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CANCER SPREADS LIKE WILDFIRE IN IRAQ

Posted By: IZAKOVIC
Date: Thursday, 29 July 2004, 11:39 a.m.
Link noted on:

http://www.rense.com

Original article from:
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-07/28/article02.shtml

BAGHDAD, July 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Cancer and birth defects have been spreading like wildfire in Iraq since the 1991 US-led Gulf War, prompting doctors to describe them as the Iraqi version of flu.

Depleted uranium (DU) used by the United States and its allies against Iraq has taken its toll on around 120,000 to 140,000 Iraqis, according to the latest estimates released by the Iraqi health ministry.

With Iraq becoming an almost radioactive toxic wasteland, the number of birth defects and cancer-infected Iraqis is on the rise day in and day out due to the lingering effects of the deadly nuclear substance, the London-based Al-Quds Press news agency reported Tuesday, July 27.

Dr Abdul Kazimi, director of Baghdad only nuclear medicine hospital, said 7500 Iraqis are being infected with cancer ever year.

The substance is also blamed for the so-called Gulf War Syndrome, the still-unexplained malady that has reportedly plagued hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans.

Press reports say about 100,000 tons of DU munitions had been used in the Desert Storm military operation, the first time such a weapon was used in a warfare.

On January 16, 1991, the US launched its allied Desert Storm military operation to liberate Kuwait.

The unprecedented US-led aerial bombardment and DU armor-piercing shells forced the Iraqi troops to desperately retreat from Kuwait on February 27.Aggravated

Abdul Hamid Khalifa, an Iraqi specialist on carcinogens, said the crippling 13-year-old US sanctions slapped on Iraq after the war have made matters worse.

"It is a disaster in the broad sense of the word that has slipped out of control," he said.

"Cases of cancer-infected Iraqis started emerging following the 1991 Gulf War with most of the cases concentrating in the south and women taking the brunt."

The specialist added that infantry troops were identified as receiving the highest exposures to DU radiation.

He further said that contaminated water, expired imported food stuff and devastated health infrastructure added insult to injury.

Khalifa stressed that environmental pollution is causing 70 percent of cancer cases and food 30 percent.

Farras Abd, an Iraqi citizen whose uncle is a DU victim, said prayers are his one and only option.

"The hospital is running out of medicine and can’t cope with the increasing number of cancer patients, who can’t afford traveling abroad for treatment," he noted.Deadly Substance

According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), depleted uranium is a highly dense metal that is the byproduct of the process during which fissionable uranium used to manufacture nuclear bombs and reactor fuel is separated from natural uranium.

Uranium, a weakly radioactive element, occurs naturally in soil and water everywhere on Earth, but mainly in trace quantities.

A second, potentially more serious hazard is created when a DU round hits its target.

As much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn up on impact, creating a firestorm of ceramic DU oxide particles.

The residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust that can spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain.

Once lodged in the soil, the munitions can pollute the environment and create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the UNEP.

DU is said to be radioactive for about 4 thousand years.

IZAKOVIC

http://www.deepspace4.com


Informant: True

Neues aus Bamberg: Vodafone kommt am Dienstag mit gleich zwei Überraschungsmasten und setzt sich so über den Stadtratsbeschluss, hinweg, der u.a. folgenden Punkt enthält:

"Der Stadtrat beschließt, dass bis zum Vorliegen des Rahmenplans keine weiteren Mobilfunksendeanlagen öffentlich-rechtlich genehmigt oder auf städtischen Liegenschaften zugelassen werden."

Wir haben nun erfahren, dass Vodafone uns am kommenden Dienstag, 3.August 2004, die 7 Antennen auf die Konzerthalle stellen möchte.

Wir sind gewarnt: Es kann auch sein, dass es auch schon am Montag losgeht.

Es wird eine Menschenkette gebildet und so eine breite Öffentlichkeit betrieben.

Presse, StadtvertreterInnen, Bürgervereine sind informiert.

Auch wollen sie auf die ehemalige Polizei an der Schranne eine Antenne setzen. Besitzer ist da der Freistaat Bayern. Geld stinkt ja bekanntlich nicht - verdirbt aber den Charakter.

Der Skandal erster Güte: es gibt seit vergangenen Donnerstag einen einstimmigen Stadtratsbeschluss, bis im Runden Tisch ein Rahmenplan für mögliche Standorte (technisch funktionabel und so wenig Strahlung wie möglich für die BewohnerInnen). Vodafone wurde per Fax sofort nach der Stadtratssitzung darüber informiert.

Hier zeigen sich wieder mal die unseriösen Machenschaften der Netzbetreiber, vorneweg Vodafone.

GRIBS-Kommunalbüro, Austr. 14, 96047 Bamberg,
Tel: 0951/9230388

Plötzlich spielt im US-Wahlkampf der Umweltschutz eine Rolle. Der Grund: Acht Bundesstaaten, darunter die Stadt New York und Schwarzeneggers Kalifornien klagen gegen die fünf größten Energieversorger, weil sie zu wenig gegen den Treibhauseffekt tun und selbst zu viel CO2 emittieren...

http://www.sonnenseite.com/fp/archiv/Akt-News/5121.php

MILITARY police have stepped up the war against rogue soldiers in the ranks by eavesdropping on private telephone calls and emails, and using electronic tracking devices to monitor the movements of people and vehicles during investigations...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10296384%255E601,00.html


From Information Clearing House

GOP apologizes over voting flier; glossy mailer warns against touch-screens...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cabsentee30jul30,0,7600265.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
http://tinyurl.com/4l5b7


From Information Clearing House

On November 2nd, millions of Americans will cast their votes for President in computerized voting systems that can be rigged by corporate or local-election insiders...

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20040816&s=dugger


From Information Clearing House

Despite scandals over human rights abuses and war profiteering, private military contractors are expanding their presence overseas, and may even be involved in helping to draft the next U.S. defence budget...

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=24883


From Information Clearing House

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=163


From Information Clearing House

In a significant shift of U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced this week that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/31/MNGDJ80JAL1.DTL
http://tinyurl.com/3n598


From Information Clearing House

U.S. Iraq Security Plan A Disaster: Chalabi :

Ahmed Chalabi, head of Iraq's National Congress Party and an ersthwile protege of the Pentagon in Washington, said Saturday the American security plan for his country was a disaster...

http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=23485


From Information Clearing House

by PAUL KRUGMAN

THE NEW YORK TIMES

May 11, 2004

Didn't you know, in your gut, that something like Abu Ghraib would eventually come to light?

When the world first learned about the abuse of prisoners, President Bush said that it "does not reflect the nature of the American people." He's right, of course: a great majority of Americans are decent and good. But so are a great majority of people everywhere. If America's record is better than that of most countries - and it is - it's because of our system: our tradition of openness, and checks and balances.

Yet Mr. Bush, despite all his talk of good and evil, doesn't believe in that system. From the day his administration took office, its slogan has been "just trust us." No administration since Nixon has been so insistent that it has the right to operate without oversight or accountability, and no administration since Nixon has shown itself to be so little deserving of that trust. Out of a misplaced sense of patriotism, Congress has deferred to the administration's demands. Sooner or later, a moral catastrophe was inevitable.

Just trust us, John Ashcroft said, as he demanded that Congress pass the Patriot Act, no questions asked. After two and a half years, during which he arrested and secretly detained more than a thousand people, Mr. Ashcroft has yet to convict any actual terrorists. (Look at the actual trials of what Dahlia Lithwick of Slate calls "disaffected bozos who watch cheesy training videos," and you'll see what I mean.)

