October 7, 2002
October 14, 2002
October 21, 2002
October 28, 2002
Whole Body Health
A federal agency that, over the years, has been granted unprecedented powers in the event of a national emergency, is now making plans to move millions of Americans in the event of a biological, chemical or nuclear attack.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the little known federal bureaucracy tasked with running the country in the event of a war or declaration of martial law, is preparing methods to rapidly "relocate" hundreds of thousands—even millions—of Americans from cities that may come under attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
It is known within FEMA as Standby Technical Assistance for Disaster Related Operations. The agency announced June 19 it was receiving bids of $300 million for a five-year contract to prepare preliminary plans to create temporary housing for hundreds of thousands of Americans who would be moved in the event of "multiple mass destruction attacks" on U.S. cities.
This was followed up with a meeting at the Department of Education in Washington July 10, when about 100 people, including FEMA officials and representatives of firms interested in placing the bids, met to discuss details of the "standby" program, reported News Max.com, a news web site.
FEMA may be taking its cue from a smaller program that is already planned by Israel in the event it is attacked with weapons of mass destruction from Iraq.
Ramat City, adjacent to Tel Aviv, is one of the cities making plans to evacuate citizens.
Ramat City was struck by SCUD missiles during the 1991 Gulf War and plans are underway to establish a tent city in southern Israel, where large numbers of the city's residents could be relocated.
At the July 10 meeting, FEMA officials made it clear that the purpose of the relocation "standby" plan was to prepare for potential attacks.
The bids are being sought from major American real estate management and engineering firms. FEMA plans to select three firms in the near future to handle the logistics for the new temporary cities.
According to the NewsMax.com report, FEMA wants to hire the contractors by next January.
FEMA has made no effort to conceal the fact that the proposal is the largest undertaking in its history, is a "crash program" and is part of a massive plan to prepare America for retaliation when President Bush strikes Iraq.
Through a series of presidential executive orders (EOs) issued by presidents going back to at least John Kennedy, FEMA has amassed the power to virtually take over the running of the nation in the event that martial law is declared.
Under established EOs, FEMA would actually have the power to replace the authority of the president and Congress during such an event.
During recent hurricanes along the East Coast, FEMA tested mass movements of people when it ordered thousands of Americans to leave their homes and travel to safer ground out of the path of the storms.
Previous presidents have signed individual EOs granting FEMA specific powers to control the distribution of food and fuel, the traffic on American railways and inland waterways and air travel. It also now has the authority to detain countless Americans.
FEMA would play a key role in the projected efforts from the
new Homeland Security Act being ram-rodded through the Congress
by the Bush administration, which gives the government extraordinary
new powers that drastically curtail civil rights under the Constitution.
|Top|
While Rev. Jerry Falwell and Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) try to convince Americans that Christians are united in supporting the impending invasion of Iraq, a group of top Christians, including "evangelicals," recently announced their opposition to waging an aggressive war against the Middle East country.
Religious leaders across the nation in September signed a letter to President Bush stating that they are against pre-emptive unilateral action against Iraq.
"The pre-emptive use of military force by the United States to deal with proliferation problems, as serious as they may be, establishes a dangerous precedent, particularly for other nations that feel threatened by their neighbors," the leaders wrote. "Furthermore, unilaterally overthrowing enemy governments heightens concern in other countries about American respect for their integrity as nations, as well as for the international law."
The letter was signed by 48 leaders of evangelical and denominational groups. Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed church, Mennonite, Baptist and United Church of Christ leaders were among the signatories.
Of the 48 leaders, 27 were either the presidents of their organizations or the executive directors.
The leaders presented five reasons why America should not attack Iraq at this time.
"We oppose on moral grounds," begins the first reason for opposition to launching an attack.
The leaders detailed the suffering of the Iraqi people, stating that military action against Iraq would simply hurt the innocent civilians of Iraq more.
Their second reason was that an attack would be "detrimental to U.S. interests...Most governments in Europe and the Middle East resist supporting military action."
See this week's Spotlight on Congress" on page 8 for more details.
The next item presented the danger of war in a region already on the verge of chaos: "U.S. military action at this time has great potential to further destabilize the region.
The final item states: "Rather than attacking Iraq, we urge that your priority in the Middle East be an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire and peace settlement.
"As Christian religious leaders responsible for millions of U.S. citizens we expect our government to reflect the morals and values we hold dear - pursuing peace, not war; working with the community of nations, not overthrowing governments by force, respecting international law and treaties while holding in high regard all human life," they said.
During a conference in Washington Sept. 25, a broad spectrum of Christians, including Catholics, Protestants and "evangelicals" announced their opposition.
Rev. Cheryl Sanders, professor of Christian ethics at Howard University Divinity School in Washington, said the administration applies the term "evil" to Iraq as a substitute for analysis.
Dr. Sanders privately told American Free Press that the coming war was about Big Oil, not a safer world.
"Absolutely,' she replied when asked. "If it were
not for oil, we would not be having this dialogue.
|Top|
While the U.S. government and media remain focused on alleged Iraqi violations of UN resolutions, Israel flagrantly defies a host of resolutions going back to 1967.
When the Israeli military exploded and bulldozed the building of the Palestinian government compound in Ramallah it demonstrated its contempt for UN Security Council resolutions. While Israel's egregious violations of resolutions are routinely ignored by the U.S. government and controlled media, other UN delegations ask if Israel's "total defiance of the rules of ethics and civilized human behavior" represents a "new kind of international law."
The Israeli army re-entered the Palestinian government compound in the occupied city of Ramallah and began to explode buildings on Sept. 20.
