Who is Guilty of Prison Torture?
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer

Certainly the United States possesses formidable economic and military power. But the rhetoric of "sole surviving superpower" is inflated and a bit desperate. Our military is overextended and poorly run. The hard power of its amazing machinery is used to squander the soft power of our global prestige - we shoot civilians and they hate us. We attack only the most defenseless opponents and have little tolerance for casualties...

read further under:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/052404_daf_prison.html

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Abu Ghraib Means Impunity
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=171&language_id=1

Informant: tworevs

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Continuing the Cover-Up?

Military Takes Action Against Key Witness in Abu Ghraib Abuse Scandal

By Brian Ross and Alexandra Salomon

May 21, 2004 — A witness who told ABCNEWS he believed the military was covering up the extent of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was today stripped of his security clearance and told he may face prosecution because his comments were "not in the national interest."

Read further under:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/abu_ghraib_cover_up_040521-1.html


Informant: Michael Novick

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What have we done?

The horrific images from Abu Ghraib have come to define the ill-starred occupation of Iraq, but what do they really tell us about America? Are they simply the work of a few rogue soldiers, or the result of the new foreign and domestic policies of the Bush administration, which find ready approval in an increasingly brutalised society? Susan Sontag on the ugly face of the war on terror...read under:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1223344,00.html


Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Reflects America's Hatred
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1423.shtml

Informant: Walter Lippmann

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US Tries to Get Off the Hook on War Crimes
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=83714:740526

New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=83721:740526

Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=83716:740526

New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=83721:740526

Soldier: Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse "Normal"
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=83724:740526

Shocking Details on Abuse of Reuters Staffers in Iraq
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=83725:740526

The Religious Warrior of Abu Ghraib
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=83726:740526

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Those Missing Taguba Pages: More Dirty Tricks on the Road
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May2004/Nimmo0524.htm

Double Standards?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5032094/site/newsweek/

Professor Denounced for POW Memo for Bush
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4121975,00.html

Top General Witnessed Prison Abuse
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6236.htm

New allegations of systematic abuse of Iraqis by British troops
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=524032

Video From Abu Ghraib Prison
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6223.htm

Videos Amplify Picture of Violence
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6224.htm

Photo Gallery
http://tinyurl.com/29sl7

New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43783-2004May20.html

Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6229.htm

New front in Iraq detainee abuse scandal?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5024068/

Trail of blood
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6226.htm

Iraqis lose right to sue troops over war crimes
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6238.htm

How fascism starts
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6227.htm

GI: Boy mistreated to get dad to talk
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6222.htm

A world watches our shame
http://www.duckdaotsu.org/world_watches.html


From Information Clearing House

--------

The word you're looking for is "lies"

by Erica Verrillo,

Letter to the editor, The Boston Globe

May 12, 2004

The Bush administration seems to have a serious problem with reality.

The most recent reality challenge is the policy of torture in both Iraq and Afghanistan, which the administration is frantically redefining as "abuse," "excesses," and "humiliation." We even have Secretary Rumsfeld describing footage of several American soldiers "having sex" with a female Iraqi prisoner.

Let's have a little plain English here. "Having sex" with a prisoner is known as "rape." Systematic beatings are called "torture." Excesses that lead to death are called "murder." The hundreds of women and children in mass graves in Fallujah are the product of a "massacre." Taken together, all of these add up to "atrocities."

The dissemination of "incomplete information" from "imperfect intelligence" is called "lies."

The billions of dollars that Halliburton and Bechtel have reaped in profits are called "war profiteering."

The invasion of Iraq is called "illegal."

The destruction of America's international standing is called "permanent."

And Texaco/Phillips's high bid for Iraqi oil is called "why we are in Iraq."


Log of lies from the Bush Administration

http://www.unknownnews.net/logoflies.html#may04



Informant: vInCe-BrAdLeY

--------

More Photos Of US Brutality

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/690595.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/690566.cms


Informant: Harry Mobley

--------

Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Portal
http://www.EnvironmentalSustainability.info/ -- Eco-Portal
http://www.ClimateArk.org/ -- Climate Change Portal
http://www.WaterConserve.info/ -- Water Conservation Portal

May 21, 2004
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Glen Barry, Ph.D., Forests.org

The future of the Amazon rainforest is critically threatened by expanded infrastructure development that dramatically increases physical access to the Amazonian frontier. Rainforest loss and diminishment in the Amazon impacts the well-being and ecological sustainability of local peoples, Brazilians and all citizens of the World. Below is an update from Science magazine regarding the threats posed by new roads and other infrastructure development plans in the heart of the Amazon. Forests.org has been instrumental in bringing these scientific findings to a wider audience, and advocating for cancellation of the ill-conceived development plans.

In 2002 and 2003, the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon climbed to nearly 2.4 million hectares per year, driven by land speculation along the routes of new roads, cattle ranching, and soybean farming. This equals 11 football fields a minute. While the Brazilian government has stepped up satellite monitoring and involved additional ministries to address deforestation, they have steadfastly refused to cancel or significantly revise the large-scale infrastructure development plans predicted to eliminate the Amazon's large, intact and unfragmented rainforest expanses.

