Future Hope column, Nov. 13, 2005

By Ted Glick

How do activists become activists? How do they choose what issue or issues to work on? And how do they decide to change focus and work on a new one, perhaps continuing with the old issue(s), or not?

I've been thinking about this recently. I've been doing so because of my own personal situation.

About two years ago I made a conscious personal decision that I wanted to devote more of my energy to the issue of global warming. This followed over 30 years in which the main issues I'd worked on were peace, tenants' rights, neighborhood development, racism, coalition-building and independent politics.

This wasn't an overnight decision. It grew on me over several years as I read, studied and followed developments in the world. By early 2002 I was convinced that this was a huge issue that I had a responsibility to address. I did so during my Green Party U.S. Senate campaign that year in New Jersey. The second paragraph of my basic brochure said, "Move towards energy independence, reverse global warming and create jobs through a crash program to get energy from the sun, the wind and other renewable fuels."

But I think what really pushed me to make this my major activist priority was what happened in Europe in the summer of 2003. A brutally hot August led to at least 20,000 and as many as 40,000 deaths, mainly elderly people. In the words of Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia, "The heat wave has inevitably been linked to unprecedented weather extremes in other parts of the world taking place in the same general period (such as the worst drought in recorded history in Australia during the previous Australian summer, and massive floods in the USA) and attributed to global warming."

I already knew that islands in the Pacific were likely to disappear and that major parts of countries like Bengladesh would do the same as the oceans continued to rise. I knew about the vast melting of Arctic sea ice and its effects on Inuit people and others. But to read in the newspapers about tens of thousands of heat-caused deaths in Europe, a continent of relative privilege, in a such a short period of time really hit home.

Two years later I'm immersed in this issue. Three weeks from now there will be actions all around the world on December 3rd, on what has developed as an International Day of Action to Stop Global Warming. In the United States there will be probably upwards of at least 100 localities, perhaps many more, where action of some kind will be taking place.

December 3rd was chosen because it is right in the middle of a major United Nations Climate Conference in Montreal, Quebec, meeting from November 28th to December 9th. 12,000 people from over 150 nations will be present. Most will be signers of the Kyoto Protocol. The U.S., one of the few countries which has not signed, will be there, literally obstructing the efforts of other countries to strengthen world action on this crisis.

It is important-no, it is URGENT-that these actions on December 3rd, particularly in the USA, be as extensive and as large as possible. Global warming, catastrophic climate change, isn't just another issue, one more thing to feel badly about. It is a transcendent issue, one which is related to so many more. We need a rapid, global transition to energy conservation, energy efficiency and clean, sustainable energy sources like the sun, the wind and the tides, rather than the heat-trapping burning of oil, coal and natural gas. Without this clean energy revolution, the conditions of life for people all over the world will continue to deteriorate as we experience stronger hurricanes, droughts, floods, rising seas and the spread of diseases like asthma, malaria and West Nile virus. Societies will be massively disrupted, and we will see an escalation of energy wars, in the Middle East, Latin America and possibly elsewhere, and a continuation of terrorist attacks. Those hardest hit, as we saw in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, will be those most vulnerable because of poverty and racism.

The peace movement has a special responsibility, it seems to me, to take up this issue and integrate it into their on-going work to end the Iraq war. The connection is obvious, given that the war is all about control of Iraqi oil and a remaking of the Middle East to make it even more directly a U.S.-dominated region to the benefit of U.S. energy companies and our society's ecologically unsustainable economic practices. Conversely, we must educate ourselves and the general public about the fact that there is another way, that we can and must decrease our use of oil. We must end our military and neo-colonial entanglements in the Middle East while providing a positive economic alternative for these countries via support for extensive solar and wind farms.

We must articulate the positive vision of an international clean energy revolution that, in the words of author Ross Gelbspan, "will create millions of jobs around the world, increase the overall wealth and equity of the global economy and provide a platform to bring the countries of the world together around a common global project."

Let December 3rd be a wake-up call to the world that this urgently-needed popular movement has arrived!


Ted Glick is coordinator of Climate Crisis, USA Join the World! http://www.climatecrisis.us . He can be reached at usajointheworld@igc.org, 973-338-5398 or P.O. Box 1132, Bloomfield, N.J. 07003.


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


From ufpj-news

13.11.2005

In einem angeblich unter republikanischen Politikern zirkulierenden Memo sollen Ereignisse wie ein erneuter Anschlag genannt werden, die den Abwärtstrend von Bush und den Republikanern umdrehen könnten.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21339/1.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/v-pfriendly/story/365053p-310911c.html


Informant: acpollack2

From ufpj-news

Blair Faces New Inquiry into Iraq War Impeachment Campaigners

Claim Former Ministers will Join 200 Supporters to Force Commons
Probe

by James Cusick

MPs organising the campaign to impeach Tony Blair believe they have enough support to force a highly damaging Commons investigation into the Prime Minister's pre-war conduct.

A renewed attempt to impeach Blair over claims he misled parlia ment in making his case for war against Iraq, will be made in the Commons within the next two weeks.

The impeachment process effectively stalled last year when just 23 MPs signed a Commons motion. But the scale of the government's defeat on its anti-terror legislation last week - where 49 Labour MPs rebelled - has galvanised the momentum for proceedings to be invoked.

Organisers say they are expecting 200 cross-party signatures, including those of former government ministers, to force the Commons to set up a Privy Council investigation that would examine in detail the case for impeachment against Blair.

The size of the Labour revolt, allied to unified opposition benches, is said to have changed the climate inside the Commons.

SNP leader, Alex Salmond, one of the key figures in the impeachment campaign, said he now believed that the cross-party attempt to bring the government to account over the Iraq war "would become more urgent than predicted problems associated with social legislation in England and Wales".

Following the Commons defeat, it was predicted that future flashpoints for Blair would include a new education reform bill, likely to be presented next spring and new legislation to broaden reform inside the NHS with greater competition from the private sector.

Potential backbench revolts are also predicted if Blair makes any move to update the Trident nuclear programme or tries to introduce a new era of nuclear-generated energy.

Next month, a Green Paper on welfare reform, expected to include moves to cut incapacity benefit, was expected to be the first attack point for Labour dissidents.

However, any parliamentary success on the matter of impeachment is likely to over-shadow other issues.

If the promised signatures materialise, and a vote on the impeachment process is taken, the opportunity to deliver a substantial knock-down blow to Blair is not likely to be passed up by Labour rebels and opposition alike.

One MP last night: "This would be a golden opportunity. It would be pay-back time for Blair over the way he manipulated parliament before the Iraq war in 2003.

"Last week's defeat changed the atmosphere in the Commons. The hunt is on, as they say."

Although the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has remained publicly loyal to Blair since the defeat, last night, one of Brown's closest parliamentary allies disobeyed his call to back the Prime Minister unquestioningly.

The former Treasury minister, Geoffrey Robinson, insisted the Prime Minister had to allow his successor sufficient time to win a fourth term. The comment effectively challenges Blair's claim that he will serve out a "full third term".

Blair has acknowledged how difficult the task ahead of him now is. He said in a newspaper interview this weekend that he now faced "a rough ride" to push through his reform agenda. But he insisted there would be no spectacular U-turn, saying he was still determined to "continue doing what was right, not what is easy".

An organiser of the impeachment campaign told the Sunday Herald : "We have been promised 200 signatures and are now hopeful this process will go ahead as it should have last year. There will be a vote and an investigation will be set up. Does this have the potential to finish Tony Blair? Yes it does."

Copyright © 2005 newsquest (sunday herald) limited

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1113-03.htm


Informant: John Calvert

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) conveys why the US should staunchly oppose 'cruel, inhumane, or degrading' treatment of all detainees in the course of interrogations.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111305Y.shtml

From fables to false fortunes, Frank Rich views the Bush Administrations and Republicans alike as reciting compelling hyperboles of a government that does not condone torture, on the brink of a GOP victory over an anti-torture bill.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111305Z.shtml

Please forward to anyone who might be interested!

* NATIONAL DAY OF COUNTER-RECRUITMENT *
December 6, 2005 Campus Antiwar Network http://www.campusantiwar.net

ENDORSED BY: Pablo Paredes, war resister; David Airhart, Iraq War vet and Kent State student facing expulsion for peaceful counter- recruitment; Tariq Khan, George Mason University student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; Charles Peterson, Holyoke Community College student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; Traprock Peace Center; Anthony Arnove, editor, Iraq Under Siege and co-editor with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People's History of the United States

* Say No to the Solomon Amendment!

Campus Anti-War Network is calling for actions around the country to show the federal government that they cannot intimidate schools for kicking out military recruiters. On December 6, the Supreme Court will hear the FAIR v Rumsfeld case (brought by several universities), which will decide whether schools can ban military recruiters wihout losing federal funding. Currently, the Solomon Amendment allows the government to cut off federal funding from schools that ban military recruiters. This policy forces schools to accept military recruitment, even though the military's anti-gay "don't ask, don't tell" policy violates university anti-discrimination policies.

* Bring the movement for COLLEGE NOT COMBAT to a recruiting station near you!

On Dec 6, when the Supreme Court hears FAIR v Rumsfeld, students will hold protests at military recruiting stations across the country, including in San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York City, and many other cities. In Washington, D.C., a press conference and demonstration will take place outside the Supreme Court.

This action comes amid increasing revelations of the horror of the Iraq occupation. Recent video footage shows that the US used chemical weapons (white phosphorus) in Fallujah, laying bare the lies about "weapons of mass destruction." Occupation is not liberation. On December 6, we refuse to let the military recruit young people to kill and die in a war based on lies.

December 6 is also the one-year anniversary of Navy petty officer Pablo Paredes' refusal to board his ship in protest of the war, which sparked a national campaign that displayed and strengthened the growing refusal of soldiers to fight this war. Recently, the counter-recruitment movement won a victory in San Francisco, where 60 percent of voters approved a proposition to oppose military recruiters in schools and support scholarships to counteract the poverty draft, which targets the poor, and people of color.

Let's mobilize on Dec 6 to counter the military's ability to wage its illegal war and to support the right of universities to oppose military recruiting on their campuses.

Say No to the Solomon Amendment!
COLLEGE NOT COMBAT! TROOPS OUT NOW!

We welcome all organizations to endorse this day of action or to sponsor it with us. If you want to endorse, or you want to organize an action in your area, email recruitersout@yahoo.com and check out our website at http://www.campusantiwar.net


Ashley Smith

Loughran SP, Wood AW, Barton JM, Croft RJ, Thompson B, Stough C.

aBrain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn bAllergy Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, The Alfred Hospital and Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Previous research has suggested that exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields increases electroencephalogram spectral power in non-rapid eye movement sleep. Other sleep parameters have also been affected following exposure. We examined whether aspects of sleep architecture show sensitivity to electromagnetic fields emitted by digital mobile phone handsets. Fifty participants were exposed to electromagnetic fields for 30 min prior to sleep. Results showed a decrease in rapid eye movement sleep latency and increased electroencephalogram spectral power in the 11.5-12.25 Hz frequency range during the initial part of sleep following exposure. These results are evidence that mobile phone exposure prior to sleep may promote rapid eye movement sleep and modify the sleep electroencephalogram in the first non-rapid eye movement sleep period.

PMID: 16272890 [PubMed - in process]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16272890&dopt=Abstract


From FGF-Infoline 10.11.2005

Baohong W, Jiliang H, Lifen J, Deqiang L, Wei Z, Jianlin L, Hongping D.

Zhejiang University, Medical College, Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang, PR China.

The aim of this investigation was to study the synergistic DNA damage effects in human lymphocytes induced by 1.8 GHz radiofrequency field radiation (RFR, SAR of 3 W/kg) with four chemical mutagens, i.e. mitomycin C (MMC, DNA crosslinker), bleomycin (BLM, radiomimetic agent), methyl methanesulfonate (MMS, alkylating agent), and 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide (4NQO, UV-mimetic agent). The DNA damage of lymphocytes exposed to RFR and/or with chemical mutagens was detected at two incubation time (0 or 21 h) after treatment with comet assay in vitro. Three combinative exposure ways were used. Cells were exposed to RFR and chemical mutagens for 2 and 3h, respectively. Tail length (TL) and tail moment (TM) were utilized as DNA damage indexes. The results showed no difference of DNA damage indexes between RFR group and control group at 0 and 21 h incubation after exposure (P>0.05). There were significant difference of DNA damage indexes between MMC group and RFR+MMC co-exposure group at 0 and 21 h incubation after treatment (P<0.01). Also the significant difference of DNA damage indexes between 4NQO group and RFR+4NQO co-exposure group at 0 and 21 h incubation after treatment was observed (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The DNA damage in RFR+BLM co-exposure groups and RFR+MMS co-exposure groups was not significantly increased, as compared with corresponding BLM and MMS groups (P>0.05). The experimental results indicated 1.8 GHz RFR (SAR, 3 W/kg) for 2h did not induce the human lymphocyte DNA damage effects in vitro, but could enhance the human lymphocyte DNA damage effects induced by MMC and 4NQO. The synergistic DNA damage effects of 1.8 GHz RFR with BLM or MMS were not obvious.

PMID: 15935405 [PubMed - in process]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15935405&dopt=Abstract


From FGF-Infoline 10.11.2005

Regierung des Kantons Wallis stoppt UMTS-Ausbau
http://www.gigaherz.ch/968

--------

Funkstille im Wallis: Staatsrat stoppt Ausbau des Mobilfunknetzes

Wallis / Zermatt / Der Walliser Staatsrat legt sich quer: Mit Urteil vom 5. Oktober 2005 verbietet der Staatsrat jeden weiteren Ausbau der UMTS-Netze auf dem ganzen Kantonsgebiet.

