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Signs of the Time

A Sampling of 2002 news articles from The American Free Press
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June 3, 2002

June 10, 2002

June 17, 2002

June 24, 2002

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American Free Press June 3, 2002

Bilderberg Split on Iraq War

The super-secret Bilderberg Group, meeting at Westfields Marriott May 30 through June 2, remains united on its main agenda—global government and all its attendant financial benefits for international banksters and others—but there is a serious split over the issue of going to war.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

CHANTILLY, Va.—There is sharp division among Bilderberg luminaries—who are making their final arrangements to arrive for the secret meeting May 30-June 2 at the Westfields Marriott 30 miles outside of Washington—over the issue of war with Iraq.

Like their brother group, the Trilateral Commission, according to a report in the April 22 issue of American Free Press, many European leaders object to America's determination to attack Iraq. Warhawks in the Bush administration are pressing for an attack in late summer or early fall.

American officials attending the globalist confab will be trying hard to convince the Europeans to not oppose the war if unable to outwardly support the pending attack.

On the domestic front, Bilderberg needs to convince a few generals and admirals. Secretary of State Colin Powell follows orders like the good soldier he is. But his heart is not in his saber-rattling words.

On the larger, global agenda, Bilderberg enjoys its traditional unity. There is broad agreement on the need to turn the United Nations into a world government.

Bilderberg is using its influence to promote Fast Track in Congress. Their messenger boys are Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). Both have been invited to the last three meetings. Hagel was supposed to attend the meeting in Sweden a year ago but had to remain in Washington when Sen. James Jeffords bolted the Republican Party.

By giving President Bush Fast Track authority to negotiate expansion of NAFTA throughout the Western Hemisphere, Bilderberg's goal of creating an "American Union," with all countries in North, Central and South America, will be advanced. The ultimate goal is to divide the world into three great regions for the administrative convenience of a world government. The dollar is to become the common currency.

The split over waging war emerged when the Tri laterals met in Washington in April. Bilderberg and Trilateral have interlocking leadership and a common agenda. Vice President Dick Cheney, Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made the case for war.
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American Free Press June 3, 2002

Media Lied About 9-11 Conspirator

Do your friends and neighbors believe everything they read and hear in the mainstream media about 9-11? If so they need to read this story.

By Michael Collins Piper

Contrary to what virtually every single major media outlet in America reported time and time again, the alleged "20th hijacker," Zacarias Mossaoui, never told instructors at his Minnesota flight school that he only wanted to learn how to fly a super-liner and not how to land one.

Although Mossaoui's statement was "big news" everywhere, the recent claim by a top federal official that Mossaoui never, in fact, said what he was reported to have said didn't get headlines or rate even a story of its own - this despite widespread public outrage at Mossaoui's remark.

Instead, the information was buried in the next to last paragraph in a story published in the May 22 New York Times under the innocuous headline "Transportation Security Chief Says He Opposes Pilots' Carrying Guns Aboard Planes."

The Times article described, among other things, May 21 testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Reported the Times:

Mr. Mossaoui was turned in by his flight school in Minnesota because of suspicious behavior, but Mr. Mineta said today that it was not true that Mr. Mossaoui told his instructors, as has been widely reported, that he was only interested in learning to maneuver a Boeing 747 and not in how to land one. Mr. Mossaoui did want to learn to land the plane, Mr. Mineta said.

Although Mossaoui - under indictment for purported conspiracy in the 9-11 attacks - never made such a statement, the report that he made such a statement essentially "convicted" Mossaoui in the public eye and certainly tainted any possible jury pool, who will probably never read the paragraph buried in the Times.

Essentially, Americans must now decide who to believe. The story raises several questions that Americans need to ask:

* If the story is true and the entire national media was reporting it accurately in the first place, then why is the Transportation Secretary, Norman Mineta, now lying abut it?

* On the other hand, if the story is not true, where did it originate and how did it get such widespread circulation in the "mainstream" press in America?

*Did a federal official leak the false story or was it cooked up by someone in the media or by an anti-Muslim hate group such as the ADL, which is known to plant false stories in the media?

*Finally, if this widely-believed and widely reported story is not true as The New York Times now reports, how many other such false stories about 9-11 and other major events are now in circulation?
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American Free Press June 3, 2002

Spotlight on Congress (column)

Senate Trying to Sneak More ‘Hate' Laws by U.S. Public

Even as the Senate was debating and moving close to a vote on the widely watched Fast Track trade bill, Sen Red Kennedy (D-Mass.) Was trying to sneak his pet "hate crimes" legislation through.

Under current law, the U.S. government can go after federal "hate" charges only in cases involving federally protected activities, such as voting or attending school. It applies in cases where "hate" is perceived against racial or religious minorities. Kennedy would expand protected groups to include homosexuals and physically and mentally disabled people. It would apply regardless of when or there a "hate" crime is committed.

Citizen activists such as Rev. Ted Pike have spearheaded opposition to expanding so-called "hate crimes" legislation, pointing out that these laws unfairly target outspoken Christians who disapprove of homosexuality and abortion.

Pike has produced the video, titled Hate Laws: Making Criminals of Christians,** documenting lawmakers' fervent efforts to see this bill foisted on Americans.

There is everything bad and nothing good about "hate crimes" legislation but some lawmakers cower from fear of being called supporters of violence and are intimidated into casting stupid votes.

Kennedy and his little playmate, Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), failed to show where, under the Constitution, the federal government has any role in local crimes. They can't. Nor have they defined "love crimes" as opposed to "hate crimes."

There are two major, sinister aspects of the "Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act" (S.625:

* It is a further attempt to impose federal control over states and localities by federalizing local crimes; and

* The First Amendment problems are obvious - police are supposed to look inside a person's head and decide if he mugged for money or for "hate," which carries significantly harsher penalties.

The futility and ironies of this mischief are endless. All states have strong laws on crime and violence. If hate crimes laws had been on the books, the white men who dragged the black man to death in Texas could not have been sentenced to die. Convicted under state law, they are now on death row.

If a person is killed, he's just as dead whether or not it is termed a "hate" crime.

An identical bill passed the Senate 57-42 in June 2000 as an amendment to the defense authorization legislation but was removed in a House-Senate conference. Daschle expressed confidence that it would pass this time:

"At the end of the day, whatever that day is, this legislation will pass. It will either pass the easy way or the hard way...but it will pass. The time has come and gone for delay, for explanation, for excuse, for anything else."

** Ted Pike's video, Hate Laws: Making Criminals of Christians, is available for $19.95 plus $4.95 S$H from the National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, Oreg. 97015. Visit the web site at www.truthtellers.org.
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American Free Press June 10, 2002

Bilderberg Meets!

Bilderberg is hiding out in the posh Westfields near Dulles Airport in a Virginia suburb of Washington. This time it is less of a love-fest, with deep divisions among Americans and the European elite.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

Chantilly, Va. - The issue of America going to war in Iraq has been delayed, with the White House agreeing to wait at least until next year, issues simmer at this year's secret Bilderberg meeting.

President Bush lied when he said there were no plans for war on Iraq or anywhere else "on his desk" - the plans were piled high. But military brass in the Pentagon warned thethe president that the United States is unprepared for war. European leaders were opposed. Only civvilians at Defense and State wanted war.

The role of peacemaker is new to Europe. At the Bilderberg meeting in Baden Baden, Germany in June 1991, the Persian Gulf war was celebrated and enthusiastic calls for more military action "in five years" were heard.

