April 4, 2005
April 11, 2005
April 11 & 18, 2005
Whole Body Health
April 25, 2005
Marcus Erickson looked through the ocean mist while the ghosts
of more than 1,500 dead
Iraqi
war veterans hovered over the California surf. Every Sunday morning
for over a year, Erickson and other members of the nationwide
organization, Veterans For Peace, have come to mourn the dead,
placing white crosses in the Santa Monica sand as an ongoing memorial
for those who have paid the ultimate price.
The number of crosses now totals more than 1,500 with over
5,000 people paying their respects on any given Sunday at the
beach site called "Arlington West" after the military
cemetery in Arlington, Va.
| As the crowd gathered last Sunday morning, it was no different than any other, except it marked the second anniversary of the Iraqi invasion. The solemn gathering also came a day after millions around the world, in both large cities and small, staged organized protests to end the Iraq war in a day of solidarity. | 'ARLINGTON WEST,' SANTA BARBARA: Another dedication cross is installed. Vetrans for peace is setting up memorials at several California besach sites including Santa Monica. |
The march, which coincided with marches held around the world, lasted for several hours, ending at the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd., where a number of speakers began sending a harsh anti-war message to President Bush and others backing his war efforts.
Signs declaring "Impeach Bush" and "American Freedom is Fascism" set the tone for the rally while Erickson and other Vets For Peace carried coffins draped with American flags.
Referring to the coffins, those at the rally claimed it "may be the only visible sign of the brutality behind the war," since the Pentagon has not allowed pictures to surface of the returning war dead.
The government has also implemented "a behind closed door policy" concerning the wounded, only bringing them back to the states by the cover of night on flights from Germany.
At the Los Angeles rally, a host of speakers including injured Iraqi war veterans and several local politicians, took up the cause to "end the bloodshed" in what they called a war based on "President Bush's lies and deceit."
Most notable among them was former Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, the soldier portrayed by Tom Cruise in the famous anti-war movie "Born on the Fourth of July."
"This is an unjust war based on greed, not patriotism," said Kovic, adding the Iraq war is not one of last resorts but of first resort to acquire oil.
"More importantly than protesting today at the rally,
we must make our voices heard everyday throughout the year in
order to end the unnecessary
bloodshed and brutality."
It seems like only yesterday when American troops stormed Baghdad with guns blazing, tanks rolling and flags waving on the false premise that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction presented an imminent threat to the United States.
"I didn't believe it from day one. I believe Bush also knew Iraq wasn't a real threat and I can't believe he isn't being held accountable," said Erickson, turning his attention to the white crosses in the Santa Monica sand.
"We kept adding a white cross for every fallen soldier
and stopped at 1,000. Now we place a red cross for every 10 fallen
soldiers and we are up to 52 red crosses. The blue crosses over
there are placed to remember those who have fallen during the
previous week. We are now averaging
about two blue crosses every day."
After two years in Iraq, as Erickson illustrates using crosses, the cost of war in terms of military casualties is high, but military casualties only tells part of the Iraq tragedy. Behind the numbers of the fallen soldiers, lies more than 11,000 injured GIs and an estimated 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians.
A study regarding the high cost of war, recently completed by the Institute for Policy Studies, points out that over half the troops returning from Iraq, return home with low morale. It is also estimated that over 100,000 returnees now are in dire need of mental health care.
The study also cites a failed war strategy, since after two years, the number of insurgents and terrorists in Iraq have actually increased to an estimated force of over 35,000.
And in terms of strict dollars, the study estimates the war is costing each American family more than $3,000 each year, money the Policy Institute states could be used at home to hire 3 million new school teachers or provide health care for more than 27 million Americans.
Serge Louchnikov, a former U.S. Marine who served six months in Iraq and among the troops that originally stormed Baghdad, said after the Los Angeles rally that he holds Bush accountable for "all the needless deaths" as a result of the unnecessary Iraqi war.
"I didn't see a just cause when I fought in Iraq. What are we defending? Are we defending the misplaced ideas of a few political leaders in Washington?" said Louchnikov, who is now dedicating much of his time to the anti-war movement as a member of Veterans for Peace.
"I feel sadness in my heart. I have lost close friends
in Iraq. Personally, I don't know the man, but I am holding Bush
personally responsible for all those who died needlessly. I believe
he has lied to the American people about the real reasons behind
this war and I will not rest until the
truth is finally told."
As a part of an ongoing war protest, Erickson, Louchnikov and other members of the Los Angeles Chapter of Veterans For Peace, now numbering more than 100, are leaving on a seven week cross-country protest.
They are scheduled to display their 1,000 white crosses at college campuses en route to Washington and then New York in hopes of gaining additional support to end the war while, at the same time, remembering the fallen soldiers.
"We'll be making about 10 stops on our way to New York,"
said Erickson, adding they are scheduled to begin the nationwide
protest April 2. "We will be visiting Kent State University
on the 35th anniversary in remembrance of the students who were
shot and killed protesting the Vietnam War, as well as putting
up our crosses in memory of those who have died in Iraq."
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Unreported in the corporate controlled press, the Israeli boycott
of the recent international Middle East peace summit in London
illustrates
why the Israel-Palestine conflict remains stuck in a quagmire
after 57 years and who is ultimately responsible.
Although Israel stayed away, its hard-line government dictated
the conference agenda and terms of discussion. Foreign ministers
and high-level delegations from 23 nations and six international
organizations convened in
London on March 1 to try and advance the "peace process"
between the Palestinians and Israelis. The attendees included
the newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the European
Union's (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana and World Bank
president James D. Wolfensohn.
Representatives from the UN, EU, the United States and Russia—the
"Quartet" members who drafted the current peace plan
known as the "road map"—were also present for the
one-day conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center.
Despite the presence of so many high-level delegations, the international gathering, which Blair had originally hoped would be, or lead to, a peace conference, was unable to advance the peace process even one step because the chief antagonist of the conflict in Palestine, the Israeli government, simply boycotted the conference.
This, however, went unreported in the U.S. mainstream media.
"Israel refused to send anyone to the gathering," Rick Kelly reported on the web site wsws.org. "The Likud-Labour coalition government of Ariel Sharon opposed Blair's planned conference when he first floated it after Bush's reelection last November. As far as Israel was concerned, any discussion on its own obligations or on ‘final status' issues related to the road map, the future of East Jerusalem, the borders of any Palestinian state, or the right of return for refugees was illegitimate.
"With the Bush administration's full support, Sharon insisted that the only subject open for discussion was how to best whip the Palestinian Authority (PA) into line," Kelly wrote. "The British prime minister quickly altered the character of the assembly to meet these demands. It was not even possible to call the gathering a conference, only a meeting."
Sharon has always avoided international Middle East conferences, out of fear of being forced to withdraw from the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Rather than comply with international law and UN resolutions calling for Israeli withdrawal, Sharon continues to obstruct peace efforts by demanding that the PA disarm groups resisting Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
Rather than report that the Sharon government had boycotted the international conference, the controlled press in the United States shifted its focus to the question of Syria's military presence in Lebanon and U.S. demands for a complete Syrian withdrawal.
The Palestinians had protested, saying the conference would do nothing to press Israel to meet its obligations or fulfill existing commitments to ease the occupation or end the expansion of settlements.
"The London non-event on Palestine was a superb exercise in obfuscation," The Dawn wrote. "Boycotted by Israel, the meeting did not even make a passing reference to the real issue—the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories."
Palestinian personal income has fallen by 40 percent in the past few years and nearly half the Palestinians live "below the poverty line." More than 600,000 Palestinians in the occupied territories "cannot even afford the basic necessities for subsistence," according to a recent World Bank report titled "Palestinian Economic Crisis."
It should be noted that the changes, demanded by the Israeli government, to the conference's final declaration were made before the foreign ministers and delegates had even convened on March 1.
