False confessions, coerced pleas, show trials — the Justice Department’s reliance on Soviet-style tactics has turned the war on terror into a Potemkin village...

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/03936976.asp



From Information Clearing House

More Indian workers are returning from Iraq with distressing tales of torture and human rights violations in the military camps of the United States...

http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/25iype.htm


From Information Clearing House

You know, of course, that the alleged handover of Iraqi sovereignty on June 30 is a phony-baloney public-relations stunt. The armed forces will remain in the country. A U.S. embassy with 1,000 employees will open. In other words, it will be a continued occupation with an Iraqi face...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6390.htm

The shameless corporate feeding frenzy in Iraq is fuelling the resistance...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6382.htm

Die Erteilung des Patentes auf die Krebsmaus war 1992 der Anlass zur Gründung der damaligen Koordinationsstelle "Kein Patent auf Leben!".

Nun steht die endgültige Entscheidung über dieses Patent vor der Technischen Beschwerdekammer an. Unsere Chancen stehen nicht gut, das Patent zurückzuweisen, denn für das Europäische Patentamt sind Patente auf Tiere (und Pflanzen) schon "gang und gäbe".

Die Verhandlung findet im Europäischen Patentamt in München, Erhardtstr. 27, statt. Sie ist öffentlich.

Zeit: 5.- 9. Juli 2004, Beginn um 9 Uhr. Möglicherweise dauert die Verhandlung nicht die vollen fünf angesetzten Tage.

Am Montag früh wird vor dem Patentamt eine Aktion stattfinden ab ca. 8.30 Uhr.

Sie können in Kürze von unserer Homepage (http://www.keinpatent.de ) eine Sammlung von Texten herunterladen unter "Krebsmaus: Geschichte mit Maus und Mensch".
Es sind Texte von damals, Anfang der neunziger Jahre und Texte von heute.

Noch eine Bemerkung zur Biopatentrichtlinie:
Sie ist noch nicht umgesetzt in Deutschland (und in den anderen säumigen europäischen Ländern). Inzwischen wird von Terminen im Herbst 2004 gesprochen. Die Aktionen mit den Postkarten und den Briefen gehen weiter. Die Briefe sind von unserer Homepage herunterzuladen, die Postkarten auch.

Schöner sind aber die "echten" Karten. Noch sind welche vorhanden und bei uns zu bestellen. Bei größeren Mengen bitten wir, wenn möglich, um Beteiligung an den Kosten.

Kontakt:

"Kein Patent auf Leben!", Frohschammerstr. 20m 80807 München
Tel. 089/35 65 18 42 oder 0172/8963858
Fax 089/359 6622
rtippe@keinpatent.de

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ruth Tippe

TAKE ACTION @ http://forests.org/action/ecuador/

The Brazilian national oil company PetroBras is finalizing plans to build a 45 kilometer (28 miles) access road into the heart of the ultradiverse Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Yasuni National Park's outstanding biodiversity was recognized in 1989 when it was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The park contains one of the highest known levels of plant diversity per hectare in the world. Wildlife abounds as jaguars still roam, woolly and spider monkeys still swing through the trees, and harpy eagles patrol the canopy. The proposed road will be a completely new artery, opening access into remote, primary Amazonian rainforest relatively untouched by human activities. As has happened elsewhere, it will trigger an irreversible wave of colonization and over hunting. Further, this road will transect the territory of the Chiru Isla Quichua indigenous community living along the Rio Napo, and would enter the ancestral territory of the Huaorani, possibly even impacting an uncontacted community. Two other major oil projects located within Yasuni Park are in earlier stages of development, thus the PetroBras road could very well set the precedent for a new wave of road building within the park. To protect Yasuni National Park's unique and threatened nature, wildlife and peoples, it is imperative that no further roads are built into the area.

TAKE ACTION @ http://forests.org/action/ecuador/

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

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/breakingnews/index.php?id=32


Informant: Gotemf

Governments and consumers in the United States and worldwide should take immediate steps to reduce the threat of global warming and to prepare for a future in which coastal flooding, reduced crop yields and elevated rates of climate-related illness are all but certain, top U.S. scientists said Tuesday.

At a meeting organized by AAAS and its journal, Science, the climate researchers argued that while some policy experts and sectors of the public dispute the risk, there is in fact no cause for doubt: The world is significantly warmer today than it was a century ago--and it's getting warmer. Without action now, they warned, the impact could be devastating.

As the Earth warms, ice sheets are melting and sea levels are rising--island and river-delta communities already are vanishing beneath the waves. Native Inuit fishermen are falling through thinning Arctic ice they've traversed many times before. In recent decades, climate change claimed some 150,000 lives in 2000 and sickened many others, especially elderly people and very young children, according to the World Health Organization.

One of the conference experts, Harvard geochemistry Professor Daniel Schrag, likened the situation to the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. "So if you're standing at the back of the Titanic, you're thinking, 'Oh, I'm going up, we can't be sinking'."

"We are performing an experiment at a planetary scale that hasn't been done for millions of years," Schrag said. "This should not be a partisan issue," he added. "We cannot wait for a catastrophe to appear before we act because by then it would be too late. The next few decades will determine our path for the next century."

Another panelist examined what is known about the interaction between the atmosphere, sea ice and the ocean in the North Atlantic from studies using observations, data and modeling. "The next 100 years will experience climate changes on a much greater scale than we've seen over the past 150 years," said David Battisti, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington. "We can reliably say that the planet will be much warmer."

Schrag and Battisti were part of an all-star panel of climate experts convened Tuesday 15 June by AAAS, the world's largest general science society, and its journal, Science. They and other influential researchers, including Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Sherwood Rowland of the University of California-Irvine, shared their latest findings and best temperature projections at the free, public conference. The forum--"Qs and AAAs About Global Climate Change"--was organized by Science Editor-in-Chief Donald Kennedy and Albert Teich, director of Science & Policy for AAAS.

In this way, the U.S. researchers took some first steps toward responding to a 9 January Science article by Sir David King, the United Kingdom's chief scientific adviser, which challenged America to better control greenhouse gases. (Reference: http://www.sciencemag.org .)

Many experts at the conference suggested that the onus is on the U.S.--and the American public--to makes changes that will reduce the nation's disproportionate impact on the world environment. "You hope that somehow people will understand that we have got to do something now," Joyce Penner, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Michigan, told Reuters in an interview. "Some people get it -- some people are driving hybrids. But there is a problem with the American public."

[no kidding ?]

Kennedy was among those to predict that climate change could bring potentially disastrous repercussions in communities around the world.

"It should go without saying that the vulnerability of the world's poor will be multiplied many-fold if global warming causes significant melting of one or both of the polar ice sheets," Kennedy said in an interview before the conference. "Yet exacerbation of poverty around the world--whether from flooding, reduced crop yields or increased prevalence of asthma, diarrhea, malaria or other illnesses--is part of the climate-change story that hasn't really been told. That is why it's important to make the science underlying climate change accessible to policymakers in parts of the world, like the United States, where much of the source of the problem lies."

[and we all know how high the US govt. holds innocent lives...]

Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, agreed.

"By mid-century, millions more poor children around the world are likely to face displacement, malnourishment, disease and even starvation unless all countries take action now to slow global warming," he said in an interview.

"Mansions along the Hamptons of Long Island, New York, can be rebuilt further inland when the beaches erode. But imagine the difficulties faced by families in Bangladesh. An area where about 8 million people now live would be underwater if global sea level were to rise half a meter. Where are they going to go?"

[To America, the biggest contributor to greenhouse levels perhaps ? No wait, Dave has just closed the border...tx on behalf of Holland...blub]

The authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, has estimated that, between 1900 and 2100, temperatures will rise between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius (2.5 to 10.4 F). In the past century, the IPCC has reported, temperatures have increased between 0.2 and 0.6 degrees C-or, an increase of about 1 degree F to date, with most of the warming happening over the most recent decades.

Scientists generally agree that temperatures are rising as a result of human activities such as fossil-fuel burning, which releases carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases. This warming has caused glacial melting and subsequent increases in sea levels worldwide of up to 20 centimeters, or 7.8 inches.