Von Walter Bellwald

Der Entscheid ist historisch: Nachdem die Gemeinde Zermatt die Aufrüstung der Kirchturm-Mobilfunkantenne sistierte, hat der Kanton Wallis den Grundsatzentscheid der Gemeindebehörden gestützt. Damit ist die Aufrüstung der Mobilfunkantenne bis auf weiteres verboten. Die Folge: Der grösste Mobilfunkanbieter der Schweiz ist verärgert und droht mit einer Verwaltungsgerichtsbeschwerde.

Keine genauen Messwerte

Damit hatte niemand gerechnet: Nach dem gemeindeinternen Stopp zur Aufrüstung der Kirchturm-Mobilfunkantenne in Zermatt hat jetzt auch der Staatsrat sein Veto gegen eine Aufrüstung und Inbetriebnahme des UMTS-Netzes (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) eingelegt. Die Begründung: Keine zuverlässigen Messwerte. In der Urteilsbegründung heisst es: „...da eine zuverlässige Messung der realen Strahlung bei UMTS-Anlagen nicht möglich ist und demnach die zuständigen Bewilligungsbehörden nicht in der Lage sind, mit Sicherheit kontrollieren zu können, ob die einmal in Betrieb genommene UMTS-Anlage die Anlagegrenzwerte im massgebenden Betriebszustand überhaupt einzuhalten vermag, ist die entsprechende Anlage erst gar nicht zu bewilligen...“. Im Klartext: Bis auf weiteres ist jeder weitere Ausbau des UMTS-Netzes auf Walliser Kantonsgebiet verboten. Auf eine entsprechende Anfrage wollte sich Leander Schmidt vom Amt für Strahlenschutz nicht äussern.

Historisches Urteil

Der Entscheid des Walliser Staatsrats wurde schweizweit mit grosser Überraschung zur Kenntnis genommen. „Ich bin fast vom Stuhl gefallen, als ich davon gehört habe“, freut sich Hans-Ueli Jakob, Präsident der Schweizerischen In­-teressengemeinschaft Elektrosmog­be­troffener (Gigaherz). „Ich bin erstaunt über den Mut der Walliser Kantonsregierung und zolle den Herren meinen grössten Respekt.“ Für Hans-Ueli Jakob ist dieses Urteil die einzig vernünftige Entscheidung. „Man kann doch nicht irgend eine Technologie verbreiten, ohne die ge-sundheitlichen Folgen zu kennen“, ärgert sich Jakob, dessen Verein mittlerweile 500 Ortsgruppen angeschlossen sind. Nach Jakob dürfte der Entscheid des Walliser Staatsrats ein wegweisendes Urteil bilden, welches Präjudizcharakter für die ganze Schweiz haben dürfte.

Unverständnis und Kopfschütteln

Demgegenüber hat die Swisscom den Entscheid mit Bedauern zur Kenntnis genommen. „Mir ist kein ähnlicher Fall bekannt, in dem sich eine Kantonsregierung derart explizit gegen einen Ausbau des Mobilfunknetzes geäussert hat“, wundert sich Josef Frey, Pressesprecher der Swisscom. Der Ausbau der bestehenden Mobilfunkanlagen sei unumgänglich, um die Kundenbedürfnisse abzudecken. „Das UMTS-Netz ermöglicht es, einen optimalen Multimediadienst in der mobilen Datenkommunika­tion zu gewährleisten“, erklärt Frey. „Dazu gehören unter anderem ein schneller Internet-Zugang, multimediale Video- und Datenanwendungen und die mobile Bildtelefonie.“ Das Verbot der Walliser Kantonsregierung habe zur Folge, dass sich das Projekt nun zeitlich verzögern werde.

Gerichtsbeschwerde angedroht

Für die Swisscom eine ärgerliche Sache. „Aus der Sicht des Betreibers kann dieser negative Entscheid nicht nachvollzogen werden“, so Frey. Für den Swisscom-Pressesprecher umso unverständlicher, als dass sich die Mobilfunkbetreiber strikte an die kantonalen und eidgenössischen Gesetzgebungen halten würden. „Unser Massstab sind nicht emotionale Überlegungen. Wir arbeiten nach dem Vorsorgeprinzip und achten streng darauf, die gesetzlichen Vorgaben und Richtlinien einzuhalten.“ Nach Rücksprache mit ihren Rechtsexperten habe sich die Swisscom jetzt dazu entschlossen, eine Verwaltungsgerichtsbeschwerde an den Kanton Wallis einzureichen. Sollte diese Beschwerde abgewiesen werden, dürfte wohl der Gang ans Bundesgericht anstehen.

Ihre Meinung interessiert uns!
mailto:seeholzer@rz-online.ch,%20escher@rz-online.ch,%20bellwald@rz-online.ch

http://www.rz-online.ch/news2005/Nr45-17nov/01.htm

(excerpt)

http://www.booktv.org/PublicLives/index.asp?segID=6418&schedID=385

I just watched the author of "One Women's Army", Janis Karpinski, on book TV tell how she was made out to be the fall guy in "command" (she never was) of Abu Ghraib interrogation unit. She was the one star general who was demoted to Colonel while "gitmo" Miller, the guilty party, was promoted from two star general to three, as was his superior (from three to four star) the overall Iraq commander Sanchez. Typical Bush logic. Fire Powell and give WMD "slam dunk" Tenant, "fire Iraq army" Bremer, and "protect the oil ministry only" Franks "Medals of Freedom". Just like demoting Richard Clarke and obstructing all pre 9-11 inquiries was used to get their Pearl Harbor. FBI's Franca was promoted for that.

Excerpt from Mark Danner article:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/02_torture2.shtml

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the overall commander in Iraq, who on October 12 (about the time Red Cross investigators were making their two unannounced inspections) signed a classified memorandum calling for interrogators at Abu Ghraib to work with military police guards to "manipulate an internee's emotions and weaknesses" and to assume control over the "lighting, heating ... food, clothing, and shelter" of those they were questioning. (Including dogs, according to Karpinski on C-SPAN.)

I'm glad retired "Colonel" Karpinski is getting a book out of this, she deserves a multimillion dollar lawsuit, if only this were the private sector. We've got to get congress back so Karpinski can testify at the beginning of the torturegate impeachment of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

Aren't the Geneva Conventions a Senate approved constitutional Article I section 6 "highest law of the land"? If so, our top officials have violated their constitutional oaths.

Bob Reuschlein


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545

From ufpj-news

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=303

Rectification: the date of this press article is NOVEMBER 11, 2005, not October 11, 2005.

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/11/11/Corrupt_Leadership_Class:_The_Political_Establishment.htm


Informant: Milo

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3629/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3630/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Some weeks ago in the USA and in the Caribbean we experienced hurricane Katrina, then Rita, then Wilma and lastly Alpha and Beta. Shortly before that, we had damages in billions of dollars caused by Typhoons in Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. And before that we had floodings in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The causes of the increasing amounts of natural disasters is mainly the greenhouse-effect. And the cause of the greenhouse-effect is our energy-policy...

http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=60&article:oid=a3983&template=article_detail.html

10.11.2005

Über 1000 Physikerinnen und Physiker, vornehmlich aus dem Wissenschaftsbetrieb der USA, haben bisher Bushs neue atomare Erstschlag-Doktrin verurteilt. Bush drohe, den Atomwaffensperrvertrag auszuhebeln und damit die Menschheit in eine atomare Katastrophe zu treiben...

http://www.sonnenseite.com/index.php?pageID=6&news:oid=n4008&template=news_detail.html

http://fornits.com/renegade/peaars.cgi?fetch=8599&found=8599:8598:8596:8597:8595:8593:8594:8592:8591:8590&table=Renegade


Informant: STRIDER

For those Americans who think George W. Bush has been wrong all along about Iraq, it is entirely appropriate - and entirely possible - to support the troops and oppose the president.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205Z.shtml

Scott Galindez argues the only way the Bush Administration can appropriately honor US Troops is to admit false intelligence and bring the troops home.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205X.shtml

Former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson recounts his experience with simulated 'duress interrogation' and explains his resolutions on why torture is ineffective.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205E.shtml

The US Senate has urged the country's intelligence chief to give it a report on allegations that the CIA ran secret overseas jails for terrorism suspects.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205A.shtml

Once again, the Times is being duped and is duping its readers.
http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/002053.php


From Information Clearing House

The trial of I Lewis “Scooter” Libby will also be the trial of Dick Cheney.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-institutions_government/libby_cheney_3018.jsp


From Information Clearing House

The Monitoring Network for Human Rights (MHRI), which consists of more than 20 Iraqi organizations for Human Rights, made this report about the crimes and continuous violations of human rights in Iraq.

http://www.brusselstribunal.org/survey111105.htm


From Information Clearing House

New evidence that bombs are being planted by British Commandos.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10343.htm

Nearly 2,000 US troops have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and tens of thousands wounded. But many have found themselves dealing with psychological - as well as physical - trauma. In the second of a five-part series, BBC News talks to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related symptoms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4122602.stm



Retired General Urges Better Vets Benefits:

Speaking on the Veterans Day weekend, the former U.S. military commander in the Middle East said "President Bush has consistently refused to provide enough" money for veterans' health care.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/12/national/w080625S57.DTL


From Information Clearing House

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan told University of Massachusetts students in a Veteran's Day speech Friday that government officials who don't have family serving in the Iraq war "have nothing at stake."

http://tinyurl.com/8dg8c



Hero’s survivors rue war: Mom says son ill-equipped:

“When we buried John I promised him I would think of him every day,” said Hart yesterday, her voice breaking. “And I have.”

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=111620



Video: "I am waiting for his body":

Military families speak out!
http://207.44.245.159/article7382.htm


From Information Clearing House



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

By ERIC SCHMITT

Democrats who had voted previously to prohibit abusive treatment of detainees in American custody provided the margin of victory on Thursday for a Republican-backed measure that would deny prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the right to challenge their detention in federal courts.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10967.htm

From Dr. Magda Havas:

Hello Everyone,

This just came out in the Toronto Star (November 11 2005). It is an excellent article on electrosensitivity written by Tyler Hamilton who, with his co-author, wrote a series of articles on cell phones that appeared in the Toronto Star this past summer.

-magda


Toronto Star, Friday November 11, 2005
Distress signals
by Tyler Hamilton
Nov. 11, 2005. 01:00 AM

It started with nausea and vomiting in the morning, followed by insomnia and the annoying sound of clicking in her ears.

Marika Bandera, sitting in her east-end Toronto apartment, begins to cry as she recalls how her symptoms gradually got worse over the course of a year. They included everything from shaking hands and blurred vision to burning skin and mild convulsions. Sessions at a sleep clinic, brain scans, an epilepsy test and numerous visits to her family doctor and various specialists in Toronto failed to determine the cause.

“They would not listen, they are not hearing their patients,” she says.

It wasn’t until a trip to Europe that a doctor there suggested her symptoms may be related to extreme electrical sensitivity, or ES, a suspected allergic-like reaction to radio and electrical frequencies associated with cellphones, wireless base stations, computer screens, power lines and common household appliances that use electricity.

Little is known about the phenomenon of ES or how many people think they have it, but the government of the United Kingdom took a small step last week toward recognizing the controversial condition after its health protection agency released a report calling for more research into sufferers’ stories.

“The starting point for this review is recognition … of the need to consider ES in terms other than its etiology (causes), as this position alone is failing to meet the needs of those who consider themselves affected by ES,” the report stated.

The report emphasized there’s no scientifically proven link between symptoms and exposure to electrical and magnetic fields. It’s the main reason health agencies in countries such as Canada don’t recognize ES.

This hasn’t stopped Sweden, with an estimated 250,000 suffers, from accepting ES as a physical impairment. Dr. Olle Johansson, associate professor of experimental dermatology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, says residents of some municipalities can get their home “sanitized” from electromagnetic frequencies.

Ordinary electricity cables in the home are often replaced with special cables and electric stoves can be changed to natural gas. If the problem persists, roofs and floors can be covered with special wallpaper and paint that can block outside frequencies. Windows can also be fitted with tinfoil.

“If these alterations turn out not to be optimal, they have the possibility to rent small cottages in the countryside that the Stockholm municipality owns,” says Johansson, who investigates cases of ES. “The municipality also intends to build a village with houses that are specially designed for persons who are electrohypersensitive.”

In the workplace, Swedish employees can request special computer monitors and lighting fixtures that dramatically cut down frequency emissions.

The issue of electrical sensitivity first gained a profile in 2002 when Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, then director-general of the World Health Organization, confirmed in a media report that she banned cellphones from her office because they gave her headaches.

Brundtland, a medical doctor and former prime minister of Norway, told the Star during a visit to Toronto late last month that the condition needs to be taken more seriously by health authorities, and that little is known because research to date has focused largely on the potential links between electromagnetic frequencies and more severe illnesses, particularly cancers.

“I get headaches and feel terrible when I am in contact with mobile phones, even if I’m not using it but it’s 1 or 2 metres away. I can identify it by feeling a mobile phone in a room without knowing it’s there,” says Brundtland, adding that it may not be life-threatening but can affect quality of life.

The U.K. health agency was quick to point out that the conclusions of its review were drawn largely from the study of electromagnetic fields from power lines and electrical appliances, as the widespread use of mobile phones is relatively new. “Similar symptoms have been reported from exposure to radio frequency transmissions and there is some research being carried out in the U.K. on this topic,” according to the agency.

