March 11, 2002
Media compilation #54: Can You Believe This!
Dear journalist
Some more dreary - and largely unreported - stuff for you to consider...
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
CONTENTS
1. Petition by the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel on the Issue of Israeli Army Attacks on Ambulances and Prevention of Evacuation
2. Coming Soon: Flying Fascism on Your Doorstep
3. US Special Forces in Iraq?
4. Newspaper works against war effort
5. Most valuable seafoods will be only a memory within a decade say scientists
6. RESIGNED TO HIS FATE & G-RATIFYING
SEE ALSO:
Sludge Report #127 - The Hunt For Flight 77
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0203/S00030.htm
The debate about whether there really was a plane crashing into the Pentagon or not!
See for yourself this pic: http://www.bosankoe.btinternet.co.uk/pentagon.gif
French claim about Pentagon Jet is a Sick Joke
http://www.geocities.com/roboplanes/757.html
In what appears to be a major disinformation exercise, a French web site has caused a minor storm on the Internet by claiming American Airlines Flight 77 did not crash into the Pentagon on September 11.
Joe Vialls defends the Pentagon! (The counter arguments!)
http://www.geocities.com/erichufschmid/PentagonPlaneCrash2.html
MICHAEL MOORE'S ROCKSTAR MOMENT
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12577
By trying to censor Michael Moore's new book, publishing giant HarperCollins gave media-savvy Moore the perfect platform to harass his real arch-enemy -- George W. Bush.
'Stupid White Men' Reveals An America Awakening To Reality (From Michael Moore - A MUST READ!!)
http://www.rense.com/general20/aw.htm
Transcript of Interview of Greg Palast on Alex Jones Radio Show (March 4, 2002)
http://www.infowars.com/palast.htm
"This looks like coup d'etat here. I'm going to come right out with it. We had better spread the word on this now or these greedy creatures are going to go all the way."
The Globalizer Who Came In From the Cold (World Bank Insider Speaks Out)
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/02/115110.php
Bush Denial of Ties to Lay Appear False
http://www.truthout.com/03.07A.Bush.Denial.htm
It's the Oil Pipeline, Stupid
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12548
Preparing for perpetual war (March 4, 2002)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/03/04/ED44024.DTL
U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms
http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030902bombs.story
Air pollution as bad as second-hand smoke: U.S. study (March 5)
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2002/03/05/pollution020305
1.
Subject: 2ND URGENT PETITION AGAINST ATTACKS ON AMBULANCES IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002
From: <Miri@phr.org.il>
PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-ISRAEL
2002-03-08
URGENT INFORMATION UPDATE
A Second Urgent Petition was Submitted to the High Court by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Today on the Issue of Israeli Army Attacks on Ambulances and Prevention of Evacuation.
Today at 11am Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel), represented by Atty. Andre Rosenthal, submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court, the High Court of Justice, against the commander of Israeli forces (IDF) in the West Bank and against the commander of Israeli forces in the Gaza strip, demanding that the court give an intermediary order against these parties, in light of the Israeli forces' conduct against Palestinian ambulances and medical relief personnel on the 7th and 8th of March, 2002.
Among the evidence cited:
- On March 7 the driver of a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance, Ibrahim Muhammad Sa'ada (38), was killed by Israeli fire, and two members of its crew were wounded while on their way to evacuate wounded during Israeli attacks on the town of Tull Karem.
- Shortly after, on the same day, the driver of an ambulance owned by the UN (UNRWA), Kamel Muhammad Salem (35) was killed in Tull Karem by Israeli fire. A doctor in the same ambulance, Dr. Adnan Karmash, sustained head injuries from Israeli gunfire, and a nurse was injured.
- Dr. Fa'ez Jibril, director of PRCS in Gaza, reported to PHR-Israel that at 1am today, a PRCS ambulance was sent to evacuate wounded during a pause in Israeli bombardments on Sudaniyya, north of the town of Gaza. The chief medic, Sa'ed Shalail, left the ambulance to join other medical personnel in the field, while the ambulance driver waited nearby in the ambulance. The bombardments were then renewed, killing Shalail and seriously injuring another medic, Muhammad Al-Hassi.
- The same source reported that at Hawaz'a, east of Khan Yunis in the Gaza strip, after 15 Palestinians were killed and many were injured by Israeli fire, Israeli forces prevented evacuation by ambulances from midnight of March 7 until 5:30am on March 8.