All governments have a profound responsibility to protect, conserve and restore natural habitats sufficient to maintain ecosystems and their species. No ecology, no economy or anything else. Given its jurisdiction over the Amazon, the Brazilian government and people are sacredly obligated to safeguard this global ecological engine - stewardship they are failing to provide. I concur with the leading rainforest scientists below, that by failing to "curtail its aggressive plans for infrastructure expansion, Brazil will fail to address one of the most critical root causes of Amazonian deforestation." Loss of the Amazon as an operable, non-fragmented whole will severely biologically impoverish the Earth - and contribute significantly to the possibility of global ecological Armageddon. Brazil and the World need an intact Amazon to live well and prosper. g.b.


Deforestation in Amazonia
Source: Copyright 2004, Science, Vol 304, Issue 5674, 1109-1111 Date: May 21, 2004

In recent years, we and others have identified critical threats posed to the forests of Amazonia by the Brazilian government's plans to
dramatically expand highways and other major infrastructure projects in the region (1-6). Our conclusions have been disputed by elements of the Brazilian government (7-10), which assert that a key assumption of our spatial models--that new roads and highways will continue to promote large-scale Amazonian deforestation, as they have done in the past--no longer applies. This is so, they argue, because of improvements in frontier governance and environmental-law enforcement, as well as changes in Brazilian public attitudes toward forests (7-10). As a consequence, the Brazilian government is proceeding with the largest expansion of highways, roads, power lines, gas lines, hydroelectric reservoirs, railroads, and river-channelization projects in the history of the Amazon (1-6).

In 2002 and 2003, the rate of deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia climbed to nearly 2.4 million hectares per year (see figure)--equivalent to 11 football fields a minute. This increase mostly resulted from rapid destruction of seasonal forest types in the southern and eastern parts of the basin; relative to preceding years (1990-2001), forest loss shot up by 48% in the states of Pará, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, and Acre (11). The increase was evidently driven by rising deforestation and land speculation along new highways and planned highway routes (12), and the dramatic growth of Amazonian cattle ranching (13) and industrial soybean farming (6, 14). Soybean farms promote some forest clearing directly, but have a much greater impact on deforestation by consuming cleared land, savanna, and ecotonal forests, thereby pushing ranchers and slash-and-burn farmers ever deeper into the forest frontier. Equally important, soybean farming provides a key economic and political impetus for massive infrastructure projects, which accelerate deforestation by other actors (6, 14).

Anticipating public alarm about the new deforestation figures, the Brazilian government recently announced new measures designed to slow Amazon forest loss. These measures include increased satellite monitoring of deforestation and the involvement of additional ministries--not just the Ministry of Environment--in efforts to reduce illegal deforestation and forest burning (12). These measures, in concert with the establishment of new protected or multiple-use areas in Amapa, Amazonas, and Acre, are a move in the right direction.

The new measures do not go far enough, however. They fail to address one of the most critical drivers of forest destruction: the rapid proliferation of new highways and other infrastructure, which greatly increases physical access to the Amazonian frontier. The Brazilian government plans to create interministerial working groups to recommend ways to reduce or mitigate project impacts, but is not considering the cancellation or significant delay of any major project. Indeed, just days after announcing the new anti-deforestation package, Brazilian President Lula demanded that his federal ministers find ways to circumvent environmental and other impediments to stalled infrastructure projects throughout the country, including 18 hydroelectric dams and 10,000 km of highways (15).

In the Amazon, new transportation projects frequently lead to a dramatic rise in illegal deforestation, logging, mining, and hunting activities (1-6). If Brazil criss-crosses the basin with thousands of kilometers of such projects, the net result, our models suggest, will be not only further increases in forest destruction, but fragmentation of surviving forests on an unprecedented spatial scale (1, 5). Many of the government's recently announced measures to slow forest loss are positive steps, but if it does not curtail its aggressive plans for infrastructure expansion, Brazil will fail to address one of the most critical root causes of Amazonian deforestation.

William F. Laurance,*
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,
Apartado 2072,
Balboa,
Panama.

Ana K. M. Albernaz,
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi,
Avenida Perimetral 190,
Belém, PA 66077-530,
Brazil.

Philip M. Fearnside,
Departamento de Ecologia,
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia,
C.P. 478,
Manaus,
AM 69011-970,
Brazil.

Heraldo L. Vasconcelos,
Instituto de Biologia,
Universidade Federal de Uberlândia,
C.P. 593, Uberlândia,
MG 38400-902,
Brazil.

Leandro V. Ferreira
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi,
Avenida Perimetral 190,
Belém, PA 66077-530,
Brazil.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: laurancew@tivoli.si.edu

References and Notes

1. W. F. Laurance et al., Science 291, 438 (2001).

2. W. F. Laurance, A. K. M. Albernaz, C. Da Costa, Environ. Conserv. 28, 305 (2001).

3. G. Carvalho, A. C. Barros, P. Moutinho, D. C. Nepstad, Nature 409, 131(2001).

4. D. C. Nepstad et al., Forest Ecol. Manage. 154, 295 (2001).

5. W. F. Laurance et al., J. Biogeogr. 29, 737 (2002).

6. P. M. Fearnside, Environ. Manage. 30, 748 (2002).

7. D. Weber, "Ministério contesta estudo sobre devastação," O Estado de S. Paulo, 21 January 2001.

8. S. S. do Amaral, "Threat to the Amazon," The Independent, 26 January 2001.

9. R. Goidanich, Science dEbates, 26 January 2001
( http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/eletters/291/5503/438 ).