[Including bigger stormsurges multiplies the rise in possible harm imo, it's not just the rise alone that does the damage.]

Some scientists have disputed the pessimistic climate-change forecasts, and the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has cited concerns about the models that predict dramatic climate change and the perilous consequences. White House science adviser John H. Marburger III earlier this year defended Bush's policy and rejected critics' claims that the administration is in denial about global warming. For example, he said, Bush acknowledged in 2001 that the concentration "of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, have increased substantially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution."

[Did Bush really say that ? He probably meant the level of CO2 in Coca-Cola...]

Rowland, in his remarks at the AAAS conference, said it's not just carbon dioxide concentrations that are rising. The levels of other greenhouse gases--water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide andozone--are rising too, he said.

Water vapor is not produced by human activities in significant enough amounts to worry about, Rowland said. Even so, he noted, if human-related activity changes the temperature of the ocean, then water vapor increases.

Methane concentrations increased from 300 parts per million in 1958 to 380 ppm in April 2004, he said. Carbon dioxide concentrations were 280 ppm in 1800 and 380 ppm in 1980. Concentrations of nitrous oxide and tropospheric ozone are going up as well.

A century ago, Rowland said, only a handful of cities worldwide claimed a population of over 1 million. Today, there are more than 50 cities with multi-million populations. "Having large cities, and many motorized cities today, is an important reason why tropospheric ozone is on the rise," he said.

The scientists at Tuesday's climate conference acknowledged that questions remain about climate-forecasting models. And, they said, there will always be uncertainty about exactly what may happen and precisely how various factors exert an influence. However, the panelists also agreed that accurate predictions can be made over the long term--and that greenhouse gases released as a result of human activity are a major change agent. In fact, they said, the models are more likely making conservative predictions rather than generous ones.

"We have seen a huge increase in the capabilities of these models," said Gerald A. Meehl, a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "They do quite well in simulating global temperature evolution and extremes."

[Even my PCs are helping there ! =]

According to Oppenheimer, models project that if Greenland temperatures rise by another 3 degrees C, complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet would eventually result. "If the West Antarctic ice sheet becomes unstable, global sea level would rise about 5 meters and as much as seven meters if the Greenland ice sheet melts," Oppenheimer said. Although the sea level rise would largely occur in later centuries, these outcomes could be set in place within the current century.

"Antarctica is very dramatically losing ice at this point," Oppenheimer told reporters at the conference. "If Greenland or West Antarctica disintegrated, the state of Florida would disappear."

[Good to see it does effect the US too. They couldn't care less about ppl getting wet feet in Bangla-desh, Sri-Lanka, Holland...]

Such an outcome isn't imminent, he acknowledged. But would melting polar ice destabilize ocean circulation, pushing the relatively warm Gulf Stream southward and causing the North Atlantic to freeze as depicted in Hollywood's latest disaster movie, "The Day After Tomorrow"?

Probably not, said Battisti. "One hundred years from now, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is likely to be at least two times greater than today," he said. "Any localized cooling that might occur in the North Atlantic will be overwhelmed by a very large warming caused by a large increase in the greenhouse effect."

[Hmmm...not a word about a possible turning point into an iceage ?]

Greenhouse gases are warming the Earth faster than aerosols like dust can mask them, said Penner, professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan. Various types of aerosols--from soot and dust to sulfur--can either cool or warm the climate, she explained. Warming is associated with absorbing black carbon emissions such as soot, while non-absorbing aerosols are tied to cooling, which scientists call "negative forcing."

"Greenhouse gas effects are not going to be masked by aerosols," Penner said in an interview, debunking a popular myth related to climate change. "Even the best current aerosol models overestimate the cooling force of aerosols. Warming caused by greenhouse gases will overwhelm any aerosol-related cooling."

[Exit HAARP]

At the conference, Penner said many questions remain about aerosols. "In spite of this uncertainty," she said, "there is going to be a major change in the future. Once we're into this future, we're into it for a long time."

Alan I. Leshner, AAAS CEO and executive publisher of Science, joined Kennedy in co-hosting the conference, which was sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Conference Board. Among the other speakers were Thomas Crowley, Duke University; Richard Alley, Pennsylvania State University; Lonnie Thompson, Ohio State University; and Chris Field, Carnegie Institution of Washington.

—Ginger Pinholster, Barbara Rice and Monica Amarelo

16 June 2004

http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2004/0616climate.shtml
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1404/index.html


Informant: Ace

In this series, we are searching for answers to the question, "Why is the U.S. failing to stop, and in some cases actually promoting, the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide?" (See Rachel's #792 and #793.)

Answers to this question will help us understand President Bush's philosophy of environmental protection -- or perhaps the philosophy of his core supporters in the Republican Party on whom he is depending in the 2004 election.

President Bush has made it clear that he understands the threat posed by nuclear weapons, materials and know-how in the wrong hands. He has said, "We will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes and terrorists to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."[1]

This was not an isolated statement. In two key White House policy documents published in 2002, the Bush administration concluded that, "The threat of weapons of mass destruction is the highest priority for the United States and should be for other countries."[2,3]

The President has spoken out strongly and repeatedly on the matter and has even said that failure on this issue will be judged "harshly" by history.

When the White House published its National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction in Dec., 2002, the President said, "The gravest danger facing the Nation lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. Our enemies have openly declared that they are seeking weapons of mass destruction, and evidence indicates that they are doing so with determination. The United States will not allow these efforts to succeed.... History will judge harshly those who saw this coming danger but failed to act."[3]

Yet the evidence is overwhelming that the U.S. is failing to act on this growing threat. (See Rachel's #792, #793.) Indeed, the Bush administration is actively engaged in spreading nuclear technology and know-how into the hands of potentially-unstable nations.

On June 20, 2004, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a 96-page report agreeing with the Bush administration that, "Terrorist acquisition of nuclear weapons poses the greatest single threat to the United States."[4, pg. 25].

However, the Carnegie report points out, "The [Bush] administration has not put money or significant political effort behind [its] proposals."[4, pg. 13]

According to the Carnegie report, the President's proposed budget for 2005 actually reduces the funds available for U.S. efforts to curb the spread of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium world-wide, and reduces the U.S. financial contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "whose responsibilities have greatly increased while its budget has stayed flat."[4, pg. 13]

Nuclear-armed terrorists are the No. 1 threat to the U.S., and the No. 2 threat is nuclear-armed states like Pakistan and North Korea. As the Carnegie report says, "National instability or a radical change in government could lead to the collapse of state control over weapons and nuclear materials and the migration of nuclear scientists to other nations or to the service of other groups."

However, instead of trying to keep nuclear technology and know-how out of the hands of such states, the Bush administration is actively encouraging U.S. corporations to sell their nuclear hardware and know-how abroad. On a recent trip to China, Vice-President Cheney was peddling Westinghouse nuclear power plants, even though China has announced that it intends to transfer nuclear technology to Pakistan.[5]

These contradictory facts are deeply perplexing. I have been reviewing the available literature on this subject for the past two years, trying to answer the question, "Why is the Bush administration promoting nuclear weapons, materials and know-how world-wide?"

Naturally, all my answers are merely hypotheses because I have no special knowledge of what motivates the President, the Vice-President, their core supporters in the House and Senate, and their advisors in the Pentagon. I only know what's in the public record.

So let us begin. In the remainder of this series, I will examine the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis #1: Simple incompetence and confusion among the nation's defense agencies. Perhaps they actually want to curb the spread of nuclear technologies but just can't manage the task.

Hypothesis #2: Perfectly normal corporate profit goals combined with the ever-pressing need for re-election campaign contributions. Perhaps the administration is promoting nuclear power to reward potential campaign contributors in the nuclear business, such as Westinghouse, General Electric, Framatone (formerly Babcock & Wilcox), Bechtel, Halliburton, Brown & Root, and other large-scale construction firms that build nuclear power plants and the infrastructure they require (roads, power lines, special docks at seaports, fuel processing plants, security apparatus and training, and so forth.)

Hypothesis #3: Nuclear power is needed now to prevent nations and regions from "going solar." Because each nuclear power plant requires an investment measured in billions of dollars, and because nuclear power plants are dangerous, they require (and thus maintain) the highly-centralized, top-down, quasi-military social structure that modern transnational corporations provide. The "military-industrial" complex that President Eisenhower warned us about in 1961 is epitomized by nuclear technologies.

Solar power on the other hand can be small-scale, locally-controlled, definitely not dangerous, much less subject to terrorist disruption,[6] and therefore much more compatible with an open, democratic social structure that might, as time passes, erode corporate control. Therefore, in a sense, solar power is dangerous and even subversive because it could subvert "business as usual."

Hypothesis #4: Just as nuclear power plants require and promote a centralized, quasi-military, corporatized social structure, so also does a world awash in weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.

So long as a there is a thriving black market in weapons-grade nuclear materials. then we can more easily justify a $450 billion annual military budget, a network of U.S. espionage agencies active now in 80 countries,[7] and pre-emptive wars such as the one now in Iraq (and others reportedly being readied now by the Pentagon against Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan[8]).

Whether your job is military, civilian, or somewhere in between, if you're in the business of fighting the nation's perceived enemies, and your want your business to thrive, then enemies armed with small nuclear weapons may be the best kind of enemies to have. Everyone will support your work against such enemies. They will even follow you into war against such enemies.

Hypothesis #5: Now we enter the realm of realpolitik, the kind of world that Henry Kissinger inhabits, where thinking the unthinkable is routine.[9]

Is it possible that some people within the Bush administration, (or among groups whom the Bush administration considers essential to its electoral success in 2004), might imagine benefits from a rogue nation or group detonating a small nuclear weapon in Jerusalem or even New York?

Here are some crackpot speculations perhaps worth considering:

a) Maybe detonation of a small nuclear weapon would serve to remind the current generation how dangerous nuclear technology really is. A rogue nuclear detonation would quickly bring the civilian nuclear power industry to an end. It might also spur the international community to quickly sweep up the tons of weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium lying about in 40-or-so nations.

b) A rogue nuclear detonation would almost certainly spell the end of democracy as we know it. Major portions of the bill of rights would probably be canceled within hours.

Recall that the Bush adminstration saw the mass murders on 9/11 as sufficient reason to scrap the legal doctrine of habeas corpus which was formalized in English law in 1679 and was embodied a century later in the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court has "recognized the fact that `[t]he writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.'[10]

A writ of habeas corpus is a judge's mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought before the court so the court can determine whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he or she should be released from custody. Without habeas corpus, people can be imprisoned forever without any recourse whatsoever. Even the fact of their imprisonment can be kept secret. This is what the Bush administration has said it aims to do at Guantanamo Bay and perhaps at other quasi-military prisons the U.S. maintains around the world.

Seeing the right of habeas corpus repealed in response to the mass murders of 9/11, everyone has to be impressed by the fragility of what seemed like the immutable underpinnings of democracy and indeed civilization itself. The enemies of democracy -- inside the U.S. and outside -- can see as well as anyone that a nuclear detonation in New York would almost surely end the American experiment in self-rule.

c) There is a growing movement in the U.S. to erase the barrier that separates church and state, to replace our secular government with a religious government.[11] We can see the beginnings of such thinking in the Texas State Republican Party Platform for 2004, which says, "The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of American is a Christian nation." And: "The Party understands that the Ten Commandments are the basis of our basic freedoms and the cornerstone of Western legal tradition." And: "Our Party pledges to exert its influence to restore the original intent of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and dispel the myth of the separation of Church and State."[12]

By removing the Constitutional wall that separates church and state, some people merely hope to get a free handout from Washington for their religious group (the President's "faith-based initiative" gave $1.1 billion of taxpayer funds to religious organizations during 2003).[13]

Others have much larger goals, hoping to institute a fully theocratic order in which their idea of Christian Biblical law replaces our secular democracy, essentially repealing the enlightment and returning the world to the 17th century.[11]

d) There is a different, and much larger, group of Christians who say they believe that their personal salvation depends upon the return of Christ to Earth and that this second coming of Christ requires a specific series of events to unfold in the Middle East, including the battle of Armageddon, which many interpret to mean a nuclear World War III.

These believers in Armageddon theology include the Reverend Billy Graham, the Reverend Pat Robertson, the singer Pat Boone, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed, Jr., Gary Bauer, Republican strategist Ed McAteer, advice columnist Laura Schlessinger, writer Hal Lindsey ("The Late, Great Planet Earth"), the Reverend Tim LaHaye (co-author of the 11-volume "Left Behind" series), House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Tex.), U.S. Senator James N. Inhofe (R-Ok., Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works), Attorney General John Ashcroft, and many others in top leadership positions within the Bush adminstration.

Author Grace Halsell -- herself a born-again Christian from Texas -- toured the Holy Land in the Middle East twice with followers of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Halsell then wrote a book about her experiences. In "Prophecy and Politics," which she subtitled, "Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War," Halsell wrote, "I have heard Falwell preach on nuclear Armageddon, and I saw his face turn radiant at the thought." [14, pg. 197] --Peter Montague

[To be continued.]

====

[1] President Bush quoted in Dafna Linzer, "Report Faults U.S. Action on Nuclear Proliferation," Washington Post June 21, 2004.

[2] The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (Sept., 2002), available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html

[3] National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction (December, 2002), available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/WMDStrategy.pdf

[4] George Perkovich and others, Universal Compliance; A Strategy for Nuclear Security (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, June, 2004). Draft available at http://www.ceip.org/strategy .

[5] H. Josef Hebert, "Cheney to shop Westinghouse nuke technology to China," Salt Lake City (Utah) Tribune April 10, 2004.

[6 Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, Brittle Power; Energy Strategy for National Security (Brown House Publishing: Andoiver, Mass., 1982).

[7] Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, "Bush Awaits History's Judgment; President's Scorecard Shows Much Left to Do," Washington Post February 3, 2002, pg. A1.

[8] General Wesley R. Clark, "The Clark Critique," Newsweek Sept. 29, 2003, pg. 31, which is an excerpt from Clark's book, "Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire" (Public Affairs, 2003; ISBN: 1586482777).

[9] See the video, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, based on the book of the same title by British journalist Christopher Hitchens (Verso paperback, 2002; ISBN: 1859843980); for the video, see http://www.thetrialsofhenrykissinger.com/trials.html

[10] Brown v. Vasquez, 952 F.2d 1164, 1166 (9th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, 112 S.Ct. 1778 (1992).

[11] See, for example, Frederick Clarkson, "Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence," Public Eye Magazine Vol. 8, Nos. 1 and 2 (March and June, 1994). Available at http://www.rachel.org/library/getfile.cfm?ID=400 . And see Joan Bokaer, "The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party," available in text format (no pictures) at http://www.rachel./org/library/getfile.cfm?ID=407 and in a 2 megabyte PDF file at http://www.rachel./org/library/getfile.cfm?ID=407 or you can find start reading the 19-page web document at http://www.4religious-right.info/ .

[12] "2004 [Texas] State Republican Party Platform" available at http://www.texasgop.org/library/platform.php

[13] Elisabeth Bumiller, "Preaching to the Choir, Bush Encourages Religious Gathering," New York Times June 2, 2004, pg. A17.

[14] Grace Halsell, Prophecy and Politics; Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War (Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1986). ISBN 0-88208-210-8.

http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?issue_ID=2450

AFP

June 24, 2004

PARIS - France and Britain made a joint appeal for action against global warming, declaring that a recent string of extreme weather events had now confirmed climate change was underway.

"The (European) heatwave of summer 2003, repeated floods, the advance of desertification, the melting of the icesheets and glaciers are an illustration of the first effects of climate upheaval," four of their ministers said in a joint commentary, published on Thursday in the French daily le Monde.

Describing global warming as "major collective risk", the two countries called on the world community, led by industrial nations, to hold down emissions of fossil-fuel gases blamed for the rising temperatures.

"Our two governments are firmly committed, with their European partners, to meeting this crucial challenge," they said.

The article was signed for Britain by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Secretary of State for the Environment Margaret Beckett, and for France by Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and Ecology Minister Serge Lepeltier.

The four warned that climate change would have an "uncalculable" cost on health, the environment and national economies and would hit future generations grievously.

The tab "will clearly be higher than the economic cost of measures to tackle the phenomenon," they warned.

On June 4, the secretary of the UN's paramount environment accord warned that levels of greenhouse gases were growing at "an alarmingly rapid" rate.

Joke Waller-Hunter, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), announced in Bonn that US scientists in Hawaii found atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in March to be 379 parts per million (ppm).

That amounts to three ppm increase from 2003, a massive 66-percent increase over the previous year-on-year rise. Two centuries ago, before industrialisation sparked the widespread use of oil, gas and coal, atmospheric CO2 was 280 ppm.

The UNFCCC is the parent treaty of the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to trim output of fossil gases.

Kyoto, signed in 1997, remains in limbo.

The United States, the biggest carbon polluter, has walked away from it and Russia is making contradictary noises about ratifying the accord, a move that would push the deal over a legal threshold and make it an international treaty.

http://www.ttc.org/200406241228.i5ocsdf19359.htm



Informant: NHNE

by Norman Solomon

AlterNet

06/25/04

About three-quarters of a century ago, the Louisiana populist Huey Long commented: 'If fascism came to America it would be on a program of Americanism.' Well, fascism hasn't arrived in the United States -- millions exercise crucial freedoms of speech and press every day -- but we should recognize that the U.S. government's response to 9/11 has included some fascistic elements. ... At Cornell University, government professor Theodore Lowi now aptly describes the George W. Bush administration as 'a toxic combination of God rhetoric, money, cronyism and severe moral hierarchy that poses a real threat of fascism for our nation...

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/19050/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

PNR: EuGH wird angerufen

Der Justizausschuss des EU-Parlaments hatte es mit einer Zweidrittelmehrheit gefordert, Noch-Parlamentspräsident Pat Cox, der immer viel Verständnis für die Forderungen der USA und die vorauseilende Vorgangsweise der Kommission hatte, blieb nun nichts anderes übrig, als unten Angefügtes zu verkünden.

relayed by Harkank


Europäisches Parlament legt Berufung ein
Will Annullierung des Abkommen der EU-Kommission über die Weitergabe von Flugpassagierdaten an die USA
Sieht keinen ausreichenden Schutz für übermittelte Daten

Das Europäische Parlament wird den Europäischen Gerichtshof [EuGH] anrufen, um eine Annullierung des Flugdatenabkommen der EU mit den USA zu erreichen.

Dies teilte der scheidende Präsident des Europäischen Parlaments, Pat Cox, heute in Dublin mit. Auch gegen den Entscheid der Europäischen Kommission, wonach die übermittelten Flugpassagierdaten [PNR] in der ausgehandelten Regelung ausreichend geschützt würden, wird Einspruch eingelegt.

Cox hat damit auf einen Entscheid des Rechtsausschuss des Europaparlaments von Mitte des Monats reagiert, der mit einer Zwei-Drittel-Mehrheit bereits eine Klage vor dem EuGH gefordert hatte.

"Diese Entscheidung spiegelt die Besorgnis einer großen Mehrheit des Europäischen Parlaments und deren Bedürfnis wider, die Grundrechte und -freiheiten der Bürger zu verteidigen", so Cox.

Quelle: quintessenz-list Digest, Vol 15, Issue 11

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=42&contentid=29&page=2


Informant: di

'Embedded Patriots'

The most intriguing story in Washington these days is a subterranean conflict that reporters cannot cover because some of them are involved. A potent guerrilla insurgency has formed in and around the Bush presidency--a revolt of old pros in government who strike from the shadows with devastating effect. They tell the truth...

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040712&s=greider


From Information Clearing House

US Vice President Dick Cheney has resorted to the use of obscenities to defend his former employer Halliburton. The terse discussion between the two ended with Cheney finally telling Leahy to "f--- off" or "go f--- yourself," the aides said...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3AA684D0-8986-4D14-A3CC-68A9640FFDD5.htm


From Information Clearing House

The report paints a devastating picture of the CIA division that sends clandestine agents overseas, recruits foreign spies, steals secrets and provides covert commandos for the war on terrorism...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.quark24jun24,0,1205199.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines


From Information Clearing House

In an Open Letter released on the eve of the EU-US summit in Ireland, Amnesty International calls on the Irish Presidency of the European Union to end the EU's embarrassing silence in the face of the United States' ongoing breaches of fundamental human rights and humanitarian law principles in the pursuit of its "war on terror" and in Iraq...

http://news.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGEUR016242004


From Information Clearing House

Several members of Congress, reacting to news that two Fort Carson intelligence officers face involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide charges in the interrogation death of an Iraqi prisoner, said the military's inquiry should not stop with prosecuting the two soldiers, but move up the chain of command...

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E27059%257E2233851,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The company commander of the U.S. soldiers charged with abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison testified Thursday that the top military intelligence commander at the prison was present the night a detainee died during an interrogation and efforts were made to conceal the details of his death...

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/national/s_200518.html


From Information Clearing House

Three U.S. soldiers will testify that a former CIA contractor beat an Afghan detainee with a heavy flashlight 10 to 30 times and kicked the man so hard he came off the ground and later begged to be shot, a prosecutor said Friday...

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040625_623.html


From Information Clearing House

Distinguished social scientist and public intellectual Chalmers Johnson, joins host Harry Kreisler for a conversation on the nature of the American Empire and its costs and consequences for the future of American democracy and power in the world...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6379.htm

http://www.ips-dc.org/iraq/costsofwar/


From Information Clearing House

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1246876,00.html


From Information Clearing House

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/06/24/national0353EDT0452.DTL


Informant: kevcross5

by Sen. Ernest Hollings

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hollings.php?articleid=2869


Informant: kevcross5

by VARIOUS

Follow the money trail. It would be a federal crime to cover up expenditure of millions or billions of dollars without oversight by thw Congress. If massive amounts of our tax dollars &/or government money is being spent without approval - somewhere in the equation, Congress & others involved are breaking federal law. Under federal law, they are putting themselves at risk of prison. Pressure & responsibility mounts as citizens focus of expenditure of money under their responsibility. Follow the money trail.


Now, here is Will Thomas' press release:
Now we're getting somewhere! A senior FAA source has just confirmed that massive chemtrail activity over the US East Coast on March 12 was the result of a military operation (see below).

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Take this new release to your local media - newspaper, radio, & television & insist they cover this breaking story.

http://www.broadcast.com/shows/endoftheline/01archives.html

Reporters can email me directly for more details.

It's time to put this story before the American public!

More to follow.

My best to all,
Will Thomas
News Release Lifeboat News Service
http://www.lifeboatnews.com

FAA Confirms Ongoing Military Operation Over U.S. East Coast

PORTLAND, ME -- A FAA official in charge of air traffic control over the northeastern U. S. has confirmed an ongoing military operation in America's skies. In an exclusive taped interview with freelance radio reporter S. T. Brendt, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) manager
said he was told on as many as four occasions in March, 2001 to re-route commercial air traffic around military aircraft taking part in an undisclosed aerial operation over the northeastern seaboard.

On her way to the interview location, Brendt observed six big jets laying brilliant white lines above a broken cloud layer. Instead of dissipating like normal condensation trails, these lingering plumes grew wider & wider, intersecting & merging. Speaking on condition of strict anonymity as intense chemtrail activity continued overhead, this Deep Sky federal aviation source expressed concern over the classified nature of military operations repeatedly conducted at altitudes between 37,000 & 40,000 feet. While air traffic controllers normally ignore air traffic above 10,000 feet, the ATC manager said he was ordered to divert incoming European air traffic away from the military planes. When asked why, he said, I was told there was a military exercise in the area. Of course, they
wouldn't give me any of the particulars.

The initial FAA disclosure came on March 12, as mass aerial maneuvers saturated northeastern U.S. skies with Xs, circular patterns & parallel lines characteristic of chemtrail activity reported by pilots, police officers & former military personnel across the United States.

Brendt contacted the FAA official after counting more than 30 big jets spreading persistent plumes within 45 minutes. Lou Aubuchont confirmed Brendt's count, noting that during his stint in U.S. Navy intelligence he had never seen a military exercise of such magnitude.

After Brendt called in her sightings, assistant WMWV news director Richard Dean counted 370 chemical trails criss-crossing his nearby location for six-&-a-half hours. But local Air Traffic Controllers reported only nine commercial jets on their radars at the time. Thousands of eyewitnesses have reported similar spray activity obscuring North American skies over the past two years.

In December 2000 Canadian aviation authority Terry Stewart investigated a Victoria caller's complaint of intensive chemtrail activity over the British Columbia capitol. In a taped message, the environmental manager for the Victoria International Airport checked with the control tower & reported, it's a military exercise, U.S. & Canadian air force exercise that's going on. They wouldn't give me any specifics on it...

Read further at: http://tinyurl.com/2own6

Press Release - Western Shoshone Payoff Bill Passes Both Houses of Congress - Bush Administration "Red Hot" - Fight Continues

Western Shoshone Defense Project, 775-468-0230, http://www.wsdp.org

Press Release – For Immediate Release

Congress Passes Bill to Force Payment on Western Shoshone Land Struggle -- A Sad Day for the Rule of Law in the United States, but the Fight’s not Over Say the Western Shoshone.

June 25, 2004. Crescent Valley, NV. As of this morning, the Western Shoshone Distribution Bill has passed both houses of Congress and is on its way to the Bush Administration for signature. The bill would authorize an alleged payoff of approximately 15 cents an acres for tens of millions of acres of disputed lands in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. A majority of tribal councils, representing approximately 80% of the population, the Western Shoshone National Council and all the traditional people strongly oppose the bill, they are supported by the National Congress of American Indians and Amnesty International. This formal opposition was apparently ignored however and an undocumented, unverified straw poll was used instead by the Bush Administration and Nevada legislators to justify the legislation.

White House staffer Jennifer Farley, Deputy Associate Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, informed one Shoshone Tribal Chairman that the bill was “red hot”. The significance of the issue to the White House is apparent: Copies of Assistant Secretary of Interior Stephen J. Griles’ calendars reflect meetings with Interior Department legal staff, including Bush’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals nominee, William Myers, regarding “Western Shoshone Trespass (Dann Sisters)” just six months before the Department of Interior started military-style seizures of livestock owned by Western Shoshone traditionalists, including grandmothers Mary and Carrie Dann.

The land base at issue is the third largest gold producing area in the world and cited by a 1999 Interior report as the number one investment opportunity for extraction companies. It is also the site where the nation’s nuclear waste repository would be located, Yucca Mountain, and the home to the Nevada Test Site and Federal Counterterrorism Facility where the Bush Administration has talked of reopening nuclear testing. Both Bush and his political advisor Karl Rove, have made personal visits to Nevada in the last thirty days.

“I am utterly disappointed. It’s unbelievable that the U.S. body that makes the laws has acted in this manner. The fight is not over. A fraud is a fraud - Individuals cannot sell out a nation and the bill, although a threat politically, does nothing to change our inherent rights or our Treaty rights. Congress was informed of all the facts that touch upon this issue. We will use the Treaty of Ruby Valley to stop Yucca Mountain and to protect our lands. Our title is still intact.” Stated Raymond Yowell, Western Shoshone National Council.

“The self-described, private group who pushed for this money are not members of any federally-recognized council and have no authority to speak on behalf of our Tribe or the Western Shoshone Nation. The Nevada legislators and the Bush Administration have been well-advised of this fact. The way this legislation was handled makes an absolute sham of the stated government to government relationship and responsibility of the U.S. government.” Stated Hugh Stevens, Chairman of the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone Nation. “Senator Reid has made numerous public commitments regarding resolving land issues for our communities. We will be looking for him to stand by that commitment in an expeditious fashion. We demand that our land issues be resolved in good faith in the same “hot line” fashion as the distribution.” He added.

Mary Gibson, Western Shoshone states: “It’s not over, we still exist and we still have our rights to our land. It makes me sad and angry that myths continue to cloud the Truth in this country. This struggle isn’t a Shoshone v. Shoshone battle, the underlying issue here is the U.S. responsibility and accountability for a Treaty with the Western Shoshone Nation. As long as the people in the U.S. allow this to happen it will continue to happen.”

For additional info, contact the Western Shoshone Defense Project at 775-468-0230.

Western Shoshone Defense Project
P.O. Box 211308
Crescent Valley, NV 89821
(775) 468-0230
Fax: (775) 468-0237
http://www.wsdp.org

YOUR calls and faxes made the difference -- House turns back Arctic drilling. THANK YOU!!!

Every once in a while, Congress provides us with a surprise that makes us smile. In one of the most cynical efforts we've seen in a long time, the U.S. House of Representatives prepared a bill for floor action on June 16th that would have authorized oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and then earmarked the speculative revenues from drilling to the abandoned mine reclamation fund -- a source of money that is used to reclaim old mines and to provide health benefits for retired miners.

What the House leadership did not count on was opposition from the very mine workers union that they had been courting. The United Mine Workers came out against the proposal when they realized the bill was attempting to replace the current revenue stream -- a coal tax -- with revenues that are speculative. Moreover, the miners union had been negotiating diligently and in good faith with the coal industry and members of Congress from eastern and western coal states to reauthorize the program, and saw the linkage with the Arctic Refuge as undercutting all of their work.

It's also clear that Members of Congress heard your calls and read your faxes opposing Arctic drilling. Those were a key part of this victory. THANK YOU!!!

The House's leadership action highlights the fact that the bill to drill in the Arctic Refuge was purely a political ploy that would have done nothing to address America's energy needs or to reduce gas prices for American consumers. Unfortunately, in Washington, bad ideas never die. Until the Refuge is permanently protected, we aren't taking anything for granted, and all of us will continue to work with our friends in the House and Senate to remain vigilant.
>> Read how the events unfolded on June 16th
http://www.wilderness.org/OurIssues/Arctic/ArcticVictoryInHouse-June2004.cfm

Während der Versuch der US-Regierung gescheitert ist, Immunität gegenüber dem Internationalen Strafgerichtshof zu erhalten, scheint die irakische Übergangsregierung dies den Koalitionstruppen und privaten Auftragnehmern weiterhin gewähren zu wollen...

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/special/irak/17743/1.html

Eine Diskothek in Barcelona bietet ihren Stammgästen Microchipimplantate an...

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/lis/17707/1.html

PRESSEMITTEILUNG

MieterInnenverein Witten

Witten, 25.06.2004


HARTZ IV: „Angemessene“ Wohnkosten für Arbeitslose in Witten
Keine Vertreibung, keine Gettos!

Der MieterInnenverein Witten bittet Stadt und En-Kreis, alle Handlungsmöglichkeiten zu nutzen, um eine Vertreibung von arbeitslosen Haushalten aus ihren Wohnungen im Zuge der Hartz IV-Reformen zu verhindern. Die derzeit geltenden Regelungen für Sozialhilfeempfänger könnten auf keinen Fall beibehalten werden. Durch Ratsbeschluss müsse im Vorfeld festgelegt werden, „dass es ab 1. Januar in Witten keine Vertreibungen geben wird.“ Wenn nötig, müssten dazu auch Konflikte mit der Bundesregierung und der Kommunalaufsicht in Kauf genommen werden.

Im Rahmen der Zusammenlegung von Arbeitslosenhilfe und Sozialhilfe („Hartz IV“) müssen die Wohnkosten aller „Dauerarbeitlosen“ und jetzigen Sozialhilfempfänger (Bezieher von ALG II und Sozialgeld, Sozialhilfe nach SGB XII) von den Kommunen übernommen werden. Die Gesetze schreiben vor, dass die Wohnkosten nach 6 Monaten nur in „angemessener“ Höhe übernommen werden. Was „angemessen“ ist, kann im Falle des ALG II durch Rechtsverordnung bestimmt werden. Von der Möglichkeit, eine derartige Rechtsverordnung zu erlassen, will das Arbeitministerium aber keinen Gebrauch machen. Dies teilte Clement den Mietervereinen mit. Das Ministerium geht davon aus, dass die bisherigen kommunalen Sozialhilfe-Regelungen auf die Arbeitslosen übertragen werden.

FÜR WITTEN würde das bedeuten, dass die bisherigen Bezieher von Arbeitslosenhilfe nur noch Wohnungen anmieten könnten, die unter den von Stadt und Kreis festgesetzten niedrigen Obergrenzen des Sozialamtes liegen. Für einen 2-Personen-Haushalt in Witten sind das z.Zt. maximal 4,87/qm kalt bei einer maximalen Wohnungsgröße von 62 qm. Wer bereits eine Wohnung hat, die über diesen Werten liegt, wird zunächst zur Wohnkosten-Senkung aufgefordert und muss seine Bemühungen nachweisen. Nach 6 Monaten, so schreibt das neue Gesetz vor, werden die höheren Kosten nur noch in Ausnahmefällen übernommen.

Das droht Tausenden!

Aktueller Fall aus der Beratungspraxis in Witten:
Eine 7-köpfige Familie zahlt für ihre Wohnung 719 Euro warm, die vom Sozialamt bewilligte Höchstmiete beträgt 704,16 Euro. Wegen der Überschreitung um wenige Euro wird der Familie nun die Übernahme der Nebenkostennachzahlungen (Der Vermieter berechnete 592,06 Euro für 2002 und 76,80 Euro für 2003) verweigert. Der Mieterverein prüft z.Zt. noch die Nebenkostenabrechnung.

Damit würden bereits zum Januar 2005 weit über 3000 Wittener Arbeitslosenhilfeempfänger und Angehörige damit zu rechnen haben, dass ihre Wohnkosten erstmals überprüft werden. Zuständig ist dann die geplanten Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kommunen und der Arbeitsagentur (ARGE). Im EN-Kreis wird mit insgesamt 20.500 Personen gerechnet, die unter das SGB II fallen.

Sehr viele Menschen, die bislang Arbeitslosenhilfe bezogen, werden Wohnungen haben, die größer und teurer sind als jetzt vorgesehen. Sie können dann unmittelbar zur Senkung ihrer Wohnkosten aufgefordert werden und nach einem halben Jahr kann die Stütze gekürzt werden.

Diese Maßnahme wird die Nachfrage auf dem sehr engen Segment billiger Wohnungen schlagartig vervielfachen. Dieser Markt wird sofort dicht sein. Es gibt diese billigen Wohnungen nicht.

Die bisherige Sozialamtsregelung kann deshalb auf keinen Fall von der ARGE übernommen werden. Der Wohnungsmarkt lässt nur eine Regelung zu, die klarstellt, dass die bestehende Wohnung in der Regel immer „angemessen“ ist, wenn die Miete nicht strafbar überhöht ist. Vertreibungen können dann ausgeschlossen werden.

Bei der Festlegung von Obergrenzen für die Neuanmietung ist eine Wohnung, die nicht erheblich größer ist als im Wohnungsbindungsgesetz (Sozialwohnungen) vorgesehen, immer „angemessen“. Die Bildung von Arbeitslosengettos kann nur vermieden werden, wenn die Anmietung einer breiten Skala üblicher Wohnungen ermöglicht wird. Das bedeutet mindestens einen Euro mehr pro Quadratmeter.

Die kommunalen Kosten können hoffentlich im Zuge der Revisionsklausel rückerstattet werden. Hinzu kommen die Einsparungen wegen vermiedener Obdachlosigkeit, Gettobildung, Sozialarbeit...

Knut Unger

PS: Wegen dieser und vieler anderer sozialer Katastrophen im Zuge der Hartz IV-Reformen hat sich der MieterInneverein der Forderung nach Rückabwicklung der Hartz IV-Redformen angeschlossen.


Email: unger@mvwit.de > MieterInnenverein Witten u. Umg. e.V. / Habitat-Netz. e.V.
Postfach 1928, 58409 Witten
Bahnhofstr. 46, 58452 Witten
Geschäftsstelle Tel. 02302-51793
Direkt/ Habitat-Netz: 02302-276171
Fax. 02302-27320

Datenschutzbeauftragte gegen Totalüberwachung: "Vorratsspeicherung aller Kommunikationsdaten ist verfassungswidrig"

25.06.04

Die Datenschutzbeauftragten des Bundes und der Länder halten die geplante pauschale Speicherung sämtlicher Telefonverbindungen und Daten zur Internet-Nutzung für verfassungswidrig. Eine Arbeitsgruppe des EU-Ministerrats berät derzeit über einen Richtlinien-Vorschlag, der es ermöglichen würde, Anbieter von Telekommunikations- und Internetdiensten zu verpflichten, jede einzelne Nutzung zu protokollieren und mindestens ein Jahr aufzubewahren. Eine flächendeckende Vorratsspeicherung von Kommunikationsdaten würde die Grundrechte auf freie Meinungsäußerung und auf ungehinderte Unterrichtung aus allgemein zugänglichen Quellen verletzen, kritisierten die Datenschützer...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:

http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=8762

Avoidable health crisis re nighttime EMR exposures

Klaus: Below is one of the emails I sent the other day making an appeal for dissemination of information to the public in regard to the specific issue of nighttime EMF/EMR exposures and close proximity to electrical devices/appliances.


Subj: Fwd: Avoidable health crisis
Date: 6/23/2004 9:50:44 PM Central Standard Time
From: JCMPelican
To: john@ramstad.org
CC: mn03@mail.house.gov
-----------------
Forwarded Message:
Subj: Avoidable health crisis
Date: 6/8/2004 4:43:31 PM Central Standard Time
From: jcmpelican@aol.com

Thank you for using Trust for America's Health Mail System

Message sent to the following recipients:
President Bush
Message text follows:

June 8, 2004

[recipient address was inserted here]

Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

Dear President Bush, Senator Dayton, Senator Coleman and Representative Kennedy:

Inaction and greed on the part of government are very costly to this country!!! The EMF Interagency Committee Report (2000) has never been presented to Congress. Findings include immune dysfunction, Leukemia and other health problems due to chronic exposures to low levels of EMF's (electromagnetic fields).

Since then, the 2002 Calif EMF Study has found connection to brain cancer, Leukemia, Lou Gehrig's Disease and miscarriage to EMF levels as low as 4.0 milligauss (about $8 million more was spent on this study). New study (2004) -- Lai/Univ Washington through NIEHS, actually shows a picture of cells leaving rat's brains after exposure equiv to use of electrical appliances such as a hair dryer.

I have a booklet published by "utilities communications' experts" that recommends replacing electric clocks (BEDSIDE) with battery-operated or wind-up clocks!!! I have two grandsons diagnosed with rare immune. Told they may develop Leukemia. They were sleeping next to electric meters in their respective homes. Dramatic improvement after changes!!!

Two guinea pig studies my own home -- drastic blood changes and death within a month of to one guinea pig out of each study after exposure to electric meter on bedroom wall!!!

Grandsons and guinea pigs developed ASTHMA!!!

Husband slept near electric clock radio for years -- diagnosed with Alzheimers. We also have two high voltage powerlines on blvd only 50 ft. from front of house; however, I am convinced that the most extreme symptoms/problems are due to SLEEPING close to electrical appliances/devices.

Univ of Wash study suggests repeat exposure to hair dryers, etc. and states cumulative damage. The BIG PROBLEMS are more specific and easier to adapt too but we MUST HAVE "an informed public" in order to begin to drastically reduce the vast numbers of struggling children with ADD, ADHD, asthma, chronic infections and even cancers!!!

Economic loss alone from all illnesses that can be prevented by reducing nighttime EMF/EMR exposures is astronomical!!! Everyone knows what a mess our healthcare system is in. We need to inform the public so children will have full use of their brains which they don't have now. Even something as simple as "lack of sleep or lack of good sleep," can begin the downward spiral we see often in children who do not fare well in school.

I am not even "touching on" all of the problems that result from parents who can't sleep and go on to develop any number of inflammatory conditions (virtually any disease) from sleeping close to electrical objects that could simply be moved across the room. Anger, depression, chronic sinus, ear and other infections, migraine headaches -- all of this is found in research regarding inflammation and so is the fact that both ionizing and nonionizing radiation cause "inflammation!!!!"

I am begging you to begin to take appropriate action (informing the public) by presenting the EMF Interagency Committee Report to Congress and providing for dissemination of information to the public (funds included in the $46 million allocation for EMF RAPID Study).

Sincerely,

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

Last month you signed a petition supporting Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility's campaign to remove the illegal construction of a 100-foot cell phone tower that overlooks Old Faithful. Your action pressured the Park Service to start backpedaling --The Park Service has admitted that it has no idea what and how many telecom facilities are being built in the parks.

Now, NPS has announced that it will conduct a nation wide inventory to determine the number and location of existing wireless communication facilities throughout the national park system (see below).

Though the Old Faithful tower still stands, despite violating both historical preservation laws and public notice requirements, it remains at the core of the debate. How did this eyesore occur?

While inventorying parks is a good, though belated, first step, the Park Service is still evading the central question, which is whether and where these facilities are appropriate on national park lands. How is it that only one of the 397 units of the national park system (Golden Gate National Recreation Area) has a plan for siting cell phone towers and other telecom facilities?

PEER exposed this issue and will continue to fight to assure that the scenery and serenity of our national parks are not put at the mercy of telecom companies. But we can't do it alone, we need your help. Join PEER to get answers to these questions.

Sincerely,

Chas Offutt
Communication & Outreach Director


NPS Conducts Inventory Of Wireless Communication Facilities

Though visible from almost every part of the Old Faithful Historic District, the 100-foot cell phone tower, unshielded by trees and without camouflage, has gone unnoticed since 2001. Currently, telecommunications companies determine the location, size and number of towers in deals with individual parks.

This past March, PEER unmasked the cell tower overlooking Old Faithful and its violation of both historical preservation laws and public notice requirements. NPS responded without a clear indication of exactly how many towers existed.

However, just last week, NPS sent a memo to all park superintendents asking them to report where existing wireless communication facilities are located in national parks. Though this inventory is a commendable first step, the Park Service is still evading the central question, which is whether and where these facilities are appropriate on national park lands.

Read the memo to park superintendents calling for an inventory
http://peermail.c.topica.com/maaclXdaa7GoAa8rxQKcaeQBg1/


Park Service Wants To Know Where Cell Towers Are Located

The National Park Service is asking all its superintendents to report where existing wireless communication facilities are located in national parks, according to a memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

http://chiefchambers.c.topica.com/maacmrIaa7JubbnLpaCeaeQBg1/


U.S. Historic Preservation Agency To Investigate Old Faithful Cell Phone Tower

The National Park Service must explain why it allowed construction of a 100-foot cell phone tower over Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park in violation of both historical preservation laws and public notice requirements, according to a letter released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

http://chiefchambers.c.topica.com/maacmrIaa7JuSbnLpaCeaeQBg1/

Human Rights and Human Experiments
http://mindcontrol.twoday.net/stories/249432/

Microsoft patents human body as power transmitter
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249974/

SUPERCOMPUTER FINDS CLIMATE LIKELY TO HEAT UP FAST
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249960/

'Endangered Species' Cost USA Billions
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249970/

How Canada Was Secretly Given Away
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249580/

Petition Requesting Support of Environmental Illnesses
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249640/

U.S. NOT READY FOR IMPENDING WATER CRISIS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248808/

Australia encourages Great Barrier Reef oil exploration
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248975/

RED TIDES AND DESERTIFICATION ALARM SCIENTISTS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248710/

ESPERANZA ARRIVES IN ICELAND
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249603/

GREAT CYBER WALL CHALLENGE
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249597/

SUCCESS FOR BHOPAL SURVIVORS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249601/

GREENFREEZE SUCCESS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249604/

Saudi Shiite leader recounts ordeal at Abu Ghraib
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249651/

U.S. Immunity In Iraq Will Go Beyond June 30
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248978/

Blair Criticises US War Prosecutions Immunity Bid
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249656/

Facing Humiliating Defeat, US Abandons Move to Exempt Troops from War Crimes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248981/

Afghan Detainees Routinely Tortured and Humiliated by US Troops
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248983/

Torture Trail
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249619/

Law Professors' Letter to Congress
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249623/

Bush reserved right to torture
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249649/

US Senate to remain silent on abuse
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249631/

Human rights fall victim to the "War on Terror"
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249660/

The predatory policies of the world's de facto government
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249661/

US 'losing fight against terror'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249662/

OUR FOUNDERS AND THE UNBALANCE OF POWER
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249809/

You've got a credibility problem, Mr. President
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249817/

Reality is unravelling for Bush
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249834/

Growing Calls to Get All US Troops Out of Iraq
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248984/

Nation's Largest Union Calls for End to U.S. Occupation of Iraq
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249617/

SEIU Convention Calls for End to U.S. Occupation of Iraq and Return of U.S. Troops
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/248988/

Iraqi Civilian War Casulties
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249824/

CIA insider says US fighting wrong war
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249669/

Australia: Media Lies
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249665/

The pretence of an independent Iraq
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249648/

The Economic Colonization of Iraq: Illegal and Immoral
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249832/

FBI documents confirm ALA USA PATRIOT Act concerns
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249612/

Bush interviewed in CIA leak probe
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/250198/

World Bank ignores own analysis
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/249635/

CNN

06/24/04

President Bush was interviewed Thursday morning by a special prosecutor investigating whether anyone in the administration disclosed the classified identity of a CIA officer, White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. This is the first time Bush has been questioned in a criminal investigation involving his administration...


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Hi Klaus: I have been asked to widely distribute the following info on upcoming WHO meetings and to suggest that it would greatly benefit us to have sympathetic-to-our-cause representatives attend/participate in these:


"On the World Health Organization's website under their International EMF Program at http://www.who.int/peh-emf/meetings/en/ there are several meetings coming up, one of which is called WHO International Seminar and Working Group meeting on EMF Hypersensitivity at Prague, Czech Republic on October 25-27 2004.

Now that the WHO is at least acknolwedging the ES/EHS dilemma, I think the support groups need to push the WHO for an ICD code - ICD means International Classification of Diseases by the WHO. Then doctors would have a diagnosis code for it. Very important for getting disability benefits, etc."

Best, Imelda, Cork.

By Wolfgang Gruener, Senior Editor

June 23, 2004 - 14:21 EST

Chicago (IL) - Microsoft has been granted a patent on using the human boody as conductive medium for the transmission of power and data. According to the filing, the company believes it can network power-sources and peripheral devices by coupling sets of electrodes to the human body.

Microsoft its the patent 6,754,472 as "Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body". The company justifies the idea of using the human body as conductor with the fact that "people have begun wearing electronic devices on their bodies." This would include wristwatches, pagers and PDAs, as well as small displays "mounted on headgear." Such devices could not only communicate with each other but also distribute power to each other "on or near the human body by capacitively coupling picoamp currents through the human body of a person," the company said.

Microsofts idea is to for example use for example a pulsed DC signal or AC signal as the power source. By using multiple power supply signals of differing frequencies, different devices could be selectively powered. Digital data and other information signals such as audio signals could be modulated on the power signal using frequency and amplitude modulation techniques, the company said.

The patent was granted on June 22, 2004.

http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040623_142155.html


Informant: Gotemf

By Alan Caruba

CNSNews.com Commentary from the National Anxiety Center

June 21, 2004

At a time when this nation is engaged in a war, putting the lives of its soldiers in harm's way to end the threat of Middle Eastern terrorism, it would seem inconceivable that it would also be wasting billions to protect some species of salmon or the shortnose suckerfish. But it is.

Unfortunately, when the truth is revealed, the mainstream press often ignores it. For example, on April 14 of this year, the Pacific Legal Association, in association with Property and Environmental Research Center (PERC), released a study that demonstrated the mind-boggling costs of the Endangered Species Act.

"PERC researchers found that the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) grossly underreported federal and state ESA costs in its recent report to Congress, and completely ignored the private economic and social costs of ESA compliance, which together easily total billions of dollars a year."

The PERC researchers based this finding on a December 2003 FWS report to Congress, "Three-Year Summary of Federal and State Endangered Species Expenditures, Fiscal Years 1998-2000." According to FWS, the federal and state expenditures totaled $610.3 million. PERC estimated the real costs to be as much as four times greater; more in the area of $2.4 billion. When you add in the private costs to those of government expenditures, the total "may easily reach or exceed $3.5 billion per year."

There is something obscene about this, considering the many other priorities of our nation. As the Pacific Legal Foundation report notes, "People have lost their jobs, businesses, homes, farms, and even their lives to protect plants, insects and fish," said Emma T. Suarez, an attorney for the Foundation. It is the story of a government more committed to so-called endangered species than to its citizens and to the economy upon which government depends.

Indeed, the story of the entire environmental movement is about the steady degradation of the American economy and other nations around the world. It is an attack on capitalism designed to thwart access to natural resources, and attack agriculture, ranching, the production of beneficial chemicals and pharmaceuticals, transportation, and every other element of the economy.

The FWS report managed to omit critical information in its 2003 cost report. Only "estimates" of costs to taxpayers, not actual costs, were provided.

The report ignored government-wide costs, neatly skirting the many federal agencies and departments affected by the ESA reported expenditures and noting only costs that were "reasonably identifiable" for individual species. That's a hole big enough to drive a truck through.

Costs to state and local entities for implementing species recovery were also ignored, along with those represented by ESA-caused interference with the building of schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure projects.

Also ignored were the costs to private landowners. The study noted that "75% of all listed species have portions or all of their habitat on privately owned land and the FWS regulates 38 million acres of private land through conservation plans. Landowners are not compensated for their losses from ESA regulations that prohibit them from using their land productively." These costs are enormous.

It is little wonder that the costs of housing, old and new, are soaring. ESA regulations are widely used to deter the creation of new housing stock despite the obvious need of a rapidly growing population. Nor are the other economic and social costs from regulatory burdens placed on agricultural production, water use, forest management, and mineral extraction included in the FWS report. If they were, the public would be in the streets demanding an end to ESA.

The FSW report did not take into consideration lost jobs, lost business, and lost tax revenues. If it did, the ESA would be rescinded within days. One famous example was the hoax about the "endangered" northern spotted owl. "At least 130,000 jobs were lost when more than 900 sawmills, pulp, and paper mills closed in mid-1990 to protect" the owl.

In California, ESA-mandated water reductions in the Westlands Water District cost the state economy more than $218 million and 4,500 jobs statewide" according to the PERC study. The federal government was estimated to have lost about $2.3 million revenue as a result.

The Endangered Species Act has proven to be an expensive and destructive failure. Despite listing 1,260 US species as of December 2003, only fifteen were "delisted" and those mainly because the original data citing them as endangered proved to be inaccurate!

Environmentalism is not about caring for the needs of human beings or our nation's economy. It is just the opposite. It is not some benign movement, but rather a malignant cancer that destroys lives, jobs, and the quintessential basis of our economy, the rights of private property owners.

Easily 90% or more of all the species that ever existed on earth are extinct. It's called survival of the fittest and has been going on since life on earth began. It is worse than a conceit to think that government can "save" a few species; it is an arrogant and dangerous notion that seeks to replace the process of nature with the goals of the environmentalists.

(Alan Caruba writes "Warning Signs," a weekly column posted at the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center.)

Copyright 2004, Alan Caruba

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=%5CCommentary%5Carchive%5C200406%5CCOM20040621a.html

http://www.alleghanynews.com/mushroomchronicles/column11.php


Informant: Dave

Environment News Service

June 24, 2004

BOULDER, Colorado - A powerful new supercomputer climate modeling system at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) http://www.ncar.ucar.edu/ has found that global temperatures may rise more than previous projections if humans continue to emit large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The system, known as the Community Climate System Model, version 3 (CCSM3) was unveiled Wednesday in Boulder.

CCSM3 shows that global temperatures could rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in a hypothetical scenario in which atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are suddenly doubled.

That is greater than the two degree Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit) increase that had been indicated by the previous version of the model.

William Collins, a NCAR scientist who oversaw the development of the new system, says researchers have yet to pin down exactly what is making the model more sensitive to an increased level of carbon dioxide. But he says the model overall is "significantly more accurate" than its predecessor.

"This model makes substantial improvements in simulating atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial processes," Collins said. "It has done remarkably well in reproducing the climate of the last century, and we're now ready to begin using it to study the climate of the next century."

CCSM3 is one of the world's leading general circulation climate models, sophisticated computer tools that incorporate phenomena ranging from the effect that volcanic eruptions have on temperature patterns to the impact of shifting sea ice on sunlight absorbed by the oceans.

Climate models work by solving mathematical formulas, which represent the chemical and physical processes that drive Earth's climate, for thousands of points in the atmosphere, oceans, sea ice, and land surface.

CCSM3 is so complex that it requires about three trillion computer calculations to simulate a single day of global climate, NCAR explains.

NCAR developed the model in collaboration with researchers at universities and laboratories across the country, with funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

NCAR is sharing the model results and the underlying computer codes with atmospheric researchers and other users worldwide.

As scientists learn more about the atmosphere, the world's most powerful climate models are in general agreement over the climatic effects of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, which is emitted by burning of fossil fuels in motor vehicles and industrial plants.

Observations show that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have increased from 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv) in preindustrial times to more than 370 ppmv today, and the increase is continuing.

A doubling of carbon dioxide over present-day levels would significantly increase global temperatures, according to all the major models.

The models do not always agree, however, on the complex impacts of clouds, sea ice, and other pieces of the climate system.

Scientists will contribute findings from CCSM3 to the next assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international research body that advises policymakers on the likely impacts of climate change.

http://www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=32962



Informant: NHNE

by John Hepburn

June 21, 2004

Monsanto's global website says "Imagine innovative agriculture that creates 'incredible' things today." Actually, I think most of us are more interested in 'credible' things when it comes to agriculture. Like food that people can trust is safe. And crops that meet the needs of the farmers that grow them.

The monsanto slogan used to be "food, health, hope". As if this wasn't absurd enough, it has now been changed to "ImagineTM". John Lennon must be turning in his grave.

Imagine a world with vast monocultures of patented, genetically engineered crops, producing foods with inbuilt pesticides. Imagine the world's staple food crops engineered with genes from bacteria and then released into our food chain without any real understanding of the health impacts. Imagine?

The Monsanto website states boldly that "Integrity is the foundation of all that we do. Integrity includes honesty, decency, consistency and courage."

I suppose 'courage' isn't that far fetched. But 'audacity' would probably be a more accurate word.

Imagine trying to introduce a new product into the market place when most people don't want it, and when it is effectively impossible to keep it separate from other similar products. Imagine being able to insist that the cost of keeping this product separate be passed onto the users of the other, existing products. It's kind of like insisting that your neighbour to pay for the new fence when you bring home a pit bull terrier for a pet. Imagine not only trying to pull off such an audacious scheme but actually succeeding!

'Consistency' is also plausible. Although I suspect the appropriate agricultural term is 'monoculture'.

As for "honesty' and 'decency', I'm not sure how the victims of Agent Orange would feel about that. Or the thousands of people who have been affected by PCB's - another one of Monsanto's brilliant and 'safe' inventions. Or the 70 odd farmers in the US who have been sued by Monsanto for saving seeds and breaching Monsanto's intellectual property?

I for one, imagine a world where Monsanto doesn't exist. Where I don't have to spend my days struggling to stop possibly one of the most irresponsible organisations in human history from involving all of us in an uncontrolled experiment without our consent.

Monsanto are on the back foot. Millions of people have been rejecting their foods. Thousands upon thousands of farmers have been rejecting their seeds. In the face of this, they have 'voluntarily' withdrawn GE wheat in North America, and GE canola in Australia. We can only hope that 'voluntary' liquidation is the next step.

Imagine food without pesticides. Imagine diversity in agriculture. Imagine seeds without patents. Imagine a future without Monsanto?

John Hepburn Australia. johnhepburn@hushmail.com

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-06/21hepburn.cfm


Informant: Teresa Binstock