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A war of plunder waged by the CIA on much of the world has been called the Third World War because many of its victims are chauvinistically, imperialistically, termed “third world”. Given the magnitude of these CIA atrocities, we may, indeed, consider this panoply of terrorist acts a world war waged by privilege upon those who are less privileged, a war waged by the rich on the poor, a war of aggression by those who have against those who are without.
The official history of the CIA is dull reading. But one would not expect an official document of the US government to reveal the early connections between the CIA and Yale’s notorious Skull and Bones society; one would not expect the US government to reveal the nature of CIA backed coups in Chile to its role in the notorious Bay of Pigs debacle. One would not expect an official document to detail the role played by the CIA in the Iran/Contra affair. One would not expect a sanitized government version of the CIA to reveal how the CIA creates and support death squads that have resulted in a holocaust not seen since the Third Reich.
The passage of the National Security Act in July 1947 legislated the changes in the Executive branch that had been under discussion since 1945. The Act established an independent Air Force, provided for coordination by a committee of service chiefs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and a Secretary of Defense, and created the National Security Council (NSC). The CIG became an independent department and was renamed the Central Intelligence Agency.
Under the Act, the CIA’s mission was only loosely defined, since efforts to thrash out the CIA’s duties in specific terms would have contributed to the tension surrounding the unification of the services. The four general tasks assigned to the Agency were to advise the NSC on matters related to national security; to make recommendations to the NSC regarding the coordination of intelligence activities of the Departments; to correlate and evaluate intelligence and provide for its appropriate dissemination and “to perform such other functions … as the NSC will from time to time direct….”
–CIA Organizational Development, [Adapted from: United States Senate Select Committee on Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence — Book I, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, 26 April 1976, pages 102-118.]
The numbers don’t lie! At the end of a detailed statistical study, the CIA will be found, like a spider in its web, at the bump on a bell curve, at the very nexus of murder, mayhem and heinous acts of terrorism that it has exported across the globe and behind the deaths of US citizens in America.
• CIA atrocities may be categorized.
• Secret Wars
• Assassinations
• Subversions of targeted regimes
• Overt terrorism
• Support of other terrorist organizations
• Exploitation and/or creation of terrorist organizations like ‘al Qaeda’.
• Drug sales, primarily cocaine and its derivative –crack.
• Domestic Assassinations and acts of terrorism
The US government, especially under the GOP regimes of Ronald Reagan, Bush Sr, and now the shrub, have given up the dream of peace. The result is an Orwellian nightmare, a state of perpetual war put into effect by the CIA, the Praetorian Guard to America’s privileged elite. The nightmares –domestic and foreign –are of our own making. Worse than “mutually assured destruction”, this thug government within a government may very well spell the end of humankind, at least the end of those dreams that make life worth living. It was an avoidable choice forced upon us by incompetent, cowardly and corrupt right wing inspired ‘leadership’.
CIA Mission: Prop Up Right Wing Extremists and Elites; Suppress Everyone Else
Since World War II, the peace achieved with this strategy has been illusory. “Peace” has become an Orwellian term for a series of crimes against humanity. The secret wars waged by the CIA hardly penetrates the American consciousness, numbed as we are by a compromised mainstream media. Largely owned by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and other extreme right wing corporations, media, at the highest levels of ownership and management, are complicit. Many conflicts escape the glare of publicity –by design or by incompetence. Some are low-intensity conflicts designed to slip under the radar.
At the very heart of the CIA modus operandi is the network of proxy governments, by nature, oligarchical, naturally allied with America’s privileged classes. The CIA has little trouble convincing this class that its work abroad is ‘patriotic’.
The CIA has naturally allied itself with ruling oligarchs abroad, most notably the Saudi Royals. It was significant that the Saudi royals were provided a ‘royal’ exit from the US when every other aircraft was grounded on 911.
Throughout the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, wealth and income disparities are even greater than those in the US. The oil emirates, only some 0.5 percent of the population, are billionaires. Everyone else, like the poorer and middle income folk in America, share less or none of the wealth that is generated by the production of oil. In Latin America, Cesar Chavez may be a notable exception, hence the Bush administration’s campaign of demonization. Chavez dares to maintain control of his nation’s oil wealth.
In Latin America, Central America, this same system is working. If the people don’t like it, you organize the police into death squads, as we’ve done in many countries, including, conspicuously, El Salvador, and you kill enough of them that they are emasculated. They can’t do anything about it. They are crippled. They are repressed, suppressed and oppressed, and you can get by with this system of milking the countries to your will and to your way.
The [Sen. Frank] Church Committee of 1975 ….. Again this is not a lecture about the Secret Wars of the CIA. That’s a separate lecture. I could give it again, but it takes a full hour in its own right. But you must know how the CIA weaves into this war complex — this war machinery of ours.
–John Stockwell, The CIA and the Gulf War
According to Stockwell, the Church Committee of 1975 discovered over thirteen thousand covert operations since World War II.
Late in 1974, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh revealed that the CIA was not only destabilizing foreign governments, but was also conducting illegal intelligence operations against thousands of American citizens.
On January 27, 1975, an aroused Senate voted overwhelmingly to establish a special 11-member investigating body along the lines of the recently concluded Watergate Committee. Under the chairmanship of Idaho Senator Frank Church, with Texas Senator John Tower as vice-chairman, the select committee was given nine months and 150 staffers to complete its work.
The so-called Church Committee ran into immediate resistance from the Ford administration, concerned about exposing American intelligence operations and suspicious of Church’s budding presidential ambitions.
The committee interviewed 800 individuals, and conducted 250 executive and 21 public hearings. At the first televised hearing, staged in the Senate Caucus Room, Chairman Church dramatically displayed a CIA poison dart gun to highlight the committee’s discovery that the CIA directly violated a presidential order by maintaining stocks of shellfish toxin sufficient to kill thousands.
Church Committee Created
Stockwell maintains that many of these ‘covert operations’ were violent and led to wars. Examples include the propaganda campaign that led directly to the Korean and Viet Nam wars.
…we have so many of them in the public record that it’s obviously very difficult to know exactly how many people died in Vietnam or in Korea or in Nicaragua or in the Congo — but still, working with conservative figures we come up with a minimum figure of SIX MILLION PEOPLE killed in the Secret Wars of the CIA through its de-stabilizations over these past forty years:
One million people killed in the Korean War;
Two million people killed in Vietnam;
One to two million people killed in Cambodia;
Eight hundred thousand people killed in Indonesia;
Fifty thousand people killed in Angola.
Now that began with the war that I organized as Commander of the Angola Task Force, working for a subcommittee of the National Security Council in Washington in 1975 and 1976. Fifty thousand is the number that the Sandinistas and The New York Times pretty much agreed on were killed and wounded in Nicaragua in the ONE BILLION DOLLAR Contra de-stabilization in that country that we effected in the 1980s.
–John Stockwell, The CIA and the Gulf War
Stockwell concludes that throughout what is called the ‘Cold War’ some twenty million people were murdered, ‘…the second or third bloodiest war in all of human history”. Stockwell calls this the Third World War, a war waged by the CIA upon a ‘third world’. Is there any question now about why the US is hated throughout the world? Any questions?
Torture and death squads we do not run in England or Canada or Belgium or Sweden or Switzerland. They are, virtually all of them, done against countries of the Third World where the governments of those countries are not strong enough to prohibit us, to prevent us from brutalizing their people. The six million people killed are people of the Third World: people of the Mitumba Mountains of the Congo, and the jungles of Southeast Asia, and the hills of Nicaragua. And now, of course, the Middle Eastern deserts, in a new wrinkle on this system.
–John Stockwell, The CIA and the Gulf War
By now, the CIA has become expert in waging wars by proxy, encouraging domestic terrorism, subverting elected governments.
CIA operations follow the same recurring script. First, American business interests abroad are threatened by a popular or democratically elected leader. The people support their leader because he intends to conduct land reform, strengthen unions, redistribute wealth, nationalize foreign-owned industry, and regulate business to protect workers, consumers and the environment. So, on behalf of American business, and often with their help, the CIA mobilizes the opposition. First it identifies right-wing groups within the country (usually the military), and offers them a deal: “We’ll put you in power if you maintain a favorable business climate for us.” The Agency then hires, trains and works with them to overthrow the existing government (usually a democracy).
