World-News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6370905.stm


Informant: binstock

After enjoying great deference in the conduct of national security for his first six years in office, President Bush now faces an assertive opposition Congress that has left him on the defensive. The nonbinding resolution passed on a largely party-line vote seems certain to be the first of a series of actions that will challenge Bush for the remainder of his presidency.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021707G.shtml

Discontent with President Bush's call for bolstering US troops in Iraq not only is flaring in Congress but also is beginning to surge in state capitols. The National Guard is the chief flash point between the Bush administration and governors when it comes to the war.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021707C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

In the Congressional maneuvering with President Bush over Iraq, both Bush and his adversaries agree that the vote next month on his request for $100 billion in emergency funding is the crucial moment. "This vote will be the most important vote in changing the direction of this war; this vote will limit the options of the president and should stop the surge," said Representative John Murtha (D-Penn.).

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021707B.shtml



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

http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2006/04/iraq-victims-of-violence.html


Informant: Jennifer Van Bergen

From ufpj-news

http://www.counterpunch.org/leas02162007.html


Informant: Jennifer Van Bergen

From ufpj-news

By mid-March, Democratic Congressman John Murtha will offer legislation that he says would set such stringent rules on combat deployments that Bush would have no choice but to begin bringing troops home.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021707Z.shtml



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

Her daughter was killed by a bomb in Iraq. Eight months later, Susan Jaenke is both grief-stricken and strapped - behind on her mortgage, backed up on her bills and shut out of the $100,000 government death benefit that her daughter thought she had left her. The problem is that Jaenke is not a wife, not a husband, but instead grandmother to the 9-year-old her daughter left behind. For the Jaenkes and others like them, the toll of war can be especially complex: They face not only the anguish of losing a son or daughter but also the emotional, legal and financial difficulties of putting the pieces back together for a grandchild.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021707Y.shtml

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2274481.ece


Informant: binstock

The US trade deficit has ballooned once again to record levels. While some see the trade gap as a natural economic phenomenon, public-interest groups and progressive economists say it represents an unsustainable trade agenda that harms workers across the globe.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/021607LB.shtml

http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/news/2007/02/14/behoerde-junge/offenbarungseid.html


Informant: Knut W. Schlanert

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5773/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

Tighter laws on mobile phone antennas

16 February 2007

Brussels' parliament has approved a bill aimed at protecting people and the environment from the effects of electromagnetic rays, notably those produced by mobile phone antennas.

According to the authors of the bill, the proposed law, which should be implemented in two years, would impose standards 47 times more restrictive than the current national law and would apply to a much broader range of frequencies.

The aim is to limit the potential impact of mobile phone antennas on health. This law follows complaints from Brussels citizens about sleep disruptions after the installation of a mobile phone antenna in the vicinity of their homes.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=24&story_id=36647

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ICNIRP (UK, not Brussels) is around 40-55 V/m depending on frequency.

2-3 V/m is typical in houses within 100m of a mast already. I had up to 6V/m where I used to live.

I can't see that there is researched dosimetric reason behind this figure, which is why ICNIRP has hung around so long so securely. So why 3V/m?

Certainly it is not a fix for EHS. Certainly it doesn't challenge the industry a whole lot, but it does have implications for shared sites IF it applies to sites not individual bases. It should also be measured not "as radiated" but "as received/observed" since environments (other than open fields) are complex.

But is this the right measure? Is it equivalent to a limit on power density (measured in W/m^2)? Is energy absorption the issue?

Either way, this limit does not avoid all known EMF effects and I can't see it overturning ICNIRP here in the UK yet.

Andy



Jane

The alignment concerns me. Mast companies will think nothing of this. Each will be "thousands of times below ICNIRP" and no-one is concerned about the combined effect.

Each will also be well within the Brussels suggestion, again for which we have not as yet seen evidence of base that would mean anything to the operators.

Brussels does not apply, and there is no sign that the HPA would adjust its opinion from ICNIRP to this standard without very good reason.

I am currently arguing with council planning and environment about mast numbers 9 and 10 on a small football ground surrounded by dense housing! There are no regulations for ten masts: each is counted on its own. There is no argument that will influence planning in the current state of affairs, I'm afraid.

Sorry

Andy

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Brussels news and cell phone harm

This is an interesting story about harm caused by cell phones, from Iris Atzmon in Israel. Please note, that cordless phones used in the home are just as likely to cause similar problems if they are used for long periods. Iris has also attached a news story from Brussels, where the Government has voted to dramatically lower electro magnetic radiation levels, and introduce a strong monetary fine system for non compliance.

Martin Weatherall



Severe Brussels towards antennas GSM
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/brussels_standards.doc

Today I spoke with a 23 years old who suffers from aches deep in the ear and strong pressure in the ear, after examining her on Friday, the conclusion of the doctor from a medical center in Jerusalem was that it had been caused by her cellular phone. He used exaclty these words which she emphasized several times: "YOU TOASTED YOUR EAR". He also told her that lately the doctors received "an internal study" that was not published in the media, which shows that the phone causes terrible damage. When she tried to ask more he didn't want to give her details. He added that he has many patients like her and that the rate of tumors "has increased significantly" lately, and many people come to him with ear and head aches. When she asked him what she can do he told her: "there is nothing that can be done, it is like to be healed from a burn, simply throw your cell phone". He told her of his minimal use of the phone and he always asks people to phone him to the wired phone. She was very shocked from this experience, she has been using the phone since the age of 16 and then she was not aware of possible risk, used to talk 3-4 hours aday. Today she cannot talk more than 5 minutes or else she has strong aches, she suffers all the time from the ear, even in days she doesn't use the phone (but then the pains are less painful) also in the nights it bothers her, it has become a nightmare. Although her awareness of possible damage raised in recent years, she still didn't imagine something like this can happen. Her hearing is still ok, in the past she didn't feel any special symptoms "maybe only a short ear ache". That's the situation. In the clinics the damage is already felt. The public is kept ignorant.

Health to all. Who needs more than that in our crazy world?...

Iris Atzmon.

--------

From Grahame Blackwell.


David

I agree with Phil - but it's a start. It opens up the debate on 'ICNIRP is clearly not enough - and if not, why not ??' ICNIRP is generally agreed to be adequate for thermal effects - so what is it that Brussels are worried about? It can ONLY be non-thermals - and as soon as that's acknowledged it opens the way to seriously questioning the whole basis of the criteria on which 'safety levels' are determined.

It's interesting to note that NOT ONE minister in Brussels voted against this proposal.

This is a very firm wedge in the door of the 'thermal' argument - and it's not going to go away !! The telcos aren't going to like it - and Blaney and his ilk are going to have to work a lot harder for their money once the implications of this become clear at grass-roots level.

Is this perhaps a time for mass petitioning of MPs on the grounds of a nation state in the EU taking a position which clearly calls into question not only the levels used in the UK, but more significantly the criteria by which those levels are set?

You may wish to push this email round the circuit.

Best regards to all of you

Grahame

A rebuke of a surveillance practice greatly expanded by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the police must stop the routine videotaping of people at public gatherings unless there was an indication that unlawful activity may occur.

http://tinyurl.com/37ckdh


From Information Clearing House



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

The principal glacier of the world’s biggest tropical ice-cap could disappear within five years as a result of global warming, one of the world’s leading glaciologists predicted yesterday.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1392295.ece


From Information Clearing House

The dollar fell against most major currencies Thursday after a U.S. government report showed net capital inflow tumbling in December, suggesting foreign securities are attracting investors.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/15/ap3432299.html



Drop in capital flow to U.S. poor dollar omen

An unexpected drop in demand for U.S. financial assets in late 2006 bodes ill for the dollar unless December's data on capital flows released on Thursday proves an anomaly instead of the start of a trend.

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1535653620070216



The US as leading currency manipulator

Median family annual income has declined by nearly US$1,300 over recent years as income disparity widens. More than 3 million US manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2001, the steepest and most prolonged loss since the Great Depression.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IB15Cb03.html



Anti-China bills follow U.S. trade deficit

The record $764 billion U.S. trade deficit has led to bipartisan bills in Congress that could punish China for its exports, a newspaper analysis said Friday.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Business/20070216-104731-7635r/



U.S. plans China hotline as deficit soars

Direct connect to Vice-Premier Wu Yi hoped to help iron out trade issues
http://tinyurl.com/375amp


From Information Clearing House

Video

FRONTLINE examines the political, cultural, legal, and economic forces challenging the news media today and how the press has reacted in turn.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/view/


From Information Clearing House

Video

It would probably be nice to check on the guy that you just caused to roll his truck. To see if he's, you know, dead or something.

http://tinyurl.com/3yfg5x


From Information Clearing House

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has backed the Hicks camp, accusing the Howard government of betraying the former Adelaide man by not trying him in Australia.

http://tinyurl.com/2mw5nk



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

A former Western Australian Labor premier has lashed out at the Australian and US governments over the treatment of terrorism suspects like David Hicks.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1850140.htm



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

"Mr. Padilla is suffering from mental defects stemming from his incarceration in the naval brig," writes Anthony Natale, an assistant federal public defender, in a brief to the court. "The effects of that incarceration ... have left Mr. Padilla in such a psychologically frail posture that he cannot bear to revisit his past and, hence, cannot assist counsel in defending him against the government's allegations."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0216/p02s01-usju.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Padilla
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

This chart shows FCNL's calculations of how much of your 2006 tax dollars go to pay for current and past military activities.

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=2336&issue_id=18


From Information Clearing House

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0216/p01s02-usec.html


Informant: binstock

Soon the Firebolt will be joined in the region by one of the Navy's most heavily armed behemoths: the 1,092-foot-long carrier John C. Stennis, with a crew of 5,000 and more than 80 warplanes. The Stennis will head a strike force of destroyers, cruisers and submarines deployed to the region by the Bush administration amid heightened tensions with Iran.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17086.htm

Video

A former NSC Director is saying that the Bush administration is trying to provoke Iran into creating a pretext that would spark a US war on Iran.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17085.htm

War pimp alert

Pentagon leaders blamed the Iranian government again today for deadly explosive devices being used against American soldiers in Iraq and tried to tamp down suggestions of a dispute on the subject.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17083.htm

A panel of experts painted a picture of an Islamic terrorist organization far different from the one President Bush portrays: that al-Qaida “is on the run.”

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/02/dnalqaida070215/


From Information Clearing House

From the moderate suburbs of Delaware to the rural, conservative valleys of eastern Tennessee, House Republican opponents of President Bush's latest Iraq war plan cut across the GOP's ideological and regional spectrum.

http://tinyurl.com/2qbwgh



GOP Activists: Bush Won't Listen on Iraq

Here's another measure of how much trouble President Bush is in politically: Even once-loyal Republican activists are complaining that Bush's senior advisers, including political architect Karl Rove, don't want to listen to their ideas about changing policy in Iraq.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070214/14gop.htm


From Information Clearing House



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

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17087.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney

By Jorge Hirsch

Congress is on notice. The expanded role for nuclear weapons logically calls for a change in the decision-making process on when nuclear weapons should be used, at least in cases where no extreme urgency exists. Under current law, the President has sole full authority to order their use, Congress has no say.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17094.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jorge+Hirsch

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17091.htm


Informant: Kev Hall

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17095.htm


Informant: Kev Hall



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

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0216-02.htm



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

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0216-01.htm



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

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0216-26.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+K.+Galbraith

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0216-32.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jan27

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0216-24.htm



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

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0216-07.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Darfur
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Aaron+Glantz

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0216-02.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Harriet+E.+Miers
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gonzales

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5774/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0216-06.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=neocons
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jim+Lobe

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0216-04.htm

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GREENHOUSE GASES HIT NEW HIGH, MAY BE ASIA GROWTH
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40399/story.htm


Informant: NHNE



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=greenhouse+gases

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0216-08.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/travis1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Pharma

http://www.lewrockwell.com/chartier/chartier63.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=private+contractors
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mercenaries
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/chartier

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese342.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/reese

http://www.lewrockwell.com/callahan/callahan165.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/callahan

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul370.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/paul