The final declaration was drawn up in advance in close consultation with the Sharon government. Sharon's closest adviser, Dov Weisglass, reportedly met twice with aides to Blair in the two weeks prior to the meeting and forced several changes to the prepared text.
Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported that Weisglass had visited London the week before the conference and asked that the Palestinian commitment to security be strengthened in the document.
The original draft had stated that Palestinian reform should be met by "reciprocal action by Israel in relation to its own commitments." Sharon, however, objected to this and had the statement changed so that the conference participants merely "urged and expected" Israeli action.
"Dutifully, Mr. Blair supported Mr. Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan, but neither he nor Miss Rice regretted Israel's boycott of the conference," The Dawn reported.
"Instead, they laid emphasis on reforms and for the Palestinian Authority to act against those responsible for the recent Tel Aviv bombing. The real issues—the right of return for Palestinian refugees, halting settlement activity, dismantling settlements already built, condemning the Israeli massacre in Jenin, the blowing up of Palestinian houses, and giving a date for the withdrawal of Israeli troops—were not even discussed," it wrote.
When the conference opened, the drastic changes to the agenda demanded by Israel had reduced Blair's original peace conference to a mere "meeting." It is not "a peace conference," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, "nor will it deal with the final status issues in the road map but we believe it is a vital practical step towards restarting the road map process."
Consequently, none of the real underlying issues of the conflict in Palestine were discussed. As demanded by Israel, Palestinian President Abbas was issued a list of demands for political, security, and economic reform, designed to demonstrate the PA's readiness to suppress resistance to the Israeli occupation.
"That the Israeli government could dictate the terms of
an international meeting that it boycotted speaks volumes as to
the real nature of the relationship between London, Tel Aviv,
and Washington," reporter Kelly noted.
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Between 5,000 and 6,000 military personnel are classified as deserters, called cowards by Washington chicken hawks and war profiteers but courageous by opponents of the invasion of Iraq. Since the beginning of the Iraqi invasion, thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have refused to serve. Many simply went absent without leave, or AWOL, and failed to appear. Others fled to Canada seeking political asylum.
However, gone are the days when conscientious objectors and opponents of wars can simply slip across the United States' northern border and hide from authorities. Despite Canada's opposition to the war in Iraq, Canadian laws have changed so that those seeking amnesty, including AWOLs or draft resisters - even those seeking amnesty, including AWOL soldiers, are often sent back to their host country.
Today, Canada does not provide refugee status for AWOLs or draft resisters - even those hiding from the socalled "Stop Loss" program, a sort of backdoor draft where soldiers whose time is up are barred from leaving the military - which means they will be deported.
But Pablo Paredes, 23, a sailor from the Bronx, chose to neither serve nor run. He took a stance against the war by refusing to board his ship in San Diego on Dec. 6, which would carry thousands of Marines to the Persian Gulf.
"I don't want to be part of a ship that's taking 3,000 Marines over, knowing that a hundred or more of them won't come back," Paredes told reporters. "I'd rather do military prison time than six months of dirty work for a war that I and many others do not support."
Because he was not destined for combat, the "coward" label cannot stick to Paredes.
Paredes was not seized on the spot but turned himself in 12 days later after hiring a lawyer and preparing an applications for conscientious objector status. He could face court martial, prison time and a dishonorable discharge. While waiting for the Navy to take action. Paredes reports to Naval Station San Diego's Transient Personnel Unit for alternative duty.
Syndicated columnist Oliver North, a decorated former Marine and national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, called Paredes's protest "an act of cowardice" and denounced "liberal elites" for portraying him as a hero. North and other critics say Paredes forfeited his right to refuse to serve by enlisting in the Navy at 17.
And then there are others like Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, a Bradley Fighting Vehicle mechanic and training supervisor, who says after he served his first tour in Iraq and witnessed death and destruction he has changed his mind and will not return for a second tour.
He said the moment came when his convoy passed an Iraqi girl, no older than 10, on the roadside clutching a badly burned arm. Benderman said his commanding offercer refused to help her because the troops had limited medical supplies.
"I've received emails from people who said that I was a coward for not going to war, but I say to them that I have already been, so I do not have anything to prove to anyone anymore," Benderman said in a statement recently. "What is there to prove anyway - that I can kill someone I do not even know and who has never done anything to me? What is in that concept that anyone could consider honorable?"
There is help out there for soldiers who do not want to fight
in Iraq. For more information, contact the GI rights Hotline at
800-394-9544 and Veterans for Peace at 314-725-6005.
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Last week congress spent another $82 billion in an "emergency" supplemental appropriations bill. There is no emergency, however. Congress simply exceeded its fiscal year budget once again and needs more of your money.
The 13 standard appropriations bills, which provide about $2.4 trillion to run the federal government in 2005, are not enough to satisfy the ravenous spending appetites of Congress and the administration. Hence the so-called emergency supplemental bill, which cravenly combines troop funding with useless foreign aid and domestic pork.
Supplemental spending bills are particularly galling because "emergency" funds are not subject to the same congressional budget rules. This allows Congress to spend bullions of dollars completely outside the stated budget, with little or no public attention.
It also underscores how meaningless government budgets really are. Unlike families and businesses, the political class never has to worry about busting the budget.
Remember the optimistic claims about how the Iraq war would pay for itself? The liberated Iraqis would exploit the country's oil resources and gratefully write a chick to Uncle Sam, so the story went.
Yet we don't hear much about repayment from the Iraqis these days. American taxpayers already have spent over $200 billion in Iraq, and now Congress is digging us deeper into debt with the supplemental bill.
Worse yet, much of the supplemental spending is exceedingly wasteful foreign aid.
Consider some of these expenditures of your tax dollars:
• $656 million for tsunami relief. As I've written before,
Americans have sent hundreds of millions of dollars in private
donations to tsunami victims. Why should we be taxed further?
Why is flooding in Sri Lanka or Thailand more important than flooding
in Galveston , Texas?
• $94 million for Sudan, another candidate for charity rather
than government aid;
• $582 million to build a new American embassy in Iraq, an
outrageous sum considering that entire luxury resorts are built
for less than $500 million.
• $76 million to build a new airport in Kuwait, one of the
wealthiest countries on Earth.
• Over $500 million to address the drug trade in Afghanistan,
despite clear evidence that the production of opium has grown
exponentially since America began pouring billions of tax dollars
into that country in 2001;
• $200 million in economic aid for the Palestinians;
• $150 million for Pakistan, which is run by an unelected
dictator;
• $34 million for Ukraine, where the United States already
intervened in last year's elections using your tax dollars. Ukraine
recently repaid our generosity by dumping the U.S. dollar and
adopting an exchange rate that includes the euro.
• Finally, the emergency supplemental bill enables the District
of Columbia to use taxpayer funds to build a new baseball stadium.
This is perhaps the greatest insult of all in a bill that amounts
to extortion cloaked in patriotic "support the troops"
rhetoric.
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The Internal Revenue Service is reeling under the tax rebellion, as unpaid taxes reach $300 billion, according to outraged tax collectors.
Do-It-Yourself Tax Cuts: The Crisis in U.S. Tax Enforcement by economist Max Sawicky found the tax rebellion "encompasses
about 15 percent of all taxes owed to the government - or about one dollar of every six owed in individual
and corporate taxes."
Unfortunately, Sawicky views this news as bad.
Most of the unpaid taxes - at least $250 billion of the total $300 billion - results from taxpayers either underreporting income or claiming too many deductions, he
said. About $30 billion of the unpaid total is from nonfiling and another $32 billion results from underpayment.
Individuals in the so-called tax honesty movement account for the lion's share, the report found. Underreporting of individual income accounts for $150
billion to $187 billion in unpaid taxes, while another $30 billion is from underreported corporate income, $66 billion to $71 billion from payroll taxes, and $4 billion
from death and excise taxes.
