World-News

Steven Henderson served his country during two tours of duty as an Army sergeant in Afghanistan - repeatedly coming under enemy fire and seeing fellow soldiers maimed and US helicopters gunned down. The Chicago native is back home now, after being honorably discharged 20 months ago. He's married and is working toward a college degree - but the Army has called upon him again. A letter he received two weeks before Christmas orders him to fight in Iraq for a period "not to exceed 545 days."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906H.shtml

Paul Krugman writes: "Republicans didn't shrink the government. But they did degrade it. Baghdad and New Orleans are the arrival destinations of a movement based on deep contempt for governance."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906F.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Krugman

The fringe economy is hardly new. Pawnshops and informal high-interest lenders have been around forever. What we see today, however, is a fringe-economy sector that is growing fast, taking advantage of the ever-larger part of the US population whose economic lives are becoming less secure.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906E.shtml

Charles E. Anderson writes: "The alleged war crimes committed at Haditha were not the misdeeds of defective warriors. Nor is it likely that they were committed by Marines suffering from 'personality disorders.' Their actions were the result of conditioning, on both the training field and the battlefield."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906C.shtml



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

Greg Mitchell writes: "Inside reports suggest President Bush has already decided on sending many more troops to Iraq starting next month. Until now, the media has bought into his labeling of this as a mere 'surge.' But the media needs to call it by its proper name: 'escalation.'"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906B.shtml



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

The US military death toll in Iraq this month continued to rise. Officials reported Thursday that five more American service members had died. The latest deaths brought to 100 the number of service members killed in December, according to iCasualties.org, an independent Web site that tracks military fatalities.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906A.shtml

Ab 1 Januar schneller Hartz IV Kürzung

Anstatt eine Weihnachtszulage zu genehmigen, erläutert die Bundesagentur für Arbeit in Nürnberg, dass bei sog. "Pflichtverletzungen" das Arbeitslosengeld II (ALG II) ab dem 1. Januar 2007 schneller als bisher gekürzt werden kann. Nach der zweiten "Plichtverletzung" kann der Hartz 4 Regelsatz schon um 60 Prozent gekürzt werden. Danach kann der ALG II Regelsatz sogar für 3 Monate ganz gestrichen werden, wenn man den "Anweisungen der ARGE" nicht folge leistet. Sogar die Heizkosten und Unterkunftskosten bleiben von dieser Neuerung nicht verschont. Lesen Sie weiter: http://www.gegen-hartz.de/nachrichtenueberhartziv/0344e198a1082a104.php

http://www.channelingreality.com/NAU/NAU_Main.htm


Informant: Amy Sasser

From ufpj-news

--------

WARNING: The End of America as we Know It is at Hand

by Greg Evensen

The Bush Administration has been pursuing a blending of Canada, America and Mexico into the “North American Union.” They have done it under the cover of governmental darkness. They have been running a race as to how fast they can manipulate our great nation into a “no going back” strategic position with these other two nations. The president and his cabal of sell-out White House/Congressional turncoats have intentionally kept the American people in a state of confusion (war on terror, etc.) so that organized resistance to this national sovereignty killing plan can not be formulated.......

http://www.newswithviews.com/Evensen/greg8.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=North+American+Union
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/Evensen

Dec 29 2006

Chester Chronicle

A MOBILE phone giant is to lower Chester's highest mast by five metres after admitting a planning bungle.

T-Mobile's mast at Tile Farm, Guilden Sutton, was dubbed Blackpool Tower by angry residents when it was erected earlier this year.

A series of blunders further angered people in Littleton, who were not consulted when the proposal came before planners.

They later highlighted an error in drawings put before the Planning Board which showed the mast as 37.5m with the trees standing at 35m. City council measurements revealed the trees were 10m shorter leaving the mast towering over neighbouring houses.

This week, T-Mobile spokesman Richard Owens said: 'There was some genuine confusion over the tree height in the planning stage and we're happy to make a goodwill gesture on a one off basis.'

But he admitted the mast will still be visible to ensure continued coverage.

Mr Owens added: 'This doesn't entirely please everyone but is a deal which accommodates the resident's views without compromising coverage.'

Huw Morgan, of Tarvin Road, is in the process of discussing the compromise with other members of Littleton Mast Action Group.

He said: 'We're disappointed at this small reduction. Now we might push for an enquiry into how this mast came into being without the residents being advised.

'We may even continue our fight for it to be relocated.'

David Taylor, clerk of Littleton Parish Council, said: 'A great deal of pressure has been brought to bear on a number of levels on T-Mobile and we are all very pleased with this kind of result.'

City Councillor Brian Bailey said: 'I think this may be the first time a mobile company has agreed to reduce the height of its masts. We're now trying to settle the details with surveyors.'

© owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited 2006

http://tinyurl.com/y33m43

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=441


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Hawaii Reporter
by Jim Kouri

12/28/06

Chalk up another victory for the terrorists' Fifth Column -- the Council on American-Islamic Relations. After much prodding and capitalizing on phony incidents of racial profiling, CAIR has achieved something few Americans have achieved -- they got airport security officials to back off. The Transportation Security Administration announced a new training program -- some may call it an indoctrination program -- that will be mandated for more than 45,000 security officers and supervisors. No, it's not training that'll be used to identify terrorists or protect airline passengers. This training program is being billed as 'Muslim Sensitivity Training'...

http://tinyurl.com/y4kd6o



The war on political correctness

Frontiers of Freedom
by Joe Mariani

12/28/06

Many of the things that seem to be going wrong for America today can be traced to an excess of political correctness -- if, indeed, that's not a redundant phrase. When tempered by confidence in one's self and culture, the desire not to offend others comes out as simple politeness. But when it gets out of control, as it does among Liberals, it becomes a need to prevent oneself from giving any possible hint of offense, combined with a desire to 'make up' for any self-perceived racial or cultural advantage one may have, at any cost. Such desires can cause great harm to a person or a culture -- or even kill them...

http://tinyurl.com/y3sppz


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

LewRockwell.Com
by Wilton D. Alston

12/29/06

Listen, at some point we just have to wake up and smell the coffee. The number of times the Constitution -- the ostensible 'highest law in the land' -- has been violated this week is enough that the sons of liberty would have long since taken up arms. And yet, for most Americans, it's pretty much business as usual. (Heck, as a matter of fact, I just realized I'm missing a football game! Maybe this essay can wait.) From the most basic standpoint, it seems pretty clear that President Bush doesn't have a close personal relationship with the Constitution, but this view is shared by more than a few outside the Whitehouse...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/alston/alston12.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

CNN

12/28/06

Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan was arrested Thursday afternoon outside President Bush's ranch, according to a law enforcement official. Sheehan, who in the past has camped out for weeks in protest outside the ranch in Crawford, Texas, was arrested for blocking the road leading to the property, Texas Department of Public Safety's Tela Mange told CNN. Four others were also arrested after law enforcement officials asked the group to move and they refused, Mange said...

http://tinyurl.com/vfajp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Cindy Sheehan to Ramp Up "Peace Surge" After Arrest Thursday

"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan was arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch. Sheehan said she plans to become more "confrontational" and that it's time to "ramp up" peace efforts with a "peace surge." The five protesters, including Dede Miller, Gerry Fonsecca, Carl Rising-Moore and Jeri Reed, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of obstructing a roadway. The group is expected to be bonded out of the McLennan County Jail today.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906M.shtml


Click:

LAND owner Simon Greenwood has defended the installation of phone masts on a radius of land he owns around Balcombe despite the disquiet of residents.

Mr Greenwood, who lives in London, owns the 3,000-acre Balcombe Estate, which includes forestry, arable and grazing land, numerous houses and farms.

The estate receives annual rent from phone operators for each mast on its land. Fees, as elsewhere, vary from site to site but conservative estimates put each in excess of £5,000 to £6,000 a year.

Altogether in Mid Sussex, planning permission has been given for 79 mobile phone masts since 1996. In cases such as Northlands Avenue in Haywards Heath hundreds of residents opposed a mast opposite a doctors' surgery and near to Northlands Wood School, but despite a concerted campaign a mast was finally approved by a planning inspector.

At a high point in Keysford Lane, Horsted Keynes, objectors won their battle as the site was in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

This week Balcombe Parish Council chairman Graham Gosney and district councillor Gary Marsh took the unprecedented step of writing to Mr Greenwood, who is a parish councillor himself, to appeal to him to withdraw his support for a mast on a particularly controversial site.

For the full story see this week's Mid Sussex Times.

29 December 2006

All rights reserved © 2006 Johnston Press Digital Publishing.

http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1438&ArticleID=1949744

FDA Set to OK Food From Cloned Animals

The government has decided that food from cloned animals is safe to eat and does not require special labeling.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122806HA.shtml

--------

Cloned milk and meat expected to go on sale in months after winning US approval

Food won't be labelled as cloned
UK must decide if it will follow suit

Tim Reid in Washington and Nigel Hawkes

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2522437,00.html

Find the best food in season

The sale of milk and meat from cloned animals moved a step closer yesterday after the US Government ruled that the products were safe to eat and could be sold in supermarkets without labelling.

The landmark draft decision, taken by the US Food and Drugs Administration, was condemned by consumer groups and food safety experts, who gave warning of the implications for food consumption throughout the world.

FDA officials said that they saw little problem with the controversial technology, which could result in cloned food being sold in the US within months without any labels identifying its origins. They added that cloned food products, if approved, could also be exported.

Authorities in Britain have yet to address the issue of the sale of food from cloned animals, including those approved by the US — cattle, pigs and goats. However, precedents set by the FDA are often followed by UK and European authorities. The Food Standards Agency said last night that it had not received an applications for the marketing of food products from cloned animals in the United Kingdom.

The move would have to be approved by the European Union before such products could be introduced, even if they were only being imported from the US. The UK’s Advisory Committee for Novel Foods would also be consulted.

The FDA, which overseas food safety for the US Government, determined after a five-year review that food from cloned livestock was as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals. The decision was all the more controversial because the agency declared that special labels were not needed to alert shoppers to its origin.

Decrying the ruling, consumer groups gave warning that cloned food would enter the food chain untested on humans, and from a field of science in which cloned animals are often born sick or with severe abnormalities. “Consumers are going to be having a product that has potential safety issues and a whole load of ethical issues tied to it, without any labelling,” said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Washington-based Centre for Food Safety.

Some US consumer groups maintain that surrogate mothers, in which the cloned animals are grown, are treated with high levels of hormones. They claim that clones are often born with severely compromised immune systems and receive massive doses of antibiotics, opening the way for large quantities of pharmaceuticals to enter the food supply.

The US National Academy of Sciences also warned recently that the commercialisation of cloned livestock for food production could increase the incidence of food-borne illness, such as E-coli infections.

Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat senator from Maryland, wrote in an open letter to the FDA: “Just because a scientist can manufacture food in the laboratory, should Americans be required to eat it?” Experts say it would probably take years for sales of cloned food to begin in earnest, because the technology’s high cost makes it prohibitive for most farmers. It costs about $15,000 (£7,500) to clone one dairy cow. But already several hundred cattle among America’s nine million have been cloned.

The FDA pointed out that many consumers confuse cloning with genetic modification. To produce a clone, the nucleus of a donor egg is removed and replaced with the DNA of a cow or other animal. A tiny electric shock coaxes the egg to grow into a copy of the original animal. Supporters of the technology say that it will be used primarily for breeding good milk and meat producers, and that produce will most likely be drawn from offspring, rather than the cloned animal.

The FDA said yesterday that meat and milk from clones was as safe to consume as products derived from naturally raised animals. Within six to eighteen months, cloned animals were “virtually indistinguishable” from conventionally-bred livestock, it said. “Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day,” said Stephen F. Sundlof, the director of the FDA Centre for Veterinary Medicine.

Final approval for lifting the current ban on cloned food could come early next year. The agency will accept comments from the public for the next three months before announcing a final decision.

The Consumer Federation of America said that it would run a publicity campaign to ask food companies and supermarkets to refuse to sell cloned food. Polls show already that most Americans do not favour eating such a product, and many food companies are skittish about selling cloned food.

Opponents also maintain that cloning results in high failure rates and distress for the cloned animals. The Centre for Food Safety points to the example of Greg Wiles, whose Maryland farm was the first to have cloned cows. He says he told the FDA that one of his cloned cows was having terrible health problems, but was ignored.



Making Your Voice Heard at FDA: How to Comment on Proposed Regulations and Submit Petitions

http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/voice.html

However, I couldn't find a comment link regarding milk and beef from cloned animals.

Teresa



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
P06-215 December 28, 2006

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01541.html


Media Inquiries: Michael Herndon, 301-827-6242
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA Issues Draft Documents on the Safety of Animal Clones Agency Continues to Ask Producers and Breeders Not to Introduce Food from Clones into Food Supply

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued three documents on the safety of animal cloning -- a draft risk assessment; a proposed risk management plan; and a draft guidance for industry. Draft risk assessment

The draft risk assessment finds that meat and milk from clones of adult cattle, pigs and goats, and their offspring, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals. The assessment was peer-reviewed by a group of independent scientific experts in cloning and animal health. They agreed with the methods FDA used to evaluate the data and the conclusions set out in the document.