Just trust us, George Bush said, as he insisted that Iraq, which hadn't attacked us and posed no obvious threat, was the place to go in the war on terror. When we got there, we found no weapons of mass destruction and no new evidence of links to Al Qaeda.

Just trust us, Paul Bremer said, as he took over in Iraq. What is the legal basis for Mr. Bremer's authority? You may imagine that the Coalition Provisional Authority is an arm of the government, subject to U.S. law. But it turns out that no law or presidential directive has ever established the authority's status. Mr. Bremer, as far as we can tell, answers to nobody except Mr. Bush, which makes Iraq a sort of personal fief. In that fief, there has been nothing that Americans would recognize as the rule of law. For example, Ahmad Chalabi, the Pentagon's erstwhile favorite, was allowed to gain control of Saddam's files - the better to blackmail his potential rivals.

And finally: Just trust us, Donald Rumsfeld said early in 2002, when he declared that "enemy combatants" - a term that turned out to mean anyone, including American citizens, the administration chose to so designate - don't have rights under the Geneva Convention. Now people around the world talk of an "American gulag," and Seymour Hersh is exposing My Lai all over again.

Did top officials order the use of torture? It depends on the meaning of the words "order" and "torture." Last August Mr. Rumsfeld's top intelligence official sent Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the Guantánamo prison, to Iraq. General Miller recommended that the guards help interrogators, including private contractors, by handling prisoners in a way that "sets the conditions" for "successful interrogation and exploitation." What did he and his superiors think would happen?

To their credit, some supporters of the administration are speaking out. "This is about system failure," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. But do Mr. Graham, John McCain and other appalled lawmakers understand their own role in that failure? By deferring to the administration at every step, by blocking every effort to make officials accountable, they set the nation up for this disaster. You can't prevent any serious inquiry into why George Bush led us to war to eliminate W.M.D. that didn't exist and to punish Saddam for imaginary ties to Al Qaeda, then express shock when Mr. Bush's administration fails to follow the rules on other matters.

Meanwhile, Abu Ghraib will remain in use, under its new commander: General Miller of Guantánamo. Donald Rumsfeld has "accepted responsibility" - an action that apparently does not mean paying any price at all. And Dick Cheney says, "Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defense the United States has ever had. . . . People should get off his case and let him do his job." In other words: Just trust us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/opinion/11KRUG.html?ex=1085289361&ei=1&en=e095fcbc587dc36c


Informant: Walter Lippmann

Wir möchten unserer Leserschaft den kompetenten Bericht des "der Bruchköbler" http://www.bruchkoebler.de nicht vorenthalten.

Allerdings bezieht sich das Antwortschreiben des Hess. Umweltministers Dietzel nicht auf einen Offenen Brief der Bürgerinitiative von Bruchköbel (IMOWOB e.V.), sondern vielmehr auf den Offenen Brief des Hessischen Landesverbandes mobilfunksenderfreie Wohngebiete e.V.

M.f.G.

Alfred Tittmann
c/o HESSISCHER LANDESVERBAND MOBILFUNKSENDERFREIE WOHNGEBIETE e.V.


Ärzte aus Bayern schlagen Alarm

(mr) von Martin Reisbeck, Deutschland, 29.07.2004. Bis jetzt haben die Kontrahenten der so zäh und unleidlich geführten Mobilfunkdiskussion meist nur über Studien an Zellkulturen, Messungen in Wellen, Behauptungen, sowie Befindlichkeiten debattiert. Bayerische Ärzte reden aber nun voller Sorge konkret über Menschen und Schicksale. Die Schlinge um den Hals sorgloser Taktiker aus der Politik und nassforscher, hipper In-Unternehmer aus der Mobilfunkbranche wird enger. Die erste epidemologische Studie zum von den Betroffenen nicht genehmigten Feldversuch mit hochfrequent gepulster Mikrowelle liegt nach 10 Jahren Studienverlauf nun vor. Von Entwarnung kann hier keine Rede sein. Im Gegenteil, es besteht dringender Handlungsbedarf!

Die in Naila niedergelassenen Allgemeinmediziner Drs. med. Horst Eger, Klaus Uwe Hagen, Birgitt Lucas, Peter Vogel und Helmut Voit haben eine Studie erstellt, in welcher der Gesundheitszustand der Bevölkerung im Abstand zu einer in Naila seit 1993 bestehenden Mobilfunkanlage untersucht worden ist. Die Ergebnisse der „Nailaer Ärztestudie” wurden in einer Veranstaltung am 21.07.2004 der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt. Die Studie wurde von Herrn Prof. Dr. med. Rainer Frentzel-Beyme, Epidemiologe am Zentrum für Umweltforschung und Umwelttechnologie der Universität Bremen, wissenschaftlich beurteilt. Die Studie ergab, dass sich der Anteil von neu aufgetretenen Krebsfällen bei Patienten, die während der letzten zehn Jahre in einem Abstand bis zu 400 Meter um die seit 1993 betriebene Mobilfunksendeanlage gewohnt hatten, gegenüber dem über 400 m entfernten Bereich im Gesamtzeitraum von 1994 - 2004 verdoppelt und in der Zeit von 1999 - 2004 sogar verdreifacht hat. Überdies war das Alter, in dem diese Patienten an Krebs erkrankt sind, durchschnittlich 8,5 Jahre jünger als im über 400 m entfernten Bereich. Nennenswerte äußere Einflussfaktoren, die das Ergebnis hätten beeinträchtigen können, konnten nicht eruiert werden.

„Das Konzept der Pilotstudie ist einfach und kann jederzeit an all den Orten wiederholt werden, die jahrelang relativ isoliert von einer Sendeanlage bestrahlt wurden”, teilten die Ärzte in einer gemeinsamen Stellungnahme mit. „Wir vertrauen auf die Handlungsfähigkeit der Behörden mit Hilfe großer epidemiologischer Studien - nicht nur in Naila -, das Risiko für die Gesamtbevölkerung sicher abzuschätzen”.

Wenn die Bürgerinitiative zur Verminderung der Strahlenbelastung aus Naila mit ihrem Vertrauen in die hier zitierten Behörden mal nicht falsch liegt. Sind die Zitierten dann mal wieder braungebrannt aus den Sommerferien zurück, werden wir schon wieder sehen, wie man ihnen vertrauen darf. Unter dem Trommelfeuer einer millionenschweren Lobbyarbeit dürften dann seichte Beschwichtigungsarien an der Tagesordnung sein. Sie reden sich bald um Kopf und Kragen, gerade so, wie es der hessische Staatsminister vom Umweltministerium Wilhelm Ditzel gerade getan hat, als er der Bruchköbler Initiative für Mobilsunksenderfreie Wohngebiete (IMOWOB) auf einen offenen Brief geantwortet hat. Man konnte den Eindruck gewinnen, dieser subalterne Diener des hessischen Volkes richte sich mit seiner Antwort an einen Verein seniler Volldeppen (Bericht folgt in Kürze).

Die Ärzte rufen jetzt ihre Mitbürger auf, nach Möglichkeit keine längeren Handygespräche zu führen und keine schnurlosen Telefone nach DECT-Standard zu verwenden. Sie kritisieren, dass vor allem Kinder und Jugendliche über Werbung zum Kauf von Handys und Gebühreneinheiten verführt würden. Zudem empfehlen die Ärzte privaten Hausbesitzern, ihre Dächer nicht für Funkmasten zur Verfügung zu stellen. Vielleicht entdecken jetzt ja auch bald die Zocker aus den Gemeindevorständen der EKD mit Sendern auf beinahe jedem unserer Kirchtürme das Gesetz des Handelns wieder und kündigen ihre zumeist unsittlich einseitigen Verträge. Wir wünschen es jedenfalls allen Anwohnern evangelischer Seelsorgeinstitute (oder schreiben wir heute nicht viel besser: Sell-Sorge?). Damit wären auf Anhieb hunderte von Standorten entschärft.