It marked the third time in six months that Israeli tanks and bulldozers had broken into the compound destroying buildings. A new Security Council resolution demanded an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, which Israel said it would defy.
The Israelis continue to defy two recent U.S.-sponsored resolutions without a word of protest from the White House. The United states drafted Resolution 1402 of March 30, which specifically "calls for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah."
On March 12, the U.S. sponsored Resolution 1397, which "demands immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction." Israel has flouted this, also.
AFP asked Robert Wood, a spokesman for the State Department's office at the UN in New York, how the United States squared the Israeli demolition of the Palestinian compound with the U.S.-sponsored resolutions. He said he was not familiar with the text of the resolutions. When AFP provided the text, Wood refused to come to the phone.
The UN's Permanent Observer for Palestine, Nasser Al-Kidwa, requested on Sept. 20 that the UN meet "to consider the continued escalation of the Israeli military aggressions against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority in total disregard of Council resolutions."
As the council convened on Sept. 23 to debate the resolution, the Israeli military exploded and flattened all the buildings in the compound except for the one on which Yasir Arafat lives and works. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, reportedly said, "Let him sweat, the dog."
On Sept. 24, the security Council demanded that Israel immediately cease measures in and around Ramallah, "including the destruction of Palestinian civilian and security infrastructure." Resolution 1435 was adopted by a vote of 14-0 with one abstention - the United States.
UN resolutions pertaining to Israel routinely re-affirm an important Security Council resolution from 1967, 242, which calls for "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" and "a just settlement of the refugee problem."
Resolution 242 was adopted, Nov. 22, 1967, and addresses the "Six Day War" of June in which Israel conquered Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.
Bush said on sept. 25 that the UN must "be willing to uphold UN resolutions" to be effective," but the U.S. government ignores the fact that Israel continues to flaunt its defiance of a host of resolutions. Bush said that the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein "must be laughing when he hears about UN resolutions."
Yet is was the Israeli Consul General in Hew York, Alon Pinkas, who was seen laughing when Bush addressed the United Nations on Sept. 12.
While a spokesperson from the Israeli consul's press department
in New York told AFP that she had "no clue" why the
consul was laughing, might it not have been that Pinkas finds
it amusing how a U.S. double standard allows Israel to get away
with murder?
|Top|
Israeli commando forces are reportedly operating in western
Iraq where
their mission could include creating a provocation to kick-start
a war.
Israeli special forces are already in western Iraq, reportedly pinpointing locations where Iraqi missile launchers may be positioned, according to the Associated Press. While foreign news outlets have reported this explosive story, the controlled U.S. mass media is not talking.
"While politicians and media are discussing the prospect of war with Iraq, the Israelis are taking action," AP wrote. "Israeli special forces are already operating reconnaissance patrols in western Iraq. These operations are carried out secretly by Israel's best-trained commandos, the ‘Sayeret Matkal.' Their mission: to find and identify places used by, or likely to be used by, Iraqi Scud missile-launchers."
Sayeret Matkal is also known as the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit and belongs to the intelligence branch of the Israeli military. The unit was formed in 1957 to carry out top-secret intelligence gathering missions behind enemy lines.
Meir Dagan, the new director of Mossad, Israel's military intelligence agency, made a secret trip to Washington recently to improve military cooperation between the United States and Israel during the planned strike against Iraq, reported Jane's Foreign Report on Sept. 24.
Dagan proposed that Israeli special forces carry out ground operations within Iraq before the main attack, it said.
"Our information is that neither Israel nor the United States have a clue about what, if anything, Saddam Hussein is hiding," Jane's said. "It was this ignorance that persuaded the [Israeli] prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to assign the Sayeret Matkal to a job that is sensitive and dangerous."
Iraq is reported to have a small number of land-to-land missiles with a range of more than 600 miles. It is thought that these are located in the western desert region of Iraq. Deep caves are found in this area and can provide cover for military equipment. From this region, Iraqi missiles could strike at targets in the Gulf and Israel, the Cairo-based Al-Ahram wrote.
During the Gulf War, Iraq's mobile missile-launchers proved highly elusive to aerial reconnaissance. To thwart aerial detection, the Iraqi military used high-fidelity decoys and took full advantage of gullies, culverts, and underpasses in the vast expanse of Iraq's 29,000-square-mile desert.
In January 1991, Iraq deployed Scud missiles aboard mobile launchers and initiated attacks on Israel. Although they inflicted little damage, the Scud attacks threatened to draw Israel into the conflict. U.S. and British special forces were deployed then to search for Scud launchers on the ground.
Jane's said there were only certain locations from where Iraq's remaining Scud missiles could be launched at Israeli targets, given their limited range.
"Matkal's mission is to detect early preparations," Jane's reported. "The Israelis believe the Iraqis have hidden their Scud launchers with great care." Sharon decided to dispatch the elite unit into Iraq, "so as not to take chances," Jane's wrote.
Sharon is reported to have told the United States that he will strike Iraq if Iraq attacks Israel. With Israeli commandos already in Iraq an incident could easily be fabricated in which Iraq appears to attack Israel and thus create an excuse for Israel to retaliate.
If Israel is seen to be conducting military operations in Iraq,
as Jane's
reports, relations with Washington's Arab allies could be in jeopardy
and
anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli sentiments in the entire region could
be inflamed.
Jane's said that Israel had struck a secret agreement with Jordan under which Israel would be permitted to use Jordanian air space, if necessary.