The draft risk assessment presents an overview of assisted reproductive methods widely used in animal agriculture, the extensive scientific information available on animal health and food consumption risks, and draws science-based conclusions. These conclusions agree with those of the National Academies of Sciences, released in a 2002 report. Due to limited data on sheep clones, in the draft guidance FDA recommends that sheep clones not be used for human food.

"Based on FDA's analysis of hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and other studies on the health and food composition of clones and their offspring, the draft risk assessment has determined that meat and milk from clones and their offspring are as safe as food we eat every day," said Stephen F. Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D., director of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. "Cloning poses no unique risks to animal health when compared to other assisted reproductive technologies currently in use in U.S. agriculture."

An animal clone is a genetic copy of a donor animal, similar to identical twins but born at different times. Cloning is not the same as genetic engineering, which involves altering, adding or deleting DNA; cloning does not change the gene sequence. Proposed risk management plan

The proposed risk management plan addresses risks to animal health and potential remaining uncertainties associated with feed and food from animal clones and their offspring.

The proposed plan outlines measures that FDA might take to address the risks that cloning poses to animals involved in the cloning process. These risks all have been observed in other assisted reproductive technologies currently in use in common agricultural practices.

One such measure could be that the agency would work with scientific and professional societies with expertise in animal health and reproduction to develop a set of care standards for animals involved in the cloning process. Although the agency does not have authority to address the ethics of animal cloning, the proposed risk management plan does state that FDA plans to continue to provide scientific expertise to interested parties working on these issues.

"Because the release of the draft risk assessment and proposed risk management plan marks the beginning of our interaction with the public on these issues, we are continuing to ask producers of clones and livestock breeders to voluntarily refrain from introducing food products from these animals into commerce so that we will have the opportunity to consider the public's comments and to issue any final documents as warranted," said Sundlof.

Draft guidance for industry

The draft guidance for industry addresses the use of food and feed products derived from clones and their offspring. The guidance is directed at clone producers, livestock breeders, and farmers and ranchers purchasing clones. It provides the agency's current thinking on use of clones and their offspring in human food or animal feed.

In the draft guidance, FDA does not recommend any special measures relating to human food use of offspring of clones of any species. Because of their cost and rarity, clones will be used as are any other elite breeding stock -- to pass on naturally-occurring, desirable traits such as disease resistance and higher quality meat to production herds. Because clones will be used primarily for breeding, almost all of the food that comes from the cloning process is expected to be from sexually-reproduced offspring and descendents of clones, and not the clones themselves.

FDA is seeking comments from the public on the three documents for the next 90 days.

To submit electronic comments on the three documents, visit http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/dockets/comments/commentdocket.cfm?AGENCY=FDA.

Written comments may be sent to: Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD, 20852.

Comments must be received by Apr. 2, 2007 and should include the docket number 2003N-0573.

For more information, visit http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CloneRiskAssessment.htm.

Submit Comments
http://tinyurl.com/y8o9ag



Squeamish consumers may balk as FDA backs cloned meat, milk.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116731300210161476.html

The FDA declared meat and milk from cloned animals safe to eat, though industry concerns about consumer reactions make their sale unlikely anytime soon.

Wall Street Journal. 29 December 2006.



Consistent with its stance as representative of patent-investors, the FDA's preliminary decree is reported to state that milk and beef from cloned animals will not have to be labeled as such!

- - - -

Feasting on clone lies far in future

Experts say it's too expensive, customers not ready for change

By BEN van der MEER
BEE STAFF WRITER
December 29, 2006

http://www.modbee.com/local/v-dp_morning/story/13151171p-13796729c.html


Informant: binstock



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=cloned+animals
http://tinyurl.com/yy4hzr
http://tinyurl.com/y4thqn

British citizen Moazzam Begg, who spent three years in captivity at American detention facilities in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gives NOW a rarely seen intimate view of a detainee's life inside the prisons of the "war on terror."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806U.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Moazzam+Begg
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detainee
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo

Months after she resigned her cabinet post as President Bush's interior secretary, Gale Norton is back as a key legal advisor for Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806T.shtml

Many of the American soldiers trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don't appear to be looking for reinforcements. They say the temporary surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806S.shtml



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

Tom Andrews, the former Maine congressman who used his position as national director of Win Without War to argue against invading Iraq, is now urging the Democratically controlled Congress to bring the troops home.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806R.shtml

Wenn die Menschen dann das Hopping über die wachsende Zahl europäischer Inselfestungen überlebt haben - wird ihre Arbeitskraft konsequent "vernutzt". Wie auch die Kräfte jener, die "gerufen" wurden. Hausangestellte in Tonyland sollen künftig - gut sozialdemokratisch - an den Arbeitgeber gebunden werden - heisst, wer kündigt, fliegt "heim", auch sehr unfreiwillig. Denn, wer nicht (willig) arbeitet, soll auch nicht... Eine gar nicht seltene Facette der modernen Arbeitswelt der Marktwirtschaft beleuchtet der redaktionelle (englische) Artikel "Slavery in the UK" vom 27. Dezember 2006 im "The Independent": http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2106018.ece


Aus: LabourNet, 29. Dezember 2006

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Moderne Sklavenarbeit in der europäischen Landwirtschaft - Illegalität und Ausbeutung

Artikel von Sissel Brodal, exklusiv im LabourNet Germany (pdf), http://www.labournet.de/branchen/bergbau/brodal_wider51.pdf

erschienen in WIDERSPRUCH – Beiträge zu sozialistischer Politik – Nr. 51: Migration, Integration und Menschenrechte. Siehe zu dieser Widerspruch-Ausgabe auch Inhaltsverzeichnis und Editorial und die Verlagshomepage http://www.widerspruch.ch/51.html


Aus: LabourNet, 18. Januar 2007

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=10223


Informant: Carol Moore in DC

From ufpj-news



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

http://www.ndrinfo.de/homepage/t_cid-3422966_.html

Was er wohl gemeint hat?

Guten Rutsch

Helmut Breunig


Quelle: http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/elektrosmog-liste/message/6337

Papst Benedikt XVI: "Es gibt eine Schwerhörigkeit Gott gegenüber, an der wir gerade in dieser Zeit leiden. Wir können ihn einfach nicht mehr hören - zu viele andere Frequenzen haben wir im Ohr."

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Wir sind nicht gegen Handys? Anregungen zum Umdenken
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3112242/

http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id693.html



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

By Steve Christ
12-27-6

For generations of science fiction writers the idea of robotic hordes ruling the battlefield has been fertile ground for their active imaginations. From "Star Wars" to "The Terminator", the rise of these machines has been the fodder for some great entertainment. But while these extraordinary machines have captured our imagination in both film and print, the reality of battlefield robots is being played out on battlefields all over the globe.

More R2D2 than C3PO, today's military robots are playing life saving roles in both Afghanistan and Iraq. They fulfill missions either too dangerous or impossible for humans to perform themselves. In the process they not only give U.S. troops the tactical advantage but also save precious lives.

In fact, the contributions of military robots have become so important to the forces in the field that the machines are quickly becoming as commonplace and accepted as the rifle itself.

And it is a tactical trend whose weight in value continues to soar. So much so that by 2015 the U.S. Department of Defense has projected that a full 1/3 of its future fighting force will be made up entirely of robots.

It's all part of $127 billion project, known as Future Combat Systems that is being developed by the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), whose mission is to ensure that the U.S forces maintain their technological superiority. It is a transformation that is one of the largest technology missions ever undertaken in American history.

*** Rumsfeld's Going Away Gift . . . a $214 Million Order for America's New Ultimate Combat Vehicle This new armored vehicle eats IEDs for lunch. In fact, not a single American soldier in Iraq has ever been killed while inside these bomb-busters. The Pentagon is buying so many, the company's stock is up 1,011% for the year. But the gains are just getting started.

Here's my personal 100% satisfaction guarantee to you. If this stock doesn't gain at least 50% in the next 12 months, you can ask for a complete refund on your subscription. But while the exploits of the many unmanned aerial drones are now part of the common understanding, it is the ground variants of these machines that are paying dividends to the boots on the ground today. Led by robots such as the TALON, produced by Foster Miller, and various smaller robots made by iRobot (IRBT:NASDAQ), these new machines are hard at work protecting the troops from their enemies.

The TALON, in fact, played a large role in the now famous battle of Tora Bora. These heavily armed mini-tanks were sent into the areas where humans feared to tread, dispatching Al-Qaida fighters and searching for the Bin Laden himself. And while these machines never did find our elusive arch enemy, they did prove themselves to be an effective alternative to putting troops at risk.

Today these same types of machines are also being put to use in Iraq. Along with the TALON, smaller variants of these robots have proven themselves time and time again. Among them are the man-portable iRobot Packbot Tactical EOD Mobile Robot designed to eliminate the dangerous improvised explosive devices that have been so harmful to our troops in Iraq.

Developed by the same company that produces the famous Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, about 300 of these Packbots have been deployed in Iraq. Since then they have been involved thousands of Explosive Ordinance Device (EOD) missions.

These rugged track wheeled devices are controlled by users on the ground using the same type of joystick controls that are commonplace among video gamers. Working form the safety of a vehicle soldiers use a monitor to guide the robot to the weapon and are able to disable it without having to go to the extreme of sending in a man with a clunky bomb suit.

The bottom line for these robotic exploits is saved American lives. As a Navy chief said commenting on a Packbot destroyed in the line of duty, "When a robot dies you don't have to write a letter to its mother."

Other robots produced by the company include the PackBot Scout and the Packbot Explorer, which allow soldiers to perform reconnaissance and surveillance missions from safe positions.

More- http://rense.com/general74/rpobot.htm


Informant: Neo Mulder

A number of risks and practices are threatening forests, wildlife, wetlands and the environment. Crew (Crusade for Revival of Environment and Wildlife) works hard at preventing them. CREW has continued to campaign for the protection of environment, biodiversity, wildlife, forest cover, endangered species and wetlands. CREW has decided to use the visual media and would be releasing b-rolls in digital broadcast quality format on crucial environment related issues to different sections of the media for direct relay and wider dissemination of knowledge and information relating to natural environment and factors threatening environmental balance. The Crew website http://www.globalwarmingeurasia.com focuses attention on issues like:

--Disintegration of natural habitats and the remaining forest corridors due to rapid development and human pressure.

--Pollution due to the reckless dumping and disposal of waste and the destruction of the ecosystem and the threat to aquatic and avian species.

--Destruction of natural habitats because of unlawful mining, logging of timber, grazing, man-made forest fires, large-scale commercial exploitation of minor forest produce, use of chemical pesticides, and fishing practices.


Informant: lalitshastri

From November 2005 to May 2006, more than 150 Alaskan wolves were killed in the brutal practice of aerial gunning. Now the Alaska Board of Game is gearing up for another winter of aerial gunning. With your help, we can stop them! Take action now to help save the wolves -- Sign our petition to urge the Bush Administration to put an end to aerial gunning in Alaska. Easy targets against fallen snow, wolves are gunned down from airplanes or chased to exhaustion, then shot at point blank range. State-licensed marksmen can target entire packs -- even pregnant mothers! Aerial gunners have killed more than 550 wolves over the past three winters. Worse, hundreds more wolves could be killed under “management” plans approved by the Alaska Board of Game in May 2006. That’s not wolf management. It’s a wolf massacre. Tell the Bush Administration to enforce the Federal Airborne Hunting Act, the federal law that could put an end to the killing. Wolves help the overall health of natural ecosystems. They help keep Alaska's moose and caribou populations healthy and strong. Wolves are also important to Alaska's billion-dollar tourism industry. Yet the state continues to allow aerial gunning. In fact, the Board of Game’s new proposals would expand the areas where aerial gunning is permitted, allow gunners on snow machines to harass and kill wolves and expand aerial gunning of bears. Please sign our petition right now http://savewolves.org and help us end aerial gunning in Alaska. Our wolves are a crucial part of the natural heritage that we’ll leave our children and grandchildren, and we have a real chance to end this terrible practice.


Informant: Scott Munson

Snapshot of the view of logging in Tasmania.
Photo: Google Earth

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/satellite-images-unlocks-extent-of-logging/2006/12/13/1165685727367.html#

Asher Moses December 13, 2006 - 12:32PM

Australian anti-logging groups are using Google Earth to show the impact of forest clearing.

At least two groups - the Tasmanian arm of The Wilderness Society and the Victorian Rainforest Network (VRN) - have created Google Earth "overlays", which can be downloaded from their websites.

An overlay adds a layer on top of the basic Google Earth satellite map, and can be used in this case to add specific information about logging campaigns beside the relevant geographical area.