–Steve Kangas, A Timeline of CIA Atrocities
Pakistan is a case in point.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration has been propping up Musharraf’s military regime with $3.6 billion in economic aid from the US and a US-sponsored consortium, not to mention $900 million in military aid and the postponement of overdue debt repayments totaling $13.5 billion. But now the administration is debating whether Musharraf has become too dependent on Islamic extremist political parties in Pakistan to further US interests, and whether he should be pressured to permit the return of two exiled former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who have formed an electoral alliance to challenge him in presidential elections scheduled for next year.
–Pakistan: Friend or Foe? The US shouldn’t prop up President Musharraf’s military regime, Selig S. Harrison
The late Benazir Bhutto revealed the truth before she was brutally gunned down in the streets of Karachi: US policy causes world terrorism. She died before she could tell the rest of the story. See also: Terrorism is worse under GOP regimes.
When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation — namely, life, liberty and justice for all. Dictatorships such as Musharraf’s suppress individual rights and freedoms and empower the most extreme elements of society. Oppressed citizens, unable to represent themselves through other means, often turn to extremism and religious fundamentalism.
Benazir Bhutto, A False Choice for Pakistan
Quoted above was a paragraph from A Timeline of CIA Atrocities by Steve Kangas, whose death under questionable circumstances raises still more questions given his encyclopedic knowledge of the CIA and the antipathy he inspired from Richard Mellon Scaife –the spider at the center of a malicious, right wing web, perhaps the “great right wing conspiracy” referred to by Hilary Clinton at the height of the GOP blow job jihad and scandal.
In 1984 Kangas moved to Germany where he was involved in electronic eavesdropping on Soviet military units in Eastern Europe, analyzing the transcripts and reporting back to NATO. It was at this time he began to question his conservative political beliefs.
Kangas left military intelligence in 1986 and became a student at the University of California in Santa Cruz. This experience moved him further to the left: “There, kindly professors pointed out to me the illogic of defending life by taking it, destroying the planet for a buck and shutting down schools to build more prisons. I am now thoroughly brainwashed to believe that kindness and human decency are positive traits to be emulated and encouraged.”
Kangas ran the Liberalism Resurgent website. This included several articles on the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. One of his online essays, The Origins of the Overclass, attempted to show “why the richest 1 percent have exploded ahead since 1975, with the help of the New Right, Corporate America and, surprisingly, the CIA.” In the essay he argues that Richard Mellon Scaife ran “Forum World Features, a foreign news service used as a front to disseminate CIA propaganda around the world.”
Scaife was very unhappy with the attack made on him and employed private detective, Rex Armistead, to carry out an investigation into Kangas.
It is believed that Kangas was working on a book about CIA covert activities when on 8th February, 1999, he was found dead in the bathroom of the offices of Richard Mellon Scaife, the owner of the Pittsburgh Tribune. He had been shot in the head. Officially he had committed suicide but some people believe he was murdered. In an article in Salon Magazine, (19th March, 1999) Andrew Leonard asked: “Why did the police report say the gun wound was to the left of his head, while the autopsy reported a wound on the roof of his mouth? Why had the hard drive on his computer been erased shortly after his death? Why had Scaife assigned his No. 1 private detective, Rex Armistead, to look into Kangas’ past?”
–Spartacus International; See also: A Timeline of CIA Atrocities
Violence against against America, often called ‘blowback’, is an inevitable reaction to CIA atrocities and interference. Concurrently, the US leads the world in the production of military hardware –tanks, missiles, nuclear weaponry, weapons of mass destruction. More recently, since the regime of Ronald Reagan specifically, the US has begun to trail the world in many other key industrial classification.
Under GOP ’stewardship’, the US is rapidly becoming a third world nation on steroids. As long as this is the case, no one living in the US, no citizen of the US abroad, is truly free. We are all reduced to mere units in a bigger, evil machine. Bush and his servile ilk serve Moloch willingly and visibly at Bohemian Grove. Slavery, however, is forced upon the rest of us, a process assisted ably by a corporate media.
Secrets of the CIA, Parts 1 - 7
The most extreme example of this, of course, is Fox News, best described as political porn. If the Fox outfit did not deflect attention from more insidious designs, it would be laughable, even indulge for the low-class, beer drinking’ entertainment that it might bring to certain demographics. In practice, however, it might as well be a state run organization reduced to merely dramatizing officially sanctioned news.
Should you have doubts about press complicity with CIA/government lawlessness, I urge you to consider, as an example, revelations from Dan Rather about what CBS did to curry favor with the White House; or what can happen to a corporate, fully politicized, fourth estate: the Iraq war. Once called Yellow Journalism, it is now cleverly called “fair and balanced”. In the worst cases, journalism become little more than a CIA ‘front’.
After World War II, these psywar techniques continued. C.D. Jackson, a major figure in US psywar efforts before and after the war, was simultaneously a top executive at Time-Life. Psywar was also used with success during the 1950s by Edward Lansdale, first in the Philippines and then in South Vietnam. In Guatemala, the Dulles brothers worked with their friends at United Fruit, in particular the “father of public relations,” Edward Bernays, who for years had been lobbying the press on behalf of United. When CIA puppets finally took over in 1954, only applause was heard from the media, commencing forty years of CIA-approved horrors in that unlucky country.[2] Bernays’ achievement apparently impressed Allen Dulles, who immediately began using US public relations experts and front groups to promote the image of Ngo Dinh Diem as South Vietnam’s savior.[3]
The combined forces of unaccountable covert operations and corporate public relations, each able to tap massive resources, are sufficient to make the concept of “democracy” obsolete. Fortunately for the rest of us, unchallenged power can lose perspective. With research and analysis — the capacity to see and understand the world around them — entrenched power must constantly anticipate and contain potential threats. But even as power seems more secure, this capacity can be blinded by hubris and isolation.
–Daniel Brandt, NameBase NewsLine, Journalism And The CIA
So it naturally follows that the robber barons and their fourth estate business partners should indeed benefit from the puppet they all worked so vigorously to enthrone.
Corporate Interests merged with State Interests
The corporate interests of America are now almost entirely at one with the political interests of America. The people are either relegated to the outskirts as unimportant bystanders or are caught in the cross-fire as casualties of a hostile corporate takeover by American and even foreign corporations. We “the people” do not matter in a country where corporate profits are tied to state policy, which then uses those same corporations to tell us what is real and what is fabricated, what is true and what is false.
–Laura Alexandrovna, Our Cold Civil War
The CIA is symptomatic of a militarized society, in which the CIA and the military play important roles in a circular self-justification. Much is made of the fact that the military provides opportunities for high school dropouts, the disadvantaged who might not otherwise get an education or a job. What is to be said of a society for which the export of death and destruction becomes essential to its economic well-being?
As Gore Vidal argued persuavesively in his “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire“, the military/industrial complex is a drag on the economy. The Pentagon budget, he argues, is an economic black hole. He sites, as an example, the construction of a ‘tank’! Once built, the economic life of the tank if finished! From that point on, the tank becomes a net drag on the economy. It produces nothing, adds noting! Moreover, the Pentagon soaks up monies that might have been budgeted for truly productive programs like education and training. What is to be said about a society that finds it necessary to send young people off to die in immoral wars in order to get them employed and off the streets?
Eisenhower saw Big Brother’s approach but could not have known how it might have been avoided. The revolution, decades in the making, is like a slow boil. We did not even know when we were “done”, but cooked we are! We are like one of many puzzles that originated in the mind of the ancient Megarian logician, Eubulides of Miletus.
The puzzle is called “sorites”, from the Greek for “heap.” The question is whether or not a single grain of sand is a “heap”? The answer is obviously “no”. But, if we add grains one at a time, the question arises: at what point have we made a “heap”? At what point have we made of the Military/Industrial complex a Frankenstein monster, Moloch, a Big Brother? At what point have we sacrificed our souls to ol’ Scratch? At what point did MIC become the Owl god?How CIA Became ‘Praetorian Guard’ to America’s Fascist Right Wing
While Americans in general opposed involvement in foreign wars, American industrialists were not inclined to turn down a quick buck.
On December 20, 1922 the New York Times reported that automobile manufacturer Henry Ford was financing Adolph Hitler’s nationalist and anti-Semitic movements in Munich. Simultaneously, the Berlin newspaper Berliner Tageblatt appealed to the American Ambassador in Berlin to investigate and halt Henry Ford’s intervention into German domestic affairs. It was reported that Hitler’s foreign backers had furnished a “spacious headquarters” with a “host of highly paid lieutenants and officials.” Henry Ford’s portrait was prominently displayed on the walls of Hitler’s personal office:
–Henry Ford and the Nazis
Opposition to US involvement in World War II is most often linked to Charles Lindbergh.
