MAY LOVE PREVAIL ON EARTH


February 25, 2004

Miscellaneous Subjects #204: Man-made Nuklehorrors


Hello everyone

Trying to achieve some kind of balance in these compilations with the very difficult topics that need consideration - with hopefully some positive action in response - is often difficult. If you can make it to this end you'll find that despite the man-made horrors created by some, there is always equally hope-stirring efforts made by others to help restore some peace and sanity in the face of far too many demented U.S. policies.

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator

Free subscription to such compilations by sending a blank email to earthrainbownetwork-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

This compilation is archived at http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/Archives2004/MiscelSubjects204.htm


"In my view, use of DU weaponry necessarily violates the grave breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions, and hence its use constitutes a war crime or crime against humanity."

- Dennis Kucinich - taken from "Depleted Uranium" below


Worthy of Your Attention

Soulpaintings
http://www.friedrichjoost.dk
The artist Friedrich Joost is German and is living in Denmark. Recommended by Jette Møller Ibsen jette@ibsen-co.dk who wrote "His soul paintings means a lot to me."

International Spiritual Alliance for Global Change
http://www.intspiritualalliance.org

Earthship Biotecture
http://earthship.org/
Imagine... living in a home that cost you nothing to heat or cool - Imagine... building this home yourself - Imagine... growing your own vegetables year round in this home - Imagine... no utility bills - Imagine... easily available "limitless natural resources" to build this type of home - Imagine... a more earth friendly civilization - Imagine... EARTHSHIPS


CONTENTS

1. Dennis Kucinich on Depleted Uranium
2. WHO ‘suppressed’ scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq
3. Administration Favors Nuclear Free-For-All
4. SCIENCE FRICTION + A GREEN AND PLEASANT CONTINENT + YUCCA WILL LEAKA
5. EMF: The Corporations' Spades of Ace
6. What exactly is the Skull & Bones Order?
7. Astonishing - Canada may host U.S. missiles
8. Address by the President of India
9. What Is Friendship?


See also:

Deal Struck to Slow Global Species Loss (23 February)
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23931/story.htm
KUALA LUMPUR - KUALA LUMPUR - Rich and poor countries struck a draft deal to slow the loss of plant and animal species, agreeing to speed work on creating protected areas and rewarding developing states for their natural assets. "There's an agreement now," Hans Hoogeven, one of the main officials chairing the U.N. talks on global species variety, or biodiversity, told Reuters. He said a core group of countries reached a compromise on a range of issues including indigenous peoples' rights, guidelines for creating protected areas, and governance of access to genetic resources and the sharing of any ensuing wealth. But the deal, which also detailed plans to monitor progress made under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), still lacked final clearance from all countries at a full meeting that ran past midnight into early Saturday. "We're grinding our way through," U.N. spokesman Michael Williams said. Negotiator Jose Fernandez of Mexico, a country encapsulating the species loss challenge with its huge variety of life set against development and indigenous peoples' rights issues, said all sides could nevertheless cheer the outcome. "There's something for everyone to be gained in the text we arrived at," he said, highlighting a mandate to start talks governing access to biodiversity and rules on sharing the associated wealth generated. CLIP

Pentagon downplays report on climate change that it commissioned (Feb 24)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=afp/us_environment_climate
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Defense Department downplayed a report on climate change that it had commissioned, saying it was speculative and shrugging off its call to make the issue a top political priority. (...) According to Britain's The Observer, US military officials censored an alarming report because the issue of global warming could wind up thrust into the US presidential campaign ahead of the November vote. Environmental activists charge Bush with downplaying the importance of global warming noting his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. The Pentagon report predicts that "abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies," The Observer reported. CLIP

Scientist Says 'Asian Brown Cloud' Threatens Gulf (Feb 25)
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23976/story.htm
DUBAI - A body of pollution which has been identified in the skies across Asia is now threatening to engulf the Middle East and make the planet a drier place, a leading environmental scientist said on Tuesday.

Iraq Oil Pipelines Hit as Sabotage Spreads South (Feb 25)
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23977/story.htm
MAKHUL, Iraq - Iraq's northern oil export pipeline is still coming under attack, officials said Monday, as sabotage hit infrastructure further south, raising fresh fears about the vulnerability of the country's oil industry.




1.

AT LONG LAST, ONE COURAGEOUS, BRILLIANT, AMAZING HUMAN BEING WHO HAPPENS TO BE A U.S. POLITICIAN EXPOSES THE HORRIFIC TRUTH ABOUT DEPLETED URANIUM AND PLEDGE TO HALT THIS SCOURGE

New issues page from the Kucinich Campaign website

http://www.kucinich.us/issues/depleted_uranium.php

Depleted Uranium

As President, I will order an end to the United States' illegal use of depleted uranium munitions and will lead an international effort to recover depleted uranium. I will promote environmental remediation. Also, I will develop a program to provide care and restitution for people suffering as a result of the United States' use of depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons production, nuclear testing, and uranium mining.

Through four wars (Gulf War I, Sarajevo, Afghanistan, and Gulf War II), the U.S. military has deployed tons of nuclear tank missiles of depleted uranium (DU), which are solid 10-pound uranium bullets made from radioactive waste from the U.S. Department of Energy's uranium enrichment process. At least 350 tons of solid radioactive uranium remains in Iraq after Gulf War I, and 2,000 more tons of radioactive rubble has been added from our present Gulf War II. Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.

According to Pentagon experts, approximately 13,000 Gulf War I veterans are now dead as result of injuries and illnesses incurred while participating in military operations between August 1990 and October 1991. As of May 2002, at least 221,000 veterans were on disability as result of injuries and illnesses incurred during military operations in the Persian Gulf combat theater of operations. All of our troops presently in Iraq are continually being exposed to this radioactive depleted uranium contamination, other war related contaminants, water- and food-borne illnesses, and endemic diseases every second they remain there.

A recent study shows that U.S. Gulf War veterans' children have a much higher likelihood of having three specific types of birth defects: two types of heart valve abnormality occurring to children of male veterans, and genital-urinary defects to children born of female veterans. A study of British veterans of the Gulf War, Bosnia, and Kosovo reveals that they have 10 to 14 times the usual level of chromosomal abnormalities.

A Canadian medical research facility recently found that the urine of Afghani people living near the area where the United States carried out military operations contained radioactive isotopes 100 to 400 times as high as Gulf War veterans from the United Kingdom who were tested in 1999. The Canadian team recorded an average of 315.5 nanograms of these isotopes in people in Jalalabad, Tora Bora, and Mazar-e-Sharif. A 12-year-old boy near Kabul tested at 2,031 nanograms. The maximum exposure considered safe by the United States is 9 nanograms/year. With growing evidence of an increase in birth defects and stillborns, the situation should be addressed as an issue of the highest priority.

According to humanitarian law specialist, Karen Parker J.D., a weapon is made illegal in two ways: (1) by adoption of a specific treaty banning it; and (2) because it may not be used without violating the existing law and customs of war. A weapon made illegal only because there is a specific treaty banning it is only illegal for countries that ratify such a treaty. A weapon that is illegal by operation of existing law is illegal for all countries. This is true even if there is also a treaty on this weapon and a country has not ratified that treaty. As there is no specific treaty banning depleted uranium weapons, its illegality must be established in the second fashion.

The laws and customs of war (humanitarian law) include all treaties governing military operations, weapons, and protection of victims of war, as well as all customary international law on these subjects. In other words, in evaluating whether a particular weapon is legal or illegal when there is not a specific treaty, the whole of humanitarian law must be consulted.

There are four rules derived from the whole of humanitarian law regarding weapons:

1. Weapons may only be used in the legal field of battle, defined as legal military targets of the enemy in the war. Weapons may not have an adverse effect off of the legal field of battle. (The "territorial" test).

2. Weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed conflict. A weapon that is used or continues to act after the war is over violates this criterion. (The "temporal" test).

3. Weapons may not be unduly inhumane. (The "humaneness" test). The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 use the terms "unnecessary suffering" and "superfluous injury" for this concept.

4. Weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the natural environment. (The "environmental" test).

DU weaponry fails all four tests:

1. It cannot be "contained" to legal fields of battle and thus fails the territorial test. Instead, the DU is air-borne far afield of legal targets to illegal (civilian) targets: hospitals, schools, civilian dwellings, and even neighboring countries with which the user is not at war.

2. It cannot be "turned off" when the war is over. Instead, DU weaponry continues to act after hostilities are over and thus fails the temporal test. Even with rigorous cleanup of war zones, the air-borne particles have a half-life of billions of years and have potential to keep killing and injuring former combatants and non-combatants long after the war is over. The toxicity is confirmed by U.S. Army documents. The Director of the U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute stated in a congressionally mandated report that "No available technology can significantly change the inherent chemical and radiological toxicity of DU. These are intrinsic properties of uranium." (Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the U.S. Army: Technical Report, AEPI, June 1995)

3. It is inhumane and thus fails the humaneness test. DU weaponry is inhumane because of how it can kill -- by cancer, kidney disease, etc. -- and long after the hostilities are over when the killing must stop. DU is inhumane because it can cause birth (genetic) defects such as cranial facial anomalies, missing limbs, grossly deformed and non-viable infants and the like, thus affecting children who may never be a military target and who are born after the war is over. The teratogenic nature of DU weapons and the possible burdening of the gene pool of future generations raise the possibility that the use of DU weaponry amounts to genocide.

4. It cannot be used without unduly damaging the natural environment and thus fails the environment test. Damage to the natural environment includes contamination of water and agricultural land necessary for the subsistence of the civilian population far beyond the lifetime of that population. The U.S. Army also confirms that depleted uranium contamination will affect food and water. The primary U.S. Army training manual: Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks states "NOTE: (Depleted uranium) Contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption." Cleanup is an inexact science and, in any case, extremely expensive -- far beyond the ability of a poor country to pay for.

In the course of armed conflicts (wars), weapons may only be used against legal military targets and for the duration of the war. Weapons may not cause undue suffering or superfluous injury. Weapons may not use or employ "poison." Weapons may not severely damage the environment. DU weaponry cannot be used in military operations without violating these rules, and therefore must be considered illegal. Use of illegal weapons constitutes a violation of humanitarian law and subjects the violators to legal liability for their effects on victims and the environment, as well as criminal liability. In my view, use of DU weaponry necessarily violates the grave breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions, and hence its use constitutes a war crime or crime against humanity.

Under a Kucinich Administration, all illegal use of depleted uranium munitions will be halted, as the U.S. becomes a leader in the international movement to recover depleted uranium.

---

The following is taken from the 24 Feb 2004 newsletter from the Kucinich Campaign

MOVEON.ORG SURVEY

Don't forget, if you haven't yet voted in the MoveOn.org survey, it is not too late. See http://www.moveon.org/pac/field_survey.html to vote. Be sure to post why you're voting Kucinich on their forum.

YOU HAVE COME THROUGH...

...And we thank you. Your contributions have kept this campaign rolling full steam ahead. Contributions since January 1 have averaged over $14,000 each day! Already this year so far we have brought in over $780,000! More than half of this amount came from contributions of $100 or less, which proves this can be done without the backing of big money. Your contributions mean we can spread Dennis' message through TV and radio ads, yard signs, and Get Out To Vote efforts.

Keep the campaign in high gear - contribute now online at https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php or call us toll-free at 1-866-413-3664. You can also mail a check to Kucinich for President, 11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111

KUCINICH IN TWO TELEVISED DEBATES THIS WEEK

CNN and the LA Times are hosting a debate this Thursday, February 26th in Los Angeles. The debate, moderated by Larry King and held at USC's Brovard Auditorium, will air on CNN from 6:00-7:30 pm PT (check local listings). Dennis is among many friends at USC...he won last night's USC campus-wide caucus with 50% of the vote.

Sunday, February 29th, CBS News and the New York Times are hosting a debate moderated by Dan Rather. The debate will air from 11:00 am-12 noon on CBS-TV and radio affiliates and webcast live on http://cbsnews.com/CBSNews.com .

SEE MORE DENNIS ON "TV"

The debates aren't the only place you can see Dennis. Check out the growing collection of videos that you can watch online: http://www.kucinich.us/video/

CLIP

PRIMARY SEASON

Today, primaries are being held in Hawaii, Idaho, and Utah. Next Tuesday March 2, otherwise known as "Super Tuesday", voters will go to the polls in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and in Dennis' home state of Ohio. Keep tabs on where Dennis is campaigning by watching the home page at http://www.kucinich.us for updates. Find information on your state campaign here: http://www.kucinich.us/regionalupdates/

MARCH 4th MEETUP FOCUSED ON GET OUT TO VOTE (GOTV) EFFORT

Before Super Tuesday, Kucitizens across the country should focus on phone calls to Ohio. At the March 4th MeetUps, we should focus on GOTV efforts in other March primaries. See the MeetUp Agenda page for more details: http://www.kucinich.us/meetup/meetup-agenda.php

Be sure to vote on a venue this week: http://kucinich2004.meetup.com/

CLIP

---

AN INTERESTING COMMENT FROM BENJAMIN CREME ON KUCINICH FROM THE JANUARY ISSUE OF SHARE INTERNATIONAL

FROM: http://www.share-international.org/magazine/old_issues/feb_04.htm

Q. Would you please give your opinion as to the qualifications of the US Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich?

A. It is my personal view that he is far and away the best candidate to have presented himself for the job. I admire his sense of values, the spiritual range, and broad worldview. We included one of his congressional speeches, as well as an interview with him, in Share International magazine (see SI May and July/August 2003). From what I have seen or read of him, I am deeply impressed and think that he would certainly be a very good, perhaps great, high-minded President, well-equipped, too, on the practical level to address the very real and difficult problems that face America now and in the future. Kucinich is a well-advanced initiate, and he would certainly be my choice if I were living in the US and able to vote. If he receives enough money and votes to be nominated as the Democratic candidate, and he has only until March 2004 to do that, then Hierarchy would throw the weight of Their not little assistance behind his candidacy. I have little doubt that he would win the election — but you have to get him nominated.




2.

From: http://www.sundayherald.com/40096

WHO ‘suppressed’ scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq

22 February 2004

Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU weapons used by Allies in Gulf war pose long-term health risk

By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor

An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq’s civilian population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU) weapons has been kept secret.

The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.

Baverstock also believes that if the study had been published when it was completed in 2001, there would have been more pressure on the US and UK to limit their use of DU weapons in last year’s war, and to clean up afterwards.

Hundreds of thousands of DU shells were fired by coalition tanks and planes during the conflict, and there has been no comprehensive decontamination. Experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have so far not been allowed into Iraq to assess the pollution.

“Our study suggests that the widespread use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq could pose a unique health hazard to the civilian population,” Baverstock told the Sunday Herald.

“There is increasing scientific evidence the radio activity and the chemical toxicity of DU could cause more damage to human cells than is assumed.”

Baverstock was the WHO’s top expert on radiation and health for 11 years until he retired in May last year. He now works with the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Kuopio in Finland, and was recently appointed to the UK government’s newly formed Committee on Radio active Waste Management.

While he was a member of staff, WHO refused to give him permission to publish the study, which was co-authored by Professor Carmel Mothersill from McMaster University in Canada and Dr Mike Thorne, a radiation consultant . Baverstock suspects that WHO was leaned on by a more powerful pro-nuclear UN body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“I believe our study was censored and suppressed by the WHO because they didn’t like its conclusions. Previous experience suggests that WHO officials were bowing to pressure from the IAEA, whose remit is to promote nuclear power,” he said. “That is more than unfortunate, as publishing the study would have helped forewarn the authorities of the risks of using DU weapons in Iraq.”

These allegations, however, are dismissed as “totally unfounded” by WHO. “The IAEA role was very minor,” said Dr Mike Repacholi, the WHO coordinator of radiation and environmental health in Geneva. “The article was not approved for publication because parts of it did not reflect accurately what a WHO-convened group of inter national experts considered the best science in the area of depleted uranium,” he added.

Baverstock’s study, which has now been passed to the Sunday Herald, pointed out that Iraq’s arid climate meant that tiny particles of DU were likely to be blown around and inhaled by civilians for years to come. It warned that, when inside the body, their radiation and toxicity could trigger the growth of malignant tumours.

The study suggested that the low-level radiation from DU could harm cells adjacent to those that are directly irradiated, a phenomenon known as “the bystander effect”. This undermines the stability of the body’s genetic system, and is thought by many scientists to be linked to cancers and possibly other illnesses.

In addition, the DU in Iraq, like that used in the Balkan conflict, could turn out to be contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive waste . That would make it more radioactive and hence more dangerous, Baverstock argued.

“The radiation and the chemical toxicity of DU could also act together to create a ‘cocktail effect’ that further increases the risk of cancer. These are all worrying possibilities that urgently require more investigation,” he said.

Baverstock’s anxiety about the health effects of DU in Iraq is shared by Pekka Haavisto, the chairman of the UN Environment Programme’s Post-Conflict Assessment Unit in Geneva. “It is certainly a concern in Iraq, there is no doubt about that,” he said.

UNEP, which surveyed DU contamination in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2002, is keen to get into Iraq to monitor the situation as soon as possible. It has been told by the British government that about 1.9 tonnes of DU was fired from tanks around Basra, but has no information from US forces, which are bound to have used a lot more.

Haavisto’s greatest worry is when buildings hit by DU shells have been repaired and reoccupied without having been properly cleaned up. Photographic evidence suggests that this is exactly what has happened to the ministry of planning building in Baghdad.

He also highlighted evidence that DU from weapons had been collected and recycled as scrap in Iraq. “It could end up in a fork or a knife,” he warned.

“It is ridiculous to leave the material lying around and not to clear it up where adults are working and children are playing. If DU is not taken care of, instead of decreasing the risk you are increasing it. It is absolutely wrong.”




3.

From: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/161479_firstperson23.html?searchpagefrom=1&searchdiff=1

Administration Favors Nuclear Free-For-All

By Glen Milner

The Seattle Post Intelligencer

23 February 2004

The next nuclear bomb used for war, because of changes in deployment and proximity to new Asian targets, likely will be delivered by a Puget Sound-based Trident submarine.

For the past 40 years, U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarines were deployed as a deterrent to nuclear war. The potential for provoking a full-scale nuclear exchange was too terrifying to consider the limited use of nuclear weapons.

New U.S. war-fighting plans and the promotion of more useable nuclear weapons will affect the deployment of the Trident submarine system. Most notable is the doctrine of pre-emptive first strike, where any nation considered a threat to the United States could be attacked.

In December 2001, the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review called for the development of new tactical nuclear weapons and a resumption of nuclear tests. The review claimed, "Many buried targets could be attacked using a weapon with a much lower [nuclear] yield than would be required with a surface burst." The report also called for more "flexible, adaptable strike plans," including "options for variable and reduced yields, high accuracy and timely employment."

The Bush administration favors a nuclear free-for-all, confident that it will be able to intimidate or destroy all adversaries with a varied arsenal of increasingly sophisticated weapons. Numerous international arms-control treaties, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, have been abandoned or ignored by the United States.

