrum talk- show celebrity conservatives are trying sincerely bury the hatchet. Others, though, say they are burying it, only to come back a short while later to attack the President’s pick yet again. That, in my humble opinion, is an overt attack on social conservatives. While social conservatives here in Canada have been all but wiped out, in the United States the status of social conservatives has plateaued at the unwanted in-law level. If we have something those in power can use, fine -- but otherwise we are to stay out of sight...

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/10/12/206_172_193_15_90505.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Capitol Hill Blue
by Doug Thompson

10/11/05

President George W. Bush's temper tantrums are on the rise with White House insiders reporting increasing tongue-lashing of staffers, obscenity-filled outbursts and a leader driven to the edge by what he sees as party disloyalty and a country that no longer trusts him. Conservative backlash over his latest Supreme Court nominee may, in fact, have pushed the President over the edge. 'He's out of control,' one White House aide says privately. 'There's no other way to put it. His anger spills over in meetings. He berates anyone who brings him bad news but there's not a lot of good news we can bring the President right now. He calls other Republicans 'motherf--king traitors' and it is becoming more and more of a challenge to keep that anger from showing in public'...

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7509.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Jeff Birkenstein

10/13/05

To our current way of thinking, Thoreau can be a little much to take, a little over the top. Though he voluntarily submitted to confinement, today such a thing has broader ramifications. Most of us are unwilling to volunteer to be arrested -- such an act might follow us around for years to come. Today civil disobedience starts with a vision of change and the will to do something about it, whether this means standing on a corner and yelling, holding a sign, or standing quietly with a candle in hand...

http://www.counterpunch.org/birkenstein10132005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

The Weekly Standard
by Gerard Baker

10/14/05

Nobody has gone quite as far as Caligula in reaching into the ranks of his equine favorites to fill important positions. But was there really no better qualified candidate in 1961 to be attorney general than Robert F. Kennedy? Was Hillary Clinton appointed to head the presidential review of healthcare policy in 1993 because of her unique grasp of the subject and her political skills? ... And yet, the trouble with Harriet is much larger than any of this. It is not just that she is so obviously unfit to hold the office of associate justice of the Supreme Court, though she is certainly that. It is the simple, depressing lack of seriousness demonstrated by the White House in coming up with such a candidate, the sheer cramped and occluded smallness of the thinking that now seems to characterize the Bush administration's approach to governing. It is hard to overstate the mood of demoralization among conservatives in America. The rising tide of disillusionment is ready to break the dam of loyalty...

http://tinyurl.com/8f5dl


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Indianapolis Star

10/13/05

A Texas prosecutor on Thursday subpoenaed the phone records for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's home and campaign during the period he is accused of conspiring to launder illegal corporate donations to candidates. Also subpoenaed by prosecutor Ronnie Earle were records for two phone numbers for DeLay's daughter, Danielle DeLay Ferro, and for a minivan that Earle alleged DeLay bought. DeLay is facing charges of money laundering and conspiracy in a Texas campaign finance case...

http://tinyurl.com/ap3uq


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

10/13/05

Federal investigators looking into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's well-timed sale of HCA stock earlier this year have issued a subpoena seeking any personal records or correspondence that the Tennessee Republican has pertaining to the transaction, according to a lawyer familiar with the matter. The subpoena, from attorneys at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, comes after Frist's vow last month that he would cooperate fully. The lawyer did not want to be named because of confidentiality...

http://tinyurl.com/7csvg


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

National Park Service employees must pass Bush loyalty test

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility News Release
http://www.peer.org
October 13, 2005
Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337

POLITICAL SCREENING FOR ALL PARK SERVICE MANAGERS

"Mid-Level Managers Picked for Fealty to the President's Management Agenda"

Washington, DC The National Park Service has started using a political loyalty test for picking all its top civil service positions, according to an agency directive released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under the new order, all mid-level managers and above must also be approved by a Bush administration political appointee.

The October 11, 2005 order issued by NPS Director Fran Mainella requires that the selection criteria for all civil service management slots (Government Service grades or GS-13, 14 and 15) include the "ability to lead employees in achieving the Secretary's 4Cs and the President's Management Agenda." In addition, candidates must be screened by Park Service headquarters and "the Assistant Secretary [of Interior] for Fish, and Wildlife, and Parks," the number three political appointee in the agency.

The order represents a complete centralization of Park Service promotion and hiring in what has traditionally been a decentralized agency. More strikingly, the order is an unprecedented political intrusion into what are supposed to be non-partisan, merit system personnel decisions.

The President's Management Agenda includes controversial policies and proposals such as aggressive use of outsourcing to replace civil servants, reliance on "faith-based initiatives" and rollbacks of civil service rights. Interior Secretary Gale Norton's "4Cs" is a slogan she uses to express her management approach: "4 Cs: communication, consultation, cooperation, all in the service of conservation."

"It is outrageous that park superintendents must swear political loyalty to the Bush agenda and parrot hokey mottos in order to earn a promotion," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "The merit system is supposed to be about ability, not apple polishing."

The order applies to all hires for park superintendents, assistant superintendents and program managers, such as chief ranger or the head of interpretive or cultural programs. Overall, the policy applies to more than 1,000 mid-level management and supervisory positions in the Park Service.

"Presidents come and go but the civil service is designed to serve whoever occupies the swivel chair in the Oval Office," Ruch added. "It is downright creepy that now every museum curator, supervising scientist and chief ranger must be okayed by a high-level political appointee."


Read the October 11 "Revised Procedures for GS-13, GS-14, and GS-15 Selections"
http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/05_13_10_hiring_directive.pdf

Revisit the President's Management Agenda
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/mgmt.pdf http://www.peer.org/news/print_detail.php?row_id=598


Informant: Bigraccoon

The fight against hyper-terrorism may undermine democracy through the infringements on human rights it allows itself.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101305H.shtml

Stephen Pizzo: If Dems win in the 2006 and 2008 elections, but fail to define what they stand for, the country will be no better off. Here's how Democrats can again become a great party.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101305E.shtml

John Pilger: What happened in Indonesia, and continues to happen, is almost a mirror image of the attack on Iraq. Both countries have riches coveted by the west; both had dictators installed by the west to facilitate the passage of their resources; and in both countries, blood-drenched Anglo-American actions have been disguised by propaganda willingly provided by journalists prepared to draw the necessary distinctions between Saddam’s regime ("monstrous") and Suharto’s ("moderate" and "stable").

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101305C.shtml

COUNCILLORS have turned down a retrospective planning application for a temporary mobile phone mast near homes and schools.

The 15-metre structure was put up by Hutchison 3G in Aberystwyth, without permission, in June.

The company will now have to dismantle the mast, although it can appeal against the decision.

Local schools claimed they had not been informed about the development.

But Hutchison 3G said the mast has not been switched on and any emissions would be "minute".

County councillor Paul James said he was "delighted" with the planning committee's decision.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=16247151&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=dismantle-phone-mast--firm-told-name_page.html
(excerpt)

Here's a fascinating bit of news: More people today want to see President Bush impeached than wanted Clinton impeached on the eve of the House's vote on his impeachment.

http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff10122005.html


From Information Clearing House



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

Speculation is growing in Washington that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and President Bush's top advisor Karl Rove could soon be indicted by a federal prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/12/1416219


From Information Clearing House

The lords at the 'paper of record' had a ready explanation for how little Miss Miller got duped. She apparently depended on a "circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on regime change in Iraq." How could Judith possibly doubt the credibility of a rascal like Ahmad Chalabi?

http://www.nilemedia.com/Columnists/Ahmed/2004/May/Will.html


From Information Clearing House

Nothing could better open the eyes of the public to mischief in high places than a detailed personal account of Miller’s own assigned role in the pre-war propaganda campaign. How was she recruited for the assignment, or did she volunteer? How far back does her personal relationship go with Libby, Feith and Chalabi?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10616.htm

Coverage of the Plame affair has been tainted by the press's cosy duet with the White House.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10617.htm

Ultimately, a state which claims to be democratic, that is, claiming to represent the wishes of the electorate finds itself trapped in a vicious cycle of lies.

http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0369.html


From Information Clearing House

Censorship, internment and bans on non-violent political parties will increase the likelihood of further attacks in Britain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1590703,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Whether it's a sinister plot against American democracy or the most sustained large-scale foolishness in history, the Bush Administration is tearing down the traditional wall between overseas military action and domestic law enforcement.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10610.htm

George Bush last week denounced Syria and its ally, Iran, as "outlaw regimes" conniving with "Islamo-fascist terrorists" to foment international instability.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/story/0,15205,1590929,00.html


From Information Clearing House

An Iraqi-American Sami Rasouli wants the Americans to leave Iraq because it’s a colonial war and the country is not being rebuilt. Audio interview. Windows Media.

http://www.superiorbroadcast.org/SamiRasouli.htm


From Information Clearing House

We are told that our country does not torture prisoners, but our heads and our hearts tell us differently. Hidden, institutionalized torture has become routine. Doing things beyond our borders, or having others do them for us, does nothing to lessen our responsibility.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10609.htm

A Dutch court blocked the extradition to the United States on Wednesday of a man with Dutch and Egyptian nationality suspected of links to al Qaeda, citing insufficient guarantees over the suspect's basic rights.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10608.htm

He said that the portrayal of Iraq by Western leaders ­ of efforts to introduce democracy, including Saturday's national vote on the country's proposed constitution ­ was "unreal" to most of its citizens
.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10614.