10. J. P. Silveira et al., Science 292, 1651 (2001).

11. The net deforestation rate in these four states increased from 1.43 million ha year-1 from 1990-2001 to 2.12 million ha year-1 in 2002-2003, based on data from the Brazilian National Space Agency
( http://www.inpe.br ). Deforestation data for 2003 are a preliminary estimate.

12. Grupo Permanente de Trabalho Interministerial para a Redução dos Índices de Desmatamento da Amazônia Legal, Plano de Ação para a Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento da Amazônia Legal (Presidência da República, Casa Civil, Brasília, 2004).

13. D. Kaimowitz, B. Mertens, S. Wunder, P. Pacheco, Hamburger Connection Fuels Amazon Destruction (Tech. Rep., Center for International Forest Research, Bogor, Indonesia, 2004).

14. P. M. Fearnside, Environ. Conserv. 28, 23 (2001).

15. "Lula quer a retomada de obras paralisadas," Amazonas em Tempo (Manaus, Brazil), 21 March 2004.

STUDY

AFP

May 19, 2004

http://tinyurl.com/2ub8g

PARIS - Climate change will have a disastrous effect on the flow of rivers which provide water for most of Earth's cities, it was reported.

Rising levels of carbon dioxide pollution, caused by the unbridled burning of oil, coal and gas, will warm the troposphere, the lowest layer of the world's atmosphere, in addition to the land and seas, New Scientist says.

Warmer air temperatures will affect water vapour, cloud cover, solar
radiation and ozone, which in turn will have an impact on evaporation and rainfall.

In a computer model that factors in these changes, Princeton University researchers found that precipitation over the next three centuries will increase, boosting the discharge of fresh water around the world by nearly 15 percent.

But the regions that will be benefit are those that are already abundant in water or are sparsely populated, such as the tropics, the far north of Canada and northern Russia.

By contrast, there will be lower flows in many mid-latitude rivers which run through heavily populated regions.

"Those that will start to decline include the Mississippi, Mekong and especially the Nile, one of the world's most heavily used and politically contested rivers, where (the) model predicts an 18 percent fall in flow," the report says.

The scenario, which is published in full in the journal Climate Change, is based on the likely effect from a quadrupling of levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide from levels of this greenhouse gas before the Industrial Revolution.

The predictions are based on what would happen over the next 300 years.

However, research published by experts at France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) suggests that rivers have already started to be affected by climate change.

They simulated runoff from 200 of the world's largest rivers since 1875 and found that in the past few decades alone, rivers in North and South America and Asia saw an increase in volume, while runoff in Europe was stable, and the flow of water from African rivers had fallen.

The time scale is significant, because records say that global warming moved up a gear in the 1970s. It was at that time that surface temperatures rose quickly in response to the greenhouse effect, New Scientist says.


Informant: NHNE

In some US prisons, echoes of Abu Ghraib
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0520/p02s01-usju.html

Informant: Walter Lippmann

--------

The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos
http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444

Informant: Mark Vallen

--------

When Bonesmen Fight: by Tom Hayden
A Reflection on Democracy in America
http://www.thepolitic.org/news/2004/05/08/Opinion/When-Bonesmen.Fight.By.Tom.Hayden-678353.shtml

Informant: David Crockett Williams

--------

OF TAILS AND DOGS - THE SACKING OF PIERS MORGAN
http://www.medialens.org/blog/index.htm

--------

Army, CIA Want Torture Truths Exposed
http://truthout.org/docs_04/051904C.shtml


Informant: NHNE

--------

Where Will You Be Tomorrow?
http://www.rense.com/general53/where.htm

Informant: Planttrees

--------

Donald Rumsfeld in the eye of the storm
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223064/

--------

Hostilities force Bush into deep hole
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1220792,00.html

Informant: kevcross5

--------

Link TV: Mosaic: World News From The Middle East
Quick Time Video Report
http://tinyurl.com/2rtq9

‘US troops allowed to mistreat Afghan POWs’
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/may2004-daily/19-05-2004/world/w4.htm

Accused US Army deserter says he saw Iraqi prisoner mistreatment
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040518194613.j301xkje.html

Torture 101
http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc4492.html

Torture Photos, Videos a Time-Honored CIA Tradition
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=05-18-04&storyID=18888

‘Definitely a Cover-Up’
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/abu_ghraib_cover_up_040518-1.html

Planners And Abusers Should Be Accountable
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6209.htm

Army, CIA want torture truths exposed
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040518-064124-9605r

Abu Ghraib meets Guantanamo Bay
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4962140/

The Stanford Prison Experiment revisited
http://www.radio.cbc.ca/programs/asithappens/STEAM/prison_050702.htm

In Pictures
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/default.stm

Shamed: A Panorama Special reports on the scale of the abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3708441.stm

U.S. Faces Growing Fears of Failure
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6212.htm

We must withdraw
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1219937,00.html

Killing people for their own good
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16966

Where Have We Come To?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6215.htm

Powell Distances Himself From President
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/5/17/211348.shtml

U.S. Cardinal Accuses Bush of Moral Failure in Iraq
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5180232

Fake Iraqi Sovereignty
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6216.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/051804.html
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/salon12.htm

Iraq isn't another Vietnam - it's much worse
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=522568