PHR-Israel demanded that an urgent hearing be held immediately.
PHR-Israel demanded that the court address the issue of evacuation of injured under fire, and that it demand explanations of the Israeli forces, why they have repeatedly fired at ambulances, thus preventing evacuation of injured in the West Bank and Gaza.
CLIP
The court informed PHR-Israel late this afternoon that the case was passed on to the State Legal Advisor, and that the hearing would be held next week.
PHR-Israel is concerned at the decision to postpone the hearing, since the issues at stake involve violations of the most basic tenets of human rights and humanitarian law, as described in article 20 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and article 43 of the Hague Convention, as well as the World Medical Association's Regulations in Times of Armed Conflict (1956, 1957, 1983), outlining ërules governing the care of sick and wounded, particularly in times of conflict.'
Following the submission of the petition, PHR-Israel received information from Yamama hospital in Bethlehem, according to which at 1pm today, the administrative director of Yamama hospital, Ahmad No'man (45), left the hospital in a private vehicle, after prior coordination with the Red Cross, in order to bring an X-Ray technician to the hospital. He was shot at by Israeli forces near the hospital, and returned inside. After further coordination with the Red Cross and with the Israeli forces headquarters (DCO) - he was given permission again to leave the hospital, and promised safety. Outside the hospital he was shot dead, in his car, by Israel forces.
PHR-Israel is deeply concerned at this blatant disregard for human life and for the autonomy of medical personnel. We regard the conduct of a society during military action, and the respect of that society for injured parties and for medical personnel on duty - as a mirror of that society's values. We demand that Israeli forces cease attacks on ambulances, injured parties and civilians immediately. We call upon the international community to intervene on behalf of this cause.
Details: Miri Weingarten, 972 3 6873718, 972 3 5240166, mail@phr.org.il
See also:
Don’t Be Fooled, It’s War on Humanity (March 06 2002)
http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20020306191524965
Nightmare in Israel - American media downplays opposition to Sharon in Israel
http://www.counterpunch.org/nightmareisrael.html
Israeli raid narrowly missed 3,100 schoolchildren: UN
http://www.dawn.com/2002/03/08/int6.htm
2.
From: http://www.almartinraw.com/column48.html
Coming Soon: Flying Fascism on Your Doorstep
by Al Martin
February 20, 2002
New high-tech surveillance equipment revealed at the Redstone Arsenal's Weekly Arms Bazaar promises a dismal future for freedom-loving people of the world.
The Friendly Colonel has filed the latest report from the most recent arms show at the Redstone Arsenal, which has been shut down and is essentially used for storage. Housed in this facility are several thousands of the new modified urban control Humvees, equipped with 14.5 mm cannons as well as many aerials and satellite dishes. Some are camouflage in color, but most of them are dark matte gray. They looked like they were painted with a sealer coat of paint (primer paint), before the final coat is painted on depending on the theater of operation in which they will be used.
Of greater significance was the introduction of the new DCHD (Domestic Control Hover Drones), which were displayed and offered for sale. They're about a meter in diameter and probably weigh about twenty kilograms each. It looks like a life ring (life preserver) with a motor in the middle of it.
The Chinese and Russian arms dealers were interested in them, and evidently the British Government has been one of this device's primary buyers. Evidently we're not selling them to a lot of foreign countries at this time, but still building inventories for ourselves. Each of these DCHDs costs $178,000 a copy.
He met with an Iranian colonel who is some sort of an engineer, who was trying to explain to him what these things can do. The Friendly Colonel admitted that he didn't even know such technology even existed.
Here are some specs. They can hover to a maximum ceiling of 500 feet, although they're really meant to hover about 50 feet off the ground. They not only hover, but they can go forward and back. Their maximum speed is 50 miles an hour, and they can stay aloft for up to three hours at a time. There are counter-rotating rotors in the middle of the device with what appears to be an engine on top. All of the internal components appear to be made of some sort of super-advanced composite, like boron-graphite composite material that is very, very light, but is also very strong. The propellers are also made of this same material, and they weigh practically nothing.
There are two counter-rotating propellers, two propellers that rotate counter-synchronously, the way the Russians used to build turbo-prop airplanes like the TU-95s. The reason they do it that way is because it gives a much higher speed, lift and stability.
They're controlled electronically -- either through satellites or through what they call Fixed or Mobile Relay Command Centers, built right into the Humvee. They showed how the two worked together.