"War On Terror" Revisited

by Pepe Escobar

During the first part of 2005, the first Bush administration's "war on terror" had been softly mutating into what it was supposed to mean in the first place: the conquest of Eurasia, and in the near term, Southwest Asia. The contours of the new religion were carefully spun by Washington.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10611

by Brian J. Foley

There’s no rule of law that requires the US to deny rights at GTMO: it is a policy decision. It was a bad decision. The loose procedures do not protect national security, but political interests and ambitions.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10607.htm

Flaying away with a stick at a hornets' nest while loudly proclaiming "I will stay the course" is an exercise in catastrophic leadership.

By Zbigniew Brzezinski

Sixty years ago, Arnold Toynbee concluded, in his monumental "A Study of History," that the ultimate cause of imperial collapse was "suicidal statecraft." Sadly for President George W. Bush's place in history but - much more important - ominously for America's future, it has lately seemed as if that adroit phrase might be applicable to the policies pursued by the United States since the cataclysm of 9/11.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10618.htm

We need to be told

When journalists report propaganda instead of the truth, the consequences can be catastrophic - as one largely forgotten instance demonstrates.

By John Pilger

''The propagandist's purpose," wrote Aldous Huxley, "is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human." The British, who invented modern war propaganda and inspired Joseph Goebbels, were specialists in the field.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10615.htm

by Joshua Frank

Who would have thought that Harriet Miers, President Bush’s choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court, would be such a divisive figure? The conservative establishment hates her and the Democrats could care less. It’s not so surprising, really, that liberals aren’t posing any probing questions about Miers’ close connection to GW. Clearly it doesn’t bother the Dems that she was paid $19,000 to help Bush dodge National Guard questions back in Texas in the mid-1990s by playing a scandalous role in silencing Benjamin Barnes, the man who supposedly had the lowdown on how Bush got out of serving in Vietnam. Nor does it bother the Democrats that Miers’ old firm Locke, Liddell & Sapp, was allegedly complicit in aiding a client in defrauding investors while she was an acting partner. Nope, the liberals are agreeably silent as usual. Only conservatives seem infuriated this time around....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Frank1013.htm

by Mike Whitney

The extra dollar per gallon that Americans are paying at the pump is the direct result of the war in Iraq. Think of it as the Bush Gas Tax for unnecessary wars. In 2001, Iraq was exporting 2.7 million barrels of oil a day through the Oil for Food program, which kept the price per barrel in the $25 range. In 2005 the amount has been chopped to 1.8 million barrels. That “extra million barrels per day” may not seem like a lot of oil, but with no excess capacity in the system, it has pushed the price up into the stratosphere, at times tipping the $70 per barrel mark. These prices were unimaginable before the war and are largely the result of the failed occupation strategy....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Whitney1013.htm

by Lila Rajiva

Less than two weeks ago, on September 29, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ordered the government to release fresh evidence -- 87 photos and 4 video tapes -- of detainee torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib which the ACLU had sought in a lawsuit brought against General Richard Myers in 2003. But for anyone looking for confirmation that brutality and abuse is not a wartime aberration but a homegrown reality in American law enforcement, there’s no need to wait. An Associated Press Television News tape from New Orleans provides a sneak preview....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Rajiva1013.htm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5051932


Informant: Sasha Karlik

Incidents of violence have raised troubling questions about America's reliance on hiring the world's poorest people to do the dirtiest jobs in one of the most dangerous places on Earth. In relying on a work force of third-country nationals, the United States has embraced a system of labor migration rife with abuse, corruption and exploitation, according to dozens of contractors, migrant workers, labor officials and advocates interviewed in four countries.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/101305LA.shtml

Millions of Americans are frustrated and confused, finding themselves devoting enormous amounts of time and energy to sorting out their medical bills. The system is so impenetrable that it mystifies even the most knowledgeable.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/101305HA.shtml

In the past four years, the United States has drastically cut back on its protection of waterways and wetlands, whose erosion was cited as a factor in the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, according to a report issued Wednesday.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/101305EA.shtml

Deft silences are the trademark of Harold Pinter the playwright. But thunderous, sometimes obscene, rage is his style in politics. The newest Nobel laureate in literature has fulminated against what he sees as the overweening arrogance of American power, and belittled Prime Minister Tony Blair as seeming like a "deluded idiot" in support of US President George W. Bush's war in Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101305S.shtml

Matthew Rothschild writes: I'm trying hard to figure out the intensity of the far right's anger about the Harriet Miers nomination. Seems unlikely to me, anyway, that Bush and Cheney and Rove would have picked someone who was not a doctrinaire conservative. So why are the reactionaries reacting so badly? Because Harriet Miers was not one of their tried and true chosen few.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101305R.shtml

A Page 1 article in The Times on Tuesday carried the following headline: "Liberal Hopes Ebb in Post-Storm Poverty Debate." Bob Herbert writes: The article noted that some liberal activists had hoped that the extraordinary suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina might lead to a genuine effort by the administration and Congress to address such important poverty-related matters as health care, housing, employment and race.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101305Q.shtml

http://rinf.com/news/oct05/bushdeathlist.html


Informant: beefree

Did you know that it takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex? That's right, every time you use a Kleenex tissue, you are blowing away ancient forests. That's because Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex and other toilet and tissue products, all but refuses to use recycled paper in its products. Instead, Kimberly-Clark is clearcutting some of the rarest and oldest forests on Earth - just to create disposable paper products.

Take action now to tell Kimberly-Clark to Stop Clearcutting Ancient Forests

Write to Kimberly-Clark
http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/9832.1905387.1678753

Take other Kleenex actions
http://prefs.greenpeace.org/mail-links/clicks/9833.1905387.1678753

To: Nigel Davies, Assisitant Director (Street Services) LB Bromley.

Dear Nigel Davies

I have had sight of your Report ELS 05289 regarding dual use lamp columns.

I have some serious queries and comments to raise on the contents of this document.

(a) you repeatedly cite Hutchinson, 3 and T-Mobile as examples.

- who are Hutchinson? If this is a repeated typo for Hutchison, then:

- "3" is the business name of Hutchison Telecom (i.e. same company) This confusion needs clarifying. Are there just two companies?

(b) You write "There would be concerns to any operatives carrying out maintenance on the lamp column working directly against the transmitter however the transmitters can be powered down during a designated period and therefore causing no additional health and safety concerns to our designated street lighting contractor."

This can not be correct. Even if the Mobile Phone Operator claimed to have remotely powered down a particular transmitter for a particular time period, this would need to be verified on site by the lamp-post by the person needing access. To meet HSE requirements for workers that might be exposed to RF sources that could exceed ICNIRP public exposure guidelines, their operatives will require pocket microwave safety monitors/alarms (cost over 1000GBP each and require regular charging and/or battery changes), training in how to use them, and ideally downloading of data-logged exposure dtae from the monitors to check that their operatives were not exposed to levels above ICNIRP. There is also a whole complex debate about whether such workers would fall under the occupational or general public ICNIRP exposure guidelines. To meet the occupational requirements they would require extra
(and formal) RF/microwave training and understanding that would need to be regularly checked and updated/refreshed.

So, I would say that the Contractor would require a significant extra payment from the Council in order to cover the extra costs and responsibilities. Their workers would also have to be insured against damage caused (e.g. to eyes) by possible over-exposure to microwave radiation.