The Wilderness Society's overlay provides details on Forestry Tasmania's logging plans for the coming year based on information publicly available on its website, says Vica Bayley, a forest campaigner with The Wilderness Society.

These details include the outline of logging zones, as well as pop-up text boxes that provide further information and images on individual logging areas.

Mr Bayley said Google Earth allowed the group to more effectively convey the impact of logging, which had been difficult to do previously as many Tasmanian forest areas were closed off to the public.

"For those people who don't go out to the forest a lot, it basically unlocks the gates," he said.

"Many of these areas are hidden in more remote catchments where people can't get in, can't get a look, and can't see for themselves what's going on."

Paul Oosting, a spokesman for The Wilderness Society, added in a statement: "These images highlight the close proximity of logging operations to the Tasmanian wilderness World Heritage area."

While The Wilderness Society has a national presence, its Google Earth campaign is limited to Tasmania.

This is because other states "don't have a government department, such as our Forestry Tasmania, that produces maps and plans of exactly what they're going to clear", Mr Bayley said.

He said logging in NSW was "not as forwardly planned as it is here in Tasmania", so there wasn't sufficient data available for a NSW overlay.

In Queensland, it was mainly "rogue landowners that are clearing", which also meant data on proposed logging plans was sparse.

But the VRN has managed to acquire sufficient information for a Victorian overlay, and provides similar information to the Tasmanian version, including past and future logging plans, and how close these are to national parks and water catchments.

Environmental groups say logging causes habitat loss, water degradation and climate change.

"Logging is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases and climate change in Tasmania - more than the entire transport sector," Mr Bayley said.

"Not only are you destroying huge and globally important carbon sinks [the trees], but you're actually releasing vast, vast amounts of that stored carbon back into the atmosphere through huge forestry burns in autumn, [and] through broad-scale woodchipping."

-- Tim Hermach
Native Forest Council
PO Box 2190 Eugene, OR 97402
541.688.2600
541.461.2156 fax
web page: http://www.forestcouncil.org


Informant: Scott Munson

by Anatol Lieven
December 28, 2006
by the International Herald Tribune (Paris)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/28/opinion/edlieven.php?page=2

Every political, social and economic system ever created has sooner or later encountered a challenge that its very nature has made it incapable of meeting. The Confucian ruling system of imperial China, which lasted for more than 2,000 years, has some claim still to be the most successful in history, but because it was founded on values of stability and continuity, rather than dynamism and inventiveness, it eventually proved unable to survive in the face of Western imperial capitalism.

For market economies, and the Western model of democracy with which they have been associated, the existential challenge for the foreseeable future will be global warming. Other threats like terrorism may well be damaging, but no other conceivable threat or combination of threats can possibly destroy our entire system. As the recent British official commission chaired by Sir Nicholas Stern correctly stated, climate change "is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen."

The question now facing us is whether global capitalism and Western democracy can follow the Stern report's recommendations, and make the limited economic adjustments necessary to keep global warming within bounds that will allow us to preserve our system in a recognizable form; or whether our system is so dependent on unlimited consumption that it is by its nature incapable of demanding even small sacrifices from its present elites and populations.

If the latter proves the case, and the world suffers radically destructive climate change, then we must recognize that everything that the West now stands for will be rejected by future generations. The entire democratic capitalist system will be seen to have failed utterly as a model for humanity and as a custodian of essential human interests.

Even the relatively conservative predictions offered by the Stern report, of a drop in annual global gross domestic product of up to 20 percent by the end of this century, imply a crisis on the scale of the Great Depression of the 1930s; and as we know, the effects of that depression were not restricted to economics. In much of Europe, as well as Latin America and Japan, democracies collapsed and were replaced by authoritarian regimes.

As the report makes clear, however, if we continue with "business as usual" when it comes to the emission of greenhouse gases, then we will not have to wait till the end of the century to see disastrous consequences. Long before then, a combination of floods, droughts and famine will have destroyed states in many poorer parts of the earth — as has already occurred in recent decades in Somalia.

If the conservative estimates of the Stern report are correct, then already by 2050 the effects of climate change may be such as to wreck the societies of Pakistan and Bangladesh; and if these states collapse, how can India and other countries possibly insulate themselves?

At that point, not only will today's obsessive concern with terrorism appear insignificant, but all the democratizing efforts of Western states, and of private individuals and bodies like George Soros and his Open Society Institute, will be rendered completely meaningless. So, of course, will every effort directed today toward the reduction of poverty and disease.

And this is only to examine the likely medium-term consequences of climate change. For the further future, the report predicts that if we continue with business as usual, then the rise in average global temperature could well top 5 degrees Celsius. To judge by what we know of the history of the world's climate, this would almost certainly lead to the melting of the polar ice caps, and a rise in sea levels of up to 25 meters.

As pointed out by Al Gore in "An Inconvenient Truth," this would mean the end of many of the world's greatest cities. The resulting human migration could be on such a scale as to bring modern civilization to an end.

If this comes to pass, what will our descendants make of a political and media culture that devotes little attention to this threat when compared with sports, consumer goods, leisure and a threat from terrorism that is puny by comparison? Will they remember us as great paragons of human progress and freedom? They are more likely to spit on our graves.

Underlying Western free-market democracy, and its American form in particular, is the belief that this system is of permanent value to mankind: a "New Order of the Ages," as the motto on the U.S. Great Seal has it. It is not supposed to serve only the short- term and selfish interests of existing Western populations. If our system is indeed no more than that, then it will pass from history even more utterly than Confucian China — and will deserve to do so.

© Copyright 2006 The International Herald Tribune


Informant: binstock



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=An+Inconvenient+Truth

The key U.S. manufacturing sector is expected to be hit hard next year, heightening fears a recession is now much more likely than many economists had expected.

http://tinyurl.com/v5g6a


From Information Clearing House



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

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Central Bank Governor Sultan Bin Nasser al-Suwaidi announced today that the UAE will switch 8% of its foreign-exchange reserves from U.S. dollars into euros before September. Now China, Russia, Italy Switzerland, Sweden, Qatar, New Zealand and UAE are all diversifying away from the dollar.

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=27586


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dollars+into+euros

They confirmed my eyewitness's account - that a well-known CIA Gulfstream plane, the N379P, had made several landings at the airport in 2003.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6212843.stm


From Information Clearing House

The Bush administration and Congress are warning that a proposed $16 billion deal between a Chinese company and Iran could trigger economic penalties under an American law aimed at starving Iran of funding for "terrorism and nuclear weapons".

http://www.nysun.com/article/45816


From Information Clearing House

Shooting the messenger is a war crime

More than 120 reporters and other media workers have been killed in Iraq since the invasion. In August 2003, Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison when a machine-gun bullet tore through his chest. The Pentagon said the soldiers had "engaged a cameraman."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/297417_amy28.html


From Information Clearing House

--------

Shooting the Messenger
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5650/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amy+Goodman

More than 108,000 Iraqis have left their homes and registered as refugees in the last month, a senior official has said.

http://tinyurl.com/yyzl8j


From Information Clearing House

By Bill Quigley

Why Is HUD Using Tens of Millions of Katrina Money to Bulldoze 4534 Public Housing Apartments in New Orleans When It Costs Less to Repair and Open Them Up?

http://tinyurl.com/y2nvya

--------

New Orleans: HUD Policies Limiting Housing for Poor

Bill Quigley writes: "Gloria Williams and her twin sister, Bobbie Jennings, are both 60 years old. They are two of the more than 4,000 families who lived in public housing in New Orleans before Katrina struck. The families are still locked out of their homes. Their residences are two of 4,534 apartments that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced plans to demolish."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906D.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Katrina
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Orleans
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bill+Quigley

Timothy Garton Ash writes: "In the coming year, we should not abandon all idealism along with the dangerous illusions of the Bush era."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806F.shtml

Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney - Ford's White House chief of staff - and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806B.shtml

"Everything we have endured these last six years - the death, the horror, the fear, the anger - was born that afternoon in Washington, DC," writes William Rivers Pitt. "We have already suffered myriad consequences because of it - the shame of Abu Ghraib; the lingering fear of blue skies and airplanes; the ebb tide of freedom as rights become privileges too easily withheld, the bottomless sorrow stitched into nearly three thousand folded American flags while taps played to the wind - and it is a bleak certainty that further suffering born on that day lies in wait."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806A.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Rivers+Pitt

Giant Ice Shelf Breaks Free from Canadian Arctic
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1229-02.htm

-------

Canada's North changing. Global warming suspected cause of huge breakup on Ellesmere Island

MARGARET MUNRO

CanWest News Service
Thursday, December 28, 2006

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=e4c99314-a71a-4418-a246-eea457e8b873&k=82636

An ancient ice shelf has cracked off northern Ellesmere Island, creating an enormous 66-square-kilometre ice island and leaving a trail of icy blocks in its wake.

"It really is incredible," said Warwick Vincent of Universite Laval, one of the few people to have laid eyes on the scene. "It's like a cruise missile has come down and hit the ice shelf."

The breakup was so powerful, earthquake monitors 250 kilometres away picked up the tremors as the 3,000- to 4,500-year-old shelf tore away from its fjord on Ellesmere.

It broke up 16 months ago, but no one was present to see it. The scientists say they are only now making public details after piecing together what occurred using seismic monitors and Canadian and U.S. satellites.

They say the ice shelf collapse, suspected to have been caused by global warming, is the biggest in Canada in 30 years and is indicative of the transformation under way on Ellesmere, Canada's most northern land mass.

"We are seeing incredible changes," said Vincent, whose group is studying the island's disappearing ice shelves and their unique ecosystems. "People talk of endangered animals - well, these are endangered landscape features and we're losing them."

The Ayles ice shelf was one of six ice shelves left in Canada, remnants of a vast icy fringe that used to cover the top end of Ellesmere.

Scientists consider the Canadian shelves, located about 800 kilometres south of the North Pole, sentinels that reflect the accelerating change in the Arctic.

In 2002, one of Vincent's graduate students, Derek Mueller, discovered that Ellesmere's Ward Hunt ice shelf had cracked in half. The researchers have also seen the sudden collapse of ice dams and the draining of
30-kilometre-long lakes into the sea.

The shelves are 90 per cent smaller than they were when Arctic explorer Robert Peary crossed them in 1906. And the Ayles ice shelf can be erased from Canada's maps.

"It no longer exists," Vincent said.

Laurie Weir, of the federal Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, was poring over images from the RADARSAT satellite when she noticed the shelf had broken away. She passed the information on to Luke Copland, head of the new global ice lab at the

University of Ottawa, who led the effort to determine what had happened.

It turned out it took less than one hour for the ice shelf to calve off in the early afternoon of Aug. 13, 2005, Copland said. Low frequency "rumbling" and tremors were picked up on earthquake monitors, and Canadian and U.S. satellites captured images of the shelf cracking and breaking away.

"If you were standing right on the edge of the shelf, there'd have been this huge 15-kilometre crack as far as you could see in both directions," Copland said.

"And then the ice drifted off."

Within an hour, the giant ice island was one kilometre offshore. It travelled west about 50 kilometres during the next few weeks and then moved east before freezing into sea ice about 15 kilometres offshore.

Copland has reconstructed what happened with Weir and Mueller, who is now at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

"We have a really good sequence of the ice shelf breaking up and then floating away," Copland said.

Vincent flew out from his base camp on northern Ellesmere by helicopter this year to have a first-hand look at the scene of the collapse.

"There was a huge amount of rubble associated with this breakup," Vincent said, explaining how the fjord is now full of ice blocks, "and then this vast ice shelf floating offshore."

The ice island is about 37 metres thick and measures roughly 15 kilometres by five kilometres. That's the size of a small city, or larger than 11,000 football fields. The island is now stuck in winter ice, but the researchers say it is only a matter of time before it is freed and floats away. They say the ice island could become a potential hazard to navigation and oil and gas extraction if it sails south toward the Beaufort Sea.

But for now, it is a monument to change.

"This is the biggest event since the '80s in terms of ice shelf loss," Copland said. He said two key factors appear to have triggered the breakup - the exceptionally warm temperatures on Ellesmere in summer last year,

3 degrees Celsius above normal, and unusually brisk winds that blew the summer pack ice offshore, exposing the Ayles shelf to waves and open water. Normally, the prevailing winds blow summer pack ice up against Ellesmere's ice shelves, where it acts as a buffer, protecting them from the sea.

The scientists say they can't prove human-induced climate change caused the Ayles shelf to break off, but they suspect global warming might be responsible.

"We can say it is consistent with the larger body of evidence indicating the climate is warming and predictions that the greatest effects are likely to take place at high latitudes," Vincent said. He noted that the Ayles disintegration is the most recent of several abrupt changes on Ellesmere.

"Suddenly, lakes that existed aren't there any more, ice dams collapse, ice shelves break up," Vincent said.

"These are big changes."

Researchers say there are many more changes in store. Last week, a Canada-U.S. team predicted that the Arctic Ocean could be devoid of summer ice as early as 2040 and possibly sooner.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006


Informant: binstock

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ANCIENT ICE SHELF SNAPS AND BREAKS FREE FROM THE CANADIAN ARCTIC

By Steve Lillebuen
Canadian Press
December 28, 2006

http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_n122847A.xml.html

A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, leaving a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.

The mass of ice broke clear from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometres south of the North Pole. Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, travelled to the newly formed ice island and couldn't believe what he saw. "It was extraordinary," Vincent said Thursday, adding that in 10 years of working in the region he has never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice.

"This is a piece of Canadian geography that no longer exists."

The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometres away picked up tremors from it.

Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in 30 years and point their fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor.

"We think this incident is consistent with global climate change," Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 per cent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906.

"We aren't able to connect all of the dots, but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role."

The ice shelf actually broke up 16 months ago, but no one witnessed the dramatic event.

Laurie Weir, who monitors ice conditions for the Canadian Ice Service, was poring over satellite images when she noticed that the shelf had split and separated.

Weir notified Luke Copland, head of the new global ice lab at the University of Ottawa, who initiated an effort to find out what happened.

Using U.S. and Canadian satellite images, as well as data from seismic monitors, Copland discovered that the ice shelf collapsed in the early afternoon of Aug. 13, 2005.

"These ice shelves can break up really quickly, perhaps more quickly than we thought they could do in the past," he said.

"Within an hour we could see this entire ice chunk just disconnect and float away."

Within days, the floating ice shelf had drifted a few kilometres offshore. It travelled west for 50 kilometres until it finally froze into the sea ice in the early winter.

Derek Mueller, a polar researcher with Vincent's team, saw that Ellesmere's Ward Hunt Ice Shelf had cracked in half in 2002. He also saw that sea ice, which creates a buffer zone around ice shelves, was approaching lower and lower levels.

"These ice shelves get weaker and weaker as the temperature rises," he said.

"And the summer of 2005 had a combination of high temperatures and strong winds that probably blew the sea ice away, making this ice shelf much more vulnerable."

The Ayles Ice Shelf, roughly 66 square kilometres in area, was one of six major ice shelves remaining in Canada's Arctic.

They are packed with ancient ice that dates back over 3000 years, and scientists like Vincent treat their loss as a sign that the global climate is crossing an unprecedented threshold.

"We're seeing the tragic loss of unique features of the Canadian landscape," he said.

"There are microscopic organisms and entire ecosystems associated with this ice, so we're losing a part of Canada's natural richness."

Meanwhile, the spring thaw may bring another concern as the warming temperatures could release the ice shelf from its Arctic grip.

Prevailing winds could then send the ice island southwards, deep into the Beaufort Sea.

"Over the next few years this ice island could drift into populated shipping routes," Weir said.

"There's significant oil and gas development in this region as well, so we'll have to keep monitoring its location over the next few years."


Informant: NHNE

--------

Ten Simple Things You Can Do to Go Green

Laurie David, who produced Al Gore's documentary about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," says saving the planet isn't about everyone doing everything: "It's about everyone doing something."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122806EB.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=An+Inconvenient+Truth

Die vielen Tests von Trägerraketen für Atomwaffen in diesem Jahr, die von acht Ländern durchgeführt wurden, weisen auf zunehmende Instabilität hin.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24317/1.html

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24321/1.html



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

This is so sad!

Deadline is 1/2/07, and only 370 signatures!

Please sign for these mother pigs,who are enduring unimaginable suffering,and forward and crosspost. Please!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/733171486?z00m=9399082

Dozens of banks have stopped or scaled back their businesses with Iran and other "rogue states" after informal pressure from the US government aimed at sidestepping the need for international sanctions.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806O.shtml

In his chronicle of life as an inmate at Guantanamo Bay, Afghan writer Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost describes his three years of humiliating detention for alleged ties to al-Qaeda. Now, he has lost his liberty again - this time believed jailed by the Pakistani intelligence service for the book's fierce criticism of the agency's role in the US-led war on terrorist groups.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806M.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gitmo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detention

Ashley Severance writes about her experiences spearheading a medical relief project in Orlando. Due to her efforts and the assistance of No More Victims, a three-year-old, war-injured Iraqi child was spared a life of permanent blindness.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806L.shtml

Jack Blatherwick writes: "Better we teach our children no answers - only questions and suspicions, courage and insight to detect official ideology. They will need wisdom beyond ours to rebuild our trusted position of leadership in a peaceful world - to restore environmental health to a wounded planet - and to redefine concepts like patriotism, democracy, and morality. They will need an extraordinary education, not short answers. Testing and retesting is no substitute for investment in education."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806K.shtml

Judith Bell writes: "Doubled and tripled up in cramped studios. Scrunched into uninsulated garages disingenuously dubbed 'family apartments.' Sneaking a few hours of sleep between shifts cleaning hotel rooms and slinging fast food. The realities of poverty in America are far from our minds as we primp for our neighbors' New Year's party or watch our kids play with their new Nintendo Wiis. The sobering truth just doesn't carve a place in polite conversations over celebratory champagne. But as a new report by the Brookings Institution shows, poverty is now increasingly a major problem on the brightly lit lanes of our nation's suburbs, not just in the urban areas. For the first time ever, there are now more people living in poverty in America's suburbs than in her cities."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122706LA.shtml



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

"When you think about the growth of human population over the last century or so, it is all too easy to imagine it merely as an increase in the number of humans," writes the New York Times. "But as we multiply, so do all the things associated with us, including our livestock. With pigs and poultry, they form a critical part of our enormous biological footprint upon this planet."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122706ED.shtml

--------

The New Scientist
December 12, 2006

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn10786-cows-pigs-and-sheep-environments-greatest-threats.html

Cows, pigs and sheep: Environment's greatest threats?

By Catherine Brahic

Cows, pigs, sheep and poultry have been awarded the dubious honour of being among the world's greatest environmental threats, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The report, entitled Livestock's long shadow, says the livestock industry is degrading land, contributing to the greenhouse effect, polluting water resources, and destroying biodiversity. In summary, the sector is "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every scale".

The authors say the demand for meat is expected to more than double by 2050 and therefore the environmental impact of production must be halved in order to avoid worsening the harmful impacts of the industry.

Perhaps the report's most striking finding is that the livestock sector accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions - more than transport, which emits 13.5%.

Entire cycle

The FAO's estimate of livestock emissions surpasses previous ones because this time researchers looked at the entire production cycle. This includes emissions generated by fertiliser and feed production, deforestation to open up pastures, manure management, and emissions from the livestock themselves and from transporting them and their feed.

Livestock require a lot of land, occupying 26% of Earth's ice-free land. Their pastures account for 70% of deforested areas in the Amazon, and their feed occupies one-third of global cropland.

Not only does deforestation increase greenhouse gas emissions by releasing carbon previously stored in trees, it is also a major driver in the loss of biodiversity. The report goes so far as to say that the livestock sector, which accounts for about 20% of terrestrial animal biomass, "may be a leading player in the reduction of biodiversity".

Livelihoods in livestock

Encouraging the global population to become vegans is not a viable solution, however. For starters, says the lead author of the FAO report, Henning Steinfeld, it is quite simply not an option for many of the one billion people whose livelihoods rely on livestock production.

Moreover, vegetable production is not devoid of environmental problems either. And recent studies have shown that global fish stocks are not sustainable at current levels of exploitation.

Steinfeld says the crux of the livestock problem is the sheer bulk of land the sector occupies: "We need to discourage indiscriminate deforestation for pasture, a large part of which takes place because of land speculation."

Convenient occupation

In the Amazon, where governments struggle to enforce legal systems, settlers occupy swathes of "no-man's land" and wait 15 years, after which time practice, though not law, dictates that they own the land. Using the land for pasture is simply a convenient tool to occupy the land, explains Steinfeld.

Ultimately, the authors argue, environmental services such as sustainably managed land and clean water, need to be given a price. "Most frequently, natural resources are free or underpriced, which leads to overexploitation and pollution," write the authors, concluding that "a top priority is to achieve prices and fees that reflect the full economic and environmental costs".

Steinfeld says negotiations of the next step of the Kyoto Protocol might be a good opportunity to do this.



Want to do something for the environment?
by Do not eat pigs.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/12/11/18336785.php

[Do not eat dead pigs (bacon, ham, pork chops). Below is a piece from another list about Smithfield pigs. Read it! Jean]

The current, December 14, edition of Rolling Stone magazine includes a lengthy piece, by contributor Jeff Tietz, about Smithfield pork producers. It covers the conditions the animals are kept in, and the environmental impact. The article is headed, "BossHog" and sub-headed, "America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history. Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat." (pg 89.)

The lead photo is of a huge pile of pig carcasses, with the caption, "Pork producers generate millions of tons of hog waste each year including millions of dead pigs."

The article opens: "Smithfield Foods, the largest and most profitable pig processor in the world, killed 27 million hogs last year."

It tells us that hogs produce three times more excrement than humans do, and that "The best estimates put Smithfield total waste discharge at 26 million tons a year." We read, "So prodigious is its fecal waste, however, that if the company treated its effluvia as big-city governments do -- even if it came close to the same standard -- it would lose money."

It explains that the "pig shit" is so toxic because of the concentrated conditions the pigs are kept in:

"Smithfield's pigs live by the hundreds or thousands in warehouselike barns, in rows of wall-to-wall pens. Sows are artificially inseminated and fed and delivered of their piglets in cages so small they cannot turn around. Forty full grown 250-pound male hogs often occupy a pen the size of a tiny apartment. They trample each other to death. There is no sunlight, straw, fresh air or earth. The floors are slatted to allow excrement to fall into a catchment pit under the pens....

"The temperature inside hog houses is often hotter than ninety degrees. The air, saturated almost to the point of precipitation with gases from shit and chemicals, can be lethal to the pigs. Enormous exhaust fans run
24 hours a day... If they break down for any length of time, pigs start dying....

"Taken together, the immobility, poisonous air and terror of confinement badly damage the pigs' immune systems. They become susceptible to infection..."

So they are infused with antibiotics and doused with insecticides.

We read about the huge excrement holding pens, called lagoons, which often overflow: "Major floods have transferred entire counties into pig shit bayous."

The lagoons are so toxic, workers have been overcome by them and fallen in and drowned in pig shit.

The article tells us that according to the EPA, Smithfield dumps more toxic waste into the nation's water each year than all but three other industrial facilities in America. But, "The industry has long made generous campaign contributions to politicians responsible for regulating hog farms." We read, "In 1998 corporate hog farms in North Carolina spent $1 million to help defeat state legislators who wanted to clean up open-pit lagoons."

Tietz writes, "Studies have shown that lagoons emit hundreds of different volatile gases into the atmosphere, including ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. A single lagoon releases many millions of bacteria into the air per day, some resistant to human antibiotics."

With an environmentalist, he flies in a small plane over the Smithfield area, and watches as "several farmers spray their hog shit straight up into the air as a fine mist." He writes, "It looks like a public fountain. Lofted and atomized the shit is blown clear of the company's property. People who breathe the shit-infused air suffer from bronchitis, asthma, heart palpitations, headaches, diarrhea, nosebleeds and brain damage."

He writes that the ascending stench can nauseate pilots at 3,000 feet, and He goes into some detail about the suffering of people whose homes are down-wind of the farms. He visits a lagoon to take a good whiff, and writes that even as he thinks about the smell he fights an urge to vomit.

We read some specifics of Smithfield's environmental impact in North Carolina. In a span of four years its lagoons have spilled: "2 million gallons of shit into Cape Fear River, 1.5 million gallons into its Persimmon branch, one million gallons into the Trent River, and
200,000 gallons into Turkey Creek."

The waste kills plants and animals outright and also consumes available oxygen and suffocates fish. We read about various disastrous spills. For example: "The biggest spill in the history of corporate hog farming happened in 1995. The dike of a 120,000 square foot lagoon owned by a Smithfield competitor ruptured, releasing 25.8 million gallons of effluvium into the headwaters of the New River in North Carolina. It was the biggest environmental spill in United States history, more than twice as big as the Exxon Valdez oil spill six years earlier. The sludge was so toxic, it burned your skin if you touched it, and so dense it took almost two months to make its way sixteen miles downstream to the ocean. From the headwaters to the sea, every creature living in the river was killed. Fish died by the millions."

He describes dead fish covering the riverbanks, and the article includes a shocking photo of that phenomenon.

Please share this with everyone you know!


Informant: Scott Munson



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=CO2

The standoff here between farmers and environmentalists was familiar in the modern West. With salmon and wildlife dwindling in the Skagit River Delta, some environmentalists had argued since the 1980s that local farms should be turned back into wetlands. Farmers here feared that preachy outsiders would strip them of their land and heritage. This year, though, the standoff ended - at least for three longtime farmers in this fertile valley, who began collaborating with their former enemies to preserve wildlife and their livelihoods.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122706EC.shtml

Two of the nation's largest timber companies, Weyerhaeuser and Plum Creek Timber, have polished their public images for years by participating in a program that certifies that their logging is environmentally friendly. But in separate challenges this month from the far corners of the United States, environmental groups in Washington state and in Maine are accusing Weyerhaeuser Corporation and Plum Creek Timber of using the forest industry's green-labeling program as a cover while they log in ways that harm endangered spotted owls in Washington and violate forestry laws in Maine.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122706EB.shtml



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

"The tragedy unfolding in Somalia has the potential to destroy thousands of innocent lives and livelihoods," remarks Michael McClennen. "At the same time, it holds within it the seeds of international peace. We must urgently decide which side of the conflict to support, and our decision may well have immense repercussions for international relations in the 21st century."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122706R.shtml



UN Envoy Calls Somalia Situation Grim

The conflict between Somalia's transitional government and Islamic militants has escalated dangerously, as Islamist leaders threaten a "holy war" against advancing government troops and allied Ethiopian forces, a UN special envoy told the Security Council on Tuesday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122706S.shtml



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

http://tinyurl.com/tfxg8



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Stop+Funding+War
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Start+Investigations
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach

The American Spectator
by Jeremy Lott

12/27/06

Bush's half-hearted attempts to control spending have been laughable. The financial hit of September 11 temporarily reversed government surpluses but increases in both defense and domestic spending brought back dreaded structural deficits. Americans hate deficits and the president could have appealed to this revulsion to get Congress to spend less. By vetoing a few bills, he would have told Congress he was serious about spending -- and told the American people he was willing to stand up to big spenders, regardless of party. Instead, Bush tried to talk Congress into spending what he considered the 'just right' amount, and then signed every huge spending bill that crossed his desk...

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10798


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deficit+spending

Asia Times
by M K Bhadrakumar

12/27/06

Over the past year, it has become clear that the US will not be able to become the single dominant power in Central Asia and thereby control oil and gas and their transportation routes. Russia and China have together put up dikes delimiting US influence, though they are far from being a tight couple. The death of Turkmenistan's president Saparmurat Niyazov, however, could dramatically shift the center of gravity of the Great Game...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HL23Ag01.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Our Next Big Mess

By Ted Rall

Chances are that you heard more about Rosie O'Donnell's flame war with Donald Trump than the passing of Sapamurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov. As seems to occur with increasing frequency, America's media ignored the most important story of the year.

http://tinyurl.com/y6uhnn



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Niyazov
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Turkmenistan

http://tinyurl.com/ybwtfc


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

12/27/06

Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he has invited Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify during three weeks of hearings in January about the Iraq war. Biden, a Delaware Democrat, told reporters Tuesday that the proponents of different plans for Iraq will be invited to the hearings that are to begin on January 9. He also will call former secretaries of state, academics, Iraq Study Group members and other witnesses from outside the administration as the committee examines various approaches to the war...

http://tinyurl.com/ulnqw


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joseph+Biden
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Condoleezza+Rice

The number of suicides in war-ravaged Iraq is increasing due to psychological stress caused by relentless violence, medical experts said. "We see more cases of suicide each month and all evidence shows that the main reason for the suicides has been the stress and pressure caused by the continuing violence," said Dr. Muhammad Hamza, a specialist in suicide medical investigation at the Ministry of Health. Hamza said that he found that 70 percent of suicide victims chose to poison themselves using rat and cockroach poison. Others either shot or hanged themselves. "Some of them leave letters to their parents and the most common excuse given for their act is that they can no longer bear the violence," Hamza said.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2766.shtml

http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?list=type&type=186

Join CODEPINK and many others in a national march on Washington, D.C., on Saturday, January 27
http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?list=type&type=182

Will this proposed planning application, now at consultation stage, cause uproar in Bognor Regis or will it simmer and die? We shall see as it progresses.

A TETRA mast was removed from the centre of Bognor in May 2004 and in excess of 200 people gradually recovered until two more TETRA masts were put up in neighbouring areas. One at Felpham secretly and a temporary one at Church Norton.

See attachment of two letters in the Bognor Observer today
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/why_we_must_fight_plan_for_new_tetra_mast.htm


Sandi



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bognor+Regis

LA TIMES - President Bush quietly appointed television sitcom producer Warren Bell to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting this week, overriding opposition from public broadcasting advocates who fear the outspoken conservative will politicize the post. Bell's nomination had been stalled since September because of concerns about his qualifications among several members of the Senate Commerce Committee, which must approve nominees to the board of the CPB, the private nonprofit that distributes federal funds to public television and radio stations.

But Bush was able to circumvent the need for Senate approval by naming Bell to the board as a recess appointee. His term will last about a year, unless a permanent nominee for the seat is confirmed before then.

. .

As a contributor to the online edition of the National Review, Bell has made no secret of his political views, writing in one piece that he is "thoroughly conservative in ways that strike horror into the hearts of my Hollywood colleagues."

His comments alarmed some public broadcasting advocates, who worry he would plunge the system back into the kind of rancorous debate that erupted last year when Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, then chairman of the CPB board, sought to promote more conservatives in the system. Tomlinson resigned last fall after an internal investigation concluded his actions broke federal law.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-bell22dec22,1,1016415.story?coll=la-headlines-politics


Informant: bigraccoon

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/tech/0,1518,456792,00.html

Überwachung: Gruseln beim Chaos Congress
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3930&Alias=wzo&cob=263271



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chaos+Computer+Club

Bees and GM-crops: Is this the lethal combination?

Wild Bees Reject Genetically Engineered Crop--Potential Major Impact on Pollination

* Ecological Society of America, Dec 23, 2006

http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_3665.cfm

From Ecological Society of America Referring to a Sept. 2004 peer-reviewed article

Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada

Abstract. The ecological impacts of agriculture are of concern, especially with genetically modified and other intensive, modern cropping systems, yet little is known about effects on wild bee populations and subsequent implications for pollination. Pollination deficit (the difference between potential and actual pollination) and bee abundance were measured in organic, conventional, and herbicide-resistant, genetically modified (GM) canola fields (Brassica napus and B. rapa) in northern Alberta, Canada, in the summer of 2002.

Bee abundance data were collected using pan traps and standardized sweep netting, and pollination deficit was assessed by comparing the number of seeds per fruit from open-pollinated and supplementally pollinated flowers. There was no pollination deficit in organic fields, a moderate pollination deficit in conventional fields, and the greatest pollination deficit in GM fields. Bee abundance was greatest in organic fields, followed by conventional fields, and lowest in GM fields. Overall, there was a strong, positive relationship between bee abundance at sampling locations and reduced pollination deficits. Seed set in B. napus increased with greater bee abundance. Because B. rapa is an obligate outcrossing species, the lack of pollination deficit in the organic (B. rapa) fields likely was due to the high bee abundance rather than a lower dependence of B. rapa on pollinators than B. napus canola. Our study illustrates the importance of wild bees to agricultural production and suggests that some agroecosystems may better sustain wild bee abundance, resulting in greater seed production.

Further research on why some cropping systems, such as genetically modified, herbicide-resistant canola, have low wild bee abundance would be useful for management of agroecosystems to promote sustainability of food production. Key words: agriculture; bees; Brassica rapa; Brassica napus; canola; conventional; genetically modified; organic; pollination; sustainable development.

Manuscript received 3 September 2003; revised 3 September 2004; accepted 8 September 2004. Corresponding Editor: C. R. Linder © Copyright by Ecological Society of America 2005


Informant: binstock

--------

Are GM Crops Killing Bees?

A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032307EA.shtml
http://p211.ezboard.com/Are-GM-Crops-Killing-Bees/fchemtrailschemtrails.showMessage?topicID=8570.topic

--------

Bees and GM-crops: Is this the lethal combination?
Olle Johanssonn wrote:

Dear All,

Yet another important theory: http://p211.ezboard.com/Are-GM-Crops-Killing-Bees/fchemtrailschemtrails.showMessage?topicID=8570.topic

Best regards

Olle Johansson, assoc. prof.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm
Sweden


Dear Olle, Dear All,

Thanks for your message & attachments. Well, sure there is a lot of explanations on those articles. They just forgot to say that maybe the fault is because the sky is blue (well, less with all those airplanes...) or the water is liquid... Sorry, just joking ! More seriously, if we consider the Koblenz study and the one in the attached file untitled: Cell death induced by GSM 900-MHz and DCS 1800-MHz mobile telephony radiation? by Dimitris J. Panagopoulos & col. [ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/2939979/ ]we should reach the same conclusion. That means that we all die soon, from the bottom to the top of the chain. Ostrich (which could be the symbol of all our politicians) will die in blindness. But how humans will support his own disappearance ? Take care !

Best Regards

Philippe Hug
Chairman of ARA CP 17
CH 1454 L'Auberson
Switzerland
http://www.alerte.ch



Dear Philippe,

"But how humans will support his own disappearance ?" That is exactly the question I have been asking myself for the last 30 years!

Best regards
Olle Johansson, assoc. prof.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm
Sweden



Hi All,

Der Spiegel International Article - Are GM crops killing bees - is attached.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,473166,00.html

Best regards,
Margaret



Hi Margaret, Hi All !

It's seems that the Koblenz study is unknown, so I sent it to you in attached file.

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/etude_koblenz.pdf

This study shows that a simple DECT phone under a beehive has a catastrophic result! We all have to rouse every people about that! Regarding the article in the Spiegel, I conclude that all around the world, people are not looking in the right direction, because they are looking either for chemical causes or GM cause. If GM is largely spread in USA, it is not the case in Germany (0,06 %), nor in Switzerland and France where the bees problematic is the same. And chemical are less employed. We just have to stop EMF. Quick! One year more and it will be too late! If people don't care about their own health, maybe they will about bees and consequently the humanity! I suggest we all have to think about a letter we have to write and send to our mutual Government, with a copy to the media! Mayday, mayday, mayday! Please do some!

Best Regards.
Philippe Hug



Re: Der Spiegel International Article - Are GM crops killing bees

Dear Don, Dear All !

Unfortunately, I haven't an English version of the study and I only have a pdf version of it. Nevertheless, I can give you this abstract:

2 beehives were not exposed and 2 beehives were exposed with a DECT phone. They catch 25 bees in all beehives and released them 800 meters away. On the non exposed beehives, 16 & 17 bees came back after respectively 28 & 32 minutes. On the exposed ones, only 6 came back after 38 minutes and the other beehive were totally deserted ! An other fact is that on the exposed beehives, there were 21 % less of cells construction in the frames of the beehive after 9 days. Unfortunately, there is no explanation. Just FACTS ! Do we really have to wait to get the formal evidence? In Science, nothing is never proved. That the accumulation of studies and evidences who could reach something plausible or possible. But do we really have the time to wait for a confirmation of the Science which can take several years before acting, if the humanity disappear before the results ???

Be the way, if somebody understand German (I do not), he can visit this website: http://www.mikrowellensmog.info/bienen.html
[English machine translation under: http://tinyurl.com/26w4ow ]

Keeping bees seems not possible at 2000 uW/m2, it means 0,87 V/m.

We all know that bees are one of the best kind of bio-indicator. If they disappear, the humanity will follow in the 4 or 5 years. Isn't it wonderful? WE HAVE TO ACT NOW! ANYBODY OWNING A MOBILE PHONE HAS TO CANCEL IT ! NOW ! Again, I repeat: Mayday, mayday, mayday... Please do some !

Philippe Hug
Chairman of ARA Switzerland
http://www.alerte.ch



RE: Der Spiegel International Article - Are GM crops killing bees

We already have the Koblenz study and Dr. Warnke promised to give me the phone numbers of the researchers. I have to speak to them asap. I am in total agreement with Philippe Hug. The bees need to be our priority. I have seen this coming for quite some years now and everyone laughed at me when I voiced my fears regarding the bees and the birds. It now seems that my nightmare is coming true. Let's not be mislead by reports of other possible causes. I am alerting UK government ministers and defra. We all must do our best to alert the media and our government representatives, otherwise Einstein's prediction will come true and mankind will only have four years left after the demise of the honey bee.

Ingrid



Re: Der Spiegel International Article - Are GM crops killing bees

Dear Philippe, Don and All: Philippe makes the point re "the facts" surrounding close exposure to DECT phone in the same way I have been emphasizing for years (and Olle has been trying to obtain funding for....) -- that we must inform the public of dangers of EMF exposures that are close to one's body before common sense can be applied to the more distant exposures!!!

We should be asking for what reason did the American Cancer Society send me a copy of the "USA Today" article back in 1993 when I made a query as to whether they had any information on EMF's. The file number on this item clearly indicates the American Cancer Society considered EMF's due to electrical appliances close to beds as "radiation."

I am preparing another email re the bees and EMF exposures........ Take care - Joanne

Joanne C. Mueller
Guinea Pigs R Us
731 - 123rd Avenue N.W.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55448-2127 USA
Phone: 763-755-6114
Email: jcmpelican @aol.com (3-28-07)

All truth goes through three stages: first it is ridiculed:
then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer



RE: bees

Dear all,...this is my rough/quick content of the Koblenz study translated.

If I am wrong somewhere, please correct me.

Thanks,
Hans Karow.


Content of Koblenz study:

It's a pilot study and they found differences between the radiated and non-radiated bee hives with regards of (filled)honeycombs’ weight, and time of bee’s return flights to the hive, both cases have been illustrated in the figures.

Re honeycomb weight: a difference of 21.1 % less with the radiated bee hives.

Re: return to the bee hive: numbers of returning non-radiated bees are definitely higher compared to radiated bees;

Return flight-time of radiated bees is definitely longer than compared to non-radiated bees.

That's roughly what the study says.

At the end of that paper they suggest variation/recommendations for future studies.



Re: Der Spiegel International Article - Are GM crops killing bees
http://www.omega-news.info/are_gm_crops_killing_bees.htm

Inverter....EMF problems in mountainous forests of Arizona.....
http://www.omega-news.info/emf_problems_in_mountainous_forests_of_arizona.htm

Bees...re heat, stress, etc.
http://www.omega-news.info/bees_re_heat_stress.htm



Re: bees

NATIONAL GRID -
Electric and magnetic fields ---
6.4 Bees

6.4.1 It is clear that the electric fields created by transmission lines do affect the health and mortality of honey bees inside wooden hives(9). The most likely explanation for this is that the bees receive small, but frequent, shocks from the currents induced in the hives. If a hive is placed near transmission lines, this adverse effect can be mitigated by screening the hive. No-one who made a sub-mission to the Inquiry suggested that he or she wished to keep hives on or near to a transmission line easement and the adverse effect of the lines on bees in hives does not appear to create any practical problems.

http://www.emfs.info/sci_chapter6.asp


Informant: Joanne C. Mueller

--------

Re: Bees and GM-crops: Is this the lethal combination?

Hi All

In relation to http://p211.ezboard.com/Are-GM-Crops-Killing-Bees/fchemtrailschemtrails.showMessage?topicID=8570.topic

All these theories reminds me of the poem "The Blind Men and the Elephant" by American poet John Godfrey Saxe.

We all are taking a blind stab at what we think is the bee killer based on our particular experiences or interest. Perhaps "all of the above" is the right answer but I think the microwave factor should be right up there with the other main contenders. There is some good research that could be done here but as Professor Kaatz said in the first article. "Those who have the money are not interested in this sort of research, and those who are interested don't have the money."

Sound familiar?

Anyone know if a new wireless system was rolled out in the US around November last year?

Don Maisch



Excellent comment, dear Don, so very true! Particular the part by Professor Kaatz: "Those who have the money are not interested in this sort of research, and those who are interested don't have the money."

Best regards
Olle Johansson, assoc. prof.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm
Sweden



With regard to the bees issue, two points to add:

* Our work suggests that the informations carrying radio waves would disrupt intercellular communication in the bees and cause them to become spatially disoriented. Thus, no way home to the hive and certain death.

* Regarding Don's question about any new rollout in the U.S., we do know that for the past two years, there has been a very rapid increase in the density of satellite radio repeaters installed throughout North America. It seems to be under the FCC's radar screen -- I suppose that is no surprise. Although not the same frequencies as mobile phones, there are wave patterns within that technolgoy that are in the range that would trigger adverese cell membrane reactions.

Dr. George L. Carlo
Science and Public Policy Institute
1101 Pennsylvania Ave. NW -- 7th Floor Washington, D.C. 20004 http://www.sppionline.org
202-756-7744



Re: Bees and GM-crops: Is this the lethal combination?

Very interesting, dear Robert! Will this moving be followed in the future by humans seeking similar shelter...?

Olle Johansson, assoc. prof.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience
Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm
Sweden

--------

Are genetically modified crops a cause of disappearing bees?
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5980/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

--------

HONEY BEE POPULATION DROPS SHARPLY, AND MORE FROM CRS

A "sharp decline" in the U.S. population of honey bees is examined in a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

"This phenomenon first became apparent among commercial migratory beekeepers along the East Coast during the last few months of 2006, and has since been reported nationwide," the CRS report said.

Various potential causes have been postulated, including parasites, pathogens, chemical contaminants, poor nutrition, and "stress."

The declining bee population is the subject of a hearing today before the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture.

See "Recent Honey Bee Colony Declines," Congressional Research Service, March 26, 2007:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33938.pdf

--------

And where are the bees?
http://tinyurl.com/2cbgm5


Informant: Alfonso Balmori

--------

Bee disease also a threat to U.S. crops
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/17005544.htm

Apiarists buzzing about soaring rate of honeybee deaths
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070402.BEES02/TPStory/Environment

What's happening to the bees?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0404/p13s01-sten.html


Informant: binstock

--------

Bees dying and vanishing in many countries
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/bees_dying_and_vanishing_in_many_countries.htm

Bees: news reports
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/bees_news_reports.htm

Bees and GM-crops: Is this the lethal combination?
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/bees_and_gm_crops_is_this_the_lethal_combination.htm

--------

A little more info on what may be making the bees disappear...High Fructose Corn Syrup!

WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR BEES?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Posted by Jim Hightower

Listen to this Commentary
http://www.jimhightower.com/sites/jimhightower.civicactions.net/files/13_15_thnc.mp3

Bees are dying. Dying all across America. Lots and lots of bees.

Starting in Florida last fall, the great bee die-off has spread to 24 states. Whole colonies are dying. In Western states, commercial beekeepers report up to a 60 percent loss of their bees, with losses 70 percent in Texas and on the East Coast. It's unprecedented.

Who cares? Well, few people realize that many of America’s food crops – from almonds to watermelon – rely heavily on commercial honeybees for pollination. No bees, no fruit. One study finds that these bees pollinate every third bite of food that we consume.

Another little known fact is that bee pollination is increasingly a highly concentrated industry. Rather than a dispersed system of local hives, a few commercial operators now haul tens of billions of bees from coast to coast, trucking their hives in 18-wheelers.

"Colony Collapse Disorder," as it's now called, could be the result of this industrialized model of pollination. First, the bees themselves have been bred into single-purpose super-pollinators, rather than bees with multiple functions (make honey, feed the queen, maintain the hives, and extend the species). The industrial bees have lost the diversity and natural traits of wild bees.

Second, constant trucking puts stress on the bees, suppressing their immune systems and making them vulnerable to viruses, mites, and diseases. Also as part of their forced migration, the bees are fed a limited diet of high fructose corn syrup – about as healthy as humans trying to live on Cokes. Other research is indicting certain pesticides and genetically altered organisms that have been artificially spliced into many field crops.

This is Jim Hightower saying... Once again, we have the heavy hand of mankind messing with Mother Nature in ways that come back to mess with us – big time. It's not just bees these food industrialists are messing with – it's our food supply.

"Honeybees, Gone With the Wind, Leave Crops and Keeprs in Peril," New York Times, February 27, 2007

"What's Happening to the Bees?" Truthout.org, April 5, 2007


Informant: Bob Banner



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=bees
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bees
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bees+GM

For growing numbers of international business travelers, visa and customs regulations are making trips to the U.S. a thing of the past.

http://tinyurl.com/ylvy3b


From Information Clearing House

The dollar had its biggest drop this month against the yen on speculation waning consumer confidence in the U.S. will increase the likelihood for a cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve in the first quarter.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=an4JRF0g4CK8&refer=europe



U.S. Recession Ahead, Researcher Forecasts

The United States will slide into a "systemic recession" influenced by high consumer debt and low incomes in 2007, a leading trends researcher predicted.
http://tinyurl.com/ycpa7d



Homeowners' losses are others' gains

Profits from defaulted loans are soaring as lawyers, listing agents, property managers, investors and auctioneers get a piece of the pie.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4900525


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=dollar+decline

The United States produces about one-fourth of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, yet we're the only major nation that officially denies there's a problem. This is the year for all of us -- government, business, individuals -- to aggressively attack global warming.

http://tinyurl.com/yknu4m


From Information Clearing House

I heard one reviewer describe the film as an attempt to “take on” the CIA, yet I came away on the one hand in awe of its psychological depiction of Edward Wilson, but also aware of the film’s paucity of information regarding the agency’s sordid machinations before, during, and after the Cold War.

http://tinyurl.com/yzclxg



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

US support for Ethiopia's incursion into Somalia highlights another failure by Washington to use diplomacy rather than military might in dealing with Islamist threats to its moderate allies, analysts say.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061227/pl_afp/somaliaunrestethiopia


From Information Clearing House



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

War pimp alert: U.S. says evidence links Iran military to plots in Iraq

The U.S. military said it had credible evidence linking Iranians and their Iraqi associates, detained here in raids last week, to criminal activities, including attacks against U.S. forces.

http://tinyurl.com/yctl5x



The gathering Gulf storm

One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the renewed US campaign about the Iran nuclear issue camouflages a struggle for the domination of the Gulf and the Middle East region that set the tempo of the Cold War in the last century and will significantly determine the contours of the world order struggling to be born.

http://tinyurl.com/yadjyo



Iran summons UK ambassador over Blair remarks

Iran summoned Britain's ambassador in Tehran to its foreign ministry to hear its "strong objections" to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's claim that the Islamic republic poses a threat to the region.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061226/wl_mideast_afp/iranpoliticsbritain


From Information Clearing House

MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1650822,00.html



The real menace

The public, seeing through the tissue of Bush administration lies told to justify an invasion that never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 or weapons of mass destruction, now has begun a national questioning: Why are we still in Iraq?

http://tinyurl.com/ydpryy


From Information Clearing House

Electronic Iraq is covering the global response to the Saddam Hussein hanging. Visit eIraq to hear from human rights organizations, journalists, Iraqi bloggers and more.

A full index of our coverage of Saddam Hussein's hanging, including frequently updated news headlines, can be found here:

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2771.shtml

Don't miss John Collins' analysis of the mainstream media's handling of the Saddam Hussein hanging. "Reading and watching the kind of mainstream coverage provided by CNN and the New York Times during the last 48 hours," Collins writes, "one could be forgiven for believing that the relationship between Saddam and the U.S. had always been one of enmity and violence. Yet as Juan Cole and others have tirelessly pointed out, the U.S. government began 'enabling' Saddam as early as 1959 when the CIA enlisted his help in undermining the government of Abdul Karim Qasim."

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2779.shtml

Our coverage of the global response to the Hussein hanging continues today with a piece by Hasan Abu Nimah, former Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations.

"Many truths which the world deserved to know have perished forever with that savage execution," writes Abu Nimah. "Yet, even if Saddam's trial had been impeccably handled, the fundamental principle of justice is equality before the law. Such "justice" has no chance of winning over the masses in this region when they observe that punishment is so swift and brutal when the accused is an Arab, Muslim head of state, while other accused former leaders, like Slobodan Milosevic, receive elaborate trials in The Hague."

http://electroniciraq.net/news/2790.shtml

And Thalif Deen reports: "The swirling controversy over the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is threatening to trigger a backlash at the United Nations. Italy, which has condemned the death penalty as "barbaric", is trying to bring the issue before a sharply divided world body by calling for a "universal moratorium" on capital punishment. If Italy -- which became a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 1 and will hold office during 2007-2008 -- decides to take the initiative, a resolution on the proposed moratorium could go before the 192-member General Assembly."

http://electroniciraq.net/news/newsanalysis.shtml

--------

Saddam Hussein's Baath party threatens to retaliate if their leader is executed

Saddam Hussein's Baath Party threatened Wednesday to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader is executed, warning in an Internet posting it would target U.S. interests anywhere.

http://tinyurl.com/yng42m



Reverse Decision to Execute Saddam

The Iraqi government should not implement the death sentence against Saddam Hussein, which was imposed after a deeply flawed trial for crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said today.

http://tinyurl.com/yhp3wm



Saddam's Death To Be Videotaped

The date of the deposed dictator's execution will not be made public, to avoid possible unrest from Saddam's supporters, but everything from the signing of the final orders by the judge, to the hanging itself will be recorded.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/28/iraq/main2304318.shtml



Hussein is “a prisoner of war”, says chief lawyer

Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer implored world leaders on Thursday to prevent the United States from handing over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities for execution, saying he should enjoy protection from his enemies as a “prisoner of war.”

http://tinyurl.com/y33n9t



Saddam's Hanging Verdict Is Illegal And Unjust

Are we now going to compound our illegal preemptive attack and occupation of Iraq, where we set up and implemented a U.S. controlled coalition government, where we stage managed a flawed election and judicial system and where we now have condoned the hanging of this sovereign country's leader after a mock U.S. managed monkey trial ?

http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2006/12/28.html



The trials of occupation

Executing Saddam will not bring peace to Iraq. That can only come when US forces leave

By Burhan al-Chalabi

The US and its allies should apologise to the Iraqi people for the suffering the war has caused. It should offer compensation based on criteria used in Kuwait after the first Gulf war. Under the auspices of the UN, it must end the occupation and hand over power to a sovereign Iraqi government mandated to respect human rights.

http://tinyurl.com/y5unfq



The Black Bull died today

By Mirza Yawar Baig

Are we, the people of the world saying that it is the right of America or anyone with the power to do so, to take by force what they want from whoever they want? Are we, the people of the world, saying that it is the right of the rapist to rape? Are we, the people of the world, saying that it is the right of the bandit or the highway robber to hold you up and take from you what he wishes by force? Because in my opinion, by remaining silent, that is exactly what we will be saying. You decide what you want to do. I have already made my decision..

http://tinyurl.com/ygfsau



And the Empire Mourned…

By Jason Miller

In the wake of the United States’ recent facilitation of Saddam Hussein’s hanging, we in the self-proclaimed “bastion of human rights” are in the midst of six days of mourning for a man would have swung from the gallows long ago had he been judged by the same standards as Saddam.

http://tinyurl.com/yfmdnq



Video Shows Saddam at the gallows

Dec. 30 - Iraqi state television and Al Arabiya television have shown footage of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein being led to the gallows and a noose being placed around his neck.

http://tinyurl.com/y55uha



Video - Saddam's body displayed on TV

Dec. 30 - Biladi, a Shi'ite-run channel in Iraq has showed Saddam Hussein's body lying with his neck twisted and with what appeared to be blood or a bruise on his left cheek.

http://tinyurl.com/y3s56p



3 Minute Video: Ramsey Clark reacts to the execution of Saddam Hussein

"A tragic assault on truth and justice"
http://tinyurl.com/y369yg



Juan Cole: Saddam: The death of a dictator

Through the bumbling of the U.S.-backed regime, justice becomes revenge, and a despot becomes a martyr.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/30/saddam/print.html



Saddam: The questions that will live on

"It takes remarkable obedience to authority to believe that the US would have 'liberated' Iraq - or taken revenge - if its main exports were lettuce and pickles, and the major petroleum resources were in the South Pacific."

http://tinyurl.com/y5rqmj



Arab haj pilgrims outraged at Saddam execution

The death could harden hatred for Shi'ite Muslims in Saudi Arabia, a bastion of Sunni Islam whose Islamic orthodoxy -- known as Wahhabism -- regards Shi'ites as virtual heretics.

http://tinyurl.com/vyma4



Hanging Saddam ‘barbaric’ says top EU official

Hanging former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was 'barbaric' and may turn him into a martyr, the European Union's aid and development Commissioner said.

http://tinyurl.com/tntwj



Arabiya says Saddam half-brother, ex-judge executed

Arabic satellite channel Arabiya said Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander were also executed by hanging on Saturday.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L3077992.htm



Libya declares national mourning for Saddam

LIBYA declared three days of national mourning today after the execution of Iraqi ex-president Saddam Hussein who had been a "prisoner of war," official media said.

http://tinyurl.com/y3jya2



Tariq Ali: Saddam at the End of a Rope
http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq12302006.html



He takes his secrets to the grave: our complicity dies with him

By Robert Fisk

How the West armed Saddam, fed him intelligence on his 'enemies', equipped him for atrocities - and then made sure he wouldn't squeal.

http://tinyurl.com/yzvpg9



Unofficial Video Of Saddam Hanging

Officials taunted Saddam on the gallows

After he falls through the trap, abruptly cut off in his recitation of the Muslim profession of faith, someone in the room cries "The tyrant has fallen!" and the film shows the 69-year-old former strongman swinging on the rope, his eyes open and his neck twisted at a 90-degree angle to his right.

3 Minute Video

WARNING

Some viewers may find the video disturbing. It should only be watched by a mature audience.

http://tinyurl.com/ylka4c



Hold these grotesque executioners to account

By Iain Macwhirter

The execution of Saddam may have brought "closure" to the White House, but it left a bitter taste in the mouths of the rest of us. He was executed under the auspices of an Anglo-American occupation that has brought little but death and destruction to Iraq.

http://tinyurl.com/yesr5p



Selective Justice And The Execution Of Saddam Hussein

By Gregory Elich

It is impossible to avoid concluding that the trial of Saddam Hussein was little more than a case of selective justice, meant to provide post-justification for an invasion that was itself a grave violation of international law.

http://tinyurl.com/yj9nzu



The Executioner's Face is Always Well Hidden

By Jerry Ghinelli

http://tinyurl.com/yzs44d



How Washington and London helped to create the monster they went to war to destroy

The dealings between the US and Saddam's Iraq over the quarter of a century before 2003 are a story of deceit, miscalculation and strategic blunders by both sides. And they began, as they would end, in the shadow of a common enemy: Iran.

http://tinyurl.com/yf33th



Pledging revenge, hundreds flock to Saddam's tomb

In an outpouring of grief and anger from Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs at the Shi'ite-led government that rushed through the execution, mourners knelt and prayed by the tomb in Awja over which the Iraqi flag had been draped.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31887490.htm



'He is already history'

In this remarkable dispatch, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, one of the few journalists who can still move freely about Baghdad, watches the execution with Sunni insurgents

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1980557,00.html



Death of One Tyrant a Coverup of Crime by Another

Once again the barbarians have succeeded in professing human dignity while ignoring human life's sanctity. My thoughts are filled with disgust as the so called civilized world revels in the hanging of Saddam Hussein yesterday.

http://tinyurl.com/ydpbzw



Victor's justice

The deliberate taking of a human life is a crime. It cannot be right, therefore, to punish a crime by committing another. Ultimately, nothing can resist the force of that argument and eventually the death penalty will be outlawed all over the world. But not, yet, in Iraq, or in most southern states of the US.

http://tinyurl.com/ymk4c9



In Search of a Criminal

Donald Rumsfeld's Name Tops the List of Accused of War Crimes
http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1166522799501



A Lynching...
http://tinyurl.com/y5b8l6



The Barbaric Lynching of Saddam Hussein
http://tinyurl.com/y8ecnq



Conveniently Forgotten

By Tariq Ali

It was symbolic that 2006 ended with a colonial hanging - most of it shown on state television in occupied Iraq. It has been that sort of year in the Arab world. The trial was so blatantly rigged that even Human Rights Watch had to condemn it as a travesty.

http://tinyurl.com/y284zj



The Conscience Of The Conqueror

The western anti war movement - the left boot of imperialism?

By Kola Odetola

The silence of the western antiwar movement on the lynching of Saddam Hussein is deafening and is increasingly beginning to prove what a lot of discerning people have suspected all along – that the mainstream anti-war movement (including large parts of its left wing) in the west is the well concealed left boot of western imperialism, the conscience of the conqueror.

http://tinyurl.com/u9xcy



Former Saddam judge says execution violates Iraqi law

The first chief judge who presided over Saddam Hussein's trial for crimes against humanity has said that the late dictator's execution by the Iraqi government was illegal.

http://tinyurl.com/w9bdj



Saddam's illegal execution is part of US war plan

When will the people stand trial who have used cluster bombs and white phosphorous against the Iraqi people; those who are guilty of the siege of Fallujah and Najjaf that bombed and starved these cities' population to death; those who are responsible for the anarchy and chaos the Iraqi people had to endure after the "liberation"?

http://tinyurl.com/tkqpg



Saddam tended birds and plants in jail, nurse says

Master Sergeant Robert Ellis was under orders to prevent the former Iraqi dictator from dying in US custody.

http://tinyurl.com/y5fjzq



Did the U.S. Help Saddam Acquire Biological Weapons

It is hard to believe that, during most of the 1980s, America knowingly permitted the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission to import bacterial cultures that might be used to build biological weapons. But it happened. [Congressional Record: September 20, 2002 (Senate) ]

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_cr/s092002.html



'Illegal' Execution Enrages Arabs

Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily

Saddam Hussein was hanged on what is held to be a day of mercy and feasting in the Islamic world. It is usually celebrated with the slaughter of a lamb, which represents the innocent blood of Ishmael, who was sacrificed by his father, the prophet Abraham, to honour God.

http://tinyurl.com/tehea



Angry Muslims slam Iraq, US for Saddam death

Muslims in their thousands, both inside and outside war-torn Iraq, have lashed out at the country's Shiite leaders as well as the United States for executing Saddam Hussein during one of Islam's holiest periods.

http://tinyurl.com/y6pz2w



Saddam Hussein Hanged for the Wrong Reason

It was not the Iraqi government but its American masters that chose to execute Saddam Hussein in a great rush as soon as the first sentence was confirmed, thus canceling all the other trials on far graver charges that awaited him. The current Iraqi government had nothing to hide if those trials went ahead; the United States government did.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=90555



Short video explains the CIA's role in Saddams rise to power
http://www.ericblumrich.com/thanks.html



Saddam: From monster to martyr?

How Bush and Blair's choices have led to disaster in Iraq, culminating in a chaotic execution that is fuelling civil war.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2124262.ece



Reports Saddam executed by militia

An Iraqi official says the hanging was supposed to be carried out by hangmen employed by the Interior Ministry, but that militias infiltrated the executioners' team.

http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.aspx?id=69125



Moqtada al-Sadr may have been present at the execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein

"I saw al-Sadr wearing the black hoods inside the room – the eyewitness said – and there was also Abdulaziz al-Hakim [leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq – SCIRI]. They were among the six men wearing hoods that one can see in the images aired by the TV".

http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m29511&s1=h1



Guards did not even allow Saddam to sleep

Baghdad: In the middle of the night, hours after Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki signed the death warrant on Friday evening, Saddam Hussain was moved from US custody at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad airport, and handed to the Iraqi authorities.

http://tinyurl.com/v49go



Hussein: terrorist or terrorized?

SOMEONE has to say it: The hanging of Saddam Hussein was an act of barbarism that makes a mockery of President Bush's claim it was "an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy."

http://tinyurl.com/y23jfc



Hanging will haunt Bush

I am taken aback by the reaction in India to Saddam Hussein's hanging. The anger cuts across religious and political divides.

http://www.thestar.com/article/167592



Saddam key in early CIA plot

While many have thought that Saddam first became involved with U.S. intelligence agencies at the start of the September 1980 Iran-Iraq war, his first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.

http://www.upi.com/archive/view.php?archive=1&StoryID=20030410-070214-6557r



The whole bloody thing was obscene

By Robert Fisk

The lynching of Saddam Hussein - for that is what we are talking about - will turn out to be one of the determining moments in the whole shameful crusade upon which the West embarked in March of 2003.

http://tinyurl.com/yb27cj



Crimes Against Humanity From Ford to Saddam

If we do not limit our analysis of Ford to his role as a U.S. "statesman," and instead examine his behavior through an internationalist lens similar to that employed to judge Saddam Hussein and concerned with crimes against humanity, we find that Ford, too, was responsible for mass murder-in East Timor.

http://www.counterpunch.org/nevins01062007.html



The Unmentionable Hypocrisy: Hussein Hanged, Bush and Blair Remain in Power

By Sean M. Madden

Saddam Hussein was hanged a week ago, today, for executing 148 people. Yet, even by conservative estimates, George W. Bush and Tony Blair are responsible for hundreds, or thousands, of times more deaths due to their war of aggression — the supreme international crime — in Iraq.

http://tinyurl.com/y2k2cf



A drop into the abyss

Saddam jailed me but his hanging was a crime. Iraq's misery is now far worse than under his rule.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1982309,00.html



New leader with the $10m bounty

The 64-year-old fighter, stricken with leukaemia, who befriended Saddam as a young man, supposedly cried and read the Holy Koran when he heard that his comrade had been executed early Saturday morning, a senior Baath official said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2530419,00.html



Body of Saddam in the Morgue

Video

Warning - This video should only be viewed by a mature audience.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16116.htm



Fresh Saddam pictures 'released'

The new video reportedly shows the former Iraqi dictator with a gaping neck wound.

http://www.channel4.com/news/content/news-storypage.jsp?id=7782428



Saddam aides hanged
swissinfo [Switzerland]

01/15/07

Two of Saddam Hussein’s aides were hanged before dawn on Monday, the Iraqi government said. But despite its efforts to avoid the uproar that marred the execution of the former president two weeks ago, news that the noose ripped the head from Saddam’s cancer-stricken half-brother as he plunged from the gallows appalled international critics of the process and fuelled fury among Saddam’s fellow Sunni Arabs. … The hangings took place at 3 a.m. (midnight British time) at the same former secret police base where Saddam was hanged on December 30, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. Officials tried to impose a media blackout for some hours but word leaked out...

http://tinyurl.com/y67ubt


From Information Clearing House

--------

An Imperfect Trial

Le Monde evaluates the trial and pending execution of Saddam Hussein.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806G.shtml



The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein

The New York Times writes: "Toppling Saddam Hussein did not automatically create a new and better Iraq. Executing him won't either."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906K.shtml