"The Israeli operation was being carried out without the knowledge of the U.S.," the English-language Jerusalem Post wrote, because it "could raise tensions particularly at such a sensitive period, when the U.S. is attempting to garner support for an offensive against Iraq in the Arab world."
The Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth wrote that the Israeli commando infiltration into western Iraq had been "coordinated secretly [with the U.S.] so as not to arouse the ire of Arab countries."
The Jane's report had also been confirmed by American sources, according to the Israeli paper.
Israeli officials refused to comment on the report of Israeli forces in Iraq.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. David Lapan told American Free Press that he could not comment on the report or whether the Pentagon had approved of Israeli commando forces being sent into Iraq.
American and British special forces are reportedly already in western Iraq to prevent Saddam from deploying Scud missile launchers for an attack on Israel, according to London's Daily Telegraph.
The U.S. military and the CIA have also sent reconnaissance troops and units to train opposition forces in the sections of northern Iraq under Kurdish control, military analysts say.
"We are pretty sure that the American and the British have been in northern Iraq at least since April," said Charles Heyman, editor of Jane's World Armies.
"I think there is a pretty good chance that the elite special forces working with the CIA are exploring the battlefield," said retired Rear Adm. Stephen Baker, senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information. "It makes sense to have those folks active now, doing our homework."
U.S. TROOPS IN JORDAN
Some 8,000 U.S. troops are reported to be in Jordan near the border with Iraq, although the Jordanian King Abdullah has said that Jordanian bases will not serve as jumping off points for an assault against Iraq.
An Israeli source, Debka, reported that 4,000 U.S. troops landed at the Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba on Aug. 12. Aqaba is within eyesight of the Israeli town of Eilat.
These troops were officially on a three-week joint exercise
with the Jordanian army and relocated to the northeast Jordanian
desert region bordering on Iraq, Debka wrote.
|Top|
Good news: There are alternatives to starting a bloodbath in the Middle East, some congressmen are arguing.
Two leading congressmen, just back from Iraq, say they have received promises from Saddam Hussein that United Nations inspectors will have "unfettered access" in their search for weapons of mass destruction.
The United States should wait until inspectors have tested Saddam's promise before considering war, Democratic Reps. David Bonior (Mich.) and Jim Mc Dermott (Wash.) told reporters outside the Capitol on Oct. 2.
They and other peacemakers in Congress knew there was no stopping a resolution supporting war. Their strategy, staffers explained, was to limit the killing license as much as possible and prevent the type of mandate President Lyndon Johnson received in 1964.
A crucial issue in striving for a more limited resolution is language in the draft that would allow the president to use military action to "restore international peace and security in the region." The term "region" could allow the president to go to war anywhere in the Middle East, they fear. Unable to block a resolution, they are working hard to limit operations to Iraq.
There are indications that their strategy is enjoying some success, with perhaps 15 senators voting against a war resolution. There could be as many as 45 House dissenters.
Johnson's "Gulf of Tonkin" resolution passed the Senate with only two dissenters: Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) and Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska). It was later learned that the "incident" was a fabrication. But Johnson got his "mandate" and more than 60,000 Americans died.
McDermott noted that Johnson shocked the nation by declining to run for re-election in 1968. But the message is not lost on President Bush, whose father enjoyed poll ratings in the 80-90 percent range be cause of war fever in 1991 and lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.
Asked to respond to charges of "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" or even being a "traitor" for speaking out against war while in Iraq, Bonior said "we both served our country" and invited those who throw such labels about to describe their war records. Dissent is not treason, McDermott said.
Sanctions imposed on Iraq are "horrific," Bonior said. He told of "hundreds of thousands" of children dying from malnourishment and lack of medical care. Many die of leukemia because of exposure to depleted uranium caused by bombings, he said.
McDermott, a physician, rejected claims that depleted uranium is no threat. Not only Iraqis but American soldiers are exposed, he said. McDermott recalled being told that Agent Orange was no problem.
The problem "can be resolved with diplomatic solutions," not war, McDermott said, repeating Saddam's promise of "unfettered access" which should be tested first. "Disarmament can be achieved without war," McDermott said.
Both said the administration flits about on the issue, first making al Queda the priority, then war with Iraq, first making the disarming of Iraq the focus, then shifting to "regime change."
"I think the president would mislead the American people," McDermott had said earlier. The United States is "trying to provoke a war," he said.
A major obstacle is an inclination in Congress to put politics over patriotism. Polls show that an ignorant public—fewer than half of whom read newspapers—favor going to war. So congressman and senators hide their personal opposition and rattle sabers to save their seats.
A crass demonstration of this mentality is seen in a memo circulated by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), obtained by Roll Call, stating:
"Unless we reassure voters of Democrats' reliability on
national security by a strong leadership statement, and unless
congressional consideration of an Iraq [war] resolution is completed
quickly, the chance that we can recapture the House and hold the
Senate will be very substantially diminished."
|Top|
Pressure is mounting on President Bush to do what he should do without being told: order American troops to defend U.S. borders.
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.), flanked
by colleagues from the Immigration Reform Caucus and family members
of a slain victim of illegal immigration, announced that petitions
signed by 30,000 Americans demanding that soldiers patrol the
border have been delivered to President Bush.
"As long as our borders remain undefended, we cannot claim that we are doing everything possible to protect the nation" from terrorism, Tancredo said outside the Capitol on Oct. 8.
"The number of violent encounters along our border is increasing, creating a need for immediate action on the part of our government and the governments of Mexico and Canada," Tancredo said. "It's time to authorize the deployment of military assets on our borders."
Tancredo and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) introduced the family of Kristopher Eggle, a National Park Service ranger who was shot and killed while assisting Border Patrol agents at the Mexican border.