Acknowledging that the prevalence of ES — also known as electrohypersensitivity — has not been measured in the United Kingdom, it estimates as many as a few people per thousand among the population could be affected.

Dr. Magda Havas, a professor of the environmental and resource studies program at Trent University in Peterborough, is one of the few trying to track the condition in Canada.

Havas estimates as much as 35 per cent of the population may be suffering from moderate ES, with the severe form Bandera experiences affecting 2 per cent. She speculates that ES may have an association with diseases such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

“MS and diabetes are both on the increase and I wonder how much of this is due to dirty electricity and our inundation with radio frequency radiation,” says Havas, who has experimented with filters that help block what she calls “electropollution.”

“I have videos of MS patients who walked with a cane and can now walk unassisted after a few days or weeks with the filters.”

In a church basement in St. Catharines last month, dozens of people gathered to hear Havas talk about ES. It was part of an event organized by the SWEEP Initiative, which stands for “safe wireless electrical and electromagnetic policies.”

The group, led by Brock University professor David Fancy, was created in the summer as part of a grassroots effort to raise awareness and begin documenting cases of ES in Canada. The hope is that health authorities and politicians will recognize it as a problem.

“There is a lot of front-line work happening, as people reach out to those with a variety of symptoms who are having to move out of suburbia and live in the woods,” says Fancy, who wears special protective clothing to help block signals.

He compares the condition to an allergy that affects certain people in different ways. Other SWEEP members, such as retired police officer Martin Weatherall, former head of legal services at the Toronto Police Association, prefer to think of it like a poison that accumulates in the body.

Havas says one of her missions is to engage medical professionals in Canada to help them understand ES. Many of those at the St. Catharines event were doctors, she says.

One physician, working at a high-profile Toronto hospital, told the Star she’s seeing an increasing number of patients exhibiting unexplainable, often disabling, ES-like symptoms and feels compelled to learn more. But she’s afraid to speak openly about it because of skepticism in the medical community, which tends to treat such patients like they’re crazy.

“They think it’s a bunch of hooey,” she says, asking that her name be withheld. “But we don’t understand everything. We don’t know everything. So we have to take these people seriously.”

Bandera, suspecting that nearby hydro lines and a neighbour’s home wireless network may have contributed to her symptoms, moved a few weeks ago to a different apartment, only to find a wireless phone tower nearby. Her symptoms persist, but so does denial from the medical community.

“I’m still searching to get well from this,” she says, sounding tired and defeated. “People need to be aware that this condition exists.”

Tyler Hamilton is the Star’s technology reporter.


Dr. Magda Havas
Environmental and Resource Studies Program,
Trent University Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, CANADA
email: mhavas@trentu.ca
phone: 705-748-1011 x1232
fax: 705-748-1569

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=294

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=754

--------

Where have all the sparrows gone?

Milt Bowling, who forwarded on the below article, pointed out in his comments that accompanied his message that the reduction in native bird populations coincides time wise with the increase in wireless technology. There certainly is a wealth of information to support a connection but the researchers in the following article seem totally oblivious to the possibility that the decline may be at least partly due to the increase in environmental microwave levels. Why such a research blind spot when it comes to telecommunications? AND who would dare fund an investigation?

Don Maisch


Canadian Media Guild NEWS : HEALTH+SCI-TEC

Where have all the sparrows gone?
By Mary Wiens,
CBCUnlocked Updated: Sep 27, 2005, 16:32

As the old hymn has it, God has his eye on every little sparrow. However, even He may be having a hard time finding the once ubiquitous little birds because the North American population is declining. The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) shows that the number of house sparrows, once the most abundant bird species on the continent, has fallen by 62 per cent since 1966. In Canada, where the data is collected somewhat differently, the BBS estimate of their decline is even more dramatic — a drop of 75 per cent since 1966. No one really knows why there are fewer house sparrows, in part because they’re a low priority for most researchers. Becky Whitham is a project manager with Project Feeder Watch, part of Bird Studies Canada, a non-profit conservation group.

“The question of whether to care is an interesting one,” says Whitham. She sums up the attitude of many researchers towards house sparrows: “The most interesting thing is that they’re an introduced species. They’re declining. So what?”

Birds were once annoyingly abundant

Ever since house sparrows were brought from Europe to New York City in 1860, they’ve been met with a combination of hostility and exasperation. Sparrows quickly drove out native species such as swallows, wrens and bluebirds from their nesting holes. Legend has it that in the late 1800s, house sparrows were so abundant that committee meetings in New York could no longer be conducted with open windows because the jabber of sparrows drowned out the voices inside.

Tony Erskine, research scientist emeritus with the Canadian Wildlife Service, a branch of Environment Canada, says house sparrows are “untidy, noisy and quarrel a lot – rather like people.”

Speaking from his office in Sackville, N.B., Erskine says, local residents often go a month without seeing a house sparrow. “That was unthinkable 50 years ago.”

Erskine uses data from the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Counts to monitor the decline in house sparrow numbers in the Maritimes. The longest-running bird count in the world, the Christmas Bird Counts started in 1900 and are done all over North America, including 500 in Canada. Each count covers a diameter of 24 kilometres.

Erskine says the sparrow count for Sackville peaked at 1,000 in 1979. He first detected their decline in the 1980s. By 2001, the Christmas Bird Counts found only nine house sparrows in Sackville.

Host of factors blamed for decline

Why? Erskine says the only thing he can be sure of is that it’s due to a host of factors. Global warming, fewer nesting places, changes in snow cover, industrial farming practices – all may be contributing. This isn’t the first time house sparrow populations have collapsed. Erskine says the 1920s saw another dramatic decrease, when horses were replaced by cars in cities across North America. Horse droppings carried a lot of undigested grain, a major source of food for house sparrows.

Erskine speculates that with farms being run more like factories, the big farms have so much manure they’re attracting larger species such as crows and gulls, which in turn drive away the tiny house sparrows. Like many other researchers, Erskine isn’t particularly concerned about the decline of the house sparrow. “They’re too common and too vulgar,” says Erskine. For his part, he’s more concerned about the decline of many native species such as whip-poor-wills, chimney swifts, swallows and night hawks, particularly over the past 15 years.

‘Something’s wrong out there’

But Jon McCracken, a project manager with Bird Studies Canada based in Port Rowan on Lake Erie, says the declining house sparrow populations can’t be treated as a separate phenomenon. “If it were happening to people, we’d be pressing the panic button. But house sparrows are so abundant, we still see them.”

McCracken says the decline in house sparrow populations is happening all over the world, including Europe, where the sound of house sparrows around eaves and rooftops has been familiar for millennia. In North America, says McCracken, their decline receives no attention because house sparrows are an introduced species. “It’s unfortunate,” says McCracken. “These are significant declines. It points to the fact that something’s wrong out there.”

“The question,” says McCracken, “is why.” A question for which at this point, scientists have no conclusive answers.

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=286
http://www.cbcunlocked.com/artman/publish/printer_482.shtml

--------

Suspected EMR effects on birdlife

From Betty Venables:

Hi Don,

Further to your list message of last Sunday ‘Where have all the sparrows gone?’ There are reports from our website of observations of suspected rfr effects on birdlife.

Betty Venables - EMR safety Network Int’l

EMR AFFECTS ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

With regard to electrical sensitivity, it appears that as well as many highly sensitive humans, domestic pets, other animals and birds sharing our EMR polluted environment have a story to tell. The report of Professor Dr. P. Semm and R Beason, avian brain study. ‘Response of neurons to amplitude modulated microwave RF. ‘contains interesting comments “ Although individual neurons in the zebra finch brain responded to the pulsed RF stimulus, we do not know whether these responses by the nervous system are manifested in the bird’s behavior or its health. ”

Omega see under:
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/responses_of_neurons_to_amplitude_modulated_microwave_rf.htm

And “Whether similar neuronal responses occur in mammals, including humans, requires further investigation. Borbély and coworkers [3] reported that exposure to a RF signal similar to the one we used influenced sleep and sleep electroencephalogram in humans. Their results and the responses we recorded clearly indicate the potential for effects on the human nervous system.” > [3] Borbély, A. A., Huber, R., Graf, T., Fuchs, B., Gallmann, E., and Achermann, P., Pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic field affects human sleep and sleep electroencephalogram, Neurosci. Lett., 275 (1999) 207-210.

Omega see under:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10580711&dopt=Citation

This immediately calls to mind a case here in Sydney, NSW, Australia, where a large number of caged exotic birds developed uncharacteristic destructive behaviour, which veterinary science could not explain. Most birds refused to breed, the few that did ejected the young from the nest, prematurely. Of two that survived only one was relatively normal, the other had no feathers. Some breeds became aggressive, attacking mates. Canaries were disinclined to sing and their song was limited in range. Most birds molted excessively – recognized as a sure sign of stress.

Our attention was drawn to this case due to the particular location, a suburban residence, 200 metres distance from a large 50Hertz electricity substation, where an analogue mobile phone transmitting antenna had operated from the same site for some time. The birds had obviously tolerated this EMR environment with impunity until about three months after the upgrading of the mobile phone transmitter from analogue to the digital signal, when a dramatic change occurred in their health and behaviour . At the same address two pet dogs refused to sleep in their usual location, and a neighbour’s homing pigeon flock became too disoriented to perform normally.

In another Sydney suburb, soon after a digital mobile phone base station (MBS) was installed on a high rise apartment building where a flock of black crows normally roosted, local residents noticed that the birds became unusually restless and noisy, suddenly vacating the area. Health abnormalities aalso were increasingly noted among local residents who were concerned that the MBS emissions were implicated.

These are not the only cases where uncharacteristic bird behaviour has been reasonably linked with RFR. Two reports of canary and budgerigar breeders linking foot deformaties and ‘curly’ feathers occurring, only after the installation of digital mobile base station antenna nearby, should be noted.

The birds, by their bizarre behaviour appear to have communicated eloquently that a recent environmental change posed a major health hazard to their kind.

In our view Professor Semm’s avian brain study is indeed pertinent to the first case related here.

A study of birds, set up to emulate the real life environment of the caged birds we encountered, might well give meaningful results as to the behaviour and health outcome of birds and other living organisms, including humans, in our environment.

Such research on functioning biological systems other than human should be followed by health studies of the human populations at risk, in the same RFR zones, adding to the valuable studies of Dr Bruce Hocking (Australia) and Professor Santini (France), two such studies that should be used to influence authorities to establish further serious investigation of the health status of people in these high risk environments.

Wild birds can choose their habitat, avoiding risk to their survival, caged birds cannot, nor can the unborn and the very young human child. It is our responsibility to provide a safe environment for those dependant on our care.

BIRDS IN NEW ZEALAND DAMAGED

At a bird sanctuary approximately 40 kilometres from Christchurch birds were found to be dying in certain areas of the property Penny Hargreaves (Ouruhia, NZ ) visited the property and was surprised to find strong radiofrequency radiation (RFR) near a wire fence where the birds were found dead and a hedge was dying. Though the property is quite extensive it was only three places the birds were dying. The location was a small lake area surrounded by trees with wire netting on the planks surrounding the water. Dieback was evident on the tops of many of the trees n a clump near the lake/pond.

Penny’s experiences show that where there is metal i.e., tin sheds, fences etc. there are more problems with animals illnesses and deaths and also with human health.

Please see the website:
http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/ouruhia/

THE VALLEY OF OURUHIA NEW ZEALAND.

I, and others have been exposed to emissions from a radio tower which had permission to transmit low levels of AM and in 1990 without permission illegally began transmitting FM. Many people and animals in the area became ill, some died. My family, staff, and animals have all suffered dreadful health problems. I am a public horse trainer and the effects on my horses was catastrophic. Penny Hargreaves For the full story please see the website:

http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/ouruhia/

Source: http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=312

--------

Regarding the story: Where Have All the Sparrows Gone?

The biophysical effect of microwave radiation on sparrows and other birds is actually quite straightforward: when they they fly through the intense pancake-shaped wavefront emanating horizontally from a cellphone tower, they will be permanently sterilized. They are not killed outright; there are no telltale dead birds to count. They simply will not be able to reproduce for the rest of their lifetimes. This used to happen to servicemen assigned to U.S. radar installations before the problem was understood and restrictions were placed on access to the radar dishes.

Birds just do not know the rules. (Perhaps we can teach them? Perhaps with strobe lights to chase them away?) The probability that a bird will fly into or through this wavefront is quite random, with the chances increased dramatically where there is a concentration of towers. There has been a dramatic decline of all bird populations, with no adequate explanation provided previously, and it mirrors the increase in cellphone towers, .

I had the personal experience of watching a bird build a nest (in the carport of my suburban home) but had no offspring. I obviously cannot know whether this particular bird was sterile, but it is the first time that I have ever seen a nesting failure. I believe this is probably becoming a more common sight.


Jonathan Campbell
Health Consultant
http://www.cqs.com

--------

New paper on sparrows and electromagnetic radiation

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a779955571~db=all~order=page

We hope we are not teaching 'grandmothers to suck eggs', but so many even educated people are so often unaware the really distinctive feature of microwaves is their part of the electromagnetic, EM, spectrum was formerly totally silent. Throughout our millions of years of evolution. The merest whisper of activity in a truly peaceful zone where all was calm and sensory possibilities wide open.

Now it is howling at billions of times those levels with the busy passage of various pulsing invisible screeching signals, the simple 50 quid electrosmog detector will show you. Throughout nature the previously silent ambience meant all the creatures tuned into it with various receptors went calmly about their business, minding it in their own way. Not now.