Saddam Hussein Executed at US Base in Baghdad

Hussein was hung around 6 a.m. local time (10 p.m. Friday EST) in the American-controlled Green Zone in central Baghdad. Hussein was executed before a small group of observers.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122906Z.shtml



A Dictator Created Then Destroyed by America

Robert Fisk revisits the circumstances that resulted in Saddam Hussein's rise to power, and asks, "Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123006Z.shtml



An Execution Will Not Quell Iraq Violence

The Independent UK writes: "Saddam Hussein awaited his imminent end last night, sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity. His last hours were punctuated by the necessary rituals: the signature on the death warrant from Iraq's Prime Minister; the leave-taking from his closest relatives; the handover of his last will and testament, the release of a valedictory letter to Iraqis, and, at the last, his transfer from US into Iraqi custody, so that his own people could do the deed. That the US and British invasion of Iraq would entail the death of Saddam Hussein had a grim inevitability."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123006B.shtml



On the Gallows, Curses for US and "Traitors"

The final hour of Iraq's former ruler began about 5 a.m., when American troops escorted him from Camp Cropper, near the Baghdad airport, to Camp Justice, another American base at the heart of the city. Two American helicopters flew 14 witnesses from the Green Zone to the execution site - a former headquarters of the Istikhbarat, the deposed government's much feared military intelligence outfit, now inside the American base.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123106Z.shtml



History of Bushes and Hussein Is Hard to Ignore

The history of animosity between the Bushes and Hussein is hard to ignore. The relationship actually began as one of pragmatic friendship in the 1980s, when Hussein was at war with the main US enemy in the region, Iran, and George H.W. Bush was vice president in an administration that offered him help. A 1992 New Yorker article suggested that Bush, through Arab intermediaries, advised Hussein to intensify the bombing of Iran. Hussein soon became too much to handle.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123106Y.shtml



Hussein the Rabbit

"My cell phone has been buzzing with regularity all day, alerting me to the arrival of text messages from my conservative friends. 'Saddam is dead woohoo' reads the latest one, and that pretty much describes all the others. Somehow, a lot of people are finding meaning or gratification in the fact that Hussein met his fate at the end of a rope Saturday morning. I just can't get there," says William Rivers Pitt.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123106A.shtml



Bush Silences a Dangerous Witness

"Like a blue-blood version of a Mob family with global reach, the Bushes have eliminated one more key witness to the important historical events that led the US military into a bloody stalemate in Iraq and pushed the Middle East to the brink of calamity," writes Robert Parry. "The hanging of Saddam Hussein was supposed to be - as the New York Times observed - the 'triumphal bookend' to George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. But now with nearly 3,000 American soldiers killed and the Iraqi death toll exceeding 600,000 by some estimates, Bush may be forced to savor the image of Hussein dangling at the end of a rope a little more privately."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123106D.shtml



Timing of Saddam Execution Risks Arab Backlash: Analysts

Images of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein being led to the gallows on one of Islam's most important feast days risk further alienating public opinion in an Arab world already bristling at perceived Western insensitivity, analysts have warned. Even the West's leading Middle East allies, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, publicly spoke out against the choice of the first day of the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice to put Saddam to death.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/123106F.shtml



Puppet Kills Puppet

Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash examines the hypocrisy that led the US to prop up Saddam Hussein in the early 1980s, writing that "as long as Saddam obediently protected and facilitated the economic and territorial interests of the American (and European) colonialists who backed him, his ruthlessness was their profit, and clearly tolerable."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010107Y.shtml



Sunni Grief, Anger Flow at Funeral

A video of Saddam Hussein's execution, which appears to have been recorded with a cellphone, showed onlookers taunting Hussein with chants of "Muqtada! Muqtada! Muqtada!" - a reference to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose Al Mahdi militia is accused of hunting down Sunni Arabs and killing them. As the trapdoor snapped open beneath Hussein, some in attendance cheered, "The tyrant has fallen!" The shocking spectacle appeared to deepen the deadly sectarian divide between Sunnis and the Shiite majority that now leads Iraq's government.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010207P.shtml



Saddam Video Inquiry Promised

Hundreds of Sunni Arabs gathered to show their anger and grief for Saddam Hussein on Tuesday as the Iraqi government promised an investigation into illicitly filmed footage of Shiite officials taunting him on the gallows.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010207C.shtml



An Unbelievable Gift

Laurent Joffrin wonders why the US and Iraqi governments gave Saddam the unbelievable gift of martyrdom ...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010207G.shtml



Saddam Hussein's Execution Is a Mistake

France's interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy - a sort of combined attorney general and head of the Department of Homeland Security and Intelligence - and a clear favorite to win the ruling UMP center-right party's nomination as presidential candidate in the 2007 elections, comments on the Saddam Hussein execution.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010407G.shtml



Egyptian President Mubarak Slams Hussein Execution
Saddam Hussein was made into "a martyr" by the manner of his execution, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, warned today, saying he had urged Washington not to hang him during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507F.shtml



Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many

In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe. At the heart of the sudden reversal of opinion was the symbolism of the hasty execution, now framed as an act of sectarian vengeance shrouded in political theater and overseen by the American occupation.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010607Y.shtml



The Timely Death of Gerald Ford

"The very strange and very long Gerald Ford funeral marathon was about many things, but Gerald Ford wasn't always paramount among them," says Frank Rich. "Forty percent of today's American population was not alive during the Ford presidency. Despite the lachrymose logorrhea of television anchors and the somber musical fanfares, the country was less likely to be found in deep mourning than in deep football. It's a safe bet that the Ford funeral attracted far fewer viewers than the most consequential death video of the New Year's weekend, the lynching of Saddam Hussein. But those two deaths were inextricably related."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010707E.shtml

--------

The execution of Saddam Hussein
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/sh-d30_prn.shtml


Informant: SIUHIN

--------

The misguided execution of Saddam Hussein
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20061230/58144555.html


Informant: Henry D.

--------

Hanging Saddam
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16011.htm


Informant: Jennifer Van Bergen



Saddam execution insulted 'the entire Muslim community'
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5492/



Comment on Saddam's execution
SADDAM AND THE CELLPHONES
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5490/

Sunni protests 'building' in aftermath of Saddam's
humiliating death
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5505/

EXECUTING SADDAM, PROTECTING THE RACKETS
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5506/


Informant: jensenmk



Saddam's illegal execution is part of US war plan
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BEL20070101&articleId=4275


Informant: Dave


From: ufpj-news

--------

‘I Saw Fear, He Was Afraid’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16401644/site/newsweek/


Informant: rafeswhiterose

--------

Iraq's Shallow Justice
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1229-24.htm

Saddam Execution Set to Destabilize Iraq Further
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1229-04.htm

Enraged Sunnis Protest Saddam Spectacle
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0102-53.htm

Saddam's Demise, Like His Rule, Was a Travesty of Justice
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0102-53.htm

A Monster of Our Creation
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0103-60.htm

The Fatal Hazing of a Dictator
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0103-55.htm

US-Ordered Rush Job
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0103-56.htm

Blair Fails to Condemn Hanging as Bush Ducks the Question
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0104-03.htm

A Question of Justice
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0104-30.htm

Hanging 'Makes Martyr of Saddam'
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0105-04.htm

--------

With the hasty exekution Husseins one covers much
http://tinyurl.com/yhhvq8

--------

Bush calls for Saddam execution
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3326311.stm

--------

Who's Guilty? The Fatal Handshake in Baghdad
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/2895642/

--------

Hang Times: A Whitewash of White House Complicity
http://www.lewrockwell.com/floyd/floyd51.html

US Buries Truth
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis62.html

CYA for the USA: The Coverup of Complicity Continues
http://www.lewrockwell.com/floyd/floyd52.html

--------

Execution 'should not have happened on our holy day'
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2116901.ece

--------

Ein zweites Video zeigt die ganze Hinrichtung Saddams

"See how Saddam Hussein was executed. He is peeing in his pants."
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24344/1.html



Saddams Exekution und das Video

Die inszenierte Exekution oder: Wollen wir Wirklichkeit oder eine gesäuberte Simulation?

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24352/1.html



Victor's revenge at last
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24348/1.html

-------

Saddam: The death of a dictator
Salon
by Juan Cole

12/30/06

The body of Saddam, as it swung from the gallows at 6 a.m. Saturday Baghdad time, cast an ominous shadow over Iraq. The execution provoked intense questions about whether his trial was fair and about what the fallout will be. One thing is certain: The trial and execution of Saddam were about revenge, not justice. Instead of promoting national reconciliation, this act of revenge helped Saddam portray himself one last time as a symbol of Sunni Arab resistance, and became one more incitement to sectarian warfare...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/30/saddam/



"Gruesome" ... "Barbaric" ... "Politicized" ... "Farcical"

The Nation
by John Nichols

12/31/06

While much of U.S. media coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution has strained to echo the Bush administration's suggestion that 'justice' was done, the international reaction to the hurried hanging of the former dictator has recognized what one of the world's top experts on the Middle East refers to as the 'gruesome, occasionally farcical' nature of the process that led to the execution. 'It's tawdry,' Rosemary Hollis, the director of research at Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London, said of the execution. 'It's not going to achieve anything because of the way the trial was conducted and the way the occupation was conducted. Life in Iraq has become so precarious that many people are saying it was safer under Saddam Hussein -- it makes the whole thing look like a poke in the eye as opposed to closure or some kind of contribution to the future of Iraq...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15



Appetite for destruction

CounterPunch
by John Stanton

01/02/07

The two images from the Vietnam War and the photos and video of the hanging of Hussein capture in vivid detail the end results of strategies and tactics designed and executed by incompetent American leaders. Failure is everywhere in the stills and video. Failure to manage risk, failure to anticipate, failure to understand, failure to have compassion for human life, failure to accept change, failure to realize that perception is often not reality. Title, rank or advanced degree have never been a barrier to poor decision making or the maniacal drive for power to ensure a lasting place in world history. On what basis can one make such an outrageous claim?

http://www.counterpunch.org/stanton01022007.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Saddam Hussein was lynched by one of the sectarian death squads that rule Iraq

Saddam's Death Squad Hanging
http://ga3.org/ct/n720pgF1bRkt/

--------

Saddam Execution: More Staged Propaganda
http://infowars.net/articles/january2007/040107Saddam_execution.htm

--------

Saddam Hussein's Execution and the Iraq War
http://www.socialistappeal.org/content/view/299/86/


Informant: Cort Greene

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SADDAM LAWYERS CLAIM HIS BODY WAS ABUSED
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3349346,00.html

Behind The Scenes Of Saddam Hussein's Execution
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/world/middleeast/07ticktock.html


Informant: NHNE

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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Saddam+Hussein
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=executed

The British occupation army's assault on its own police force in Basra confirms Iraq as a far greater disaster than Suez.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329671150-103677,00.html


From Information Clearing House

By Stephen Lendman

The US ranks 41st in infant mortality, and the World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the country 37th in the world in "overall health performance" and 54th in the fairness of health care despite spending at a current level overall of around $2 trillion a year or about double the amount per capita of the OECD countries that deliver superior health care overall to their citizens as a national priority.

http://tinyurl.com/ymlgua



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

By BILL KAUFMANN

U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins' revelation Maher Arar is still considered a threat to his nation and is barred from entering it should be seen in the context of the Bush administration's rap sheet on abduction, torture, rendition, false imprisonment and kangaroo justice.

http://tinyurl.com/yefk99



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Maher+Arar
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=rendition

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/10577133/detail.html


Informant: ranger116



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Helen+Thomas

http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger113.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/hornberger
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jacob+Hornberger

http://www.goldseiten.de/content/diverses/artikel.php?storyid=3552


Nachricht von Ulrich Weiner

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to begin trophy hunting of mountain lions in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in western Arizona.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, cooperating with the Arizona Department of Game and Fish, proposes to permit the killing of one cougar per year on the Refuge or elsewhere in the region where cougar hunting is already permitted. Only five cougars are known to live on the Refuge—including a mother and two kittens. The agencies acknowledge that if the breeding female is killed her kittens might die also. Please tell the Service to back off from this reckless course and not allow this inaugural mountain lion hunt on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.

These five animals constitute a significant portion -- perhaps a majority -- of the widely scattered mountain lions living throughout western Arizona.

Cougars in this region have adapted to extreme heat and aridity. These hardy survivors probably maintain home ranges several times greater in size than cougars elsewhere in order to find enough prey. With so few cougars in the desert and no reliable population count, until now the various national wildlife refuges in Arizona have not allowed hunting of these lofty predators.

Cougars in western Arizona are threatened by loss of habitat, government predator control, permitted hunting, poaching, and vehicular collisions. Cougars in this desert are also increasingly cut off from genetic interchange with cougars in the mountains of central and eastern Arizona and the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. To the extent they survive and reproduce, they may also serve as part of a cougar corridor between these widely separated mountain ranges.

Tell me more
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/desert_puma/explanation

Take Action on this Issue
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/desert_puma