http://www.klimaforschung.net/supergau.htm


Informant: atlant

by Wayne White, TomPaine.com

The high hurdles facing the United Nations, especially in the Middle East, should make Bush rue this recess appointment.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050803/bolton_the_albatross.php

by Robert L. Borosage, TomPaine.com

Last week, the president and his party celebrated a fury of apparent victories, plundering America's treasure in the process.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050803/republican_wilding.php

John Roberts is a multimillion-dollar man, with a fancy golf club membership and some hefty investments, according to a financial statement filed with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5186076,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Ohio race shows how Christian right is changing the GOP.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050803/1a_cover02.art.htm
http://snipurl.com/gp2y


From Information Clearing House

The George W. Bush administration may soon resume production of antipersonnel land mines in a move that is at odds with both the international community and previous U.S. policy on the weapons, says a leading human rights organization.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9666.htm

Russia and China hope to sign a massive arms deal after staging joint exercises for the first time.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1718819,00.html



''The 'Great Game' Heats Up in Central Asia'':

The "Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation Regarding the International Order of the 21st Century," signed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 2, addresses U.S. hegemony in several less-than-oblique passages.

http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=339&language_id=1
http://snipurl.com/gp2s


From Information Clearing House

Whatever plans Dick Cheney and his neo-conservatives may have had to conjure up a nuclear threat from Iran as "justification" for military action have been sharply undercut by some timely leaks to the Washington Post.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9667.htm

Once upon a time, a dangerous radical gained control of the US Republican Party. The American Right, having created the Mujahideen and having mightily contributed to the creation of al-Qaeda, abruptly announced that there was something deeply wrong with Islam, that it kept producing terrorists.

http://www.juancole.com/2005/08/fisking-war-on-terror-once-upon-time.html
http://snipurl.com/gosb

Despite what is unfolding before us, the majority of this country's honest, freedom-loving people seem ever less interested in knowing, and ever more inclined toward believing that what we're being shown and what we're being told and what is being carried out in our name, is truth.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4454.htm

After a hysterical campaign led by the Murdoch press and radio shock-jocks, Attorney-General Philip Rudduck has floated the possibility of new laws to ban books “promoting” or “justifying” terrorism.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/636/636p10.htm



PM avoids Iraq risk issue: Rudd:

PRIME Minister John Howard was denying Australia's involvement in Iraq had increased the risk of a terror attack at home because it would be politically uncomfortable for him to say otherwise, the Opposition said today.

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1274&storyid=3544266


From Information Clearing House

Escalating violence and the rise of theocratic rule bode ill in Baghdad.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9658.htm

http://snipurl.com/gp34


From Information Clearing House

By Josh White

It was inside a sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldier in Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, a secret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Army interrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, a club and a rubber hose, according to classified documents.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9661.htm

By Noam Chomsky

Robert McNamara, Kennedy’s defence secretary, endorses the judgment of William Perry, President Bill Clinton’s defence secretary, that "there is a greater than 50 per cent probability of a nuclear strike on US targets within a decade."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9655.htm

August 2, 2005
By Stan Deyo Home
http://standeyo.com

This RED ALERT is the first of its kind I've ever made in the 9 years of studying seismic event indicators. It is so huge that I almost can't believe my eyes. The importance and severity of this has impressed me more significantly than when I predicted and warned about the coming December 26, 2004 Indonesian events beginning December 22. For the last 6 days, I've seen indications of a large number of earthquake pressures building across a 2,000-mile long arc in the North Pacific. At first, I thought these indications were a result of large storms in the North Pacific and so, I disregarded them. Until this afternoon when a listener (thanks Dan) heard my radio broadcast and emailed information to me, I wasn't able to explain the cause of this discovery. Below you will see white arrow pointing at this arc of signals that have appeared over the last 6 days. They are heading straight into Mendocino, CA to the area where 3 tectonic plates meet. Notice on today's image and for 5 days before the clear definition of this phenomenon. It is occurring all along what is called the Mendocino Fault Zone or Ridge. This is a place where the sea floor rises up to within 1,203 yards of the sea surface at 168 miles West of Mendocino, CA. It's been the subject of a great many technical papers in the world of geology and seismicity.

Today, news came to us of the collapse of the resurgent dome at Mt. St. Helens. There have been a number of small earthquakes in the range of 3.0 over the last 2 weeks at Mt. St. Helens. Scientists monitoring this claim to be a loss to explain the cause.

Depending on how large and how many seismic event release along the Mendocino Ridge in the near future, where it connects to California could trigger releases not only to the San Andreas Fault, but also the Juan De Fuca Plate. The Juan de Fuca Plate is the only major zone on the great Ring of Fire around the Pacific that hasn't had a major seismic event in the last 50 years. I don't need to fully explain the implications of such an event. When this occurs, it will be one of the greatest catastrophes in America history.

HOWEVER, since I have never seen an event of this size in the making, I don't know if it will back off and come back again several times before releasing. All I am sure of is that, it's a unique event in my 9 years of these seismic indicators. At the very least you should be sure your emergency stock of food, water and medicines are what they should be for such an event. We will continue to monitor this situation and are already beginning to make radio broadcasts about this event. It has the potential to produce enormous tidal waves throughout the Pacific Basic.

Stan's analysis shows areas of possible earthquake or volcanic activity, or extreme storm conditions for the next 1 to 5 days.

---------------------------------------

http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=90227

Posted By: Geneticus Date: Monday, 1 August 2005, 6:50 p.m.

If you go the Princeton egg index page, you will see the button is fading in through green, right through yellow, past orange, hitting dark red, and even triggering an occasional bright red. That is major coincidence people. Something is up, the random number generators are not producing random numbers. The button color means that the mass consciousness of the people on the Earth is about to be directed into the same general thought pattern. We are all about to be thinking about the same thing. And it is most likely a man-made event, something akin to a Shuttle disaster or terrorist event.

Be sure to use "Firefox" as the browser when you navigate to the Princeton Egg index page (link below).

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/gcindex.html


Unfortunately, you must now use the Firefox browser to see the EGG data and if this was my own computer, I would definitely use it. Looks like a good browser, better than IE because of IE's security holes. Anyway, for those unfamiliar with the EGG Project out of Princeton University, these things went crazy a few days before, during and for days after the 9/11 disaster.

Here is detailed info on the EGG project: http://noosphere.princeton.edu/


Informant: V

Urwaldschutz­gesetz gefordert: Umweltschützer kämpfen um Urwaldschutz in Indonesien (03.08.05)

Das indonesische Forstministerium überprüft zur Zeit, ob bei der Vergabe von Konzessio­nen zur Umwandlung von Regenwald in Plantagen auf Sumatra Gesetze zum Schutz des Waldes missachtet worden sind. Die Umweltschutzorganisation "Robin Wood" unterstützt die Forderung indonesischer Umweltorganisationen nach einem Moratorium für den Kahlschlag und fordert den deut­schen Handel auf, auf Holzprodukte aus Indonesien zu verzichten, bis dort dem Raubbau am Regenwald Einhalt geboten worden ist. Außerdem hält Robin Wood es für dringend erfor­derlich, dass nach den Neuwahlen in Deutschland rasch das geplante Urwaldschutz­gesetz verabschiedet wird.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11548

03.08.05

Guantánamo ist nach Ansicht von amnesty international (ai) "nur die Spitze eines Eisbergs": "US-amerikanische Geheimdienste verschleppen Menschen in geheime Haftzentren auf der ganzen Welt, misshandeln und foltern sie", erklärte die Menschenrechtsorganisation am Mittwoch. Dabei bedienten sich die US-Dienste der Unterstützung anderer Länder, so ai anlässlich der Veröffentlichung eines Berichtes über zwei "Verschwundene". Die Menschenrechtler kritisierten, geheime Haft widerspreche internationalem Recht und erleichtere Folter.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11549

As US President George W. Bush announced the unprecedented recess appointment of ultra-nationalist John Bolton as his next ambassador to the United Nations, a group of diplomatic heavyweights was preparing to launch a bipartisan coalition to promote a return to a more moderate and multilateral foreign policy.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080305N.shtml

Pressure to produce intelligence for anti-terrorism efforts and the war in Iraq led US military interrogators to improvise and develop abusive measures, not just at Abu Ghraib but in detention centers elsewhere in Iraq, in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080305I.shtml

* please forward widely! *

A call for a COLLEGE NOT COMBAT contingent in the Sept 24 protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco

COUNTER-RECRUITMENT...COMING SOON TO A CITY NEAR YOU! Across the country a new movement has sprung up of students, parents, teachers and community members opposing military recruiters in their schools and neighborhoods. From students kicking recruiters off campus, from Seattle to the Bay Area to New Haven to New York; to parents and teachers' unions opposing the military targeting their children; to the growing unwillingness of young people to kill and die in an an unjust war, our message is simple:

Military recruiters out of our schools, U.S. troops out of Iraq!

On September 24, join us from D.C. to San Francisco to say: COLLEGE, NOT COMBAT!

SPONSORED BY: Brooklyn Parents for Peace, Campus Antiwar Network, College Not Combat, Coney Island Avenue Project, Educators to Stop the War, Left Hook, Louisiana Activist Network, Prospect-Lefferts Voices for Peace, Rochester Against War, Traprock Peace Center, United Federation of Teachers to Stop the War, Voices in the Wilderness and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - Monterey Branch, Youth Leadership Support Network, Washington, D.C.

ENDORSED BY: ORGANIZATIONS: 100 Year March; ANSWER - New Hampshire; Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice; Bay Area United Against War; Bronx Greens; Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors; Chapter 60 Veterans for Peace; Chapter 93 Veterans For Peace (Washtenaw County Michigan), Citizens for Legitimate Government; Coalition Against War & Injustice of Baton Rouge; DC Anti-War Network; International Socialist Organization; March for Justice; Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (Memphis); Middle East Children's Alliance; National Lawyers Guild - San Francisco/Bay Area; Oregon PeaceWorks, Peaceful Vocations; People Against the Draft; Political Action Committee for Peace and Justice at Pace University; Radio Free Eirean; San Juan Peace Net; Santa Cruz Peace Coalition; Suffolk Peace Network's Counter Military Recruiting Committee; Texans for Peace (Austin); Vets Speak Out NYC; INDIVIDUALS*: · Kevin and Monica Benderman - Kevin is a conscientious objector who refused re-deployment to Iraq and was sentenced to 15 months for missing movement; Natylie Baldwin, organizer and writer for Mt. Diablo Peace Center, associate editor for Newtopia Magazine; Amy Hagopian, parent and co-chair of Garfield High School PTSA that voted to ban recruiters from their school; Kathy Kelly, Voices in the Wilderness; Dennis Kyne, Gulf War veteran and activist; Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, UAW Local 2325; Rania Masri, writer and researcher; Gloria Mattera, Green Party candidate for Brooklyn Borough President; Camilo Mejia, the first soldier to go public with his refusal to redeploy. He spent seven months in military confinement for his decision, and was released in mid-February, 2005; Sunny Miller and Charles Jenks, Executive Director and President of Advisory Boards, respectively, Traprock Peace Center; David Mitchell, Vietnam draft resister active in Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice; Wafaa' Al-Natheema, writer, editor & translator; Victor Paredes, brother of war resister Pablo Paredes; Ward Reilly, Louisiana Activist Network and South East Contact for Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace; Justino Rodriguez, Hadas Thier and Nick Bergreen of the City College 4 - who were arrested for opposing the military at their school; avid Rovics, singer/ songwriter; Cindy Sheehan, founding member of Gold Star Families for Peace; Norman Solomon, author of "War Made Easy"; Annie and Buddy Spell, activists; Carl Webb, war resister; Brian Willson, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace; Katrina Yeaw, Michael Hoffman, and Pardis Esmaeili- the SFSU 3, who were targeted by their school administration for opposing recruiters; Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, co-editors of "Voices of a People's History of the United States."

*Organizational affiliations for identification purposes only.
(ALL sponsors/endorsers welcome; email recruitersout@yahoo.com)

* For information on the MILITARY OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS buses from NYC to DC, contact: recruitersout@yahoo.comrecruitersout@yahoo.com

* For information on the PEACE TRAIN to D.C. from across the South, contact the Louisiana Activist Network: http://www.newdemocracyrising.com/

Rally time and location TBA. Contact recruitersout@yahoo.com for more info. Campus Antiwar Network http://www.campusantiwar.net College Not Combat http://www.collegenotcombat.org/


Informant: Ashley Smith

by Jack Random

There is something obscene about the media enchantment with the congressional candidacy of Marine Major Paul Hackett of Ohio, a man who opposed the war yet volunteered to serve in it. That the Democrats seem infatuated with such a candidate is a spectacle that taxes the equilibrium of all reasonable observers. Clearly, the minority party has learned nothing from the failed candidacies of Albert Gore and John Kerry....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Random0803.htm

by John Pilger

Impeccable gentlemen now invade defenseless countries in our name, destroying hospitals, shooting doctors, rounding up thousands and writing a number on their forehead or forearm, then imprisoning and torturing them. They speak of freedom and democracy, and our way of life and our values, and they deride those who reason why. They do not wear armbands and they do not strut. They are different from fascists. But their goals are not different: conquest, domination, the theft and control of vital resources....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Pilger0803.htm



Germany In 1933: The Easy Slide Into Fascism

If my email is any indication, a goodly number of folks wonder if they're living in America in 2003 or Germany in 1933.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5775.htm



Benito Mussolini: What is Fascism?

War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9948.htm



Fascism Anyone?

"When facism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag." - Huey Long

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4113.htm

by David Sugar

Fresh on the heels of the London Bombings overseas, our government, known otherwise for dismembering state involvement when used to protect citizens from corporate greed, has been quick to exploit these incidents to further usher in the new security state, which claims to protect citizens from a threat it wishes the public to imagine requires governmental solutions. Never mind that none of these new measures actually increase anyone's security, except the security of those in power from those they govern....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Sugar0803.htm

by Joshua Frank

First, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts Jr. lied about his membership with the far right-wing Federalist Society, and now file cabinets full of documents are being released which indicate Roberts' penchant for justice is color coded. He says he won't be an activist judge. But he's lying again. Right-wing activism is all Roberts knows. On Thursday, July 28, Senator Edward Kennedy alleged that Roberts has a “rather cramped view of the Voting Rights Act.” What an understatement....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Frank0803.htm

“Operation Community Shield”: Comrade Chertoff’s Preemptive Crackdown

by Mike Whitney

Homeland Security’s Michael Chertoff is a busy man. In the last month alone he’s arrested more than 600 gang members. There’s only one problem. None of them has been charged with a crime. No matter. In Chertoff’s world that’s only a minor glitch. After all, Chertoff engineered the infamous round up of 1,100 Muslims following 9-11, tossing them all in the federal hoosegow and barring them from legal counsel. It was quite a coup, and probably helped the public feel more secure from the looming threat of domestic terror....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Whitney0803.htm

by Norman Solomon

Conscience is Not in the Chain of Command. "Before being sentenced to 15 months for refusing to return to Iraq with his Army unit, Sgt. Kevin Benderman told a military judge that he acted with his conscience, not out of a disregard for duty," the Associated Press reports. Benderman, a 40-year-old Army mechanic, "refused to go on a second combat tour in January, saying the destruction and misery he witnessed during the 2003 Iraq invasion had turned him against war." Three weeks ago, his wife Monica Benderman wrote: "He returned knowing that war is wrong, the most dehumanizing creation of humanity that exists. He saw war destroy civilians, innocent men, women and children. He saw war destroy homes, relationships and a country. He saw this not only in the country that was invaded, but he saw this happening to the invading country as well -- and he knew that the only way to save those soldiers was for people to no longer participate in war."....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Aug05/Solomon0803.htm

Please sign, forward and crosspost as you see fit.