(c) I am also very concerned about interactive/moving/lit advertising boards by roadsides. There is one at Catford at a busy junction on the one-way system at Plassey Road, Brownhill Rd, Rushey Green. It is on the North side of Bromley Road opposite where Plassey Road joins and on a dark wet night I find it extremely distracting to my driving. What official studies have been carried out regarding Road Traffic Accidents near such signs? I would be grateful if you could send me details as to where and how I can obtain copies.

Finally, I would be grateful if you could bring the contents of this email to the attention of the members of the Environment Policy Development & Scrutiny, the Environment Portfolio Holder and the Direct of Environment and Leisure Services.


Regards

Alasdair Philips
Technical Director of Powerwatch
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk

NOW CREATE YOUR OWN ACTION PAGES ON ANY ISSUE OF YOUR OWN

Before we get to the newest action links, first we have something AMAZING for you. We have added a simple, easy-to-use form to our Blades of Grass section where you can get your own issue action page on any issue you care about. Just pick a topic and can instantly have a live action page to send messages to members of Congress and letters to the editors of daily newspapers with access to the full power of our dedicated submission server. Send emails with your custom action page links to everyone know and post them on blogs or other web sites to start your own movements! Just submit the form below to get set up with your own password-protected subdirectory, and you can get started as a champion of any cause dear to your heart immediately.

http://www.usalone.com/bladesofgrass.htm

If you have a larger organization, we can provide you with code "ready to go" that you can put on your own URL to manage your own action page functions, using our resources only in the background. Just drop us an email and we will put you in the action page business yourself!

Are you a candidate for office, or would you like to be a candidate? Why not build a track record with your potential supporters to show that you're fighting for them on the issues week after week? Have your own action pages on any issues you choose and make it an integral part of your web site and canvassing functions. Give your future constituents not just a campaign speech about what you WOULD do if you are elected. Show them what you ARE doing by listening to them and being out there, standing up for them. Come election day you will be unbeatable!

TELL CONGRESS BUSH MUST GO BEFORE HE DOES ANY MORE DAMAGE

Polls are now saying that a majority of Americans (50% to 44%) would favor impeaching the president IF he lied about Iraq. So our work is done, right? Until that is a proven fact to those 50%, let's not kid ourselves. To impeach the president NOW, a substantial number of members of the president's own party must turn on him in a dramatic way. And given the bias of the media coverage so far, as a practical matter that will happen only if 1) a major new "smoking gun" emerges (as from the Patrick Fitzgerald probe), or if 2) larger numbers of us communicate personally with them as their constituents to demand it. Since we can't rely on the first, we must concentrate on the second, and encourage everyone else we know to do the same.

TAKE ACTION NOW at http://www.millionphonemarch.com/impeach.htm

There are two ways to vote for the current administration and their ongoing policies. One way is to speak actively on their behalf, but there aren't many people doing that; they're just loudmouths. The way that most people support Bush is by failing to speak out at every opportunity. WE ARE the true majority! If even 1% of us were to actually speak out on a regular basis, miracles will happen. The energy of a vast, grassroots communication web will be powerfully effective!

HARRIET MIERS LOOKS MORE LIKE A CRONY EVERY DAY

You remember the story of Brer Rabbit, who begged and pleaded not to be thrown in the briar patch. And Brer Fox was stupid enough to do exactly that. That's what's really going on with the hardcore conservatives who are so vociferously protesting, and rightfully so, the nonexistent qualifications of Miers for the Supreme Court. They are perhaps just too foolish to know it themselves yet. Miers is just another extreme right winger, who would consistently vote their interests just as Roberts will. But like Brer Fox we would be even MORE foolish than they not to oppose this nomination just because a couple prominent pedantic loudmouths are making a fuss.

STOP MIERS IN HER TRACKS at http://www.nocrony.com

We can take no satisfaction with someone just because they don't fulfill EVERYTHING on the wish list of the other side. We must stand up for what WE want and believe. Most of all we must build a national consensus that any new Supreme Court appointees must be true moderates at the worst. We can TAKE ADVANTAGE of the silly opposition of the neocon think tankers who are so intellectually greedy they will not settle for another clone vote like Thomas. Let them hold out for an "in our face" reactionary scholar. In the meantime we must all speak out on the absent merits of Miers and reject her OURSELVES as nothing more than a faith-based crony.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.


Powered by The People's Email Network
Copyright 2005, Patent pending, All rights reserved



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

NO TO DEATH BY VACCINATION!! NO TO GOVERNMENT SPONSORED AVIAN FLU GENOCIDE

http://www.usalone.com/cgi-bin/petition.cgi?pnum=9
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=93535;show_parent=1

IAHF Webmaster: Breaking News, Whats New, Codex Emergency, Anti Vaccine, Anti Genocide, Anti NWO

IAHF List: Below these comments please find a letter you can urgently send to the President and to your Congressman in a last ditch effort to stop the AVIAN FLU VACCINE GENOCIDE thats clearly been planned for us and which is clearly INTENDED to trigger MARTIAL LAW. Please forward this widely, anyone can sign onto the IAHF list at http://www.iahf.com Donations help us carry this urgent alert to others via public speaking, address at end.

To strenthen your immune system: http://www.cqs.com/influenza.htm , follow recommendations.


ADDITIONAL RESEARCH BY IAHF INTO THIS MIND NUMBING MADNESS

Today while doing additional research into the planned AVIAN FLU PANDEMIC (for which the Centers for Disease Control has announced there is a 76% death rate once contracted with no known immunity), I've stumbled across several SHOCKING and totally OUTRAGEOUS additional things previously unreported thru my recent alerts on this subject.

WERE YOU AWARE

That between 1988- 1995, the US Government has paid out a WHOPPING $57,589,828.07 to individuals and families of individuals who were killed or maimed by vaccinations? SEE FOR YOURSELF AT THIS GOVERNMENT SITE
http://www.hrsa.gov/osp/vicp/monthly_stats_post.htm

Vaccine makers are NOW asking congress to change the law so that they can't be held liable:

IMMUNITY (FROM PROSECUTION) SOUGHT AS AVIAN FLU SHADOW APPROACHES
http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/101205_vaccine.html

Did you realize that an estimated 1 in 1000 vaccine recipients GETS THE DISEASE the vaccine is intended to protect against FROM THE VACCINE ITSELF?

This is true! Now this may not be a big deal when it comes to ordinary flu, but when it comes to a virulent disease like AVIAN FLU which the CDC says has a 76% death rate for those infected, how comfortable do YOU feel knowing that the media is scaring the hell out of the public right now with news story after news story dominating the evening TV news on all the networks conditioning MILLIONS to get the Avian Flu Vaccine the MOMENT it becomes available?

This is just like the people of "The People's Temple" in Guyana being conditioned to "drink the (cyanide and LSD laced COOLAID.")(Which sent the victims of this CIA MKULTRA Mind Control experiment to their deaths- see anti NSA section http://www.iahf.com )

This AVIAN FLU situation threatens your LIFE even if you won't take the vaccine unless FORCED TO because it will trigger martial law, quarantines, forced vaccination, FEMA in your FACE with shoot to KILL orders for anyone who tries to escape a quarantined zone or who refuses vaccination.

CONCENTRATION CAMPS AWAIT AS BUSH PLAYS OUT HIS "FINAL SOLUTION"

FEMA and Herr Bush have concentration camps ready and waiting for anyone who OPPOSES the New World Order by refusing to be vaccinated or who tries to ESCAPE a quarantined area: SEE PHOTOS/ARTICLES http://www.apfn.org/apfn/camps.htm

How does it make you feel knowing that ONE IN ONE THOUSAND of the people who get the vaccine will be SPREADING this disease to those around them when otherwise there would be NO OUTBREAK at all? Will you feel comfortable on a plane, in the subway, on a bus, in an office full of people..... with people SNEEZING under these circumstances?

SOMETHING EVEN _MORE MINDLESS_: A NASALLY ADMINISTERED VACCINE FOR AVIAN FLU THAT WILL CAUSE SNEEZING & WHICH HAS A 21 DAY SHEDDING PERIOD FOR CHILDREN (EVEN LONGER FOR ADULTS) IS "UNDER DEVELOPMENT" (WITH DIRECT GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT) and SO IS A VACCINE FOR EBOLA!!