It was at Baden Baden that the obscure governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, Attended his first Bilderberg meeting. The next year, he was elected president and the United States went to war - euphemistically termed United Nations "peace-keeping missions" - in 16 countries.

But the warmongers aren't satisfied. In the May 29 Wall Street Journal, Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, made a strong plea for an invasion of Iraq in a commentary that amounted to an in-house memo.

Brookings is one of numerous Bilderberg torch-carriers. The "conservative" Journal is always represented at Bilderberg meetings and it editorial policy is subservient to the globalist agenda. This war cry came just one day before Bilderberg formally gather for its annual secret session.

With the war issue momentarily delayed, other fights were emerging in probably the most divisive Bilderberg meeting ever. On the basic agenda, the unity intact: Creating a world government in which this international elite will dominate.

Bilderberg boys from the European Union are out raged that Bush Protected the domestic steel industry from overseas dumping. They are equally angry over the farm bills, which significantly increased agricultural subsidies even though "family farmers" who benefit include Bilderberg luminaries David Rockefeller and Dwayne Andreas of Archer Daniels Midland.

European Bilderberg members - with many "Americans" agreeing - want the United States to change her tax laws to suit their pocketbook. They call it "tax equity." Bilderberg also clings to its long-held commitment to create a global tax payable by "world citizens" (you and me) directly to the United Nations.

The paradoxes would be amusing if not so damaging to U.S. interests. Farm subsidies are necessary for real family farmers - not to be confused with Bilderberg boys, TV mogul Ted Turner of millionaire basketball players - because of what Bilderberg hath wrought: NAFTA and other "free trade" laws.

Were it not for free trade. American farmers would need no subsidies.

The European Union countries also subsidize agriculture and other exports but object to America's protecting her domestic economy.

Europeans are also angry at the United States for rejecting the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto Treaty on global climate control, which economists warn would generate skyrocketing inflation here while requiring nothing of 60 percent of the world. Another point of sharp disagreement is U.S, Middle East policy. This is in large part because the Europeans object to America's abject pro-Israel policy. This is in large part because the European media has far more balanced coverage of the turmoil there than the one-sided U.S. press.

SECURITY GROWS

As grim-faced armed guards and plainclothes security agents began encircling Westfields, they were awaiting Bilderberg luminaries who also looked glum. One of the longest faces belonged to Kenneth Dam, deputy secretary of the Treasury Department, who faces a grim gilling from his European counterparts.

Never has Bilderberg met this close to Washington. In 1962, Bilderberg took over all of Colonial Williamsburg - built by Rockefeller money - located several miles south of Richmond, Va.

Security experts have explained why: Bilderberg boys were afraid of Middle Eastern terrorists. Dulles and Washington Reagan National Airport are the most secure in the United States because of their heavy traffic in congressmen and high administration officials.

One security man was overheard telling his counterpart: "If terrorists could bag a Rockefeller, that would be one hell of a trophy."

Westfields is situated seven miles south of Dulles Airport. When sealed off at the entrance, Westfields is out of sight. Luminaries can take short helicopter trips from either airport to Westfields's private heliport. Nevertheless, many of the pompous chose long black limos complete with police escorts and sirens.

Westfields has enough of its own black limos to provide these parades. To make sure everything is in order, a black car with State Department tags was parked outside Westfields five days in advance - on May 26.
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American Free Press June 10, 2002

Europeans Protest U.S. Empire, Warmongering

While European leaders speak of shared values and con-operation in the U.S.-led "was on terrorism," the mass demonstrations during President Bush's visit evince a growing divide between the leaders and the people.

By Christopher Bollyn

The massive demonstrations marking President George W. Bush's recent foreign tour indicate a significant level of discontent among the European populations with both the U.S.-led "war on terrorism" and the administration's plans to wage war in order to bring about "regime change" in Iraq.

In Germany, an estimated 100,000 people from 240 groups demonstrated in central Berlin May 21, the day before Bush arrived for a one-day visit. Expressing popular resistance to various U.S. policies, demonstrators from a wide rage of political groups greeted Bush as he continued on to Moscow, Paris, and Rome.

Kept at a safe distance and shielded by more than 10,000 German police from around the country and 600 secret service and Central Intelligence Agency personnel who preceded the president, Bush actually described his visit to Berlin as "living in a bubble." Unprecedented security operations were the order of the day as Bush visited Europe's capitals.

While Bush may not have seen or heard the masses of protesters in Berlin's streets, three lawmakers fro the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which strongly opposes U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan made sure he got their message. As Bush made the first speech by an American president to the Bundestag , the German parliament, three PDS members of parliament unfurled a banner reading , "Mr Bush and Mr. Schroeder, stop your wars."

The anti-globalization movement Attac and a broad coalition of environmental and peace groups called "Axis for Peace" organized the demonstrations, which remained peaceful Philip Hersel, a spokesman for Attac, said, "We feel Chancellor Schröder is just as bad as Bush because he unquestioningly follows the line dictated by the American President."

The demonstration was "not against Bush or his visit, but his war policy," Christa Peter, a teacher from Berlin said as she protested. "This theory of the ‘axis of evil' is dangerous and allies like Germany need to take this opportunity to warn him."

Gisela Bastian, 64, said Europeans disagree with what they see as Bush's imperialist attitude. "They want to put their hands on the global oil resources," and that's why he wants to attack Iraq, she said.

Members of parliament (MP) from Germany's ruling "green-red coalition participated in the mass demonstrations.

An anti-Bush demonstration by the Green Party, the pacifist-environmental party which rules with the Social Democrat Party of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, was cancelled before it got started. Protesters described as "radical anarchists" chanting "warmongers" and "hypocrites" stormed the podium where Green Mps were to speak. Riot police used tear gas and water cannons to drive back and subdue the protesters.

Claudia Roth, the Green Party leader and an MP said: "This is not a good omen for our democracy. We had wanted to send a clear signal that we are opposed to U.S., plans in Iraq."

Germany's Foreign Minister Joseph (Joschka) Fischer, son of Hungarian-Jewish refugees and a leading member of the Green Party, was instrumental in getting the Green Party to scrap its pacifist principles and support the "war against terrorism."

German forces are now involved in the war effort in Afghanistan, Kuwait and off the horn of Africa. Several German soldiers have died while serving in Afghanistan.

Although European leaders have allied their nations in the U.S.-led "war on terrorism," there is clearly a growing divide between the positions of the governments and their people. This divide was reflected in a recent poll in Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, which showed 76 percent of Germans questioned thought Washington "was too involved in the affairs of other countries." Only 19 percent thought Bush was doing a good job.

In France, where fewer than 10 percent of the population say they dislike American policies, there are similar demonstrations against the "evil empire" of "‘le cowboy' Bush." "Law not war!" protesters chanted in English.

"We are worried that he is preparing an attack on Iraq," Pierre Tartakowsky, Secretary General of Attac in France, said. "It's not an anti-American demonstration. The present U.S. administration is very aggressive and very dangerous for the future of the planet."

"You have to admit, this just reeks of American power." one bystander in Paris said about the massive security display. "They are like the Romans in conquered territory, but good luck to them. We have always liked the Americans."
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American Free Press June 10, 2002

Foreigners Interfering in American Elections

Once again, the Israelis are using their finances and political clout in a determined effort to decide who should "represent" you in Congress.

By Michael Collins Piper

In Republican and Democratic Party primaries in New Hampshire and Alabama, the Israelis and their powerful and well-financed American lobby are meddling in America's domestic politics. Yet, not one seems to be raising questions as to the propriety of foreigners interfering in American elections.

In New Hampshire's Republican U.S. Senate primary, the Israeli lobby is promoting the renomination bid of incumbent Sen. Bob Smith over his GOP primary challenger, Rep. John Sununu, often described as a "moderate," although his voting record is hardly different from that of Smith.

While Smith had been aa longtime favorite of conservatives, he has been criticized in recent months by former supporters who charge Smith is increasingly lurching leftward.

The Israeli lobby's sudden interest in assuring Smith's renomination is mainly its desire to snuff out the ambitions of Sununu who is of Palestinian descent.

Even Benjamin Netanyahu, the hard-line Likud-bloc former prime minister of Israel, recently put in a campaign appearance in New Hampshire on Smith's behalf.

In return for the Israeli backing, Smith has loudly embraced Israel and attacked the Arab world, suggesting that Sununu is "soft on terrorism."

Should anyone doubt Smith is a "changed man," note that even former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani - a "Rockefeller Republican" and fervent backer of Israel's Likud - has chimed in endorsing Smith and calling him a man of principle.

Smith's evolution into being a tool of the Israeli lobby is both sad and remarkable.

Long denounced by the liberal media as being "beyond the pale" politically, even within Republican ranks, because of his previously outspoken conservative views, Smith actually bolted the GOP in 1999 and launched an independent bid for the White House.

At the time, Smith denounced the Republican Party for abandoning its traditional principles. Yet, after the leaders of the Constitution Party offered Smith their party's ballot line, Smith inexplicably declined. Smith then crawled back to the GOP and was even restored with the senior ranking that he had shucked.

Ironically, it was Smith's abandonment of the GOP that led GOP leaders to encourage Sununu to run for Smith's Senate seat in the first place. However, Smith's return to the GOP incited Israeli interest in advancing his political future for the purpose of putting an end to Sununu's.

In Alabama's Democratic primary, the Israeli lobby is promoting a candidate challenging incumbent Rep. Earl Hilliard, an African-American legislator who represents the black-majority Birmingham area. The Israeli lobby has drafted another African-American, attorney Artur Davis, to challenge Hilliard for renomination.

According to the May 10 issue of Forward, an influential New York-based Jewish community affairs newspaper, "Davis has raised considerable amounts of money from the Jewish community, both within Alabama and nationwide."

Hilliard's Israeli -backed challenger is so enmeshed with the Israeli lobby that Davis even took off time campaigning at home in Alabama to travel to Washington D.C. where he put in an appearance at the recent national conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

The Israelis are angry with Hilliard because, among other things, the congressman refused to vote extending sanctions against Libya and Iran or to vote in favor of a resolution expressing support for Israel's actions against the Palestinian people. Hilliard also traveled to Libya and enraged the Israelis by saying that "Libya is an African nation. It carries no negative connotation in my community."

That the Israelis and their political tacticians are engaged in politicking in Birmingham is no surprise to knowledgeable observers of the Alabama political scene.

In the early 1980s, many of Birmingham's African-American politicians and their allies in local finance and industry forged links with Arab-based business groups which were welcomed into the city with open arms, much to the dismay of pro-Israel interests who watched the situation closely.

In fact, in his highly sensationalized 1985 book, The American House of Saud: The Secret Petrodollar Connection, the media-promoted, Arab-hating polemicist Steven Emerson devoted a whole chapter entitled "The Arabian South: Birmingham, Saudi Arabia," to defaming the Alabama city's Arab Connections.

Thus, when the Justice Department began targeting Black politicians in Bermingham and black leaders were quick to charge "racism," few dared mention to mention the real reason the politicians were being targeted was because of their ties to Arab investors.

Actually, the investigations were a means by pro-Israel elements inside Justice to sabotage Arab investments in Birmingham and elsewhere and to pry open the door for possible prosecution of the Arab investors themselves.

The evidence shows that at the time Justice launched its prosecutions, Justice was heavily penetrated by persons allied with a clique known as "Nesher" (Hebrew for "eagle") that acts as a covert pressure group inside various federal agencies on behalf of Israel.

The late Andrew St. George was the first journalist to expose the existence of Nesher. His explosive expose appeared in The Spotlight newspaper which was ultimately shut down by a federal judge - a former Justice attorney - who had been promoted to his post through the machinations of his superior in Justice who were among Nesher's founders.

Today, the Israeli campaign to destroy Hilliard is a new manifestation of the lon-standing Israeli interest in Birmingham's so-called "petrodollar connection.
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American Free Press June 17, 2002

Bilderberg Batters Bush; But Unity remains on NWO  

The United States took its worst beating ever at the secret Bilderberg meeting but there remains complete unity on the goal of establishing a world government.

By James P. Tucker Jr.

CHANTILLY. Va.—Bilderberg luminaries battered their American counterparts over U.S Middle East policy, which they blamed for causing the need for a "war on terrorism" which could lead to bloody military misadventures.

However, most Bilderberg boys from both sides of the Atlantic were, for some reason, confident there would be no war between Pakistan and India. At that moment, both nations were on the brink of a nuclear holocaust.

It could have had something to do with the appearance of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was hastily summoned to appear on Saturday, June 1. Rumsfeld had attended a Bilderberg meeting in 1975 at Cemse, Turkey, as an assistant to President Jerry Ford. Ford had attended Bilderberg as minority leader of the House.

Rumsfeld is known to have been summoned to reassure the Europeans there would be "no immediate" U.S. invasion of Iraq as had been planned by the White House (American Free Press, June 10). He was pressed, but refused to say, that the United States had no plans for future wars.

Whether Rumsfeld also helped reassure Bilderberg there would be no war between Pakistan and India could not be determined.

But, even as Rumsfeld was assuring Bilderberg of at least a momentary delay in launching a new war, President Bush was rattling sabers in a commencement ad dress at West Point.

"Pre-emptive strikes" will be used against nations or groups that threaten the United States, Bush told the newly minted Army officers. He vowed to "take the battle to the enemy, disrupt its plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge."

Besides Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Kenneth Dam was scheduled to attend—and did.

But unity was expressed with kind words, smiles, hand shakes and embraces on Bilderberg's long-term agenda:

• Empowering the United Nations until it becomes a de jure, as well as de facto, world government.

• Advancing this goal by creating a direct UN tax on "world citizens," expanding NAFTA throughout the Western Hemisphere as a prelude to creating an "American Union" similar to the European Union and empowering international bodies to further erode the sovereignty of nations. Further establishing NATO as the UN's world army was also discussed.

There was much hand-wringing over "rising nationalism" in Europe, as demonstrated by the electoral successes of Jean-Marie Le Pen in France and by a populist "resurgence" in The Netherlands and Denmark. Americans agreed to pursue a "world without borders."
But on the issues of war and America's Middle East policy, Americans
faced three days of chastisement, both in formal sessions and during
glass-tinkling between sessions. A grim-faced Henry Kissinger and others
had to take it as Europeans denounced U.S. policy.

It reached the point that Europeans were praising their detested press, which has showered them with unwanted publicity in recent years. This is a close paraphrase of the angry words Americans heard:

In Europe, you would be unable to conduct such a one-sided policy in the Middle East. Europeans know, because of heavy press coverage, of Israel's wars of expansion and brutal occupation of Palestinian lands. They are aware of the cruelty inflicted on civilians, including women and children, for no military objective at all.

Europeans know that Israel's military machine is financed by the United States. They know that the planes, tanks and weapons attacking innocent citizens are provided by the United States. While there is no justification for the attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, Europeans know that Palestinians will resist in any way they can.

Because of the unfair Middle East policy of the United States, we Europeans now must be your allies in your war on terrorism.

Americans responded to this with grim faces and shrugs.

The administration had anticipated this barrage and tried to soften it with a peace plan that included an independent Palestinian state. This goes beyond previous U.S. positions, Americans reassured the Europeans, which merely called for Palestinian statehood. The plan was still being drafted as Bilderberg met but they were assured it would be publicly unveiled in July.

Bilderberg celebrated the fact that a global UN tax is "part of the public dialogue" without a public outcry by "nationalists." Alan Keyes, as President Ronald Reagan's UN ambassador, denounced the proposed tax and it has been widely discussed since.

Bilderberg has offered several variations of the world tax. First, it suggested a 10-cent tax on oil at the barrel head, meaning citizens would pay a direct tax to the UN when gassing up their cars or using oil in any way. A surcharge on international travel by air or sea and a tax on international financial transfers were also proposed.

Like the federal income tax, a UN levy would be so small at the outset the consumer would hardly notice. But establishing the principle that the UN can directly tax citizens of the world is important to Bilderberg. It is another giant step toward world government. It is openly discussed with little public notice or objection "except for the Ron Pauls in Congress" and "nationalist" publications, Bilderberg boys assured themselves. The references were to populist Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) and the newspaper you are reading.

There were also demands for "tax equity"—meaning that the United States must revise her tax laws to more evenly reflect the high-tax, socialistic societies of Europe. It was called "unfair trade" for the United States to be so—by comparison—"tax friendly" to individuals and businesses.

Europeans continued to complain about the new farm subsidy legislation and the imposition of tariffs on steel imports to protect the domestic industry against dumping and were distraught that the Senate version of Fast Track would allow Congress to block any trade deals that negate laws protecting domestic industries.

There was continued sniping at the United States be cause Bush "unsigned" the Kyoto global warming treaty which, economists warned, would generate sky-high inflation while requiring nothing of most nations. Spite fully, the 15-nation European Union ratified the treaty on June 1 as Bilderberg was meeting. This prompted a graying Bilderberg luminary to moan that George Bush is "the worst president since [Richard] Nixon." Never has Bush received a higher tribute.

NATO has been functioning as the standing army of the United Nations since celebrating its 50th anniversary in Washington during the invasion of Yugoslavia. NATO's first shot fired in anger was not in defense, as its charter required, but in an offensive war. At that time, leaders announced that NATO was no longer confined to Europe but would undertake military ventures anywhere in the world—at the direction of the UN Security Council.

Bilderberg is reinforcing this world army doctrine while doing early work on the third great region of the world: the emerging "Asian-Pacific Union."

It is already being bound together as APEC—the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Even as Bilderberg met, one of its own, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) was attending a meeting of Asian-Pacific defense ministers. Ultimately, there are to be three great regions for the administrative convenience of the world government: the European Union, American Union and Asian-Pacific Union.

Bilderberg ended a day earlier than normal, abandoning Westfields early on Sunday afternoon, June 2. Normally, they would have said their farewells on Mon day. This must have been a sudden decision, be cause staffers of Bilderberg participants in nearby Washington had been told they would be out of their offices until Tuesday.
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American Free Press June 17, 2002

NASA Confirms Weather-Shaping Chemtrails  

It took the government a long time to admit what independent populist newspapers have been saying for years: Chemtrails are real and can have a deleterious effect on the weather.

By Mike Blair

NASA has confirmed what thousands of Americans have been claiming for the past few years - those high-altitude emissions from jet aircraft, known officially as contrails but referred to by many as "chemtrails," can form actual banks of weather-altering clouds.

NASA, has been researching the long white trails left in the skies and has concluded that this "pollution"can create cirrus clouds, the thin wispy clouds that form at 20,000 feet or higher.

NASA concludes that these man-made cirrus clouds have an impact on climate because they spread over large areas and effectively trap sunlight.

That is the official conclusion of NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, not the rantings of "chemtrail conspiracy theorists," who have been smeared by various government agencies that chose to dismiss their claims.

NASA came to its starling conclusions while conducting research during the post-Sept.11 grounding of aircraft as a result of the terrorist attacks.

According to Patrick Minnis, a senior researcher at Langley, the grounding allowed researchers to study just a few of the trails, instead of the thousands that are normally produced daily.

Researchers were able to track just 10 planes that flew in the eastern part of the United states from Ohio to Virginia, said Minnis.

They discovered that the emissions - not "vapor trails" left by the hot exhausts of the jet engines passing through the cold upper layers of the atmosphere - created cirrus clouds that lasted nearly seven hours and stretched over 8,000 square miles. Researchers calculated normal conditions and concluded that the typical daily volume of aircraft in the skies above the U.S. could produce clouds covering 77,000 square miles. That kind of coverage, they said, was assumed for cirrus clouds all across the planet, not just a portion of America.

It was a surprise that it was this big, "Minnis said.

According to NASA, Langley's study of the effect of aircraft emissions began in 1993. It was nurtured by the projected growth of air travel, Which is expected to increase by two to five percent in the next 30 years, Minnis said. That will mean hundreds of additional aircraft in the skies and, of course, more cirrus clouds.

Minnis said that the cirrus clouds are already having an impact on climate, increasing temperatures on regional levels as much as two to five percent. He said it is hard to bet a better understanding of the situation because it is difficult to differentiate between artificially-created cirrus and those developing naturally.

That changed when President Bush grounded all commercial flights after the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York. Between Sept.11 and Sept.13 only military aircraft were allowed in the skies.

ANALYZED DATA

The Langley team tracked all of those aircraft and has analyzed data for those that flew in the western United States. They are now analyzing the emissions from those that flew in the western part of the nation. They will then compare this to date three days prior to the grounding on Sept.11.

Some big questions are raised by the Langley research:

* If it is now a fact that jet contrails, or chemtrails, can cause the formation of cirrus clouds that alter the weather, just what can be created utilizing the process to purposely alter the weather?

* Is weather modification already being done? Could that be the cause of the strange weather that has fallen upon America during the past few year?

* What if chemicals were purposely introduced into the aircraft exhausts, such as barium salts, which independent researchers have determined is already the case to enhance radar and radio communications?

* Has NASA released the results of it study into what it has secretly known for years now?

* If casual, unscientifically trained observers have noted and concluded for years that aircraft contrails are forming actual cloudbanks in the skies of America, why has it taken NASA so long?
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American Free Press June 17,2002

China Exploits World Tension  

While the United States is away waging war with the rest of the world, will China see its opportunity to strike.

By Mike Blair

Red Chinese military technicians are in Iraq, preparing the Arab state for the possibility of an attack by the United States and Israel. And, in the event the U.S. military succumbs to Israeli Pressure and invades Iraq in the coming months, the communist state is poised to extend its reach across the Taiwan Straits to its neighbor, free Taiwan.

According to the current issue of Military magazine, which maintains close contacts with U.S. Military intelligence, the Chinese have sent pilots to train Iraqi pilots to crash aircraft into enemy targets.

Israel's top secret Dimona nuclear research and development facilities in the Negev Desert has been specifically targeted by the suicide planes, which will be loaded with high explosive, according to the magazine.

The Chinese are also selling Iraq surface-to-air missiles to defend itself against the air war that would precede any ground attack.

The bush administration is fully aware of duplicity on the part of the Red Chinese, who buy billions of Dollars in arms from Israel - including U.S. technology. But the pro-Israel war hawk in Washington are still pressing for war while snuggling up to the Beijing butchers.

The CIA recently released a top-secret report that the Chinese military is working out logistics to target and knock out U.S. military and civilian computer systems and networks.

"The mission of Chinese Special Forces includes physical sabotage" of vulnerable systems, the DIA reports.

BOGGED DOWN IN IRAQ

A retired Air Force intelligence officer, for years attached to the National Security Agency (NSA), America's ultra-secret electronic spy agency, says China may be waiting for America to get bogged down with Iraq and then move to attack Taiwan, the Republic of Free China.

Ever since the late 1940s when the nationalist Chinese fled the Chinese mainland to Formosa (Taiwan) and seated the free Chinese government there, Beijing has been planning to take over the island by force, along with its dominant economy.

The Formosa Straits are one of the world's most vital "flash points: and a defense backed by U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle groups has always been a major force there.

But what if America is tied down fighting Iraq, the retired officer asks, particularly its carrier battle groups?

"I just hope no one forgets that our armed forces today are only a shadow of what they were a decade ago, thanks to eight years of Bill Clinton," he said.
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America Free Press June 24, 2002

Bilderberg Exposed In Europe; Exclusive Reports Confirmed  

European media pressured Bilderberg into coughing up the documents it had refused to provide in the United States. These documents confirmed earlier American Free Press reports.

Exclusive to American Free Press

By James P. Tucker

Under threat of extensive media attention in Europe for its refusal to provide the agenda and list of participants at its secret meeting in Chantilly, Va., Bilderberg surrendered.

Tony Gosling, a European Bilderberg-hound-in-training, promptly faxed the documents to American Free Press. Gosling is one of many in Europe who have collaborated with the court-killed Spotlight—and now AFP—in exposing Bilderberg. His web site, www.bilderberg.org, provides extensive coverage.

Bilderberg had hoped to keep all its secrets because the major media in the United States collaborated in the blackout. When meeting in Europe, Bilderberg now confronts a lot of coverage in the major media initially prompted by The Spotlight.

When compelled to make its list public, Bilderberg always adds a "press release." The press release is the same each year, rationalizing its conducting public business in private, with the exception of a first-paragraph update. It reads:

"The 50th Bilderberg meeting will be held in Chantilly, Va. Among other subjects the conference will discuss: terrorism, trade, post-crisis reconstruction, Middle East, civil liberties, U.S. foreign policy, extreme right, world economy, corporate governance."

These topics were reported regularly to AFP by a Bilderberg source inside Westfields. You read about them a week ago.

The list forced out of Bilderberg is incomplete, as always. Every time the list has been obtained by whatever means, there are people who attended but are not mentioned. For example, this year, AFP was able to get a call through to Andrew Parisiliti at Westfields during the meeting but he is not on Bilderberg's list.

Parisiliti is foreign affairs advisor to Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a Bilderberg regular who was attending an Asian peace summit at the time. Parisiliti was representing Hagel at Bilderberg.

JOURNALISTIC PROSTITUTES

Bilderberg has, at one time or another, had representatives of all major U.S. newspapers and network news outlets attend. They do so on their promise to report nothing. This is how Bilderberg keeps its news blackout virtually complete in the United States.

This year's crop includes Jim Hoagland (a regular) and Charles Krauthammer, both columnists for The Washington Post, Jean de Belot of France, editor of le Figaro; John Bernder of Norway, director-general of Norwegian Broadcasting Corp.; Paul Gigot, editorial page editor of the "conservative" Wall Street Journal; Charlie Rose, producer of Rose Communications who appears on public radio; Toger Seidenfaden of Denmark, editor-in-chief of Politiken and Kenneth Whyte of Canada, editor of The National Post.

Conrad Black, owner of a string of newspapers around the world, attended as a regular.

NEWCOMERS

Every year, there are a few newcomers who are part of the Bilderberg fringe. Roughly 100 are regulars who have attended for many years. Fringe people are invited because Bilderberg thinks they may be useful tools. If not, they are cast aside.

When Douglas Wilder was serving his term as governor of Virginia, he was summoned by Bilderberg because he was the first black ever elected a governor in the United States. Perhaps he could be Bilderberg's little tin Jesse Jackson.

Wilder ran in the Democratic presidential primary in 1984 but got less than one percent of the vote in lily-white New Hampshire and was cast aside by Bilderberg. Similarly, Christine Todd Whitman, as governor of New Jersey was invited and later cast aside.

The most dramatic example of a "useful recruit" was the obscure governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, who attended his first Bilderberg meeting at Baden Baden, Germany in 1991. There, Clinton was told what NAFTA is and that he supports it. The next year, he was elected president.

The absence of Hagel does not mean he was cast aside, because his representative attended and the senator had hoped to. But he was attending to Bilderberg business at the Asian defense meeting and remains in good standing.

So these newcomers may be emerging Bilderberg stars or future castoffs, depending on events: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) and Rep. John LaFalce (D-N.Y.).

Bilderberg likes to control U.S. politics. They have owned every president since Jerry Ford (Bilderberg). Jimmy Carter and his vice president, Walter Mondale, belonged to Bilderberg's brother group, the Trilateral Commission. Ronald Reagan received the Trilaterals at the White House and his vice president and future president, George Bush the Elder, was a Trilateralist. Bush addressed the group as vice president. Bush's vice president, Dan Quayle, attended one Bilderberg meeting.

Bush's son, the current president, has no formal connection to either group. However, he had plenty of messenger boys from his administration attending Bilderberg, as the accompanying list shows.

But for the first time, the chairmen of the two major parties were summoned to Bilderberg. Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Mark Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee, both attended Bilderberg.

Leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties now know what Bilderberg wants them to do. They also know the vast sums of money and global influence that are at stake.

Bilderberg neglected to invite Dan Charles, head of the new America First Party.
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

Mainstream Media Avoids Questions of 9-11  

Two unprecedented events in Washington involving relatives of last fall's terror attacks have demanded an independent non-artisan investigation into the events of Sept.11.

By Christopher Bollyn

Nine months after the worst terrorist attack in American history, grass-roots organizations convened in Washington asking questions and calling for an independent investigation in to the events of Sept.11.

Although the two unprecedented events were both well publicized and held in high profile venues, the mass media stayed away from the most serious questions being asked about the attacks.

A network of independent 9-11 researchers "seeking answers and accountability" held a three-hour press conference at the National Press Club in Washington on June 10 to bring attention to the many unanswered questions surrounding the attacks.

The group has recently launched a web site dedicated to raising public awareness of these issues: UnansweredQuestions.org.

On June 12, the question that ranked highest among voters on the web site was: "Why did C-SPAN suddenly decide not to air your press conference scheduled to be held on June 10, 2002, in lieu of coverage of Homeland Security?"

The high-powered press conference presented two panels of experts, which included researchers, former government officials, relatives of the victims, and lawyers representing the families.

Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the Department of Transportation and author of Flying Blind, Flying Safe spoke as a lawyer representing 32 passengers' families from the hijacked planes of Sept.11. The government is using a special fund "to silence the families of the victims," she said. Acceptance of the government compensation requires signing a no-fault agreement preventing the family from joining any future lawsuits.

The fund, which was established by Congress, is "unlimited" and although there are more than 3,000 victims from 9-11, only 10 families have received compensation, Schiavo told AFP. The amount of compensation should be about $1.6 million per family although only one family received that amount, she said.

"We knew something was afoot," Schiavo said as she described numerous specific warnings of Middle Eastern terrorist threats against civilian aircraft received by the government and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the months before September 2001.

Schiavo recalled the simultaneous hijacking and blowing up of four planes in Jordan by a group known as Islamic Jihad on sept. 12, 1970.

Schiavo presented a statistical analysis of the number of hijackings since 1972 showing that there had been 682 planes hijacked during the past 30 years. She is preparing a lawsuit to bring against the FAA and the airlines for failing to provide the security required in the face of repeated and specific warnings of precisely such a hijacking event.

"There are a lot of people who should have known," said Lorna Brett of the Nolan Law Group, which is representing 9-11 families from the hijacked United Airlines planes. "It's about accountability."

The lack of an independent non-partisan investigative commission means that it falls upon journalists to investigate the questions surrounding the attacks.

"It's the most patriotic thing we can do to demand answers to these unanswered questions," Brett said.

One such investigative journalist, Michael Ruppert, spoke of the prior warnings from various foreign intelligence agencies to President Bush. Russian president Vladimir Putin warned Bush of such an attack weeks before Sept.11, according to Ruppert. Claims of ignorance of these warnings by officials of the Bush administration are "absolutely false," Ruppert said.

Tom Flocco, and investigative journalist who has written extensively about the unusual insider trading prior to 9-11, raised questions about the real-time monitoring of trading by the CIA and other intelligence agencies around the world.

Flocco discussed the unusual trades placed by a company tied to Buzzy Krongaard, the executive director of the CIA.

He said that Enron had 20 active CIA agents on its payroll before its demise.

Flocco added that the anti-anthrax drug Cipro was made available at the white House on Sept.11, before any anthrax incident occurred.

A 20-year veteran of the foreign service, J. Michael Springmann, described the strange events that he noticed during his two years spent in the visa section of the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 alleged terrorists obtained their U.S. visas at the consulate in Jeddah, according to Springmann.

He recalled having repeatedly turned down visa requests from suspicious individuals only to see his denials inexplicably reversed by highly-placed officials from the CIA claiming "national security" reasons.

The link between weaknesses in the immigration system and terrorism was discussed by Dr. Steve Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.

Camarota pointed to "sloppy administration," lax standards, and lack of enforcement as contributing factors which make "life a lot easier for terrorists." Of 48 suspected al Qaeda terrorists arrested inside the United states, 22 had violated immigration laws prior to 9-11, Camarota told AFP.

VICTIMS RALLY

On June 11, 300 relatives of victims of Sept.11 rallied in front of the Capitol in Washington to demand an independent non-partisan investigation. The rally was organized by three organizations of victims' relatives and The Skyscraper Safety Campaign.

Several members of Congress including House Minority leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) Addressed the rally, the first of its kind in Washington, in support of the families' demand for an independent commission.

The organizations say that only an independent commission can conduct a proper and comprehensive investigation :free from political pressure." The relatives want an independent commission to examine the role of Congress and to complement any congressional investigations.

AFP asked Gephardt why it had taken nine months to call for an independent and non-partisan investigation of the terrorist attack and if he agreed that the wholesale of destruction of the evidence from the World Trade Center would hinder any future investigation.

Gephardt said he was optimistic that Congress would commission an investigation before next Sept.11.

Many Americans remain unaware of the questions surrounding the attacks and the reluctance of Congress and the administration to commission an independent investigation.

MEDIA IGNORES QUESTIONS

The mass media has done little to bring these issues to the attention of the Americans.

Despite the fact that the two 9-11 events were unprecedented and of great national and Historical importance, the cable network C-SPAN failed to cover either of them.

Terry Murphy, vice president for programming at C-SPAN and head of the editorial board, told AFP that he was responsible for the decision not to cover the 9-11 press conference or rally.

While C-SPAN had considered covering the events and can field more than 10 crews in Washington, Murphy said the network ‘can't do it all"{ with its "limited resources."

Murphy said his decision not to cover the events was made "totally independent" of any political pressure and that he did not regret it.

AFP asked Robin Scullin, C-SPAN's media relations spokesperson, if the network considered the concerns of the families of the "seminal event"{ behind the war of terrorism to be less newsworthy than the other events the network had covered on June 10 and 11.

Scullin said that considering the attacks of Sept.11 as the "seminal event" was an opinion and abruptly terminated the call.
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

Remote Control Rodent ‘Ratbots' Pass First Tests  

A woman standing on a table, clutching a broom and screaming, "it's a rat!" has become a cliché image in our society. But what if that live rat was directed via remote control like something out of a bad science fiction movie?

By Mike Finch

Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn N.Y., have developed technology that allows them to control a rat's actions from up to 600 yards away with implants placed in its brain.

Rats can be made to run, jump or climb, following instructions they receive by radio from a laptop computer. Clacking keys on a computer send these "ratbots" climbing trees, winding through mazes, or searching through building rubble.

The remote control rats look like school children, wearing small backpacks that house microprocessor-based remote-controlled stimulators. Wires connect the backpack to tiny probes that have been placed into areas of the rat's brain that are responsible for reward and areas that process signals from their whiskers. The rats are controlled by manipulating these two areas of the brain.

Remote-control rats are weird enough. But even stranger is the possibility that the technology could eventually find its way into humans.

"Our discovery grew out of ongoing research into the development of thought-controlled prosthetic devices for spinal chord injury," said John K. Chapin, Ph.D., research partner of Sanjiv Talwar, M.D., Ph.D.

The brain implants have already enabled rats to move robotic arms by thought alone.

With testing being done on primates, some worry that this technology could eventually be used to control humans.

"Could it be used, Big Brother-style, to control human behavior, consumer spending, or even worker productivity?" asked the Humane Society in a recent article.

"What if some future implant, billed as a medical miracle, was also secretly encoded to direct thought, getting a person to think like big Brother, or to follow the orders of Mephistopheles?" asked The Boston Globe in a recent editorial. "What if Madison Avenue got a piece of the supposed beneficial chip to direct the consumer to buy the expensive spread or the new cereal?"

The research is being funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects agency, an experimental subdivision of the U.S. Military.

Right now, researchers hope this technology could assist in "search and rescue" efforts by way of remote rats to find humans in rubble, identify land mines and other critical uses, though outsiders worry that these rates could be used for intelligence purposes, or even to carry explosives into restricted areas.

The rats would be much more adept at navigating over rough terrain than robots, and could navigate through chaotic situations with ease.

"The rat has rather sophisticated navigational skills," said Dr. Chapin, "It makes sense to make good use of the animal's abilities."

"A search-and-rescue dog costs $60,000 dollars a year to maintain and you cannot use them in very tight spaces," said Dr. Chapin, "not could you use a dog to discover land mines, since the weight of the animal would detonate the explosive. A rat, however, being small and light could sit on the mine without exploding it, making it possible to identify its location and dispose of it safely."

This kind of experimentation is not alone. Miguel Necolelis of Duke University is conducting collaborative studies with monkeys by putting implants in their brains that allow them to control robotic arms. Also, Yale physiologist Jose Delgado partially controlled a bull by way of a brain implant. And Northwestern University researchers made a two-wheeled robot that was partially controlled by a lamprey eel brain.
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

Israel Facing Still More War Crimes Accusations  

A panel of experts on the Geneva Convention had words of caution for the United States in the wake of 9-11, but Israel was directly accused of war crimes.

By the Staff of American Free Press

A panel of experts assembled in Washington June 12 to discuss the "war on terrorism" and whether the United states was acting in accord with the Geneva Conventions and protocols.

They had words of caution for the United states but directly accused Israel of committing war crimes against Palestinians.

Serge Duss, director of public policy and government relations at World Vision, noted that civilians accounted for 90 percent of the casualties in the U.S.-led Bosnia war then said two nations were involved in violations of international law: Sudan and Israel.

He charged Israel with oppressing Palestinians in occupied Gaza and West Bank. In the Palestinians' uprising against occupying forces, Israel harassed "clearly marked" aid vehicles in the West Bank and Gaza, causing hours of delays, he said. Trucks bearing aid were stopped, reloaded into trucks assigned by Israel only as a means adding to the delays, he said.

"We know the U.S. government made mistakes," said Ken Hurwitz of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. "Most of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are innocents. They were not caught on the battlefield but were turned over by worlords for bounty money."
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

America First Party to Hold Meeting In Orlando, Florida  

It will be a historic moment in politics when the America First Party holds its first national convention.

By The Staff of America Free Press

The new America First Party will hold its first national convention Aug. 8-11 at the Renaissance Orlando-Airport Hotel in Orlando, Fla.

"We look forward to hosting the convention and note that the America First Party is staying true to its principles in selection an American-owned Hotel," said Roger Simmermaker, chairman of the recently disaffiliated Reform Party of Florida.

A new affiliate, Texas, was recognized at the America First Party's National committee meeting June 1 in Boulder, Colo.

"The time has come to take the government away from the corrupt forces and restore it to its founding principles," said George Panghorn, chairman of the America First Party of Texas. "The other parties will never get it done."

Texas was one of the original nine states to leave the Reform Party April 15. Since then three more states have left the Reform Party: Florida, Michigan and Ohio. The Reform parties of Alaska and Wyoming have dissolved.

"We expect a good number of additional states to come on line before the national convention," said Dan Charles, interim chairman/treasurer of the America First Party, which is based in Boulder.

"The response we have received over the past few weeks has exceeded all expectations," Charles said. "The number of Americans committed to our principles, which emphasize protecting our sovereignty and borders, restoring our economic independence, and revitalizing our Constitution...have over whelmed our volunteers."

The America First Party has opened a toll-free number: 1-866-SOS-USA1.
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

Whole Body Health

Adult Diabetes Showing Up In Kids  

Today's sedentary lifestyle is behind a frightening syndrome that has crossed the generational divide.

By Tom Valentine

A disturbing development in the pandemic of type II diabetes has occurred. In England, children ages 13-15 have been diagnosed with the condition. Medical textbooks say the type II condition is usually found in persons aged 40 and older. Standard treatment is diet and exercise with some drugs prescribed.

The condition, caused primarily by "junk food" and lethargic-television, video games, automobile transport-lifestyle, leads to a variety of hear problems, kidney failure, liver failure and other body systems failure.

American Free Press and its predecessor has been at the vanguard in telling readers about the widespread nature of this disease condition, which is also called Syndrome X, for the past several years.

We are sad to report that the inevitable has happened - the junk food, supermarket culture, called "couch-potato" culture in the British press, creates childhood obesity which results in children getting a condition usually reserved for much older adults.

British investigators described three boys and one girl, all considerably overweight, who were referred to treatment centers at the Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol early this year.

The diagnosis that these children suffered from diabetes provides "one of the starkest warnings yet abut the effects of the couch-potato lifestyle on the nation's health.

Britain has the third highest rate of increase in obesity levels in the world, rapidly catching up with the epidemic situation in the United States, according to media reports.

According to the investigators three out of five British adults are obese at a level which threatens their health. The problem is further enhanced by the numbers of children and even babies under the age of four with weight problems. One in every 10 children under age four is said to be obese.

Can any of us here in the United states imagine that our condition is actually worse?

The Bristol doctors pointed out that the children are being diagnosed with type II diabetes up to 30 years earlier than has normally been accepted. One may wonder why even 30 years later such a thing is "accepted."

What appears to worry the authorities the most about this development was published in the journal Archives Disease Children 2002, when the researchers were quoted as saying:

"The increasing incidence of childhood obesity in the UK and the inevitable rise in type II diabetes from an early age is likely to have a major long-term impact on health-care systems in the UK."

Socialized medicine is already in economic trouble and this costly condition that can be readily prevented with quality food and diet is certainly going to help break the bank.
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

Whole Body Health

FDA Undermines Sick, Sweetens Drug Makers' Profits  

A safe and effective drug for diabetes used throughout Europe for the past 30 years was held at bay for decades by the FDA, while the federal agency allowed other dangerous drugs to be foisted on Americans.

By Mike Finch

Glucophage, a commonly prescribed medication for type II diabetes, is currently available on the American market. But thanks to the FDA, the breakthrough treatment was introduced 30 years later than in Europe and currently costs nearly eight times what it would across the Atlantic.

An estimated 17 million Americans suffer from diabetes and 210,000 people die from the disease every year. This chronic illness has no cure, but many treatments have been developed that allow people who have diabetes to manage their symptoms.

Diabetes causes a person's body not to produce or properly use insulin, the hormone responsible for converting sugar and starches into usable energy.

Type II diabetes is characterized by resistance to insulin on the cellular level.

Discovered in 1929 and then prescribed in Europe in the 1960s, Glucophage, or metformin hydrochloride, is an extremely effective treatment for type II diabetes because it enhances cell sensitivity to the effects of insulin. The medicine also decreases the absorption of sugar by the intestines and reduces the amount of glucose produced by the liver.

Glucophage underwent clinical testing in the 1950s and was found to be a safe and effective way of treating type II diabetes.

In the 1960s Europeans began using the drug successfully, but the FDA had deemed that the drug was "toxic," and banned its use.

However, after 30 years of successful use in Europe, the FDA finally gave in to the overwhelming proof that Glucophage was not a toxic drug and, in 1994, allowed it on to the American market.

No one knows how many Americans died because they were denied access to the drug during that 30 year period.

Moreover, the FDA's denial of the positive effects of Glucophage has also affected the price of the drug.

A one-month supply of Glucophage currently costs around $32 in the United states. In other countries, Glucophage, often sold under the name Metformin, can cost as little as $4 per month. Across the border in Canada, Glucophage costs around one-sixth of what you pay in the United States.

Brystol-Meyers Squibb (BMS) has had a monopoly on Glucophage in the United States under the FDA's rule that no generic brands can be sold for seven years after a new drug is introduced.

In 2000, BMS made $1.7 billion on Glucophage. In 1999, the pharmaceutical company made $1.3 billion. Only nine drugs were more lucrative in the year 2000.

The drug giant aggressively lobbied the government in an effort to extend its very lucrative monopoly by stating that they had done new testing for children with the drug, and therefore were entitled to a lengthened domestic monopoly.

The FDA did not extend the monopoly.

Since then, other companies have begun manufacturing the treatment.

On Jan.25, Ivax Pharmaceuticals received final Fda approval to market Metaformin (Glucophage), and on Jan.24, Watson Pharmaceuticals also received approval.

After 40 years of waiting for the FDA, the American public will finally have a chance to buy Glucophage at a reasonable price, say analysts.

DEADLY DRUGS

Every year over 100,000 Americans die because of drugs the FDA has approved, and yet people must wait for potentially life saving drugs that are already available overseas.

Rezulin, a medication for type II diabetes, was "fast tracked" through the FDA in an abbreviated version of the approval process.

Several FDA scientists objected to the approval of the drug, but it was approved in spite of the dissent.

In 1997, the drug went on the American market and, within the first year, at least one person died as a result of taking Rezulin.

England banned the use of the drug that year, but the FDA allowed the drug to stay on the market with a stronger warning label.

Many sought to ban Rezulin, but drug manufacturer Warner-Lambert successfully fought to keep the drug on the market.

It is estimated that Warner-Lambert made $1.8 billion in sales, with several hundred thousand people taking the new medication before it was banned in 2000.

Depending on reports, from 61 to 391 people died as a result of Rezulin.
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

Whole Body Health

Common Weed Killer Fouls Frogs, Signals Problems for Humans  

A new study reports that toxic herbicides disrupting amphibians' reproductive cycles could mean disaster for humans as well.

By the Staff of Whole Body Health

Scientific evidence for endocrine disrupting chemical pesticides in our food has been circulating for more than a decade, yet the alleged watchdogs from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continue to mollycoddle giant chemical companies.

Now, a report on a new study published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of April 16 says that the pervasive herbicide, Atrazine, is disrupting the endocrine system of frogs at concentrations as low as 0.1 parts per billion, reports the April 18 issue of the journal Nature.

Throughout the United States, Atrazine residue can be found at more than 50 parts per billion. However, EPA limits set the toxic chemical in drinking water to three parts per billion.

Atrazine is used on millions of lawns to keep weeds under control. But lawn care is not even counted when the Department of Agriculture reports that 27,000 tons of the plant poison is used for corn, sorghum and sugar crops each year.

Atrazine is sold and used in 80 other nations of the world, but it has been banned in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.

According to Nature:

Low levels of the most widely used herbicide in the United states has been found to disrupt the sexual development of frogs. The findings will heighten the concerns about the persistence of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment - and throws the spotlight on another potential factor involved in the global decline of amphibian populations.

Apparently amphibians, especially frogs, are acting like the coal mine canaries, which were traditionally used to detect dangerous levels of gas for miners. When the canary died, the miners got out of there.

Children and golfers play on Atrazine-laden greens every day. While the human is nothing like a frog, the suspected mechanism that the chemical in Atrazine residue uses to disrupt a frog's endocrine system would also disrupt human endocrine systems.

Dr. Tyrone Hayes, University of California, Berkeley, the lead researcher, said that Atrazine "was obviously affecting frogs" and he "suspected the herbicide chemical boosted production of an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of testosterone into estrogen."

Previous studies have "suggested" that chemicals in Atrazine serve as an endocrine disruptor, but the industry defense stonewalled the issue.

The primary defense by industry was that the "doses were too low" in the environment. Now, however, even the extremely low doses have proven to be disruptive.

Where do we go from here?

The EPA has been "studying" the issue for years but no action is planned.
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American Free Press June 24, 2002

Whole Body Health

God Is Not Dead Says, Science  

The news is in: God is not Dead, say some scientists. The healing power of the mind sometimes defies rational explanation. But God-Killers keep trying.

By Jack Phillips

At the annual meeting of the Ozark Research Institute (ORI) April 27, Larry Dossey, M.D., told members gathered at the Mount Sequoyah Methodist Retreat Center in Fayetteville, Ark., that gold and possibly platinum standards had been used to obtain proof of the efficacy of long distance psychic healing. The modality used in the studies discussed by Dr. Dossey was prayer.

Many different organized religions and even groups without religious affiliation have been involved in these studies. Positive results were obtained by many different groups and no single religion appears to have a monopoly on the power of prayer.

That long distance psychic healing works was not news to the 3,000 members from 13 different countries which make up ORI. The group has been gathering data on "miraculous cures" since December 1992 when it was chartered by the state of Arkansas to study the powers of the mind. The group's president, Harold McCoy, is a retired military intelligence officer who is now an ordained minister.

One of the first researchers to investigate links between cancer and the mind was Lawrence LeShan who wrote a seminal book on distance healing, The Medium, The Mystic, and the Physicist, which was published in 1996.

Bernard Grad of McGill University, Montreal, Canada showed that thoughts and intentions affect living things in medically significant ways such as the healing of wounds and the growth of tumors.

Grad also proved that changes observed were not due to the placebo effect by experiments on seeds, plants and mice which could not be expected to be susceptible to suggestion.

The International Journal of Parapsychology, in its third issue for 1961, contains an article which Grad wrote with collaborators R.J. Cadoret and G.I. Paul from the University of Manitoba, titled: "The Influence of an Unorthodox Method of Treatment of Wound Healing in Mice.

In December 1996 a conference on Intercessory Prayer and Distant Healing: Clinical and Laboratory Research" was held at Harvard University to report on and discuss experiments designed to test whether or not individuals could mentally heal distant persons who were unaware of the intervention.

The Harvard meeting was convened by Marylin Schlitz, the research director of the Institute of Noetic Science, which had been founded by Edgar Mitchell, the Apollo 14 astronaut who had walked on the moon.

Mitchell himself conducted a thought transmission experiment from his spacecraft using a table of random numbers and so-called "Zener" symbols made popular by Dr. J.B. Rhine of Duke University.

Mitchell reported that the results obtained were significantly better than could be expected by chance.

It is an accepted fact that expectations and positive thinking of a patient can alter perception of pain and response to medications beyond the placebo effect. But expectations and attitude of the care giver may also play an important therapeutic role.

Studies of brain wave behavior during psychic healing also indicate that the healee's brain waves are affected by the healer.

Dr. Valerie V. Hunt's book, Infinite Mind, contains reproductions of electroencephalograms which illustrate this point. Electroencephalograms are weak electrical signals obtained from electrodes placed on a person's head that signal the state of brain cell activity. They were obtained at her Energy Fields Laboratory at the University of California.

Although limited in scope at this time, ORI's research indicates that a healer using visualization techniques has brain wave energy distributed across all levels of normal activity with greatest concentration in low frequencies corresponding to the sleeping state. Thus the healer's brain appears to be functioning in the alpha, beta, gamma and delta modes simultaneously.

This writer, personally, knows a woman who was discharged from Georgetown University Hospital with an inoperable torn heart valve in 1995. She is, however, still alive and her present physician fins the organ healed.

Two members of ORI worked on her remotely soon after her discharge from Georgetown. Three dowsers were able to obtain indications of positive changes in the condition of her heart during the two periods of psychic healing.

Evidently there are some things which still defy rational scientific explanation. Perhaps, after all, the reports of God's death are gross exaggerations.
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