Scientific evidence is accumulating from all over, despite the very few actually looking, no funding as usual, plus almost universal dismissal, often contemptuously.

Please examine this new threat which extends, evidence now shows, from man's health all the way to garlic shoots and nematode worms, via birds and amphibians, and probably further.

Examine without the offhand dismissal we feel we received at the Peterborough meeting of English Nature a while back now.

Best intro is probably 'The Boiled Frog Syndrome - Your Health and the Built Environment' by Thomas Saunders ISBN 0-470-84553-8 pub: Wiley-Academy 2002 [ http://tinyurl.com/2nfqrd ]

Dr Robert Becker [ http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Dr+Robert+Becker ] (twice nominated for the Nobel) is fascinating in 'Cross Currents' [ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2375974/ ] ISBN 0-87477-609-0 if you want to get up to speed.

Rod

ElectroSensitivity-UK
(registered charity 1103018)
Rod Read M.Phil.,(Cantab), Dip Psych Couns., Cert.Ed.director. helping the vulnerable minority reacting to electromagnetic fields, microwaves, RF etc. all 'electrosmog'.

ES-UK Office, Bury Lane, Sutton, Ely, Cambs, CB6 2BB.
Tel: 01353-778151 or at http://www.electrosensitivity.org.uk

--------

Pulsed microwave radiation and wildlife - Are Cell Phones Wiping Out Sparrows?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/926007/

Where have our friends the birds gone?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3025317/

Birds Harmed by Radio-Frequency Radiation
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3207068/

Mobile Phones and Vanishing Birds
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3778251/



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=sparrows
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=birds
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=microwave+radiation
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=electromagnetic+radiation
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Balmori
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Hallberg

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) yesterday threatened to subpoena three members of the Bush Cabinet and White House counsel Harriet Miers if they do not comply with document requests issued by his select committee on Hurricane Katrina response.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205Y.shtml

Im nachfolgenden Text und erhalten Sie die gemeinsame Pressemitteilung der Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Erwerbslosen- und Sozialhifeinitiativen und des Erwerbslosenvereins Tacheles e.V. zu den Koalitionsvereinbarungen zu Hartz IV.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Frank Jäger


+++ Pressemitteilung vom 11.11.2005 +++

Warnung vor neuer Kürzungsrunde beim Arbeitslosengeld II

Der schwarz-rote Koalitionsvertrag ist noch nicht unter Dach und Fach, da melden sich bereits Zweifel an der Glaubwürdigkeit des Papiers. Die Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Erwerbslosen- und Sozialhilfeinitiativen (BAG-SHI) und der Wuppertaler Erwerbslosenverein Tacheles e.V. warnen vor erneuten Sparvorhaben bei Langzeitarbeitslosen, die an der sozialen Wirklichkeit in Deutschland vorbeigehen. Die Betroffenenorganisationen empfehlen eine kritische Prüfung der vereinbarten Maßnahmen zum Arbeitslosengeld II (Alg II), von denen inzwischen 6,7 Millionen Menschen in 3,7 Millionen Bedarfsgemeinschaften unmittelbar betroffen sind.

Von der in der Koalitionsrunde beschlossenen Einführung des sogenannten Rückgriffsrechts, dem Elternunterhalt bei Erwerbslosen unter 25 Jahren, sind kaum Wunder zu erwarten. Denn Unterhalt für ihre erwachsenen unter-25-jährigen Kinder müssen Eltern bereits nach geltendem Recht leisten, wenn die erwerbslosen Kinder noch keine Berufsausbildung absolviert haben und die Eltern wirtschaftlich dazu in der Lage sind. Die Erweiterung dieser Regelung trifft also nur eine relativ kleine Gruppe junger Erwachsener, die trotz abgeschlossener Berufsausbildung oder entsprechender Berufserfahrung auf Alg-II-Leistungen angewiesen sind. Ein Einsparvolumen von 800 Mio. Euro ist hier nicht zu erwarten. Darüber hinaus werfen solche Pläne ein Licht auf die Glaubwürdigkeit der familienpolitischen Sonntagsreden: Wenn es um die Kosten der Erwerbslosigkeit geht, ist Familie kein Thema mehr.

Andere Sündenböcke, die in der vom scheidenden Minister Clement initiierten „Missbrauchskampagne“ ausgemacht wurden, waren erwerbslose junge Erwachsene, die jetzt in Scharen auf Kosten der Steuerzahler eigene Wohnungen beziehen würden. Dabei gibt es keine Belege für diese Aussage, und auch hier greift bereits nach aktueller Rechtslage der Unterhaltsrückgriff auf die Eltern. Dennoch hat die Koalition nun beschlossen, dass bei diesen jungen Erwerbslosen Wohnkosten künftig nur dann übernommen werden, wenn ein Weiterwohnen im elterlichen Haushalt eine „besondere Härte“ bedeuten würde. „Die Behörde prüft, ob ein Erwachsener bei seinen Eltern ausziehen darf. Es ist absurd,“ findet Frank Jäger, Geschäftsführer der BAG-SHI, „geht es um berufliche Mobilität, können 18-Jährige Erwerbslose unter Androhung von Sanktionen im ganzen Land eine Beschäftigung zugewiesen bekommen, geht es ums Wohnen, sollen sie an den elterlichen Herd gekettet werden. Ob die Eltern solche Zwangsgemeinschaften mit ihren erwachsenen Kindern wollen und was solche Zwanghaftigkeit für familiäre Beziehungen bedeutet, spielt beim Einsparwahn keine Rolle“. Eine weitere koalitionäre Vereinbarung trifft Erwerbslose, die mit einem Partner oder einer Partnerin unverheiratet unter einem Dach wohnen. Ihnen soll in Zukunft, wenn sie Alg II beantragen, die Beweislast auferlegt werden, dass gar keine Beziehung besteht. Doch genau das müssen nicht verheiratete Partner gar nicht erst beweisen. „Eine Beziehung von Mann und Frau – auch eine sexuelle – ist nach Ansicht des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes noch kein Beleg für eine ‚Einstandsgemeinschaft’ mit gegenseitiger Unterhaltsverpflichtung. Das Sozialgesetzbuch konstruiert mit der eheähnlichen Gemeinschaft eine Unterhaltspflicht, die auf zivilrechtlichem Weg nicht einzuklagen ist und gegen die Verfassung verstößt,“ erläutert Harald Thomé von Tacheles e.V. Das sollten die Koalitionspartner bedenken, bevor sie nun zur verschärften Hatz auf unverheiratete Paare blasen. In der Hysterie der vergangenen Wochen sei dieser Gruppe völlig zu Unrecht die Schuld für die Löcher in Clements Etat zugewiesen worden.

Wenn jetzt nach dem Willen der Großen Koalition vier Milliarden Euro im Bereich von Hartz IV eingespart werden sollten, wie Roland Pofalla (CDU) bereits verkündete, ist das mit den oben genannten Maßnahmen nicht zu machen. Selbst wenn die offizielle Arbeitslosenstatistik durch die Ausweitung von Arbeitsgelegenheiten geschönt wird, bleiben die Ausgaben. Denn auch Ein-Euro-Jobber/-innen beziehen weiter Alg II. „Es läuft alles darauf hinaus, dass der Zugang zu Leistungen weiter erschwert und rechtlich bedenkliche Kontrollinstrumente weiter ausgeweitet werden, wie beispielweise durch ein an der Rasterfahndung angelehnten umfassenden Datenabgleich,“ meint Frank Jäger und Harald Thomé ergänzt: „Auch eine Reduzierung des Schonvermögens ist das falsche Mittel, um Alg-II-Ansprüche abzuwehren. Erwerbslose geraten so noch schneller in die Armutsspirale nach unten.“ Der Druck auf Erwerbslose werde auch unter Schwarz-Rot weiter zunehmen. Die jetzt bekannt gewordenen Sparvorgaben sind für die beiden Sprecher von Erwerbsloseninitiativen ein Warnsignal.

Für Rückfragen Frank Jäger
(0160 - 4 25 89 10)


Veröffentlichungen zur sogenannten „Missbrauchskampagne“:

# Erwerbslose widersprechen Erwerbsloseninitiativen nehmen Stellung zum Ministeriumsreport – Pressemitteilung der BAG-SHI vom 03.11.2005

http://www.bag-shi.de/presse/archiv/bmwa-report


# Zu den Angriffen des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Arbeit auf den Leitfaden Alg II / Sozialhilfe von A-Z Stellungnahme der Autoren Rainer Roth und Harald Thomé

http://www.tacheles-sozialhilfe.de/aktuelles/2005/Stellungnahme_zum_Bund.html


BAG-SHI Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Erwerbslosen- und Sozialhilfeinitiativen e.V. Geschäftsstelle Moselstraße 25 --- 60329 Frankfurt am Main Fon: 069-27 22 08 98 - Fax: 069-27 22 08 97 email: info@bag-shi.de - Internet: http://www.bag-shi.de

Infoabend über Mobilfunk

VON DANIELA OLDACH

Finsing - "Unsere Kinder und Enkel werden noch viel mehr leiden als wir." Ganz klar stelle Mobilfunk ein Gesundheitsrisiko dar, betonte Dr. Claus Scheingraber beim Informationsvortrag zur Gefahr der Handystrahlung, zu dem die Bürgerinitiative Mobilfunk Finsing ins Gasthaus Garmeier eingeladen hatte.

Grund des Anstoßes ist die geplante Aufstellung eines Mobilfunkmasten auf dem Finsinger Bürgerhaus und der Widerstand in der Bevölkerung dagegen (wir berichteten). "Ich wehre mich nicht generell gegen Handys und verstehe vollkommen, dass sie manchmal wichtig sind, um erreichbar zu sein. Auch ich habe eins", stellte Scheingraber klar. "Ich wehre mich aber gegen ein unkontrolliertes Aufstellen von Masten. Wir Bürger sind die Architekten der Handymasten", so der Fachmann, ein Zahnarzt, der sich seit knapp zwei Jahrzehnten mit der Auswirkung von kurzwelliger Strahlung beschäftigt.

Omega dazu: "Ja zum Handy – Nein zum Masten ??"

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

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

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

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

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

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

„Auslagerung von Mobilfunksendern aus reinen Wohngebieten: kann uns das wirklich vor den Gefahren der Mobilfunkstrahlung schützen?“ unter: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145526/

"Wer zu Hause ein Schnurlostelefon fürs Festnetz hat, darf gar nicht über einen Mast schimpfen, denn die Strahlung dieser Geräte ist viel stärker", betonte er. Die Menschheit sei nicht nur der Strahlung durch Mobilfunktelefone ausgesetzt, sondern auch in Bereichen, "über die man gar nicht mehr nachdenkt, wie eben Schnurlostelefone oder Mikrowelle".

Im Auto die stärkste Strahlung

Mit einem sinnvollen Umgang mit den Strahlen absondernden Geräten im Alltag könne man schon viel bewirken. "Am Schlimmsten ist das Telefonieren im Auto und ohne Freisprecheinrichtung. Jeder gute Mittelklassewagen bietet im Inneren einen Fahraday`schen Käfig. Da hat die Strahlung gar keine Chance, rauszukommen." Hinlänglich bekannt seien das Auftreten von Übelkeit, Schwindel, Kopfweh oder Schlafstörungen. "Degenerative Veränderungen wie zum Beispiel Hirnschäden brauchen aber eine gewisse Zeit", machte Scheingraber aufmerksam.

Vehement wies Bürgermeister Heinrich Krzizok den Vorwurf seitens der Initiative der "heimlichen Mauschelei" zurück, um Profit zu erzielen. "Wir machen das nicht wegen des Geldes, sondern streben eine vernünftige Lösung an. Mehrmals ist das Thema schon in öffentlichen Gemeinderatssitzungen angesprochen worden. Wenn man aber kein Amtsblatt und keine Zeitung liest, kann ich euch auch nicht helfen", sagte der Gemeindechef.

mm

12.11.2005

http://www.marktplatz-oberbayern.de/regionen/erding/art1584,329588.html?fCMS=3f3f2751090b4cdf5976dd233cb294e1

Lettres ouvertes de Robin des Toits: - aux Conseillers du Conseil de Paris, - à Monsieur B. DELANOE, Maire de Paris. Lettre ouverte de Next-up à Mr JM DANJOU, Délégué Général de l'AFOM.

http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=dernieresinfos&date_news=2005-11-12

q/depesche 2005-11-12T16:39:31

AT: Absatzmarktsuche in der Sicherheitspolitik

Kaum entschließt sich der Österreichische Datenschutzrat starke Worte gegen die ausufernde Videoüberwachung zu finden, da wird zufällig genau am Tag darauf eine Umfrage fertig, wonach sich 57% der Wiener durch Videoüberwachung sicherer fühlen und eine Ausdehnung fordern. Durchgeführt wurde Sie vom Marktforschungsinstitut MARKANT, die sonst Bekanntheitswerte von Baumärkten testen, Blumen am Mutertag eine florierende Zeit vorhersagen oder im Auftrag der Apothekerkammer den Österreichern/innen nahe legen, mehr Medikamente für die Hausapotheke zu kaufen.

Post/scrypt: Kann man die Wirksamkeit nicht nachweisen, weist man eben die Leichtgläubigkeit nach.

Im Datenschutzgesetz soll künftig genau geregelt sein, wer wann was überwachen darf und wann das Gefilmte herausgegeben werden muss. Unterdessen steht das Sicherheitspolizeigesetz weiter unter Beschuss

(..) Notwendig dafür wäre eine Novelle des Datenschutzgesetzes, das der Rat innerhalb eines Jahres beschlossen sehen will. Das teilten der Vorsitzende des Datenschutzrates, Harald Wögerbauer [ÖVP], und sein Stellvertreter Johann Maier [SPÖ] mit. Wer darf wann wo überwachen? Maier: "Es geht vor allem darum, wann videoüberwacht werden darf, wann ein Rechtsanspruch für Dritte zur Herausgabe des Materials besteht. "Geregelt werden müsse auch, unter welchen Voraussetzungen Private den öffentlichen Raum überwachen dürfen, wobei es in jedem Fall zu einer Interessenabwägung kommen müsse.

"Schwammiges Datenschutzgesetz" Wögerbauer wies darauf hin, dass dieser Beschluss nicht bedeute, dass Videoüberwachung durch die Polizei nicht erlaubt oder rechtswidrig sei. Sie sei derzeit genehmigt auf Grund der "schwammigen Bestimmungen im Datenschutzgesetz".

"Grundrechtswidriger Freibrief" So könne mit den neuen Befugnissen unter dem Titel der "erweiterten Gefahrenerforschung" privates Videomaterial missbraucht werden, um etwa das Einkaufs-, Kommunikations- oder Freizeitverhalten von Jugendlichen, Arbeitslosen oder ethnischen Minderheiten zu studieren, erklärte die ARGE.

"Der Zugriff auf privates Daten- und Videomaterial würde auch die Beschränkungen der Strafprozessordnung StPO, nach denen Lauschangriffe geführt werden dürfen, völlig aushebeln."

(...)

"Aus unserer Sicht hat die Bevölkerung ein Grundrecht auf Sicherheit, dafür muss alles getan werden", sagte Johannes Rauch, Sprecher von Innenministerin Liese Prokop [ÖVP]. "Es geht bei diesem Entwurf nur um eine schwere Gefährdung der öffentlichen Sicherheit, also um Terrorprävention."

(...)

http://futurezone.orf.at/futurezone.orf?read=detail&id=277046 http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2235251

Vor allem Frauen und ältere Menschen wünschen eine Ausweitung der Videoüberwachung.

Zustimmung erntet die Videoüberwachung in Wien: 57 Prozent von 1.000 interviewten Wienern gaben in einer Umfrage an, sie fühlten sich durch die Videoüberwachung allgemein sicherer. Das teilte das Marktforschungsinstitut Markant, das die Studie telefonisch im Oktober durchgeführt hat, am Mittwoch mit. Allerdings gab es auch Kritik von Seiten der Befragten: 50 Prozent der Wiener kennen demnach die Standorte nicht, an denen überwacht wird, knapp die Hälfte fühlt sich nicht ausreichend informiert.

(...) Sechs von zehn Wienern wünschen sich laut den Marktforschern, dass die Videoüberwachung ausgeweitet wird - auch hier sind vor allem Frauen und ältere Menschen verstärkt dafür. Drei Viertel gaben an, sich nicht in ihrer Anonymität beeinträchtigt zu fühlen. 17 Prozent sehen jedoch sehr wohl eine Störung ihrer Privatsphäre. Überproportional viele Befragte unter 30 waren dieser Meinung. http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2236149 = http://www.kurier.at/chronik/1171859.php http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3902&Alias=wzo&cob=206572&currentpage=0


relayed by Mac Gyver

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=8007


Informant: Kev Hall

How Climate Change is Destroying the World's Most Spectacular Landscapes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1126559/

Top scientific group warns of growing natural disasters
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1140101/

Wall Street Journal Advice on Global Warming: A Perspective from the Island of Hawai’i
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1123717/

Appalachia's Beheading
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1131850/

Fluoridation is now illegal in UK
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1123783/

Is plastic killing us?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1125315/

Wildlife Refuge Used for Genetically Modified Crops
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1131489/

Zambia Holding Firm to GM Ban Amid Aggressive GM Awareness Campaign
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1138324/

Act NOW for a toxics-free future
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1138137/

Energy crisis 'will be permanent'
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1139324/

Vote USA 2004
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Vote+USA+2004/

Iraq War
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Irak-Krieg/

Is Iran next?
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Is+Iran+next

Tsunami
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Tsunami/

RFID
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/RFID/

EMF-Omega-News 12. November 2005
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1146204/

Effects of 1800 MHz GSM-like exposure on the gonadal function and haematological parameters of male mice
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1126616/

Is male fertility at stake, can we afford to ignore it?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1127282/

Erythrocyte rouleau formation under polarized electromagnetic fields
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1126635/

Histological characteristics of cutaneous and thyroid mast cell populations in male rats exposed to power-frequency electromagnetic fields
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1137186/

HPA-RPD-010: Definition, Epidemiology and Management of Electrical Sensitivity
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1115204/

Radiation Flu?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1132411/

Electrical pollution can influence allergies: the asthma plague
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1139199/

Experts put a health warning on 'electrical allergy' advice (update)
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1118734/

Mobiles and Health
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1117056/

A (Health) Tale of Two Cities
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1142588/

Christine Kind Report; Our „Life“ in the Mainbeam of a Mobile Phone Base Station
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1138959/

Riding the (micro)waves
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1143642/

WHO writes off electrosmog victims
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1142664/

Opponents of MTS tower speak out
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1123683/

PROPOSED NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS BILL 2006
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1125182/

Bird on the Wire
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1125289/

Haringey Council to debate mast issue
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1131504/

Inner city housing near overhead power lines or phone masts will be entitled to a tax cut
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1131554/

Mobile phone mast is making me sick
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1132797/

Any one know of campaign groups in Southern Africa?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1132862/

Campaign for the Protection of Rural England
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1134371/

Company wins appeal for mast
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1137946/

Hated mast is pulled down
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1142548/

Anger over new mobile phone masts for Kenilworth
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1144236/

Holyrood told of mast fears
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1144257/

St Pauls Church in Longridge Lancashire received permission to install 3G dispite 230 objections
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1144914/

Phone mast threat to famous view of Masham
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145622/

RESIDENTS RALLY TO BLOCK MAST
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145626/

PROTEST PLANNED ON MASTS
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145630/

Phone masts get bad reception
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145636/

Council looking at action over masts
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145639/

Campaigners celebrate as mast removed
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145641/

Mobile phone mast is uprooted
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145645/

WLANs in schools
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145992/

Crucial call in phone mast campaign
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1146190/

Electro-Magnetic weapons: Today's Newest Military Development
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1138228/

Trouble anormal de voisinage
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1131525/

Antennes relais de St Papoul (Aude)
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1133520/

Conférence de Presse création CRIIREM
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1139549/

Charte sur la téléphonie Mobile: Charte sur la téléphonie Mobile
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1144215/

News from Mast Sanity
http://tinyurl.com/aotw3

Omega-News Collection 12. November 2005
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1146206/

AN EIGHT-MONTH battle to stop the siting of a mobile phone mast close to homes and schools may soon be over.

Campaigners' hopes were dashed last month after the planning inspectorate upheld an appeal by the mobile phone giant Hutchison 3G to allow the mast to be erected on Hazel Stub roundabout in Haverhill.

In a last-ditch plea the campaign team wrote to the company's chief executive, asking him to consider an alternative location at Homefield Road.

The group received a call from 3G's corporate affairs manager Mike Davies stating the firm would look at the alternative site.

An engineer will survey it this week.

A campaign team spokesperson said:

"We are delighted and grateful for this apparent show of goodwill from 3G which we hope could be a solution for all concerned. If successful, we may at last see a leading global giant who is prepared to listen to the views and concerns of local people".

Public feeling against the location of the mast has been strong with residents, local councillors and MPs protesting.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/newmarket/2005/11/12/cb19943c-4cdd-41d0-bc40-9d0cac76280f.lpf

British Legion survey shows how millions of war veterans are living in poverty.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article326329.ece


From Information Clearing House

I do not presume to speak for others but simply as a mother whose only son is deployed in Iraq. I feel betrayed and misled by you and your Government regarding the justification for the invasion of Iraq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10950.htm



Australia to investigate Iraq kickback allegations:

The report by Paul Volcker, former US Federal Reserve chairman, found that the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), the nation’s wheat export monopoly, in October 2000 paid almost A$300m to Saddam Hussein’s regime.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3c7a9870-51db-11da-9ca0-0000779e2340.html


From Information Clearing House

Syria has until 15 December to comply with the Security Council resolution or face further action.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4426902.stm


From Information Clearing House

Our Mothers (and Thomas Paine) Warned Us about People like the Disciples of Strauss:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10958.htm

Omar Khadr was taken into US custody when he was 15 years old. The US government has said that all detainees are "treated in a manner appropriate to their age and status". If this is true, then the case of Omar Khadr indicates that an "appropriate manner" involves torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as well as denial of any form of justice.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGAMR511842005


From Information Clearing House

U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, has been indefinitely detained without charge, under lock and key in a Navy brig, since June 2002. When an American can be plucked off the street in Chicago and detained without charge or regular access to a lawyer for more than three years, every citizen has reason for concern.

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20051109-100630-9813r.htm


From Information Clearing House

Free expression has become in the US a very scarce commodity… and pluralism is shrinking fast as institutions and people that determine the rules for our American society are no longer held accountable.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10966.htm

Today the President cited another forged document.
http://www2.boomantribune.com/story/2005/11/11/14263/574


From Information Clearing House

President Bush, in the most forceful defense yet of his Iraq war policy, accused critics Friday of trying to rewrite history and charged that they're undercutting America's forces on the front lines.

http://tinyurl.com/7us7y


From Information Clearing House

Bush, who promised in the 2000 campaign to uphold "honor and integrity" in the White House, last week ordered White House workers, from presidential advisers to low-ranking aides, to attend ethics classes.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10961.htm

Unless the Bush administration significantly cuts American troop levels in Iraq next year, the U.S. military's roughly 140,000-strong presence there will become a detriment to America's national security, according to a report released this week.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051110-125019-8225r


From Information Clearing House

By Chris Floyd

The slaughter in Fallujah was a microcosm of the entire misbegotten enterprise launched by those two eminent Christian statesmen, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair: a brutal act of collective punishment for defying the imperial will, a high-tech turkey shoot that mowed down the just and unjust alike, an idiotic strategic blunder that has exacerbated the violence and hatred it was meant to quell.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10960.htm

By Gar Smith

There is a small band of men who are such firm believers in the protections of the Bill of Rights that they are willing to lay down their lives to defend these principles. They aren't soldiers or civil libertarians — they are a group of "enemy combatants" confined in the gulag of Guantanamo.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10959.htm

Molly Ivins: I can't get over this feeling of unreality, that I am actually sitting here writing about our country having a gulag of secret prisons in which it tortures people. I have loved America all my life, even though I have often disagreed with the government. But this seems to me so preposterous, so monstrous. Torture does not work. It is not productive. It does not yield important, timely information. That is in the movies. This is reality.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105G.shtml

The Nation: There can no longer be any doubt: The war - an unprovoked, unnecessary and unlawful invasion that has turned into a colonial-style occupation - is a moral and political catastrophe. The Nation therefore takes the following stand: We will not support any candidate for national office who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq a major issue of his or her campaign.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105F.shtml

Fed up by the inaction of politicians on both sides of the aisle, a new group is bypassing Congress to take the issue directly to the voters. Calling itself HomeFromIraqNow.org, it is sponsoring a binding initiative in Massachusetts to stop future deployment of National Guard troops overseas. If successful in Massachusetts, HomeFromIraqNow.org hopes to repeat the feat in some of the other 23 states that allow citizen petitions, creating nothing short of a national referendum on the war itself.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105E.shtml

Derelict factories, military scrap yards and battle sites across Iraq pose a threat to the environment and to public health, the United Nations has said. The UN Environment Program has trained Iraqi specialists in detoxification, but says any clean-up could cost up to $40m (£23m).

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105C.shtml

Lawyers for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) tried unsuccessfully in late September to head off felony criminal indictments against the then-majority leader on charges of violating Texas campaign law by signaling that DeLay might plead guilty to a misdemeanor, according to four sources familiar with the events. The lawyers' principal aim was to try to preserve DeLay's leadership position under House Republican rules that bar lawmakers accused of felonies from holding such posts.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105B.shtml

To critics, the 450 portable classrooms being installed across Mississippi are prime examples in their case against FEMA and its federal partner, the Army Corps of Engineers, for wasteful spending and favoritism in the $62 billion hurricane relief effort. Provided by a politically connected Alaskan-owned business under a $40 million no-bid contract, the classrooms cost FEMA nearly $90,000 each. That is double the wholesale price and nearly 60 percent higher than the price offered by two small Mississippi businesses dropped from the deal.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105A.shtml

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1967.htm


Informant: Gomez

As many as 20 million acres of public land could be sold under a proposed change in mining law that is tucked into a budget bill in the House. At issue is the possible overturning of a congressional ban that has prevented mineral companies and individuals from "patenting," or buying, public land, including some in national forests and parks, at cheap prices if the land contains mineral deposits.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105S.shtml

President George W. Bush, battling a long slide in the polls and growing public doubts about the war in Iraq, fired back at Democratic critics who say he misused pre-war intelligence to justify the March 2003 invasion. Kerry today was quick to respond to Bush: "This administration misled a nation into war by cherry-picking intelligence and stretching the truth beyond recognition." Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the speech was little more than "political attacks as his own political fortunes and credibility diminish."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105R.shtml

William Rivers Pitt: This may make me a bad person, but I get a warm feeling in the center of my soul when I watch right-wing maniacs freak out in frustration and lose their so-called minds. It just makes me smile. You wouldn't know the fortunes of these frauds are sinking like a stone in water had you listened to Mr. Bush's speech from Pennsylvania on Friday. According to George, everything's comin' up Milhouse. The march of freedom continues, he said, and Iraq is doing great. Ready for a dumb joke? Here goes: How do you know George W. Bush is lying? His lips are moving.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111105Q.shtml

Kooperation gekündigt - Unterammergau hofft auf Solidarität der Bürger

VON BIRGIT PÖSSINGER

Unterammergau - Einen fast sensationellen Beschluss fasste am Donnerstag Abend der Unterammergauer Gemeinderat unter Vorsitz von Bürgermeister Michael Gansler zum Thema Standortsuche für einen Mobilfunkmasten von O2: Mit 9:3 Stimmen wurde festgelegt, dass im Gemeindegebiet Unterammergau keine weiteren Mobilfunkstationen mehr errichtet werden sollen. Ausgenommen von dieser Grundsatzentscheidung ist lediglich der von der Gemeinde bereits vorgeschlagene Standort beim Masten der Deutschen Bundesbahn.