Its true. See my letter of OUTRAGE to MedImmune Inc in Maryland below, and below IT, see my letter to the Whitehouse& Congress---- We Must Work Together to OPPOSE this Madness & To Educate Vitamin Companies to the Dire Need to Generate Info Which COUNTERS the Mainstream News Spin, otherwise we're going to find ourselfs under MARTIAL LAW, with FEMA in our faces..... (oh yeah- so you can see the info about the vaccine for ebola:
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/03/19/ebola.php

STOP THE VACCINE INSTIGATED GENOCIDE!!! NO TO GOVERNMENT TRIGGERED MARTIAL LAW!!


To: Clarencia Stephen, PR Dept: MedImmune Inc.

I have some questions about the press release (below) titled "MedImmune to Collaborate With NIH to Develop Pandemic Influenza Vaccine. I am incredulous that your company and NIH are developing a vaccine, especially a nasally administered vaccine that will have a 21 day shedding period (for children) and an even LONGER shedding period for adults for something as incredibly virulent as Avian Flu.

Does Medimmune dispute the fact that even with attenuated viruses, approximately 1 out of 1000 people will get the disease the vaccine is intended to protect against FROM THE VACCINE ITSELF?

Do you deny the existence of the government created VACCINE INJURY TRUST FUND which is fully delineated under Title 26 USC?
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode26/usc_sec_26_00009510----000-.html

What happens when these people are sneezing all over other people after receiving your nasally administered vaccine?

In Japan, the use of vaccines to prevent Bird Flu is banned by law. Why isn't it banned by law in the USA? Would that have anything to do with the PAC donations from drug companies to members of Congress?

Look at this article in the Japan Times: Vaccine may be linked to bird flu cases

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050903a5.htm

Whats NEXT? A vaccine to "protect against" Ebola? (Wait, I see there actually IS such a misguided effort:
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/03/19/ebola.php

How about Marburg?

This strikes me as a surefire way to CREATE a PANDEMIC.

I would really appreciate a response to this question, because what you and NIAID (NIH) are doing strikes me as TOTALLY IRRESPONSIBLE if not downright INSANE.

I am writing an article about this for a magazine, and would appreciate an immediate and detailed response to these questions.

John Hammell International Advocates for Health Freedom

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83037&p=irol-investornewsArticle&ID=762012&highlight=

MedImmune to Collaborate With National Institutes of Health to Develop Pandemic Influenza Vaccine

- Attenuated, Live Intranasal Vaccine May Provide Broader Protection and Help Facilitate Immunization During Pandemic Outbreak -

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MedImmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDI) announced today that is has entered into an agreement with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to develop investigational pandemic influenza vaccines. Under this Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), MedImmune scientists will work together with leading researchers of the NIAID Laboratory of Infectious Diseases to produce and test versions of MedImmune's attenuated, live intranasal influenza vaccine for use against different types of potential pandemic influenza strains, including one based on H5N1, which is a strain of avian influenza.

MedImmune will use its proprietary reverse genetics technology to develop the pandemic vaccines. The technology will allow MedImmune and NIAID researchers to alter potentially harmful portions of influenza viruses, such as the hemagglutinin protein of the H5N1 virus strain, and to rapidly produce attenuated vaccine strains, thereby accelerating vaccine production. In the interest of public health, MedImmune has also offered licenses for its reverse genetics technology to U.S. and international health authorities and other vaccine manufacturers developing pandemic influenza vaccines.

"As a U.S.-based influenza vaccine manufacturer, MedImmune is committed to working with public health agencies such as the NIH in preparation for a pandemic emergency," said James F. Young, Ph.D., president, research and development. "With the occurrence of several avian or 'bird' influenza cases in Asia this year, the development of a pandemic vaccine is a proactive step toward protecting the health of our nation. An intranasal pandemic vaccine may help facilitate and expedite influenza vaccinations for more Americans in the event of a pandemic outbreak."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, possible advantages of attenuated, live influenza vaccine include its potential to induce a broad mucosal and systemic immune response, its ease of administration, and the acceptability of an intranasal rather than intramuscular route of administration.(1) A version of MedImmune's attenuated, live intranasal vaccine will be investigated as a collaborative effort in the clinical development program, led by NIAID's Kanta Subbarao, M.D., and Brian R. Murphy, M.D., under the CRADA.

In the U.S., influenza causes seasonal epidemics of disease resulting in approximately 36,000 deaths each year, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A pandemic occurs when a new strain of influenza virus is introduced to the public for which no prior immunity exists. Recent outbreaks of avian influenza in Asia emphasize the need for the United States to be prepared in the event of a pandemic.

About MedImmune, Inc.

MedImmune strives to provide better medicines to patients, new medical options for physicians, rewarding careers to employees, and increased value to shareholders. Dedicated to advancing science and medicine to help people live better lives, the company is focused on the areas of infectious diseases, cancer and inflammatory diseases. With approximately 2,000 employees worldwide, MedImmune is headquartered in Maryland. For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.medimmune.com .

This announcement contains, in addition to historical information, certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, in particular, related to the research and development of a potential pandemic influenza vaccine. Such statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain assumptions. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated as a result of a number of factors, including risks and uncertainties discussed in MedImmune's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that such development efforts will succeed, that such products will receive required regulatory clearance or that, even if such regulatory clearance is received, such products will ultimately achieve commercial success.

(1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevention and Control of Influenza. MMWR 2005;54(RR08):1-40

SOURCE MedImmune, Inc.

CONTACT: Media: Clarencia Stephen, +1-301-398-4073 Jamie Lacey, +1-301-398-4035 Investors: Peter Vozzo, +1-301-398-4358 John Filler, +1-301-398-4086 all of MedImmune

NO TO DEATH BY VACCINATION: WHY ARE US GOVERNMENT DEVELOPING VACCINES FOR AVIAN FLU AND EBOLA? THIS IS INSANE! 1 in 1000 GET THE DISEASE THE VACCINE IS INTENDED TO PROTECT AGAINST & THERES NO KNOWN IMMUNITY!! THE US GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO KILL US!! THE US GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO TRIGGER MARTIAL LAW!!

NO TO DEATH BY VACCINATION!! NO TO GOVERNMENT SPONSORED AVIAN FLU GENOCIDE!!!


To: The Honorable George W. Bush, President To: Members of the US House and Senate

Re: Government funding of vaccines for Avian Flu and Ebola------ Vaccines THEMSELVES GUARANTEE to cause a PANDEMIC

Its one thing to create a vaccine for an ordinary flu virus, and altogether ANOTHER thing to create a vaccine, especially a NASALLY ADMINISTERED vaccine which will cause SNEEZING for a virulent disease like Avian Flu which the Centers for Disease Control says has a "76%" death rate for those infected. Don't you REALIZE that 1 out of 1000 people gets the disease that a vaccine is intended to protect AGAINST?

Don't believe it? You'd BETTER: Between 1988- 1995, the US Government has paid out $ $57,589,828.07 to individuals and families of individuals who were killed or maimed by vaccinations.You can see this for yourself on this government website http://www.hrsa.gov/osp/vicp/monthly_stats_post.htm

I realize PAC Donations from Drug Companies are dumped into congressional campaign coffers on a routine basis to grease the rails for this sort of corruption, but things have GONE TOO FAR!!

I want Congress to push for a FEDERAL INJUNCTION to STOP NIH and MedImmune Inc. from continuing this MINDLESS government funded research to create a nasally administered Avian Flu vaccine:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83037&p=irol-investornewsArticle&ID=762012&highlight= MedImmune to Collaborate With National Institutes of Health to Develop Pandemic Influenza Vaccine

And I want Congress to push for a FEDERAL INJUNCTION to stop this effort to create a vaccine for Ebola
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/03/19/ebola.php and any other government funded vaccine programs that threaten to CAUSE pandemics of diseases for which there is no natural immunity. You are threatening the LIVES of millions of people world wide through your actions. We saw FEMA in "action" in New Orleans, and the last thing we want or are willing to ACCEPT is a vaccine caused pandemic that would trigger off martial law.

I DEMAND that members of Congress HELP to COUNTERACT the mainstream news spin on this issue by alerting constituents to REFUSE all vaccines and to instead take steps to strengthen their immune systems via strategies such as the one discussed in this article: PREPARE FOR AN AVIAN INFLUENZA!
http://www.cqs.com/influenza.htm

In the event that you fail to listen, and vaccines trigger a pandemic, I will OPPOSE any effort made by FEMA to force vaccinate myself and my family. In the event that Martial Law is declared due to this government mindlessness, I will be WELL PREPARED to defend myself against any ADDITIONAL efforts by the US Government to IMPOSE ITS WILL ON ME. I am AWARE of the CONCENTRATION CAMPS waiting in the wings: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/camps.htm but would prefer to REMAIN in my own home. Please awaken to the HIGH TREASON being perpetrated against us, and please honor your OATH by helping us STOP IT.