"The death of Kris Eggle is a tragedy that should never have happened," Hoekstra said. "My heart goes out to his family and I commend them for their commitment to improving border security in his memory."
His death "serves to remind us that our borders are a potential weak point that must be addressed, not only to stem the flow of drugs, but for our long-term national security," Hoekstra said. "Congress must work to ensure our borders are secured and that the people we ask to guard them have our support and the resources to do the job."
"We are extremely concerned about the porousness of our northern and southern borders," said Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.). "It is particularly disturbing that Canada and Mexico are still not adequately screening immigrant and cargo traffic in and out of their countries."
"The Mexican-American border is in chaos and is virtually a non-border," said Bob Eggle, retired Army infantry captain and father of Kris Eggle. "That non-border contributed to Kris's death."
"Our son took a bullet that he did not have to if we had secure borders," said Bonnie Eggle.
"The ocean of illegal immigrants provided the concealment for the 9-11 terrorists," said Peter Gadiel, father of another victim of violence on America's southern border, James Gadiel.
In a joint letter to the president, the caucus—of which Tancredo is chairman—called on the administration to use its existing authority to deploy the U.S. military to protect America's borders.
The caucus sent another letter to Bush urging him to direct the FBI and Justice Department, as well as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to cooperate with state and local law enforcement to detain illegal aliens. The letter cited numerous irrational actions by the INS:
• Twenty-five illegal aliens captured in Texas were released by the INS—"paroled" to the United States.
• Sheriff's deputies in Tulsa, Okla., caught 18 illegal aliens being trafficked to New York or Chicago. The INS told the deputies to release them.
• Rogers County, Okla., state troopers caught seven who admitted they were illegally in this country. Again, the INS refused to pick them up and remove them.
• During Memorial Day weekend in New York, local police caught seven Mideastern illegal aliens at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel during a terror alert. The INS "didn't want to be bothered" and refused to take custody of the criminal aliens.
"These incidents and the callous attitude they represent alarm us," the caucus wrote the president. "We trust you share our outrage at such misconduct, which is not only unprofessional and a failure to do one's duty, but is also unpatriotic and a significant contributing factor to our homeland security risk—and this during a time of war."
The caucus call for the president to act on irrational conduct by the INS came a day after the inspector general denounced the agency for shocking inefficiency in administering the Institutional Removal Program, under which illegal aliens in prison for crimes committed here are to be thrown out of the country.
The agency has not even determined the nationwide population of foreign-born inmates, the report said.
Inspector General Glenn Fine said several illegal aliens who were released after serving their time but not deported have committed additional crimes. INS interviews of foreign-born inmates to determine their deportability were "minimal to nonexistent."
Fine estimated the cost of INS bumbling on this one phase of its operations at millions of dollars annually—"staggeringly high."
"We found that many potentially deportable foreign-born inmates passed through county jails virtually undetected," he said.
INS Commissioner James Ziglar has announced that he will leave the agency at the end of the year.
The caucus call for troops to protect America's borders came hours after the president told the nation in a major, prime-time speech that the "war on terrorism" may have to include an invasion of Iraq on the other side of the world.
Elsewhere, Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. (R-Okla.) said that before Border
Patrol special tactical teams can be deployed along the borders,
a union agreement requires that any place the officers are posted
have "suitable restaurants, drug stores and barber shops."
|Top|
Israel's huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction—not Iraq's—poses the most serious threat to peace in the Middle East and endangers global health.
While the controlled U.S. press re mains fixated on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, it ignores the grave danger of the more sophisticated and lethal arsenal of weapons of mass destruction being developed and stored in Israel—with the support of the U.S.
Ten years ago, on Oct. 4, 1992, an Israeli cargo jet carrying three of the four components of the nerve gas Sarin, as well as other hazardous materials, crashed into an apartment building in Holland.
The known facts of the crash of El Al Flight 1862, the worst air disaster in Dutch history, reveal that Holland's government engaged in a "huge cover-up" and lied to its citizens to help conceal Israel's unlawful chemical weapons arsenal and the international network that supports it.
The Israeli cargo plane, a Boeing 747-200F, with three crewmen, one non-paying passenger and 114 tons of freight, left Amsterdam's Schiphol airport at 6:21 p.m. en route to Tel Aviv. Seven minutes later, both starboard engines ripped loose from the wing. The pilot circled back to attempt an emergency landing and crashed into a high-rise apartment complex in Bijlmer, 10 miles east of Schiphol.
While only four people died on the plane, the crash of El Al Flight 1862 became the worst air disaster in Dutch history because it killed scores of people on the ground and destroyed the health of thousands of others by exposing them to the toxic chemicals on the plane. The exact number of dead is still not known.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Dutch government officials lied to the public saying the plane was only transporting flowers and perfume. It took six years before the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad revealed the true contents of the crashed plane and their destination.
"The cargo documents show that the aircraft carried dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) and two other substances needed to make the deadly nerve gas Sarin. The DMPP was destined for the Israeli Institute for Biological Research (IIBR)," the paper reported in October 1998.
Mouin Rabbani, writing in Middle East International, describes the IIBR, located at Nes Zion near Tel Aviv, as "the Israeli military and intelligence community's front organization for the development, testing and production of chemical and biological weapons."
Pierre Heijboer, a senior editor with the Dutch Volkskrant newspaper, lives a mile from Bijlmer and was one of the first reporters on the scene.
"I was in Biafra and Vietnam, but I never saw anything like that crash. It was like looking into a steel smelter," Heijboer said. "The concrete of the flats was glowing red."