Please sign the petition to save Petty's Island.This island Btwn Nj
and PA) is home to many endangered animals/birds and plants. It is in danger of being developed.

"We, the undersigned citizens, hereby petition the NJ Governor, U.S. Senators, and Congresspersons to take action to preserve Petty's Island and its endangered American Bald Eagles and other threatened and endangered species. We urge them to call on the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to accept Citgo Corporation's offer to clean up Petty's Island and to grant a conservation easement as a free gift to the public so that the island will become permanent open space and stay home to the many animals/birds and plants that live there. We say NO to building on the island, as it would upset the natural environment found on Petty's Island by encroaching on the habitat of the wild."

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/364152105

Thanks,
Earth First! Philadelphia


Informant: defendersofatwa

Right-wing columnist Robert Novak's new attack on former Ambassador Joseph Wilson - that he was "discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign" - recycled a disputed report from Talon News correspondent Jeff Gannon, who was unmasked earlier this year as a pro-Republican operative working under an assumed name.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205G.shtml

While commentators, prompted by Republicans, claimed Bush won the 2004 election through the votes of a silent majority concerned with "family values," Mark Crispin Miller writes that when voters were asked to state, "in their own words the most important factor in their vote,"only 14 percent named "moral values."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205F.shtml

Much has been written about the India-US "nuclear deal" struck during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington in July. But according to J. Sri Raman more alarming than the still vague details of the deal, however, is the shape the debate over it is acquiring in India.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205E.shtml

In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan almost 60 years ago, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. In addition, for many years, all but a handful of newspaper photographs were seized or prohibited.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205B.shtml

This active, layered defense is global, seamlessly integrating US capabilities in the forward regions of the world, the global commons of space and cyberspace, in the geographic approaches to US territory, and within the United States. It is a defense in depth.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2005/d20050630homeland.pdf


From Information Clearing House

The controversial John Bolton is now US President George Bush's right-hand man at the UN. Europe is stunned.

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,367959,00.html


From Information Clearing House

It’s macho, in your face, unilateral, we don’t give a damn, we’re doing it our way, and if you don’t like it, tough: That’s the style that got the United States into Iraq and into the torture scandal.

http://progressive.org/?q=mag_wx080105


From Information Clearing House

The report also expresses uncertainty about whether Iran's ruling clerics have made a decision to build a nuclear arsenal.

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2005/08/02/afx2166527.html


From Information Clearing House

Faith hate crimes have soared by 600% in London since the July 7 bombings.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13399356,00.html?f=rss


From Information Clearing House

Terrorism "Expert" John Loftus revealed that Haroon Rashid Aswat, the suspect wanted by British Police for "masterminding" the July 7th London bombings and July 21st attempted bombings is in fact an asset of MI6, the British Secret Service.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9643.htm



British and American intelligence services are said to be in hot dispute over the importance of Aswat. So let's see what we can figure out...

http://www.simplyappalling.blogspot.com/#112290784137987310

The military commissions set up by the United States to try terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay are rigged, fraudulent and based on "half-assed" evidence, according to leaked e-mails.

http://snipurl.com/go98


From Information Clearing House

The Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kim Beazley are wrongly giving legitimacy to the US law and courts over the Australian rule of law, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.

http://www.greens.org.au/mediacentre/mediareleases/senatorbrown/020805b



Defence Force lawyer lashes Hicks court:

Australia's top Defence Force lawyer has lambasted the US military court David Hicks faces as "unobjective" and "wrong" following the release of sensational emails of US prosecutors which describe it as rigged.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9645.htm



Insiders confirm obvious: the Hicks fix is in:

Australia's Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, would do well to carefully read the leaked memos from the US prosecutors on the flawed military commission trial that will judge David Hicks.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9646.htm


From Information Clearing House

The Guardian

Benyam Mohammed travelled from London to Afghanistan in July 2001, but after September 11 he fled to Pakistan. He was arrested at Karachi airport on April 10 2002, and describes being flown by a US government plane to a prison in Morocco. These are extracts from his diary.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9654.htm

It’s getting harder to hide the climate crisis. Obviously, this situation requires a global response. What seems less obvious, at least among the elites, is that this can’t be a business-as-usual response in which the climate crisis becomes just another excuse for strengthening the winds of neoliberalism.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/080205EA.shtml

President Bush signed a free trade agreement with six Latin American countries on Tuesday, celebrating a victory in Congress so narrow and grueling that it cast doubt on the future of other trade-opening pacts the administration is negotiating.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205R.shtml

August 2nd 2005

EARTH CHANGES TV NEWSLETTER

Sunspot Region Rotates Into Dangerous Alignment

by Mitch Battros – ECTV

Yet another M-Class flare fired off this morning. More expected and with greater intensity. Sunspot region 786 and 788 have been re-named since they have rotated from the far side of the Sun. Now they are know as regions 792 and 794.

Sunspots: http://www.earthchangestv.net/images/sunspot_region8205.jpg

M-Class Flare: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5mBL.html

James Petras

Rebelión

The US labor confederation, the AFL-CIO, is in a deep crisis. Following a recent split, it lost over 3 million members, reducing it to a mere 9% of the labor force and 7% of the private sector.

The crisis of the AFL-CIO is the result of politics, including the politics of collaboration with employers and opposition to militant “grass-root” organizing. Over the past 50 years the AFL-CIO trade union bureaucrats have intervened against militant local unions, surrendered past gains to avoid struggles with employers, passively accepted corporate plant closings and relocations to low-wage areas, and refused to organize the tens of millions of low-wage workers in the retail and other service sectors.

The privileges in salaries and “benefits” of the top and middle level trade union bosses exceed, on average, $300,000, apart from multiple pensions, and corrupt management of billion dollar pension funds. The key to the internal rot in the AFL-CIO is its long-standing structural linkages to US imperialism, including its role in joint ventures with the CIA in overthrowing democratic regimes and training and financing pro-business “trade union officials”. The AFL-CIO has supported every major US imperial war, ( Korea , Vietnam , Afghanistan , Yugoslavia , and Iraq ); and every major US intervention ( Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973, Guyana 1955, Venezuela 2002, Iran 1955, Panama 1980 and Grenada 1983.

The AFL-CIO has undermined legitimate militant unions and paved the way for pro-US business regimes to come to power, thus facilitating the relocation of US multinationals from the US to low-paid, non-union US client countries

True to its tradition as an accomplice to US imperial wars, the AFL-CIO has supported the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to hold billions of dollars in Israel bonds, despite the fact that less than 0.5% of its members are Jewish.

By July 2005, over half of the US population is questioning the US invasion and occupation of Iraq . Most of the major traditional religious organizations are opposed to the war. Over 25,000 US soldiers have been incapacitated by mental or physical injuries and 1800 US soldiers have been killed and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the US war. The AFL-CIO in its recent “split” congress (July 25-28, 2005) characteristically refused to condemn the war and call for the immediate withdrawal of troops, despite the fact that many Americans are moving in that direction.

A close reading of the AFL-CIO resolution on the war in Iraq approved by its last convention reveals that it continues to echo the military agenda of Washington , despite claims by many US “leftists” and “progressives” that the resolution represents a victory for the anti-war movement.

The opening paragraph bluntly states its support for the US occupation army in Iraq … in all branches of the armed forces, which must include the “men” and “women” engaged in torturing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib… The statement goes on to call for greater armaments and stronger military leaders for the occupation.

What follows is the single sentence, which is cited by the “progressives” as their “victory”. The sentence reads: “Most importantly they (the US soldiers) deserve a commitment from our country’s leaders to bring them home rapidly.” This is a statement which is no different from what Bush, Blair or Rumsfeld have promised: to return our soldiers as rapidly “as security allows”, “as the Iraqis can defend their democracy”, and “as we train their soldiers to replace our servicemen and women.” In fact, the day the AFL-CIO passed its resolution, the Pentagon announced it hoped to reduce US troops guarding the 16,000 Iraqis held in concentrations camps as soon as next spring when the Iraqis presumable could be trusted as the mercenary jailers of their own compatriots. The AFL-CIO’s time schedule mirrors that of Bush/Rumsfeld; both are indefinite in time and place. The AFL-CIO’s reason for an eventual withdrawal have nothing to do with the ravages and destruction of a colonial war and everything to do with empire building – globally.

The follow-up sentence reads: “An unending military presence will waste lives and resources, undermine our nation’s security and weaken our military.” In other words, the US military faced with a prolonged war in Iraq cannot engage “insurgents” elsewhere!

The following paragraph mentions the 1,700 US dead and vaguely refers to Iraqi civilians “in the thousands” and then, the supreme cant and hypocrisy blames the insurgency (resistance), which “has focused its terror on the Iraqi people”. The massive US bombing of Fallujah, Baghdad, Samara and other cities; the wanton daily killing of hundreds of civilians – over 100,000 dead according to the medical journal, The Lancet, as of last year, is totally absent. The AFL-CIO blames the resistance for the crimes committed by “our leaders”. The AFL-CIO praises the election orchestrated by Washington under its colonial military occupation and run by its exile clients as an example of Iraq ’s democratic aspirations, forgetting to mention that over 80% of the Iraqi people want the US military out…yesterday! Once again the AFLCIO echoes the Bush-Rumsfeld line on the occupation, the elections, the resistance and the constitution.

Following the overwhelming majority of the US public, which recognizes that Bush lied in the lead-up to the war – the AFL-CIO fails to denounce the lies and multi-billion dollar theft of Iraqi assets which has taken place during the occupation. The best that the labor bosses can offer is support for a “call from members of Congress for the establishment of benchmarks (?) in the key areas of security, governance, reconstruction and internationalization.” Call for “benchmarks” (whatever that means) when there are a raft of detailed official reports on the pillage of reconstruction spending, the privatization and handover of billions of dollars of oilfields to US MNCs (“internationalization” according to the euphemisms of the AFL-CIO), and the transfer of prisoners to Guantanamo to be tortured indefinitely (a lovely “security benchmark”).

In paragraph six, the AFL-CIO explicitly defends a continued military occupation of Iraq – purportedly based on a “broad coalition of nations”. At a time when even US clients like Poland , Bulgaria , the Ukraine and most others are pulling out of Iraq , the AFL-CIO mindlessly parrots the John Kerry/Hilary Clinton parody of a multilateral colonial army, when the political basis for it has disappeared.

The military solution remains as the single most important reference point for the AFL-CIO: “Greater security on the ground remains an unmet precondition for such efforts (“building a democratic Iraq ”) to succeed.” “Greater security on the ground” means US soldiers, lots of them for a long time, because of “unmet preconditions”, a euphemism for massive sustained anti-imperialist resistance, which precludes the puppet regime from consolidating its rule.

The AFL-CIO resolution says nothing about socio-economic reform, job programs and channeling oil wealth into social welfare programs and real nation building – programs which would require the ousting of the US-backed elite. Instead they call for police state repressive solutions. “The AFL-CIO calls on the international community (sic) to help the Iraqi people build its capacity to maintain law and order through a concerted international effort to train Iraqi security and police forces”. More secret police, torturers, mercenaries, collaborators – the AFL-CIO is on familiar ground in Iraq as it was in orchestrating the aborted coup in Venezuela, the Chilean coup and other successful ventures in imperial “law and order”.

Perhaps the worst of the worst of the AFL-CIO apologia for the US imperial occupation is found in its discussion of the destruction of Iraq and the efforts at recostruction. The entire blame for the destruction of Iraq is placed on the Saddam Hussein regime, despite the fact that all testimony and date demonstrate that living standards, employment and health were better prior to the US invasion than now. It would, of course, be beyond the capacity of the AFL-CIO to note that it was the US enforced economic sanctions under their Democratic President Clinton that 500,000 Iraqi children died. And that “rehabilitation” has failed because of the wholesale pillage of Iraqi assets, including oil revenues, and US tax dollars by US military contractors, security agencies, military officers and a host of other rapacious officials. The resolution ends by appealing for trade union freedoms, such as payroll deductions for union dues, no doubt the least concern of militants facing trigger-happy US soldiers and their death squad “buddies” in the Iraqi special battalions. But payroll deductions for union dues are important for union bosses who do not fight for their members and have not secured their loyalty on the picket line. I am sure if the AFL-CIO trains Iraqi counterparts, the US occupation will eventually come around to allowing these “unionists” to clip 10% off the starvation salary of an Iraqi oil worker.

Conclusion

The Iraq War resolution approved at the AFL-CIO’s latest convention, apart from an ambiguous phrase thrown in to pacify a few dissidents, remained true to its history of supporting imperial wars and tyranny while continuing to lose members and loyalties in the US for its efforts.

July 27, 2005


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


Informant: David Silver

From ufpj-news

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=159


The ICNIRP Saga
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/566278/

Aug 3 2005

By Paul Newham, Crewe Chronicle

ANGRY residents have set up their own protest group to fight plans for a 50ft phone mast in the middle of a housing estate in Crewe.

Orange PCS Ltd has applied for planning permission to put up the mast on land owned by Brookhouse Garage in Lewis Street.

But, with some homes just 40 metres away from the proposed site, residents have sent a clear message that they will not tolerate the eyesore.

Brian Roberts, 55, and his wife Sandra have launched the Lewis Street Action Group to protest against the plans.

Mr Roberts, a father-of-six who works as a construction manager, said: 'If you look at the application it is for a 50ft mast with three antennas and one microwave dish.

'We have to read between the lines and realise that, in an elevated spot like that, more and more equipment is bound to go on to that mast over time.

'You see these kinds of masts in farmers' fields and they seem to grow every time you drive past them.'

Mrs Roberts added residents are unhappy about the notification they received from the borough council.

She said: 'We live just 40 metres away from the mast but neighbours of ours just two or three doors down have received no letter.

'It is quite staggering considering we are talking about a six-storey high mast in the middle of tightly packed rows of terraced housing, that every resident has not received a letter.

'The swimming baths are approximately 200 metres from this mast. Do the children have to swim under an umbrella of microwaves?'

Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council's planning guidelines indicate all properties within 100 metres of such a development should be notified in writing.

Planning officer Alan Millington said: 'More than 85 letters were sent out to residents which covered all addresses within 100 metres.

'I have explained to residents that we are under pressure to process applications which is why we have formal consultation periods.

'But I have said I will receive letters right up to the date of the planning committee meeting.'

Formal consultation on the mast application ends on Friday, August 12, with the next meeting of the development control committee scheduled for Monday, August 22.

By Linda Piper

London News Shopper Bexley

A LONG-running battle over a phone mast on a primary school has finally been resolved.

Phone company Orange has been told it must decommission the mast next to classrooms at Bedonwell Infant and Junior Schools in Belvedere, within eight weeks of its new 3G mast becoming operational.

Bexley Council's planning control committee imposed the condition after handing the company permission for a new mast on the top of the telephone exchange in Erith Road, Belvedere, granted last week.

The company signed a lease with the school in 1995 to rent a piece of land for the mast, before the continuing controversy about the effects of phone masts first surfaced.

In return the school received £9,000 a year from Orange.

Once parents realised the uncertainty over health risks from phone masts, they launched a campaign to get the mast removed.

Several parents, including Debbie Collins from Belvedere, removed their children from the school, rather than expose them to possible health risks.

Parents and children also staged a protest march through Bexleyheath Broadway to the council offices.

They pressured Bexley Council and the company and in 2001 thought they had won when Orange said it was prepared to move the mast if it could find an alternative site.

The then council leader Councillor Mike Slaughter offered Bexley's help in identifying another site but all the efforts came to nothing.

The council and the company always maintained the strength of emissions from the mast was tiny and would not affect the children.

In recent years the school has refused the company access to the mast which would have enabled engineers to upgrade it preventing Orange from re-using the mast for its 3G services.

Because of the outcry from parents, the school had already told the company it was not prepared to renew the lease on the school site.

Now the company says its new mast on the roof of the exchange will provide its 3G coverage plus 40 per cent of the 2G coverage now coming from the Bedonwell mast.

Mrs Collins' daughter Rhiannon was just six when her mother took her away to teach her at home.

She would have been due to leave the school this summer.

Reacting to the news Mrs Collins said: "Fantastic. I cannot believe it.

"At last children will not have to sit next to emissions from the mast any longer."

She added "At the time we said Orange should have used one of the suggested alternative sites.

"These alternatives included the Erith exchange where it could have shared a mast.

"It obviously did not suit the company's purpose to do so.

"It is a shame Orange did not put the health of children first but it is good councillors finally took the chance to do something."

Reddich Hopper 03.08.05

A MATCHBOROUGH man is rallying support to fight one of an "epidemic" of mobile phone masts across Redditch.

Phil Henshaw, of Frankton Close, said he was lobbying as many neighbours as possible to oppose the proposed mast in Bart Leet Road.

"It's position would be a mere stone's throw away from Matchborough First School - I couldn't think of a worse location," he said.

"I'm sick of so-called experts telling us they're safe - nothing seems to have been proven yet about the health effects."

He added: "But they seem to be springing up everywhere - it's like an epidemic - nothing's being done to stop it."

The latest phase of mobile phone masts - so-called "third generation" masts - are being installed to accommodate improved technology, with the latest phones boasting videos and cameras.

Redditch Council's head of planning, John Staniland, said demand for mobile phones was also on the increase.

He said he sympathised with concerned residents, but added: "This is a national issue - Redditch residents aren't alone in their concerns.

"But phone masts are given the go-ahead if they comply with national standards - and if they do local government is powerless to intervene."

Prekäre Arbeits-, Lebens- und Protestwelten im Postfordismus
http://www.jungewelt.de/2005/08-03/004.php

HLV INFO 120/AT

3-08-2005

Christine Kind 1.08.2005

http://www.omega-news.info/tina27.07.2005.jpg

Das Heft Nr. 31 der tina vom 27.07.2005 kann nachbestellt werden: Pressevertrieb Nord KG, Brieffach 540807, 22508 Hamburg, Tel.: 040/85369140, Fax.: 040/85369141 oder http://www.einzelheft.pvn.de

Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten vom 30/.31.07.2005

Kluft zwischen Verfassungsanspruch und Wirklichkeit

Zum Thema: Gesundheitliche Schäden in der Nachbarschaft von T-Mobile Antennen

„Jeder hat das Recht auf körperliche Unversehrtheit.“ Grundgesetz, Artikel 2, Absatz 2

„Jeder Mensch hat das Recht auf Leben und körperliche Unversehrtheit.“ Verfassung des Freistaates Sachsen, Artikel 16, Absatz 1

Mancher DNN-Leser, der im letzten Jahr über die sechsköpfige Familie in Naußlitz gelesen hat, die ihre gesundheitlichen Probleme neben einer T-Mobile-Antenne darlegte, fragt sich sicher, was aus ihr geworden ist. Die Familie Kind hat ihr Haus kurz vor Weihnachten 2004 verlassen und mietet – hoffentlich nur vorübergehend – ein anderes. Ihre starken Beschwer- sind seitdem gewichen; die Kinder (das jüngste ist zweieinhalb Jahre alt) entwickeln sich wieder normal. Die Eltern klagen gegen die Installation der Mobilfunk-Basisstation auf dem etwa 40 m von ihrem Grundstück entfernten Dach eines Mietshauses. Das wird dauern... Welche Belastungen dies mit sich bringt, kann ein Außenstehender kaum ermessen. - So „außen stehend“ sind wir jedoch alle nicht, denn solche Antennen befinden sich überall. Die Symptome bei den Menschen sind freilich unterschiedlich. Die gesundheitlichen Schädigungen hat sich niemand ausgedacht, sondern sie haben die Menschen an sich erfahren. Es sind sogar Tiere und Pflanzen im Wohngebiet betroffen.

Wie viele andere Bürger unserer Siedlung haben auch wir (Entfernung unseres Hauses zur Antenne etwa 80 m) Widerspruch eingelegt, wobei die Stadt diesen schließlich an die Landesregierung weitergeleitet hat. In den Antwortschreiben mussten wir zur Kenntnis nehmen, dass das Vorhaben bauplanungs-, denkmalschutz- und immissionsschutzrechtlich zulässig sei, dass es insbesondere die Grenzwerte der zulässigen Strahlenbelastung einhalte und die durchgeführten Feldstärkemessungen der TU Dresden vom März 2004 in der maßgeblichen Umgebung bei 5 bis maximal 10 Prozent der zulässigen Belastung lägen. Allerdings wurden bei Kontrollmessungen im Januar und März d.J. die von der TU Dresden prognostizierten Höchstwerte bei voller Anlagenauslastung bereits erreicht. Trotzdem könne man von keiner Gesundheitsgefährdung ausgehen. Und für unsere Begriffe an Zynismus nicht zu überbieten ist folgender Satz: “Eine Klage hätte folglich auch dann keine Aussicht auf Erfolg, wenn ein Kläger (wie etwa Familie Kind) im Einzelfall beweist bzw. beweisen will, dass er gesundheitliche Beeinträchtigungen durch den Betrieb der Mobilfunkanlage erleidet.“ - Also abgeschmettert - kein Verständnis von staatlicher Seite!

Wer hier versucht zu helfen, sind Ärzte, die den plötzlich aufgetretenen massiven atypischen Symptomen ihrer Patienten, wie Durchschlafstörungen bis Schlaflosigkeit, Konzentrationsmängel am Tage, allgemeine Mattheit, hoher Blutdruck, Herzrhythmusstörungen, Schweißausbrüche, Zittern, Wortfindungsstörungen, Augenreizung, Tinnitus, schlechtes Blutbild u.a., nachgehen. Sie haben Initiativen eingeleitet; dem weiteren Ausbau des Mobilfunknetzes widersetzt sich z.B. der sog. Bamberger Appell vom 05.10.2004 mit weit über 100 Unterschriften dortiger Ärzte. Sie fordern die massive Reduzierung der bestehenden Grenzwerte, weiterhin der Sendeleistungen und Funkbelastungen. Die Menschen allgemein und unsere Jugend im Besonderen sollen umfassend aufgeklärt werden über die Gesundheitsrisiken elektromagnetischer Felder. Die schnurlosen Telefone sollen neu konzipiert werden, so dass ihre Strahlungsintensität reduziert und auf die tatsächliche Nutzungszeit begrenzt wird.

Vor einigen Tagen nahm eine engagierte Ärztin aus Bamberg Messungen in unserem Haus vor. Während bei BMW weltweit in ihren Büros, wo alle Beschäftigten mit schnurlosen Telefonen arbeiten, 100 µW/m² als Obergrenze gelten, wurden bei uns folgende Werte gemessen (Angaben in µW/m²): Wohnzimmer: 700, Schlafzimmer: 600, Flur: 1000, Bad und Dachboden: 5000.

Fazit: Es stehen sich zwei Hauptinteressengruppen diametral gegenüber: die Betroffenen mit ihren gesundheitlichen Problemen und die Betreiber der Mobilfunkanlagen, die für Milliarden UMTS-Lizenzen vom Staat gekauft haben, die nun in klingende Münze umgesetzt werden müssen. - Sollen wir uns mit diesem Status quo abfinden?

Familie Hums, 01159 Dresden[.1] [.1]

HLV INFO 120/AT

3-08-2005

Dr. Claus Scheingraber 2-08-05

Sehr geehrter Herr Tittmann,

warum UMTS biologisch gefährlicher einzustufen ist, liegt nicht nur an höheren Feldstärken der Sender sondern höchstwahrscheinlich an der Breitbandigkeit der Übertragungstechnik. Während GSM-Netze eine Frequenzbandbreite von 200 kHz benützen, hat das zur Zeit installierte UMTS eine Frequenzbandbreite von 2 x 5 MHz.

Da auch unser Körper extrem breitbandig Informationen austauscht, wird unser Körper mit dieser Technik eben nicht in einem kleinen Frequenzbereich gestört sondern eben großflächig in einem breiten Frequenzbereich! Dies wird sich in einer Zunahme der Elektrosensibilität und in vermehrten gesundheitlichen Störungen äußern!

Besonders muss vor den zukünftigen WiMax-Netzen (WLAN-Netze mit Reichweiten bis 50 km) gewarnt werden, da auf Grund der großen Datenmengen eine Frequenzbandbreite bis zu 100 MHz angewendet werden wird! In München wird so ein Netz gerade aufgebaut.

In der Anlage finden Sie eine Stellungnahme der Französischen Agentur für Gesundheit in der Umwelt. Diese Stellungnahme weist einige gute Ansätze auf, leider werden die Französischen Bürger über die Gefährlichkeit der Mobilfunkstrahlung genauso mit falschen Aussagen abgespeist wie die Bürger in unserem Land.

http://www.omega-news.info/afsse_agence_francaise_de_securite_sanitaire_environnementale.rtf


Mit herzlichen Grüßen

Claus Scheingraber

Media Channel
by Bruce Taylor Seeman

08/02/05

It's opinion. It's conjecture. It's a tidbit from the newest poll or another alarming image -- delivered with rising drumbeats -- from the day's top story. It's today's 24-hour news. But as Americans bathe in constant reports from CNN or Fox, the Internet, satellite radio, newspapers and magazines, is there a price to pay for living in a world where the news never stops? Increasingly, analysts say, we are compelled not so much by legitimate thirst for information as by an addiction to technology and impulses that turn human attention to fear, sex and conflict. The result: Our minds get filled with static, distortion and exaggerated anxiety...

http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/395


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Tom Paine
by Rami G. Khouri

08/02/05

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announced July 28, that it had ordered its forces to stop their violent resistance against Britain. This could have important implications for the quest for peace and stability throughout the Middle East, which in turn would help reduce the global terror problem. I've spent my whole life hearing 'Belfast to Beirut' used as a synonym for the senseless, destructive political violence that plagued both regions, and a symbol of our common inhumanity. So it's nice, for a change, to sit in Beirut and hear good news again from Belfast. It would be equally nice if all concerned in the West and the Middle East would muster the courage, humility and determination to apply some of the same principles of peace-making in Northern Ireland to the confrontations and conflicts in this region...

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050802/from_belfast_to_beirut.php


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe
by James Carroll

08/02/05

In the United States of America, a terrible thing shapes our relationship to the world, but we do not admit it, not even on its unhappy anniversary. Sixty years ago this week, American B-29s named Enola Gay and Bock's Car dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. The men responsible insisted, in the face of shocking devastation, that the bombs were not so terrible...

http://tinyurl.com/a86fr


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

LewRockwell.Com
by Karen Kwiatkowski

08/03/05

Our soldiers and Marines have seen the lowest grade Army Reservists punished handily for torture of uncharged detainees and prisoners, while ranking officers responsible for implementing and designing the administration's torture policy wink and nod. Just last week, they saw the Pentagon public affairs office recycle a very strangely worded 'quotation' from an 'anonymous Iraqi' in two completely unrelated news stories. While this amazes many Americans and defenders of our foreign policy say it must have been an innocent mistake, our soldiers and Marines know better. They are quite familiar with smoke and mirrors. Sgt Benderman is happy to explain why he is a conscientious objector. The reaction of the Army and the administration has been typical of their reaction to other examples of moral consistency. As in Caesar's time, they have been despised and persecuted...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski118.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Kn@ppster
by Thomas L. Knapp

08/03/05

It's not often that you'll see Democrats celebrating an electoral defeat, but the champagne must be flowing at DNC headquarters tonight as the results in Ohio's 2nd US House District come in. The 2nd has historically been a solidly Republican district. Former US Representative Rob Portman, who left Congress to become the Bush administration's trade representative, polled 72% or more in each of his six races to represent the 2nd. In last year's presidential election, George W. Bush carried the district over John Kerry with 64% of the vote. And last night, in a special election to replace Portman, Democrat Paul Hackett came within 3% of winning -- despite his Republican opponent's 3-to-1 fundraising advantage and despite the Republican National Committee's desperate last-minute media buys. He carried four of the district's seven counties. The only thing that saved his opponent's derriere was overwhelming victory in her home county. So, how did Hackett come within 3% of turning a solidly red district blue?

http://tinyurl.com/ca67v

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/23851/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MSNBC

08/02/05

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn with his American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creative interrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morning of Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbed a green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush inside, wrapped him in an electrical cord, laid him on the floor and began to go to work. Again...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8803972/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

I read this on a Native American website, a luxury these days!

"The world today is changing in ways no individual can grasp, as new and ancient technologies meet. Our times demand we be citizens of the Earth, healing the Earth/Ourselves. We were born to be here now. It is our souls' purpose to see past delusion and diversion and live truly, honestly, with love and compassion, without pain. The path toward healing, toward making our dreams realities, is within each of us. We must only awaken to the light."

Basically this is a world wide call for people to discover their spiritual consciousness and to work towards healing themselves and the Earth, this wonderful place Our Creator left in our care and which is being destroyed by greed and power.