However, most AFC supporters were neither liberal, nor Socialist. Many simply wanted to stay out of the war. Since many also came from the Midwest, an area never as sensitive to European problems as the east coast, isolationist arguments was soon buttressed by more traditional prejudices against eastern industrial and banking interests. (Almost two-thirds of the Committee’s 850,000 registered supporters would eventually come from the Midwest, mostly from a radius of three hundred miles around Chicago.)[13] Many AFC supporters were certain industry and the banks wanted war for their own profit.[14] Many other supporters were Republicans who flocked to the AFC for partisan political reasons. Still others were covertly pro-German. Some were German-Americans whose sentimental attachments had not been diminished by the crimes of the Nazi regime. Others, whether of German origin or not, were attracted to Hitler’s racism and anti-Semitism.
–David Gordon, America First:the Anti-War Movement, Charles Lindbergh and the Second World War, 1940-1941, History Department, Bronx Community College / CUNY Graduate Center
Ideologically, Bush and Lindbergh have much in common. It is no stretch to imagine this faction welcoming a Hitler victory in Europe, perhaps plotting a Nazi coup d’etat in the US had that happened.
Lindbergh wanted Hitler to destroy the Soviet Union, and was willing to accept Nazi domination of Europe as the price.[118] His protests to the contrary are not convincing.[119] Long before most Committee members, he had come to believe the existence of the Soviet Union had made Hitler’s dictatorship necessary. The German invasion of Russia in June 1941 made the need to keep America out of the war greater than ever. As a result, the efforts of America Firsters to keep America neutral became more frenetic as German successes in Russia mounted, and Roosevelt’s efforts to enter the war increased.
–David Gordon, America First:the Anti-War Movement, Charles Lindbergh and the Second World War, 1940-1941, History Department, Bronx Community College / CUNY Graduate Center
Lindbergh opposed US entry into WWII for the same reasons the Bush family continued to do business with Hitler and the Nazis’ after war had begun. The Bush family were Hitler’s trading partners.
The debate over Prescott Bush’s behavior has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the “Bush/Nazi” connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis’ plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler’s rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
…
Three sets of archives spell out Prescott Bush’s involvement. All three are readily available, thanks to the efficient US archive system and a helpful and dedicated staff at both the Library of Congress in Washington and the National Archives at the University of Maryland.
The first set of files, the Harriman papers in the Library of Congress, show that Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder of a number of companies involved with Thyssen.
The second set of papers, which are now in the National Archives, are contained in vesting order number 248 which records the seizure of the company assets. What these files show is that on October 20 1942 the alien property custodian seized the assets of the UBC, of which Prescott Bush was a director. Having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. By November, the Silesian-American Company, another of Prescott Bush’s ventures, had also been seized. –
British Guardian: How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power
By now it is common knowledge, verified in the public record, that in October of 1942, Prescott Bush was accused of “Running Nazi front groups in the United States”. He was charged under the Trading With the Enemy Act as the US government shut down the operations at New York’s Union Banking Corporation.
Bush’s actions might have been considered high treason. They are interesting by virtue of the myriad connections about what is commonly referred to as the “Bush Crime FAmily” –Avril Harriman, the Rockefellers, Allen Dulles, James Baker III, Gulf Oil, Pennzoil, and Osama bin Laden. The connections are labyrinthine, involving a host of corporate connections, high ranking Nazis, the CIA and Allen Dulles.
Certainly, opposition to the US entry into World War II was not essentially “leftist”. It was, rather, the right wing that overtly supported Hitler’s adventures in Europe. Their opposition was, in fact, an ideological opposition to the US opposition to Hitler. There is a stunning picture of American Nazis giving the Nazi salute as they filed past the coffins of German Nazis killed in the crash of the airship Hindenburg at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Some recent history may be in order. Before their resurgence amid delicious vindication, the Dixie Chicks were vilified by the same crowd that attacked dissenters for daring to compare Bush with Hitler. In Europe, by contrast, the similarities were clear and irrefutable, quite beyond the power of Fox to spin or lie about.
…one woman who is a translator and teacher of German-language literature – a woman who lived in Germany for ten years and has immersed herself in the German culture for twenty years said that among the people in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and among Holocaust survivors in the United States, she hears the parallels between Bush and Hitler and the similarities between the United States now and Germany in the 1930’s all the time. “She writes:”
“It’s almost like this knowledge is a given–a basic assumption shared by everyone I know who is intimately familiar with the Nazi era (that is, 90% of my professional colleagues, clients, collaborators, etc.). It is like the unspoken known. Unspoken, and unspeakable”
–Lonna Gooden VanHorn, America’s Hitler: Part V
The most recent right wing variation about WWII peaceniks had its origins in Bush’s run up to war against Iraq. It goes like this: the allies had already done all the hard work because US “Peaceniks” did not want to go to war. However, it was not “leftist peaceniks” who wanted to keep the US out of the war; it was the fascist right. It was Charles Lindbergh and Prescott Bush, who led domestic opposition to US entry into World War II. Prescott Bush, later charged with treason, and Charles Lindbergh, an avowed fascist, were the most notable figures in a movement that most certainly included Nazis, sympathizers and other admirers of Adolph Hitler
Keeping the US out of WWII had been a ring wing goal when goal when Prescott Bush, the Shrub’s Grandfather, conspired to overthrow the legitimate government of the United States and replace the administration of FDR with a fascist dictatorship.
The conspirators were operating under the umbrella of a front group called the American Liberty League, which included many families that are still household names today, including Heinz, Colgate, Birds Eye and General Motors.
Butler played along with the clique to determine who was involved but later blew the whistle and identified the ringleaders in testimony given to the House Committee on un-American Activities.
However, the Committee refused to even question any of the individuals named by Butler and his testimony was omitted from the record, leading to charges that they were involved in covering the matter up, and the majority of the media blackballed the story.”
– BBC: Bush’s Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup In America
In 1936, William Dodd, the US Ambassador to Germany, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in which he stated:
“A clique of US industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime…. A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations, told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies.
Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there. [ed. treason!] Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions.”
Prescott Bush’s role in helping finance Hitler’s Nazi War Machine is a fact, a matter of record. Clearly, then, the elder Bush was a part of a criminal, treasonous enterprise that sought to overthrow the elected government of the US and impose upon it a fascist dictatorship.
The most tantalising part of the story remains shrouded in mystery: the connection, if any, between Prescott Bush, Thyssen, Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC) and Auschwitz.
Thyssen’s partner in United Steel Works, which had coal mines and steel plants across the region, was Friedrich Flick, another steel magnate who also owned part of I.G. Farben, the powerful German chemical company.
Flick’s plants in Poland made heavy use of slave labour from the concentration camps in Poland. According to a New York Times article published in March 18 1934 Flick owned two-thirds of CSSC while “American interests” held the rest.
–How Bush’s grandfather helped Hitler’s rise to power [See: BBC: Bush’s Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup In America] Also: Bush’s Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup In America. Certainly, this treasonous gang of right wing insurgents, bore little resemblance to the broad-based, often leftist coalition of peace activists who opposed US action in Viet Nam upon broader, philosophical principles.
In 1980, Stockwell said that “if the Soviet Union were to disappear off the face of the map, the United States would quickly seek out new enemies to justify its own military-industrial complex.”
The CIA and Iran/Contra
CIA and Iran/Contra
Addendum:
The Speech that may have motivated the murder of Sen. Paul Wellstone
In the middle of tough re-election campaign, Sen. Paul Wellstone announces his opposition to Bush’s Iraq war resolution. His speech to the US Senate, entitled “Regarding Military Action Against Iraq” was presented on October 3, 2002. By October,
Mr. President, as we turn later today to address our policy on Iraq, I want to take a few minutes to outline my views. The situation remains fluid, and Administration officials are engaged in negotiations at the United Nations over what approach we ought to take, with our allies, to disarm the brutal and dictatorial Iraqi regime.
Our debate here is critical because the administration seeks our authorization now for military action including possibly unprecedented, pre-emptive, go-it-alone military action in Iraq, even as it seeks to garner support from our allies on a tough new UN disarmament resolution.
Let me be clear: Saddam Hussein is a brutal, ruthless dictator who has repressed his own people, attacked his neighbors, and remains an international outlaw. The world would be a much better place if he were gone and the regime in Iraq were changed. That’s why the US should unite the world against Saddam, and not allow him to unite forces against us.