Heijboer despises the cover-up: "I just get angry that they lied. It wasn't that the Israelis were flying cargoes of ugly stuff above my head. What angers me is that my government lies to its citizens."
Tapes of phone conversations between El Al and Schiphol Air Traffic Control (SATC) reveal collusion to conceal the plane's contents.
In one tape, recorded minutes after the crash and hidden in a safe for more than six years, an El Al employee tells an SATC employee: "There is poison on board: ammunition and flammable liquids."
The SATC official responded: "We will keep these things under the lid."
Dutch authorities sent workers to clean up the contaminated area without the benefit of protective clothing. Even Holland's Queen Beatrix, despite being a long-time Bilderberg participant, was not informed of the danger when she made a visit to the crash site the next day.
"For the government and authorities of the Netherlands the safety of its own citizens is less important than the security of El Al military cargo planes," Heijboer told AFP.
Heijboer's new exposé on the crash, Doomed Flight, was released Sept. 21, and quickly became a best seller.
Heijboer says 30 eyewitnesses saw Israeli agents in white chemical outfits at the crash scene, sifting through the debris and removing critical evidence. A 1998 Dutch police report says officers on the scene recognized the men in white suits who absconded with evidence as Israeli agents.
"As they came near, I thought I recognized them. They looked just like the young men from the Israeli security service who regularly practice shooting at our police school," one officer said. "I've often said to people: ‘Mossad was there first.'"
Another officer said: "We started to unroll a red and white ribbon to seal off the area. The 10 men ignored this and, when I managed to grab one by his arm, he said, ‘We're from El Al.' Oh well, must be okay then I thought. They must have been in radio contact with the crew. How else could they have gotten here so fast?"
A fireman, Carel Boer, said: "We had to stand aside while people in astronaut-like suits carried away a kind of box. I couldn't see what it was since it was covered with a blanket." The plane's "black box" flight recorder was never recovered, and El Al refused to reveal the cargo manifest.
An estimated 3,000 Dutch residents suffer health problems as a result of the chemical and radioactive poisoning that occurred when El Al 1862 crashed. Today there is growing awareness in Holland of Israel's privileged and unregulated use of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to transport dangerous military cargo, a practice that clearly puts the health of the Dutch people at risk.
"El Al has its own security force at Schiphol," Heijboer told AFP. "But they don't work for El Al—they are all from Shin Bet (Israeli secret service) and are paid by the Israeli embassy. The Israelis run the airport like a little Haifa."
Dutch Attorney General Vrakking testified on Jan. 29, 1999, that the El Al security detachment at Schiphol was a branch of Mossad.
"Schiphol has become a hub for secret weapons transfers," charged Henk van der Belt, an investigator working with the Bijlmer survivors. "Dutch authorities have no jurisdiction over Israeli activities at the airport."
A TV Amsterdam (TVA) report identified Schiphol as one of several European airports that allows El Al to transfer cargo without supervision.
TVA said Belgian politicians now fear that "a disaster like the crash in Holland in 1992 is possible at [Belgium's] Zaaventem. This airport is, like Schiphol, under control by the secret police of Israel."
The Dutch press reported that security officials had been waving Israeli air cargo through Schiphol, El Al's European hub, since the 1950s. "Of course it continues," Heijboer told AFP. "There are rules but there is an exception—El Al is allowed to ignore the rules."
A Dutch Air Guidance Organization employee told a parliamentary hearing that "policy" since 1973 was to keep quiet about all El Al activities. Schiphol workers testified that customs or the Dutch Flight Safety Board never inspected El Al planes.
A parliamentary committee discovered that every Sunday evening a mysterious El Al cargo flight routinely touched down at Schiphol en route from New York to Tel Aviv. These flights did not appear on airport arrival monitors, the cargo was never checked, and the documentation for the flights was processed in a special, unmarked room.
Shipping precursors of chemical weapons, such as those aboard 1862, is a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which the U.S. is party to.
Solkatronic Chemicals of Morrisville, Pa., had sold the DMMP. The chemical is a Schedule 2 precursor for Sarin under the CWC and its export is strictly controlled by the U.S. government. In spite of this, the Department of Commerce repeatedly granted Solkatronic a license to ship DMMP to IIBR.
Spokesmen at Commerce were unable to tell AFP whether such shipments continue.
AFP asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague about Israel's use of Schiphol to transport components for chemical weapons.
Peter Kaiser, spokesman for OPCW, was not familiar with the details of flight 1862 but said that Israel, as a non-member that has signed but not ratified the treaty, was obliged to "respect the convention."
Israel has never admitted producing chemical or biological weapons and, because it is not a member state of the CWC, is not required to divulge what chemical weapons it has or accept inspectors.
However, a member state, such as the United States, is proscribed from providing a non-member state like Israel chemical weapons or precursor chemicals such as DMMP.
The Israeli government was finally compelled to admit that the jet had been carrying 190 liters of DMPP, a crucial component of Sarin.
Sarin, 20 times as lethal as cyanide, kills by crippling the nervous system and was used in a terror attack on the Tokyo underground system that killed six passengers and injured more than 3,000.
In 1992, any revelation that the U.S. was supplying Israel with the components to make chemical weapons was played down, because alleged Iraqi development of chemical weapons has been used for propaganda purposes to justify U.S. aggression against Iraq.
Jan Medema, a chemical weapons inspector from the toxic substances division at the Dutch Defense Research Institute in The Hague, said the quantity of Sarin components on the plane was sufficient to generate more than a quarter of a ton of the deadly nerve gas.
Heijboer told AFP that this was the third known shipment of these chemicals to the IIBR.
The fact that the IIBR was the destination of the cargo indicates to Medema that this shipment was to create a large amount of Sarin.
"We have been trying to think what possible research purposes you would need this compound in such large quantities for," Medema said. "The likelihood has to be that it was for Sarin. Either they had some special plan for an experiment or they needed a quantity of Sarin for some special purpose. This raises many questions."
Uzi Mahnaimi of the Times said that Israeli assault aircraft
crews had been trained to fit an "active chemical or biological
weapon within minutes of receiving the command to attack. The
weapons are manufactured at the Institute for Biological Research
in a suburb of Nes Zion."
|Top|
A war with Iraq could have considerable consequences, which it is doubtful the administration has taken into account.
While pro-Israel neo-conservative "talking head" experts are predicting a quick and easy victory for U.S. forces who could face the Iraqi military in the near future, some analysts point out that American armed forces will prevail but not without a cost.
Air Force and Army Special Operations Command experts who have spoken with American Free Press point out that a war with Iraq could be quite "messy" and costly, beyond what the administration of President George W. Bush wants to tell the American people as it girds for war with the Arab legions of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
While Iraqi armed forces are not all that impressive, it is speculated that there is some quite impressive hardware in their weapons arsenals. It will also be a key factor in the conflict what will happen between Iraq and Israel.
If Saddam decides to strike out at Israel with biological and chemical weapons, there would be no mistake about the fact that the Israelis, particularly under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, will strike back. Israeli forces will likely use nuclear weapons which are already in place in the form of bombs and cruise missiles on Israeli attack jet aircraft, currently ready on the runways of Israeli air bases.
The Iraqi Air Force has 130 attack aircraft, including French-built Mirage F-1s, Russian Su-20s, Su-22s, Su-24s and Su-25s, all of which are warmed with cluster bombs and short-range, air-to-ground missiles.
U.S. and other intelligence sources also note that Saddam has loaded up some of the attack aircraft with biological and chemical weapons for suicide missions against U.S. Military targets and targets in Israel.
"Israel has the power to obliterate Iraq on its own. The problem is not defeating Iraq. The problem is that Israel will drag God knows what other Arab nations into the fray," a retired Air Force intelligence officer told American Free Press.
In addition to the attack aircraft, Iraq has 180 air defense jet fighters, including Russian-built Mig-25s and Mig-29s and some french Mirage F-1s.
According to Military magazine, the Iraqis can load up their suicide bombers or their Russian-designed Scud missiles with "a variety of nasty goo."
The magazine has reported that Saddam is believed to have aflatoxins, botulinum and weaponized anthrax and is believed to be "cranking out the Ebola Virus in a lab outside of Baghdad."
The experts, who spoke with AFP, said it should not be forgotten that Saddam did fire Scud missiles at both U.S. military targets in Saudi Arabia and civilian targets in Israel during the precious Persian Gulf War. These SCUD missiles did not contain any chemical or biological weapons.
Saddam knows that this time around his enemies will not conclude the war without taking him out," he said. "With his back to the wall he is not going to hesitate using anything he has up his sleeve."
Contingency plans not that there is a possibility that Iran, Syria or even Egypt could involve themselves in the war.
The Arab and Muslim countries know very well that the aims of the international plutocrats and Israel transcend Iraq; they want to take over the entire Mideast.
In the case of Iran, many American politicians have already urged a "pre-emptive" strike and aggressive war against the country of some 40 million.
If Iran should enter the war in support of Iraq it could enlarge
the hostilities to an incalculable level, which could even include
nuclear-armed Russia and Pakistan and might also cause fundamentalist
rebellions in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and even Turkey. People who
start wars seldom foresee its end results.
|Top|
The recent bomb blast in Indonesia is another example of "blowback" - or you "reap what you sow."
Although it is not the first example of "blowback," * defined by the CIA as the unintended consequences of American policies, the destruction in Bali, which killed more than 180 people, is the greatest do far.
We say "so far" advisedly, because it can be argued that the attack of Sept. 11, 2001 on the WTC buildings was the first big one.
We would, too, if it were not for the very clear involvement of Israel in 9-11, as any investigation reveals. And if you want substantial proof, read our 50 Unanswered Questions About 9-11.**
But we're getting off the point, which is that - as the great populist thinker Lawrence Dennis said, back in the ‘30s and '40s - there is no way to administer a policy of internationalism correctly because it is the policy itself that is faulty. Yes, he said that internationalism per se - in itself - is faulty.
Perhaps enough Americans will realize this verity after "terrorists" in various countries and climes have done more dirty deeds to us.
It is very clear that the Bali attack was the direct result of the Bushmen's unwarranted carpet bombing of Muslims in Afghanistan.
As this newspaper has said innumerable times, what can America expect from American terrorism but terrorism in return?
The Bush administration has made it clear that it will tolerate no opposition to its policy of world hegemony, and it believes that it has the weapons of mass destruction to implement that stupid policy.
So what are the Bushmen going to do now? Carpet bomb Bali, and kill a few million Indonesians in the hope that they might also kill some "terrorist"?
One of the big lessons to be learned here is that the "terrorists" are smarter than the Bush administration. Well, that's not saying much because no one has ever accused Dubya and his henchmen of genius.
We may not be in the genius category either, but we know enough to mind our own business and not get involved in situations where we aren't wanted.
The one and only correct foreign policy for the United states is exactly what our first president said - make an example of America for other nations but have as little intercourse with them as possible. Call this isolationism it it makes you happy. But name calling is not going to solve the problem.