Die Gemeinde sprach die Hoffnung aus, dass die Betreiber keine Eigentümer finden, die ihr Gebäude für Mobilfunksendeanlagen zur Verfügung stellen. Im Klartext bedeutet der Beschluss, dass keine weiteren Vorschläge von Seiten der Gemeinde für einen Standort außerhalb des Wohngebietes mehr kommen werden. Die Geduld der Volksvertreter ist am Ende, nachdem seit dem Frühjahr rund zehn Vorschläge von O2 abgelehnt worden waren.

Einer der Gemeinderäte, die gegen den Beschluss gestimmt hatten, begründete dies damit, dass der Kommune mit dieser Entscheidung jede weitere Gestaltungsmöglichkeit genommen werde. Für O2 bleibe die Möglichkeit, ihr "Geschäft" mit einem Bürger zu tätigen, worauf der Gemeinderat keinen Einfluss mehr habe.

Zustande kam der Beschluss auch auf einen gewissen Druck der vielen Zuschauer, die den kleinen Sitzungssaal füllten. Die machten, nachdem ihnen das Wort erteilt worden war, ihrem Ärger Luft: "Die Bevölkerung hat Priorität. Es kann doch nicht sein, dass der Betreiber die Regeln bestimmt", wunderte sich einer. "Wir wollen eine UMTS-freie Zone", forderte ein anderer. Die Gesellschaft wurde der Unaufrichtigkeit bezichtigt.

Applaus für den Beschluss

Rechtzeitig zur Sitzung hatte die Bürgerinitiative "Strahlenfreier Ammergau" nach dem Muster eines Freiburger, Bamberger oder Helsinki-Appells einen "Oberammergauer Appell" erreicht, den alle Ärzte aus Ober- und Unterammergau unterschrieben. Letztlich waren die Zuschauer überzeugt davon, dass kein Unterammergauer mehr einen Vertrag unterschreiben werde, und forderten ein kompromissloses Votum des Gremiums. Das bekamen sie dann auf Vorantreiben einiger Mandatsträger. So endete das Thema mit dem Applaus der Zuhörer und der Hoffnung, dass nun keiner mehr dem schnöden Mammon erliegen und dem Pürschlingdorf einen Sendemasten mitten im Ort bescheren werde.

mm

12.11.2005

http://www.marktplatz-oberbayern.de/regionen/garmisch/art1614,329582.html?fCMS=b772252e4c4ba6593674497cda247fed

--------

Ärzteappelle gegen Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1064751/

Recently I put together info packs on WLANS in schools consisting of Alisdair Philips paper, my own leaflet on microwave comms, Sandi's Voice of the People and the full Freiberger Appeal and delivered them to the Head Teachers of 20 local LEA authority schools in the Brighton & Hove area with a short covering letter.

I had a reply from John Vousden, Head Teacher (Downs Junior School, Rugby Road, Brighton BN1 6ED) today who said:

"With regard to health and safety issues relating to technology we are guided by the Dep't for Ed & Skills (DfES), Brighton & Hove Education Authority and by British Educational Communications and Technology Agency http://www.becta.org.uk , an org that advises Gov't on such issues.

At present the guidelines issued to us indicate no health risk...."

This is not the full letter and I have abbreviated but if anyone wishes to contact him, the email address is office@downsjun.brighton-hove.sch.uk Tel 01273 558422.

Graham Parfitt

--------

Health risks of Wi-Fi and WLAN on our health
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1122031/

Suit alleges health risks of Wi-Fi
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1121968/

Effects of EMR frequency emissions from masts
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1155356/


http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Wi-Fi

Leserbrief

Zum geplanten Neubau einer großen Mobilfunkantennenanlage an der Feldhofstrasse in Flawil

Dieser Tage haben wir pflichtbewusst unseren sechs Hühnern den Auslauf entzogen und sie beim zuständigen Veterinäramt angemeldet. Der Vogelgrippe ist also der Kampf angesagt! Was uns jedoch im Augenblick um einiges mehr bedroht, ist der geplante Neubau einer gewaltigen, rund 35 Meter hohen UMTS-Mobilfunkantenne mit einer Leistung von sage und schreibe 5370 Watt (!) der Firma Sunrise an der Feldhofstrasse in Flawil!

Belastung klein halten

Obwohl sich vor uns schon Flawilerinnen und Flawiler in anderen Quartieren der Gemeinde gegen das konzeptlose Aufstellen von Mobilfunkantennen gewehrt haben, informiert unsere Gemeindeverwaltung weder die direkten Anwohner noch die breitere Öffentlichkeit. Sollte nun die Gemeinde als Baubewilligungsbehörde gemäß dem Vorsorgeprinzip (Umweltschutzgesetz SR 814.01 Art. 11/2) die Belastung der Wohnbevölkerung nicht so klein wie möglich halten wollen? Brauchte sie dazu nicht einen Versorgungsplan und einen Bedarfsnachweis des Gesuchstellers?

Auf der Internetseite «flawil.ch» frohlockt es: «Flawil lebt – Unsere Heimat soll wohnlich und ein Stück lebens- und erlebenswerte Heimat sein.» Genau das erwarte ich von unserer Gemeindebehörde: eine Schutzfunktion. Damit wir mit unseren Familien weiterhin gerne in Flawil zu Hause sind! Was uns jetzt aber droht, ist ein 35 Meter hoher Turm vor der Haustür, der uns unfreiwillig rund um die Uhr bestrahlt und uns und vor allem unsere Kinder, diesen enormen Gesundheitsrisiken aussetzt!

Gesunden Lebensraum bieten

Das Gebiet der Gemeinde Flawil verfügt bereits über eine einwandfreie Mobilfunkversorgung. Muss wirklich noch eine fünfte Anlage – dazu noch eine so starke Basisstation für GSM900 und UMTS – dazukommen? Wer bezahlt den Preis für diese hohe und krankmachende Strahlenbelastung durch die neue UMTS-Technologie? Wir Flawilerinnen und Flawiler, unsere Kinder, unsere Tiere und unser Lebensraum!

Wir bemühen uns, unseren Kindern einen gesunden, geschützten Lebensraum zu gewährleisten, sie zu eigenverantwortlichen Menschen zu erziehen und ihnen wichtige Werte, wie Sorge zu Mitmenschen und zur Umwelt zu vermitteln. Jeder kann zwar selbst entscheiden, ob er Alkohol trinkt, ob er raucht, ob und wie lange er vor dem Fernseher oder dem Computer sitzt, ob er Sport treibt, gesund lebt oder Auto fährt und so weiter. Jeder kann auch ein Handy benutzen oder es halt sein lassen. Aber die Strahlung einer solchen «Riesen-Antenne», die man uns vors Haus setzt, müssen wir völlig unfreiwillig ertragen und sind ihr zu jeder Tages- und Nachtstunde ausgeliefert!

Keine weiteren Genehmigungen

Wollen wir in Flawil denn wirklich in einer Gesellschaft leben, in der mit einer solchen UMTS-Technologie einigen wenigen die «Spaßgesellschaft» ermöglicht wird? Muss denn jeder Mobilfunkanbieter unabhängige Netze erstellen können, zwecks Konkurrenz, die gar nicht stattfindet, weil sich die Preise kaum unterscheiden?

Es wäre angebracht, wenn wenigstens auf Gemeindeebene die von uns gewählte Behörde ihre Pflicht ernst nähme und uns vor so viel Gedankenlosigkeit schützen würde. In Anbetracht der bekannten Fakten ist, was eigentlich selbstverständlich sein sollte, die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung höher zu werten als die finanziellen Interessen einzelner Wirtschaftszweige. Bedenken wir auch, dass die Bewilligung weiterer Antennen sich als Bumerang erweisen könnte: Kranke, arbeitsunfähige Menschen zahlen nämlich auch weniger Steuern und die Wertverminderung von Liegenschaften hat ebenfalls Steuerausfälle zur Folge. Ich wünschte mir, dass Flawil, wie viele andere Gemeinden auch, keine Genehmigung für weitere Antennen mehr erteilt.

Sara Büchler-Bonomi, Feldhofstrasse 51, 9230 Flawil

Copyright © St.Galler Tagblatt

http://www.tagblatt.ch/index.jsp?artikel_id=1113191&ressort=regionen/wil/degersheim

Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 11:37:07 -0800

For more information contact: WSDP 775-468-0230 or Hager & Hearne at 775-329-5800.

Press Release for Immediate Release

Land “Giveaway” Bill Confirms Western Shoshone Predictions
Nov. 4, 2005.

Crescent Valley, NV (Newe Sogobia). Confirming Western Shoshone predictions about massive federal land giveaways, the House Resources Budget Package was amended last week[1] to include what Congressman Rahall has dubbed a “blazing fire sale of federal lands to domestic and international corporate interests”.[2] Subtitle B of the bill lifts the moratorium on privatization or patenting of lands by mining companies and opens up virtually all federal or “public” lands at a small fraction of its true value. The measure could come to the House floor for a vote as early as next week.

This “liquidation sale” would include the vast majority of lands home to the Western Shoshone Nation - lands formally recognized by the U.S. as owned and occupied by Western Shoshone under the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley and now the subject of ongoing federal lawsuits and international proceedings. The land area is called Newe Sogobia in Shoshone and spans across the states of Nevada, Utah, Idaho and into Death Valley, California covering approximately 60 million acres of land, 80-90% of which is claimed as federal or public lands by the United States. The area is the 2nd largest gold producing area in the world and the U.S. Geological Service touts it as North America’s number one investment opportunity for the extractive industry. It contains Yucca Mountain, where the U.S. has been pushing to open a permanent nuclear waste repository. And importantly, it is also home to one of the most visible and well-established Indian land struggles in U.S. history – that of the Western Shoshone. Congressman Richard W. Pombo (R-WA), Chairman of the House Committee on Resources, defends his legislative measure by claiming that the sale of public lands will raise money to pay federal debts and will encourage “sustainable economic development”. The Western Shoshone do not agree and instead stand committed in their resolve to uphold their land title and protect their lands and waters from irresponsible corporate exploitation.

Just last year, in the face of Congressional promises of resolving the long standing land issues in "good faith" by compelling the Shoshone people to sell their land for 15 cents an acre, the Western Shoshone National Council and seven of the nine tribal councils opposed Congressional efforts and predicted that the real beneficiaries of the “Indian money” would be multinational mining and energy companies standing to gain billions of dollars by privatization of “public” lands and expanded resource exploitation. The handwriting was on the wall even then – while Congress tried to push the one-time payment on the Shoshone people, the Executive Branch, through the Department of Interior was destroying the economic livelihood of Western Shoshone by conducting military-style seizures of Western Shoshone cattle and horses. The land base was recently announced as the 2nd largest gold producing area in the world. Some $30 billion dollars in gold has been extracted from the region to date. In one instance, only months after removal of horses belonging to Western Shoshone grandmothers Mary and Carrie Dann, Placer Dome, the world’s 5th largest gold company, announced a doubling of its gold estimate from the same lands where the horses were seized. Other large gold corporations operating in the area include Barrick, Newmont, and Kennecott. The gold is microscopic and the mining is open pit, cyanide heap leach mining employing dewatering of up to 70,000 gallons of water per minute for one mine alone. The Shoshones' predictions, which some dubbed “conspiracy theories” and others saw as “synchronized thievery” have now come to fruition with the latest Congressional maneuver to make any and all alleged “public” lands part of a liquidation sale to bail the United States out of debt.

“ Western Shoshone title is still intact. We have been fighting this for years and will continue to fight. The U.S. thought when they made some notations in their bookkeeping that the Shoshone would be “paid” and any cloud to land title would be lifted. Well, they were wrong and we’re still here. We’ve never accepted their money and never will – our land, the earth mother is not for sale and we will protect her and continue our responsibilities as caretakers under the Creator’s law.” Stated Raymond Yowell, Chief of the Western Shoshone National Council.

Bob Hager, Attorney for the Western Shoshone added: “What we have here is an attempt by the United States to swindle the indigenous people, the public and investors. Western Shoshone land title is in litigation in the federal courts and the subject of a United Nations human rights inquiry. The U.S.’ behavior on this issue has already been found to violate basic human rights to property, due process and equality under the law. This latest maneuver only compounds those violations and draws in the complicity of the corporations. You can’t sell what is not yours in the first place and the companies lining up for the dole should keep that in mind.”

Western Shoshone Defense Project

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

http://www.wsdp.org/alerts.htm#landgrab110405


Informant: Gomez

SENATOR GRAHAM PULLS A FAST ONE TO ABORT HABEAS CORPUS

With virtually no advance notice the Republican majority in the Senate (with the shameful complicity of Democrats Conrad, Landrieu, Lieberman, Nelson, and Wyden) approved a last minute amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to deny U.S. courts jurisdiction to examine the legality of detainee detention in Guantanamo and elsewhere. They did this in defiance of the not yet completely packed Supreme Court (another reason to reject Alito), whose authority they would annul.

This is all despite the well-known FACT that many scooped up into these hell holes of torture are not terrorists at all, some even having been sold for bounty. Senator Bingaman immediately responded with a proposed corrective amendment (S.AMDT.2517) to restore jurisdiction.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/habeas.htm (Restore Habeas Corpus)

ACTION PAGE: http://www.nocrony.com (No right wing conservative to replace Sandra Day O'Connor)

Is our government telling us that there is no possible way any of those people can be convicted of a crime, by even an American jury, if they were to have a fair trial? We also know that our own military attorneys were fired for protesting because the tribunals already established were such miscarriages of justice. If there is nobody in detention who can be convicted of anything without special kangaroo courts, then the real terrorists have indeed won, for we will then have abdicated all moral authority. Please contact your senators at once to tell them to support the Bingaman amendment.

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

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

HLV INFO 175/AT

12-11-2005

http://www.fuldaerzeitung.de

online 12-11-2005

Bürgerwelle setzte sich durch

Mobilfunkantenne in Schwarzbach muss abgebaut werden / E-Plus willigte Kompromiss zu

SCHWARZBACH Die Initiative Bürgerwelle Schwarzbach freut sich über einen nicht alltäglichen Erfolg. Der Netzbetreiber E-Plus hat sich bereit erklärt, die Mobilfunkantenne auf dem Gebäude der Schreinerei Uth zum 31. August 2007 abzumontieren. Dieser Kompromiss kam außergerichtlich zwischen E-Plus und der Anwältin der Bürgerinitiative, Anja Baumbach-Wilkin, zustande.

Grund für die drohende rechtliche Auseinandersetzung vor dem Landgericht Fulda war die Kündigung des Vertrages durch den Vermieter Hans-Werner Uth am 29. September 2004, die der Mobilfunketreiber nicht akzeptieren wollte.

E-Plus bestand darauf, dass die im Vertrag festgelegte Kündigungsfrist von 20 Jahren erfüllt werde. Da Uth aber auf seiner sofortigen Kündigung bestand, unterbreitete der Netzbetreiber zwei Kompromissvorschläge. Zunächst sollte die Anlage bis 2015 in Betrieb bleiben, später wäre man auch mit 2009 zufrieden gewesen.

Anscheinend wollte E-Plus einer drohenden Niederlage und damit einer Grundsatzentscheidung aus dem Wege gehen und willigte jetzt dem Kompromiss 31. August 2007 zu, glaubt Elmar Müller von der Bürgerwelle. Rechtsanwältin Anja Baumbach-Wilkin bestärkt ihn in seiner Auffassung. In einem ähnlichen Verfahren, dass ihre Kanzlei führte, habe der Richter deutlich gemacht, dass er es als sittenwidrig ansehe, dass ein Mobilfunkbetreiber eine Kündigungsfrist von einem Jahr habe, der Vermieter aber von 20 Jahren.

Im vergangenen Jahr sorgte der Bau der Antenne in dem Hofbieberer Ortsteil Schwarzbach für große Unruhe. Die Anlage hatte von Anfang an für großen Widerstand in der Bevölkerung gesorgt. In Unterschriftenaktionen sprachen sich rund 260 Einwohner dagegen aus. In einer, wie die Bürgerinitiative schreibt, „Nacht- und Nebenaktion“ sei die Antenne Mitte 2004 installiert worden. Immer wieder hatten die Kritiker gefordert, die Anlage solle mindestens 1000 Meter vom Ort entfernt aufgebaut werden. Sie fürchten gesundheitliche Risiken der Bevölkerung durch die Strahlung.

Der Druck der Bevölkerung und eigenes Einsicht hatten dann laut Müller zur Folge, dass Hans-Werner Uth den Vertrag mit E-Plus kündigte. Dies geschah am 29. September 2004. Er reichte nach Mitteilung der Bürgerwelle sogar eine Räumungsklage gegen E-Plus am 28. April 2005 beim Landgericht Fulda ein.

In der Folge offerierte der Mobilfunkbetreiber zwei Kompromissvorschläge. Doch es kam zu keiner Einigung. Im Juli begannen die Vergleichverhandlungen. Die Bürgerinitiative hatte dazu die Kasseler Anwältin Anja Baumbach-Wilkin eingeschaltet. Das relativ schnell erzielte Ergebnis überraschte selbst die Bürgerwelle: Der Mast soll bis zum 31. August 2007 abgebaut werden. Jetzt ist der Vergleich notariell bestätigt und die Räumungsklage zurückgezogen worden.

„Die vorliegende Lösung ist nicht zuletzt auf das Zusammenstehen der Dorfbewohner, die Einigkeit unter den Vereinen und das an den Tag gelegte Durchhaltevermögen zurückzuführen“, freut sich die Bürgerwelle Schwarzbach über ihren Erfolg.

12.11.2005

http://www.fuldaerzeitung.de/sixcms/detail.php?template=fz_meldung_04&id=124088

Exclusive by Stephen Wright
Nov 10, 2005
Cannock and Rugeley Chronicle

A mobile phone mast at the site of a Huntington Rugby club has been hauled down with phone operators Orange treating the incident as criminal damage.

The incident occurred last weekend when the 12.5ft mast at the rear of Cannock Lions Rugby Club, off the Stafford Road , was unbolted and pulled down.

Phone company Orange have since taken photos of the grounded mast, surrounded the site with security fencing to ensure residents' safety, and informed the police.

Community Liaison Officer for Orange , Sue Hammett, said the company were taking the incident seriously and hoped to have network coverage within the next week.

She said: "It seems as though it wasn't an isolated incident with the rugby club trustees informing us damage had also been caused to the youth club and bowling green .

"We believe the incident occurred on Friday (November 4) and our engineers have been down to the site to make sure it's not dangerous.

"It's a high security site as there've been incidents in the past and we are treating it very seriously - this is criminal damage.

She added: "When the mast was first installed there was some opposition and we are very concerned that we have lost coverage in that area as people may need to make emergency calls.

"But we will endeavour to make sure that we have coverage in Huntington within the next week. The matter is now in the hands of the police."

A local resident, who didn't wish to be named, said he had seen the mast grounded on Friday morning.

He said: "There's no doubt the mast had been unbolted with the intention to bring it down.

"The mast has been there for about 18 months and it's fair to say it's caused quite a bit of disharmony.

"Whether it was pulled down by vandals or disgruntled residents nobody seems to know."

Shropshire Star 11.11.05

Campaigners who have been fighting for more than two years to have a controversial phone mast taken down in a village in Mid Wales were celebrating today after it was finally removed.

Officials dismantled the telecommunications mast from a field in Caersws on Wednesday.

Although companies can apply to use the base in the future, mast owners Crown Castle UK Ltd, would have to go back through the planning system to get approval.

Lembit Opik, MP for Montgomeryshire and leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said: “The deeply unpopular telecommunications mast in Caersws has finally been taken down. This marks the end of a long, hard and successful campaign.

“The people of Caersws can be very proud. By working together with each other and with me, we got our voice across very effectively.

Steve Arnold, spokesman for Crown Castle , said an investigation had been carried out with some operators to see whether there was demand for the equipment but there was not.

“We have taken the decision to move the pole mountings but if we were to receive an inquiry we would go through the relevant planning requirements,” he said.

This is Local London
09.11.05

A HOSPITAL could face legal action because of the mobile phone masts on its roof.

Bromley Council is considering whether it should force mobile phone companies to take masts off the roof of the Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough.

This comes after weeks of complaints from residents in Wellbrook Road, Farnborough, about the masts overlooking their houses.

T-Mobile is already moving its masts from the roof edge so nearby residents cannot see them.

But despite claims the firm is responding to concerns, the action might not be enough for council planners.

The council is investigating whether the masts, along with masts owned by Orange and O2, count as permitted development, which could mean planning permission is needed.

A council spokesman said: "This is a very serious issue.

"We are very concerned about the masts and whether they are permitted development or not."

The hospital applied to put 24 masts on its roof in 2003.

It was rejected by the Planning Inspectorate after it ruled the masts were inappropriate and would destroy the architectural feel of the area.

But the masts are currently on the roof because the hospital believes they are allowed under permitted development rights.

A Bromley NHS spokesman said: "As the mobile phone facility is a permitted development no planning consent was needed."

By Pete Sherlock
Enfield Independent
10.11.05

Autumn is usually the time of year when mushrooms spring up overnight, but this year, people in Enfield are more concerned about a sudden outbreak of mobile phone masts.

Enfield Council is currently considering 22 planning applications from various mobile phone companies and many schemes have provoked outrage among residents.

People throughout the borough are protesting because of fears that radioactive emissions from masts may cause serious long-term health damage. They are also concerned the corners of the world in which they live will be ruined by unsightly masts.

Under current Government guidelines, local authorities do not have to consider health concerns as long as emissions meet international guidelines. Also applications for masts under 15-metres high are not subject to the rigours of the full planning process.

Although the council has rejected 30 applications in the last two years based on the siting and design of proposed masts, people are angry that health concerns are disregarded despite the uncertainty surrounding potential long-term risks.

Last Saturday, 250 Grange Park residents demonstrated against an application from Orange to erect a mast in Cranleigh Gardens.

The Independent has also recently reported on similar protests in Palmers Green, Bulls Cross, Winchmore Hill and Southgate.

David Law, chairman of Grange Park Mast Action 05, said: "It speaks volumes about the strength of feeling on this issue that so many people have turned up on a rainy day."

Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes attended the Cranleigh Gardens protest and wholeheartedly supports efforts to change Government guidelines.

Mr Burrowes said: "The jury is very much out on the issue of health concerns, but people feel powerless about this issue and unable to control what goes on.

"The current planning process is too tightly defined with no consideration being given to the accumulative effect on health of having lots of masts in a small area."

Government policy still seems largely based on the findings of the Stewart Report, published in 2000, which found no general risk to the health of people living near masts.

Orange has proposed 18 new masts in Enfield in its annual roll-out plans for 2006.

A spokesperson for the company said: " Orange prefers to use commercial property, rooftops or share existing masts, but in these instances those options were not available.

"People want to be able to use their mobile phones when and where they want, and in order to meet these customer expectations, Orange has to have the infrastructure in place."

The proliferation of masts can be attributed in part to the new generation of so-called 3G phones, and Orange has confirmed most of its planned Enfield masts are primarily to provide 3G coverage.

But Mr Burrowes doesn't believe possessing a phone means accepting a mast on every street corner.

"People aren't writing to me about lack of mobile coverage in their area."

Derbyshire Evening Telegraph

09:30 - 10 November 2005

People protesting against proposed mobile phone masts plan to take to the streets in an open-top bus this weekend.

Members of the Mast Action Committee, part of Chellaston Residents' Association, will visit every location in Derby where Vodafone wants to install masts.

The protest is due to take place on Saturday.

Sites to be visited include the corner of Stenson Road and Wellesley Avenue ; the Red Lion pub, in Derby Road, Chellaston; the junction of Parkway and Derby Road, Chellaston; and Merrill Way, Allenton.

Western Gazette

15:00 - 10 November 2005

Angry residents are due to take their pleas to district planners to stop a controversial phone mast being granted planning permission. Vodafone's plan to site a mast at Arrow Fires, North Mills Trading Estate, Bridport, has caused a storm of protest among nearby residents because of its proximity to a school and a Scout hut used by a nursery group.

Despite a 460-name petition, 41 letters of complaint and fierce objections from town councillors, the district planners look set to give the go-ahead to the 15-metre mast at today's development control west committee meeting.

District and town councillor Sandra Brown said: "I will definitely be going along wearing my hat as governer of St Catherine's Primary School and there are many other parents and local protesters who will be putting across their anger at these plans to the district council."

Planning official Andrew Jordan said: "The application proposes an acceptable form of telecommunications installation having regard to both visual and health considerations, as the proposal accords with Government advice. It is considered that the impact of the proposal on the private and family lives of nearby residents would be safeguarded and the proposal does not impact detrimentally on neighbouring building."

Mr Jordan recommended that district councillors on the development control west committee approve the application but recommended the colour of the mast and ancillary equipment should be agreed.

Town councillors had previously recommended the refusal of planning permission at the council's plans committee meeting in October which was attended by more than 50 residents.

Caroline Edwards of Victoria Grove, who is the co-ordinator of Clean Airwaves for Bridport's Local Environment, said: "It is within 250 metres of St Catherine's Primary School and almost below the site is a Scout hut, which is used in the day by a nursery group.

"Also, the surrounding area is a designated play area. There is a lot of concern."

Paula English said: "The district council has a duty to protect children and the vulnerable. There is a gap in our knowledge about these masts, which justifies caution.

"I have a three-year-old son at St Catherine's Pre-School and I very much want to send him to St Catherine's but, if this mast was erected, I would have to think very carefully about that."

At the meeting district and town councillor Martin Ray had urged the protesters to make their points at the district council.

He said: "The issue of health is such a real concern and times are changing. In a recent case in Charmouth, planning officials only gave a year's planning permission to a similarly controversial mast.

"If the articulate arguments we have heard here are put to the district council then we may stand a chance of getting this refused."

Nidderdale Today

PLANS to erect a near 50ft mobile phone mast at an accident blackspot near Masham have sparked protests from local councillors.