A go-it-alone approach, allowing for a ground invasion of Iraq without the support of other countries, could give Saddam exactly that chance. A pre-emptive go-it-alone strategy towards Iraq is wrong. I oppose it.
I support ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction through unfettered UN inspections, which should begin as soon as possible. Only a broad coalition of nations, united to disarm Saddam, while preserving our war on terror, is likely to succeed. Our primary focus now must be on Iraq’s verifiable disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. This will help maintain international support, and could even eventually result in Saddam’s loss of power.
Of course, I would welcome this, as would most of our allies. The president has helped to direct intense new multilateral pressure on Saddam Hussein to allow UN and International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspectors back in to Iraq to conduct their assessment of Iraq’s chemical, biological and nuclear programs. Saddam clearly has felt that heat, and it suggests what might be accomplished through collective action. I am not naive about this process, and much work lies ahead. But we cannot dismiss out-of-hand Saddam’s late and reluctant commitment to comply with UN disarmament arrangements, or the agreement struck Tuesday to begin to implement it. We should use the gathering international resolve to collectively confront his regime by building on these efforts through a new UN disarmament resolution.
This debate must include all Americans, because our decisions finally must have the informed consent of the American people, who will be asked to bear the costs, in blood and treasure, of our decisions. When the lives of the sons and daughters of average Americans could be risked and lost, their voices must be heard by Congress before we make decisions about military action.
Right now, despite a desire to support our president, I believe many Americans still have profound questions about the wisdom of relying too heavily on a pre-emptive, go-it-alone military approach.
Acting now on our own might be a sign of our power. Acting sensibly and in a measured way in concert with our allies, with bipartisan Congressional support, would be a sign of our strength.
It would also be a sign of the wisdom of our founders, who lodged in the President the power to command US armed forces, and in Congress the power to make war, ensuring a balance of powers between co-equal branches of government. Our Constitution lodges the power to weigh the causes for war and the ability to declare war in Congress precisely to ensure that the American people and those who represent them will be consulted before military action is taken.
The Senate has a grave duty to insist on a full debate that examines for all Americans the full range of options before us, and weighs those options, together with their risks and costs. Such a debate should be energized by the real spirit of September 11: a debate which places a priority not on unanimity, but on the unity of a people determined to forcefully confront and defeat terrorism and to defend our values.
I have supported internationally sanctioned coalition military action in Bosnia, in Kosovo and Serbia, and in Afghanistan. Even so, in recent weeks, I and others including major Republican policymakers like former Bush National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former Bush Secretary of State James Baker, my colleague on the Foreign Relations Committee Senator Hagel, Bush Mideast Envoy General Anthony Zinni and other leading US military leaders have raised serious questions about the approach the Administration is taking on Iraq.
There have been questions raised about the nature and urgency of Iraq’s threat, our response to that threat, and against whom, exactly that threat is directed. What is the best course of action that the US could take to address the threat? What are the economic, political, and national security consequences of possible US or US-British invasion of Iraq? There have been questions raised about the consequences of our actions abroad, including its effects on the continuing war on terrorism, our ongoing efforts to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan, and efforts to calm the intensifying Middle East crisis, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And there have been questions raised about the consequences of our actions here at home.
Of first and greatest concern, obviously, are the questions raised about the possible loss of life that could result from our actions. The United States could send tens of thousands of US troops to fight in Iraq, and in so doing we could risk countless lives, of US soldiers and innocent Iraqis. There are other questions, about the impact of an attack in relation to our economy. The United States could face soaring oil prices and could spend billions both on a war and on a years-long effort to stabilize Iraq after an invasion. The resolution we will be debating today would explicitly authorize a go-it-alone approach.
I believe an international approach is essential. In my view, our policy should have four key elements. First and foremost, the United States must work with our allies to deal with Iraq. We should not go it alone or virtually alone with a pre-emptive ground invasion. Most critically, acting alone could jeopardize our top national security priority, the continuing war on terror. The intense cooperation of other nations in matters related to intelligence-sharing, security, political and economic cooperation, law enforcement and financial surveillance, and other areas has been crucial to this fight, and enables us to wage it effectively with our allies. Over the past year, this cooperation has been our most successful weapon against terror networks. That — not attacking Iraq should be the main focus of our efforts in the war on terror.
We have succeeded in destroying some Al Qaeda forces, but many of its operatives have scattered, their will to kill Americans still strong. The United States has relied heavily on alliances with nearly 100 countries in a coalition against terror for critical intelligence to protect Americans from possible future attacks. Acting with the support of allies, including hopefully Arab and Muslim allies, would limit possible damage to that coalition and our anti-terrorism efforts. But as General Wes Clark, former Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe has recently noted, a premature go-it-alone invasion of Iraq “would super-charge recruiting for Al Qaeda.”
Second, our efforts should have the goal of disarming Saddam Hussein of all of his weapons of mass destruction. Iraq agreed to destroy its weapons of mass destruction at the end of the Persian Gulf War and to verification by the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that this had been done. According to the UN and IAEA, and undisputed by the administration, inspections during the 1990’s neutralized a substantial portion of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and getting inspectors back in to finish the job is critical. The prompt resumption of inspections and disarmament, under an expedited timetable and with unfettered access in Iraq, is imperative.
Third, weapons inspections should be enforceable. If efforts by UN weapons inspectors are tried and fail, a range of potential UN-sanctioned means, including proportionate military force, should be considered. I have no doubt that Congress would act swiftly to authorize force in such circumstances. This does not mean giving the UN a veto over US actions. No one wants to do that. It simply means, as Chairman Levin has observed, that Saddam is a world problem and should be addressed in the world arena.
Finally, our approach toward Iraq must be consistent with international law and the framework of collective security developed over the last 50 years or more. It should be sanctioned by the Security Council under the UN Charter, to which we are a party and by which we are legally bound. Only a broad coalition of nations, united to disarm Saddam, while preserving our war on terror, can succeed. Our response will be far more effective if Saddam sees the whole world arrayed against him.
We should act forcefully, resolutely, sensibly with our allies, and not alone, to disarm Saddam. Authorizing the pre-emptive, go-it-alone use of force now, right in the midst of continuing efforts to enlist the world community to back a tough new disarmament resolution on Iraq, could be a costly mistake for our country.
–Paul Wellstone, Speech to the US Senate regarding US military action in Iraq, 2002
The CIA has enabled a right wing dictatorship in America, and, in doing so, has inspired generations of ‘terrorist’ antagonists who might never have found cause until given it them by the CIA’s ham-fisted approach to empire. The CIA has been called a new ‘Praetorian Guard’, as apt a description as any I have found. Certainly, the CIA is to Big Brother what the ‘Praetorian Guard was to the Emperors of Rome. The CIA does not merely exercise absolute power via the apparatus of the police state, it marshals the resources of the monolithic state to rob the individual of person hood. Big Brother literally changes what it means to be “human”.
In Goethe’s version of Faust, Mephistopheles tries to grab Faust’s soul when he dies but is frustrated by a divine intervention. Can the people of the US afford to wait passively for divine intervention? No! We must deny the state its power to define us. Challenged by aristocrats who demanded to know just who he thought he was, Voltaire said “I have no name but the name that I have made for myself!”
Big Brother’s lies have made of us our own worst nightmares, but only if we buy into the scheme. It follows, therefore, that Big Brother is finished when we make Voltaire’s existentialist choice, when we take responsibility for what we have become, when we dare to define ourselves. The seeds of revolution are born when each individual chooses to be free!
Additional resources:
Five Days in London by John Lukacs
The transcripts of the Nuremberg Tribunal
Churchill’s History of World War II
Liddell Hart’s History of the Second World War
Read this or George W. Bush will be president for the rest of your life
Lessons Bush Learned from Hitler
Bush’s Fascist, Private Army of Paid Cutthroats, Murderers and Mercenaries
Emergent Properties
Grand Jury: “Can We Indict Bush & Cheney?”
Why the Bush Regime is an Orwellian Threat
Lessons Bush Learned from Hitler
Len Hart
http://rinf. com/alt-news/politics/cia-holocaust-claims-twenty-million-victims/2636/
Hawai'ian SovereigntySovereignty Tribunal 1 IntroductionsSovereignty Tribunal 2 Introductions pt.2Sovereignty Tribunal 3Sovereignty Tribunal 4Sovereignty Tribunal 5Sovereignty Tribunal 6Sovereignty Tribunal 7Sovereignty Tribunal 8Sovereignty Tribunal 9Sovereignty Tribunal 10Sovereignty Tribunal 11Sovereignty Tribunal 12Sovereignty Tribunal 13
Earthjustice claims win in Makua military lawsuitAssociated Press, March 12, 2008http://starbulletin.com/2008/03/12/news/story08.htmlA federal judge told the Army yesterday to quickly expand cultural access to native Hawaiian sites at its Makua Military Reservation on Oahu, according to Earthjustice, which represents the community group Malama Makua.The environmental law firm said U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway gave the Army until April 15 to identify high-priority sites for clearing unexploded ordnance in order to increase access to cultural sites.Mollway also ruled the Army must provide a good-faith plan to clear the ordnance from the sites by July 15, it said.A message seeking comment from a U.S. Army Pacific spokesman wasn't immediately returned.Earthjustice said the Army had been required to expand access under a 2001 settlement with Malama Makua."We're glad the court will be holding the Army's feet to the fire to make sure it finally keeps its promises and expands opportunities for cultural access to Makua's sacred sites," said Malama Makua's president, Sparky Rodrigues."Without access to sites, we cannot connect with our ancestors, aumakua (family gods) and akua (gods)," he said. "The Army's failure to keep its word these past seven years has been like locking the door to our church."Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said the order reaffirms the Army is not above the law."Nearly seven years ago, the Army pledged it would move quickly to expand cultural access at Makua," he said. "Instead of honoring that pledge, the Army used every excuse it could concoct to keep native Hawaiian practitioners from the valley's sacred sites."We are hopeful that, with the firm guidance the court provided today, we will finally be able to work with the Army to fulfill the 2001 settlement's promise of restoring cultural life to Makua," Henkin said.Malama Makua sued the Army in 1998 to force it to complete an environmental impact statement before continuing to use the valley for live-fire training.A judge ruled in favor of the group, though soldiers and Marines were allowed to resume live-fire training after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to prepare for Afghanistan deployments.But the Army had to stop using the area again more than three years ago because it hadn't conducted the environmental study. It has been sending soldiers out of state for live-fire training while it finishes the report.
Nini'ane
Why The OHA Settlement is a Bad Deal by Mililani TraskAloha mai,
Legal analysis from far and wide highly recommend that both HB266 HD2 and SB2733 SD2 be strongly OPPOSSED.
SB2733 SD2 is blatant, in regards to the waiver language, which states, "Such claims are forever barred and may not be brought by OHA or by any other person or entity."
On the other hand, HB266 HD2 is SILENT and is not inconsistent. Only an inconsistency between HB266 HD2 and the Ceded Land Agreement, allows the Legislative Act to prevail. Hence, the waiver language, "such claims are forever barred and may not be brought by OHA or by any other person or entity" PREVAILS.
Essentially, upon the recognition / reinstatement of the Nation, the Nation would have to negotiate with OHA and the only negotiable lands and monies would be those negotiated in the Ceded Land Settlement and current assets in OHA's procession.
Why? Because, OHA on our behalf in this agreement through HB266 HD2 and SB2733 SD2 has "forever barred" any claims by an entity (NATION) or person (YOU). The Federal Government will tell the Nation to negotiate with the State. The State will tell you to negotiate with OHA, because OHA signed the Ceded Land Settlement Agreement and it was authorized through the Legislature.
The passage of both HB266 HD2 and SB2733 SD2 will be the next big ATROCITY in our history. We will be barring future generations (the unborn) from seeking claims - their rightful claims.
HD266 HD2 and SB2733 SD2 could be heard anytime between Friday (March 14) and Wednesday (March 19). If you can, please be available to testify in person. In the meantime, you can send your testimony via email to reps@Capitol.hawaii.gov and sens@Capitol.hawaii.gov.
Will be working on bullet points this evening, but please do not wait - Send In Your Opposition to both HB266 HD2 and SB2733 SD2.
List of cities with pharmaceuticals in water
thanks
I
At least one pharmaceutical was detected in tests of treated drinking water supplies for 24 major metropolitan areas, according to an Associated Press survey of 62 major water providers and data obtained from independent researchers.
Only 28 tested drinking water. Three of those said results were negative; Dallas says tests were conducted but results are not yet available. Thirty-four locations said no testing was conducted.
Test protocols varied widely. Some researchers looked only for one pharmaceutical or two; others looked for many.
Some water systems said tests had been negative, but the AP found independent research showing otherwise. Both prescription and non-prescription drugs were detected.
Because coffee and tobacco are so widely used, researchers say their byproducts are good indicators of the presence of pharmaceuticals. Thus, they routinely test for, and often find, both caffeine and nicotine’s metabolite cotinine more frequently than other drugs.
Here’s the list of metropolitan areas, with the number of pharmaceuticals detected and some examples of specific drugs that were found, or where tests were negative, not conducted or awaiting results:
Albuquerque, N.M.: tests negative
Arlington, Texas: 1 (unspecified pharmaceutical)
Atlanta: 3 (acetaminophen, caffeine and cotinine)
Austin, Texas: tests negative
Baltimore: no testing
Birmingham, Ala.: no testing
Boston: no testing
Charlotte, N.C.: no testing
Chicago: no testing
Cincinnati: 1 (caffeine)
Cleveland: no testing
Colorado Springs, Colo.: no testing
Columbus, Ohio: 5 (azithromycin, roxithromycin, tylosin, virginiamycin and caffeine)
Concord, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and sulfamethoxazole)
Dallas: results pending
Denver: (unspecified antibiotics)
Detroit: (unspecified drugs)
El Paso, Texas: no testing
Fairfax, Va.: no testing
Fort Worth, Texas: no testing
Fresno, Calif.: no testing
Honolulu: no testing
Houston: no testing
Indianapolis: 1 (caffeine)
Jacksonville, Fla.: no testing
Kansas City, Mo.: no testing
Las Vegas: 3 (carbamazepine, meprobamate and phenytoin)
Long Beach, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin)
Los Angeles: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin)
Louisville, Ky.: 3 (caffeine, carbamazepine and phenytoin)
Memphis, Tenn.: no testing
Mesa, Ariz.: no testing
Miami: no testing
Milwaukee: 1 (cotinine)
Minneapolis: 1 (caffeine)
Nashville, Tenn.: no testing
New Orleans: 3 (clofibric acid, estrone and naproxen)
New York City: no testing
Northern New Jersey: 7 (caffeine, carbamazepine, codeine, cotinine, dehydronifedipine, diphenhydramine and sulfathiazole)
Oakland, Calif.: no testing
Oklahoma City: no testing
Omaha, Neb.: no testing
Orlando, Fla.: no testing
Philadelphia: 56 (including amoxicillin, azithromycin, carbamazepine, diclofenac, prednisone and tetracycline)
Phoenix: no testing
Portland, Ore.: 4 (acetaminophen, caffeine, ibuprofen and sulfamethoxazole)
Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, Md.: no testing
Riverside County, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin)
Sacramento, Calif.: no testing
San Antonio: no testing
San Diego: 3 (ibuprofen, meprobamate and phenytoin)
San Francisco: 1 (estradiol)
San Jose, Calif.: no testing
Santa Clara, Calif.: no testing
Seattle: no testing
Southern California: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin)
Suffolk County, N.Y.: no testing
Tucson, Ariz.: 3 (carbamazepine, dehydronifedipine and sulfamethoxazole)
Tulsa, Okla.: no testing
Virginia Beach, Va.: tests negative
Washington, D.C.: 6 (carbamazepine, caffeine, ibuprofen, monensin, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole)
Wichita, Kan.: no testing. Tainted drinking water kept under wrapsMany researchers fear public would misunderstand, overreact to disclosureBy MARTHA MENDOZAThe Associated Pressupdated 7:10 a.m. HT, Mon., March. 10, 2008When water providers find pharmaceuticals in drinking water, they rarely tell the public. When researchers make the same discoveries, they usually don’t identify the cities involved.There are plenty of reasons offered for the secrecy: concerns about national security, fears of panic, a feeling that the public will not understand — even confidentiality agreements.“That’s a really sensitive subject,” said Elaine Archibald, executive director of California Urban Water Agencies, an 11-member organization comprised of the largest water providers in California.She said many customers “don’t know how to interpret the information. They hear something has been detected in source water and drinking water, and that’s cause for alarm — just because it’s there.”As The Associated Press documented in a five-month investigation, drinking water provided to at least 41 million people living in 24 major metropolitan areas has tested positive for trace amounts of pharmaceuticals.Reports don't reveal allMost Americans probably think they have a good idea of what’s being detected in their water. Federal law requires water providers to distribute annual “consumer confidence reports” that reveal levels of regulated contaminants. Providers are not, however, required to tell people if they find a contaminant that is not on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency list. And there are no pharmaceuticals on the EPA list.In Philadelphia, the water department has not informed its 1.5 million users that traces of 56 pharmaceuticals or their byproducts — like the active ingredients in drugs to treat depression, anxiety, high cholesterol, fever and pain — have been detected in the drinking water, and that 63 pharmaceuticals or byproducts had been found in the city’s source watersheds.Initially balking at the AP’s request to provide test results, Philadelphia Water Department spokeswoman Laura Copeland said, “It would be irresponsible to communicate to the public about this issue, as doing so would only generate questions that scientific research has not yet answered. We don’t want to create the perception where people would be alarmed.”New York City water officials declined repeated requests for an interview and waited more than three months before participating in an AP survey, supplying information only after being informed that every other major city in the nation had cooperated.The AP learned that the New York state health department and the U.S. Geological Survey detected heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and the active ingredient in an anti-anxiety medication in the city’s watershed upstate. And the city’s Department of Environmental Protection ultimately said that it does not test its downstate drinking water.Officials in Arlington, Texas, said pharmaceuticals had been detected in source water but wouldn’t say which ones or in what amounts, citing security concerns. Julie Hunt, director of water utilities, said to provide the public with information regarding “which, if any, pharmaceuticals or emerging compounds make it through the treatment process can assist someone who wishes to cause harm through the water supply.”Mayor Robert Cluck later said a trace amount of one pharmaceutical had survived the treatment process and had been detected in drinking water. He declined to name the drug, saying identifying it could cause a terrorist to intentionally release more of it, causing significant harm to residents.“I don’t want to take that chance,” Cluck said. “There is no public hazard and I don’t want to create one.”Ron Rhodes, water treatment plant supervisor in Emporia, Kan., explained why he wouldn’t disclose whether his community’s source water or drinking water had been tested for pharmaceuticals. “Well, it’s because of 9/11. We want everybody to guess.”How, Rhodes was asked, could it endanger anyone to know if Emporia’s water has been screened for traces of pharmaceutical compounds?“We’re not putting out more information than we have to put out,” said Rhodes. “How about that?”Milwaukee’s water department is an anomaly, posting on its Web site an 11-page detailed drinking water quality report that includes test results for 450 unregulated contaminants, including pharmaceuticals. While they found minute concentrations of cotinine, a nicotine derivative, they didn’t detect hundreds of other contaminants including estrogens and other hormones, acetaminophen and ibuprofen.When asked what power the EPA had to require public disclosure when pharmaceutical contamination is discovered in a water provider’s supplies, Benjamin H. Grumbles, the agency’s assistant administrator for water, said, “We work very closely with utilities across the country and we encourage them to share with their community information they find out about their source water.”But there’s no such requirement if the detected contaminant is not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, he said in response to a question.'More work to do'Grumbles was asked how he thought water providers have been responding to the EPA’s “encouragement.”“I think we have more work to do,” he said.Several hours after the interview, Grumbles issued a statement: “As head of the National Water Program, I will do everything in my authority to make certain that public water suppliers inform their consumers if they detect pharmaceuticals in the drinking water.”It’s not just the water departments that have failed to disclose such information.The AP spoke with many scientists, federally funded researchers, university professors and private drinking water experts who have detected pharmaceuticals in drinking water, but would not say where they had obtained their samples.Archibald said her organization joined an American Water Works Association Research Foundation study with the understanding that secrecy would be assured.“We agreed ahead of time that no specific agency would be mentioned in terms of which place had detections,” Archibald said. She insisted that even she didn’t have the test results. “It’s all being held very carefully. Water agencies were assigned numbers so none of us would even know what was detected in each other’s water.”Robert Renner, the foundation’s executive director, said AWWARF study participants are routinely promised anonymity. “Being involved in a study, they don’t want this information blown out all over,” he said.Fearing public will overreactCiting confidentiality agreements, he declined to name the 20 different drinking water treatment plants around the U.S. where pharmaceuticals have been detected in water heading to more than 10 million people.“It’s a hard topic to talk about without creating fear in the general public,” Renner said.Some said those fears could lead to much larger problems than the actual contamination.Doctors “don’t want people to be afraid to take their medicine because of environmental concerns,” said Virginia Cunningham, an environmental executive for drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC.Utilities also generally only allow scientists to test their water if they ensure confidentiality. In order for research to progress, scientists “need the confidence of utilities and other public/private stakeholders to allow us access to waters which we can study without any negative implications for those stakeholders,” said Howard Weinberg, an environmental chemist at University of North Carolina. “Without this confidence, such research could not be undertaken.”John Vargo, program manager at the University of Iowa’s University Hygienic Laboratory, said he found traces of pharmaceuticals in the finished drinking water of several major Midwestern cities but, under terms of those contracts, he could not disclose their identity.Peter Rogers, Harvard University professor of environmental engineering, said improvements in detection techniques could help fuel fears among the general public.“We’re chasing this down to molecular-sized measurements, so the more you look, the more you find,” said Rogers. “I think the government and utilities are quite right to be very skittish about telling people their results. People will claim it is causing all sorts of problems. If I were a water utility, I would stop those measurements right away because if you measure something, it will get out, and people will overreact. I can just imagine a whole slew of lawsuits.”© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23504373/
<<IMG height=100 hspace=2 src="http://www.kahea.org/gmo/images/Tsuji_hear_our_bill.jpg" width=150 align=left vspace=2 border=1> CALL TO ACTION: SAVE HALOA, NO GMO KALO HEARING ON MARCH 19, 2008. MAJOR MILESTONE: WE GOT A HEARING!! Because of your dedication to protecting Haloa, Legislators felt the pressure to hear SB 958. Your words of aloha for Haloa are needed now to pass a 10-year moratorium on the genetic modification and patenting of all taro.
Here's how you can help for the March 19th hearing:
1. Submit Testimony Now: click here to go to KAHEA's virtual testimony table.
Your testimony should be in your own words, if can (legislators don't seem swayed by form letters).
Even better, if you are part of an organization or business that supports Kalo, then put your testimony on letterhead.
2. Call Rep. Clift Tsuji and the Agriculture Committee members (click here for phone numbers), tell them:
- thank you for holding a hearing on SB 958
- please do not delay decision-making on the bill
- the bill should protect all varieties of Kalo, not just Hawaiian varieties
- the moratorium must be at least 10 years or longer
3. Write a Letter to the Editor of your local paper or click here to send a letter to the two islands-wide daily papers.
....click here to learn more about how you can help!
A MUST READ: "Uncertain Peril" is a powerful reminder that what’s at stake right now is nothing less than the nature of the future.“If we want to save places, people, or plants, we have to remember their stories. In their stories are the details of their natural and social history and, most importantly, the meaning they have for our lives...The reason traditional cultures are so important to the world right now is that they still know how to remember their stories. ” - C.H. Cummings, chapter 10.
Airing all month long on Hawai‘i's public access cable networks:
"Islands at Risk: Genetic Engineering in Hawai‘i", a new film by the filmmakers who brought us Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege. To learn more, visit Na Maka ‘o ka ‘Aina.
Yet Another Victory Hawai‘i’s Fragile Environment!
Federal Court ruled in favor of KAHEA’s challenge to USDA’s failure to protect the environment from impacts of open field-testing of plants genetically engineered to produce pharmaceuticals.
On Aug. 10, 2006, Federal Court Judge Seabright held that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) violated both NEPA and the ESA by authorizing Monsanto, ProdiGene, Hawai'i Agriculture Research Center, and Garst Seed to field test crops genetically engineered to produce pharmaceuticals. Read the Court's Decision, get an overview of the case, and learn more: visit the Union of Concerned Scientists, read the executive summary to "A Growing Concern."
Appellants include KAHEA, Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, and Pesticide Action Network North America.
Earthjustice senior attorney, Paul Achitoff argued the case. The judge will hold a hearing on August 22nd to determine further restrictions and conditions. Please attend and show support for strong protection.
News Coverage:
- Halt on all biotech permits sought (80k PDF) Honolulu Star-Bulletin August 23, 2006.
- USDA in trouble with courts relating to genetically modified pharmaceuticals on Molokai (132k PDF) Molokai Times August 16, 2006.
- Gene-Altered Crops Denounced (68k PDF) The Washington Post August 16, 2006.
- Permits for biopharming deserve strict standards (96k PDF) Honolulu Star Bulletin Op-Ed August 16, 2006.
- Ruling paves way for crop oversight (76k PDF) Honolulu Advertiser Op-Ed August 16, 2006.
- Ruling hailed by opponents of genetically altered crops (80k PDF) Honolulu Star Bulletin August 15, 2006.
- Ruling a slight setback for biopharm growers (100k PDF) Honolulu Advertiser August 15, 2006.
KAHEA is party to a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking comprehensive regulations and protection from the field testing of genetically modified organisms.
- Earthjustice wins lawsuit on public disclosure of field trials. (24k PDF) August 5, 2004.
- Government forced to disclose locations of test sites of biopharmaceutical crops (92k PDF) November 13, 2003
- State sued for refusing to disclose GMO test site information(88k PDF) Earthjustice Hawaii Records Lawsuit Press Release, July 23, 2003
- Case Outline and Notice to Sue (239k PDF) Center for food Safety, March 3, 2003
- USDA Issues Weak Biopharm Regulations (120k PDF) Center for Food Safety, March 3, 2003
- Citizen Petition to USDA on Biopharm Regulations (252k PDF)
Fact Sheet: Genetic Engineering in the Garden of Eden (60k PDF) Basic information about agricultural biotechnology for Hawai‘i by Claire Cummings.
Fact Sheet: Risks of Genetic Engineering (20k PDF)
Fact Sheet: What's wrong with Genetic Engineering? (11k PDF) Organic Consumers Assocation.
Fact Sheet: Biotechnology Policy Statement (12k PDF) Union of Concerned Scientist.
The Union of Concerned Scientists Urges the USDA and FDA to Implement a Zero Contamination Initiative on Bio-Pharm Crops Feb. 5, 2003
Manufacturing Drugs and Chemicals In Crops: Biopharming Poses New Threats to Consumers, Farmers, Food Companies and the Environment(1.3MB PDF) Friends of the Earth. Executive Summary (324k PDF)
TRESPASS A new comprehensive article on GMO's by Claire Cummings.
Paoakalani Declaration: a statement of self-determination issued by Kanaka Maoli cultural experts in response to the commercialization and misappropriation of traditional Hawaiian knowledge (SIZE) October 2003.
Bioprospecting /BioPiracy and Indigenous People (64k PDF) May 20, 2002.
Biotech_and Indigenous Peoples Occasional Papers (36k PDF) May 8, 2002.
Maori Point of View on Genetic Modification (25k PDF)
The Violence of Globalization (12k PDF) by Vandana ShivaNews
Genetic Traits Spread to Non-Engineered Papayas in Hawai'i September 10, 2004 (ENS) coverage of Hawai'i Genetic Engineering Action Network Press Conference on threats to papaya markets from GMO papayas.
Plenty Papaya Problems Scientists square off over how safe Hawaii's genetically modified papaya is for consumers by Alan D. McNarie, Hawai'i Island Journal
Fears grow with genetic crop secrecy Honolulu Advertiser, October 19, 2003
Both sides lose in genetic crop wars
Are there Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) in your lunch? Haleakala Times, October 15 - November 4, 2003
What's Wrong with Biotechnology in Hawai'i? (60k PDF) Op-Ed by Dr. Hector Valenzuela, UH Manoa Tropical Agriculture Hawaii Island Journal September 2003.
No paradise for pharming The Scientist, July 30, 2003
Diversa Will Mine Biodiversity in Hawai‘i (3k PDF) Environmental News Service June 11, 2002Kahea Click Here
This is WHERE YOU NEED TO ASK YOUR SELVES? WHEN DOES THE D.O.D. NO LONGER BECOME A WEAPON ON TERROR "BUT A WEAPON OF and FOR TERROR" and SINCE FUCKING WHEN DOES USA'S BOARDERS STRETCH TO JAPAN AND KOREA and EVEYTHING IN BETWEEN?...FUCKEN WAKE UP !Nini'ane
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An Internet Guide to United States Military Bases Around the World
- General Information
- United States Army
- United States Navy
- United States Air Force
- United States Marine Corps
General Information
U.S. European Command, in Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany, is responsible for 13 million square miles in 89 countries and territories. This area of responsibility begins at the North Cape of Norway and extends through the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, through most of Europe and parts of the Middle East, to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The Command's mission is to support and advance US interests and policies throughout the region and to provide combat ready land, maritime, and air forces to Allied Command Europe or to US Unified Commands.
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United States Army
Seventh Army Training Command, the "Army's training center is Europe," is located in Grafenwoehr, Germany and is home to both the 7th Army Training Command and the 100th Area Support Group.
U.S. Army Tropic Test Center, Fort Clayton, Panama, became a testing center for Army systems in 1962. The Center's mission is to plan and conduct tropic environmental development tests on a wide variety of military systems, materials, weapons, and equipment of all conceivable types, sizes, configurations, and uses. The center’s laboratory facilities provide detailed information on tropic-induced failures and other environmental effects.
U.S. Army Central Command-Saudi Arabia represents one of three forward deployed elements in the Persian Gulf region from Army Forces Central Command/3rd United States Army. Subordinate organizations to ARCENT-SA include deployed units rotating as task forces for various missions from home bases in the United States or Europe. The Command's first stated mission is to provide antiballistic missile defense to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Emirate of Kuwait, and, on order, to other locations and allies in Southwest Asia using US Patriot Missile units.
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United States Navy
Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces Europe is responsible for providing overall command and operational control of all Naval forces assigned to the Commander in Chief, U.S. European Command. US Naval Forces Europe coordinates with other US and allied forces operating within its area of responsibility to accomplish operational missions as assigned by the US European Command.
Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet includes approximately 200 ships, 2,000 aircraft, and 250,000 Sailors and Marines and covers more than 50% of the earth's surface, just over 100 million square miles. Each day, Pacific Fleet ships are at sea in the Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans, from the west coast of the U.S. to the Arabian Gulf. The Fleet's primary mission is to support the U.S. Pacific Command's theater strategy, and to provide interoperable, trained and combat-ready naval forces to the Pacific Fleet and other U.S. unified commanders.
Navy Guam is responsible for an area in the Western Pacific almost as large as the United States. This Command provides support to the operating forces of the Seventh Fleet and to the shore activities and members of the numerous Navy commands on Guam. In addition, the Command coordinates actions by the Pacific Command service components located in Guam and throughout Micronesia in matters of concern with the host governments.
Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland is the host Command for the NATO Base in Iceland. The Command's primary mission is to maintain and operate the Station's facilities and to provide services and material to support aviation activities and units of the operating forces of the Navy, as designated by the Chief of Naval Operations.
Naval Support Activity, Naples, Italy provides the administrative and logistic support to over 100 tenant commands and activities throughout the Mediterranean region which includes personnel assigned to NATO and forces of the Sixth Fleet. The Commanding Officer, and the Executive Officer, manage and direct the overall operation from Capodichino and are assisted through offices located throughout Naples and the U.S. Navy Element, Headquarters AFSouth in Bagnoli, Italy.
U.S. Naval Station, Rota, Spain is located halfway between Gibraltar and the border of Portugal. American facilities at the Naval Station are wide-ranging and diversified in their primary role of supporting the US Sixth Fleet operating in the Mediterranean. While the Fleet tackles the increasingly complex task of promoting peace and stability in the Mediterranean area, the Naval Station and its tenant commands keep fuel, oil, ammunition and spare parts flowing to the operating forces.
U.S. Fleet Activities, Sasebo, Japan operates and maintains base facilities for the logistic support of the six ships forward deployed to Sasebo, Operating Forces of the US Pacific Fleet, and designated tenant activities. The Command also receives, renovates, maintains, stores, and issues ammunition, explosives, expendable ordnance items, weapons, and technical ordnance materials. The Command is also home to both Amphibious Group One and to Amphibious Squadron Eleven, the only permanently forward deployed amphibious squadron in the Navy.
U.S. Seventh Fleet is the largest of the forward-deployed US fleets, with 50-60 ships, 350 aircraft, and 60,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel. Established in 1943, the Fleet operates in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Gulf and, with the support of its Task Force Commanders, directly supports the three principal elements of US national security strategy: deterrence, forward defense, and alliance solidarity. The fleet thereby promotes peace and stability in this increasingly important part of the world.
Naval Air Station Sigonella Italy, is known as the "Hub of the Med!" It is a high tempo, multi-faceted base with a critical mission. Due to its highly strategic location - at the very center of the Mediterranean - NAS Sigonella plays a vital role in supporting joint and combined naval operations in the Mediterranean theater.
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United States Air Force
Aviano Air Base, Italy, is home to approximately 3100 military and more than 800 civilian personnel who are permanently assigned to the base, which is the only U.S. Air Force base in Italy. The Base is home to the Sixteenth Air Force and to the 31st Fighter Wing.
Tuzla Air Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina, plays an integral role in the peacekeeping effort in the area. The Base has the busiest airfield in the Balkans and is the primary cargo and passenger hub for Multi-National Division North, one of three regions of the United Nations’ Stabilization Force.
Incirlik Air Base is located in southeastern Turkey. The Base is a Turkish Air Force base, but it has a large US presence. The host US Air Force unit is the 39th Wing, and its operational counterpart, the 39th Air and Space Expeditionary Wing, supports Operation Northern Watch, also headquartered here.
Kadena Air Base at Okinawa, Japan, the "Home of the Shoguns," has as its mission the defense of US and Japanese mutual interests by providing a responsive staging and operational air base with integrated, deployable, forward based airpower.
Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, is located on the western side of the Korean peninsula, 150 miles south of Seoul. Known as the "Home of the Wolf Pack," the base houses the 8th Fighter Wing and has as its mission to deliver lethal airpower when and where directed by the Air Component Commander.
Misawa Air Base, Japan, is located in the southeastern portion of Aomori Prefecture on northern Honsyu Island. The Base is unique in that it is the only combined, joint service installation in the western Pacific. Units representing all four U.S. services are assigned here, with the 35th Fighter Wing serving as the host unit for the U.S. service members who call Misawa home.
Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, is home to the 51st Figher Wing and to the 7th Air Force.
Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is home to the 86th Airlift Wing and has as its mission to provide rapid mobility and agile combat support for US forces and to enhance the quality of life for all Americans.
Taszar Air Base, Hungary, is home to the 406th Expeditionary Air Base Group. The primary mission is to maintain vital airfield operations that provide airlift support, as well as reconnaissance operations, for Operation JOINT FORGE.
Yokota Air Force Base, Japan, is located on the island of Honshu, Japan, on the Kanto Plain, 28 miles northwest of Tokyo at the foothills of the Okutama Mountains. The Base is home to the 374th Airlift Wing, which is the only airlift wing in the Far East. The wing provides airlift support to all Department of Defense agencies in the Pacific theater of operation. It also provides transport for people and equipment throughout the Kanto Plain and the Tokyo metropolitan area.
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United States Marine Corps
USMC Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, is located approximately 45 kilometers south of Hiroshima and is home to the fixed wing strike assets of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.
USMC Headquarters Battalion, Camp Fuji, Japan, is located at the base of Mount Fuji and is dedicated to coordinating the use of ranges and training facilities within the Fuji Maneuver Area, and to providing necessary support for using units.
MONSANTO da{ SNAKE } uses GREED = da { APPLE } TO HELP CONINUE TO USE, HAWAI'I'S AINA and POPULATION {SCHOOL KIDS INCLUDED} as LAB RATZ and GUINEA PIGS on { UNTESTED G.M.O'S and PROVEN POISONOUS CANCER TOXIC SPRAYS! } WITH A CORRUPT PUPPET GOVERNMENT THAT TREATS ITS PUBLIC AS SHEEPLE WAITING TO BE SHEARED OF THEIR HEALTH {SAFE: WATER ,AIR , LAND} and LIVES!
School Foundation receives Monsanto grant
Molokai Times, March 4, 2008
The Friends of Molokai High and Middle Schools Foundation has received a $6,500 grant from the Monsanto Fund to support science education on Molokai.
Last year, a $10,000 grant from the Monsanto Fund was used to purchase a wide array of educational materials and supplies for Molokai Middle School and Molokai High School. The high school used the funds to help re-build its science facilities after losing classrooms and a lab when the high school and middle schools were separated in 2005.
“Teachers at both schools benefited tremendously from the Monsanto Fund's generosity last year and will again be grateful for the assistance this year,” said Camie Kimball, president of the Foundation. “Last year, the grant money went toward re-building a science lab for the high school and the middle school purchased microscopes and slides that were used to enhance our science curriculum. This grant will go a long way toward supporting our teachers and students.”
The grant is part of the Monsanto Hawaii Science Education Fund, a program established by the Monsanto Fund in 2005 to support science education in public schools serving students at the intermediate, high school and college grade levels throughout Hawaii. The Friends of Molokai High and Middle Schools Foundation will be administering the grant on Molokai.
The Molokai High and Middle Schools Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established “to enhance the quality of student life at Molokai High & Molokai Middle Schools by providing competitive opportunities that strengthen a healthy & caring community.” Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation are welcome.
The Monsanto Fund is the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company. Incorporated in 1964, the Fund's primary objective is to improve the lives of people by bridging the gap between their needs and their resources. The Monsanto Fund is focused on grant-making in four main areas: nutritional well-being through agriculture; science education, primarily on professional development for teachers; the environment, which includes conservation, protection of biodiversity, clean water and restoration of wildlife habitat; and improving the quality of life in communities where Monsanto employees live and work.
Mahalo;Nini'aneGenetic Foods/Monsanto Revealed 1/3The Genetic Conspiracy (2/3) - about MonsantoThe Genetic Conspiracy (3/3) - about Monsanto
GMO taro bill moves forward (Hawaii)Would put moratorium on developing GMO strainsTHE GARDEN ISLANDby Rachel GehrleinMar 03, 2008Supporters of a Senate bill aimed to impose a 10-year moratorium on the developing, testing and raising of genetically modified taro are relieved, after waiting for more than a year, that the bill will be heard on March 19.After Senate Bill 958 was first introduced in January 2007 it failed but was carried over to the 2008 legislative session.“We were very stubborn telling them (lawmakers) the bill needs to be heard,” said Chris Kobayashi, a Kaua‘i taro farmer. “The 10-year moratorium is just a time out so things could be explored further.”Jeri DiPietro of GMO Free Kaua‘i agrees.“(The bill) asks for a temporary moratorium, a time out,” DiPietro said.“It is a moment to evaluate and use precaution in a new situation. If only a second look had been given before the Department of Agriculture allowed the importation of the apple snail and let it rage out of control into pest status.”Kobayashi said the idea of GMO taro is scary because on the genetic level, if the taro is modified from the original plant, “we can never bring it back.”“As farmers, we wouldn’t be able to see the difference,” Kobayashi said. “There is a lot of sharing of huli (the starts of taro) between farmers.”Rep. Mina Morita, D-Kapa‘a-North Kaua‘i, said taro is a food crop that has cultural implications that scientists need to be aware of.“The scientists should be responsible to the individual,” Morita said. “If individuals think GMO research is not necessary at this time, and the farmers don’t want to grow it and the consumers don’t want to eat it, who does it benefit?”Wayne Nishijima, associate dean with the University of Hawai‘i’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, said the university signed an agreement with the Royal Order of Kamehameha I a few years ago to not conduct GMO tests on known Hawaiian varieties of taro.But Nishijima said the Hawaiian taro’s susceptibility to various pests, such as Phytophthora colocasiae — a fungus-like organism that invaded American Samoa taro in 1993 — could be solved with genetic engineering.“The current GE project (at UH) is on Chinese taro to develop resistant varieties to Phytophthora blight,” Nishijima said. “No Hawaiian varieties have been genetically engineered, but we have researchers doing traditional breeding to develop Phytophthora resistant cultivars, but it takes time.”But because none of the Hawaiian varieties have Phytophthora resistance, taro from other locales must be used, Nishijima said.Nishijima feels that because UH has already signed a moratorium, there is no need for a law to be passed to create another moratorium.“In my opinion, extending the moratorium to include genetic engineering of non-Hawaiian taro varieties does not follow their argument of infringement of their cultural rights and heritage,” Nishijima said. “What it will do is significantly limit our ability to address current and future problems. If the bill passes, it will put taro in a position to make it vulnerable to the devastation by new invasive species.”In support of SB 958 imposing the moratorium, the Kaua‘i County Council has drafted Resolution 2008-04. The resolution is scheduled to be heard at the council meeting on March 12.“We need as many testimonies as is possible to support SB 958,” DiPietro said in an e-mail. “You need not be a farmer. Consumers have a right to a choice too.”GMO Free Kaua‘i will also hold a rally in support of the SB 958 today from 4 to 6 p.m. at the gateway at Lihu‘e Airport.Mahalo: Stop Monsanto.org