Signed________________________________________________________



Address: ______________________________City_____________________State_____Zip________________



Date___________________________2005




For Health Freedom, John C. Hammell, President International Advocates for Health Freedom
556 Boundary Bay Road Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702
USA
http://www.iahf.com
jham@iahf.com
800-333-2553 N.America
360-945-0352 World


"When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have peace." Jimi Hendrix


Informant: DitziSis

Because the Religious Right is Wrong

DefCon is an online grassroots movement combating the growing power of the religious right. We will fight for the separation of church and state, individual freedom, scientific progress, pluralism, and tolerance while respecting people of faith and their beliefs. [...] Read the article at http://www.defconamerica.org/about-DefCon/


© Virginia Metze

David Corn's "Capital Games" column
The Nation
October 6, 2005

Folks outside the Beltway often wonder why reporters--even those of a liberal bent--have a fondness for John McCain. Yeah, he's a warmonger in that he's been an enthusiastic cheerleader for George Bush's misadventure in Iraq. Yeah, he essentially pimped for Bush in 2004--after the Bush campaign ran a scandalous and dirty-as-can-be campaign against him in the 2000 Republican primaries. Yeah, he sucks up to social conservatives, as he ponders another presidential bid. For instance, he recently said intelligent design should be taught in schools. (McCain is probably hoping that he can take the edge off social conservatives' suspicion of him.) But this week, he poked Bush right in the snout. Despite a veto threat from the White House, McCain led--yes, led--the Senate to a 90-to-9 vote in favor of setting humane limits on the interrogation of detainees in Iraq and elsewhere. Given the damage done by the Abu Ghraib scandal, it's shocking that Bush would not support such a measure. But he didn't. And McCain shoved it down his throat. [...] I am one of those who likes McCain; I even think a Democrat could talk to him. Just like to a real Republican, and not a Neocon. See http://tinyurl.com/8b4x7


© Virginia Metze

His lawyer used to say he wasn't a target. Now he won't say anything at all.

by Tim Grieve
October 6, 2005
Salon

Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the outing of Valerie Plame, is supposed to wrap up his investigation by the end of this month. With Judy Miller's testimony in the bag, the end could come sooner -- even as soon as today -- with an announcement that there will be an indictment, many indictments or no indictment at all. [...] Read the rest of this rather short article at: http://tinyurl.com/bnuq4


© Virginia Metze

90-9 Vote on the Treatment of Detainees Is a Bipartisan Rebuff of the White House

By Charles Babington and Shailagh MurrayWashington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, October 6, 2005; Page A01

The Senate defied the White House yesterday and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees in Iraq and elsewhere, underscoring Congress's growing concerns about reports of abuse of suspected terrorists and others in military custody.

Forty-six Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent in voting to define and limit interrogation techniques that U.S. troops may use against terrorism suspects, the latest sign that alarm over treatment of prisoners in the Middle East and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is widespread in both parties. The White House had fought to prevent the restrictions, with Vice President Cheney visiting key Republicans in July and a spokesman yesterday repeating President Bush's threat to veto the larger bill that the language is now attached to -- a $440 billion military spending measure. [...] Read the rest at the Washington Post: http://tinyurl.com/a3ryl


© Virginia Metze

BUSH'S SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

Several Republican senators warn they may vote against Miers, while activists challenge her qualifications. Some see pick as a win for the left.

By Maura Reynolds and Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writers
October 6, 2005
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — President Bush faced a growing Republican backlash Wednesday over the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court, with several GOP senators threatening to oppose her confirmation and top conservative activists questioning her qualifications during a tense confrontation with White House advisors.

In an effort to quell the discontent, administration aides and allies were dispatched to plead with lawmakers and party activists to give Miers — a longtime Bush friend and lawyer — a chance to prove herself.

But on Capitol Hill, some GOP senators made it clear that they were not now in Miers' corner. And at a weekly meeting in Washington of leading conservatives, many in the crowd berated Ed Gillespie, the White House point man on judicial nominations, over the president's choice. [...] Read the rest at http://tinyurl.com/bz22t

If the Senate continues to stand up, we are at the beginning of regaining our respect in the world, which Bush has almost destroyed.


© Virginia Metze

IAHF Webmaster: Breaking News, Whats New, What to Do, Genocide

IAHF List:

HENRY KISSINGER EVIAN-LES-BAINS, FRANCE YEAR 1991 "Today America would be outraged if UN troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government."

HELP IAHF WAKE UP THOSE AROUND YOU:

Please read Dr.Len Horowitz excellent commentary
(below) re the Avian Flu situation. I'd just like to add one thing to what he's saying: Bush recently revised an existing Executive Order by adding a new one ( EO 13295 )
http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/eo_list.cfm which allows FEMA to quarantine an area (town, city, county, state) due to influenza outbreak such as Avian Flu.

In such a situation, FEMA can do anything it wants under Executive Orders without any congressional oversight just as we saw occur in New Orleans. They can force vaccinate people, and they can shoot to kill if someone attempts to leave a quantined zone or refuses to be relocated to a concentration camp. The could turn any US city into a modern day equivalent to the Warsaw Ghetto, and don't forget the concentration camps they have waiting for us:
http://www.whatsmells.com/camps.html

WHAT TO DO: It is IMPERATIVE that we educate as many people around us as possible to the THREAT posed by vaccines and by FEMA If a pandemic occurs it will be because the CDC cultured this virus in a lab from a sample taken from a corpse that was buried in the permafrost in Alaska. SARS occurred when a live virus escaped from a lab and the same thing could happen "accidentally" (ha). Horowitz article explains this much better than I can. The main thing is we need to educate people so they won't act like sheep to the slaughter. We all need to strengthen our immune systems now and be ready to help those around us who make the mistake of taking the vaccine- see IAHF archives http://www.ymlp.com/pubarchive.php?jham and Horowitz article below:

DrLenHorowitz's Avian Flu Fright Commentary

To: All grassroots activists, health and vaccination networkers.

Please forward this urgent e-mail, to help save lives, to everyone in your network.


Avian Flu Fright: Politically Timed for Global "Iatrogenocide"

A Public Health Warning and Political Essay by a Harvard-trained Author of Fifteen Books Including the American bestseller, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola-Nature, Accident or Intentional?

Leonard G. Horowitz, DMD, MA, MPH

Abstract

If avian flu becomes more than a threatened pandemic, it will have done so by political and economic design. This thesis is supported by current massive media misrepresentations, profiteering on risky and valueless vaccines, gross neglect of data evidencing earlier similar man-made plaques including SARS, West Nile Virus, AIDS and more; continuance of genetic studies breeding more mutant flu viruses likely to outbreak, inside trading scandals involving pandemic savvy White House and drug industry officials, curious immunity of these pharmaceutical entities over the past century to law enforcement and mainstream media scrutiny, and published official depopulation objectives. With the revelations and assertions advanced herein, the public is forewarned against this physician assisted mass murder best termed "iatrogenocide."* This genocidal imposition is expected to serve mainly economic and political depopulation objectives.

Background

In April, 2003, a social experiment called SARS, said to have arrived from Asia, heavily struck Toronto. I was there throughout most of this Asian flu-foreshadowing fright. This bizarre new pneumonia-like illness was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It was said to be the latest threat in an ongoing series of attacks on humanity by mysteriously mutating "supergerms."

A careful study of the scientific and medical-sociological correlates and antecedents of this "outbreak" revealed something amiss far more insidious than SARS. I critically considered Toronto's media reaction as any Harvard-trained public health expert in media persuasion behavioral science might. The scourge had all the earmarks of a novel social experiment conducted by white-collar bioterrorist.

It seemed clear to me that this unprecedented population manipulation effectively indoctrinated the mass mind in support of a grossly ineffective, albeit legislated, public health response in advance of the arrival of "the Big One." Throughout the "SARS Scam,"(1) repeated references were made to biological agents that might facilitate decimation of approximately a third to half of the world's population. Having extensively reviewed political population control literature and contemporary objectives of leading global industrialists, I noted these predictions were in close keeping with current official population reduction objectives.(2)

Canada's response to SARS in 2003 was, for the first time in history, directed by the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO). Having reviewed the intimate financial and administrative ties between these organizations, the Rockefeller family, Carnegie Foundation, and the world's leading drug makers, "the fox," in essence, reigned over Canada's "chickens."

The truth about plagues includes the fact that "no grand pandemic ever evolved divorced from major socio-political upheaval." SARS advanced a political agenda more than a public health emergency. If public health officials earnestly intended to prevent these new emerging diseases, or successfully treat them at their roots, I repeated, they would study their obvious origins from the merged military-medical-biotechnology arena. A basic course in medical sociology simply justifies this utilitarian counsel.

"Experts" had been predicting the arrival of a super-plague for decades. What was HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS about the mysterious and terrifying arrival of SARS, however, was its timing. It synchronously arrived with the global war on terrorism, and the Anglo-American war with Iraq. It seemed a convenient distraction from the fact that the earlier Bush administration had shipped Saddam Hussein most of his deadly biological weapons arsenal including anthrax and West Nile Virus. SARS was pathognomonic (i.e., symptomatic and characteristic) of what I had predicted and explained in the book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare (Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2001;
http://www.healthyworlddistributing.com/ ), a prophetically-titled text that predated the 9-11 attacks on America by several months, and provided a contextual analysis of certain globalists' links to recent "outbreaks."

In essence, I provided insight into the broad application of a new form of institutionalized "bioterrorism" consistent with state sponsored biological warfare. Saddam Hussein was said to have exposed populations in his and adjacent lands with biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. SARS and the current avian flu fright is sanctioned by military-medical-pharmaceutical-petrochemical industrialists likewise operating above the law in many documented instances. Having testified before the U.S. Congress, I personally experienced how premiere pharmaceutical industrialists direct our political-economic representatives in government. Emerging diseases complement the political "War on Terrorism," and our bioterror-influenced culture. This agenda serves two primary objectives: profitability and population-reduction.

Political Reality Versus Mass-Mediated Myths

The ever increasing madness around us is eerily consistent with globalist think tank recommendations for the current "conflicts short of war." Beginning in the late 1960s, "economic substitutes for standard militarization" were sought and found by leading global industrialists. New biological threats, the "war on terrorism," and increasing numbers of "natural disasters" including space-based threats and superstorms were considered economically and politically expedient compared with the first and second world wars. These "conflicts short of war" were decidedly more manageable and economically viable. For this reason, especially their profitability, they were leading options among Anglo-American policy makers.

Nelson Rockefeller's protégé, Henry Kissinger, for instance, as National Security Advisor (NSA) under Richard Nixon, oversaw foreign policy while considering Third World population reduction "necessities" for the U.S., Britain, Germany, and other allies. This Bush nominee to direct the 9-11 conspiracy investigation, a reputed war criminal, then selected the option to have the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) develop biological weapons, according to the U.S. Congressional Record of 1975. Among these new man-made biological weapons were germs far deadlier than the avian flu.

For example, by 1968, when Kissinger requested and received updated intelligence on useful "synthetic biological agents" for germ warfare and population control, mutant recombinant flu viruses had just been engineered by Special Virus Cancer Program researchers O'Conner, Stewart, Kinard, Rauscher and others.(3) During this program, influenza and parainfluenza viruses were recombined with quick acting leukemia viruses (acute lymphocytic leukemia) to deliver weapons that potentially spread cancer, like the flu, by sneezing. These researchers also amassed avian cancer (sarcoma) viruses and inoculated them into humans and monkeys to determine their carcinogenicity. In related efforts, Raucher et al. used radiation to enhance avian virus's cancer-causing potential. These incredible scientific realities have been officially censored and generally neglected by the media's mainstream.

Similarly, the Institute of Science in Society (IoSS) in London raised the genetic engineering question in the origin of SARS. "Could genetic engineering have contributed inadvertently to creating the SARS virus?" they asked. "This point was not even considered by the expert coronavirologists called in to help handle the crisis, now being feted and woed by pharmaceutical companies eager to develop vaccines." Those living in glass houses should not throw stones. The above emphasis is added to show IoSS they had "not even considered" intentional SARS deployment in their scientific, allegedly unbiased, purview.(4)

Conflicts short of war, like the "War on AIDS," "War on Drugs," "War on Terrorism," "War on Cancer," and now "War on the Avian Flu" require sophisticated propaganda programs employing fear campaigns for social acceptance and popular support of legislated policies. These psychological operations (officially termed PSYOPS) for "command and control warfare" (technically called C2W), experts advise, best support the emerging "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA). The RMA's capabilities include "a form of human slavery" in which the world's captive populations would not know they are enslaved.(2)

The RMA undoubtedly incorporates the use of debilitating biologicals and chemical agents most generously on behalf of drug and vaccine makers. A classic example is the toxic carcinogenic organophosphate pesticides deployed against human populations, said to target "mosquitoes," in the "War Against the West Nile Virus." Such "non-lethal warfare" agents, as these are militarily termed, are indeed deadly, but mortality results slowly from toxic exposures allowing more profits to be made by allied pharmaceutical and medical industrialists. Victims of the "non-lethal" exposures die slowly from chronic debilitating diseases. Expensive hospitals and long-term care facilities are virtual concentration camps. The ailments generated for "iatrogenocide" include the plethora of autoimmune diseases and newer cancers virtually non-existent 50 years ago. This fact, alone, strongly suggests a genocidal socio-economic and political agenda.

Avian Flu for Profit

In response to SARS, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, Michael Fumento, published an economic thesis in Toronto related to the one I advance here. The "Super-bug or Super Scare," he wrote was published in Canada's National Post. Canadians were warned to "quarantine themselves," wear masks, and in some cases stay home. The Ontario Health Minister declared a "health emergency," as the media dubbed the "mysterious killer" a "super-pneumonia." Recoiling from the hype, Fumento asked and answered a few "real questions . . . How lethal, how transmissible, and how treatable is this strain?" The answers, he concluded, "leave no grounds for excitement, much less panic." The same may be said for this new curse of avian flu.(1)

Lethal?

At this writing, the avian flu is said to have killed "about 65 people" in Southeast Asia during the past two years! Little to no data is available on these individuals who most commonly had immune-compromising medical conditions. Further, all deaths were in Asian countries with questionable health services.

Conversely, other forms of flu kill more than 40,000 North Americans annually, generally the immune-compromised elderly.

Transmissibile?

According to USA Today (October 9, 2005), "European health officials are working to contain the [avian flu] virus, which so far has not infected anyone in the region." Although, allegedly "more than 140 million birds have died or been destroyed, . . . and financial losses to the poultry sector have topped $10 billion." This propaganda actually admits, "the current virus, known as H5N1, has not yet mutated to the point at which it can easily spread from person to person." In fact, it is likely to have never spread from person to person other than during laboratory handling!(5)

Treatability?

"The U.S. Senate has already approved a $3.9 billion package to buy vaccines and antiviral medications, and the Administration is also preparing a request for an additional $6 billion to $10 billion," according to a current BusinessWeek report.( 6)

"Beam me up Scottie, there is no intelligent life on this planet." This largely explains why the public puts up with this deadly deception. Even USA Today bemons, "there is no human vaccine yet." So how come the U.S. Senate is rushing to spend all these billions for an avian flu vaccine?

I suppose we should overlook the fact that the current frightening strain of H5N1 avian flu virus has never readily jumped from human to human, and not commonly from birds to humans either. Thus, an effective vaccine can only be prepared by mutating this virus, thus creating what the world fears most. Let me explain. . . .

To make the human vaccine specific for the H5N1 mutant virus, you must start with the human virus which does not yet exist, except in perhaps military-biomedical-pharmaceutical laboratories. In fact, this is precisely what is being prepared based on news reports. To produce the human pathogen, the avian virus must be cultured for lengthy periods of time in human cell cultures, then injected into monkey and ultimately humans to see if these experimental subjects get the same feared flu. Thus, the flu virus the world currently fears most is either: 1) now being prepared in labs paid by industrialists with massive wealth-building incentives to "accidentally" release the virus; or 2) has already been prepared in such labs to take advantage of this current fright and future sales following the virus's release.

Remember, to be effective against a virus, a vaccine is said to require specificity. If authorities were to now have the main H5N1 avian flu strain feared to spread at some future date there's no assurance by the time they developed the vaccine the strain would remain sufficiently the same for the vaccine to be effective anyway due to expected viral mutations. Viral mutations over time is a function of the agent's newness. New man-made viruses, laboratory creations, like the ones currently being prepared for vaccine trials, are less stable not having evolved over the millennia. Thus, the entire vaccine effort is largely, if not entirely, a sham with ulterior motives.

Remember too, that a vaccine's reliability requires years, or at least months, of testing in the targeted population. Vaccine injury data must, or should, be meticulously collected over this period to assure the vaccine is not killing and maiming more persons than it is helping or saving. Can you seriously believe this assurance will be provided by government or pharmaceutical industry officials in this pandemic's wake? FEMA's failed Katrina response pails by comparison to this public health liability and vaccine-injury certainty.

I say "vaccine-injury certainty" because of the extensive list of newly developed vaccinations, highly touted when brought to market, that caused horrific results. This list includes the first swine flu vaccine, polio vaccines, smallpox vaccine, anthrax vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine, and most recently Lyme disease vaccine that crippled approximately 750,000 people within months of its release and prior to its recall by the FDA.

Most people fail to realize all vaccines carry a list of ingredients that typically increase human disease and death (i.e., morbidity and mortality). These include toxic elements and chemicals such as mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and formalin (used to preserve corpses), MSG, foreign genetic material, and risky proteins from various species of bacteria, viruses, and animals that have been scientifically associated with triggering autoimmune disorders and certain cancers. A growing body of scientific evidence strongly suggests vaccines are largely responsible for increasing cases of autism and other learning disabilities, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Lupus, MS, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, hay fever, allergies, chronic draining ear infections, type 1 autoimmune diabetes, and many, many more pandemics. These chronic ailments are said to require long-term medical care for the patients' management causing toxic side effects resulting in America's leading killer--iatrogenic disease. That is, vaccines and other pharmaceutical industry inventions are literally killing or disabling millions with little effort on the part of government officials and their drug industry cohorts to arrest this scourge.

For all we know, governments are ordering an avian flu vaccine that will precisely deliver this pandemic to the world to affect population control. Absurd thesis? Read on.

BusinessWeek expects avian flu vaccine stockpiling by government officials will help the Sanofi-Pasteur company on behalf of Sanofi-Aventis and Chiron. "Tamiflu," it reported is an antiviral manufactured by Roche, . . . considered effective against avian flu. . . . The U.S. owns enough for 4.3 million people, with more on order." BusinessWeek failed to report: 1) Tamiflu's safety and effectiveness has not been determined in people with other chronic medical conditions--a significant percentage of the U.S. population-- and common side effects of this drug include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bronchitis, stomach pain, dizziness, headaches, and much, much more; 2) Roche (Hoffman-LaRoche) was found guilty of price fixing the world's supply of vitamins in 1999 as part of the global petrochemical/pharmaceutical cartel evolved from Nazi-Germany's I.G. Farben organization;(2)(6) and 3) Sanofi-Aventis's corporate colleagues include Merck, a company that received a lion's share of the Nazi war chest at the end of WWII, whose earnings plunged after the withdrawal last year of its deadly Vioxx arthritis drug. According to recent news reports, Merck is partnering with Sanofi-Aventis to produce the world's first sexually-transmitted-cancer vaccine to be given to prepubescent boys and girls.(7) Merck is infamous for having developed the first hepatitis B vaccines that triggered the international AIDS pandemic according to published scientific research and stunning documents reprinted in this author's national bestselling book.(3)(8)

In the weeks and months following the 9-11 attacks on America, I traced the widely publicized anthrax mailings "mystery" to U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) commissioned biological weapons contractors with ties to Britain's MI6, Porton Down, and this same Anglo-American pharmaceutical cartel.(9) The anthrax mailings fanned fears of bioterrorism throughout America and economically served primarily vaccine and drug makers with administrative and financial links to these avian flu profiteers.(10)

People willingly relinquish their civil rights and personal freedoms in the wake of such engineered frights. The passage of the infamous "Homeland Security Act" in America, and its counterpart in Canada, are classic examples of this societal direction, forced legislation, and egregious manipulation.

Why Asia?

How convenient that Asia is said to be the origin, as with SARS, of this latest plague when Chinese-Anglo-American relations are strained to say the least.

In the days preceding the emergence of the first SARS cases, America raced to the Pacific Rim to impact escalating aggressions on the Korean peninsula. Communist China--a "most favored" trading partner with America--is politically allied with several American enemies, including those said to possess weapons of mass destruction, including Iraq. Coincidental? Not likely when viewing the larger political picture involving the Ango-American oligarchy's RMA, its global enterprises, and instigated planet-wide "conflicts short of war."

Consider also the fact the media's mainstream has been heavily influenced, if not entirely controlled, by multi-national corporate sponsors protecting and advancing the interests of a relatively small number of global entities. Also recall that the focus of news providers, on any given day or hour, results from intelligence agency directives, according to reputable authorities including myriad retired news officials and intelligence officers. So ask and answer the following intelligent questions:

* Why have American military officials, beginning with Secretary of Defense William Cohen during the Clinton years, publicized America's greatest vulnerability lies in the realm of biological weapons wielded by terrorists? Is this not a form of treason against the United States to relay such sensitive intelligence to potential enemies through the mainstream press?

* Why does the mainstream media continue to foretell of the expected arrival of the "Big One"-an influenza virus that will produce a super-flu that will kill billions of people, like the "Spanish flu" did between 1918-19, while totally disregarding the individuals, organizations, and laboratories that have labored to produce these weapons of mass destruction? Even the devastating Spanish Flu virus has been, literally, unearthed for further study and, do you suppose, deployment?

* Why was the "Spanish flu" influenza virus called the "Spanish flu" when it originated, by historic accounts, in Tibet in 1917? It is said that Spanish newspapers were the only ones reporting on the great plague due to their neutrality over World War I politics. However, Spain was as dear to America then as Communist China is to the United States today. The "Spanish flu" was named such following two decades of disputes between America and Spain over colonization of the Caribbean Islands, Hawaii and the Philippines beginning with the Spanish American war that ended in the Philippines in 1902. In fact, the grand Spanish flu began in military camps. Does this history appear to be repeating?


*Doesn't it make sense that America is being manipulated, if not targeted, for the purpose of advancing globalistic agendas, central among them is population reduction?

The "Big One"

As mentioned above, during the 1960s and early 1970s, military biological weapons contractors with intimate ties to leading drug industrialists prepared mutants of influenza and para-influenza viruses recombined with acute lymphocytic leukemia viruses. In other words, they stockpiled a quick spreading cancer virus which may also be deployed.(3)

Alternatively, many infectious disease experts and government health officials oblivious to this scientific reality say this avian flu might be the 'Big One." Several days ago, the United Nations released a report that stated as many as 150 million people worldwide might die from this avian flu.

Emma Ross of the Associated Press reported on SARS as the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its "crisis plan to attack" the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. WHO, as you may recall, is a U.N. sponsored organization that is rumored to have helped spread AIDS to Africa by way of contaminated hepatitis B and/or polio vaccinations. There is a reasonable amount of evidence to support this contention.(1)

More disconcerting, the U.N. is known to be heavily influenced by Rockefeller family members and their petrochemical-pharmaceutical interests. History shows Rockefeller fortunes built the U.N. building in New York City. During WWII, the Rockefeller family and their Standard Oil Company supported Hitler more than they did the allies according to court records. One federal judge ruled Rockefeller committed "treason" against the United States. Following WWII, according to attorney John Loftus-an official Nazi war crimes investigator-Nelson Rockefeller persuaded the U.N.'s South American voting block to favor Israel's creation only to assure secrecy regarding his support for the Nazis. Earlier that century, John D. Rockefeller joined Prescott Bush and the British Royal Family in sponsoring the eugenics initiatives that gave rise to Hitler's racial hygiene programs. During the same period the Rockefeller family virtually monopolized American medicine, American pharmaceutics, and the cancer and genetics industries.(2, 3)

Today, the Rockefeller family, its foundation, U.N. and WHO remain at the forefront of administering "population programs" designed to reduce world populations to more manageable levels. As per an advertisement in Foreign Affairs--a prestigious political periodical published by the David Rockefeller directed Council on Foreign Relations--the U.S. population is being targeted for a 50% reduction.(2)

"We've never faced anything on this scale with such a global reach," said Dr. David Heymann, of the WHO, not regarding the avian flu, but SARS.

"This is the first time that a global network of [Rockefeller-directed infectious disease 'surveillance' outposts and] laboratories are sharing information, samples, blood, pictures," added Dr. Klaus Stohr, a WHO virologist coordinating labs internationally. "Basically overnight, there are no secrets, there is no jealousy, there is no competition in the face of a global health emergency. This is a phenomenal network."(1)
____________________

* The term "iatrogenocide" is derived from the combination of words "iatrogenesis," meaning physician induced illness, and "genocide," defined as the mass killing and/or enslaving of people for economics, politics, and/or ideology.


About the Author Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H., is an internationally known authority in the overlapping fields of public health, behavioral science, emerging diseases, and bioterrorism. He received his doctorate in medical dentistry from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 1977, was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral science at University of Rochester, earned a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University, and another Master of Arts degree in health education from Beacon College, all before joining the research faculty at Harvard. Dr. Horowitz is best known for his national bestselling book, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola - Nature, Accident or Intentional? (Tetrahedron Press, 1998; 1-888-508-4787) which recently resulted in the United States General Accounting Office investigating the man-made origin of AIDS theory. (See:
http://www.healingcelebrations.com/gao.htm ) Dr. Horowitz's work in the field of vaccination risk awareness has prompted at least three Third World nations to change their vaccination policies. His stunning testimony before the United States Congress' Government Reform Committee, literally brought the hearing to a halt. (See: healingcelebrations.com) Dr. Horowitz questioned government health officials regarding a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) secreted report showing a definitive link between the mercury ingredient (i.e., Thimerosal), common to most vaccinations, and the skyrocketing rates of autism and behavioral disorders affecting our children and the future of our nation.

Incredibly, Dr. Horowitz alerted the FBI, in writing and in person, one week before the first anthrax mailing was announced in the press, that a "major anthrax fright" was in the process of unfolding that demanded the FBI's urgent attention. Needless to say they did not heed Dr. Horowitz's prophetic warning.

Moreover, three months before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Dr. Horowitz released his thirteenth book, prophetically titled Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare. The book focuses on the West Nile Virus as an act of Bioterrorism, and considers what and who is really behind this and other recent outbreaks. Dr. Horowtiz argues that his disclosures expose the roots of global terrorism, along with the individuals and organizations at the heart of what he calls "the petrochemical-pharmaceutical cartel". He believes this "multi-national corporate beast" is in the process of committing global genocide, profiting from engineered frights, and at the same time, most efficiently culling targeted populations considered excessive.

As you may have heard, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for an investigation into the links between recent West Nile Virus outbreaks and bioterrorism. Dr. Horowitz is among the leading pioneers of this theory.

Dr. Horowitz's most recent book is DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral, a reference text on the electro-genetics of biology, disease therapy, and human spirituality. This work also details links between the anthrax mailings and human genome project heist, and leading intelligence agency, genetics industry, and pharmaceutical company officials.

For more information about Dr. Horowitz's books, videos, CDs and DVDs link to http://www.healthyworlddistributing.com and http://www.tetrahedron.org, or by calling 1-888-508-4787. His official website is http://www.drlenhorowitz.com .

This article was provided courtesy of Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Tetrahedron Publishing Group. It's copyright is relinquished for widespread distribution.


References:

1) Horowitz LG. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome): A Great Global Scam. Available at:
http://www.healingcelebrations.com/SARS.htm

2) Horowitz LG. Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare. Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group,
(Spring) 2001.

3) Horowitz LG. Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola, Nature, Accident or Intentional? Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, (Spring) 2001.

4) The Institute of Science in Society. SARS and Genetic Engineering? London, England. Article available at:
http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/health_risks/sars_engineering.html

5) Knox N. Europe braces for avian flu. USA TODAY, October 9, 2005; Manning A.Government to stock up on avian flu shots. USA Today, Oct 8, 2005.

6) Wang P. Avian Flu: Inoculate Your Portfolio. BusinessWeek. Online edition. Available at:
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/oct2005/pi2005110_4988_pi015.htm

7) CNNMoney. Merck shares jump on cancer drug vaccine. October 6, 2005. Available at:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/06/news/fortune500/merck.reut/

8) For more scientific background on the link between the hepatitis B vaccine and the AIDS pandemic link to
http://www.originofAIDS.com .

9) Horowitz LG. The CIA's Role in the Anthrax Mailings: Could Our Spies be Agents for Military-Industrial Sabotage, Terrorism, and Even Population Control? A Special Report. Article available at:
http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/anthrax/anthrax_espionage.html

10) Horowitz LG. DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral. Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2004.


For Health Freedom, John C. Hammell, President International Advocates for Health Freedom
556 Boundary Bay Road Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702
USA
http://www.iahf.com
jham@iahf.com
800-333-2553 N.America
360-945-0352 World


Jack Topel


Informant: JHW369

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=93472;show_parent=1
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=93491;show_parent=1

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/10/13/ccamb13.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/10/13/ixcity.html


Informant: Lew Rockwell

by ALEXANDER DOWNER

The spread of weapons of mass destruction is one of the main threats to international and regional security. As irresponsible states and terrorists seek to gain access to devastating weapons, no country is immune to this menace. Thankfully, our immediate region is free of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. But if we allow some countries to get away with acquiring such weapons, we risk weakening restraints preventing others _ potentially closer to home _ from doing the same.

This applies equally to terrorists who have shown they will stop at nothing to enhance their ability to kill. The horrific bombings in Bali only strengthen our resolve to keep WMDs beyond their reach.

Inaction is simply not an option for any nation that values its security and prosperity.

Australia is firmly committed to practical action to stop proliferation. A new paper, ''Weapons of Mass Destruction: Australia's Role in Fighting Proliferation'', outlines contemporary proliferation threats and the Australian government's multi-dimensional strategy for addressing them.

Since the end of the Cold War, the proliferation threat has diversified. While the risk of nuclear conflagration has receded, checks on proliferation have failed to keep pace with new global security realities.

And globalisation has increased the availability of materials and technologies required to make WMDs.

A handful of countries have flouted international norms by developing WMDs and missiles for delivering them. Earlier this year, North Korea claimed that it possessed nuclear weapons. Iran is on notice to dispel ambiguity over its nuclear programme. Some countries, or rogue elements within them, have even exported their deadly expertise. The Abdul Qadeer Khan (of Pakistan) nuclear network is a case in point.

The rise of global terrorism has further raised the proliferation stakes. Al-Qaeda has made no secret of its ambitions to acquire and use WMDs. Terrorist groups in our own region have similar ambitions.

WMD proliferation is an actual threat, not just a potential one. It needs to be urgently addressed in comprehensive and pro-active ways.

In the face of the UN summit's lamentable failure to deliver outcomes on non-proliferation, Australia remains committed to strengthening multilateral treaties.

Put simply, countries that ignore their non-proliferation obligations must be held to account by the international community. Australia has led the way by calling on the UN Security Council to assume greater responsibility in this area and by promoting more stringent safeguards that would provide early warning of covert nuclear activities.

Recent undertakings by Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to conclude Additional Protocols with the International Atomic Energy Agency are especially welcome in this regard. They send a clear signal of strong regional support for strengthened safeguards and their role in enhancing transparency in relation to nuclear activities.

At the same time, the Australian government recognises the need for innovation and flexibility by embracing new thinking to stop proliferation as it occurs.

Australia has been a pioneer in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). With no overarching treaty or secretariat, PSI demonstrates what can be achieved within international and national law to disrupt WMD-related trade, drawing on the support of more than 60 countries.

The Australian government has been assiduous in ensuring that Australian exports do not contribute to WMD programmes. And we continue to work with like-minded countries to harmonise export controls, especially through chairmanship of the Australia Group, which sets benchmarks in preventing chemical and biological weapons proliferation.

We have also moved to strengthen domestic measures to prevent proliferators and terrorists from gaining access to sensitive materials, such as radioactive sources, and expanded our efforts to encourage regional countries to do likewise, including through provision of technical training.

Importantly, we have done so through a cooperative approach, integrating a growing role for many of the arms of government _ defence, intelligence and border protection.

Australia's commitment to fighting proliferation will not be deterred by the complexity of present-day threats. Through the Australian government's wide-ranging policies and measures and close cooperation with like-minded partners in the region and beyond, we will continue to address them in comprehensive, innovative and practical ways.

Alexander Downer is Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs. ''Weapons of Mass Destruction: Australia's Role in Fighting Proliferation".


From FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign