Novermber 22, 2001
Miscellaneous Subjects #116: The Truth-Seeking Saga Continues
Hello everyone
I have so much material to send you this week that I'll have to send you an extra Light Series compilation later on today.
As usual feel free to circulate... and your comments are welcomed!
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
P.S. The extensive List of Alternative Sites I sent you last week is posted with all the links activated - one by one! - at the bottom of http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/CorpocracyUncovered3.htm
There is another such list below.
"Today we stand on the verge of a civil liberties calamity in this country. The Administration and the Attorney General have taken a series of constitutionally dubious actions that place the Executive branch in the untenable role of legislator, prosecutor, judge, and jury. Certainly, we stand together as a nation in our collective outrage over the September 11th terrorist attacks. However, we do nothing to win the battle against terrorism by sacrificing our precious freedoms and liberties. (...) Collectively, the Administration has swept away the independent judiciary, the right to a public trial, the right to an appeal, the right to counsel, due process, equal protection and habeas corpus. Not bad for two week's work."
- Congressman John Conyers, Jr. - Details at http://www.truthout.com/11.20B.Conyers.Trials.htm
"Polls may show that the majority of Americans support the current U.S. Senior Administration, polls which appear, from my own local community interactions and worldwide contacts, to be grossly biased. The media blackout in this country cannot keep Truth from prevailing. You cannot ignore the passionate protests against the selective anti-terrorist actions by the U.S. government, the dismantling of The Bill of Rights, or the outrage at a stolen election. Myself and millions of like-minded, VOTING, thinking, TAX PAYING, U.S. Citizens will fight to uphold the Original U.S. Constitution and the good of Humanity."
- Teri Madsen, California, in a letter to US Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, demanding a "Full Congressional Investigation into wrong-doing which may lead to Impeachment of the Bush administration." Taken from the WHAT MATTERS e-letter (issue #26) published by Boudewijn Wegerif <bw@jak.se> in Sweden and available at http://www.whatmatters.nu/wmemails/wmemails4.html#WM-26
To subscribe to the WHAT MATTERS E-letters: http://www.whatmatters.nu/contacts.html
"What we've seen, since September 11th, if you add up everything that Ashcroft, Bush, Gonzales and their coterie of Federalist Society lawyers have done here, is a coup d'etat against the United States Constitution. There's no question about it. When you add in the Ashcroft police state bill that was passed by Congress (and several members of Congress admitted, "We never even read this thing when we voted for it.") - that's really what we're seeing now, Dennis, a constitutional coup d'etat. There's no other word for it. (...) The critical question is: When will the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency start to turn these powers, that they have under the Ashcroft police state bill, against American citizens? Clearly, that will be the next step."
- Professor Francis A. Boyle, in an interview by Dennis Bernstein, host of "Flashpoints", KPFA Radio 94.1 FM - Berkeley, California Wednesday, Nov 14, 2001. Sent by Mark Graffis <mgraffis@vitelcom.net>
CONTENTS
1. Restore Democracy
2. We control America
3. The WTO's Hidden Agenda
4. USDA Approves Terminator Seed Technology Despite Opposition
5. Could POPCORN be worse for your LUNGS than CIGARETTES?
6. LAND OF THE OIL-FREE
OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST
SHOCKING New Book - Bin Laden: The Hidden Truth
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2001/1119/wor8.htm
Years Of Efforts To Arrest bin Laden Being Blocked By The US
The WTC was bombed right AFTER Bush-Taliban oil pipeline talks soured
http://www.rense.com/general17/before.htm
U.S. and 21 Other Nations Pledge Billions to Rebuild Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/21/international/21DIPL.html
Alienable Rights (U.S. Above the Law? or Lawless?)
http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2001/558/4war1.htm
The American Service-members Protection Act (ASPA) authorises the US to use force to "liberate" any US or allied persons detained on behalf of the proposed International Criminal Court (ICC), which will be based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Canadian "anti-terrorism" law attacks democratic rights (20 November 2001)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/can-n20.shtml"
Canada's Liberal government is rushing to enact an "anti-terrorism" bill that breaks with key British-Canadian jurisprudence tenets historically developed in the struggle against arbitrary and unfettered Executive power. (...) Bill C-36 has been severely criticized by civil rights groups, associations of lawyers, and the Canadian Arab Federation and other immigrant and ethnic organizations. According to the Quebec Bar Association, "certain of Bill C-36's clauses would lead to violations of the rights recognized by the [Canadian]Charter" of Rights and Freedoms. "It would be a mistake," it adds, "to believe that this law will not eventually be used against Canadians and Canadians who are not terrorists."
Flight 587 Video Shows 'Puff of Smoke' in Sky
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2001/11/17/103936
Carpet bombing 'kills 150 civilians' in frontline town (20 November 2001)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=105629
A catastrophic error by carpet-bombing US Air Force warplanes was blamed yesterday for the deaths of about 150 unarmed Afghan civilians in a densely populated frontline town caught up in the battle for the Taliban redoubt of Kunduz. Terrified refugees fleeing the town of Khanabad yesterday told The Independent that American planes had bombed the area a few miles from Kunduz daily since Thursday, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the buildings they were bombing were civilian homes. (...) "I saw 20 dead children on the streets," said Zumeray, one of the refugees. "Forty people were killed yesterday alone." CLIP
A HARD LOOK AT IRAQ SANCTIONS
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11933
Changing American policy in Iraq is an urgent priority, both for humanitarian reasons and as a means of addressing an intensely felt political grievance against the U.S.
Experts: Homeless Numbers Climbing (November 19, 2001)
http://www.truthout.com/11.20C.911.Homeless.htm
NEW YORK (AP) -- A lack of affordable housing and economic woes that have worsened since Sept. 11 have sent the homeless population in some of the nation's largest cities climbing, experts say. There are now nearly 30,000 homeless adults and children in New York City shelters -- an all-time high, the Coalition for the Homeless said Monday. New York lost nearly 80,000 jobs following the World Trade Center attack, and many people have turned to soup kitchens and food pantries. CLIP
Last week, the Labor Department said the number of laid-off workers drawing jobless benefits had reached an 18-year high. The nation's unemployment rate soared to 5.4 percent in October and companies eliminated 415,000 jobs, the biggest one-month drop in 21 years. Nationwide, the homeless numbers are grim. A March 2000 survey by the Census Bureau found 280,527 homeless people around the country. The bureau reported that on the first day of the three-day survey, 170,706 people were in homeless and emergency shelters -- including 59,000 combined in New York and California. CLIP
The Economic Stimulus Package: A Guide to What Special Interests Want and May Get
http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/v6/alertv6_28.asp
1.
THIS WAS SENT BY Mona LaVine - EXCELLENT SUMMARY OF RECENT INFO I PASSED ON TO YOU
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2000
From: J Cullen <jcullen@austin.rr.com>
Subject: Restore Democracy
THE PROGRESSIVE POPULIST: A JOURNAL FROM THE HEARTLAND
December 1, 2001 -- Volume 7, Number 21
From: http://www.populist.com/01.21.edit.html
EDITORIAL
Restore Democracy
When George W. Bush, in a pique about a website (gwbush.com) set up to ridicule him, declared on May 21, 1999, "There ought to be limits to freedom," pundits wrote it off as one in a series of gaffes by a Texas governor unaccustomed to the national spotlight. However it looks more and more as if that comment revealed W's true attitude toward civil liberties.
We're beginning to wonder about his July 30 crack that "A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
Now, two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush has the USA Patriot Act, which not only permits the detention of non-citizens based merely on the attorney general's certification that he has "reasonable grounds to believe" the alien endangers national security. It also gives an unscrupulous attorney general (and we hardly ever get one of those) the tools to harass government critics even among the citizenry.
The act minimizes judicial supervision of federal telephone and Internet surveillance by law enforcement authorities, expands the ability of the government to conduct secret searches, gives the attorney general and the secretary of state the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations and deport any non-citizen who belongs to them, grants the FBI broad access to sensitive business records about individuals without having to show evidence of a crime and leads to large-scale investigations of American citizens for "intelligence" purposes.
The bill gives entirely too much discretion to the attorney general, who immediately showed his lack of discretion by announcing that he would order the monitoring of jailhouse conversations between terrorism suspects and their attorneys. The Justice Department also said they no longer would tell how many alien suspects were in custody, much less what was happening to them, and on Nov. 13, Bush signed an executive order allowing trials of suspected terrorists in military courts.
We agree with the Burlington, Iowa, Hawk-Eye, which editorialized on Nov. 10, "Law by law, edict by executive order, America has been racing toward fascism since Sept. 11."
Some might consider us paranoid to suggest that the Bush administration would use its powers for less than noble purposes, but consider how much of the world already views the raising of George W. Bush to the White House: The election of the son of a former CIA director/president depended on a handful of disputed votes in a state controlled by the candidate's brother. When election judges attempted to review the disputed ballots, Republicans sent thugs to disrupt the process. When the state Supreme Court attempted to order a recount, the US Supreme Court, in a split decision, overruled the state court on a tortured point and practically ordered the election handed to Bush.
Now, after a year of review that cost $1 million, eight media outlets declare that Bush's election was legitimate and the US Supremes didn't decide the election, even though the media recount found that Gore actually got more votes in Florida. Pundit logic holds that Gore only asked for a recount in four counties, and when those votes were correctly tallied and added to the rest of the flawed statewide count Bush finished with more votes. If Gore had thought to ask for a statewide recount, the mainstream media would have had to come up with another pretext to legitimize Bush's presidency.
But there's nothing like a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to legitimize a president with shaky public support. In the space of a few days in September Bush went from a barely 50% approval rating to 90%, just like his old man had done when he took on Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Still, while the mainstream US media are acting as cheerleaders, some questions need to be answered - and they're mainly coming from overseas. Greg Palast and David Pallister, wrote in the London Guardian on Nov. 7 that FBI and other intelligence officials in Washington say they were prevented for political reasons from carrying out investigations into members of the bin Laden family in the US before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. FBI documents showed that agents earlier sought to investigate two of Osama bin Laden's relatives in Washington and their connection with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth.
But the FBI files were closed in 1996, apparently before any conclusions could be reached on either the bin Laden brothers or the organization itself. High-placed intelligence sources in Washington told the Guardian: "There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis." They said the restrictions became worse after the Bush administration took over this year. The intelligence agencies had been told to "back off" from investigations involving other members of the bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan. (For more information see www.GregPalast.com.)
Then there are reports out of France that a CIA agent met with Osama bin Laden in July, while bin Laden was in Dubai for medical treatment (see "Dispatches"). While US media have virtually ignored the report, the Guardian Nov 1 reported that the disclosures came from French intelligence, which wanted to reveal the CIA's ambiguous role in dealing with the terrorist threat.
Pakistan's chief spy Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad, whose ISI had close ties with bin Laden and the Taliban, was in the US for consultations with the CIA and the Pentagon when the attacks occurred, having arrived on Sept. 4, noted Michel Chossudovsky of the Canadian Centre for Research on Globalisation (see globalresearch.ca). After Ahmad was replaced as military intelligence chief on Oct. 7, the Times of India reported links between Ahmad and the presumed "ringleader" of the WTC attacks, Mohamed Atta.
Other intelligence agencies reportedly passed along word that something big appeared to be in the offing before Sept. 11 - but you couldn't tell it by the reaction of the FBI and the CIA. It is unthinkable that US intelligence agencies might have allowed such a terrorist attack to occur - but they do stand to get a windfall of resources in the new war against terrorism, while the right wing gets a new enemy to replace the Soviet Union and keep the military-industrial complex running. Questions need to be answered.
But George W. Bush is making it harder to get those answers. Attorney General John Ashcroft has instructed the administration to resist Freedom of Information requests. Bush has been delaying the release of papers from the Reagan administration, which was required under the Presidential Records Act of 1978. There is speculation that the documents would tarnish current Bush administration members and perhaps Reagan's vice president, George Bush, the current president's father.
Under W's executive order, a former president, a sitting president - even the family of a deceased president - could block the release of records and force journalists, scholars or others to go to court to challenge such decisions.
In past interpretations of the Presidential Records Act, a former president could claim privilege for particular documents, but the national archivist could overrule him, and the former president would have to go to court to sustain his claim.
Even some Republicans, such as Rep. Stephen Horn of California, chairman of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Presidential Records Act, said the administration should "revisit" the order. If Bush doesn't back off, Congress should act to clarify its intent.
But Bush apparently is not a big believer in public records. The Austin Chronicle's Sept. 12 issue noted that Bush's records as governor were moved to this father's presidential library this past January, around the time of the Inaugural. The transfer apparently put Bush's records as governor under federal authority, which would close off access to the gubernatorial archives for the foreseeable future.
Maybe Bush really believes that democracy is not the people's business. We must set him and Congress straight.
- JMC
TABLE OF CONTENTS, Progressive Populist, December 1, 2001
CLIP - LOTS OF REALLY EXCELLENT ARTICLES. TO READ THEM, GO AT http://www.populist.com
To subscribe to populist news, send a message to populist-news-subscribe@egroups.com or go the this e-group's home page at http://www.egroups.com/list/populist-news.
2.
Sent by "Phyllis von Miller" <violetvisions@surf1.ws>
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001
From: "Jon Chance" <jonathanchance@hotmail.com>
We control America
"Every time we do something you [Shimon Peres] tell me America will do this and will do that.... I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people [sic], control America, and the Americans know it."
- Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister, Knesset, Tel Aviv, October 3, 2001.
The Israelis wasted no time in the wake of the attack in downtown Manhattan.
Within three minutes a former Prime Minister was seen on the BBC demanding that Iraq, Iran, Libya and others be destroyed. A remarkably rapid response driving the average reader to question how Israeli officials could possibly have responded to a "surprise" attack of this sort without prior or inside knowledge. Read the story here:
http://geocities.com/vialls2/index.html
Clear evidence of "our" government's complicity in the 9-11 attack is being systematically removed from websites, including http://psyopnews.com which detailed the impossibility of the Twin Towers being destroyed by the aircraft without additional explosives.
Many websites and domains and links, having nothing to do with 9-11 realities, have also been hijacked, including my site http://solar-solutions.net which explains how to circumvent unlawful corporate-government obstacles and cost-effectively harvest renewable energy & transportation.
What's next? Will the puppet-politicians in Washington pass legislation making solar energy illegal?
How about illegalizing gravity? That might be fun. If you're a "lawyer", you can do anything, right? The cops will get stuck trying to enforce impossible "laws".
Most interesting is the removal of http://www.fec.gov/votregis/vendorslist.htm and http://www.secinfo.com/dsvrp.77f8.htm
Both sites provided the paper-trail of the corporations and individuals who manipulate US vote-tabulation with new computerized systems, such as "AccuVote".
Some information on Global Election Systems, last time I checked, is available at http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/2/0,2163,103232,00.html
For more on Election Fraud 2000, see:
http://egroups.com/group/cea-usa/message/16
and
http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=84&row=1
This is not about Democrats vs Republicans. Never really has been. It's about the totalitarian takeover of the US and the world by certain global power groups such as http://trilateral.org and http://www.bilderberg.org .
It's vital for citizens to PRINT and BACKUP all evidence of unlawful activity.
Jon Chance
***
ACT LOCALLY - ACT GLOBALLY. MORE WORLD - LESS BANK.
THIS AIN'T A DEMOCRACY - IT'S AN EMERGENCY!
http://egroups.com/group/jpchance - Jon Chance * US Congress.
"Either you're going to go along with your mind and the truth, or you're going to yield to fear and custom and conditioned reflexes. With our minds alone we can discover those principles we need to employ to convert all humanity to success in a new, harmonious relationship with the universe. We have the option to make it."
- R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983
http://egroups.com/group/cea-usa - Citizens Administration.
http://antiwar.com - Like World Wars? Fight 'Em Yourself.
http://astridmm.com/prouty - Inside Covert Operations.
http://barefootsworld.net - Educate Yo'Self!
http://bfi.org - An Option For Success.
http://copvcia.com - Officer Ruppert vs The CIA.
http://futurenet.org - Yes! Positive Futures Network.
http://henrygeorge.org - Understanding Economics.
http://homepower.com - Home-Made Power.
http://members.shaw.ca/revelation18 - Counter-Propaganda.
http://opensecrets.org - Who's Bribing Who?
http://secession.net - Individual & Community Liberty.
http://tenc.net - The Emperor's New Clothes.
http://tompaine.com - Common Sense.
http://transaction.net - Money: Where's It Come From?
http://www.admin.ch - Confederation Works Best.
http://www.awea.org - Prosperity Without Pollution.
http://www.bis.org - Need Money? Negotiate With These Guys.
http://www.cia.gov - Criminal Ignorance Agency.
http://www.constitution.org - Legitimate Government.
http://www.dia.mil - Defense Intelligence Agency.
http://www.interpol.int - Confused But Useful.
If you'd like to receive future updates, please send a BLANK message with "Add me to your list" in the SUBJECT box to jonathanchance@hotmail.com
Thank you,
Jon Chance
72 Peterborough Street
Boston MA 02215 USA
617-859-8155
jpchance@egroups.com
http://egroups.com/group/jpchance
---
SEE ALSO:
WE BEEN NORC'D! (November 13, 2001)
http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=106&row=0
With all those waivers in place - yes, Gore nailed it - by a mile.
Greg Palast - The Observer (London)
Media review of Florida ballots whitewashes theft of 2000 election (6 November 2001) http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/flor-n16.shtml
On November 12, a consortium of major US news organizations, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and CNN, released the results of a 10-month investigation into disputed votes cast in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. The media report was calculated to boost the political legitimacy of the Bush administration and obscure the profoundly anti-democratic manner in which Bush was installed in the White House. CLIP Both during and after the 2000 election, the main preoccupation of the media has been to insist on Bush's political legitimacy and dismiss the election crisis as little more than a partisan squabble. Just two months ago, New York Times Washington bureau chief Richard Berke wrote a column in which he said the events of September 11 had rendered the consortium's recount "utterly irrelevant." CLIP
Consortium Muddles Recount, Again http://AlterNet.org/story.html?StoryID=11900
The long-awaited recount of the Florida election revealed little new information. That didn't stop news outlets from declaring Bush a winner, even though more people intended to vote for Gore.
(...) Under some of the strictest standards -- including those proposed by the Bush camp during last year's recount fight -- Gore won. CLIP The Washington Post was even more blunt, stating that, "If there had been some way last fall to recount every vote -- undervotes and overvotes alike, in all 67 Florida counties -- former vice president Al Gore would be the White House." CLIP "Consider that 70,616 overvotes statewide included a mark, dimple, hanging chad, partial or cleanly-punched chad for Gore and any combination of third-party candidates. That's nearly three times the 24,600 overvotes that included some discernible mark for George W. Bush and any combination of third-party candidates, according to a comprehensive examination of these ballots performed by the Palm Beach Post and seven other media organizations. The review suggests what many pundits said a year ago: Uncounted ballots and voter confusion cost Gore the election."
Results from the Florida Ballot Review Project
http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/fl/results/index.html
Theft of Presidency
http://gregpalast.com/columns.cfm?subject_id=1&subject_name=Theft%20of%20Presidency
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS: THE FAILURE OF U.S. JOURNALISM
http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=33&row=1
3.
From: http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=105&row=0
The WTO's Hidden Agenda (November 9, 2001)
LONDON -- Three confidential documents from inside the World Trade Organization Secretariat and a group of captains of London finance, who call themselves the "British Invisibles," reveal the extraordinary secret entanglement of industry with government in designing European and American proposals for radical pro-business changes in WTO rules. CLIP
Two other sets of documents suggest that LOTIS and other corporate lobbyists appeared to have been astonishingly successful in getting Western governments to adopt their plans to radically expand the reach of the GATS treaty. A confidential memo dated March 19th obtained from inside the WTO's Secretariat, written four weeks after the LOTIS meeting on the matter, indicates that European negotiators had accepted industry-favored amendments to GATS Article VI.4, known as the "necessity test."
The necessity test requires nations to prove that their regulations -- from pollution control to child labor laws -- are not hidden impediments to trade. Industry wants the WTO to employ a necessity test similar to the one in the North America Free Trade Agreement which has worked to reverse local environmental rules. For example, Mexico has been forced to pay $17 million to an American corporation, Metalclad, for delaying the operation of the company's toxic waste dump and processing plant. Local Mexican officials had attempted to block the plant's operation on the grounds that it was built without a construction permit, and would not have received one, as the plant handling toxins was placed above the area's drinking water supply.
According to the secret March 19 memo from the Working Party on Domestic Regulation, issued to WTO members by the organization's Secretariat, European negotiators reached a private consensus to change the worldwide GATS agreement to include a much stronger form of the necessity test than found even in NAFTA. The Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico only requires that a nation's regulations be "least trade restrictive."
Under the GATS, as proposed in the memo, national laws and regulations would be struck down if they are "more burdensome than necessary" to business. The difference between the NAFTA language and the proposal for GATS is subtle, but the effect would be enormous. The language in the WTO memo effectively removes trade from the equation. Rather, a nation would have to adopt rules which are, in the memo's words, the most "efficient" -- that is to say those which carry the lowest cost to business. CLIP
4.
From: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe20010811/commo15.html
USDA Approves Terminator Seed Technology Despite Opposition
It's official now. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last week that it has concluded negotiations to license the notorious Terminator' technology to its seed industry partner, Delta & Pine Land (D&PL). As a result of joint research, the USDA and D&PL are co-owners of three patents on the controversial technology, that genetically modifies plants to produce sterile seeds, preventing farmers from re-using harvested seed. A licensing agreement establishes the terms and conditions under which a party can use a patented technology.
Although many of the gene-giants hold patents on Terminator technology, D&PL is the only company that has publicly declared its intention to commercialise Terminator seeds. "USDA's decision to license Terminator flies in the face of international public opinion and betrays the public trust," said Ms Hope Shand, research-director of an international organisation dedicated to sustainable use of bio-diversity - RAFI. "Terminator technology has been universally condemned by civil society; banned by international agricultural research institutes, censured by United Nation bodies, even shunned by Monsanto, and yet the US Government has officially sanctioned commercialisation of the technology by licensing it to one of the world's largest seed companies," explains Ms Shand. "USDA's role in developing Terminator seeds is a disgraceful example of corporate welfare, involving a technology that is bad for farmers, dangerous for the environment and disastrous for world food security," adds Ms Silvia Ribeiro of RAFI.
Terminator has been universally opposed as an immoral technology because over 1.4 billion people, primarily poor farmers, depend on farm-saved seeds as their primary seed source. Mr Michael Schechtman, executive-secretary to USDA's Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology, made the official announcement regarding the licensing of Terminator at the Committee's August 1 meeting.
The 38-member Advisory Committee, established during the Clinton administration, was created to advise the Secretary of Agriculture on issues related to growing public controversy over GM technology. Although many members of the Biotech Advisory Committee urged the USDA to abandon its patents and forsake all further research on genetic seed sterilisation, the USDA steadfastly declined. The official statement by USDA states that the Agency "had a legal obligation" to license the technology to D&PL.
In a lackluster attempt to quell its critics, the USDA pledged to negotiate licensing restrictions on how the Terminator technology could be deployed by Delta & Pine Land. "In the end, the restrictions negotiated by USDA are meaningless," concludes Mr Michael Sligh, RAFI-USA's director of 'Sustainable Agriculture', and member of the Biotech Advisory Committee. According to Mr Sligh, "USDA's promotion of Terminator technology puts private profits above public good and the rights of farmers everywhere." Mr Sligh spearheaded efforts amongst Advisory Board members who urged the USDA to abandon Terminator. USDA places the following conditions on D&PL's deployment of Terminator:
1) The licensed Terminator technology will not be used in any heirloom varieties of garden flowers and vegetables and it will not be used in any variety of plant available in the market-place before January 1, 2003.
2) USDA scientists will be involved in safety testing of new varieties incorporating the GM trait for seed sterility, and a full and public process of safety evaluation must be completed prior to regulatory sign-off by USDA.
3) All royalties accruing to USDA from the use of Terminator will be earmarked to technology transfer efforts for USDA's Agricultural Research Service innovations that will be made widely available to the public.
USDA concludes that Terminator "is a valuable technology". Ironically, the agency promotes Terminator as a "green" technology that will prevent gene flow from transgenic plants. "We reject the notion that Terminator is a biosafety bandage for GM crops with leaky genes, but even if it were biosafety, at the expense of food security is unacceptable," concludes RAFI's Ms Silvia Ribeiro.
Last year the FAO's panel of eminent experts on Ethics in Food and Agriculture concluded that Terminator seeds are unethical. When heads of state meet at FAO's World Food Summit five years later in Rome, 9-15 November, they will have the opportunity to re-affirm that finding, and recommend that member nations ban the technology. In keeping with its image as a rogue, isolationist state in international treaty negotiations on global warming and biological weapons, the US also appears to stand alone on Terminator.
Delta & Pine Land, USA is the world's 9th largest seed corporation, with revenues of $301 million in 2000. The company has joint ventures and/or subsidiaries in North America, Brazil, Argentina, China, Mexico, Paraguay, South Africa, Australia, and China.
---
Subject: NWO Link To USDA Approving Monsanto's Terminator Seed
From Calvin Howard <pinnacle@ctimail.com>
Date: 8-14-1
Dear Jeff,
I don't know if you are aware, but Delta & Pine Land Corporation is a 28,000 acre experimental farm owned by the Queen of England (Elizabeth Hanover aka Windsor). It lies approx 10 miles north of Greenville, Mississippi on the most fertile black earth farm in America. Back in the '60's the land was secretly bought up by several different schills under many different names, paying higher than normal prices to local farmers, and then after all the purchases were made the contiguous piece of land became one gigantic farm. According to records, it is the largest single crop-growing farm in the U.S. Smells a bit fishy that the USDA is approving seeds from this foreign owned agri-corporation. A little more of the NWO don't you think? Thought you'd like to know.
5.
From: Chere Rae <heartvisions@earthlink.net>
Subject: Could POPCORN be worse for your LUNGS than CIGARETTES?
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
November 7th, 2001
Dear Reader,
Do you remember those "food-busters" reports put out by the non-profit advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), revealing the hidden health risks in everything from Chinese and Mexican food to fast-food hamburgers? In particular, I remember their report on movie theater popcorn - something I had been carefully choosing over JuJu Bees and Goobers for years. That was, until I read the CSPI report, which showed that a large bag of movie theater popcorn contained as much saturated fat as six Big Macs!
These days, I don't go to the movies much. But when we rent one to watch at home, I still like to have my popcorn. I felt okay about that, because even though I got lazy and made the popcorn in my microwave, it wasn't in the dangerous oils implicated in the CSPI report. But now I've learned about another health risk from popcorn - one that stems specifically from microwave brands.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that at least 24 workers at a microwave popcorn plant in Missouri have been diagnosed with serious lung conditions. The average age of the victims is 36, and before they became ill, most of them were in excellent health. So what caused this bizarre outbreak? According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the popcorn's artificial butter flavoring is to blame.
6.
DAILY GRIST
20 Nov 2001
http://www.gristmagazine.com
1.
LAND OF THE OIL-FREE
On Sept. 11, the "American way of life" came under attack. The attacks were horrific -- but, as Keith Schneider writes in a new article in Grist, they have led to an important and encouraging national dialogue about the consequences of our oil-dependent lifestyle. Schneider, a former New York Times correspondent, notes that one of the surprising outcomes of the tragedies has been the willingness of some conservatives to take seriously one of environmentalism's most important goals: the creation of a more energy-efficient, less resource-dependent way of life. Read it only on the Grist Magazine website.
Only in Grist: Redefining the "American way of life" -- by Keith Schneider
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/maindish/schneider112001.asp
See also:
Domestic oil and gas is not the ticket to energy security -- by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/lovins112001.asp
Take action to stop the Bush energy plan
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/climate.asp
