World-News

The Chicago Tribune asserts that "President Bush's assurance Thursday that the privacy of Americans was being 'fiercely protected' was not at all convincing" in light of the "vast, secret database with records of tens of millions of telephone calls made by Americans" that the NSA has gathered.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306G.shtml

Medea Benjamin finds that "Mother's Day was NOT invented by Hallmark. In fact, Julia Ward Howe, the woman credited with initiating Mother's Day in 1870, would have been appalled by its crass commercialism. Were she alive today, Julia probably would have told her kids to dispense with the roses and chocolates, and instead join her in an anti-war rally."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306F.shtml

A major GOP fundraiser charged in a scandal over a state rare-coin investment asked to change his not guilty pleas Wednesday on separate federal charges that he illegally funneled donations to President Bush's re-election campaign.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306E.shtml

Invoking the need to protect "state secrets," the Justice Department urged a federal judge on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a man whose experience came to symbolize what some have called the unaccountability of a government program that secretly ships terrorism suspects to overseas prisons.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306D.shtml

A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching US soil.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306B.shtml

A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on US citizens.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306A.shtml

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-friedman/on-electronic-voting-we-_b_20890.html


Informant: NHNE

Die jüngste Vergangenheit der schwarzen Heimpädagogik.
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/22/22605/1.html

In Großbritannien durfte der erste Embryo, der mit der PID auf ein Gen für einen erblichen Augentumor getestet wurde, in eine Frau eingepflanzt werden. Das wird die Tür für die nächste Generation von "Designer-Kindern" öffnen.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/22/22666/1.html

Die Kriegstrommeln werden lauter

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/22/22664/1.html

The former chief executive of Qwest, the nation's fourth-largest phone company, rebuffed government requests for the company's calling records after 9/11 because of "a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process," his lawyer said yesterday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306Z.shtml

Petition gegen Geflügel-Stallpflicht ist jetzt online

Die von mir am 30. April beim Petitionsausschuss des Deutschen Bundestages eingereichte e-Petition gegen die (neuerdings bis zum 15. August verlängerte) Stallpflicht für Geflügel wird nach Auskunft des Ausschusses nicht als öffentliche Petition behandelt werden.

Begründung: Es gebe bereits ähnliche Petitionen. Dies bedeutet, dass die Petition nicht auf der offiziellen Petitions-Webseite des Petitionsausschusses online gestellt wird.

Dankenswerterweise hat sich sehr kurzfristig eine private Initiative gefunden, die bereit war, meine Petition auf ihrer Webseite bereitzustellen (vielen Dank an den Webmaster Werner Hupperich!).

Sie können die Petition also ab sofort unter folgender Adresse aufrufen und unterzeichnen:

http://www.impfkritik.de/vogelgrippe/petition

Der aktuelle Stand: Bisher sind 48 handschriftliche Unterstützerun-
terschriften per Post eingegangen. Die Unterschriftenliste kann un-
ter obiger Adresse heruntergeladen werden.

Ständig aktuell gehaltene Infos für den Status des Petition finden
Sie unter:

http://www.impfkritik.de/vogelgrippe/petition/status.htm

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Hans U. P. Tolzin


Quelle: impf-report Newsletter Nr. 18/2006

VODAFONE has applied to install a mobile phone mast at the RSPCA's Preston shelter after a previous controversial application was refused.
The mobile phone giants had originally planned to install the antenna near Ribbleton Library but this was met with fierce opposition from councillors and residents.

Now the company has applied to Preston Council to erect a 22.6m mast at the RSPCA shelter on Ribbleton Lane.

Three antennas will be on top of a 20m pole to provide extra coverage for users in the Ribbleton area of the city.

But the plan has been met with fierce opposition from local people, who are furious that the company has moved the mast just a few hundred yards.

Mother-of-two Sian Moore, from Ribbleton Hall Drive, is furious Vodafone has resubmitted the application. She said: "We have been given no information about it, except three signs have gone up on lampposts nearby.

"I've grave concerns for the health of my sons as this mast is so close to where we live."

Heather Holmes of the RSPCA said: "There is no real reason why it should not go there.

"The trustees have discussed it and if there is space then we do not see it as a problem."

04 May 2006

All rights reserved © 2006 Johnston Press Digital Publishing.

http://www.prestontoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?sectionid=73&articleid=1483274

For information purposes. Geoff.

-------Original Message-------

From: carole
Date: 05/08/06 11:53:51
To: Geoff Williams Mast Sanity
Subject: O2 Meols, Wirral


Hi Geoff

Quick update.