Viele Ärzte, Wissenschaftler, Fachleute und auch Bürger zweifeln die Aussage schon lange an, dass bei Einhaltung der geltenden Grenzwerte von einer Mobilfunksendeanlage keine gesundheitlichen Auswirkungen ausgehen können. Kernpunkte der Kritik sind, dass die in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland geltenden gesetzlichen Grenzwerte für den Betrieb von Mobilfunksendeanlagen nur thermische Wirkungen, nicht jedoch bestimmte athermische Effekte der Mobilfunkstrahlung berücksichtigen und die Grenzwerte keine Vorsorgegrenzwerte darstellen. Das, obwohl in Deutschland im Rahmen der Umweltpolitik die grundlegende Idee des Vorsorgeprinzips entwickelt wurde.

Zu den Auswirkungen von Mobilfunksendeanlagen auf die menschliche Gesundheit gibt es schon lange eine Reihe von Untersuchungen, z.B. von der durch die EU beauftragten Forschergruppe REFLEX aus sieben EU-Ländern und des ECOLOG-Institutes, das eine Untersuchung im Auftrag der Telekom durchgeführt hat. Beide kommen zu dem Ergebnis, dass durch Mobilfunkstrahlung gesundheitliche Beeinträchtigungen hervorgerufen werden können. Die Forschergruppe REFLEX hat den Nachweis erbracht, wenn auch unter extremen Laborbedingungen, dass durch Hochfrequenzstrahlung das Erbgut geschädigt werden kann. Die Studie des ECOLOG-Institutes kommt zum Ergebnis, dass Krebserkrankungen, Schwächung des Immunsystems und Einflüsse auf das zentrale Nervensystem durch Mobilfunk begünstigt werden. Darüber hinaus gibt es weltweit diverse Untersuchungen, die gesundheitliche Auswirkungen bestätigen. Aber der gemeine Politiker hat nichts Besseres zu tun, als nach Tiraden flachgeistiger Beschwichtigung in Urlaub zu fahren. Der BRUCHKOEBLER wünscht angenehme Erholung. Sie werden sich anschließend über das Volk, Ihren ungnädigen Arbeitgeber gehörig wundern müssen, wenn sie ihre ungesund braune Haut danach wie gewohnt zu Markte tragen wollen.

Sicher wird unseren Dienern bald aufgehen, wer im Spiegel der Profitmaximierung für das Propaganda - Stakkato der Mobilfunkindustrie die eigentlichen Deppen sind. Ganz sicher werden es nicht die Versicherungen sein, die sich rechtzeitig aus den Verpflichtungen gegenüber der mobil funkenden Abzockbranche zurückgezogen haben. Es sind die von der Lobby umgarnten und gehegten Politgaukler ebenso, wie jeder Anwohner, der gezwungenermaßen und ungefragt in der Strahlungskeule eines Mobilfunksenders leben und sterben muss. Die weniger Dummen treten von ihren Ämtern zurück. Die Totaldummen sterben einfach mal eben weg. Die Dummdreisten allerdings werden mal wieder versuchen ihre Hände in Unschuld zu waschen. Es sind die gewissenlosen Elemente, die auf keines der kritischen Argumente hören wollten, weil ihnen die schwarzen, chromglänzenden Automobile und andere sinnlose Statussymbole wichtiger waren, als das Wohl ihrer Mitmenschen. Sie haben ihre Kritiker ausgelacht, wohl verschanzt hinter vollkommen überbezahlten Politikern. Lasst zur Abwechslung mal das Volk zuletzt lachen! Alleine der Bürger hat es in der Hand, ob die Geschichte diese Variante der Heiterkeit auch mal wieder für das Volk übrig hat. Die ersten Toten darf es, wie üblich, jedenfalls schon wieder beklagen.

http://www.bruchkoebler.de/bruchkoebel_77.htm

THE MICROWAVE SYNDROME - FURTHER ASPECTS OF A SPANISH STUDY
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289705/

Stealth Cell towers
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290159/

From Radition to Explosion
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287492/

US Army Issues Electromagnetic Gun Program Contract
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/288492/

FDA to consider human RFID tagging
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/288523/

RFID Microchip Implants for Humans
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/288569/

RFID gets under your skin
http://zdnet.com.com/2251-1110-5286695.html

The tiny chip that can do just about everything
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290117/

Something weird is going on below us
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287780/

It’s the End of the World as We Know It
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289682/

Say no to CAFTA
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287557/

Bottomfish activity is not compatible with the protection of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands ecosystem
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290447/

Deforestation threatens Amazon river, scientists warn
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289719/

Greenland ice-melt 'speeding up'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289725/

GLOBAL WARMING HITS UK BIRDS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289731/

Scientists for a GM-Free Sustainable Europe
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287471/

Ban Plant-based Transgenic Pharmaceuticals
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287971/

GM WATCH daily
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289736/

Argentina Protests Against Monsanto's Clear-Cutting Virgin Forests to Plant GE Soybeans
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289739/

Whitewash on Health Hazards of GE Foods
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290152/

BUSH PLAN EXCLUDES PUBLIC FROM ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287579/

The Case Against George W. Bush
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290239/

Defend the Roadless Rule
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290156/

Pesticides found in 43% of fruit and vegetables traces of pesticide
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290115/

Water for all
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290458/

U.S. Eases Review of Pesticides for Endangered Species
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290148/

New Stats Show Bush's Deficit Dishonesty
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287783/

GOP gets scolded on recruitment
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/288645/

How to Steal an Election
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290446/

GOP Senator Chafee Criticizes Bush for Iraq War
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287966/

Iraq has become a battleground for al-Qaida
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290250/

An alternative 9/11 report
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/288532/

Total Information Awareness & Beyond: Threats to Privacy in a Post 9-11 America
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/288676/

Ashcroft's War on Truth
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290444/

Welcome to the Matrix
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/288811/

With Databases Everywhere, the U.S. Government May Be Turning Into Big Brother
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289663/

Such Emptiness! Such Depth of “Preparedness!”
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289676/

Patriot Game, Media Shame
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290241/

White House to Project Record Deficit
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287965/

The Unbearable Costs of Empire
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289049/

Pull the Troops or Face an Impeachment Movement
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290258/

Iraqis accuse British troops of war crimes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287826/

UK troops held torture contests, Iraqi claims
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287830/

Troops accused over killing
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/289046/

Doctors and Torture
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290143/

U.S. General Witnessed Abu Ghraib Torture
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290157/

The 800lb Gorilla in American Foreign Policy
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290242/

The Secret File of Abu Ghraib
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290448/

Ghost prisons a blot on America's moral leadership
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290453/

Iraq in pics
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290442/

Feds Abuse Patriot Act in Non-Terrorism Investigations
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290451/

Iraq Funds Are Focus of 27 Criminal Inquiries
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290455/

White House Posts Highest Deficit in US History
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/290480/

Globalization's Coming
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/287833/

Currents

JULY 2004

PUBLIC CITIZENS NEWS UPDATE

Can't sneak it in: California office battles bond fund giveaway Late June is a busy season in Sacramento. It's when disgruntled lobbyists scramble to find legislative hosts for gut-and-amend bills-where lawmakers delete the entire text of an existing bill and insert language on an unrelated issue-to then whiz through committees without time for the public to catch on and weigh in. Assembly Bill 1647 is just such a bill. It resurrects the shelved attempt from last year to allow private water corporations to receive grants and loans from California general obligation bonds. This would be a devastating shift in California public policy, and would bust open the door for private corporations to siphon off of taxpayers to subsidize their acquisition of public water systems. Public Citizen's California office caught on to the bill just in time to rush to Sacramento and testify. The bill's author however, pulled the bill from the agenda three and a half hours into the hearing. A broad coalition of environmental, environmental justice, consumer rights organizations and public water agencies are organizing to stop the bill when it resurfaces in August after the legislative recess. Please contact jabeck@citizen.org or 510-663-0888 ext 101 to help this effort.