To the president from a father: Shame on us
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/05/19/to_the_president_from_a_father_shame_on_us/

More Photos Surface
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6217.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4112472,00.html

Shamed
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6218.htm

Brutal interrogation in Iraq
http://tinyurl.com/3afmb

Shocking Details on Abuse of Reuters Staffers in Iraq
http://tinyurl.com/2udz4

Amnesty: International Criminal Court
http://tinyurl.com/34pob

U.S. Charged With War Crimes: The Evidence File
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3450.htm

Sidney Blumenthal: The religious warrior of Abu Ghraib
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6220.htm

Poll: US are occupiers, not liberators
http://tinyurl.com/3gau8

Apocalypse Now in the White House
http://www.juancole.com/2004_05_01_juancole_archive.html#108495214839380743

The diseases of a troubled nation
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/20/1084917702632.html


From: Information Clearing House

--------

Army may call up inactive reservists
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/troops19_20040519.htm

Iraq violence will worsen
http://tinyurl.com/yr89m

The day after Rupert Murdoch takes over America
http://cei.org/gencon/019,04023.cfm

US to fight terror with terror
http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4020&n=1

Doing bad things far away from home
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0420/gup.php

Don't bring slavery back to America
http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory11.html

Out of Iraq and Plato's cave
http://www.counterpunch.org/corseri05192004.html

Even the word "democracy" now repels Mideast reformers
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0520/p09s01-coop.html

Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Zombie RFID tags may never die
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223262/

HAARP: Patent # 4,686,605 - AgriTerrorism, Atmospheric Engineering
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223265/

Omega-Environment Collection 20. May 2004
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223047/

Bush Officials Weaken Organic Food Standards: Public Shut Out
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223667/

Mystery Illness/Parasite Said To Be Afflicting Idahoans Getting Attention
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223040/

Activists and MPs renew call for British hunt ban
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223042/

May 21, 2004

The Bush Administration is giving Americans new reason to watch what they eat. Over the course of 10 days last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued three "guidances" and one directive -- all legally binding interpretations of law -- that threaten to seriously dilute the meaning of the word organic and discredit the department's National Organic Program.

The changes -- which would allow the use of antibiotics on organic dairy cows, as well as synthetic pesticides on organic farms, and more -- were made with zero input from the public or the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the advisory group that worked for more than a decade to help craft the first federal organic standards, put in place in October 2002.

The USDA insists the changes are harmless: "The directives have not changed anything. They are just clarifications of what is in the regulations that were written by the National Organic Standards Board," stated USDA spokesperson Joan Shaffer. "They just explain what's enforceable. There is no difference [between the clarifications and the original regulations] -- it's just another way of explaining it."

But Jim Riddle, vice chair of the NOSB and endowed chair in agricultural systems at the University of Minnesota, argues that what the USDA is trying to pass off as a clarification of regulations is in fact a substantial change: "These are the sorts of changes for which the department is supposed to do a formal new rulemaking process, with posting in the federal register, feedback from our advisory board, and a public-comment period. And yet there is no such process denoted anywhere."

Organic activists suspect that industry pressure drove the policy shifts. They point out that the USDA leadership has long-standing industry sympathies: Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman served on the board of directors of a biotech company; both her chief of staff and her director of communications were plucked right out of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

One practice favored by large agribusiness is the use of antibiotics on cows. A USDA guidance issued on April 14 will allow just that on organic dairy farms -- a dramatic reversal of 2002 rules. [1] Under the new guidelines, sickly dairy cows can be treated not just with antibiotics but with numerous others drugs and still have their milk qualify as organic, so long as 12 months pass between the time the treatments are administered and the time the milk is sold.

"This new directive makes a mockery of organic standards," said Richard Wood, a recent member of the FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee and executive director of Food Animal Concerns Trust.

Another new guidance put out on the same day would allow cattle farmers to feed their heifers non-organic fishmeal that could be riddled with synthetic preservatives, mercury, and PCBs, and still sell their beef as organic.

And the following week, on April 23, the USDA took the startling step of issuing a legal directive that opens the door for use of some synthetic pesticides on organic farms.

Last but certainly not least, another guidance released on April 14 narrows the scope of the federal organic certification program to crops, livestock, and the products derived from them, meaning that national organic standards will not be developed for fish, nutritional supplements, pet food, fertilizers, cosmetics, or personal-care products.

Despite the USDA's demurrals, activists view the department's changes as a serious threat to hard-won standards for organic products. The National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and other groups are investigating possible industry influence into the USDA's process, and some environmental groups are preparing to take legal action.

This story was jointly produced by BushGreenwatch http://www.bushgreenwatch.org and Grist Magazine http://www.gristmagazine.com/. For more on this story, visit Grist Magazine http://www.gristmagazine.com/muck/muck051804.asp.