They say the idea for the pitchfork monopole would not fit in with major safety improvements already planned by North Yorkshire County Council.

Mobile phone company Airwave MM02 has tabled a planning application to erect the mast at the junction where the Ripon and Thirsk roads meet just outside Masham, near the former railway station.

It is believed that the mast is part of improvements to police communications in the county.

But the application has brought strong protests from Masham Parish Council, whose vice-chairman, Coun Mrs Flo Grainger has already been in contact with agents for the plan.

"They are aware of the road improvements which are planned and say it would not interfere with the development," she said.

But Coun Grainger said local people were "absolutely horrified" by the scheme which would spoil a famous view of Masham when approaching down the road from Thirsk.

Masham Parish Council chairman Coun Andy Burrell added: "We couldn't object more strongly. Even if the road improvements were not planned that would not be the place for this."

Airwave MM02 has applied to Harrogate Borough Council to erect the pole in a grass verge opposite Low Burton Hall.

Representations about the mast should be sent to the Chief Planning Officer at Harrogate Borough Council, Knapping Mount, Harrogate , by December 26.

11 November 2005

12.11.2005 00:00

Zwei Erlebnisberichte beim Informationsabend der Bürgerinfo in Großbettlingen

GROSSBETTLINGEN. Die summenden Leuchtstoffröhren, die die Großbettlinger Zehntscheuer erhellen, kann Dr. Volker Schorpp nur dank Aspirin ertragen. Der Physiker und Elektrotechniker ist ein Elektrosensibler. Die ständig wachsende Zahl der hochfrequenten Felder in Deutschland hat ihn krank gemacht. „Ich bin schwer Mobilfunk-geschädigt“, sagt der 42-Jährige von sich selbst. Im Rahmen einer Infoveranstaltung des Vereins Bürgerinfo Großbettlingen schilderte er fast 80 Zuhörern seine Geschichte.

NICOLE MOHN

Noch vor sieben Jahren war Schorpp ein gesunder, sportlicher Mann. Das sollte sich ändern, als 1999 der erste von inzwischen drei Mobilfunksendern in der Nähe seines Hauses montiert wurde. Der Physiker fühlte sich plötzlich unkonzentriert, hatte Schlafprobleme, bekam Tinnitus, Kopfschmerzen, reagiert sehr empfindlich auf helles Licht. Binnen kurzer Zeit entwickelten vor allem die Ohrgeräusche und der Brummschädel eine derartige Heftigkeit, die Schorpp als „Hirnsausen“ beschreibt.

Dass die von den Mobilfunksendern ausgehende Strahlung ihn krank macht, hat der 42-Jährige durch Zufall bei einem Camping-Urlaub an der Atlantikküste entdeckt. Hier erholte er sich binnen Tagen – fühlte sich wieder erholt und fit. Zurück in seinem Haus kippte sein Befinden erneut – und potenzierte sich. Der Tinnitus schien nun den gesamten Kopf einzuhüllen. Inzwischen ist es so schlimm, dass er seit zwei Jahren in einem abgelegenen Tal in einem Zelt schläft.

Wer nun denkt, der Fall des Physikers ist ein Einzelfall, liegt falsch. Dr. Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam, Ärztin aus Bamberg, hat da ganz andere Erfahrungen gemacht. Zusammen mit Kollegen untersuchte sie inzwischen über 360 Menschen – und hat dabei für sie erschreckende Beobachtungen gemacht. Bei der Anamnese stießen die Mediziner bei Menschen, die im näheren Umkreis eines Mobilfunksenders leben, auf dieselben Krankheitsmuster.

„Sehr häufig sind Schlafstörungen, ungewöhnliche Kopfschmerzen, Benommenheit, Vergesslichkeit und Konzentrationsschwierigkeiten“, berichtet sie den Zuhörern in der Großbettlinger Zehntscheuer. Immer öfter treffen die Ärzte zudem auf Herzrhythmusstörungen, Gelenk- und Gliederschmerzen, verkürzen sich Latenzzeiten bei Krebserkrankungen. Selbst zu kurzzeitiger Erblindung könne Hochfrequenz-Strahlung führen: „Symptome, die beim Augenarzt dann aber wieder verschwunden waren“, so Dr. Waldmann-Selsam. Sie glaubt außerdem an einen Zusammenhang von Mobilfunkstrahlung mit Wachstums- und Aufmerksamkeitsstörungen bei Kindern.

Für die Medizinerin ist es purer Hohn, bei solchen teils schwerwiegenden Erkrankungen von „Befindlichkeit und Angst“ zu reden, wie es oft von übergeordneter Stelle – sprich Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz oder Ministerien – geschehe. Dass die Verantwortlichen, allen voran die Politik, trotz einer ständig wachsenden Zahl von bekannt gemachten Fällen, immer lauteren Mahnrufen und Appellen nicht reagieren, den Dingen nicht vor Ort bei den Menschen nachgehen, hält die Ärztin schlicht für „kriminell“.

Wie Schorpp hält Dr. Waldmann-Selsam die zunehmende Bestrahlung mit hochfrequenten Feldern, die bei der neuen UMTS-Versorgung bis zu 10 Millionen µW/m² beträgt, für Körperverletzung. Die Ärzte, die mit dem so genannten Bamberger Appell auf die Situation aufmerksam machten, wollen nun so bald wie möglich vor Gericht gehen. Sie fordern eine bessere Aufklärung der Bürger über die Risiken für Handy-, DECT- oder WLAN-Nutzer und Einführung einer umweltverträglichen Mobilfunk-Technik. Vor allem aber eine deutliche Senkung der deutschen Grenzwerte, die im internationalen Vergleich so hoch wie in kaum einem anderen Land der Erde sind.

Denn die Handynetze seien mit weitaus weniger Watt zu betreiben, als von den deutschen Anbietern derzeit praktiziert. Die Beispiele der Nachbarländer wie Österreich und Schweiz zeigen dies, wie Jürgen Groschupp, Vorsitzender der Bürgerinfo Großbettlingen, verwies. Die Schuldigen seien hier nicht die Anbieter, sondern die, die für die Grenzwerte verantwortlich zeichnen. Weil sich die aber nicht von heute auf morgen verändern ließen, setze der Großbettlinger Verein auf die Taktik des Abrückens der Masten von den Wohngebieten.

Mit der Auslagerung der UMTS-Technik an den Staufenbühl ist das zum zweiten Mal in der Gemeinde gelungen. Dabei ist sich Groschupp durchaus bewusst, dass im Ort die Belastung mit Inbetriebnahme der neuen Sender steigen wird. Mit Belastungen von rund 3000 µW/m² hat dabei auch die Interessengemeinschaft Bauchschmerzen. Damit liege man zwar weit unter den Vorsorgewerten der Schweiz, die 80 000 µW/m² vorschreibt, kratze aber an dem Maximalwert, den das Ecolog-Institut Hannover empfiehlt. Alternativen zu der Auslagerung und Verhandlung sieht der Vereinsvorsitzende, der sich auch auf Bundesebene stark für einen vorsichtigen Umgang mit der Hochfrequenztechnik einsetzt, derzeit nicht: „Totale Ablehnung bringt nichts“, ist er überzeugt. Denn es finde sich immer ein Privatmann, der den Sender auf sein Dach lasse, warnt er.

Omega siehe dazu "Die Schweizer Grenzwerte: eine Mogelpackung erster Güte" unter: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/283430/ , „Grenzwertempfehlung für Mobilfunk vom Ecolog-Instituts viel zu hoch“ unter: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145514/ und
„Auslagerung von Mobilfunksendern aus reinen Wohngebieten: kann uns das wirklich vor den Gefahren der Mobilfunkstrahlung schützen?“ unter: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1145526/

Großes Interesse galt den Erfahrungsberichten in Sachen Mobilfunk in Großbettlingen. zog

http://www.ntz.de/lokalnachrichten/umland/index.php?action=shownews&id=596237


http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Waldmann-Selsam

“Mobilfunksender raus aus den reinen Wohngebieten“?

Kann uns das wirklich vor den Gefahren der Mobilfunkstrahlung schützen?

Immer öfter hört man die Forderung von besorgten Bürgern und Organisationen, Sendeanlagen nicht mehr in reinen Wohngebieten aufzustellen, sondern am Stadt- oder Ortsrand, in Gewerbegebieten oder im Grünland – also in sogenannten Außenbereichen.

Eine solche Forderung ist nicht sinnvoll ! Denn entscheidend für die Belastung eines Menschen ist nicht allein die Entfernung vom Sender, sondern wie viel Strahlung von diesem Sender noch bei ihm ankommt.

Steht z.B. ein Sendemast in 1000 m Entfernung bei freier Sicht, dann treffen uns in Hauptstrahlrichtung noch bis zu 10 nW/cm² (= 100 Mikrowatt/m² bzw.0,2 V/m). Sind Sender mehrerer Betreiber auf dem Mast, dann werden sogar 30-40 nW/cm² (300 bis 400 Mikrowatt/m² bzw. 0,35-0,4 V/m) gemessen.

Wenn man bedenkt, dass Menschen bei einer langzeitigen Bestrahlung schon bei 1 nW/cm² (=10 Mikrowatt/m² = bzw. 0,06 V/m) erkranken (Dr. Lebrecht v. Klitzing), so kann also keine ausreichende Sicherheit für unsere Gesundheit gegeben sein, auch wenn ein Sender 1000 m und mehr von uns entfernt steht, - also z.B. außerhalb eines Wohngebietes.

Handys benötigen Sender !

Aus Kapazitätsgründen können von jeder voll ausgebauten Sendeanlage in ihrem Umkreis (z.B. Großzelle r= 10-30 km) nur ca. 90 Gesprächsverbindungen gleichzeitig hergestellt werden (in Österreich und Schweiz sind es weniger). Wenn die Zahl der Handynutzer weiter zunimmt, werden die Zellen weiter unterteilt und damit immer mehr Sender gebaut.

In größeren Städten ist also schon aus Kapazitätsgründen eine Versorgung aller Nutzer nur von “außerhalb“ gar nicht möglich.

Außerdem leben und arbeiten ja auch Menschen in Außenbereichen und diese Menschen in Misch-, Industrie- und Dorfgebieten haben doch dasselbe Recht auf den Schutz ihrer Gesundheit wie die Menschen in den reinen Wohngebieten.

Und weiter draußen auf dem Land arbeiten die Bauern auf dem Feld und leben die Tiere in Feld und Wald, die ebenso zu schützen sind.

Weiterhin: wenn man fordert, die Sendemasten dort draußen aufzustellen, dann werden meist sofort hohe Masten aufgestellt. Mit diesen hohen Masten wird aber die Infrastruktur bereitgestellt für die Erweiterung der Richtfunknetze und der Mobilfunknetze!

Es geht um Folgendes:

Die Einbindung der einzelnen Sendestationen in das Netz eines Betreibers über Richtfunk ist kostenmäßig viel günstiger als mittels erdverlegter Kabel. Die Richtfunkantennen müssen dazu untereinander Sichtkontakt haben – daher die hohen oder erhöht stehenden Masten im Außenbereich. Von hier aus können die in den Innenbereichen noch zu erwartenden Sender leicht per Richtfunk angebunden werden.

Mit der Forderung, die Masten in den Außenbereichen zu bauen, unterstützt man also die Pläne der Betreiber, weil dadurch der Weg für weitere Sender in den Innenbereichen geebnet wird.

Die mit Umweltschutz begründete Zielsetzung der Konzentration möglichst vieler Sender auf einem Masten, führt zu einer weiteren gefährlichen Erhöhung der Strahlungsbelastung.

Ja zum Handy – Nein zum Masten ??

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/mobilfunksender_raus_aus_reinen_wohngebieten.rtf
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/284285/

--------

Diplomingenieur und Vodafone-Fachreferent Dirk Schulz machte auf ein technisches Dilemma aufmerksam: "UMTS-Sendeleistungen haben durchschnittlich nur eine Reichweite von 500 Metern, deshalb müssen die Sendemasten in der Stadt stehen."

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1158946/

--------

Mobilfunksender raus aus den reinen Wohngebieten?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/163594/

1 Milliwatt[m]W/m²=1000 Mikrowatt[µ]W/m²

Auch die 10 Milliwatt[m]W/m² (Empfehlungswert vom Ecolog-Institut) = 10000 Mikrowatt/m² sind noch viel zu hoch. Empfehlungswert der Landessanitätsdirektion Salzburg Februar 2002 (neuer Salzburger Vorsorgewert: Summe GSM außen 10 Mikrowatt/m², Summe GSM innen 1 Mikrowatt/m². Zum vorbeugenden Schutz der öffentlichen Gesundheit wird für die Summe der niederfrequent-pulsmodulierten hochfrequenten Immissionen von Mobilfunksendeanlagen, wie z.B. GSM-Basisstationen, ein vorläufiger Vorsorgewert von 1 Mikrowatt/m² für den Innenbereich empfohlen. Siehe weiter unter:

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/293851/

Aus der Erfahrungsmedizin ist bekannt, dass viele Menschen inzwischen schon ab 10 Mikrowatt/m² erkranken.

Aufgrund des aktuellen Wissensstandes dürfte die Bevölkerung maximal nur mit 0,001 Milliwatt/m² (=1 Mikrowatt/m²) bestrahlt werden. Dieser Wert wurde bereits im Oktober 1999 anlässlich des Elektrosmog-Forums in Bonn durch medizinische Ärzteverbände, Wissenschaftlern usw. von Umweltminister Trittin gefordert.

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/260320/