New Report: Prepaid water meters is no solution

Water for All has published a new report "Orange Farm, South Africa:

The Forced Implementation of Prepaid Water Meters" in collaboration with the South African coalition against water privatization and the Anti-Privatisation Forum. The report is based on 193 interviews from Orange Farm Township on the outskirts of Johannesburg. In the past two years, some township residents have been used as guinea pigs for a program that is set to be rolled out to all poor neighborhoods in Johannesburg. Prepaid water meters deny water users the right to water as no money means no access to water. It has created a number of conflicts in the township and the report foresees tremendous harm from the roll out in other areas of the country. Prepaid water meters are increasingly an "easy" solution used by decision makers in poor communities to force upfront payments. The procedural issues around the provision are highly questionable and the impact on marginalized populations is devastating. Find the report and more information on
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/humanright/meter

Update: Highland Park residents still battling corrupt privatization
drive

After months of debates and constant refusal from the Highland Park City Council, a suburb of Detroit, to approve a questionable non-bid contract with inexperienced Rothschild Wright Group (RWG), state-appointed officials, in leaked documents, indicate that they will overrule the Highland Park council vote and approve a 10-year contract to privatize their water system. The contract includes provisions that allow RWG to bottle water from the public reservoir. RWG proposed a contract in a no-bid arrangement, but has shown no information on experienced water management. The proposed contract holds Highland Park financially responsible for potential costs, while ensuring RWG returns of investment. Find more information on
http://www.waterissweet.org/detroit/index.html or on
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/us/other/detroit

Workers say NO to privatization plan in Peru

On July 14, there was a national work stoppage in Peru to protest President Toledo's plan to privatize 13 14 water utilities in the next three years. A delegation from the water worker's union, FENTAP, came to the U.S. beforehand on July 12 to meet with other public worker unions, as part of a coordinated effort to stop a $50 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to Peru that will require municipalities to form public/private partnerships before they can receive funding. (FENTAP recently had a big win in the state of La Libertad, where their local union led coalition
successfully drove out the private company managing the water and sewage systems of three cities.) The delegation was very excited to hear about Rep. Schakowsky's "Water for the World" resolution that includes a clause stating that international financial institutions such as IADB should not approve loans that require public/private partnerships and other forms of privatization. The Peru delegation met with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Rep. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and received firm commitments that they would write a letter to the U.S. Executive Director of the IADB asking that this loan be stopped or the privatization condition removed. The letter will be circulated to the Hispanic Caucus and all other members.

Private company hopes to cash in on Las Vegas water grab

Las Vegas thinks it's found the Big Answer to its drought stricken water woes: poke holes in the ground up north, suck water from the aquifer and pipe it to the city. It's a thinly disguised scheme to enable the growth addicted and politically powerful development industry. The state's congressional delegation is unanimously supporting legislation that is ostensibly a wilderness bill but that would also grease the skids on the plan by identifying pipeline corridors on federal lands. Meantime, an outfit called Vidler Water Co. has managed to gain an interest in water rights in the vicinity of the pipeline route. "We believe that Vidler's assets are favorably positioned to contribute to the water resource solutions required in the Southwest," the company helpfully explains while referencing the Las Vegas water grab in its annual report. Translation: We're sitting on this water and waiting for the price to go up and then we'll sell it to the Las Vegas for a bundle, yeehaw. All of which was enough to prompt creation of the Nevada Adhoc Water Network, a coalition of environmentalists, rural citizenry, public interest organizations and others. They're fighting the proposed legislation, calling instead for, among other things, a serious analysis of Las Vegas water resources, uses and policy alternatives an analysis that isn't conducted by water officials answering to politicians who are beholden to the development industry.

The pipeline portions of the water grab bill, officially known as the Lincoln County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act, is premature, unnecessary, would promote the commodification of water in the arid West, and should be stripped from the legislation.

On the Go: Water for All representative goes to Berlin

Water for All participated in a workshop in Berlin in late June aimed at developing a potential process for a global review of private sector participation in water management. The meeting took departure from a recent international scoping process including 300 stakeholders that assessed the need for a global review. This scoping process was initiated at the International Freshwater Conference in Bonn in 2001.

Participants at the Berlin multi-stakeholder workshop discussed the findings and recommendations from the scoping report and the pros and cons of different options for a multi-stakeholder review. The consensus at the meeting was that a potential review must prioritize the need to achieve affordable and sustainable access...


Informant: Planttrees

A comprehensive examination of the U.S.-led agency that oversaw the rebuilding of Iraq has triggered at least 27 criminal investigations and produced evidence of millions of dollars' worth of fraud, waste and abuse...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040730/ts_latimes/iraqfundsarefocusof27criminalinquiries
http://tinyurl.com/4fkzn


From Information Clearing House

The Bush administration holds alleged terror suspects incommunicado all over the world, blatantly violating basic human rights...

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/07/30/2003181030


From Information Clearing House

Even before the Patriot Act, and even before 9-11-01, our rights were under attack. The so-called 'war on drugs' has made all the safe guards on searchs, null and void. If you get pulled over by any Police Officer for any traffic offence or other, and he asks to search your car/truck, and you say no. The standard actions are: 1) "You got something to hide?" 2) We'll wait on the drug dog.

I won't consent to any search. And too many people shed their life's blood for me to give up 'any' of my rights.

I don't recall who said it, or the exact quotation. But..."When people give up their freedoms for security, they lose both."


John Beaulieu wrote:

" In the urgent push to pass the Patriot Act, she says, "never... did the FBI say we needed additional tools to keep this nation safe from strip-club operators."

http://www.villagenews.weblogger.com/stories/storyReader$9932

I was under the mistaken impression that the patriot act was designed to combat terrorism, not common criminals. Aparently the FBI sees fit to use it to bypass due process. Even if the people were or were not guilty of what they were charged with, this was not a case of terrorism and they did have their civil rights violated. What is to stop the FBI from doing the same thing to you purely on suspicion?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6581.htm


Informant: Dian Davies

Scientists, kupuna (elders), fishermen, many in the Native Hawaiian community, the the NWHI Reserve Advisory Council and the broad public have concluded that commerical bottomfish activity is not compatible with the protection of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands ecosystem and should be phased out. This would exclude researchers working to ensure the long-term conservation of the NWHI and Native Hawaiians practicing subsistence, cultural, and religious uses.

The State waters hold the heart of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and contain some of the most ecologically important and vulnerable areas, especially the coral reefs and shallow lagoons essential to monk seals, sea turtles, and other wildlife. The state is being encouraged to provide the highest level of protection for these areas and to ensure that the language of the proposed rules accomplishes this. Please take a moment to preserve on the last wild places on Earth. Your comments will help to protect these vitally important waters. Mahalo nui loa.