SOURCES:
[1] Antibiotic Guidance Statement, USDA, Apr. 14, 2004.
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/GuidanceStatements/AntibioticGuidance041304.pdf
[2] Fishmeal Guidance Statement, USDA, Apr. 14, 2004.
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/GuidanceStatements/FishmealGuidance041304.pdf
[3] Pesticide Compliance, USDA, Apr. 23, 2004.
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Compliance/PesticidesCompliance.pdf
[4] Scope Guidance Statement, USDA, Apr. 14, 2004.
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/NOP/GuidanceStatements/ScopeGuidance041304.pdf


Source: http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000123.php

Weltweite Signalwirkung befürchtet

21.05.04

Die EU-Kommission hat nach sechs Jahren erstmals wieder gentechnisch veränderte Organismen zugelassen. Diese mit Spannung erwartete Entscheidung betrifft den vor allem in den USA kultivierten Süßmais Bt11, der ab sofort in der Europäischen Union verkauft werden kann. Bereits seit 1998 besteht für Bt-11-Mais-Produkte eine Importgenehmigung in die Europäische Union. Ein Anbaugenehmigung für die EU ist mit der Entscheidung vom Mittwoch nicht verbunden. Verschiedene Organisationen kritisierten die Entscheidung scharf.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=8506

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2004/05/110675.php

Bernard Eastlund, Inventor of HAARP (High Frequency Active AURORAL Research program), from his Patent # 4,686,605 “...
http://www.gewo.applet.cz/agentura/haarp__file_5.htm
The apparatus could cause total disruption of communications over a very large portion of the Earth, disrupting not only land based communications, but also airborne communications and sea communications (Both surface and subsurface). By altering solar absorption...weather modification is possible... for example, altering upper atmosphere wind patterns by constructing one or more plumes of atmospheric particles which will act as a lens or focusing device...A moving plume could also serve as a means for focusing a vast amount of sunlight on selected portions of the Earth... ”


FULL ARTICLE:
Chemical Aurora Keyhole Surveillance
http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2004/05/18658.php

Bernard Eastlund, Inventor of HAARP (High Frequency Active AURORAL Research program), from his Patent # 4,686,605 “...This invention relates to a method and apparatus for altering at least one selected region normally existing above the Earth’s surface...by initially transmitting electromagnetic radiation from the Earth’s surface... ...By altering solar absorption...weather modification is possible... for example, altering upper atmosphere wind patterns by constructing one or more plumes of atmospheric particles which will act as a lens or focusing device...A moving plume could also serve as a means for focusing a vast amount of sunlight on selected portions of the Earth...HIGH INTENSITY, WELL CONTROLLED ELECTRICAL FIELDS CAN BE PROVIDED IN SELECTED LOCATIONS FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES...(caps ours, ed.)”


Informant: billder

By Jo Best
Silicon.com

May 18, 2004, 6:51 AM PT

Businesses are all too keen to talk up the potential of radio frequency ID (RFID) while privacy campaigners are similarly vocal in calling for some hardcore data protection to go with the new tagging technology, and one of the emerging battlegrounds is all about when exactly the tracking chips need to die.

Item-level tagging is some way off yet, mainly due to cost rather than retailers' lack of enthusiasm but, when it does kick off in earnest, it's worth putting money on consumers being at loggerheads with retailers over when exactly to switch off and kill the chips.

RFID tags can be read--either by a store or by an unrelated third party--unless they're shut down by the company that installed them in the product.

While a consumer might quite fancy the idea of walking up to the checkout and having his new $9,000 plasma-screen TV scanned instantaneously, he might not be so pleased that any passer-by with a reader can find out what he's got in the back of his car. He may also just not like the idea of a supermarket being able to scan his goods after he's left the store.

But when should the tag's tracking powers be turned off? Kill commands, as they're known, do exist. The idea is that when a shopper passes a certain point, any active RFID chip essentially shuts itself down (German supermarket Metro tried similar technology with its RFID rollout and was rather red-faced to find its kill commanders were more like a nasty-kick-in-the-shins commands).

The question remains: why would we want to keep the tags active once we've left our local Tesco and should retailers be allowed to?

Burk Kaliski, chief scientist and director of RSA Laboratories, believes there's a strong case for chips that never die. That doesn't mean always-on though. They would be more zombie than normal chip--alive but not capable of doing anything without being activated.

When the chips leave the store, they should be switched from non-private to private so they remain intact and in some select instances can be returned to readability, but otherwise are immune to shop-scanning, he said.

Introducing kill commands, Kaliski said, would "discourage innovation" and would be "counterproductive". There are indeed uses being touted for zombie tags. Taking goods back to a shop, for example, would be easier; recalling faulty or dangerous goods would be simpler; and distributing pharmaceuticals could be made safer by using RFID to scan for potentially harmful combinations.

But is that enough?

According to Katherine Albrecht of privacy group Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian), the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits. "Whoever made the tag is the entity that can reactivate it... that's even more dangerous [than kill-command chips]. If you believe a chip is dead, you don't take common-sense precautions to protect your privacy," she said.

The issues of individual privacy are more pressing when it comes to item-level tagging--the more commonly practiced case of pallet level-tagging is less of a threat, according to Geoff Barraclough, marketing director of BT Auto-ID Services. "With the use of RFID in the supply chain, there are no privacy implications," he said.

Consumers may be able to dodge uninvited eyes gleaning information from RFID tags but businesses may not be so lucky. With new extra-long read-range RFID equipment hitting the market, the motive and opportunity arise for underhand retailers or suppliers to gain an advantage by picking up on who's moving what goods, where and when.

With standards yet to be sorted out and early adopters falling over themselves to implement RFID rollouts, it seems the big names may have forgotten to protect the privacy they will no doubt miss most if it goes--their own way.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5214648.html

Informant: Ken DeBusk

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. May 19, 2004

1,600 unpublished photos: A descent into hell, as one congressman affirms

Donald Rumsfeld in the eye of the storm

BY MICHEL PORCHERON
Granma International staff writer

LESS than two weeks after the CBS television network’s transmission in the United States of the first photos and videos showing acts of torture practiced by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the “Lynndie England” case – the name of the 21-year-old female soldier who appears in many of the photos – has turned into the “Rumsfeld case.”

A veteran investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, 67 – the man who revealed the My Lai massacre in 1969 – unleashed the scandal by directly accusing the secretary of defense.

According to his May 17 New Yorker article, “The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq.

Hersh, who specializes in researching the intelligence services, specifies that the Pentagon has created special interrogation techniques that “...encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq.” Rumsfeld gave the green light to a “highly secret” program that basically had “...given blanket advance approval to kill or capture and, if possible, interrogate ‘high-value’ targets in the Bush Administration’s war on terror.” Hersh maintains that every soldier who knew the code name of one of these special programs (SAP, Special-Access Program) could act freely in the field.

According to a former high-ranking intelligence service official quoted by Seymour, some 200 people in total were in on the secret, including George W. Bush himself. For its part, the May 16 edition of Newsweek published a memorandum dated January 25, 2002, signed by Alberto González, legal advisor to the White House, explaining that the war on terrorism is a new form of war, and that this new paradigm renders obsolete the Geneva Convention’s strict limitations on interrogating enemy prisoners. The confusion reached its peak last weekend, when it became known that abuses being perpetrated on the prisoners at the Guantánamo Naval Base were being videotaped, according to statements by a former British prisoner there quoted on May 16 by the British weekly The Observer. Nobody was surprised when spokespersons for the U.S. authorities scrambled to deny everything.

WHERE GENERAL MILLER REAPPEARS

According to what has come to light in the last few days, in August 2003 General Geoffrey D. Miller, 55, who then commanded the Guantánamo detention center, made a 10-day visit to the Abu Ghraib prison. His mission was “enigmatic,” as El País qualified it on May 14: to inform the chief of the prison’s military intelligence on a series of recommendations “from the base” on how to undertake interrogations, punish prisoners and organize arrests. His disciples learned their lesson, beyond expectations. Abu Ghraib was thus “Guantanamized.” Today, General Miller is once again in Iraq, this time as...the man in charge of U.S. prisons, replacing General Janis Karpinski, seven of whose troops have been castigated in the torture scandal. Six of them must remain under surveillance in Camp Victory near Baghdad, possibly awaiting court martial.

As for Lynndie England, the notorious female soldier who is currently pregnant, she has been temporarily stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, until her fate is decided.

General Karpinski was discreetly “dismissed” in January after the first revelations – at that time internal – of the torture and brutality being practiced there.

NEVERTHELESS, IT WAS AN OLD ISSUE

While the scandal became public less than a month ago, the highest U.S. military and civil authorities were perfectly aware of the practice of torture in Iraq all throughout 2003. According to General Peter Pace, right-hand man to General Richard Myers, chief of general staff, everyone was regularly updated orally.... Pace responded with a categorical “Yes” when asked on CBC whether General Myers and President Bush were fully informed on the situation...

For his part, George W. Bush – one lie more or less no longer means anything to him – affirmed that he knew of the investigation’s existence and the Pentagon reports, but had not read them and neither had he seen the photos until the day CBS transmitted them. If he is telling the truth, that omission is even more serious than lying. According to those who surround the president, he didn’t know anything about anything.

However, the International Committee of the Red Cross, human rights groups and even General Antonio Taguba, commanded by the Army to draft a secret internal report on torture and abuse (that he delivered in March), had regularly alerted all the authorities. However, starting with the Pentagon, the reaction of the U.S. authorities was to try to hide the issue from January. It wasn’t until January 16, 2004 that the Central Command published a five-line press release.

However, the International Red Cross Committee, human rights defense groups and even General Antonio Tagula who was ordered by the Army to produce a secret internal report (that he presented in March) on torture and abuse, had regularly warned all the authorities. But, beginning with the Pentagon, what the U.S. authorities have done since last January is attempt to conceal the matter. It was not until January 16, 2004 that the Central Command publicly released a five-line press statement of notable neutrality referring to an investigation into the mistreatment of prisoners, according to Seymour Hersh. It did everything possible to conceal the matter and confine it to a small group of young or relatively young soldiers, presented as “some kids who got out of control” or “a handful of sadists”.

Despite everything, on January 21 – as reported by French daily Le Monde in its May 14 edition – the first reference to the existence of photos appeared thanks to Barbara Starr, a CNN military correspondent, who wrote that U.S. soldiers had posed for photographs with partially naked Iraqi prisoners. Then began the investigation on the part of U.S. journalists. What also began was a high-speed race between the press on one side and the Pentagon on the other, who increased the pressure so that the photos would not be published. For a time, CBS agreed to postpone its report when the battle for Al Fallujah was intensifying in Iraq. But, on discovering the imminent publication of Seymour Hersh’s investigation, including several photos, in The New Yorker magazine, CBS decided to take the lead and release its own photos and videos. On the other hand, the role of Joseph M. Darby, a sergeant with the 372nd company, who revealed that the photos existed, should also be mentioned. “Incensed by photos that he saw on his computer, he took the photos with an anonymous letter and slipped them under the door of a superior’s office” in Baghdad. (Le Monde, May 14)

Darby’s CD-Rom ended up on CBS’s table by way of soldiers’ relatives.