The spiritually motivated people among the Native Americans firmly believe that a collective spiritual force can turn things around. It is said that the percentage need only be small by comparison to the population of the World because the power of spiritual harmony is so great when linked to that of others.

We all hear about telepathy but not all of us believe it is possible. We are all able to communicate this way, and do, but modern life leaves little time for the conscious realisation of it.

Spirituality is much the same, only on a higher level, and comes about when you try to live as Our Creator wishes, in harmony with every living thing. You tune into a world where you are just part of the whole, integrating with the whole, reacting with the whole, and working for the whole, for the betterment of all. It all starts with prayer and the desire to share rather than just take.

In our own small ways we are all helping towards trying to heal the Earth and to help others. We are part of the whole, probably without even realising that we are.

Leicester was also an example of many people being part of the whole. What I am saying here is that we can be a strong force working with others, if we chose to be.

I know some of you find the expression of my views to be slightly alien to the cultures of western society, but you have to remember that I can only be me, and part of me is Lakota Sioux. It was not the indigenous races that despoiled our world, it was the "civilised" nations.


Sandi


Princeton EGG Index Goes RED! Something Big Coming?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/875315/

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3198/2/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=90227
Posted By: Geneticus
Date: Monday, 1 August 2005, 6:50 p.m.

If you go the Princeton egg index page, you will see the button is fading in through green, right through yellow, past orange, hitting dark red, and even triggering an occasional bright red. That is major coincidence people. Something is up, the random number generators are not producing random numbers. The button color means that the mass consciousness of the people on the Earth is about to be directed into the same general thought pattern. We are all about to be thinking about the same thing. And it is most likely a man-made event, something akin to a Shuttle disaster or terrorist event.

Be sure to use "Firefox" as the browser when you navigate to the Princeton Egg index page (link below).

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/gcindex.html

--------

Unfortunately, you must now use the Firefox browser to see the EGG data and if this was my own computer, I would definitely use it. Looks like a good browser, better than IE because of IE's security holes. Anyway, for those unfamiliar with the EGG Project out of Princeton University, these things went crazy a few days before, during and for days after the 9/11 disaster.

Here is detailed info on the EGG project: http://noosphere.princeton.edu/

The current reported results certainly bear watching...heads up, everyone.

Di

Geretsried - Schlafstörungen, Ruhelosigkeit, Erschöpfung, Herz-Rhythmus-Störungen, Hörsturz, Hyperaktivität - und was hat das alles mit Mobilfunk zu tun? Nach Ansicht Elektrosensibler wie der Vorsitzenden der neu gegründeten Geretsrieder Bürgerinitiative, Gisela Breunig, und ihres Wolfratshauser Kollegen Dr. Hans Schmidt eine ganze Menge.

"Aus dem Stand 7,4 Prozent erreicht"

Obwohl das Mobilfunk-Volksbegehren bayernweit gescheitert ist - die Wolfratshauser BI wird sich demnächst damit befassen -, ist Breunig mit dem Geretsrieder Ergebnis zufrieden: "Aus dem Stand haben wir 7,4 Prozent erreicht. Die Stadt war, was Informationen angeht, vorher eigentlich völlig unbeleckt." Die Kooperation mit dem Rathaus war laut Breunig nicht optimal. "Es muss noch viel Aufklärungsarbeit geleistet werden", sagte sie kämpferisch. "Die BI wird Sand im Getriebe der Stadt und der Bürgermeisterin Irmer sein."

Dr. Schmidt, selbst "extrem elektrosensibel", kämpft unermüdlich gegen die Repräsentanten einer Industrie, "die nicht davor zurückschreckt, mobilfunkkritische Professoren immer wieder aus ihren Lehrstühlen und Universitätsinstituten zu mobben". Als promovierter Ingenieur referierte er über neue Ergebnisse der Forschung und motivierte die derzeit noch kleine Schar von Mitstreitern: "Es ist mobilfunktechnisch fünf nach zwölf, und unsere morbide Gesellschaft kann sich Aufschub, Augenwischerei und Schönfärberei nicht mehr leisten". Wenn am 18. August an der Dirrigl-Kreuzung in Wolfratshausen ein neuer UMTS-Sender installiert wird, sollten alle Mobilfunkgegner zur Stelle sein - auch oder gerade in der Ferienzeit. kl

02.08.2005

http://www.marktplatz-oberbayern.de/regionen/isarloisach/art1596,299457.html?fCMS=dde1b9d0dee2d83e515930993e05e71f


Nachricht von der BI Bad Dürkheim

02. August 2005

Zu Überlegungen in der Union, nach den Wahlen die Renten zu kürzen und in der Perspektive nur noch eine Basisrente zu gewährleisten, erklären Gregor Gysi und Oskar Lafontaine:

Nachdem Rot-Grün den Rentnerinnen und Rentnern mehrere Nullrunden, den kompletten Beitrag zur Pflegeversicherung und die alleinige Finanzierung des Krankengeldes, das sie gar nicht bekommen, beschert hat, scheint die Union gewillt zu sein, noch eins draufzusetzen. Der Spielraum, den das verwaschene Merkel-Wahlprogramm in dieser Frage lässt, wird von immer mehr Unionspolitikern ausgefüllt: Die Äußerungen, die Renten zu kürzen oder gar auf eine reine Basisrente zusammenzustreichen, werden lauter. Merkels gegenteilige Beteuerungen auch im Hinblick auf eine Heraufsetzung des Renteneintrittsalters werden vor diesem Hintergrund immer unglaubwürdiger. Die geplante Mehrwertsteuererhöhung trifft die Älteren sowieso ohne irgendeinen Ausgleich. Für die Rentnerinnen und Rentner wird die Union zum größten Unsicherheitsfaktor. Sie drohen vom rot-grünen Regen in die schwarz-gelbe Traufe zu kommen. Weder Union noch SPD fällt zur Rente irgendetwas anderes ein, als sie permanent zu kürzen. Der Ruf nach privater Vorsorge klingt wie Hohn angesichts von Minijobs, Hartz IV, Billiglöhnen. Immer mehr Menschen haben längere Phasen, in denen sie nichts oder nur sehr wenig in die Rentenkassen einzahlen und schon gar nicht privat vorsorgen können. Eine Riester-Pflichtrente ist für die Betroffenen völlig absurd. Jede Rentennullrunde verschärft diese Situation weiter. Die Linkspartei will in einem längeren Prozess alle Erwerbstätigen und alle Einkommen in die Rentenversicherung einbeziehen und eine Mindestrente von 800 Euro einführen. Wer die Renten auch vor dem Hintergrund der demographischen Entwicklung langfristig sichern will, muss sie auf eine breitere Basis stellen und Altersarmut verhindern. Vor allem aber müssen die Rentnerinnen und Rentner endlich wieder den Stellenwert in der Gesellschaft bekommen, den sie verdienen: sie sind keine Kostgänger, sondern diejenigen, die mit ihrer Lebensleistung die Voraussetzungen für den heutigen Lebensstandard geschaffen haben.

http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=29186

http://unslaver.com/forum/index.php/topic,274.0.html


Informant: Kaley Adams

The presence of British and US troops in Iraq is fuelling the Sunni-led insurgency which has killed hundreds of people, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in comments published on Tuesday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205Z.shtml

By even suggesting that Mecca could be bombed in retaliation for a terrorist attack, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) has made the world a more dangerous place, writes TO contributor Dr. James J. Zogby.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205N.shtml

In a new Washington ritual, President Bush has repeatedly drawn from the Federalist Society for cabinet members, senior aides and judges. And perhaps to deflect what many conservatives call unfair attacks by liberals, the nominees have repeatedly claimed to know little about the group's beliefs.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205K.shtml

The documents, requested Friday by eight Democratic senators in a letter to Gonzales, touch on a variety of issues, including school desegregation, the death penalty and civil rights.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205J.shtml

"Most of the reforms sought by the United States are well on their way to completion," said a senior administration official, speaking anonymously to avoid undercutting the rationale for the Bolton appointment.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205I.shtml

The 40th anniversary of the VRA is this week. Given the atrocious state of our election system, activists are not letting it pass quietly.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050802/voting_rights_act_the_fight_continues.php

By Jolene Hill
Bromley Newshopper

CAMPAIGNERS are launching legal action against the council over its stance on mobile phone masts.

Orpington Residents Against Masts (ORAM) is asking for a judicial review over masts on the BT building in Chislehurst Road, Orpington, which it claims was illegally put up.

It is also demanding local authorities take control of moderating low-level radiation at the moment it is up to the phone company.

ORAM has about 70 members who fear masts may have an effect on their health.

No evidence has linked mobile phone masts to ill-health but the Stewart Committee, which published a report into mast radiation in 2000, stated not enough research had been carried out to be sure.

Omega evidence is linked concerning mobile phone masts to ill-health. See further under: http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html


Residents in Bromley are convinced the masts are affecting them and have carried out radiation tests in their homes.

They used an acousti-COM detector, which makes a loud noise when detecting high levels of microwave radiation and the COM monitor, which measures the signal strength from masts, with red and orange lights showing high-exposure areas.

Angela Shields, 37, of Footbury Hill Road, Orpington, lives near the BT exchange building.

Her family suffered headaches and insomnia until radiation tests showed high levels at the front of her house and she moved the furniture to the back.

Susan Green, of New Road, Orpington, says her 10-year-old son was missing school with insomnia and headaches.

Radiation tests showed the level was highest above his bed.

She moved his bed and placed metal sheets in her attic at a cost of around £500 and her son has been fine since.

Mrs Green said: "We are not anti-mast. We just want there to be some control over where they are sited.

"People also need to be aware of the health risks and how they can reduce the immediate effects."

A council spokesman said: "We have had discussions with residents. It's difficult to comment because of the potential legal issues surrounding this case.

"We will carefully examine any legal challenge which may be made and respond accordingly."

This is Local London

A COMMUNITY is calling for support from residents to block construction of a mobile phone mast which the council has already rejected.

Bromley Council refused planning permission in May, because the proposed 14m telephone mast on Crofton Lane, Petts Wood, did not fit in with its surroundings.

Parents and residents objected on health grounds to the mast, which would be near Crofton Infant and Crofon Junior schools.

Telephone operator Hutchinson 3G has appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, which will make a final decision on August 14.

Tina Christiansen, 39, of Crescent Drive, Petts Wood, said: "We have had tremendous backing from the community but we need ever more support."

Anyone wishing to object should email the inspector, Sue Nash, before August 12.

Email sue.nash@pins.gsi.gov.uk, quoting reference Land outside 153 Crofton Lane, Orpington, Kent, Ref.APP/G5180/A/05/1182979.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080205L.shtml


Informant: Russ Ferriday

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096411331


Informant: Ashley Smith

http://www.batr.org/gulag/073105.html


Informant: Neo Mulder

The residents of Elizabeth House, Leicester, would like to thank all those who sent letters of objection on their behalf. They are very grateful for your support and want you to know that the planning application was refused by every councillor on the committee, to include the committee chairman!

And that is not all! Leicester Council has woken up and it is now going to test other mast sites. This is a great day!

I also thank you for helping these people because the odds were stacked against them. Even at the eleventh hour the recommendation was to approve the application.

We have less chance of failing if we all back each other, so I really appreciate your support.

Sandi

--------

Very well done Sandi. Congratulations go to the councillors but this decision was down to you and many have a great deal to thank you for.

David

--------

David,

Thank you for your kind words but in truth I only coordinated this from afar.

It needs to be said that Phil Hendy, although quite affected by the masts, wrote letters, although he has no computer; kept in touch with me by payphone and letter, as he has no phone; took my advice; prepared portfolios for all the councillors on the planning development committee; hassled his MP and others; and personally collected the 100 signatures from Elizabeth House residents. Then other residents, although also unwell, came forward to back him at the eleventh hour.

Then there was Stuart Winter, the council officer dealing with this application. He was prepared to spend time listening to me, he communicated with me fully to guide me, and was also honest with me.

Also involved in all this were three other Leicester people who had previously called me on the advice line, whose help in getting information to me was invaluable.

So I do not take the credit for this. It was, as it should be, a case of everyone pulling together to help people in need.

Sandi


The Collective Spiritual Force can turn Things around
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/875359/

http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=b40rK3ev3VHJAldGYkUt2A..

First published: Tuesday, August 2, 2005 It is time we stopped calling the war in Iraq a "war on terror." We know too much now to keep going along with this deceit. We know that Saddam was not behind the 9/11 attacks.

We know he didn't have a connection with the people who were behind it. We know he was not carrying out terrorist attacks on other countries, and did not, according to all the evidence, have plans to do so. We know Bush and others in his administration were planning to invade Iraq well before 9/11. We know Bush used every means he could, including misrepresentation, to induce us into going into this war.

So why don't we call it what is is, "Bush's war"? This is surely how history, looking back on these eight years, will regard it.

Mismanaged from the beginning, demeaning our country and its values by its unprovoked invasion of another country, dragging us into years of conflict with no foreseeable end, killing and maiming our countrymen, creating more and better trained terrorists as it goes along, costing billion of dollars that could be spent on the real war on terror -- this is the nightmare that will be the defining hallmark of the Bush presidency.

ANTON G. HARDY

East Greenbush Source:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=385095



From ECOTERRA Intl.

With the historical lawsuit day before of mass in Summary procedure against Orange, this Wednesday August 3, 2005 with 9h with the Court of Valence in public sitting, ASL is constrained to proceed, exceptionally considering the turning of the events to be treated, with several sendings of malls of information. Please by advance excuse us. By decency, we inform you in priority with share of a drama, ASL is today in mourning. (special page Internet)

http://www.next-up.org/

Today ASL is in mourning. Good-byes with our Friends. ASL has just learned that two of its Members among most dynamic have just disappeared under dramatic conditions this 1 er August 2005. ASL is dismayed. Daniel regularly moved at Crest in order to inform himself in our buildings, to dialogue, or to take testing devices, we knew each other well. ASL gives a "logistic" support and follows since the beginning the combat of the Collective of Romanais Defense against the site of the antennas relay of the district of Golds Daniel had still recently taken part in a meeting on this topic in Valence. (Photograph) Dauphiné Libéré from this day transcribes this engagement exactly: ". . . Perhaps anxious to preserve their framework of life, the couple had been invested besides in the collective of defense of Golds which had been mobilized, it there has a few months, counters the installation of antennas of mobile telephony "These brutal ends returns to us humble and shows the state of suffering and hidden distress caused by an excessively difficult combat that we did not know to see. During this time, vis-a-vis an obvious problem of company to which, by blindness, the decision makers do not bring the good answers, and of aucuns bait themselves to make execrable by all the means by denying the obviousness, it is certain that the way is favourable with such a drama. ASL notes unfortunately that these are not only biological effects that the Residents of antennas relay undergo, but that their moral put at hard test can crack. The will to leave to leave this context and this denigration is then large open. For ASL responsible truths are thus all those which relative officially of all the virtues by wishing the good of all, to deaden the consciences as much as concerns of the Residents. In these difficult moments, the tightened throat, ASL can only present at the Family her more sincere condolences and ensure it of its entirety support.