"The tax enforcement system has become so dysfunctional that it is now its own worst enemy," Sawicky said.
Many Americans "are dealing themselves a do-it-yourself tax cut."
Sawicky and others called for more funding for IRS enforcement
efforts.
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A recent raid on the one-time home of Terry Nichols has uncovered more evidence implicating federal agents in the bombing of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. A source has told AFP that bomb components discovered at the former home of the OKC bombing accomplice have been linked to a federal informant who investigators believe lied during the trial of Timothy McVeigh, who was executed after his conviction in the bombing. There are serious allegations that the FBI, using an informer as a conduit, supplied McVeigh and Nichols with the blasting components the two used to construct explosive devices, one of which may nave been employed in the tragic Oklahoma City bombing.
Although there was much recent media hoopla surrounding the March 31, FBI raid on Nichols's vacant home in Herington, Kan., the entire story, which is not being told by the mainstream media, suggests evidence of federal government complicity in events leading up to the OKC tragedy.
While the media reported that previously undiscovered explosives were found on the raid at Nichols's home, adding further fuel to widespread public belief that Nichols - and McVeigh - were solely responsible for the OKC bombing, there's much more to the story than meets the eye.
In fact, AFP has learned that Nichols himself apparently leaked the information about the previously undiscovered cache in his Kansas home.
Why Nichols did so is the real story behind the story that the media seems to be keeping under wraps.
Nichols's apparent goal in sharing this information was to provide information not only to bust the man who allegedly supplied the material, an FBI informant named Roger Moore - Nichols being certain that Moore's fingerprints would be on the material - but also to expose the FBI's role in supplying Moore the material in the first place.
Those familiar with the details of the case say Nichols has evidently come to conclude - as have many independent investigators - that Nichols and McVeigh were being manipulated prior to the bombing by federal authorities in what was intended to be a "sting" the feds would use as "proof" of their skill in tackling domestic "terrorist threats" from "radical right wing extremists." However, it is believed, the sting went awry, possibly manipulated by others outside the loop, and the bombing occurred.
Now, in prison for life, Nichols evidently hopes to expose the role that Moore and his live-in girlfriend, Karen Anderson, played in the events.
Moore and Anderson gave testimony in the federal trial, helping to convict Nichols. But independent investigators have said all along - contradicting the FBI's reliance on Moore and Anderson - that their testimony was obviously perjured.
The problem for Nichols, though, is that the record has shown that Moore was an admitted FBI informant as long as a decade ago and may be still protected.
Moore, a Royal, Ark. Gun dealer, claimed to have been robbed by McVeigh and Nichols of some 66 guns, cash and gold coins in November 1994. The FBI and federal prosecutors claimed that the proceeds were used to finance the OKC operation.
However, the defense team undermined that theory by producing a signed motel receipt proving McVeigh was in Akron, Ohio, on the date in question. This did not keep either the prosecutors or the news media from repeating the robbery story. It is still widely believed.
Moore, who used the alias "Bob Miller," according to Nichols, later changed his story and said that it definitely was not McVeigh and Nichols who had robbed him, but he apparently was attempting to plant the opposite impression at the time. Townspeople remembered Moore going from barroom to barbershop the week of the alleged robbery, describing McVeigh and asking if anyone had seen him in the area.
At the time, Moore was a confidential informant for two FBI agents named Ross and Hayes, out of the Hot Springs office. The two were the same agents who discovered the "stolen" guns in a sack behind the house trailer of Michael Fortier in Kingman, Ariz., a few days after the bombing.
Fortier was later implicated in the conspiracy and is serving a 20-year sentence.
AFP has learned that the FBI had the information as early as March 1. Agents had received this information purportedly from the mouth of Nichols through an oft-used informant named Gregory Scarpa, who is a convicted mobster serving a long stretch with Nichols in Florence, Colo. At first, FBI officials scoffed at the idea, but then sent a polygraph expert to the prison on March 4. He concluded that Scarpa was lying.
Scarpa then called private investigators he had worked with in the past and, during a seven-hour meeting on March 10, showed a letter in Nichols's handwriting attesting to his claim.
Not trusting the FBI, the investigators worked through a contact, who had high-level Homeland Security connections. Then, on March 11, Scarpa provided the authorities with the address of the house and detailed descriptions of the location of the explosives.
Nichols had allegedly told Scarpa that he hid this second cache 10 years ago to be used as a follow-up to the Oklahoma City blast.
On March 31, the FBI finally made its move - calling in the Topeka bomb squad, evacuating the immediate neighborhood, and cordoning off a three-block area. They worked through he night and into the next day.
The FBI would not confirm that its agents found anything, but
mainstream news organizations were told by Oklahoma City's FBI
office that explosive devices were found. What little surfaced
in a period of predictable news frenzy, was that the FBI was embarrassed
for not having found this material 10 years ago.
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While the mainstream media uses rivers of ink to express fear about "vigilantes" abusing Mexicans, some facts about the opening days of civilian volunteers patrolling the border are studiously ignored.
Rather than "racists" beating up Mexicans, a fear fanned by ACLU "monitors" through a compliant press, Minuteman Project volunteers rescued a tired and thirsty immigrant trying to illegally enter the country. He had become separated from his group. The victim was dehydrated and emaciated. He was turned over to the Border Patrol and later returned to Mexico.
In a separate incident, the volunteers spotted 18 illegal aliens entering the United States and called the Border Patrol, which promptly responded; and took the criminals into custody.
Ray Ybarra, o the ACLU in Arizona, admitted there had been no incidents of violence or abuse, as widely predicted.
Volunteers at another border location spotted two separate groups of aliens, totaling about 25, headed north. They turned back when they saw the Minutemen patrolling.
By April 5, 118 illegal aliens have been arrested by the Border
Patrol because they were reported by minutemen. But, because of
extensive publicity on both sides of the border, with Mexican
President Vicente Fox and President Bush both denouncing the "vigilantes,"
there were hundreds fewer attempts to enter illegally than usual
for the time frame.
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American investigators and the controlled media have ignored evidence that points to Mossad involvement in 9-11. From the day aircraft smashed into the World Trade Center (WTC), news reports have pointed to Israeli involvement in 9-11 and "false flags" planted to blame Arabs for the attacks.
Shortly after the destruction of the twin towers, five "Middle Eastern men" were reportedly arrested in New Jersey after being seen videotaping and celebrating the explosive collapse of the WTC. These men, from a phony moving company in Weehawken, N.J., turned out to be agents of Israeli military intelligence, Mossad.
Dominic Suter, the Israeli owner of Urban Moving Systems, the phony "moving company" escaped to Israel before FBI agents could interrogate him. The agents were later returned Israel on minor visa violations.
The assistant attorney general in charge of criminal investigations at the time was Michael Chertoff, the current head of the Dept. of Homeland Security.
One of the agents later told Israeli radio that they had been prepared to "document the event" which took the lives of some 3,000 Americans.
While the Israelis arrested in New Jersey evidently had prior knowledge or were involved in the planning of 9-11, the U.S. mainstream media has never broached the question of Israeli complicity in the attacks.
ODIGO INSTANT MESSAGES
Evidence that Israelis had been forewarned of the attacks surfaced at an Israeli instant messaging service, known as Odigo. This story, evidence of Israeli prior knowledge, was reported briefly in the U.S. media - and forgotten.
At least two Israel-based employees of Odigo received warnings of an imminent attack in New York City two hours before the first plane hit the WTC. Odigo had headquarters two blocks from the WTC. The Odigo employees, however, did not pass the warning on the authorities in Now York, a move that could have saved lives.
Two weeks after 9-11, Alex Diamandis, Odigo's vice president reportedly said, "It was possible that the attack warning was broadcast to other Odigo members, but the company has not received reports of other recipients of the massage."
The Internet address of the sender was given to the FBI, and two months later it was reported that the FBI was still investigation the matter. There have been no media reports since.
Odigo, like many Israeli software companies, is based in Herzliya, Israel, the suburb of Tel Aviv where Mossad headquarters are located.
Shortly after 9-11, Odigo was taken over by Comverse Technology, another Israeli company. Within a year, five executives from Comverse were reported to have profited by more than $267 million from "insider trading."
Through Israeli "venture capital" funds, scores of software companies are spawned in the United States. The Israel-based companies are sponsored by Mossad funding sources such as Cedar Fund, Stage One Ventures, and Veritas Venture Partners.
The key players of these fund and companies include former members of "Israel's Intelligence Corps" and veterans of the R&D Department of the Israeli air force. Many are graduates of Israel's "Technion" school in Haifa, the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, or a military school for software development.
The IDC, a private, non-profit university, is tied to the Mossad. The IDC has a "research institute," headed by Shabtai Shavit, former head of Mossad from 1989 to 1996, called the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
The IDC, also has a "Marc Rich Center for the Study of Commodities, Trading and Financial Markets" and a "Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy." The cosmetics magnate Ronald s. Lauder, a supporter of Israel's far-right Likud Party, founded the Lauder school. Lauder, president of the Jewish National Fund and former chairman of the Gov. George Patake's (R-N.Y.) Commission on Privatization, reportedly pushed the privatization of the WTC and former Stewart AFB, where the flight paths of the two planes that hit the twin towers converged on 9-11.
THE PTECH CUTOUT
Ptech, a mysterious software company, has been linked with 9-11. The Quincy, Mass.-based company was supposedly connected to "the Muslim Brotherhood" and Arab terrorism.
The firm's suspected links with terrorism resulted in a visit by FBI agents in December 2002, which was leaked to the media and led to the demise of the company.
The company "produced software that derived from PROMIS, and was installed on virtually every computer system of the U.S. government and its military agencies on September 11, 2001," Michael Ruppert's From the Wilderness (FTW) web site reported.
"This included the White House, Treasury Dept, (Secret Service), Air Force, FAA, CIA, FBI, both houses of Congress, Navy, Dept of Energy, IRS, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Enron and more, FTW wrote.
"Overriding FAA systems would be the most effective way to ensure the attacks were successful," FTW reported. "To do this, the FAA needed an evolution of PROMIS software installed on their systems and Ptech was just that - a superior modified version capable of "surveillance and intervention" systems."
Oussama Ziade, a Lebanese Muslim immigrant who came to the United States in 1985, founded Ptech in 1994. But the company's original manager of marketing and information systems was Michael S. Goff, whose PR firm, Goff Communications, currently represents Guardium, a Mossad-linked software company.
"As information Systems manager for Ptech, Michael handled design, deployment and management of its Windows and Macintosh, data , and voice networks," Goff's web site says. He also "performed employee training and handled all procurement for software systems and peripherals."
AFP asked Goff, who left the Worcester law firm of Seder and Chandler in 1994, how he would up working at Ptech. "Trough a temp agency," Goff said, but he could not remember the name of the agency.
Goff said he did not know who had written the Ptech software
code. AFP contacted the government agencies that reportedly have
Ptech software on their computers, and IBM, to ask if they knew
who wrote the Ptech source code. None had provided any information
by press time.
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A former U..S, Army corporal and Department of Defense (DOD) operative has received a number of death threats after releasing information that his military unit in 1976 was commissioned by Congress to create the perfect terrorist plan to level the WTC with airplanes and box cutters. Timothy McNiven, under contract with the DOD, claims the treats were transmitted by email and "snail mail" from unknown origins in what he calls an ongoing harassment campaign to keep him quiet about the government-sponsored "perfect terrorist plan," almost identical to what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. McNiven, however, disregarded the treats, telling his story to AFP. His account first appeared in the March 21 issue.
Besides personal threats, he also claims other members of his 1976 unit, including a man named Sgt. Riggs, were also threatened. Riggs and more than 100 of McNiven's unit members have not come forward or spoken publicly about his accusations.
"I am just one of the enlisted men who took part, but I can confirm it took place and our plan was just like what went down on 9-11," said McNiven. "There were about 100 people from my unit involved and I am actively seeking help to find them.
"Sgt. Riggs told me one day that he and others had their wives and children threatened by the U.S. government with retaliatory acts if they were to release their information to the media. But he said if I could break the censorship and get to the media first, he then would come forward and tell what he knows."
The study, commissioned to C-Battery 2/81st Field Artillery, U.S. Army, stationed in Strasbourg, Germany in 1976, specifically devised the scenario of the twin towers being leveled b y Middle Eastern terrorists using commercial airliners and even plastic box cutters to bypass security.
McNiven first went public with the hidden purpose behind the congressional study in an afficavit included in a 9-11-related federal conspiracy lawsuit filed against Bush and others in by Mrs. Ellen Mariani on Sept. 12 2003.
The publicized version of the study, commissioned by Congress, was to identify security lapses and submit corrective measures to lawmakers. However, McNiven claims the real purpose of the study was to brainstorm how to pull off the perfect terrorist attack using the same 9-11 scenario.
To back up his story, McNiven passed a credible lie detector test, testified in a sworn affidavit contained in the federal 2003 RICO lawsuit filed against Bush and provided the names of the men in his 1976 unit.
McNiven claims to have lost contact with the members of his unit, but he expecially is interested in finding Lt Michael Teague, the officer in charge of the unit who gave the specific order to devise the mock 9-11 plan.
"I remember Lt. Teague changed the scenario of the supposed study from a 100 story building to the twin towers," said McNiven, emphasizing that Teague was acting on specific orders from unknown superiors.
"He then said he thought it was very strange to be asked to devise a plan to blow up your own home town. But as I watched the twin towers really collapse on the morning of Sept. 11, I realized I was watching the very same thing we devised in 1976,' he said.
McNiven said he was originally told by Teague "never to go public" about the contents of the details and findings of the mock terrorist plan. But later, for unknown reasons, Teague changed his mind, perhaps due to feeling of guilt, and gave him direct orders to go public if anything like 9-11 ever occurred in the future.
I was given the direct order, which I feel I am still under, that if the twin towers were ever attacked the way we discussed in the 1976 study, I was to do everything in my power to bring the similarities to the attention of the American people," said McNiven. "I have no idea they they changed their minds, but I was then emphatically told that this order was never to be rescinded - never - because those who would rescind it, would be the very same people who turned against the American people."
Besides Teague and Riggs, he is hoping others in his unit will come forward with more details in order to verify his story.
"I am willing to take additional polygraph exams to prove I am telling the truth until other participants in the srudy come forward," added McNiven.
Some of the other members of his unit, manes provided by McNiven,
include Col. Robert Morrison, Maj. Joe Dipiero, Sgt. Maj. McKay,
Sgt. Middleton, Sgt. Arroyo, Sgt. Murray, Sgt. Edwards, Sgt. Broder,
Sgt Steadman, Sgt. Wolford, Sgt. Jackson, Sgt. Garza, Sgt. Meralas,
Sgt. Taraza, Sgt. Spears, 1st Sgt. Ray, Sgt. Tery Henderson, Sgt.
Barber, Cpl. Picket, Cpl. Wisner, Richard Seanz, Berri Domoski,
George Cinch, Harry Waldren, Tom Kimber, Rick Lyons, Michael Hubbert,
Dan Henderson, Martian Seals, Jake Asuit, Bruce Levine, Thomas
Gumbs, Rick Bruns, Dennis Montoya, Phlash Richardson, Fetch, Bob
Bender, Johnson, Drew Cousins and Terry Cook.
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In ongoing secret reviews of America's nuclear arsenal it has become increasingly clear that some of our nuclear warheads might not even explode on impact. But there is always the risk if they are not properly refurbished that they could explode in the submarine that house them.
On April 3, a New York newspaper broke the story that some U.S. scientists were alarmed about the status of W-76 warheads that are carried on Trident 2 submarines. But, concerns about the stability of parts of our nuclear arsenal have their roots in the end of the Cold War when nuclear arms treaties banned nuclear testing, making it difficult, if not impossible, to determine the readiness of many of our nuclear weapons.
That did not deter research into the design and status of our aging nukes or a heated debate among scientists about whether some warheads should be redesigned and others merely refurbished.
That debate began in earnest in the early to mid 1990s, culminating in a view by 1996 that some warheads required serious "surgery." In 1996, the Energy Department created the Stockpile Life Extension Program to set parameters and standards for expanding the operational life of nuclear weapons.
While leaks to the media in recent years have confirmed the
ongoing debate in Los Alamos labs about our nuclear arsenal, little
mention has been made of the fact that some weapons systems may
be redundant because of Chinese espionage dating back to the early
1990s. In June 1999 a Congressional Select Committee on National
security concluded there had been widespread Chinese espionage
at Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge and Sandia laboratories.
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Salem, Oregon - The bill recently passed by the Oregon state House requiring all cities with more than 10,000 people to add fluoride3 to the public water supply, if fully approved and enacted, would bolster the already widespread use of the substance in America - even as European nations are phasing out the use of the harmful additive.
Ever since the aggressive public relations drive just after World War II promoting fluoride for the stated purpose of "fighting tooth decay" in America especially for children, there has been recurring controversy, with organized dentistry swearing the substance is beneficial to human teeth.
But critics note that even if fluoride were the safest substance in the world - which they are firmly convinced it is not - it still should not be forcibly mass administered to the general public via government water supplies, because it's inherently unethical to take this socialistic approach for the public good.
The Oregon cities of Medford, Portland and Bend are among the municipalities with a large enough population for this bill to apply. In the past, these three cities have resisted efforts to fluoridate their water. However, many people fear that this legislation could overwhelm any resistance, despite an amendment that the Associated Press characterized as an escape hatch for towns that cannot afford to use fluoride.
"Cities without the money to add fluoride to their water supplies wouldn't have to raise rates or taxes to do so - essentially making them exempt from the law," claimed an AP dispatch in The Seattle Times. "The amendment was added when it became clear no state money would be available to help cities with the cost.
This unfunded mandate is H.B. 2025 in the state House, which passed 36-22. The Senate version is listed as S,B, 539.
As this edition of Whole Body Health goes to press, the bill has moved to the Senate, and a vote may come soon.
For an update. Oregon residents outside of Salem have been advised to call (800) 332-2313. In Salem, people can call (503) 986-1187. A general number to the legislative liaison's office is (503) 986-1000.
Summaries of the legislation obtained by AFP show, however, that the escape hatch may not be as "water tight" as AP claimed. The entire amendment reads, "Notwithstanding the requirement imposed by the Department of Human services...that water suppliers serving more than 10,000 persons add fluoride to the water supplied for human consumption, a water supplier may cease implementation of a water fluoridation system if sufficient funds to pay for the implementation are not available from any source other than the fees or charges levied by the water supplier on the suppliers ratepayers, shareholders, local taxpayers or bond holders."
In other words, as long as existing local taxes or water rates are not raised, and if no new taxes, bond issues or grant monies are pursued for this purpose, fluoride does not have to be used. Consumers in Oregon will have to trust that their municipal officials will not be cajoled into adding fluoride through political carrot-and-stick tactics, such as when a state withholds shared revenues to its local units unless those units meet certain conditions. It's conceivable that local units could, for example, be required to enact a local ordinance to mandate the use of fluoride, in return for receiving state revenue for whatever purpose.
Currently, about 20 percent of Oregonians drink, bathe in and cook with fluoridated water, including the people in Salem, the state capital, where a local ordinance requires its use,
HARD QUESTIONS
District 21 State Rep. Billy Dalto, a Salem Republican, reportedly was prominent in the Oregon debate leading up to the House vote on the vote on the fluoride bill. He claimed the cost of fluoridating water can range from $1 to more than $5 per person each year, which is "far less than the cost of treating preventable cavities," AP quoted him as saying.
The dramatic Mr. Dalto, who performed a little theater by speaking near a large picture of a 5-year-old with rotten teeth, was backed up by District 58 State Rep. Bob Jenson of Pendleton, another Republican apparently advocating more government in the lives of citizens in stark contradiction to traditional GOP principles. Jenson claimed it would be "impossible" to drink enough fluoridated water to be harmed.
To say that fluoride opponents disagree is a monumental understatement. And the opposition goes back a long time. Some Americans have associated anti-fluoride opinions as amusing relics of the 1950s "Red Scare," but critics, besides saying mass medication of any kind is wrong, maintain that fluoride is poison. For instance, one of the more strongly worded polemics about fluoride came from Dr. E.H. Bonnet, who, in a January 1952 letter to The Catholic Mirror, wrote:
"It appears that the citizens of Massachusetts are among the ‘next' on the agenda of water poisoners."
Bonner even alleged that there is "...a sinister network of subversive agents, godless ‘intellectual' parasites working in our country today....Fluoridation of our community water systems can well become their most subtle weapon for our sure physical and mental deterioration."
Bonner called fluoridation of public water "criminal insanity," and added that it's sure national suicide. Don't do it...Even in small quantities sodium Fluoride is a deadly poison to which no effective antidote has been found, Every exterminator knows that it is the most efficient rat killer....Sodium fluoride is entirely different from organic calcium-fluoro-phosphate needed by our bodies and provided by nature, in god's great providence and love, to build and strengthen our bones and teeth."
Sodium Fluoride is a by-product of aluminum manufacturing. One historical school of thought says that because the waste from such manufacturing is expensive to properly dispose of, industrial magnates in the early 1950s, with an overabundance of waste, sold the public on the idea of buying it with tax dollars, allegedly at a 20,000-percent markup, injecting it into water supplies and consuming it - a form of tax subsidized waste disposal via the human body and tax-supported water systems.
Another school of thought, which some might say borders on the fantastic, says that fluoride - linked by some researchers to Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney problems, and brittle bones and teeth due to a condition called fluorosis - slowly poisons and narcotizes a certain area of the brain, thereby making people passive and submissive to political authority, seemingly producing the "sheeple" that many political observers refer to when they ponder why Americans tolerate bold infringements on their liberties.
Some historians say the firs recorded major use of sodium fluoride-spiked water was by the Nazis in Germany, who are said to have used it to force people in their concentration camps into calm submission. Nazi schemers also thought fluoride could sterilize human beings, as recorded by author Joseph Borkin in his book The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben.
Dr. Robert D. Carton, a scientist formerly with the U.S. Environmental Protection agency, was quoted as saying, "Fluoridation is the greatest case of scientific fraud of this century, if not of all time." European nations are getting rid of fluoride, as is Japan. Chile ridded itself of it, too. America appears to be one of fluoride's last major holdouts among industrialized nations.
AFP correspondent Mark Anderson can be reached at truthorelse@msn.com.
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Would you want your child or grandchild to attend a school that was a dumping ground for out of control kids with high-risk behaviors, such as packing weapons, using drugs and committing crimes? If your child is bored by teaching way below his level, or she reacts against the prison yard environment, do you want your loved one to become one of the millions doped up with Ritalin or Prozac?
If today's typical public high school has become worse than yesterday's blackboard jungle, would you want to teach at - or even go near - a magnet school for incorrigibles, where all the at risk children are sent? How much combat pay would it take for you to work where the principal's office was a revolving door between juvenile detention and bedlam?
In 1996 Greg Bretthauer was offered "a wonderful opportunity" to be dean of students at Central High in Appleton, Wisc., a new school for truants, disruptive and problem kids the other schools couldn't deal with. The teens were rude, obnoxious and ill-mannered. He took one look and turned it down flat. Trying to cope with discipline and weapons violations was a full time job for police.
That was Central High a decade ago. Rour years later, the school had been so miraculously transformed that then the opportunity came again, Bretthauer gladly accepted the position.
In 1997, a revolution began. Every category marking the decline and fall of education in America - dropouts, students expelled, students discovered to be using drugs, carrying weapons. Suicides - all dropped to an astounding zero, year after year.
The kids now behave. The hallways aren't frantic. Even the teachers are happy. Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching.
What's the secret? More taxpayers' money? Double doses of Ritalin? Prozac? Zoloft? Jackbooted Homeland Security SWAT teams? More TV> Candy and soda pop for rewards?
The secret is exactly the opposite of all this conventional wisdom.
The awe-inspiring story began when English teacher Mary Bruuyette received an invitation to attend a two-day nutrition seminar called "Peak Performance."
"Kooky!" "Waste of time!" "Our cafeterias meet all the government guidelines for nutrition," scoffed all those whose establishment methodology only produced escalating failures.
Fortunately, Bruyette and Jason Stellmacher, Central's science teacher, didn't fear ridicule for looking for answers to do the impossible job of helping their hopeless students. So they attended. They met Dr. Barbara Stitt, :Ph.D. They were awestruck by her miraculous reports.
Dr. Stitt had authored Food and Behavior - A Natural Connection, based on her 12 years of experience of transforming more than 80 percent of probationers into healthy, productive members of society.
Her dietary therapy was so successful, one judge regularly told new probationers, "I'm sending you down to Barbara Reed, and you're going to stay on the diet she gives you. If you don't, you'll be back in trouble - and next time you're going to jail.
If replacing harmful foods withy beneficial foods had the power to turn hardened criminals around, she reasoned it could help save high school kids from becoming criminals. She and her husband Paul, a biochemist, believed in it so much they put their money where their mouth was .
They had started their own company Natural Ovens Bakery. They were ready to invest $100,000 in an experiment to prove elimination of junk foods and a nutritious diet could help kids.
School officials didn't think it would hurt (or help much) but the generous "no strings" offer was to good to turn down.
Thus, in 1997, Appleton's Central Alternative High School (ACA) underwent a transformation. Popmachines were removed from the school, and a new nutrition program was implemented.
Principal LuAnn Coenen, now an enthusiastic spokeswoman, praises the results of the change: "I can say without hesitation that it's changed my job as a principal. Since we've stated this program, I have had zero weapons on campus, zero expulsions from the school, zero premature deaths or suicides, zero drugs or alcohol on campus. Those are major statistics.
"I can't buy the argument that it's too costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their student. I found that one cost would reduce another. I don't have the vandalism. I don't have the litter. I don't have the need for high security." she added.
"We have kids who have had a lot of problems and got through the whole last year without an expulsion. Dropouts dropped to non-existent. Kids come to school. They have learned that with healthier foods it's going to make them a better person. It keeps them more focused and makes them happier" said Superintendent Thomas Scullen.
The high school's counselor, Deb Larson, says, "I don't have the angry outbursts, so instead we get to deal with the real issues that are underlying and causing some of the problems in the kid's lives."
Teachers were also thrilled to finally get through.
"Since the introduction of the food program, I have noticed an enormous difference in the behavior of my students in the classroom." said teacher Mary Bruyette. They're on task, they are attentive. They can concentrate for longer periods of time. I don't have to deal with daily discipline issues. I don't have disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior I experienced before we started the food program. If you've been guzzling Mountain Dew and eating chips and you're flying all over the place I don't think you're going to pick up a whole lot in class."
She reports that the students are now calm and well behaved. "I don't have to deal with the daily discipline issues; that just isn't an issue here," she said.
Mrs Bruyette foes on to say, "Our biggest problems now at the school are parking in the parking lot and student tardiness. I don't have the disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior that I experienced before we started the food program."
The good news spread through Appleton.
"I've taught here almost 30 years. I see the kids this year as calmer, easier to talk to. They just seem more rational. I had thought about retiring this year. I've decided to teach another year - I'm having too much fun," exclaimed Dennis Abram, middle school science teacher.
Students agree: food does have an impact on their behavior. One student remarked, "Now that I can concentrate I think it's easier to get along with people."
Taylor, an Appleton High student added, "I'm able to concentrate better. Not as tired. More energy.
Another student, Meagan, said that if students went back to drinking soda and, eating junk food, the school's atmosphere would change, too: "It would probably be crazy. People would be bouncing off the walls."
Another student said, "I really like the food. It tastes good, it's hot, and its fresh.
Another girl commented, "Now that I concentrate I think it is easier to get along with people ‘cause now I'm paying attention to what they have to say and not just worrying about what I have to say to them."
Our children - your children - deserve better than grease, Ritalin and Prozac.
Longtime health activist and patriot Ralph Forbes can be
contacted via email at justrite@ipa.net
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When you're shopping for groceries, watch out for the phrase "All natural" as claimed on the front of various product packages. It turns out that the phrase "all natural" can mean just about anything, it actually has no nutritional meaning whatsoever and isn't truly regulated by anyone.
They came to light recently when I wrote about autolyzed yeast extract containing MSG. I was contacted by the manufacturer of a popular "veggie burger" product who claimed that my article was incorrect, that their product didn't contain MSG, and that they used nothing but all-natural ingredients.
I replied by reading their PR person the list of ingredients printed right on their own box, which included autolyzed yeast extract. I then showed them documentation supporting the fact that autolyzed yeast extract always contains MSG, and that autolyzed yeast extract is used for only one purpose in manufactured foods: as a chemical taste enhancer. It has no other purpose in the realm of food science.
At this point the spokesperson for this veggie burger manufacturer admitted that, yes, their product did contain free glutamic acid, which is another way of saying MSG, but that it was from an all-natural source, and that there are other foods like seaweed or tomatoes that have free glutamic acid.
Sure, tomatoes have a very small quantity of naturally occurring free glutamic acid, but that's different. What the veggie burger manufacturer is doing is using an MSG ingredient in a concentrated, refined form that greatly increases the potency and the potential toxicity of the ingredient.
In my book, that's not natural.
Claiming MSG is natural because free glutamic acid appears in tomatoes is sort of like saying cocaine is natural because it's derived from ingredients found in the coca leaf. Of course, it's all a matter of potency - you can take a natural plant like coca and eat coca leaf all day long in Peru without any of the dangerous or addictive effects of cocaine. And if you're hiking in the Andes, you'll be very glad if you drink coca leaf tea, because trying to keep up with the locals, who scramble up steep hillsides as easily as strolling along a paved sidewalk, is nearly impossible without some invigorating help from the local plants.
Coca leaf tea is not a drug, but when you take the active constituents of the coca tea and you refine them into a highly concentrated format, then you get cocaine. That's when it becomes a problem.
The same thing is true with MSG. If you're eating seaweed, that's not a problem for your health; in fact seaweed is very good for you and it's now been shown to actually prevent and even help treat cancer.
But if you take MSG out of seaweed or you synthesize MSG and put it into a highly concentrated form, then it functions as a neurotoxin - that's why it's called an excitotoxin by Dr. Russell Blaylock, who is perhaps the world's foremost authority on MSG and other excitotoxins such as aspartame.
Similarly, whole grain corn is a healthful, nutritious food. But when you refine that corn and extract the sugars to make high-fructose corn syrup, you now have a blatantly unnatural ingredient that contributes to obesity and type-II diabetes. Yet the corn associations insist that high-fructose corn syrup is "all natural" because it comes from a plant.
The point is that a food manufacturer can take anything that occurs somewhere in nature and refine it to increase the potency by 1,000 times or more, and then claim that their product is "all natural." in other words, If cocaine were legal, they could put crack cocaine in their veggie burgers and call that all natural too. In fact, they can scrounge up just about anything found on the planet, whether it's heavy metals like mercury or arsenic, or refined sugars made from beets or corn, and they can put those in their foods and call it all natural.
Of course, it's all quite ridiculous. By that definition, anything derived from plants, animals or elements found on planet earth could earn the "all natural" label. The key is in understanding that it's the process that's unnatural, not the source. When you chemically or structurally alter food ingredients into a form that no longer appears anywhere in nature, it's no longer natural, folks. Regardless of what the food manufacturers claim.
Mike Adams is a wholistic nutritionist with
over 4,000 hours of study on nutrition, wellness, food toxicology
and the causes of disease and health. Adam's books include the
The Seven Laws of Nutrition, The five Soft Drink Monsters and
Superfoods For Optimum Health.
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It's not often that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) alert the world to dangers of an industrial chemical in processed food capable of causing cancer, nerve damage and reproductive abnormalities. The UN agencies urged people to stop eating starchy foods commercially made by frying, roasting and baking until levels of the hazardous chemical. acrylamide, are reduced or eliminated.
Three years ago, Swedish scientists published a study that showed significant levels of acrylamide in food products after commercial, high temperature frying, roasting and baking of potatoes and grain products. Processed foods with dangerously high levels of acrylamide were found in many of the most popular foods consumed in North America by all age groups, including children. High levels were found in breakfast cereals, potato and corn chips, French fries, bread, rolls, pizza and pastries, among other foods.
Polyacrylamide is a non-toxic material that, when exposed to heat and light, readily breaks down to un-polymerized acrylamide, which is a neurotoxin. Polyacrylamide is extensively used worldwide in many industrial processes because it is highly soluble and, through gelling and binding actions, stabilizes flows of materials.
Widely used as an additive in water purification systems, other uses are in the pup and paper industry, oil-drilling and mining, permanent press clothing manufacture, and contact lens manufacturing. The chemical is also used as a gelling agent in the making of explosives.
Acrylamide resins coat home appliances, building materials, and automotive parts, and are used in formulation cosmetics, soaps, hair grooming products, dental fixatives, latex thickeners and adhesives.
International alarm followed from the discovery that high acrylamide levels in foods greatly exceeded even the EPA allowance for the chemical in drinking water. For example, a large order of French fries was found to have 300 times more acrylamide that what EPA allows in a glass of water. Acrylamide is a potent nerve toxin that effects male reproduction and causes birth defects and cancer in animals, and is considered a probable human carcinogen.
Residues on foods come from extensive use of polyacrylamide in pesticide formulations and soil treatments and they also may be responsible for acrylamide contamination of processed foods. The alert sounded by international health agencies suggested that the Swedish findings probably resulted from chemical reactions in processing and the release of chemicals during high temperature cooking and frying of foods. But that wasn't the whole story.
The WHO/FAOrelease didn't mention that polyacrylamide is an additive to commercial pesticides. The Monsanto herbicide, Roundup (glyphosate), is mixed with polyacrylamide and likely to release acrylamide when exposed to heat and light in the field, according to professor Joe Cummins of the British Institute for Science & Society.
Crops genetically modified to be herbicide -tolerant of the pesticide Roundup, and the use of the herbicide to prepare soils for normal (non-GM) crops results in the release of acrylamide into the environment. Additives used in herbicide mixtures are trade secrets in North America so information on polyacrylamides in pesticides has not been available until now.
Monsanto's Roundup is the primary glyphosate herbicide used in the world today. Monsanto's herbicides are all around us, and we can guess that acrylamide is, too. Monsanto's herbicide products include more than 90 glyphosate-based herbicides globally, including Roundup agricultural herbicides and Roundup branded turf and ornamental products. These products can be used to control weeds on the farm, the golf course and in home gardens.
The UN agencies have called on governments to work with their food industries to significantly lower the level of acrylamide in foods, noting that it is currently technically feasible to do so. However, with health and food agencies emphasizing the importance of consuming more anti-oxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, believed helpful in mitigating the damage from toxic contaminants, will we be exposed to even higher levels of the potent neurotoxin, acrylamide?
Furthermore, if there are residues of acrylamide on vegetables, what will be the effects of consuming more vegetables? Neither the USDA nor the EPA has conducted any testing of the health consequences of acrylamide residues on vegetables.
Unless the problem of acrylamide-laced pesticides is tackled, changes in processing and cooking methods are unlikely to make a dent in human exposure to the chemical. A ban on use of polyacrylamide in agriculture, on golf courses, schoolyards and parks is essential.
While we're at it, let's also ban corporate trade secrets known to be harmful to people and the environment.
Luise Light, Ed.D., was hired by the USDA in
the 2980s to reform the government's food guide to replace the
basic four food groups. He can be contacted via email at luvalu365@yahoo.com.sw
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Expecting the need for military manpower to increase as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the bush administration slipped into an innocuous education bill the mandate that local school districts must provide the Pentagon with details, which otherwise would have been protected by the Privacy Act, on all members of junior and senior classes.
With the Army now at 94 percent of its year-to-date enlistment goal and the Army National Guard only at 75 percent, the military is stepping up its recruitment efforts. Evidence persists that a draft will be put in place, possibly by this summer.
The recruitment shortfall problem has apparently been anticipated for some time by the Pentagon. Last year the Bush administration began to seek thousands of volunteers to staff local draft boards across the country.
Currently, teenagers when they reach the age of 18 are required to pick up a Selective Service registration form at their local post office, fill it out and sent it to a Selective service center.
Interestingly, although the military is actively seeking female recruits, even for combat duty, the requirement for registration only requires young males to sign up.
In any case, long before the teens are required to register the Pentagon already has all pertinent data on them, which local school districts are required to supply under the No Child Left Behind Education Act, which was enacted in 2002.
Slipped into the education bill was a section that requires that school districts provide names, addresses and telephone numbers of all juniors and seniors, which is more information than is provided by most school districts to college recruiting officers.
Parents of the students have the opportunity to "opt out," in which case they indicate that they don't wish this information to be given to the military. However, most parents are not aware of this or even that the informaiton is going to the military.
The military is the only organization that high schools are federally required to supply with student contact information, according to Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the department of Education.
"The law now provides access to the best and the brightest of all of America's youth across the nation to the opportunities that the military services offer," said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
"The military has always concentrated on high schools and always will because that's where the young people are," said Maj. Dwight Griesmer, spokesman for the Marine Recruiting Command.
Currently, the Pentagon is seeking approval to provide "lump sum" payments to attract more 18- and 19-year-olds to the services.
Of course, although the military spokesman did not say so,
the requirement of the school boards to provide the names of juniors
and seniors also gives the military a backup to catch whose who
do not sign up with Selective Service. According to the Selective
Service, young men who do not register can be prosecuted and fined
up to $250,000 and be put in jail for up to five years.
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Is America, the lone superpower, facing its Gotterdamerung - its twilight of the gods? China which Napoleon advised everyone to let sleep because when she woke she would shake the world, is not longer sleeping and she is now part of a potent alliance. On Nov. 10, 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave notice to the world that the formerly sleeping giant was now a member of an association that contains three quarters of the people, 80 percent of the natural resources and the majority of the scientists and engineers of the world.
The new coalition included India, China, Russia and Brazil.
Not too long afterwards, an ineffective attack on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's barracks, which Chavez blamed on the CIA, resulted in that country joining the coalition.
The Monroe Doctrine, promulgated to keep European influence away from South America, has been breached from another quarter. It may have become an anachronism. Six days after Putin's announcement of Brazil's joining the club, that country was visited by International Atomic Energy inspectors. On Nov. 24,2004, Brazil had a permit to start the early stages of Uranium enrichment program.
A few days after the Venezuelan fiasco, Russia agreed to supply Venezuela with 50 of its most up-to-date fighter aircraft, MIG 29 SMTs. All are to be painted blue, the proper color for low level attacks over water. Twenty of them are to be equipped to launch Onyx ram-jet anti-ship cruise missiles. These are said to weigh over two tons and have a terminal velocity of 2,460 feet per second.
It is claimed that they can knock out a tanker or an aircraft carrier with a conventional warhead.
The Venezuelans have reported that the fighter jets will be used to protect the Panama Canal. The canal is now operated by a Chinese company which many contend is connected to that country's military.
In order to train Venezuelan fighter pilots, the Cubans have been provided with five of these modern fighters which will supplement their less modern MIGs.
There are reports that former Russian intelligence operations on Cuba have been taken over by the Chinese. The Chinese are also building a container port in the Caribbean which, of course, should be well situated to supply logistical support for Cuba and Venezuela.
China whose GDP has been growing phenomenally for several years, is expected to grow at about 8 percent per year possibly for the next 15 years. In 2004 it is reported to have used 66 percent of the world's iron ore, 40 percent of its steel, 30 percent of its coal and 55 percent of its cement. There are now some 7 million automobiles in the hands of the Chinese people up from 700,000 in 1993.
Its economic growth is based on low cost labor.
The lowest paid workers in their factories work a 14-hour day reportedly for $100 per month. This has enabled it to monopolized many industries.
It is a major supplier of products globally, and its impact on markets all over the world is substantial. Presently 100 percent of Levi's blue geans, 60 percent of cell phones, 50 percent of shoes and more than half of the TV sets are made in China.
In the United States, Americans are dependent on china for
95 percent of their shoes, 90 percent of their sporting goods
and 80 percent of their toys.
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A grassroots movement to repeal the Patriot Act has been burning across the country like an out of control wildfire. The fire os dissent has even spread to many of President bush's "red states," where conservative Republicans want to become part of what has been called "America's free zones.
A "free zone," coined by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a watchdog group formed to protect the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, is a place where citizens openly denounce the Patriot Act through a public resolution or ordinance supported by a vote of the city, country or state government.
Although the mainstream media has covered the story like a flicker not a flame, presently 4 states, 375 municipalities and approximately 60 million Americans have joined the "free zone" movement. The movement openly denounces the oppressive Patriot Act and the Bush administration tactics of spying on the American people.
Many critics have compared the Patriot Act to legislation passed by the Nazi Party to quell dissent and even Sen Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), a well-respected constitutional scholar, has compared President Bush to Hitler in what he calls a one voice, one part ideology.
The Patriot Act, which has a chilling effect on freedom of speech and other constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure, right to counsel and right to a fair trial, was hurriedly passed into law 45 days after Sept,11, most legislators not having read the bill and being frightened into signing it due to the theat of terrorism.
Since the act was passed, widespread abuse has been reported due to an overzealous FBI and Justice department using their overly broad powers against the American people for non-terrorist related activities. One typical community disgusted with the loss of civil rights in Paonia, Colorado, a town of 1,6,00 located 200 miles from Denver.
Last February, the Panoia Town Council voted 4-2 to pass a resolution denouncing the Patriot Act, joining the growing list of municipalities that openly oppose it.
Leader of the Paonia "free zone" movement, longtime resident Rand Kokernot, said he finally became "fed up with Bush politics" and organized the petition drive along with the help of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which lends assistance to local communities.
"I am opposed to the Patriot Act because parts of it open up the door to the gutting of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights," said Kokernot, who operates a bed and breakfast near Paonia. "If one person's freedom can be taken away by a ‘mad' attorney general, anyone's freedom can be taken away by a ‘mad' attorney general, anyone's freedom becomes as fragile. I began the movement because I felt we needed a victory. Lately, fighting the system has been like banging one's head against the wall."
Although the town's support is split in half with the mayor opposing the "freeaone' movement, Kokernot wanted Paonia to be an example for other communities who feel that efforts to end terrorism should not be waged at the expense of essential civil rights and liberties.
To illustrate Paonia's concerns, reports surfaced in 2003 that the FBI had collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of anti-war demonstrators by using the Patriot Act to circumvent normal 4th Amendment search and seizure guidelines.
However, concerning Ashcroft's comments, Kokernot said to think
about the words of Benjamin franklin in 1759, "They that
can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." Kokernot then added:"In
the future, I plan to lead a local campaign to end the unjust
war in Iraq. I think bush wants to control dissent under the guise
that he is protecting America."
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As American Free Press readers are aware, European Americans face our greatest crisis in history. Our American heritage faces destruction from massive immigration. Our traditions, heritage, values and freedom are literally being wiped away. Tragically, this genocide is occurring in every White nation on earth.
The driving force behind this conscious destruction of our heritage is the worldwide power of Jewish supremacism. Ironically, it is the same power that supports the ultra-racism of the Jewish supremacist state in Israel. The jewish supremacist Neocons who run this administration will not defend our Mexican-American border, but send our boys to be killed or maimed half way around the world for Israel in the Iraq War. The war has already cost the lives of 1,600 Americans and the maiming of over 20,000 Americans. It has cost a national treasure of $300 billion, trillions in higher gas and oil prices, and it will only cause more hate and terrorism against us!
But, leading activists, scholars, and political figures from many organizations around America and the world are coming together in unity and purpose at the 2005 International European American Conference. Willis Carto, Don Black and others called 2004Conference the best they had ever attended in their long years of activism. This one will be even bigger and better!
We all know that our Movement has needed unity in the face of worldwide Zionist power. This Conference is a giant step toward that unity. Come join us in a Conference where courageous speakers are not afraid to address all the real issues vital to our people's survival and freedom! This meeting is about putting us on the road to victory!
We are expecting 500 people at this historic event. There is
less than a month to go, and seats are going fast. Please act
quickly 
so you can join us in New Orleans
to hear and meet personally the leading lights of our growing
Movement from America and around the world! Looking forward to
seeing you in New Orleans!
For details: You can call my office at 985-626-7714 or go to
my exciting website at www.davidduke.com.
I look forward to seeing you.
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Hundreds of illegal aliens are holed up in the canyons of the Coronado National Memorial at sierra Vista, Ariz. Six miles north of the Mexican border, unable to meet their smugglers because of continuing patrols by Minuteman Project Volunteers.
Cindy Kolb, who has lived there for six years, told a Washington newspaper that she saw about 300 illegal aliens "huddled in the brush-covered washes that cross State Highway 92 to be picked up in vehicles headed north.
"Ther're hiding in the bushes, waiting to hook up with the smugglers in the very same area our children wait for the school bus," Mrs. Kolb told The Washington Times, who waits with her daughter daily, armed with a pistol. "Maybe President bush doesn't care about this, but many of us do."
She spoke as the U.S. Border Patrol rounded up about 30 illegal immigrants, who had been spotted and reported by Minuteman volunteers on the shoulder of Highway 92 near her home.
Mrs. Kolb stood on the highway and applauded the Border Patrol and Minutemen as illegal aliens were loaded on a border Patrol truck.
"Thank you. Border Patrol, thank you, Minutemen." she shouted, jumping with both hands in the air.
From Washington, the Minutemen
were congratulated by Rep. Tom Tancredo, (R-Col.), the strongest
voice for border control in Congress.
"Congratulations on your immensely successful Minuteman Project." Tancredo said in a letter. "By all reports you have accomplished your primary mission, which was to draw public attention to the deplorable and unacceptable conditions on our borders. "You have demonstrated that a physical presence on the border will deter illegal crossings, and the world can now see this," Tancredo said. Tancredo said he wanted James Gilchrist, Chris Simcox and other Minuteman leaders to meet with his Immigration Reform Caucus. "I want you to tell the congress the story of the Minuteman Project and what you accomplished," Tancredo said. "Congratulations on a job well done."
Many drug smugglers have also been stopped by the Minutemen,
authorities said.
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