At the end of WWII, America was the most admired nation in the world. Today it is the most hated, reviled and ridiculed. Does that tell you something?
* Blowback, by Chalmers Roberts (Item #331, soft-cover,
268 pps. $15), can be ordered from TBR Books by calling 1-877-773-9077
or P.O. Box 15877, Washington, D.C. 20003
** 50 Unanswered Questions About 9-11 (1 copy,$5; 6 copies,$10;
40 or more,80¢ each) is available from American Free Press.
|Top|
Much of the milk sold by the dairies in this country is not only pasturized, it is also "stabilized" with toxic substances that the dairy industry - and the stores which sell the processed product - prefer not to mention. When pressed, the industry spokesmen explain that it is to cut down on the amount of bacteria in the milk.
In fact, the stabilizer products, which are poured in the at the dairy, do just that by killing enough bacteria to permit the milk they have processed to remain sellable for 20 days, instead of just 10 if the product has not been "stabilized."
The exact composition of the "stabilizer" product varies from one dairy to another and it would be too long to discuss every variety of those toxic substances in this article.
Enough to know that the chemical liquid that goes into the milk you buy in your store comes in a bottle that carries the Jolly Roger on it - as required by the U.S. law
Why the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and more specifically the Food and Drug Administration, would rather not discuss the matter in public is unclear. How rather not discuss the matter in public is unclear. However, one reason has been presented: the dairy industry's profits are much greater this way.
"Stabilized" milk is easy to detect: when allowed to stand, it soes not become sour, as the pure milk does, but bitter, making plain its poisonous nature.
This has not remained undetected by the medical profession and the following side effects of the processed milk coming out of the dairies: Rheumatoid arthritis, amyotrophic lateral scerosis (Gehrig disease); acne, anemia, gastrointestinal bleeding and arterioscerosis.
Luckily, there are simple remedies: Use almond milk instead of cow's milk.
Almond milk is easy to make, Just dissolve in hot water the almond paste sliced like hard cheese. It is a delicious beverage, which also happens to be a wonderful remedy against high blood pressure and heart disease.
The micronutrients it contain include:
• Pangamic acid, which enables the blood to carry several
times more oxygen;
• Vitamin B-13, which liquifies the blood and enables it
to run much faster through the blood vessels.
Both phenomena lighten the task of the heart and help one to go to sleep much quicker, thanks to the venue of more oxygen to the brain.
In Spain the beverage is called horchata. It is slightly sweetened with honey and given to children "when they were well-behaved during the day," making them fall asleep almost instantly.
Another remedy, if you feel you must have milk, is to get powdered milk from a chandler, say in Vancouver of Halifax, such as they sell to ships.
When mixed with water and allowed to stand, it turns into delightful sour milk.
From this writer's experience during his sailing days, the best kind of such milk comes from Norway, where cows graze on mountain-grown forage, and kelp, rich in rare trace elements, including gold and the other noble metals.
Such powdered milk could be easily obtained by health food
stores around this country or in Canada.
|Top|
A constituent from a common weed tree has been found to benefit those suffering from debilitation cognitive disorders.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are known to suffer a "cognitive decline" in their mental awareness abilities, so it was good news when a clinical trial at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), found that Ginkgo Biloba appears to benefit these patients by slowing the decline significantly.
While the pilot study was small - 23 people - physicians noted that during the six month, double-blind, placebo-controlled study the patients on Ginkgo performed better on the neuropsychological tests.
Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom, M.D., Ph.D. professor of neurosciences at UCSD, headed the study, which was published by the American Academy of Neurology.
Corey-Bloom has called for larger trials to confirm what has been observed.
She said that she was encouraged enough by the results of the pilot study to now recommend 240 mg. A day of the "European quality" extract that was used in the study to her MS patients who have cognitive complaints.
She noted that about half of the 300,000 MS patients in the United States experience cognitive problems, usually with concentration, memory and abstract reasoning.
In some individuals, she added, symptoms of cognitive decline can occur early in the disease, even when other symptoms such as loss of balance or muscle coordination are mild.
It is important to note the quality of the Ginkgo used in the study.
Insist on extracts produced only by reputable European companies with decades of experience and research behind them - companies such as Indena and Madaus for example.
On today's market one can find various grade levels of Ginkgo extract products with costs 10 times lower than the cost of high-quality extract.
But a new wrinkle in the cheating has turned up.
Watch out: Ginkgo extract can be made to appear to have the magic "24/6 ratio" by adding quercetin to the mix. This is an adulteration and bears little resemblance to the proven Ginkgo extracts used in studies like the one at UCSD.
Any supplement company that uses these lower grade substitutes instead of the quality-controlled European products is doing a disservice to not only the consumers, but to the reputation of Ginkgo itself.\
Talk to your local health food store for information on where
you can obtain high-quality Ginkgo for your health or for the
health of loved ones.
|Top|
Has the brouhaha raised in recent years about the dangers of aspartame in artificial sweeteners caused our life-span-regulators to invent a new poison substitute? Or have researchers uncovered yet another previously unknown cause of cancer?
Swedish scientists have discovered that acrylamide, a chemical found in many American products, is carcinogenic. The problem is, however, nobody seems to know how it gets there.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a private watchdog group, several popular brands of snack chips, taco shells, french fries, and breakfast cereals contain some of the highest acrylamide levels. CSPI has called on the Food and Drug Agency to treat acrylamide with greater seriousness.