The Friendly Colonel reports that inside this Humvee, which can control a certain quad of these things, it looked like the inside of a spaceship. The components and views screens, which appear to be holographic, and the technology are simply amazing -- "It's like nothing you ever saw."
The surveillance drones come in different color schemes -- a very dark black matte for night use or a two-tone matte white and sky blue top -- so it's hard to see them during the day.
They started one of these hover drones up, and he said it virtually makes no sound at all. Even if you're ten feet away, you couldn't hear the thing. That's how quiet they are.
They are fitted with what is purported to be one of the most-advanced micro-cameras ever invented by the US Government. Through satellites, their transmission capability is virtually limitless. Satellites can access its transmissions and give it directions, signals, codes, and tell it what to do.
They can be pre-programmed for certain flight paths, but the computer has the ability to think, so that if it acquires a target, it can deviate from a flight path. It also has sensors so it can get out of the way and not run into a tree or the side of a building. It also has infrared cameras and high-resolution night cameras with multiple neutral density filters.
They also have see-through capability -- with a thermal imaging sensor camera, which can actually see inside of buildings and see through walls. The device is meant to be used as a domestic control drone. It not only has cameras, but the most sensitive audio receivers that have ever been made. It can pick up a human conversation from five hundred feet away -- one human conversation. Not only can they photograph and relay still shots and real time video and transmit video, but they also have a "non-lethal" weapons capability, some sort of stun gun based on energy discharge technology. They're powered by what's known as a fusion power cell, which looks like a square pack of film. The power is produced through some sort of chemical reaction.
These drones can stop and detain people. Since they have a microphone, they can hover right in your face, while you're looking into the camera. It also has a transmitter, which can play pre-recorded messages, or someone can actually talk to you even though they're a thousand miles away.
During the demonstration, they hovered the thing around the room and then it came down in front of this Air Force captain's face, and it said, "Citizen, kindly present your national identification card."
Then a little telescoping plate comes out of it, and you're supposed to hold your national identification card in front of this plate. They wouldn't reveal all of its abilities of the drone because some of it was still classified. The manufacturer is the same company, located in Indiana, which makes other equipment for the NSA.
Let's think about where this device could be used. How about South Central Los Angeles street corners? Using these devices, only Government-Authorized crack dealers would be able to sell their product. Crack dealers, not approved by the Government, could then be sanctioned -- or removed.
The exhibit hall had high-definition presentation screens around the room, which showed how these things could be used. It showed them moving down a darkened street at night, and then it showed what the cameras were seeing, pictures of the people and how they looked through an infra red camera and an ultra violet camera and how different images looked through different camera receptors. It looked like it was right out of Star Trek.
CLIP
There was actually a computer generated voice simulator, which announced, "Base price starts at just $178,543 for the Class IV model." Then it proceeded to announce the prices for all the options and add-ons, which could bring the total price up to $350,000.
And who would be most interested in buying these items? As the Friendly Colonel pointed out, as usual, there were a lot of Russian and Chinese arms dealers there -- but you never really know their ultimate clients. And there were some military officers (they had staff patches) who appeared to be from the Office of Homeland Security, although they don't have military designation insignia yet.
These surveillance drones could be used in Small Town America -- to cruise down the streets to seek out those who are potential threats to the security of the State - those who are "disloyal," those who are "different," and those who have already been deemed to be suspicious by Neighborhood Watch Groups, following the new protocols and reported to the newly created Civilian Defense Force.
At any rate, it was a very slick and very well done presentation. They had the giant Australian prawns, lightly fried in a light batter and served with an oriental plum sauce. The Friendly Colonel says they were just out of this world -- and there was an open bar, of course. He said there's nothing like having taxpayer-funded prime rib and shrimp.
Coming soon to your neighborhood -- sci-fi fascism. People already understand that this advanced technology exists, and the government has not denied that they are using miniaturized fusion power cells. The reason they're not making a big deal out of it is because people would say, "let's replace the oil industry with fusion power." And that is something that even I understand could not be done -- without massive economic dislocation, of course.
3.
US Special Forces in Iraq?
DEBKA
28 Feb 2002
DEBKA-net-weekly: US Special Forces already in Iraq! There are some real "scoops" in the latest intelligence report from Debka, which we received late last night, and which will be posted on our website by noon today. Debka's military sources are indicating that US Special Forces have already crossed into Iraq.
Here's a lengthy excerpt from this week's issue:
"America, taking a leaf out of its own game plan for the Afghan War, has sent its advance units into Iraq - softly. Very quietly, a small vanguard of US Special Forces crossed from Turkey into north Iraq on Friday, February 15.
On January 4, DEBKA-Net-Weekly (in Issue No. 43) predicted the US military offensive against Iraq would begin in February. On February 20, Japan's fifth largest newspaper, Sankei Shimbun was the only other media outlet to pick up the long-awaited deployment.
Five months ago, DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile broke the news of the first US Special Forces landing in Afghanistan on September 17, six days after terrorists struck New York and Washington and three weeks ahead of the main force. Now, a knot of commandos is again blazing the trail for the bulk of the US assault force to go in three or four weeks hence. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military experts therefore expect the main US thrust against Iraq in the second half of March or early April, barring unforeseen circumstances - much sooner than most other experts and media pundits suggest. Our experts add that the Special Forces vanguard has been directed not to recruit Kurdish or other local opposition forces, but to make its way unaided into central Iraq. There, the commandos are to mark out and, in some cases, sabotage military and strategic targets, so as to cripple vital utilities in advance of the main offensive.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly military sources add that a secret American airlift is ferrying into Turkey large army units, as well as air bomber and fighter reinforcements from the American Masirah air base in Oman. Extra anti-missile missile Patriot units are being deployed in Kuwait, Oman, Israel and Turkey.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources offer a four-point US rationale for the timing of the military move into Iraq and the heavy influx of men and weapons.
1. It was considered politic in Washington to get US military strength in place and poised for action before President George W. Bush sat down with President Jiang Zemin and the Chinese leadership in Beijing Thursday, February 21. The Americans counted on this fait accompli persuading the Chinese that the anti-Saddam offensive was inevitable and non-negotiable.
2. The advance guard of Special Forces needed massive backup on hand from the moment it entered Iraq in case of such trouble as: A. Iraqi counter-strikes against US targets in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Turkey and Israel, an exigency requiring a large-scale troop entry to Iraq. B. A major terrorist attack against a US target in the Middle East, Europe or inside America, carried out either by al-Qaeda men, Palestinian terrorists acting on behalf of Iraqi military intelligence, or a combination of the three.
3. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources reveal that when the Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf was visiting Washington ten days ago, quantities of weapons and war materiel, hidden in eastern Afghanistan by the Taliban and al Qaeda, began streaming to Iraq via Pakistan and Iran. This discovery was made by US spy satellites and intelligence sources in the Gulf. Convoys of unmarked trucks were spotted moving large consignments of surface-to-surface missiles - especially Scuds - various types of SAM anti-aircraft missiles, heavy artillery and mountains of ammunition, through the anarchic tribal regions of east Afghanistan and west Pakistan. Iran has been picking the goods up and offloading them onto trains that carry the weapons up to the Iraqi border. US intelligence believes that Saddam handed over tens of millions of dollars to Taliban and some al Qaeda leaders in payment.
The clandestine arms route that has sprung up between Afghanistan and Baghdad was, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources, the reason for the resumption of heavy American air attacks in eastern Afghanistan this week. The idea was to put the convoys out of commission before they reached the Pakistan frontier. Pentagon sources declined to account for the bombardments. However, Saddam is clearly building up his military strength from every source available and the Bush administration could not afford to delay its Iraq campaign much longer.
4. Saddam has found additional purveyors of weapons for fat wads of cash in the Balkans, Central Asia and the Middle East, from which planes and ships loaded with arms are streaming to Iraq. Deliveries are routed mostly through Syria and then across the border into Iraq. Syria thus puts itself, together with Iran, squarely behind the arms buildup Iraq is preparing for the US offensive.
These largely concealed developments, even before they surface, are nonetheless striking prefatory sparks in the world's financial markets, just as the September 11 attacks and the onset of the war in Afghanistan on October 7 did - before they happened."
This report is startling -- and probably accurate -- judging by Debka's track record in breaking important stories weeks and sometimes months ahead of other media. It's an interesting theory that uncertainty surrounding this impending military action in Iraq is already being factored into the financial markets. This may very well be true. Back in September, it was clear in the financial markets that a major downtrend was underway well before the attacks of September 11.
See also:
ANALYSIS-Even playing by UN rules may not save Saddam
http://www2.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=1015599360nL088877&Section=Main&page=Home&channel=Features%20and%20Analysis%20&objectid=C5C3675B-FF61-11D4-867D00D0B74A0D7C
LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Iraqi willingness to discuss readmitting U.N. arms inspectors keeps open the option of containing Saddam Hussein, but will not by itself deflect U.S. hawks bent on his destruction, analysts and diplomats say.
Bush administration confirms plans for war against Iraq (16 February 2002)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/feb2002/iraq-f16.shtml
In an appearance by Secretary of State Colin Powell before a Senate committee, as well as through selected leaks to the press, the Bush administration has confirmed plans to launch a war with Iraq in a matter of months. (...) This decision, with the most far-reaching and potentially disastrous consequences for the people of the Middle East, the United States and the world as a whole, has been taken without even a pretense of consideration for the American constitutional process—which requires a declaration of war — or for international law — under which “planning an offensive war” is a war crime. (...) The recklessness of American foreign policy has sent shudders through the world (...) The Times reported that the administration has made “two strategic decisions.... First, the Iraq problem has to be solved, not simply managed as it was during the two previous U.S. administrations.... Second, Washington is prepared to push beyond the limitations imposed by international sentiment, Arab public opinion and even the original U.N. resolutions that opened the way for Operation Desert Storm 11 years ago to force Iraq out of tiny oil-rich Kuwait.” CLIP
Congressman Ron Paul: Before we Bomb Iraq...
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr022602.htm
Only tyrants can take a nation to war without the consent of the people. The planned war against Iraq without a Declaration of War is illegal.
4.
From: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/local/2690886.htm
Newspaper works against war effort (Feb. 17, 2002)
NEW PUBLICATION HOPES TO SEND WORD NATIONWIDE
A new anti-war newspaper has begun publication in the East Bay, hoping to promote what it bills as a more humane, less jingoistic alternative to the gung-ho militarism of President Bush.
Bob Wing, managing editor of War Times, said he was disturbed by the U.S. government's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Instead of conducting what Wing believed to be a just war to avenge the loss of American lives, he said the Bush administration was killing innocent Afghans and trampling on civil liberties at home.
While other Americans were mounting flags on their cars, Wing began talking to everyone he knew about a project that could counter what he saw as a warmongering atmosphere taking hold of the nation.
The result is War Times, launched by Wing and a small group of writers and activists, which made its debut in a West Oakland warehouse Saturday. After publishing a prospectus of War Times online, Wing said the public response was overwhelming. A first run of 75,000 copies is 10 times the number originally planned by the group.
CLIP
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED: For more information, contact War Times at wartimes@attbi.com
You may also download the first issue of War Times at:
http://www.war-times.org/war_times_pilot_v4.pdf
5.
From: "Mark Graffis" <mgraffis@islands.vi>
Subject: Most valuable seafoods will be only a memory within a decade say scientists
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002
Public release date: 16-Feb-2002
Contact: Jessica Brown jbrown@seaweb.org 202-497-8375 SeaWeb
North Atlantic study reveals food fish catches have declined by half - despite tripled fishing effort
At present rate of decline, most valuable seafoods will be only a memory within a decade say scientists
An international group of leading fisheries scientists will release the results of the first ever ocean-wide synthesis of the status of fisheries in the North Atlantic today at a press conference at the American Association of the Advancement of Science in Boston.
The scientists will present a new portrait of the state of the fisheries which shows that over the last fifty years, the catch of our preferred food fish species such as cod, tuna, haddock, flounder and hake, has decreased by more than half despite a tripling in fishing effort.
"The only way we are maintaining yield is by increasing effort, says Dr. Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre, and the head of the large international project. "But you need fish to make fish, and so we have created a massive reduction in productivity.
While the disastrous collapses in areas like New England and Newfoundland have appeared to be local in scale, this new ocean wide synthesis reveals that the collapse applies to the entire North Atlantic Ocean.
"You may think we are making headway with a few individual stocks, but overall we are unequivocally losing the battle to manage fisheries in the North Atlantic, says Pauly. "Unless you have both long term and large spatial scales, as we have mapped, you cannot see the big picture. The problem is profound at an ocean-wide scale.
Serial depletion of large predatory fishes at the top of all marine food webs means the major fisheries are now invertebrates. "We are fishing for bait and headed for jellyfish. says Pauly.
Ironically, no ocean in the world has had more research dollars and government subsidies for fisheries than the North Atlantic. This is where modern fisheries science started. Yet today, the large fish we find in our local markets are being imported from developing regions of the world such as West Africa, South East Asia and other areas masking our own crisis, says Reg Watson of the University of British Columbia. "We are paying fishers in other oceans to grind down their marine ecosystems for our consumption. This is a serious concern for global food security.
The researchers comprehensive analysis of the state of the North Atlantic also examines the gross economic figures as well as the fisheries subsidies and fuel consumed in search of fish.
"Approximately 2.5 billion dollars of tax-payers money are spent each year subsidizing fishing fleets which spend the money on ever augmenting their technological ability to search out the last fish left, says economist Rashid Sumaila of the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway. The spiraling costs include the price of fuel. Fishers burn more and more fuel as they increase their efforts competing to capture the last of the dwindling resources. "The fuel energy needed to capture a ton of fish has doubled over the last twenty years, says Peter Tyedmers of Dalhousie University.
"The national and international institutions mandated to control and to prevent the growth of excessive fishing effort have largely failed in their mission, says Pauly. "Our study shows this.
Andy Rosenberg, a Dean and fisheries scientist at the University of New Hampshire and former deputy director of the National Marine Fishery Service declares that this new overall picture verifies his ten years of experiences struggling for the recovery of individual stocks. Rosenberg spearheaded the partial closure of George's Bank.
"Policy has followed a fishery by fishery approach. It doesn't work, says Rosenberg. "You can't fix this one fishery at a time, because the boats just move around - the effort simply shifts to somewhere else and makes their problems worse.
"The necessary next steps are substantial reduction of fishing fleets, reduction and eventual abolition of subsidies to industrial fisheries, and unavoidably, the establishment of networks of "no-take marine reserves: to replenish the oceans depleted resources and to restore productivity, says Pauly. "In order to restore productivity to a fishery, the broader ecosystem with its many parts needs to be conserved.
"The only solution is serious and immediate action to reduce the number of boats and to work towards a basin wide ecosystem approach that considers all species, says Rosenberg.
"Systematically we have a huge problem. We can't keep addressing this one symptom at a time.
###
For more information on the study's results go to http://www.seaweb.org/AAAS2002 and for assistance contacting speakers please call Jessica Brown at #202/497-8375 or #831/212-5948.
- Dr. Daniel Pauly: d.pauly@fisheries.ubc.ca - Dr. Andrew Rosenberg: Andy.rosenberg@unh.edu - Dr. Reg Watson: r.watson@fisheries.ubc.ca
6.
WEEKLY GRIST
28 Feb 2002-06 Mar 2002
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE, a project of Earth Day Network
http://www.gristmagazine.com
1.
RESIGNED TO HIS FATE
In the most dramatic move yet relating to the Bush administration's internal battle over federal clean air policy, a senior U.S. EPA official resigned last week to protest White House efforts to weaken tough emissions standards for power plants and oil refineries. Eric Schaeffer, head of the agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement, accused the Energy Department and the White House of kowtowing to the power industry and interfering with EPA efforts to enforce New Source Review rules. The rules require that companies install state-of-the-art pollution controls when upgrading power plants and refineries -- and the Clinton-era EPA sued several utilities for breaking the rules. But responding to pressure from utilities, Vice President Dick Cheney's task force ordered a review of the rules, a move that outraged environmentalists -- and Schaeffer. His resignation has prompted Senate hearings into the Bush administration's environmental record.
Washington Post, 01 Mar 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20479-2002Feb28.html
Nando Times, 01 Mar 2002
http://www.nandotimes.com/politics/story/277382p-2514745c.html
Eric Schaeffer's resignation letter
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/muck/muck030102.asp
CLIP
7.
G-RATIFYING
In a legally binding decision, the 15 nations of the European Union agreed Monday to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change by June. In doing so, the countries committed to an 8 percent total reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels - although they have not yet agreed on emissions targets for each country. The E.U. hoped the action would encourage other nations to ratify the accord prior to a U.N.-sponsored summit on sustainable development, to be held in South Africa in August. To take effect, the treaty must be ratified by 55 countries, including industrialized nations responsible for at least 55 percent of total global emissions. The refusal of the U.S. to participate effectively means that virtually every other industrialized country will have to ratify the treaty.
San Francisco Chronicle, 04 March 2002
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/03/04/international1306EST0633.DTL
BBC News, 04 Mar 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1854000/1854038.stm
To subscribe to WEEKLY GRIST, send a blank email message to
weekly-grist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