A la veille d’un procès historique de masse en Référé contre Orange, ce Mercredi 3 Août 2005 à 9h au Tribunal de Valence en audience publique, ASL est contraint de procéder, exceptionnellement vu la tournure des événements à traiter, à plusieurs envois de mails d’information.

Veuillez par avance nous en excuser.

Par décence, nous vous informons en priorité à part d’un drame, ASL est aujourd’hui en deuil. (page spéciale internet)
http://www.next-up.org/

ISIS Press Release 01/08/05

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho warns of new dangers posed by genetic engineering to the world's gene banks, already in jeopardy from years of under-funding, and stresses the importance of in situ conservation and seed saving in local communities for sustainable food systems and food security

Sources for this report are available in the ISIS members site. Full details here World genebanks and food security in jeopardy

Deteriorating conditions in the world's crop gene banks pose “a major threat to US agriculture,” says a new study published by the University of California Genetic Resources Conservation Program [1]. The report, Securing the Future of U.S. Agriculture: The Need to Conserve Collections of Crop Diversity Worldwide , notes that nearly every major crop in the United States - including soybeans, corn, wheat, rice, potatoes, oranges and apples - is battling a plethora of new or re-merging pests to which there is little or no resistance. Failure to adequately maintain crop genebank collections “could constrain agriculture's ability to avert billions of dollars in crop damage.”

These genebanks provide the diversity needed to enable the crops “to stay one step ahead of pests”, and also to improve quality, nutritional value, and yield. But lack of funding has left many of the collections in a state of decay.

Just prior to the publication of the report, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug was warning the world of a new rust epidemic from East Africa, that, if it gets loose in Asia, North America, South America and Australia, would infect half of all our grain varieties, and the stage would be set for a major disaster. This calls for ongoing research. “But when you haven't had a major epidemic in 52 years, complacency becomes a problem.” Borlaug said.

Underlying the almost $200 billion value of US agriculture's production at the farm level is a little known resource – the genebanks around the world. The report, released at a congressional briefing in Washington 28 February 2005, noted that the collections held in gene banks “represent the historic and current diversity of agriculture, without which farming in the U.S. and around the world would stagnate and flounder.”

Qualset and Henry L. Shands, director of the USDA/Agricultural Research Service's National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, were co-authors of the report.

At the World Food Day symposium on 19 October 2004, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf delivered a similar message on the importance of genebanks [2]. He said that global efforts to conserve plants and animals in genebanks, botanical gardens and zoos are vital to maintaining global biodiversity and promoting food security worldwide. In fact, the theme of the 24 th annual World Food Day was “Biodiversity for Food Security”.

Worldwide, there are nearly 5.4 million crop samples in 1 470 gene banks [3]. These are important repositories for conserving seeds and germplasm, as agricultural biodiversity has been severely eroded under industrial monoculture practised over the latter half of the last century [2] (see Box 1). Lack of biodiversity leaves major crops vulnerable to disease, causing famines and starvation. The Irish Potato famine in the 1830s was one example, when the Phytophthora potato blight destroyed the entire crop, as the farmers grew only one variety, and there was no genetic diversity in seed banks or elsewhere to fall back on. Gene banks also play a vital role in maximizing the use of wild and cultivated varieties in crop improvement through selective breeding. Box 1

Loss of agricultural biodiversity from industrial monoculture

FAO estimates that about 75 percent of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops had been lost during the last century. Farmers in the United States grew more than 7 000 varieties of apples in the 1800s; by the end of the 1900s, all but 300 were extinct. In 1949, farmers in China grew 10 000 varieties of wheat; by the 1970s, they grew just 1000. Similar losses of maize varieties have occurred in Mexico and of rice varieties in India. Of 6 500 animal breeds known today, almost one third are threatened or already extinct.

Genebanks have been in major trouble for some years; there simply is not enough money for gene banks to fulfil even their basic conservation role, let alone their other role of maximising the use of wild and domesticated varieties for crop breeding and improvement.

When dried and kept cold, some seeds will last for 30 years or longer. Others have to be grown out regularly and harvested to keep seeds fresh and alive. Tubers, roots and cuttings for plants can be kept in test tubes, usually as tissue culture, and periodically regenerated. All these cannot be done without money. Without proper care, existing seed stock will eventually lose its viability.

Prof. Jeff Waage of Imperial College's department of agricultural sciences in London, UK, had earlier reported to the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002 [3], that although the number of plant samples held in crop diversity collections has increased by 65 percent, genebank budgets have been cut back in 25 percent of the countries and remained the same in another 35 percent.

Waage's report said that one in 12 of the world's 250 000 species of flowering plants are likely to disappear before 2025. A chief culprit is modern agriculture, particularly when forests are cleared to create farmland. “Among the losses are the wild relatives of domesticated plants with as yet untapped potential,” said the report. These include wheat, soya beans, tomatoes, coffee and grapes

To add to the trouble, war in developing countries had destroyed some vital centres, other have their electricity cut off, so rare seeds are not kept in cool conditions required. Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and Romania have all lost their genebanks. Albania, Fiji and Nigeria have lost part of their collections.

In response to the crisis in gene banks, the Global Crop Diversity Trust was launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002 (Box 2). Box 2

Global Crop Diversity Trust

The Global Crop Diversity Trust was set up in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development as a type 2 (public-private partnership) involving the FAO and the 15 “Future Harvest Centres” of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) [4, 5]. It hopes to raise US$260 million required to protect the world's most important crop species; so far, only $56 million has been committed. Among the first grants are to the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) based in St. Petersburg, established and named after the famous Russian plant geneticist Nicolai Vavilov, which now holds around 95 000 accessions of grain crops, over 43 000 legumes and 50 000 vegetables. Nikolai Vavilov was one of the first and most prolific collectors of plant seeds; he made more than 100 collecting missions around the world between 1915 and 1930, and was responsible for the idea of “centres of origin” for regions with a high diversity of species. Genetic engineering the new threat

A new threat to genebanks has surfaced in the events surrounding the forced merger in 2002 of Italy's gene bank in Bari – among the world's ten largest – with much smaller centres involved in genetic modification of crop plants (“Italy's gene bank at risk”, this series).

Although by far the biggest institution in the merger, its director since 1982, Prof. Pietro Perrino, was sidelined in the competition for the directorship of the merged institute, which went instead, to a professor in Naples who has yet to move to Bari. Perrino was downgraded to “manager” of Bari's germplasm collection of 84 000 accessions. But right from the first, it was obvious that the new director has little or no interest in preserving the collection. Things came to a head when the cooling system broke down and the director refused to have it repaired. In desperation, Perrino resorted to the law court to have the collection placed under his custody in order to have the cooling system repaired. But damages to the collection may have already occurred.

Perrino and his supporters are convinced that the new director and the “pro-GM lobby” are not at all interested in conserving the collection, but are using it as a pretext for getting research funding for genetic modification. More than that, Perrino and his supporters suspect that the pro-GM lobby and the GM giants really would like to see the collection destroyed.

This sounds far-fetched until one gets inside the genetic engineer's mindset. To a genetic engineer, DNA is all. Once a genome sequence is known and deposited in a database, and the DNA of the plant genome deposited in a DNA biobank, then the seed or plant is really of little or no interest. After all, DNA sequences of any gene can easily be synthesized in the laboratory and used to transform existing crop plants to make any desired GM variety, be it herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, salt or drought tolerance, improved nutritional properties, increase in yield, etc., at least in theory. That is precisely the same mentality that motivates “gene-hunting” of indigenous tribes threatened with extinction, so as to preserve their DNA before they become extinct, “for the good of humanity”.

Unfortunately, we can no more resurrect a plant from its DNA than reconstruct an extinct indigenous tribe with its distinctive language, knowledge and culture that constitute an entire way of life.

This exclusive emphasis on DNA is misplaced even for genetic engineers, especially those using marker-assisted selective breeding on existing lines to enable them to identify useful traits [6]. The genetic markers can be identified through screening the DNA; but the plants themselves will still be needed for cross-breeding.

An additional disincentive for proponents of GM to preserve germplasm in seed banks is that they are considered the natural heritage of the earth, if not of the human species, and cannot be patented for commercial exploitation if there is no genetic modification or gene isolation involved (see the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Box 3). So, as far as agribusiness is concerned, they are of no commercial value, or indeed of negative commercial value, as seed or germplasm collection allows farmers to do their own selective breeding for improving crops and livestock, instead of having to purchase patented seeds from the companies and pay royalties. That would reverse the corporate serfdom being imposed on farmers all over the world (see SiS 26), and that's precisely the reason why gene banks are important, particularly if farmers can get ready access to their collections (see below). Box 3

International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

This treaty is the outcome of the International Undertaking (IU) on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture adopted by the FAO conference in 1983. Starting in 1996, the IU was revised through negotiations to make it compatible with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and renamed the International Treaty (IT). Negotiations were finalized in November 2001, and the IT was hailed by FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf [2] as “a triumph for the indigenous farmers, herders, forest dwellers and fishing communities of the world.” It establishes a multilateral system of access and benefit sharing to ensure that plant genetic resources of the greatest importance to food security are readily available for use now and in the future, and that any benefits are shared with the countries in which they originated. It also establishes a mechanism to ensure that researchers worldwide have access to those resources. Critics note however, that it does not go far enough in protecting our common heritage from commercial exploitation and patenting (“Science for the poor, or procurer for the rich?” SiS 15). The United States is a signatory to the treaty, which entered into force in June 2004.

In situ conservation against corporate serfdom

Apart from the ex situ conservation, in situ conservation - maintaining biodiversity on farms and in nature – is equally important, if not more so, for counteracting corporate serfdom.

Jacque Diouf himself has stressed the importance of in situ conservation [2]. “The responsibility for conserving agrobiodiversity on farms in a great part of the world usually belongs to women farmers who traditionally harvest and conserve crop seeds from season to season.” Said Diouf. “This local agrodiversity is particularly important for the resilience of farming systems and communities in emergencies or humanitarian crises, such as those that affected more than 45 million people last year.” He pointed out that most of the earth's genetic diversity is found in the poor countries in the developing world; and that “it is imperative that those most responsible for its development and its preservation - the indigenous people who maintain the farms, the herds, the forests and the fishing areas - are both respected and rewarded for their efforts.”

In situ conservation and seed saving by local communities themselves is the key to recovering and safeguarding local agricultural biodiversity for genuinely sustainable food systems that involves local production and consumption, and restores self-sufficiency and autonomy to farmers and the local communities.

“There used to be many local variety seeds not only for food crops such as rice and corn, but also for beans/legumes and fruit trees.” Says Hira Jhamtani of Konphalindo, Indonesia, a public interest organisation involved in promoting sustainable agriculture. “The problem is that the knowledge is dying with the old farmers, and the younger generation has no comprehensive knowledge on seed conservation, nor do they seem to be interested. This is where scientists can play a role in documenting local seed varieties and reviving seed breeding among the younger generations based and rooted in local knowledge. The local know-how still exists in many places in Indonesia (and also the Philippines), the question is how to regenerate the biodiverse agricultural- base and revitalise this knowledge through community based activities.”

Neth Dano, associate of Third World Network in the Philippines, who has worked with local communities to develop sustainable agriculture for many years, is less than happy about a blanket call to increase funding for genebanks. “The genebank/ ex situ strategy should not be seen as a stand-alone genetic conservation strategy but should complement the in-situ /on-farm strategies of communities, institutions and civil society.” Says Dano, “This would require genebank scientists working closely with farmers and indigenous peoples in seeds conservation on farm. Increase funding for genebanks should be tied to increased funding for in-situ /on-farm conservation and utilization efforts.” This will ensure that the genebanks will not just conserve genetic resources for corporate agriculture, but first and foremost for world food security and the livelihood of those who have nurtured and are dependent on these genetic resources.

“We also have to take note that there are many cases when the ex situ conservation is not relevant at all, as in the case of the Least Developed Countries which cannot even afford to pay for electricity to keep the genebanks running after these have been built through grants or even loans that the future generation will have to pay.” Dano adds.

She also points out that even if most or all of the collections in the CGIAR genebanks are not patented, as they are “common heritage of mankind”, they remain inaccessible to farmers especially if traditional breeds have already been lost. Genebanks should make every effort to ensure that their collections are accessible to the farmers and indigenous peoples who need them, as most of the materials were collected by scientists from farming and indigenous communities in the first place. There must be concrete mechanisms to inform farmers and to facilitate farmers' access to these materials.

Seed-saving against corporate serfdom

Seed saving is an important activity that does not have to wait for massive funding, and many local communities have already started to do just that, to make sure they conserve what they still have, and not to depend on genebanks.

For example, the Henry Doubleday Research Association in the UK with 30 000 members are a major seed saver for organic gardening and farming, although it is not a gene bank. Its Heritage Seed Library conserves and makes available to members European vegetable varieties that are not widely available. Currently, 700 accessions of open-pollinated varieties are held, of which about 200 are in its Seed Catalogue sent free to members ( http://www.hdra.org.uk/hsl/index.htm ).

Navdanya (“Nine seeds”) started by Dr. Vandana Shiva of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in India is active not only in seed saving but also in revitalising indigenous knowledge and culture, in creating awareness on the hazards of genetic engineering, and in defending people's knowledge from biopiracy and people's food rights in the face of globalisation. It has its own seed bank and organic farm over an area of 20 acres in Uttranchal, north India ( http://www.navdanya.org/ ).

In Ireland, Anita Hayes founded the Irish Seed Savers Association (ISSA) in 1991 in her own home and garden. But with a core of willing helpers and seed donations, and financial aid from government bodies and many generous funders, the ISSA took off. It now has a large collection of Irish fruits, cereals and vegetables ( http://www.irishseedsavers.ie/ ).


This article can be found on the I-SIS website at
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SaveOurSeeds.php

* A Keynote Address by Mel Hurtig

Association of World Citizens Conference

University of San Francisco

August 2, 2005

*words from an article by Robert S. McNamara, Foreign Policy, May/June 2005

In what follows, I acknowledge with gratitude and admiration the invaluable work of Douglas Roche , O.C. formerly Canada ’s Ambassador for Disarmament and currently Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative. Roche’s analysis of the May, 2005 Seventh Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is perceptive and extremely important.

While all of us in this room are fully aware of the dismaying failure of the crucial Seventh Review Conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty which took place in New York in May, I very much doubt if one in a thousand around the world paid attention to the month-long deliberations or have any even vague idea of their importance, or the inevitable tragic consequences of the enormously disappointing Conference results.

Not only was no progress made on the vitally important issues of nuclear disarmament, proliferation, abolishing testing and the continuing upgrading and refinement of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, but in a shocking betrayal to the world’s aspirations for peace, disarmament and redirecting arms funding to badly-needed humanitarian use, clear-cut widely agreed-to commitments made in the previous 1995 and 2000 Reviews were either ignored or repudiated.

It’s impossible not to single out the administration of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for the Conference failure. Time and again the U.S. blocked crucial references to earlier commitments and continued to stubbornly refuse to join the widely-supported Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

While most countries wanted a strengthened Non-Proliferation Treaty, the U.S. clearly wanted it weakened.

And, while many U.S. allies, including seven NATO states called for specific steps to quicken nuclear disarmament, and almost 2,000 NGOs presented thoughtful, passionate pleas and warnings about the growing dangers of proliferation, and while well-reasoned plans for verification and the elimination of nuclear arsenals were presented and overwhelmingly supported, the U.S. frustrated any such progress towards goals almost universally supported.

Having already backed away from the vitally important ABM Treaty, having refused to back the Test Ban Treaty, having embarked on the dangerous, escalating, so-called missile defence fiasco, having already budgeted for the refinement of its nuclear weapons, having planned for the development of new nuclear weapons and the horrendous prospect of the weaponization of space, having agreed to a dangerous new provocative nuclear agreement with India, the U.S. is now clearly identifiable as the major threat to world peace and to the very survival of the human race.

The mayor of Hiroshima has eloquently warned of the terrible consequences, as have numerous others such as Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Mohamed ElBaradei, Robert McNamara, Canada ’s Douglas Roche, and John Polanyi, Sir Joseph Rotlat, and many other respected world leaders and admired authorities.

Conversely, and remarkably, not a single high-ranking U.S. official bothered to attend the New York Conference.

Meanwhile, in most Western democracies, the media has done a miserable job of informing citizens about the horrible and increasing danger of an apocalyptic nuclear Armageddon.

With the U.S., and to a somewhat lesser degree France and Britain essentially repudiating their previous commitments to the Programme of 13 Practical Steps for the elimination of their nuclear weapons, with new weapons and their delivery systems being planned by the nuclear weapon states, is it any wonder that around the world non-nuclear states (north Korea and Iran among them) are logically saying that if the major nuclear powers refuse to pay attention to the will of the overwhelming majority, to their previous clear-cut promises, or to the explicit direction of the International Court of Justice, is it any wonder that these currently non-nuclear states are concluding that their own best interests oblige them to acquire an arsenal of nuclear weapons?

And why would they not do so given the pathetic failure in New York, and the aggressive, militaristic behaviour of the Bush government and the widespread emergence of the Pakistani nuclear black market?

Bear in mind that what needs to be done has been already widely- agreed-to. A non-reversible program for the destruction of all strategic and tactical nuclear weapons is essential. A fissile material cut off treaty must be rushed into force. All strategic nuclear weapons must be promptly taken off alert status. Stockpiles of nuclear materials must be much more heavily guarded and converted for peaceful uses. While the world continues to fear the despicable, murderous terrorist activities that have shocked the U.S. , Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the inevitability of terrorist access to plutonium and/or enriched uranium has been growing for years. The potential for a massively horrendous, unprecedented slaughter of innocents is no longer a remote possibility.

In all of this, as I spelled out in my last book, it’s essential to consider the actions and responses of both Russia and China. Both countries have reacted to the aggressive posture of the U.S. and the huge increases in American military spending by increasing and modernizing their own military strength and by developing formidable new weapons. Russia is carrying out research and missile tests for new “state-of-the-art nuclear missile systems” and “a unique new generation of nuclear weapons” including “new maneuverable warheads”, increased road-mobile weapons and new ICBMs and cruise missiles. China is developing improved long-range missiles carrying multiple nuclear warheads and rapidly expanding its ballistic missile submarine force, and increasing its own number of nuclear weapons. Recent ominous Chinese threats to attack the U.S. with nuclear weapons in response to American aggression or interference re Taiwan were neither frivolous nor unplanned.

At the same time, while Russia and China conduct unprecedented joint military exercises, both have also repeatedly come down firmly on the side of peace and disarmament, repudiating the U.S. abandonment of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the plans for the weaponization of space, the failure of the U.S. to ratify the 1996 Comprehensive Test ban Treaty (now ratified by 120 countries), the Conference on Disarmament paralysis, the American proposals for the development of new nuclear weapons, the U.S. pre-emptive nuclear strike policy and the American lowering of the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s position and its 43 New York suggestions relating to disarmament and non-proliferation would have definitely strengthened the NPT.

As the New Agenda Coalition (Sweden, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa) pointed out at the New York Conference, there are now some 30,000 nuclear weapons in existence, almost as many as those that existed when the NPT came into force 35 years ago! Moreover, there is now the clear potential for a disastrous major new nuclear arms race.

The 119-member states of the Non-Aligned Movement warned that
we must all call for an end to this madness and seek the elimination and ban on all forms of nuclear weapons and testing as well as the rejection of the doctrine of nuclear deterrence.

At the end of the New York Conference, delegates described the results as “extremely regrettable” (Japan), “profoundly disappointing” ( Norway ), “unfortunate” ( Ukraine ), and they expressed “frustration” ( Chile and Brazil ).

Ambassador Paul Meyer of Canada condemned “the hubris that demands the priorities of the many be subordinated to the preferences of the few…..”

During the Conference, a massive accumulation of evidence showed how the U.S. was ignoring its previous disarmament promises and how it still plans to have over 5,000 operational nuclear weapons in 2012, how it has no plans to reduce its nuclear deployments or discontinue the maintenance of thousands of nuclear weapons on high alert, how it is currently budgeting over $22 million for research into new nuclear weapons and providing additional funding for new delivery systems, how it intends to modify and update its existing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and develop a “global strike” capacity that will facilitate the delivery of nuclear weapons, anywhere on earth, in a few hours at the most. Moreover, the U.S. is now spending some $40 billion a year on its nuclear forces, far more than the total of all military spending for most countries and a 150 per cent increase over its nuclear weapons spending during the Cold War.

And of course all of this is in addition to the over $100 billion already spent on the so-called “Missile Defense” program, which many believe is in reality a precursor for the weaponization of space.

And the result?

As The Western States Legal Foundation put is so well, “there is a growing possibility of a new nuclear confrontation that may overshadow the Cold War in its complexity.” Moreover, the American “implication that the selective use of nuclear weapons in ordinary warfare is lawful and legitimate [implies that] if it is legal and moral for one country to use nuclear weapons…. it is legitimate for any country to do so.”

As Tri-Valley CARES of Livermore, California put it

The United States is conducting a one-nation arms race against itself to upgrade its nuclear weapons and capabilities…an approach that undercuts international efforts to discourage nuclear weapons development in countries like North Korea and Iran.

Moreover, in the words of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, nations such as Egypt, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Taiwan will very likely initiate nuclear weapons programmes, increasing both the risk of the use of the weapons and the diversion of weapons and fissile materials into the hands of terrorists.

Carnegie should also have included a host of other countries, such as Brazil and South Africa.

Douglas Roche draws attention to The New York Times article by the distinguished 97-year-old Sir Joseph Rotlat, where the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize winner warns of a nuclear arms race.

To gloss over the hypocrisy of the nuclear weapons states, which are modernizing nuclear weapons and ensconcing them in their ongoing military doctrine, while urging abstinence on everyone else is stunning.

Throughout the Conference there were many excellent suggestions about the ways to diminish the threat of a nuclear catastrophe, including those by informed critics of nuclear power. Unfortunately, it’s now clear that in many ways relating to nuclear matters the world is rapidly headed down exactly the wrong path.

Among the proposals from Mohamed ElBaradei were a five-year moratorium on new uranium enrichment and plutonium separation facilities, and the conversion of all nuclear reactors now using highly enriched uranium to low grade uranium which cannot be used for bombs.

As the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War points out, the NPT has been the foundation for non-proliferation and disarmament for 35 years, and the vast majority of its members support its goals and obligations without question. But today, the Treaty is essentially in shreds, and the world is plunging towards the abyss.

Among the many eloquent recent warnings of the potential for catastrophe, one of the most forceful has come from Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defence from 1961 to 1968 [1]

McNamara says U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons is immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary and dreadfully dangerous. U.S. policy “has only grown more dangerous and diplomatically destructive.”

The average U.S. warhead has a destructive power 20 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. 2000 are on hair-trigger alert, ready to be launched on 15 minutes warning.

The whole situation seems so bizarre as to be beyond belief. On any given day, as we go about our business, the president is prepared to make a decision within 20 minutes that could launch….a nuclear holocaust.

[Our policy] raises troubling questions as to why any other state should restrain its nuclear ambitions.

In his article, McNamara describes the horrendous destruction which would be caused by only a single 1 megaton weapon. It’s chilling reading. As for U.S. policy the statement that our nuclear weapons do not target populations per se was and remains totally misleading in the sense that the so-called collateral damage of large nuclear strikes would include tens of millions of innocent civilian dead.

This in a nut shell is what nuclear weapons do: They indiscriminately blast, burn and irradiate with a speed and finality that are almost incomprehensible. This is exactly what countries like the United States and Russia, with nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert; continue to threaten every minute of every day in this new 21st century.

There is no way to effectively contain a nuclear strike – to keep it from inflicting enormous destruction on civilian life and property, and there is no guarantee against unlimited escalation once the first nuclear strike occurs.

McNamara goes on to estimate the destructive power of a U.S.-Russian nuclear exchange at at least 65,000 times that of the Hiroshima bomb. He describes current U.S. policy as "We, with the strongest conventional military force in the world, require nuclear weapons in perpetuity, but you are never to be allowed even one nuclear weapon."

He concludes with an ominous warning:

The knowledge of how to construct a simple gun-type nuclear device, like the one that was dropped on Hiroshima, is now widespread. …..Former Secretary of Defence William J. Perry said just last summer “I have never been more fearful of a nuclear detonation than now…. There is a greater than 50 percent probability of a nuclear strike on U.S. targets within a decade.

I share his fears. We are at a critical moment in human history.

I want to end my remarks here today in San Francisco with a brief description of how some of us mobilized successfully to keep Canada out of the so-called U.S. missile defence plans.

It wasn’t easy.

Long before most Canadians and most of the media had any idea of the implications, after a cabinet meeting in Ottawa, Canada ’s Minister of Defence met with Donald Rumsfeld in Washington and, in no uncertain terms, promised Canada ’s participation. When we learned about this, many of us were appalled. And the more we learned about the profound implications, the more we became determined, if at all possible, to reverse the government’s decision, a decision that had been made with virtually no public debate.

Early on, the public opinion polls, for what they were worth, sided with the Liberal government in Ottawa. Most Canadians had absolutely no idea what the dangers of the U.S. plans were. When asked questions like

Should Canada join with the U.S. in building a missile defence system which will stop rogue states from dropping a nuclear bomb on your home, destroying you and your family and friends?

most Canadian, of course, answered “yes”. Early polls were roughly 60 per cent in favour of participation, but with a surprisingly strong 40 per cent opposed. The government was firmly committed. Having stayed out of the Iraq war, much to the displeasure of the Bush administration, timid, colonial-minded politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa were offering missile defence as a mending mea culpa.

But those of us who understood the significant danger of a new arms race, the prospects for the weaponization of space, the horrendous costs of a system that would never work, the hidden offensive military first-strike implications, the increasing possibility of a nuclear nightmare in a situation of certain escalation, destabilization and insecurity….those of us who studied and understood these dangers became even more determined to try to stop Canada’s participation.

In countries like the U.S. and Canada, with heavy degrees of media concentration in the hands of men on the far right of the political spectrum, getting the message and the truth out is never easy.

We did it in several ways, one of the most important being the internet. While the right-wing press and television essentially parroted the Ottawa and Washington official propaganda lines, we brought in our own skilled experts to new conferences, and began a steady stream of internet releases including expert testimony from some of the most brilliant scientist, economists, political scientists and others with expertise not previously available to the public.

We worked with wonderful people and organizations in Washington , such as the Center for Defense Information, physicists at MIT and many others, including our own Canadian experts. We published books, papers, studies and articles full of information most Canadians were not aware of. My own weekly e-mail to some 1,500 across the country would be recirculated to, on average, some 100,000. Many of my colleagues across the country had their own extensive lists.

And we prevailed. After several months, the polls turned in our favour. After seven consecutive polls, the last one showing 65 per cent of Canadians opposed, the government, much to the displeasure of the Prime Minister, felt that Canada ’s participation was so increasingly unpopular that it had no choice. Canada announced we would not be joining in the American plans.

There were many elements in our successful battle. But, if I had to credit one above all others, it was our success in getting expert information out over the internet that made the most difference. It’s a lesson that I know many of you will want to employ in the future, because in the end, given reliable unbiased information, the public will make the right choice, even in the face of well-financed military-industrial misinformation, ignorant editorials and myopic columnists, and concerted government propaganda.

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. It’s a great honour and I wish you well in your continuing deliberations.

[1] Foreign Policy, May, June, 2005


Informant: Bea Bernhausen

From: Democracy Campaign <democracy@globalexchange.org>

DEMOCRACY ALERT
DEMOCRACY ALERT
DEMOCRACY ALERT

(Please forward widely)

Dear Friend of Democracy,

You are among the tens of thousands of democracy activists who signed the Pledge of Action on the No Stolen Elections! website, http://www.nov3.us

On the eve of the 40th Anniversary of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 . . .

We ask you to TAKE ACTION THIS WEEK by urging congressional representatives to re-authorize portions of the Voting Rights Act that will expire in 2007.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been key to breaking down racial barriers to voting. The renewal of its provisions for Federal oversight of historically race-biased voting districts is important both practically and symbolically. Imagine America without it.

We are joining in support of Rainbow/PUSH and others to pressure Congress to re-authorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by circulating online petitions and attending a Pro-Democracy March and Rally in Atlanta on Saturday, August 7th.

* * * 3 Things You Can Do NOW to Defend the Voting Rights Act of 1965!

1. MARCH and RALLY in Atlanta on Saturday, August 7: Visit http://www.rainbowpush.org to learn more about the march and rally to re-authorize the VRA of 1965 and SIGN the petition. Please forward to your friends and family in the region!

2. CALL Your Congressional Representatives TODAY and Urge them to take action to re-authorize the VRA: Capitol Switchboard: 877.762.8762 or 202.224.3121 For talking points, visit http://votejustice.org/article.php?id=138

3. WRITE a letter to the editor or an opinion editorial about the historic importance of the VRA and the need to re-authorize it by 2007. To read sample letters to the editor and opinion-editorials visit http://votejustice.org/article.php?id=170

* * * 2 Resources You Can Use To Work for Democracy

Two new exciting campaigns launched by two coordinators of the No Stolen Elections! effort:

1. VoteJustice.org is project of Global Exchange. As you will see by visiting our new website http://www.votejustice.org , VoteJustice.org is connecting people and organizations who are working to turn grassroots energy and desire for change into comprehensive electoral reform.