The latest appeal has been dismissed! (That's four refused planning applications and three dismissed appeals for the same site in 20 months now!!)

We're thrilled to bits. Inspector Baird "acknowledged that the residents fears are relevant to my decision" but in conclusion only stated that the proposal would conflict with green belt policy.

We asked him to advise on 'repeat applications' but he stated that it is a matter for the planning authority.

Mr Baird noted that the church they implied had refused permission had never been approached and picked up that we have found and offered an alternative site in a industrial area in the cell. He said that they had not investigated this therefore they could not claim to have 'special circumstances' to use the green belt.

I'll keep you informed of future developments.

Best wishes

Carole

By Sam Beattie

Knaresborough Today

CAMPAIGNERS this week welcomed a new county-wide pressure group to stop mobile phone masts being put up near schools and houses.

The group, proposed by Harrogate Borough councillors, will be non-political and voice residents’ health concerns about mobile phone transmitters being sited in communities.

It will also work with other councils, sharing knowledge and campaigning for more local powers to reject mast applications on health grounds.

The move comes in light of growing medical concerns about the affect of radiation on people’s health, in particular children’s health, outlined by studies such as the Stewart Report.

Coun Andrew Jones (Con, High Harrogate) put forward the plans along with Coun Richard Cooper (Con, Low Harrogate).

Coun Jones said: “With recent cases we have seen masts built or beefed up near schools with scant regard given to public opinion and local planning processes either bypassed or not allowed to consider health issues because of Government rules.

“While most of us like using mobile phones we must strike a balance between this and the health concerns many have over the radiation emitted by masts.”

In 2001 the council introduced a rule banning the building of masts on council-owned buildings and last year campaigners tried to fight a mast being installed near three schools in High Harrogate.

Harrogate Council had refused planning permission for a mast on the Claro Road site but a High Court appeal eventually overturned the decision.

Paula Brooks, a member of the Campaign Against Masts put up near Schools (CAMPUS) – which objected to the Claro Road transmitter – said: “In my own view I would welcome any discussion about the benefits and detriments of putting phone masts in built-up areas.

“If they’re going to set up a group just to talk about it more and research it more then that’s wonderful. As a community we should be able to say “no”.”

Government policy is part-based on research conducted by scientists who are commissioned by mobile phone companies and the Government currently refuses to recognise health concerns as grounds for objection.

Now councillors are calling for local councils and residents to have a greater say on where companies can locate their transmitters by asking the Government to protect people’s health rather than corporations’ profits.

05 May 2006

From Karen Barratt

Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 9:17 AM
Subject: WHAT A STRANGE STORY?!

See link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4974542.stm

--------

This Israeli study was funded by the cellular company Cellcom. Hagit Messer Yaron was the chief scientist of the Science office in the government. in 2000 She received the Fellow degree of the IEEE institute. And she is a professor in the school of electrical engineering.

Regards

Iris Atzmon.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-kinzer13may13,1,1703136.story

From the Los Angeles Times

In the last 100 years, the U.S. has ousted the governments of at least 14 countries and forcibly intervened in dozens of others -- to what end?

By Stephen Kinzer

STEPHEN KINZER, a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, is the author of "All the Shah's Men," about the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran, and, most recently, "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change"

May 13, 2006

THE UNITED STATES is facing a major crisis in Iran, where the clerical regime, despite its denials, is evidently embarked on an effort to develop nuclear weapons. Because American leaders say they will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, this has led to intense speculation that the Bush administration is preparing a military attack.

History suggests, however, that such an attack would have disastrous long-term consequences. Iranians know as well as anyone how terribly wrong such foreign interventions can go.

Iran was an incipient democracy in 1953, but Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh - chosen by an elected parliament and hugely popular among Iranians - angered the West by nationalizing his country's oil industry. President Eisenhower sent the CIA to depose him. The coup was successful, but it set the stage for future disaster.

The CIA placed Mohammed Reza Pahlavi back on the Peacock Throne. His repressive rule led, 25 years later, to the Islamic Revolution. That revolution brought to power a clique of bitterly anti-Western mullahs who have spent the decades since working intensely, and sometimes violently, to undermine U.S. interests around the world.

If the Eisenhower administration had refrained from direct intervention against Iran in 1953, this religious regime probably would never have come to power. There would be no nuclear crisis. Iran might instead have become a thriving democracy in the heart of the Muslim Middle East.

Overthrowing a government is like releasing a wheel at the top of a hill - you have no idea exactly what will happen next. Iranians are not the only ones who know this. In slightly more than a century, the United States has overthrown the governments of at least 14 countries, beginning with the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, and forcibly intervened in dozens more. Long before Afghanistan and Iraq, there were the Philippines, Panama, South Vietnam and Chile, among others.

Most of these interventions not only have brought great pain to the target countries but also, in the long run, weakened American security.

Cuba, half a world away from Iran, is a fine example. In 1898, the United States sent troops there to help rebels overthrow Spanish colonial rule. Once victory was secured, the U.S. reneged on its promise to allow Cuba to become independent and turned it into a protectorate.

More than 60 years later, in his first speech as leader of the victorious Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro recalled that episode and made a promise. "This time," he vowed, "it will not be like 1898, when the Americans came in and made themselves masters of the country."

Those words suggest that perhaps if the U.S. had allowed Cuba to go its own way in 1898, the entire phenomenon of Castro communism might never have emerged.

The U.S. deposed a visionary leader of Nicaragua, Jose Santos Zelaya, in 1909 and sent his unlucky country into a long spiral of repression and rebellion.

Forty-five years later, still believing that "regime change" can end well, the U.S. overthrew the left-leaning president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, and imposed a military regime. That regime's brutality set off a 30-year civil war in which hundreds of thousands died.

Today, Latin America and the Middle East are the regions of the world in the most open political rebellion against U.S. policies. It is no coincidence that these are the regions where the U.S. has intervened most often. Resentment over intervention festers. It passes from generation to generation. Ultimately it produces a backlash.

Countries that have been victimized by past interventions are especially determined to resist future ones. Iran is one of these. Over the last 200 years, the British, Russians and Americans have sought to dominate and exploit Iran. If the U.S. intervenes there now, it will face the pent-up anger many Iranians harbor against all outside powers.

Some in Washington evidently believe that it is worth trying to set off upheaval in Iran because any new regime there would be an improvement.

This is a dangerous gamble, as intervention would strengthen the most radical factions in Iran. Militants, including the bombastic President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would use it as an excuse to crack down on dissent. That could lead to a wave of repression, produce a regime more dangerously anti-American than the current one and set back the cause of Iranian democracy by another generation.

This looming crisis might be resolved by direct and unconditional negotiations between Washington and Tehran, but American leaders refuse to bargain with the mullahs. The trauma of the Islamic Revolution, and the hostage crisis that followed it, left a deep scar on the American political psyche - so deep that it prevents the U.S. from engaging Iran in ways that could have great benefits for American security.

Yet far from being doomed to conflict, these two proud nations are potential allies. Both want to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, assure the free flow of Middle East oil and crush radical Sunni movements like the Taliban and Al Qaeda. What prevents talks from materializing is the deep resentment both sides feel over past interventions.

Iran has intervened across the Middle East, sometimes using the extreme weapon of terror, to attack U.S. interests. For its part, the U.S. intervened to crush Iranian democracy in 1953, imposed the shah and supported his repressive rule for 25 years.

The cure for the effects of past intervention is not more intervention. Given the seriousness of the nuclear crisis with Iran, American leaders should put aside their self-defeating and increasingly dangerous refusal to negotiate. The alternative may be violent intervention in Iran. Americans have tried that before. The results would be no happier this time.


Informant: Walter Lippmann

A message from Eleanor

PLEASE FORWARD TODAY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! Thanks!!!

On Sunday afternoon 16,10 CET the programme 'Have your Say' where one can send e-mails, phone, send text msgs is, discussing VIVISECTION this week. It is a 'GLOBAL PHONE IN' discussion, please go to page and see details.

Animal testing: Your views "Is it right to use animals for medical research or should it be banned?"

Pharmaceutical companies say animal testing is a vital element in developing cures and treatments for disease.

Animal rights activists say it's unnecessary. Some extremists have made threats against companies which test drugs on animals.

Do you think animal testing is acceptable? If you want it banned, how far would you go to stop it? Are you benefiting from a drug developed with the help of animals?

We will be discussing this issue in our global phone-in show on Sunday 14 May at 1406GMT. Please include a telephone number with your comment if you want to take part.

Published: Wednesday, 10 May, 2006, 16:24 GMT 17:24 UK

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?messageID=794651&start=165&tstart=0&&edition=2&ttl=20060513102801

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/943294/

Unterschriften zum Freiburger Appell
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/763391/

FREIBURGER APPEAL
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/566350/

Unterschriften zum Freiburger Appell
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/763391/

Freiburger Appell
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/943294/

http://omega.twoday.net/stories/351483/

Naila-Studie erhärtet Krebsverdacht von Mobilfunk
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/291645/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm


Informant: John Fitz

Even if a significant number of "good guys" come out "winners", don't make the political mistake of assuming the elections weren't rigged for that outcome. With the repeating nightmare scenario fully in-place as outlined in the NY Times piece below, add the lack of qualitative sustained effort by mainstream (local, state & federal) Democrats to address the illegal elections procedures practiced unchallenged in thousands of US counties, we must assume the outcomes of hotly contested Congressional districts will be rigged. The questions that will need to be answered are what are the specific policy interests of those who have allowed election rigging systems and procedures to remain in place? To put it simply, with the glaring acquiescence of the Democrats to election rigging and to virtually all of the foreign and domestic policy goals during the last three Presidential administrations, is it wise to assume the mainstream Democrats would 'allow' a victory by a REAL opponent of these goals? Maybe the prerequisite question that needs to be asked is, do "progressive" Democrats really understand what these goals are?

Jon Markowitz -Los Angeles


New Fears of Security Risks in Electronic Voting Systems
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/us/12vote.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

"There is a large and powerful lobby that would badly like to cut and/or privatize Social Security, and they have no qualms about playing with the truth to advance their agenda. The media should not help them," says Dean Baker.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/051206SA.shtml

Employing a new political tactic, two large labor unions are using the threat of a consumer boycott to try to curb corporate contributions to groups opposing the universal preschool initiative on the June ballot.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/051206LA.shtml

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=8980


Informant: Carol Moore in DC

From ufpj-news

http://www.infowars.com/articles/economy/iranian_oil_bourse_opens_for_business.htm


Informant: Hopedance

If filings continue to rise at anything like this rate -- which is not a given, but certainly a possibility -- we could see close to 1 million filings by the end of the year.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/bankruptcyguide/P143823.asp


From Information Clearing House

The US dollar suffered a severe sell-off on Friday, taking it to its weakest level against a trade-weighted basket of currencies since October 1997, as fears about the US current account deficit crossed world markets.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/42c48634-e1e4-11da-bf4c-0000779e2340.html


From Information Clearing House

It's the latest in the ongoing campaign by large phone companies to pull the wool over the eyes of the American public.

http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2006/05/telcos-seek-to-deceive-bloggers-with.html


From Information Clearing House

The House is preparing to vote on an Orwellian act of government that would severely limit democracy on the internet as we know it.

http://www.alternet.org/story/36145


From Information Clearing House

Police State America

Short video explores surveillance of U.S. citizens who participate in Anti-War protest.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article13018.htm

Reach Out and Track Someone
http://www.alternet.org/story/36151


From Information Clearing House

Agents operating a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program may have inadvertently spied on the e-mails and phone calls of Americans with no ties to terrorists, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6035637.html?tag=sas.email


From Information Clearing House

CIA director nominee Gen. Michael Hayden on Friday defended the secret surveillance programs he oversaw while head of another spy agency as lawful and designed to "preserve the security and the liberty of the American people."

http://tinyurl.com/r88no


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Hayden

The Spook in Your Phone

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, nominated by President Bush to head the CIA, is the man responsible for the most extensive attack ever on the privacy of US citizens.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060522/scheer0509


From Information Clearing House

The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article13016.htm

Once again, we must ride to the rescue of President George W. Bush, who is being unfairly maligned by a few malcontents unhappy with his secret program to capture and data-mine every single phone call made by anyone anywhere in the United States.

http://tinyurl.com/q4q3v


From Information Clearing House

PRESIDENT BUSH faced new and potentially damaging allegations about the secret surveillance of Americans last night after reports that his Administration has covertly collected domestic phone records of tens of millions of citizens.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2176605,00.html


From Information Clearing House

The No Child Left Behind Act made sure that public schools knew who was boss — the feds. The law requires that the military be given the same access to students as any other recruiters, including those from colleges. Schools that barred military recruitment on campus were threatened with loss of federal funding.

http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=3899


From Information Clearing House

Top physicists speak out against Bush Administration policies in the war on terror

"I think everyone should be concerned that the US, without even a real debate, has abandoned our historic principles and values".

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/05/a_second_scientific_opinion.php?page=all&p=y


From Information Clearing House

Video lecture

Noam Chomsky and Robert Fisk
http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/ram.php?id=3076&size=lo


From Information Clearing House

Video

The American attack on Falluja, and the subsequent costs to the people there, has been a humanitarian, social, moral and ethical disaster; yet the American government and media have largely ignored the plight of the innocent victims. The refugees of Falluja risked their lives in order to tell their story to the world through the groundbreaking new documentary film, Caught in the Crossfire.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article13020.htm

By Charles Sullivan

The government has fallen so completely under the spell of the corporations that it is virtually indistinguishable from them. The people have been shut out of the process and are left to fend for themselves, much like the victims of Hurricane Katrina last year.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article13023.htm

By Greg Palast

Worried about Dick Cheney listening in Sunday on your call to Mom? That ain't nothing. You should be more concerned that they are linking this info to your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration. Five years ago, I discovered that ChoicePoint had already gathered 16 billion data files on Americans -- and I know they've expanded their ops at an explosive rate.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article13022.htm

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/winograd/pnum295.php

It is being widely reported that the NSA has in fact been monitoring virtually every domestic phone call in the US. In doing so they had gone out of their way to escape the scrutiny of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, which the Bush administration has already declared in public it would flagrantly disregard. And yet they are now pushing General Michael V. Hayden, the prime overseer of this vast domestic spying program, to take over the already demoralized CIA as well.

When challenged on this recently General Hayden proclaimed, "Believe me, if there is any amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with, it's the 4th," after having just denied that there was any reference to the expression "probable cause" in there to regulate unreasonable searches and seizures.

Even Republican leaders have admitted this warrantless spying program is "clearly and categorically wrong." And it is just as wrong to allow a military takeover of a civilian intelligence agency. Please tell your members of Congress to stop the "wrong wing" takeover of our entire government.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/winograd/pnum295.php

This alert is brought to you by the activism of Marcy Winograd, candidate for U.S House from the 36th Congressional District of California. Fighting for the rights of all Americans is why Marcy is running for Congress, and she's not waiting until the election to start fighting for California and the rest of America.

When we talk about taking back Congress, that is what we will have to do, TAKE IT. Nobody is going give us anything we won't give to ourselves. And when we donate to a candidate like Marcy Winograd who is showing just the kind of leadership we need, we can make an example of her, and show other candidates that if they show real backbone they will get the support of the people too.

DONATIONS LINK: https://etribute.durkeeandassociates.com/c.php?c=mwinograd&ref=tpen

We NEED candidates like Marcy Winograd to champion the issues that are important to us. Marcy needs your help to get her message out, to get YOUR message out, by buying media ads calling yet more people to action Please make a contribution today to send Marcy to Congress and fight for you on the issues you care about.

How many times have you felt helpless and wished you could influence the votes of representatives in other districts to prevail on a critical vote in Congress, but thought you could not do so effectively because you were not one of their own constituents? How much more would you support Marcy if you do live in her district?

Here we have a courageous candidate who will fight for all the issues you care about, if only she is given the chance to make the run. Please donate whatever you can to help Marcy do mailings to recruit and mobilize even more people to speak out so we can have a real impact on these policy decisions now and for the future. What would you give to have a whole legislature of people like Marcy Winograd? Won't you give her your support now to make that a reality?

We have been valiantly speaking out with action alerts based on one fundamental premise --- either our representatives in Congress would listen to and heed the voices of their people --- or else we would work to replace them in the next election.

The time for the replacement action is NOW.

DONATIONS LINK: https://etribute.durkeeandassociates.com/c.php?c=mwinograd&ref=tpen

If each of us will just contribute what we can, to the most worthy candidates we can find, it will make a real difference in the kind of Congress we will all have to deal with in 2007. Most importantly, strong showings NOW by candidates who DO have a backbone, and WILL stand up and fight, can send a powerful message to the rest that they better start shaping up or we will ship them out too. Make your donation today and it will have cascading positive effects in many other races for months to come.

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

Powered by The People's Email Network
Copyright 2006, Patent pending, All rights reserved

http://political.moveon.org/censure/

Bush down to 29% (and sinking fast)
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/05/11/bushs-approval-ratings/


Informant: ranger116

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051206Y.shtml


Informant: Fred Feldman

From ufpj-news

--------

Matthews on Rove Indictment: ‘It Could Be Today’
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/12/matthews-on-rove-indictment-it-could-be-today/


Informant: ranger116

http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/8493154.html


Informant: MA PA