The FDA has been strangely silent about acrylamide," CSPI Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson said. "It should be advising consumers to avoid or cut back on the most contaminated and least nutritious foods while more testing is done across the food supply. The FDA also should be intensively investigating ways of preventing the formation of this carcinogen."
If the government agency moves at its normal tortoise pace, some health experts have wryly noted, Americans should expect the initial reports to go public by the year 2050.
Meanwhile, fast food french fries showed the highest levels of acrylamide among the foods CSPI had tested. A large order is estimated to contain from 39 to 72 micrograms.
One-ounce portions of Pringles brand potato crisps contain about 25 micrograms.
At 72 micrograms per serving McDonalds french fries measured the highest out of all the tested brands.
• Acrylamide in Foods: Micrograms per Serving
• Water, 8 oz: 012
• Boiled Potatoes, 4 oz: 3
• Ore Ida french fries, (baked), 3 oz: 28
• Wendy's french fries, Biggie, 5.5 oz: 39
• KFC potato wedges, jumbo, 6.2 oz: 52
• Burger King french fries, large, 5.5 oz: 57
The amount of acrylamide in a large order of french fries is at least 300 times more than what the Environmental Protection Agency allows in a glass of water. Acrylamide is sometimes used in water-treatment facilities.
"I estimate that acrylamide causes several thousand cancers per year in Americas," said Clark University research professor Dale Hattis.
Hattis, an expert in risk analysis, based his estimate on standard EPA projections of risks from animal studies and limited sampling of acrylamide levels in Swedish and American foods.
Acrylamide forms as a result of unknown chemical reactions during high-temperature baking or frying. The fact that raw or even boiled potatoes test negative for the chemical proves this.
CSPI has urged the FDA to inform the public of the risks from acrylamide in different foods and to work with industry and academia to help understand how acrylamide is formed and how to prevent its formation.
The cooking and re-cooking of fried foods in the same fry pan or broiler has long been considered suspect by nutritionists and scientists. Even the thoroughly washed iron skillet can continue to contain carcinogens collected from previous use, according to many research tests.
But the biggest offender is the restaurant that uses the same
rancid cooking oil for days or even weeks on end - even reusing
it after washing the pot.
|Top|
The rash of new drugs on the market claiming to treat everything from butterflies in your stomach to sweaty palms at social gatherings leaves sane Americans wondering who's really taking all of these drugs?
Celebrex! Celebrex! Most of us heard the celebratory ad that conjures up images of arthritic seniors throwing away their canes and cavorting around maypoles. However Public citizen Health Research Group's (HRG) Companion supplement to their book, Worst Pills, Best Pills, consigns Celebrex to its "Do not Use" category along with 11 other drugs that were used to fill 92.9 million prescriptions in 2001.
Vioxx takes the cake for pure inanity. Without mentioning any symptoms, listeners are exhorted to "ask your doctor if Vioxx is right for you," suggesting that Vioxx might be good for no matter what ails them. Then there is the "purple pill called Nexium" that might help you with something if you can prevail upon your doctor to prescribe it.
Nexium and Vioxx also made HRG's "Do Not Use" list.
Altace is claimed to reduce the narrator's blood presure but might help you "in a different way."
The message to consumers is that you would probably be better off taking one or more of these drugs regardless of what conditions you might, or might not need help with.
The HRG's position is that extensive animal testing and a clinical trial or two have not shown these new drugs to be any more effective than existing drugs which have not harmed enough people to be taken off the market, thus giving them safety edge over the new drugs with which their companies hope to replace them before their patents run out.
This advertising flurry is likely to begin as soon as a purveyor receives a product approval from the Food and Drug Administration(FDA). The purpose is to expand the conditions for which the drugs might be useful. This amounts to making guinea pigs of the folks who take them for conditions for which they have not received approval.
Some companies encourage doctors to experiment with unsanctioned uses for their drugs in hopes of expanding their market. In any case, the firs patients to take a new drug for any condition are assuming the role of secondary test animals behind participants in the first clinical trial. Earlier animals behind participants in the first clinical trial. Earlier animal trials don't count because they cannot be applied to humans with any certainty.
Another ploy used by drug companies is to get ahead of the game by calling public attention to little-known diseases that might reasonably be treated with a drug they are developing or one already on the market for which they are seeking approval for new uses.
In an article in the July-August 2002 issue of Mother Jones, Brendan I. Koemer describes how Cohn & Wolfe, the publicity firm hired by Smith-Kline-Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline), orchestrated general recognition of the newly created mental illness, social anxiety disorder (SAD), timed to coincide with the release of its new drug Paxil.
This campaign included cobbling together an organization called the Social Anxiety Disorder Coalition, which purported to be a group of people suffering from the disorder but whose phone calls were answered by someone in the offices of Cohn & Wolfe.
One can't help but wonder how many hypochondriacs and people suffering from some other yet-undiagnosed disorder responded to the coalition's ads.
All the recent political hype about the high cost of therapeutic drugs also leads one to wonder how many people are actually benefitting from them and conversly would be better off without them.
We know that adverse reactions are grossly under reported. Estimates range as high as 90 percent. At the same time, the public receives only promotional advertising instead of actual results about drugs that have been helpful. It takes trial and error to learn which drugs interact adversely with the torrent of new drugs being produced.
One encouraging development is the precautionary statement that now usually accompanies the announcement of new drugs and procedures stating that results obtained on animals may not apply to humans.
For an industry and a public imbued with the idea that the
reactions of animals are a reliable indication of human responses,
this is a big step in the right direction because it could lead
to a more general questioning of why we bother to perform expensive
animal tests at all. The answer to that is because the FDA requires
it.
|Top|