You can take action on this alert either via email (please see directions below) or via the web at:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/NWHI_refuge/83u57e4ljwb3wt

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/NWHI_refuge/forward/83u57e4ljwb3wt

We encourage you to take action by August 13, 2004

http://www.counterpunch.org/donnelly07102004.html


Informant: Friends


How to steal an election

by Jeff Jacoby

Boston Globe

09/16/04

A recent story that didn't get nearly the attention it deserved was the New York Daily News report that 46,000 registered New York City voters are also registered to vote in Florida. Nearly 1,700 of them have had absentee ballots mailed to their home in the other state, and as many as 1,000 have voted twice in the same election. Can 1,000 fraudulent votes change an election? Well, George W. Bush won Florida in 2000 by just 537 votes. It is illegal to register to vote simultaneously in different jurisdictions, but scofflaws have little to worry about. As the Daily News noted, 'efforts to prevent people from registering and voting in more than one state rely mostly on the honor system.' Those who break the law rarely face prosecution or serious punishment. It's easy -- and painless -- to cheat...


http://tinyurl.com/4h47k


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.counterpunch.org/edmonds07092004.html


Informant: Friends

http://ppoopp.host.sk/war/index.htm


Informant: Ace

http://www.counterpunch.org/ferner07282004.html


Informant: V

Viele Menschen wollen mit dem Handy telefonieren, möchten aber selber keine Sender in ihrer Nähe haben. Ohne Sender funktionieren jedoch die Handys nicht. Wer also den Sender vom eigenen Haus weg haben will, handelt nach dem St. Florians-Prinzip, denn dann bekommen den für das Handy zwingend notwendigen Sender eben andere. Und ist der Handynutzer unterwegs, so braucht er zusätzlich noch viele weitere Sender entlang seines Weges, mit denen auch wieder andere belastet werden.

Oft hört man von Mastengegnern das Argument, sie würden ihr Handy unbedingt brauchen. Irgendeinen “wichtigen Grund“ werden aber auch alle anderen Millionen Menschen haben und damit auch den Anspruch auf ein Handy. Also was tun?

Es ist wohl klar, dass ein Mastengegner konsequenterweise auch sein eigenes Verhalten überdenken sollte. Denn die Handynutzer sorgen selbst dafür, dass immer mehr Masten gebaut werden müssen.

Wir sehen aus diesen Ausführungen, dass es nicht möglich ist, ein Mobilfunknetz mit der zur Zeit noch erlaubten Technologie aufzubauen und gleichzeitig den Gesundheitsschutz für die Menschen zu sichern.

Bei der heute verwendeten Technologie wird bewusst eine unübersehbare Schädigung der Volksgesundheit in Kauf genommen.

Wir müssen sicherstellen, dass unsere Gesundheit wieder zum höchsten Gut wird.

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/mobilfunksender_raus_aus_reinen_wohngebieten.rtf

Stop the War Press Release

For Immediate release

While Tony Blair suns himself on a beach in Barbados Iraq is in flames. Eighteen months after the end of the war hundreds of Iraqis are being killed every week.

Now the foreign affairs select committee reports that ‘Iraq has become a battleground for al-Qaida’.

The foreign affairs committee calls for other NATO countries to send more troops to Iraq - ignoring the fact that not only was the war illegal but that the occupation itself is the source of the continued instability in Iraq.

Stop the War convenor Lindsey German said ‘there can be no peace while British and American troops remain in Iraq and this report only confirms the warnings made by the anti-war movement.’

For comment
Andrew Burgin 07939 242229
Lindsey German 07810540584

Stealth Cell towers and the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections

source: by Bruce Conway
http://www.lightwatcher.com/culturejam/stealth_towers.html

Late last fall, I watched bemused as several plainclothes geeks installed a cell tower behind our N.W. Island's Masonic Hall. It went up quickly, and without any fanfare.

The twist was that the cell tower was disguised as an ordinary flagpole. This was patriotic, and very suspicious. The camouflaged stealth tower was erected without any protests, warnings or announcements to local businesses or residents.

Being a curious person I investigated, and discovered to my great surprise that "stealth towers" are being hastily erected throughout the country, by the thousands. Camouflaged microwave and cell phone towers are being disguised as cacti, palm trees, church crosses, rock formations, water towers, and pine trees. This is happening without any of the dissent or protest usually surrounding cell tower erections.

Companies like Stealth Concealment Solutions of Charleston, S.C., are doing a brisk business. They custom-disguise cell towers to blend into their surroundings. It is estimated that up to 30% of the new cell tower erections now going up are being stealthily concealed.

When one considers the rapid advancements in electromagnetic and psychotronic mind control technology, this trend in utility concealment is rather sinister. If researchers could successfully project human speech into the minds of the deaf, as Dr. Joseph C. Sharp of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research did in 1974, think of their present capabilities.

Consider this quote by a pioneer in electromagnetic mind control: "Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain." - Dr. Jose Delgado -1974 Congressional Record, No. 262E, Vol. 118.

Here is another eye-opening quotation: "Contemporary neuroscience suggests the existence of fundamental algorithms by which all sensory transduction is translated into the intrinsic, brain-specific code. Direct stimulation of these codes within the human temporal or limbic cortices by applied electromagnetic patterns may require energy levels which are within the range of both geomagnetic activity and contemporary communication networks. A process which is coupled to the narrow band of brain temperature could allow all normal human brains to be affected by a sub-harmonic whose frequency range at about 10 Hz would only vary by 0.1 Hz." - On the Possibility of Directly accessing every human brain by electromagnetic induction of fundamental algorithms - by M.A. Persinger, Laurentian University / Perceptual and Motor Skills, June 1995, 80, 791-799.

And now, one final quotation to put the issue of stealth cell towers into a proper political perspective: "As an expert and juridical personality I declare: In Kiev was launched a mass production of Psychotronical Biogenerators and their tests. I cannot assert that during the coup d'etat were used exactly the Kiev generators. All the same the fact that they were used is evident to me. What are the Psychotronical generators? They are electrical equipment which produces the effect of guided control in human organisms. It affects especially the left and right hemisphere of the cortex. This is also the technology of the U.S. project Zombie 5 . . . I draw on my personal experience since I am myself the designer of such a generator." Quote by Victor Sedleckij, the Vice President of the League of Independent Soviet Scientists / Komsomolskaya Pravda / August 27, 1991

With the U.S. Presidential election coming up in a few short months, it is likely that the stealth cell tower network being rapidly constructed is destined to play an important role in remotely influencing the perceptions, thoughts and decisions of American voters.

Is there any crime that the Neoconmen won't perpretrate to retain their strangle-hold on power?

Stealth Tower online resources:
http://napps.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0202widernetcelltowers.html
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,57199,00.html
http://www.stealthsite.com/
http://www.stealthsite.com/products/gallery.html

Mind Control Documentation
"A Method for the Remote Control of Electrical Stimulation of the Nervous System." E.L. Chaffee and R.U. Light. Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine, 1934, 7.
"Multichannel Transdermal Stimulation of the Brain." J.M.R. Delgado. Technical Documentary Report No. ARL-TR-70-1, New Mexico: Holloman Air Force Base, 1970.
"Psychotechnology: Electronic Control of Mind and Behavior." Robert L. Schwitzgebel and Ralph K. Schwitzgebel (Editors). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1973.
Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control." Harvey Weinstein, M.D. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1990.
"U.S. Explores Russian Mind-Control Technology." Barbara Opall. Defense News, January 11-17, 1993.


Informant: Planttrees

We have just posted our new commentary:

EMF Decision Time in California:
Follow the Health Data or Follow the Money?


In addition, check out some of the recent postings on our ³From the Field² column. For instance, read about the latest controversy over the heat shock protein (HSP) workshop held in Helsinki in late April.

Our news and editorials are still accessible to all at no cost.

So, bookmark http://www.microwavenews.com and visit us often for the latest news on EMFs.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions. Send your e-mails to: info@microwavenews.com.

Best,
Louis Slesin, PhD

Take Action!

The Bush Administration has announced a plan that would overturn the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, the landmark conservation initiative enacted in 2001 to protect 58.5 million acres of National Forest roadless areas from additional road-building and logging.

In doing so, the Administration will all but eliminate protections for America’s last remaining unspoiled National Forests. And worse yet, this decision completely ignores the wishes of the 2.5 million Americans who have repeatedly supported these protections.

Don't sit still for this one! Take action now. We've provided a letter below, but we know you have plenty to say about this, so feel free to edit our letter and send it.

Time's awasting. Please help us spread the word about this campaign!

http://ga1.org/campaign/roadless/wd8ks5xr1iw3e5

Overview of Nat'l Academy of Sciences Whitewash on Health Hazards of GE Foods

http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/overview072904.cfm

News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

http://www.thecampaign.org


Informant: Teresa Binstock

The EPA will no longer have to consult with agencies on the potential harm of products. Environmentalists say it will weaken the law.

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
LATimes Staff Writer

July 30, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-epa30jul30,1,7527746.story
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-epa30jul30,1,7527746.story?coll=la-headlines-nation>

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration made it easier Thursday for the government to approve pesticides used by farmers and homeowners, saying it no longer would require the Environmental Protection Agency to first consult other federal agencies to determine whether a product could harm endangered species.

The change, supported by growers and pesticide manufacturers, affects federal regulations for carrying out the Endangered Species Act, a law that protects about 1,200 threatened animals and plants.

Environmentalists said the streamlined process would strip away protections for those species.

The law has been successfully used by environmental groups in a recent lawsuit seeking to mitigate the effects of pesticides on salmon in the Pacific Northwest. A federal judge found that the EPA had failed to abide by a requirement that it consult with federal wildlife agencies over the potential harm from pesticides.

Under the new process, expected to take effect in a few months, the EPA will conduct its own scientific evaluation. The agency will be required to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies only if its internal evaluation deems that a pesticide is likely to have an adverse effect on endangered species.

"The new rule benefits the pesticide industry at the expense of endangered species," said Aaron Colangelo, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington-based environmental advocacy group. "By cutting the government's wildlife experts out of the loop, the rule removes an important safety net to protect endangered species."

Colangelo previously sued the EPA for allowing the pesticide atrazine to affect sea turtles in Chesapeake Bay.

Government officials said that because the consultation process had gotten so complex, it was routinely ignored by the agencies. They said it had become a bureaucratic maze that helped no one.

"With 1,200 endangered species and hundreds of chemicals, it becomes a logistical nightmare," said Hugh Vickery, an Interior Department spokesman. "The thinking was that we had to find a more efficient way."

Vickery said the litigation on the West Coast spurred the government to act.

"This got the fire going on trying to solve the problem," he said.

Environmentalists said the changes would weaken the law. "The law was designed to say, 'Look before you leap,' " said John Kostyack, senior counsel with the National Wildlife Federation. "This is leaping before you look."

But officials at the Fish and Wildlife Service said their agency would continue to monitor the EPA's work under the new rules.

"We are not out of the picture," said Clint Riley, special assistant to the wildlife service's director. "We would be in more of an oversight role. As soon as it looks like there would be any adverse effect, we would still be in the picture."

CropLife America, a pesticide industry association, issued a statement describing the new rules as "a sensible approach that strengthens protections to endangered animal and plant species while maintaining access to tested and approved pesticides that are essential to agricultural production, pest management, public health and the environment."

Colangelo said the revision had been on industry wish lists for years, as pesticide producers sought to overcome environmental lawsuits.

Environmentalists noted that the pesticide DDT was responsible for the decline of the American bald eagle in the late 20th century. Since then, pesticide control laws and the Endangered Species Act have reversed the trend.

"Instead of upholding the law, the president has chosen to let EPA off the hook," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.

Times staff writer Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.

Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times


Informant: Teresa Binstock

Raus aus der Statistik: Statt Arbeitsplätzen künftig nur noch Ein-bis-zwei-Euro-Jobs

30.07.04

Die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) geht nach Informationen der "Financial Times Deutschland" davon aus, dass die zukünftigen Jobs für Arbeitslose mit Stundenlöhnen von ein bis zwei Euro bezahlt werden. "Man kann für einen sozialversicherungspflichtigen Arbeitslosen-Job fünf bis sechs Stellen dieser Art schaffen", sagte Heinrich Alt, Vorstandsmitglied der BA, der Zeitung. Solcherart Beschäftigte würden nicht mehr als Arbeitslose gezählt. Sie hätten auch nicht - wie bisher - nach zwölf Monaten Arbeit wieder Anspruch auf Arbeitslosengeld...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=9040

dazu auch:

Weiterleitung :

http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=22222
Datum: 30.07.2004
© http://www.sozialisten.de

30.07.2004

Aus eins mach sechs macht Armut

Zu den Vorschlägen der Bundesagentur, Jobsharing zu Stundenlöhnen von ein bis zwei Euro einzuführen, erklärt die stellvertretende Vorsitzende Dagmar Enkelmann:

Man kann für einen sozialversicherungspflichtigen Arbeitslosenjob fünf bis sechs Stellen dieser Art schaffen, so das Vorstandsmitglied der Bundesagentur, Heinrich Alt, zum geplanten Vorhaben der Agentur auf diese Weise 750.000 Jobs zu schaffen. Mit Bezahlungen von ein bis zwei Euro. Und Minister Clement schiebt nach, diese Niedrigstlohnjobs seien ein Beitrag "erst einmal Not zu lindern".

Mit diesen Aussagen erfährt man aus berufenem Mund alles, was ohnehin befürchtet wird:

* Es werden keine neuen existenzsichernden Arbeitsplätze entstehen. In Armut gezwungene Menschen werden sich die Brosamen nun auch noch teilen müssen.

* Es besteht die Gefahr, dass vollwertige Arbeitsplätze durch die geplanten Niedrigstlohnjobs verdrängt werden.

* Armut und Not für einen Teil der Bevölkerung ist vorprogrammiert.

So sieht das Regierungskonzept von "fördern und fordern" also letztlich aus: Kürzen und fordern im unerträglichen Übermaß, das Fördern dagegen eine einzige Farce.

Die PDS bleibt dabei: Hartz IV und die stetig bekannt werdenden Begleiterscheinungen sind ein Ticket in die Armut für Hunderttausende. Mit Gewerkschaften und Sozialverbänden in der Kritik übereinstimmend werden wir den Protest forcieren. Hartz IV muss weg.

Pressemitteilungen der PDS
http://www.pds-online.de/presse-abo/

Großbritannien: Importierte Früchte mit Pestiziden belastet

30.07.04

Nach Angaben der Umweltorganisation Friends of Earth sind täglich bis zu 220 Kleinkinder in Großbritannien zu hohen Mengen an Pestiziden von Obst ausgesetzt. Am schlimmsten sind nach Angaben der Forscher importierte Früchte betroffen. Trotz der generell guten Beobachtung von Pestizidwerten in Obst und Gemüse blieben die Lebensmittel nicht sicher da die Werte von Stück zu Stück erheblich variierten. "Eltern würden schockiert sein, wenn sie wüssten, dass ihre Kinder durch nur einen Apfel oder eine Birne mit gesundheitsgefährdenden Mengen an Pestiziden zu sich nehmen", so Studienleiterin Emily Diamand. Die Umweltgruppe wirft der Regierung vor, das Problem zu kennen, aber dennoch zu wenig dagegen zu unternehmen...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=9034

Arbeiterwohlfahrt: "Hartz IV reißt Familien auseinander"

30.07.04

Die "Hartz IV"-Reform wird nach Angaben der Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) auch dazu führen, dass Familien auseinander gerissen werden. Immer häufiger äußerten Eltern die Absicht, erwachsene arbeitslose Kinder aus dem Haus zu schicken, damit sie Arbeitslosengeld II erhalten und nicht allein vom Geld der Eltern leben müssen, sagte AWO-Bundesausschussmitglied Paul Saatkamp der "Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung". Das Elterneinkommen werde nämlich bei Haushaltsgemeinschaften berücksichtigt. "Das sind zynische Folgen einer sowieso grausamen Reform", kritisierte Saatkamp, der bis vor kurzem Sprecher der Nationalen Armutskonferenz war...

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php4?Nr=9037

Das Arbeitsamt bemüht sich ausgefüllte Antragsunterlagen zum Arbeitslosengeld II zu bekommen. Dazu informiert die ALSO wie folgt:

*Vorsicht Arbeitslosengeld II !*

*- Aktuelle 'Einladungen' des Arbeitsamtes -*

*Viele Erwerbslose erhalten zur Zeit derartige Arbeitsamtschreiben :*

"Sehr geehrte Dame / sehr geehrter Herr ......,
ich möchte mit Ihnen über das Arbeitslosengeld II sprechen. Bitte bringen Sie daher die Ihnen zugesandten Antragsunterlagen mit. ... Bitte kommen Sie am ... um ... Uhr in die Agentur für Arbeit Oldenburg, Stau 70, Zimmer E014."
[Bei Nichterscheinen ohne wichtigen Grund droht eine Säumnisstrafe. Jedoch anders als die meisten anderen Amtsschreiben weist dieses keinen bestimmten Arbeitsamtsmitarbeiter als Absender aus.]


*Wer dieser 'Einladung zum Gespräch' folgt, findet sich in einer Grup­penveranstaltung mit ca. 15 bis 20 Personen wieder. Diese läuft so:*

*1. Anwesenheitskontrolle*
*2. ca. einstündige Darstellung zum Arbeitslosengeld II (Alg II)*
*3. 'Angebot' individueller Terminvereinbarung zur Abgabe der Unterlagen zur Beantragung des Alg II. /(Zwar wurde von Freiwilligkeit dieses Einzeltermins gesprochen, doch als ein Betroffener das ernst nahm und das 'Angebot' ablehnte, war der Herr vom Arbeitsamt überdeutlich unzufrieden - das war's.)/*

*Andere wiederum werden /jetzt schon/ zum Einzeltermin geladen und sollen die ausgefüllten Alg II-Anträge gleich mitbringen.*

*Wir sagen dazu :*

*1. Es gibt keine Pflicht, die Alg II-Anträge bereits heute auszufüllen! Denn noch nie gab es die Pflicht, Sozialleistungen zu beantragen - und um nichts anderes als das Beantragen von Alg II handelt es sich bei dem Unterlagenberg, den wir für das Amt derzeit bearbeiten sollen !*

*2. Das Arbeitsamt macht mit der Antragsannahme ein Angebot, das diese Bezeichnung 'mal wirklich verdient. Das darf daher abgelehnt werden, ohne Konsequenzen fürchten zu müssen.*

*3. Füllt die Anträge noch nicht aus! Die Anträge enthalten Fallen und unzulässige Fragen, die zu Nachteilen für Erwerbslose und ihre Angehörigen führen können. (siehe auch unser Infoblatt)*

*Wir empfehlen :*

*Erst informieren - dann beantragen !*

*Geht hin zu den Terminen - aber gebt den Antrag noch nicht ab !*

*Nehmt Euch ggf. eine Person des Vertrauens mit ! **

*Berichtet uns von Euren Erlebnissen beim Amt !*

*Kommt zur Veranstaltung am*
*19. 8.2004, 20 Uhr in die ALSO-Halle!*

*Wir fordern: Weg mit der Agenda-Politik!*

*Einkommen für alle nach dem vorhandenen Reichtum !*

Arbeitslosenselbsthilfe Oldenburg e.V.

by DAVID TICOLL

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Ten years ago, few imagined how pervasive the Net would be, let alone how it would change commerce, culture and communication. Today it's RFID (radio frequency identification), the tiny communicating chip that you can stick on or in just about anything — like Canada's new e-Passport that we heard about this week. When you look around the world, the initial implementations are curious, sometimes twisted, RFID Rorschach reflections of economic cultures.

Consider that the hottest RFID project going is good ol' American productivity and business process improvement. Chances are if you've heard of RFID it's because of a plan by Wal-Mart and other retailers to use it to replace the venerable bar code. Their idea is to cut inventory and personnel costs by the hundreds of millions of dollars, eradicate theft and improve just-in-time shelf stocking. Wal-Mart, with suppliers like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola (along with smaller companies like Toronto-based firelog manufacturer Conros Corp.), goes live next year.

Further to my point, the second-hottest project is by — you guessed it — the U.S. military, which mandated the use of RFID on equipment in the Iraqi theatre and elsewhere.

These U.S. RFID exemplars are only the beginning. Let's tour.

You point your mobile phone at a poster near a public transit stop. Moments later you're on the bus grooving to Moby's latest. You've bought, paid for and downloaded it to your mobile music device. This Moby mobile music machine is Magic Touch, a brand name of an alliance in a hurry that includes Nokia, Philips and Sony. Their RFID Rorschach is evident: a triad of electronic entertainment firms from edgy Finland (Nokia), the Netherlands (Philips) and Japan (Sony).

Nokia already has a Magic Touch RFID in a wireless handset. It will communicate with suitably equipped posters (like our Moby tune shop), objects (like office door locks), and other devices (for example, to exchange ring tones between phones). The possible uses are limited only by your imagination. Already, a German security firm uses a Magic Touch prototype with sensors at points along its guards' patrol routes. The employee touches his handset to a tag and his boss immediately knows where he is and whether he's on schedule.

Meanwhile in another telling initiative, last week, Mexico's Attorney-General Rafael Macedo de la Concha and 160 federal prosecutors, investigators and other employees were implanted with rice-grain-sized RFID chips for secure access to a new anti-crime information centre. "It's only for access, for security," the minister said. The project is expected to expand quickly; President Vicente Fox and his staff may get chipped in the near future. Some speculate the measure is partly designed to reduce official corruption, Mexico's biggest security problem.

Across the pond at the European Union, government ministers aren't being tagged (yet?). But its bureaucrats are into the RFID act. They've mandated that all dogs, cats and ferrets travelling into and between EU member countries must have embedded tags by 2012 (in the interim they must bear either a tag or a special tattoo). Makes sense: anyone who's been to a Paris restaurant knows how much the French, at least, adore their dogs and ferrets.

Meanwhile, nearby at the Barcelona Baja Beach Club, in an RFID Rorschach of a different sort, VIP customers have embedded chips under their skin so staff can treat them with the fawning respect they deserve, and they can buy bebidas without bumbling. RFID: The oh so invisible pass card for chic bathers in skimpy suits.

No slackers in RFID Rorschach, the Japanese also use the tool to track humans. Alarmed at a series of violent crimes involving children, next month a school in western Japan will introduce RFID cards that let parents keep tabs on their kids all day. Pupils scan their cards across readers at the school entrance and then the time and location are recorded and sent via e-mail or phone to their homes. Kids also scan on their way out, so parents will know what time to expect them. Many Japanese pupils play sports long after school and then spend several hours at private crammer schools. Ten-year-olds often travel on public transport late at night.

Telling as all this may be, you are probably wondering about an RFID thingy for a Report on Business reader's Rorschach. You know, the type — like you, maybe — who's in the global virtual community that spends half its leisure time hunting for lost golf balls in the rough. I've found it. Radar Golf (based in Roseville, Calif.) has embedded RFID chips inside golf balls. It offers a kit including balls and handheld tracker for $150 (U.S.). Slice into the woods, grab the tracker off your bag, point, find, and retrieve in moments as your ball beams its location straight to you. Only problem is, Radar's having trouble selling the idea to a golf ball industry whose $1.5-billion business model needs the average weekend duffer to lose four balls per game. Pitiful amateur though I am, I don't need Radar Golf; this summer I play the lush wide fairways of Bigwin Island on Ontario's Lake of Bays. Who needs e-anything when you get to do that?

David Ticoll's new book is The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, written with Don Tapscott.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040722.wxticoll22_HP/BNStory/Front/


Informant: Kim Godfrey

More than four out of ten items of fruit, vegetable and cereals on sale in Britain contain traces of pesticide, according to a new report which reveals the extent of chemical contamination in the food chain...

Full story:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=545394


Informant: Friends

Argentina Protests Against Monsanto's Clear-Cutting Virgin Forests to Plant GE Soybeans...

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/jaguars072904.cfm


Informant: Teresa Binstock

http://www.gmwatch.org


Informant: Teresa Binstock

DISASTER AT SEA: GLOBAL WARMING HITS UK BIRDS
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=546138


Informant: NHNE

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3922579.stm


Informant: NHNE

Deforestation has provoked drastic changes along many Amazon tributaries and scientists warned it was only a matter of time before it affects the main trunk of the river...

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-07-30/s_26321.asp

NEW SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

THE MICROWAVE SYNDROME - FURTHER ASPECTS OF A SPANISH STUDY

Oberfeld Gerd
Navarro A. Enrique
Portoles Manuel
Maestu, Ceferino
Gomez-Perretta, Claudio

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/proceedings_kos_2004.pdf


Informant: Dr Miguel Muntané

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

07/29/04

Substances made using nanotechnology should be considered new chemicals and undergo extra safety checks before they hit the market to ensure they do not pose a threat to human health, experts said Thursday. In a report commissioned by the British government, a panel of scientists, engineers, ethicists and other experts identified major opportunities and hazards that are likely to arise as nanotechnology -- the science of manipulating matter at the molecular level -- comes of age...

http://tinyurl.com/5ju6k


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Peter Kurth

Ladies and gentleman, citizens of the United States, former free persons and torches of Liberty! I don’t want to be the one who breaks this news to you, but somebody has to, and it might as well be me. Listen up, because this is terribly important. Not just your own future, but the future of all generations after you will depend upon it. You’re not scared enough. You’re not scared nearly enough. You should be frightened out of your wits and, apparently, you’re not...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/Kurth0730.htm

http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=15378&c=130

Privacy & Technology : Surveillance & Wiretapping:
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/PrivacyList.cfm?c=130

'No-Fly' List Risk
July 1, 2003

With Databases Everywhere, the U.S. Government May Be Turning Into Big Brother

By Jayashri Srikantiah

Published in the Daily Journal on July 1, 2003

Rebecca Gordon and Jan Adams are long-time peace activists who live and work in San Francisco. When they went to San Francisco International Airport last year to take a flight to Boston, they were told by an airline agent that their names may be on a secret federal "no fly" list. They were briefly detained, questioned and only allowed to fly when San Francisco Police officers cleared them after checking their names against a master FBI list.

Jan and Rebecca are not alone. Since September 11, at least 339 air passengers have been stopped and questioned by police at the airport because their names were believed to match names on the "no fly" list. If this airport is typical of other airports across the country, it is likely that thousands of passengers are being subjected to similar treatment because of the "no fly" list.

Does the "no fly" list actually make us safer? It is impossible for the public to answer that question because we have very little information about the list. We don't know, for instance, how a name is placed on the list, how a name can be taken off of the list or whether First Amendment-protected activity is ever a reason for placing a name on the list. Although Adams' and Gordon's story suggests that airlines have access to the list, we don't know if airlines can alter information on the list, or if the government trains airlines on how to use the list.

In order to obtain more information about the "no fly" list and other transportation watch lists, Adams, Gordon and the American Civil Liberties Union filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act with the Transportation Security Administration and the FBI last December. Because neither agency responded with any information, these parties filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California under the freedom and privacy acts on April 22, 2003. Without even basic information about the list, there is no way for the public to hold their government accountable as to whether the resources that law enforcement is expending on stopping and questioning air passengers are resources well spent.

According to a recently issued General Accounting Office report, the "no fly" list is just one of 12 terrorist and criminal watch lists maintained by the federal government. As the number of watch lists grows and data is increasingly shared among watch lists, the potential for error increases. Imagine, for instance, if Adams' or Gordon's names were mistakenly placed on 12 watch lists instead of just the "no fly list."

The problems with data sharing further multiply if watch list information is shared with the thousands of databases currently maintained by the government. Like the government's watch lists, these databases catalogue information on the lives of ordinary Americans and others.

Examples include a Treasury Department database that collects financial information reported to the government by financial institutions and a Department of Education database of educational records on individuals stretching from their primary school years through higher education. It is bad enough that Gordon and Adams were flagged because their names matched the "no fly" list - it would be worse if this unfair black mark were disseminated throughout the federal government, potentially causing problems for Adams and Gordon in everything from traffic stops to job applications.

The dangers created by the aggregation of information in government databases and watch lists are illustrated by the government's plans to develop the Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System, or CAPPS II, a system that would search secret intelligence and law enforcement databases and rate every airline passenger a red, yellow or green-level threat. Using easily falsified information such as name, home address, home phone number and date of birth, the pre-screening system would screen air passengers' names through credit databases and then run that information through secret government databases to make judgments about the passengers' security risk.

Based on the color-coded result, a passenger may be allowed to travel, required to undergo special security scrutiny or be referred to law enforcement and possibly detained. Masses of Americans may be unfairly branded as security risks under this program - and like Gordon and Adams, they may not know why they have been tagged or how they can clear their names.

The government's increasing use of watch lists and databases is complemented by private industry, which also collects information about individuals in this country. As computer technology exploded in recent decades, companies began to collect information about the spending and lifestyle habits of ordinary Americans. Surveys, sweepstakes questionnaires, loyalty-card programs and monitoring of Internet shopping are tools used by companies to gather information about consumers. Companies called data aggregators compile this information and sell it to others, including the government.

The "no fly" list is only the tip of the iceberg. If we do not take steps to monitor and control data surveillance to bring it into conformity with our values, millions of us will find ourselves in the situation that Gordon and Adams are in today - branded by our own government as "risky," with no way to face our accuser, discover the substance of the accusation or correct inaccurate information on which the accusation is based. We could find ourselves being tracked, analyzed, profiled and flagged in our daily lives to a degree we can scarcely imagine today.

Jayashri Srikantiah is a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.


Informant: halojumper82