In effect, everything really kicked off when on April 28, CBS broadcast its “60 Minutes” program with the legendary Dan Rather, showing the first authenticated images. A young female soldier named Lynndie R. England appeared in them. CBS specified that the photos had been taken between October and December 2003. The world’s written press then repeated the story, albeit two or three days later, the time needed to overcome incredulity over the issue.

In the May 5 edition of The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh published the first article publicly exposing the Abu Ghraib scandal. The weekly also published exclusive excerpts – not declassified – of Taguba’s 53-page compromising report and was the first to reveal new photos on its web site ( http://www.newyorker.com ); photos that had not been circulated by CBS. The same day, The Washington Post published a new series of some 20 photos. England appeared once again in this series, on the front page of the daily and at the http://www.washingtonpost.com website and subsequently, of course, throughout the international media. The Washington Post affirmed that the photos came from a CD-Rom containing around a thousand images. On May 10, the Wall Street Journal website
( http://online.wsj.com ) published the entire text of the (confidential) Red Cross report that was presented to the United States in February. The following day, General Taguba appeared before the Senate Defense Committee, but decided not to include any of the photos in his report, judging them to be of “an extremely sensitive nature”. It should be noted that however incriminating they may be, the aforementioned photos and videos are merely the visible side of the torture put into practice in Iraq, those included in the reports by Taguba and IRCC offer a real idea but no visual images of any of these exist's so it would seem.

THE WORST IS YET TO COME

In early May, Donald Rumsfeld himself insinuated as much. On Wednesday, May 12, senators and representatives were able to see some 1,600 photos and video clips – unpublished to date – that were in the hands of the Pentagon. Democrat Ron Wyden declared that they were worse than anyone could have imagined. Richard Durban described it as a descent into hell and Republican Hill Frist as “appalling”. Something so explosive that for the moment widespread circulation has not even been considered. “The devastating effect,” of these first revelations, “does away with the credibility of the United States” read Le Monde’s editorial on May 7. Lynndie England – who has now become “Bush’s nightmare” according to a headline in El País on May 7 – will remain as one of the strongest symbols. It does not just refer to a change of direction in the Iraqi conflict, but a nightmare for the history of the modern world in which the hyper-power has descended into total degradation and completely lost its moral leadership, if indeed it ever possessed it. The torture scandal has served as the latest indication of the failure of Bush’s performance with regard to the Iraqi drama. It is said that several hawks are preparing to jump ship. Some are going very far, such as liberal pro-war columnist Thomas Friedman who, on the editorial pages of The New York Times, posed the daring question: Is it possible to successfully achieve a regime change in Iraq without a change of regime in the United States?

Meanwhile, another question remains unanswered: Where does the real level of responsibility lie? With the soldiers who say they were just carrying out orders? According to several investigations, it is almost certain that no one prevented them from doing what they did, and in certain cases they were encouraged by military intelligence officials. On the other hand, it is known that some of the most severe interrogation sessions were carried out under the directions of civilians contracted by private paramilitary firms.

Mrs. Laura Bush commented that each time a photo is released, it is torturous for everyone. Not as much as for the dozens (or more) of Iraqis who have experienced the worst of it: the degradation of the human condition. How can we believe the enchanting and sensitive wife of the president when we know that on May 10 Bush proclaimed that Donald – to whom “the nation owes gratitude”- had undertaken outstanding work against terrorism? “Guarantee or epitaph?” asked El País (May 11). Will Rumsfeld be the spark that ignites Bush’s electoral hopes? A possibility to which analysts are increasingly referring. In the May 11 edition of El País, Allan Lichtman is categorical: “Rumsfeld’s days are numbered. He is now a political
corpse.”


Informant: Walter Lippmann

BUSH vs. GREENPEACE - NOT GUILTY
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223010/

Pacific Lumber tries to go back on deal
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/222535/

Speak Up for the Forest
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/222608/

Temporary Setback for Bush Plan for Roadbuilding Across Wilderness
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/221703/

Sodas Raise Cancer Risk, U.S. Study Finds
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/221512/

Bush EPA Let Factory Farm Industry Draft Their Own Air Pollution Rules
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/222749/

Pollution Alters DNA in Mice, Study Finds
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/222623/

MSG: Slow Poisoning
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/223021/

ACTION ALERT! President Putin - Please Ratify Kyoto Now
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220353/

Urge the wood giants to help stop illegal logging
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219118/

RAPID RESPONSE needed to save Dominican Republic parks
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219119/

Ukraine threatens Europe’s second largest wetland
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219121/

Governor Seeks to Chop Red Tape for Loggers
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220272/

Coastal Flood Potential - Will It Force Redefining of "Defense"?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219266/

Globe Grows Darker as Sunshine Diminishes 10% to 37%
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219468/

GM canola backs out of Australia
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219475/

Europe to back GM corn for humans
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220280/

Ashcroft Fishes Out 1872 Law in a Bid to Scuttle Protester Rights
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219479/

Ocean medicines could be lost
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219477/

Arctic temperatures are warming rapidly, says polar explorer
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/221273/

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/219851/

We are the Majority
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220203/

THE GRAY ZONE
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220179/

Discovering America as It Is
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220210/

Atrocities in Iraq: 'I killed innocent people for our government'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220363/

Baghdad Burning
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220364/

Human rights groups tell US to clean up own house
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220378/

Bush Administration Attack on Peaceful Protest Goes to Trial Today
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/220713/

Iraqis, US GI's & Babylon D.U. poisoned -- CLEAN UP NOW!
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/221168/

Animal welfare activists and backbench members of parliament called on Britain's government Wednesday to reopen the long-running debate on banning hunting with dogs.

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-05-20/s_24066.asp

By Jon Hanian

Some researchers believe Lyme bacteria linked to mystery illness
Boise, ID -

http://www.2online.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x53603&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154


Informant: Pam

READ AND PASS ON

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, and spent years working for the government.

He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.

No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with a chemical when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans?) to become obese. They even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats" .

MSG?

I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge.

MSG was in everything! The Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones. The items that didn't have MSG had something called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who catch on.

But it didn't stop there. When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis', Applebees and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!

So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative or a vitamin?

Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called The Slow Poisoning of America, http://www.spofamerica.com , he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body.

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG at
http://www.msgfacts.com/facts/msgfact12.html
explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more. A study of elderly people showed that people eat more of the foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us?

'Betcha can't eat just one', takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned!

And we wonder why the nation is overweight? The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance: NICOTINE for FOOD!

Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the prepackaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday.

The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim it's safe to eat in any amount.

How can they claim it is safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these?

The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity. Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT, Ribeiro IA. Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002

Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats. Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori RC, Nascimento CM, Ribeiro Brain Res Bull. 2002 Aug

Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: an animal model of multiple risk factors. Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N, Yoshinari Fujishima
Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar

Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in suckling period and subsequent development of obesity. Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao K, Kusunoki
Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct

Yes, that last study was not a typo, it WAS written in 1978. Both the medical research community and food "manufaturers" have known MSG's side effects for decades!

Many more studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to Diabetes, Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer's.

But what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see?

Even as you read this, George W. Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress. Called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" also known as the "Cheeseburger Bill", this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods.
Read about it for yourself at:
http://www.yahoo.com.http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040311/ap_on_go_co/obesity_lawsuits_4

The Bill has already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters get it through before the media lets everyone know about MSG, the intentional Nicotine for food.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada. While sitting in the Government office, the official told him "Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn't touch the stuff!" But this top level government official refused to tell the public what he knew.

The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the fast food industry may hurt their profit margin.

So what do we do?

The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it.

Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive.

But what can I do about it? I'm just one voice, what can I do to stop the poisoning of our children, while guys like Bush are insuring financial protection for the industry that is poisoning us.

I for one am doing something about it.

I am sending this email out to everyone I know in an attempt to show you the truth that the corporate owned politicians and media won't tell you.

The best way you can help save yourself and your children from this drug-induced epidemic, is to forward this email to everyone. With any luck, it will circle the globe before Bush can pass the Bill protecting those who poisoned us.

The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry. Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place before someone blew the whistle on Nicotine?

Blow the whistle on MSG.

If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us, and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine, at http://www.pubmed.com Type in the words "MSG Obese", and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

We do not want to be rats in one giant experiment, and we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic, addicted sheep, waiting for the slaughter.

With your help we can put an end to this, and stop the Slow Poisoning of America. Let's save our children

Source: http://www.rense.com/general52/msg.htm


Informant: Pam

It's over! I've been in court in Miami all this week defending our ability to stand up for what's right for the planet and our right to speak out against environmental abuses

And at 3:30 this afternoon the judge acquitted Greenpeace on all charges. The prosecution's case was unproven before we even presented our defense. I wanted you to be among the first to know. Thanks so much for your support.

It's incredible - in the last couple of weeks 81,311 people like you, all around the world, have e-mailed President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft to condemn this prosecution. The US Government has never heard from Greenpeace in such strong numbers. It's a great show of what we can all do together, and I congratulate you.

Together we have won. Bush and Ashcroft have been shown to have been vindictive, using an 1872 law, and shown to be trying to stifle civil disobedience by shutting Greenpeace down.

But Greenpeace is still in business, and we come out of court more determined than ever to stand up for the planet. But we need your help.

The US Government has forced us to spend a lot of time and money defending this case. Money we should be spending defending ancient forests, sailing the high seas to highlight the collapse of ocean eco-systems, campaigning against irresponsible corporations that pollute our air and water at will.

Our campaign to defend ancient forests, in the Amazon - where this Miami case started - and the last remaining ancient forests in the United States, continues. Watch us.

However, the threat to Greenpeace is not yet over. Hard on the heels of the US Government's case, we may end up in court against Exxon Mobil, the world's largest corporate producer of global warming gases. Last year Greenpeace volunteers protested at their headquarters dressed in tiger suits to highlight Exxon's role in global warming. They didn't like it, and our volunteers face felony charges. Like Bush, they are trying to shut us up for good.

So please, keep Greenpeace in action, be part of the action. We appreciate your on- going support, and we continue to need it, now that we have faced off Bush's malicious prosecution. If you can make an emergency donation, please click here.
https://usa.greenpeace.org/trial/

We couldn't have done it without you.

Rave on
John Passacantando
Executive Director, Greenpeace