We encourage you to sign up for VoteJustice.org's monthly email bulletins and alerts which will cover news about key advances, challenges and opportunities to join local and national campaigns on issues ranging from local registration and voting machines to campaign finance and felon disenfranchisement. You will also be able to FIND and POST electoral reform organizations and events in your area at http://www.votejustice.org

2. The Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution is a non-profit organization rooted in the belief that the American Revolution is a living tradition whose greatest promise is democracy. Information about Liberty Tree's Democratizing Elections, Local Democracy, and Democratizing Education programs is available on our new website at: http://www.LibertyTreeFDR.org

Liberty Tree's Democratizing Elections Program strives to fundamentally transform US elections by nurturing a powerful new voting rights movement that will implement the fundamental and systemic electoral reforms defined in the Voter Bill of Rights. Check out http://www.LibertyTreeFDR.org today!

THANK YOU for all you do!

David Cobb & Ben Manski Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution Elections@LibertyTreeFDR.org
608.257.1606

Chris Michael & Nell Greenberg Global Exchange Democracy Campaign democracy@globalexchange.org
415.558.0500


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Salon
by Ian Williams

08/02/05

This week is the 60th anniversary of the Enola Gay dropping the bomb on Hiroshima, so perhaps it is entirely appropriate that George W. Bush has gone for the nuclear option and dropped John Bolton on the United Nations in New York. Bolton's diplomatic talents are such that he could start a shouting match in a Trappist monastery. He should make things at the U.N. go with a bang. It almost counts as tact on the part of the White House that it waited until Monday to announce Bolton's recess appointment, instead of making the announcement on Friday as soon as the limos speeding senators to Ronald Reagan airport on their ways home had left the U.S. Capitol... [subscription or ad view required]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2005/08/02/bolton/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp




http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Bolton

Sierra Times
by Geoff Metcalf

08/01/05

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist sent shock waves through that 87-square miles surrounded by reality by endorsing a bill to make more embryonic stem-cell research eligible for federal money. It is a significant and 'expediant' [sic] break with the President who has already indicated he will veto the legislation. Dwight Eisenhower said, 'May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.' It is a classic challenge for partisans of every stripe. However, there is no confusion over the perfidious 'epiphany' of Frist. Why would a Senate Majority Leader flip off his party's president?

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/08/01/66_205_130_38_87014.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Joshua Frank

08/01/05

So there you have it: first the trials at Gitmo are rigged, then the unjustly convicted are not allowed to challenge their incarcerations. All ethical considerations aside -- what we have here is a constitutional crisis of epic proportions...

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank08012005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Liberty For All
by Sharona Merel

08/02/05

I am a researcher ... of things hidden -- of government policy, public and private, of hidden agendas, hidden history, hidden hierarchies, and abuse of power, among other things. When one does this sort of thing, we discover a piece of the puzzle here, and a piece of the puzzle there, and we just start filling the pieces in. Then, one day, we take a step back, and see the panorama and say, 'Dear God, there's a big picture here.' So, I can tell you there's a big picture here, that vote fraud, which amounts to the deceiving of the people, is just a piece, albeit a big piece, of the puzzle, and that things are, by no means, what they seem. So, if we are serious about all we hold dear, and about preserving the precious legacy of this American Democratic Republic, in alignment with the inspired vision of the Founding Fathers, well, then, we may wish to open our minds and hearts, and hear...

http://www.libertyforall.net/2005/aug7/Elections.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Libertarian Enterprise
by Morris E. Chafetz, M.D.

08/01/05

Not only do you have a right to be fat, you have a right -- with one caveat -- to do unhealthy things. The one caveat is the extent to which you are responsible for others, whether, for instance, you are a parent. If you are the parent of a child who is so fat as to be unhealthy, the chances are very good that you are a bad parent. If you are so fat that you cannot be a proper parent, you're a bad parent, too. Rights invariably carry responsibilities, and self-respect demands that both be embraced equally...

http://www.ncc-1776.com/tle2005/tle330-20050731-05.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Liberty For All
by Joey B. King

08/02/05

One of my favorite anti-war pieces is War is a Racket (WIAR) by Marine Major General (MG) Smedley Butler. MG Butler was the only person to win the Congressional Medal of Honor two times, so he knew a thing or two about war. Interestingly, after he retired from the USMC, Butler came to view himself as a: 'high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.' He worked for peace in the 1930's before his death in 1940. As a warrior-turned-pacifist myself, my own sentiments are similar to Butler's...

http://www.libertyforall.net/2005/aug7/Amendment.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Kn@ppster
by Thomas L. Knapp

08/01/05

Yes, Virginia, there are still environmentalists ... and some of them are beginning to get smart about markets. As a matter of fact, the 'Wise Use' movement's corporate cronyism and anti-market bias is beginning to show. As columnist John Tierney explains, environmental groups in the west have begun taking land out of grazing and back into a state of nature the old-fashioned way: by buying grazing permits from the farmers who hold them at market prices. And this development, of course, is driving the 'pro-market' corporate welfarists, and their shills in the Bureau of Land Management, friggin' insane. It's time for Democrats to begin pointing out that the issue is not environment versus market, but environment and market against corporate welfare, against laws which exempt polluters from responsibility for the damage they cause while transferring the costs to everyone else, and against bureaucratic regimes (which happen to be controlled by, um, Republicans at this time) who 'manage' the environment on behalf of the biggest campaign donors...

http://knappster.blogspot.com/2005/08/americas-party-again.html

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

08/01/05

In Iraq, like everywhere else, if things don't add up, it is safe to assume that politics is involved. Although the insurgency in recent months has worsened, Gen. George W. Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, astonishingly claims that security in Iraq has improved and that substantial U.S. troop withdrawals are possible by as early as next spring. What gives? The congressional elections in 2006. Although Bush administration officials have implied that demands by Democrats for a U.S. troop withdrawal timetable are 'unpatriotic' and 'aid the enemy,' when electoral politics is involved, the administration is all too willing to predict troop reductions during a specified time period...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1542


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Guardian [UK]

08/02/05

A former London schoolboy accused of being a dedicated al-Qaida terrorist has given the first full account of the interrogation and alleged torture endured by so-called ghost detainees held at secret prisons around the world. For two and a half years US authorities moved Benyam Mohammed around a series of prisons in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, before he was sent to Guantánamo Bay in September last year...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1540752,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

08/01/05

"President Bush bypassed balky Senate Democrats on Monday and used his constitutional powers to appoint John Bolton U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Bush said the diplomatic post was 'too important to leave vacant any longer, especially during a war and a vital debate about U.N. reform,' a reference to the Senate's failure to act on Bolton since Bush nominated him nearly five months ago...

http://tinyurl.com/98voq


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Bolton

The people who elected Robin Hayes to Congress might be asking: "Can we change our votes, too?" No. Hayes, a Republican from Concord, can't be recalled. Whatever the economic aspects of CAFTA, it's bound to have political repercussions. Robin Hayes may be the first to find out.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/080105LA.shtml

A recent US-India nuclear agreement was so hastily concluded the Bush administration is only now beginning to figure out how to implement it in the face of tough questions from the US Congress and nonproliferation experts.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080105S.shtml

The prison torture decisions "came from the top," asserts Robert Weiner, a former Clinton White House senior public affairs official. "No matter where these prisons are, so long as our policy is the same, torture will take place - closing Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib will not stop the outbreak of abuses and torture."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080105Q.shtml

By Ernest Stewart
Issues and alibis web site

"I don't know what weapons World War Three will be fought with,
but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones."
... Albert Einstein ...

Last week the US House pass by a margin of 257 -171 with 6 not voting the reauthorization of the so called "Patriot Act." An 800 page bill which appeared from out of nowhere immediately following 911 and was voted on before anyone could even read it! The Patriot Act appeared timely but had been written over about 30 years and is really just a Rethuglican/Corpo-Rat wish list of laws making us even more their slaves and which steals most of our Constitutional rights that hadn't already been stolen before and actually all but nullifies 8 articles of the Bill of Rights.

This was spoken about and debated in the magazines "Forum" section. To see who voted for this treason go to my rant; "Do One Of These Assholes Belong To You?" (If you enjoy the magazine you should really join The Forum as it covers about ten times the news & views as does the magazine) These were the provisions that were supposed to expire but are now being made permanent. You know like spying on you in the library, your medical records, warrantless searches etc. etc. etc. Simple treason voted for by traitors who should be hung by the neck until they cheer up, except of course that a mere hanging is way too good for the likes of these scum bags! [...] Read the whole 'rant' at http://www.issuesandalibis.org/ Keep scrolling down the page and you'll find it!

Another action center: Campaign for America's Future -- Our Future When I looked at it they were worrying about Tom DeLay's $1.5 Billion Big Oil giveaway. http://tinyurl.com/9ggur


© Virginia Metze

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=914257&ct=1243147#3

Majority Leader Tom DeLay may have faded from the front pages, but he's still up to his dirty tricks. Yesterday, Rep. Henry Waxman revealed that DeLay slipped “ a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas ” into the energy bill. But it gets worse. The provision was "mysteriously inserted" into the text of the energy bill " after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure." DeLay has launched an assault on the democratic process. Write your representatives and demand this provision be removed from the energy bill. [...] Check out the American Progress for other warnings and tidbits: http://tinyurl.com/8yso5

Lots of interesting stuff on http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ Here is a partial list of the headlines: "Tips for Monitoring Aug. 2 Ohio election," "Mississippi, listen up: California just rejected the TSx," "Jim March on taking back his civil rights."


© Virginia Metze

Published on Thursday, July 28, 2005
from Associated Press
Common Dreams News Center

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Opponents of President Bush launched a protest drive Wednesday urging court authorities to keep him from attending a November summit in Argentina, saying his presence would raise security concerns.

Lia Mendez, a candidate in Argentina's upcoming congressional elections, rallied with other members of the small Humanist Party outside the court complex where they sought a court order barring Bush from the Summit of the Americas.

Although analysts said the opposition drive had little chance of success, the protesters gained attention by handing out leaflets on the courthouse steps. [...] Nothing like being hated by all the other countries in the world, is there? http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0728-07.htm


© Virginia Metze

David Sirota
Sirotablog
7.28.05

There is nothing so pathetic as someone who undermines a team crying when they get called onto the carpet for disloyalty. But, as expected, that's what's happening with Democrats and CAFTA. I was met this morning with a few emails from Capitol Hill Democrats who don't like that I had the nerve to tell it like it is about last night's tragic vote . The whining and crying is the perfect image of pathetic thumb-sucking weakness that has hurt Democrats throughout the heartland.

Don't worry - I've been there before with this , and it is more than a little hilarious to criticize me for supposedly being disloyal to Democrats. I long toiled in the day-to-day trenches fighting the Republicans . And, unlike many of the whiners in Washington, I've actually left the Beltway and worked on winning campaigns . Still, it never ceases to amaze me how Washington, D.C. Democrats - unlike Republicans - have no understanding of why accountability will actually help them get back into the majority. [...] Read it all at Working for Change: http://tinyurl.com/axtha


© Virginia Metze

David Sirota
Sirotablog
Working for Change
7.28.05

Roll Call has a new report up about House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) holding an emergency meeting of the House Democratic Steering Committee tonight to discuss formal sanctions against the 15 Democrats who sold out their party and voted for the corporate-written Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Pelosi raised "the likelihood that defectors' committee assignments would be reviewed at tonight’s meeting of the Steering Committee." That's absolutely necessary - why should Democrats who undermine their party be given plum committee assignments over other, far more loyal and principled Democrats? Pelosi should be commended for her courage - and now she needs to back up her words with action.

The story goes on to note that "Several Democratic sources said Pelosi and other House leaders are particularly upset with New York Reps. Greg Meeks and Ed Towns, members of exclusive committees with safe seats, who voted for CAFTA."

Meeks had the nerve to say that he "voted my conscience" on CAFTA, despite his long history selling off his votes on trade to the highest corporate bidder . He also said while he "knows many of my colleagues are disappointed" he said he has been with Democrats "90 percent of the time" – yeah, except for on all the key economic votes that would allow the Democratic Party to actually paint the kind of serious contrast with the GOP that polls show the American people are waiting for . Roll Call goes on to lay the groundwork for supposedly "endangered" Democrats who represent swing districts to claim they had to vote for CAFTA for their re-election. But as I have earlier noted, that rationale is so dishonest it's hard to believe a Member of Congress could utter it with a straight face. [...] Read it all at: http://tinyurl.com/8d373


© Virginia Metze

By David Podvin
7/24/05
Make Them Accountable web site

The Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts is a deathblow aimed directly at the liberal movement. Roberts is not a jurist in any meaningful sense of the term. He is a ruthless political operative who was groomed to pervert the legal system by Kenneth Starr and was instrumental in helping George W. Bush steal the presidency. He has devoted his life to advancing the conservative cause by misapplying the law. This historic judicial appointment wasn’t a hurried selection designed to divert attention from Karl Rove’s treason. Roberts has been painstakingly vetted for the job of eliminating dissent in America.

When George W. Bush selected an überpartisan as his nominee, it was with the sole intention of slamming the high court to the extreme right. Reactionaries have long declared that dominance of the federal judiciary would enable them to defund and destroy the Democratic Party. Having already deprived Democrats of all relevant political power, Republicans are now going for the kill. [...] Read more about this on makethemaccountable.com: http://tinyurl.com/axkjh


© Virginia Metze

07/28/2005 11:01

Like all politicians, those who took part in the attack against Afghanistan and Iraq, try to justify what they did by saying that now is the time to support what they are doing [...] If you want to take a look, go to http://tinyurl.com/9xvsu


© Virginia Metze

Bolton and the UN: another US slap in the world's face
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=88249;show_parent=1

Bush Names Bolton Ambassador to UN, Bypassing Senate
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=88262;show_parent=1



My Name is John Bolton, and I'm Here to Stop The Diplomacy

by Hunter
Fri Jul 29th, 2005 at 20:27:32 PDT
DailyKOS

It's been a long, winding road of "misstatements", forged intelligence, botched diplomacy, and spectacular tales of obsessive "kick-down" middle management vengeance, but it's looking like a recess appointment of John Bolton as America's U.N. Ambassador is likely to happen in the next few days. Current reports are citing officials inside the White House saying Bush wants to get it over with before he leaves for his summer vacation. (No, I'm not kidding. It's like he's a kid packing for camp or something.)

I have mixed feelings about such an appointment. Well, not really -- at this point, I mostly welcome it, and I think most administration critics have been coming to roughly the same conclusions. If you're out to prove spectacular Bush administration incompetence and corruption, Bolton is the yellowcake-dusted gift that keeps on giving. I've grown almost fond of the rhythm of the news cycle, in which once a month or so we find out a new diplomatic effort that Bolton managed to either fantastically botch or intentionally sabotage (Libya, North Korea, nonproliferation efforts, anything remotely having to do with Iraq WMD claims). Every few months, we are treated to news reports describing another administration official who hates his ever-loving guts (Powell and Condi have both allowed themselves to be obliquely marked as being anti-Bolton, in addition to the parade of officials that testified at his hearings. Take a hint, much?)

[...] Read the whole article at
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/29/232732/959 or http://tinyurl.com/ded7j


© Virginia Metze

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts114.html


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

by John Chuckman

Devoted to human freedom, you must embrace even the freedom to express stupidity. So I can happily report that a week ago at this writing Thomas Friedman struck a mighty blow for freedom with one of the dumbest columns he has ever written, "Giving the Hatemongers No Place to Hide" (NY Times, July 22, 2005 ), although his regular readers may not forgive my distinguishing this column from his regular output. The theme of the column is captured by one of the pithy bromides of which he is so fond, "Guess what: words matter." To make sure that you understand, Friedman repeats this a number of times with slight variations, a favorite technique of propagandists and, for that matter, police interrogators. You can't help smiling for here is a man who has spent his entire adult life twisting and torturing words to give imperial hubris a happy face. As we will see, the words that really matter to Friedman are the ones that disagree with his view of the world and current events. Like an unpleasant, spoiled child Friedman uses a tantrum in print to get what he wants....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Chuckman0731.htm

by Mike Whitney

No one was the least bit surprised when Tony Blair announced that the only antidote for the bombing attacks on the London subway was a fresh batch of regressive laws. Blair is a master at turning tragedy into political capital and the slaughter of 50 Londoners was no different. It only sharpened his appetite for carrying out the directives of his paymasters by further savaging civil liberties. It always astonishes how quickly the demagogues in Washington and London swing into action when there’s a chance to hack away at personal freedom. They seem to operate on the theory that people will only be safe when the country assumes the same standards of justice as, let’s say, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Isn’t this where Blair is pointing England?

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Whitney0731.htm

by Leilla Matsui and Stella La Chance

Cognitive dissonance occurs when a long held assumption or existing belief is thrown into question by new or contradictory information, causing a person to reinterpret this evidence after it has been presented to justify a falsely held notion. The theory refers to the phenomenon of the mind's failure to assume its equilibrium after having to accept an unwelcome intrusion of this kind into its “comfortably held assumption zone.” It results in a willful refusal to acknowledge that a shift in perception has even occurred. When exposed to information inconsistent with his/her beliefs, such a person remains fiercely loyal to the original falsehood to prevent an increase in the magnitude of dissonance felt in the face of a humiliating confrontation with inconvenient facts. The phenomenon is most often associated with the resulting psychological struggle of cult members trying to come to terms with the failure of some cataclysmic event to occur, as predicted by the group's charismatic leader. Less committed members are more likely to acknowledge that they had been “had” and move on from there, while more fervent believers deal with the potential loss of face by reinterpreting past events to accommodate a present psychological dilemma. If the end of the world fails to materialize on schedule, it is thanks to the “power of prayer,” or newly emerging interpretations of prophecy....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Matsui-LaChance0731.htm

Of Karl Rove, Nixon's Gray Ghost, Pinball Proto-Fascism, Muscle Car Imperialism, and the Gong Show of the American Political System by Phil Rockstroh

An unpopular war drags on, gas prices rise and rise, as a cloud of scandal gathers over Washington D.C. At times, it seems as though the 1970s never ended: it's just Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton's Quaalude-laced, faux populist snake oil caused us to sleep through the 80s and 90s -- and now we're awakening, hungover, groggy, queasy, still in the midst of that ugly and odious era. At least that's the encrypted message I've been able to decipher, using my Super-Secret, Decoder Mood Ring, special limited, Karl Rove edition. George W. Bush and Karl Rove are as much products of the 1970s as were Naugahyde pit group sofas and outbreaks of the Herpes Simplex Retrovirus at Plato's Retreat. Historically, the world will regard The Bush Administration as the Dacron Polyester of American presidencies: its legacy will carry all the beauty, style, and enduring appeal of a powder blue Leisure Suit. George Bush, himself, will be remembered as the Pet Rock of the American plutocratic class. Accordingly, if there is any presiding spirit possessing the current zeitgeist, it is the gray ghost of Dick Nixon. During the Watergate Era, Karl Rove apprehended a fact the rest of us pushed out of our minds, due to its troubling implications: Nixon wasn't brought down because Americans were troubled by having a sick, corrupt bastard as their president -- we simply found it embarrassing to have the White House curtains pulled open, thus allowing the world to witness Nixon pacing the floors, draped in a dingy bathrobe, muttering expletives at the yellowing, West Wing wallpaper....

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July05/Rockstroh0731.htm

In her report on Hiroshima's Peace Museum in yesterday's THE IRISH TIMES (see below) journalist Judie Crosbie includes this shocking piece of information: "In the aftermath of the bombing . . . the US prevented academic research of diseases related to radiation effects during the occupation." Best, Imelda, Cork.



THE IRISH TIMES, MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2005

"Preserving a horrific moment in history


JAPAN: Hiroshima's peace museum carefully documents the shocking events of the first time an atomic bomb was used against people, reports Judith Crosbie

There were only three pictures taken on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Local newspaper photographer Yoshito Matsushige was too traumatised by what he saw on the morning of August 6th, 1945 to continue recording the first time such a weapon was used.

The pictures he did take that day betray the paralysis he felt - the images show people from behind, hiding the emotion that journalists usually try to convey. Still the horror is obvious: clothes blown from people's bodies; hair matted from the fierce blast; buildings crushed; utter confusion among the victims as they huddle together searching for an explanation for what just happened.

Sixty years on, the events of that day continue to shock. The Peace Memorial Museum and Park in Hiroshima stands as a testimony to what happened. Seconds after the bomber, the Enola Gay, offloaded its cargo over Hiroshima the bomb exploded in mid-air in a fireball some 280 metres in diameter. When it hit the ground it created an inferno that caused 13 square kilometres of total destruction. Houses were flattened, trees ripped up and concrete buildings wiped out. The ground temperature was 3,000 degrees celcius which meant anyone close to the hypocentre died in the fire.

The museum has carefully collected data to convey the unprecedented effects of the atomic bomb on the city. Pictures and models before the bombing show a bustling city of narrow streets packed with small wooden houses. After the bombing only a wasteland was left. Displays show clothes, some only tiny trousers and shorts worn by children, which were burnt on those close to the hypocentre. Exposed skin fell off like rags exposing flesh and bone. Glass bottles, ceramics, roof tiles and even sewing needles melted and were fused together.

Doctors, some themselves suffering from burns and radiation poisoning, were bewildered as to how to deal with the injured and had only basic burn treatments and herbal remedies. Some victims had horrific injuries as a result of burns or flying glass. Pictures at the museum show one man had part of his face blown off exposing his teeth and mouth. A young brother and sister showed no outward signs of physical injury but turned up to a clinic complaining of bleeding gums and diarrhoea. The silent effects of the radiation eventually killed them.

But the museum is also shocking for other reasons. The calculated reason for dropping the bomb on Hiroshima as a means of dissuading the Soviet Union from challenging the power of the US is documented in letters and telegrams from the day. Also well documented are the reasons the US chose Hiroshima and Nagasaki as there were no prisoner of war camps set up in these cities and the cities were of a sufficient size. The grim decision to drop the bomb without warning is also stressed.

In the aftermath of the bombing the British government controlled Hiroshima and restricted reporting of the event while the US prevented academic research of diseases related to radiation effects during the occupation.

The Korean victims - many of whom were labourers drafted into the war effort in the important port city of Hiroshima - are also remembered in one section of the museum, though after the bombing these victims were ignored.

The Peace Memorial park where the museum is located is littered with memorials to the bombing. The cenotaph in the centre of the park contains the names of all those known to have been killed in the bombing. The flame beneath it will be extinguished when the last nuclear weapons have been destroyed.

A monument to the tens of thousands of Koreans who suffered in the bomb was moved into the park in 1999. A children's memorial was erected in memory of the many children killed and specifically remembers Sadako Sasaki who died of leukaemia 10 years after the bombing at age 12 after struggling against her illness.

The remains of the imposing A-Bomb dome which was once a commercial centre to showcase industrial and cultural products of the city stands preserved just beyond the park. It was declared in 1996 a Unesco World Heritage site but some victims had hoped the only remaining structure of Hiroshima before the bombing would be destroyed given the painful memories it evokes. Because the bomb detonated right above the building some of the walls remained leaving the iron structure of the dome and part of the building.

The Hiroshima city government is keen not to forget August 6th, 1945. The Peace Memorial Museum and Park is seen as an important tool to teach people about the harmful effects of nuclear weapons and the city government has adopted the goal of ridding the world of such arms.

"No other people will be able to do what we are doing because we are the ones who experienced the atomic bombing. Hiroshima has a responsibility and a mission to do this," says Nobuyuki Teshima, director of the international peace promotion department.

The city arranges meetings for mayors around the world to come together and work out ways to put pressure on governments to abandon nuclear weapons.

Despite the ever-increasing danger from rogue states acquiring nuclear arms and perhaps the naivety in wishing an end to nuclear armaments, Hiroshima persists in its efforts.

Every time a nuclear weapon is tested the mayor sends a letter of protest to the country's leaders. Dozens have been sent to the US, China and France. Has Hiroshima ever received a response to the letters? "No, no direct response," admits Teshima."


© The Irish Times

Sierra Club of Canada calls ICNIRP guidelines “among the worst in the world” http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/?p=162


The ICNIRP Saga
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/566278/

http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=3143&sid=858006e33ca7ff30486f1256862a07e0#3143


Informant: Jean Hudon

--------

Flyby News <info@flybynews.com> wrote:

From: "Flyby News" <info@flybynews.com> To: flybynews@listserve.net Subject: Bush/Cheney INDICTED * DavidRay 9/11 Press Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 18:59:20 -0500

Flyby News Editor - Jonathan Mark
02 August 2005

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest
-Thomas Jefferson

Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth
-- Publius Cornelius Tacitus


Editor's Notes:

What is going on? It was difficult enough to google to find the David Ray Griffin speech "9/11 AND THE MAINSTREAM PRESS" at the National Press Club. But what is going on with the big "I" word - INDICTED - ? - Well it is not April 1st. Tom Flocco had broken other news reports, but the censorship of the mainstream press is impressive.. but how long can this story be buried.. or that of US American democracy, or world being taken by hostage by an illegal-mind-controlling bizarre government? These are interesting times.. According to the Tom Flocco report: "Besides the Valerie Plame CIA leak case, the Fitzgerald probe is reportedly far-reaching and expanding much deeper into past White House criminal acts involving Bush-Clinton drug money laundering in Mena, Arkansas to White House involvement in 9.11; but also for sending America's young people to their deaths or to be maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan under false pretenses."


It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds
-- Samuel Adams


BUSH AND CHENEY INDICTED

From TomFlocco.com

A Chicago grand jury has indicted the President and Vice-President of the United States along with multiple high officials in the Bush administration

Chicago -- August 2, 2005 -- TomFlocco.com -- U.S. federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's Chicago grand jury has issued perjury and obstruction of justice indictments to the following members of the Bush Administration: President George W. Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney, Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, imprisoned New York Times reporter Judith Miller and former Senior Cheney advisor Mary Matalin.

There were no indications given as to whether the President and his top staff members would appear publicly before cameras at the grand jury proceedings, given the gravity of the charges.

Besides the Valerie Plame CIA leak case, the Fitzgerald probe is reportedly far-reaching and expanding much deeper into past White House criminal acts involving Bush-Clinton drug money laundering in Mena, Arkansas to White House involvement in 9.11; but also for sending America's young people to their deaths or to be maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan under false pretenses.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was indicted for obstruction of justice and is reportedly consulting with members of Parliament and legal aides regarding how to avoid appearing in the U.S.A. for interrogation before Fitzgerald in Chicago.

The revelations emanated from sources close to the grand jury who spoke with federal whistleblower Thomas Heneghen in California who said White House Senior Advisor to the President Karl Rove was also indicted for perjury and was reportedly involved with Mary Matalin in a major Bush administration document shredding operation to cover-up evidence.

Heneghen had reported over ten days ago on a TruthRadio.com broadcast [Every Monday and Tuesday evening from 8-9 pm EST– truthradio.com --special briefing on Wednesday evening August 3 at 8 pm EST]] that his sources close to the grand jury said former Secretary of State Colin Powell had been subpoenaed and had testified against President Bush, telling the citizen panel that the President had taken the United States to war based upon lies--a capital crime involving treason under the United States Code.

Heneghen also reported a week ago that Gonzalez and Card had been subpoened and that Tony Blair had defied his subpoena after the response time limit had expired.

Sources close to the investigation report that members of the House, Senate, 9.11 Commission and other members of the media are also under investigation as potential targets by a grand jury regarding obstruction of justice and other oversight failures linked to the 9.11 attacks--indicating that citizen panelists working with Fitzgerald may be seeking a wholesale cleansing of what many have said is a crime-wracked White House and Congress.

Also last Monday, the whistleblower reported that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts was planning to obstruct justice by calling Fitzgerald for Senate hearings to question the prosecutor's motives for the far-reaching investigation.

This, giving rise to questions as to whether Roberts and other Republican legislators--some now under secret investigation--would join President Bush in seeking to fire Fitzgerald in the same manner that President Nixon had fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in order to obstruct justice and cut off further investigations into White House crimes.

Two weeks ago Heneghen said he had talked to sources just ten minutes prior to French and U.S. intelligence agents intercepting British intelligence agents who were attempting to bomb the subway underneath the Dirksen Federal Building where Fitzgerald was presiding over grand jury hearings.

Serious questions can also be raised as to whether intelligence forces linked to President Bush and Tony Blair had participated in a failed attempt to scuttle the Fitzgerald probe by literally blowing it up--at a time when UK reports reveal that military-grade explosives were used to blow up the London subway on July 7.

Sources say the alleged Chicago subway bombing attempt has been attributed to an underground and closeted enmity involving warring intelligence and military factions within the United States government.

Moreover, reports indicate that the disturbance occurred at the same time that the Chicago Tribune and local web blogs had reported that the subway had been evacuated for 45-50 minutes regarding a "suspicious package" late on Monday afternoon, July 18.

Also confirming the under-the-radar-screen hostilities involving agents loyal to the administration and others who are disturbed about the cover-up of government involvement in the 9.11 attacks was a recent contact made with this writer by a major New York media outlet which called seeking "names of those who could confirm its own reports of warring factions within the government which were threatening the safety of U.S. citizens."

developing.....please link or copy--and distribute widely.


TomFlocco

Last edited by TomFlocco on Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:26 pm; edited 6 times in total

http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=3143&sid=858006e33ca7ff30486f1256862a07e0#3143


Informant: Valerie Fine


http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=88315;show_parent=1
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo