The Moment of Truth Series #23: Are we Going to Flunk or Pass Our Cosmic Test?...
Hello everysoul!
There is just SOOO MUCH going on around the world - only a tiny but key part of it being featured in this massive 84,000+ word compilation - that I cannot wait for another 2 weeks to send this out to you. As usual a wide range of issues are covered below, but probably the main one is the fast eroding web of Life that we have all taken for granted for far too long and which keeps unravelling at full speed - especially the oceans and the tropical forests as you'll see in the WORTH NOTING RIGHT AWAY section below - thanks to our very poor stewardship and the sheer brute force of endless economic growth eating alive what's left of our endlessly suffering Mother Earth - or Pachamama as indigenous people in Bolivia call her. At least there is one bright spot in this country - make sure to read Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth and the other related articles below.
I'd say that turning this dire situation around, and most urgently re-allocating badly needed resources from endless war-making to helping replenishing the vital commons of our sole life-support system, is the litmus test humanity as a whole is facing right now. Unless there is a sustained determination on our part to seriously address this immense challenge, powerful assistance from more advanced civilizations to help us more directly tackle the ever-widening scope of environmental ills we have created will be karmically hard to justify. How can you possibly help someone who seems unable to help himself out of his own death throes?
Thank God, a still disjointed but powerful global popular movement is clearly showing that ever more people, especially the youth, are fed up with the status quo that benefits the few at the expense of the future of this entire planet... and that may prove to be the trigger that will really get underway the juggernaut of changes that must now flush out the "Powers That Be" who for far too long have had a free hand at wreaking havoc on this planet, this most precious jewel of Life where we have the unique privilege of being alive at this historic crossroad in the Continuum...
Deep Within I do Know a bright future is rising from the ashes of a dying, unsustainable "Way of Life" and I faithfully trust Love will prevail, and so we shall pass our Cosmic Test into collective spiritual adulthood... and graduate to a still unimaginably magnificent Golden Era...
Of course, empowering such a vision is my freewill choice... Is it yours as well?...
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THE QUOTES
"The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." --- "In the technotronic society the trend would seem to be towards the aggregation of the individual support of millions of uncoordinated citizens, easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities effectively exploiting the latest communications techniques to manipulate emotions and control reason." --- "By the year 2018, technology will make available to the leaders of the major nations, a variety of techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need be appraised. One nation may attack a competitor covertly by bacteriological means, thoroughly weakening the population (though with a minimum of fatalities) before taking over with its own armed forces. Alternatively, techniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm..." --- "In addition... future developments may well include automated or manned space warships, deep-sea installations, chemical and biological weapons, death rays, and still other forms of warfare--even the weather may be tampered with." --- "In addition, it may be possible—and tempting—to exploit for strategic-political purposes the fruits of research on the brain and on human behavior. Gordon J. F. MacDonald, a geophysicist specializing in problems of warfare, has written that timed artificially excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the earth... In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period.... No matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades."
- Zbignew Brzezinski, "Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era", 1970 - As quoted from this book in the first reader's comment HERE - It can be persuasively argued that many of his predictions have unfortunately come to pass...
"As you yourself and Matthew and others have pointed out, we all chose our own roles in the tragicomedy that is called Life on Earth. Some of us decided to play the ‘good guys’, others deliberately chose the more testing role of ‘bad guys’, and the rest of us - half-awake, half-asleep, have been content to follow where others led us. But now, in response to the heroic efforts of an army of Light-workers and well-wishers, both on and off planet, all that is about to change. Critical mass has at last been achieved, and all of us who have ever taken part in this cosmic drama are about to be woken. The shadow-play is over, at last. We are about to be lifted right off stage, as it were, and given our first glimpse, for untold ages, of the wider reality that has always been awaiting us, just out of sight. This ‘moment of quantum change’, as Ken Carey’s guidance so eloquently expressed it, will loosen the ties - some of them self-imposed, others imposed by others - that have bound most of us throughout the run of the play. We who chose to play ‘the good guys’ might be tempted to round on ‘the bad guys’ and accuse them - or even wish to attack them - for having played such a cruel game, and caused such wholesale suffering. Don’t do it: that’ll only prolong the agony - theirs and yours. Instead, smile at them, wish them well - then thank them for having taken on a role that you yourself couldn’t stomach. You might even find it in you to give them a hug and a smile - yes, even the monsters who caused the premature death of millions of their people - and say: “You are truly a hero.” Love and thoughts and thanks, as ever, from London."
- Michael Dean (mikhailovich@me.com) Note from Jean: I sent the following comment to Michael on this: I certainly and completely agree with you on the need to not waste too much energy rounding up the baddies, but I would not agree with the notion of not denouncing vigorously their misguided choices and "bad" deeds because otherwise their "efforts" in the grand karmic game we all play would be in vain. They provide the necessary stimuli for unawakened souls to realize something is not right and then, hopefully, find within themselves the inspiration to selflessly strive to "correct" the situation, which must inevitably include shining a spotlight on the actions of those who cause harm to the planet's lifeforms including other human beings... while not vilifying the perpetrators of those misguided choices who simply need even more love than others to finally see that they no longer need to dominate others to feel OK... or as Inelia beautifully expressed inThe Cry of Gaia – A call to action ... "Humans, too, lash out in anger and violence, because they are in great pain and fear. I’d like to hold them all in my arms, all of them. I’d like to show them that they are loved, and that they are safe. All the murderers, all the rapists, all the butchers of the seals, whales and dolphins, all the bloodthirsty workers in the abattoirs, the creators of wars."
"Many of you have just participated in meditation and other forms of acknowledgement concerning the Summer Solstice. It has been heart-warming for us to see your response, and it is a measure of how seriously you take your responsibilities as Lightworkers. These occasions are more meaningful when you join in, and the result is that the level of Light on Earth is lifted up yet again. You are forcing the dark Ones to withdraw and cease their pointless efforts to stop progress. They remain a nuisance and we are stepping up our plan to remove them. We treat them with love and understanding as we do not judge or condemn, as that would not be helpful if they are to be converted to the Light once again. Love alone is the great power that cannot be repelled and will soften the hardest hearts. Our wish is to see every human soul rise up, even if they are unable to achieve it this time around. No soul is discarded or damned forever, and will at some stage return to the Source as a Godspark."
- SaLuSa through Mike Quinsey -- Taken from his June 22 message
"All around I am aware of the need to keep doing what we are doing in our meditations and lives and how much more I have to change myself. I have to learn not to have my first thoughts be judgments on others or myself. I have to stay connected to the space in my heart when I’m out in the concrete jungle. I have to divest myself of the life that I’ve lived without awareness so that I can emulate the life of awareness in every way that I express myself. I need to do this not just for myself or the greater world, but for my soon to be 12 yr. old grandson and the other children that are and will be. Inelia is such a special soul and yet we are all special and we are also One. Her awareness and respectful sensitivity is also what we can and should experience, but we need a person like Inelia to shine the light upon the way for us to see because so many of us have walked in darkness. If we are the Lights, and I believe we are, then we have to embrace Gaia and all that depends upon Her in arms of gratefulness and Love just like we do every week together, and I have to believe that we will reach the tipping point. Right now the world view seems to see only the disasters that could be if we experience this catastrophe or that catastrophe and like a roller coaster when one hits the others will follow. We have to delete those catastrophes by our Love and the darkness with our Light and we have to live the change we want to see. That is my dedication to each of you and to the greater collective of which we are part. Today I begin to focus ever more so upon the change I clearly see through our times together."
- Suzanne Sjogren (sjogren@mwt.net)
LAST MINUTE ADDITIONS (added a couple days after posting this):
Stand with Aung San Suu Kyi http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_aung_san_suu_kyi_2/?vl
Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's movement for democracy in Burma is hanging in the balance this week, with the regime threatening a brutal response to her call to free political prisoners. Activists have appealed to the world for help, saying international pressure is crucial to tipping the balance. Let's stand with Suu Kyi and the brave Burmese...
Interdependence Day Celebration - Celebrating What Is Good about the United States of America http://spiritualprogressives.org/newsite/?page_id=1219
Faced with July 4th celebrations that are focused on militarism, ultra-nationalism, and “bombs bursting in air”, many American families who do not share those values turn July 4th into another summer holiday focused on picnics, sports, and fireworks, while doing their best to avoid the dominant rhetoric and bombast. This year that kind of celebration is particularly difficult when many of us are in mourning because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, US drones killing innocents in Pakistan, and the US gearing up to impose sanctions and possibly support an Israeli attack or even US attack on Iran. And we also mourn the continuing assault on the Earth by greedy corporations acting according to the logic of global capitalism and protected by the fearsome might of American military power. Nevertheless, we in the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) believe that avoiding July 4 or turning it into nothing more than a picnic with friends is a mistake for progressives. There is much worth celebrating in American history that deserves attention on July 4th, despite the current depravity of some of our current policies, though the celebration-worthy aspects of our society are rarely the focus of other public events. We also acknowledge that in the twenty-first century there is a pressing need to develop a new kind of consciousness — a recognition of the interdependence of everyone on the planet. A new (and necessarily non-violent) revolution is necessary — one in which our actions reflect a realization that our well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet and of the planet itself. CLIP - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ALL OUR U.S. SUBSCRIBERS...
Fluoride: Calcifier of the Soul (June 17, 2011) http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/fluoride-calcifier-soul
Research published in 2001 showed that fluoride (F) deposits in the pineal gland with age and is associated with enhanced gland calcification. (...) The pineal gland has been a subject of much interest since ancient times. Galen described it in the 3rd century, and the philosopher René Decartes (1596-1650) identified the pineal gland as the "seat of the soul." His explanation for this conclusion is quite interesting: "My view is that this gland is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed. The reason I believe this is that I cannot find any part of the brain, except this, which is not double. Since we see only one thing with two eyes, and hear only one voice with two ears, and in short have never more than one thought at a time, it must necessarily be the case that the impressions which enter by the two eyes or by the two ears, and so on, unite with each other in some part of the body before being considered by the soul. Now it is impossible to find any such place in the whole head except this gland; moreover it is situated in the most suitable possible place for this purpose, in the middle of all the concavities; and it is supported and surrounded by the little branches of the carotid arteries which bring the spirits into the brain." Source: Wikipedia - Decartes was one of the few philosophers who was experienced in vivisection and anatomy, and who rightly pointed out the unique nature of the pineal gland's location in the brain and blood supply. The "third eye" is also a well known symbol in Eastern literature, and may be concretely grounded in the anatomical structure and function of the pineal gland. (...) If Prozac and other sources of fluoride in our environment deposits within the pineal gland, accelerating the transformation of functional pineal tissue into calcification, is it possible that it works by dehumanizing and flattening the affect of those who are under its influence? How Do We Prevent Pineal Gland Calcification? Eliminating exposure to fluoride is the #1 priority. CLIP - This explains why the Powers That Be are so keen on poisoning everyone with this toxic chemical...
France: sauvons internet - Signez la pétition pour l'internet libre! http://www.avaaz.org/fr/france_sauvons_internet/96.php
Le gouvernement Sarkozy veut censurer internet par un décret qui pourrait bloquer des sites et pages de recherche que nous utilisons tous les jours. Mais un tollé national peut stopper cet assaut contre la liberté d'expression. Ce nouveau décret permettrait aux ministres de retirer tout contenu internet menaçant selon eux "l'ordre public", sans passer par un juge. C'est pourquoi un Conseil en charge de l'Internet créé par Sarkozy a condamné cette mesure comme étant inconstitutionnelle, et les experts internationaux sont en état d'alerte. Mais le décret pourrait malgré tout être adopté dans les prochains jours. CLIP
EMF-Omega-News 2. July 2011 http://www.buergerwelle.de/cms/content/view/607/95/
Electromagnetic fields and radiation damage DNA and enhance cell death rates - Effects of Microwaves and Radio Frequency Energy on the Central Nervous System - Effects of UMTS Exposure on Hippocampal Longterm Plasticity in the Context of Procedure Related Hormone Release - Increasing rates of head melanoma in Nordic countries - Radiofrequency wireless technologies: WHO classification group 2B - Strong mobile phone radiation can disturb learning, finds study - Could ‘electrical pollution’ and EMFs have consequences for your health? - 'You cannot tell me it is not dangerous' - Microwave Silence Continues - Time to change the name of Health Canada? - Petition to the Government of Canada - Stars Are Dialing: Their Right To Know by Practicing Safe Phone - Residents prepare for mast fight - Mary Adkins: Time to remove WiFi from our schools - Barnsley Council commissions study into phone mast - Protest over phone mast in Boulton Derby - Group commissions study on masts - Urban Extension thwarts mobile mast plan - One Person Cited, Another Arrested At Smart Meter Protest - Health Impacts Of Low Energy Lighting - Environmental and Health Concerns Associated with Compact Fluorescent Lights - Next-up News - News from Mast Sanity
Staying Human (29 June 2011) 47 min http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2011/06/201162975140291805.html
Made before his death, this film follows human rights activist Vittorio Arrigoni as he tries to help the people of Gaza. -- The situation in Gaza told from beyond the grave. This film follows Italian human rights activist Vittorio Arrigoni as he campaigns for the fishermen of Gaza. Arrigoni was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using non-violent methods. In the film he relates his experience of Israel's war on Gaza and explains why he chose to visit and live in Gaza in the first place. On April 14, 2011 Vittorio Arrigoni was abducted in Gaza. His kidnappers released a video of him and demanded the release of Salafists detained by Hamas. The following day Arrigoni was found dead by Hamas security forces in a house in the north of Gaza. This film was made before his death.
UN resolves to give Mother Earth same rights as humans (April 19, 2011) http://www.examiner.com/practical-spirituality-in-national/un-resolves-to-give-mother-earth-same-rights-as-humans
In a landmark decision, the United Nations has made a resolution a week ago recognizing the sovereign rights of Mother Earth. Modeling a Bolivian law enacted in January, this resolution aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to “dominate and exploit” — to the point that the “wellbeing and existence of many beings” is now threatened. It also establishes a Ministry of Mother Earth, and provides the planet with an ombudsman whose job is to hear nature’s complaints as voiced by activist and other groups, including the state. Reflecting indigenous traditional beliefs, the proposed global treaty says humans have caused “severe destruction … that is offensive to the many faiths, wisdom traditions and indigenous cultures for whom Mother Earth is sacred.” It also says that “Mother Earth has the right to exist, to persist and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all human beings.”Canadian activist, Maude Barlow, has said, “It’s going to have huge resonance around the world!”See the Earth Rights Institute http://www.earthrights.net/ for more information on what YOU can do. -- Note from Jean: The following is the only positive comment I found on this HERE: "'Mother Earth' doesn't truly capture the relationship. We are born of the Earth, and she gave us our being, true enough. But we eventually grow up and leave our mothers. We become independent. But we have no existence independent of the Earth. Just as leaves do not exist independently of the tree. Without air, water, and food derived from the Earth, we cannot live. We not only derive our substance from the Earth, we are of the same substance. Our atoms are the Earth's atoms. As we breathe in and out, we are involved in a complex exchange of matter and energy. Earth and man are not separate entities. We are indivisible. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. We must take care of the Earth if for no other reason than our own survival."
Wildfires blanket lower US - Season of fire threatens large swath of US (June 30, 2011) http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=14991407
PHOENIX (RNN) - Arizona is ablaze. Texas is a tinderbox. And one of the worst droughts in U.S. history is creeping eastward, bringing with it the likelihood of devastating wildfires to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia.The Wallow Fire in Arizona, the biggest in state history, has consumed close to 800 square miles, an area bigger than New York City and Chicago combined. Fires continue to erupt across the state and an eruption in New Mexico had threatened the Los Alamos nuclear facility and forced an evacuation of thousands of residents.Since the beginning of the year, Texas has seen more than 3 million acres go up in flames. More than three-quarters of the state is experiencing extreme to exceptional drought. Louisiana and Mississippi, which recently battled the worst floods in the history of the Mississippi River, are now fighting fires. CLIP - More related news HERE and HERE
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Qaddafi Did NOT Threatens Attacks on Europe - Huge Pro Gaddafi Rally In Tripoli http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28458.htm
Gaddafi is challenging Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama to switch on their TV and watch the crowd. He is saying that they will find out that they are delusional because they entered a war which they will never win, he also says if you continue targeting our houses we can do the same because Europe is not far away but he said lets not do this.Look at the crowds, children and women. They are not here because I ordered them to come, they are here by their free will. In this war you are not facing me you are facing these crowds.I am nothing, If you want peace with Libyans, it is up to the crowds.If you want anything negotiate with the crowds. The regimes is not a Gaddafi regime, it is a Libyan regime. - VIDEO AT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWzNhk3zv4U
Libya: Unending American Hostility By William Blum (July 02, 2011) http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2011/07/02/libya-unending-american-hostility/
If I could publicly ask our beloved president one question, it would be this: "Mr. President, in your short time in office you've waged war against six countries — Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya. This makes me wonder something. With all due respect: What is wrong with you?"
The American media has done its best to dismiss or ignore Libyan charges that NATO/US missiles have been killing civilians (the people they're supposedly protecting), at least up until the recent bombing "error" that was too blatant to be covered up. But who in the mainstream media has questioned the NATO/US charges that Libya was targeting and "massacring" Libyan civilians a few months ago, which, we've been told, is the reason for the Western powers attacks? Don't look to Al Jazeera for such questioning. The government of Qatar, which owns the station, has a deep-seated animosity toward Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and was itself a leading purveyor of the Libyan "massacre" stories, as well as playing a military role in the war against Tripoli. Al Jazeera's reporting on the subject has been so disgraceful I've stopped looking at the station.
Alain Juppé, Foreign Minister of France, which has been the leading force behind the attacks on Libya, spoke at the Brookings Institution in Washington on June 7. After his talk he was asked a question from the audience by local activist Ken Meyercord: "An American observer of events in Libya has commented: 'The evidence was not persuasive that a large-scale massacre or genocide was either likely or imminent.' That comment was made by Richard Haass, President of our Council on Foreign Relations. If Mr. Haass is right, and he's a fairly knowledgeable fellow, then what NATO has done in Libya is attack a country that wasn't threatening anyone; in other words, aggression. Are you at all concerned that as NATO deals more and more death and destruction on the people of Libya that the International Criminal Court may decide that you and your friends in the Naked Aggression Treaty Organization should be prosecuted rather than Mr. Gaddafi?"
Monsieur Juppé then stated, without attribution, somebody's estimate that 15,000 Libyan civilians had been killed by pro-Gaddafi forces. To which Mr. Meyercord replied: "So where are the 15,000 bodies?" M. Juppé failed to respond to this, although in the tumult caused by the first question, it was not certain that he had heard the second one. (For a counter-view of the Libyan "massacre" stories, see this video.) It should be noted that, as of June 30, NATO had flown 13,184 air missions (sorties) over Libya, 4,963 of which are described as strike sorties. You can find the latest figures on the Allied Command Operations website. If any foreign power fired missiles at the United States would Barack Obama regard that as an act of war? If the US firing hundreds of missiles at Libya is not an act of war, as Obama insists (to avoid having to declare war as required by US law), then the deaths resulting from the missile attacks are murder. That's it. It's either war or murder. To the extent there's a difference between the two.It should be further noted that since Gaddafi came to power in 1969 there has virtually never been a sustained period when the United States has been prepared to treat him and the many positive changes he's instituted in Libya and Africa with any respect. For a history of this hostility, including the continual lies and scare campaigns, see my Libya chapter in Killing Hope.
It is July now, so the madness has already started for this year. One must question whether the insane are in charge of the asylum. You gardeners will enjoy this conversation between God and St. Francis. It's pretty funny because it's so true. . . . . . . . . .
GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all see are these green rectangles.
ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites! They started calling your flowers 'weeds' and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
GOD: Grass? But, it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It's sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it, sometimes twice a week..
GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?
ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
ST. FRANCIS: No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.
GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?
ST. FRANCIS: Yes, Sir.
GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.
ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.
GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It's a natural cycle of life.
ST. FRANCIS: You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
GOD: No!? What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?
ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves..
GOD: And where do they get this mulch?
ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.
GOD: Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?
ST. CATHERINE: 'Dumb and Dumber', Lord. It's a story about...
GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.
Story sent by Joan Beaton (joan_beaton@yahoo.com)
WORTH NOTING RIGHT AWAY
Ocean life 'facing mass extinction' (21 June 2011) APOCALYPTIC WARNINGS! http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/06/20116216141857396.html
Depleted fish stocks, dying reefs and "dead zones" among consequences of global warming and pollution, scientists warn. - Pollution, global warming and other man-made problems are pushing the world's oceans to the brink of a mass extinction of marine life unprecedented in tens of millions of years, a consortium of scientists has warned. Dying coral reefs, biodiversity ravaged by invasive species, expanding open-water "dead zones," toxic algae blooms, and the massive depletion of big fish stocks are all accelerating, according to the report, which is due to be presented at the United Nations on Tuesday. "We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation,'' the report said. Sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), the review of recent science found that ocean health has declined further, faster and to a far greater extent than dire forecasts only a few years ago.These symptoms, moreover, could be the harbinger of wider environmental disruptions, scientists said. All five mass extinctions of life on Earth - reaching back more than 500 million years - were preceded by many of the same conditions now afflicting the ocean environment. The rate at which carbon is being absorbed by the ocean is already far greater than at the time of the last globally significant extinctions, which wiped out up to 50 per cent of some deep-sea animals, the report said.Overfishing has also reduced some commercial fish stocks by more than 90 per cent, it said. 'Major extinction events' -- "The results are shocking," said Alex Rogers, an Oxford professor who heads IPSO and co-authored the report. "We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime." Some of the changes affecting the world's seas are happening faster than the worst case scenarios that were predicted just a few years ago, the report said. Mark Meekan, of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, told Al Jazeera that the "synergistic effect" of the changes to the planet's oceans was worrying."The outcome for us may be some major extinction events if things continue the way they are." The report says that we have less than a generation to act. But we really need to be concerned now. Because a lot of these problems, such as global warming, such as oceans certification, have what is called momentum," Meekan said. "Very soon the feedback mechanisms that are in those processes may take the whole situation out of our hands ... The time to act is now. That's the time we can actually deal with the causes and not just the consequences." The chief causes for extinctions at the moment are overfishing and habitat loss, but global warming is "increasingly adding to this," the report said. Carbon dioxide from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels ends up sinking in the ocean which then becomes more acidic. Warmer ocean temperatures are shifting species from their normal habitats, Rogers said, while melting sea ice and glaciers are also having an impact. Chemicals and plastics from daily life, and oil spills, also cause problems for sea creatures, the report said.
'Shocking' state of seas threatens mass extinction, say marine experts (20 June 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/20/marine-life-oceans-extinction-threat
Fish, sharks, whales and other marine species are in imminent danger of an "unprecedented" and catastrophic extinction event at the hands of humankind, and are disappearing at a far faster rate than anyone had predicted, a study of the world's oceans has found. Mass extinction of species will be "inevitable" if current trends continue, researchers said. Overfishing, pollution, run-off of fertilisers from farming and the acidification of the seas caused by increasing carbon dioxide emissions are combining to put marine creatures in extreme danger, according to the report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (Ipso), prepared at the first international workshop to consider all of the cumulative stresses affecting the oceans at Oxford University. The international panel of marine experts said there was a "high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history". They said the challenges facing the oceans created "the conditions associated with every previous major extinction of species in Earth's history". "The findings are shocking," said Alex Rogers, scientific director of Ipso. "As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised. This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that. "The flow of soil nutrients into the oceans is creating huge "dead zones", where anoxia - the absence of oxygen - and hypoxia - low oxygen levels - mean fish and other marine life are unable to survive there. Hypoxia and anoxia, warming and acidification are factors present in every mass extinction event in the oceans over the Earth's history, according to scientific research. About 55m years ago, as much as half of some species of deep-sea creatures were wiped out when atmospheric changes created similar conditions.In recent years, human effects on the oceans have increased significantly. Overfishing has cut some fish populations by more than 90%. Pollutants, including flame-retardant chemicals and detergents are absorbed into particles of plastic waste in the sea, which are then ingested by marine creatures. Millions of fish, birds and other forms of life are choked or suffer internal ruptures from ingesting plastic waste.During 1998, record high temperatures wiped out about 16% of the world's tropical coral reefs. The scientists called on the United Nations and governments to bring in measures to conserve marine ecosystems. Dan Laffoley, of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, said: "The world's leading experts on oceans are surprised by the rate and magnitude of changes we are seeing. The challenges for the future of the oceans are vast, but unlike previous generations we know what now needs to happen. The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now, today and urgent"
Gulf 'Dead Zone' This Year Predicted To Be Largest In History (06/14/11) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/gulf-dead-zone-predicted-largest-in-history_n_877188.html
(...) NEW ORLEANS -- Scientists predict this year's "dead zone" of low-oxygen water in the northern Gulf of Mexico will be the largest in history - about the size of Lake Erie - because of more runoff from the flooded Mississippi River valley. Each year when the nutrient-rich freshwater from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers pours into the Gulf, it spawns massive algae blooms. In turn, the algae consume the oxygen in the Gulf, creating the low oxygen conditions. Fish, shrimp and many other species must escape the dead zone or face dying. Federal and university scientists predict this year's zone will be between 8,500 square miles and about 9,400 square miles. The actual size of the dead zone will be measured over the summer. The largest recorded dead zone was found in 2002 when 8,400 square miles of the Gulf was found to lacking sufficient oxygen for most marine life. CLIP - CHECK ALSO Record dead zone projected due to Midwest floods
Explosion in jellyfish numbers may lead to ecological disaster, warn scientists (12 June 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/12/jellyfish-plankton-ocean-acid?INTCMP=SRCH
Global warming has long been blamed for the huge rise in the world's jellyfish population. But new research suggests that they, in turn, may be worsening the problem by producing more carbon than the oceans can cope with.Research led by Rob Condon of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in the US focuses on the effect that the increasing numbers of jellyfish are having on marine bacteria, which play an important role by recycling nutrients created by decaying organisms back into the food web. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that while bacteria are capable of absorbing the constituent carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and other chemicals given off by most fish when they die, they cannot do the same with jellyfish. The invertebrates, populating the seas in ever-increasing numbers, break down into biomass with especially high levels of carbon, which the bacteria cannot absorb well. Instead of using it to grow, the bacteria breathe it out as carbon dioxide. This means more of the gas is released into the atmosphere.Dr Carol Turley, a scientist at Plymouth University's Marine Laboratory, said the research highlighted the growing problem of ocean acidification, the so-called "evil twin" of global warming. "Oceans have been taking up 25% of the carbon dioxide that man has produced over the last 200 years, so it's been acting as a buffer for climate change. When you add more carbon dioxide to sea water it becomes more acidic. And already that is happening at a rate that hasn't occurred in 600 million years." The acidification of the oceans is already predicted to have such a corrosive effect that unprotected shellfish will dissolve by the middle of the century. Condon's research also found that the spike in jellyfish numbers is also turning the marine food cycle on its head. The creatures devour huge quantities of plankton, thus depriving small fish of the food they need. "This restricts the transfer of energy up the food chain because jellyfish are not readily consumed by other predators," said Condon. The increase in the jellyfish population has been attributed to factors including climate change, over-fishing and the runoff of agricultural fertilisers. The rise in sea temperature and the elimination of predators such as sharks and tuna has made conditions ideal, and "blooms" – when populations explode in great swarms, sparking regular panics on beaches around the world– are being reported in ever-increasing size and frequency. Last year scientists at the University of British Columbia found that global warming was causing 2,000 different jellyfish species to appear earlier each year and expanding their number. The proliferation of jellyfish has caused problems for seaside power and desalination plants in Japan, the Middle East and Africa. The blooms are also perilous to swimmers; the effects of a jellyfish sting range across the species from painless to tingling to agony and death.
Study: Sea level rising at "unprecedented" pace (JUNE 20, 2011) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/20/scitech/main20072691.shtml
(AP) WASHINGTON - Sea level has been rising significantly over the past century of global warming, according to a study that offers the most detailed look yet at the changes in ocean levels during the last 2,100 years. The researchers found that since the late 19th century — as the world became industrialized — sea level has risen more than 2 millimeters per year, on average. That's a bit less than one-tenth of an inch, but it adds up over time. It will lead to land loss, more flooding and saltwater invading bodies of fresh water, said lead researcher Benjamin Horton whose team examined sediment from North Carolina's Outer Banks. He directs the Sea Level Research Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. The predicted effects he cites aren't new and are predicted by many climate scientists. But outside experts say the research verifies increasing sea level rise compared to previous centuries. Kenneth Miller, chairman of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University, called the new report significant. "This is a very important contribution because it firmly establishes that the rise in sea level in the 20th century is unprecedented for the recent geologic past," said Miller, who was not part of the research team. CLIP
Urge the United Nations to Protect Our Oceans from Dangerous Global Warming - TAKE ACTION! https://secure3.convio.net/ucs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2873
Global warming is already having tremendous impacts on oceans around the world resulting in dangerous sea level rise, changes in regional ocean temperatures and reflectivity of ocean surfaces, and higher acidity. Many of these ocean changes are already affecting some of the world’s poorest people. We must act now to reduce dangerous heat-trapping emissions, and we must work together—on a global level. Climate change is undermining years of development progress in the poorest countries. These vulnerable nations will bear the brunt of global warming impacts—including extreme weather events, increased threats to food and water security, desertification, and rising sea levels—and yet they have contributed the least to the problem and have few resources to deal with the magnitude or speed of the changes. In 2010 the "Green Climate Fund" was created under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—an international treaty whose goal is to prevent dangerous global warming. The Fund is intended to help developing countries reduce their own global warming emissions and adapt to the inevitable effects of a changing climate. The technical and institutional details of the Fund must be worked out as soon as possible so that money can start flowing to people in desperate need of assistance. Please contact Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and urge him to make sure the Green Climate Fund is a priority of the international community and that it is funded and implemented as soon as possible. NOTE from Jean: Here are the 2 extra paragraph I wrote to Ban Ki-moon: "Not taking action NOW is totally foolish and greatly endangers the survival of mankind in the near future. That is the greatest security threat our planet has ever faced and yet the UN and most nations on Earth merely pay lip service to this unfolding catastrophe. Do we need to kick their ass for political leaders to finally seriously gear up to take concerted actions to save the oceans and the planet's biosphere from further degradation? You are one of our last hopes. Please use the global tribune offered to you to get them going and stop playing politics with the future of human civilization."
Honduras protects sharks in all its waters (June 26, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0626-hance_honduras_sharks.html
Endangered sharks are finding more sanctuaries. Honduras has announced that commercial shark fishing will be banned from its 92,665 square miles (240,000 square kilometers) of national waters. Honduras says the ban, which follows a moratorium on shark fishing, will bring in tourism revenue and preserve the marine environment. "We have seen that protecting sharks helps our environment and our people," said Honduran Vice President María Antonieta Guillén de Bogran. "When tourists come to Roatan and other destinations, they spend money to see the sharks. But these animals don’t just help the Honduran economy. Our coral reefs and marine environment thrive because these apex predators are safe in our waters. Today’s declaration will help us all, underwater and on land, for generations to come." Around the world, shark populations have been decimated by overfishing and bycatch. In fact some shark populations have fallen by over 90% in the past few decades. Rising demand for shark-fin soup is partially to blame. An increasingly popular Asian delicacy, shark-fin soup is exactly what its name suggests. To meet demand sharks are caught, their fins sawed off, and often the animals' bodies—sometimes still alive—are thrown back into the water. Shark-finning, as the practice is known, is estimated to have killed an average of 38 million sharks per year between 1996 and 2000 by itself. "Honduras has now set a conservation standard that other countries in the Americas should emulate," said Jill Hepp, manager of Global Shark Conservation for the Pew Environment Group. "More and more, world leaders are realizing that, in addition to their value to the ecosystem, sharks are worth more alive—for diving, snorkeling and watching—than dead." A recent study in the Pacific nation of Palau found that a single reef shark is worth an estimated $1.9 million in tourism revenue over its life span. Killed for consumption the shark is worth $108. Therefore the shark is worth 17,000 times more alive than dead, not including other ecosystem services beyond tourism. Honduras President Lobo Sosa signed the legislation on Roatan Island.
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Date: 22 Jun 2011
From: "Emma Ruby-Sachs - Avaaz.org" avaaz@avaaz.org">
Subject: Murder in the Amazon
Dear friends,
The Amazon is in serious danger, the lower house of the Brazilian congress has approved a gutting of Brazil’s forest protection laws. Unless we act now, vast tracts of our planet’s lungs could be opened up to clear-cutting devastation.
The move has sparked widespread anger and protests across the country. And tension is rising -- in the last few weeks, several prominent environmental advocates have been murdered, purportedly by armed thugs hired by illegal loggers. The timing is critical, they’re trying to silence criticism just as the law is discussed in the Senate. But President Dilma can veto the changes, if we can persuade her to overcome political pressure and step onto the global stage as a leader.
79% of Brazilians support Dilma's veto of the forest law changes, but their voices are being challenged by logger lobbies. It’s now up to all of us to raise the stakes and make Amazon protection a global issue. Let’s come together now in a giant call to stop the murders and illegal logging, and save the Amazon. Sign the petition below -- it’ll be delivered to Dilma when we reach 500,000 signers:
People love Brazil! The sun, the music, the dancing, the football, the nature -- it’s a country that inspires millions around the world. This is why Brazil is hosting the next World Cup, why Rio has the 2016 Olympics and next year’s Earth Summit, a meeting to stop the slow death of our planet.
Our love is not misplaced -- the Amazon Is vital to life on earth -- 20% of our oxygen and 60% of our freshwater comes from this magnificent rainforest. That’s why it’s so crucial that we all protect it.
But Brazil is also a rapidly developing country, battling to lift tens of millions out of poverty, and the pressure to clear-cut and mine for profit on its political leaders is intense. This is why they’re dangerously close to buckling on environmental protections. Local activists are being murdered, intimidated and silenced, it’s up to Avaaz members across the world to stand with Brazilians and urge Brazil’s politicians to be strong.
Many of us have seen in our own countries how growth often comes at the expense of our natural heritage, our waters and air get polluted, our forests die.
For Brazil, there is an alternative. Dilma’s predecessor massively reduced deforestation and cemented the country’s international reputation as an environmental leader, while also enjoying huge economic growth. Let’s come together now, and urge Dilma to follow in those footsteps -- sign the petition to save the Amazon, then forward this email to everyone:
In the last 3 years, Brazilian Avaaz members have taken massive leaps towards the world we all want: They won landmark anti-corruption legislation, and have lobbied their government to play a leadership role at the UN, protect human rights and intervene to support democracy in the Middle East, and help protect human rights in Africa and beyond.
Now, as brave Brazilian activists are being killed for protecting a critical global resource, let’s come together, and build an international movement to save the Amazon and herald Brazil as a true international leader once more. Sign the petition, then forward this email to everyone:
Rash of murders threatens to silence environmental and social activism in Brazil (June 10, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0609-moukaddem_killings.html
Authorities in Brazil have sent an elite police force consisting of 60 officers to offer protection to environmental activists in the Amazon after a series of killings, reports the Associated Press. The move comes 10 days after Brazil’s Vice President Michel Temer announced the creation of a working group on Amazon violence following the assassinations of three activists in the region in late May. The Brazilian Amazon is no stranger to systemic violence against environmental activists, yet the response from the federal government in the past two weeks is the most significant to date.
(...) Despite the epidemics of violence in rural Brazil, few killers are ever brought to trial. According to a 2001 report by the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights, systemic violence against rural leaders and environmental activists in the Amazon routinely ends in impunity for murderers. In southern Pará, where Jose da Silva and his wife Maria were assassinated, 534 rural workers were killed between 1971 and 2001, but just two of the cases were brought to trial, reflecting what the report calls an almost non-existent judicial response to crime in the region. Repeated death threats have also been historically ignored by authorities. José da Silva, who said several times that he would be killed for speaking out against environmental destruction in the region, appeared on the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) list of targeted activists for ten years straight before he and his wife were gunned down, according to Globo News. The Brazilian human rights group, CPT, also feared for José da Silva's wife: she appeared on the CPT list in 2004, 2005, and most recently last year. The other activist killed, Adelino Ramos, received enough death threats to merit placement on the list in 2010. Despite these consistent threats, and the fact that the end result is often murder, police declined to offer any protection to the beleaguered activists. Currently, the CPT says that 125 additional activists may be in mortal danger. CLIP -CHECK ALSO Assassinations of environmentalists continue in Brazil's Amazon, deforestation rises (May 28, 2011)
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon continues to rise; clearing highest near Belo Monte dam site (June 17, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0617-imazon_2011.html
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continued to rise as Brazil's Congress weighed a bill that would weaken the country's Forest Code, according to new analysis by Imazon. Imazon's near-real time deforestation tracking system found that 165 square kilometers (103 square miles) of forest was cleared last month, a 72 percent rise over May 2010. Accumulated deforestation in the period from August 2010 to May 2011 amounted to 1,435 sq km (1090 sq km), an increase of 24 percent over the same time-frame a year earlier. Deforestation in Brazil is typically measured on a calendar year ending in July, when cloud cover in the region is at a low point. Deforestation usually peaks in the Brazil Amazon during the dry season which runs from July through October. While the increase is significant, deforestation in the region is still well below what it was five years ago. Deforestation has steadily declined since 2004 due to a several factors including macroeconomic trends, improved law enforcement, new protected areas, pressure from NGOs, and private-sector initiatives. But environmentalists and scientists fear that proposed changes to Brazil's Forest Code, which requires landholders in the Amazon to maintain 80 percent forest cover on their lands, could trigger a reversal in deforestation rates. Scientists expect the impact of forest loss and degradation to be amplified by climate change, which is thought to have contributed to the two worst droughts on record, both of which occurred since 2005. The analysis by Imazon suggests that the Forest Code debate may be a factor in rising deforestation. It found a 363 percent increase in forest degradation — logging and burning of forest that typically precedes deforestation — over the past 10 months, reaching 6,081 sq km. Most of the degradation occurred in major agricultural states: Mato Grosso (42 percent of degradation in May), Para (27 percent), and Rondônia (22 percent). The majority of deforestation also took place in these states: 39 percent in Pará, 25 percent in Mato Grosso, and 21 percent in Rondônia. More tellingly, two-thirds of clearing occurred on private lands, which are most likely to benefit from changes in the Forest Code. Private landowners — particularly agroindustrial interests — have been pushing Forest Code reform, while small landowners and indigenous groups have generally opposed changes. Accordingly, deforestation over the past 10 months in indigenous territories and areas of agrarian reform (usually small-holder zones) amounted to only 12 percent and 1 percent, respectively. 22 percent of deforestation in May 20111 occurred in conservation areas. CLIP
How do we save Africa's forests? (June 19, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0619-mercer_africa_moukaddem.html
Africa’s forests are fast diminishing to the detriment of climate, biodiversity, and millions of people of dependent on forest resources for their well-being. But is the full conservation of Africa's forests necessary to mitigate global climate change and ensure environmental stability in Africa? A new report by The Forest Philanthropy Action Network (FPAN), a non-profit that provides research-based advice on funding forest conservation, argues that only the full conservation of African forests will successfully protect carbon stocks in Africa. Focusing on the role of African forests in helping mitigate climate change, the report, Protecting and restoring forest carbon in tropical Africa: A guide for donors and funders is the first to explore methods to protect and restore Africa’s forests. African forests store more carbon that those of Southeast Asia and are at greater risk than the tropical forests of both Asia and Latin America, according to the report. In fact, forests in Africa are being cleared at a rate nearly three times the world average: the continent lost 3.7 million hectares of tropical forest each year between 2000 and 2005. Because carbon is released when trees are burned or felled, deforestation accounts for 10-15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. “[There seems to be a] belief that Africa’s tropical forests are much less dense than those in Latin America and Asia. The reality is very different – the forests of Sub-Saharan Africa store 171 gigatons of carbon, 35 per cent more than Asia and only a quarter less than Latin America. In part this is because the total forest area is vast – half a billion hectares, out of a total global forest area of four billion hectares. If all of Africa’s tropical forests were to be deforested, that would release around 627Gt of CO2, about 15 years worth of global annual emissions,” explains Bernard Mercer, co-founder of FPAN, in an interview with mongabay.com. Unlike deforestation in Southeast Asia and South America, the primary difficulty of forest conservation in Africa stems from the people’s desperate need to utilize forest and land resources to survive, acknowledges the report. Over 80 percent of wood harvested from forests in sub-Saharan Africa is used directly for fuel, and small-scale agriculture is a contributing cause in over 80 percent of deforestation cases in Africa.
(...) The report suggests that direct action to help Africans meet their fuel needs would indirectly decrease pressure on Africa’s tropical forests. The FPAN found that supporting domestic timber plantations and distributing efficient stoves may be the most effective methods to decrease reliance on forests for cooking fuel. Their calculations suggest that supplying efficient stoves to Kenya’s rural population (6 million households) could reduce annual fuelwood consumption there by 50 percent, preventing 8.4 million tons of carbon from being released every year. Child in Gabon. Additionally, if domestic timber plantations were to supply all woodfuels, FPAN determined that demand could be met utilizing an area 5-20 percent the size of forest currently harvested, allowing for the preservation of more tropical forest. CLIP
Rainforests in Sumatra, Honduras added to UN's danger list (June 23, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0622-unesco_in_danger_list.html
Rainforests in Honduras and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have been added to the U.N.'s "danger" list due to illegal logging, encroachment, and road construction, reports UNESCO. CLIP
End U.S. Franken: Tree Experiments: Genetically Engineered Trees Risky, Unnecessary and Must Be Resisted until Banned http://forests.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=frankentrees
Over a quarter of a million genetically altered eucalyptus trees have been incautiously approved for planting by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Ultimately GE tree company ArborGen plans to sell these FrankenTrees for planting across millions of hectares from Texas to Florida - undoubtedly with some sort of sustainability greenwash for biofuel, pulp and timber. You can help us stop this disaster before it is too late. These genetically modified eucalyptus trees are like the notoriously aggressively expanding Kudzu plant invaders, but explosively flammable and toxic. In the 1990s and early 2000s a similar threat in Europe was largely rebuffed through direct action - together people simply destroyed the tree saplings. 'Eucalyptus is the perfect neoliberal tree. It grows quickly, turns a quick profit in the global market and destroys the earth." Jaime Aviles, La Jornada. TAKE ACTION HERE NOW
Over 900 species added to endangered list during past year (June 16, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0616-hance_iucn_redlist_2011.html
The past twelve months have seen 914 species added to the threatened list by the world's authority of species endangerment, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List. Over 19,000 species are now classified in one of three threatened categories, i.e. Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered, a jump of 8,219 species since 2000. Species are added to the threatened list for a variety of reasons: for many this year was the first time they were evaluated, for others new information was discovered about their plight, and for some their situation in the wild simply deteriorated. While scientists have described nearly 2 million species, the IUCN Red List has evaluated only around 3 percent of these. "The key to halting the extinction crisis is to target efforts towards eradicating the major threats faced by species and their environment; only then can their future be secured," explains Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission in a press release. "The IUCN Red List acts as a gateway to such efforts, by providing decision makers with a goldmine of information not only on the current status of the species, but also on existing threats and the conservation actions required."
(...) Current estimations from the IUCN Red List indicate that extinction rates are currently happening 100-1,000 times more than the natural rate as determined by fossils. Many scientists believe we heading into a period of mass extinction—the sixth on Earth—only this time it is due wholly to one species' activities. From deforestation to climate change, pollution to wildlife consumption, invasive species to habitat destruction, humans are driving massive changes to the world's biodiversity.
Over 80 percent of urban Congolese eat bushmeat (June 27, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0627-hance_tcs_congo_bushmeat.html
Bushmeat is one of the major threats to wildlife in parts of Africa: large and medium-sized animals are vanishing from regions in a trend dubbed by biologists the 'empty forest syndrome'. A number of popularly consumed species are also threatened with global extinction. A new study in mongabay.com's open access journal Tropical Conservation Science surveyed 1,050 households in Brazzaville, the capital of Republic of the Congo, regarding their consumption of bushmeat only to find that the practice was practically universal: 88.3 percent of households in Brazzaville consumed bushmeat. "Urbanization and economic crisis in Congo Basin countries contribute to the extension of forest exploitation and, on the basis of cultural values, to the hunting of wild animals and to the development of an informal bushmeat trade," write the authors of the study. "Roads established and maintained by logging concessions have intensified hunting by providing hunters greater access to relatively unexploited populations of forest wildlife and by lowering hunters' costs to transport bushmeat to market." The widespread practice is threatening a number of species, including chimpanzees, gorillas, forest elephants, small antelopes known as duikers, and numerous monkeys.
(...) Of the over 70 species eaten by respondents, blue duikers ( Cephalophus monticola) were the most commonly consumed. Monkeys were fourth and forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) tenth. Respondents ate 16 different species of primate, but over half of respondents said they would not eat gorilla or chimpanzee. "If inhabitants of Brazzaville are allowed to consume bushmeat at the current levels, wildlife is likely to decrease and eventually to disappear," the study concludes. "Conservation measures should take into account the interest of the population in bushmeat, and thus promote the breeding of domestic species and the breeding of animals whose meat products could be considered as 'wild' by the population (blue duiker, forest buffalo, red river hog, African brush-tailed porcupine and cane rat). Such game farming already exists in the Congo Basin where cane rat […] is sold at very competitive prices."
Greenpeace head arrested after nonviolent protest on Arctic oil rig (June 19, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0619-hance_naidoo.html
Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace, has been arrested after scaling a deepwater oil rig in the Arctic run by Cairn Energy. Naidoo was attempting to deliver a petition to the captain signed by 50,000 people demanding that Cairn Energy release details on how it would respond to an oil spill. "For me and for many people around the world this is now one of the defining environmental struggles of our time," Naidoo said on a video before scaling the rig. "It's a fight for sanity against the madness that sees the disappearance of the Arctic ice not as a warning, but as an opportunity to seek further profits." According to Greenpeace, Naidoo and another activist were fired on by high-powered water canons as they climbed the ladder to the rig. On reaching the top they were arrested and flown by helicopter to Greenland to face charges. Naidoo's action follows on the heels of twenty Greenpeace activists arrested for attempting to stop Cairn's oil drilling. Two activists—enclosed in a survival capsule hanging from the rig—stopped activities for four days. Last week, Cairn succeeded in receiving an injunction against Greenpeace in a Dutch court whereby Greenpeace faces a penalty of 50,000 Euros for everyday it refuses to comply. Still, Naidoo decided to take action himself. "Fossil fuel—oil, gas, and coal—driven climate change, is already making life hard for millions of people. I have seen this first hand in Africa where I come from. Throughout the world, sadly, it is the people in poor countries who are facing the first, and the most brutal, impacts of climate change. All of us who care about the future of our children and grandchildren, we have to draw the line somewhere. And I say that we draw that line here in the Arctic," Naidoo, a South African native, said before being arrested. Naidoo is no stranger to arrests: battling apartheid in his home country he was arrested several times. A Rhodes scholar with a PhD in politics, he is the first African to head Greenpeace. CLIP
Unbelievable! Court Rules US Taxpayers, Not BP Or Transocean, Are Liable For Gulf Oil Spill Clean Up Costs (June 19th, 2011) http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/19/unbelievable-court-rules-us-taxpayers-not-bp-or-transocean-are-liable-for-gulf-oil-spill-clean-up-costs/
A US District court has dismissed over 100,000 lawsuits brought against BP And Transocean to pay for oil spill clean up costs and environmental damages to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the BP Gulf Oil Spill. The court ruled that injury stopped the moment the well was sealed and that the Federal Government, aka The US Taxpayer, is now liable for clean up costs along with any damages caused by deficiencies of the cleanup of the Gulf Of Mexico. The US District Courts have ruled that since oil is no longer flowing from the Macando Well, BP and Transocean are not liable for cleanup costs and damages from the BP Gulf Oil Spill since the "well has already been sealed and the injury has already been committed". In the ruling the court went on record that the Federal Government is in charge of the oil spill clean up efforts. Thus any damages related to the cleanup are now the burden of the Federal Government, meaning the US Taxpayer. The ruling means that Taxpayers are not only liable for the clean up of the BP Gulf Oil Spill, but it also means that any damages caused by deficiencies of the clean up in the Gulf is also the responsibility of the US Taxpayer. The lawsuits against BP have been bundled into separate packages with all of the lawsuits pertaining to BP's liability for cleanup costs and environmental damages being dismissed with this ruling. Unbelievable. Shocking. They may need the entire congress to send twitter pics exposing themselves to distract the masses from this one. MUCH MORE IN BP wins a big one in oil spill litigation
Abolish all war and nuclear plants and weapons by Cindy Sheehan (June 2, 2011) http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/abolish-all-war-and-nuclear-plants-and-weapons-by-cindy-sheehan/
Cindy Sheehan and Fukushima people are coming - Send our voice to the world from Hiroshima on August 6! - Stop War and Nuclear Armaments! - Abolish All Nuclear Plants, Now! "STOP ALL NUCLEAR PLANTS IMMEDIATELY!" A gigantic wave of angry movement is spreading all over the world, demanding the stoppage and abolition of all nuclear plants, with young people at the front line. The Ten Million Signature Campaign to Fight Against Nuke Plants, initiated by fighting people of Hiroshima and Fukushima, is rapidly gathering an increasing number of supporters and advocates. The campaign has given us confidence that nuclear plants will surely be abolished and the world will be changed if we raise our voices and stand up for action in unity. We call on you all in Japan and the whole world! Join us in Hiroshima on August 6 to speak out our common determination with burning anger together with the suffering friends of nuclear-stricken Fukushima: "Abolish all war and nuke plants and weapons". CLIP
The Sky Really Is Falling by Chris Hedges (May 30, 2011) THIS IS A MUST READ!!!! http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/the-sky-really-is-falling-by-chris-hedges/
The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, has been confronted by the power elite with equal parts of self-delusion. There are those, many of whom hold elected office, who dismiss the science and empirical evidence as false. There are others who accept the science surrounding global warming but insist that the human species can adapt. Our only salvation-the rapid dismantling of the fossil fuel industry-is ignored by both groups. And we will be led, unless we build popular resistance movements and carry out sustained acts of civil disobedience, toward collective self-annihilation by dimwitted Pied Pipers and fools. Those who concede that the planet is warming but insist we can learn to live with it are perhaps more dangerous than the buffoons who decide to shut their eyes. It is horrifying enough that the House of Representatives voted 240-184 this spring to defeat a resolution that said that "climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare." But it is not much of an alternative to trust those who insist we can cope with the effects while continuing to burn fossil fuels.
(...) Now what we are coming to realize is that the most important adaptation we can do is to stop putting carbon in the atmosphere. If we don't, we are going to produce temperature rises so high that there is no adapting to them." The Earth has already begun to react to our hubris. Freak weather unleashed deadly tornadoes in Joplin, Mo., and Tuscaloosa, Ala. It has triggered wildfires that have engulfed large tracts in California, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. It has brought severe droughts to the Southwest, parts of China and the Amazon. It has caused massive flooding along the Mississippi as well as in Australia, New Zealand, China and Pakistan. It is killing off the fish stocks in the oceans and obliterating the polar ice caps. Steadily rising sea levels will eventually submerge coastal cities, islands and some countries. These disturbing weather patterns presage a world where it will be harder and harder to sustain human life. Massive human migrations, which have already begun, will create chaos and violence. India is building a 4,000-kilometer fence along its border with Bangladesh to, in part, hold back the refugees who will flee if Bangladesh is submerged. There are mounting food shortages and sharp price increases in basic staples such as wheat as weather patterns disrupt crop production. The failed grain harvests in Russia, China and Australia, along with the death of the winter wheat crop in Texas, have, as McKibben points out, been exacerbated by the inability of Midwestern farmers to plant corn in water-logged fields. These portents of an angry Gaia are nothing compared to what will follow if we do not swiftly act."We are going to have to adapt a good deal," said McKibben, with whom I spoke by phone from his home in Vermont. "It is going to be a century that calls for being resilient and durable. Most of that adaptation is going to take the form of economies getting smaller and lower to the ground, local food, local energy, things like that. But that alone won't do it, because the scale of change we are now talking about is so great that no one can adapt to it. Temperatures have gone up one degree so far and that has been enough to melt the Arctic. If we let it go up three or four degrees, the rule of thumb the agronomists go by is every degree Celsius of temperature rise represents about a 10 percent reduction in grain yields. If we let it go up three or four degrees we are really not talking about a planet that can support a civilization anything like the one we've got."
(...) "The only way around this is to defeat the system, and the name of that system is the fossil fuel industry, which is the most profitable industry in the world by a large margin," McKibben said. "Fighting it is extraordinarily difficult. Maybe you can't do it. The only way to do it is to build a movement big enough to make a difference. And that is what we are trying desperately to do with 350.org. It is something we should have done 20 years ago, instead of figuring that we were going to fight climate change by convincing political elites that they should do something about this problem. It is a tactic that has not worked.""One of our big targets this year is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is the biggest front group for fossil fuel there is," he said. "We are figuring out how to take them on. I don't think they are worried about us yet. And maybe they are right not to be because they've got so much money they're invulnerable.""There are huge decisive battles coming," he said. "This year the Obama administration has to decide whether it will grant a permit or not for this giant pipeline to run from the tar sands of Alberta down to the refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. That is like a 1,500-mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet. We have to figure out how to keep that from happening. The Obama administration, very sadly, a couple of months ago opened 750 million tons of western coal under federal land for mining. That was a disgrace. But they still have to figure out how to get it to port so they can ship it to China, which is where the market for it is. We are trying hard to keep that from happening. I'm on my way to Bellingham, Wash., next week because there is a plan for a deep-water port in Bellingham that would allow these giant freighters to show up and collect that coal.""In moral terms it's all our personal responsibility and we should be doing those things," McKibben said when I asked him about changing our own lifestyles to conserve energy. "But don't confuse that with having much of an impact on the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. You can't make the math work one house or one campus at a time. We should do those things. I've got a little plaque for having built the most energy-efficient house in Vermont the year we built it. I've got solar panels everywhere. But I don't confuse myself into thinking that that's actually doing very much. This argument is a political argument. I spend much of my life on airplanes spewing carbon behind me as we try to build a global movement. Either we are going to break the power of the fossil fuel industry and put a price on carbon or the planet is going to heat past the point where we can deal with it." CLIP
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Visits Southwestern Fires (June 29, 2011) http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2011/06/0286.xml
PHOENIX, June 29, 2011 — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today made aerial assessments of fires in New Mexico and Arizona and toured burned areas in the two-state region. The U.S. Forest Service, an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, manages fire response and suppression in our nation's 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. The Forest Service currently has nearly 9,000 personnel assigned to more than 130 wildfires across the United States, and most are concentrated on wildfires burning in the Southern and Southwest regions of the United States, from Arizona to Florida."The fires that have raged throughout the Southwest this year have been some of the worst in years," said Vilsack. (...) Already this year, over a million acres of Forest Service lands have burned in the American Southwest, as well as another 600,000 acres of federal, state and private lands, costing millions of dollars in immediate fire response and many millions more in restoration and rehabilitation in the months and years ahead. CLIP
Chris Hedges' Endgame Strategy - Why the revolution must start in America (June 17, 2011) http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/chris-hedgess-endgame-strategy-why-the-revolution-must-start-in-america/
The unrest in the Middle East, the convulsions in Ivory Coast, the hunger sweeping across failed states such as Somalia, the freak weather patterns and the systematic unraveling of the American empire do not signal a lurch towards freedom and democracy but the catastrophic breakdown of globalization. The world as we know it is coming to an end. And what will follow will not be pleasant or easy. The bankrupt corporate power elite, who continue to serve the dead ideas of unfettered corporate capitalism, globalization, profligate consumption and an economy dependent on fossil fuels, as well as endless war, have proven incapable of radically shifting course or responding to our altered reality. They react to the great unraveling by pretending it is not happening. They are desperately trying to maintain a doomed system of corporate capitalism. And the worse it gets the more they embrace, and seek to make us embrace, magical thinking. Dozens of members of Congress in the United States have announced that climate change does not exist and evolution is a hoax. They chant the mantra that the marketplace should determine human behavior, even as the unfettered and unregulated marketplace threw the global economy into a seizure and evaporated some $40 trillion in worldwide wealth. The corporate media retreats as swiftly from reality into endless mini-dramas revolving around celebrities or long discussions about the inane comments of a Donald Trump or a Sarah Palin. The real world - the one imploding in our faces - is ignored. The deadly convergence of environmental and economic catastrophe is not coincidental. Corporations turn everything, from human beings to the natural world, into commodities they ruthlessly exploit until exhaustion or death. The race of doom is now between environmental collapse and global economic collapse. Which will get us first? Or will they get us at the same time?
Planet Earth Doesn't Know How To Make It Any Clearer It Wants Everyone To Leave - The Onion is at it again! http://www.theonion.com/articles/planet-earth-doesnt-know-how-to-make-it-any-cleare,20639/
EARTH—According to a statement released to the press Tuesday, the planet Earth has "just about run out of ways" to let its roughly 6.9 billion human inhabitants know it wants them all to leave.Following a recent series of disastrous floods along the Mississippi River and destructive tornadoes across much of the United States—as well as a year of even deadlier natural catastrophes all over the world—the Earth said its options for strongly implying that it no longer wants human beings living on it have basically been exhausted."At this point, I think I've stated my wishes quite loudly and clearly," the Earth's statement to all of humanity read in part. "I haven't exactly been subtle about it, you realize. I have literally tried to drown you, crush you, starve you, dehydrate you, pump you full of diseases, and suck your homes and families into swirling vortices of death. Honestly, what more is it going to take for you people to get the message?"
(...) In a sharp rebuke to both the planet and the mainstream scientific community, Republican leaders in Congress responded this week with a scathing critique of what they deemed to be the Earth's "pathetic and extremist viewpoints." "What we're seeing here is the same old scientific mumbo jumbo and partisan rhetoric that the Earth has been spewing out for millennia," Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said. "We're not going to be bullied by a celestial body that has time and again failed to deliver on its promise to glorify and reward mankind with its bounty."Immediately following these statements from the human race, the Earth emitted a loud sigh, which shifted multiple tectonic plates and caused massive earthquakes on five continents.
Hot map hard to ignore: interactive map points out local climate impacts (June 29, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0629-hance_hotmap.html
A global interactive map has been developed by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) to highlight climate impacts already occurring worldwide. From glacier melt risking water supplies in Bolivia to coral bleaching off the coast of Florida, the Climate Hot Map employs the best in climate science to bring home the impacts of global warming. "One of the main goals of the map is to really bring the science of climate change to life by connecting it to people’s daily lives around the world," explained UCS climate scientist Brenda Ekwurzel in a press release. “That’s the part of climate research that’s sometimes hard to get from scientific publications. The map, which will have updated impacts every month, shows climate change impacts in five categories: terrestrial ecosystems, temperature, freshwater, oceans, and people, which includes threats to food supplies, the economy, and public health. Users can also find out how to decrease their own emissions under Find Solutions. "Once you find out about your own region, you start to get interested in other regions that are facing global warming consequences. We think a map will make it easier for people to get the big picture of what’s going on around the world," Ekwurzel adds. According to decades of research from thousands of scientists, the world is warming because of emissions of greenhouse gases from human actions, such as burning fossil fuels and destroying forests. During the 20th Century, the global average temperature rose about 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit (0.74 degrees Celsius). Future warming depends on how rapidly global society brings down current emissions. Expected impacts from climate change include more frequent and worsening extreme weather events, greater precipitation events (both rain and snow), worsening droughts for parts of the world, global sea level rise due to polar melting, large-scale species extinctions, ocean acidification, a rise in massive fires, changes in the range of diseases, and many others. Water supplies, food production, societal health, the global economy, and international stability are all expected to be threatened by climate change.
Serengeti road cancelled (June 23, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0623-hance_serengeti_road.html
In what is a victory for environmentalists, scientists, tourism, and the largest land migration on Earth, the Tanzanian government has cancelled a commercial road that would have cut through the northern portion of the Serengeti National Park. According to scientists the road would have severed the migration route of 1.5 million wildebeest and a half million other antelope and zebra, in turn impacting the entire ecosystem of the Serengeti plains. "The State Party confirms that the proposed road will not dissect the Serengeti National Park and therefore will not affect the migration and conservation values of the Property," reads a statement from the Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. A paved road, however, will be constructed close to the park boundaries: ending at Mugumu on the western side (12 kilometers from the park's border) and Loliondo on the eastern side (57.6 kilometers from the border), allowing a slim buffer of habitat around the park. It is uncertain whether a gravel road will be constructed through the park, but if it is it will remain under the park authority TANAPA and will be used for tourists and administration says the statement.
(...) Environmentalists have been increasingly concerned by government plans in Tanzania. While the Serengeti road has received the most coverage, Tanzania has also recently announced plans to mine soda ash in the world's most important lesser flamingo breeding ground, Lake Natron. The plans were abandoned in 2008 due to concerns that it would disrupt the flamingo's breeding, but were recently resurrected and put on the fast-track. Over half of the world's lesser flamingos (65-75%) breed on the single lake. However, Dr. Dobson says now is the time to credit the Tanzanian government for safe-guarding the Serengeti ecosystem. "President Kikwete and Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ezekial Maige, deserve the nation's and the world's praise for making a wise and forward looking decision at a time when they were under pressure from multiple national and international sources to make a very difficult decision," Dobson said. "They have shown great leadership that points the way to the future for all African nations."
How do tourists view the Serengeti? (June 27, 2011) http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0627-hance_tcs_serengeti_tourism.html
(...) "[Tourists] do not perceive much environmental impact from their own level of activity, but they are concerned about future changes," write the authors. Finally, just over half said they would not return if more roads are added to the Serengeti. The Serengeti road issue has been a hot topic in Tanzania and beyond, as the Tanzanian government was planning to build a commercial thoroughfare through the northern part of the park even though scientists and conservationists said, over time, it would end the great Serengeti migration. Tanzania has since shelved the major road plans, but NGOs warn the government may still build a gravel road through the wilderness area, opening the door to a major highway in the future. Although worried about the Serengeti's future, the study finds that most tourists are probably unaware of the challenges facing the park, especially rising population along the park's perimeter with many facing deep poverty. "The most radical change during the history of the park is the increase in population pressure from the surrounding communities. Currently over 2 million people live around the perimeter of the park […] Apparently, the Park attracts people from a range of regions, and they settle on the borders of the park in hope of obtaining better living conditions," write the authors. "Yet, resources and social services are limited and poverty is widespread. The high level of poaching and numerous conflicts over grazing areas and water is driven by the population increase in the areas adjacent to the park. All these factors affect the Serengeti environment, and they pose formidable management challenges."
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A WONDERFUL PRECEDENT THAT ALL COUNTRIES SHOULD STRIVE TO EMULATE!
Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth
Law of Mother Earth expected to prompt radical new conservation and social measures in South American nation
John Vidal in La Paz- 10 April 2011
John Vidal reports from La Paz where Bolivians are living with the effects of climate change every day.
There is a compelling related video by the Guardian you'll want to watch HERE
Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.
The country, which has been pilloried by the US and Britain in the UN climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts, will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.
Controversially, it will also enshrine the right of nature "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities".
"It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all", said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. "It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."
The law, which is part of a complete restructuring of the Bolivian legal system following a change of constitution in 2009, has been heavily influenced by a resurgent indigenous Andean spiritual world view which places the environment and the earth deity known as the Pachamama at the centre of all life. Humans are considered equal to all other entities.
But the abstract new laws are not expected to stop industry in its tracks. While it is not clear yet what actual protection the new rights will give in court to bugs, insects and ecosystems, the government is expected to establish a ministry of mother earth and to appoint an ombudsman. It is also committed to giving communities new legal powers to monitor and control polluting industries.
Bolivia has long suffered from serious environmental problems from the mining of tin, silver, gold and other raw materials. "Existing laws are not strong enough," said Undarico Pinto, leader of the 3.5m-strong Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia, the biggest social movement, who helped draft the law. "It will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional and local levels."
Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said Bolivia's traditional indigenous respect for the Pachamama was vital to prevent climate change. "Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values," he said.
Little opposition is expected to the law being passed because President Evo Morales's ruling party, the Movement Towards Socialism, enjoys a comfortable majority in both houses of parliament.
However, the government must tread a fine line between increased regulation of companies and giving way to the powerful social movements who have pressed for the law. Bolivia earns $500m (£305m) a year from mining companies which provides nearly one third of the country's foreign currency.
In the indigenous philosophy, the Pachamama is a living being.
The draft of the new law states: "She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self-organisation."
Ecuador, which also has powerful indigenous groups, has changed its constitution to give nature "the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution". However, the abstract rights have not led to new laws or stopped oil companies from destroying some of the most biologically rich areas of the Amazon.
Coping with climate change
Bolivia is struggling to cope with rising temperatures, melting glaciers and more extreme weather events including more frequent floods, droughts, frosts and mudslides.
Research by glaciologist Edson Ramirez of San Andres University in the capital city, La Paz, suggests temperatures have been rising steadily for 60 years and started to accelerate in 1979. They are now on course to rise a further 3.5-4C over the next 100 years. This would turn much of Bolivia into a desert.
Most glaciers below 5,000m are expected to disappear completely within 20 years, leaving Bolivia with a much smaller ice cap. Scientists say this will lead to a crisis in farming and water shortages in cities such as La Paz and El Alto.
Evo Morales, Latin America's first indigenous president, has become an outspoken critic in the UN of industrialised countries which are not prepared to hold temperatures to a 1C rise.
Bolivia Celebrates Law Granting Rights to Mother Earth http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2011/2011-04-20-01.html
LA PAZ, Bolivia, April 20, 2011 (ENS) - Bolivia today marked the International Day of Mother Earth with a ceremony in the Plaza Murillo, the center of political power. An ancient ritual shared center stage with speeches in which authorities in this Andean nation extolled the Law of Mother Earth - the world's first legislation that grants to all nature rights equal to humans. (...) The first article of the Law of Mother Earth says that every human activity has to "achieve dynamic balance with the cycles and processes inherent in Mother Earth." It defines Mother Earth as "a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings."
(...) "President Evo Morales says the planet can live without humans, but humans can not live without the planet and reminds the world today that the rights of nature should be rights equal to those we, ourselves, enjoy," Coca said.Inspired by Bolivia, in 2009, the UN General Assembly proclaimed April 22 as International Mother Earth Day, expressing its conviction that, to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations, "it is necessary to promote harmony with nature and the Earth."In October 2009, the General Assembly named President Morales "World Hero of Mother Earth."The Morales Government intends to establish a Ministry of Mother Earth to implement the Law of Mother Earth, which will establish new rights for nature, including: - the right to maintain the integrity of life and natural processes - the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered - the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration - the right to pure water - the right to clean air - the right to balance, to be at equilibrium - the right to be free of toxic and radioactive pollution - the right to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities. The law promotes "harmony" and "peace" and "the elimination of all nuclear, chemical, biological" weapons. At the same time, President Morales is set to announce on May 1 that he will be "dismantling the privatization model," thereby expropriating privately owned zinc, silver and tin mines. CLIP
A LAW THAT'S AN ODE TO MOTHER EARTH http://www.islandsbusiness.com/islands_business/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=19696/overideSkinName=issueArticle-full.tpl
(...) While this will undoubtedly fuel raging debates, it is the first time that a law has been contemplated to preserve the integrity of nature’s own systems. But what is most commendable for a politician, especially one who is in power, is to appear to do something contrary to what is not only an easy revenue stream for the country but also goes against what is often a vested interest for the powerful political class anywhere in the world: the exploitation of natural resources. That activity is a source of huge corruption and has long established gravy trains in all parts of the developing world, which are hard to derail. On this matter, the law goes on to guarantee for Mother Earth “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities.”The effects of indiscriminate logging and exploitation of other natural resources including minerals and other forestry products have scarred Bolivia and much of South America. These activities have affected thousands of living species including remotely living tribes. Many of these species have been driven to their extinction.This is a legislation with a heart and it is driven by the president of the country himself. Evo Morales is Bolivia’s first indigenous president and has always championed the cause of Mother Earth and has been quite outspoken about his disappointment with the world’s efforts at addressing climate change. He has been openly critical of the accords signed at Copenhagen and Cancun and has been pushing for change at a more fundamental, people’s level.
(...) If successful, Bolivia would have taught the world a thing or two about conservation and dealing with climate change like no mega conference involving 190 countries could ever. By the looks of it, Bolivia is already having a few followers in its own neighbourhood: Ecuador appears to have incorporated similar aims in its constitution while Nicaragua, Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda have shown vocal support for Bolivia’s initiative. Call her Pachamama, Gaia, Dharti Maa or Mother Earth, an acknowledgement that She sustains all life is a fact that mankind had buried in the rubble of his search for riches. We owe it to Bolivia for showing the way.
Will Bolivia make the breakthrough on food security and the environment? (20 June 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jun/20/bolivia-food-security-prices-agriculture
Evo Morales' government is poised to pass a law that ensures Bolivians can feed themselves, and protects the environment (...) A new law that is being debated in Bolivia is expected to pave the way for the government of President Evo Morales to ensure food security while preserving national sovereignty and protecting the environment. The law reflects a concept of life in Bolivia that is centred around Suma Qamaña or living well. For Bolivians, these two Aymaran words are not about Fellini's dolce vita: instead, they are about all people living well in harmony with the Pachamama, or Mother Earth. The president is soon expected to sign the Law of Productive, Communal and Agricultural Revolution. The government says it will invest $500m (£308m) annually for 10 years in sustainable policies that guarantee the local and self-sufficient production of high quality food, while preserving and respecting the country's immense biodiversity. A key part of the proposals in this "food revolution" is Bolivia's intention to produce its own seeds."[They] are a major factor in food production," said Carlos Romero, the minister who proposed the draft law. "But in recent years we've seen an increase in their price across the world, because of a rise in oil prices and the monopoly exercised on seeds by a few corporations. That's why we want to create state-owned companies that produce seeds."
(...) "About 20 to 25 years ago, 70 to 80% of what we ate was produced locally in Bolivia," he said, "but then we embraced the agro-industrial model and now 70 to 80% of what we eat comes from the agro-industry, which makes us dependent on technologies and price controls from abroad. So, in the same way that industrialists received support from the government in the past, now it's small farmers who need help." Kopp believes the country has become too dependent on monocultures, and that only by protecting the genetic make-up of its native crops from an invasion of foreign species, can Bolivians regain a diversified production and a better diet. CLIP
June 2011 Cosmic Weather Forecast: Solstice Joy, Pentecost Spirit, and a July Cross to Come
June 14, 2011 by Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry
(...)
As we shall see, the clear message of this month's Festival of Goodwill is that there's a global energy shortage, so it's time to stop wasting energy.
In addition, humanity must learn to share! We are all in this together. As the Fukushima nuclear disaster has so recently demonstrated, we are all neighbors now. The same radiation originating in Japan is found in soil, air and vegetation throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
The onset of global warming, the peaking of the global supply of inexpensive hydrocarbon energy sources, and the ongoing slow implosion of the Utopian free market economic policies initiated 40 years ago by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher are combining to create the perfect planetary storm system.
If the global financial system is to survive, the wealthy among us are going to have to learn to share.
If the global political system is to avoid a catastrophic World Resource War, then we are going to have to learn to share.
If human civilization expects to survive global warming, we are going to have to learn to modify our patterns of consumption for the greater good. We are going to have to learn to share.
An important message from the Universe came to me a couple of weeks ago during meditation, and it concerned the issue of waste, the need for energy conservation, and the spiritual Laws of Nature that govern human reincarnation.
My guidance was to include the message in this month's Full Moon newsletter, because the energy of this Full Moon harmonizes with the essence of the instruction.
Here is the gist of the message in a very simplified form.
"One of the major sources of karma on planet Earth involves wasting energy. As you already know, there are three main areas of life in which those being schooled on planet Earth need remedial instruction, three main areas in which virtually all souls who incarnate on this planet must learn to achieve a much greater degree of responsibility and balance than they have demonstrated in past incarnations.
"These three areas are power, sex and money. Power, sex and money are all expressions of human life force energy as it manifests in group situations. In past incarnations, human beings have abused power, misused the sacred sexual energy, and greedily amassed fortunes while the masses suffer and even starve.
"Ponder the myriad ways in which human beings waste their own power. The powerful among us, our leaders, appear more concerned with their own personal well-being than with the well-being of the communities they have been empowered to oversee, for the greater good of all concerned.
"Those human beings with an innate, powerful sexual magnetism have wasted their Universal Life Force energy in the pursuit of sexual pleasures when it could have been sublimated to some degree, raised to the higher chakras, and used as the key to unlock the door to Higher Worlds.
"Nor for the most part have those endowed with a superfluity of sexual energies channeled those energies into creative expression or spiritual partnership. Thus much of humanity's sexual energy, which could be used to help accelerate humanity's spiritual growth, is wasted on the pursuit of sensation.
"The wealthy among us live in a world of unrelenting and continuous warfare, the war of all against all. In that world of ruthless Darwinian competition, all commerce, all finance, all politics, all human interaction, is defined by its monetary value, and all human interactions become monetary transactions.
"In each transaction there is a winner and a loser. The focus of life becomes winning and the avoidance of loss.
"The end result is that the wealthy use their wealth to consolidate their power over the society as a whole so as to maximize their own ability to increase their wealth, at the expense of everyone else in society.
"This creates war among nations, war among corporations, and war between economic classes. War is in many ways the quintessential waste of energy.
"You can see the human tendency to waste energy in every aspect of the lifestyle of the most 'advanced' human societies today."
"Ponder the waste you see around you during the year 2011. Like the vast majority of souls currently incarnating on Earth, one of your Soul tasks in this lifetime is to see and feel the results of a mass dramatization of energy waste."
Once I got the message, I did some research online.
A website called The9Billion.com has a valuable article on the human tendency to waste food in a world where 1 of every 7 people is hungry, every day.
Midwest Floods: Waters Breach Berm at Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station in Nebraska (June 26, 2011) http://abcnews.go.com/US/floods-hit-nuke-plant-waters-breach-berm-fort/story?id=13932406
A berm at a nuclear power plant in Fort Calhoun, Neb., collapsed early this morning, allowing Missouri River flood waters to reach containment buildings and transformers and forcing the shutdown of electrical power.Tonight, backup generators are cooling the nuclear material at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station.The plant has not operated since April, and officials say there is no danger to the public.A spokesman for the Omaha Public Power District, Jeff Hanson, told The Associated Press that the breached berm wasn't critical to protecting the plant, though a crew will look at whether it can be patched."That was an additional layer of protection we put in," Hanson said.Nevertheless, federal inspectors are on the scene, and the federal government is so concerned the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is headed to the plant. CLIP - Check also Parts of Nebraska Nuclear Facility Already Under 2 Feet of Water (June 23, 2011) with pictures
US Orders News Blackout Over Crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant (June 17, 2011) RUMOR-MONGERING?! http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/17/us-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-nebraska-nuclear-plant/
A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska. According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area. CLIP
Flood Rumor Control http://www.oppd.com/AboutUs/22_007105
(...) The FCS plant’s reactor has been in cold shut down for a planned refueling outage since April 9. It will remain in that condition until the river recedes. The reactor and spent-fuel pool are in a normal, stable condition and are both protected; there has been no release of radioactivity and none is expected.mnRumor: A no-fly zone was set up around Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station because of a release of radiation, similar to what happened with the Fukushima reactors in Japan. There has been no release of radioactivity at Fort Calhoun Station due to the flooding and none is expected. The flight restrictions were set up by the FAA as a result of Missouri river flooding. OPPD’s extensive, preplanned actions to protect the FCS reactor and spent-fuel pool from the floodwaters have been effective. The reactor is housed in a watertight containment building, and is in a normal and safe “cold shutdown” condition, covered by more than 23 feet of purified reactor coolant water. CLIP - Note from Jean: So IT IS not that bad if we are to believe them... On the other hand, the Tritium contamination )see below) warrants more in-depth scrutiny I think.
Ft. Calhoun nuclear plant safety under scrutiny (21 June, 2011) http://rt.com/usa/news/calhoun-plant-safety-power/
In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Americans have expressed their concern over power plants in the states. Word has surfaced that conditions at a Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska plant are at a critical level. It’s clear that US regulators want to avoid a Fukushima on their home turf, but how can Americans be so sure of what’s happening when so much information is being shielded from them? “We don’t have quick, easy, independent access to important information about the operations and concerns about these plants,” says Tyson Slocum, the director at the Public Citizen’s Energy Program. He tells RT that information is purposely withheld from the public for the safety of the nation, but that the same barring of facts is keeping the rest of the country in the dark. “What it’s done,” says Slocum, “is keep this critical information way from us.” He adds that the lack of clarity is causing concern for the American people curious over rumors of an impending meltdown, and says that “Getting more independent access … is going to be critical.”Slocum adds that, with US nuclear power becoming a hotter issue, it raises a much bigger question: is it a viable source of power at all? “Is this an affordable route?” he asks. The risks are getting higher and higher, he says, and that, from a safety and security standpoint, does it make sense to phase out nuclear power at home before the country is pitted with another Three Mile Island? “I hope that it doesn’t take an accident for us to recognize the huge risks and costs associated with nuclear power.” As we think about new questions, Slocum asks a big one in particular: “Should we subsidize these or think about some of the emerging technologies that present far less risk but arguably greater return for the public?” As both high-level nuclear waste and public concern pile on, the answer seems all too obvious. NOTE: Watch the embedded Russian TV video at the bottom of this webpage above... CHECK ALSO 6-20-2011 – Missouri River is Flooding – MSM says “It’s Cool” – Levees Breaking Everywhere!!!
River Inches Toward Nuke Plant, Shutdown Likely (JUNE 20, 2011) http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/20/river-inches-toward-nuke-plant-shutdown-likley/
The Missouri River rose to record height Sunday at Brownville, prompting Cooper Nuclear Station three miles south of the community to declare a low-level emergency at 2:06 a.m. By Sunday evening, the water level was only about 3 inches below the level at which Nebraska Public Power District said the plant would have to be shut down. But a National Weather Service hydrologic chart indicated the river level may have peaked and could be dropping. CLIP
Physicist Speaks On Concerns With Material At Los Alamos Lab (June 28, 2011) http://www.koat.com/news/28386019/detail.html
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- Dr. Michio Kaku discussed his concerns Tuesday for the hazardous materials housed at Los Alamos National Laboratory.Kaku said around 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of plutonium contaminated waste is stored at the lab. That waste includes everything from gloves to fuel rods, according to Kaku.“Plutonium is one of the most toxic particles known to science. A particle you can’t even see lodged in your lungs could cause lung cancer,” Kaku said. “What we’re worried about is what happens when the fires go right into these buildings and perhaps pop open some of these 55-gallon drums.”Right now, Los Alamos National Lab officials said dangerous materials in the lab are secure and do not pose a threat.Kaku said no one has ever fully tested the lab under real fire conditions.“What happens if the fire spreads to the very heart of the laboratory? At that point, we have to cross our fingers hoping that ‘secure sites remain secure,’” Kaku said. CHECK ALSO Crews Make Progress On Fire Near Los Alamos AND Potential Nuclear Catastrophes Spread Across The US As 1 Sievert Per Hour Water Found Leaking From Fukushima
Unprecedented number of domestic no-fly zones quietly declared by FAA (June 20, 2011) http://stationsixunderground.blogspot.com/2011/06/unprecedented-number-of-domestic-no-fly.html
Now perhaps I am mistaken here, I am not an aviation expert, but it appears to me looking at the Federal Aviation Administration's own records, something unprecedented is happening. There isn't a peep about it in the mainstream media. In 2009 and 2010, the FAA declared five no-fly zones in US national airspace. This year, and mostly in the last few weeks, they have declared over FIFTY! Check it out for yourself at: http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.html - All kinds of wild speculations are going on as to why this happens (See Truckers Report Moving Military Equipment Across U.S, FEMA Involved! - But there is a simple, reasonable explanation to be found HERE: "If you go to this site and click on the blue hyperlinks in the NOTFAM column you can read the actual notifications, which list the reasons for the notice. Most of them do seem to be legitimate fires which are too small to warrant national news attention. I'm not so sure what the deal with Hibbing, Minnesota, is, though." Note from Jean: I checked some of these stated reasons and found out they are diversified such as "Temporary flight restrictions for Special Security Reasons", "High performance aerial demonstrations", "TO PROVIDE A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR FIRE FIGHTING AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS", "Temporary flight restrictions Ending Date and Time : Until further notice", Temporary flight restrictions for the FORT CALHOUN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT Radius: 2 nautical miles (So they don't want anyone poking/looking around to see what's happening there....) and in most cases, the duration is very short.
Radioactive Tritium has Leaked From 75% of U.S. Nuke Plants — Drinking Wells Were Contaminated in Illinois and Minnesota (June 20, 2011) http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/20/radioactive-tritium-has-leaked-from-75-of-u-s-nuke-plants-—-drinking-wells-were-contaminated-in-illinois-and-minnesota/
BRACEVILLE, Ill. (AP) – Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows. The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.Tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen, has leaked from at least 48 of 65 sites, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission records reviewed as part of the AP’s yearlong examination of safety issues at aging nuclear power plants. Leaks from at least 37 of those facilities contained concentrations exceeding the federal drinking water standard – sometimes at hundreds of times the limit.While most leaks have been found within plant boundaries, some have migrated offsite. But none is known to have reached public water supplies. At three sites – two in Illinois and one in Minnesota – leaks have contaminated drinking wells of nearby homes, the records show, but not at levels violating the drinking water standard. At a fourth site, in New Jersey, tritium has leaked into an aquifer and a discharge canal feeding picturesque Barnegat Bay off the Atlantic Ocean. Any exposure to radioactivity, no matter how slight, boosts cancer risk, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Federal regulators set a limit for how much tritium is allowed in drinking water, where this contaminant poses its main health risk. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says tritium should measure no more than 20,000 picocuries per liter in drinking water. The agency estimates seven of 200,000 people who drink such water for decades would develop cancer. The tritium leaks also have spurred doubts among independent engineers about the reliability of emergency safety systems at the 104 nuclear reactors situated on the 65 sites. That’s partly because some of the leaky underground pipes carry water meant to cool a reactor in an emergency shutdown and to prevent a meltdown. Fast moving, tritium can indicate the presence of more powerful radioactive isotopes, like cesium-137 and strontium-90. So far, federal and industry officials say, the tritium leaks pose no health or safety threat. Tony Pietrangelo, chief nuclear officer of the industry’s Nuclear Energy Institute, said impacts are “next to zero.”
(...) An NRC task force on tritium leaks last year dismissed the danger to public health. Instead, its report called the leaks “a challenging issue from the perspective of communications around environmental protection.” The task force noted ruefully that the rampant leaking had “impacted public confidence.”For sure, the industry also is trying to stop the leaks. For several years now, plant owners around the country have been drilling more monitoring wells and taking a more aggressive approach in replacing old piping when leaks are suspected or discovered. But such measures have yet to stop widespread leaking.Meantime, the reactors keep getting older – 66 have been approved for 20-year extensions to their original 40-year licenses, with 16 more extensions pending. And, as the AP has been reporting in its ongoing series, Aging Nukes, regulators and industry have worked in concert to loosen safety standards to keep the plants operating. In an initiative started last year, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko asked his staff to examine regulations on buried piping to evaluate if stricter standards or more inspections were needed.The staff report, issued in June, openly acknowledged that the NRC “has not placed an emphasis on preventing” the leaks. And they predicted even more. - CHECK ALSO Dangerous radiation leaked from three-quarters of U.S. nuclear power plants
The timebomb of ageing US nuclear reactors revealed (21 June 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/jun/21/nuclear-power-safety-regulator-nrc
An investigation by AP reveals how the industry has found a simple solution to ageing: weaken safety standards until creaking plants meet them -- Getting old isn't pleasant: things start to creak or stop working all together. The good news, you would think, in the case of nuclear power plants is that you can replace worn, corroded or cracked parts with new ones.But an impressive year-long investigation into the US nuclear power industry by Associated Press reveals how the regulators and the industry have repeatedly found a much simpler solution to ageing: weaken the safety standards until the creaking plants meet them.On yesterday's post, some commenters argued the engineering safety issue is not unique to nuclear power, meaning it is unfair to criticise the nuclear industry for failings that pass unnoticed elsewhere. I disagree for the simple reason that the stakes are so vastly higher for nuclear reactors: safety standards have to be far more stringent because the consequences of serious accidents have such huge economic and social costs. Remember, the pact you sign when you build a reactor is to control that atomic inferno for decades and then look after the waste for thousands of years.That leads to the point that underlies the AP investigation. The incentive to maintain costly safety regimes runs entirely counter to the primary incentive of the nuclear power plant operators, which, perfectly reasonably, is to make money. The problem comes when, as years roll by without serious incidents, that heavy, expensive regulation starts to look like an unnecessary burden.And that's exactly what AP's reporters found: Federal regulators have been working closely with the US nuclear power industry to keep the nation's ageing reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them. Time after time, officials at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed — up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants could meet standards. Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked to ageing were uncovered. And all of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident.Yet despite the many problems linked to ageing, not a single official body in government or industry has studied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of such breakdowns in recent years, even as the NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of reactors. The problem of ageing is another where the incentive to close old reactors down in favour of newer, safer reactors is easily overwhelmed by the incentive to keep it running. The plant exists and the capital costs are paid off, so as long you can sell the electricity for more than the maintenance costs, you have a money-printing machine. At the time, the 30 to 40 year licences granted to nuclear power plants were seen as the absolute maximum period for which they would run: the period matched their design lifetimes. Now, AP found, 66 of the 104 operating units in the US have been relicenced for 20 extra years, with applications being considered for 16 more. CLIP - COMPARE WHAT HAPPENED IN JAPAN - AS DESCRIBED IN THE NEXT ARTICLE - DESPITE THE NUMEROUS WARNINGS, WITH THE CURRENT SITUATION IN THE US WHERE NUMEROUS WARNINGS ARE BEING ISSUED... WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER NUCLEAR DISASTER AT OUR DOORSTEP. LET US HOLD THE NUCLEAR REGULATORS'S FEET TO THE FIRE UNTIL THEY STOP BEING COMPLACENT AND PLAIN STUPID...
'A disaster waiting to happen' despite steady stream of warnings (April 25, 2011) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0425/1224295408727.html
TOKYO LETTER: A warning from Fukushima’s former governor about Japan’s ‘nuclear absolutism’ was ignored, with tragic and devastating consequences - THE WORST-CASE scenario of Japan’s nuclear crisis, reportedly floated by Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the dark night of March 16th, that much of the east of the country including Tokyo could be “wrecked” has been averted. The reality though is shocking enough. A 20km zone around the ruined Daiichi nuclear power complex has been irradiated, emptying towns and villages in Fukushima Prefecture of about 80,000 people who do not know when they can return. Unknown quantities of radiation continue to seep into the sea from the plant, which is swimming in 70,000 tonnes of toxic water. Beyond the evacuation zone, thousands more are exposed, perhaps dangerously so – the government now plans to hike the limits of radiation exposure for children in the prefecture to 20 millisievert a year, 20 times the annual allowable dose for adults elsewhere. Making the plant safe will take nine months; euthanising it and dismantling its plutonium and cesium-riddled corpse is a job of decades, costing billions of dollars.The story of this epic disaster comes with a generous cast of Cassandra figures, the seismologists, conservationists and whistleblowers ignored by the national nuclear planners. The most striking may be Eisako Sato (71), who was governor of Fukushima Prefecture from 1988-2006, “roughly half the life of the plant”, he told journalists at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club this week.
(...) Sato snorts at Tepco’s famous statement immediately afterwards that the quake/tsunami was a “disaster beyond our expectations”, pointing to the string of huge tsunamis that have battered Japan’s eastern coastline for millennia and the steady stream of academic warnings about the probability of a seismic event beyond the capacity of the plant to withstand. “This was a disaster waiting to happen,” he concludes. And the lesson? Replacing Tepco’s management won’t solve anything, he says, because the logic of Japan’s energy policies is that nuclear power generation is absolutely necessary. “So nuclear power must be seen as absolutely safe, you see?” Ordinary people must “take democracy into their own hands, because if they do not, 10 years from now we will see another disastrous situation. It’s almost as though we are in a fascist country where information is hidden from the public. I believe that it is time for Japan to wake up and see what the situation is.”
Radiation "hotspots" hinder Japan response to nuclear crisis (June 15, 2011) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/us-japan-nuclear-hotspots-idUSTRE75D1JT20110615
(...) More than three months after the Fukushima nuclear plant was hit by a quake and tsunami that triggered the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, Japanese officials are still struggling to understand where and how radiation released in the accident created far-flung "hotspots" of contamination. The uncertainty itself is proving a strain. "Stress has serious health effects. The Japanese people no longer trust the nuclear industry and the government. People do not know whether their food and their land is safe," said Kim Kearfott, an expert on radiation health risks at the University of Michigan, who toured Japan in May.
(...) Data so far shows the most heavily contaminated area is to the northwest of Fukushima, where experts believe radioactive debris was carried by winds in March and then deposited as snow and rain.In the city of Date, for example, some 50 km (30 miles) to the northwest of Fukushima, ground radiation was near 24 millisieverts per year as of early June. That is above the international standard for annual exposure by nuclear workers. There is little data on how badly contaminated the now-abandoned area of forced evacuation is in the 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone around the Fukushima plant. Critics also say the monitoring of ground and seawater also needs to be stepped up. The incomplete data has complicated Japan's response to the disaster and planning for an environmental clean-up expected to take years and cost tens of billions of dollars.It has also created a mood of quiet despair in already devastated communities. "I never believe anything I hear any more on radiation," said Shukuko Kuzumi, 63, who lives in Iwaki, about 50 km to the south of Fukushima. "I want to dig a hole in the ground and scream." More than 24,000 people were killed by the quake and tsunami. Tens of thousands more remain evacuated because of the radiation threat. One of the high-profile casualties from the hotspot phenomenon has been the tea crop in Kanagawa and neighboring Shizuoka, where cesium was found at a level that exceeded the government's legal limit by as much as 35 percent. CLIP - CHECK ALSO Japan: No Evacuation For 4 New Areas With Radiation 4 Times Higher Than Chernobyl Limits Over 50 KM From Fukushima (June 11, 2011) and Nuclear Radiation Cover Up Sparks Massive Protests All Over Japan
Japan's 'most dangerous reactor' severely damaged, could become worse than Fukushima (June 29, 2011) http://www.naturalnews.com/032852_Fukushima_nuclear_reactor.html
If you have been following the events surrounding the unfolding Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe here on NaturalNews over the past several months, you are already likely aware that it is now considered by some to be the worst industrial disaster the world has ever seen, and one that will continue to worsen in the coming months and years ahread. However, according to a recent New York Times (NYT) article, another severely damaged nuclear plant 300 miles from Fukushima could supersede it, should current efforts there to fix a major accident fail.The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor, located directly over an earthquake fault line near Tsuruga, Japan, lies on the opposite coast of Japan's crippled Fukushima plant. Last August, a 3.3-ton fuel relay device broke and fell off into the reactor's inner core, which severed access to its plutonium and uranium fuel rods. Experts have repeatedly tried to remove the device and fix the damage, but all efforts thus far have failed. CLIP
Blowing Against the Atomic Wind (June 20th, 2011) http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/20/blowing-against-the-atomic-wind/
Because they pack enough energy to expulse electrons from atoms and molecules, ionizing radiation can directly damage cell structures such as DNA by breaking chemical bonds and inducing single- and double-strand breaks. When this damage is not efficiently fixed by the DNA-repair machinery, mutations arise: Mutations in somatic cells can lead to cancer, and in germ line cells, genetic defects can be transmitted to offspring. Radiation causes a cascade of problems for cells but they do have the ability to stand up to the heat of radiation through a number of mechanisms. But upon direct exposure to ionizing radiation, anemia, the loss of red blood cells, and leucopenia, the loss of white blood cells, such as those important in fighting off infection, can result, increasing susceptibility to disease. Thus treatment, even for low levels of exposure, begins with increasing or rebuilding immunological strength. It also starts with addressing the lack of numbers and the strength of red blood cells, which are necessary to carry high levels of oxygen to all the cells. (...) Nuclear radiation is less dangerous when we defend our cells by saturating them with the necessary minerals, vitamins and amino acids they need to repair themselves.What conventional medical science thinks is impossible is very possible when we use minerals and other concentrated nutritional foods as medicines. CLIP
Study: Radiation affects birth sex ratio (MAY 26 2011) http://dalje.com/en-world/study--radiation-affects-birth-sex-ratio/360783
MUNICH, Germany, May 26 (UPI) -- Exposure to nuclear radiation has a genetic effect on humans leading to an increase in male births relative to female births, German researchers say. Hagen Scherb and Kristina Voigt of the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen said their study shows radiation from atomic bomb testing before the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, the Chernobyl accident and from living near nuclear facilities has had a long-term effect on the ratio of male to female human births, an article in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research reported. Ionizing radiation from nuclear activity is known to have mutagenic properties and is likely to have detrimental effects on human reproduction, they said. Scherb and Voigt focused on sex odds, a genetic indicator that may reveal differences in seemingly normal as well as adverse pregnancy outcomes between maternal exposure and paternal exposure. Among their findings, they said, was data showing a significant change in sex odds in Europe in the year 1987 following Chernobyl, whereas no such similar effect was seen in the United States, which was less exposed to the consequences of the catastrophe. These findings show a long-term, dose-dependent impact of radiation exposure on human sex odds, they said. "Our results contribute to disproving the established and prevailing belief that radiation-induced hereditary effects have yet to be detected in human populations," Scherb and Voigt wrote. "We find strong evidence of an enhanced impairment of humankind's genetic pool by artificial ionizing radiation."
The last year has been especially catastrophic for life on Earth, while at the same time, corporate profits have jumped a staggering 36.8%, setting all-time records. Is this a coincidence, or are the long-term implications as sinister as they might seem?
How many disasters like the massive poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico, or gushing of radiation from multiple reactor-core meltdowns in Japan can the biosphere take? Or, perhaps a more apropos question is: How much more profit will the biosphere survive?
Two things the catastrophes in the Gulf and at Fukushima have in common is that both were at the hands of corporations, and both involved extensive disinformation, misinformation, and severe suppression of information. Just like governments, which are virtually all corporate "assets", corporations themselves shun the light of day.
Dangerous creatures, corporations, obviously one of the deadliest things ever sprouted from hell. Of course they are not creatures in any biological sense, but thanks to corporate chicanery beginning in 1886 especially, they have more rights than you do.
You might be rather dismayed if you challenge a corporation in our for-wealth court system; if the corporation is big enough, and the case goes high enough, it is conceivable that the ultimate verdict will orbit the concept that by eating, breathing, drinking…by all the things you must do to stay alive, you are endangering corporate profit. Sound far-fetched? Well, check out exactly how corporations became "artificial people". (1) Also, please consider last year's Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruling that handed absolute control of elections to corporations. SCOTUS ruled that any restriction on the amount of money corporations may spend to influence elections is a violation of their right to free speech under the First Amendment. Should the Book of Revelation be amended to read: In the beginning of the end, God created corporations?
Some say money is the root of all evil; it could also be said that corporations are the root of the most malignant money; vicious and biocidal entities more powerful with every tick of the (doomsday) clock, and all that matters to them is profit. Corporations represent the perfect means for the wealthy to grow ever wealthier by destroying the biosphere and not being held accountable; isn't that a decent definition of "malignant money"?
Einstein warned us by saying that unleashing the power of the atom changed everything except our modes of thinking…which carry us toward unparalleled catastrophe. And now, unparalleled catastrophe is ours, made in Japan; notice how it has mostly disappeared from the news? Forget Three Mile Island, forget Chernobyl-which has killed a million people, so far, and has touched the entire northern hemisphere…Fukushima is worse by far, and still out of control. The multiple meltdowns in Japan have the potential to render much of the northern hemisphere uninhabitable, and mangle the gene pool of countless species, including humans. We're talking effectively forever. But apparently an even more important reason for severe suppression of information, suppression of truth: vast corporate profits are at stake.
Nuclear energy corporations are wealthy enough to afford extensive political influence. In fact, when Fukushima became a volcano of radioactivity, president Obama was (he still is!) pushing heavily for $36 billion in taxpayer "loans" for the construction of more reactors. Insurance companies and financiers treat nuclear reactors like the red-hot radioactive potatoes they are, so the nuke good ol' boys need help from the poor to increasingly threaten life on Earth. The last thing they want is people to be aware of, well, reality. Also, imagine the hit to profits of Tokyo Electric Power Company if they didn't have the Pacific ocean to pour their radionuclide lava into. "Hey," they might say, "it's a big ocean." Well, it's a small planet in terms of the amount radioactivity gushing from Fukushima.
We can thank energy corporations for irradiating half the planet already (there is no "safe" dose of internal radiation-and radiation is not "good for you" as certain hardright "pundits" trumpet). We can thank energy corporations for poisoning the Gulf with oil and toxic dispersants; but above all, for so diligently suppressing alternative energies all these years. Eight energy giants are among the world's top eleven corporations on the power of filthy biocidal energies…monster fossil-energy corporations with a virtual monopoly on enormous fossil profits. And they like to kill the competition. In terms of life on Earth, their ultimate protection of profits-potentially their all-time greatest crime against humanity-came in 1943, the year they murdered Tesla.
Nikola Tesla's was among the most brilliant minds every to bless humanity. He once wrote: "Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity…."
In 1988, at the International Tesla Symposium in Colorado Springs, astrophysicist Adam Trombly noted that if society had followed up on the inventions Tesla envisioned at the turn of the century, "…we wouldn't have a fossil fuel economy today. And J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller and a number of others wouldn't have amassed extraordinary fortunes on the basis of the fossil fuel economy."
The sheer scope of Tesla's genius seems unfathomable to normal people. Gifted with uncanny memory and powers of visualization, he was able to fully construct, develop and perfect inventions in his mind before committing anything to paper. In his own words: "When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception."
Tesla's inventions include radio (recognized by the SCOTUS eight months after Tesla died), X-rays (three years before Roentgen), the Tesla coil, fluorescent light, lasers, bladeless turbines, vertical take-off aircraft, wireless transmission of electricity, the particle beam ("death", or "peace" ray), the whole system of AC that powers the world…. At the time of his death he held over 700 patents. And the fields Tesla greatly contributed to, such as computer science, robotics, remote control, radar, ballistics, nuclear physics…a comprehensive list would be astonishing.
One invention Tesla was elusive about, sometimes offering teasers but no specifics, had the potential to eclipse all of his and anyone else's breakthroughs-perhaps even cost him his life, and is behind the perpetual drive to minimize public awareness of Tesla. He had long prophesied that mankind would someday hook their machinery up to the energy of vacuum space-to "the very wheelworks of nature". The theoretical basis for energy from the vacuum has now been part of "mainstream" physics literature for over fifty years. But as Tesla long intimated, any kind of "free energy" device would never be allowed to reach the market.
In 1943, Tesla had an appointment to discuss with FDR that it was possible for us to get all the energy we need simply by tapping the space we're in. But he never made it to the meeting with FDR; Tesla was found in his apartment, dead of "natural causes". Officially, it was a heart attack. But information leaked by investigators indicates that for reasons of "national security" the coroner's report was to be kept secret because it revealed that Tesla died of arsenic poisoning.
Take that, competition! Take that, life on Earth. Free energy available to everyone would devastate corporate profits-almost to the extent that our global fossil fuel economy has devastated the biosphere. Tesla gave humanity so much, promised so much more, and corporations not only murdered him, they have even all but lifted him clear out of mainstream history…tried their best to make him an unperson. They have proven, and always will, that nothing is more dangerous than threatening corporate profits.
How does that bode for life on Earth? The most dangerous of advanced human endeavors are development of alternatives to entrenched modes of energy that are powering the biosphere straight to hell…sure sounds like a nightmare. Accelerating destruction of Earth's ability to sustain life, brought to you by corporations. A living planet dominated by "artificial people" that care only about profit, nothing but, profit.
Imagine waking up to find there never was a fossil fuel economy, that all the war, pollution, climate disruption, murder, cancer, slavery, impoverishment, obscene concentration of wealth-all the lethal threats to life on Earth stayed in the nightmare because half a century ago, thanks to Tesla, we plugged in to "the very wheelworks of nature", and became an advancing civilization.
Chernobyl and Fukushima never happened…
Imagine life on Earth being more important than corporate profit.
Take Action: Support the Freedom Riders (June 21, 2011) http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1217841
As the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II, "Stay Human," is preparing to set sail this month, it's more important than ever to ensure its safe passage and prepare to take emergency action if Israel follows through with its threats of using attack dogs and other violent--potentially life-threatening--means to intercept the boats, as was done in the past. Please join us for a conference call this Thursday, June 23, with Leslie Cagan, organizer for the U.S. Boat to Gaza, and Laila El-Haddad, author of Gaza Mom, to talk about actions we can take to support the Freedom Flotilla. Laila will brief participants on the political and humanitarian developments in Gaza, including the changing situation with Egypt at the Rafah border. Leslie will update participants about the flotilla and lay out concrete ways for people to prepare and spring into action once it sets sail. SIGN THE FOLLOWING PETITION: Tell President Obama to Ensure Safe Passage for the U.S. Boat to Gaza - MUCH MORE THROUGH http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/blastContent.jsp
“We Are Eager to Get to Gaza”: Democracy Now! Exclusive Report from Greece on U.S. Gaza Aid Flotilla (June 27, 2011) http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/27/we_are_eager_to_get_to
Up to 50 Americans are set to sail from a Greek port on a U.S.-flagged ship that is part of an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and letters of support for Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinian residents. Its fate is now in limbo under the weight of U.S.-Israeli pressure and Greece’s economic turmoil. Israel insists it will enforce its blockade on Gaza, which it says is aimed at stopping weapons from reaching the Hamas government. “The Israelis do have a right to interdict arms traffic. We’re bearing letters,” says Ray McGovern, former senior CIA analyst and passenger on the U.S. aid ship. “How can these letters be considered a threat to the security of Israel?” Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté is in Athens to cover the journey of The Audacity of Hope, named after President Obama’s bestselling book. He and fellow producer, Hany Massoud, are the only journalists with the U.S. delegation. They file this exclusive report. [includes rush transcript] AMY GOODMAN: Amidst the uncertainty awaiting them at sea, flotilla passengers are now facing a new challenge, even before setting sail. The Greek government has refused to grant permission for The Audacity of Hope and two other ships leaving port, citing anonymous complaints that later turn out to come from an Israeli group. The Greek government’s move comes amidst heavy international pressure to resolve a fiscal crisis that sparked massive protest and a general strike scheduled for this week.The Israeli government, meanwhile, is also warning journalists not to cover the aid mission. On Sunday, Israel said reporters who board Gaza-bound ships will be barred from Israel for 10 years and have their equipment seized. In response, the Foreign Press Association said the warning, quote, "sends a chilling message to the international media and raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment to freedom of the press." On Twitter, former U.S. State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley responded, quote, "Israel is working against its own self-interest by pressuring journalists not to cover the Gaza flotilla, clearly a newsworthy event," he tweeted.Well, Democracy Now! is in Athens right now with our exclusive report. Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté is in Greece covering the journey of The Audacity of Hope.
(...) Twenty-five percent of this boat, of the delegates on this boat, are Jewish, yes. And there’s a reason for that, because we want to say to the world that the Israeli government does not speak in our name. CLIP
UN Climate Science Panel Moves to Secretly Fund, Research and Implement Geoengineering as Climate "Solution" (June 21, 2011) http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=geoengineer_ban
Geoengineering is the proposed large scale manipulation of Earth's oceans, soils, sunlight and atmosphere with the intent of combating climate change. With no mandate, the UN's International Panel on Climate Change has begun talks on funding geoengineering research. Past adoption of virtually all major new technologies regardless of risk shows us if developed, geoengineering will surely be implemented. Modifying Earth at a planetary scale is so complex, and ecological and other side effects potentially so severe, that dire unintended consequences are certain. Simply, a biosphere cannot be engineered. The only way to address climate and ecology change is to end ecosystem loss and fossil fuel use; while equitably reducing emissions, consumption and population. Tell the United Nations to get out of the business of geoengineering, and lead by example in embracing social change and personal transformation adequate to achieve global climate and ecological sustainability. Discuss Alert: http://www.facebook.com/ecointernet - http://www.climateark.org/blog TAKE ACTION HERE NOW
FUEL (I hr 52 min documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3CBOdgBlk8
Director Josh Tickell takes us along for his 11 year journey around the world to find solutions to America's addiction to oil. A shrinking economy, a failing auto industry, rampant unemployment, an out-of-control national debt, and an insatiable demand for energy weigh heavily on all of us. Fuel shows us the way out of the mess we're in by explaining how to replace every drop of oil we now use, while creating green jobs and keeping our money here at home. The film never dwells on the negative, but instead shows us the easy solutions already within our reach. Note from Jean: The pollution coming from the smokestacks of the tar sands plants falls back on the land and is equivalent to a major oil spill every year... and thus everything (land and water) gets heavily polluted with 13 carcinogenic heavy metal pollution. Hence the rates of leukemia and many other types of cancer are exploding in affected human communities. This thus amounts to a government sanctioned crime against humanity. Canadians are dying because of the tar sands... All Canadian politicians and corporate moguls who support tar sands exploitation should be forced to drink the same water, eat the same food and breathe the same air as those they are killing. Then justice would be done and that horrific environmental catastrophe would be swiftly terminated. CHECK ALSO Call Goes Out For Tar Sands Civil Disobedience In DC This Summer AND Tar Sands Pipeline Slammed By NASA’s ‘Grandfather Of Climate Science’ AND Hands Across the Sand (a global event that took place last weekend - On June 25th people around the world have joined hands on beaches and in cities for the second annual Hands Across The Sand to oppose expanded offshore drilling and call for clean energy solutions for a sustainable planet. Check the news coverage they got!)
Vancouver Riots 2011: Couple Kisses During Chaos (6/18/11) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/vancouver-riots-2011_n_878128.html
While a city burned its Stanley Cup dream in the flurry of flames, looting and bone-breaking that was the 2011 Vancouver riots, an altogether different sort of passion spilled, literally, into the streets. At the moment, they're known only as the kissing couple. But that won't last long. When this unlikely snapshot of lovers entangled on a tear-gas filled street, with riot police in the fore and background emerged Thursday morning, you can bet the great media race was on. It will, most certainly, be the picture that launched a thousand media inquiries. Who are they? What were they thinking? And who will get to them first? CLIP - UPDATE: The couple has been identified.
Princess of whales: How a naked female scientist tries to tame belugas in the freezing Arctic - With pictures (16th June 2011) JUST COMPLETELY AMAZING!! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004042/Naked-female-scientist-tries-tame-beluga-whales-arctic.html
Braving sub-zero temperatures, she has thrown caution — and her clothes — to the wind to tame two beluga whales in a unique and controversial experiment. Natalia Avseenko, 36, was persuaded to strip naked as marine experts believe belugas do not like to be touched by artificial materials such as diving suits. The skilled Russian diver took the plunge as the water temperature hit minus 1.5 degrees Centigrade. Belugas are famed for the way in which their faces are able to convey human-like expressions. Certainly Matrena and Nilma seemed to enjoy frolicking with Natalia. The taming of the whales happened in the Murmansk Oblast region in the far north-west of Russia at the shore of the White Sea near the Arctic Circle branch of the Utrish Dophinarium. An area of the sea is enclosed to stop whales and dolphins getting out and instructors tame the mammals before they are transported to dolphinariums around the world — a practice many animal conservationists consider cruel. Belugas have a small hump on their heads used for echo-location and it was thought that there would be more chance of striking up a rapport with them without clothes as a barrier. The average human could die if left in sub-zero temperature sea water for just five minutes. However, Natalia is a yoga expert and used meditation techniques to hold her breath and stay under water for an incredible ten minutes and 40 seconds. There are around 100,000 belugas in the wild. The first to be held in captivity was shown at Barnum's Museum in New York in 1861, and there are belugas in aquariums and sea life parks across Europe, North America and Asia. Their large range of 'facial expressions' comes from them having a more flexible bone structure than other whales.Certainly these two had a big smile for the naked Natalia.
What’s making Sicilians turn up early for work? (June 10, 2011) REALLY STRANGE! http://www.euronews.net/2011/06/10/digital-clocks-go-crazy-in-sicilian-town/
Sicilians are not normally renowned for their punctuality but something strange is afoot that’s making them turn up early for work. Hundreds of digital clocks on the island are running more than 15 minutes fast and no-one is quite sure why. The phenomenon has left people scratching their heads for weeks and several theories have been put forward involving aliens, poltergeists, volcanic activity on Mount Etna and solar explosions. Armageddonists are pointing to further proof of the imminent end of the world. The town of Catania lies at the heart of the mystery and two young locals have set up a facebook page calling for those affected to come forward. One of them, Francesco Nicosia, told French online magazine Rue89 “I realised something was wrong when I started getting to work earlier. After some investigation I noticed that I wasn’t the only one who was on time, which is quite rare here in Sicily.” This isn’t the first time the island has experienced strange goings on linked to electronic devices: several years ago electronic equipment started spontaneously catching fire across the rural countryside, reports Rue89. Among the most credible explanations is electrical disturbance caused by underwater cables that have been undergoing maintenance, but that hasn’t stopped many who think that the whole thing is a conspiracy to punish Sicilians for their tardiness. There a YouTube video on this HERE
2008 Barbury Crop Circle Explained - It is recommend to first read 2008 - Seven, Nine, Ten and Pi http://www.cropcirclesandmore.com/geometries/201102bms.html
On 1 June 2008 a remarkable crop circle was discovered at the foot of Barbury Castle, Wiltshire, UK.
Over time many facets of this intriguing crop circle were exposed and explained, but one element
remained a mystery. The formation contained three little circles and nobody had any idea what
they meant. That is, until now! Read on and discover the secret of the three circles. (...)
This list really makes me shiver. It tells a story by itself. It is like a guideline. A manual, and it reads like: Follow the pathway! Start with the imperfect 'squaring the circle' which you are able to construct. Go from there to construct perfect 'squaring the circle'. You think this is impossible, but that is incorrect. It looks to be impossible, because of pi. But once you understand pi, and I mean really comprehend pi on all possible levels, you will understand the true meaning and potentiality of perfect 'squaring the circle'! Wow! Is it that simple? Yes! And at the same time it is that difficult. The 2008 Barbury Castle formation is telling us something very clearly. Actually, it is shouting at us. "Once you have mastered pi, you have mastered the secret of life!"
Amazing daytime cylindrical UFO footage from Toronto, Canada (May 10, 2011) http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/2010/05/amazing-daytime-cylindrical-ufo-footage.html
Few neighbours and I have seen this object flying over our neighbourhood for a while now, I have been trying to capture it on tape for more than a year now, I caught it on tape two days ago, I don't know what it is but it definitely doesn't look like anything man made.
UFO Transport by Russian Black Military Helicopter 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MG0MD9YvZI
According to what is posted HERE "The uploader claims that there are rumors that Russia is preparing to surprise the whole world with the announcement of an "alien invasion." Some Russian commentators say that this could be a UFO that crashed near the Siberian town of Irkutsk. Others say it's a hoax. There's a lot disinformation on the Internet coming out of Russia. I don't know what to make of this footage but it is definitely an interesting shot!"
U.S., Russia fight over asteroid that could destroy Earth (June 22, 2011) http://www.alien-ufos.com/politics-current-events-serious-discussion/41338-u-s-russia-fight-over-asteroid-could-destroy-earth.html
BARELY two weeks after the failure of a doomsday prediction by a United States (U.S.) based preacher, Russia and U.S. scientists are at war over another perceived threat to human existence. The danger this time is not an apocalyptic occurrence, but the smacking of the Earth by a giant asteroid in five months time.The potentially perilous space rock is known as Asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 1,300 feet (400 metres) in diametre.According to U.S. scientists, this asteroid will approach the Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances in early November. Due to its size, and the way it will whisk by so close to the Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned. U.S. scientists say there is no cause for alarm, but the Russians have issued a report saying there's something to fear. NASA rejects the Russian report, calling the chances of the asteroid hitting the Earth 'minuscule'. CLIP
Interpretation for Crop Circle at Madisonville, Tennessee, USA. Reported 12th May 2011 http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/inter2011/USA/Madisonville2011a.html
On Sunday morning I was watching a TV program called “Our Earth is Having a Fever”. This program has compiled all global disasters which happened over the past few months with an overall explanation to the audience. Usually when we watch some disaster news on TV, it doesn’t give us such a serious feeling. However, after watching this program, I realized that the actual situation is worse than expected. Almost every corner in the world has troubles and the only difference is the scale. We can say that the current world we are living in has been badly devastated… This also proved the message that crop circles have been conveying to the world recently, that is, the universe will be converted and the chaotic period. In the program they also talked about some people are taking advantages of this topic and build underground forts or new arks in order to escape and survive when the bigger disaster comes in 2012. And the price of the admission ticket is sky high. Such behavior has resulted in an illusion that only those rich celebrities or politics will have the chance to live. Circle makers are very “mad” at this and this is the reason why a crop circle appeared at Madisonville, USA. The location is actually quite interesting… Mad-is-on-ville (one of my blog readers has noticed this) When I first saw this formation, I also felt quite puzzled. Why so mad? And I even doubted the authenticity of it. However, after I took an in-depth closer look, I realized that circle makers are expressed their anger through this crop formation. They are mad with mankind trying to build the “ville” of underground forts and arks. This is totally deceiving the public and an act going to a dead-end. Those villes will become graveyards and coffins in the end. Mankind trying to fight back this disaster based on the current human technology and power will be like throwing an egg against a rock. A real shelter to protect the Wisdomer will need the cooperation of 8 tribes (local celestial beings and extraterrestrial celestial beings, also the 8 swords mentioned in my previous interpretation) to transform the geographical environment. Here celestial beings have made a rough introduction on how those 8 tribes work together to make such construction. The introduction is the crop circle appeared at Madisonville on May 12th. The commentaries I made on the picture below are quite self-explanatory. Please read for yourself and as usual, please do not ask me where this shelter would be. CHECK ALSO THOSE REPORTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
3,000 Arctic Reindeer Face a Mighty Water Crossing - Human Planet: Arctic, preview - BBC One (Watch in HD full screen!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pBT8n-SNWk
Elle-Helene, a young girl from northern Norway, leads the dramatic migration of 3,000 reindeer across 2 1/2 km of water to new pasture. More on this new BBC series through http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/humanplanetexplorer/
The Cure For Cancer That The FDA tried Their Best to Shut Down - With a 1 hr 48 min documentary! http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/13/the-cure-for-cancer-that-the-fda-tried-their-best-to-shut-down/
Important! The producers of this powerful film are allowing a full and FREE preview through June 20th! Please tell everyone you know to watch this film in its entirety through June 20th, 2011. - NOTE THE FREE VIEWING HAS BEEN EXTENDED INDEFINITELY! - Burzynski, the Movie is the story of a medical doctor and Ph.D biochemist named Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski who won the largest, and possibly the most convoluted and intriguing legal battle against the Food and Drug Administration in American history. In the 1970’s, Dr. Burzynski made a remarkable discovery that threatened to change the face of cancer treatment forever. His non-toxic gene-targeted cancer medicine could have helped save millions of lives over the last two decades had his discovery not been criminally suppressed by the US government, as his therapy, called “antineoplastons,” have been shown to effectively help cure some of the most “incurable” forms of terminal cancer. This documentary takes you through the treacherous 14-year journey Dr. Burzynski and his patients have had to endure in order to finally obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of antineoplastons.His story is yet another testament that fact can be far stranger than fiction, as the film exposes the powerful, unscrupulous forces that work to maintain the status quo of the medical- and pharmaceutical industry at any cost—including the lives of millions of people.
No signs Chile volcano easing - geologists (June 15, 2011) http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/no-signs-chile-volcano-easing-geologists/story-e6frf7jx-1226075678171
A CHILEAN volcano spewing dangerous ash high into the sky, sowing air travel havoc, could have even more intense eruptions in the days to come, government geologists have warned."It is possible there will be a return to increased eruptive activity" of the Puyehue volcano in southern Chile's Andes mountains, which started belching fumes on June 4, Chile's National Geological and Mines Service said today. It said it was detecting no let-up in the volcano's emissions, which were towering eight kilometres into the troposphere. It maintained its alert level at "moderate eruption". That was bad news for airlines flying into or over Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Brazil, and Australia.Passengers in those regions have had to ditch aircraft for travel by boat or overland, or cancel plans entirely. (...) Buenos Aires airports have suspended domestic and international flights for several days now, and Chile's meteorological service said prevailing winds would continue to blow the ash into Argentina through tomorrow. With flight disruptions also in Australia, it marks the first time in 20 years that an ash cloud from an erupting South American volcano has travelled halfway across the globe, volcanologists said. Chilean seismologist Enrique Valdivieso said the eruption could run its course within a week, but it was hard to know based on precedent. The volcano's last major eruption in 1960 lasted two weeks, but an earlier one in 1921 lasted two months. CLIP
Sun's Fading Spots Signal Big Drop in Solar Activity (14 June 2011) http://www.space.com/11960-fading-sunspots-slower-solar-activity-solar-cycle.html
Some unusual solar readings, including fading sunspots and weakening magnetic activity near the poles, could be indications that our sun is preparing to be less active in the coming years.The results of three separate studies seem to show that even as the current sunspot cycle swells toward the solar maximum, the sun could be heading into a more-dormant period, with activity during the next 11-year sunspot cycle greatly reduced or even eliminated. The results of the new studies were announced today (June 14) at the annual meeting of the solar physics division of the American Astronomical Society, which is being held this week at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. "The solar cycle may be going into a hiatus," Frank Hill, associate director of the National Solar Observatory's Solar Synoptic Network, said in a news briefing today (June 14). The studies looked at a missing jet stream in the solar interior, fading sunspots on the sun's visible surface, and changes in the corona and near the poles. "This is highly unusual and unexpected," Hill said. "But the fact that three completely different views of the sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation." (...) Since powerful charged particles from solar storms can occasionally wreak havoc on Earth's magnetic field by knocking out power grids or disrupting satellites in orbit, a calmer solar cycle could have its advantages. (...) If the models prove accurate and the trends continue, the implications could be far-reaching."If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we'll see for a few decades," Hill said. "That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth's climate."
To the Last Drop - MUST WATCH - 24 Min DOCUMENTARY http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2011/06/20116227153978324.html
Residents of one Canadian town are engaged in a David and Goliath-style battle over the dirtiest oil project ever known. The local community has experienced a spike in cancer cases and dire studies have revealed the true consequences of "dirty oil". Gripped in a Faustian pact with the American energy consumer, the Canadian government is doing everything it can to protect the dirtiest oil project ever known. In the following account, filmmakers Niobe Thompson and Tom Radford describe witnessing a David and Goliath struggle. CLIP
Defkalion Announces Energy Catalyzer Press Conference http://pesn.com/2011/06/17/9501849_Defkalion_Announces_Energy_Catalyzer_Press_Conference/
Defkalion Green Technologies, who has world rights (minus Americas and military) to sell, distribute, and license Andrea Rossi's E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer), recently sent out invitations to certain individuals to attend a press conference about the technology on June 23 in Greece. By now, most people following exotic energy breakthroughs have read about Andrea Rossi's E-Cat (Energy Catalyzer) cold fusion technology. It utilizes nickel powder, hydrogen gas, an undisclosed catalyst, heat, and pressure to produce large amounts of energy. The technology is capable of producing over 4 kilowatts of thermal power from a reactor vessel only fifty cubic centimeters in volume (about he size of your fist). Cold fusion research has been ongoing for two decades, and there have been thousands of successful experiments. However, Andrea Rossi's technology is the most promising cold fusion technology yet to emerge. CLIP
Andrea A. Rossi Cold Fusion Generator (E-Cat) STUNNING SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH! http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Andrea_A._Rossi_Cold_Fusion_Generator
Eng. Andrea A. Rossi and Professor Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna (one of the oldest universities in the world [1]), have announced to the world that they have a cold fusion device capable of producing more than 10 kilowatts of heat power, while only consuming a fraction of that. On January 14, 2011, they gave the Worlds' first public demonstration of a nickel-hydrogen fusion reactor capable of producing a few kilowatts of thermal energy. At its peak, it is capable of generating 15,000 watts with just 400 watts input required. In a following test the same output was achieved but with only 80 watts of continual input. They don't always use the term "cold fusion" do describe the process, but often refer to it as an amplifier or catalyzer process.Focardi states:"Experimentally, we obtained copper; and we believe that its appearance is due to the fusion of atomic nuclei of nickel and hydrogen, the ingredients that feed our reactor. Since hydrogen and nickel 'weigh' with less, copper must have released a lot of energy, since 'nothing is created or destroyed.' Indeed, the 'Missing Mass' has been transformed into energy, which we have measured: it is in the order of a few kilowatts, two hundred times the energy that was the beginning of the reaction." [2]They also claim to be going into production, with the first units expected to ship by the second half of October of this year, with mass production commencing by the end of 2011. The first units will be used to build a one megawatt plant in Greece. This one megawatt plant will power a factory that will produce 300,000 ten-kilowatt units a year. This would become the world's first commercially-ready "cold fusion" device. Licensees are mentioned, with contracts in the USA and in Europe. Mass production should escalate in 2-3 years. Presently, Rossi says they are manufacturing a 1 megawatt plant composed of 125 modules. These modules should begin shipping by the end of October. On January 31st, 2011, Rossi wrote: "The cost to produce the catalyzer is 1 cent per MWh generated; the life expectancy is 20 years; the cost impact is between 1 and 1.5 cents per MWh." [3] In describing the operation of the device, he said: "To start up the reactor you have just to turn on a switch. The reactor works with enormous margins of safety, so there is no need of a particular skill. Just follow the instructions. The refueling is every 6 months and will be made by our dealers."According to Rossi, the demonstrated device shown on January 14, 2011 is their industrial product that is claimed to be reliable and safe. In normal operation it would produce 8 units of output for every unit of input. Higher levels of output are possible, but can be dangerous. They will soon start serial production of their modules. Combining the modules in series and parallel arrays it is possible to reach every limit of power. The modules are designed to be connected in series and parallels. Rossi also says that they have had one reactor that has run continually for two years, providing heat for a factory. It reduced the electric bill by 90%. Also, the reactors can self sustain by turning off the input, but they prefer to have an input. The device will be scheduled for maintenance every six months. You control it "just as you turn on and off your television set." More than two thousand prototypes were built and destroyed in refining the design and learning how to control and scale up the reaction. CLIP - More on this through E-cat business: Greek investors remain secret
Lytro: The camera that could change photography forever (June 22, 2011) http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110622/tc_digitaltrends/lytrothecamerathatcouldchangephotographyforever
Have you ever taken a picture that would have been great if only it were in focus? Of course you have. So have we, countless times. But those days may soon be past all of us with the introduction of Lytro, an entirely new kind of camera that allows users to completely change the focus of a picture after the shutter clicks. And, according to AllThingsD, this next-generation camera will be available before the end of the year. CLIP -- For a whole bunch more Lytro photos to play with, click HERE
War is Not About Truth, Justice and the American Way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pscUctTU0sE
I learned that war was about power, politics and commercial advantage - It's all about the money - Vietnam vet Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson was former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell during the blatantly fraudulent run up to the Iraq War. He had the opportunity to see Dick Cheney, George Bush Jr,, Donald Rumsfeld and other assorted war criminals up close and personal.
We invent enemies to buy the bombs (June 16, 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/16/eisenhower-fears-invent-enemies-buy-bombs
Why do we still go to war? We seem unable to stop. Britain's borders and British people have not been under serious threat for a generation. Yet time and again our leaders crave battle. Why? Last week we got a glimpse of an answer and it was not nice. The outgoing US defence secretary, Robert Gates, berated Europe's "failure of political will" in not maintaining defence spending. He said Nato had declined into a "two-tier alliance" between those willing to wage war and those "who specialise in 'soft' humanitarian, development, peacekeeping and talking tasks". Peace, he implied, is for wimps. Real men buy bombs, and drop them. Libya has cost Britain £100m so far, and rising. But Iraq and the Afghan war are costing America $3bn a week, and there is scarcely an industry, or a state, in the country that does not see some of this money. These wars show no signs of being ended, let alone won. But to the defence lobby what matters is the money. It sustains combat by constantly promising success and inducing politicians and journalists to see "more enemy dead", "a glimmer of hope" and "a corner about to be turned". Victory will come, but only if politicians spend more money on "a surge".
SECTION FRANCOPHONE
La prise de parole de Fred Pellerin https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WCE2PAY1RC0
Fred Pellerin, « porte-bonheur » de la Fête nationale, s'adresse aux gens par le truchement de cette vidéo. Ce témoignage venant de l'un des conteurs les plus appréciés du Québec et de la francophonie s'avérait incontournable, alors que l'on s'apprête à célébrer, sur le thème « Entrez dans la légende », ces « histoires à rester debout » dans lesquelles il « mouillait des hommes forts ». Il s'agira en même temps d'un appel à se « construire du grand et du solide ».
Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth - MAGNIFIQUE INITIATIVE! http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-worlds-rights
La Bolivie vient d'instaurer un Droit de la Nature, au même titre que les Droits de l'Homme ou les Droits des Animaux ! Elle remet ainsi l'être humain sur un pied d'égalité avec les autres êtres vivants. La Loi de la Terre Mère est inspirée de l'héritage philosophique des Andins et du culte de leur déesse de la nature, Pachamama. Grâce à cette loi, qui place la Nature au centre de la vie, les collectivités locales auront désormais la possibilité, en tant que représentants de « l'entité spirituelle de la Terre Mère », de surveiller et de freiner les activités des industriels trop peu soucieux du respect de l'environnement. Un Ministère de la Terre Mère va être mis en place et veillera à ce que les droits fondamentaux de la nature soient respectés.
Manifestation d'opposants au gaz de schiste à Montréal (18 juin 2011) http://www.cyberpresse.ca/environnement/dossiers/gaz-de-schiste/201106/18/01-4410517-manifestation-dopposants-au-gaz-de-schiste-a-montreal.php
Des milliers de personnes ont manifesté au centre-ville de Montréal pour demander l'adoption d'un moratoire sur l'exploitation du gaz de schiste. «Je ne veux pas être une cobaye!» Samedi après-midi, Kathleen Potvin a quitté son petit village des Bois-Francs pour se joindre à des milliers de citoyens venus à Montréal pour crier leur opposition à l'exploitation du gaz de schiste. Défilant dans les rues du centre-ville, les manifestants ont réclamé l'adoption d'un moratoire sur la question. Venus notamment de la Montérégie, de Québec et du Bas-Saint-Laurent, les manifestants, qui étaient près de 10 000 selon les organisateurs, demandent que les travaux d'exploration et d'exploitation effectués par les compagnies gazières dans plusieurs municipalités du Québec soient suspendus et que des études sur leurs impacts environnementaux soient faites.
(...) Partis du siège social d'Hydro-Québec, les manifestants ont marché au son des tam-tam jusqu'aux bureaux du premier ministre Jean Charest, en scandant des slogans et en brandissant pancartes colorées et éoliennes en papier. Plusieurs militants de divers groupes environnementaux, politiciens et artistes, dont Pauline Marois, Amir Khadir, Dan Bigras et Armand Vaillancourt, ont pris part à la marche qui s'est déroulée dans une ambiance festive. «Ça prend une évaluation qui couvre plus largement ce qui se passe au niveau de l'exploitation des gaz de schiste avant qu'on puisse continuer à faire quoi que ce soit», a déclaré la chef du Parti québécois, Pauline Marois.
(...) L'auteur-compositeur-interprète Paul Piché s'est pour sa part dit optimiste de voir la mobilisation citoyenne faire changer de position le gouvernement Charest. «La population est éveillée comme jamais, a remarqué Paul Piché. La conscience environnementale est là. Qu'il (le gouvernement) soit averti.» Les participants à la grande marche de la campagne Moratoire d'une Génération ont fait une entrée triomphale au milieu de la foule avant le départ de la marche. Partis à pied de Rimouski le 16 mai dernier, ces citoyens sont arrivés à Montréal 33 jours et 666 kilomètres plus tard après s'être arrêtés dans 33 municipalités pour revendiquer un moratoire de 20 ans sur le gaz de schiste. - VOIR AUSSI Gaz de schiste – Des milliers de Québécois réclament un moratoire de 20 ans - Les opposants à l'exploitation du gaz de schiste manifestent à Montréal - Gaz de schiste - Des milliers de personnes ont manifesté leur désaccord (20 juin 2011) - Le ministre de l'Environnement, Pierre Arcand, a exprimé son irritation par rapport aux arguments des opposants, qu'il a qualifiés de «faussetés». «De quelle preuve ce gouvernement-là a-t-il besoin pour interdire les gaz de schiste sur notre territoire pour au moins 20 ans, le temps qu'une nouvelle technologie soit trouvée?», se questionne M. Duhamel. Même s'il espère ne pas devoir se rendre là, il promet une phase plus active d'opposition si Québec ne bouge pas dans le dossier. Philippe Duhamel n'écarte pas l'idée d'actions directes non violentes «à la Greenpeace» comme l'organisation de «sit-in». «Il n'est pas question que cette industrie-là passe au Québec», a-t-il conclu, catégorique. Entrevue de Dominic Champagne du mercredi 15 juin 2011 à l'émission de Pénélope... À voir absolument car c'est en partie grâce à son énergie dynamique et à la clarté limpide de ses propos que la mobilisation lève tant au Québec contre cette infernale mécanique sans scrupule qui menace de détruire la tranquillité, la beauté et l'environnement de l'ensemble de la vallée du St-Laurent entre Montréal et Québec - Blogue du grand rassemblement - La grande marche citoyenne pour un moratoire d'une génération - Nombreuses photos
Linda MacCulloch (lmacculloch@globetrotter.net) a écrit: Je vous envoi deux témoignages émouvants de victimes des gazières au Québec. A-t-on le goût de vivre tout cela sans compter le grand risque de contamination de l'eau potable, nos terres et l'air? Il faut tous se lever contre l'exploitation des gaz de schiste! Mme Odette Larin de St-Louis sur Richelieu lors de la manifestation à Montréal le 18 juin 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M22CeyFjrvo
À la radio avec Dutrisac: http://www.radioego.com/ego/listen/6132
Mme Suzanne Millette de St-Grégoire près de Bécancour, lors de la manifestation à Montréal le 18 juin 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVsx8lDR-NM
Si vous êtes intéressés à plus d'infos sur les gaz de schiste, surtout dans notre région, on vous invite à joindre notre groupe Facebook: Non aux gaz de schiste - Comité vigilance St-Narcisse https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_113013685452869&ap=1 (Plus d'infos pertinentes!)
À NOTER que suite à de nombreuses manifestations en France - France - Des milliers de manifestants contre le gaz de schiste (18 avril 2011) moins d'un mois plus tard... La France interdit l'extraction des gaz de schiste - CITATION: « Il y a six mois à peine, pratiquement personne en France n'avait encore entendu parler des gaz de schiste. Les premières manifestations organisées en janvier ont rapidement attiré l'attention des médias. À un an des présidentielles et après des élections cantonales catastrophiques pour la droite, les députés de tous les partis n'ont pas tardé à se mobiliser. Le projet de loi doit être à nouveau examiné au Sénat le 1er juin, mais l'interdiction de l'extraction par fracturation hydraulique semble acquise. Si certains permis passaient entre les mailles de la loi, les socialistes ont prévenu qu'ils déposeraient un nouveau projet de loi dans quelques mois afin de les abroger. » - IL N'Y A RIEN COMME UNE ÉCHÉANCE ÉLECTORALE IMMINENTE POUR MOBILISER LES POLITICIENS DERRIÈRE UNE BONNE CAUSE POPULAIRE... À QUAND LES ÉLECTIONS AU QUÉBEC ?... En Amérique la situation est fort différent... VOIR... Dessine-moi un puits de gaz de schiste (22 juin 2011) La multinationale albertaine Talisman Energy a opté pour une campagne de relations publiques pour le moins inusitée afin de tenter de convaincre la population de la pertinence d'exploiter le gaz de schiste: un cahier à colorier destiné directement aux enfants et distribué aux États-Unis. (...) Chose certaine, un tel cahier à colorier serait assimilé à de la propagande pure et simple s'il était distribué au Québec. «Ce ne serait pas possible de développer un tel outil présentement au Québec, parce que la controverse est encore trop forte, a souligné M. Motulsky hier. La pression pour un moratoire est forte. Ce serait perçu comme un outil de manipulation, donc je ne crois pas que ce serait opportun. Mais on ne sait pas ce qui va arriver dans cinq ans.» ALORS QUOI! LES AMÉRICAINS SONT TOUS DES IDIOTS? CETTE CAMPAGNE DE PROPAGANDE AUPRÈS DES ENFANTS EST RÉVOLTANTE ET MONTRE BIEN LE MACHIAVÉLISME QUI ANIME CETTE INDUSTRIE TERRICIDE... VOIR ÉGALEMENT Gaz de schiste - Québec défend l'évaluation environnementale (17 juin 2011) - Évaluation environnementale stratégique - Des candidats de qualité ont été écartés, décrie la coalition MCN-21 (17 mai 2011) - Liste des membres du comité pour l'ÉES sur les gaz de schiste - Gaz de schiste - Le lobbyiste siège (16 mai 2011) - L'évaluation environnementale stratégique: rigueur ou imposture? (1 juin 2011) - Évaluation des gaz de schiste - Il faut comparer avec les autres types d'énergies, clament des scientifiques
ENFIN UN MOT SUR LE DÉSASTRE DES SABLES BITUMINEUX
Pierre Langlois, physicien (pierrel@coopcscf.com - http://www.planglois-pca.com) a écrit: «Le directeur de Greenpeace Québec, Éric Darier, vient de m’envoyer le lien pour un documentaire très bien fait sur une étude récente des méfaits de l’exploitation des sables bitumineux en Alberta. L’industrie pétrolière a toujours argumenté que les produits toxiques qu’on retrouve dans l’eau des rivières et dans les nappes phréatiques, provenaient de l’érosion NATURELLE des sols riches en bitume. Mais là, un prof de l’Alberta et son équipe ont pris des échantillons dans la neige qui recouvre la glace sur les rivières l’hiver et la neige qui recouvre le sol, sur une surface couvrant 50 km de rayon de la zone d’exploitation. La conclusion est sans appel: d’énormes quantités de polluants cancérigènes sont émis par les exploitant de cette énergie sale. Les effets sur les populations indigènes sont catastrophiques. C’est l’équivalent du déversement d’un gros pétrolier à chaque année, selon le reportage. Un documentaire de 24 minutes qu’il faut voir!» ... Également recommandé par Pierre Langlois le documentaire FUEL (I hr 52 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3CBOdgBlk8
Hydro-Quebec To Integrate 600 Smart Meter Collectors (20 June 2011) http://www.renewgridmag.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.6928
Hydro-Quebec has plans to connect its central system with up to 600 smart meter collectors, which will aggregate data relayed from the utility's 3.8 million smart meters. Rogers Communications, which announced the news, has been awarded a six-year contract to provide machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless connectivity across the province of Quebec. As part of the project, Rogers will team up with Xplornet Communications Inc. to ensure satellite connectivity in remote parts of Quebec. The company will begin deployment, on a trial basis, of the M2M wireless connection of Hydro Quebec's smart meter collectors this month. Trouvé via http://www.renewgridmag.com - NOTE DE Jean: Ceci est une très mauvaise nouvelle. Ils ont choisi la pire technologie de communication sans fil qui soit, c'est-à-dire le standard GSM, puisque Rogers ne fonctionne qu'avec ce standard dont les effets sur la santé humaine sont considérablement pires que ceux du standard CDMA que Bell Cellulaire utilise - Voir CDMA-based cell phones may be safer than GSM phones, and W-CDMA may be safer than UMTS - Quant à ces "600 smart meter collectors", les gens qui vont se trouver à proximité de ces puissants irradiateurs micro-ondiens vont devoir subir un assaut électromagnétique constant puisque, si on fait a calcul de 3.8 millions divisé par 600, cela signifie que chacun de ces collecteurs va gérer en moyenne la collecte et la rediffusion à la tour de téléphonie cellulaire la plus proche des données d'en moyenne 6333 compteurs 'intelligents"... J'espère qu'ils vont en installer un sur le siège social d'Hydro-Québec à Montréal... Voir aussi Le Wi-Fi dépassera le filaire en 2015 pour mieux comprendre l'ampleur de la menace avec l'augmentation vertigineuse de la quantité de données transmises sans fil, ce qui augmente d'autant la pollution électromagnétique à laquelle tout le monde - ou presque - est exposé.
Concernant le fait que le standard GSM est plus nocif que le standard CDMA...
Joel Moskowitz jmm@berkeley.edu"> a écrit le 2011-06-09 :
"CDMA may be safer than GSM (2G); W-CDMA may be safer than UMTS (3G); 4G who knows; 3 new Interphone papers released - In early May, I distributed a news release that made the following points:
* The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) can be misleading as it measures the maximum radiation a cell phone emits and does not reflect the average amount of radiation it emits which may be as important if not more so.
* Your cell phone carrier matters more than your cell phone model in terms of your average exposure to cell phone radiation for voice communication. CDMA phones (e.g., Verizon, Sprint) emit less radiation on average than GSM phones (e.g., AT&T, T-Mobile). A published study found that GSM phones emitted 28 times more radiation on average than the CDMA phones.
* The pulsing of the GSM signal may increase its biologic reactivity; and the toxicology research suggests that CDMA is less biologically reactive compared to GSM.
Although few journalists requested my supporting evidence, the story has been circulating on the Internet and was covered on CBS TV thanks to Renee Sharp of the Environmental Working Group (see below). More recently, the media have picked up a related story -- "3G may be safer than 2G." Currently, in the U.S. we are using 2G (i.e., CDMA and GSM) for voice communication and 3G (i.e., W-CDMA and UMTS) or 4G (LTE) for data transmission. We have a choice with regard to which 2G technology we use; whereas in most other nations, GSM is the only 2G technology available.
Because of this new story that 3G is safer than 2G, I searched the PubMed database today for 3G studies (n = 28) to complement my previous search on 2G health effect studies. However, here too, there appears to be a difference in the toxicity of the two 3G standards: W-CDMA may be safer than UMTS. None of nine W-CDMA studies reported toxic effects whereas 5 of 19 GSM studies reported toxic effects. I did not find any studies that investigated 4G health effects. So I would not argue that 3G is safer than 2G. Rather, CDMA and W-CDMA may be safer than GSM and UMTS. Let me know if you would like to see the PubMed searches."
VOIR AUSSI Étude comparative des réseaux GSM et CDMA
Note de Jean: Je recommande à toute personne intéressée par ce sujet des compteurs 'intelligents' de prendre connaissance des plus récents développements dans ma démarche pour amener Hydro-Québec à faire preuve d'ouverture face aux personnes - dont je suis - qui ne veulent pas avoir un tel émetteur WiFi les irradiant 24 hr sur 24 ...
KEY INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Rioters Turn Athens Greece Into A War Zone — Banks And Finance Ministry Set On Fire After Banker Bailout Passes (June 29, 2011) http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/06/29/rioters-turn-athens-greece-war-zone-banks-finance-ministry-set-fire-banker-bailout-passes-32601/
After Greek politicians sold out an 80% majority opposed to the banker bailout and passed draconian austerity measures, using the excuse they were blackmailed, the rioters in Athens responded by turning Greece into a war zone and setting banks, cars, and the Finance Ministry on fire. As Tyler Turden reports things are heating up in Greece, literally. Earlier today a firebomb at Marfin branch killed three people. Then, almost immediately after the politicians were blackmailed into passing the banker bailout, the Finance ministry was set on fire. That has been followed by a series of buildings, cars and banks. CLIP
Greek Army Threatens Military Coup Sparking Fears of Military Uprisings And Civil Wars Breaking Out Across All Of Europe (June 26, 2011) http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/06/26/greek-army-threatens-military-coup-spreading-fears-civil-war-breaking-europe-31181/
I recently wrote that the Greek Revolution has succeeded and the Government agreed to step down and create a new Government. That announcement came amidst violent protests, and as Tyler Durden pointed out, was nothing but a bold face lie meant to placate the masses. Soon after the announcement and the subsequent calming of the masses, the Greek Prime minister announced he would not be stepping down, instead would only be reshuffling top cabinet officials and would ask for a vote of no confidence from the corrupt parliament that is looking to put over stressed tax payers on the hook for an international loan with 30% plus interest rates to bailout crooked greedy bankers. Needless to say, the Prime Minister survived the vote of no confidence, and the Greek Government is set to vote for and approve the IMF bailout loan under banker controlled corporate media threats that financial Armageddon will hit the world if the vote does not pass.
(...) However those threats do little to deter the people across Europe who feel that they have nothing left. In a Land of broken people suffering harsh austerity measures enacted to pay the tab for greedy bankers, who continue to participate in the same acts of fraud and reckless behavior that caused the Global financial meltdown in the first place, the people of Europe have had enough. Apparently so have the police and military forces. Several news agencies out of Europe are reporting that Army and Police officers have joined the people in the riots against the banks to protest what is being perceived by European nationals as the sale of national sovereignty to foreign powers (...) Kopp Online reports that the Governments were warned against the threat of military coups over a year ago, and nations across all of Europe may soon find themselves in a showdown with their own military, just as the nation of Greece is facing today CLIP
DEBTOCRACY (FULL - ENG Subs) SEEN ONE MILLION TIMES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxPo-lInk
For the first time in Greece a documentary produced by the audience. "Debtocracy" seeks the causes of the debt crisis and proposes solutions, hidden by the government and the dominant media. More details through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtocracy AND http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/debtocracy/ "The solution suggested for the Greek crisis is the formation of a committee for the analysis of the debt in a similar way that Ecuador did. If the analysis proves all or part of the debt to be odious the people should not have to pay for it and therefore it should be erased. It should be noted that under the original definition of odious debt, the debt needs to be incurred by a regime that does not serve the best interests of the people." - Odious debt: In international law, odious debt is a legal theory which holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion. EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS EXCELLENT DOCUMENTARY AS EVERY COUNTRY COULD SOON BE FACED WITH THE SAME FATE AS GREECE AND COULD IMPLEMENT A SIMILAR SOLUTION AS ECUADOR, THAT IS, REJECT AS VOID AND ILLEGITIMATE ANY PART OF THE DEBT THAT WAS INCURRED AS A RESULT OF CORRUPTION AND BRIBING OF THE POLITICIANS AND FOR THE SOLE BENEFIT OF AN OLIGARCHIC ELITE - THINK, FOR THE US, OF ITS MILITARY CORPORATE COMPLEX... MOST THE OF THE DEBT MONEY IN THE US WAS USED TO FEED THE WELL-CONNECTED BLOATED MILITARY CORPORATIONS. AND THINK ALSO ABOUT THE COMPOUNDED INTEREST - "Compound interest was once regarded as the worst kind of usury, and was severely condemned by Roman law, as well as the common laws of many other countries." NO WONDER PEOPLE IN GREECE STRONGLY REJECT THE AUSTERITY MEASURES FORCED UPON THEM BY INTERNATIONAL BANKERS TO HELP THEIR GOVERNMENT PAY BACK MONEY THAT NEVER BENEFITED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!...
"Growing Your Way Out of Debt" Is a Fantasy (June 22, 2011) http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune11/growth-fantasy6-11.html
Add rising interest payments and higher taxes to declining assets and incomes and you don't get "growth," you get insolvency.The Status Quo consensus is that "kicking the can down the road" a.k.a. "extend and pretend" will work because "Greece, Spain, Ireland et al. are going to "grow their way out of debt." That is a fantasy.Here's why.1. There's a funny little feature of debt called interest. The Status Quo solution for Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain et al. is A) increase their debt load with more loans and B) roll over their old debt into new loans, without the old lenders taking any "haircut" on the principal.Both of these "solutions" add more interest costs. That means more of the national income stream must be diverted to pay the lenders their pound of flesh. That means there is less money in the national economy to buy goods and services, which means the economy must shrink to pay the higher interest costs.This is why unemployment in Spain and Greece has skyrocketed and why 100,000 small businesses have closed in Greece in the past year.2. A funny little feature of interest is that when people see you're at risk of default, they start charging you more to borrow their money. And it isn't a tiny bit more interest, it's a lot. Think subprime teaser loan at 3% shooting to 8%, or 28% if you're trying to sell new debt on the open market.For the E.U. to "help" Greece and Ireland by rolling over their already crushing debt loads into new, higher interest loans is like "helping" a sick patient by sticking a knife into their back. (...) Once a household or nation is burdened with stupendous debt loads and stagnating earnings, "growing your way out of debt" is impossible. The E.U. may succeed in strong-arming Greece into swallowing even more debt, more austerity and higher interest payments, but that will only speed up the self-reinforcing dynamics of insolvency, and guarantee the losses kicked down the road for a few months will be even more devastating.
Max Keiser in Interview with Lars Schall financial journalist (June 28, 2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hlMU20wSEg
Lars Schall strongly denounces the 'paper terrorists' as he calls the banksters - "Greek police beating Greek citizens on behalf of the international banksters." He is for capital punishment for Goldman & Sachs operatives responsible for this financial crisis and he calls for a revolt against them. At the end, he says that Tel Aviv has become the world capital of money laundering since Switzerland got shut down by the Feds.
Spain's leader gives swansong address amid crisis (June 28, 2011) http://www.timesofoman.com/innercat.asp?detail=47040&rand=
Spain's prime minister delivered his swansong state of the nation address Wednesday, vowing to crack down on debt and battle an economic crisis that has unleashed mass protests. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose Socialist Party is expected to face a rout in general elections due by the end of March 2012, said the economy was mending too slowly and joblessness was too high. (...) Fears of a Greek sovereign debt default have infected investors, who demand higher returns before buying the debt of other debt-troubled euro zone countries such as Spain. The risk premium on Spanish 10-year bonds compared to safer-bet German bonds hit 2.79 percentage points shortly before Zapatero spoke, nearing a peak struck last November of 2.83 percentage points. The crises of Ireland, Portugal and Greece had fed uncertainty in the euro zone and pushed up the costs of external financing for countries such as Spain, Italy and Belgium, Zapatero said. But joblessness was the deepest concern. "The main worry for Spaniards is the still too slow pace of recovery and the pressing need to get back to creating employment," Zapatero said. (...) A movement of "indignant" protests against joblessness, austerity and corruption erupted in Madrid on May 15 and fanned out as word spread by Twitter and Facebook. An estimated 200,000 people took to the streets on June 19 to vent their anger, and the movement plans to hold an alternative state of the nation debate in its birth place at a central Madrid square, Puerta del Sol.
Riot police clear protesters in Barcelona (June 30, 2011) ) http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hxCVUk5Uilbie_eNlT_lYcYPH2NA?docId=CNG.353c3f251cb59a61d79f44b103256a6c.81
BARCELONA — More than 100 Spanish riot police Thursday evicted scores of protesters who had refused to abandon a six-week encampment in a major Barcelona square. (...) The Barcelona encampment was set up as part of a movement that erupted May 15 when activists rallied protesters to city squares around Spain, spreading the word via Twitter and Facebook. The protesters have won broad public support in their fight against austerity measures, a 21.29-percent unemployment rate and corruption-tainted politicians. On May 27, Catalan anti-riot police fired rubber bullets and swung truncheons to disperse protesters in the Barcelona square, resulting in 87 mostly light injuries. By that same evening, however, at least 5,000 people were back in the square pitching tents again. A protest camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square was dismantled on June 12 but the group has since mounted a series of protests, rallying an estimated 200,000 people across Spain on June 19. Last week, small groups of activists set off on long marches from Barcelona, Valencia in the east and Cadiz in the south to spread their protest before joining up for a Madrid rally planned on July 24.
West maybe losing grip on Libya's transition (June 22, 2011) http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2126522.ece?
As the military stalemate deepens, sharp differences have surfaced between key members of the NATO alliance, casting doubts on the ability of western countries to steer Libya's political transition. Citing “humanitarian” considerations, Italy has called for an immediate ceasefire in Libya. Addressing Italy's Lower House of Parliament, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has proposed “an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities” in Libya. “With regard to NATO, it is fair to ask for increasingly detailed information on results as well as precise guidelines on the dramatic errors involving civilians,” he added. Mr. Frattini made these observations in the aftermath of a NATO air strike on Sunday, which killed nine civilians, including two children. France opposed the Italian proposal. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said a pause in the campaign “would allow [Libyan leader] Muammar Qadhafi to gain time and reorganise”. “In the end, it would be the civilian population that would suffer from the smallest sign of weakness on our behalf.”The Arab League, whose consent to the use of air power to protect civilians was critical in the passage of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, is also calling for a “political solution” to the Libyan crisis. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said: “When I see children being killed, I must have misgivings. That's why I warned about the risk of civilian casualties.” “You can't have a decisive ending. Now is the time to do whatever we can to reach a political solution,” he added. With NATO's air campaign making no decisive headway, the African Union is saying the West is bound to accept its plan for a ceasefire, which does not say Mr. Qadhafi must step down. In an interview with Reuters, A.U. head Jean Ping said: “The stalemate is already there. There is no other way (than the A.U. plan). They will (endorse it).” He pointed out that a deadlock threatened to break-up Libya, which could then emerge as another Somalia, ruled by warlords and Islamists. As the Libyan conflict meanders, China and Russia appears to have the diplomatic high-ground. Unlike some of the western countries, the Chinese have made it clear that they do not reject the Libyan government's role in a future ceasefire. After meeting with Benghazi-based opposition leader Mahmoud Jibril, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Wednesday that the Libyan Transitional National Council (T.N.C.) was an “important dialogue partner” in defusing the crisis. Last week Russia's special envoy to Libya Mikhail Margelov held talks in Tripoli. After meeting Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi on Thursday, he said he had been told that representatives of the Libyan government were in contact with members of the T.N.C. in several European capitals including France, Germany and Norway.
NATO air strike blamed in 15 civilian deaths (June 25, 2011) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/25/MNTH1K2OP6.DTL
(...) Libyan authorities on Saturday accused NATO of killing 15 people in an air strike that hit a restaurant and bakery in the east, though the alliance denied the report.It was the latest outcry from Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy's government blaming NATO for killing civilians amid a four-month uprising that has sparked a civil war. NATO insists it does all it can to avoid such casualties.Meanwhile, rebel representatives said their fighters were coordinating around the country for the "zero hour" when their forces would reach the capital of Tripoli. The rebels said they have been working to cut fuel supplies from the Tunisian border in an attempt to paralyze Khadafy's forces. Rebels also are making homemade bombs and trying to ferry other weapons to their comrades in Tripoli, a spokesman for an underground guerrilla group there said.Libya's state news agency quoted a military official in Khadafy's forces as saying that NATO warplanes hit a number of civilian sites Saturday in the oil town of Brega, including a restaurant and a bakery. The official said 15 civilians were killed and 20 wounded in the strike. The JANA news agency claimed five civilians were killed Friday in Brega as well. CLIP
What you don't know about Gaddafi (June 19, 2011) MUST WATCH!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXLQAUUpJwU
Please join me on Facebook to fight media propaganda and help Libya against NATO's aggressions.
Sources: In the Theater of the Absurd: US-NATO Support "Al Qaeda in Libya" AND Libya, Getting it Right: A Revolutionary Pan-African Perspective - This video was initially recommended by Connie Fogal (Connie_Fogal_qqauc_cfuuqqu@cp20.com) who wrote: "Send this link to your MP who needs to know that Gadaffi is a humanitarian who used Libya's oil resources successfully raising Libyans to a very high standard of living with free medicare and an over 80% literacy rate, built a massive river system bringing water and subsidized farming to desert areas, moved the people out of tents into high standard housing, and most importantly was in the process of leading Africa into its own financial system free from the impoverishing clutches of the debt based monetary system of the Western global banking elite This is why France's Sarkozy calls for the murder of Gadaffi. Watch it yourself to be satisfied that our Canadian government (all except Elizabeth May) are corrupted, compromised cooperators forging a world order of global impoverishment and environmental ruin.Shame, shame on Canada's NDP who are now indistinguishable from the Conservatives or the Liberals and apparently proud of it. Their rejection of peace and humanitarianism in favor of war and destruction can only be explained by the arrogant but confident statement of a member of the ruling elite of the world (I think it was Sylvia Ostry) "We have our people in all the significant positions in the world." It will be this way and get worse until citizens say NO in no uncertain terms. We can start by raking our MP's over the coals, picketing their constituency offices, telephoning them, meeting them, deriding them. Confront their lies, deceit, cowardice, complicity... This video was brought to my attention by David Creighton (dcr8on@sympatico.ca) who wrote: "This excellent video will be forwarded to every MP, starting with the apparently-duped "Official Opposition", who are definitely down on their game on this fundamental issue. I encourage others to do likewise." NOTE: THERE IS MUCH MORE ON THE SITUATION IN LIBYA BELOW IN NATO's "Alternate Universe" in Libya
Alarm for Syrian President Assad as protesters close in on Damascus (26 June 2011) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8598950/Alarm-for-Syrian-President-Assad-as-protesters-close-in-on-Damascus.html
As they have done every Saturday for the past three months, the survivors buried their dead, lowering the corpses of men and boys felled by Syria's security forces into hastily dug graves. Their grief undimmed, even though they have carried out the exercise so many times before, the mourners wept as they bore aloft the coffins and vowed to avenge the dead by toppling President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator.With a reported death toll of more than 1,300 since the uprising began 103 days ago, the mass funeral has become a familiar ritual in virtually all of Syria's 14 provinces, each death only hardening the protesters' resolve.Yet while the rest of the country seethes, two parts of the country seem to have escaped the unrest: the central districts of Syria's biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. On Saturday morning, as funerals were under way on the city's outskirts, tens of thousands thronged the centre of Syria's capital to express their devotion to Mr Assad. There were no coffins here. Instead, the faithful waved the portraits of the president and hailed his a reformer and champion of the people. Similar demonstrations have taken place in Aleppo, Syria's equally storied second city, as they have done for much of the week.
But in a worrying sign for Mr Assad and his ability to portray the uprising as a provincial sign show, there is growing evidence that the protest movement is closing in on his two principal strongholds. At a pro-Assad demonstration witnessed by The Sunday Telegraph last week, the regime's careful choreography was disrupted as pro-democracy supporters unexpectedly stormed the scene. The triumphal flag waving of the faithful faltered and collapsed in violent melee as the security forces gave chase. The scuffle represented only a brief blip, yet the shock that registered on the faces of Mr Assad's supporters was telling. This was not supposed to happen in the heart of tourist Damascus, whose winding alleys and ancient architecture are protected by a heavy force of secret policemen and government informers. That such defiance of Mr Assad is now visible in so hallowed a place is a sign that the president's hold on his capital may be slipping. Outlying suburbs of Greater Damascus have become steadily more restive in recent weeks.After mosque prayers on Friday, when the biggest demonstrations traditionally take place, at least 20 protesters were killed across the country. But, for the first time, a majority of the fatalities were on the outskirts of Damascus. The capital's residents are all too aware of the rising tension.
(...) Few believe that Mr Assad's fall is imminent. But his forces are increasingly overstretched as they battle regime opponents, some of them armed, in the north and struggle to contain protests elsewhere.And if Damascus and Aleppo were to experience unrest on the same scale of other Syrian cities, then, many observers say, his chances of surviving the biggest challenge to his 11-year rule begin to look increasingly remote.
China migrant workers' protests reach third day (June 13, 2011) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13750035
Protesters and police in China's Sichuan province have clashed after reports that a pregnant street vendor was mistreated by security forces. Witnesses say more than 1,000 protesters set fire to cars and damaged government buildings in a town near the city of Guangzhou.
Beijing battling protest fires on all fronts (June 15, 2011) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/beijing-battling-protest-fires-on-all-fronts/story-e6frg6so-1226075255343
AN eruption of protests throughout China has sent armoured vehicles into town centres, prompted an internet blackout by the government and left thousands across the country blogging about "crazy" violence on the streets. The summer surge of protests, which flared in the southern industrial hub of Zengcheng over the weekend, has been linked to a range of frustrations with modern China - furies that have drawn the government into crackdowns on activism and massive increases in the domestic security budget. More than 1000 migrant workers went on the rampage in Zengcheng after a pregnant street vendor in her 20s was roughed up by security guards. Such incidents, while distressing, are not uncommon. Witnesses said that the centre of town was bedlam, with smashed windows, blazing police vehicles and teargas explosions as rioters hurled missiles at an official building. One bank worker blogged that the Bank of China had ordered an immediate halt to all ATM transactions. In central Hubei province armoured cars were used last week to quell a riot over the death of Ran Jianxin, an official who had led the fight against corruption in the town of Lichuan but died mysteriously in police custody. The protests followed bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month. Although few see China as a likely arena for uprisings in the style of the Arab Spring, Beijing remains terrified that the fast-rising tally of localised protests could be linked via mobile social networking and Twitter-style websites. Some Chinese academics believe that the true number of protests in the country last year was more than 180,000. After several big clashes in recent weeks the names of half a dozen big towns have been eradicated from the search engines of the country's most popular microblogging sites. One of the "disappeared" cities, Dongguan, is the fourth-largest producer of exports in the country and has a population only slightly smaller than London's. The recent violence, however, has exposed the limits of the government's ability to control the urban population using internet censorship what party leaders refer to as "social management". Authorities have turned to displays of raw power, deploying paramilitary police and armoured vehicles in at least three cities in as many weeks to prevent violence from spiralling further as protesters have repeatedly directed their anger at government buildings, often ostentatious symbols of power. What connects the violence is the way a flashpoint - in Inner Mongolia, the death of a Mongol at the hands of a Han Chinese truck driver, and in southern China, the assault by security personnel on a pregnant migrant worker - sets off much wider conflagrations. The disturbances could reflect badly on President Hu Jintao, who has tried to promote the concept of a "harmonious society" and who is due to retire as party chief next year. CLIP
North Korea Tests 'Super-EMP' Nuke (16 June 2011) http://www.newsmax.com/KenTimmerman/super-emp-emp-northkorea-nuke/2011/06/16/id/400260
Gary Samore, a top Obama administration national security official, warned of new sanctions if North Korea conducted a third round of nuclear tests on Monday, as reports surfaced that North Korea has miniaturized its nuclear warheads so they can be delivered by ballistic missile.North Korea's last round of tests, conducted in May 2009, appear to have included a "super-EMP" weapon, capable of emitting enough gamma rays to disable the electric power grid across most of the lower 48 states, says Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a former CIA nuclear weapons analyst and president of EMPact America, a citizens lobbying group. Samore, who handles arms control and non-proliferation issues, warned that "additional strong sanctions will be imposed on the North with the support of Russia and China."North Korea's nuclear tests have been dismissed as failures by some analysts because of their low explosive yield. But Dr. Pry believes they bore the "signature" of the Russian-designed "super-EMP" weapon, capable of emitting more gamma radiation than a 25-megaton nuclear weapon.
(...) His analysis coincided with Congressional testimony in March by Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who stated that North Korea "may now have several plutonium-based warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles." The Soviet Union conducted an atmospheric test of an EMP weapon in 1962 over Kazakhstan whose pulse wave set on fire a power station 300 kilometers away and destroyed it within 10 seconds. Such a weapon - equal to a massive solar flare such as the "solar maxima" predicted by NASA to occur in 2012 - poses "substantial risk to equipment and operation of the nation's power grid and under extreme conditions could result in major long term electrical outages," said Joseph McClelland of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Senate testimony last month.Pry said that a group of Russian nuclear weapons scientists approached him in 2004 when he served as staff director of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, to warn the United States that the technology to make that weapon "had leaked" to North Korea, and possibly to Iran. "They told us that Russian scientists had gone to North Korea to work on building the super-EMP weapon," Pry told Newsmax. "The North Koreans appear to have tested it in 2006 and again in 2009."
(...) Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., has introduced legislation known as the SHIELD Act that would require U.S. utilities to harden large transformers and other key elements of the nation's power grid to protect them from a devastating EMP attack or a geomagnetic storm. The House last year passed a similar measure by unanimous consent, but the bill died in the Senate, where Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D, N.M., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee, insisted that the threat from cyberattack was more dangerous than the possibility of an EMP strike or a solar flare.John Kappenman, the chief science adviser to the EMP commission, believes it would require just $1 billion to harden an estimated 5,000 power transformers around the country to shield them from the impact of an EMP-like event.Read more on Newsmax.com: North Korea Tests 'Super-EMP' Nuke Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
(...) President Obama's science adviser, John Holdren, warned in a March 10, 2011 Op-Ed co-authored with his British counterpart of the potentially catastrophic impact of a solar maxima event in the next 12 to 18 months."Space weather can affect human safety and economies anywhere on our vast wired planet, and blasts of electrically-charged gas traveling from the Sun at up to 5 million miles an hour can strike with little warning," Holdren wrote. "Their impact could be big - on the order of $2 trillion during the first year in the United States alone, with a recovery period of 4 to 10 years." Rep. Trent Franks, who authored the SHIELD Act, warned of "catastrophic consequences" should Congress fail to act. "The U.S. society and economy are so critically dependent upon the availability of electricity that a significant collapse of the grid, precipitated by a major natural or man-made EMP event, could result in catastrophic civilian casualties," he said. "This vulnerability, if left unaddressed, could have grave, societal altering consequences."
European Union growing more divided (June 26, 2011) http://www.freep.com/article/20110626/NEWS07/106260505/European-Union-growing-more-divided
(...) Ironically, the common currency that was meant to unite Europe is dividing it instead, with fiscally disciplined northern countries such as Germany and the Netherlands growing more resentful of being on the hook for their southern counterparts' imprudence. Not everyone would go as far as the German magazine Der Spiegel, whose cover last week featured a portrait of the euro atop a coffin draped with the Greek flag. But skepticism toward Europe's ambitious experiment in forging a common future is not hard to find. "It can indeed be a burden to be part of the European Union," said Thomas Dehler, 44, an entrepreneur in Berlin. "I've often asked myself why the deutschemark was abolished in the first place. ... Economic union wasn't the right way." But he added, "We can't take it back anymore. Now we have to grit our teeth and get to it." Such disenchantment isn't that surprising in the economic powerhouse of Germany.But disillusionment with the EU is also rife in Greece, a beneficiary of the club's largess. Anti-EU graffiti and banners in downtown Athens shout the frustrations of people who see the austerity and pain demanded of them in exchange for help as both punitive and a recipe for economic suicide, not recovery. "I believe Greece belongs to Europe. Its interests are anchored there," said Nikos Branidis, 37, an unemployed mathematician. "Do I believe, though, in European integration? Not anymore. It was supposed to be a process of coming together but instead has proven to be just a union driven by monetary interests." Waning enthusiasm spans the continent. In an EU-wide survey last year, only 49% of people said membership was a good thing, close to its lowest support in a decade. Nearly 20% saw membership as a drag on their country. The euro's troubles have worsened since. Three countries have applied for bailouts, with one of them, Greece, desperately needing another one; private creditors holding Greek bonds are under pressure to take a hit; and tens of thousands of anti-austerity protesters have marched in Madrid and Athens. European solidarity is in shorter supply now than a year ago. In Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands, for example, populist right-wing parties have made significant electoral gains, led by politicians who often spout "Euroskeptic" rhetoric about being yoked to countries they deem too different or irresponsible."European integration was a top-down (enterprise): If you build it, they will come," said Hugo Brady, an analyst with the London-based Center for European Reform. "People did make use of the benefits it brought. But it didn't mean that they moved any closer culturally. ...We're not as alike as people thought." CLIP
Europe Braces for Serious Crop Losses and Blackouts (June 13, 2011) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=europe-braces-for-serious-crop-losses
Record dry spring could drive up wheat prices, and lack of water may force nuclear reactors to shut down -- LONDON -- One of the driest spring seasons on record in northern Europe has sucked soils dry and sharply reduced river levels to the point that governments are starting to fear crop losses and France, in particular, is bracing for blackouts as its river-cooled nuclear power plants may be forced to shut down. French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire warned this week that the warmest and driest spring in half a century could slash wheat yields and might even push up world prices despite the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's predicting a bumper global crop due to greater plantings. France has pledged hundreds of millions of euros in aid to its drought-stricken livestock farmers, who have watched feed supplies dwindle and prices rise. Water restrictions are in place in more than half of the country's administrative regions or departments."The situation is serious for French farmers. We wanted to act swiftly and on a large scale," Le Maire told reporters last week.And the French government has set up a committee to keep an eye on the country's electricity supply situation and monitor river levels, as 44 of the 58 nuclear reactors that supply 80 percent of France's electricity are cooled by river water. The problem appears to be not that the reactors might overheat because of the lack of water but that the depleted rivers might overheat, creating ecological havoc, when the water returns to them after cooling the reactors. The abnormally low rainfall and high temperatures -- similar in northern Europe to the major drought of 1976, but actually worse in France -- have also hit hydroelectric power availability and output in France.
Rainfall down 40-80% -- The Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization said last week that between February and May of this year, rainfall over Europe as a whole ranged from 40 to 80 percent of the long-term average from 1951 to 2000, and in many parts of western and central Europe it was even below 40 percent. Between March and May, the outcome was even lower, with France, Germany and southeastern England the worst hit.The preceding winter 2010-2011 was very dry in western Europe, causing very low soil moisture in March and April. This, coupled with the warmer-than-average temperatures, put major water stress on plants, and in particular, agricultural crops.Up to now, 2011 has been one of the 10 driest years in Switzerland since 1864, while in France, January to April was the driest period since 1975. In Germany, April this year was one of the 10 driest Aprils since 1881, WMO said. Springtime in Germany, it added, was the driest March-to-May period since 1893. CLIP
OTHER RECOMMENDED NEWS AND INFORMATION
US is in even worse shape financially than Greece: Gross (June 14, 2011) http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/features/usisinevenworseshapefinanciallythangreecegross_556995.html
When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC Monday. Much of the public focus is on the nation's public debt, which is USD 14.3 trillion. But that doesn't include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes to close to USD 50 trillion, according to government figures. The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show. Taken together, Gross puts the total at "nearly USD 100 trillion," that while perhaps a bit on the high side, places the country in a highly unenviable fiscal position that he said won't find a solution overnight. "To think that we can reduce that within the space of a year or two is not a realistic assumption," Gross said in a live interview. "That's much more than Greece, that's much more than almost any other developed country. We've got a problem and we have to get after it quickly. "Gross spoke following a report that US banks were likely to scale back on their use of Treasurys as collateral against derivatives and other transactions. Bank heads say that move is likely to happen in August as Congress dithers over whether to raise the nation's debt ceiling, according to Why a Greek default would be worse than Lehman Bros' fall.
Playing with Debt Nukes (22 JUNE 2011) http://usawatchdog.com/playing-with-debt-nukes/
The situation in Greece is bleak. Sure, the Prime Minister, George Papandreou survived a confidence vote yesterday, but he is a long way from solving the debt crisis in his tiny country. The public debt totals $500 billion. The plan is to add another $150 billion or so in debt. It will be a second bailout package to keep the country afloat. In order to get the money, Greece will have to sell off state owned assets. It must also give the people more financial pain in the form of even deeper cuts to government programs and entitlements. That plan will surely spark more protests and civil unrest. It comes down to a fight between the bankers that made reckless loans or the people who will suffer deep austerity for years. In the end, one way or another, Greece will default. The bankers are willing to pile on debt in hopes everything will get back to normal and they will get paid. That is a pipe dream.Even if the banks voluntarily let some of the debt rollover, it could lead to something equal to a default. Reuters reported yesterday, "Fractious euro zone finance ministers are trying to patch together a second aid package for Greece, with more official loans and, for the first time, some sort of contribution by private investors who hold Greek government bonds. 'Fitch would regard such a debt exchange or voluntary debt rollover as a default event and would lead to the assignment of a default rating to Greece,' Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings with Fitch, said at a conference in Singapore." (Click here for the complete Reuters story.)Last week, Jean-Claude Junker, President of the Euro Group and head of the 17 Eurozone finance ministers, warned of the dire consequences of a Greek default. The Associated Press reported Saturday, Junker said a Greek bankruptcy, "could prove contagious for Portugal and Ireland, and then also for Belgium and Italy because of their high debt burden, even before Spain. . . . We are playing with the fire. . . " If Greece is forgiven debt or outright defaults, how long do you think it will take all those other countries to do the same thing? My prediction is it would cause a daisy chain of defaulting debt that would reach critical mass in days. "Playing with fire" is an understatement. It is more like playing with debt nukes.
(...) The real problem the world faces is not Greek debt because it is merely the dead canary in the world's financial coal mine. It is America that has terminal debt disease. $12 trillion in liquid assets (things like dollars and Treasuries) are held outside of the U.S. According to Williams, ". . . the U.S. dollar, which remains vulnerable to a massive sell-off with little or no further warning. . . .The crises facing the United States and the U.S. dollar dwarf those in the euro system. . ."This is precisely why the guy who sits at the head of the world's biggest bond fund, Bill Gross, says the U.S. is in "worse shape than Greece" and other heavily indebted European countries. Mr. Gross says the full extent of U.S. debt and liabilities are nearly "$100 trillion." Now that's a megaton debt nuke! Mr. Gross also says that people investing in Treasuries will "get cooked." Gross has sold off his U.S. Treasury holdings along with countries such as China. Russia is the latest powerhouse to dump U.S. government debt. TheStreet.com reported last week, "A top Russian economic official says his country is likely to continue decreasing the share of its portfolio that consists of U.S. debt, according to a published media report. 'The share of our portfolio in U.S. instruments has gone down and probably will go down further,' said Arkady Dvorkovich, chief economic aide to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal's Web site." Treasuries are really just an extension of the U.S. dollar. After all, these bonds take your money today and pay you back dollars in the future. The interest rate has to be high enough to compensate for inflation and turn a profit. With the U.S. on a dollar printing orgy that is bailing out foreign and domestic banks, Treasury investors will be eaten up by inflation. So, selling Treasuries is the same as dumping the buck. If dollars are sold off rapidly, then the buying power of the once mighty dollar could evaporate like a puddle of water in the desert.
Top 5 Places NOT To Be When The Dollar Collapses (June 23rd,2011) http://dont-tread-on.me/top-5-places-not-to-be-when-the-dollar-collapses/
The dollar collapse will be the single largest event in human history. This will be the first event that will touch every single living person in the world. All human activity is controlled by money. Our wealth,our work,our food,our government,even our relationships are affected by money. No money in human history has had as much reach in both breadth and depth as the dollar. It is the de facto world currency. All other currency collapses will pale in comparison to this big one. All other currency crises have been regional and there were other currencies for people to grasp on to. This collapse will be global and it will bring down not only the dollar but all other fiat currencies,as they are fundamentally no different. The collapse of currencies will lead to the collapse of ALL paper assets. The repercussions to this will have incredible results worldwide. CLIP
The Greatest Depression Has Only Begun by Global Research (2011-06-02) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25089
The greatest depression in human history is still in its starting stages. What the media and many officials often refer to as the "hangover" from the global financial crisis is in fact the end of the beginning. Originating in 2008, the global economic crisis took the world by storm: banks collapsed, the "too big to fail" became bigger by consolidating the rest, governments bailed out their financial industries, masses of people lost their jobs, the 'developing' world was plunged into a deep systemic crisis, food prices rose, which in time spurred social unrest; and the Western nations that took on the bad debts of the big banks are on the precipice of a great global debt crisis, originating in Europe, hitting Greece and Spain, but destined to consume the industrialized world itself. Though many claim that we are in a "recovery," things could not be further from the truth. As the mainstream media is finally catching on to the reality of the mirage of the so-called "recovery", reports are surfacing about a dire global economic situation:"Evidence of a deterioration of global manufacturing growth and renewed weakness in job creation in the United States emerged Wednesday, two reversals that have markets bracing for an economic pause, or worse... Add to that a daunting list of aggravating factors: the continued implosion of the U.S. housing market, an outbreak of worldwide risk aversion, high crude-oil and gas prices pinching consumer demand, further tightening in China and other emerging-market economies, stock market losses, lack of credit growth, the looming end to the Fed's monetary stimulus, weak business capital spending, and the still-unfolding sovereign debt crisis in Europe." And now top financial experts are warning of a new financial crisis altogether, since the monstrous derivatives market that played such a nefarious role in the preceding crisis has not been altered, nor have its systemic risks been addressed. The derivatives market - essentially a fictional electronic market of high-stakes gambling - has a value ten times that of the entire global gross national product of the world's countries combined. This market is dominated by hedge funds and the "too big to fail" banks, who in fact created the derivatives trading schemes. As one leading hedge fund manager recently stated, "There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner... because we haven't solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis." The market for derivatives is somewhere in the realm of $600 trillion. CLIP
Flooding, heavy rain delays planting for hundreds of thousands of acres (June 13, 2011) http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/58839ace66ad41efb657bcd45d396b92/MT--Flooding-Farming/
(...) It takes a lot to get a Montana farmer to curse the rain, but some are beginning to. Hundreds of thousands of acres have gone unplanted due to unprecedented rains and the number of growing days needed to produce a crop is quickly dwindling. In addition, federal officials now estimate 1.4 million Montana acres-an area slightly larger than Glacier National Park-has been hit by flooding.
(...) It takes 90 to 120 days to raise a durum wheat crop. Stoner has circled June 20 as his point of no return, but the possibility of going to harvest in early October is unsettling. Relentless rains are an anomaly in Montana. Early winter kills aren't.Raging rivers have chewed through some of Montana's largest irrigation systems, in some cases costing millions of dollars in damage farmers say they cannot afford. If the canals don't pulse with water again soon, drought may be a problem for some."Water is the No. 1 resource you can put on a crop. If you had the best seed in the world and you put it in dry land and you had a drought, that plant would try to produce one seed so it could survive, but without water it wouldn't do anything else," said Dan Vogel, manager of Huntley Project irrigation system northeast of Billings. Huntley's 458 miles of canals and ditches are the arteries of the Yellowstone Valley heartland, but currently they have no pulse. That's because May floodwaters caused a surging Pryor Creek to punch a hole through a massive section of the canal.
(...) Below Fort Peck Dam, a different kind of flooding dilemma is playing out. Worried about record high water levels and snowpack yet to thaw, the Army Corps of Engineers is now discharging dam water at a rate near 60,000 cubic feet per second, the largest releases in the dam's history. And the discharges continue to grow. Two weeks ago, engineers said the maximum release would be 50,000. Last week the amount was raised to 60,000.There are acres of hay downriver from Fort Peck that have been submerged for so long Federal Farm Service Agent Mike Hagfeldt suspects a shortage of animal feed is coming later this year."The majority of our hay is on the river bottom and that's dead," Hagfeldt said. "Two-thirds of it has been under water for two months. We started flooding in April."
(...) It takes 90 to 120 days to raise a durum wheat crop. Stoner has circled June 20 as his point of no return, but the possibility of going to harvest in early October is unsettling. Relentless rains are an anomaly in Montana. Early winter kills aren't. Raging rivers have chewed through some of Montana's largest irrigation systems, in some cases costing millions of dollars in damage farmers say they cannot afford. If the canals don't pulse with water again soon, drought may be a problem for some."Water is the No. 1 resource you can put on a crop. If you had the best seed in the world and you put it in dry land and you had a drought, that plant would try to produce one seed so it could survive, but without water it wouldn't do anything else," said Dan Vogel, manager of Huntley Project irrigation system northeast of Billings. Huntley's 458 miles of canals and ditches are the arteries of the Yellowstone Valley heartland, but currently they have no pulse. That's because May floodwaters caused a surging Pryor Creek to punch a hole through a massive section of the canal. CLIP
The Dark Side Of CFLs (15 April 2009) http://inthesenewtimes.com/2009/04/22/the-dark-side-of-cfls/
Consider this – instead of saving the environment, CFLs are actually destroying it. CFLs should be thought of as toxic technology, when mercury contamination, ultraviolet radiation, and radio frequency radiation are factored in. From cradle to grave, CFLs pose a danger to people’s health and well being, as well as adding even more toxicity to the environment. In fact, CFLs do not reduce a person’s carbon footprint and may even increase it in some situations. To make matters even worse, CFLs emit harmful levels of electromagnetic radiation.Starting in the year 2012, regular incandescent bulbs, the ones invented by Thomas Edison over 100 years ago, will be banned in Canada in the pursuit of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet, contrary to popular belief, switching from regular bulbs to CFLs could increase global energy consumption, not reduce it. If that alone does not shake consumer confidence, perhaps the facts that CFLs contain mercury and also emit electromagnetic radiation might give people a wake-up call up to the truth about CFLs. On the other hand, since CFL producers are being handed a monopoly in the light bulb market by some federal government and are being cheered on by corporatist environmental groups, sales are not about to drop anytime soon. It seems like the protectors of the environment have jumped ship. Health Canada is simply not doing its job as they ignore the devastating impact of having millions of CFLs in our environment. Why are they sitting by, and allowing the Canadian government to force its citizens to use them? CLIP
Cocaine Laced With Veterinary Drug Levamisole Eats Away at Flesh (June 23, 2011) http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/flesh-eating-cocaine-laced-veterinary-drug-levamisole/story?id=13902353
Cocaine cut with the veterinary drug levamisole could be the culprit in a flurry of flesh-eating disease in New York and Los Angeles.The drug, used to deworm cattle, pigs and sheep, can rot the skin off noses, ears and cheeks. And over 80 percent of the country's coke supply contains it."It's probably quite a big problem, and we just don't know yet how big a problem it really is," said Dr. Noah Craft, a dermatologist with Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute.In a case study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Craft describes six cocaine users recently plagued by the dark purple patches of dying flesh. And while they happened to hail from the country's coastlines, the problem is national."It's important for people to know it's not just in New York and L.A. It's in the cocaine supply of the entire U.S.," Craft said. CLIP - CHECK ALSO More Than Two Thirds Of Cocaine In America Is Contaminated With A Skin Rotting Chemical, Says The DOJ
Oxi: Twice as powerful as crack cocaine at just a fraction of the price (30 May 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/30/oxi-crack-cocaine-south-america
A highly addictive hallucinogenic has exploded on to South America's drug scene, with devastating consequences (...) Oxi, or oxidado – "rust" – is the latest drug to surface in the Amazon. It is reputedly twice as powerful as crack cocaine and just a fifth of the price."It is terrifying," said Alvaro Mendes, an outreach worker in Rio Branco from the state of Acre's Harm Reduction Association, the NGO that first detected the drug. "The majority of first-time users become addicted on their first contact with the drug. Most of them go seven to 10 days without sleeping, without eating. They start to go into a process of degeneration. After months of use … they go into a state where they look like zombies, wandering … in search of pleasure." Described as a cheaper and deadlier successor to crack, oxi sells for about R$2 (75p) a rock and is smoked in pipes improvised from cans, pieces of piping and metal taps. According to Mendes, whose support group works with slum-dwellers, prostitutes, transvestites and homeless people who are hooked on the drug, oxi can kill within a year. "The difference between cocaine and oxi is like the difference between drinking beer and pure alcohol," said a federal police operative on the Peru-Brazil border, who refused to be named. (...) Mendes says users often suffer from paranoia, vomiting and uncontrollable bouts of diarrhoea. Tooth loss can happen within months. "I've never seen such violent scenes of drug use," he said. "It is very depressing." CLIP
New Study: Fluoride Can Damage the Brain - Avoid Use in Children (June 21, 2011) http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-study-fluoride-can-damage-the-brain---avoid-use-in-children-124299299.html NEW YORK -- "The prolonged ingestion of fluoride may cause significant damage to health and particularly to the nervous system," concludes a review of studies by researchers Valdez-Jimenez, et al. published in Neurologia (June 2011), reports New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. (NYSCOF). The research team reports, "It is important to be aware of this serious problem and avoid the use of toothpaste and items that contain fluoride, particularly in children as they are more susceptible to the toxic effects of fluoride." "Fluoride can be toxic by ingesting one part per million (ppm), and the effects are not immediate, as they can take 20 years or more to become evident," they write. Most fluoridating U.S. public drinking water suppliers add fluoride chemicals to deliver 1 ppm fluoride (equal to about 1 milligram per quart) intending to benefit teeth and not to purify the water. "Fluoridation clearly jeopardizes our children and must be stopped," says attorney Paul Beeber, President, NYSCOF. "We can actually see how fluoride has damaged children's teeth with dental fluorosis; but we can't see the harm it's doing to their brains and other organs. No U.S. researcher is even looking," says Beeber. CLIP
Does life online give you 'popcorn brain'? (June 23, 2011) http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/23/tech.popcorn.brain.ep/index.html
(CNN) -- When Hilarie Cash arrives home from work in the evening, she has a choice: She can go outside and tend to her garden or she can hop on her laptop.The lilacs really need weeding. The computer, on the other hand, can wait, as her work is done for the day.Despite this, Cash feels drawn to the computer, as if it's a magnet pulling her in. Maybe there's an e-mail from a friend awaiting her, or a funny tweet, or a new picture posted on Facebook."I find it extremely difficult to walk away," Cash says. "It's so hard to tell myself, 'Don't do it. Go do the gardening.' "Does it really matter if Cash gardens or goes online? Increasing, experts say it does. The worry is that life online is giving us what researcher, David Levy, calls "popcorn brain" -- a brain so accustomed to the constant stimulation of electronic multitasking that we're unfit for life offline, where things pop at a much slower pace. Preferring a smartphone to a child - Levy, a professor with the Information School at the University of Washington, tells the story of giving a speech at a high-tech company. Afterward at lunch, an employee sheepishly told him how the night before his wife had asked him to give their young daughter a bath. Instead of enjoying the time with his child, he spent the time on his phone, texting and returning e-mails. He didn't have to work, it was just that the urge to use the phone was more irresistible than the child in the tub."It's really ubiquitous," says Cash, a counselor who treats people who have trouble giving up their gadgets. "We can't just sit quietly and wait for a bus, and that's too bad, because our brains need that down time to rest, to process things." CLIP
THE GROWING MICROWAVE RADIATION PROBLEM
Smart Meters Are Evil: Collecting Bad Press About Smart Meters http://meterpedia.com/smartmetersareevil/
This ridiculous Smart Meter rollout MUST be stopped! What kind of country are we living in where we are forced to pay for something we do not even want to purchase? Not to mention the additional RF radiation that we will be subjected to against our will. It is outrageous! Why on earth, when scientists are telling us to err on the side of caution with this technology, and keep these kinds of radiofrequency emitting devices away from our children, the sick, and the elderly, are we forced to install them in our own homes? Once again, we are being dictated to by government and industry…what has happened to our democratic nation?
(...) Low level microwave exposure is nothing to treat dismissively. It may create sensible reactions in only a minority of people, but the “insensible” majority are just as much at risk for increased health problems down the line, just like everyone else. Should the majority merely spit and curse at the minority? Tell them to go to hell? The scientific and medical establishments have sold their souls to the Devil Money a long time ago, and cannot be trusted. CLIP - MANY MORE COMMENTS THERE!
Why Is WiFi Bad? for Children http://www.radiationeducation.com/Why_Is_WiFi_Bad.html
(...) 1. Children's brains are way smaller, so it affects us way more. And we have more water in children's brains so electromagnetic radiation is conducted faster and stronger."Of particular significance for children are studies which indicate that children absorb more radiation in the brain than adults which may indicate a greater risk of brain tumours." "A two-minute cell phone call alters a child’s brain function for an hour." (Source: The child scrambler - What a mobile can do to a youngster’s brain in 2 minutes, UK Sunday Mirror, April 1, 2004.)
2. Cell phones have up to 2.4 ghz frequency, but wireless can have up to 6 ghz frequency. But scientists say it is not the frequency that is so important, but the second carrier wave (the information carrying radio wave - ICRW) and the fact that it is pulsed, that is the main health problem. All these countries have banned wifi in schools, why can't we?
(...) 3. Children absorb more radiation than adults, so the risk for kids is much higher than for adults. "The Stewart Report (2000) states that children absorb more energy per Kg of body weight from an external electromagnetic field than do adults."and"A 5 year old will absorb around 60% more than an adult.""Exposures in bone marrow may be up to ten times greater in children than adults." (Microwave news, 2008, 22nd July)
4. Radiation disturbs our learning and damages our brain function."Scientists have discovered that a call lasting just two minutes on a cell phone can alter the natural electrical activity of a child's brain for up to an hour afterwards.And they also found for the first time how radio waves from mobile phones penetrate deep into the brain and not just around the ear. The study by Spanish scientists has prompted leading medical experts to question whether it is safe for children to use mobile phones at all.Doctors fear that disturbed brain activity in children could lead to psychiatric and behavioural problems or impair learning ability.It was the first time that human guinea pigs were used to measure the effects of mobile phone radiation on children. The tests were carried out on an 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl called Jennifer."(*The child scrambler–What a mobile can do to a youngster’s brain in 2 minutes”, UK Sunday Mirror, April 1, 2004.)You may wonder what this has to do with WiFi - well, WiFi is THREE TIMES stronger than cell phone radiation
5. People getting sick from WiFi radiation today have exactly the same things wrong with their body as the radar operators during World War 2 - when they were using the same microwave radiation to find out where the enemy planes were. CLIP
How To Protect Yourself from Wireless radiation - Quite comprehensive! http://www.radiationeducation.com/How_To_Protect_Yourself.html
Kids brain cancers in Australia have already gone up 21 percent in just 10 years. Other studies show there's 40 percent more brain tumors in Europe and the U.K., in the last 20 years. Brain cancer is now higher than leukemia as the number one cancer killer in children … what else are we waiting for to take action?There are two ways you can protect yourself or at least help your body to fix the damage. These are things you can do to make your cells and immune system strong and things you can do to have less radiation in your life. Make Your Immune System Stronger: CLIP
Hydro-Quebec To Integrate 600 Smart Meter Collectors (20 June 2011) http://www.renewgridmag.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.6928
Hydro-Quebec has plans to connect its central system with up to 600 smart meter collectors, which will aggregate data relayed from the utility's 3.8 million smart meters. Rogers Communications, which announced the news, has been awarded a six-year contract to provide machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless connectivity across the province of Quebec. As part of the project, Rogers will team up with Xplornet Communications Inc. to ensure satellite connectivity in remote parts of Quebec. The company will begin deployment, on a trial basis, of the M2M wireless connection of Hydro Quebec's smart meter collectors this month. -- Found through http://www.renewgridmag.com - NOTE from Jean: This is a very bad news since GSM is considrably wortst than the other main communication standard: CDMA - See CDMA-based cell phones may be safer than GSM phones, and W-CDMA may be safer than UMTS And read what Joel Moskowitz (jmm@berkeley.edu) wrote on 2011-06-09 : "CDMA may be safer than GSM (2G); W-CDMA may be safer than UMTS (3G); 4G who knows; 3 new Interphone papers released - In early May, I distributed a news release that made the following points:
* The Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) can be misleading as it measures the maximum radiation a cell phone emits and does not reflect the average amount of radiation it emits which may be as important if not more so.
* Your cell phone carrier matters more than your cell phone model in terms of your average exposure to cell phone radiation for voice communication. CDMA phones (e.g., Verizon, Sprint) emit less radiation on average than GSM phones (e.g., AT&T, T-Mobile). A published study found that GSM phones emitted 28 times more radiation on average than the CDMA phones.
* The pulsing of the GSM signal may increase its biologic reactivity; and the toxicology research suggests that CDMA is less biologically reactive compared to GSM.
Although few journalists requested my supporting evidence, the story has been circulating on the Internet and was covered on CBS TV thanks to Renee Sharp of the Environmental Working Group (see below). More recently, the media have picked up a related story -- "3G may be safer than 2G." Currently, in the U.S. we are using 2G (i.e., CDMA and GSM) for voice communication and 3G (i.e., W-CDMA and UMTS) or 4G (LTE) for data transmission. We have a choice with regard to which 2G technology we use; whereas in most other nations, GSM is the only 2G technology available. Because of this new story that 3G is safer than 2G, I searched the PubMed database today for 3G studies (n = 28) to complement my previous search on 2G health effect studies. However, here too, there appears to be a difference in the toxicity of the two 3G standards: W-CDMA may be safer than UMTS. None of nine W-CDMA studies reported toxic effects whereas 5 of 19 GSM studies reported toxic effects. I did not find any studies that investigated 4G health effects. So I would not argue that 3G is safer than 2G. Rather, CDMA and W-CDMA may be safer than GSM and UMTS. Let me know if you would like to see the PubMed searches."
Face to Face with Smart Meters (31 mai 2011 - 58 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gR8tILAxhjI
Starting as soon as this summer the BC government is going to put a powerful wireless transmitter ON YOUR HOUSE. At a cost of One Billion Dollars. For no good reason. We talk to Walt McGinnis about the dangers of all wireless technology -- including the ability of Hydro and other hackers to invade your privacy by reading your meter output -- which will be linked to ALL of your electrical devices -- and data mining your usage habits. This will allow Hydro to bill you based on peak or low times and it will allow marketers to target you based on your data. They also discuss the intentional dismantling of BC Hydro, the lack of public consultation and education and, most important, the health impact of EMR on living organisms. "Smart Meters are set up to send out a Powerful Burst of micro-pulses of info every 3 minutes adding up to several minutes on average a day in Total per meter pumping out a Micro-Wave signal inside and outside 24h/7 days a week. In the City... affecting your whole living environment considering that your neighbours meters on both sides of your home is also emitting similar bursts of Microwave pulses... similar to Cell phones" - More on this through B.C. Hydro ‘Smart’ Meter Program a Billion-Dollar Risk to Public Health - Smart Meters are Stupid Rally, June 22nd 2011 - Check their detailed flyer for this rally
Transmitting Smart Meters Pose A Serious Threat To Public Health http://www.electricalpollution.com/smartmeters.html
(...) The objectives of the Smart Grid Program can be accomplished without transmitting meters and without using other technology such as high frequency communication over power lines, which are also harmful to human health. It simply requires that meters be selected that are properly engineered to meet the needs of the program without using dangerous technology. Multi-rate billing and other sophisticated metering options do not require that the meter transmit. Models are available that download periodically on phone lines, dedicated communication lines, or are read by a reader the meter reader carries. Dedicated communication cables can be used to shut off or allow on certain power consuming electronics such as air conditioners. It is essential that only meters that do not transmit or put high frequency signals on building wiring are approved for the Smart Grid Program. The un-safeness of the "safety" standards for the continuously transmitting smart meters is apparent from the reports of health problems ranging from headaches to poor sleep to heart palpitations that begin after their installation. Transmitted microwave and radiofrequency radiation also have the potential for causing serious long-term health consequences, even for those who do not notice overt symptoms. The majority of independent studies report similar results: impairment of cellular communication, DNA breakages, increased stress proteins, etc. Studies targeting cellphone and cordless phone usage are finding increased risk of brain tumors. Children seem to be particularly vulnerable. CLIP - Article très complet à lire!
Recent Health Problems? http://www.electricalpollution.com/documents/Anotherbaddaypostlarge.pdf
Another bad day at work, I can’t wait to get home where I know I’m in a safer environment. When they had that new meter installed at work, my days became long and painful. I’m glad they haven’t installed that transmitting utility (AMR) meter at my house. Oh man, I spoke too soon about their not installing that AMR/ smart meter at my house. This is killing me! Now even my house is unsafe for me. I keep getting headaches and can’t sleep, but I guess I’m doing better than some of my friends. One has heart palpitations, another gets bad skin rashes. Others are getting new allergies, asthma, and neurological problems. I want my old utility meter and my health back. These transmitting smart meters are a DUMB idea! Go to http://www.electricalpollution.com for more information
What's So Smart About 'Smart Meters'? (June 17, 2011) http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/20/whats-so-smart-about-smart-meters/
(...) From what I had been hearing, these smart meters emitted microwave radiation and were adversely affecting the health of people and pets . There have been reports from California to Maine of these "smart meters" causing "electro-sensitivity" in people, leading to everything from headaches to ringing in the ears. And yet the utilities seem to want to dismiss people's concerns as "kookiness." After my encounter with the UPA "smart meter" man, I called UPA, which I came to find out stands for "Utility Partners of America." Based in South Carolina, I rang them up and spoke to a skeptical woman who took my name and number. She said she would have someone talk to me about smart meter safety and why Oklahoma City neighborhoods were having these dangerous devices installed on the sides of homes without the resident's consent. (...) Interestingly, while researching smart meter technology online, I came across an article in Renew Grid magazine (http://www.renewgridmag.com) from Feb. 2011. It is that month's cover story and it is headlined, "Can utilities address consumers' agitation?" The story actually addressed the issue that "(t)he industry has realized that dismissing resistance to smart meters as kooky behavior might not be the best course of action." The story notes that a recent survey showed that consumers are very skeptical of smart meters and it noted that "only 26 percent believed that smart grid technology would bring them cost savings." The story said utilities are having a hard time explaining the benefits of smart meters and smart grid technology. It notes how activists are concerned about the technology and what it does and how it could be manipulated. Surprisingly, Mike Cale, UPA's CEO, is quoted in the story, saying that "stress-free smart meter introductions are those in which customers are kept in the loop." Said Cale: "The most successful deployments are with the utilities that are out in front of the issues. They let the customer know what's going on. Customers are used to thinking of electricity in terms of the physical - either it is on, or it is off - and if we simplify our messages in term the customers understand, the fear factor goes away."The fear factor, eh, Mr. Cale? I would say people's apprehensions are that they are being forced to accept something they don't like or trust. No amount of corporate-speak from slick guys in air-conditioned offices is going to change people's minds. What about choice? What about being able to opt-out?
Male Infertility Linked to Cell Phone EMF Exposure (2 June 2011) http://www.holisticprimarycare.net/topics/topics-h-n/mens-health/1139-male-infertility-linked-to-cell-phone-emf-exposure-
Approximately 35% of women and 45% of men worldwide are sub-fertile. About 7% of women and men are effectively infertile [1,2]. Though most men believe infertility is due to “female issues,” the truth is that male infertility plays a role in about 50% of cases of failing to conceive after one year.Sperm counts in men worldwide have declined by half over the past 50 years and are continuing to fall, according to a number of studies. A 2011 Finnish study of the sperm counts of 858 young men in three birth-year cohorts from the 1970s to the 1980s concluded: “These simultaneous and rapidly occurring adverse trends suggest that the underlying causes are environmental and, as such, preventable.” The decrease could be due to environmental chemicals affecting early testicular development and/or to increased electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure from cell phones. It is well established that lifestyle factors including smoking and drinking, drugs (medicinal and recreational), hormone-affecting chemicals in our food and environment, and increasing testicular temperature can adversely affect sperm count. There is growing evidence that EMFs from cell phones can impair male fertility. If the observed association between cell phone EMF exposure and reduced sperm counts proves to be causal, then the dramatic increase in mobile phone use—especially by young people--over the last two decades could be a serious concern. RF Damages Spermatozoa - Since the 1940s, researchers have recognized that high-level occupational exposure to radio-frequency (RF) radiation significantly decreases male fertility. More recently, a number of studies have shown that much lower levels of RF radiation, such as that emitted by a cell phone, can also affect sperm quantity and quality. There are also links between RF exposure and effects on female reproductive organs. It is possible that fetuses in utero are susceptible to RF exposure, as well [4]. A very important paper on the effects of cell phone radiation on human sperm in vitro was published by Geoffry De Iuliis and colleagues in 2009 [5]. They found that RF exposure enhances mitochondrial reactive oxygen species around spermatozoa, decreasing both their motility and vitality, while increasing DNA fragmentation. These in vitro findings have clear implications for the safety of long term mobile phone use by males of reproductive age, potentially affecting both their fertility and the health and wellbeing of their offspring. CLIP - CHECK ALSO EMF Hygiene: How to Minimize Health Risks From Wireless Devices
Wake-up call for Scandinavia and the whole world http://www.buergerwelle.de:8080/helma/twoday/bwnews/stories/2857/
We have a new petition against 'smart' meters. If you don't already know about them, you will soon, no matter where you are on earth. They are like mini cell towers, only attached right on your home and can be involuntary in many places around the world. This lethal roll out in the face of the recent IARC class 2 b classification of electromagnetic fields as a possible human carcinogen is a disgrace, shameful and UNACCEPTABLE. You can sign this petition no matter what state or country you are in. If you live in another country, I can send you the signatures from your country after a month or so. Just ask me to do so. http://www.thepeoplesinitiative.org/
WIRELESS “SMART” METERS ARE DANGEROUS RADIATION-EMITTING DEVICES that are being forced on the public by the utility companies. Along with immediate opt outs for people who currently have “smart” or wireless meters on their homes/businesses, we call for the immediate halt to the nationwide rollout and abandonment of this dangerous technology.
The WHO/IARC (World Health Organization, International Agency For Research On Cancer) ruled electromagnetic fields from non-ionizing radiation emitting devices, a Class 2 B CARCINOGEN, which means may cause cancer in humans, joining a list including but not limited to: lead, dioxin, chloroform, ethylbenzene and HIV.
Paid for by our tax dollars and an increase in utility rates, “smart” meters (otherwise known as Advanced Digital Electronic Meters and other various new names industry now tries to disguise them under) are being forced on the public by the utility companies with no temporary opt outs available until we can get this dangerous technology banned. For public health and safety, we need to retain and restore our analog meters, which have been proven totally safe, reliable.
No consumers have been informed in writing, prior to installation, of the serious possible health consequences of these meters before installation. Children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with compromised immune system and medical implants are most vulnerable, although all populations can suffer deleterious health effects
Upon installation, people report sleep problems, headaches, ringing in the ears, heart problems, dizziness, nausea, cognitive problems, and other physical ailments.
The following health effects have been documented in studies of non-ionizing radiation, utilized by smart meters: DNA breaks, cancer, endocrine disruption, birth defects, sterility, heart arrhythmia, learning impairment, ADD/ADHD, headache, fatigue and sleep disturbance.
Dozens of towns, cities, counties and states have opposed wireless “smart” meter installation for a variety of reasons, including health and safety, skyrocketing electric bills, electrical fires, problems with privacy/hacking/security and electronic interference with other wireless equipment and medical devices.
The “smart” meters operate in mesh networks, transmitting radiation in millisecond pulses many times a minute throughout the day and night. It is continuous exposure 24/7 and the public is not being informed of this.
Other serious issues with wireless meters include fire hazard, invasion of privacy, and hacking! Every customer’s personal usage will be known, harvested and marketed. Ultimate success of the grid is dependent upon full compliance by the consumers in purchasing all new appliances that will have wireless RFID chips in them to interface from within your own home to the smart meter. We must insist our appliances do not have wireless radiation emitting devices in them and purchase only older equipment from now on until manufacturers, corporations and our government respect people’s rights to have a safe, radiation free environment with our privacy fully intact.
As an "opt-out" some utilities have proposed a “powered-down” “smart” meter. This is not an opt-out, since there is still a wireless smart meter on your home and will have virtually the same harmful effects. We want safe, analog, meters, not “powered down” wireless meters.
If too many people opt out, the utilities companies have vowed to put a repeater in your neighborhood (it could even be on a utility pole right outside your window) which boosts the signal and emits even more intense radio frequency radiation! REPEATERS in our neighborhoods are also unacceptable!
The utilities companies are proposing to charge people hundreds of dollars per year to opt out. This is tantamount to extortion. We should not have to pay one penny to keep cancer and other serious health effects out of our lives and carcinogenic smart meters, repeaters or signal boosters out of our neighborhoods!
We call for the immediate halt to the nationwide rollout or “smart” or wireless meters immediate ability for the public to switch already installed, carcinogenic, wireless radiation-emitting meters with analog meters and the abandonment of this dangerous technology.
Wifi and Schools, Smart Meters and You http://www.thepeoplesinitiative.org/Wifi_and_Schools.html
The roll out of new wireless technology and application is outpacing the ability to keep up and try and protect ourselves. With federal support through both finances and legislation, the wireless industry does have an obvious edge. It is only through awareness of the facts about the heath effects and people's willingness to take actions to protect themselves will we have a chance to survive this new and "improved" onslaught of profit before people. Thank goodness there are many of us who are becoming informed...because it does take an army!! Please click on these excellent websites that specializes in smart meters and what we can do about them... CLIP
EMF-Omega-News 18. June 2011 http://www.buergerwelle.de/cms/content/view/602/95/
Cell phones cause more than just cancer scare - Collapse of DNA in ac Electric Fields - Using a cell phone lowers sperm count - Male Infertility Linked to Cell Phone EMF Exposure - Game changing developments in WiFi and mobile phones - 'Bad EMF science' critic owns computer company Matrox - Calculated omissions by cell phone industry citing pickles in IARC Group 2B - International Experts' Perspective on the Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields and Electromagnetic Radiation - Dr Olle Johansson: 'My work will be severely hampered' - European Environment Agency Highlight Mobile Phone Cancer Risks - Commission proposes to revamp rules to protect EU workers from harmful electromagnetic fields - A Higher Cancer Classification? - Keep an eye on mobile phones they could bring down the global economy - Have You Been Zapped? - Cellphones and medical hazards - Confuse me to help me understand - Mobile Telephony, Wi-Fi and Wimax: are there health risks? - An earful of good advice - We don't feel phone mast is safe - Cell tower raises radiation fears - Town officials still aim to trim size of proposed tower - Power to the people - Eugene Residents Employ Law Firm to Oppose 75-ft Cell Tower in Neighborhood - How Drug Companies Corrupt Medical Journals - Next-up News - News from Mast Sanity
EMF-Omega-News 25. June 2011 http://www.buergerwelle.de/cms/content/view/604/95/
Carcinogenicity of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields - Danger in the air? - Is your phone killing you? - The Harmful Effects of Cell Towers and Cell Phones - Brain tumours may be linked to mobile phone use - Cell phones can reduce fertility by 30 per cent: Survey - Scientists speak up about dangerous radiation - Wake-up call for Scandinavia and the whole world - Does life online give you 'popcorn brain'? - I Blame Phones For Tumour - Health and mobile masts what does the law say? - Cellphone Waves May Bring A Litigation Wave - Top Doctors Urge Companies to Come Clean on Dangers Posed by Cell Phone Radiation - Parent Suing Portland, Oregon Public School System in District Court - Letter to the federal regulatory agencies - Manifesto against Electromagnetic Pollution - How to Protect Health and Environment from Electromagnetic Radiation - 20 Reasons 'Smart' Meters are NOT Smart - Smart meter killed our bees - Stop Smart Meters! Director Arrested in Capitola Today - Campaigners win phone mast fight - Phone mast health report - Mobile mast thrown out - Memorial field mast thrown out by council - Outcry over phone mast at tennis club
1.
THIS IS A MUST READ! IT SHEDS SOME MORE LIGHT ON THOSE WE ARE ALL UP AGAINST. PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS WIDELY!
Forwarded by Lance White (zanymystic@wildblue.net) on June 19 2011
Startling revelations from a Swiss banking insider
(interview with a Swiss banker done in Moscow 30.05.2011)
Peter Odintsov -- Moscow May 30th, 2011
Q: Can you tell us something about your involvement in the Swiss banking business?
A: I have worked for Swiss banks for many years. I was designated as one of the top directors of one of the biggest Swiss banks. During my work I was involved in the payment, in the direct payment in cash to a person who killed the president of a foreign country. I was in the meeting where it was decided to give this cash money to the killer. This gave me dramatic headaches and troubled my conscience. It was not the only case that was really bad but it was the worst.
It was a payment instruction on order of a foreign secret service written by hand giving the order to pay a certain amount to a person who killed the top leader of a foreign country. And it was not the only case. We received several such hand written letters coming from foreign secret services giving the order to payout cash from secret accounts to fund revolutions or for the killing of people. I can confirm what John Perkins has written in his book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. There really exists just a system and Swiss banks are involved in such cases.
Q: Perkins book is also translated and available in Russian. Can you tell us which bank it is and who was responsible?
A: It was one of the top three Swiss banks at that time and it was the president of a country in the third world. But I don’t want to give out to many details because they will find me very easily if I say the name of the president and the name of the bank. I will risk my life.
Q: You can’t name any person in the bank either?
A: No I can’t, but I can assure you this happened. We were several persons in the meeting room. The person in charge of the physical payment of the cash came to us and asked us if he is allowed to payout such a big amount in cash to that person and one of the directors explained the case and all others said ok you can do it.
Q: Did this happened often? Was this kind of a slush fund?
A: Yes. This was a special fund managed in a special place in the bank were all the coded letters came in from abroad. The most important letters were hand written. We had to decipher them and in them was the order to pay a certain amount of cash from accounts for the assassination of people, funding revolutions, funding strikes, funding all sorts of parties. I know that certain people who are Bilderbergers were involved in such orders. I mean they gave the orders to kill.
Q: Can you tell us in what year or decade this happened?
A: I prefer not to give you the precise year but it was in the 80’s.
Q: Did you have a problem with this work?
A: Yes, a very big problem. I could not sleep for many days and after a while I left the bank. If I give you too many details they will trace me. Several secret services from abroad, mostly English speaking, gave orders to fund illegal acts, even the killing of people thru Swiss banks. We had to pay on the instructions of foreign powers for the killing of persons who did not follow the orders of Bilderberg or the IMF or the World Bank for example.
Q: This is a very startling revelation that you are making. Why do you feel the urge to say this now?
A: Because Bilderberg is meeting in Switzerland. Because the world situation is getting worse and worse. And because the biggest banks in Switzerland are involved in unethical activities. Most of these operations are outside the balance sheet. It is a multiple of what is officially declared. Its not audited and happening without any taxes. The figures involved have a lot of zeros. Its huge amounts.
Q: So its billions?
A: Its much more, its trillions, completely unaudited, illegal and besides the tax system. Basically it’s a robbery of everybody. I mean most normal people are paying taxes and abiding by the laws. What is happening here is complete against our Swiss values, like neutrality, honesty and good faith. In the meetings I was involved in, the discussions where completely against our democratic principles. You see, most of the directors of Swiss banks are not locals anymore, they are foreigners, mostly Anglo-Saxon, either American or British, they don’t respect our neutrality, they don’t respect our values, they are against our direct democracy, they just use the Swiss banks for their illegal means.
They use huge amounts of money created out of nothing and they destroy our society and destroy the people world wide just for greed. They seek power and destroy whole countries, like Greece, Spain, Portugal or Ireland and Switzerland will be one of the last in line. And they use China as working slaves. And a person like Josef Ackermann, who is a Swiss citizen, is the top man at a German bank and he uses his power for greed and does not respect the common people. He has quite a few legal cases in Germany and also now in the States. He is a Bilderberger and does not care about Switzerland or any other country.
Q: Are you saying, some of these people that you mention will be at the up-coming Bilderberg meeting in June in St. Moritz?
A: Yes.
Q: So they are currently in a position of power?
A: Yes. They have huge amounts of money available and use it to destroy whole countries. They destroy our industry and build it up in China. On the other hand they opened up the gates in Europe for all Chinese products. The working population of Europe is earning less and less. The real aim is to destroy Europe.
Q: Do you think that the Bilderberg meeting in St. Moritz has symbolic value? Because in 2009 they where in Greece, 2010 in Spain and look what happened to them. Does this mean Switzerland can expect something bad?
A: Yes. Switzerland is one of the most important countries for them, because there is so much capital here. They are meeting there because apart from other things they want to destroy all values that Switzerland stands for. You see it’s an obstacle for them, not being in the EU or Euro, not totally controlled by Brussels and so on. Regarding values I am not talking about the big Swiss banks, because they are not Swiss anymore, most of them are lead by Americans. I am talking about the real Swiss spirit that the common people cherish and hold up.
Sure it has symbolic value, as you said, regarding Greece and Spain. Their aim is to be a kind of exclusive elite club that has all the power and everybody else is impoverished and down.
Q: Do you think that the aim of Bilderberg is to create a kind of global dictatorship, controlled by the big global corporations, were there are no sovereign states anymore?
A: Yes and Switzerland is the only place left with direct democracy and its in their way. They use the blackmail of “too big to fail” as in the case of UBS to put our country in big debt, just like they did with many other countries. In the end maybe they want to do with Switzerland what they did with Iceland, with all the banks and the country bankrupt.
Q: And also bring it in to the EU?
A: Of course. The EU is under the iron grip of Bilderberg.
Q: What do you think could stop this plan?
A: Well that’s the reason I speak to you. Its truth. Truth is the only way. Put a light on this situation, expose them. They don’t like to be in the spotlight. We have to create transparency in the banking industry and in all levels of society.
Q: What you are saying is, there is a correct side to the Swiss banking business and there are a few big banks that are misusing the financial system for their illegal activities.
A: Yes. The big banks are training their staff with Anglo-Saxon values. They are training them to be greedy and ruthless. And greed is destroying Switzerland and everybody else. As a country we have a majority of the most correct operating banks in the world, if you look at the small and midsize banks. Its just the big ones who operate globally that are a problem. They are not Swiss anymore and don’t consider themselves as such.
Q: Do you think it is a good thing that people are exposing Bilderberg and showing who they really are?
A: I think the Strauss-Kahn case is a good chance for us, because it shows these people are corrupt, sick in their minds, so sick they are full of vices and those vices are kept under wraps on their orders. Some of them like Strauss-Kahn rape women, others are sado maso, or paedophile and many are into Satanism. When you go in some banks you see these satanistic symbols, like in the Rothschild Bank in Zurich. These people are controlled by black-mail because of the weaknesses they have. They have to follow orders or they will be exposed, they will be destroyed or even killed. The reputation of Strauss-Kahn is not only killed in the mass media, he could be killed also literally.
Q: Since Ackermann is in the steering committee of Bilderberg, do you think he is a big decision maker there?
A: Yes. But there are many others, like Lagarde, wo will probably be the next IMF head, also a member of Bilderberg, then Sarkozy and Obama. They have a new plan to censor the internet, because the internet is still free. They want to control it and use terrorism or what ever as a reason. They could even plan something horrible so that they have an excuse.
Q: So that is your fear?
A: Its not only a fear, I am certain of it. As I said, they gave orders to kill, so they are capable of terrible things. If they have the feeling they are losing control, like the uprising now in Greece and Spain and maybe Italy will be next, then they can do another Gladio. I was close to the Gladio network. As you know they instigated terrorism paid by American money to control the political system in Italy and other European countries. Regarding the murder of Aldo Moro, the payment was done thru the same system as I told you about.
Q: Was Ackermann part of this payment system at a Swiss bank?
A: (S m i l e) … you are the journalist. Look at his career and how fast he made it to the top.
Q: What do you think can be done to hinder them?
A: Well there are many good books out there that explain the background and connect the dots, like the one I mentioned by Perkins. These people really have hit men that get paid to kill. Some of them get their money thru Swiss banks. But not only, they have a system set up all over the world. And to expose to the public these people that are prepared to do anything to keep control. And I mean anything.
Q: Thru exposure we could stop them?
A: Yes, telling the truth. We are confronted with really ruthless criminals, also big war criminals. Its worse then genocide. They are ready and able to kill millions of people just to stay in power and in control.
Q: Can you explain from your view, why the mass media in the west is more or less completely silent regarding Bilderberg?
A: Because there is an agreement between them and the owners of the media. You don’t talk about it. They buy them. Also some of the top media figures are invited to the meetings but are told not to report anything they see and hear.
Q: In the structure of Bilderberg, is there an inner circle that knows the plans and then there is the majority who just follow orders?
A: Yes. You have the inner circle who are into Satanism and then there are the naive or less informed people. Some people even think they are doing something good, the outer circle.
Q: According to exposed documents and own statements, Bilderberg decided back in 1955 to create the EU and the Euro, so they made important and far reaching decisions.
A: Yes and you know that Bilderberg was founded by Prince Bernard, a former member of the SS and Nazi party and he also worked for IG Farben, who’s subsidiary produced Cyclone B. The other guy was the head of Occidental Petroleum who had close relations to the communists in the Sowjetunion. They worked both sides but really these people are fascists who want to control everything and everybody and who gets in their way is removed.
Q: Is the payment system you explained outside of normal operations, compartmentalized and in secret?
A: In those Swiss banks the normal employees don’t know this is happening. Its like an own secret department in the bank. As I said these operations are outside of the balance sheet, with no supervision. Some are situated in the same building, others are outside. They have their own security and special area where only authorized people can enter.
Q: How do they keep these transactions out of the international Swift system?
A: Well some of the Clearstream listings where true in the beginning. They just included fake names to make people believe the whole list is fake. You see they also make mistakes. The first list was true and you can trace a lot of things. You see, there are people around that discover irregularities and the truth and they tell it. Afterwards of course there are law suits and these people are forced to shut up.
The best way to stop them is to tell the truth, put the spot light on them. If we don’t stop them we will end up as their slaves.
Bilderberg 2011: The Rockefeller World Order and the "High Priests of Globalization" by Andrew Gavin Marshall (JUNE 18, 2011) Detailed history of the Bilderberg Group http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/bilderberg-2011-the-rockefeller-world-order-and-the-high-priests-of-globalization/
(...) Happy 96th birthday, Mr. David Rockefeller! But I am sorry to say (or perhaps not so sorry) that while the mainstream media have "respected their promises of discretion," the new media - the alternative media - have not. As you said yourself, "It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years," it seems that the "lights of publicity" are now descending upon your "plan for the world," making it all the more difficult to come to pass. Indeed, "the world is more sophisticated," but not because the world is 'ready' for your plan, but because the world is getting ready to reject it. While national sovereignty certainly has problems and is hardly something I would consider 'ideal', the "supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers" is about the worst scenario one could imagine. So as a birthday present to you, Mr. Rockefeller, I promise (and I am sure that I am speaking for a great many more than simply myself) that I will continue to expose your "plans for the world," so that your dream - and our nightmare - will never become a reality. The light will shine, and in due time, the people will be ready to follow its path.
2.
FROM BAD TO WORST TO TOTAL HELL, THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE CONTINUES TO BECOME SCARIER WITH EVERY NEW REVELATION ON THE HEALTH HORRORS IT UNLEASHED... AND KEEPS SPEWING.
If you don't feel that much disturbed after reading this article by Mark Sircus below, then read his other article: Volcanic Eruptions - "So far in 2011, we have seen a record number of tornadoes, unprecedented flooding, rampant earthquakes uncountable in number, disturbing volcanic eruptions and a tsunami in Japan that none of us will ever forget. So why are there so many natural disasters in 2011? Our top scientists seem to be at a complete loss to explain what is happening. It just seems like there is one disaster or emergency after another. Many Americans are getting “disaster fatigue.” There has never been a time in recent history when we have seen so many natural disasters compressed into such a short period of time. So exactly what is going on here? Is something causing all of this or is this all one big coincidence?"
Then check also Fighting Radiation Damage the Natural Way with Medical Marijuana - “If used properly, high quality hemp oil can provide a solution that will be of help to mankind in alleviating the effects of increasing radiation. Through my experience with the use of this oil, I have found that there is nothing more effective or more harmless that can reduce the damage caused by radiation.“I have seen patients suffering from cancer who were badly damaged by the effects of radiation treatments and who were able to completely eliminate the damage in a short time. Some who have come to me that had radiation treatments were burned so badly by its effects that their skin looked like red leather. After ingesting the oil treatment their skin went back to its normal healthy state and the radiation burns disappeared completely. If the oil can do this for someone that was badly damaged by such so-called medical treatments, would its use not be effective to combat the effects of the radiation now emanating from Japan? Now with the menace that all this escaping radiation presents, we would have to be insane to turn our backs on the use of hemp extracts to help us all deal with this situation.” SO IT IS PERHAPS NOT THAT BAD AFTER ALL... :-D
Here in the above video we are looking at nuclear hell on earth, a night film of the radioactive steam that continues to rise from Fukushima 24 hours a day. Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear power industry executive, is one of the experts who has been saying from day one that the nuclear crisis in Japan was much worse than they were telling us.
He was absolutely correct. Finally, three months later we are getting some numbers on what the real dangers are. And finally we can begin to understand the enormous cover-up of the nuclear doom that is reaching lungs all over the west coast of America, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and at least half of Japan! For infants it’s a terrible valley of death we have created for them. As we shall see for years all of them have been born with already polluted bloodstreams and now the very young ones are dying in greater numbers on the west coast of the United States since Fukushima blew up.
After the first week, officials had enough information to call for evacuation of a wide area in Japan and also Hawaii, Alaska and the entire west coast of North America. They really should have evacuated all of northern Japan and also the west coast but that was almost as impossible as evacuating the entire planet or the entire northern hemisphere.
Evacuation of planet earth might be the best way for humanity to avoid the terrible nuclear, heavy metal and chemical toxicity we are now facing all at the same time. Avoiding exposure is always the best plan but there is no way to avoid breathing in air contaminated with tiny hot particles. Inhalation issues are much more frightening than ingestion issues because you can pick and choose what you eat and drink but you can't buy bottled air.
Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome is about how to survive in nuclear and chemical hell. But one cannot do what is necessary to survive hell if a person doesn’t know they are living in one. It just keeps getting worse by the day and now we have Fort Calhoun nuclear plant outside Omaha, Nebraska on emergency alert as first fire and now flooding threatens to overwhelm yet another nuclear facility. With Mother Nature now angry (in a most bitter sense) we are really in more serious trouble than any of us would be comfortable imagining. We knew nuke power plants were bad news but who would think they would build them on fault lines or in flood zones?
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WATCH Arnie Gundersen - Nebraska Nuclear Plant: Emergency Level 4 & Getting Worse - June 14, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvvmrB7qEg
Fort Calhoun near Omaha, Nebraska - On June 6, 2011, the Fort Calhoun pressurized water nuclear reactor 20 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska entered emergency status due to imminent flooding from the Missouri River. A day later, there was an electrical fire requiring plant evacuation. Then, on June 8th, NRC event reports confirmed the fire resulted in the loss of cooling for the reactor's spent fuel pool. The discussion includes specific details of the technical failures at Fort Calhoun, the risks of coolant loss at overcrowded "spent" fuel pools, and the national hazards of nuclear facilities along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and other water sites during the current period of floods and climate change. Part 2 HERE - Part 3 HERE
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On CNN Arnie was asked, “So should people on the west coast be worried? Gundersen side-stepped just a bit saying, “Well, the average person breathes in about 10 cubic meters a day, and the filters out there for April show that they were breathing in, per day, about five particles. Now these are charged, which is why we call them ‘fuel fleas’ since they latch onto lung tissue. We’re at a point now where you just can’t run from the particles that are still in the air. We call them ‘fuel fleas’ also because they’re incredibly small, smaller than the thickness of your hair.”
That’s Mr. Gundersen’s way of saying, yes, there are definite risks tied to these “hot particles.” But that really does not answer the question. I am afraid I will have to be brutally honest and be the bearer of really terrible news. The information coming out about hot particle concentrations near Fukushima, Tokyo, and now Seattle tell us that not only should all those populations be worrying but their governments should have been issuing evacuation orders months ago.
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WATCH CNN's John King interviews Arnie Gundersen about the Hot Particles discovered in Japan and the US. http://vimeo.com/24803980
CNN's John King and Arnie Gundersen discuss "hot particles" detected in Seattle and Japan, the cozy relationship between Japanese regulator NISA (Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency) and plant owner TEPCO, and changes at the Fukushima accident site since March. John King and Arnie Gundersen also discuss how TEPCO's acknowledgement today of another error in calculating radiation dose more than doubles the amount of radioactivity to which people in the Northern Hemisphere have been exposed.
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They did not of course except in a too-tight circle around Fukushima, which is getting 40 times more than in Tokyo or Seattle. Because of the jet stream in April, after the large explosions that destroyed three reactor buildings, it was as dangerous in Seattle and much of the west coast of North America as in Tokyo.
It only takes one of these particles to trigger a cancer.
A new report from independent scientists in Japan found a much greater release of “hot particles” from the Fukushima power plant than originally estimated. These include radioactive isotopes of cesium, strontium, uranium, plutonium, cobalt-60 and many others. The average person in Tokyo is thought to have inhaled 10 “hot particles” per day throughout the month of April 2011. The inhabitants of Fukushima were estimated to have inhaled 30-40 times more than that—or up to 400 hot particles per day every day that month. In Seattle, WA in the Northwestern U.S., it is estimated that the average person absorbed five “hot particles” per day during the month of April 2011, or 10 “hot particles” per day if they are athletes who are working out. These invisible atomic particles become lodged in your lungs, intestines, bone or muscle.
Professor Christopher Busby, scientific secretary of the European Committee on radiation risks, says that fuel rods at Fukushima got blown sky high, that concentrations of uranium and plutonium particles had been detected in air filters in Hawaii and the Marianas Islands by the end of April. So people knew about this but they were not talking.
Gundersen says, “Well, the radiation initially comes out as a big cloud of gases, and that’s what you can measure with a Geiger counter. But now what we’re finding are these things called ‘hot particles,’ and in the industry it’s interesting because in Seattle it didn’t go down much. It was about five particles a day, because most of the time, as we talked about in April, the wind was blowing toward the west coast.”
A hot particle is defined as an alpha-emitting particle that contains sufficient activity to deliver at least 1000 rem/yr to the surrounding lung tissue.
Severe damage and disruption of tissue in the lungs are associated with exposure to these types of nuclear particles. The most relevant lung experiment is Bair’s Pu 23902 inhalation study with beagles. Twenty of the 21 dogs that survived more than 1600 days post exposure had lung cancer.
The government recommends that the maximum permissible lung particle burden for members of the public be 0.2 hot particles, and the average lung burden for members of the public be 0.07 hot particles, a factor of 3 less than the maximum.
Let’s say that the official numbers were five “hot particles” per day (10 if one is physically active outdoors) for everyone on the west coast for the month of April. Now let us be very conservative and say that this has dropped from the initially high post-explosion levels at Fukushima down now to one a day. At one a day that would still be 30 of these death particles a month. So perhaps the average person has already absorbed in these three months approximately 200 radioactive particles into their lungs and other tissues. When you think that if even one of these 200 is plutonium, we have to think in terms of millions of eventual cancer deaths!
All of these hot particles will burn the local tissues. They will compromise health in a myriad of ways. But doctors will stand by not having a clue what to tell their patients to do except receive more radiation diagnostic scans and more radiation treatments for cancer patients. The allopathic paradigm will not survive Fukushima because it is utterly ignorant about the approaches that stand a chance of helping us get through this.
Gundersen says, “That’s why we were warning you to wash your lettuce and things like that. Now what that means is that these hot particles can lodge in your lung or in your digestive tract or in your bone and, over time, cause a cancer. But they’re way too small to be picked up on a large radiation detector.” This is one of the reasons many people felt something wrong in the first weeks after the radiation started pouring out of Japan. Sensitive people will register such an invasion of hostile chemical and radioactive toxicity even though radiation detectors will not.
Gundersen understandably would have a hard time telling people how bad it really is. He is not a doctor but he knows full well what only one particle of plutonium will do to surrounding lung tissues. How does anyone tell 200 million people to get out of Dodge or tell them it’s already too late since health-damaging contamination has already taken place?
Evacuation is the only way to avoid continued exposure but hardly anyone perceives it this way. I received a letter from someone in southern California today asking if it was okay to go to Hawaii for a vacation. My real answer to her was you should abandon not only your travel plans but also your home in L.A. and move to the southern hemisphere.
“Geiger counters simply cannot measure whether or not someone has ingested a hot particle but we know they’re here because the air filters have measured these radioactive particles and they’ve been found in the topsoil, in water supplies and in the milk produced on both coasts of the U.S. This suggests that the same would be true of the meat of any livestock raised outdoors—and of the vegetables grown outdoors,” says Gundersen.
Hot Particle
A photograph of a monkey’s lung is shown, with a major depression at its center where a “hot particle” is embedded in the tissue. This is a photo of a “hot particle”, in this case a one-micron particle of plutonium, and it shows the alpha tracks emitted from that particle in one year. This particle has bombarded the surrounding tissue with radiation and damaged it quite dramatically—just one particle. Gundersen says the body will fight off an irritant such as this and it will usually win but sometimes a hot particle will cause cancer. They will all put wear and tear on infected people’s immune systems.
You really do not want even one of these hot little pieces of sun burning in your tissues.
Plutonium in Lung Tissue: The dark, star-like image in the above photograph (magnified 500 times) shows tracks from alpha particles radiating from a speck of plutonium lodged in the lung tissue of an ape. Alpha radiation from plutonium and other alpha-emitting radionuclides can be blocked by skin or even a piece of paper but it is the most biologically destructive form of ionizing radiation when the alpha-emitting substance is deposited in the soft tissue of internal organs like the lung. The alpha tracks shown above were captured over a two-day period.
These hot particles result in an intense but highly localized irradiation.
The damaged number three reactor was in its first fuel cycle using MOX nuclear fuel with plutonium. If this MOX reactor goes into full meltdown spewing plutonium dust across Japan and everywhere else, it is lights out via cancer for anyone who breathes the stuff. The half-life of various plutonium isotopes ranges from minutes to 80 million years. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,100 years meaning it takes that long to lose half of its radioactive potency—nothing compared to depleted uranium, which counts its time in billions of years. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 700 million years. And caesium, which tends to go airborne easily, has a half-life of 30 years.
The fuel rods at all six reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi complex contain plutonium. Only six percent of the fuel rods at the plant’s unit 3 were a mixture of plutonium-239 and uranium-235 when first put into operation. The fuel in other reactors is only uranium, but plutonium is created during the fission process. This means the fuel in all of the stricken reactors and spent fuel pools contain plutonium. Plutonium is super nasty stuff, especially damaging to lungs and kidneys. Inhaling or ingesting only one radioactive particle of plutonium can cause cancer.
Valley of Death
In Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome you will read about the dangers we are all facing, especially for those billions who live in the northern hemisphere. If you have not noticed, things are getting real dangerous out there and the media is going to make sure you are blindsided by events they will not inform you of until it is too late.
This is a tough book and it’s going to face you with some very frightening information. Though the main thrust is nuclear radiation, we also will look at mercury as an invisible chemical cloud that has contaminated everything. Lead too is still a problem but they don’t inject lead into babies or plant it in people’s mouths like they do with mercury, a heavy metal more toxic than lead.
Would you believe they are just now finally stopping the use of a drug (another heavy metal actually) that farmers have given to chickens for decades. Arsenic is being pulled off the market after federal scientists found a potentially carcinogenic form of arsenic in the livers of animals treated with the substance.
In many areas of the world people are already at death’s door from chemical and heavy metal pollution. Pollution has reached a zenith and has gone even higher with huge forest fires that have released huge amounts of radioactive and chemically contaminated soil into the atmosphere. Then we added mega oil disasters and now nuclear hell on earth. Is there any nice way to refer to this disaster? Look at that video again above that is a vision of what human darkness can conjure up.
We might as well have shot ourselves in the head. There is nothing for us humans to be proud of if we honestly sweep our minds across reality as it is presenting itself to us this year. For infants it’s a terrible valley of death we have created for them. As we shall see for years all of them have been born with already polluted bloodstreams and now the very young ones are dying in greater numbers since Fukushima blew up.
Hot Particles From Japan to Seattle Virtually Undetectable when Inhaled or Swallowed (JUNE 13, 2011) http://vimeo.com/25002205
Original estimates of xenon and krypton releases remain the same, but a TEPCO recalculation shows dramatic increases in the release of hot particles. This confirms the results of air filter monitoring by independent scientists. Fairewinds' Arnie Gundersen explains how hot particles may react in mammals while escaping traditional detection. Reports of a metallic taste in the mouth, such as those now being reported in Japan and on the west coast, are a telltale sign of radiation exposure.
Preface Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome (June 9th, 2011) http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/09/preface-nuclear-toxicity-syndrome/
(...) The emerging reality of the ongoing nuclear reactor crisis in Fukushima, Japan—now in its third month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami caused nuclear explosions at the plant 150 miles north of Tokyo—is that it is not under control at all. Three of the six reactors are in meltdown. The crippled reactors are acting like a huge dirty bomb, emitting significant quantities of radioactive isotopes that are, in fact, contaminating our air, water, soil and food in a steady stream that will continue for a long time to come.Arnie Gundersen says, “I am telling friends in Tokyo to keep their eyes on unit four. If there is an earthquake and unit four topples, don’t believe the authorities.You are well beyond where science has ever imagined and it is time to get on a flight and get out of there.” If unit four goes down it’s not just Tokyo; the entire northern hemisphere will be in for increasing radiation showers.
(...) He is speaking about further worst-case scenarios saying, “I certainly wouldn’t run and exercise until I was sure the plume had dissipated. This isn’t now. This is, as you were saying, this is worst case. If unit four were to topple, I would close my windows, turn the air conditioner on, replace the filters frequently, damp mop, put a HEPA filter in the house and try to avoid as much of the hot particles as possible.” Radioactivity is all over the Northern Hemisphere and each and every one is already contaminated. CLIP
The Babies and Young Children Are Dying (14 June 2011) http://blog.imva.info/medicine/babies-young-children-dying
(...) There now exists a new rule-of-thumb regarding the media: the less the media says about something the more dangerous it is. The thing that tells us we are in serious danger is the almost complete absence of anything in the papers about the dangers coming from Fukushima. The news is so bad that they cannot and will not print anything about it.But now we have very disturbing reports about a 35% spike in infant mortality in Northwest cities since the meltdown in Fukushima. Dr. Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano wrote: U.S. babies are dying at an increased rate. The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:4 weeks ending March 19, 2011: 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)10 weeks ending May 28, 2011: 125 deaths (avg. 12.50 per week)This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. In 2001 the infant mortality was 6.834 per 1000 live births, increasing to 6.845 in 2007. All years from 2002 to 2007 were higher than the 2001 rate. CLIP
No Fly Zones Appear Across U.S. At Unprecedented Pace As Events Ramp-UP (June 18, 2011) http://theintelhub.com/2011/06/18/no-fly-zones-appear-across-u-s-at-unprecedented-pace-as-events-ramp-up/
As you know I have been following the earth changes since the event that many believe place around June 6, 2011. I have documented the new norther sunrise and have received hundreds of reports from around the world. Local reports in and around the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suggest that the waters are expected to rise at least 5 more feet. Suspicious military movements have been spotted within the Continental United States, including unmarked vehicles and soldiers. Here is a video regarding the nuclear plant in Nebraska: CLIP
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The 3 following comments posted at this webpage above are really worth considering...
Natalie says: (June 17, 2011) "I do not dispute what Dr. Sircus is saying at all, but I do think there is another side to the story which also needs to be taken into consideration, which is that Gaia is Ascending to a higher plane of existence and many souls are going with her. As her energy transforms, radiation and other toxins are not as much of an issue as they would have been. Our family from other worlds and dimensions are here in force to help us through this transformation and are doing what they can now to help, and will be able to do much more once Disclosure has come about. There are many indicators that the end of 2012 will see that come about, at the latest. The important thing is to remain hopeful and awake to ALL the possibilities. From Messages From Matthew: "Although we hope that none of you is apprehensive about the recent predictions of cataclysms, we shall tell you that there will be no 1000-foot tsunami; no celestial bodies will collide with Earth; radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant will not cause population extinction; no plague will annihilate most of the world’s peoples; living underground will not be necessary; the fight for freedom in Arab countries will not ignite WWIII. Your desires that none of those will occur are added to Earth’s intention that they will not, and the energy produced in the collective consciousness assures that none of those devastating events can be manifested." Read the rest at : http://www.matthewbooks.com/mm/anmviewer.asp?a=136&z=2 - Namaste"
Charlie says: (June 17, 2011) "As one of the lab monkeys on the west coast in Southern California, I’d like to thank you for spoiling my hopes of a quick and painless end. Also, for your tireless efforts to give us, your audience such quality information. Today you got me. Is knowledge a blessing or curse? As many of us including myself, find ourselves struggling to provide for our families; escape seems more like the stuff of fantasy. That leaves me with four beautiful children being poisoned before my eyes even as I lay paralyzed, able only to watch. Pass the Koolaide! What a strange and wonderful time we live in. I believe this generation will see whether it’s the collective consciousness or a jealous God who makes the appearance. My wager is on the latter. I’ll follow your protocols, so lets hope you get it right….. “On with the show, this is it….” (Bugs Bunny Show lyrics)
Janet Cassidy says: (June 18, 2011) "I recall being told of this impending annihilation from ‘hot particles’ by my neighbour, a retired Nuclear Physicist who worked at UBC in British Columbia, Canada. He returned to his lab in April and found that EVERY GEIGER COUNTER had suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. He provided us with ponchos, duct tape, umbrellas and masks…told us to gather our families and drive far away from the West Coast. He described the ingestion of airborne hot particles and predicted a huge rise in Cancer rates with newborns already saturated through Mother’s bloodstream. He was so shaken and upset, this gracious quiet gentleman, that he was taken to hospital by ambulance after a collapse. He lamented that nobody believed him and had NO knowledge whatsoever of what the future holds… but ‘doom beyond our comprehension.’ Your article is MUCH appreciated…now to formulate a plan!"
IF YOU FEEL STRAINED AFTER READING THIS, THEN CHECK AGAIN... Japan, Radiation, and Spiritual Emergence (...) Some of my Soviet colleagues were working with the children whose lives were shortened since the fallout of Chernobyl. They built salt rooms that looked like crystal caves for the children to remain in for a specified length of time. They used medicinal herbs indigenous to their region. Yoga was a mainstay for strengthening bones, balancing the endocrine system and raising the blood count on those little beings dying of leukemia. Before Chernobyl, the Russian children had strong bones, strong bodies and thick lustrous hair. After Chernobyl, I was shocked to see the children with their wispy hair, weak limbs and alarmingly thin weak bodies. Some children would be fortunate to reach the age of 15, diagnosed with illnesses of many names but all traced to the aftermath of Chernobyl. A group of doctors and healers were having success with their groups of children. I inquired into what they were doing. They described the environmental conferences they held with their affected neighbors of the Scandinavian countries. They were concerned about contamination to the fish in their seas, to the grass-fed milk cows, to the lands, rivers and lakes. They were concerned about the air they breathed and the earth itself. They shared all of this, and then said they would tell me their secrets of offsetting the effects of radiation. I moved forward in my chair totally attentive to hear of a miraculous substance. They told me that radiation is light and has a high vibratory frequency. Through their spiritual practices of meditation, prayer, Yoga, eating less dense foods and faith and love of God, they could raise their own cellular vibration to that of radiation to offset the harmful effects. They were smiling and even joyful. “You see,” one Russian doctor bubbled with excitement, “We are using radiation as our spiritual guide. It forces us to be more fully conscious each moment of every day. If we have a negative thought it reduces the vibratory frequency of our cells and we become more susceptible. If we are angry or critical, our cells vibrate at a slower pace and we can become ill. If we become lighter, we become light and become one with the light of radiation. You see,” they beamed, “radiation is our spiritual practice.”
Radiation and Nuclear Powers Stations - Japan is dangerously contaminated by radioactivity
2011-06-18
(...)
Japan: Monju
The New York Times has a must-read report on a situation at a reactor hundreds of miles from Fukushima which hasn't turned into a catastrophe net, but could become a large-scale disaster:
Three hundred miles southwest of Fukushima, at a nuclear reactor perched on the slopes of this rustic peninsula, engineers are engaged in another precarious struggle.
The Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor - a long-troubled national project - has been in a precarious state of shutdown since a 3.3-ton device crashed into the reactor's inner vessel, cutting off access to the plutonium and uranium fuel rods at its core.
Engineers have tried repeatedly since the accident last August to recover the device, which appears to have gotten stuck. They will make another attempt as early as next week.
But critics warn that the recovery process is fraught with dangers because the plant uses large quantities of liquid sodium, a highly flammable substance, to cool the nuclear fuel.
***
Prefecture and city officials found that the operator had tampered with video images of the fire to hide the scale of the disaster. A top manager at the plant recently committed suicide, on the day that Japan's atomic energy agency announced that efforts to recover the device would cost almost $21.9 million. And, like several other reactors, Monju lies on an active fault.
Japan: Shizuoka
As Japan Times reports:
Chubu Electric Power Co. said Friday that 43 pipes in a turbine steam condenser were found to be damaged at the Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, after the utility last month probed the leak of seawater into a reactor at the plant.
Two other pipes were found to be deformed, the utility added, without elaborating.
On May 14, some 5 tons of seawater entered the No. 5 reactor at the plant in the city of Omaezaki, following the discovery of around 400 tons of seawater in the condenser, which cools steam from the turbine and turns it into water.
The trouble occurred during work to put the reactor into a state of cold shutdown, according to Chubu Electric. At that time, about 530 tons of water were flowing per hour through the recirculation pipe for adjusting the water volume inside the reactor.
***
As the recirculation pipe had a fracture on its welded part near the lid, water that gushed out of it possibly damaged the pipes, the utility said.
Japan: Fukushima
As of June 4th, highly radioactive steam was escaping inside reactors at Fukushima:
As of June 14th, radioactive steam was still escaping into the air:
(compare the amount of steam escaping starting around 1:32 into video with the amount released starting at around 2:12 into video)
Daily Kos reports:
Japan is dangerously contaminated by radioactivity over a far larger area than previously reported by TEPCO and the central government according to new reports from multiple sources. The prefectural government of Iwate released new data that shows radioactive contamination of grass exceeds safety standards at a distance of 90 to 125 miles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants.
The prefectural government found on Tuesday radioactive cesium exceeding the limit of 300 becquerels per kilogram in grass collected from pastures in four areas, including Tono and Otsuchi. The areas are located about 150 to 200 kilometers north of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Science Magazine reports that Japanese scientists have become so concerned about the health of their children that they have initiated their own radiation monitoring program and made their own maps. The results are shocking.
***
It shows one wide belt of radiation reaching 225 kilometers south from the stricken reactors to Tokyo and another extending to the southwest. Within those belts are localized hot spots, including an oval that encloses northeast Tokyo and Kashiwa and neighboring cities in Chiba Prefecture.
***
A map of citizen measured radiation levels shows radioactivity is distributed in a complex pattern reflecting the mountainous terrain and the shifting winds across a broad area of Japan north of Tokyo which is in the center of the of bottom of the map.
Radiation limits begin to be exceeded at just above 0.1 microsieverts/ hour blue. Red is about fifty times the civilian radiation limit at 5.0 microsieverts/hour. Because children are much more sensitive than adults, these results are a great concern for parents of young children in potentially affected areas.
I've previously noted that some Japanese tea is contamination with radiation. And now, reports of radioactive tea shipped into other countries are starting to surface.
The journal Nature notes that the governments knew, but covered up, early knowledge about the release of radiation from Fukushima.
American reporter Dahr Jamail reports:
"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."
***
TEPCO announced that the accident probably released more radioactive material into the environment than Chernobyl, making it the worst nuclear accident on record.
Meanwhile, a nuclear waste advisor to the Japanese government reported that about 966 square kilometres near the power station - an area roughly 17 times the size of Manhattan - is now likely uninhabitable.
In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.
The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.
"There is and should be concern about younger people being exposed, and the Japanese government will be giving out radiation monitors to children," Dr MV Ramana, a physicist with the Programme on Science and Global Security at Princeton University who specialises in issues of nuclear safety, told Al Jazeera.
***
Gundersen points out that far more radiation has been released than has been reported.
***
According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. These are referred to as "hot particles".
"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," he said. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."
Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.
The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.
"These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant," he explained, "One cigarette doesn't get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April."
***
Gundersen pointed out that the units are still leaking radiation.
"They are still emitting radioactive gases and an enormous amount of radioactive liquid," he said. "It will be at least a year before it stops boiling, and until it stops boiling, it's going to be cranking out radioactive steam and liquids."
Gundersen worries about more earthquake aftershocks, as well as how to cool two of the units.
"Unit four is the most dangerous, it could topple," he said. "After the earthquake in Sumatra there was an 8.6 [aftershock] about 90 days later, so we are not out of the woods yet. And you're at a point where, if that happens, there is no science for this, no one has ever imagined having hot nuclear fuel lying outside the fuel pool. They've not figured out how to cool units three and four."
Indeed, a 5.9 earthquake hit 110 kilometers from Fukushima today.
A water decontamination system has been halted after a rapid rise in radiation. Radiation limits were reached in 5 hours, when it wasn't supposed to happen for a month
As Jamail notes, the long-term prognosis is challenging:
"Units one through three have nuclear waste on the floor, the melted core, that has plutonium in it, and that has to be removed from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years," he said. "Somehow, robotically, they will have to go in there and manage to put it in a container and store it for infinity, and that technology doesn't exist. Nobody knows how to pick up the molten core from the floor, there is no solution available now for picking that up from the floor."
Dr Sawada says that the creation of nuclear fission generates radioactive materials for which there is simply no knowledge informing us how to dispose of the radioactive waste safely.
"Until we know how to safely dispose of the radioactive materials generated by nuclear plants, we should postpone these activities so as not to cause further harm to future generations," he explained. "To do otherwise is simply an immoral act, and that is my belief, both as a scientist and as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing."
Gundersen believes it will take experts at least ten years to design and implement the plan.
"So ten to 15 years from now maybe we can say the reactors have been dismantled, and in the meantime you wind up contaminating the water," Gundersen said. "We are already seeing Strontium [at] 250 times the allowable limits in the water table at Fukushima. Contaminated water tables are incredibly difficult to clean. So I think we will have a contaminated aquifer in the area of the Fukushima site for a long, long time to come."
Unfortunately, the history of nuclear disasters appears to back Gundersen's assessment.
"With Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and now with Fukushima, you can pinpoint the exact day and time they started," he said, "But they never end."
---
Related article:
Radioactive Dust From Japan Hit North America Days After Disaster ... But Governments "Lied" About Meltdowns and Radiation (06/23/2011) With a CNN video interview of Michio Kaku http://www.zerohedge.com/article/radioactive-dust-japan-hit-north-america-days-after-disaster-governments-lied-about-meltdown
(...) Shortly after a massive tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on 11 March, an unmanned monitoring station on the outskirts of Takasaki, Japan, logged a rise in radiation levels. Within 72 hours, scientists had analysed samples taken from the air and transmitted their analysis to Vienna, Austria - the headquarters of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), an international body set up to monitor nuclear weapons tests. It was just the start of a flood of data collected about the accident by the CTBTO's global network of 63 radiation monitoring stations. In the following weeks, the data were shared with governments around the world, but not with academics or the public. The attempted cover up of the severity of the Fukushima disaster is nothing new. Governments have been covering up nuclear meltdowns for 50 years, and the basic design for nuclear reactors was not chosen for safety, but because it worked on Navy submarines ... and produced plutonium for the military. (Indeed, the government's response to every crisis appears to be to try to cover it up.)
(...) Well-known physicist Michio Kaku just confirmed all of the above in a CNN interview:In the last two weeks, everything we knew about that accident has been turned upside down. We were told three partial melt downs, don't worry about it. Now we know it was 100 percent core melt in all three reactors. Radiation minimal that was released. Now we know it was comparable to radiation at Chernobyl. *** We knew it was much more severe than they were saying, because radiation was coming out left and right. So in other words, they lied to us.***In New York City, you can actually see it in the milk. You can actually see it has iodine, 131, actually spiked a little bit in our milk in New York City, but it is very small.***Realize Chernobyl was one core's worth radiation causing a $200 billion accident and it is still on- going. Here we have 20 cores worth of radiation. Three totally melted, one damaged and the [rest in] spent fuel pumps, 20 cores worth of highly radioactive materials.
4.
Date: 17 June 2011
From: Jeff Wefferson therockist@yahoo.com">
Subject: Prof. Claudia von Werlhof & Dr. Rosalie Bertell: We're Wrecking Mother Earth The Patriot Act: When Truth Becomes Treason NATO's "Alternate Universe" in Libya
"...the intention is to, first, 'kill' the Earth as a planet and alleged chaos together with its order, or, in the language of alchemy: to 'mortify' it. Finally, in a 'Magnum Opus' it is to be re-created as a supposedly more valuable, fantastic machine-like system that can be freely manipulated, employed, switched on and off."
"While the earth's human civic community has been trying to rid itself of nuclear weapons over the last 65 years, some economically developed nations have quietly moved into the realm of geo-warfare...This is not to say that military experimentation causes all atmospheric events and ultimately climate change. I am just saying that it is difficult in each case to separate out the military geo-experiments from the genuine heavings of the planet! The increase in violent weather is obvious to everyone. Is Mother Earth try to send us a message of distress? Is only the civilian economy responsible for climate change? I think not!"
"The end of the naivety and rose-tinted blindness in which I, like 99% of the human population, was living, came to me during a debate about whether the great earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, which claimed more than 200,000 lives, might have been artificially produced. I mentioned this monstrous hypothesis from the international debate in an interview with an Austrian newspaper, to which I had been invited in February because of a discussion about the general crisis.
This led to two campaigns being waged against me: one by my university department, which declared publicly that I had “damaged” the department; and a second three weeks later, when the entire Austrian print-media personally attacked me, and called for my discrediting as scientist, university teacher, researcher and human being. Their gist was: she is a “scandal”, she spreads conspiracy theories, is mentally ill, and has to be removed from the public sphere. Many of you know this because you worked to get a global campaign of solidarity started: In Germany, Mexico, the US and Austria, with petitions and letters from all around the world that deeply moved me, that gave me joy and excitement. Today, I publicly thank you for your efforts!
After all: rather than investigate the Haiti-thesis, so-called public opinion tried to label it a “conspiracy theory”, and thus to destroy and consign it back to the underworld!
Then I understood: This had not been about me, but about the attacks on Mother Earth! It had been about turning me into a modern “witch”, a monster, in order to hide something behind that. It was Rosalie Bertell, whom I have just cited, who revealed to me what was supposed to be hidden there. For it was during my quest to find out what had really happened in Haiti that I met her. Ten years ago, at the beginning of the women's millennium, she wrote the book Planet Earth, which I already mentioned above. The only reason it failed to reach a wide audience was that its publisher went bankrupt and did not distribute the book. Virtually no one was thus aware of Bertell's seminal investigation into the emergence of weapons of planetary destruction. And suddenly, I had arrived at the source, holding her book in my hands, which she had immediately sent to me. Rosalie, who has since become a good friend, a friendship that I am proud of, is both a natural scientist and a nun. Already in the 1980s, she had become known as a biologist, radiologist and eco-feminist through her analyses of the health consequences of nuclear contamination. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award or alternative Nobel Prize. Her book on the subject, No Immediate Danger?, achieved global fame. But of her second great book, Planet Earth, only the first part of the title became known, obfuscating the content that is only revealed in the second part of the title [Latest Weapon of War]. In this book she describes what I have come to call “HAARP-Alchemy” and the development that has taken us there.
Presentation of Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War
For decades,the Soviet/Russian as well as the US military have conducted secret experiments, including detonating powerful nuclear devices. These experiments can destroy those vital layers of the atmosphere that protect us against lethal solar and cosmic radiation. Moreover, they have been, and continue to be, conducted without any civilian experts being consulted. The risks to those layers of the atmosphere that maintain life on this planet are not taken into account. The author assumes that accelerated global warming, increased incidence of earthquakes as well as extreme weather conditions are at least partly caused by these experiments. After all, they rely on a systematic “heating up” of, in particular, the ionosphere by way of artificially generated electromagnetic waves, which the many transmitters of the HAARP-installation(s) in the east and west can send up into the skies, and from there to any point on the planet, by using the air that has been thus condensed by the “heat” and curved to form one giant reflector.the US and Russia are not the only countries to possess such weapons. According to Bertell, revelations from 30 years of military innovation show that the UK, Germany and NATO were all involved in military developments that demonstrate an almost criminal disregard for life on Earth. Apart from Siberia, one can also find HAARP-type installations in Tromsö, Northern Norway, operated by the German Max-Planck-Institute, but also in Sweden and Puerto Rico.[13]
The author points out that, beyond all this, there is still the possibility that accidents, miscalculations, acts of madmen, or (faulty) political decisions may produce one final global catastrophe. A US empire that dominates the world, together with the vision of divinely caused Armageddon if this were to fail, cause the self-appointed players to believe that their game is worth the attempt. They accept every risk, and then deny that there is, in fact, any risk. But just like the war criminals of old, they will always claim that their crimes aren"t crimes at all, but rather steps towards their allegedly “reasonable” goals.These military experiments are also conducted in what is euphemistically called „peacetime". Because of these technologies we find ourselves in a permanent state of war, without being conscious of this fact: military research today has become a war against life and the planet as a whole. The stability of life on Earth and the Earth as a living being is thus in danger.
HAARP ALCHEMY
Reading Bertell, the first thing that catches the eye about the way that the military conduct their research and the basic ideas they seem to be pursuing, is their patriarchal character. One might say that their goal is to subordinate the entire planet like a woman, to take hold, to rape, to subject to male control, and to transform it into something that no longer has any real autonomy or power. In the critical theory of patriarchy we call this process “creation from destruction”. In this case, the intention is to, first, “kill” the Earth as a planet and alleged chaos together with its order, or, in the language of alchemy: to “mortify” it. Finally, in a “Magnum Opus” it is to be re-created as a supposedly more valuable, fantastic machine-like system that can be freely manipulated, employed, switched on and off. This is what the military research cited above referred to as the Earth's “system capabilities”! It is what I call typically “alchemical”, for the thought behind all patriarchal alchemy/ies since ancient times has always been that so-called “fathers” can wantonly create new and allegedly "higher" forms of matter and life. These “fathers” hope to usurp the place of the mother, and justify this by promising to bring forth a better creation by helping nature to realise the higher development that she supposedly desires herself. The goal is obedience!
Throughout the ages, this thought has justified any and all violence against women and nature. There cannot be a greater crime: to destroy Mother Earth through the military-industrial complex's planetary system of war that is currently under construction; to commit the ultimate matricide! This level of “progress” of the natural sciences and technology represented by the HAARP-technologies, as described by Bertell, appears as the last step on a long path towards an intentional creation from destruction. Life on, within and above the planet Earth have already come under the sway of modern technology and its alchemical projects of transformation. It is, therefore, only fitting that it is now the turn of the planet itself. Today, it is literally everything that is at stake.
Alchemy is to act like a God, to be as God, to in the end become God. The basis for this is the faith in technology. This is almost certainly what the military men feel like: literally omnipotent! For from their perspective, they are already lording it over the largest of all living beings: the planet itself.
"SLOWLY WRECKING OUR PLANET"
- DR. ROSALIE BERTELL MAY 2011
We are all children of the universe. Billions of years before we were born, the furnace of the stars made, in prolific abundance, the basic chemicals which are needed for all of life, and the supernovas gave up their lives to make all of the heavier chemicals and trace metal which our bodies need to properly function. More than four billion years ago our planet earth was formed. Not too close or too far from our planet°os sun, so that our temperature was just right to support life. Our planet formed a moon, to rule over the night, the water waves and life-giving cycles. Water covered our early planet forming a chemical soup in which long molecules including the proteins of life were formed of the elements made in the stars. Then the waters receded to the places of oceans and the dry land flourished into grasses, trees, flowers, insects, butterflies, birds, amphibians, animals of all sorts and humans. How grateful we must be for this magnificent gift of life and all we have needed to sustain it over the last hundreds of thousands of years! Yet, today it is under threats never felt before in its entire unfolding journey!
While the earth's human civic community has been trying to rid itself of nuclear weapons over the last 65 years, some economically developed nations have quietly moved into the realm of Geo-warfare. Geo-weaponry has recently been introduced to the public as a "new°o high tech way to mitigate the effects of global warming, and it is being called “geo-engineering”. Geo-engineering is defined as planetary-scale environmental engineering of our atmosphere: that is, manipulating our weather, our oceans, and our home planet itself. The methods that are being proposed in geo-engineering are already a reality without public participation in debate, prior public notification, or democratic oversight. They are based on a deep understanding of the earth system, learned through space exploration, and are staggering in number and scope.
Why have these plans not been known to the public and openly discussed, even in so called democracies, although the geo-experiments have been taking place since the post World War II period? This question was answered by a geoengineer at the February 2010 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):
“…Studies show, however, that people make judgments based primarily on their values, belief systems, world views, and emotions. Facts play a much more minor role. This gap cannot be bridged by loading the public with facts, or trying to make the public more science literate…”
Likely the legal reasons have to do with the fact that no one owns the atmosphere above the earth, and environmental impact studies for atmospheric manipulation are not required by law. One might add that military secrecy is also an essential part of military culture! The implications of these global experiments involve profound impacts on life itself! Clearly the public and their life support system are under attack and no one has clearly considered, laid out and admitted to the potential consequences nor have they sought a formal permission from the at-risk public.
The Background
Since the Nuremberg trials after World War II, the legal principles guiding experimentation with human beings have been clearly stated. Its very first principle is:
“Persons involved should have legal capacity to give consent; and should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him/her to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him/her the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be expected; and the effects upon his/her health or person which may possibly come from his/her participation in the experiment. [Ref.1]
It seems quite clear to me (although I do not know the legal opinion) that experimentation with one°os life support system, the earth itself, is an experiment which fits this definition and requires informed consent!
As early as 1946 the General Electric Company discovered that by dropping dry ice in a cold room one could “create” ice crystals similar to those in clouds. Within months of this discovery they were dropping dry ice from planes into cumulus clouds, converting the water droplets into ice crystals, and then watching them drop onto the earth like snow! By 1950 industry researchers had found that silver iodide had the same effect. The era of weather modification had begun and no one considered the people°os right to know and accept this experimentation! Of course, rain was natural, so there was no reason to bother getting permission! The original expressed purpose of rain-making was to make the dry areas of the plain states more fruitful. It is said that Russia used rain-making to cause the fall-out from Chernobyl to drop before reaching Moscow.
The Escalation
In the race to the moon, early in 1958, both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. cosmonauts discovered the Van Allen belts, magnetic belts protecting the earth from the destructive solar wind°os charged particles. Between August and September 1958, in Project Argus, the U.S. Navy exploded three fission type nuclear bombs 480 km (300 miles) above the South Atlantic Ocean in the lower Van Allen belt. The U.S. Atomic Energy Agency called it “the biggest scientific experiment ever undertaken”. [Ref. 2] The "experiment°o caused world-wide effects creating new artificial aurora borealis. Long term effects of this incredible destruction, that occurred before the protective function of the Van Allen belts was understood, have never been declassified.
This "great°o experiment was repeated a second time over the Pacific Ocean on 9 July 1962 in Project Starfish. Three nuclear "devises°o, one kiloton, one megaton, and one multi-megaton, were exploded, seriously disturbing the lower Van Allen belt and altering its shape and intensity. Scientists predicted that the belts would not return to their original formation for a hundred years (which may be wishful thinking!). [Ref 3, 4] This so disturbed the Queen°os Astronomer in the U.K., Sir Martin Ryle, that he became a staunch anti-nuclear critic. By 1962, the U.S. military was using electronic beams to ionize and de-ionize areas of the atmosphere in imitation of lightning. In the same year Canada began launching satellites into the earth°os ionosphere and chemically simulating the plasma*.
*Plasma is a fourth state of matter. Starting with the solid state, followed by the more energetic liquid then gaseous states, plasma is even more energetic and contains molecules which are dissociated into positive and negative ions. For example, water molecules in air can be converted into HO+ and H-, positive and negative ions. An example of plasma is lightening.
Later in 1962 the U.S.S.R. undertook similar planetary "experiments°o, creating three new radiation belts between 7000 and 13000 km (4300 and 8100 miles) above the earth. The electron fluxes in the Van Allen belts have change markedly since this event and have never returned to their former state.[Ref. 5, 6]
Zbigniew Brzezinski, advisor on Foreign Affairs to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson during the Viet Nam War, discussed, investigating ways of using artificial lightning as a weapon in Project Skyfire and hurricanes in Project Stormfury. [Ref. 7] According to the Lowell Ponte, author of The Cooling, the military also investigated the possibility of destroying the ozone layer over North Vietnam with lasers or chemicals, causing damage to crops and humans.[Ref. 8]
The Effects
The United Nations General Assembly became so alarmed by these activities that on 10 December 1976 they approved a Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques. However, they failed to exclude “peaceful projects” such as "pure research°o, solar energy projects or industrial resource development. No thought was given to informed consent of the public. Governments merely changed their public relations posture. As an example, the U.S. began weather research to increase the output of food in the North American plains. Russia was carrying on comparable research to increase food production.
For over 50 years atmospheric modification experiments have been undertaken either by adding chemicals to the atmosphere causing reactions that may or may not be seen from earth, such as artificial aurora borealis [Ref. 9], or wave experiments using heat or electromagnetic force [Ref. 10], or even nuclear atmospheric explosions! These latter interrupt or distort the normal wave motion of the upper atmosphere, often effecting weather changes in the troposphere.
Chemicals dumped into earth's atmosphere included barium azide, barium chlorate, barium nitrate, barium perchlorate and barium peroxide. All are combustible and destructive of the ozone layer. In 1980 alone, about 2000 kg (4400 pounds) of chemicals were dumped into the atmosphere including 1000 kg (2200 pounds) of barium and 100 kg (220 pounds) of lithium. Lithium is a highly reactive toxic chemical easily ionized by the sun. This increases the density of the lower ionosphere and creates free radicals capable of causing further chemical changes. [Ref. 11] Although these experiments are clearly a part of the military desire to control weather as a weapon, reports of their environmental impact are non-existent in the public sector. Instead ozone depletion was blamed on under arm deodorant and cologne, atomizers and asthma medicine dispensers!
Actually, it became evident in the early 1970s that the 300 megatons of atmospheric nuclear bomb testing by the U.S., U.K. and U.S.S.R. between 1945 and 1963 had depleted the ozone layer by 4% and seriously damaged human embryos, fetuses, children, adult and the whole living environment. [Ref. 12]
Supersonic military planes and rockets also damage the ozone layer and cause atmospheric changes. This was made public in the evening news during the 70's, and probably influenced the decision of commercial air lines to decline supersonic flight, with the exception of the Concord. However, the public soon looked the other way and forgot the supersonic flight problem and atmospheric nuclear testing when refrigerators were blamed for the serious ozone hole damaging human health and crops in various parts of the world, especially the southern tip of South America. Civilian uses of CFC's exasperated the problem but were not likely the first cause.
By 1974, U.S. research into heating the lowest edge of the ionosphere first undertaken at the Pennsylvania State University; moved to Plattsville, Colorado; Arecibo, Puerto Rice and Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. This prompted the U.S. Senate to introduce legislation which would bring all military experimentation in weather modification under the control of a civilian oversight committee. Unfortunately, the bill failed to pass Congress.
In 1981, the Plattsville Ionospheric Heater moved to the Poker Flats rocket launch site in Alaska. A second Plasma Physics Laboratory (exploring the ionosphere) is located at Two Rivers, Alaska, and is called HIPAS (High Power Auroral Stimulation). In the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains, near Gacona, Alaska, a massive array of transmitters has been erected, called HAARP (High Active Auroral Research Project) by the U.S. Army and Navy. It now contains 180 transmission towers in grid formation, although it began operation in a modular form of a 48 tower grid in 1994. There is reason to believe HAARP may further expand to 384 or 720 transmission towers. This powerful synchronized transformer is companioned by a series of SuperDARNS (Dual Auroral Radar Networks) which continuously monitors the effects on the earth's surface of manipulations of HAARP on the earth's ionosphere. [Ref. 13]
It now appears to be possible to "steer" the jet stream, deciding the line between warm and cool air in geographic regions; or manipulate the large vapor rivers which move the rain from the tropics to the temperate zones, causing draught or floods. Natural occurrences or instabilities like monsoons, hurricanes, tornados, etc., in the atmosphere can be made more severe by "adding energy°o. Insertion of oil in tectonic faults, or creating artificial earth vibrations with electromagnetic pulses can cause earthquakes.
This is not to say that military experimentation causes all atmospheric events and ultimately climate change. I am just saying that it is difficult in each case to separate out the military geo-experiments from the genuine heaving's of the planet! The increase in violent weather is obvious to everyone. Is Mother Earth try to send us a message of distress? Is only the civilian economy responsible for climate change? I think not!
The Future
Not only the U.S. is involved with this high tech assault on the earth system! At least Russia, China, the U.K. Australia, Canada and Japan are involved. The geo-warriors are, I believe, wishing to go public with even more risky experiments, with public approval, and maybe even become "climate change heroes°o! At the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, 2010, geo-warriors made their most public pitch under the guise of “geo-engineering” as a “solution to global climate change”. Those who watch the military prepare for a weather war are alarmed!
Most recently, 19 September 2010, the U.S. Navy undertook an artificial cloud study called CARE (Charged Aerosol Releases Experiment). The Naval Research Laboratory and the Department of Defense Space Test Program used a NASA four stage Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia, to dump aluminum oxide and chaff, creating an artificial cloud in the earth°os outer atmosphere at 280 km (174 miles) above the surface (normal clouds are at a maximum of about 80.5 km (50 miles) above the surface in the mesosphere). The cloud was designed to glow in the dark. The aluminum will, of course, eventually drop into the ocean or on farm land polluting crops, polluting the food supply. The tests may damage the various atmospheric boundaries that protect life on earth and no one knows what they will do to climate, agriculture, human health or if they will alter infrared or UV radiation reaching the planet! The U.S marine breeding habitats, including the National Marine Sanctuary, are at risk from this experiment. Apparently this artificial cloud shading of the U.S. East Coast in the fall of 2009 brought on unusual snow and wintry weather. What else it caused is not reported! [Ref. 14, 15, 16, 17]
Similar Naval experiments include: the Unified Aerosol Experiment (UAE 2) in the United Arab Emirate in 2004 and Seven South East Asian Studies conducted from Singapore in 2007. The earth has already become a “research victim” of militarism and it is time to stop geo-engineering as a cruel farce and crime against life itself! Civil society should clearly not give the geo-warriors a public blessing to do more planetary damage!
Shall we place the healing of our earth in the hands of those who have for over 65 years shown the grossest carelessness of its well being? Shall we throw away this magnificent planet, like we do the cheap plastic trinkets? It is time to honor and protect planet earth as the indigenous people have done for thousands of years. We must acknowledge our philosophy of life to be faulty since it has brought us to this crisis. It is time to question patriarchy, which implies domination over all living things; and raw capitalism that requires excessive military force to guard its greedy hoarding of natural resources. We sorely need a critical plan for a more intelligent, feminized and humanized future.
There is great need to stimulate a sober look at our global life style, philosophy, and social planning so that humans, all life and planet earth may have a long and fruitful era of peace and prosperity! Our sun has some 4 to 5 billion more years to bless us with its energy – let's not squander it!
References
1. Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Vol. 2, pp. 181-182.. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949.
2. New York Times, 19 March 1959
3. Multimedia Encyclopedia 1996 and 1998.
4. Microsoft Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia, 1999.
5. Keesings Historisch Archief (K.H.A.) 13-20 August 1961, 11 May 1962, and 29 June 1962.
6. Nigel Harle, “vandalizing the Van Allen Belts”, Earth Island Journal, Winter 1988-89, p.11.
7. Zbigniew Brezinski, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, Penguin Books, Cambridge, MA 1976.
8. Lowell Ponte, The Cooling, Prentice-Hall Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1976.
9. “Northern Lights Thrill Sky Watchers from Texas to Ohio”, Kansas City Star, 10 Nov. 1991.9
10. The NASA / U.S. Air Force CRESS 1990 Press Kit outlines an atmospheric NASA testing program (linked to H.A.A.R.P. and the U.S. Air Force, that could produce the Vibrant Spectrums (auroras)
11. Nick Begich and Jeane Manning, Angels don’t Play this HAARP, Earth Pulse Press, Anchorage, AK, 1995.
12. Long-term effects of Multiple Nuclear Weapons Detonations, U.S.. National Academy of Science, 1975
13. Rosalie Bertell, Planet Earth: the Latest Weapon of War, The Women°os Press, London, 2000; p.119-128]
14. “U.S. Navy & NASA Dust Cloud Experiments May Begin on Tuesday, September 15, 2009” Live Science.com September 14, 2009 Article By Clara Moskowitz, Staff Writer (Actually occurred on 19 September)
15. An Update on the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE) Paul A. Bernhardt - Paul.Bernhardt@nrl.navy.mil
16. The NASA/U.S. Air Force CRESS 1990 Press Kit outlines an atmospheric NASA testing program (linked to H.A.A.R.P. and the U.S. Air Force, that could produce the Vibrant Spectrums (auroras)
17. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/20jun_tmaclouds/
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." Mark Twain
"Politics is the entertainment branch of government." Frank Zappa
"The only thing that's faster than light is simultaneity." J. Paul Serengeti
"I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's." William Blake
"On Spaceship Earth, there are no passengers: everyone is crew." R. Buckminster Fuller
By Susan Lindauer, former Asset covering Iraq & Libya and the second non-Arab American indicted on the Patriot Act
Many Americans think they understand the dangers of the Patriot Act, which Congress has vowed to extend 4 more years in a vote later this week. Trust me when I say, Americans are not nearly frightened enough.
Ever wonder why the truth about 9/11 never got exposed? Why Americans don't have a clue about leadership fraud surrounding the War on Terror? Why Americans don't know if the 9/11 investigation was really successful? Why the Iraqi Peace Option draws a blank? Somebody has known the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden- or his grave-for the past 10 years. But nobody's talking to the people.
In significant part, that's because of the Patriot Act- a law that equates free speech with sedition. It's got a big agenda, with 7,000 pages of Machiavellian code designed to interrupt individual questioning of government policy. In this brave new world, free speech under the Bill of Rights effectively has been declared a threat to government controls for maintaining stability. And the Patriot Act has become the premiere weapon to attack whistle blowers and dissidents who challenge the comfort of political leaders hiding inconvenient truths from the public. It's all the rage on Capitol Hill, as leaders strive to score TV ratings, while demogauging their "outstanding leadership performance" on everything from national security to environmental policy.
Truth has Become Treason
But wait-Congress assures us the Patriot Act only targets foreigners, who come to our shores seeking to destroy our way of life through violent, criminal acts. Good, law abiding Americans have nothing to fear. The Patriot Act restricts its powers of "roving wiretaps" and warrantless searches to international communications among "bad guys.." Congress has sworn, with hand on heart, it's only purpose is breaking down terrorist cells and hunting out "lone wolf" mad men.
That's what they told you, right? And you believed them? You trust the government. Well, that was your first mistake. With regards to the Patriot Act, it's a fatal one. Would the government lie to you? You betcha! And they have.
The Patriot Act reaches far beyond terrorism prevention. In my home state of Maryland, State Police invoked the Patriot Act to run surveillance on the Chesapeake Climate Action Network dedicated to wind power, recycling and protection of the Chesapeake Bay. They infiltrated the DC Anti War Network, suggesting the group might be a front for "white supremacists," and Amnesty International, claiming to investigate "civil rights abuses." Opponents of the death penalty also got targeted (in case they got violent).
Bottom line: truth tellers who give Americans too much insight on any number of issues are vulnerable to a vast arsenal of judicial weapons typically associated with China or Myanmar. In the Patriot Act, the government has created a powerful tool to hunt out free thinking on the left or right. It doesn't discriminate. Anyone who opposes government policy is at risk
How do I know all this? Because I was the second non-Arab American ever indicted on the Patriot Act. My arrest defied all expectations about the law. I was no terrorist plotting to explode the Washington Monument. Quite the opposite, I had worked in anti-terrorism for almost a decade, covering Iraq and Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Malaysia at the United Nations. At the instruction of my CIA handler, I had delivered advance warnings about the 9/11 attack to the private staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Office of Counter-Terrorism in August, 2001. FBI wire taps prove that I carried details of a comprehensive peace framework with Iraq up and down the hallowed corridors of Capitol Hill for months before the invasion, arguing that War was totally unnecessary.
I delivered those papers to Democrats and Republicans alike; to my own second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card; and to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who lived next door to my CIA handler. Gratis of the Patriot Act, we had the manila envelope and my hand written notes to Secretary Powell, dated a week before his infamous speech at the United Nations. My papers argued that no WMDs would be found inside Iraq, and that the peace framework could achieve all U.S. objectives without firing a shot.
In short, I was an Asset who loudly opposed War with Iraq, and made every effort to correct the mistakes in assumptions on Capitol Hill.
Then I did the unthinkable. I phoned the offices of Senator Trent Lott and Senator John McCain, requesting to testify before a brand new, blue ribbon Commission investigating Pre-War Intelligence. Proud and confident of my efforts, I had no idea Congress was planning to blame "bad intelligence" for the unpopular War.
Over night I became Public Enemy Number One on Capitol Hill.
Thirty days later I awoke to hear FBI agents pounding on my door. My nightmare on the Patriot Act lasted 5 years- Four years after my arrest, the Court granted me one morning of evidentiary testimony by two supremely credible witnesses. Parke Godfrey verified my 9/11 warnings under oath. Otherwise, I never got my day in Court.
The Patriot Act's Arsenal to Stop Free Speech
If you care about America and the traditions of freedom, whether you're progressive or conservative, you should be angry about this law.
First come the warrantless searches and FBI tracking surveillance. My work in anti-terrorism gave me no protection. I got my first warrantless search after meeting an undercover FBI agent to discuss my support for free elections in Iraq and my opposition to torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi detainees. (Sorry guys, body wires don't lie.)
If truth tellers don't get the message to shut their mouths, the Justice Department ratchets up the pressure. Defendants face secret charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony. Throughout five years of indictment, my attorneys and I never got to read a single FBI interview or grand jury statement. Under the Patriot Act, the whistleblower/defendant has no right to know who has accused him or her of what criminal activities, or the dates of the alleged offenses, or what laws got broken.
Of course, I was able to piece together my activities. I knew that "sometime in October, 2001? an Iraqi diplomat gave me the English translation of a book on depleted uranium, which showed how cancer rates and birth defects had spiked in Iraqi children.
And I was quite certain that on October 14, 1999, an Iraqi diplomat asked me how to channel major financial contributions to the Presidential Campaign of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The Justice Department got the date from me, since I reported my conversation immediately to my Defense Intelligence handler, Paul Hoven.
It's unlikely the grand jury knew that, since the Justice Department has the prerogative to keep a grand jury in the dark. In this brave new world, a grand jury can be compelled to consider indictments carrying 10 years or more in prison, without the right to review evidence, or otherwise determine whether an individual's actions rise to the level of criminal activity at all.
That's just the beginning. Once Congress scores an indictment against a political opponent, the Justice Department can force Defense attorneys to undergo protracted security clearances, while the whistle blower cum defendant waits in prison- usually in solitary confinement or the SHU. After the security clearance, prosecutors have an ironclad right to bar attorneys from communicating communications from the prosecution to the defendant, on threat of disbarment, stiff fines or prison sentence.
Scared yet? Once you get to trial, the situation gets much worse. The Patriot Act declares that a prosecutor has no obligation to show evidence of criminal activity to a jury at all. And the Defense can be denied the right to argue a rebuttal to those secret charges, because it requires speculation that might mislead the jury-or might expose issues that the government considers, well, secret. After all that a Judge can instruct a jury that the prosecution regards the secret evidence as sufficient to merit conviction on the secret charges. The Jury can be barred from considering the lack of evidence in weighing whether to convict.
Think I'm exaggerating? You would be wrong. That's what happened to me. All of it-with one major glitch. All of this presumes the whistle blower's lucky enough to get a trial. I was denied mine, though I fought vigorously for my rights. Instead, citing the Patriot Act, I got thrown in prison on a Texas military base without so much as a hearing-and threatened with indefinite detention and forcible drugging, to boot.
Americans are not nearly afraid enough.
Neither is Congress. As of this week, members of Congress should be very afraid. Anyone who votes to extend the Patriot Act should expect to pack their bags in 2012. They will be targeted for defeat. Above all, the words "freedom" and "Constitution" will never appear in their campaigns without suffering extreme public scorn-never, ever again.
Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg Says that the Government Has ORDERED the Media Not to Cover 9/11 (JUNE 14, 2011) http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/06/pentagon-papers-whistleblower-daniel.html
It's big news that the Pentagon Papers have finally been released by the government.But the statements from Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg about 9/11 have not been covered by the corporate media. As Fire Dog Lake's Jeff Kaye writes today:The entire 9/11 field of inquiry has been vilified, poisoned over the years by ridicule, sometimes fantastic conspiracy mongering, and fearfulness by journalists of approaching the material, lest they be branded as irresponsible or some kind of conspiracy freak. As a result, little work has been done to investigate, except by a small group of people, some of whom have raised some real questions ...Similarly, Air Force Colonel and key Pentagon official Karen Kwiatkowski - who blew the whistle on the Bush administration's efforts to concoct false intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction - wrote (page 26): I have been told by reporters that they will not report their own insights or contrary evaluations of the official 9/11 story, because to question the government story about 9/11 is to question the very foundations of our entire modern belief system regarding our government, our country, and our way of life. To be charged with questioning these foundations is far more serious than being labeled a disgruntled conspiracy nut or anti-government traitor, or even being sidelined or marginalized within an academic, government service, or literary career. To question the official 9/11 story is simply and fundamentally revolutionary. In this way, of course, questioning the official story is also simply and fundamentally American. Several months after 9/11, famed news anchor Dan Rather told the BBC that American reporters were practicing "a form of self-censorship": There was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tires around peoples' necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions.... And again, I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism.What we are talking about here - whether one wants to recognise it or not, or call it by its proper name or not - is a form of self-censorship. The head of CNN agreed: There was 'almost a patriotism police' after 9/11 and when the network showed [things critical of the administration's policies] it would get phone calls from advertisers and the administration and "big people in corporations were calling up and saying, 'You're being anti-American here.' Keith Olbermann said: You can rock the boat, but you can never say that the entire ocean is in trouble .... You cannot say: By the way, there's something wrong with our .... system. CLIP
6.
HEAR! HEAR! POWERFUL TRUTH PLACED BEFORE US BY A MOST COURAGEOUS WHISTLE-BLOWER...
Rise Up To The Occasion… It Could Very Well Have Been You!
by Sibel Edmonds
June 17, 2011
Every Single Person, Every Voice & Every Signature Counts
Have you ever pulled over your car on a highway shoulder to be a Good Samaritan and help a driver of a broken car desperately in need of assistance? Have you done it despite the heavy traffic, and a remaining long commute to get home after an exhausting long shift at work? Do you remember thinking 'hope someone, some day, will do the same for me or my loved one'?
Have you ever found a wallet or a cell phone, and then taken the time and effort to locate and contact the owner? Have you done it despite a hectic schedule, having a long to-do list, and in the midst of daily crisis and demands? Do you recall thinking 'hope someday, someone, will do the same for me?'
Have you ever been before a federal court judge, with your rights being taken away one by one, your entire biographical existence being classified one after another, and during all this, your entire legal team and advisors being removed from the court room in order to make the screwing of your Constitutional rights completely secret and unobserved? I have:
A federal court in Washington yesterday took the rare step of closing an entire oral argument to the public in the case of a former FBI translator who says she was fired for complaining about security breaches. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit announced that today's 30-minute argument in the case of Sibel Edmonds, a Middle Eastern language specialist fired in 2002, will be conducted behind closed doors. The court gave no reason for its decision. (...) The unsettling story of whistleblower Sibel Edmonds took another twist on Thursday, as the government continued its seemingly endless machinations to shut her up. The U.S. Court of Appeals here denied pleas to open the former FBI translator's First Amendment case to the public, a day after taking the extraordinary step of ordering a secret hearing.
…
I am not going to recount that incredibly awful experience as far as the butchering of our Constitution and liberties goes. Instead I want to briefly recount a minor detail with a major effect on me.
As always on that rainy April day in court there weren't many mainstream media, or even alternatives to speak of. Of course I had a few family members and supporters who had become my close friends. However, among those few people in front of the court stood a young man who walked up to me and said: 'I truly appreciate and support your efforts, and I am here in solidarity.' I asked if he was with one of the DC coalitions or organizations. He said 'No,' and added, 'I drove all night last night to get here. I live in Kentucky, and after reading about the upcoming trial I decided to drive to DC and be here for you. I know the addition of one person is not much help, but still, better than none…'
He was right. But he was also wrong. He was right in what he believed and put in action. But he was wrong about the addition of one person not being of much help. It helped me tremendously. It had a major effect on my resolve to keep pushing. It had a long-lasting impact on believing in the power of one. It turned my battle from one's battle to one's cause. And much more.
Human rights defenders are presently heading to an Alexandria, Virginia courthouse to protest United States human rights violations of whistleblowers, targeted individuals persecuted for opposing government corruption, illegal wars, and unjust foreign policies. The Bradley Manning Support Network's founding member David House, ordered to testify today, Wednesday, June 15, before a federal Grand Jury in the WikiLeaks investigation, will be met by some of America's strongest rights defenders plus others demonstrating outside the courthouse at 9:30am ET before House enters the courthouse at 10:30am. Human rights advocates defending the rights of whistleblowers will also be demonstrating at 6:00 ET today in Boston, House's city of residence. (...) "By conducting the people's business in secret and persecuting transparency advocates, government decision-makers have abandoned core American values." According to the Bradley Manning's Support Network, the protests are designed for supporting David House, opposing the grand jury investigation of WikiLeaks, and gaining attention to the ongoing pretrial confinement of PFC Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst who stands accused of blowing the whistle on illegal and unjust foreign policies.
And I wanted to tell these protesters, organizers, and you, that what they do counts; no matter what the results or documentable success by various measures. I wanted to say that every single person's participation makes a difference. I wanted to emphasize that every single action and participation, however small, is never too small or insignificant.
I know how easy it is for people to shrug off the importance of one signature, one participation, or any one action item. I know how often we disregard an opportunity to participate or contribute, and justify it to ourselves as 'one signature won't make any difference,' or 'one additional body in a demonstration won't be noticed or felt,'…Please resists that tendency. Please overcome that defeatist pull. Please. Because for every one of these:
The Washington Post yesterday reported that a widespread FBI investigation has been invading the privacy of various groups of political activists, prompting objections from many civil libertarians on First Amendment grounds. This particular probe included "subpoenas to 23 people and raids of seven homes last fall."
The search was part of a mysterious, ongoing nationwide terrorism investigation with an unusual target: prominent peace activists and politically active labor organizers.
…The apparent targets, all vocal and visible critics of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South America, deny any ties to terrorism. They say the government, using its post-9/11 focus on terrorism as a pretext, is targeting them for their political views.
They are "public non-violent activists with long, distinguished careers in public service, including teachers, union organizers and antiwar and community leaders," said Michael Deutsch, a Chicago lawyer and part of a legal team defending those who believe they are being targeted by the investigation.
Add this to the multi-year FBI effort to investigate self-described anarchist and political activist Scott Crow who has been deemed a domestic terrorist and arrested a dozen times, despite having never been convicted of anything. They tracked his phone calls and emails, infiltrated his community of activists with undercover informants, sat outside his house in unmarked cars surveying his activities and visitors, went through his trash to find his personal finance documents, colluded with the IRS in a failed attempt grab him for tax evasion, and installed cameras along street poles outside his home, among other things. Mr. Crow filed a Freedom of Information Act request and got about 440 semi-redacted pages of the 1200 total pages of FBI documents on him.
We need to have more of these:
The following petition was co-written by Coleen Rowley and me, and has been backed by more than 25 government whistleblowers and over 20 organizations. Awarding the worst president in US history when it comes to government whistleblowers with a Transparency Award is a huge insult. Presenting a president who has dramatically increased government secrecy with an Anti-Secrecy Award is ridiculous. Rewarding one of the worst US presidents when it comes to invocation of unconstitutional state secrets privilege is ludicrous. This award is a major insult to all liberty-loving Americans. This award is a slap to all freedom-liberty seeking activists. This award is dumb, highly damaging, and extremely dangerous by what it says it represents. Please stand up and say 'NO' to this award by signing this petition. I urge you to demand that this award be taken back immediately. I implore you to not let them get away with this in your name. I am asking you to sign this petition and encourage everyone you know to do the same. Don't let them mock our nation, our people and our values: Take Obama's Transparency Award Back Now.
Today, when I was having one of those defeatist and negative moments, I reached out to two friends. They helped pick me up, and this is what one of them sent me:
"The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing-for the sheer fun and joy of it- to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it." -I. F. STONE
Two days ago we started our petition campaign Take Obama's Transparency Award Back. The organizations that awarded this awful president are not hearing you. They are not acknowledging you. So far, they are refusing to take their award back, with an added insult. Maybe we are not screaming loud enough. Maybe not enough people are resisting the negative pull. Please overcome that. Please shout louder, or at least take a few seconds and sign the petition here:
Return of the plumbers: The Obama administration is waging war against leakers (June 16th 2011) http://www.economist.com/node/18836544?story_id=18836544&fsrc=nlw%7Chig%7C06-16-2011%7Ceditors_highlights
HENRY KISSINGER said he "must be stopped at all costs". Richard Nixon was more blunt: "We got to get this son of a b i t c h." And oh, how they tried, creating a team of operatives whose dirty tricks would eventually sink the president himself. But Daniel Ellsberg proved an elusive target, and anyway his work was already done. Forty years ago this week the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, the largest leak of classified documents in American history until WikiLeaks came along. Julian Assange's outfit is Barack Obama's problem, and though the current administration lacks the vindictiveness and criminality of the Nixon White House, it has pursued leakers with just as much vigour. After promising the most transparent administration in history, Mr Obama and his Justice Department have pressed criminal charges against five suspected leakers under the Espionage Act, more than all other administrations combined, including Nixon's. Its efforts, so far, have had mixed results. Three cases are still pending, including that of Bradley Manning, who is accused of leaking a trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks, which itself is under investigation by a grand jury. Mr Assange may be the administration's great white whale, but last year it netted a smaller fish when it sent an FBI linguist, Shamai Leibowitz, to prison for 20 months for passing secret documents to a blogger.
(...) A bigger problem still is overclassification. Americans have been able to read most of the Pentagon Papers for 40 years, but the documents were declassified only this week. Similarly, many of the dispatches allegedly leaked by Mr Manning are still considered government secrets. And the Obama administration has only made things worse. According to the Information Security Oversight Office, a government agency, the administration created 224,734 new secrets in its first year in office, up 22.6% on the year before. Even as the administration strives to keep secrets, it can still claim to have made some progress towards greater openness. Government agencies are putting more information online, and many have cut into the backlog of Freedom-of-Information-Act requests. Last year Mr Obama declassified the size of America's nuclear arsenal and this year he revealed his intelligence budget request. In March the president even received an award from the open-government community. To the chagrin of the presenters, the event was closed to the press. But word leaked out.
Scroll down to see list of signers and to add your name or that of your organization.
Tell Project on Government Oversight (POGO), OMB Watch, the National Security Archive, Open the Government.Org, and the Reporters Committee to publicly take back their Transparency Award to President Obama.
On March 28, 2011, President Obama was given a "transparency award" from five "open government" organizations: OMB Watch, the National Security Archive, the Project on Government Oversight, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and OpenTheGovernment.org. Ironically - and quite likely in response to growing public criticism regarding the Obama Administration's lack of transparency - heads of the five organizations gave their award to Obama in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House. If the ceremony had been open to the press, it is likely that reporters would have questioned the organizations' proffered justification for the award, in contrast to the current reality:
* President Obama has not decreased but has dramatically increased governmental secrecy! According to a new report to the president by the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) - the federal agency that provides oversight of the government's security classification system - the cost of classification for 2010 has reached over $10.17 billion. That's a 15 percent jump from the previous year, and the first time ever that secrecy costs have surpassed $10 billion. Last month, ISOO reported that the number of original classification decisions generated by the Obama administration in 2010 was 224,734 - a 22.6 percent jump from the previous year. See "The Price of Secrecy, Obama Edition".
* There were 544,360 requests for information last year under the Freedom of Information Act to the 35 biggest federal agencies - 41,000 requests more than the year before. Yet the bureaucracy responded to 12,400 fewer requests than the prior year, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.
* Obama has invoked baseless and unconstitutional executive secrecy to quash legal inquiries into secret illegalities more often than any predecessor. The list of this President's invocations of the "state secrets privilege" has already resulted in shutting down lawsuits involving the National Security Agency's illegal wiretapping - Jewel vs. NSA and Shubert vs. Obama; extraordinary rendition and assassination - Anwar al-Aulaqi; and illegal torture - Binyam Mohamed.
* Ignoring his campaign promise to protect government whistleblowers, Obama's presidency has amassed the worst record in US history for persecuting, prosecuting, and jailing government whistleblowers and truth-tellers. President Obama's behavior has been in stark contrast to his campaign promises which included live streaming meetings online and rewarding whistleblowers. Obama's Department of Justice is twisting the 1917 Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks - more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined.
* The Obama DOJ's prosecution of former NSA official Thomas Drake who, up till June 9, faced 35 years in prison for having blown the whistle on the NSA's costly and unlawful warrantless monitoring of American citizens typifies the abusive practices made possible through expansive secrecy agreements and threats of prosecution.
* President Obama has set a powerful and chilling example for potential whistleblowers through the abuse and torture of Bradley Manning, whose guilt he has also publicly stated prior to any trial by his, Obama's, military subordinates.
* Obama is the only president who has reenacted Fahrenheit 451 by actually having his agency collect and burn a book due to a never-justified classification excuse: Lt. Col Tony Shaffer's Operation Dark Heart.
* Under President Obama, the FBI has launched a series of raids and issued grand jury subpoenas targeting nearly two dozen antiwar activists. Over two thousand six hundred arrests of protesters in the US have been made while Obama has been president, further encroaching on the exercise of First Amendment rights.
* President Obama has initiated a secret assassination program, has publicly announced that he has given himself the power to include Americans on the list of people to be assassinated, and has attempted to assassinate at least one, Anwar al-Aulaqi.
* President Obama has maintained the power to secretly kidnap, imprison, rendition, or torture, and he has formalized the power to lawlessly imprison in an executive order. This also means the power to secretly imprison. There are some 1,700 prisoners outside the rule of law in Bagram alone.
* The Obama Administration is also busy going after reporters to discover their sources and convening grand juries in order to target journalists and news publishers.
* President Obama promised to reveal White House visitors' logs. He didn't. In response to outrage over his refusal to reveal the names of health insurance CEOs he had met with and cut deals with on the health insurance reform bill, he announced that he would release the names going forward, but not those in the past. And going forward he would withhold names he chose to withhold. White House staff then began regularly meeting lobbyists just off White House grounds in order to avoid the visitors' logs.
* President Obama has sent representatives to aggressively pressure Spain, England, and Germany to shut down investigations that could have exposed the crimes of the Bush era, just as he has instructed the US DOJ to avoid such matters. This includes his refusal to allow prosecutions of the CIA for torture, following a public letter from 8 previous heads of the CIA informing him that he had better not enforce those laws.
The "transparency award" in question was described as "aspirational," similar to the rationale for awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency when he had done nothing yet to further the cause of peace. Participants admitted they used the private meeting in March to try and lobby Obama to do more to earn their award. If the President doesn't change course as a result of the lobbying and "award," there are some who would shrug and say, "no harm, no foul." The giving of an unmerited award, however, whether for transparency or peace, is not entirely benign! No one knows better how destructive secrecy is for maintaining systems of justice, ethics and democracy than these self-proclaimed "open government" watchdogs. Especially when such a false accolade emanates, as in this case, from those who are supposed to serve as counters to secrecy and to retaliation against government whistleblowers, such appearance of approval will tend to cover up and mask the reality of the Executive's increasingly undemocratic and illegal use of secrecy.
Therefore the undersigned call on these organizations: OMB Watch, the National Security Archive, the Project on Government Oversight, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and OpenTheGovernment.org, to publicly take back their "transparency award," as difficult as that may be, from Barack Obama. The watchdog organizations should, of course, continue to promote aspirations for open, democratic government, reduced secrecy and adherence to the rule of law, in more genuine, legitimate ways than giving unmerited awards to the Executive. Such false awards only stand to backfire and hurt the cause of open government.
Drafted by FBI Whistleblowers Sibel Edmonds and Coleen Rowley
Whistleblowers:
Raymond L. McGovern- Former Analyst, CIA
Colonel Ann Wright- US Army Reserve (Ret.) and Former US diplomat
Daniel Ellsberg- Former Official, Department of Defense and Department of State
Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski- US Air Force (Ret.), Veteran Policy Analyst, DOD
Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer- Senior Intelligence Officer (Operations), DIA
8.
Note from Jean: Obama the Warmonger-in-Chief relentlessly presses ahead with the ever-growing bloodbath in Afghanistan he now fully owns. He consistently caves in to every demand of the diehard Pentagon war-makers and totally ignores the overwhelming public demand for a full disengagement from all the costly wars that are bleeding dry the US mainland and constitute the most direct threat to its existence. Not only the (at least!) $1,3 trillion dollars of hard-earned taxpayers' money wasted in Afghanistan hasn't achieved anything, since the country is as unstable and as prone to returning under the Taliban's control once the US stormtroopers, CIA torturers and hired rambos have gone away - if they ever do so! - but it all proves once again that war is NEVER a solution for any sort of conflict. The United States has never tried the true peace-making, help-providing-with-no-strings-attached route to stir a difficult, tense situation towards peace and harmony. Imagine if even just one-tenth of the money spent in destroying this country and making it a depleted uranium-laden nuclear wasteland has been invested instead to help bring about peace and prosperity to every Afghan citizen... When are the lessons from humanity's endless wars going to be finally learned?... The following video was recommended by David & Jaiia (jaiia_earthschild@yahoo.com) who wrote: "A heartbreakingly clear depiction of the costs of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan (not including our recent incursion in Libya).
Costs of War: 225,000 Lives and up to US$4 Trillion A MUST WATCH!!! (6 min) http://vimeo.com/25779229
About this video: "Nearly 10 years after the declaration of the War on Terror, the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan have killed at least 225,000 people, including men and women in uniform, contractors, and civilians. The wars will cost Americans between $3.2 and $4 trillion, including medical care and disability for current and future war veterans, according to a new report by the Eisenhower Research Project based at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. If these wars continue, they are on track to require at least another $450 billion in Pentagon spending by 2020. The Costs of War report by this major multi-university research project reveals costs that are far higher than recognized. Its findings are being released at a critical juncture. As Project Co-Director and Institute Professor Catherine Lutz puts it: “Knowing the actual costs of war is essential as the public, Congress, and the President consider the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and other issues including the deficit, security, public investments, and reconstruction.” Please visit costsofwar.org, where the project has posted its extensive findings, graphically illustrated, to spur public debate about America at war." Forward this to your friends and family so that they can see it, too.
Obama's Afghanistan speech: An exercise in political duplicity
By Bill Van Auken
23 June 2011
In his nationally televised speech Wednesday night, President Barack Obama announced a minimal withdrawal of US troops from the nearly decade-old war in Afghanistan. Obama's proposal represented a tacit admission of the failure of the US intervention in Afghanistan and of the immense crisis of American capitalism to which a decade of multi-trillion-dollar expenditures on militarism has substantially contributed.
In concrete terms, Obama's withdrawal proposal was crafted to give the US military command nearly everything it wanted, while helping him to get through his next election in 2012.
It calls for a token force of 10,000 to be withdrawn by the end of 2011. The July deadline set by Obama in December 2009, when he unveiled his proposed "surge" that sent another 33,000 troops into Afghanistan, will apparently come and go with no change on the ground in the occupied country. The generals will be allowed to decide what troops will be withdrawn and when over the next six months.
At the time that Obama announced the surge, the American public was told that it was a temporary measure that would "allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011."
In reality, if the so-called "withdrawal" plan is completed, it will pull out only the 33,000 troops that he ordered into Afghanistan 18 months ago. The second round of troop withdrawals is set to take place on the eve of the 2012 presidential election. Still, by the end of 2012, twice as many US troops will remain in the country as were deployed there when Obama first took office at the beginning of 2009.
One can be sure, moreover, that should the military command demand it, even this limited withdrawal schedule will be revised.
The initial withdrawal proposal for the end of this year is negligible. While it is roughly the equivalent of two Army brigades, those who will be withdrawn will undoubtedly be made up of support troops, not combat units. The tasks of the support troops can be outsourced to private contractors or other units brought in on temporary duty. Such "temporary" deployments are not counted in the roughly 100,000 figure currently given as the US troop presence in Afghanistan. The real figure is reportedly as high as 155,000.
Obama claimed that his withdrawal plan was being executed from "a position of strength" and that the White House and the Pentagon "are meeting our goals".
General David Petraeus, the senior US military commander in Afghanistan, who Obama has tapped to serve as his director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has consistently described these supposed successes as "fragile and reversible." He has insisted that the US military needs to keep its full combat strength intact for two more "fighting seasons", referring to the summer months when the armed groups resisting the US occupation launch their offensives.
A far more sober assessment of the real state of affairs after 10 years of US intervention was provided by a recent email to Time magazine from a US Army colonel in Afghanistan, who withheld his identity for obvious reasons.
"The mendacity is getting so egregious that I am fast losing the ability to remain quiet; these yarns of 'significant progress' are being covered up by the blood and limbs of hundreds-HUNDREDS-of American uniformed service members each and every month, and you know that the rest of this summer is going to see the peak of that bloodshed," the officer wrote.
Referring to claims that after enduring increased casualties and inflicting increased death and destruction for another two years, US forces will be able to hand over a secure country to the Afghan puppet military and police forces, the colonel added, "It's sheer madness, and so far as I can tell, in the mainstream media and reputable publications, it is going almost entirely without challenge."
The concentration on the next two fighting seasons constitutes a stark warning. The US military is preparing to unleash an unprecedented bloodbath aimed at bleeding the popular opposition to US occupation white. Killing of Afghan fighters and civilians alike will escalate sharply, as will the death toll among US troops.
Unmentioned in Obama's speech is a central focus of US efforts in Afghanistan for the past month, which is the attempt to negotiate with the regime of President Hamid Karzai a strategic partnership agreement that would allow the US and NATO to secure permanent military bases in the country.
He made an oblique reference to this semi-secret scheme, declaring that, while Washington was not trying to "make Afghanistan a perfect place"-a grotesque statement given the tens of thousands of civilian casualties and millions of refugees caused by the US-led war-"What we can do, and will do, is build a partnership with the Afghan people that endures--one that ensures that we will be able to continue targeting terrorists and supporting a sovereign Afghan government."
Behind all the government and media rhetoric about winding down the Afghanistan war and withdrawing US troops, the reality is that the US ruling establishment and the Pentagon are planning to occupy the country indefinitely.
Washington is seeking such bases not to wage a "war on terrorism" or to promote democracy in Afghanistan. Neither of these pretenses stand up to the slightest scrutiny. The aims pursued by US imperialism are of a geo-strategic character. They are centered on the determination to exert American hegemony over oil-rich Central Asia and to obtain a military beachhead against its principal rivals in the region: China, Russia and Iran.
Obama likewise signaled that the US would continue and likely redouble its military attacks on Pakistan, asserting that Washington "must also address terrorist safe havens in Pakistan" and "will never tolerate a safe haven for those who aim to kill us." In other words, the campaign of drone missile strikes that the Obama administration has steadily escalated, killing and maiming thousands of Pakistanis, will continue unabated.
Obama made an empty and hypocritical declaration that the US had "learned anew the profound cost of war" over the last decade of military aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, referring to the more than 6,000 US troops killed in the two countries and the many tens of thousands more who have suffered grievous physical and psychological wounds.
Like his predecessor, George W. Bush, he could not even make a reference to the millions of Afghan and Iraqi civilians killed, wounded and turned into homeless refugees by these two criminal wars of aggression.
Obama and his advisers know full well that the targeted audience of the speech, the American public, is overwhelmingly opposed to the war and increasingly seething over the conditions of mass unemployment, falling living standards and sweeping attacks on social conditions at home.
This is why he included such hollow promises as "the tide of war is receding" and "the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance."
He went on to assert that, while "over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war, at a time of rising debt and hard economic times," now his government aimed to "invest in America's greatest resource--our people" and to "unleash innovation that creates new jobs and industries, while living within our means."
The Afghanistan war, according to official estimates, is costing some $2 billion each and every week. It, together with the war in Iraq, has sucked up some $1.3 trillion. The new illegal war launched by the Obama administration in Libya has already cost some three-quarters of a billion dollars.
The suggestion by Obama that the minimal reduction of troop strength in Afghanistan will be translated into reduced cuts in social spending or even "new jobs" is a barefaced lie. The amount of spending shaved off of the Afghanistan war by pulling out 10,000 troops this year and supposedly another 23,000 next represents a drop in the bucket compared to the multi-trillion-dollar budget cuts now being negotiated on Capitol Hill.
In all likelihood, if the limited drawdown does take place in Afghanistan, it will be because Pentagon planners see the need for freeing up military resources in preparation for new wars elsewhere. Obama's hypocritical references to supposed US support for the "Arab Spring" and his defense of the US military intervention in Libya as "pragmatic" and "strategic" suggest one possible arena in which the US military sees the need for new deployments.
All of the actions of the US government are being driven by an internal crisis in which vast expenditures on war have played no small role in wrecking the country and its economy. But this in no way means a turn by the American ruling elite away from militarism.
America's ruling financial oligarchy seeks to offset the decline in the economic position of US capitalism on the world market by, on the one hand, relying on its continued military superiority, and, on the other, a relentless assault on the living standards and basic rights of American workers.
Chapter Closed or Renamed? Obama's Iraq Speech (September 1, 2010) http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2010/09/chapter-closed-or-renamed-obamas-iraq-speech
President Barack Obama has made a live televised address to Americans, marking the official end of combat operations in Iraq. He said the war is now a closed chapter, and praised the U.S. military for helping to give Iraq back to its people. Although combat soldiers have left the country, 50-thousand U.S. troops remain there to train local forces. In his speech, Obama reiterated his pledge for a full pull-out in a year's time.
More War Lies (September 1, 2010) http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20862
Lies aren't used just to start wars, but also to escalate them, continue them, and even reduce or end them. And we got a pile of war lies from the president Tuesday evening.Obama claimed the war on Iraq was initially a war to disarm a state. Really? And then "terrorist" Iraqis attacked our troops in their country. Yet if they had done that in our country, I suspect they would still be the terrorists. And then it became a civil war which we were innocently caught up in. Uh huh. U.S. participants in this crime are heroes, always and everywhere. That's sacred. The troops' mission has involved protecting the Iraqi people, and by golly they've done a superb job, as long as we don't mention the complete devastation of Iraq, the million dead, the millions of refugees, and the intense resentment of those remaining toward our country for what we've done to theirs. The Iraqi people now (dead, in exile, in a ruined nation) have a chance that they supposedly didn't have before we destroyed their country, a country that was actually a better place to live in in every way in 2003 than it is now, and in 1989 than in 2003. To hear President Obama, this war has been for the benefit of the Iraqi people, and these wars have been about al Qaeda and 9-11. Obama slid into nonsense about al Qaeda after discussing Iraq and before mentioning Afghanistan, a Bushian maneuver if ever I saw one: "No challenge is more essential to our security than our fight against al Qaeda."Never mind that al Qaeda barely existed before these wars became recruiting tools. "We will disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda" in Afghanistan, the president promised, even though al Qaeda isn't there. Troop reductions in Afghanistan will begin next August, he said, although the prepared transcript said July, and will be determined by conditions on the ground, even though Afghanistan is not yet as bad as Iraq is.Obama modeled the future bloodletting in Afghanistan on the myth of the successful escalation in Iraq, ignoring factors that have contributed to the reduction of violence in Iraq, including the promise of complete withdrawal, the beginning of withdrawal, and prior to those factors the incredible level of death and displacement, negotiations and bribes. The test for a "surge" in Afghanistan failed in Marja, and Obama simply behaves as if it succeeded. And here at home "it is time to turn the page." Never mind the commission of the supreme international crime of aggression. Never mind the mass murder. Obama said he talked with George W. Bush earlier in the day. Obama lied that the two of them had never agreed on the war, a war Obama voted to fund repeatedly in the Senate. And he lied that Bush was committed to U.S. security, knowing full well that this war has made us all less safe. CLIP
AND NOW MORE FACTS HIDDEN BY THE PROPAGANDA MEDIA PERMANENTLY IMBEDDED WITH THE PENTAGON DISINFORMATION MACHINE...
Speaking Truth to Power: Faces of War (June 23, 2011) http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2011/06/speaking-truth-power-faces-war
This emotionally compelling photo montage is one segment from the powerful and informative event, Speaking Truth to Power: a permanent state of war, which debuted on April 9, 2011 at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville, NC.Speakers included Gareth Porter, investigative journalist and historian; Ray McGovern, former Army Intelligence Officer and CIA analyst turned political activist; four courageous veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan Josh Stieber, Conor Curran, Brock McIntosh and Mike Prysner; and David LaMotte, award winning songwriter, itinerant peace activist and Program Associate for Peace at NC Council of Churches. Background music provided by local Asheville classical musicians. Facts, figures and personal stories from firsthand experience highlight the continued impact of the permanent state of war being waged by the United States.
Americans' Support for Withdrawing from Afghanistan Reaches All-Time High (June 22, 2011) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25357
WASHINGTON -- A record number of Americans favor withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan as soon as possible, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. The result comes one day ahead of President Barack Obama's speech on a plan to draw down military forces from Afghanistan. Anti-war liberals, joined by some cost-sensitive Republicans, have recently pushed harder for a more rapid withdrawal as public support of the war has been subsiding since the killing of al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden. Fifty-six percent of Americans say U.S. troops should be brought home as soon as possible, while 39 percent favor keeping troops in Afghanistan until the situation has stabilized, the survey showed.This is the first time a majority of Americans support a quick withdrawal. The proportion has increased by eight points since last month, immediately after the killing of bin Laden. The poll also showed 56 percent of Americans say it is unlikely that Afghanistan will be able to maintain a stable government after the U.S. military leaves. There are approximately 100,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, including a so-called "surge" of 30,000 troops Obama ordered to the country in late 2009. The president planned to begin withdrawing troops in July, with the goal of handing lead security responsibility to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
US Mayors Pass First Anti-War Resolution Since 1971 - The Organizers Back Story (June 22, 2011) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25362
The US Conference of Mayors just passed an historic resolution urging Congress and the President to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so that the trillions of dollars currently squandered on illegal wars can be poured back into our communities and used for funding our enormous unmet human needs here at home.But there is a back story to the passage of this resolution and it involves the months of work by national and Baltimore-based activists who worked to get the resolution written, introduced and passed. (..) If the mayors put their political muscle behind this resolution and not only present it to the US Congress, but work behind the scenes to push for it to become US policy, then its significance to the peace movement is obvious. We are thrilled that this resolution, the only anti-war resolution passed by the mayors since 1971, was passed now. That is a big deal. But the mayors have real work to do to get the US Congress to stop funding the wars and actually bring that money home to us and our communities. Which means all of us have more work to do as well!
Pentagon Demands Continuation of US Surge in Afghanistan (2011-06-18) http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/afgh-j18.shtml
On the eve of President Barack Obama's July deadline for beginning the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, the US military has opposed any significant drawdown.Gen. David Petraeus, the top US military commander in Afghanistan-and Obama's nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency-met with White House national security advisers on Wednesday. According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, Petraeus presented a "range of options." Carney said that the US president would announce "relatively soon" how many troops would be withdrawn and at what pace.Citing military and administration officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the military commanders are demanding that the White House "hold off on ending the Afghanistan troop surge until the fall of 2012." Since taking office in January 2009, Obama has nearly tripled the number of American troops fighting in the decade-old war. When he entered the White House, there were 34,000 troops in the country. Now there are nearly 100,000. In December of 2009, Obama announced his "surge," ordering the deployment of 33,000 extra troops. At the time, he set July 2011 as the date when Washington would "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan."The surge was preceded by a heated debate within the administration between the military, which wanted a major increase in troop strength to carry out a full-scale counterinsurgency operation, and elements within the administration, led by Vice President Joseph Biden, who favored a counter-terrorism strategy that would rely on fewer troops but more aerial bombardments and special forces assassination raids to quell the resistance to US domination. In the end, Obama gave the military precisely what it had asked for. Moreover, virtually as soon as his speech announcing the surge was delivered, the administration began back-peddling on the July 2011 deadline, insisting that any drawdown of US forces would be dependent upon conditions on the ground and stressing a 2014 target date set by NATO for transferring security operations to Afghan puppet military and police forces.
(...) Violence in Afghanistan is now at its highest level since the US launched the war to oust the Taliban regime in October 2001. According to the United Nations, the number of civilians killed in the country last year reached 2,777, a 15 percent increase over 2009. There is every reason to believe that this figure grossly underestimates the real number of civilian casualties, in large part because the UN uncritically repeats US-NATO data. The spurious character of this data is underscored by an article by Gareth Porter, published by IPS, reviewing claims made by General Petraeus concerning alleged Taliban prisoners captured in raids by special operations forces."In December [2010], Petraeus's command said a total of 4,100 Taliban rank and file had been captured in the previous six months and 2,000 had been killed," Porter reports. The military's own figures, however, show that 80 percent of the 4,100 detained were released within days, after it was determined that they were civilians with no ties to the Taliban. Even more were released from the Bagram detention facility after US officers decided that there was no evidence that they were part of any armed opposition group. In the end, barely 10 percent of those grabbed by special forces troops were actually held. The obvious question is, if 90 percent of the people US troops captured as suspected Taliban were civilians, is it not likely that a similar ratio of those killed were also non-combatants? In virtually every incident in which it has been proven that US operations have claimed civilian lives, US and NATO spokesmen have initially insisted that the dead were "insurgents." CLIP
Behind Obama's Afghan withdrawal decision http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/pers-j21.shtml
(...) Leading members of Congress, including some Republicans, have called for a more accelerated withdrawal. Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, has advocated pulling out 15,000 US military personnel next month, including combat troops.Levin's proposal would still leave 85 percent of the US force in Afghanistan, fully 50,000 of the additional 65,000 troops that Obama dispatched to the country since early 2009. While the media has focused its attention on this rather limited public debate in Washington, behind the scenes, US officials are carrying out two sets of negotiations that provide insight into the real objectives of this nearly decade-old war.Defense Secretary Gates confirmed in a televised interview Sunday that US negotiators are in talks with representatives of the Taliban, the Islamist movement whose regime was overthrown by the October 2001 US invasion. At the same time, the US has pushed the United Nations Security Council into separating the international sanctions imposed upon the Taliban from those applied to Al Qaeda. Washington's ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, praised the move, calling it "an important tool to promote reconciliation" that would send "a clear message to the Taliban that there is a future." Given the past several years of US commanders delivering body counts-vastly inflated by innocent civilian victims-of alleged members of the Taliban killed or captured, this promise of a "future" might seem incongruous. For nearly a decade the American public has heard politicians and generals alike equate the Taliban with Al Qaeda and insist that the entire war is being fought to defeat terrorism and prevent another 9/11 on US soil.
Even though talks have begun, Gates stressed that this did not mean there should be any let-up in US military operations. "I think that the Taliban have to feel themselves under military pressure, and begin to believe they can't win before they're willing to have a serious conversation," he told CNN.Thus, US troops will continue to kill and die in Afghanistan, but for what? The pretense that they are defending America from attack has lost all credibility. The second set of quasi-secret negotiations is being conducted with the US-backed regime of President Hamid Karzai on a strategic partnership agreement that would assure the access of the Pentagon and NATO to permanent military bases on Afghan soil. Amid the public talk about withdrawals, these private discussions are aimed at keeping American forces in Afghanistan for decades to come.On Saturday, as a US delegation sent to negotiate this strategic agreement arrived in Kabul, President Karzai delivered a nationally televised speech in which he lashed out at the US and its NATO allies. "They're here for their own purposes, for their own goals, and they're using our soil for that," said Karzai, who also denounced the occupation forces for killing Afghans and degrading the country's environment, including through the use of depleted uranium munitions. Karzai's protest is a pale reflection of the overwhelming popular hostility to the US-led occupation force among Afghans, which the puppet president and his cohorts justifiably fear could destroy them. At the same time, Karzai and his coterie no doubt fear that the arrangements Washington is trying to make for a long-term US military presence in Afghanistan-including through unilateral negotiations with the Taliban-may include dispensing with their services. CLIP
US and Britain seek accommodation with Taliban (8 June 2011) http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/tali-j08.shtml
On June 3, the Guardian reported that Britain and the United States are pressing for the lifting of United Nations sanctions against 18 former senior Taliban figures. The move is the clearest indication yet of an attempt to secure an accommodation with the Taliban in Afghanistan, following almost a decade of US-led military occupation of the country. (...) After almost a decade of US-instigated occupation, Afghanistan is a bleaker and much more dangerous place. An uncounted number of Afghans have been killed and maimed-a large proportion of them women and children-while hundreds of thousands have been turned into refugees. More than 2,500 foreign soldiers have died while seeking to enforce the occupation, while tens of thousands more have been wounded, many grievously. The relentless cross-border US airstrikes not only increase the death toll and misery of the Afghan and Pakistani populations, but threaten to spark a wider regional war that could involve China, Russia and India-all nuclear powers. But a potential realignment between the US and components of the Taliban leadership also indicates the extent to which Washington is prepared to utilise the most reactionary forces in order to control and suppress an increasingly restive population. The Afghan population's experience with the Taliban has been a tragic one, and there is no popular appetite for a return to rule by theocratic mullahs who began political life as tools of US imperialism in the region. On May 31, the Independent reported from Nuristan province, which it described as "the setting for some of the Taliban's most significant gains this year-for the first time in almost a decade the insurgents are administering a district unmolested by the government or NATO, which has withdrawn all but a handful of troops."Reporting that "people want little more than to be left alone by NATO, the government and the Taliban", it cited one local trader stating, "People aren't happy, but they pretend to be…. They dislike the Taliban as much as they dislike the government."
AND LET'S NOT FORGET IRAQ!...
4.5 Million Orphans in Iraq: Protests Over Food and Shelter (February 22, 2011) ENDLESS SUFFERINGS FOR THIS TORTURED PEOPLE, ALL TO FATTEN BIG MILITARY CORPORATIONS IN THE US AND THEIR POLITICAL SPONSORS BOUGHT UP WITH BIG PAYBACKS AND LUCRATIVE JOBS ONCE THEY RETIRE FROM POLITICS... http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2011/02/45-million-orphans-iraq-protests-over-food-and-shelter
Orphans join Iraq protests over food, shelter. Orphans join protests in Iraq to call for a better standard of living. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.BAGHDAD - Fadel Mohammad Ra'ad, 10, is one of thousands of children who have lost their parents to the endless violence that has been gripping Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion."My parents were killed in an explosion at the center of Baghdad last year, leaving me and my sister to no one," the child told IslamOnline.net in a Baghdad orphanage. "I have relatives but all of them have refused to take us in," he added choking at the memory. "We were forced to work to survive."Children, like many other civilians, are the silent victims of violence in war-torn Iraq. "Violence in Iraq has vast characteristics. Sectarian violence, resistance against US troops, traditional behaviors and the fight against the hungry," explains Haydar Hassan Kareem, a sociologist. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs estimate that around 4,5 million children are orphans. Nearly 70 percent of them lost their parents since the invasion and the ensuing violence. From the total number, around 600,000 children are living in the streets without a house or food to survive. Only 700 children are living in the 18 orphanages existing in the country, lacking their most essential needs. "Unfortunately the budget allocated to projects that help street children and orphans is decreasing day in and day out," notes an Iraqi Red Crescent employee refusing to give his name. "Worse still, almost no NGO is dedicating itself to this group of kids who are subject to trafficking and sexual abuses in the streets." - CHECK ALSO Enforced Disappearance: The Missing Persons of Iraq - "Iraq has the most disappeared persons in the world" - "Rough estimates indicate more than one million persons have disappeared in Iraq."!! - "The policy of ambiguity followed by US occupation forces and the growing phenomenon of secret US prisons in Iraq, which even international organizations have failed to locate, added to the large number of Iraq's secret prisons, which one member of the current Iraqi parliament estimated to exceed 420 secret prisons, have led to a large number of reported and unreported cases of forced disappearances. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been subjected to abuse and torture in prisons and detention centres. Tens of thousands of Iraqis disappeared during the worst days of this dirty war between 2005 and 2007. Some were seen picked up by uniformed militias and piled into lorries; others simply seemed to vanish." -- ". The killing orgy in Iraq is part of the US "dirty war" strategy described by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker on 15 December 2003: "An American adviser said: 'The only way we can win is to go unconventional. We're going to have to play their game. Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We've got to scare the Iraqis into submission.' (…)'The proposed operation - called 'preemptive manhunting' by one Pentagon adviser - has the potential to turn into another (Vietnam) Phoenix Program' (…) We do need a more unconventional response, but it's going to be messy.'" Messy…. Indeed. And not reported in the Western mainstream press. Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, wrote in October of 2006: "The evidence that the US directly contributed to the creation of the current civil war in Iraq by its own secretive security strategy is compelling. "
Depleted Uranium: Iraq's Deadly Legacy (August 16, 2010) 22 minutes long - GRAPHIC CONTENT! Jump at 19 minutes into it if you cannot bare to watch it all. This is horrifically sad and shows what's in store for countless generations to come unless we find a way to decontaminate this planet from the radioactivity we have unleashed through Depleted uranium-tipped ammunitions, bombs and missiles, as well as nuclear plant disasters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUDFicLNZ0
Seven years after the invasion of Baghdad, the Iraqi people are experiencing a devastating legacy. Babies are being born with severe deformities and cancer at a rate, which makes the effects of Hiroshima look tame. The number of babies born with severe deformities and children developing leukaemia is rising dramatically in parts of Iraq.US forces used depleted uranium weapons to attack the city, which locals say has left them with this devastating legacy. One report even says the number of such illnesses in Falluja is higher than that recorded after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Walkley Award winning video journalist Fouad Hady returns to his home country to see some of the deformed and desperately ill children, and meets some of the people battling against the odds to rebuild their lives, and their city.
Iraqi Concentration Camp Exposed (November 30, 2010) http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2010/11/iraqi-concentration-camp-exposed
People are being detained in concentration camps in Iraq under deplorable conditions without being charged with any crime. Many have been there for a year or more and some are now both physically and mentally sick. In this shocking video, an Iraqi doctor speaks to groups of prisoners, including children as young as nine years, living in these horrific camps. Besides being denied due legal process, no type of standardized education is provided to the children who are locked up here. In defense, the US Military personnel said, "but they have movie night." It is claimed that sometimes relatives are grabbed and thrown in the camps when they come to visit. The human rights violations in these prisons are extensive and inexcusable. How can this be called justice? - CHECK ALSO Violations of Iraqi Children's Rights - "We will show that the American occupation violated children's rights on all levels, including health care, education, social security, family unity and non separation of children from their parents through detention, imprisonment and exile. For two decades, Iraqi children, along with all other elements of Iraqi society, have been subjected to grave violations of human rights." -- "Ending States that Sponsor Terrorism": Dismantling the Iraqi State, Destroying an Entire Country - eliminating the Iraqi middle class ... Destroying Iraqi culture, erasing collective memory ... Destroying the Iraqi state ... Ethnic cleansing "Although the U.N. did not authorize the invasion of Iraq, it did "legalize" the occupation a posteriori in UNSC resolution 1483 (22 May 2003), against the will of the overwhelming majority of the world community, that didn't accept the legality or the legitimacy of that UN resolution. And it was during the occupation that the war crimes brought to light by WikiLeaks took place. As should the U.S., the U.N. has the moral and legal duty to respond. The world community has the right to know the complete and unbiased truth about the extent and responsibilities of American involvement in Iraq's Killing Fields and demands justice for the Iraqi people." -- Iraq : Destroying a Country: War Crimes and Atrocities: Part II - "Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the latest, vast cache of documents from Wikileaks, is that anyone was surprised at the revelations. For Iraqis, Afghans and the region, and Iraq and Afghanistan watchers across the globe, countless millions of words have been written and eye witness reports sent since day one of the highly questionable legality of the Afghan invasion the absolute illegality of that of Iraq.Soldiers have put "trophy" photographs of the dead, mutilated, tortured on the internet. In August the BBC's documentary: "The Wounded Platoon", aired interviews with soldiers who admitted shooting Iraqi civilians and "keeping scores." (1) Abu Ghraib's particular testimony to freedom, democracy and liberation's bounties, will likely remain the mental monument to the U.S., military in Iraq, which will ring down the generations. Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tareq Aziz and his colleagues await an Inquistitional, mediaeval end on a hangman's noose, under America's watch (with the U.K., since still in coalition.) Charges include crimes against humanity. Yet the perpetrators of nearly seven years of near indescribable crimes against humanity in Iraq - and near a decade in Afghanistan, return home to heroes' welcomes.Reaction in Iraq to the woeful litany of crimes documented in some 400,000 U.S., files is encapsulated by Baghdad Political Science Professor Saadi Kareem, who commented: " Iraqis know all about the findings in these documents. The brutality of American and Iraqi forces was hidden from Americans and Europeans, but not for Iraqis ... Iraqis are totally aware of what happened to them." -- AND The Nightmare: The Iraq Invasion's Atrocities, Unearthing the Unthinkable
Obama's Iraq speech: An exercise in cowardice and deceit (September 1, 2010) http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20866
President Barack Obama's nationally televised speech from the White House Oval Office Tuesday night was an exercise in cowardice and deceit. It was deceitful to the people of the United States and the entire world in its characterization of the criminal war against Iraq. And it was cowardly in its groveling before the American military. The address could inspire only disgust and contempt among those who viewed it. Obama, who owed his presidency in large measure to the mass antiwar sentiment of the American people, used the speech to glorify the war that he had mistakenly been seen to oppose.The most chilling passage came at the end of the 19-minute speech, when Obama declared, "Our troops are the steel in our ship of state," adding, "And though our nation may be traveling through rough waters, they give us confidence that our course is true."It is for this statement, rather than all the double-talk about troop withdrawals, that Obama's miserable speech deserves to be remembered. It was rhetoric befitting a military-ruled banana republic or a fascist state. The military-not the Constitution, not the will of the people or the country's ostensibly democratic institutions-constitutes the "steel" in the "ship of state." Presumably, the democratic rights of the people are so much ballast to be cast overboard as needed.The occasion for the speech was the artificial deadline fixed by the Obama administration for what the president termed the "end of our combat mission in Iraq." This is only one of the innumerable lies packed into his brief remarks.Some 50,000 combat troops remain deployed in Iraq. While they have been rebranded as "transitional" forces, supposedly dedicated to "training" and "advising" Iraqi security forces, their mission remains unchanged. Indeed, barely a week after the media turned the redeployment out of Iraq of a single Stryker battalion into a "milestone" signaling the withdrawal of the last combat troops, 5,000 members of the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, a combat unit, were sent back into the occupied country from Ft. Hood, Texas. Washington has no intention of ending its military presence in Iraq. It continues to build permanent bases and is determined to continue pursuing the original agenda behind the war launched by the Bush administration in March of 2003-the imposition of US hegemony in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. Obama's speech was both incoherent and groveling. The president sought, dishonestly, to take credit for fulfilling his campaign promise on Iraq. As a candidate he had pledged to withdraw all US combat troops from the country within 16 months of taking office. In the end, he merely adopted the time table and plan crafted by the Pentagon and the Bush administration for a partial withdrawal, leaving 50,000 combat troops in place. The Democratic president felt obliged, under the mantle of paying tribute to "our troops," to fundamentally distort and whitewash the entire character of the war they were sent to fight, painting one of the blackest chapters in US history as some kind of heroic endeavor. CLIP
9.
READ THIS AND WEEP... NO WONDER MOST U.S. CITIZENS ARE SUBDUED AND DOCILE DESPITE THE ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY THEIR FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS. THEY ARE FRIGHTENED OF ENDING UP IN THE FOR-PROFIT PRIVATE GULAG ALONG WITH THE EXISTING 2.3 MILLION ABUSED PRISONERS (in federal, state and local prisons) - 60% THEM BEING PEOPLE OF COLOR.
Prisoners earning 23 cents an hour in U.S. federal prisons are manufacturing high-tech electronic components for Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles, launchers for TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles, and other guided missile systems. A March article by journalist and financial researcher Justin Rohrlich of World in Review is worth a closer look at the full implications of this ominous development. (minyanville.com)
The expanding use of prison industries, which pay slave wages, as a way to increase profits for giant military corporations, is a frontal attack on the rights of all workers.
Prison labor - with no union protection, overtime pay, vacation days, pensions, benefits, health and safety protection, or Social Security withholding - also makes complex components for McDonnell Douglas/Boeing's F-15 fighter aircraft, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, and Bell/Textron's Cobra helicopter. Prison labor produces night-vision goggles, body armor, camouflage uniforms, radio and communication devices, and lighting systems and components for 30-mm to 300-mm battleship anti-aircraft guns, along with land mine sweepers and electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems Bradley Fighting Vehicle's laser rangefinder. Prisoners recycle toxic electronic equipment and overhaul military vehicles.
Labor in federal prisons is contracted out by UNICOR, previously known as Federal Prison Industries, a quasi-public, for-profit corporation run by the Bureau of Prisons. In 14 prison factories, more than 3,000 prisoners manufacture electronic equipment for land, sea and airborne communication. UNICOR is now the U.S. government's 39th largest contractor, with 110 factories at 79 federal penitentiaries.
The majority of UNICOR's products and services are on contract to orders from the Department of Defense. Giant multinational corporations purchase parts assembled at some of the lowest labor rates in the world, then resell the finished weapons components at the highest rates of profit. For example, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Corporation subcontract components, then assemble and sell advanced weapons systems to the Pentagon.
Increased profits, unhealthy workplaces
However, the Pentagon is not the only buyer. U.S. corporations are the world's largest arms dealers, while weapons and aircraft are the largest U.S. export. The U.S. State Department, Department of Defense and diplomats pressure NATO members and dependent countries around the world into multibillion-dollar weapons purchases that generate further corporate profits, often leaving many countries mired in enormous debt.
But the fact that the capitalist state has found yet another way to drastically undercut union workers' wages and ensure still higher profits to military corporations - whose weapons wreak such havoc around the world - is an ominous development.
According to CNN Money, the U.S. highly skilled and well-paid "aerospace workforce has shrunk by 40 percent in the past 20 years. Like many other industries, the defense sector has been quietly outsourcing production (and jobs) to cheaper labor markets overseas." (Feb. 24) It seems that with prison labor, these jobs are also being outsourced domestically.
Meanwhile, dividends and options to a handful of top stockholders and CEO compensation packages at top military corporations exceed the total payment of wages to the more than 23,000 imprisoned workers who produce UNICOR parts.
The prison work is often dangerous, toxic and unprotected. At FCC Victorville, a federal prison located at an old U.S. airbase, prisoners clean, overhaul and reassemble tanks and military vehicles returned from combat and coated in toxic spent ammunition, depleted uranium dust and chemicals.
A federal lawsuit by prisoners, food service workers and family members at FCI Marianna, a minimum security women's prison in Florida, cited that toxic dust containing lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic poisoned those who worked at UNICOR's computer and electronic recycling factory.
Prisoners there worked covered in dust, without safety equipment, protective gear, air filtration or masks. The suit explained that the toxic dust caused severe damage to nervous and reproductive systems, lung damage, bone disease, kidney failure, blood clots, cancers, anxiety, headaches, fatigue, memory lapses, skin lesions, and circulatory and respiratory problems. This is one of eight federal prison recycling facilities - employing 1,200 prisoners - run by UNICOR.
After years of complaints the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General and the Federal Occupational Health Service concurred in October 2008 that UNICOR has jeopardized the lives and safety of untold numbers of prisoners and staff. (Prison Legal News, Feb. 17, 2009)
Racism & U.S. prisons
The U.S. imprisons more people per capita than any country in the world. With less than 5 percent of the world population, the U.S. imprisons more than 25 percent of all people imprisoned in the world.
There are more than 2.3 million prisoners in federal, state and local prisons in the U.S. Twice as many people are under probation and parole. Many tens of thousands of other prisoners include undocumented immigrants facing deportation, prisoners awaiting sentencing and youthful offenders in categories considered reform or detention.
The racism that pervades every aspect of life in capitalist society - from jobs, income and housing to education and opportunity - is most brutally reflected by who is caught up in the U.S. prison system.
More than 60 percent of U.S. prisoners are people of color. Seventy percent of those being sentenced under the three strikes law in California - which requires mandatory sentences of 25 years to life after three felony convictions - are people of color. Nationally, 39 percent of African-American men in their 20s are in prison, on probation or on parole. The U.S. imprisons more people than South Africa did under apartheid. (Linn Washington, "Incarceration Nation")
The U.S. prison population is not only the largest in the world - it is relentlessly growing. The U.S. prison population is more than five times what it was 30 years ago.
In 1980, when Ronald Reagan became president, there were 400,000 prisoners in the U.S. Today the number exceeds 2.3 million. In California the prison population soared from 23,264 in 1980 to 170,000 in 2010. The Pennsylvania prison population climbed from 8,243 to 51,487 in those same years. There are now more African-American men in prison, on probation or on parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began, according to Law Professor Michelle Alexander in the book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."
Today a staggering 1-in-100 adults in the U.S. are living behind bars. But this crime, which breaks families and destroys lives, is not evenly distributed. In major urban areas one-half of Black men have criminal records. This means life-long, legalized discrimination in student loans, financial assistance, access to public housing, mortgages, the right to vote and, of course, the possibility of being hired for a job.
State Prisons contracting slave labor
It is not only federal prisons that contract out prison labor to top corporations. State prisons that used forced prison labor in plantations, laundries and highway chain gangs increasingly seek to sell prison labor to corporations trolling the globe in search of the cheapest possible labor.
One agency asks: "Are you experiencing high employee turnover? Worried about the costs of employee benefits? Unhappy with out-of-state or offshore suppliers? Getting hit by overseas competition? Having trouble motivating your workforce? Thinking about expansion space? Then Washington State Department of Corrections Private Sector Partnerships is for you." (educate-yourself.org, July 25, 2005)
Major corporations profiting from the slave labor of prisoners include Motorola, Compaq, Honeywell, Microsoft, Boeing, Revlon, Chevron, TWA, Victoria's Secret and Eddie Bauer.
IBM, Texas Instruments and Dell get circuit boards made by Texas prisoners. Tennessee inmates sew jeans for Kmart and JCPenney. Tens of thousands of youth flipping hamburgers for minimum wages at McDonald's wear uniforms sewn by prison workers, who are forced to work for much less.
In California, as in many states, prisoners who refuse to work are moved to disciplinary housing and lose canteen privileges as well as "good time" credit, which slices hard time off their sentences.
Systematic abuse, beatings, prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation, and lack of medical care make U.S. prison conditions among the worst in the world. Ironically, working under grueling conditions for pennies an hour is treated as a "perk" for good behavior.
In December, Georgia inmates went on strike and refused to leave their cells at six prisons for more than a week. In one of the largest prison protests in U.S. history, prisoners spoke of being forced to work seven days a week for no pay. Prisoners were beaten if they refused to work.
Private prisons for profit
In the ruthless search to maximize profits and grab hold of every possible source of income, almost every public agency and social service is being outsourced to private for-profit contractors.
In the U.S. military this means there are now more private contractors and mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan than there are U.S. or NATO soldiers.
In cities and states across the U.S., hospitals, medical care facilities, schools, cafeterias, road maintenance, water supply services, sewage departments, sanitation, airports and tens of thousands of social programs that receive public funding are being contracted out to for-profit corporations. Anything publicly owned and paid for by generations of past workers' taxes - from libraries to concert halls and parks - is being sold or leased at fire sale prices.
All this is motivated and lobbied for by right-wing think tanks like that set up by Koch Industries and their owners, Charles and David Koch, as a way to cut costs, lower wages and pensions, and undercut public service unions.
The most gruesome privatizations are the hundreds of for-profit prisons being established.
The inmate population in private for-profit prisons tripled between 1987 and 2007. By 2007 there were 264 such prison facilities, housing almost 99,000 adult prisoners. (house.leg.state.mn.us, Feb. 24, 2009) Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group Inc. and Community Education Centers.
Prison bonds provide a lucrative return for capitalist investors such as Merrill-Lynch, Shearson Lehman, American Express and Allstate. Prisoners are traded from one state to another based on the most profitable arrangements.
Militarism and prisons
Hand in hand with the military-industrial complex, U.S. imperialism has created a massive prison-industrial complex that generates billions of dollars annually for businesses and industries profiting from mass incarceration.
For decades workers in the U.S. have been assured that they also benefit from imperialist looting by the giant multinational corporations. But today more than half the federal budget is absorbed by the costs of maintaining the military machine and the corporations who are guaranteed profits for equipping the Pentagon. That is the only budget category in federal spending that is guaranteed to increase by at least 5 percent a year - at a time when every social program is being cut to the bone.
The sheer economic weight of militarism seeps into the fabric of society at every level. It fuels racism and reaction. The political influence of the Pentagon and the giant military and oil corporations - with their thousands of high-paid lobbyists, media pundits and network of links into every police force in the country - fuels growing repression and an expanding prison population.
The military, oil and banking conglomerates, interlinked with the police and prisons, have a stranglehold on the U.S. capitalist economy and reins of political power, regardless of who is president or what political party is in office. The very survival of these global corporations is based on immediate maximization of profits. They are driven to seize every resource and source of potential profits.
Thoroughly rational solutions are proposed whenever the human and economic cost of militarism and repression is discussed. The billions spent for war and fantastically destructive weapons systems could provide five to seven times more jobs if spent on desperately needed social services, education and rebuilding essential infrastructure. Or it could provide free university education, considering the fact that it costs far more to imprison people than to educate them.
Why aren't such reasonable solutions ever chosen? Because military contracts generate far larger guaranteed profits to the military and the oil industries, which have a decisive influence on the U.S. economy.
The prison-industrial complex - including the prison system, prison labor, private prisons, police and repressive apparatus, and their continuing expansion - are a greater source of profit and are reinforced by the climate of racism and reaction. Most rational and socially useful solutions are not considered viable options.
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Related videos and article:
The Largest Street Gang in America - The Militarization Of The US Police Force (June 28, 2011) Video http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28426.htm
Part 2 HERE - Part 3 HERE - Part 4 HERE - Part 5 HERE (where at the end it says "New research also concluded that cops routinely get away with abusive behavior ... University of Chicago law professors Craig ?? had an exclusive look at 2 years of dirty laundry of Chicago police. He was given access to more than 10,000 complaints of police abuse. Just 19 of those resulted in what he calls 'meaningful discipline' - suspension for a week of more. - Part 6 HERE
Police State 4: The Rise of FEMA Full Length http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klqv9t1zVww&feature=relmfu
POLICE STATE 4 chronicles the sickening depths to which our republic has fallen. Veteran documentary filmmaker Alex Jones conclusively proves the existence of a secret network of FEMA camps, now being expanded nationwide. The military industrial complex is transforming our once free nation into a giant prison camp. A cashless society control grid, constructed in the name of fighting terrorism, was actually built to enslave the American people. Body scanners, sound cannons, citizen spies, staged terror and cameras on every street corner -- it's only the beginning of the New World Order's hellish plan.This film exposes how the "Continuity of Government" program has established an all powerful shadow state. Prepare to enter the secretive world of emergency dictatorship, FEMA camps, and a shredded Constitution. Witness police and military savagely attacking innocent citizens as our own government unleashes false flag operations to justify its oppression. Then watch as Alex Jones takes on corrupt mercenary police and exposes mainstream media brainwashing.
Who Wants Keep the War on Drugs Going AND Put You in Debtor’s Prison? (June 24, 2011) USA the land of freedom... for the corporate ogres http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/matt-stoller-who-wants-keep-the-war-on-drugs-going-and-put-you-in-debtors-prison.html
More than a third of all states allow debtors “who can’t or won’t pay their debts” to be jailed. In 2010, according to the Wall Street Journal, judges have issued 5,000 such warrants. What is behind the increased pressure to incarcerate people with debts? Is it a desire to force debt payment? Or is it part of a new structure where incarceration is becoming increasingly the default tool to address any and all social problems? Consider a different example that has nothing to do with debts. Earlier this year, a Pennsylvania judge was convicted of racketeering, of taking bribes from parties of interest in his cases. It was a fairly routine case of bribery, with one significant exception. The party making the payoffs was a builder and operator of youth prisons, and the judge was rewarding him by sending lots of kids to his prisons. Welcome to the for-profit prison industry. It’s an industry that wants people in jail, because jail is their product. And they have shareholder expectations to meet. Privatized prisons are marketed to international investors as “social infrastructure”, and they are part of a wave of privatization washing over the globe. Multi-billion dollar prison companies are upgraded by analysts with antiseptic words like “prospects for global prison growth”, and these companies have built a revolving door and patronage machine characteristic of any government contractor. Only, in this case, the business they are in is putting people into steel cages (or “filling beds” as they put it), and they don’t care how, why, or whether the people in those beds should be there. They don’t care if you’re in prison for smoking pot, stealing cars, or being in debt. They just want people in jail. CLIP
Israel has illegally blockaded the region and already slaughtered 9 activists and injured 50 other innocent people attempting to provide aid to the people of Palestine.
This second flotilla, or "Freedom Flotilla II" has been backed by four Nobel Laureates in a letter to the UN requesting protection and support during this humanitarian mission.
To make the fact that this is a purely humanitarian mission even more clear, the activists have requested their cargo be inspected and sealed by an Israeli representative, insuring that no weapons or other items are being transported.
The Israeli explanation for their horrific actions is that these are not actually peace loving, charitable people putting themselves at risk in order to help destitute human beings but instead they are jihadists seeking to provide material aid to Hamas.
These jihadists just happen to be armed with heavy artillery like sticks, knives and chains while the poor, outnumbered IDF soldiers were armed with life fire assault rifles.
In all seriousness, Israel has some of the most paranoid leaders of any country on Earth. Haaretz reports the following:
Marom told the assembly that were the flotillas to be allowed to reach Gaza, Hamas would "equip itself with unmonitored loads of weapons, and threaten the state of Israel by means of terroristic rockets and missiles."
He explained that the flotilla's goal is to "cause a confrontation with IDF soldiers, and create a media provocation and thereby foster delegitimization of the state of Israel."
He called on international officials to "impose all their authority to prevent the departure of this needless, provocative flotilla."
Is this head Vice Admiral of the Israeli Navy really this deluded? The activists do not seek a confrontation. Why a group of human rights activists be planning a situation in which they will assuredly be injured, if not killed?
The state of Israel has delegitimized itself many times over, not the least of which was the previous attack on the flotilla.
The flotilla is in no way "needless" or "provocative." The people of Gaza are living in horrific conditions and the aid is so clearly needed I'm not sure how any sane person could possibly assert such a thing.
The reality of life in the Gaza Strip is hard for most Americans to even imagine unless they have spent time in a completely impoverished area, although you must also consider the constant fear of attack the Palestinian people have to to live with.
Here are just a couple of examples of the lack of healthcare available to the people of Palestine taken from a Fafo report:
Half of the chronically ill in need received inadequate treatment (p. 42)
Half of those in need of care after acute health failure during Israel's offensive were prevented due to warfare (p. 43)
To deny the people of Gaza their human right to adequate healthcare and fair treatment is to commit an egregious human rights violation, yet where is the UN decrying these actions? Where is the international outcry that was so vocal over unconfirmed reports of violence at the hands of Qaddafi in Libya?
Members of a European humanitarian aid mission carried supplies into the Gaza Strip via Egypt's Sinai Peninsula yesterday.
The aid, brought by the Miles of Smiles ship, was unloaded at al-Arish port, 45 kilometers from the Rafah border crossing, port director Gamal Abdul-Maqsoud told the German press agency DPA.
Trucks loaded with 12 ambulances, medicine and food for infants entered the enclave via the Rafah border crossing along with 62 international activists.
I am quite surprised they didn't quote some IDF official after this saying that the trucks and ambulances were actually loaded with rockets and other arms for Hamas to use against the state of Israel.
This is quite true, which is why the activists are trying to have a representative inspect and seal the cargo.
This right to inspect cargo does not extend to boarding a ship and "summarily executing" activists attempting to bring aid to hungry children and ailing civilians.
Will Israel continue to show the world they are a state that disregards the rights of any human being they please through brutal murder and the withholding of desperately needed aid?
If this occurs I am sure we will instantly see individuals in the press defending the Israeli's actions while demonizing the innocent activists attempting to defend themselves from soldiers with live firearms.
Not everyone is so brainwashed that they cannot step out of their own point of view for a moment to see that the murder of other human beings, either directly or indirectly through withholding available aid.
French politicians and others are planning to join the flotilla in an attempt to break Israel's inhumane blockade on the embattled Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the IDF and other forces are running drills to prepare for their attack on these human rights activists seeking to help raise the quality of living for suffering human beings.
While the international community was up in arms over unconfirmed reports of violence in Syria, Libya, and elsewhere, confirmed and heavily documented reports of Israeli aggression and violence is simply swept under the rug.
Hillary Clinton and the rest of the clowns in Washington to who pretend to care about human rights couldn't care less unless there is something in it for them and their elite pals.
The fact is that unless the people of the world, not the so-called leaders who are bought and paid for by banks and multinational corporate giants, stand up and demand justice be served in every case, we will all be susceptible to similar circumstances.
Criticizing and pointing out the human rights violations carried out by Israel, the United States and every other nation on Earth is of paramount importance.
Picking and choosing because of your religious background or national origin is, in my opinion, inhumane and immoral.
Killing a Palestinian is wrong. Killing an Israeli is wrong. Killing an American is wrong. Killing a Libyan is wrong. Killing anyone is wrong and Israeli warmonger apologists (and their counterparts in every nation on Earth) can rationalize all they want but at the end of the day, their conscience will come calling.
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Related articles:
'Israel is US imperial machine' (June 20, 2011) http://www.presstv.com/detail/185543.html
Israel's navy commander Admiral Eliezer Marom has called for a halt in the progress of the Freedom Flotilla II aid convoy which is heading for Gaza.Marom said the only purpose of the flotilla is to clash with Israeli soldiers, create media provocation, delegitimize Israel and create a PR stunt. Last year, Israeli forces attacked the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara carrying aid for Gaza in international waters, killing nine Turkish activists onboard. To further discuss the issue, Press TV interviewed Ken O'Keefe, an Irish- American activist, who was a passenger on the Mavi Marmara I and also spent the last six months in Gaza where he witnessed firsthand conditions under which the Gazans have been forced to live in an economy crippled by an Israeli siege. (...) Press TV: Well, the recent remarks made by the Israeli naval commander when he does say that this is a provocation flotilla that his forces will try not to allow it enter Gaza's territory. Do you think that the international silence to speak over the killing of the Mavi Marmara activists has emboldened Israel in making these kinds of statements or in trying actually to prevent this flotilla from entering Gaza? O'Keefe: Well, I think you make a very important point there on that. Really, I am kind of sick and tired of laying the blame on Israel. Israel is like America. It is for America and American imperial machine. It goes around occupying, invading and stealing resources. We know what it is. I mean, we know what America is and we know what Israel is. Israel's job is to maintain perpetual conflict in the region. Its job is to steal the land of the Palestinians. So there is no surprise when it does things like this, murdering people and assassinating people. But really a sick is the European Union which pretends as if it is a civilized society in which it is making all these incantations to respect for democracy and human rights and stuff like this, while it continues to do 25 billion euros a year and trade with Israel, while it continues trading weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, while it continues to do everything it can to capitulate to Israeli demands and also not use international law as it should be used in the case of Britain, we see that universal jurisdiction is under attack and any probability of Israeli war criminals being indicted in England is trying to be cut short.
Sacred Mantras - BY URI AVNERY (JUNE 25, 2011) http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1308952216/
THE PALESTINIANS are planning something thoroughly obnoxious: they intend to apply to the UN for statehood.Why obnoxious? Any Israeli spokesman (not to mention spokeswoman) will tell you readily: because it is a “unilateral” move. How dare they proclaim a state unilaterally? How dare they do so without the consent of the other party to the conflict - us?A stickler for detail might ask at this point: “But was the State of Israel not proclaimed unilaterally?” Our state, it may be remembered, was declared by David Ben-Gurion and his colleagues on Mai 14, 1948, without asking anyone.But who would dare to compare?Furthermore, these dastardly Palestinians are going to the UN General Assembly, trying to circumvent the UN Security Council where the US can block them with its veto. Dirty trick!But just a moment! Was the State of Israel not proclaimed on the basis of a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly? To be precise: resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, on the partition of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state?As a matter of fact, this resolution is still in force. It served as the centerpiece of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, and serves now as a basis for the Palestinian demand that the State of Palestine be accepted as a full-fledged member of the United Nations.But again, how can one compare?IN SHORT, the Palestinians must be condemned for their impertinent effort to resort to “unilateral” action. Binyamin Netanyahu says so. Barack Obama says so. Hillary Clinton says so. Angela Merkel says so. It has become a mantra. CLIP
11.
Note from Jean: If you don't hear much in the propaganda media about the criminal war of aggression in Libya - comparable in many ways to the US-led wars of aggression against Irak and Afghanistan and so many other countries attacked by the Cabal/Israeli puppets in Washington, well it is because their war is going south real fast. The Qaddafi government, which has the support of a vast majority of the population in Tripoli - see Libyan majority in support of Gaddafi - could very well prevail, and the perennial liars and war criminals manning the NATO/US slaughter from the air will soon hit rock bottom as the world public opinion finally wakes up to the treacherous sham most Western governments, and especially the deceptive Obama regime, are and how completely underserving of leading their countries they are. I would not be surprised to see an Arab Spring-like wave of revolt and protests soon overwhelm the minions of the Bilderberg cabal and sweep them where they all belong: in the dark pit of solitary confinement cells to meditate of the unimaginable ills they have caused to this entire planet and countless souls. This being said Qaddafi is no saint and clearly deserves to be tried and punished for his own war crimes - see Gaddafi files show evidence of murderous intent
The Pentagon and its NATO partners are engaged in one of the most obvious and intensive propaganda ploys in their military operations against Libya since the days leading up to the "Coalition of the Willing" attack on Iraq. Suggestions that the government of Muammar Qaddafi is on its last legs and that life in Tripoli has drawn to a standstill as a result of the NATO bombing campaign are not based on reality, as any unbiased observer who has recently been in Tripoli, has witnessed…
In addition to NATO's "information war" against Libya, the corporate media press corps gathered in Tripoli, including notorious Pentagon war correspondents for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, have furthered the Pentagon's and NATO's propaganda claims by making false reports from the ground in Tripoli.
In one report from Tripoli, The Post's Simon Denyer suggests that the Libyan government was faking some casualties as being the result of NATO air strikes on civilian targets rather than merely from non-combat-related causes. That same meme was echoed by John Burns, who is running up the New York Times's hotel tab in Tripoli reporting on the same "made-in-the-Pentagon" propaganda line. Having been to El Khadra Hospital in Tripoli, I can attest to the fact that several individuals were injured directly by NATO airstrikes, including many with shrapnel wounds to the legs, arms, and torsos.
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel was being swooned by President Barack Obama in Washington to commit German military forces to the NATO campaign against Libya, the Deutche Presse-Agentur, the German Press Agency, falsely reported from Tripoli that life in the sprawling city of some 1.3 million peoplehad ground to a halt, that schools were closed, and that stores were shuttered, as Qaddafi's forces were increasingly coming under pressure, with some units defecting.
My own account from Tripoli is that as of June 6, students of all ages were still in school, stores were open -- although some larger food markets had limited hours of operation due to NATO sanctions on goods coming into Libya by air and ship -- and that life in Tripoli continued as normal. The NATO sanctions have resulted in massive lines of cars, trucks, and taxis queued up to fill up when petrol stations receive gasoline from land routes from Tunisia or from locally-refined oil.
The NATO sanctions and their effect of the lives of Libyans living in the central government-controlled western region is a form of "collective punishment" designed to weaken the resolve of the western Libyans to support their embattled government. However, the sanctions are having the opposite effect, with even those who may have favored the replacement of the Qaddafi government, now rallying around their government leaders as NATO prepares to usher in a neo-colonial administration. With Italy a member of the NATO coalition, Libyans recall Italian atrocities committed against Libya during Rome's colonial occupation and Libyans will support Qaddafi against the Italians, French, and British, who, along with the Americans and Canadians, seek to impose a puppet regime in Tripoli.
Western Libyans in contact with their relatives in Benghazi, the eastern city under control of the Interim National Transition Council made up of figures of exiled opposition groups, long-supported by the CIA, Britain's MI-6, and the French DirectionGeneral de la Securite Exterieure(DGSE),recent defectors from Qaddafi's government, and extremist Wahhabi Salafist elements encourages and supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, report how life has changed under the rebels. Women in cities like Derna, which is under the control of Salafist veterans of the "Al Qaeda" operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, including some released from U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are afraid to leave their homes because the Salafists have imposed extremist Islamic codes on women appearing in public without the veil. Under Qaddafi, there were no restrictions on what women or men could wear in public. However, men cannot have beards in their Libyan passport photographs. The possession of Libyan passports bearing photographs of bearded Salafist leaders in the rebel movement indicate they have been issued fake passports by the rebel authorities in Benghazi.
Civil servants, including teachers, in the rebel-held east have not been paid after rebel leaders looted the Central Bank of Libya in Benghazi of 900 million Libyan dinars and $500.5 million in U.S. cash. Although the central government in Tripoli would like to help Libyan citizens in the east, there is no way for payments to be transmitted to the idled civil servants, as well as pensioners and those families who received $500 per month under Libya's oil revenue sharing program. The Libyan rebel "finance minister" Ali Tarhouni is believed to be a longtime CIA asset and it was he who planned the theft of the cash from the safe vault of the Central Bank in Benghazi, carried out with the assistance of a CIA-supplied safecracker from the United Arab Emirates.
A number of Libyan ministers who defected from the government to the rebels were known to be opposed to Qaddafi's policy of sharing revenue with the Libyan people and were more interested in fattening their own bank accounts and investment portfolios. It is not coincidental, therefore, that one of the first targets of the NATO warplanes was the office in Tripoli responsible for conducting an investigation of fraud of senior government officials. Many of the officials under investigation for fraud and corruption, including senior Qaddafi ministers, are now top officials of the Interim National Transition Council, recognized by France, Italy, Britain, and other NATO countries as the "legitimate" government of Libya. Western nations are already cutting deals with rebel leaders for new oil concessions that will place the interests of Big Oil over those of the Libyan masses.
The good news is that the fraud and corruption files in the building struck by NATO were backed up in a secure location and that these files will be used as evidence to indict the defectors who now serve on the Interim Council. The ministers and senior advisers implicated in corruption include former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the nominal and ineffectual leader of the rebel interim council; Mahmoud Jibril, the U.S.-trained formerPlanning Minister and head of the Economic Development Board who is acting as prime minister of the rebel "Libyan Republic," Dr. Ali el-Essawi, the Trade and Industry Minister and former ambassador to India who is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,Interior Minister Abdul Fatah Yunis and a close friend of Qaddafi, and former Libyan intelligence chief and Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, another close friend of Qaddafi who was also the CIA's point man in the agency's "extraordinary rendition" and kidnapping program in Libya.
Ironically, some of the very same jihadists and Muslim extremists who were targets of the CIA's torture and rendition program are now fighting with the rebels in the east, and in the case of Derna, have established a Taliban-like "Islamic emirate."
As for the French support for the Libyan rebels, there is evidence that French President Ncolas Sarkozy and Bernard-Henri Levy, the French philosopher friend of alleged New York hotel sexual predator and former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, supported the rebels to permit Israel to extend its influence in Libya to offset Tel Aviv's losses in Egypt. There have been credible reports that Levy, an early supporter of the Libyan rebels, convinced them during a recent visit to Benghazi, to permit Israel to establish a military base in eastern Cyrenaica on a 30-year lease. In return for the base, Israel would exert its power in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome to have NATO step up its military campaign in Libya and Israel would covertly provide the rebels with specialized military and intelligence assistance. Just after Levy's shuttle diplomacy between Benghazi and Jerusalem, where he met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, NATO committed helicopter gunships for the first time to its Libya campaign.
There has been no mention of the Israeli involvement in Libya in the New York Times, Washington Post, orLos Angeles Times, which is not surprising considering the pro-Israeli leanings of the ownership of those newspapers.
There has been no mention by the Western media, in their zeal to promote the Pentagon and NATO line, that some Libyan rebels acceded to the government's offer of an amnesty if the rebels gave up their weapons. After rebels handed over their weapons in Misrata and in the western mountains, NATO increased its bombings of the two regions.
Corporate media "war correspondents" travel in a pack, and whether they are American, British, French, German,. Canadian, or Italian, merely ape the line of the western military. In the case of Libya, the corporate war reporters hype the rebel successes while their counterparts at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli jump on every chance to paint the Libyan government as disingenuous and exaggerating NATO collateral damage. However, this reporter witnessed the results of a NATO airstrike in a residential neighborhood of Tripoli that killed five people, including Qaddafi's son, Seif al-Arab Qaddafi and Colonel Qaddafi's three grandchildren. Neighboring homes, located only a block from the embassy of Ivory Coast, were also severely damaged in the NATO attack.
Other corporate media reports out of Benghazi have suggested rebel victories in the western part of Libya, in towns along the main highway route from Tripoli to the Tunisian border. Having traveled the route on June 6, this reporter can attest that there were no signs of any rebel presence, with every town and city between Tripoli and the border flying the green flag of the Jamahiriyah. There were no flags flying of the former feudal royalist regime, the flag used by the rebels, from Tripoli to Tunisia. The only gunfire heard in the region was from Tunisian troops called in to quell black African worker refugees from the fighting in Libya crossing back and forth across the unguarded border near the actual border crossing stations.
The Libyan government has set up a phone number of Tunisia that promises displaced workers housing and financial support if they return to Libya. The rebels attacked several black African workers from sub-Saharan and Pan-Sahel countries merely because of the color of their skin. Several workers were killed and wounded and many black African women, including the wives and daughters of the guest workers, were raped by the rebels. Yet, there has been very little reported about the Arab-on-black violence by the rebels in the corporate media, ever anxious to cover for the Pentagon, CIA, White House, and NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Neither is there mention of the disposal of the bodies of the victims of rebel violence: the mass burning of bodies of victims to erase any trace of crimes against humanity committed by the U.S.- and NATO-backed rebel forces.
It has been said many times that in war the first casualty is the truth. However, journalists have a duty to report the truth regardless of the whims of their governments. As we have seen in Libya, and before, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, Darfur, Rwanda, Somalia, and Yemen, modern-day corporate journalists are mere stenographers for their corporate masters who, in turn, control the puppet strings for the marionettes in Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin.
NATO airstrike on Tripoli kills 9 (June 20, 2011) http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/20/52088220.html
NATO has admitted having accidentally killed nine civilians during Sunday's airstrike on a military airfield just outside the Libyan capital Tripoli. The alliance said in a statement that the airstrike targeted a missile launcher but one bomb strayed off target and hit an apartment house 1.5 km away from the airfield.
Libya asserts NATO strike killed 15, including children (June 21, 2011) http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2011/06/21/libya_asserts_nato_strike_killed_15_including_children/
SURMAN, Libya - Libya's government said a NATO airstrike west of Tripoli early yesterday destroyed a large family compound belonging to a close associate of Moammar Khadafy, killing at least 15 people, including three children. NATO said the strike targeted a military command and control center. Khadafy's regime has repeatedly accused the alliance of targeting civilians, an attempt to rally support against international intervention into Libya's civil war. The alliance insists it tries to avoid killing civilians. Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said NATO bombs struck the compound belonging to Khoweildi al-Hamidi outside the city of Surman, some 40 miles west of Tripoli, around 4 a.m. yesterday. (...) Hamidi is a longtime regime insider who took part in the 1969 coup that brought Khadafy to power. He reportedly commanded a battalion that crushed rebels in the nearby western city of Zawiya in March, and his daughter is married to one of Khadafy's sons, Saadi. Ibrahim said Hamidi escaped the airstrikes unharmed but that three children, two of them Hamidi's grandchildren, were among the 15 killed. Officials said he was inside a still-intact building at the time of the strike. "They are targeting civilians. . . . The logic is intimidation,'' Ibrahim said of NATO. "They want Libyans to give up the fight . . . they want to break our spirit.'' Foreign journalists based in the Libyan capital were taken by government officials to the walled compound, where at least two buildings had been blasted to rubble. A pair of massive craters could be seen in the dusty ground, and rescue workers with dogs were scouring the rubble in search of people. The smell of smoke was still in the air. CLIP
Libya's civilian casualties have silenced Sarkozy's crusade (20 June 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/20/libya-civilian-casualties-france-sarkozy
France's president has gone quiet following speculation it was a French missile that killed civilians in a Tripoli housing block (...) How strangely silent the same French press is today as speculation mounts that it was in fact one of their missiles that ploughed into a housing block in Tripoli, killing at least nine civilians, including young children, and seriously injuring dozens more. While authoritative journalists, including British ones, working in Libya point to the "weapons systems failure" (Nato jargon) being the fault of the French military, Paris has effectively imposed a news blackout on the subject. The day after the lethal attack, there was not one word in the French press, on TV, or on radio about those potentially responsible."It doesn't matter whose missile it was," a source at the French Ministry of Defence told me. "It's a combined operation - we're all in it together." Asked directly if a French missile had killed the civilians, he replied: "No comment."More sceptical commentators tell me that the campaign is costing France alone the equivalent of more than ¤1m a day, that aircraft and naval crews have been stretched to the point of "dangerous" exhaustion, and that Gaddafi's bunker strategy is working. Just as pertinently, military analysts evaluate a scalp, the kind of French air-launched cruise missile that may well have caused the loss of life, at costing up to ¤800,000 a hit. But the real cost of this lengthening and increasingly squalid war is, as Sarkozy and his generals are now discovering, proving to be a great deal more.
Libya: Nato admits civilian deaths in Tripoli air raid (20 June 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/19/nato-libya-strike-civilian-deaths?intcmp=239
Alliance says 'weapons systems failure' caused strike to miss intended target and may have led to civilian casualties - Nato has admitted it was responsible for an air strike that killed civilians in Tripoli over the weekend."A military missile site was the intended target of air strikes in Tripoli last night," a statement said. "However, it appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target; there may have been a weapons system failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties." Earlier the Libyan government had said that a Nato missile had struck a house in a residential area of the Libyan capital, killing at least nine civilians, including two children. The attack is the biggest mistake by coalition forces during the four-month campaign, at a time when Nato has been trying to increase the tempo of operations against the Libyan leader. CLIP
Civilian deaths raise doubts about future of Libya mission ( J u n e 2 0 , 2 0 1 1 ) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/civilian-deaths-raise-doubts-about-future-of-libya-mission/article2068657/
The deaths of Libyan civilians in NATO air strikes are raising fears that international political support for the mission could weaken, and that Canadians could become reluctant to back it even though there are no soldiers on the ground.
(...) The stalemate in a war now aimed – in all but the most official words – at ousting Colonel Moammar Gadhafi means that the clock is ticking. The allies are seeking to reach their goal, with the prospect of international and public support unravelling over a hot summer of air strikes. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Monday that civilian deaths pose a risk to the NATO-led military alliance. “NATO is endangering its credibility; we cannot risk killing civilians,” Mr. Frattini told reporters before an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg to discuss ways to aid rebels. The Arab League, which called for the no-fly zone in March, condemned the civilian deaths. “When the Arab League agreed on the idea of having a no-fly zone over Libya it was to protect civilians, but when civilians get killed this has to be condemned with the harshest of statements,” said deputy secretary-general Ahmed Ben Helli. C L I P
Gaddafi files show evidence of murderous intent (18 June 2011) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/18/gaddafi-misrata-war-crime-documents?intcmp=239
The Observer has gained exclusive access to thousands of documents which show how the Libyan leader gave orders for the torture, arrest and bombardment of his own people (...) The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has already filed indictments against Gaddafi, his son, Saif al-Islam, and his intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. These files provide the proof, according to the Libyan lawyers who collected them, that make convictions all but certain.The Observer was last week granted exclusive access to view some of the files - documents that even the ICC has not yet seen. A glance at the paperwork is astonishing: on the top of one file is a letter from 4 March, two weeks after Misrata rose up to defy Gaddafi, signed by the general he put in charge of the operation to quell the protest: Youssef Ahmed Basheer Abu Hajar. Addressed to the "fighting formations", which had by then cut all roads into the city, it issues a blunt instruction: "It is absolutely forbidden for supply cars, fuel and other services to enter the city of Misrata from all gates and checkpoints."Or, to put it more bluntly, he ordered his army to inflict starvation on every man, woman and child in Misrata. (...) There are other documents, not to be revealed to the press - at least, not until a trial is in open court - that reveal Gaddafi's generals giving orders to smash rebel centres, regardless of causing civilian casualties."We have lots of evidence that Gaddafi wanted all of Misrata gone," said Misratan war crimes investigator Khalid Alwab, 35. "We have him [Gaddafi] saying he wanted the people of Taruga [the town to the west] and Zlitan [the town to the east] to each take half. He says that he wanted to turn the blue sea red."To put it into perspective, consider that no significant international war crimes trial has ever found written instructions proving that atrocities were actually ordered. (...) CLIP
Libyan majority in support of Gaddafi (June 21, 2011) http://www.presstv.com/detail/185602.html
The mass pro-Gaddafi street demonstration of one million Libyans held in the capital Tripoli has gone unreported by Western media as has news of civilians killed for the past three months. Press TV talks with Lizzie Phelan, journalist and political activist in London who has been to Libya and says that Western media is complicit in war crimes in the North African country through omission of fact and that the vast majority of the population are in support of the Libyan government. Following is a transcript of the interview.
(...) Just on Friday there was a complete blackout in the media except for one CNN report about a march of one million Libyans in a country of six million people in Tripoli towards Green Square in support of the government and also in support of the people of Benghazi and Misrata who are being harassed and persecuted by what I call counter-revolutionaries, which is what others call rebels - in particular black Libyans who because of the really shameful story that al-Jazeera has pumped out about Gaddafi hiring African mercenaries, black Libyans in places like Misrata and Benghazi - I've met refugees from these areas who are victims of these atrocities - black Libyans being lynched publicly and the most unspeakable atrocities are being committed against them by pro-NATO counter revolutionaries. In terms of the tribes in Libya - from my sources I have information that 90% of the tribes in Libya are supportive of the government including the largest tribe in Libya. Of course, before the uprising there were frustrations In Libya as there are within every singly country, but the Libyan people are an extremely non-confrontational people that will go to the ends of the earth to resolve in a non-confrontational way. And that is also reflected in the government in the way in which the government has tried over the decades and bent backwards to accommodate opposition forces within the government, which in a sense has backfired as we saw from the people who defected from the government and who sold out because they were in the pockets of the CIA andMI6 and the other Western intelligence services. So, from my experience in Libya the support for the government is absolutely widespread. There was a Guardian journalist in Libya who thankfully was deported from Libya for reporting that the reason why there is no opposition in Tripoli is because there are informers everywhere. A million people marched through the streets of Tripoli so the people have spoken for themselves. CLIP
Oil and gas behind new world order (21.06.2011) http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2011/06/21/oil-and-gas-behind-new-world-order.html
(...) The 'liberation' of Libya, which is one of Europe`s main energy suppliers, is yet far from completion. The Libyan leader Gaddafi has proved his strength and does not seem to be ready to face the Hussein's fate. Thus the US plans for the region's territorial division are failing. Gaddafi's resistance has upset the plans of global leaders who now seem more inclined to separate Libya from its eastern territories hit by tribal protests and deprived of oil and gas and turn them into a breakaway territory like Kosovo… In recent years 80% of Libyan oil went to Europe and the US. However, Libya shared positions with China National Petroleum Corporation (they were building railway roads and some other facilities) and Russia's "Tatneft". Not everything went smoothly among the western participants of the energy market as there were companies dissatisfied with the fact that Italian ENI had privileged positions in Libya, its former colony. There is hardly any doubt that the Western invasion of Libya has to do first of all with local energy resources. There may be another reason for that: Washington has counted all possible outcomes of the Libyan crisis and now is aimed at preventing European countries from accessing Libyan resources. Oil and gas wars have long become a common thing worldwide, though the countries involved try not to make it evident for the rest of the world. CLIP
Assassinations of Country Leaders and the International Law: Precedent To Be Set in Libya? http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2011/05/03/assassinations-of-country-leaders-and-the-international-law-precedent-to-be-set-in-libya.html
The NATO aggression against Libya makes the world re-examine a number of themes from the realm of the international law, especially in the light of the obviously existing plan to kill the country's defiant leader M. Gadhafi. Gadhafi's residences are permanently targeted by NATO air raids one of which left his family members - son and three grandsons - dead on May 1.
(...) Gadhafi narrowly escaped a number of assassination attempts including the April 1986 one when the US and its allies bombed Tripoli. Currently we are witnessing another hunt for Gadhafi which, as in 1986, is taking the lives of his family members. Any assessment of the current situation in Libya should be premised in the assumption that an aggression - regardless of how the media comb the picture, etc. - is in itself a crime… The killings resulting from an aggression are separate crimes, and, moreover, the killing of a country leader as a part of the aggression is a crime of particular severity. At the moment there is a criminal plan to assassinate Gadhafi, and its implementation has already generated a separate death toll. CLIP
Western institutions have become caricatures of hypocrisy.
The International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are violating their charters in order to bail out French, German, and Dutch private banks. The IMF is only empowered to make balance of payments loans, but is lending to the Greek government for prohibited budgetary reasons in order that the Greek government can pay the banks. The ECB is prohibited from bailing out member country governments, but is doing so anyway in order that the banks can be paid. The German parliament approved the bailout, which violates provisions of the European Treaty and Germany’s own Basic Law. The case is in the German Constitutional Court, a fact unreported in the US media.
US president George W. Bush appointed an immigrant, who is not impressed with the US Constitution and the separation of powers, to the Justice (sic) Department in order to get a ruling that the president has “unitary powers” that elevate him above statutory US law, treaties, and international law. According to this immigrant’s legal decisions, the “unitary executive” can violate with impunity the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which prevents spying on Americans without warrants obtained from the FISA Court. The immigrant also ruled that Bush could violate with impunity the statutory US laws against torture as well as the Geneva Conventions. In other words, the fictional “unitary powers” make the president into a Caesar.
Constitutional protections, such as habeas corpus, which prohibit government from holding people indefinitely without presenting charges and evidence to a court, and which prohibit government from denying detained people due process of law and access to an attorney, were thrown out the window by the US Department of Justice (sic), and the federal courts went along with most of it.
As did Congress, “the people’s representatives”. Congress even enacted the Military Tribunals Commissions Act of 2006, signed by the White House Brownshirt on October 17.
This act allows anyone alleged to be an “unlawful enemy combatant” to be sentenced to death on the basis of secret and hearsay evidence not presented in the kangaroo military court placed out of reach of US federal courts. The crazed nazis in Congress who supported this total destruction of Anglo-American law masqueraded as “patriots in the war against terrorism.”
The act designates anyone accused by the US, without evidence being presented, as being part of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, or “associated forces” to be an “unlawful enemy combatant,” which strips the person of the protection of law. Not even George Orwell could have conceived of such a formulation.
The Taliban consists of indigenous Afghan peoples, who, prior to the US military intervention, were fighting to unify the country. The Taliban are Islamist, and the US government fears another Islamist government, like the one in Iran that was blowback from US intervention in Iran’s internal affairs. The “freedom and democracy” Americans overthrew an elected Iranian leader and imposed a tyrant. American-Iranian relations have never recovered from the tyranny that Washington imposed on Iranians.
Washington is opposed to any government whose leaders cannot be purchased to perform as Washington’s puppets. This is why George W. Bush’s regime invaded Afghanistan, why Washington overthrew Saddam Hussein, and why Washington wants to overthrow Libya, Syria, and Iran.
America’s First Black (or half white) President inherited the Afghan war, which has lasted longer than World War II with no victory in sight. Instead of keeping with his election promises and ending the fruitless war, Obama intensified it with a “surge,”
The war is now ten years old, and the Taliban control more of the country than does the US and its NATO puppets. Frustrated by their failure, the Americans and their NATO puppets increasingly murder women, children, village elders, Afghan police, and aid workers.
A video taken by a US helicopter gunship, leaked to Wikileaks and released, shows American forces, as if they were playing video games, slaughtering civilians, including camera men for a prominent news service, as they are walking down a peaceful street. A father with small children, who stopped to help the dying victims of American soldiers’ fun and games, was also blown away, as were his children. The American voices on the video blame the children’s demise on the father for bringing kids into a “war zone.” It was no war zone, just a quiet city street with civilians walking along.
The video documents American crimes against humanity as powerfully as any evidence used against the Nazis in the aftermath of World War II at the Nuremberg Trials.
Perhaps the height of lawlessness was attained when the Obama regime announced that it had a list of American citizens who would be assassinated without due process of law.
One would think that if law any longer had any meaning in Western civilization, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, indeed, the entire Bush/Cheney regime, as well as Tony Blair and Bush’s other co-conspirators, would be standing before the International Criminal Court.
Yet it is Gadaffi for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants. Western powers are using the International Criminal Court, which is supposed to serve justice, for self-interested reasons that are unjust.
What is Gadaffi’s crime? His crime is that he is attempting to prevent Libya from being overthrown by a US-supported, and perhaps organized, armed uprising in Eastern Libya that is being used to evict China from its oil investments in Eastern Libya.
Libya is the first armed revolt in the so-called “Arab Spring.” Reports have made it clear that there is nothing “democratic” about the revolt. http://www.english.rfi.fr/print/95867?print=now
The West managed to push a “no-fly” resolution through its puppet organization, the United Nations. The resolution was limited to neutralizing Gadaffi’s air force. However, Washington, and its French puppet, Sarkozy, quickly made an “expansive interpretation” of the UN resolution and turned it into authorization to become directly involved in the war.
Gadaffi has resisted the armed rebellion against the state of Libya, which is the normal response of a government to rebellion. The US would respond the same as would the UK and France. But by trying to prevent the overthrow of his country and his country from becoming another American puppet state, Gadaffi has been indicted. The International Criminal Court knows that it cannot indict the real perpetrators of crimes against humanity--Bush, Blair, Obama, and Sarkozy--but the court needs cases and accepts the victims that the West succeeds in demonizing.
In our post-Orwellian times, everyone who resists or even criticizes the US is a criminal. For example, Washington considers Julian Assange and Bradley Manning to be criminals, because they made information available that exposed crimes committed by the US government. Anyone who even disagrees with Washington, is considered to be a “threat,” and Obama can have such “threats” assassinated or arrested as a “terrorist suspect” or as someone “providing aid and comfort to terrorists.” American conservatives and liberals, who once supported the US Constitution, are all in favor of shredding the Constitution in the interest of being “safe from terrorists.” They even accept such intrusions as porno-scans and sexual groping in order to be “safe” on air flights.
The collapse of law is across the board. The Supreme Court decided that it is “free speech” for America to be ruled by corporations, not by law and certainly not by the people. On June 27, the US Supreme Court advanced the fascist state that the “conservative” court is creating with the ruling that Arizona cannot publicly fund election candidates in order to level the playing field currently unbalanced by corporate money. The “conservative” US Supreme Court considers public funding of candidates to be unconstitutional, but not the “free speech” funding by business interests who purchase the government in order to rule the country. The US Supreme Court has become a corporate functionary and legitimizes rule by corporations. Mussolini called this rule, imposed on Americans by the US Supreme Court, fascism.
The Supreme Court also ruled on June 27 that California violated the US Constitution by banning the sale of violent video games to kids, despite evidence that the violent games trained the young to violent behavior. It is fine with the Supreme Court for soldiers, whose lives are on the line, to be prohibited under penalty of law from drinking beer before they are 21, but the idiot Court supports inculcating kids to be murderers, as long as it is in the interest of corporate profits, in the name of “free speech.”
Amazing, isn’t it, that a court so concerned with ‘free speech” has not protected American war protesters from unconstitutional searches and arrests, or protected protesters from being attacked by police or herded into fenced-in areas distant from the object of protest.
As the second decade of the 21st century opens, those who oppose US hegemony and the evil that emanates from Washington risk being declared to be “terrorists.” If they are American citizens, they can be assassinated. If they are foreign leaders, their country can be invaded. When captured, they can be executed, like Saddam Hussein, or sent off to the ICC, like the hapless Serbs, who tried to defend their country from being dismantled by the Americans.
And the American sheeple think that they have “freedom and democracy.”
Washington relies on fear to coverup its crimes. A majority of Americans now fear and hate Muslims, peoples about whom Americans know nothing but the racist propaganda which encourages Americans to believe that Muslims are hiding under their beds in order to murder them in their sleep.
The neoconservatives, of course, are the purveyors of fear. The more fearful the sheeple, the more they seek safety in the neocon police state and the more they overlook Washington’s crimes of aggression against Muslims.
Safety uber alles. That has become the motto of a once free and independent American people, who once were admired but today are despised.
Americans are such a terrified and abused people that a 95-year old woman dying from leukemia traveling to a last reunion with family members was forced to remove her adult diaper in order to clear airport security.
Only a population totally cowed would permit such abuses of human dignity.
In a June 27 interview on National Public Radio, Ban Ki-moon, Washington’s South Korean puppet installed as the Secretary General of the United Nations, was unable to answer why the UN and the US tolerate the slaughter of unarmed civilians in Bahrain, but support the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Gadaffi for defending Libya against armed rebellion. Gadaffi has killed far fewer people than the US, UK, or the Saudis in Bahrain. Indeed, NATO and the Americans have killed more Libyans than has Gadaffi. The difference is that the US has a naval base in Bahrain, but not in Libya.
There is nothing left of the American character. Only a people who have lost their soul could tolerate the evil that emanates from Washington.
"What if life was planted here on Earth, and it rode in on an asteroid or was put here by aliens," says Dr. David Eagleman during a May 31 NPR interview
by Dave Masko -- 2011-06-01
At the same time, Eagleman - a neuroscientist who directs the Laboratory of Perception and Action at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas - says “physics tells us there are somewhere between nine and 13 spatial dimensions, so what if there were whole civilizations living between dimensions five and eight?”
New scientific breakthroughs in how the human brain works has promoted Dr. David Eagleman to speak frankly about the idea that aliens “planted life here on Earth.” Also, there are dozens of Oregon UFO “watchers” scanning the sky here at Bray’s Point along the central Oregon coast who join hundreds of scientists who’ve pioneered the study of UFOs and alien life under the title “astrobiology.” For instance, leading scientists at Cambridge University in England first coined the term “astrobiology” in the landmark report “Planets and Life: The Emerging Science of Astrobiology,” that’s become a key part of the recently released stash of 8,500 British UFO document that link tens of thousands other UFO documents, and point to lucid accounts of “Greys,” to describe extraterrestrial beings that have visited the Earth for thousands of years.
The existence of “Greys” and other aliens is revealed in both the recently released British UFO documents, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) “the Vault” online UFO files.
This story is number 11 in an occasional series of reports about what the secret British UFO files contain, and what new information these documents reveal.
Astrobiology scientists hunting down Greys and other ET beings on Earth
“They move in gangs, and live in nondescript homes and buildings. They are not the ‘Greys’ but alien beings who’ve morphed into human form, living here on Earth for thousands of years,” states a 1974 Oregon UFO “watcher” essay -- that’s viewed by this group of UFO hunters that frequents Bray’s Point -- as “our guidance” for searching, and then making contact with alien life.
At the same time scientists have hunted down and identified “exoplanets,” that Washington Post national editor Marc Kaufman describes in his new book “First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth,” as “those mysterious balls in the universe that orbit distant suns not too different from our own.”
Kaufman also writes that scientists “have discovered extremophiles, the extraordinary microbes that thrive in the environments of intense heat or cold that mimic the inhospitable conditions of other planets.”
Moreover, Kaufman notes that NASA scientists “have landed rovers on Mars and detected it methane, a possible signature of past life.”
In turn, these UFO and alien hunters – astrobiologists – are described as a “new generation of out-of-the-box researchers, adventures, and thinkers who are part Carl Sagan, part Indiana Jones, part Watson and Crick, and part forensic specialists on CSI:Mars,” writes Kaufman in his best seller about making first contact with aliens now in 2011.
Greys are the common form of extraterrestrial beings from science fiction
While the “look” of “Greys” is promoted on those sensational looking UFO web sites and in ufological, paranormal and in New Age communities – per the name derives from the alien’s skin color being grey – brain experts such as Dr. David Eagleman, who heads the Neurobiology and Anatomy department at the University of Texas, thinks the answer to both Greys and other alien life lies inside our human brains.
Also, a composite description of the Greys – from both the British UFO documents and FBI UFO files – stated that the “Greys” are small bodied, sexless beings with smooth grey skin. The ET’s have an enlarged head and large eyes.
According to the May 31 interview with Professor Eaglemen – whose written a new book, “Incognito,” that examines the unconscious part of our brains -- they really got, a bunch of people in the scientific community really jumped on these two giants of biology for even suggesting that maybe we were planted here by aliens. But you know what? It's a perfectly good hypothesis. I mean we don't know enough to rule that out. It belongs on the table along with all of the rest of them.”
The heart of science comes down to the study of alien life on Earth, say experts
“Essentially, this is the heart of science,” adds Eagleman of the quest to understand alien life and how the human brain perceives ETs.
“We always come up with hypotheses and we bring evidence in to weigh for or against those hypotheses. And in science, of course, we never even talk about truth or proofs. We talk about where the weight of evidence suggests at the moment, you know, what we think is the best narrative at the moment. And so, you know, there's this illusion that all of us learn in high school where we look in textbooks and science seems to proceed in a linear lockstep manner where so-and-so discovers this and then the next person and so on. But science never proceeds that way. Every major advance in science has been a creative leap where someone says, well, gosh, what this really strange story were true? And then what you do is you make a lot of these leaps and you look back to see if you can build a bridge back to what we already know in science. And when you can that's progress. And when you can't that's an interesting hypothesis that you just file away and you keep. And for myself I, you know, I spend all of my day in the laboratory coming up with hypotheses and the ones that I can't do anything further with scientifically I come home and I write fiction about.“
In turn, NPR noted that most people interested in “Astrobiology” read Eagleman’s book "Sum," which was a bestseller about a series of scenarios that he created envisioning possible afterlives. “Like if there is an afterlife, what might it be like? And you use your knowledge of consciousness and neuroscience to help create these different vision,” he said.
Eagleman's new book, “Incognito”, examines the unconscious part of our brains — the complex neural networks that are constantly fighting one another and influencing how we act, the things we're attracted to, and the thoughts that we have.
"All of our lives — our cognition, our thoughts, our beliefs — all of these are underpinned by these massive lightning storms of [electrical] activity [in our brains,] and yet we don't have any awareness of it," Eagleman said during the May 31 NPR interview.
"What we find is that our brains have colossal things happening in them all the time," he adds.
Making “First Contact” is a goal for 2011, say astrobiologists
“First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth” by Marc Kaufman, the national editor for The Washington Post, is a recently published book that does not dispute alien life but, instead, fears it.
In turn, there’s new promise of cracking the extraterrestrial barrier, writes Kaufman, who points to “prominent scientists from NASA to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from the Carnegie Institution of Washington to Princeton and Cambridge universities, have decided to ignore the giggle factor associated with UFOs and ET and join the quest.”
“In the past 10 years we have found that hundreds of planets orbit distant suns not too different from our own and can reasonably infer that billions more exist,” writes Kaufman in his new book “First Contact.”
“Put all this together and the unavoidable question becomes whether, at bottom, we’re all Martians – quite literally descendants of life from Mars or other planets,” adds Kaufman in his First Contact book’s chapter “The Biggest Discovery of Them All.”
Moreover, the author presents views on what to do when the alien’s reveal themselves in mass and either take on the Earth or simply let it be as aliens have been doing for thousands of years.
Anyone can read parts of the British files on line
It should also be noted that the files are available to download free of charge for one month at this U.K. National Archives website.
Image source of “a grey alien” based on the "Selenites" in H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon (1901), this depiction of aliens became popularized in Ufology subculture during the 1960s in the wake of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction reports: Wikipedia
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I-Team: Inside the FBI's Secret Vault (MAY 23, 2011) http://www.8newsnow.com/story/14698581/i-team
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An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of. He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep. An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out. The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks. Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.' The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 He's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'
- Story sent by Florence Chapgier (flofrog@mac.com)
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