In November, Congress approved an administration request for continued research on nuclear earth-penetrators and a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons for possible use against terrorists or so-called rogue states such as Iran or North Korea. By doing so, Congress and the administration repealed a 10-year-old ban on research for the development of new nuclear weapons with yields less than five kilotons, often referred to as bunker-busters or "mininukes."

A Dec. 5 memo from Linton F. Brooks, of the National Nuclear Security Administration, to the three U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, stated, "We are now free to explore a range of technical options that could strengthen our ability to deter, or respond to new or emerging threats without any concern that some ideas could inadvertently violate a vague and arbitrary limitation." Addressing new endorsements by Congress and the repeal of the ban on low-yield nuclear weapons development, Brooks stated, "We should not fail to take advantage of this opportunity."

The Trident missile system has been studied and tested for use with a conventional (non-nuclear) warhead. Also discussed by war planners is the delivery of a low-yield nuclear weapon by a Trident missile.

While specific issues addressing the delivery of small nuclear weapons have been kept secret, there are numerous reasons war planners would choose the Trident delivery system, including high accuracy, speed of delivery and 4,500-mile range for the missiles.

A Trident missile can reach its target in 10-15 minutes, much faster than land-based ballistic missiles, aircraft or cruise missiles. The speed of the missile and high trajectory also provide the burrowing effect desired for bunker-buster bombs.

The secrecy of submarine deployment further advances the use of Trident missiles in a tactical strike. The delivery would not encroach upon the airspace of hostile nations. Those targeted likely would never know the missile was coming.

Nuclear weapons, even ones smaller than used on Hiroshima or Nagasaki, will kill on impact and create a surrounding firestorm. The resulting radioactive dust will cause slow and agonizing death.

With the advancement of tactical nuclear weapons we must ask ourselves, who will give the order to launch? Should we let them?

On Jan. 17, 2004, 12 people were arrested while blocking the entrance to the Trident submarine base at Bangor. The next planned non-violent action at Bangor, on May 8, will honor Mother's Day.

Glen Milner lives in Seattle and is a member of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in oulsbo; http://www.gzcenter.org




4.

WEEKLY GRIST
18 Feb - 24 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com

SCIENCE FRICTION
Top Scientists Accuse Bush Administration of Distorting Science

The Bush administration, reeling from a series of unflattering stories and unfavorable poll numbers, took another kick in the pants last week when 60 of the world's most influential scientists -- including 20 Nobel laureates and 19 recipients of the National Medal of Science -- accused the administration in an open letter of systematically distorting scientific research and misleading the public about the likely results of its policies. In an accompanying report, the Union of Concerned Scientists detailed numerous instances in which the administration has suppressed scientific results, gagged its own science officials, and replaced independent scientists on its research panels with industry representatives. John Marburger, chief of the White House Office of Science and Technology, dismissed the criticisms as a "conspiracy report" and explained that the real problem was not distortions of science but his failure to "communicate" effectively with scientists.

USA Today, Dan Vergano, 19 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2035

The Washington Post, Guy Gugliotta and Rick Weiss, 19 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2036

UCS report: Scientific Integrity in Policy-Making
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2038

---


A GREEN AND PLEASANT CONTINENT
Europe's Green Parties Unite

Thirty-two national Green parties united on Saturday to become the European Green Party, predicting that a unified voice will gain them influence and votes in the coming elections. The Greens, now the first pan-European political party, will run under a common banner and with a common agenda focused on environmental protection, social justice, and sustainable development. Currently, Green politicians hold 44 of the 626 European Parliament seats; only in Germany are they represented in national government. At the Green congress in Rome this weekend, care was taken to preserve the national identity of the constituent groups. Said Grazia Francescato, leader of the Italian Green Party, "You can't imagine how difficult it was, but also challenging and stimulating, to put together 32 parties ... we've been trying hard to accept each other's diversity and not impose one pan-European idea on everyone." While the party hymn, written by film composer Ennio Moriconne, is a somber reminder of the challenges ahead, the atmosphere was brightened by the choice of a snappy party slogan: "Europe, let's have a party!"

BBC News, Frances Kennedy, 22 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2057

Reuters, 21 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2058

---


YUCCA WILL LEAKA
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump Beset With Problems

The perpetually beleaguered nuclear waste dump being constructed at Nevada's Yucca Mountain is coming under fire again, from several directions. Last week, Paul Craig, who recently resigned from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board to make his concerns public, stated flatly that the Department of Energy's current design for Yucca Mountain would leak radioactive waste. "The science is very clear," Craig said. "If we get high-temperature liquids, the metal would corrode and that would eventually lead to leakage of nuclear waste." Also last week, Margaret Chu, director of the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, made public a letter in which she accused DOE officials of allowing employees excavating the tunnels in Yucca Mountain to work without face masks despite knowing they were being exposed to unsafe levels of airborne silica particles. And a deposition from a former Yucca Mountain employee was uncovered, claiming that she was forced to falsify her field reports on the levels of silica in the tunnels.

San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Scott Sonner, 18 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2043

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Steve Tetreault, 19 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2044

San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, 18 Feb 2004
http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2045




5.

Date: 23 Feb 2004
From: "Klaus Rudolph" Star.Mail@t-online.de
Subject: EMF - Omega - News

EMF: The Corporations' Spades of Ace

Corporations' spades of Ace: see what Paul Brodeur already then (in 1993 ! ) wrote in his book...including some other excerpts from Bridlewood EMFs Information Service.

Hans Karow

Summary of what is at http://www.feb.se/Bridlewood/HEALTH.HTM

The utility industry's latest strategy is to argue that we cannot prove that there is a health risk from electromagnetic fields until we know exactly how magnetic fields cause cancer, leukemia or other diseases. This is a false argument as Paul Brodeur clearly points out in his 1993 book The Great Power-Line Cover-Up. He states:

"What industry spokespeople conveniently overlooked, of course, was that thirty years after definitive epidemiology had been conducted to show that asbestos was a potent cancer-producing agent, scientists still do not know the mechanism by which an inhaled asbestos fibre reacts in lung tissue to cause cancer. Nor do they understand the mechanism by which cigarette smoke reacts in lung tissue to cause cancer. Or how the chemical pesticide DDT operates in breast tissue to cause breast cancer. Suffice it to say, if public health authorities had been required to wait for the cancer-producing mechanisms of these agents to be fully understood, regulations governing asbestos exposure would not have been implemented; warnings on cigarette smoking would not have been issued; and the twenty-year old ban on DDT would not have been imposed."

Of the EPA report, Time magazine reported, on July 30, 1990, that Louis Slesin of Microwave News, has printed what may be his greatest scoop: the key paragraph of a two-year Environmental Protection Agency study recommending that so-called extremely low-frequency fields be classified as "probable human carcinogens" alongside such notorious chemical toxins as PCBs, formaldehyde and dioxin. The recommendation, which could have set off a costly chain of regulatory actions, was deleted from the final draft after review by the White House Office of Policy Development. "The EPA thing is a stunner," says Paul Brodeur, a writer for the New Yorker. "It's a clear case of suppression and politicization of a major health issue by the White House."

Paul Brodeur wrote of the EPA report in the New Yorker: "In spite of the deletion, the summary-and-conclusions section of the draft EPA report contained a persuasive indictment of power-line magnetic fields as a cancer-producing agent. Its authors stated that five of the six case-control studies published in the peer- reviewed medical literature showed that children who lived near power lines giving off strong magnetic fields were developing cancer more readily than children who did not live near power lines."

Martin Halper, a director of the EPA, said in a December 1990 Fortune magazine article: "In all my years of looking at chemicals, I have never seen a set of epidemiological studies that remotely approached the weight of evidence that we're seeing with ELF electromagnetic fields. Clearly there is something here."

The latest official recognition of the health risk comes in a leaked United States National Council on Radiation Protection report funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and written by eleven leading American experts in EMFs. Bob Edwards, in the October 7, 1995 issue of New Scientist, writes that the report recommends an EMF safety limit of 2 mG (0.2 microteslas). He writes:

"EPA officials say the report is the most comprehensive study ever on the health effects of low-frequency EMFs. Its findings represent a fundamental challenge to the electricity industry. The authors say that their recommendations, if accepted, could force `complex and costly' changes in society's use of electricity.

"The report recommends that future developments adopt a safety limit of 0.2 microteslas. This is a very weak magnetic field, and stronger fields are common around electricity pylons and close to electrical appliances. New nurseries, schools and houses should not be built where EMF exposures breach that guideline, says the report, and power lines should be kept away from residential areas. Offices should be designed to keep workers' exposure from computers, photocopiers and printers below 0.2 microteslas."




6.

NOTE FROM JEAN: Many subscribers may not remember in any details what exactly the Skull & Bones Order is. So here is a refresher - and BTW John Kerry as indicated a couple times recently is a member of Skull & Bones.

From: http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/Archives2003/MiscelSubjects177.htm

(...) The Order of Skull & Bones is an occult secret society with Nazi connections composed of members of the Eastern Establishment aristocracy. Known to outsiders as Skull & Bones, The Order is controlled by about 20 wealthy East Coast families. The Bush family has been a dominant player in The Order for decades. President George W. Bush and his father, former President Bush, are members of The Order. Prescott Bush, the current president's grandfather, was also a member of The Order. Based at Yale University, The Order is the American branch of the German Brotherhood of Death. Adolph Hitler was a member of the German secret society. The Order operates from a windowless three-story mausoleum on the Yale campus, Bush's ala mater, known as the Tomb. The Tomb supposedly contains artifacts that belonged to Hitler, human skeletons and skulls, stolen gravestones, a mummy, an mementos from numerous wars. The Tomb allegedly also contains the skull of Geronimo ¬‚ the Apache war chief. Prescott Bush, President Bush's grandfather, stole the Indian chief's skull. The skull is used in various occult rituals.

And this was originally on the MSNBC's website at http://www.msnbc.com/news/802773.asp?cp1=1, but has now been deleted

It is still available at:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/09.23A.msnbc.bonse.htm

George W. Bush and the Brotherhood of Death

'Secrets of the Tomb'

Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power

By Alexandra Robbins

Wednesday, 4 September, 2002

Inside a cold, foreboding structure of brown sandstone in New Haven, Conn., lives one of the most heavily shrouded secret societies in American history. Yale's super-elite Skull and Bones, a 200-year-old organization whose roster is stocked with some of the country's most prominent families: Bush, Harriman, Phelps, Rockefeller, Taft, and Whitney. Journalist Alexandra Robbins, herself a member of another of Yale's secret societies, interviewed more than a hundred Bonesmen and writes about the rituals that make up the organization. Read an excerpt from her book ‘The Secrets of the Tomb' below.

Sometime in the early 1830s, a Yale student named William H. Russell--the future valedictorian of the class of 1833- traveled to Germany to study for a year. Russell came from an inordinately wealthy family that ran one of America's most despicable business organizations of the nineteenth century: Russell and Company, an opium empire. Russell would later become a member of the Connecticut state legislature, a general in the Connecticut National Guard, and the founder of the Collegiate and Commercial Institute in New Haven. While in Germany, Russell befriended the leader of an insidious German secret society that hailed the death's head as its logo. Russell soon became caught up in this group, itself a sinister outgrowth of the notorious eighteenth-century society the Illuminati. When Russell returned to the United States, he found an atmosphere so Anti-Masonic that even his beloved Phi Beta Kappa, the honor society, had been unceremoniously stripped of its secrecy. Incensed, Russell rounded up a group of the most promising students in his class-including Alphonso Taft, the future secretary of war, attorney general, minister to Austria, ambassador to Russia, and father of future president William Howard Taft-and out of vengeance constructed the most powerful secret society the United States has ever known.

The men called their organization the Brotherhood of Death, or, more informally, the Order of Skull and Bones. They adopted the numerological symbol 322 because their group was the second chapter of the German organization and founded in 1832. They worshiped the goddess Eulogia, celebrated pirates, and plotted an underground conspiracy to dominate the world.

Fast-forward 170 years. Skull and Bones has curled its tentacles into every corner of American society. This tiny club has set up networks that have thrust three members into the most powerful political position in the world. And the group's influence is only increasing-the 2004 presidential election might showcase the first time each ticket has been led by a Bonesman. The secret society is now, as one historian admonishes, " ‘an international mafia'. . . unregulated and all but unknown." In its quest to create a New World Order that restricts individual freedoms and places ultimate power solely in the hands of a small cult of wealthy, prominent families, Skull and Bones has already succeeded in infiltrating nearly every major research, policy, financial, media, and government institution in the country. Skull and Bones, in fact, has been running the United States for years.

Skull and Bones cultivates its talent by selecting members from the junior class at Yale University, a school known for its strange, Gothic elitism and its rigid devotion to the past. The society screens its candidates carefully, favoring Protestants and, now, white Catholics, with special affection for the children of wealthy East Coast Skull and Bones members. Skull and Bones has been dominated by about two dozen of the country's most prominent families--Bush, Bundy, Harriman, Lord, Phelps, Rockefeller, Taft, and Whitney among them--who are encouraged by the society to intermarry so that its power is consolidated. In fact, Skull and Bones forces members to confess their entire sexual histories so that the club, as a eugenics overlord, can determine whether a new Bonesman will be fit to mingle with the bloodlines of the powerful Skull and Bones dynasties. A rebel will not make Skull and Bones; nor will anyone whose background in any way indicates that he will not sacrifice for the greater good of the larger organization.

As soon as initiates are allowed into the "tomb," a dark, windowless crypt in New Haven with a roof that serves as a landing pad for the society's private helicopter, they are sworn to silence and told they must forever deny that they are members of this organization. During initiation, which involves ritualistic psychological conditioning, the juniors wrestle in mud and are physically beaten--this stage of the ceremony represents their "death" to the world as they have known it. They then lie naked in coffins, masturbate, and reveal to the society their innermost sexual secrets. After this cleansing, the Bonesmen give the initiates robes to represent their new identities as individuals with a higher purpose. The society anoints the initiate with a new name, symbolizing his rebirth and rechristening as Knight X, a member of the Order. It is during this initiation that the new members are introduced to the artifacts in the tomb, among them Nazi memorabilia--including a set of Hitler's silverware-dozens of skulls, and an assortment of decorative tchotchkes: coffins, skeletons, and innards. They are also introduced to "the Bones whore," the tomb's only full-time resident, who helps to ensure that the Bonesmen leave the tomb more mature than when they entered.

Members of Skull and Bones must make some sacrifices to the society--and they are threatened with blackmail so that they remain loyal--but they are remunerated with honors and rewards, including a graduation gift of $15,000 and a wedding gift of a tall grandfather clock. Though they must tithe their estates to the society, each member is guaranteed financial security for life; in this way, Bones can ensure that no member will feel the need to sell the secrets of the society in order to make a living. And it works: No one has publicly breathed a word about his Skull and Bones membership, ever. Bonesmen are automatically offered jobs at the many investment banks and law firms dominated by their secret society brothers. They are also given exclusive access to the Skull and Bones island, a lush retreat built for millionaires, with a lavish mansion and a bevy of women at the members' disposal.

The influence of the cabal begins at Yale, where Skull and Bones has appropriated university funds for its own use, leaving the school virtually impoverished. Skull and Bones' corporate shell, the Russell Trust Association, owns nearly all of the university's real estate, as well as most of the land in Connecticut. Skull and Bones has controlled Yale's faculty and campus publications so that students cannot speak openly about it. "Year by year," the campus's only anti-society publication stated during its brief tenure in 1873, "the deadly evil is growing."

The year in the tomb at Yale instills within members an unwavering loyalty to Skull and Bones. Members have been known to stab their Skull and Bones pins into their skin to keep them in place during swimming or bathing. The knights (as the student members are called) learn quickly that their allegiance to the society must supersede all else: family, friendships, country, God. They are taught that once they get out into the world, they are expected to reach positions of prominence so that they can further elevate the society's status and help promote the standing of their fellow Bonesmen.

This purpose has driven Bonesmen to ascend to the top levels of so many fields that, as one historian observes, "at any one time The Order can call on members in any area of American society to do what has to be done." Several Bonesmen have been senators, congressmen, Supreme Court justices, and Cabinet officials. There is a Bones cell in the CIA, which uses the society as a recruiting ground because the members are so obviously adept at keeping secrets. Society members dominate financial institutions such as J. P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and Brown Brothers Harriman, where at one time more than a third of the partners were Bonesmen. Through these companies, Skull and Bones provided financial backing to Adolf Hitler because the society then followed a Nazi-and now follows a neo-Nazi--doctrine. At least a dozen Bonesmen have been linked to the Federal Reserve, including the first chairman of the New York Federal Reserve. Skull and Bones members control the wealth of the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford families.

Skull and Bones has also taken steps to control the American media.

Two of its members founded the law firm that represents the New York Times. Plans for both Time and Newsweek magazines were hatched in the Skull and Bones tomb. The society has controlled publishing houses such as Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the 1880s, Skull and Bones created the American Historical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Economic Association so that the society could ensure that history would be written under its terms and promote its objectives. The society then installed its own members as the presidents of these associations.

Under the society's direction, Bonesmen developed and dropped the nuclear bomb and choreographed the Bay of Pigs invasion. Skull and Bones members had ties to Watergate and the Kennedy assassination. They control the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission so that they can push their own political agenda. Skull and Bones government officials have used the number 322 as codes for highly classified diplomatic assignments. The society discriminates against minorities and fought for slavery; indeed eight out of twelve of Yale's residential colleges are named for slave owners while none are named for abolitionists. The society encourages misogyny: it did not admit women until the 1990s because members did not believe women were capable of handling the Skull and Bones experience and because they said they feared incidents of date rape. This society also encourages grave robbing: deep within the bowels of the tomb are the stolen skulls of the Apache chief Geronimo, Pancho Villa, and former president Martin Van Buren.

Finally, the society has taken measures to ensure that the secrets of Skull and Bones slip ungraspable like sand through open fingers. Journalist Ron Rosenbaum, who wrote a long but not probing article about the society in the 1970s, claimed that a source warned him not to get too close.

"What bank do you have your checking account at?" this party asked me in the middle of a discussion of the Mithraic aspects of the Bones ritual.

I named the bank. "Aha," said the party. "There are three Bonesmen on the board. You'll never have a line of credit again. They'll tap your phone. They'll. . . "

CLIP - Read the rest at http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/09.23A.msnbc.bonse.htm

See also:

Skull & Bones Society: A Crash Course on "SELECTION"
http://www.bankindex.com/read.asp?ID=1231




7.

Date: 24 Feb 2004
From: NewsLetter@ceasefire.ca
Subject: Astonishing - Canada may host U.S. missiles

http://www.ceasefire.ca
The First Step to achieve peace

February 24, 2004

Dear Friend,

During an astonishing television interview on February 22nd, Defence Minister David Pratt refused to rule out the building of U.S. radar stations and missile launchers in Canada. That means that American rocket-like missiles may be stationed on Canadian territory as part of the U.S. missile defence shield.

This move by the government will completely undermine Canada's international reputation. David Pratt and Paul Martin are willing to throw Canada's 40-year international peacekeeping and disarmament reputation out the window in order to become friends with George W. Bush.

We need to tell Prime Minister Martin that Canadians do not want U.S. missiles and new radar stations to be placed in Canada. Please visit www.ceasefire.ca today and send your message directly to the Prime Minister's office opposing this unprecedented development.

And please forward this e-mail to ten friends, co-workers and family members.

Sincerely,
Steven Staples
www.ceasefire.ca

---

Canada may host U.S. missiles
The Globe and Mail
Monday, February 23, 2004
By JEFF SALLOT

Ottawa ó Canada is talking to Washington about the use of Canadian soil for stationing interceptor rocket launchers and radar stations as part of a continental ballistic missile defence program.Defence Minister David Pratt yesterday said Canada is considering making some of its geography in the north available in lieu of a major cash contribution if the federal government decides to join the American program.

Until now, federal officials have said that Canadian participation in the U.S. program probably would not involve Canadian territory or a cash contribution.

But in two interviews yesterday, Mr. Pratt refused to rule out this possibility.

"We'll just have to wait and see" whether the discussions with the Americans could lead the basing of interceptor rocket launchers in Canada, he said on the CTV News program Question Period.

"We're going to have to see the technical data and what it produces by way of plans for the future," he added. "The Americans haven't talked money with us. But one of the things we have said is in-kind contributions are possible ..... possible use of Canadian territory for radar sites," he later told The Globe and Mail.

"It's subject to the discussions resulting in some sort of arrangement with the United States on missile defence. It's all very speculative," he said.

He stressed that negotiations with Washington are still in the early stages, as are U.S. plans for the deployment of various components of the missile defence system. Thus, it is too early to tell whether Canadian territory would actually be needed to make a full-scale system work, he said.

There are historic precedents, however, for this sort of co-operation in continental defence.

The United States was allowed to place nuclear-armed surface-to-air Bomarc missiles in northern Quebec and Ontario in the early 1960s to defend against a possible Soviet bomber attack on North America. The weapons were removed after a change of Canadian policy in 1969.

In the 1980s, the United States and Canada jointly built the North Warning System with radar sites and interceptor jet landing fields situated in the Canadian Arctic to protect against Soviet bombers. The United States put up most of the money and Canada provided the territory. The system is still maintained jointly by Canada and the United States, but it is not put into regular operation.
The Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney turned down a U.S. invitation to participate in an ambitious Star Wars defence against ballistic missiles because the plan envisioned putting weapons into space.

The Canadian government still opposes deploying weapons in space, Mr. Pratt said.
The current American proposal is limited to deployment of weapons on the ground or aboard naval ships, he said.

The first rudimentary pieces of the system are to go into operation later this year with the basing of interceptor rockets at Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The Pentagon said recently it is considering putting some components of the system in an unspecified foreign country to improve the protection of the U.S. homeland "as well as for our allies and friends."

Washington says the system is needed to protect North America against an accidental launch of a Russian ballistic missile or a missile attack from North Korea.
Critics say this is an expensive way to defend against these remote possibilities.
The Pentagon plans to spend $53-billion (U.S.) on missile defence between now and the end of the decade.

Senior Canadian officials are expected to discuss the state of the negotiations Monday.




8.

Forwarded by "Nelly Lewin" nelly.lewin@wanadoo.fr on Feb 23

Subject: Address by the President of India 

More details on Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam - India's president - at http://www.presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/thepresident.jsp

From: http://www.presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/sllatest1.jsp?id=279

ADDRESS AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONCLAVE ON BUDDHISM AND SPIRITUAL TOURISM VIGYAN BHAVAN, NEW DELHI

17-02-2004 : New Delhi

Universal Unity and Understanding

I am indeed delighted to participate in the inauguration of the International Conclave on Buddhism and Spiritual Tourism. Spiritual tourism is quite different from visiting the places and seeing various physical dimensions. The spiritual tourism means visiting the hearts and minds of the intellectuals in different places and places of enrich civilizational environment. After his enlightenment, Buddha visited 45 places in and around Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Every place is a place of enlightenment and provides the beautiful message. The message flows from "The University of Universal Unity and Understanding.

Four noble truths

University of Universal Unity and Understanding should experience four noble truths. What are the four noble truths, you are all philosophers, theologists, thinkers, and may be tourism marketers also, you know what are those truths. However, I felt that I should narrate these noble truths, which are ringing in my mind in divine form, where Buddha got enlightenment.

The first truth is Dhukka, which states that the world is transient and it is in Dhukka. The second truth is the root cause of Dhukka, desire (Samuthaya). If we eliminate desire dhukka will cease, is the third truth (Norodhaya). Fourth is to follow the Eight-Fold path (Makka).

Nalanda — The university of Enlightenment

Dear revered monks, scholars and thinkers assembled here, I would like to narrate the incident which took place in Nalanda, when I was there in May 2003. I have spent hours and hours in Nalanda. I saw the place, where the hundreds of scholars assembled and discoursed. I saw, how a university was vibrant in the Nalanda area in 7th and 8th century with theology-teaching classrooms, discourse rooms and monks hostels. What attracted the scholars from 90 countries to Nalanda long ago? This is the place where the thoughts were transmitted, discussed and integrated towards a good way of life, which people were looking for from many countries. Friends, at this critical juncture of universal turbulence and instability, arising out of mutual distrust and hatred leading to violence, world needs a university of peace, enlightenment and great thoughts.

As I said earlier, after enlightenment Buddha walked and walked in 45 different places in and around Nalanda, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Every place is very important for Spiritual enlightenment. To commemorate this great event, it is essential to reestablish a university in Nalanda, dedicated to the philosophy of Buddha to cherish and find new meaning — a University of Universal Unity and Understanding. I would suggest this conclave can give a recommendation and the Ministry of HRD, Ministry of Tourism and Culture can spearhead the establishment of this University of Universal Unity and Understanding. Now I would like to share with you some of my personal experiences in search of unity of minds.

Experience at Bodh Gaya

What a great experience? When I visited Bodh Gaya and sat under the great Bodhi Tree with monks assembled all around. I said "Buddham Saranam Gachami". It was echoing every where, this I did after visiting the great Buddhist temple where Buddha was radiating peace and enlightenment. Under the holy tree a discussion started. One young monk asked me? Mr. President, President of India you are sitting in the place of great enlightenment. How do you feel? I told them, that I felt, as though I am a student, looking for a message for the troubled world - the message of peace. Another young monk asked me, "Do you think Mr. President, Is Buddhism a religion or spiritual force or a code of conduct?" I said, let me share with you my experiences after my extensive travel in our country and abroad.

Religion transforming into spirituality

A message, I have received is that most Indians experienced and old, energetic and middle-aged, young and innocent, they all look to religion for solace and safety. I have also visited great many religious places and houses of worship throughout the length and breadth of this great country and I have met many of our religious leaders. The religions are like exquisite gardens, places full of surpassing beauty and tranquility, like sacred groves filled with beautiful birds and their melodious songs. I truly think that religions are beautiful gardens. They are enchanting islands, veritable oasis for the soul and the spirit. But they are islands nevertheless. How can we connect them so that the fragrance engulfs the whole universe? If we can connect all the islands with love and compassion, in a 'garland', we will have a prosperous India and prosperous world. With this background, I have come to Bodh Gaya. I realize in Buddhism spiritual content is very high.

Strength and peace

The third question - a very important question was asked by the youngest monk. Mr. President you have made a weapon, which can carry a nuclear warhead and you are in search for peace now? How they are compatible? I was taken aback. I went back to 2500 years in history. I saw in front of me the Emperor Asoka conquering all parts of India and walking with great pride. When he came to Kalinga region, the great Kalinga war took place, which is now in the present state of Orissa. With the mighty army of Emperor Asoka fought and fought and the Kalinga kings were defeated. Emperor Asoka happily proclaimed and annexed the Kalinga country. In that great full moon night, with the success behind him, Emperor Asoka walked in the war ravaged battlefield. He stopped suddenly and saw the blood flowing over hundred thousand people who were killed, and many souls crying and moaning. That crying was engulfed with gloom. Suddenly Emperor Asoka stopped and asked himself, "O! Almighty, what have I done?" This spark of thought entered into the mind and soul of Emperor Asoka and the great principle of Ahimsa Dharma was born.

He has preached ahimsa, since then. This has been firmly engraved in the mountains. In the last century Mahatma Gandhi further gave a new dimension to ahimsa, dharma in the freedom movement of India. I have given this answer to that young monk. In our case, it was self-defence for which nuclear weapons were developed and nation had to become a nuclear weapon country. At no time, we will use them, unless someone uses against us. If every nation possessing nuclear weapons decides to dismantle completely, India will be the first to do so. India has always been advocating a total disarmament in the world.

The fourth question was asked by another monk, Mr. President, what made you to come to Bodh Gaya? I said, "I am like Anand in a small way I am in the mission of search, where is the universal peace and unity of minds".

Experience at RILA Monastery

During my recent visit abroad, I visited a Christian Monastery in RILA located in the hills of Bulgaria. It is the biggest Bulgarian revival, spiritual and cultural centre with a 16,000 volume library including 134 manuscripts from 15th to 19th century. This holy site played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria. Destroyed by fire due to invasion at the beginning of the 19th century, the complex was rebuilt later and is now surrounded by a big fort. While being in that divine environment amidst the Reverent Fathers aged between 80 and 90, I felt like praying. I went to the altar and asked permission of the Reverent Bishop John to recite the part of the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. All the people present in the Monastery repeated the prayer.

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
And where there is injury, pardon;
And where there is doubt, faith;
And where there is despair, hope;
And where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

The silent message in this prayer was felt by the Reverent Bishop, who blessed me by saying "You work for world peace". My friends, may this beautiful divine message of love, enlighten our life to work for universal peace.

Celebrating the beauty of other religion

On one occasion, as I was leaving for Bangalore, I spoke to a friend of mine and told him that I would be talking to young people and whether he had any suggestions. He did not offer any suggestions as such but offered me these nuggets of wisdom.

"When you speak, speak the truth; perform when you promise; discharge your trust — withhold your hands from striking and from taking that which is unlawful and bad."

"What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry to help the affected, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful and to remove the wrongs of the injured."

All God's creatures are his family; and he is the most beloved of God who tries to do most good to God's creatures.

These are the sayings of Prophet Mohammad. My friend who told me this is a great grandson of a Deekshidar of Tamil Nadu and grandson of a Ganapadigal (Vedic Scholar). He is none other than Shri Y S Rajan.

Righteousness

Recently, I heard a hymn in the divine campus of Shri Satya Saibaba at Puttaparthi, which I would like to share with you. The name of the hymn is 'Righteous and Peace in the World':

Where there is righteousness in the heart
there is a beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,
there is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home.
there is order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,
there is peace in the world.

Friends, we can see a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. How to inject righteousness in the human heart? This is indeed the purpose of human creation - that is divinity. We are going through a complex situation as many of us are completely at war with ourselves, with society and with nation. At every instant there is a war in our mind, whether we should go in one direction or another. Whenever there is a dilemma, we must seek the wisdom from the Almighty to lead us to the path of righteousness through education with value system.

All these four events give personally to all of us a beautiful life with creativity. Above all it gave me a message to look for the best spiritual component in every religion.

CLIP - Read the rest at http://www.presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/sllatest1.jsp?id=279




9.

From: http://www.gvnr.com/80/soul_food.htm

What Is Friendship?

by Jack Clarke

Knowing there is another human being you can trust completely.

Realizing that someone else wants the best for you, too.

Providing a gentle haven where the other can be relaxed and feel safe.

Helping solve problems without taking over your friend's life.

Sharing the grief times along with the great times.

Being together without needing to pretend.

Forgiving pretenses when they do occur.

Cherishing together the joys and traumas of change and growth.

Nourishing one another's dreams, hopes, and decisions along the path.

Encouraging your friend to stretch as far as possible.

Receiving feedback without questioning motive.

Easing pain instead of fueling the fires of hurt.

Loving another person in spite of differences and imperfections.

Extolling virtues rather than expanding on flaws.

Accepting a friend's anger toward you, as yours is also sanctioned.

Sending love even when you're not together or in agreement.

Coming to your friend's aid and expecting nothing in return.

Freeing each other from the manipulations that undo many relationships.

Dancing through life together, not trudging along toward death.

Soaring to new heights rather than plunging into murk and mire.

Finding time to be together despite the obstacles of everyday living.

Wanting no more than to be with your friend at that moment.

Understanding the occasional need for distance.

Taking up right where you left off, even after several years.

Knowing that your commitment to each other is always by choice.

Giving freely when appropriate and taking graciously when needed.

Divining each other's thoughts and feelings easily and often.

Saying "no" without having to explain why.

Winning and losing do not matter to real friends.

Friendships are not instantaneous, they are earned.

Friendships withstand the storms and upheavals of time.

Friendships surpass the trite boundaries of acquaintanceship.

Friendships often develop with improbable people at unlikely times.

Friends know the difference between image and substance.

Friends bask in the glow of the other's triumphs.

Friends will be there when you need them.

Friends are one of God's greatest gifts.




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